A casino for Oxford County?

Oxford casino could appear on ballot

The Maine Secretary of State's office yesterday approved a referendum proposal to allow a casino in Oxford County to appear on the November ballot, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap on Wednesday approved a referendum petition for a question that reads, "Do you want to allow a certain Maine company to have the only casino in Maine, to be located in Oxford County, if part of the revenue is used to fund specific state programs?" Under the current law, the Legislature could approve the casino, which would include slot machines, table games and card games, as proposed, but likely will send the issue to voters on the Nov. 4 ballot, the paper said.

If voters approve the casino, elected officials and voters in the as-yet-unnamed Oxford County host town would also need to approve it. The casino is proposed by Seth Carey, an attorney and president of Evergreen Mountain Enterprises LLC, which was formed to promote the plan.

Maine has one other gambling facility, Penn National Gaming Inc.’s Hollywood Slots racino in Bangor, which in November surpassed $1 billion in wagers and $74 million in net revenue, the paper reported.

(from The Daily/Mainebiz)

Customer service faux pas

Customer service skills are required in today’s workforce as never before. In fact, it is a rare occupation in today’s 21st century world that doesn’t utilize some of the key customer service skills that are essential for quality customer interaction, as well as satisfaction. While technology often gets the press and is lauded, I’m more inclined to go with the human element, when weighting work skills for future success. The following story, which gets played out each and every day, is far too common.

Two days ago, in need of a mid-afternoon caffeine boost, I stopped by a local coffee chain that is very well known and has a famous culinary spokesperson doing commercials for them. I waited in line, ready to order my standard medium coffee, cream only. In front of me was a young woman who was attempting to acquire a latte, which the counterperson for this national chain wasn't aware that they offered. Obviously struggling with the task at hand, he asked the customer several questions pertaining to ingredients and the type of container that it came in. Unfortunately, the very patient customer had never ordered a latte at this establishment, but knew she wanted it hot; the employee seemed to think it was a cold drink, with ice, which the customer politely, but firmly said wasn’t what she wanted and didn’t think that’s what it should be.

Finally, for all of our sakes (or so I thought), a very efficient co-worker came along to bail out this gentleman struggling with the task at hand. She proceeded to lambast him verbally, in front of the young lady and I, rudely saying to him, “how long have you worked here? You should know how to make a latte by now!” She also scolded him for using the wrong cup size.

Rather than dress down this embarrassed young man, who I felt sorry for (for a variety of reasons, not the least being his obvious lack of work skills), she should have smiled at the customer wanting the latte and apologized for her inconvenience, as she had been waiting for more than five minutes. Additionally, I was being inconvenienced and while someone did step forward to take my order, there was no acknowledgement of a very sorry exhibition of customer service.

While I enjoy this chain’s brand of coffee, I can’t commend their customer service. This isn’t the first time that their customer service has been less than satisfactory. On the other hand, I’ve never had a bad experience with one of their coffee competitors, Starbucks.

Their baristas are friendly, efficient and always committed to making sure that customers leave satisfied. While some choose to criticize the multinational chain about fair-trade policies, labor practices and other issues, in my opinion, their coffee is good (albeit a bit pricey) and their service has always been exemplary in my presence.

Note of interest: Starbucks shut down all of its nearly 7,100 national stores for three hours, last night, in order for employees to receive retraining. In Chicago (and possibly elsewhere), Dunkin’ Donuts handed out free small hot lattes in all of its 450 Chicagoland stores. I wonder if their workers knew how to make them?

Maine's premiere brand moving westward

L.L. Bean, Maine’s venerable outdoor gear and apparel outfitter, is expanding its retail operations outside of New England, with the planned opening of a 30,000 square foot store, in a Chicago suburb.

The 30,000-square-foot store will be located at the Arboretum at South Barrington, a retail center that is now under construction in Chicago’s northwest suburbs. The store will be built according to U.S. Green Building Council's LEED standards, which according to MediaPost’s Marketing Daily, will incorporate “the creative use of recycled and reclaimed materials as well as state of the art energy efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems.”

