Workforce Today E-Magazine 

A Publication for Businesses of Northwest Wisconsin

 
Fall 2010
wib logo 
It's the Fall Edition of Workforce Today Magazine!
 
Greetings!
We are pleased to present our fall edition of Workforce Today. Included in this issue is information about a number of Industry Partnership grants awarded to the NWWIB for employers in our ten-county region.  Also you will find.......
 
We hope you enjoy the articles and as always please let us know if there is a topic you are interested in!
 
Happy reading!
 
* If you wish to unsubscribe to this publication please use the link at the bottom of this page.  
CEP Board Chair Dan Racette, NWWIB Director of Development Mari Kay-Nabozny, and NWWIB/CEP Executive Director Steve Terry accept a Wisconsin Industry Partnership check from DWD Secretary Roberta Gassman
Healthcare and Bio-Fuel Manufacturing Dollars Flow Into Region 

BIO-FUEL MANUFACTURING
Department of Workforce Development (DWD) Secretary Roberta Gassman  announced a $463,488 Wisconsin Industry Partnership grant to train workers for biofuel production in Northern Wisconsin on August 25th.

Secretary Gassman awarded the grant to the Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board, who convened industry leaders and wrote the grant. The board worked with 15 employers in the biofuel, logging and paper production sector, including Flambeau River Papers, which will be powered by the new Flambeau River BioFuels bio-refinery plant once it is operational in 2013.

Through the grant, current employees and unemployed or underemployed workers will receive training in technology covering areas such as biomass harvesting and management. Chemical plant and system operators, chemists and first-line supervisors are among the jobs that will be supported through the 12-month grant project. With over $490,000 in local matching resources, total funding for the training project will surpass $900,000.

HEALTHCARE
The Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board, Inc. also recently received a Health Care Industry Partnership Convening Grant to meet the need for our region's healthcare sector development and planning.
This project, which will serve the GROW region of Northwest Wisconsin and Northeast Minnesota, will make a substantial impact by supporting regional strategic planning by the healthcare industry that, when implemented, will prepare businesses and their workers to compete and succeed in the growing regional and global economy.

This project will bring together health care industry sector stakeholders to discuss issues surrounding workforce development in the industry. Health care is an innovative field, with new medical technologies influencing the education of future employees. It also is an economic driver for many communities. To meet the demands of this crucial field, this initiative will involve health care administrators, professionals, educators, and economic and workforce development specialists. 

In an effort to develop a short and long-term plan for the region, the industry partnership will conduct a labor-market analysis; develop goals, a work plan, and target outcomes. Evaluation will also be a crucial piece of the partnership. Through identifying skills gaps, training needs, and challenges the partnership will develop a plan which will promote sustainable leadership in the region.

If you have questions about either of the projects listed above please contact Mari Kay at [email protected].


-

10 Options For Dealing With Difficult People at Work

These are ten productive ways to deal with your difficult coworker. Let's start with the first five.

10. Start out by examining yourself. Are you sure that the other person is really the problem and that you're not overreacting? Have you always experienced difficulty with the same type of person or actions? Does a pattern exist for you in your interaction with coworkers? Do you recognize that you have hot buttons that are easily pushed? (We all do, you know.) Always start with self-examination to determine that the object of your attention really is a difficult person's actions.


9. Explore what you are experiencing with a trusted friend or colleague. Brainstorm ways to address the situation. When you are the object of an attack, or your boss appears to support the dysfunctional actions of a coworker, it is often difficult to objectively assess your options. Anger, pain, humiliation, fear and concern about making the situation worse are legitimate emotions.

Pay attention to the unspoken agreement you create when you solicit another's assistance. You are committing to act unless you agree actions will only hurt the situation. Otherwise, you risk becoming a whiner or complainer in the eyes of your colleague.


8. Approach the person with whom you are having the problem for a private discussion. Talk to them about what you are experiencing in "I" messages. (Using "I" messages is a communication approach that focuses on your experience of the situation rather than on attacking or accusing the other person.) You can also explain to your coworker the impact of their actions on you.

