Monthly Archives: October 2009
Google Gives HR Something New To Worry About
When Dr. John Sullivan said last week that employers have lost control of their brand, he likely wasn’t thinking of Sidewiki. Why should he? When the article was published Monday Sidewiki was not even three weeks old; Google launched it on Sept. 23rd.
But Sidewiki’s potential for deconstructing a brand is enormous. Unlike all the networking sites, Twitter posts, and job board forums where the disaffected go to vent their anger, Sidewiki makes it possible to post these comments directly to your site.
Just imagine the mischief a disgruntled job seeker or employee can wreak by posting their story directly to your site. Side by side with your video of happy employees talking about the fun and interesting work they do is a post — or multiple posts — from current and former workers denouncing your message as bogus.
If Sidewiki were to catch on and gain even a percentage of the users that Twitter has, the impact is easy enough to see.
Click here to continue reading.
Original Source: John Zappe
Posted in Interesting Internet, Technology, World of Work
Tagged Brand Management, Corporate Brand, Google, Google Sidewiki, John Zappe, Sidewiki
Economic Downturn Leading to Decline in Employee Commitment, Morale
The cost-cutting actions that employers have been making to deal with the economic crisis have contributed to a sharp decline in the morale and commitment of their workers, especially top performers, according to an annual survey by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm, and WorldatWork, an international association of human resource professionals.
The 2009/2010 U.S. Strategic Rewards Survey found that employee engagement levels for all workers at the companies surveyed have dropped 9 percent since last year, and close to 25 percent for top performers. Additionally, 36 percent of top performers say their employer’s situation has worsened in the past 12 months, and the number who would recommend others take jobs at their company has declined by nearly 20 percent. Compared with last year, top-performing employees are 26 percent less likely to be satisfied with advancement opportunities at their company. They are also 14 percent less likely to want to remain with their company versus take a job elsewhere.
The survey also found that top-performing employees are 29 percent less confident in management’s ability to grow the business. And 41 percent believe that pay and benefit changes made by their employer in the past year have had a negative effect on work quality and customer service. The survey was conducted in May 2009 and is based on responses from 1,300 full-time workers at large U.S. employers.
“The fallout from the actions employers have taken in response to the recession is now coming to light, and it is significant,” said Laura Sejen, global director of strategic rewards consulting at Watson Wyatt. “Having less engaged and committed workers is a major concern for employers. This could have a long-lasting and detrimental impact on productivity, quality and customer service, as well as an increase in the risk of companies losing their best employees.”
The survey also found that most top-performing employees say they aren’t expecting to receive the same bonus or pay increase as they have in the past, even though historically companies have rewarded them with pay commensurate with their performance. More than 6 in 10 (61 percent) say their companies have reduced or suspended bonuses, while only 35 percent agree their employers reward top employees for performance. Additionally, 43 percent of top performers said individual performance expectations have increased since last year, while one-third (32 percent) say their company’s financial performance goals have increased.
“One of the many challenges employers will face as the economy recovers is how to re-engage employees, and especially top performers,” said Ryan Johnson, CCP, vice president of research at WorldatWork. “Taking a total rewards approach and looking at all of the ways companies can motivate and retain — including compensation, benefits, work-life initiatives and career development — is going to be essential.”
Other findings from the survey include:
• Regardless of whether companies downsized, 89 percent of employers report taking at least one or two actions to minimize the extent of workforce downsizing. On average, survey participants report taking 3.5 different actions.
• Nearly 3 out of 4 (72 percent) employers have gone through a restructuring or made layoffs since the economic downturn began last year.
For more info: http://www.watsonwyatt.com/StrategicRewards2009
The Great Recession is Over
“The Great Recession is over,” according to NABE’s latest survey.
“The survey found that the vast majority of business economists believe that the recession has ended but that the economic recovery is likely to be more moderate than those typically experienced following steep declines.
The NABE panel upgraded the economic outlook for the next several quarters, compared with the previous survey,”said NABE President-elect Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. “Following a sharp 6.4 percent (annual rate) contraction in the first quarter of this year and another 0.7 percent drop in the second quarter, NABE forecasters expect real GDP to rise at an above trend 2.9 percent rate in the second half.
