October 31, 2006

Mass. economy grows 3.4%, twice US rate
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:58 AM

Welcome news announced recently by the US Department of Commerce and UMass about the local economy:

The Massachusetts economy, boosted by demand for technology products, grew twice as fast as the national economy in the third quarter, according to figures released yesterday by the US Department of Commerce and the University of Massachusetts.

It's great news for employers and job growth, across a range of industries:

The UMass report indicates a turnaround for the state economy, which in recent years has significantly lagged the national expansion. Massachusetts is now matching the nation's rate of job growth, while the state's broader economy has posted three consecutive quarters of solid economic growth above 3 percent.

"The state has experienced the strongest growth since the recession, lifted by worldwide demand for its technology and science-based products," said Alan Clayton-Matthews, the UMass-Boston professor who did the analysis.
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Moreover, said Clayton-Matthews, the job growth is in high-paying sectors, such as technology, biotechnology, and financial services. Manufacturing employment also has stabilized, boosted by record exports of technology, scientific products, and other products.

Read the entire piece from the Globe.

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October 26, 2006

'The Office' as model behavior - or not
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:47 AM

Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with NBC's Emmy-winning hit TV show "The Office", starring Steve Carell.

Now management experts at universities have siezed upon the popular satirical show as an educational tool, reports NPR's "Morning Edition":

Morning Edition, October 25, 2006 · The dysfunctional workplace portrayed in the TV show The Office rings true to many viewers. It also provides a roadmap of how not to manage a workplace.

To hear this audio segment (length: 3:36), follow this link and click on the "Listen" button.

What do you thnk? Fact, or fiction? How close a resemblance does the show bear to real life in your office? Do you agree with the management professors that perhaps there are some lessons to be learned? Let us know on the BostonWorks message board.

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October 24, 2006

See you in Providence
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:53 PM

HR professionals in New England and elsewhere in the northeast will want to make sure they mark their calendars for the annual NEHRA HR Invention Convention next week.

The HRIC runs from 11/1 - 11/3 in Providence and is the largest single confab of HR types in the region each year, with over 1,000 professionals expected to attend. It includes exhibits, keynote speakers, breakout sessions, networking opportunities, great food and entertainment, and more. Check out the details on the NEHRA website.

You can also get a preview, right here on the Hiring Hub, of Friday's closing keynote speech on "Becoming a Great Place to Work" by Wegmans supermarket executives Gerry Pierce and Karen Shadders:

In an industry racked by sky-high turnover, Wegmans enjoys a turnover rate of just eight percent, less than half the industry average according to Food Marketing Institute. Even while building new stores and hiring in new markets, the average tenure of a full-time Wegmans employee is over ten years. Wegmans career part-time employees' average tenure is more than five years. Employees are attracted to Wegmans because they know in advance they will be treated like gold. Retention rates are sky high because at the core is an intense job satisfaction achieved by meaningful interaction with both customers and management.

Read the full piece here.

While I'll be on the move much of the time, I'll be based at Platinum Sponsor BostonWorks' booth, just inside the main entrance to the exhibit hall. See you there.

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October 17, 2006

Gray matters. . .a lot
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:47 AM

The cover story in the current issue of Workforce Management magazine digs into the issue of looming Baby Boomer retirement and the shrinking workforce. Myth, or reality?

Myth, says WM editor John Hollon in his companion opinion piece:

The story quantifies what I have been saying for some time: that the looming labor shortage is a lot of overblown rhetoric. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Reason No. 1: Boomers are unlikely to follow the neat and tidy retirement patterns of the past. For better or worse, members of the post-World War II generation have always done things their own way. Why would they be any different in retirement?

And that ties to Reason No. 2: People are living longer, healthier lives. Life expectancy in the U.S. has risen from around 50 in 1910 to 77.6 years today, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Baby boomers will probably retire later than anticipated (if at all) and will be more likely to ease into a working retirement where they continue to work, but just not as much as before.

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October 16, 2006

It's not you, it's me
Posted by at 2:53 PM

I came across a great article by Kathy Gurchiek on SHRM. Called Reasons employees leave go deeper than paycheck, it is an excellent synthesis of a complicated topic of push factors (ie: those that push an to seek a new job, as opposed to those that pull an employee to a new position) involved in retention.

According to Gurchiek, the seven reasons are

• The job or workplace is not what the employee expected


• The job doesn't fit the employee's talents and interests


• The employee receives little or no feedback or coaching


• The employee has no hope for career growth


• The employee feels devalued and unrecognized


• The employee feels overworked and stressed


• The employee has no trust or confidence in his or her leaders

As recruiters, we can turn these pushes from other companies into pulls for our own companies. Knowing that these are factors that influenced their decision to seek a new job, we then have valuable insight into the (improved) culture in our company. I certainly plan to incorporate these client needs into our recruiting strategy.

Maureen Crawford Hentz

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Mass. software, hardware firms growing, hiring
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:30 AM

Welcome news from today's Globe about the rebounding local tech sector:

Employment in professional and business services, comprising a variety of tech firms, has grown a healthy 2 percent in the last year, twice the rate of overall employment growth in Massachusetts, according to the state Department of Workforce Development. Makers of technology products are bucking the trend of job losses in manufacturing and adding jobs -- more than 3,000 in the last year. Massachusetts tech exports are surging; foreign sales of semiconductor manufacturing and testing equipment nearly doubled in the past year.

