There is an Elephant in the Boardroom!

Some Things Just Can’t Be Ignored!

Politicians, royalty, business owners, charity organizations, and family re-unions can have an enormous beast with a huge trunk in the middle of their lives or boardrooms, and still have a unspoken agreement:

The Elephant is to be ignored.

Imposing as he may be, the obvious problem must be avoided.

The effects can get quite loud and obnoxious, until finally someone has to do something.

The problem is by the time we act, things have usually beccome complex and the web of issues tangled into a chaotic jungle.

Tomorrow’s Workplace has recently launched a new series THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM in an effort to bring to our awareness some of the challenges within the existing workplace.  Our intention to provoke discussion and stimulate what may be lively debate, in an effort to become strategic about solutions.

You can find a listing of the different written posts and videos on our ELEPHANT page.

Enjoy, but not too much!

Tomorrow’s Workplace: Mission, Vision and Values

Applying Mission, Vision and Values in the Tomorrow’s Workplace Project

One area our team is continually promoting to business and community providers is the overall importance of a clear mission for the company or organization, the subsequent vision that accompanies it, and the values that drive it.  To illustrate we asked our Project Director, Mr. Bill Beatty, to outline the MVV for our project and demonstrate what it looks like.

Mission

Tomorrow’s Workplace Partners and Team provide a container that focuses creative, practical, and logical skills on developing resilient small and medium sized businesses, reflecting a diverse workforce, demonstrating strong community support.

Vision

Surrey is a nationally recognized community where business, government, and service organizations collaborate, around the Surrey Board of Trade, to create a vibrant local economy based on sound business practices, community-supported sustainability, and employment representative of the diversity of its workforce.”

Values

The Tomorrow’s Workplace collaborative believes:

♦        Business values community

♦       Community partners will change what they do and how, if it makes personal, professional, and spiritual sense

♦        Local government, educators, and service organizations value business

♦        Business drives community wealth and stability

♦        The entire community benefits when businesses employ citizens reflecting our diversity

♦        Everyone in Surrey wants to see business success

♦        Small and medium sized businesses need community based support to thrive

♦        Surrey can be a model of business  development for our province and nation

♦        The Surrey Board of Trade is a leader in innovative business and community practices

♦        Tomorrow’s Workplace is a key resource for business and community

♦        Together we will succeed

Apply Now: Be Chosen for Tomorrows Workplace Business Consulting worth $30,000

The  business candidates chosen for Tomorrow’s Workplace project receive an extensive portfollio of business consulting with a value of approximately $30,000.  To be considered for the project you must supply a written submission that should not take more than 30 minutes to complete. 

All entries must be received by Jan 18, 2010.

Read more about the success of the project with initial candidates:

  Analyitic Systems  and Full Line Specialties. 

The application process is straightforward.

STEP  1

Compose an email with the following components:

1. Your name, Business Name,  Website Address, email address for contact, and phone number of contact person.

2. Tell us how many employees you currently employ. (Eligible candidates must have 11+full-time employees)

3, Write a paragraph or two about what your business provides, how long you have been in business, what are your basic strenghs and where you believe you need help to grow your business.

4. Tell us why you would like to be selected.  How would you hope to benefit and what changes would you expect to see in your business operation?

All information submitted will be held in the strictest of confidence, and with all legal privacy mandates. Only staff members on the Tomorrow’s Workplace team will have any access to the material provided.

STEP 2

Send your information to: Gayle Hadfield; Project Manager @ gayleh@telus.net

STEP 3

Each applicant will be contacted either by email or telephone within 48 hours.

Thank you for your interest.

Discover Tomorrow’s Workplace

The Purpose of Tomorrow’s Workplace Project

Video Produced by EXL Films

Tomorrow’s Workplace Needs a Workforce

Immigration to Fuel the Next Workforce in North America

Entrepreneur magazine posted a very insightful article in the summer of 2008 entitled: Tomorrow’s workforce: the needs for immigrant workers and strategies to retain them.

Hardest hit, according to Bao Q. Nguyen, will be  “aerospace and defense, utilities, health care, insurance and financial services, and public education.”

While this article refers to the US, Canadian businesses should take heed.

Bye Bye Boomers

By 2010, 40% of the population in the US will have reached 55.  The baby boomer generation is aging, and with that maturity and experience, comes retirement and physical limitations. 

