July 31, 2003

Fed notes uptick in economy
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:15 AM -

From today's Boston Globe:

America's economy, which has been poking along, displayed fresh signs of gaining momentum in June and the first half of July, the Federal Reserve said yesterday in its latest snapshot of US business activity.
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The Fed's First District, headquartered in Boston and covering New England, gave a "somewhat upbeat" assessment of the New England economy, saying retailers were reporting strong demand for housing-related products even as other sectors like tourism remain soft.

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July 30, 2003

You have until Aug 15th!
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 3:50 PM -

SHRM and the Great Place to Work Institute is accepting nominations for the 2004 "Best Small and Medium Companies to Work for in America." The deadline is Aug 15th. For more information and to nominate your small or medium sized business visit the Great Place to Work Institute.

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July 29, 2003

Around the clock blues
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 1:47 PM -

From "Out in the Field", our weekly compendium of employment stats and trends in BostonWorks in the Sunday Globe:

US companies with around-the-clock operations are losing $206 billion per year, according to a new study.

The study by Circadian Technologies Inc., a Lexington consulting firm, found that companies with 24-7 operations have lower unit costs and shorter supply chains than traditional firms. They also have more job-related injuries, higher healthcare costs, greater employee turnover, and lower productivity, said the report.

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Betting on fun
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 1:42 PM -

From this Sunday Globe's BostonWorks section, an article entilted "Local firms bet on fun to boost employee satisfaction, retention" looks at what some local companies are doing to keep their folks happy and productive in a down economy and keep them around when things turn up:

When employees are satisfied with their jobs, the data show they are absent less and they are more likely to stay with the employer, according to [organizational psychologist Davd] Javitch.

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Are you supporting your B players?
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 9:43 AM -

B players are some of the most loyal and productive employees companies have. Are you managing them properly? From HBS Working Knowledge:

According to HBS professor Thomas J. DeLong, both in a reunion session for HBS alumni and in a recent Harvard Business Review article co-authored with Vineeta Vijayaraghavan, B players are the “heart and soul” of any company. B players are loyal. They are the ones who do their work without fanfare or fuss. They are the keepers of institutional memory during hard times such as a merger or downsizing.

There are some who could be A players but have chosen not to for lifestyle reasons. There are others who aren’t ever going to be stars, “which is fine,” said DeLong. Unlike A players, B players are often more secure in their objectives and know where they want to go. They need less feedback; they don’t want handholding.

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July 28, 2003

Companies face a hit from the do-not-call list
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 9:40 AM -

From the San Antonio Express-News:

As of Wednesday morning, some 26.3 million people have signed up for the National No Call Registry, which becomes effective Oct. 1. The Federal Trade Commission, which maintains the list, expects the number to rise to 60 million over time.

But those annoying sales pitches also generate telemarketing jobs and help some of the nation's largest companies — phone providers, department stores, insurance firms and financial service companies among them — to generate new sales.

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July 24, 2003

Drop in US jobless claims boosts hopes for economy
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 2:21 PM -

From Reuters, via Boston.com:

The number of Americans lodging new jobless claims plunged unexpectedly last week to the lowest level since February, bolstering hopes the economy may have finally shed the cobwebs of the 2001 recession.

While the Labor Department on Wednesday cautioned against reading too much into the improvement, saying July is always a volatile month, economists seized on the surprising strength in the job market as evidence the economy is on the mend.

"I think this puts a stake in the heart of those that claim recession is still with us," John Lonski, chief economist at Moody's Investors Service in New York.

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How HR pros can climb into the executive suite
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:10 AM -

Company leaders recognize that employees are the competitve advantage in the market. This places a higher value and overall importance on them. And thus, HR professionals are moving into the executive suite. From CareerJournal:

In 2001, 30 HR professionals climbed into the ranks of senior-level management, according to a study of the career moves of 537 HR managers by Drake Beam Morin (DBM), an HR and career transition consulting company in New York. Of those 30 HR professionals, 11 secured spots at the very top of organizations, as chief executive officers. The trend is no flash-in-the-pan; it's inevitable and will grow...

