There is a lot of talk these days about drilling for oil and mining for gold and silver.  But what if we shifted our focus from putting holes into the earth to breaking through the crust of workforce and employment problems in the new economy?  It could happen.

In the September 2009 edition of HR Magazine (Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria VA), there’s an article that actually explores this topic.  It is entitled, “Mining for Training Treasure,” and the theme is that savvy human resource management professionals can connect with government grants to help retrain and RETAIN their existing workforce by building relationships with the team at the local workforce investment board (WIB).  Wow!

In our BESP (Business and Empoyer Services Professional) Certification training, that is exactly what we have been preaching.  You get waht you want by giving others what they want — and need.  We earn the right to approach local area employers for job development by helping them solve their problems.  It is all about relationships in business.  And now — here it is in the SHRM magazine.  The same story, but the flip-side of the coin.  Workforce and career development professionals need local area employers.  And local area employers need wokforce and career development professionals.

The article goes on to explain (in very sketchy details) about grants for training and re-training the workforce, suggesting that most of these grants are available through local WIBs or unemployment offices.  Here’s where we enter the picture …

Can you imagine BESPs (Business and Employer Services Professionals) making cold calls on local area employers, armed with copies of this article and brochures about their services?  A lot of HR professionals across the United States have read this article already.  Many of them do not know how to connect with the local WIB or who the best person on the local WIB team is best for them to connect with.  They want to do it, but they figure they will “do it later” … when they have more time.  Well, you know the rest of that story.

Later never comes.  They will be just as busy tomorrow as today.  It won’t be any easier to find you next week than it is right now.  And soon, the fire gets cold and they forget.

Now is the time!  The HR team at the local employer is struggling.  When production is high, there is money for training, but there is not much time.  When production is low, there is time for training, but not much money.  They could retrain their team — preparing the workforce for a transition to a more “green” economy.  But the resources are not readily available.

So let’s wrap this up.  If we were a job developer or a BESP right now, we would contact SHRM to get permission to reprint this article.  We would turn it into part of our marketing tools, aimed directly at getting the attention of local area employers.  Then we would find — or create — a brochure from our organization that explains how to access training dollars to retrain their workforce.  And we would focus on the value-add of retaining good employees in a competitive economy.  We believe that workforce and career development professionals who have the right message can get unprecedented new access to HR professionals right now — but you have to get busy and do it!