The expansion into the Chicago area is part of a larger retail expansion strategy, L.L. Bean officials said. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the Arboretum of South Barrington is an open-air shopping center spanning 86 acres. Tenants include retailers Ann Taylor Loft, Victoria's Secret and Circuit City.

"L.L. Bean has many catalog and web customers in the Chicago area, which is one of our largest markets," Ken Kacere, the company's senior vice-president of retail, says in a statement. "Our new stores will showcase a unique product selection for our active outdoor customers."

The South Barrington store will employ about 125 people. In addition to selling gear and clothing, the store will include an Outdoor Discovery School for customers to learn about kayaking, fly fishing and other sports for which L. L. Bean’s products are used.

The company, founded in 1912, by Leon Leonwood Bean, has grown from a one-man operation to a global enterprise, with annual sales of $1.5 billion. The Chicago area store is the first L.L. Bean retail store west of Philadelphia and is part of the company’s plans to open up to nine new stores by 2012.

Budget cuts for Maine's Community Colleges?

Maine’s Community College System is a comprehensive two-year college system that offers over 300 career and transfer programs, as well as internships, and customized training for business and industry. It remains one of Maine’s key institutions for preparing the state’s workforce for the demands of the 21st century.

The state is fortunate to have seven campuses located across the state of Maine. You can find a MCCS campus in Auburn, Bangor, Fairfield, Presque Isle, South Portland, Calais, and Wells. Additionally, there are off-campus centers are located in Augusta, Bath, Caribou, Dover-Foxcroft, East Millinocket, Ellsworth, Houlton, South Paris, and South Portland.

Knowing of the key role that Maine’s Community Colleges play in building a bridge to economic prosperity for the state, it was with great concern that I read the following article in this morning’s Portland Press Herald.

Here are a few facts to consider about a community college education:

• 95% of graduates are placed in jobs or continue their education
• 95% of employed graduates find jobs in Maine
• The Community Colleges offer the lowest tuition in Maine: $78 per credit hour-or about $2,340 a year Degree enrollment is up 47 percent since 2002 —to 11,078 students

The state’s budget shortfalls have been on the minds of many Mainers and apparently, the deficit is even greater than originally reported.

According to the Press Herald article, “program cuts in the Maine Community College System are being considered, which could have a negative affect on the career plans of many of Maine's community college students."

The Legislature already is dealing with a supplemental budget that proposes $95 million in spending cuts, submitted by Gov. John Baldacci in January. Lawmakers been told to “lop off” an $99 million, due primarily because of lower- than-expected revenue. The exact figure will be determined this week.

The state's Department of Education has been asked to make about $47 million in cuts.

The bulk of those cuts -- $36.8 million -- would be achieved by changing the state education aid funding formula to delay the state's goal of paying 55 percent of public school costs. Higher education, spared in the governor's initial $95 million supplemental budget, now faces nearly $2 million in cuts at the seven community colleges and $6 million in cuts to the University of Maine System.

Budget woes at the statehouse are no laughing matter. However, cuts to programs that help to prepare Maine’s young for employment and success in the workplace are not the place where these ought to be made. Furthermore, graduates of these institutions are very likely to remain in Maine, accessing jobs that pay well and will contribute needed revenue to the state in the future.

Maine needs more opportunity for its young and as I wrote about last week, mid-level skills are where it’s at. Maine’s Community Colleges are one place that’s preparing future workers with these skills to succeed.

Here’s a great essay by Liz Addison, a student at SMCC, on why community colleges are important. Just another reason to resist "pulling the trigger" on cuts to these vital education institutions.

Talent vs. human resources

I like HR people. They're a busy group, as HR professionals wear many hats and often, don't get the recognition they deserve. They also wield considerable influence. If you doubt that, you've obviously never gotten rejected for a position.

Seth Godin, author of Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync, and fellow blogger, has some interesting thoughts about marketing and HR, from a post he put up yesterday, on his blog.