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Turnaround for Mass. economy sighted
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:02 AM -

From "Businesss in Brief" in today's Globe, signs that the local economy may be stabilizing:

The Massachusetts economy continues to struggle, but signs of a recovery are emerging, according to some indexes. The University of Massachusetts's . . .index of leading indicators, which forecasts activity, projected the state economy would grow at a 2.1 percent annual rate over the next six months.

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July 23, 2003

All eyes on proposed changes to FLSA
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 9:17 AM -

Now that the public comment period has ended, the changes proposed in March could be implemented by the end of the year. From Human Resource Executive:

Under terms of the revisions, about 640,000 white-collar workers could lose their overtime pay and more than a million low-income employees could begin to earn it. About 110 million workers are covered by the current regulations.

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July 22, 2003

Where's your ping-pong table?
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 2:32 PM -

BostonWorks in the Sunday Globe reports that several local firms still offer exotic perks that might seem out of place in the current employment market:

Many firms have retained perks as a commitment to a unique corporate culture created by adding value to the lifestyle and work-life of their employees. In addition to the goals of retention and recruitment, enriching employees' experience at work, creating a company community, and recognizing the entire work-life of the individual, are primary objectives.

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Worcester healthcare facility boosts staff potential
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 2:24 PM -

From BostonWorks in the Sunday Globe, read about one local healthcare facility's approach to the problem of the nursing shortage:

Faced with a critical shortage of nurses aides and licensed practical nurses, some nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities are developing their own. One example: Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Worcester.

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UPS and deaf workers
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 10:58 AM -

UPS has agreed to pay $5,800,000 to settle a lawsuit by deaf workers.

The hearing-impaired plaintiffs testified during the trial that they were routinely excluded from workplace information, denied opportunities for promotion and exposed to unsafe conditions due to lack of accommodation by UPS.

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July 21, 2003

The life cycle of a silver bullet
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 9:47 AM -

Does your organization fall victim to the silver bullet syndrome?

In the 17th century, Europeans believed that silver bullets could kill werewolves. Today's executives seek silver bullets to protect themselves not from werewolves but from sliding profits, disillusioned stockholders, and lost market share. The silver bullets for our executives are those new management trends that promise to transform the way business is done. Examples over the decades have included Management by Objectives and Total Quality Management, while Six Sigma, Lean Enterprise, the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and agile software development techniques are more recent methods earning silver-bullet reputations. Process improvement initiatives like these can and do work, but how they are implemented is critical to their success.

Here's a parable about the typical life cycle of the silver bullet.

What HR silver bullets have flamed out for you? Which ones have worked? Let me know, and I'll aggregate and post the results.

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July 18, 2003

Union label fading?
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:51 AM -

Layoffs and reorgs are factors for the decline in private industry unions. But what about government agencies? From Human Resource Executive:

That falling rate has been a constant for private industry since 1983, according to the DOL. The union membership rate for private industry workers has fallen by nearly half in the past 19 years.
In contrast, the unionization rate for government workers has held fairly steady over the time. In the latest statistics, the number of unionized public sector workers grew slightly, rising from 37.2 percent in 2001 to 37.5 percent last year.

Check out Jason's job blog entry on union conflicts.

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July 17, 2003

The changing workplace
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 5:25 PM -

Well worth the detour: four in-depth articles in a series on the "Changing Workplace" published by the Ford Foundation:

Out of Balance - Companies are recognizing that providing benefits to low-wage employees—stretched thin by the demands of work and life—can yield big returns.

Under the Radar - Freelancers and part-timers are now one-third of the U.S. workforce, and they need the same benefits as other workers.

Running in Place - Can people still work their way out of poverty?

Working It Out - Can new alliances between job seekers and employers help bring prosperity for all?