The more-than-three-year downturn in the housing market is very close to coming to an end, with substantial growth (from a low base) expected for next year. According to the survey, the key areas of concern involve the large increases in federal debt and unemployment rates that are expected to remain very high through next year. The unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 10 percent in the first quarter of next year and edge down to 9.5 percent by the end of 2010. Inflation is expected to remain contained throughout 2010.
The good news is that this deep and long recession appears to be over, and with improving credit markets, the U.S. economy can return to solid growth next year without worry about rising inflation.”
Survey: 20% Say Firms Will Hire in 4th Quarter
Are we inching back to normal?
About 20% of human resources professionals said their companies plan to hire in the fourth quarter, according to the labor market outlook quarterly survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Another 14% planned to cut jobs, and 59% said their firms would maintain staff levels.
“HR managers are optimistic that the economy is inching towards a recovery but are crafting cautious hiring plans with more aggressive recruitment not expected until 2010,” said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM.
Fewer companies planned to cut jobs in the fourth quarter than in the third-quarter survey when 30% said they would make cuts. However, more human resource professionals, 24%, said they planned to increase staff in the third quarter.
The survey included responses from 402 human resource professionals.
Visual: US Unemployment Map by State – September 2009
Click picture to enlarge.
“Contractor” Employee Misclassification is Costing Companies – Again
As a cable-television installer in Massachusetts, Fritz Elienberg drove a van and wore a shirt emblazoned with “Comcast.” He installed equipment from Comcast Corp., and customers paid the cable provider for his work.
Mr. Elienberg wasn’t a Comcast employee, but a so-called independent contractor working for a separate company. This month, Mr. Elienberg sued both companies, for allegedly depriving him and other contractors of overtime pay and benefits by not considering them employees.
The case highlights a perennial issue for employers that is gaining new prominence during the recession. Lawyers say employers are trying to avoid hiring full-time employees by tapping contractors, as workers seeking better pay and benefits turn to the courts. Employment law firm Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC has seen a 13% rise in misclassification claims this year, compared with the same period in 2008, attorneys estimate.
Meanwhile, revenue-strapped government agencies are cracking down, seeking unpaid taxes. Last month, the Internal Revenue Service said it will audit 6,000 random U.S. employers beginning in February, marking its first attempt since 1984 to quantify how many employers misclassify workers.
Employee, or Contractor?
The Internal Revenue Service considers three types of factors to determine if a worker is an employee or independent contractor:
- Behavioral: Does the employer dictate how the work is done?
- Financial: Does the employer provide tools? Does it pay by the job or the hour?
- Relationship: Is the work ‘key’ to the employer’s business?
Source: Internal Revenue Service
The Full U.S. Unemployment Picture – September 2009
Below is the A12 chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This chart gives the full unemployment picture of what is going on in the United States. These numbers cover a lot of varying categories and are often referred to but not always shown in full.
Unfortunately at this point it is still not a pretty picture, I do not expect to see any decrease in these numbers until the first half of 2010. That said, I.T. and Manufacturing are two burgeoning sectors of growth albeit they are not wide spread across every state. We are beginning to build toward hiring trends that will go beyond state borders, once that begins there will definitely be more companies willing to put both feet in and start hiring again.
Click Picture to enlarge.
Webinar Alert: Answers to More of the World’s Scariest Employment Law Questions
Time: 11am-12pm
Date: October 28th, 2009
Registration: Click Here
As Chief Legal Officer of North America for a company that employs more than five million employees worldwide and as a former partner in a major employment law firm, Manpower’s Mark Toth has learned a few things about workplace law over the years.
Back by popular demand, Mark will once again answer your toughest employment law questions in this engaging and interactive webinar. Send all the questions that keep you awake at night to blawg@manpower.com. Mark will then design his webinar around those questions and make sure you get all the latest legal developments, tools and tips to help you stay out of legal hot water.
To get a taste of what the webinar will be like, please check out Mark’s blog – or blawg – at www.manpowerblogs.com.
