Proven Strategies in Training and Development: Grants & Engaging Remote, Hybrid, and In-Office Workers

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MP: And for those of you joining us on a webinar for the first time MP, is the full service human capital management company offering a complete suite of products.

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MP: and services to support employers to the entire employee lifecycle including recruiting

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MP: HR payroll benefits administration time and attendance and compliance assistance.

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MP: We support our clients with cutting edge technical solutions, as well as proactive reliable service and deep HR and payroll expertise at MP, we are wired for HR and help our clients succeed by aligning their people strategy with their business goals.

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MP: i’m thrilled to introduce your presenter for today, Jim Jim de Rosa owner of growth coach.

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MP: Jim served in the US Air Force and participated in the Libyan conflict conflict, he graduated with a master’s in management degree from Cambridge college, with a dual concentration and leadership and human organizational.

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MP: dynamics and nonprofit organizations, Jim has authored books received national words and training and sales and was nominated for an emmy as a TV host Jim also has a strong passion for helping children.

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MP: Once labeled at risk himself, he implemented his student success program into 250 nonprofit programs in schools nationwide totaling over 118,000 young people, Jim resides in groton Massachusetts with his wife and has three grandchildren three children and four grandchildren.

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MP: Growth co is a full service organizational development firm that focuses on delivering results to its clients.

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MP: Growth co assist clients with designing the right program and provides the training consulting and coaching necessary for organizations and individuals to achieve their goals and ultimate potential.

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MP: Through your own offerings and courses and those provided by best of breed strategic partners growth co is a one stop success shop for training and essential soft skills leadership.

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MP: development process and technical training and all forms of organizational development.

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MP: Since 2006 growth co has secured hundreds of grants for clients through the Massachusetts workforce training fun.

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MP: Growth co believes on the level for transformational development and sharing participants actually implement and make habits of the knowledge strategies and tools provided during their work together.

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MP: Just a short disclaimer or a reminder that this training is intended for educational purposes and informational purposes and should not be construed as specific legal advice.

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MP: And then, lastly, before I hand the MIC over to Jim if you would like to submit a question during the program please use the Q amp a feature at the bottom of the screen.

