Author: Kevin Dobbs

Until this year, Christina Backlund, a 15-year veteran of California’s Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency in Sacramento, believed that her job was secure. Frankly, she’d never considered working anywhere else. But now she’s expecting a pink slip any day, and is understandably anxious about how to carve out another career. “A lot of us were in denial at first, hoping this wouldn’t happen,” she says. “But the state is cutting across all agencies, and you have to start making some kind of plan.”

Throughout the country, thousands of state and city government workers are finding their careers similarly beached. From California to New York City, governors and mayors are vowing to narrow gaping budget gaps by slashing jobs. In a press release, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg sums it up in a word: “Painful.” About 35 states and hundreds of local governments are grappling with budget crises, due mostly to sagging tax revenues resulting from a national economy that continues to move at an anemic pace. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that states are facing a cumulative $68.5 billion budget shortfall for fiscal 2004. NCSL president Angela Monson called the magnitude of the gap “startling,” adding that sweeping job cuts were inevitable.

The fallout is that former government workers are confronting unique stereotypes and challenges in the job market. Recruiters say that much of corporate America, which is once again able to be choosy when hiring, would rather hire people with private-sector experience. Private-industry workers, the thinking goes, are used to worrying about pumping up revenue streams and making a profit. That comes with longer hours and, by extension, heftier workloads. Those working in government, on the other hand, are accustomed to guaranteed budgets and working hours and regular raises.

“A lot of people just think state workers have an easy time of it,” says Sue Roberson, who is now in the private sector after working for several years as a secretary for the state of Iowa. “I don’t think that’s the case for most, but there is some of that. We had one department where we could have cut 50 people and still done the same amount of work. We had women that did their hair and nails on state time, so people probably have some reason to think that with a government job, all you have to do is show up.”

Recruiters say they hear the same concerns. “Whether it’s true or not, that’s the perception of people who work in government, especially those who have worked there for a long time,” says Karen Bloomfield, spokeswoman for Cleveland-based Management Recruiters International. “That’s a perennial problem for those people as they look for jobs.”

She says that though many will eventually find jobs, their new careers are likely to pay less and offer fewer opportunities for advancement. Not surprisingly, this chips away at employee confidence, even among those who don’t get pink slips, Bloomfield says.

In Maine, for instance, state lawmakers were able to close a $1.2 billion budget gap with fewer than 200 layoffs. That’s less than 2 percent of the state workforce. Still, says Carl Leinonen, executive director of the Maine State Employees Association, “if you’re one of those let go, it’s pretty awful. And among those they leave behind, there’s a lingering sense of insecurity.” Leinonen and others close to the situation say that the uncertainty can become all-consuming, affecting workers’ ability to focus on their jobs and to be productive.

Leinonen says that for workforce managers at government agencies, the layoffs pose two significant challenges: first, restoring confidence in the survivors, and second, building on that confidence when it’s time to hire again, as many job-hunters shy away from employers known for making cuts.

A survey released in April by the NCSL in Denver reports that nearly a dozen states already have announced layoffs this year and a dozen more may follow suit beginning in July. California, which had a record $35 billion budget deficit at one point this spring, planned to eliminate 10,000 positions via attrition and layoffs. Connecticut has already given notice to nearly 3,000 people. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush wants to eliminate at least that many jobs through cuts and privatization of state services. That shrinking workforce, recruiters say, is redefining workers’ opinions about government careers.

In the boom years of the 1990s, cities and states increased their staffs by 20 percent, to about 19 million workers nationwide. That continued a rarely interrupted growth trend that began 70 years ago. College-educated professionals were attracted by the stability of government jobs that, in addition to good pay, often came with regular raises, ample opportunity for advancement and reasonable hours. But as governors and city councils more commonly view job cuts as the fastest way to compensate for declining revenues, the environment is changing fast.

Former government workers are facing a vexing issue. The job market already is saturated with laid-off white-collar techies, mid-level managers and other professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for highly educated professionals increased from 2.8 to 3.1 percent in the past year. The public-sector picture will only inflate that figure.

Glenda Gorsch, an 11-year veteran of Iowa’s state government, has learned that the hard way. She figured that her job as a liquor-license inspector would carry her to retirement. The work was stable, and she found it rewarding. “You help protect the public,” she says. She earned about $42,000 a year. It wasn’t big money, but if she had worked until age 65, she could have built a decent retirement fund.

