May 28, 2004

Economy grows 4.4% in first quarter; job gains posted
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 9:36 AM - 0 comments

More good news on the economic front as the Boston Globe reports this morning that the economy grew 4.4% in the first quarter of the year:

The economy grew slightly faster than previously thought in the first quarter of this year, fresh evidence of momentum heading into the summer.
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The nation's payrolls, which had been posting lackluster gains, expanded by 288,000 in April on top of a hefty rise in March, leading economists to believe that the long-awaited recovery in the labor market was finally coming about.

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May 27, 2004

Vacations up, along with office check-ins
Posted by skenney@keystonepartners.com">Sean Kenney at 9:19 AM - 0 comments

The Travel Industry Association of America predicts a 3% increase in leisure travel for the summer. That's the biggest one-year jump in the last four years.

Vacations are on the rise. But while more people may be scheduling time out of the office, there is also a rise in the percentage of people who do not check out fully from their job. Technology makes it easier to stay in touch with the office, and increasingly both employers and employees expect some work to get done during vacations. This trend is further supported by a survey of laptop users.

Why are laptop owners bringing their computers along on vacation? Most wish to check their e-mail while away, with 44% engaging in that activity, while 26% keep updated with work.

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May 25, 2004

The roots, and branches, of offshore outsourcing
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:56 AM - 0 comments

Today's Boston Globe reports that outsourcing, as in moving jobs overseas, may have started right here with a husband-wife team, Indian-born MIT graduate Narendra K. Patni and his bride, Poonam, in Cambridge, Mass. in the early 70's. Now, with the practice having taken root over 30+ years and showing strong signs of being on the rise, Patni is no apologist for the trend:

While he recognizes that international outsourcing has rankled critics here, Patni, who attended Woodstock in 1969, raised his family in the Boston area, and became a US citizen in 1980, believes the trend will ultimately benefit both the US and Indian economies.
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Outsourcing advocates, such as Patni, point out that the lost work represents a small fraction of US gross domestic product. And they contend the overseas flow of low-wage jobs, in fields such as customer call centers, brings savings to the US economy and enables it to invest in higher-value activities, such as biomedical research.

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May 20, 2004

What you can do about retention
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 4:31 PM - 0 comments

ERE Daily article discusses ways to improve retention. Here is a case study of typical employee John:

He wasn't sure what to do. He had mostly been interviewing out of frustration with his current situation. He hadn't had a raise in two years, and his boss seemed incapable of saying anything nice about his work. John was putting in lots of extra time and was stressed out over the huge amount of work he was expected to complete with few resources. Past employee reductions had left his department short-handed, yet workloads were rising rapidly. He wasn't sleeping well, and his wife was upset because he never had energy or time for family activities.

The key? Make internal mobility the most important area of focus.

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Ikea's hiring "why-sayers"
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 9:21 AM - 0 comments

Phil Wolff notices an interesting recruitment piece from Ikea.

We're Hiring Why Sayers

People who want to make things better. Make things more fun. More clever. People who aren't restricted by convention, but challenged by it. People who fit perfectly at Ikea. Because it's the why that makes us successful. Just give us a call and submit a voice application. We'll be in touch with you as soon as possible.

Interesting...

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Three sectors seen as Mass. job growth engines
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 9:14 AM - 0 comments

The Boston Globe reports good news this morning on several fronts for the local economy:

Healthcare, education, and business services will add the most jobs over the next two years as Massachusetts' battered labor market finally begins to recover, according to a new economic forecast.

These sectors, which include hospitals, universities, and a variety of professional firms such as lawyers, accountants, and consultants, will create about two-thirds of the jobs projected for the state by the end of 2005, according to the New England Economic Partnership, which yesterday released its semi-annual forecast at a conference here.

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May 18, 2004

Bring on the plogs
Posted by pegasus@jpbutler.com">Jason Butler at 2:38 PM - 0 comments

CIO magazine has an article about how some companies are using weblogs to run projects.

[T]he blogging phenomenon has intriguingly useful implications for IT. I have to ask myself: Why wouldn't it make sense for an IT project manager to post a blog—or "plog" (project log)—to keep her team and its constituents up-to-date on project issues and concerns? Is it inherently inappropriate for an individual to post constructive observations about a project's progress? IT organizations that can effectively use blogs as managerial tools (or communication resources) are probably development environments that take both people and their ideas seriously.

And now, there are entire project management software suites which are essentially aggregations of blogs.