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MP: And we’ll be sending out the recording of today’s program along with the slides later today, and with that i’m going to hand the MIC off to Jim.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Oh, thank you very much amy I appreciate it and good afternoon everyone, or if you’re not on the east coast good morning.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: My name is James the rotor For those of you wondering what the M m stands for, after my name.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I get that a lot it stands for masters of management and as amy indicated it does specialize in leadership in human in organizational dynamics.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: i’ve been doing this, since 1994 27 years and have been through everything from recessions to.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: pandemics, even now, I can put on my resume, so I am the President and founder of growth co and we use training development and consulting.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: To get you the results that you’re looking for now that’s about as much as i’m going to talk about me and my company today, because today is all about you and it’s all about what are we seeing out there.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: As far as what companies are experiencing and some of the challenges that are in this new environment that we were all navigating through.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then, how to use workforce training fund grants to make sure that our employees are staying productive but also engaged committed and connected to one another.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So, once we talked about the general grants and the express grants that are available through the workforce training fun Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We will also talk about what is going on out there in business today what are companies doing to keep employees as effective and connected and engaged as possible.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And we’ll be happy to answer all kinds of questions and answers if, after that point you are interested in learning more either about the grants or about our services directly sure you.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: welcome any and all phone calls to continue our conversations, but I just want to be crystal clear that the purpose of today is to educate you guys.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: and give you as much information as possible so that regardless who you use for training development coaching consulting that we have a conversation and dialogue here today to talk about what is going on in what is available to your organization we’d have we’d be happy to help you.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If you think we if we we can we can add value to your organization and if we can’t directly, we probably know people who can we have exclusive partnerships with people who do process training.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: project management training ISO lean six Sigma black belt kaizen events.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: While we specialize in personal development leadership essentials soft skills training.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So so that’s all I will talk about in regards to me and my company let’s let’s get right on to what’s going on out there in the world today.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: What we’re seeing in our clients and, by the way we do serve many different industries from manufacturing both products food manufacturing, as well as.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Pharmaceutical services professional services, we have seen pretty much every industry banking financial industry.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: One person businesses, all the way up to fortune 100 companies, so what we are seeing today as the five biggest productivity challenges in business today.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Is employee disengagement ineffective performance management tools, training and development.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: In effective or excessive meetings and then non work related reasons and those Those are some of the things i’d like to talk to you about today.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: let’s start off with our classic definition of productivity, you know back in the day they used to think of productivity, like an assembly line.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Where it’s simply was having people be elements of an assembly line and we only measured productivity by the amount of time it took.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: To create one unit, or one product, and it did not take into account human beings and how we got them to be productive to create the output and what we’re missing.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: What is missing from the classical definition of productivity is the fact that that all of us as leaders there’s so much we can do.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: proactively intentionally to make sure that our employees are showing up every single day.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: completely committed and excited about not only the company and the next 24 hour period but also they’re extremely excited about themselves.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And they see that they’re in a place that cares about them and that they can grow in their career and make more money for their families, for example.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So the end result is just not enough getting the result is is should be the byproduct of our commitment as leaders to create the right work environment where people will give us 100% of their energy their passion and their commitment to our goals and being the best they can be.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So we’re going to talk about those five productivity challenges next employee disengagement when you think about the word engagement, I want you to think about it from a human aspect.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Human beings according to maslow’s hierarchy of needs, one of the basic needs of the human being is belonging this.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And that means that employees typically don’t just go to work to get a paycheck for weekend beer money for example they’re going to work because they want to belong to something.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And that human belonging This is sometimes overlooked when we’re so busy, and we have so much demand coming at our companies and we can’t find enough people to come to work for us.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So we we focus on getting the result versus on the work environment itself.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Then you put a pandemic, on top of that, and what we’re seeing is that people who work from home where they can be more productive.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: there’s also a huge risk that their engagement level will drop because they’re working from home and they don’t get those watercooler talks those hallway conversations so.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Whether we everyone returns back to the office or we adopt some sort of a hybrid model where people will be expected to come into the office, but maybe not on a full time basis there will be some more flexibility and.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: opportunity to work from home or if we go 100% virtual in the future, we must make sure that engagement is part of our strategy our policies and our procedures moving forward.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Otherwise, people become disconnected from the company and then they do what they what only they have to do and we lose a lot of those elements of teamwork.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So organizations that high have high engagement they experienced 21% higher productivity from workers.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So we need to continue to identify those opportunities to help people continue to improve themselves and to work on themselves, their team and their company, not just there to do lists or try to clear out their email inbox is every day.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Human beings also need acknowledgement.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They want to hear about their successes, they want to feel proud of themselves, they want to be able to brag to their family and friends as to what commitment they are making.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: To their company when you have engagement you don’t just have employees productivity you’ve got their emotional and psychological connection to the organization as well.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Next, we have in effective performance management.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If we improve our ability to clearly state goals and expectations daily and weekly targets that people on our team need to have and we create the right communications and tracking systems to effectively monitor and discuss the progress towards goals.