This accompanying graphic from the piece helps tell the story.

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October 10, 2006

Study: "Commonwealth" a misnomer
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:20 PM

According to a new report from Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, productivity is up in Massachusetts but wages are stagnant:

The study, by Northeastern's Center for Labor Market Studies, found the state's median annual earnings, adjusted for inflation, have risen just $546 -- 1.2 percent -- since 1989. Meanwhile, productivity, or the amount produced by a worker in the same amount of time, soared nearly 50 percent in that period.

In other words, the typical employee is working harder, faster, and smarter, but getting few of the benefits, said Andrew Sum, the center's director and study's lead author. Historically, higher productivity has led to higher earnings after inflation. But globalization and other economic forces are breaking the link between productivity and wages, redistributing gains to consumers, corporations, and the richest workers.
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``Despite productivity gains, workers have nothing to show for it in their pockets," Sum said. ``The average worker is just treading water."

Unless I'm missing something, this sounds like it could lead to a real retention problem. Is your firm doing everything it can to to properly compensate its employees? If the answer is "no," it might be time to revisit the compensation plan.

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Not your father's law firm
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:21 PM

Say "law firm," or better yet say "Boston law firm," and images of oak-panelled walls, oriental carpets, and traditional mahogany furniture probably come to mind.

Wrong! These days, aka the 21st century, the legal office landscape is changing, as shown in this Boston.com photo gallery:

Law firms have begun to enter the modern age of design, shedding their fusty, dusty art collections and furniture in favor of a more chic image.

Take a walk now through some of their offices, which offer photography, sculpture, abstract art, and other furnishings more residential than commercial in look.

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October 4, 2006

Job seekers turning the tables
Posted by Diane Danielson at 1:43 PM

USA Today writes about how job seekers are looking for scoop on employers online.

Some job seekers are turning to sites such as Jobster, LinkedIn and Vault and seeking out candid posts from current or former employees about a host of topics, from salaries to company culture. Users are contacting or reading what current staffers have to say about where they work —— a twist that could be a potential drag or boon on companies' efforts to recruit.

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Young workers lacking in skills, knowledge, study says
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:28 PM

The workforce of tomorrow is here - and it is sorely lacking.

So states a new report, based on a survey of over 400 HR officials, conducted in spring of this year by SHRM and The Conference Board, among other partners:

"The future workforce is here, and it is ill-prepared," concludes the report.

The findings reflect employers' growing frustrations over the preparedness of new entrants to the workforce. Employers expect young people to arrive with a core set of basic knowledge and the ability to apply their skills in the workplace, but the reality is not matching the expectation.

Read the full article from the SmartPros.com website.

Is this your experience with entry-level Gen Y workers? Let us know your thoughts on our message board.

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October 3, 2006

Third-party recruiters meet OFCCP
Posted by at 7:04 PM

One of the projects I have been working on is our agreements with third-party recruiters. I have had a number of conversations in the past few weeks with recruiters who are unfamiliary with OFCCP. As a company that falls under OFCCP, this is a great concern to me. I came across a great article by Dr. Michael Harris on ere.net. Among the other parts of his article, he includes this:

...if discrimination occurs in the recruitment process, both the employer and the employment agency may be liable. Recruiters, employment agencies, and employers should beware; recruitment and hiring can create legal liability for all parties, not just the employment agency or the employer. You may be responsible for the discriminatory acts performed by another party.

A caveat for us all...

Maureen Crawford Hentz

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Before hiring a candidate, consider the fit
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:27 PM

So says columnist Jim Citrin on Yahoo! Finance:

. . .[I]f you hire an individual for a key position and people decide that he or she is a severe mismatch with the culture -- even if all the skills and experience line up beautifully -- all of your efforts will be for naught. The cost of getting it wrong is extreme from an out-of-pocket financial perspective and, more important, from a disruption and opportunity cost point of view.

Read the whole piece, which offers points to consider for job candidates as well as hiring managers.

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October 2, 2006

12 best recruiting practices to copy
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:58 PM

From John Sullivan at ERE (Electronic Recruiting Exchange) comes this collection of twelve recruiting techniques to emulate - OK, copy.

Here's one example that runs somewhat counter to current thinking:

10. JP Morgan and the Athlete's Alliance for hiring athletes because of their discipline. To say that most college recruiting programs are uppity would be an understatement. They look only at top schools and demand outrageous grade point averages. In addition, they shun athletes and cheerleaders as "dumb jocks." But it turns out that athletic competition builds discipline and the willingness to work hard to succeed. These two organizations have realized that individuals with these traits and a history of winning can carry those behaviors in the business world. Bravo to these companies for bypassing the school name, major, and GPA and instead looking directly at skills, abilities, and a track record of producing under intense competition.

Learn Sullivan's other 11 practices.

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October 1, 2006

Gender bias in humor?
Posted by Diane Danielson at 12:21 PM

Eileen Boylan writes a really interesting piece in BostonWorks' "View from the Cube" about how humor in the office can evoke another form of gender bias.

And that was why I had no future in this organization. I didn't understand that women in business were not supposed to be funny. Especially funnier than [the boss]. The irony of being terminated at a gender bias seminar, because of gender bias, would have been rich, but I wasn't fired. Our employer, a consumer products company, would not allow it. HR promptly instructed [my boss] that tasteful humor, particularly in an informal meeting, was not grounds for termination. But, it was grounds for making my life even more miserable.

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