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Gimme attitude
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 4:26 PM -

From Workforce.com, a piece on the concept of hiring attitude, not skills:

It’s a straightforward concept: hire the right people and build a better--and more profitable--organization. While many corporations are still thrilled by an MBA from Stanford or a jaw-dropping résumé that includes the initials GE or P&G, a growing number of organizations are ditching traditional thinking. They’re hiring for attitude, reasoning that you can teach the right person the skills to do the job but you can’t transform even the most knowledgeable person into a success if she lacks the right temperament. "Although personality-based hiring has been around for years, it’s now in the spotlight," says Bill Byham, CEO of Development Dimensions International, a Pittsburgh consulting firm that helped pioneer the concept.

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Slouching toward a labor shortage
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:39 AM -

Doug blogged a recent BostonWorks article reporting on the impending labor shortage caused by the retirement of Baby Boomers. Here is another story from the ERE.

The baby-boomer generation was, and is, approaching the accepted retirement age. Ten years ago, as it does today, it represented about 40% of the professional workforce. So ten years ago the HR/Staffing industry became progressively aware of a pending labor shortage due not only to extended economic growth, but also to a decline in the actual number of workers. If baby-boomers were water, we would call it a drought.

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July 15, 2003

A nightmare on the job
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 9:41 AM -

From Newsweek:

The Meridian tragedy raises some troubling questions not just for Lockheed, but for any company with a disturbed and angry employee in its ranks (there have been other such shootings, like the one at a millwork factory in Goshen, Ind., in 2001 that left two dead and six wounded). In Williams’s case, his supervisors at Lockheed ordered him to attend a two-week anger-management course after he threatened a co-worker in 2001 and, more recently, sent him home when he donned a bootee on his head that looked like a Ku Klux Klan hood. Could Lockheed have done more? Can the victims’ families hold the company liable?

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July 14, 2003

Company culture; targeted training
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:45 AM -

From "Out in the Field", BostonWorks' weekly round-up of workplace stats and trends:

Company culture role seen in internal strife

The American Management Association reports that 81 percent of 493 executives believe the negative attitudes of departmental or unit managers are responsible for friction between corporate departments, causing their staffs to work in isolation rather than cooperatively. According to the study, 59 percent blamed their companies' corporate culture for preventing departments from working together, and 50 percent said some units place their own priorities ahead of their employers' goals, resulting in friction.

Study charts benefits of targeted training programs

A new report by the Aspen Institute concludes that specialized training that coincides with the needs, economic cycles, and demands of a particular industry can boost low-wage workers' salaries significantly and increase job security. "The current labor market is complex and contradictory," writes Maureen Conway, coauthor of the study. "In the midst of rising unemployment rates, employers in critical industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, and the building trades continue to struggle to recruit and retain workers with sound basic and technical skills.

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Baby boomers' exit to leave huge gap in work force
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:43 AM -

How will you staff up to meet critical areas of need when the boomers start heading for the exits?

It is common knowledge that the size of the baby boom generation could well shake the foundations of the Social Security system. What is less well known and only now coming into focus is the potential impact boomer retirements could have on many businesses and industries. The large bulge that transformed the work force so spectacularly from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s is now preparing to exit in equally dramatic fashion, potentially draining organizations of more talented and skill-rich individuals than succeeding, numerically smaller generations will be able to replace.

Read the article from this Sunday's Globe BostonWorks section.

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Staffing for overnight positions
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:31 AM -

Do you have third shifts that need to be filled?

Moonlight Staffing places temporary workers in six categories--manufacturing, warehouse, technology, health care, hospitality and janitorial--that bridge the blue-collar/white-collar divide, said co-founder Todd Kimball, president. Employers in some of those categories traditionally need night-time employees. Given an increasingly global economy, however, other industries historically viewed as working standard hours are finding a need for some night workers. Other businesses are simply offering flexible work schedules to meet the needs of employees, some of whom prefer night hours based on child-care issues or their personal likes.

Read the entire article.

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July 11, 2003

Trouble in paradise for Southwest Airlines
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:05 AM -

A lesson in internal customer service:

Holding signs that read, "Gimme a break," and "Discounted Fares Not Discounted Employees," flight attendants told of 13-hour shifts with no scheduled breaks and no meals. Company policies are so stringent that, in one case, an attendant had to beg a flight's captain to do some of her duties so that she could run to the bathroom, they said. Some also said they sometimes have to ask pilots to buy food for them, or pack a sandwich.

