|
Addressing the Skills Gap: A Necessary Condition of Success for the National Job Creation Agenda
 This evening, President Obama goes before Congress and the American public to detail his administration's latest agenda for job growth. Corporate Voices believes that sparking economic growth and job creation has no higher national priority. Yet much of our work is devoted to a related national challenge, one faced by many of our partner companies today: addressing a widespread skills gap that frustrates employers in need of skilled employees and limits the opportunities and dreams of countless American workers and their families.
In a new opinion piece on Corporate Voices' blog, Donna Klein, Executive Chair and CEO, recommends several key principles that should inform any federal efforts to improve the skills of the American workforce. "Undoubtedly, our national leaders must find a way to restore confidence, renew economic growth, and help the private sector create millions of new jobs," she writes. "In our view, addressing this other crisis-the skills gap that limits the opportunities and dreams of too many Americans-is a necessary condition of success. We sincerely hope that reality is reflected in President Obama's remarks Thursday night and in the policies favored by lawmakers in the important debate ahead."
|
|
2011 AWLP Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award-Call for Nominations!
Leaders in Flexibility Can Also Join Corporate Voices' National Flexibility Campaign
 Best practice companies have long known that workplace flexibility policies and practices help improve bottom-line business results and work-life effectiveness for employees. Flexibility today is well-regarded as a smart management practice that is modernizing the workplace so that working families and businesses can be more productive, competitive, healthier and happier. Management practices like these are especially critical during these challenging and uncertain economic times.
If you know of innovative work-life programs and companies demonstrating excellence in promoting work-life effectiveness while achieving organizational goals, please consider nominating them for the 2011 Alliance for Work-Life Progress Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award. Applications for this award are now being accepted. The deadline to apply is October 15, 2011.
Every day, progressive and forward-thinking companies make progress toward expanding flexibility for all workers, meeting cultural and organizational challenges to make their workplaces smarter and more successful. These efforts play an important part in keeping innovation and the momentum for advancing flexibility alive. That is why Corporate Voices launched a national workplace flexibility campaign last year after the first-ever White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility. The campaign gives national recognition to companies that commit their support for Corporate Voices' "Statement of Support for Expanding Workplace Flexibility." To date, 55 Business Champions-large and small employers across a range of industries-have joined the campaign to promote a broader awareness of the positive business and employee benefits of flexibility.
 Life Meets Work and Ocean Tomo, both part of Corporate Voices' campaign, have been featured in the news recently for their leadership in advancing flexible workplaces. We encourage all campaign Business Champions to apply for the 2011 Work-Life Innovative Excellence Award. Conversely, we encourage businesses that apply for the Work-Life Excellence Award to also consider joining Corporate Voices' national flexibility campaign. Make your leadership in supporting more flexible and effective workplaces known!
|
Purple America Invites Political Leaders, Companies and Students to Re-Imagine America
 America's economic success is tightly bound with the spirit of its working families. At the heart of that spirit are the values that make us who we are. September 11 marks the launch of a national campaign to unite America around the core values shared by Americans of all faiths and political parties to counter the political divisiveness that has become detrimental to our nation. The Re-Imagine AmericaŽ campaign challenges students, leaders and Americans everywhere to foster civility and champion common ground. Televised discussions, website resources and teacher-student involvement are cornerstones of the campaign to raise awareness of the values that connect us.