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: and provide coaching along the way to improve performance and behaviors, then we can increase productivity by five to 10%.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: A Gallup says that 50% of our workers don’t know what’s expected of them, one of the assignments from this webinar that i’d like to give to you it’s so huge if you choose to accept it.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Is if you write on a piece of paper or if you’re taking notes as i’m talking here I usually like to have a two way conversation so me doing a lecture is very unlike.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: How I do trainings and work with my clients, I like to facilitate two way conversations, but here’s what i’d like you to write down.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: When you go back to the workplace, I want you to to have your your employees or TEAM members write down what they believe their top three most important goals are.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And what their top three highest priority activities are in their day to day work.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: 99% of the time they do not align with that person with the person supervisor thinks that person’s goals are high priority activities are.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: In immediately you see a disconnect between what a person chooses to do every day for behaviors and activities.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And how they might not be directly connected to what you believe are the most important goals and activities that that person should be working on.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: it’s not just about getting through to do lists and emails and in the pandemic what we’ve seen a lot in our clients, is that, as the as the each company was struggling to figure out how the pandemic was affecting them.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And all of a sudden some companies forced in survival mode and fighting just to stay in business.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: A lot of employees kind of stood back and just waited to see what was happening here and and how we’re going to get out of this and what’s gonna.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: What what’s how’s it going to change our goals and our vision and what Should I be working on today.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So a lot of people strictly got into survival mode and just did what they had to do on their to do list and what was coming in, on their emails.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We need to get back to aligning every single team Member every employee, we have to not only what our mission is for today, but also here’s when we’re going to go now.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Based on everything that’s come at us over the last few years, maybe your original vision statement pre pandemic.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: is different than what it is now because of it, and we need to make sure that we’re communicating.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: How we’re doing going through this pandemic and and how this has impacted our vision for the future, so that everyone remains clear on where we are going as a company.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Now, when you do that, then we have to revisit the smart goals and, of course, smart goals stands for specific goals not do better sell more.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: reduce waste reduces expenses, those are not goals smart goals have to be specific, measurable attainable realistic or relevant to your vision, as well as today’s mission and on a timeline.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Those smart goals get broken down into annual goals which get broken down into quarterly goals which get broken down into monthly goals.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: weekly goals and even daily planning, making sure that every single day and here’s the trick.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Every single day employees aren’t doing what they have to do, or just responding to the outside world of their email inbox.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Every single day, we have to get employees to do their highest priority activities to achieve today’s mission.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: while simultaneously doing the action items necessary to achieve tomorrow’s goals and to make that future vision, an actual reality and moving.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Employees and TEAM members from survival mode to this proactive productive state of I know what I need to do now and i’m measuring it.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And I also know what I need to do now to help us collectively move this company forward towards a shared unified exciting vision and we’re all working towards that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So those are some of the things that we’re seeing out in the world is that companies are still struggling in defining that vision, making and how is our vision been impacted.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then, how have we adjusted our performance management to make sure employees stay engaged feel connected still feel part of the team.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And they know what their expectations are now for today’s mission and tomorrow’s vision and future and that we’ve created the system to be able to track it communicate it and make adjustments along the way.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Next is tools, training and development using training and development to get results as what growth co is all about, we don’t just do training we use training or.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Development or coaching or consulting to get the results you’re looking for, if you have a training and development program it typically increases performance by five to 20%.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Most employees again if they’re in survival mode.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They tend to not have a documented specific development plan for themselves, in other words.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: How are you developing every single one of your people to not only be the best in their current role, but do you know where each one of these employees wants to go next.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And do you have a documented plan to help them get to their next level of their career and, of course, some of that’s going to require training, some of it will require just coaching.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So, having talent development plans is is imperative here’s The other thing that i’m seeing out there in the in the in the world with our clients.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Is that we need to.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: hold on to the employees, we have so many of our clients they can’t hire enough people right now, this pandemic has affected a lot of people differently than others.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: But a lot of my clients are doing everything they can to try to recruit and to get more employees to come work for them and they can’t find enough employees right now.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So if we can’t find enough employees to come into the company, then we better be doing everything that we can do to hold on to the employees, we have.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: giving them an environment where they’re engaged and they know what’s expected of them, and they have written plans for how they can become the best they can be in their current role.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And they can see that you’re trying to help them get to their next level of their career.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Creating a work environment that includes all of those things will hold on to your current employees again going back to maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The basic needs are only one pillar of that pyramid that maslow shared with us and basic needs is provided by the paycheck.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We have to give employees, all the other things in that pyramid all the other needs that all human beings have and that’s belonging this.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And it is a sense of esteem and being proud of themselves and self actualization is at the top of that pyramid.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: where people go home at night, and they realize they’re not wasting their time they’re being the best they can be.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And they’re in a place where they are reaching their truest potential in life for them in their families so by only providing a paycheck to employees.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: we’re only giving them their basic needs and when someone else tries to come and recruit your employees away from you to go work for them if they offer $1 to dollars $10 more an hour.