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Workforce Summit Final Report Ignores the Obvious: Pay Your Workers More!

Speaking of wages, the Governor's Workforce Summit report isn't.

  1. Accenture (the international consulting shard of Arthur Andersen that incorporated in Bermuda, then Ireland, thus avoiding U.S. taxes—way to keep our dollars local, Governor!) does not mention wages in the executive summary.
  2. Accenture does say South Dakota's workforce problems come from stupid workers "Job seekers do not know the real potential of technical and other careers, or what is expected to succeed") and misfocused teachers ("Education is critical to providing the workforce South Dakota needs, and must be focused on the skills and competencies needed to grow and sustain South Dakota’s economy"). Obviously we are the dummies, not our business leaders.
  3. The executive summary damns us with limited thinking: "...South Dakota will never fully solve its workforce challenges."
  4. The key to South Dakota's economic success is "having enough workers with the right skills and competencies."
  5. The bullet list of the key difficulties in recruiting and retaining workers mentions "competition for available skills", lack of job seeker "soft skills", and lack of housing, but does not mention wages.
  6. Summit participants proposed that the business sector can boost recruitment and retention if it will "Increase workplace flexibility to meet needs of a changing workforce... expand the number of apprenticeships leading to jobs... [and] develop creative solutions to provide transportation for workers." Wages are not mentioned.
  7. The three scariest words in the entire report: Business-driven curricula.
  8. Once we retool our schools to do what business wants, we just need to build more complicated "centralized online hubs for job seekers and employers" built around "common language, data, and a unified agenda" so we can match up skills and competencies with openings (but not wages).
  9. In their discussion of "Creating a Roadmap" for recruitment and retention, summit coordinators asked business participants several questions, but not, "Do you think you pay your employees a competitive wage?"
  10. Participants at all six summits included low wages as a problem for recruitment and retention. But only the Brookings, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls sessions managed to get "increase wages" to bubble into the top suggestions for recruiting and retaining more workers. Watertown, Aberdeen, Huron-Mitchell-Yankton, are you that dense?

I'm sure Accenture's consultants were paid very well to conduct and summarize these Workforce Summits. If South Dakota would apply its attitude toward Irish consultants to its own workers, it might not need another Workforce Summit.

44 Comments

  1. Lynn 2014.09.02

    So our tax dollars are paying for the services of a corporation that is a tax dodger? It just adds further insult to this so called Workforce Summit.

  2. Chris S. 2014.09.02

    So the good ol' boys in Pierre paid for a study that's a sloppy wet kiss to businesses who want low-paid workers that they don't have to train themselves? Wow. That was money well spent.

    The problem isn't our lack of skilled workers. The problem is our lack of jobs for the skilled workers we have. This isn't difficult. It isn't a news flash. The report from the tax-dodging, un-American corporation is just another smoke screen to cover Pierre's assault on public education and workers.

  3. Lynn 2014.09.02

    Wouldn't this so called Workforce Summit be a prime opportunity for Susan Wismer in her campaign?

  4. Kathy 2014.09.02

    Over the last few days, between people complaining about Common Core and reading this, I've come to the conclusion that the Right wants to get rid of common core and have more manual labor, because if they don't, there may be a dearth of people who do not lack critical thinking skills. And when people are able to think critically, they tend to question things.

    God forbid that people think critically and question anything that is suspicious, based on faulty logic or makes no sense.

  5. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.09.02

    What a load of BS! Really. Government is supposed to be a small gathering of elected people representing us, whose sole focus is solving our problems.

    Yes, businesses have issues and they are populated with living, breathing human beings. And - government's purpose is not to give businesses priority over the living, breathing human beings.

    If government behaves as good government should, the priorities it places on those living, breathing human beings cannot avoid helping the businesses they populate.

    The two, people and businesses, cannot be separated. When government strives to benefit business entities at the expense of living, breathing human beings, those businesses are bound to fail.

    Some may disagree with my conclusion. Realize that businesses that consider themselves successful through disregard or even contempt for living, breathing human beings, are quickly shrinking in number. They're eating each other, eating their young in unsustainable numbers.

    I wonder how many more truly successful businesses there would be if government worked for the good of living, breathing human beings? The number of businesses voluntarily paying above minimum wage keeps growing. Also, workers are cranking up the heat on fast food joints.