Read the entire article.

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July 10, 2003

New Kids on the Blog
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 10:10 AM -

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer discusses the outbreak of employee blogging at Microsoft.

Employee blogs can put a human face on a monolithic corporation, giving outsiders new insights into a company's culture and building a sense of community around its products. But corporate traditionalists also worry when employees express their personal thoughts about work in a public venue, without so much as a quick read by the PR department.

"They're sort of watching it," Scoble said of Microsoft's executives. "They're allowing the bloggers to talk and hoping that nobody gets into trouble or gets sued, or a customer gets mad, or that we get quoted in the press and create a firestorm."

Scoble also discusses this on his own blog.

I am free to say anything I want. I can even tell Bill Gates to split up Microsoft here. Now, Bill is free to fire me at any time, because of what I write, but that doesn't take away the fact that I'm free to write it. I just have to be willing to live with the consequences of what I write.

So, HR folks, does this sort of unfiltered communication between employees and the general public freak you out? Drop me a line and let me know...

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Once it's out there, you can't get it back
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 10:05 AM -

John Robb resigned from Userland, a weblog software company. Userland then blew away all his weblog postings from the company servers.

The Internet never forgets, though.

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Avoiding HR burnout
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 9:39 AM -

From SHRM's HR Magazine:

As the pivot point between employees and management, many HR professionals find it difficult to balance human concerns and business interests. When the two roles start to pull you in opposite directions, the result is likely to be a lot of internal conflict, confusion and stress.

Sometimes, this bad situation is made worse by the frustration of not being able to help employees as much as you would like.

Read the entire article.

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Several signs hint at coming recovery in job market
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 9:26 AM -

From USA Today:

After years of decline, signs that the U.S. job market might soon improve are finally starting to emerge.

The biggest omen: The number of temporary help workers rose for the second-consecutive month, to 2.2 million in June following three months of declines, the Labor Department said last week. A rise in temporary help is considered a leading indicator of a turnaround in employment. That's because employers who need more workers but are still a bit gun-shy in an uncertain economy often hire temps as a precursor to full-time hiring.

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July 9, 2003

June a slow month for employment
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:39 AM -

From Talon News:

The labor market remained sluggish in June, with unemployment rising to 6.4 percent and total nonfarm payroll employment remaining essentially unchanged.
Construction and some service-providing industries added jobs. These gains, however, were offset by the continuing erosion of employment in manufacturing, telecommunications, and air transportation, as well as some losses in other industries.

Read the entire article.

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July 8, 2003

Summer is finally here and so are the vacation requests
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 10:47 AM -

Okay, so Memorial Day weekend is the unoffical start of summer but with 50 degree temps and monsoon like rains, most of us spent that weekend rearranging our closets, not taking vacations. Okay, so the summer solstice- the official start of summer- was June 21. That too was a rain soaked chilly weekend. With my closets were already organized, I sat in my living room watching my lawn grow out of control. Ah, but now, now the July 4th weekend was hot and steamy. Summer has finally arrived and seems to be sticking around. Time to plan a vacation.

And I am not the only one thinking this. Summer vacation requests are rolling in, how do you manage them? How do you make sure that you still have enough people to run your business? This article from the Pittsburgh Business Times will help you answer these questions.

Managers have to prepare in advance for vacation season and take into account organizational demands and determine how much of that work can be carried out internally.

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Blogs in the workplace
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 9:23 AM -

Well, if you're reading this blog you certainly know what a blog is. But as this piece from The New York Times states, the application, still in its infancy, is finding new uses in the workplace:

Web logs, or blogs as they are known, are a type of frequently updated online journal, often featuring excerpts from news articles and links to other blogs. So far, Web logs are best known as a medium for communicating with the general public — like the blog by the noted journalist Andrew Sullivan (www.andrewsullivan.com), which is devoted to culture and politics. . .

But a growing number of businesses, government organizations and educational institutions are using Web logs to manage and improve the flow of information among employees. These blogs, not accessible to the public, typically allow many people to contribute entries that can be read by others in the organization.