The program was developed by Purple America, a national initiative of Project LoveŽ Remember the Children Foundation, a Cleveland-based character-building program that has trained more than 50,000 American teens and 2,000 educators to build a culture of kindness, caring and respect in their schools. Founder Stuart Muszynski says his work has taught him that to achieve collective goals, individuals need to engage each other civilly and with an appreciation of their shared values. Muszynski, his wife Susan, a clinical psychologist, and their children travelled across the country conducting almost 1,000 videotaped, face-to-face interviews with people they encountered. The trip included stops at the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He says that despite geographic, racial, political, economic and other differences, when asked about their values, Americans everywhere said similar things. The 12 values that were repeated most often are: Equality, Faith, Family, Freedom, Love and Respect, Self-Expression, Doing the Right Thing, Community, Giving Back, the Good Life, Opportunity, and Success. Purple America requests that socially-responsible companies join them in this endeavor to foster civility and common ground. The quality of our future workforce depends on our collective ability to have conversation and civility. For more information visit www.purpleamerica.us. |
|
Commit to Improving Business and Society and Network with Key Stakeholders
 As a sponsor of this year's COMMIT! FORUM we would like to invite you to join us September 26-27, 2011 at the Javits Center in NYC. This unique event brings together the largest group of leaders focused on corporate responsibility, and improving business and society. The packed agenda focuses on inspiring, educating and engaging companies and individuals to change the world.
Included in the impressive agenda Baxter International Inc. and its community partner, Instituto del Progreso Latino, will highlight the benefits of business and community partnerships that focus on ensuring individuals have the workforce readiness skills and opportunities they need to succeed in the 21st century global economy. During this panel, Corporate Voices will release Building the Business Case for Investing in Tomorrow's Workforce: Employers See Positive Returns from Community Partnerships and the tool Opportunities in the Workforce Readiness Pipeline: A Community Engagement Toolkit for Business to assist others companies in creating partnerships that produce ready and skilled workers.
Speakers include, Alice Campbell, Senior Director, Global Community Relations at Baxter International, Juan Salgado, M.U.P., President and CEO at Instituto del Progreso Latino and
John-Anthony Meza, Vice President Workforce Readiness at Corporate Voices for Working Families.
Your attendance is important. This event allows attendees a special opportunity to have their voice heard and become part of the solution! Workshops and interactive track sessions call on attendees to shape the discussion and learn more about how we can all make a difference from experts in the field. Visit www.commitforum.com to learn more about this engaging opportunity. Also, as our guest you can receive a 50 percent discount on registration. Register today and enter the following discount code: CORPVOICE |
|
Reminder: Applications Now Available for 2012 Best Companies for Hourly Workers
 Corporate Voices, in partnership with Working Mother Media, is proud to announce that the 2012 Best Companies for Hourly Workers application is now open. You may apply if your company has a minimum of 500 employees in the United States and at least half (50 percent) of your company's total U.S. employees are nonexempt.
A spot on the Working Mother Best Companies for Hourly Workers list acknowledges and validates your support for your hourly workers, from benefits and flexibility to paid time off and pay. This highly-respected designation demonstrates to current and future employees, customers and competitors that your company appreciates the positive effect of programs that impact work-life balance, health and wellness, education and career advancement programs on employee recruitment, retention, productivity and ROI.
All winning companies will be featured in the April/May 2012 issue of Working Mother magazine, on workingmother.com and celebrated at a gala event in May 2012.
Completed applications are due by October 14, 2011.
|
|
Corporate Voices at Upcoming Meetings & Conferences
September 8, 2011: Nonprofit Learning Point 15th Annual Fall Conference, Richmond, VA
September 26-27, 2011: COMMIT! Forum 2011, New York, NY
October 2-5, 2011: STEM Tech, Indianapolis, IN
October 11-12, 2011: NCLR Workforce Development Forum, Chicago, IL
October 22-25, 2011: Growing the Workforce for a New American Economy, St. Louis, MO
November 3-5, 2011: Opportunity Nation 2012 Annual Summit, New York, NY
November 9-11, 2011: CAEL 2011 International Conference, Chicago, IL
January 25-27, 2012: AACC: Workforce Development Institute 2012, Miami, FL
|
|
What We're Reading
School Curriculum Falls Short on Bigger Lessons, The New York Times, September 5, 2011.
Six Months to a New Job, AARP The Magazine, September.
Generation Limbo: Waiting It Out, The New York Times, August 31, 2011.
Working Moms: Work-Life Balance Affected By Language Used, Kellogg Study Finds, The Huffington Post, August 31, 2011.
|
|
What We're Watching
Implementing Workplace Flexibility, WorldatWork, September 2011.
|
|