Be pleasant and agreeable as you talk with the other person. They may not be aware of the impact of their words or actions on you. They may be learning about their impact on you for the first time. Or, they may have to consider and confront a pattern in their own interaction with people. Worst case? They may know their impact on you and deny it or try to explain it away. Unfortunately, some difficult people just don't care. During the discussion, attempt to reach agreement about positive and supportive actions going forward.


7. Follow up after the initial discussion. Has the behavior changed? Gotten better? Or worse? Determine whether a follow-up discussion is needed. Determine whether a follow-up discussion will have any impact. Decide if you want to continue to confront the difficult person by yourself. Become a peacemaker. (Decide how badly you want to make peace with the other person and how much you want your current job. Determine whether you have experienced a pattern of support from your boss.) If you answer, "yes," to these questions, hold another discussion. If not, escalate and move to the next idea.


6. You can confront your difficult coworker's behavior publicly. Deal with the person with gentle humor or slight sarcasm. Or, make an exaggerated physical gesture - no, not that one - such as a salute or place your hand over your heart to indicate a serious wounding.

You can also tell the difficult person that you'd like them to consider important history in their decision making or similar words expressed positively, depending on the subject. Direct confrontation does work well for some people in some situations. I don't think it works to ask the person to stop doing what they're doing, publicly, but you can employ more positive confrontational tactics. Their success for you will depend on your ability to pull them off. Each of us is not spur-of-the-moment funny, but if you are, you can use the humor well with difficult coworkers.

5. If you have done what you can do and employed the first five recommended approaches with little or no success, it's time to involve others. Note that you are escalating the situation. Prepare to talk with your boss. Take notes and address the issues, not as interpersonal problems, but as issues affecting your productivity, the work and your progress on projects. Tell your boss exactly what the difficult person does.

Make a plan to address the issues. Perhaps involve your coworker's boss. Recognize that a good boss is likely to bring your difficult coworker and his supervisor into a three or four-way discussion at this point. Expect to participate in follow-up over time.


4. Rally the other employees who might have an issue with the difficult person, too - carefully. Sometimes, a group approach convinces the boss that the impact of the behavior is wider and deeper than she had originally determined. Be careful with this approach, however. Know what works with your boss. You want to solve your problem, not make it look as if you are rabble-rousing and ganging up on another employee.


3. If these approaches fail to work, try to limit the difficult person's access to you. Protect the needs of your business, but avoid working with the person when possible. Leave voluntary committees, Choose projects he or she does not impact. Don't hurt your own career or your business, but avoidance is an option.


2. Transfer to a new job within your organization. Depending on the size of your company, you may never have to work with this difficult coworker again. Fleeing is definitely an option.


1. If all else fails, you can quit your job. What, flee, you ask? But, I wasn't the employee with the problem. I was not the difficult coworker. All I tried to do was my job. You're right. But, what price, in terms of your happiness and success, are you willing to pay to stay? You need to decide whether the good in your current situation outweighs the bad or whether the bad outweighs the good.


If the good wins, stop complaining and get back to work. Back track on these recommended steps and retry some of them when appropriate. If the bad wins, redirect your energy to leaving your current employment.

 
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
 
In This Issue
Healthcare and Bio-Fuel Manufacturing Dollars Flow Into Region
10 Options For Dealing With Difficult People at Work
July 2010 Employment Data for Northwest Wisconsin, Wisconsin, and the U.S
NWWIB / CEP Executive Director Steve Terry Announces 2011 Retirement
Regional Manufacturing Sees Growth, Funding Available for Manufacturing Training
JULY 2010 Data for Wisconsin and the U.S.Latest Numbers for Wisconsin and US.

Seasonally
Adjusted

                 
 

Unemployment rate:

NW WI: 8.5%
WI: 7.8%
US: 9.5%

 

Civilian labor force:

NW WI: 95,167
WI: 3,030,200
US: 153,560,000
 
Number Employed: 
NW WI: 87, 093
WI: 2,792,700
US: 138,960,000

Number Unemployed:
  
NW WI: 8,074
WI: 237,600
US:14,599,000
 
*Note that NW WI numbers are not seasonally adjusted
NWWIB / CEP Executive Director Steve Terry Announces 2011 Retirement


At the August 9, 2010 CEP/NWWIB Executive Committee meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was approved that will result in me leaving my current position in 2011. This has been a difficult decision for my family and me to make in that I'll be leaving many friends and the absolute best people in the business, bar none.
I will remain Executive Director for the period July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Starting on July 1, 2011 until November 5, 2011 I will be employed by CEP/NWWIB as the Transition Director to assist in training the new Director and working on special projects for both boards.

