Listening to Employees

Here’s something we may not always think about: how scary a new training and career advancement program can be for incumbent employees. Watch the three-minute video clip below. It’s from an interview with Timothy Meade, a mental health worker at Temple University Episcopal (part of Temple University Health System) and a participant in the District 1199c Training and Upgrading Fund.

Meade’s in an interesting position and offers a unique perspective. Not only did he participate in the training program, he’s a union delegate and helped put this project into the union contract. At the beginning of this interview he talks about the fear that was created among many employees when the new training program was being introduced. Sometimes those of us helping to create opportunity for America’s workers forget that opportunity can be scary – for workers and, even, employers.

Listen to Meade. If you are working in the field of workforce development, in any way, it’s a valuable three minutes of your time.

(1199c is not a National Fund site. It’s a Jobs to Careers site, a complementary initiative that is testing how work-based learning can be brought to scale to help frontline health care workers get and stay on a successful career path.)