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July 7, 2003

CEO salaries down; burnout; underlings
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:04 AM -

Three stories from this week's "Out in the Field" from the Boston Globe:

CEO compensation:

Cuts in cash bonuses coupled with the stagnant economy's negative impact on revenues led to a 22.6 percent decrease in total cash compensation to the highest paid executives, according to a report by the Economic Research Institute and CareerJournal.com.

Burnout:

A lot of workers are suffering from burnout.

Such are the findings of a survey by The Discovery Group, a Sharon management consulting firm. The company, which based its findings, on information gleaned from 59 companies with a total of 50,000 employees, found that 40 percent feel physically and mentally exhausted at work.

Underlings:

Just about anybody can learn to be a boss, but some people can't stand being a member of the rank and file.

So says a new study slated for publication in the October 2003 edition of the Journal of Personality.

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July 3, 2003

CEOs see hiring, spending in future
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 5:14 PM -

Some good news for the holiday weekend from today's Globe:

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce yesterday released a survey that shows many of the region's top executives are planning to hire new workers as well as spend on new technology and equipment, another sign that the local economy may be heading for a turnaround.

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July 2, 2003

Companies see court rulings as support for diversity
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 3:15 PM -

From The New York Times:

The Supreme Court's rulings about diversity in higher education sent a strong signal to the nation's employers that they can continue to use race as a factor in hiring, corporate executives and employment law experts said.

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Confidence among Mass. firms leaps
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 11:28 AM -

Impact on hiring?

Confidence among Massachusetts businesses surged in June, with firms expecting economic conditions to improve by year's end, according to Associated Industries of Massachusetts. AIM's business confidence index posted its biggest monthly gain, 4.2 points, since January 1999, jumping to 48.2 from 44 in May.

Read the entire business brief from today's Boston Globe.

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July 1, 2003

Skyrocketing health costs pit colleagues against each other
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 3:56 PM -

CareerJournal reports that rising healthcare costs are causing a new type of friction among employees:

The battle over rising health-care costs has long pitted employers against workers. Now, as more companies slash their health-insurance benefits, it is starting to set worker against worker. The clash goes beyond fat-versus-thin or smokers-versus-nonsmokers.

Healthy young workers question how much they should help pay for diabetic seniors. Things that used to be no one else's business -- such as what people eat for lunch -- are becoming everyone's business.

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Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 12:39 PM -

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HR executives look to reaffirm their primary functions
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 12:39 PM -

From the Everett Herald out of Washington state:

More than 9,000 HR professionals wrapped up the annual conference of the Society for Human Resource Management in Orlando, Fla., last week, vowing this year to get "a seat at the table" with influential executives who make the major decisions such as when to reverse the three years of stagnant or falling hiring activity.
Analyzing comments of their top leaders, questions remain whether HR universally is getting the respect from senior leadership that it hopes for and expects. David Hutchins, the society's board chairman, told conference delegates: "HR is at a crossroads, has been at a crossroads for several years, as to whether we will truly have a seat at the table and be an important player in corporate decision-making."

Read the entire article.

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Employees happier with jobs than HR thinks
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 9:51 AM -

Also from SHRM:

A recent job satisfaction poll showed that employees feel more satisfied and secure in their jobs than surveyed HR professionals believed them to be.

Read the entire article.

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Perceptions of retirement-age workers
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 9:47 AM -

Most HR professionals see many advantages to hiring post-retirement-age workers but have not taken substantial steps to retain or recruit them, according to a new study released Sunday at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference and Exposition in Orlando, Fla.

A substantial number of Americans age 65 and older remain in the workforce and, as baby boomers reach traditional retirement age, that number will increase dramatically over the next decade or so. However, many HR professionals have not focused on this talent pool, according to the study, which was prepared by SHRM; the Arlington, Va.-based National Older Worker Career Center, a nonprofit group that expands training and employment opportunities for older workers; and the New York-based Committee for Economic Development, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization.

Read the piece from the SHRM web site.

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