Workplace Digital Essential Skills for Rural Small and Medium Size Businesses Pilot ProjectAdvisory Committee Meeting No. 3Campbellton, NB, June 6, 2013

Outline of Presentation1. Basic Definitions: eligibility, sectors, occupations2. Pre-ONA: objectives, administration, content3. Pre-ONA Results4. Next Steps

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Basic Definitions Eligible participants (employees) Targeted sectors Targeted occupations

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Eligible participants Educational qualifications:

less than a high school diploma OR an education credential acquired before 2004

(out of school since 2003 or prior) Digital skills:

use basic digital skills/tools (eg search on the Web, send email) to perform job-related tasks

need these skills to be developed Employment:

year-round (not seasonal) and not on a contractual/term basis

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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

Surprisingly large number in production occupations which are present in only 2 orgs

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)21

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 organizations

No. of organizations with

any (>0) employees (in this

occupation)

No. of organizations 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

SectorOccupational Group

No. of organizations

No. of organizations with any (>0) employees (in

this occupation)

No. of organizations with any (>0)

employees who would train

Total no. of employees who

would train

Manufacturing

Administrative 2 2 2 5

Production 2 2 2 33

Client Services 2 1 0 0

Services

Administrative 4 4 2 14

Operations 4 3 3 40

Client Services 4 2 1 12

No. of organizations and participating employees by sector & occupational group

Training Participation in Detailed Occupations Within each occupational group, detailed occupations

identified with low-skill requirements

Results confirm detailed occupations: there would be employees from most who would be trained

Exceptions: low expected participation (<=2 employees) in basic digital skills training in:◦ 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 this training

Pre-ONA results confirm presence of digital tasks in organizations participating in the pre-ONA: most 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, nleckie@SRDC.org

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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