The recruitment and selection process for a replacement Director will begin early next year (2011). Prior to that time, an ad hoc committee of both boards has been chosen to study and develop a re-organization plan. It is anticipated that most of the plan will focus on upper management structure and duties, however at this point the final outcome of the plan is unknown. Final selection and placement of a new Director should occur sometime between April and June 2011 depending on the hiring process followed.

I will miss working with all of you and thank you for allowing me to be your Executive Director for the last five years.

Best always,

Steve Terry

 
RegionalGear Marketing Image Manufacturing Sees Growth, Funding Available for Manufacturing Training

While the Midwestern heavy manufacturing states' job bases have been more severely impacted by the recession than the nation, these Upper Midwest states have been having a better 2010 than the nation in terms of a recovering job market. Ironically, it has been the manufacturing sector's slowly improving jobs numbers that are aiding Wisconsin and its neighboring states' faster overall job growth. Manufacturing employment losses accounted for a huge share of overall job loss from the beginning of the recession to late 2009/early 2010 when the job
market started showing some bounce.

The irony comes from the repeated discussions about the decline in U.S. manufacturing prowess, yet, it is U.S. and Midwest manufacturing, and its exports of manufacturing equipment and goods, that is the leading economic driver for this U.S. economic recovery. This pattern is not uncommon through previous business cycles. Manufacturing indicators usually fall faster than the economy as a whole, and just as often outpace the general economic recovery.

From January 2010 to July 2010, Wisconsin has measured a net gain of 25,000 private sector jobs on a
seasonally adjusted basis dwarfing the government net growth of 200 jobs over the same period. Of those 25,000 private sector jobs, 33% of them were in the manufacturing sector, which normally constitutes less than 16% of total jobs in Wisconsin (less than 10% for the nation).
* information above from DWD- Office of Economic Advisors, July 2010

The Department of Workforce Development has awarded the Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board with an Advanced Manufacturing Training Grant to help spur growth and meet training needs in the industry. Employers who are interested in having employees participate in the trainings should contact 1-888-780-4237 x103 or
[email protected] for further information on dates, locations, and requirements.
�      Critical Core Manufacturing Skills
�      Blueprint Reading
�      Leadership & Business Skills
�      Lean Manufacturing
�      Lean Implementation:
                 - Value Stream Mapping 
                 - Five-S System
                 - A-3 Problem Solving
                 - Quick Change Over 
                 - High Performance 
                    Manufacturing
�      ISO Preparation
�      Machine Tool Operator

CEP, Inc. Awarded Transitional Jobs Grant
On  July 12th Governor Doyle announced the creation of a $34 million Transitional Jobs Demonstration Project to help thousands of people across the state gain skills and re-enter the workforce. This project, which is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will help create jobs for 4,000 people across the state.

CEP, Inc. has received a two-year  $529,000 contract to assist low-income individuals who are not eligible for W-2, such as fathers without custody of their children or young adults exiting the foster care system, acquire new skills and work experience.

DCF Secretary Reggie Bicha visited Ashland on August 23rd to share details on the kinds of jobs this will create locally and the impact on the local economy. By providing job training and job experience, transitional jobs create more financial security for families and improves our state's economy.

The funds awarded to CEP, Inc. are for individuals in Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, Iron, and Price Counties.  However, other organizations have received contracts to assist those who live in the other counties in our region.
For more information on this program- no matter which county you are in- please contact your
local CEP, Inc. office.
 
Are you interested in learning more about the economic and workforce status of your county?  You can view the Department of Workforce Development's County Workforce Profiles here.
Mari Kay-Nabozny
NWWIB, Inc. Director of Development & Oversight