    I sincerely hope we are living in a Bob Dylan time: "Change is gonna come. "

  6. Bill Fleming 2014.09.02

    In my lifetime, in my craft, I've had to learn (and subsequently forget) at least six different technologies. I can't imagine that requirement is going to change, other than to become even more intellectually demanding. Thus, it seems the most important thing to do in school is to "learn how to learn." And it takes a special kind of person to teach someone that.

    There was a woman at Yankton college who taught languages. Mainly French, German and (if anyone wanted to learn them) Latin and Sanskrit. But during WWII, she volunteered to teach Air Force and Navy recruits how to fly airplanes. And she did it! (Her name was Rosamond Burgie.)

    Now that's the kind of teachers we need, and we should be willing to pay them very well indeed. Because they are the key to the bright future of our nation just as surely as are the children they will teach.

  7. Roger Cornelius 2014.09.02

    If minimum wage and wage disparity is not directly addressed in the bullet points of the Workforce Summit, I would have to consider it null and void. Personal income is the motivator for free enterprise. When wages are not addressed at every level of education, training, and employment, the future cannot be planned.
    I also noticed that employee retention was not addressed, in business it is critical to keep productive workers rather than continually train new ones, that is a costly process.
    Again, the minimum wage and wage disparity play a significant role in employee retention, for the employer it saves money, for the employee it provides security.
    From my take, this workforce summit was a waste of time and money.

  8. grudznick 2014.09.02

    Bill, didn't Ms. Burgie go by "Bessie?"

  9. Bill Fleming 2014.09.02

    Not if you were a student in her German class, Grudz. She wen't by Ms. Burgie, and I was Mr. Fleming.

  10. grudznick 2014.09.02

    You know my German is schrecklich. If I had been is Ms. Burgie's class it would not be.

  11. owen reitzel 2014.09.02

    so if education is that important shouldn't the educators be paid more?
    the anti-Common Core shouldn't like this either. You've got a state government telling schools what to teach so the BUSINESSES have the right slaves, I mean workers, for the jobs.

  12. Steve Sibson 2014.09.02

    "Obviously we are the dummies, not our business leaders.
    3.The executive summary damns us with limited thinking"

    I think Deb argued that South Dakotans are stupid a couple of weeks ago.

    Cory, thanks for the link to the report.

  13. larry kurtz 2014.09.02

    South Dakotans are stupid, Steve: make your point.

  14. Steve Sibson 2014.09.02

    "7.The three scariest words in the entire report: Business-driven curricula."

    That is why the SDGOP Establishment supports Common Core. I made the argument that business has co-opted the education system in my application to the Mitchell School District Board of Education. The only local control we have is the Chamber of Commerce, which is faux as they get their agenda from the US Chamber.

  15. larry kurtz 2014.09.02

    Steve, admit you are under water and have no hope of surfacing until jesus bails you out.

  16. Steve Sibson 2014.09.02

    "I'm sure Accenture's consultants were paid very well to conduct and summarize these Workforce Summits."

    Yet they hold the copyright.

  17. lesliengland 2014.09.02

    no sib, u persist in asking if sd citizens are "stupid".

  18. Steve Sibson 2014.09.02

    'u persist in asking if sd citizens are "stupid".'

    Like the ones who think the solution to a problem is more of what caused the problem...Big government plus big business, which equals the Neo-Fascist/Neo-Marxist public/private partnerships providing products produced and partially funded by government and consumed by those on government funded welfare.

    And/or could be the ones who believe they will foster critical thinking in an education system that is designed to provide skills needed by the corporatists' globally planned Keynesian-based economy.

  19. larry kurtz 2014.09.02

    An indictment of Denny Daugaard if i ever did see one: thanks, sib: yer check's in the mail.

  20. Nick Nemec 2014.09.02

    The South Dakota business owners and the politicians kissing their butts need to rewatch "Field of Dreams", "If you build it they will come." If they increase wages employees will beat a path to their door. Capitalism will win out in the end and those who refuse to pay workers the going rate, or more, will find their workers moving to jobs and areas where they are better paid.

    It continually amazes me that people who purport to be capitalists don't understand the basics of supply and demand.

