This week’s TRIPLE III TIME message is my latest American Society for Public Administration article. And as you can tell from the article’s title: Today’s Newest “Job Learnings”… I have revisited my most predominant career initiative (getting people better ready for the world-of-work) and “proclaimed” it to be a modern-day public administration upgrade responsibility!

So many advancements have occurred in today’s employment arena that I believe someone/some group needs to offer a single, short-term session on: “Today’s Newest “Job Learnings”. It may sound too simple or common sensical, but job conduct and expectations need to be better defined and understood by both employers and employees as part of a standard up-training process.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Today’s Newest “Job Learnings”

Today’s workplace, employment processes and situations are NOT the same. Technology, global markets, world politics, hybrid learning, instantaneous communication and multiple other factors have altered the traditional employer-employee relationship in so many ways. Innovation and creativity have caused the infusion of so many new non-traditional components into every workplace and thereby have caused an “unawareness-knowledge-gap” with regard to pure job responsibilities and performance.

As practitioners in the public administration field… shouldn’t we be strategically reviewing and discussing all of Today’s Newest “Job Learnings” that are impacting our overall workforce… both public and private sectors? Isn’t it becoming more critical everyday that in our high school classrooms and also in every employment location… to directly orientate and communicate the progressive changes that are occurring and involving everyone? Although we may believe that this form of evolutionary “Job Learning” is just naturally occurring… I contend it is important for both sides of the employer-employee arrangement to become “up-with-the-times” regarding our upscaled worlds of work. For better clarity on Today’s Newest “Job Learnings”, lets go over a few examples.

Let’s first consider the new age view of when and how one’s work day begins. Traditionally if someone worked at a bank or in a manufacturing setting, they positioned themselves to consider that they were “on-the-job” from 7 until 4pm or 8 until 5pm. These very standard work hour situations were the historic measuring stick for everyone’s eight (8) hour day and consequential forty (40) hour week. But hasn’t this traditional time and attendance methodology been tested…modified and maybe even eliminated as a result of our COVID… online employment expansion experiences?

Interrelated to the personal time and attendance issue is the hybrid… work-from-home situation. I can’t recall the number of times workers in multiple sector situations have informed me that “my work day begins the moment I go online and look at my emails”! Understandably, the opportunity to have your home become your regular “workplace” has tremendous financial and time saving benefits! Less costs for gas and vehicle maintenance. No time spent on-the-road driving to and back from an office.  Plus “dressing-down” is allowable…daily. However, does working from home improve job performance or lessen it? Can you really document time on-the-job accurately or is there a critical trust factor involved?  Each of these “Job Learning”… impact areas need to be better explained, applied, integrated, assessed and monitored in a progressive… innovative… professional way to advance today’s new (and old) workforce participants.

Another employment-evolution area that would be valuable to instruct both job seekers and current workers about would be today’s “Specific-Generalist” job expectations. What are “Specific-Generalist” job expectations? Today I have observed that unlike past employment opportunities, some employers look for workers with natural specialist college-level knowledge… but many silently recruit candidates that have multiple (generalist) skill areas. This situation is most useful when those looking for work assess and are prepared to share their transferable skills. These skills include communication, teamwork, adaptability, creative thinking and attention to detail personal strengths. So whether the challenge is time management or beginning blue-print reading, the more high-value generalist skills/credentials one retains has become much more applicable in today’s competitive job market. This issue is even more realized as different companies and organizations have to “blend” job tasks due to financial or down-sizing concerns. Therefore, is providing this form of “Job Learning” instruction a valuable new age public administration obligation/responsibility?

Job re-entry and a much more flexible approach to retirement is another evolving

“Job Learning” component. Consider all of the modern-day approaches older citizens utilize to strategically exit their employment. Think about individual phase-out planning, part-time options, on-call opportunities and/or total return-to-work situations. With the shrinkage of the total workforce, worker buy-outs, robotics impacts, self-service structures and/or remote job opportunities… full retirement has become less of a standard life-change option than in the past. Additionally and unfortunately, quality survivability of those over age 65 living on a very fixed and/or limited income has become a greater circumstance. As a result, older citizens are regularly re-entering the workforce and would benefit greatly from sessions on Today’s Newest “Job Learnings”.

So what are some of the key issues to consider if we commit to better informing citizens about job conduct and expectations? I believe it is vital that common Today’s Newest “Job Learnings” be created and provided as a standard employment preparation/continuation service. A new public administration provider would not be required, rather the nation’s workforce agencies, community colleges or small business development system-network could assume the new learning session responsibility. As discussed the topics should include but not be limited to:

• Working from home standards
• Computer skills expectations
• Part-time work protocols
• On-line employment and responsibilities
• “Specific-Generalist” skill areas

The uniqueness of Today’s Newest “Job Learnings” sessions would be the specific discussion on jobs from both the employee and employer perspectives. Old-style work stereotypes would no longer apply. This system-wide initiative is an overdue upgrade to all employment preparation services.