From SG's blog:

Understand that in days of yore, factories consisted of people and machines. The goal was to use more machines, fewer people, and to design processes so that the people were interchangeable, low cost and easily replaced. The more leverage the factory-owner had, the better. Hence Personnel or the even more cruel term: HR. It views people as a natural resource, like lumber.

Like it or not, in most organizations HR has grown up with a forms/clerical/factory focus. Which was fine, I guess, unless your goal was to do something amazing, something that had nothing to do with a factory, something that required amazing programmers, remarkable marketers or insanely talented strategy people.

So, here's my small suggestion, one that will make some uncomfortable.
Change the department name to Talent.

The reason this makes some people uncomfortable is that it seems like spin, like gratuitous double speak. And, if you don't change what you do, that would be true.

BUT... (read the rest here).

Don't forget the middle

The conventional wisdom bandied about concerning post secondary education and career preparation is that the American labor market is comprised of very low-skilled and very highly-skilled jobs, with a hollowing out of the middle.

Back in November, as part of a national campaign called Skills2Compete, a report titled, America’s Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs, was released, refuting that notion. The report, authored by economists Harry Holzer (Georgetown University and The Urban Institute) and Robert Lerman (American University and The Urban Institute) argues that middle-skill jobs – those that require more than high school but less than a four-year degree – continue to make up nearly half of all jobs today. Yet most national policymakers and politicians continue to overlook these jobs, and the investments in workforce education and training required to fill them in the coming decade. Unfortunately, Maine appears to be following the conventional wisdom on this.

However, in Central/Western Maine, we've recognized the importance of these middle-skill jobs and career opportunities. As part of our strategic workforce plan for the next two years, the focus has been on these types of jobs and training initiatives that point us towards what the Skills2Compete report talks about.

Organizations in Maine, like the Manufacturers Association of Maine, recognize that abundant opportunities exist in Maine, for those pursuing a career in the skilled trades. Cianbro Corporation will require somewhere in the vicinity of 400 skilled workers for their new module facility in Brewer. Current economic conditions indicate that demands for American exports could be on the increase, as pressure from cheap foreign imports has begun to decrease. Maine and other regional economies throughout the U.S. could benefit from this. Will we be able to take advantage of these possible opportunities and capture potential new markets?

Currently, America’s workforce education priority is targeted towards filling the 1 in 4 American jobs that require four-year or advanced college degrees. According to the report, a more comprehensive approach is required, one that addresses the demands of nearly 50 percent of U.S. jobs, jobs that are classified as middle-skill jobs that require more than high school, but less than a four-year degree. Currently, middle-skill jobs experiencing shortages include construction workers and inspectors, medical technicians, nurses, firefighter/EMTs, and other positions that are crucial to the nation’s infrastructure, health and quality of life.

For more on where our workforce priorities need to be focused, read the entire report.

The Workforce Alliance also break it out state-by-state. An evaluation of Maine's challenge can be found here.

Lewiston WorkReady™ celebrates sixth graduation

Without much fanfare, or outside recognition, the Central/Western Maine Workforce Investment Board, along with its partners, have quietly developed a model training initiative, called WorkReady™. This 60-hour soft skills training program, has now graduated over 70 candidates, since it began, in May, 2006.

On Friday, 10 graduates received their WorkReady™ credentials in a noontime ceremony, held at Marco’s Restaurant, in Lewiston. During the three weeks of the program, all of these participants took significant steps forward in their lives. Some, for the first time, were able to pinpoint specific personal obstacles that have consistently held them back and prevented them from achieving workplace and even, personal success in their lives.

[Employers gather to review trainee portfolios]

As a state, Maine must step up its efforts to reach out to and train segments of its labor force that for too long, have languished, and have been discounted in value. One such group is comprised of Mainers who lack the requisite skills required in today’s 21st century economy. As a result, far too many of our citizens have not worked consistently, or for wages that they can live on. Worse, the human potential that they represent has been under-utilized.

