March 31, 2003

Retention during an upturn
Posted by at 10:31 AM

This article makes a great point about employee retention rates and the economy. Employees are on their best behavior for fear of losing their job. Thus, your retention rate is high. Yet, when the economy turns around and these same employees have options, will they stay? Make these preparations now and your employee retention rate could stay somewhat steady.

You know what's going to happen the moment that times get good. The pent up resentments, fears and anxieties will propel a mass movement towards the door. Today's 96% retention will become tomorrow's 25% attrition nearly overnight. It happens every time.Seasoned organizations deal with the problem early, in advance of the crisis.

Read the entire article. --------

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Don't make the candidate hate you
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:27 AM

Just because employers have incredible "hand" right now doesn't mean you can be unconcerned with candidate's impressions of your organization.

March 28th's HCM Blogspot posting is a nice writeup of this topic, with a pointer to Candidate Voice, a service which will evaluate your staffing web presence through the eyes of a candidate.
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March 28, 2003

US seeks overtime-pay rule update
Posted by at 9:44 AM

In today's Globe, our Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao has put forth changes to the rules the regulate overtime-pay. What will this mean for your businesses?

The proposed regulations, which are subject to a 90-day public review, would raise the salary level below which workers automatically qualify for overtime from the current $155 per week to $425 per week. The proposed increase is the first in 28 years.

Read the entire article. Read more about this in the New York Times.

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Managing through the war
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:48 AM

Business 2.0 on keeping your staff focused during wartime.

Some fears are irrational, but that doesn't mean the people who express them should be treated as irrational. Some workers are immature, others may be confusing economic fears with war fears. Acknowledge that these are uncertain times and that people should behave prudently, but always bring the conversation back to how you and your employee can work together to make sure business gets done.

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March 27, 2003

Choosing a recruitment ad agency
Posted by at 3:59 PM

A down economy some employers choose to get back to basics and take the time to brand their identity as an employer of choice. When the economy turns around, and we all know that will happen soon, these employers who have been placing recruitment advertising promoting their brand, will have a successful time recruiting their candidates. How does one choose and ad agency? What are you suppose to look for? Are you demanding too much?

There is an upside to a downturn in the economy. While many choose only to see the doom and gloom of a slow market, this necessary lull encourages us to get back to basics. It gives us pause to review the successes of truly great brands, and encourages you to chart an ambitious course for your company…for a time in the not too distant future when the creative positioning of your brand will make the difference between success and failure.

Read the entire article.

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March 25, 2003

Valuing your employees
Posted by at 10:06 AM

Following up on my blog from yesterday, Giving the goodies, this Chicago Tribune article reports further on this trend.

Not too many managers are concerned right now with rewards beyond normal compensation. They are more focused on getting revenue up and debt down. But what will happen when the job market turns around? Employees' pent-up resentment will lead them right out the door at the first glance from another employer. Or worse, they will stay at the job, bitter and unwilling to work hard.

Read the entire article.
Please note, that free registration is required to view the article.
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Bottom-Line Benefits in Top-Tier Checkups
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:20 AM

The New York Times tells us that making sure your executives are healthy saves money for the company.

The study found that executives who had such exams had 20 percent fewer health claims and lost 45 percent fewer workdays than executives who didn't. The savings in health care and disability costs, it said, were $1,661 per executive over a three-year period beginning with the year of the exam. "We finally have proof that there are savings when we can find something before it becomes a disability," Dr. Burton said.

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March 24, 2003

Giving the goodies
Posted by at 4:19 PM

Perks are still important in the workplace. Who knew? It would reason that with the recession and the trimming that companies have been doing, the perks, along with the people, would be the first to go. However, there are still some companies that believe perks are more important than ever. Their employees are doing more work with less support. So, these perks free up their time, help then manage their lives, and seemingly compensate for the lower pay. On a side note, I am going to lobby for free home maid service here at BostonWorks.

Such largesse seems to counter predictions that generous perks would disappear once the job market turned in the employer's favor. In fact, the number of companies offering such extras as tuition aid, adoption subsidies and even dry cleaning pick-up increased between 2001 and 2002, according to Hewitt Associates, a human-resources-consulting firm. The Employee Services Management Association, a trade group for benefits coordinators, found that nearly two-thirds of its members were holding their budgets steady despite the recession, and 13 percent were boosting benefits.

Read the entire article from the Seattle Times.

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Overtime, travel, training, hiring
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:22 PM

From BostonWorks in this week's Boston Sunday Globe:

Overtime - will companies have to pay millions of dollars in overtime or not as the US government prepares to redraw regulations that have not been changed in 30 years?

Travel - already smarting from the economy and downsizing, corporate travel companies take another hit as foreign travel drops.

Training - in a down economy it's tempting to dump training, but what is the long-term cost to the organization?