In May 2002, however, Gorsch was one of 200 state workers laid off as part of an effort to stem costs. After more than a year of job hunting, she’s still unemployed. “I’m not having any luck. There’s just not much out there.”

A survey by the Washington, D.C.-based National League of Cities found that three-fourths of mayors say they are less able to meet their financial needs this year than last–the bleakest survey result in a decade. The leading drain in major cities, aside from weaker-than-expected tax revenues, is the soaring cost of law enforcement, the result of heightened homeland-security needs.

In New York, the hardest-hit of all, about 1,000 of the city’s 38,000 police officers have been pulled off their regular beats and placed on antiterrorism duty since September 11, 2001, forcing the city to pay other officers costly overtime on a regular basis to cover shifts. That has intensified the need to accelerate cuts elsewhere in city government. In what the local media labeled a “doomsday budget,” Bloomberg announced in April that the city may have to let go as many as 4,500 of its workers to help offset a $3.8 billion revenue shortfall. Last-minute brokering for state assistance will trim that number, but the city still projects hundreds of cuts.

Meanwhile, Boston and San Francisco are each cutting more than 1,000 jobs. Federal aid may help, says John DeStefano Jr., president of the National League of Cities. But before the tide turns, state and city governments may have shed more than 100,000 people from their payrolls.

Workforce, July 2003, pp. 88-89 — Subscribe Now!

With a world economy floundering and travel costs mounting, one drug companyknew it must cut training costs aggressively, and discovered that the bestglobal classroom deal is on the Web.

Kendle International Inc., a pharmaceutical research company in Cincinnati,employs researchers throughout the globe who must be trained before everyclinical trial. Scaling back on training without compromising quality, the1,800-person firm knew, would require high-powered software–technology thatcouldn’t be maintained in-house–to launch an effective online program. Sothe company embarked on a hunt for an emerging technology known as a learningmanagement system, or LMS, a vehicle that is used to automate the administrationof online training programs.

The system can register users and track courses, record data on a student’sprogress, and forward reports to management–work otherwise conducted byon-site trainers. Brandon Hall, LMS guru and head of a Sunnyvale, California,e-learning consulting firm, defines the system as “the foundation of moste-learning programs.”

But it is also the most expensive tool involved in establishing an e-learninginitiative. In a 2001 report, Hall estimated that the average LMS system costs$550,000 for 8,000 users over a five-year stretch, and the price tag isincreasing. For human resources professionals, training executives, and otherswho are involved in making such an investment, picking the right system canresult in saving an organization huge amounts of money while advancing workforcedevelopment.

Making the right pick, however, isn’t easy. There are several factors toconsider when making a choice, including the company’s in-house ITcapabilities, the expectation for return on investment, the nature ofcustomization needs, and the dizzying array of models and vendors. Choosing avendor is perhaps most important, because LMS investments are often multi-yeardeals. You’ll want to know that your vendor will be around for the duration,although there are no guarantees in the swiftly changing marketplace.

Two years ago, there were at least 200 players in the LMS business; todayonly half as many still exist. Much of the dramatic reduction is related to thetroubled economy. “It’s complex and expensive software to deploy, and withIT budgets down lately, there’s only so much business to go around,” saysNate Swanson, a Minneapolis-based e-learning analyst with ThinkEquity.

But the shakeout also is related to the fact that the burgeoning industry isstill weeding out its weakest links. Vendors that marketed viable products andgenerated customers quickly were able to establish themselves and grow revenuebefore venture capitalists closed the spigot on all things Web-related. Thosethat were less established were left behind.

The LMS market is growing, but it is doing so in the hands of fewer and fewervendors. For those in HR, that means it’s essential to do your homework beforeshopping for a vendor.

Sherry Gevedon, Kendle’s director of global training and development, and asmall team of assistants spent nine weeks in 2000 interviewing more than 50vendors. They knew that they wanted to be able to customize the software andlater add to it. They eventually whittled the list down to three companies, andprice became a significant factor. They selected California-based Saba Software.

Before the selection process began, Gevedon and her crew had to make surethat top management really wanted the system and supported the move. They alsohad to determine if the IT department could ensure the necessary infrastructureto make the new system work, and that the LMS could get the kind of return oninvestment that would make the program self-supporting.