What can you do to prepare your business for the future?  One clear answer forwarded by the experts is immigration, and immigration, by nature, brings diversity in the workplace. 

How we do business, how we relate in our work environment, and how we accomplish our goals will change dramatically in the coming decades. 

Once driven by western values and capitalistic ideals, our workforce will become highly integrated with not only the physical bodies, but the cultural needs and social priorities of our new workforce.
Whether we like it or not, our thinking as employers will be forced to change, or we won’t be in business.

We would appreciate your comments.  How is your company adapting to the workforce changes? What is the impact?  Where are you “stumped”?

Harmony Thiessen

Diversity In The Workplace – Pt. 1

Part 1 of the Series: DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

True diversity goes a step further to include differences that aren’t visible to the eye — differences in the ways people approach their jobs. (R.Mourtada)

Tomorrow’s Workplace encourages “diversity in the workplace,” and yet without definition, that could mean anything from providing vegetarian meals in the cafeteria to hiring people from Atlantic Canada in BC employment. What is the reference point when we refer to diversity in the workplace, and how do we find common ground?

We begin with a article written by RASHA MOURTADA first published in the Globe and Mail in March of 2007. In March 2009, the article, as presented here was updated.

VISIT THE ARTICLE – CLICK HERE.

Your comments are useful in our collaborative education on the subject. Please feel free to do so below.

Building Success With the Help of Tomorrow’s Workplace

Full Line Specialties

Business manager and entrepreneur, Ken Ehman carried a career in textiles into a specialty products company in 1996. Many businesses now turn to them to market and promote their businesses, as well as to say thanks to staff and customers with customized products ranging from the traditional pens, mugs and golf balls to polo shirts, leather jackets and high end appreciation commodities. These include high tech gadgetry with a company’s logo and slogan elegantly embosses, displayed, embroidered or otherwise displayed on virtually any product imaginable.

Sam Singh, Ehman’s Partner and Sales Manager become involved after working in his family’s business, which was a supplier to Ehman’s. The two hit it off and a successful company has been the result. Currently Full Line employs about 14 people, most in the sales end of the operation.

Although the company is flourishing, both men realized that they needed to develop some formal aspects to their business including a road map (a mission and a vision statement). Working in a business, the fun part was dealing with people and satisfying their needs for product, while the paperwork, being something that had to be done, often was the last thing anyone wanted to do.

When the “Tomorrow’s Workplace” project came along, looking for companies to participate in helping them develop a system of protocols to be applied in the business world when the project is completed, they embraced it.

Singh and Ehman spoke with Editor Ray Hudson about their business and the impact of theprogram on their operations:

What do you find so attractive about this business?

KE: It changes every day. And we get really neat gadgets to look at. We’re the first ones to see the fashion trends, the new styles for next year, as well as the pricing for next year, and we really get a charge out of that. The other side of the coin is that we’re always selling products to people that need them for events, and to see the look on their faces when they get that stuff and show their appreciation for the products. We really get charge out of that.

SS: Talking to big corporations and finding solutions to their purchasing needs, such as setting up an online merchandise store for the company to select from. It’s more solution oriented than asking if they’d like to buy a pen. Then when you’ve done a good job and you see the smile of appreciation on the customer’s face, that’s the emotional payback.

We’ve just come through a brutal economic downturn, how did things work out for you?

KE: Sales have been down probably around 20%. I think our industry is down a lot more than that so I think we’re going in the right direction and we’re a little bit ahead of the curve. Part of our strength is that we aligned ourselves with good vendors, and we started selling brand name products so if people are looking for Adidas, or Nike or Greg Norman, we’re the ones they come to. Companies are still buying although a lot more carefully. It’s the very small companies that have really cut back through this period.

SS: I find that customers are going to the lower cost items so instead of spending $1000 on leather coats, they’ll spend the same amount of money on say coffee mugs and hit a lot more people.

How did you become involved with the Tomorrow’s Workplace (TW) project and how has it been?

KE: We became involved through the Surrey Board of Trade, and the TW people looked at our company and thought Full Line could use their services. What they’ve done is helped us to even further streamline our mission and our vision, where we want to be and where we want to go. Being a small company we’ve been running helter-skelter and didn’t take the time to sit down and develop our own mission statement.

The people in the project have helped us develop our mission statement, and are working with us on our business plan and working with us on the human resources side. As we’ve grown, and have employees now, and we have to make sure that they’re happy, so the project helps us develop our plans to ensure that. Working with the consultants, Lynn, Gail, and Tomas has been very good for us.

