Workplace Digital Essential Skills for Rural Small and Medium Size Businesses Pilot ProjectAdvisory Committee Meeting No. 3Campbellton, NB, June 6, 2013
Outline Basic Definitions Pre-ONA Pre-ONA Results
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Basic Definitions Eligible participants (employees) Targeted sectors Targeted occupations Digital tasks
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Eligible participants Eligible participants are employees who have:
less than a high school diploma OR who have an education credential acquired
before 2004 (out of school since 2003 or pior) Eligible employees are also those who require
basic digital skills to perform in the workplace use/need basic and generic digital tools (e.g.,
searching on the Web and sending emails) to perform job-related tasks
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Targeted Sectors Participating organizations should be in broad sectors
that we would expect to see in rural areas and where there are concentrations of lower-skilled workers◦ This widens the applicability of the training and
assessment products developed in this pilot project
Chosen sectors: ◦ Manufacturing ◦ Services
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Targeted Occupations Goal: to identify a small number of occupational groups
and detailed occupations with lower levels of skills Selected occupational groups:
◦ Administrative (all sectors): general office, administrative, accounting, purchasing, and production clerks
◦ Production (manufacturing sector): machine operators, assemblers, inspectors, material handlers, labourers, cleaners
◦ Operations (service sector): cleaners, housekeepers, cooks, material handlers, labourers, patient service associates
◦ Client service (all sectors): customer service clerks, receptionists, client service assistance, sales associates
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Pre-ONA Objectives Administration Content
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Objectives of Pre-ONA Organizational Needs Assessment (ONA) is the first step in
the identification of a business’s training needs◦ Captures: contextual information, recent organizational
performance and role of skills gap, specific skill needs Decision: develop and implement an online pre-ONA
survey with a subset of the firms recruited for this project Purposes:
◦ Capture basic contextual information and ICT use of the business that could contribute to the training
◦ Pre-test the ONA instrument that would form part of the online digital training product when fully implemented
◦ Confirm eligibility of organizations and applicability of occupations and digital tasks for rural small businesses
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Design and Administration of the Pre-ONA Survey Developed a survey questionnaire to
capture information to meet the stated objectives
Drafted in English in Word, translated, and programmed for the FluidSurvey platform
Developed and translated survey invitation Six recruited businesses invited to
participate in the pre-ONA, signed consent agreement
Period in field: May 16-24, 2013 Average length: 40 minutes
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Content: Information Collected in the Pre-ONA Sector Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
used in workplace and level of ICT use Degree of negative impact of lack of digital essential skills
on organizational performance Presence of targeted occupations in workplace and
number of participants who would attend basic digital skills training in each occupational group
Presence of targeted digital tasks in each occupational group in the workplace and need for digital skills training in each
Profile of eligible training participants Whether or not there would be additional (ineligible)
employees who would participate (profit from basic digital skills training)
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Pre-ONA Results: Sector Services and other: 4
◦ Retail (hardware store)◦ Social services (eldercare provider)◦ Wholesale (building supplies supplier)◦ Utilities (gas co-operative)
Manufacturing: 2◦ Food manufacturing◦ Plastic products
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Pre-ONA Results:Information and Communications
Technologies
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Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) Used in Workplace Purpose: to determine what ICTs that participating
organizations use in the workplace
Pervasive use of most ICTs, of note is the low use of tablets (n+2) the preferred method for taking the training
Results (n=6) ◦ Hardware: desktop computers (6), laptops/notebooks (5),
smart phones (4), tablets (2), inventory scanner (1)◦ Software: E-mail (5), word processing (4), spreadsheet (4),
Web browser (3), digital agenda (2), text messaging (3), database (1), point of sale (1)
◦ Networks: Ethernet LAN (4), WiFi LAN (4), Internet (3), own company Intranet (2), cloud network (1)
◦ Integrated management software: zero
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Level of ICT Use in Workplace All businesses are at the low to medium
level of ICT use in the workplace
Results:◦ Low: used very little or not at all: 3◦ Medium: used in some operations: 3◦ High: used in all applications and operations: 0
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Pre-ONA Results:Organizational Performance
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Organizational Performance Over Last Year Purpose: for context, to determine if/where a lack of
digital skills is having a negative impact (a need for digital training)
Businesses doing fairly well in most areas over the last 12 months
Exceptions: performance tended to be lower (>= 60% reported < 4 on 10-point scale) in the following areas: ◦ Staff development/training◦ Employee turnover ◦ Job satisfaction/morale ◦ Errors on the job
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Impact of Lack of Digital Skills on Performance Need for digital skills training established: lack of
digital skills negatively affecting performance in several areas in several organizations
More than ½ the organizations reported large negative impact (8 or higher on 10-point scale) on the following areas (n=6) :◦ Capacity for change (6)◦ Productivity (5)◦ Internal communications (5)◦ Staff development/training (5)◦ Customer/supplier relations (4)◦ Workplace safety (4)
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Percentage of organizations reporting lack of basic digital skills is having a significantly (8 or higher on 10-point scale) negative effect on performance (n=6)
