Workforce Learning

Aug. 23, 2010, Inc. magazine — “When you work for yourself, as most entrepreneurs do, the notion of ‘managing’ those you have hired to do just that may seem quaint in light of all the work you need to catch up on,” writes Darren Dahl in this week’s issue of Inc. magazine. “But as the company you started begins to grow, and you hire more and more people to fuel that growth, it is a good idea to take a step back from the day-to-day grind and consider what it might mean to both you and your company if you devoted some of your time to thinking about how best to manage your managers. After all, the more people you empower to make decisions, and that free you up to think more strategically, the faster, at least in theory, your company can grow.”

In the section entitled, “Managing Managers: Measure Tasks,” he interviewed Dr. Alice Waagen. Dahl wrote:

Dr. Alice Waagen, founder and president of Workforce Learning, a leadership development company in Washington, D.C., says that you can even establish clear performance guidelines about what makes up a good manager along the lines of something like:

1. A good manager creates short- and long-term goals for all staff.

2. A good manager sets realistic standards and targets to measure progress to plan.

3. A good manager provides specific, objective feedback on an ongoing basis, informing, enlightening and helping staff members improve their performance.

“For managers to succeed, they need time to learn to manage” she says. “And then, once they do, they need to be held accountable for their results.”

“When you add all that up, it means that you need to clearly communicate to your manager what you expect them to accomplish through his or her staff,” Muzio says. “For example, you might say, ‘Your job is to make sure the five people who work for you make 400 widgets each week,’ or, if the goals change, ‘your job is to make sure each of the five people who works for you has a clear performance target, hits the target, and together those targets roll up to the output goal you and I set together each month. You can vary the structure, but keep the simple focus: Your job is to make sure your people produce what is necessary.”

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May 13, 2010, The Arlington Connection — In today’s newspaper, Dr. Alice Waagen of Workforce Learning put on her philanthropist hat — a hard hat, to be exact — as a participant in National Women Build Week (May 1-9). She was working on behalf of her nonprofit Habitat Women Who Build, a fundraising chapter of Habitat for Humanity Northern Virginia.

Alice Waagen is wearing a hard hat and a tool belt and she’s covered in dust from the demolition work she is doing at the Perry Hall Condominium, the Habitat for Humanity 12-unit building on South 17th Street in Arlington. The construction project is an existing apartment building that will be converted to condominiums.

Waagen is taking part in National Women Build Week (May 1-9), an initiative by Lowe’s and Habitat for Humanity which challenges women to devote at least one day to efforts to eliminate poverty housing. This is the first Women Build event for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia.

“My female friends who knew of my work with Habitat would tell me, ‘Oh, I’d love to do that but I can’t hammer, I can’t saw, I can’t give back’ and this drove me crazy because the way that the program works — the volunteer house leaders break down every task so that it’s suitable for anybody’s size, anybody’s level of skill,” Waagen said.

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February 2010, Toastmaster magazine — In this month’s issue of Toastmaster magazine, reporter Lin Grensing-Pophal writes:

“Some people seem to have a knack for automatically connecting with others in any setting. For those who don’t, learning how to interact quickly and comfortably with others is critical.”

She interviewed Dr. Alice Waagen, president of Workforce Learning, who said it is critical to have a goal in mind.

Networking should be considered a professional activity and not a casual event, says Waagen, adding that it’s important to start with the end in mind. “The most important lesson I learned early on is to establish for yourself your goal or objective before you go to the event,” she notes. “That way you keep focused and don’t get distracted by the hors d’oeuvres, the drinks or your best buddy across the room.”

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Jan. 8, 2010, The Calgary Sun — In an article today that focused on helping desperate job seekers, reporter Dawn Klingensmith explained that many career advisers warn that in today’s oversaturated job market, filling out an online application and waiting with fingers crossed to hear back is tantamount to hurling your resume into a black hole.

“Don’t count on your resume to speak for itself. Follow-up is essential if you want to make an impression,” said Klingensmith, who questioned if it’s possible that a forceful job-search strategy makes the candidate appear pushy, overeager or off-putting? “Taken to the extreme, yes. Even in a fiercely competitive job market, it is possible to come on too strong.”

For more information, Klingensmith asked Alice Waagen, president of Workforce Learning to identify warning signs that will alert job seekers to the fact that they are coming on too strong.

“Some applicants send flowers or candy. This is not a date — it’s a job,” says human resources consultant Alice Waagen.

And if you don’t hear back, take the hint, Waagen advises. “If you’ve left messages and e-mails and don’t get a response, that’s either a strong indication you’ve been rejected or that the hiring manager is a poor manager lacking basic skills,” she says. “It’s time to move on.”

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ExecSense Webinars has hired Dr. Alice Waagen, president and founder of the management training firm Workforce Learning, to lead a webinar on the topic: “Leadership Skills and Strategies for the HR Executive.”

Register today by logging on to the ExecSense website: www.ExecSense.com. For details, call 415 453-3003.

For more information, contact Alice at alice@workforcelearning.com.

About ExecSense

ExecSense is the largest producer of executive webinars in the world, developing over 1,000 new webinars a year led by hundreds of C-Level executives (CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO, CLO), partners from 60% of the largest 200 law firms, accountants and venture capitalists.