It has been a little stressful for us because we still have to run our business and we’re coming into our busy period and it does take time to be organized.

SS: We’ve always talked about the need of mission statement. It’s always been on the radar and we recognize that it’s important. The TW consultants made us realize that it’s not just important, it’s urgent. They’ve helped us through the process of creating the road maps to achieving these things. They’re more than just slogans as we’ve found out.

In the next phase of Tomorrow’s Workplace almost ready to begin, they’re going to put three more businesses into the process, what would you say to those operators?

KE: I highly recommend that anybody that has the opportunity to be involved with TW, do it! It brings your business focus into line. It forces you to do things that you’ve put off, and let’s face it we’re both sales guys and we tend to put this stuff of to “later” and it doesn’t get done otherwise. Also, do it for your staff, that’s where it really pays dividends.

This article is a reprint and used by permission  from the August 2009 issue of the Business In Surrey, monthly publication of the Surrey Board of Trade .

Tomorrow’s Workplace – A Collection of Views

Article Summary

Here are some of the pertinent articles written lately on the topic we hold dear here at Tomorrow’s Workplace.net: The Workplace of Tomorrow.

Click on any link you choose.  Consider leaving a comment after what you read.  Comments encourage dialogue, and show appreciation to the author.  In the blogging world, just a “thank you for the article” is appreciated and considered polite.

Enjoy@

Imagine Tomorrow’s Workplace– Lynn Corrigan – A vision of the future workplace.

Jobs of the Future– Joan Runnheim Olson – How to land a job in the changing workplace.                                                            
Gen Y – Changing the World One Team at a Time – Kelly Sharp – The newer employees work differently and will provide a new set of efficiencies.                                                                                                                                                                                
Hispanics in the Workplace – Appreciating the Role of the Hispanic Supervisor –Issac Botbol- How immigrant cultures can affect the workplace.

If you find a great article related to Tomorrow’s Workplace please comment below with a link to the article.  We will be sure it get’s posted for all to see.

How To Apply For $30,000 of Free Business Coaching

Your Business Could Be Selected!

You must apply to be considered.

The application process is straightforward and should not take more than 20 minutes to complete.

STEP  1

Scroll down this page until you see Speak Your Mind.

STEP 2

Fill in your name, your email and your business website address.

STEP 3

In the box below your information tell us the following:

a. Write about your business- what you provide, how long you have been in business etc, how many you presently employ.

b. Tell us why you want to be chosen, what challenges you are facing in your business, and how the project may benefit you.

c. Tell us how you would expect the professional business consulting could benefit to your business.

Your comments WILL NOT BE PUBLIC, and will be viewed only by our internal staff.

Accepting Applications For Phase II

Applications are now being accepted for the next phase of the Tomorrow’s Workplace project.

Two suitable businesses will be chosen to receive the benefits of participating in the research and documentary process of the project.  To learn more about the project, read Donna McFadden’s overview.

Benefits Include:

• Over $30,000 of business consulting fees (FREE)
• A 360 degree analysis of your business  including operations, marketing, finance and HR.
• Business growth strategies for business longevity and sustainablity
• Education and implementation strategies on becoming an “inclusive” work environment, and attracting Surrey’s diverse, multi-talented workforce.
• Learn how to work with and cultivate relationships with the resources in your community that benefit your business.
• Have your business featured in this ‘first of its kind’ project and video documentary.
• Prepare your business for the workplace of the future.

What Are Your Commitments?

Along with the “once in a business lifetime” benefits of participating in this project, there are commitments required of the successful business candidates.

1. Your business employs between 10-70 people.
2. You are willing to commit an average of 10 hours a week for 12 weeks . (The time and people will vary from week to week.)
3. You are willing to have your journey documented by our video and storytelling process.
4. You are willing to allow your workforce to engage in the process.
5. You are willing to tell us your story:  Why Should you be chosen?  What is your business story? What are your current challenges?  What do you hope for the future of your business?

Interested parties should do the following three steps:

1. Read: Tomorrow’s Workplace Project Overview

2. Read: Analytic Systems: A Strong History to Tomorrow’s Workplace

3. Click HERE to apply.

We look forward to hearing from you and working together toward the Workplace of Tomorrow.

Donna McFadden