This book explores the perspectives of experienced practitioners, sharing ideas about building and sustaining organizational strength through workforce development practices and systems. As the saying goes, a company's greatest resource is its people. When managers really believe that and work to develop organizational capabilities, productivity, sales, and profits can rise dramatically. In an environment where information, service, and knowledge are primary sources of value creation, workforce strength is central to securing prosperity. Written by practitioners for practitioners, "Building Workforce Strength: Creating Value through Workforce and Career Development" bridges the disciplines of organization and individual development, showing those charged with organizational progress why workforce strength is a key component of prosperity--and how it can be achieved. This hands-on volume is organized in three sections that establish a foundation for workforce and career development, explore implementation in organizations, and examine the process's implications for working with individuals. Showcasing workforce and career development practices and systems for both represented and nonrepresented populations, it provides a framework, techniques, and examples that will guide approaches to building workforce strength. Applications of workforce and career development principles in a variety of sectors, such as healthcare and high technology, offer tangible examples of these principles in practice. Features include: (1) Contributions from 16 experienced practitioners of workforce and career development; (2) Multiple examples of practical applications of workforce and career development initiatives from major industry sectors, such as healthcare and high technology; (3) Two lengthy case studies, including one on Kaiser Permanente; (4) 19 quantitative and qualitative figures; and (5) An extensive reference list from the workforce and career development fields. Highlights include: (1) Blends approaches to workforce planning and development at the organizational level with career development practice at the organizational and individual levels to advance thinking about how to address and integrate these critical aspects of workforce strength; (2) Demonstrates the application of metrics to inform progress; (3) Introduces new approaches to framing workforce and career development principles; and (4) Provides readers with solid, nuts-and-bolts techniques and procedures for designing, developing, and measuring career development processes and systems.