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They will leave to go try to find those other things that you’re not providing them if you’re only giving them that paycheck.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I have seen some companies who get the work environment right and they do the training they do the coaching they have development plans, they have a servant model of leadership, where they’re giving.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The employee everything that they need, and everything that they want and the and the competitor comes in offers more money.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And they say hey I appreciate it very much but there’s no way you can take me away from my team, you know I love this company that I work for.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: you’d have to offer me a lot more money to jump shipping and come work for you i’ve also seen some people leave companies to go work for less money, because just getting a paycheck simply wasn’t enough they needed everything else that we’re talking about here today.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Next slide says, ineffective and or excessive meetings.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We need to identify what we need to have meetings about and then those meetings, need to be absolutely formal what we’re seeing is that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: A lot of people have the right meetings, but the meetings aren’t organized in a way, they lack agendas.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And the agendas aren’t sent out sent out ahead of time and if if 40% or more of our population that are introverts meaning people who need time to think before they can show up.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: and give you their best work and the best recommendations if people come to a meeting and they don’t know what the what is going to be discussed at the meeting in their introverts.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: they’re not going to be able to contribute at the level that they would, if they had a day or two to think about what was on that agenda.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: In agreement during our meetings do we all know how to conduct ourselves during our meetings, or are they dysfunctional in many ways.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then the follow up on action items having a very specific process during meetings to not only capture what was discussed.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: But what action items are coming out of the meetings who’s responsible for each action item and when will each action item be completed by.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Who should be invited, not everyone should go to every meeting if there’s no reason for someone to be in the meeting guard their time, especially today, when we have so much going on and typically not enough resources and people to do the work.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Question who’s coming to the meeting, and if they don’t have anything to actually contribute during that meeting.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: tell them they don’t have to come and then that you will fill them in after the meeting is over, no meeting Thursdays.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: It doesn’t mean literally every Thursday there’s no meetings but pick times.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: throughout your week where you are going to absolutely block out time to do what you need to do to move yourself towards that mission and your goals and expectations in that future vision that we’re talking about for the company overall.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I always say to clients you’re never going to be able to find more time or buy more time or get a recipe and make some more time you got 24 hours a day, seven days a week, probably don’t want to spend it all working.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So block out times during your week to get the most important things done and and and then force the world to work around those blocks, most of us do the exact opposite, you know we will give our time to meetings into.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: conversations or interruptions and then with the time left over, we try to get the important things done.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We try to help our clients flip that on its head, get the most important things done first and then force the world to have to fight for the time left over.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then shorter meetings we have there’s a couple of trainings out there, not just not just the ones we offer but there’s some really good trainings and resources out there.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: That will teach how to get the most out of meetings in the shortest amount of time and to also make sure that every single perspective is being thought about during those meetings so that everyone has a voice and every perspective is being considered, with every decision that you make.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then finally non work related reasons, this is a brand new one, as of a couple of years ago, we have people you know it’s the same pandemic but everyone’s in different boats.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So we have people who are working from home, we have people with kids some without kids aging parents, some of us have been affected personally with with illness.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We have all of these different situations going on outside the workplace and there’s no way that people can be negatively impacted outside of work.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And that somehow that’s not going to find its way into the workforce, you know their attitudes and their behaviors at work.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: are going to be impacted by what’s happening outside of work, so we need to adopt what we call empathic leadership.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And challenge when we can be flexible when we can’t be flexible and at least be human beings to each other, especially right now, and especially where you have to hold on to the employees that you have.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: emotion and stress management, unfortunately, every single thing that that we teach at growth Co.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I believe they all of it should be taught in elementary school and middle school to students, so that i’m not working with people in their 30s 40s 50s and 60s.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: On some of the topics that we’re talking about today goal setting time management emotions stress management leadership skills, how to communicate.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Why do we wait until we’re adults to get these lessons and to get the formal training to be the best we can be the job is hard enough you’re going to have the stress in your company in your industry.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The dysfunction that comes from people’s.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Lack of efficiencies or competencies and these core topics that i’m talking about you put that on top of an existing stress that’s not going to go away that’s when we ultimately have loss of productivity turnover and a unhealthy level of conflict and dysfunction.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The last topic here you are not alone regularly scheduled check ins make sure that if people are working virtually.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Make sure you’re connecting with them, even if you’ve got nothing to say or it’s not to drive a specific business result employees should not go longer than a few days without hearing from someone on their team or their leader or performance manager.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Isolation is real depression is real suicide rates are going up.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We need to stay connected as human beings, and we, we lost the ability to have water cooler talks with those people who are working virtually.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Those hallway conversations or are running into somebody during a break or lunch that that’s where someone’s some of the best innovation took place.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So we so if we’re not going to return 100% back to the workplace we’ve got to create that environment and in hold on to those impromptu conversations, where the magic happens.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then there’s support and empathy you know, making sure that we’re realizing that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: A lot of people are going through a lot of different hardships and challenges, right now, both personally and professionally.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So with that what i’d like to do if it’s okay with amy is to pause there and ask you guys for any questions or comments anything that you’d like to share, about what you’re seeing out in the workplace or, if you have any questions that you think might be a value to answer.

