Arkansas Responds to Criticism of Workforce with Action, LEGOs

That's right, LEGOs...

The exercise that one training site under the auspices of the state's Dept. of Economic Development is using to screen potential employees for assembly positions was developed in response to employer complaints about the quality of some of the workers being funneled to them through the state's training programs. No one is saying who those employers are, but there is evidence to suggest they could include Denso Corp. in Osceola, AR and Hino Motors Ltd. in Marion, AR--both Toyota subsidiaries.

There was considerable speculation as to why Toyota itself chose Tupelo, MS over a site near Marion, AR back in February for its latest vehicle assembly plant. Although Toyota cites "poor air quality in the Crittenden County city and a federal lawsuit" (I'm quoting from this article appearing in the Sunday's online version of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette) as its reasons for avoiding Arkansas, one wonders if perhaps it based its decision partly on negative feedback from Denso and Hino.

Regardless, it's nice to see that the state, rather than spend resources defending its workforce and image, acknowledged the concerns and made a concentrated effort to revamp. In April, the state Dept. of Economic Development hired a new deputy director, Randy Zook, who put new training procedures into place by the middle of that month. The use of LEGOs to simulate the assembly line and quality control process (detailed in the article cited) is an interesting lede, but actually it seems that one of the main changes was formalizing the usage of standard employee screening tools the state already had purchased in many cases. (The tool is called WorkKeys, made by the company that produces the ACT college entrance exam. Incidentally, one of the educational sessions at Business Facilities LiveXchange this year covers WorkKeys--follow this link and scroll down to the seminar led by Ed Andrews titled, "Does Your Community REALLY Have the Skilled Labor I Need?")

Sources: "Legos helping state build on preparing work force" --Arkansas Democrat Gazette