Hiring - a survey of 3,400 company representatives reveals that 55 percent plan to hire new workers this year, with nearly 300 managers planning to fill vacancies in the next 30 days.

Read all this week's BostonWorks stories.
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March 20, 2003

The Blog Spot
Posted by at 5:01 PM

It seems that our HR Blog is not one of a kind. That is good news for all of you. Check out Recruiting 101's Blog Spot for Jason's take on the recruiting industry. Enjoy.
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March 19, 2003

Conflict resolution skills
Posted by at 11:16 AM

I came upon this resource as I struggled to work through a conflict and found it helpful. I hope that it helps you with your hiring managers, your own managers, and others.

Conflict Resolution resources and training are based on 12 skills which may be relevant to solving any conflict. Pick and choose the skill - or skills - appropriate to your particular issue or crisis.

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March 18, 2003

Offer letters- Who gets them and who needs them.
Posted by at 4:48 PM

I recently sat next a gentlemen on a plane ride back to Boston. He works with small businesses that typically have no HR department. They just have an office manager or administrative assistant to help with the staffing. His clients call him constantly looking for resources to help guide them through the staffing process. So, as I come across them, I post articles every so often that speak to small business needs including this one on how to construct an offer letter. The article outlines essential elements that must be contained in an offer letter and discusses who they should be given to.

If you are a small business owner and/or a budding HR professional, just email me with questions or topics that you need information on. I can certainly be a resource to help you find specific staffing resources.

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Trapped like a trap in a trap
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:33 AM

Do your employees feel trapped in their job?

"What's happening is that people are staying in place because they don't perceive that they have any options, and they're dying in place. They're burning out. They're not growing, and they're living in fear," says Bruce Katcher, a psychologist and president of The Discovery Group, a management consulting firm in Sharon, Mass.

This article from the Christian Science Monitor gives some suggestions for helping the situation.
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March 17, 2003

Doctored Resumes, Poisoned Applicants
Posted by at 11:48 AM

Berkeley's Haas School of Business has had to retract some invitations to their incoming class. Some applicants have lied on their resumes about their work history. Background checks are very important and are a key tool to use to find the flowers among the weeds.

In the wake of the corporate scandals of the past year, there should be little doubt in business circles that honesty is the best policy. But apparently, some would-be executives haven't gotten the message. The University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business has rejected 5% of about 100 candidates it had slated for admission into its fall 2003 MBA class, after background checks revealed inaccuracies on their résumés.

Read the entire article. Reference checking resources. --------

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March 14, 2003

Lessons from Microsoft: recruiting in a down economy
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:32 AM

Times are tough and hiring down, but some firms know there is still a talent war going on out there:

"What Microsoft does in its internship program and recruiting programs is very smart," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Maintaining the program, even during a down economy, is good for business, Challenger said. Studies. . .show that companies which are committed to healthy internship programs and hire during recessions have stronger growth potential once the economy recovers.

Read the entire piece from the Baltimore Sun.

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Employee self-evaluations are gaining popularity
Posted by at 10:25 AM

I believe that if you want to be an effective employee and continue to grow, you must be aware of your accomplishments, strengths, failures, and areas of development. This requires a self-evaluation. This type of introspection should be done regularly and for some, independently. However, there is a new trend gaining popularity. Companies are actually now requiring self-evaluations from their employees. This Career Journal article discusses the popularity and possible concerns with self-evaluations.

The idea of this workplace ritual that is gaining popularity is to help managers and employees level with each other, applaud achievements, set new goals and identify job-training needs. But these self-evaluations have instead been put on the list of annualized torments, ranking up there with taxes and dental probes. There are, after all, an infinite number of ways to self-incriminate.

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March 13, 2003

Building leadership one child at a time
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:12 PM

Time to don the headphones again for this audio blog. NPR's Marketplace reports on the workplace value of stay-at-home moms. Commentator Robin Gerber says:

[Stay-at-home moms] should be given credit for their work-appropriate learning experiences. A study by Wellesley College Center for Women shows that women leaders compare their skills to mothering, and that they learned these skills from their time at home. The study says that moms saw power in their ability to lead warmly, to focus on the positive, and to take care of their subordinates.

Talk about rating high on the emotional intelligence scale. To listen to the piece, visit this link, scroll down to "Commentary: Leadership by Women," and click to start.
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Are you a small business with a temporary recruiting need?
Posted by at 11:48 AM

If you said yes, you may find Fortune's November article, The Titans of Temps Reach Out, of some interest. The article discusses whether or not your small business should hire a staffing agency to fill your temp positions.

Staffing giants like Kelly, Adecco, and Manpower are going after small companies. Should you hire them to work for you?....These titans of temping are figuring out what you already know. Small businesses like yours spend big bucks on freelancers, contractors, and other flexible workers -- about $25 billion a year, a figure that is growing 13% annually, according to Access Markets International Partners, a New York City research firm.