WorkReady™ originated from an informal conversation that took place between Bryant Hoffman, executive director of the Central/Western MaineWorkforce Investment Board and State Director of Adult Education and Family Literacy, Maine Department of Education, Becky Dyer, during a break at a seminar both were attending, in 2005. At the time, there had been talk among workforce and education professionals, as well as members of the employer community about the need for some type of targeted ready-to-work program. While there were several successful models and curriculums being utilized in other states (like Florida and Louisiana) nationwide, Maine’s lack of available funding for skills-based training made the purchase of these other curriculums impossible.

[One trainee's aspirations]

An incubator grant co-sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration and the National Alliance of Workforce Boards, allowed Hoffman to proceed with discussions towards launching a ready-to-work pilot in Maine.

Dyer began designing a curriculum, often utilizing in-kind contributions from staff, as well as feedback garnered from employers participating in the Progressive Alliance for Careers and Training Project, funded by an earmark grant to Coastal Enterprises, Inc., which validated the notion that employers were looking for “soft” or “applied” skills.

The graduation on Friday is the 6th graduation that has been held in Lewiston-Auburn. In addition, other programs have been run in two other communities in Area III. Farmington has held two graduations of their own and Skowhegan had 10 WorkReady™ graduates complete their initial program, last May. Currently, two more pilots are getting set to launch in March, in both the Rumford area and Augusta. Funding for these pilots has been made possible by a grant from The Betterment Fund, secured through Maine’s Department of Education and Dyer.

[Lewiston Adult Ed Director, Rob Callahan greets graduates, partners and employers]

Since its first pilot offering in Lewiston, in May, 2006, the program has fanned out and currently, programs are being planned, by Maine’s three other workforce boards. The program now has a statewide steering committee, chaired by Dyer, with representation from all four workforce boards in Maine, as well as Adult Ed, the Maine Department of Corrections, the Maine Community College system, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., Maine Department of Labor, as well as the superintendent of schools, from MSAD 75, Mike Wilhelm.

While it is tempting to continue on, in an effort to impress, trumpeting the broad-based support that has been developed, including the support, both in-kind and with financial contributions coming from the business community and the United Way, in Androscoggin County, I think one of the graduates sums up the program best.

Each one of the graduates prepared a work portfolio, which is viewed on graduation day, by members of our employer advisory team, which consists of 25 local employers. Graduates include representative material, which speaks to their capacity and abilities to be the kind of employee that these area businesses will want to hire. An aspect of the portfolio, is reflections from each graduate, on what WorkReady™ means to them. I include part of one of our recent graduate’s reflections about what WorkReady™ has meant for her:

"WorkReady has been a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. For several years, I have been struggling to find direction in my life. Through this wonderful program, I’ve been able to reflect on and figure out why I haven’t been able to achieve success in my life.

WorkReady has helped me to figure out I want to work with others, helping them to find direction and success in their lives.

I will never forget all the wonderful supportive people I’ve met, who have helped make this a reality in my own life. This program has changed me and helped me to find myself again.

Thank you for making this program available and giving me the opportunity to be part of it.”

Obviously, for this individual and many others like her, WorkReady™ is making a difference. While the program is making a difference and also, helping to address the workforce training needs that Maine must continue to focus on, if it hopes to grow its economy, funding continues to be an issue.

In closing, all 10 of these graduates, along with three other candidates, will embark on a four-week Next Steps training, beginning Monday, February 25th, at Central Maine Community College. Next Steps is a skill-specific training, which piggy-backs on the soft skills training of WorkReady™. This four-week training, Essentials of Customer Service, was designed to target specific needs of area employers in Lewiston-Auburn. With several large companies, such as TD Banknorth, LL Bean, CitiStreet, Oxford Networks and others, the need for customer service skills, as well as workplace computer literacy is tantamount to the success of our region’s workforce. It is another example of how the Central/Western Maine Workforce Board and its partners are providing practical solutions in developing a skilled regional workforce.

[WorkReady's happy graduates]