After your participation in this webinar, you will obtain:
· Answers to your most challenging legal questions
· Up-to-the-minute information on the latest employment law
developments
· Tips and tools on everything from hiring to firing
· Practical solutions based on real-life examples
Posted in Manpower Event, Webinar
Tagged Employment Law, Manpower Inc., Manpower Webinar, manpowerblogs.com, Mark Toth
Will All Our Needed Talent Go Down The Drain?
More than 50 percent of the science graduate students in the United States are foreign-born. Due to a lack of emphasis on the STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math) subjects and the fear that the curricula will be too challenging, native-born students have passed up these post-college options. Filling the void have been the foreign-born for whom a US graduate degree was and is a meaningful ticket to a prosperous future.
A trend we forecast numerous times is now official: Within the next five years, hundreds of thousands Chinese and Indian immigrants who in the past would have stayed and worked for US companies will go home permanently. This history-making trend was recently revealed in a recently released study, Professor Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University. The Brain Drain is already affecting US companies and will have increasingly devastating consequences.
There are several reasons why this homecoming is taking place. First, there are increasing job opportunities for them at home. In the last two years, the economies in India and China both grew much faster than the US. Not only are they welcomed with open arms, but because they have studied abroad, they have a better understanding of how to do business in the US. China even offers financial assistance and housing incentives to lure skilled workers home.
Second, because the Asian cultures are so different from those of the US, there is a strong comfort factor that is missing for workers choosing to stay. They miss their loved ones and rarely enjoy the same support systems.
Finally, US immigration laws and attitudes (fueled by 9/11 and recent economic challenges) discourage immigrants from staying. The now long and arduous process of obtaining one of the relatively few H1B visas or applying for green card status dishearten even the most enthusiastic. Though Wadhwa only studied students from Asian countries, the same situations apply to graduate students from South America, Africa, and the Middle East.
The good news is that we believe that once the US economy really recovers, the rate of departure will slow somewhat; however the cultural and home economic factors will remain.
Posted in China, Workforce Trends
Tagged China Workers, Duke University, Foreign Born Workers, H1B, The Brain Drain, Vivek Wadhwa
Friday Funnies: How to Handle Stress
Click picture to enlarge.
Posted in Humor
Tagged Comic, Friday Funnies, Its all about you, Work Comic, Work Humor
Company Cost Cutting Statistics
Posted in Workforce Statistics
Tagged Cost Cutting, Hiring Freeze, HR Policies, Layoff, Merit Increases
Visual: Map Of U.S. Metro’s Unemployment – Aug 2009
Click Picture to Enlarge.
Exec’s Pick Facetime over Facebook for Employees
In a recent survey Executives were asked, “How comfortable would you feel about being ‘friended’ by the following individuals on Facebook?” Their responses:
- 19 percent said they were very comfortable being friended by their boss; 13 percent for co-workers, 12 percent for people they manage; 7 percent for clients; and 6 percent for vendors.
- 28 percent said they were somewhat comfortable being friended by their boss; 38 percent for co-workers, 32 percent for people they manage; 34 percent for clients; and 23 percent for vendors.
- 15 percent said they were not very comfortable being friended by their boss; 13 percent for co-workers, 15 percent for people they manage; 17 percent for clients; and 24 percent for vendors.
- 32 percent said they were not comfortable being friended by their boss; 28 percent for co-workers, 33 percent for people they manage; 33 percent for clients; and 38 percent for vendors.
- 6 percent said they weren’t sure about being friended by their boss; 8 percent for co-workers, 8 percent for people they manage; 9 percent for clients; and 9 percent for vendors.
“The line between personal and professional has grown increasingly blurred as more people use social networking Web sites for business purposes,” said Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. “Although not everyone is comfortable using sites like Facebook to connect with professional contacts, it’s wise to be prepared for these types of requests.”
Hosking advises employees on Facebook to be sure they are in compliance with their employer’s social networking policy. They should then familiarize themselves with privacy settings and create different friend lists to control how — and with whom — information is shared.
“Individuals should classify their professional contacts into a ‘work’ list and limit what personal details this group can view,” said Hosking.