  21. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.09.02

    Right on, Nick—just like the Bakken. Offer $80K–$100K, and people will bring their skills to the middle of nowhere.

    Meanwhile, KELO acts as dumb as the report, spotlighting the Governor's explanation of the workforce problem: "We have such a low unemployment rate. So even though everyone is facing this mismatch between the folks who are looking for work and the skill sets that employers need, South Dakota is especially problematic."

    See? The problem is those dumb workers and those dumb schools, not fitting their cogs to the corporate machine. Never mind that there are plenty of welders and electricians and other skilled workers out there. Never mind that South Dakota businesses apparently aren't paying the wages to attract those workers and to attract young people into training programs to become those workers. Oh no, that couldn't be the problem.

  22. Steve Sibson 2014.09.02

    Cory, on page 35 Accenture is promoting the consulting services. Is this really the "Governor's Workforce Summits"? And they are headquartered in Ireland. Bad enough that the governor used out of state corporation to recruit workers, now he is going out of the country.

  23. Steve Sibson 2014.09.02

    "It continually amazes me that people who purport to be capitalists don't understand the basics of supply and demand."

    Nick, they understand it. Government funded corporate welfare is for the supply and government funded social welfare and public works is the demand. That is how we got 17 trillion in federal debt as we continue down the road to serfdom.

  24. Scott 2014.09.02

    A good well rounded k-12 education is a good starting point. If one is given this opportunity, there is a good chance that a person can go on and learn and function in life. Job types and skills are always changing. You have to have the basic learning, listening, and reading skills so you can continually learn and change as the world around you changes.

    The idea that education be changed to match current jobs is scary in some respects. If education is geared to current jobs, what happens in a few years when the job changes?

  25. Jana 2014.09.03

    Get Accenture on the record for why wages weren't included in the study. My guess is they were not allowed to consider that as a factor.

    If they were, then it should be highlighted before they fleece another state with an incomplete look at workforce issues.

    BTW. Do we know how much they were paid and who hired them. Who in the state offices has strong contacts with Accenture?

    Has Accenture done this study for other states and included wages as a factor?

  26. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.09.03

    Steve Sibson, you are right! Page 35 of Accenture's study is a sales pitch for their further services! "Often the best sources of required skills and competency data is within a company. Accenture has tracked thousands of real employees’ transitions and performance data to construct a skills-based framework for career development and advancement. This framework is used to define the
    skills necessary and what is expected of employees at every level in each workforce." Perhaps they are angling for the state to provide subsidies to companies that will buy Accenture's framework for analyzing their own workforce (because oh, you silly employers, you aren't smart enough to figure out the skills of your own employees). It's the Manpower debacle all over again!

    I didn't catch that text on page 35 until Sibby pointed it out. That's why I keep Sibby around. Get him off his shibboleths, hand him some documents, and Sibby can provide some useful research. Thank you, Steve.

  27. Nick Nemec 2014.09.03

    I fully support keeping Sibby around, he adds value to conversations. This liberal agrees with Steve's assessment of government supported crony capitalism.

  28. Steve Sibson 2014.09.03

    Cory, thanks for pointing me to the link. Page 29 has a case study out of Virginia that uses an "Education Wizard" that provides "salary information" that "is based on alumni longitudinal data, so users can see actual salary ranges of real alumni who went down a given career path."

    The Common Core agenda also includes a longitudinal database to collect data on those in the K-12 system. The P-20 initiative is about cradle to career data collection from cradle to career. Some say P20 is from "prenatal to career".

    Then you go to P30: "NCRS (National Career Readiness Certificate) assessments could be required as condition of receiving employment services or required in the K-12 education system." It goes on to say that the NCRS should be established "as a standardized tool across South Dakota". Also on page 30 is the "Business-driven Curricula". Common Core's math is being dumbed down to Algebra 1 levels as that is all that is needed in "community colleges" (technical schools). Only a small percentage need pre-calc and go on to college. This is what they mean be "college and career readiness". Education is now become a tool for the corporatists globally planned economy. It is not about critical thinking, it is about group think. That is why teacher pay is not a concern. All they want are "facilitators", not teachers.

