A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

A Business Guide to Support Employee and Family Involvement in Education - 1997

Develop and Implement a Work Plan

Working with top management and internal and external stakeholders, a company must next develop a work plan to help coordinate and achieve designated objectives. The work plan is a "living," flexible tool to prepare an organization to support and participate in efforts and to transform policies into practices.

Initially, companies should try to keep their effort manageable by testing it out as a pilot, always keeping in mind the "what ifs." If the pilot does not work, not much has been lost, and evaluations are easier. The box below outlines work plan guidelines to assist in this process; the following section highlights the work plans of two Wisconsin organizations.

Work Plan Guidelines

First: Determine partners and participants for the effort as a whole and/or for individual activities.

Second: Determine organization and structure of the effort in terms of:

  • scope:
    • internal and/or external to the company
    • specific company sites or throughout the company
    • local, regional, state, and/or national
    • across departments/divisions or within one department/ division

  • structure:
    • individual program or service
    • collaborative/alliance
    • volunteer program
    • foundation
    • partnership with school/school district/ teachers/group of students
    • network/clearinghouse/ resource and referral database
    • committee

  • focus of effort:
    • policies
    • services
    • programs
    • products

Third: Assign responsibilities to staff and participating partners. Keep these tasks short-term and achievable to test the strengths and follow-through of each participating stakeholder. When little or no additional staff is available, use existing staff in different ways or recruit volunteers to accomplish the work that needs to be done.

Fourth: Provide staff orientation and training as needed.

Fifth: Decide the range of activities to pursue. Prioritize activities based on:

  • existing internal policies, and if necessary, new or adapted policies to support efforts or adjust goals and objectives;

  • top management's and/or community partners' support and interest;

  • available resources (financial, human, in-kind, material); and

  • projected timeframe to accomplish the activities.

Sixth: Work out a timetable. Consider what might cause project delays and prepare to head off these challenges.

Seventh: Develop a budget. Prepare for contingencies that might cause delays or overruns.

Eighth: Determine expected outcomes. Focus on maintaining linkage of goals and objectives to expected results.

Ninth: Design a workable assessment. Proposed measurements should be "user-friendly," cost effective, and reliable.

Tenth: Adjust work plan as needed. Refine work plan to keep your initiative focused on targeted objectives.

Work Plan Highlights

Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce (RAMAC). Formed in 1991, RAMAC's Education Committee includes 150 of the area's 850 small and large businesses, of which 60 are active volunteers. The effort's top players are committed to establish and maintain RAMAC's credibility in the community as a whole so that when the RAMAC committee speaks, its voice carries.

Partners signed the Racine Business Promise: to prepare students for jobs and college; reduce dropout rate; and improve the educational process, student motivation and self- esteem, and the management of the schools. All of the signers made some financial commitment, although the focus continues to be on recruiting volunteer support.

RAMAC's executive committee is the final decision-making body. Since its inception, partners review and refine initial goals and objectives, and activities aligned to these objectives.

For example, RAMAC reorganized, refocused, and reduced the number of committees from eight to three: marketing, career development, and strategic issues. The marketing committee focuses on public relations, community involvement, and special events. Career development supports learning experiences that help students understand the connection between school and real life, and administers all the school-to-work funds in a three-county region in southeastern Wisconsin. Strategic issues analyzes educational issues and advocates policies that will support more effective education.

Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPSC). This regional collaborative, created in 1992, developed a vision and a process for the commitment, and agreed on the strategic framework and process to facilitate the transformation of public education.

At WPSC, senior executives and employees from all company levels are involved in education by serving on school boards and heading up local and national committees. Six community relations leaders operate throughout the company's service area. The company's 24-hour per-year volunteer leave policy supports involvement in education.

The company participates in dual areas in education. Internally, an employee-driven, education planning team was developed by assembling 25 people from all facets of WPSC and the union, in addition to top management.

The company's external participation is conducted at the same time as its internal effort through the Utility Business Education Coalition. After securing the total commitment from the CEO and other senior level management, the company's vision for education transformation was connected with community and state efforts. Partners mapped local and state business and community education transformation efforts to determine what was happening in their region and to target key players. A report was prepared describing "lessons learned." Then WPSC helped develop the community action plan and connected it to its internal plan. The company also worked to connect with existing collaboratives in the community, and brought in other key players (e.g., higher education). Once a shared vision and priorities were established, the collaborative worked to shift funding to these community priorities. The vision, mission, goals, and objectives are revisited consistently.


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