by Ashley Andrus, President of Zoe Training & Consulting

Even when times are good and budgets are flush, it can be easy for managers to view training and development as a cost rather than an investment towards bottom-line returns. When the economy is tight, and your boss has ordered you to cut your 2009 budget by 15 percent, and across-the-board spending freezes are the order of the day, justifying programs can feel like an uphill battle.

When done right, people development pays long-term dividends for your organization: morale is better, turnover drops, your ability to recruit qualified employees improves—and that’s all above and beyond the resulting skills enhancement and performance efficiency improvements (that result). Even in lean times, workforce development remains a “must-do” for forward-thinking organizations.

The question then becomes prioritizing possible initiatives and stretching the most that you can out of your training and development budget. Some practical suggestions for maximizing your resources include: Read the rest of this article »

by Jeff Thredgold, CSP

The “dismal science” of economics typically focuses on “bad” news. We clearly face significant challenges…no argument here. However, there are also many favorable developments taking place within the U.S. economy. This article focuses ONLY on the “good” news…

• The middle and lower-middle class had stronger income gains in 2007 than did the top one-fifth of households.
• For every dollar of U.S. economic output generated today, we burn less than half as much oil as 30 years ago.
• The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. declined by an estimated 1.3 million (to 11.2 million) between August 2007 and May 2008. Stronger enforcement and fewer job opportunities contributed to the decline. Read the rest of this article »