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MP: great idea James so just put your questions in the Q amp a and on Jim can answer them.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Now right, so I see one question from the call, thank you for asking it says what does HPA stand for so HPA I try as much as possible, not to do.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Did you know just to use letters, but HPA stands for high priority activities high priority activities so during our day, we have to do many, many things some things will directly lead us towards goals and expectations.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: and other things are just things we have to do right so HP a’s are high priority activities and before a month even starts.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I will identify my HP a’s and proactively scheduled them into the month on planning before the month starts.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And again that’s going to force the rest of the world to have to fight for try to find my time I already got what I needed out of December, for example.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The world has to fight for the time that’s left and, most of us do the exact opposite of that and that is a huge contributor to why a lot of us don’t have that work life balance right now.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Okay, I got another question and answer it says first thank you for this my pleasure.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Second, you spoke about HP a’s and the top three that people must do, can you write the assignment i’d love to do that with my team.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So yeah it’s very, very simple K on if you just ask someone to write down the top three highest priority activities.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: You know if you could give them three hours to do anything that they wanted to do.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: What would they do with those three hours, what are the top three highest priority activities that would have the most dramatic impact of the company, what would they be in order of importance.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: While your employees are doing that you write down for them what you think their top three highest priority activities are and guess what happens when you compare the two lists.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They never match up or at least not in the right order or priority so it’s a very simple exercise that will show you how much you’re aligned, or maybe not aligned with your employees when it comes to getting the important things done every single day.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And yes, I will, if you email me after today, I can send you a really easy worksheet to get that done so thank you for that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: All right, any anything else any other questions or comments again i’m i’m used to having it always having a two way conversation, so the the one way lecture is a little difficult for me, so thank you for.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: putting up with with how i’m pulling this off.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Okay, and we’re going to have a Q amp a at the end of today’s seminar as well and, as always, anyone can reach out to me at any time.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If they have any questions, for me, or they want me to point them in another direction after 27 years of doing this, let me, let me just explain to everyone that’s that’s watching and listening.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I don’t sell you know i’m looking for companies that have a need a challenge, where they’re not yet reaching their full potential.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And I welcome any conversation to just talk about it, and if I can either through my company or point you in another direction if I can help you find the solutions in the resources to solve that challenge, or to take advantage of those opportunities i’m just here to help you guys so.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: I don’t want anyone to feel like it’s all about sales for me because it’s not I actually say no to more companies than I say yes to.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: As far as getting new clients what’s my story know what’s your story the workforce training fun program So this was created way back in 1998 it was seen as a crisis in this country.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The workforce training was considered a crisis because a lot of companies were leaving our country and they were doing doing their business elsewhere, what they did was they created a pot of money and it’s called the workforce training fun Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And the purpose was to keep companies in Massachusetts promote job growth, job retention and to also increase the wages of workers and.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The money is paid for by you guys so employees part of their payroll taxes, a very small percentage goes into this pot.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So, as long as employees are paying into unemployment insurance through payroll taxes in Massachusetts they are eligible to get training funds okay.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: But you have to tell your story the Massachusetts gives away about 10 to $15 million a year just in general grants and another three and a half to $5 million a year in express grants.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: it’s money available to you that you’re paying, but you know you get it back to train your employees and.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Now the state just doesn’t give anyone this money, you have to apply for it and i’ll and we’ll talk about how you qualify, or if you qualify next, but the bottom line is in that application, you have to tell the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a story as to why you need this training and.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Of course, the State wants to know how they’re going to win as well, so as long as we can tell a story that we need this training to achieve these four bullets, then the state will look favorably upon your application okay so bottom line is, if you increase people’s pay guess what.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts gets more tax revenue, if you hire more people.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They get more tax revenue.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If you recruit people from out of State to come work in pay into Massachusetts payroll taxes they get more tax revenue, so they definitely.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Have a win in it in it for them so we’ve got to tell the story not only why you need the money and how you’re going to benefit, but also how’s the state how’s the Commonwealth of Massachusetts going to benefit as well.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Good news you don’t have to do this on your own we do grant administration services.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Where we’ve been doing it for over 15 years with our exclusive grant administration partner and they know exactly what needs to go into that application and, in fact.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: When we submit an application, we already know it’s going to get approved so if you don’t feel like you have to do the application yourself, it can be a full time job if you’ve never done it before.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We will hold your hand all the way through the process to help you and not make it too cumbersome for you.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: there’s a couple types of grants, what we need to do is make sure that we’re measuring your success, so what the State wants to hear is not only about your.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: How how what you’re going to do is going to benefit them but also how’s it going to benefit you and here are the typical bullets that they look for in the application, how is this training going to increase productivity.