“Be prepared. Make sure the support is there,” Gevedon says. “We madethe case, and the support just flowed down from the top. That’s why it hasworked for us.”

In May of 2001, the company went live with its eKendleCollege, an onlinecorporate university that caters to hundreds of associates at 21 differentdomestic and international locations. In its first 15 months, associatesaccessed more than 5,000 online courses. In-person training sessions once heldat corporate headquarters in Ohio became history.

To illustrate how much the company has saved, Gevedon uses this example:About 300 Kendle associates had to get up to speed on the basics of a new trial,such as its size and information about the drug. Before the advent of the LMS,they needed four two-hour training sessions. Most participants had to travel toreceive instruction, and would spend three days in the program. The onlineuniversity made it possible for all 300 employees to complete the training in amatter of hours without leaving their offices.

The savings: $500,000 in travel and hotel costs alone. “This has gone very,very well,” Gevedon says. “The training programs now are running moreefficiently than they did before, and staff development has been bolstered.”And the company’s savings on e-learning programs has already offset the nearly$2 million that was invested in an LMS.

“Managers and human resource people have to think about [LMS] as more than a training thing.It’s also about the management and alignment of human capital across the organization..

“Managers and human resource people have to think about this as more than atraining thing,” says Brook Manville, Saba’s chief learning officer. “It’salso about the management and alignment of human capital across theorganization.” That leaves HR leaders to answer the most fundamental question:Is there truly a compelling business need for an LMS? Do you have to invest in acomprehensive e-learning program to speed up training or make it more efficientand less costly by cutting back on travel expenses?

If so, HR must work to make certain the whole organization is on board andthinking about the same goals. Gevedon and other decision-makers boil theprocess down to four areas of advice:

• Think hard about ROI. This is, after all, what any major business move isall about. How will you measure the success of the system? How quickly do youneed it up and running? Do you want the system to pay for itself within a year,five years, eight years?

The largest companies are more likely to look for shorter contracts,expecting to make upgrades or other changes–perhaps with a different vendor–inthe near future. Xcel

Energy, the power behemoth created by the merger of Minneapolis-basedNorthern States Power Co. and New Century Energies in Denver, earlier this yearneeded a new LMS to consolidate and track a range of compliance training effortsinvolving 13,000 employees.

It had to quickly set up dozens of courses covering everything fromregulatory compliance to on-the-job safety, and it had to be able to track whocompleted the courses and when. Most pressing, Xcel wanted its costs covered inthe first year. The firm signed a deal with Plateau Systems in Arlington,Virginia, to get that specific training initiative handled fast to “get anaccurate picture of where we stand as an enterprise,” says Daniel Marshall,project director of Xcel’s e-learning department.

By contrast, smaller companies with 5,000 employees or less are much morelikely to view an LMS as a long-term investment, which would, by extension,stretch their ROI expectations out over several years.

• To get any meaningful return on an investment, you have to make sure itis necessary. What are your business needs and how will an LMS help? Are youlooking to create an enterprise-wide e-learning program? Or do you simply want aprogram to automate the administration of a certain training program? Will theLMS be integrated with existing systems such as customer relationship managementsoftware? Or will it stand alone?

The answers to these questions will help determine whether you should makein-house IT investments before signing any deal with an LMS vendor. They alsowill help you determine which vendor will match up best with your IT resources.

“In the end, you need to find out what the problem is that you’re tryingto fix or the issue is that you’re trying to address,” says MassoodZarrabian, chief executive of OutStart, an e-learning services company inBoston.

Then, you have to decide what kind of help you need outside your own company.He stresses that all parts of the company that may be involved in the traininginitiative must have a say in LMS decisions.

When Cisco Systems needed an LMS that could manage a multi-language supportsystem and a variety of content-delivery types for 40,000 employees in 75countries, the Silicon Valley Internet networking company sought input from allof its business units. That meant dealing with dozens of offices in many places.But the result is an LMS that sets and tracks learning requirements,certification levels, and development plans. And it elicits feedback on progressagainst those plans–all things that the entire enterprise agreed werenecessary. The company says the result has been a successful training programthat employees buy into.

• Closely study an array of vendors: their size, history, and stayingpower. You can do this by talking to other clients, following a vendor’smarket value, and researching what analysts have to say about a vendor’sfinancial viability.