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March 12, 2003

Emotional toxicity and how to diffuse it
Posted by at 1:45 PM

Unhappy employees can effect the success of a business. Whether it is because of the uncertainty of what is going to happen in the world, the lack of jobs options, and/or more responsibilities being piled on, people are increasingly being faced with workplace frustrations. However, as a manager, there are steps that you can take to minimize employee frustrations that can cause toxicity in the workplace.

A recent Harvard Business School interview and book review entitled "Time to Treat Toxic Emotions at Work" examines the cost of toxic emotions in the workplace, how it effects the whole corporation, and what to do about it. The author of the reviewed book, Peter Frost, has also created a web site (www.toxinhandler.com) which includes excerpts and resources for handling toxic emotions in the workplace.
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March 11, 2003

TTFN
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:55 AM

Today's New York Times has an excellent overview of Instant Messaging in the workplace. Expect IM to be as prevalent as email within the next couple years. Despite the poor grammar, and the over-abundance of smilies, IM is not a toy.

David Beckman, a lawyer at Beckman & Hirsch, a firm in Burlington, Iowa, said he installed instant messaging with some trepidation because he needed to stay in contact with an employee who was working from a different location.

"I have teenagers," Mr. Beckman said. "I came at instant messaging like this was going to be horrible. But honestly, it's the most productive thing I've ever seen."

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March 7, 2003

End of the Cruelty Curve?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:50 AM

Jack Welch's storied success at GE made him one of the most respected CEO's of recent time. But now some are questioning his "Cruelty Curve" approach to winnowing out low-performing managers and the feared performance reviews that were part of the process. To learn more, plug in your earphones and listen to this piece from Marketplace, as broadcast on NPR. (Hint: It's the last segment in yesterday's show, so you'll need to drag the scroll button in your player just beyond the midway point.)
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March 4, 2003

Putting HR in rotation
Posted by at 4:32 PM

The March issue of HR Magazine's has a cover story that reports on the struggle the HR professionals have with becoming strategic business partners and offers up ideas on how to break through to position yourself as such.

Experts say the surest way for HR professionals to become strategic business partners is to learn more about the business they serve. And actually "doing the business" is often the best way to learn it. A prime way to "do the business" is to participate in a program that offers rotating assignments through non-HR functions. Simply put, there is no substitute for experiential learning.

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March 3, 2003

The clothes make the person
Posted by at 4:54 PM

Friends of mine work for a staffing agency that has gone from a business casual dress code to back to a professional dress code. Looking for any edge over the competition in such a tight labor market, the firm's management now subscribes to the "perception is everything" mantra. They believe that if their employees are in suits, that the current clientle and potential clientle will view them as highly professional and competent in their business. Thus, the company brand will be elevated to the top shelf.

They have begun to see other affects as well. Employees at this firm are beginning to act more professional, taking their job more seriously, and being more productive. The whole business casual revolution was based on the reasoning that a relaxed dress code makes the employee more comfortable, productive, and happy. So what does it mean when the reinstitution of a professional dress code is seems to be responsible for increasing employee productivity and elevating their level of professionalism? Maybe clothes do make the person.

How to write a dress code policy.
Find your power suit.
Don't forget to accessorize for sucess.

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Payroll cards; women rise; unions fall
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:13 PM

This week from BostonWorks in the Sunday Globe:

A new payment option - payroll cards - cut costs for employers and provide options for workers without bank accounts, but there is some downside.

Recent studies show a pronounced gender trend in the workplace - a rise in women and a decline in men - that will have profound effects for all organizations.

Partly due to 9/11 and partly to the movement of manufacturing jobs offshore, labor union membership continues to drop.

Read all this week's stories.
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Retirees at work
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:45 AM

OK, it may be an oxymoron. But in this mini-case study - and following on the theme of age and work Jason addresses over in the Job Blog ("Too old to work?" and "Early retirement") - we learn how NASA has turned to a group of retired "graybeards" to help determine what went wrong with the space shuttle Columbia:

Collectively, they have several hundred years of experience, including time spent designing the shuttle and investigating the Challenger disaster in 1986. ------- "NASA has pulled together some of those retired personnel, senior folks in terms of expertise, who we believe have corporate history and valuable, pertinent experience to aid us in our work to discern the details of Columbia's accident," JSC spokesman James Hartsfield said.

As every good recruiter knows, experience has demonstrable value. Read the story from the Orlando Sentinel. --------

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Outsourcing
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:28 AM

This morning's Globe has an in-depth review of the state of benefits outsourcing.

A recent Fidelity-funded survey of 264 large employers found that 84 percent outsource some portion of their benefits in order to save money and boost efficiency. Half of the employers said they first farmed out 401(k) administration. Thirty percent hire outsiders to handle their health insurance paperwork and employee servicing, while fewer than 12 percent pay others to run their payroll, recruiting, stock-option, or relocation programs.

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