Following are some common Facebook situations professionals may encounter and how to handle them:
- You’re tagged in an embarrassing photo. Untag yourself and change your privacy settings so photos are viewable only by your close friends.
- You’re friended by someone you don’t want to connect with. It might be best to accept friend requests from colleagues to avoid slighting them, but add them to a work list and adjust your privacy settings so you can effectively separate your job from your personal life.
- You’re considering friending your boss. It may seem like a natural extension of amiable office small talk, but think twice before proactively friending your boss. It could become awkward for both of you.
- You want to join various groups. You should join groups that interest you. But if you have colleagues in your network and don’t want them to see the groups you join, remember to adjust your application settings.
- You would like to be a fan of certain pages. Becoming a fan of pages on Facebook is visible to anyone who can view your profile, so you should avoid becoming a fan of any page you are uncomfortable sharing with co-workers or business contacts in your network.
- You love quizzes. Stop and think for a moment before taking online quizzes and posting the results to your Facebook page, unless you want professional contacts to know which “Gilligan’s Island” character you most resemble.
Posted in Social Networking, Workforce Trends
Tagged Boss Friending, Facebook, Facetime, Friended, Social Media, Social Networking Policy, Survey
Working Mom’s Feel the Pressure
According to recent Pew Research study women now make up almost half of the U.S. labor force, up from 38% in 1970. This nearly 40-year trend has been fueled by a broad public consensus about the changing role of women in society. A solid majority of Americans (75%) reject the idea that women should return to their traditional roles in society, and most believe that both husband and wife should contribute to the family income.
But in spite of these long-term changes in behaviors and attitudes, many women remain conflicted about the competing roles they play at work and at home. Working mothers in particular are ambivalent about whether full-time work is the best thing for them or their children; they feel the tug of family much more acutely than do working fathers. As a result, most working mothers find themselves in a situation that they say is less than ideal.
They’re also more likely than either at-home moms or working dads to feel as if there just isn’t enough time in the day. Four-in-ten say they always feel rushed, compared with a quarter of the other two groups. But despite these pressures and conflicts, working moms, overall, are as likely as at-home moms and working dads to say they’re happy with their lives.
Whether women work outside the home or not, family responsibilities have a clear impact on the key life choices they make. Roughly three-in-ten women who are not currently employed (27%) say family duties keep them from working. And family appears to be one of the key reasons that many do not break through the “glass ceiling” to the top ranks of management — that’s the view, anyway, of about a third of the public.
Posted in Workforce Statistics
Tagged Labor Force Statistics, Pew Research, Workforce Trends, Working Mom, Working Mothers
Friday Funnies: Project Planning
Click on picture to enlarge.
Posted in Humor
Tagged Comic Strip, Dilbert, Friday Funnies, Humor, Project Planning
IT Jobs May Get Left Behind in Recovery
Once IT spending begins again , companies in need of tech workers will likely turn first to consultants and outsourcing companies before they take on full-time staff. Whether this decision contributes to what’s often called a “jobless recovery” will depend on where the work is going — onshore or offshore.
This view is gleaned from surveys and analysts trying to understand what’s next for tech job market. In the hunt for clues about the future, some of the best evidence about what’s head may be with companies yhat are already doing well. Take Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., for instance.
It’s been a miserable year for many IT companies, but Cognizant, in its most recent quarter, reported a revenue gain of 13% to $776.6 million, boon growth for most companies. One reason for this can be explained by one of its customers, Emmaus, Penn.-based Rodale Inc., publisher of Prevention, Men’s Health, and Women’s Health magazines.
By hiring Cognizant, Rodale CIO Ken Citron was able to cut costs for infrastructure, hardware, help desks and networks by 15% on annual basis. The IT savings was achieved, in part, because Cognizant remotely manages some of the systems offshore.
About three quarters of Rodale’s IT infrastructure employees became Cognizant employees, and the remaining either received severance or moved into some other role . While Rodale didn’t want to disclose the number of employees affected by the change, Citron said the change is allowing the compay to focus on its core needs, especially its customer-facing applications and services.
Posted in Workforce News
Tagged Cognizant, IT Outsourcing, Jobless Recovery, Manpower Professional, Offshoring, Outaourcing
