June 30, 2004

Diversity issue: when faith clashes with corporate policy
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:13 PM

While the trend toward multiculturalism and diversity in the workplace might seem a no-brainer for HR departments to champion, there can be some tricky waters to navigate, as this report from NPR's Morning Edition reveals:

For years, courts have refereed disputes over accommodating religion in the workplace. But what happens when an employee's religious beliefs collide with the company's secular vision? NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports in the conclusion to a three-part series on religion in the workplace.

To hear this audio blog, go to the Morning Edition page for June 30 and scroll down to the link for "When Faith Clashes With Corporate Policy." Entire segment runs just under 8 min.
--------

...

 

June 28, 2004

Definition of job applicant needs work, SHRM says
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:35 PM

SHRM weighs in on the hot-button hiring issue of what, exactly, defines a job applicant, and the impact on record-keeping for employers, a key issue as government guidelines evolve:

The proposed federal definition of a job applicant fails to provide adequate guidance for HR professionals when determining who should and should not be considered an applicant, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says in comments to federal agencies.
- - - - -
Another key drawback of the interagency proposal, SHRM says, is that it does not state clearly that, to qualify as an applicant, a person must meet an employer’s minimum qualifications for a job opening. “Omitting any guidelines on the minimum qualifications for an employee will present problems to employers because it could expand the definition of applicant to anyone who shows interest in the job whether or not they are even qualified,” said Wunsh.

Read the article from SHRM online.
--------

...

 

June 25, 2004

Study: US firms lose $105 billion a year to poor people performance
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:42 AM

Results of a recent study, as reported on HR Hub.com, show that US companies lose $105 billion annually to employee underperformance and errors:

Though companies across the globe are vocally committed to shareholder value, results from an independent report from SHL show they are falling short in the critical area of people performance. The United States is losing $105 billion a year to poor hiring and management practices. This shortfall is worth 1.05% of total US GDP.

The global study shows similar issues around the world.

Is this an issue in your firm? Are you addressing it when employees are on the way in, ie, during the hiring process? Are you addressing it once they are on board and part of the firm's activities, ie, are you achieving optimal results from your workforce?

Read more.

--------

...

 

June 23, 2004

Who's watching the store?
Posted by Sean Kenney at 5:14 PM

"A federal judge on Tuesday approved class-action status for a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that has become the largest private civil rights case in U.S. history.

It could represent as many as 1.6 million current and former female employees of the retailing giant. The suit alleges Wal-Mart created a system that frequently pays its female workers less than their male counterparts for comparable jobs and bypasses women for key promotions."

This lawsuit raises interesting questions about the challenges of implementing a corporate policy at the field level, where the hiring and promotion decisions are actually made. What systems must HR have in place to monitor these potential discrepancies and prevent this type of legal exposure?

--------

...

 

June 22, 2004

Business Week on employee blogging
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:47 AM

Business Week reports on how more companies are encouraging their employees to blog, and dealing intelligently with the tradeoffs.

Until recently, the thought of employees blabbing freely to the masses about their work on company time -- without the suits from PR hovering over them to stay "on message" -- would have created panic in the executive suite. But in the past year, employee blogs have begun to multiply across Corporate America -- and a growing number of companies approve. ...

Microsoft doesn't train employees in the fine art of blogs, but employees hold meetings to talk about them. The blogs carry disclaimers, but other than that, "our unspoken policy on blogging is: Don't be stupid," says product manager Adam Sohn.

--------

...

 

June 21, 2004

Entrepreneurs need to plan ahead for staffing
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:34 AM

Here's an interesting posting from Jeff Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind about how small businesses should plan for staffing as the employment market turns.

During the last big economic boom, the single biggest impediment keeping the entrepreneurs I was working with from growing was staffing problems. They could not hire the right people when they needed them to take advantage of a growing market.

--------

...

 

June 18, 2004

Reports point to more growth
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 8:51 AM

From today's Boston Globe, a report of more positive indicators from The Conference Board and DOL:

The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits dropped last week, and a closely watched gauge of future economic activity rose more than expected in May, suggesting that the US economy can continue a sturdy expansion through the summer.

--------

...

 

June 15, 2004

Taking collaboration to the next level in the life sciences
Posted by Sean Kenney at 9:24 AM

"The open-source model is a good way to produce software, as the example of Linux shows. Could the same collaborative approach now revitalise medical research too?"

This interesting article in The Economist explores potential areas where the collaborative, open-source approach to drug discovery could encourage development where there currently is little incentive to do so. Could the approach to the human genome mapping project be expanded to other areas of discovery?
--------

...

 

June 7, 2004

The rise of the permatemp
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:44 AM

The Boston Globe reports this morning on a new trend in the workplace as a result of recent economic shifts and new forces at work - permanent temporary employees:

More Americans — some by choice, others by necessity — are finding themselves in similar positions as technology, global uncertainty, and increasingly fierce competition restructure the US work force. Just as companies adopted so-called “just in time” delivery and production methods to better match inventories to demand, so too are they increasingly relying on short-term labor to react more nimbly to changing business conditions.

The result: The temporary help industry is among the fastest-growing segments of the labor market. Employment in the sector has doubled since 1990, ballooning at a rate five times faster than national employment as a whole.

For many businesses the lean, flexible workforce makes sense and clearly keeps costs down. But what does this do for the longer-term development of talent, not to mention loyalty? And what effect does it have on retention of your full-time workforce?
--------

...

 

June 4, 2004

US employers add 248,000 new jobs in May
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:19 AM

The Boston Globe reports more good news on the job front this morning as the latest national figures were released by the US DOL:

U.S. employers added almost a quarter million workers in May, extending a nine-month hiring spree and accommodating enough new jobseekers to hold the unemployment rate steady at 5.6 percent.

--------

...

 

June 3, 2004

How do you handle failures at your company?
Posted by Sean Kenney at 5:32 PM

How would you keep your team focused and driven if 96% of the time they were likely, or even expected, to fail? Consider the life of a drug discovery team.

"As leaders, a big part of our task is to keep the best and brightest minds in research connected to the mission," [Nancy Hutson] says. "At the same time, we have to help them understand that only a tiny minority of them--over their entire careers--will ever touch a winning drug." And for the rest? "We have to lead them through failure," Hutson says.

--------

...

 

June 2, 2004

Mass. business confidence soars in May
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:48 PM

From today's Globe, more good news for the local economy and job scene:

Business confidence in Massachusetts jumped to its highest level in 3 years as Bay State companies enjoyed improving economic conditions, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

--------

...

 

June 1, 2004

Companies ready their convention battle plan
Posted by Jason Butler at 6:02 AM

This morning's Globe talks about what some Boston-area employers are doing to ready their workforce for the convention's disruption.

[C]ompanies with a substantial downtown workforce are caught between the need to maintain critical operations and the desire of police and public officials who want people to stay away from the city for traffic and security reasons during the four-day convention at the FleetCenter starting July 26.

What are you doing to prepare for the convention?
--------

...