Also, in case you missed it, Johanna and I are quoted in this Workforce Management magazine article on using blogs for recruiting.

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The Globe 100
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:20 AM - 0 comments

The Boston Globe published its annual Globe 100 report this morning on Massachusetts' top companies. The data and analysis is sliced and diced a hundred different ways for easy consumption. Read about your industry sector, the competition, and more. It's all carried online and can be found by starting here.

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May 17, 2004

Are tuition reimbursement dollars well-spent?
Posted by skenney@keystonepartners.com">Sean Kenney at 3:31 PM - 0 comments

Companies that offer a tuition reimbursement benefit may do so for a variety of reasons, such as attracting potential employees, providing avenues for their employees to broaden themselves, or giving focused training that relates to their specific role or career path. One of the fundamental questions raised in this article is do business results motivate this policy or is it simply an employee perk?

Corporate America spent $10 billion on tuition reimbursement in 2003, but few companies track how those dollars are spent, or know whether they are getting any benefit by underwriting employees' degrees. It's not that ROI can't be measured. It's just that many companies don't seem to care about it.

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May 10, 2004

Retaining and rewarding talent grows the bottom line
Posted by skenney@keystonepartners.com">Sean Kenney at 1:57 PM - 0 comments

Do good management techniques improve the financial performance of the companies that rely on them? A study comparing their use with returns on capital says that they do.

The McKinsey Global Institute study measured the use of these three techniques in rating management performance: lean manufacturing, to minimize waste; talent management, to attract and retain high-caliber people; and performance management, to reward employees who meet preset goals. Two of those three are centered squarely in the HR space, and the results of the study are compelling.

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The future of recruiting
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 1:50 PM - 0 comments

The ever-provocative and forward-thinking John Sullivan of ERE (Electronic Recruiting Exchange) has a series running on the future of recruiting. In Part 3 of the series, all about the evolving role of the Internet in recruiting, Sullivan makes some bold predictons, some of which concern the role of hiring managers:

As managers get more skilled at using search engines, they will be able to create their own "instant" customized candidate pools. Once identified, rather than relying on what may be an old resume (or even no resume) to know the candidates background, these candidates will instead be "profiled" by using information that is gathered in bits and pieces and then put together on a single candidate profile form.

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May 6, 2004

New spin on sexual harassment
Posted by dwong@bostonworks.com">Dean Wong at 2:07 PM -

A former writer's assistant for the popular sitcom, Friends, is suing the writers, producers and Warner Brothers network on grounds she endured sexual harassment while on the job. The defendants argue that the writer, Amaani Lyle, knew that the work -- Her primary task in that position was to sit in on creative meetings and take detailed notes for the writers when they were plotting out potential story lines, dialogue, and jokes for a sitcom with adult sexual themes -- was understood to be part of the creative process.

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May 5, 2004

Senate rejects changes to overtime rules
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:40 AM -

The House has yet to vote, but the Senate made clear where they stand on a proposed change in overtime pay rules:

The Republican-controlled Senate voted yesterday to block new Labor Department rules that critics said would deny overtime pay to millions of white-collar workers, handing an embarrassing rebuff to the Bush administration.
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Five moderate Republicans broke ranks to vote with nearly all Democrats in favor of keeping the administration from cutting anyone's overtime pay. "This was a great victory for American workers and families" and sent a "clear message to the administration," said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who led the fight.

The issue has enormous resonance in an election year for workers in a vast array of jobs, ranging from nurses to oil rig workers, who, according to Democrats, could lose overtime pay.

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May 3, 2004

Good balance can mean good business
Posted by skenney@keystonepartners.com">Sean Kenney at 6:16 PM -

As professional services firms across the board address the challenges of integrating work-life balance initiatives into their typical modus operandi, one accounting firm appears to have made significant strides without compromising their performance.

Plante & Moran's women-friendly initiatives aren't just some belated graft onto an inhospitable host. Instead, they fit right in with the 80-year-old firm's long-standing people-focused culture.

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Massachusetts takes new route for seasonal workers
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 10:52 AM -

Many area employers are concerned about a shortfall of workers this summer, an article on HR.BLR.com reports, and they are not sitting still:

A month after the federal government announced that visas for seasonal workers had reached their cap, business leaders who rely on seasonal workers are looking for workers in new places.

Business leaders from Massachusetts are trying to recruit seasonal workers from the U.S. Virgin Islands because these workers, as residents of a U.S. territory, do not require a visa to work in the United States, according to the Associated Press.

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