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: guarantee certifications increase your capabilities your performance increase sales increase revenue, increase the services that you offer would decrease when easton expenses.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Typically, in the applications, and this is only for a general grant and i’ll explain that the difference between the two grants in a moment.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: But, in a general grant it takes an application, where you have to actually list out the specific goals or kpis that you will achieve.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Because you’re doing this training and we typically help our clients identify those things they’re already measuring so that you don’t have to create all new metrics and performance systems, etc.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Business requirements OK, so now, this is for both types of grants in the workforce training fun Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: that’s the big umbrella workforce training fun program there are two programs underneath that one’s called the general program one’s called an express Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And i’ll explain the two in a minute for both as long as you’re a business or labour organization.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And you’re contributing to unemployment insurance contributions you’re eligible any company any size can get either grant a general or express grant.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Another business requirement is that you obtain a certificate of good standing and that simply means that you are current with all your tax liabilities.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: With the Commonwealth of Massachusetts if you’ve done a certificate of good standing before just know that they’re only valid for six months.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Now we’re going to talk just about that general program with the general program it’s a maximum grant of $250,000 that you can get to train your employees.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Companies of any size are eligible to pay to apply training programs are completed with in two years, so you’ve got a full two years to do this training Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: All trainees must be employed in Massachusetts now they can live somewhere else, but as long as they’re employed in mass.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: In here’s the, this is what really clears it up for folks if they’re paying into Massachusetts payroll taxes they’re eligible, even if your headquarters is out on the west coast.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If you have Massachusetts employees paying into Massachusetts payroll taxes they’re eligible.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: applications are accepted or reviewed on a rolling basis, so you can play it anytime and it typically takes about two months from application until you.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: hear whether or not that you achieved the grant okay Now I know you’re going to have some more questions that will answer at the end, let me tell you that both programs, the general program that we’re talking about right here in the express program they’re both considered a.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Matching grant program, however.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Your employees, you can use their hourly pay how much they get paid on an hourly basis while they’re in training to reduce your 50% match and in 90.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Almost all of our situations.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If you have enough people in the training classes there’s no out of pocket for the client with the general program you know, again, depending on how many people are in each training their time.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: times how much you pay them per hour is part of your 50% match, and then there are other things that qualified to lower or to decrease or eliminate your 50% out of pocket match besides time.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And I can we can talk about that later outside of this webinar there’s just not enough time to do that okay so that’s the general program and i’m sure you have questions and i’ll be happy to answer them at the end.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: As I mentioned 5050 matching program, it must be done during normal working hours.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: There is quarterly reporting with the general program remember the general program a two year program, so this is where you want us or whoever you choose to use as a training provider.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: you’ll want someone to go into the company and do the right assessments what is, what does your company need, what are your individuals need.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And you lay out a two year training program so it’s a much bigger commitment from anywhere from $10,000 up to $250,000 so the general program again, it requires that application that talks about goals and kpis and.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And it tells your story as to why you need the training and how it’s going to help you over two year period.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So, because it’s so much money and it’s two years worth of training, there is quarterly reports, there are quarterly reports that need to get done for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and it’s typically reporting.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: How you’re doing towards those kpis and those goals so you’re basically updating them on your progress towards those goals, again we have a grant administrator that will work with your internal person.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: To make quarterly reporting back to the Commonwealth easy so that again it doesn’t become a full time job it can be very overwhelming if you do this by yourself.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Especially for the first time, so we as part of our services at no additional cost by, by the way we provide you with a grant administrator that’s there to support you.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: From application, all the way through quarterly reporting, all the way till you have to close out the grant and in and be done so don’t feel like you have to do this by yourself, if you’re overwhelmed how it pays out so let’s say you get approved for $200,000, you will get.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: 25% immediately upon approval, they will send you a check immediately for 25% of your grant you use that up so nothing out of pocket yet right.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: At the end of that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: You do that quarterly report and then they send you the next 25% and you use that 25% you repeat the process and they send you another check for the third 25% nothing out of pocket at the end of that third.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: 25%.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: At that point, you upfront pay the final 25%.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Then, when you finished training we submit the final report we close out the grant and you receive that 25% back from the state as a reimbursement here’s why they do that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: it’s a two year program pandemics happen economies happen all kinds of change happens some companies get acquired by other companies some companies just simply run out of time or they took on too much training we make sure that doesn’t happen, but it does happen.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The State doesn’t want to give 100% of the money out and then a company doesn’t finish the training for any of those reasons, and now they got to chase all these companies back for that last 25%.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So that’s why the final 25% has to come from you up front and then you get reimbursed if you, for whatever you used for that last 25% I hope i’m being clear on that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Okay, the express fund okay different Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Companies of any size can apply if you have less than 100 employees, this is 100 or less it’s actually less than 100 employees, you will receive 100 100% reimbursement for the training.