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 110%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1 Organizational capacity for change 7 Product or service quality2 Productivity 8 Employee relations3 Internal communications 9 Employee job satisfaction/morale4 Staff development and training 10 Employee turnover5 Customer or supplier relations 11 Errors on the job6 Workplace safety
Pre-ONA Results:Occupations
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Presence of Occupational Groups
As noted, 4 occupational groups were identified to cover the occupations of eligible employees in rural small/medium-sized organizations
Results confirm choices of occupational groups for the most part: most or all organizations have employees in the groups
No. of organizations with employees in the group (out of the number that were asked the question):◦ Administrative: 6 of 6 organizations◦ Production: 2 of 2 organizations◦ Operations: 3 of 4 organizations◦ Client service: 3 of 6 organizations
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Training Participants by Occupational Groups 104 eligible employees would participate in basic
digital skills from the 6 organizations participating in the pre-ONA
Participation is higher in production and operations occupations than in administrative and client service
No. of eligible participants (in named + “other” (un-named) occupations):◦ Administrative: 16 + 3 employees (3 of 6 orgs)◦ Production: 32 + 1 employees (2 of 2 orgs)◦ Operations: 39 + 1 employees (3 of 3 orgs)◦ Client service: 12 employees (1 of 3 orgs)
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No. of eligible employees who would participate in basic digital skills training
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Administrative Production Operations Client services0
10
20
30
40
50
19 (3 of 6 org)
33(2 of 2 org)
40(3 of 3 org)
12(1 of 1 org)
Named occupations Other occupations
Tota
l num
ber
of e
ligib
le p
arti
-ci
pant
s
No. of organizations and participating employees by occupational group
Occupational Groups No. of businesses
No. of businesses with employees in
this occupation
No. of businesses with any (<0)
employees who would train
Total no. of employees who
would train
Administrative 6 6 3 19
Production 2 2 2 33
Operations 4 3 3 40
Client Services 6 3 1 12
Training Participation in Detailed Occupations Detailed occupations within each occupational group
identified with low-skill requirements
Results confirm detailed occupations, for the most part
Exceptions: low expected participation (2 or less employees) in basic digital skills training in following occupations:◦ Administrative: production clerks◦ Production: material handlers◦ Operations: cleaners/janitors, labourers◦ Client service: customer service clerks,
receptionists, client service assistants
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Pre-ONA Results:Digital Tasks in Workplace
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Presence of Digital Tasks As noted, 8 common digital tasks were identified and
contextualized to each of the occupational groups to cover employees in rural small/medium-size
organizations and targeted by the training in this project
Pre-ONA results confirm presence of digital tasks in organizations participating in the pre-ONA
Most digital tasks are performed fairly frequently (weekly or daily) in most occupational groups◦ Only one exception: low (25%) incidence in
performing online transactions in operations occupations
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Need for Basic Training to Perform Digital Tasks A need for basic digital skills training was reported by a
majority of employers to address the challenge of ICT and perform most tasks in most occupational areas
Low incidence of need for basic digital training (< ½ of organizations report need) in the following tasks and occupations:◦ Administrative (3 orgs): using digital calendars◦ Operations (3 orgs): completing online forms,
performing online transactions, using calendar◦ Client service (1 org): completing online forms,
performing online commercial transactions, seeking and selecting online information, using an electronic calendar
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Administrative Production Operations Client Service0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
T7T7
T7
T3
T3T4
T4
Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 Task 4 Task 5 Task 6 Task 7 Task 8
Task 1 Refer to documents on the Internet or by using other digital media
Task 2 Use documents and databases on the Internet or by other digital media
Task 3 Complete forms on the Internet or by other digital media
Task 4 Perform online commercial transactions
Task 5 Search databases on the Internet or other digital media
Task 6 Seek, find and choose information on the Internet
Task 7 Use a calendar on the Internet or other digital media
Task 8 Communicate electronically with co-workers, suppliers and clients to coordinate workplace activities
Percentage reporting employees would participate in basic digital skills training, by task & occupation (<50% in red)
Pre-ONA Results:Profile of Eligible Participants Education: 1/3 have no high school diploma, 2/3
have a high school diploma acquired before 2004 Tenure: about 40% have been in the occupation
and/or organization for 3 years or less◦ Potential risk of losing participants before
completing training or before having enough time to observe effects post-training
Gender: mainly male: about ¼ are female Age: mainly middle-age to older: less than 10% are
25 years or younger and over half are 45 years or older
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Pre-ONA Results: Ineligible Potential Participants Employers asked if any ineligible
employees would need basic digital skills training◦ Ineligible if employee has a high school diploma
or higher received since 2003
Employers reported an additional 61 ineligible employees who need the training◦ 10 in administrative occupations◦ 1 in production occupations◦ 42 in operations occupations◦ 8 in client service occupations
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Next Steps - SRDC Receipt of detailed training/production plan
from SOFAD: July 10 Development of employee skills
assessment content: July-August Provision of skills assessment material to
SOFAD: September 6
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Contact Information Norm Leckie: 613-789-9656, [email protected]
Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC): http://www.srdc.org/ ◦ Over 20 years of experience gathering and analyzing
evidence on social policy and other areas in Canada◦ Mission:
to help policy-makers and practitioners identify policies and programs that improve the well-being of Canadians, with a special concern for the effects on the disadvantaged, and
to raise the standards of evidence that are used in assessing policies.
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