  29. Bill Dithmer 2014.09.03

    " Our four growth platforms—Accenture Strategy, Accenture Digital, Accenture Technology, Accenture Operations—are the innovation engines through which we build world-class skills and capabilities; develop knowledge capital; and create, acquire and manage key assets central to the development of integrated services and solutions for our clients."

    "Accenture was chosen to replace CGI Group as the lead contractor for HealthCare.gov in January 2014.[8]Accenture was selected as lead contractor of the implementation of the United States Department of Homeland Security's biometric identity management program, called US-VISIT, in 2003. The contract was for ten billion USD over ten years. The program has since had its responsibilities split and reorganized into different federal departments.Accenture engaged in a very large and ambitious IT overhaul project for the National Health Service (NHS) in 2003, making headlines when it withdrew from the contract in 2006 over disputes related to delays and cost overruns.[37]The government of the United Kingdom ultimately abandoned the project 5 years later for the same reasons.[3"
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accenture#Notable_Recent_Projects

    All you have to do to get an idea od who and what Accenture does is look at their board of directors. It's a whos who of people that were formerly listed as the most influential business people in the world. They made these accomplishments from 2002 until about 2008.

    Now what else was happening at about that same time?

    It looks like this man is the brains on the board, Charles Giancarlo. He holds patents in ATM and voice technologies.

    Every person on the board either set on or is still setting on the boards of directors of major players in the financial crisis. Coincidentally their most powerful in the world claims came from that same period.
    http://www.accenture.com/us-en/company/governance/board-directors/Pages/index.aspx

    This company pulls a lot of strings to make their money. It would be very hard for any of the directors not to have a conflict of interest when anolizing a potential project.

    South Dakota is but a small fish in Accentures ocean. Its not the Koch boys you have to worry about, its these guys.

    The Blindman

  30. Wayne B. 2014.09.03

    Cory,

    It looks like the version out now is trimmed (pages 24 - 31 are missing), and I'm having trouble printing the document out. Do you have access to a full version you can share?

  31. Roger Cornelius 2014.09.03

    While reading John Tristan's related thread, it occurred to me that Daugaard could have saved a lot of money by the state agencies and departments compile this workforce study and then making a final report.
    Dept. of Labor, GOED, and other related department all have relative employment and unemployment data that would be more useful.
    Looking a little deeper into the report and the discussion about South Dakotans being slower than most, is an attempt to key the minimum wage low. The justification is that if people are dumb, they don't need to paid as much.
    This report was dumb and raises the question how much did we pay for it and what campaign contributions have they made to Daugaard?

  32. JeniW 2014.09.04

    Why not develop work training centers to assist people to learn new skills, or enhance skills so that there are people with needed skills for the job openings, or to help the employed or under-employed advance to better paying positions?

  33. Wayne B. 2014.09.04

    No dice, Cory. The slides after page 23 are missing... So the document cuts out Building an Effective Workforce System.

  34. Steve Sibson 2014.09.04

    Wayne, I am able to see those pages.

  35. Wayne B. 2014.09.04

    How bizarre. Technical question - what version of adobe do you guys have?

  36. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.09.04

    Weird, Wayne! I'm opening the PDF in Firefox in OS X.

  37. jerry 2014.09.04

    I wonder if the workforce summit addressed wage theft itself, or the mis characterization of workers. What about companies who classify there workers as contract labor 1099's when they should be W-2 employees?

  38. Wayne B. 2014.09.05

    Jerry, I attended one of the workday sessions. We didn't talk about that. We did talk about how no business owner with sense pays a minimum wage in Sioux Falls because the turnover is so high.

    Cory - I'm running Adobe Acrobat XI

  39. jerry 2014.09.05

    Wayne B, thanks, that is what I figured. Here is what happens when those business owners refuse to pay a living wage, people die. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/25933-when-four-jobs-arent-enough-why-we-need-a-living-wage

    Here was a hard hard working young woman with 4 jobs trying to make ends meet. What kind of system do we want that forces people to literally kill themselves so they do not starve to death? The turnover is so high because the cemetery is getting full. What a shame that they have the balls to even declare that sort of thing, Stalin would be proud.

  40. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.09.05

    Wayne, I'll e-mail you a copy, see if that loads properly.

Comments are closed.