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: hundred percent training is paid for.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: If you have 100 employees or more you’ll receive 50% reimbursement.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: You pay for the training upfront you do the training and you get reimbursed.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: that’s how the express fund program works typically, it is a smaller commitment by the company, it might be one, two or just a handful of trainings.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Not a two year training program and because you’re paying the money upfront and then getting reimbursed the application process takes less than five minutes online.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: there’s no reporting requirements whatsoever it’s you you apply a week to 10 days later, you get approved you pay you do the training, you get reimbursed and you’re done it is it it’s super simple and fast.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Because it’s typically 123 or a handful of trainings not a two year training program there’s no application deadlines.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: decisions are made within two weeks i’m seeing them made an under a week.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The Commonwealth corporation is a third party administer of these grants and they are turning these around so fast because companies need this training so badly again same requirement all trainees must be employed in Massachusetts.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: same as the general fund.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: training programs under the express program general the general program two years to complete the training program the express program your trainings must be completed in one year or less.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The grant Award for in express fund program is $3,000 per person per course.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: i’ll say that again $3,000 per person per course and the company can get up to $30,000 a year in grant money.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Okay.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: You can use both the express program and the general grant simultaneously.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And the general grant used to have a one year waiting period, so if you finished a general grant you’d have to wait an entire year before you can apply for the next one.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And because of the the pandemic, they have eliminated that requirement, so you could actually end and close out one grant and the next day apply for a new one.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So that those are the main differences between the express fund and the general fund programs again if you’ve got a small training need one to handful of courses.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The express fund is easier to get as far as application and reporting requirements and administration if you’re less than 100 employees to 100% reimbursed.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Employers 100 employees and over 50% reimbursement, the general grant much more commitment much more.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Planned out to year training and development program for your employees.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Both all these grants that i’m talking about are both of these grant programs that i’m talking about.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: can not only be for personal development essential soft skills leadership type programs, they can also be for process related project management ISO six Sigma kaizen events manufacturing type.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: process improvement training as well English as a second language is also.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Definitely well received by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts they they.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They help there, and also in a lot of situations even computer improved computer technology improvements Microsoft word excel PowerPoint even those types of trainings we seen get approved in grants, as long as we can.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: describe why these skills weren’t provided previously as as basic parts of people’s education or what they’re expected to know as employees and I can explain more if you’re interested in that I can explain that, in a Q amp a.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So I hope I wasn’t being too confusing or overwhelming there’s it’s a lot of information, but it’s pretty simple.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Once you understand the difference between the two programs and eligibility and we have a we have secured now in.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Because of the pandemic, by the way, a lot of people are using these grants to make sure that people are staying committed that we’re continuing developing our employees and they’re also using it as a forum.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: To get leaders and employees at all levels, talking.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And and increasing their their their trust in their relationships, but it gives people a forum to simply discuss what’s going well what’s not going well, what can we improve.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And what do we need to change in order to not only meet today’s demands and work environment, but to be the best we can be to drive this company forward to our future vision, so the forum, we provide.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: through training isn’t a lecture like this it their workshops and people roll up their sleeves and and we’ll put content and processes.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: on the table and then get your people to actually work on them and discuss how can these be relevant to me and my job or to our company.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then they lead the training implementing new tools and processes that we that we expose them to in the the workshops, one thing I highly recommend whether you use growth co or any other training company is to do your trainings in a transformative format, in other words.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: You know.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Instead of doing two full days of training in a row 16 hours over the course of two days that’s knowledge based training.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: You, you must spread out the training over time, so if I have a 16 hour course we’re going to teach it once a week for four hours for four weeks.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then That way, there you know people kind of start to zone out after four hours, so at four hours they’ve they’ve taken in as much as they can take in but the most important part is.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: you’re now giving them the opportunity to leave you and go and implement and try new things in the real world.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then next week, they come back for the next session and they report back what did they do with it, they try what worked what didn’t work.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So we’re guaranteeing that that that transfer of knowledge from the classroom into the into the real world.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And then they get to make additional adjustments and we give them more content and you repeat that process over and over again.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So it’s guaranteeing that permanent change in not only attitudes, but behaviors activities and processes until those new habits become permanent so with all of that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: i’d love to open it up for any questions and answers that you might have.

