Effective, efficient and productive.<\/p>\n
Miami Valley business leaders hope their operations can be described in these terms. If they can\u2019t, leaders from the Center for Workforce Development at Wright State University may get a call.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we do is work with organizations to grow them from the inside out,\u201d said Sandra Kennedy, director of the Center for Workforce Development.<\/p>\n
The center just received another $90,000 from the Ohio Department of Development for a continuing grant. It\u2019s money that\u2019s been put to work locally for the last two decades, touching over 550 organizations.<\/p>\n
Kennedy says the grant is worth more now than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strive to help avoid layoffs. It\u2019s job retention. It\u2019s all of the things that we are looking to try to do to regain our economic footing,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Kennedy says through the years the center has worked with big corporations like Delphi and the GM truck and bus plant in Moraine, but also many small businesses, like the tool and die shop she began working with two months ago that employs just five people.<\/p>\n
Whether five or 5,000, Kennedy says collaboration is the key to success.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you begin to collaborate in an honest way, then you have more of a joint commitment. And that means more people are coming into work trying to solve problems instead of giving each other headaches,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Kennedy says recent success includes working with the Dayton VA hospital and the City of Dayton finance department.<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s group has been working with the VA since 2005 to get management and the union to work together.<\/p>\n
At the City of Dayton finance department, it was all about customer service and call wait times.<\/p>\n
When the project started in 2002, Kennedy says the finance department wasn\u2019t the best with customer service. \u201cOne person said they called and waited 20 minutes. The longest wait-time now is a minute and a half, \u201csaid Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Though it may be hard to measure, Kennedy says improving work relationships and customer service in these examples and others helps protect jobs and attract them in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that the City of Dayton grow. The customer satisfaction, the reputation, can play a role in whether or not people choose to move here and feed the tax base, or for companies to move here,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
With the help of the Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) at Wright State, tracking is being done on who is leaving the Miami Valley, who\u2019s coming back and why.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s where CUPA comes in, because they keep records on all of that, the surrounding communities and the entire state,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Local organizations often learn about the resources at the center through Kennedy\u2019s presentations to small business associations and entrepreneurial groups.<\/p>\n
One of the presentation topics that\u2019s getting the most attention is about communicating and motivating different generations of employees in the work place.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t motivate a boomer in the same way, with the same language as you would a GenX,\u201d said Kennedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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