ExecSense is what enables business and legal executives to be in-the-know on the most important topics that impact their profession. Over the course of a year, ExecSense is first-to-the-scene with webinars on breaking news, trends, and skills, often produced within hours of an important event occurring.

News breaks every day, however the news stories and trends written about in newspapers, magazines and web sites are too general in nature or not explored in enough detail. To provide executives with more in-depth insights tailored specifically to their profession, ExecSense produces individual webinars as well as titles in our Instant Impact, What Executives Need to Know About…, SpeedBriefings, Legal Needs, Technology for Lawyers, Technology for CEOs, and What to Know Before… series. Depending on the webinar, it includes audio files and documents in PowerPoint, Word and/or Excel. ExecSense webinars can be viewed on your computer, mobile phone, iPod or printed and viewed offline.

ExecSense was founded by Jonathan Reed Aspatore, Founder & Former CEO of Aspatore Books. ExecSense is a privately held company headquartered in San Rafael, California, founded in 2000.

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PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER / JOBS.COM, July 28, 2009 — In an article published today on the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jobs.com website, reporter Dawn Klingensmith interviewed Workforce Learning president Alice Waagen for an article entitled, “Are you coming on too strong?”

Alice said, yes, you might be seen as overly aggressive if:

• You send more than a succinct thank-you note after an interview. “Some applicants send flowers or candy,” Alice explained. “This is not a date — it’s a job.”

• You can’t take the hint. “If you’ve left messages and e-mails and don’t get a response, that’s either a strong indication you’ve been rejected or that the hiring manager is “a poor manager lacking basic skills,” Waagen said.

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Human Resource Executive, January 2009 — In the HR News section of this month’s Human Resource Executive magazine, reporter Scott Westcott interviewed Dr. Alice Waagen, president of the leadership development firm Workforce Learning, for his article, “Layoff Landslide.”

Westcott wrote: “With the economy in an official recession, HR leaders unfortunately will get plenty of practice to hone their skills in presiding over reductions-in-force.”

Dr. Waagen commented: “In HR, we’ve been through this before so there should be lots of lessons learned in how to handle layoffs in a humane and dignified way. The key tenet is massive amounts of open and timely communications — both for the employees leaving and those staying.”

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Ethical Human Resourcing, November 13, 2008 — Alice Waagen was featured prominently in an article posted Nov. 13 by reporter Scott Westcott, who wrote:

Bleak jobless reports in September and October have HR departments nationwide immersed in the process of laying off employees, and trying to keep the remaining talent motivated and engaged in their work.

The nation’s unemployment rate jumped to a 14 year high of 6.5 percent as the Labor Department announced last week an additional 240,000 jobs were cut in October. The cuts pushed 2008’s total job loss beyond 1.2 million. October’s rate was the highest since March 1994, and marked the 10th straight month of payroll reductions.

“In HR, we’ve been through this before so there should be lots of lessons learned in how to handle layoffs in a humane and dignified way,” says Alice Waagen, president of Workforce Learning, an HR consultancy in Herndon, Va. “The key tenet is massive amounts of open and timely communications, both for the employees leaving and those staying.”

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SHRM, November 2008 — For an article on HSRM.com, eporter Lin Grensing-Pophal talked extensively to HR expert Alice Waagen, PhD, about “HR Consultants’ Outsider Status Opens Facilitator Roles.”

“Because organizations often look for non-biased, third-party perspectives to address issues that impact their workforces, the outsider status of HR consultants provides them with opportunities,” Lin writes, noting that “not all organizations value the role of the outside facilitator, and some firms might believe it to be an unnecessary expense.”

Here’s what Alice had to say:

“The main value that outside facilitators provide to an organization is objectivity. Since facilitators are not part of the contracting organization, facilitators are believed to be objective third parties who can keep things on track and ensure that all voices are heard, she says.

While a prior relationship with a client can help the consultant get hired, it can create a situation where the client expects preferential treatment, Waagen says. For the facilitation services to be successful, the consultant needs to make clear to the client that the facilitator’s role is that of impartial “traffic cop.” As “traffic cop,” the facilitator sets the meeting’s agenda, reviews it with the participants and guides the meeting. If side conversations or hidden agendas arise, the facilitator needs to verify with the group that they have consensus to go down those paths, she says.

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Human resources expert Alice Waagen, PhD, president of Workforce Learning of Reston, VA, is the HR Career Feature writer this month on Employment Crossing / HRCrossing, one of the leading job-opening research companies in the world and the go-to website for executives, administrators, managers, assistants and entry-level workers, providing access to thousands of lucrative job openings in the human resources field.

Alice’s article, Know When — and How — to Hire the Right Staff, describes the three steps to hiring success:
1. Know when it’s time to hire.
2. Determine what type of help you need.
3. Decide if you should go the full-time-employee or contractor route.

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Herndon VA, October 13, 2008 — Alice Waagen, PhD, president of Workforce Learning of Reston, VA, was featured today in “Entry Level Careers,” a regular column by Washington Examiner reporter Heather Huhman.

“Gen Y is experiencing more difficulty transitioning from the classroom to the workplace than previous generations,” Huhman wrote, noting a recent JobFox poll which found that Gen Y workers are perceived by recruiters as being the weakest performers among the four generations that now make up the US workforce.

To help make Gen Y’s transition into the workforce seamless and successful, Waagen provided a list of pointers for both Gen Y employees themselves and for the companies that hire them.

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