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MP: It was there are a few questions in the chat people were inquiring about infamy grants available in other States specifically California someone else inquired about what the grant size was.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: yeah there are a lot of you might want to check with your local workforce investment boards for those different states a lot of different states have programs and training programs they don’t all have the same requirements and eligibility and amounts available.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: The the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was the first to introduce a workforce training fund program and I don’t know of any other that provides 100%.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Of the funds, so I would say check with your with your local towns, as well as states for that information I don’t know how many other states have similar type programs.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: All right, excellent, and then I seen a couple more questions here as well.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: We are a nonprofit can we get a grant the maybe.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: nonprofit nonprofits when they’re organized they have two options to either pay into unemployment insurance.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Or to not pay into unemployment insurance and be exempt so again, the key is if your employees are paying into mass payroll taxes and specifically unemployment insurance contribution as part of their taxes, then yes nonprofits.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Absolutely can take advantage of these grants.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: is another one if our employees work in the state but live out of state can they count toward the grant yes, as long as they’re paying into Massachusetts payroll taxes they’re eligible.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: How long does it take to get approved for a grant good question, so the general grant because there’s a bigger application goals kpis you’re asking for a lot more money.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: They can typically take two months to get approval, you can apply at any time you don’t have to apply at certain times of the year anytime express grants you’re looking at a week to 10 days they say 14 days but i’ve seen the average has been about a week to 10 days to get approved.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Oh here’s a good one can only workers who are in Massachusetts and included in the grant application attend trainings yes, we do not have like a bouncer at the door.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Everyone has to show that proof of their identification or the payroll Stub.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Only the Massachusetts workers who are paying into unemployment insurance will count towards your 50% match towards the grant, but you can certainly have other people in the classroom learning.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Alongside the Massachusetts workers, they just won’t get credit towards your match if that makes sense.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: let’s see if you are in New York try New York City department of small business service for customized training, so thank you K on for sharing that resource canine said, if you are in New York, then try New York City department of small business service for customized training.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: not sure about Washington state terrorists i’m sorry I can’t help you there again, you might want to just look up in contact somebody at your local workforce investment board.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: All right, and is there any other questions.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: What what’s the grant size so again the general grant you can receive up anywhere from 10,000 to $250,000 for that two year training program and the other express fund program is up to $30,000 per year, the company can receive and the only other limitation to the express fund is that.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Employees you can only get $3,000 per employee per course up to that $30,000 maximum that the company can receive each year.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Okay.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And oh here’s another question from Liliana is there a list of acceptable trainings for the express Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: And the question, the answer is yes, so if you Google or go to the Massachusetts workforce training fund Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: and specifically the express program there’s actually a library of pre approved courses, the courses in the express crew Program.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: have already been vetted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts so all of our courses for example we’ve been registered with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for over 15 years now.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: So they’ve all been approved and we’ve been audited and they check with our clients to make sure that the courses are awesome and.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: they’re getting good feedback and, most importantly, delivering the results to clients So yes, there is a full directory of courses available and approved on the Massachusetts workforce training fun program website.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Great questions.

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MP: it’s like we’re at time here two o’clock.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: All right, excellent, and I will turn it back over to amy.

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MP: Great questions everyone great content, thank you, James thank Thank you everyone for attending just a quick reminder we’ll be sending out a recording of the webinar along with.

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MP: The slides later today, please join us on December 2 at one o’clock for an informative webinar on the great resignation addressing best practices and strategies to retain your workforce.

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MP: visit our website to register into the full calendar of upcoming events and available resources, we also recently released a new ebook detailing the many different HR compliance considerations for your remote workforce thanks again for joining, and thanks Jim have a terrific day everyone.

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James Desrosiers, M.M.: Thank you everyone it’s been my pleasure.