Three years ago, the term “business engagement” was not prevalent in the nation’s discussion about engaging employers which is why Business U created its tagline, Maximizing Business Engagement®. And thus began our educational journey with workforce development and education organizations espousing the differences in demand driven and market responsive approaches and their application to building transformational relationships.
From our publications, thought leadership webinars, and the army of Business Engagement Boot Camp® graduates across the nation, we see the needle moving in practitioners and leaderships’ understanding that they can’t sell their way to building long-term relationships with business and industry. The results have yielded a growing perception about the fundamental differences in business engagement strategies between a transactional and transformational relationship and how both are of value to employers.
This perception shift is exactly what will change our engagement tactics. However, as we continue to review how engagement terms are applied in the field, there are some lingering concepts floating about that need further clarification such as positioning “transactional” approaches as “less than.” In fact, perfecting our transactional approach is needed to help meet mandated metrics by our funding streams.
Fact Check: When you see the terms transactional VS transformational — STOP
Take a moment to reflect about this: if “verses” means “against,” then why in workforce development do we need both approaches?
To help bridge the skills gaps and meet the goals we’ve set for ourselves in sector initiatives, workforce development organizations need to go beyond simply meeting businesses’ immediate wants. It’s important to remember that people often do not know what they consciously want. Steve Jobs was once quoted in Business Week saying, “It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
Likewise, businesses may not know exactly what type of workers they want. They may ask for employees with digital skills when in fact what they are searching for are individuals with entrepreneurial skills that support the business in adapting effectively to economic changes.
While we must continuously engage with industry to build trust in order to validate workforce needs (transformational), it doesn’t mean that your transactional relationships are not relevant or of value. It’s not a continuum from transactional to transformational (aka good to better). What is important here is knowing the differences in the strategies and tactics that support each approach, and how their application is aligning with engagement and recruitment efforts and ultimately with training needs to anticipate the future needs of industry.
Keep in mind that transactional relationships are motivated by specific conditions with the aim of filling an immediate employer need and providing customer satisfaction in that moment. For example, a job order fulfilled successfully with a satisfied customer is transactional. We need these interactions!