Then, of course, consider size and price. There are many choices here thatvary according to the functions you need. The least expensive costs $3,000–againusing Hall’s example for a five-year implementation with 8,000 users. The mostexpensive system can cost $5 million.

If you’re a small company in need of simply managing a small administrativecomponent, a small vendor may work fine. Hall found in a study of 200 LMScustomers that big was not always better. While the larger players certainlyhave a plethora of services to offer, smaller companies often responded fasterto clients’ concerns and were more flexible when it came to structuringcontracts.

But for some companies, especially those with far-reaching LMS needs, sizecan be important. Amazon.com in Seattle employs only about 8,000 people, but itneeded an LMS that would cover all aspects of its business–from training newemployees to managing records and sharing learning content across severaldecentralized facilities that had their own training departments. Amazon wentwith a large vendor for “more flexibility, control, and browser-based access,”says Gerrett Stokes, the company’s senior project manager for global HRsolutions.

• Get all the answers you need on customization. Some companies like Amazonwant an LMS that can perform many functions right off the bat. But no LMS can doeverything. At some point, customizing will be necessary. As vendors develop newproducts and capabilities, they often lobby their clients to customize. Somebuyers will want to; others won’t. Either way, they will want to know from thestart how much future customizations are likely to cost.

Ask about the specific abilities of the LMS you’re buying, and whether the vendor will charge for future customization or the fee is built into the initial investment.

Ask about the specific abilities of the LMS you’re buying, and whether thevendor will charge for future customization or the fee is built into the initialinvestment. Also, be sure you’re not paying up-front for current or futuregadgets and gizmos that you won’t need.

“People don’t care about all the bells and whistles anymore,” saysScott Saslow, director of product development for Siebel Systems, a seller ofe-business applications software based in San Mateo, California. “They want itup and running, and they want it to fit their specific needs.”

Count Silicon Valley heavyweight Hewlett-Packard among those that know whatthey want. When the company was on the lookout for an LMS last summer, it wasnot seeking a complete solution to all its e-learning management needs. Itrequired but one important component, an LMS to standardize certain trainingefforts across its international operations during its assimilation of Compaq,which it had acquired for nearly $19 billion.

HP was in the market for a system to track its training investments to makesure that salespeople received the same training on new software andcustomer-relationship management–not every component of its e-leaning effort.And it wanted to be able to customize as it went along, adding new courses anddropping redundant ones.

It was still a huge investment. But why invest in more than you need when allyou want is a piece of the puzzle, says John Seniuk, technology manager forworkforce development at HP.

James Lundy, an e-learning analyst with Gartner, an Internet analyst companyin Stamford, Connecticut, estimates that by 2005, 70 percent of largecorporations will own learning management system applications. Gartner projectsthat within three years, the overall e-learning market will top $33 billion, afigure based on the strong productivity gains of the late 1990s.

During the boom years in the late 1990s, many economists concluded that thenew economy had evolved because information technology caused the productivitygrowth rate to shoot up. During that time, the U.S. Department of Labor reports,productivity grew 2.5 percent, up from 1.4 percent in the previous 20 years.

This data is meaningful because it essentially measures the revenue that thenation’s workers produce. When output increases, revenue grows, and thatrevenue can be invested back into company growth, creating jobs and fuelingsalary increases. Many companies such as Kendle are banking on e-learning to bea big driver of technology in years to come.

Kendle plans to continue expanding its e-learning programs, and will use itsLMS to make that happen. It will establish an individualized online trainingprogram for each associate, to be tracked, assessed, and personalized via itsLMS. And the company expects that cost-savings on time and travel, plus training that is faster and more worker-specific, will morethan offset the expense.

“There are a lot of companies that want to do what we’ve done,” Gevedonsays. “What I can tell them is that while this has been a very big success forus, it wasn’t easy. You have to make sure you know what you need. You have tomake sure you have top management on board. With all of that, you could get ahuge payoff.”

Workforce, November 2002, pp.52-58 — Subscribe Now!

A recent American Management Association survey of its members found thatfour out of five see retention as a serious issue for their companies. HRexperts such as San Francisco State University’s John Sullivan, say those samemanagers are probably to blame for their own worries. Forget money and stockoptions, or the lavish perks that so much of corporate America has enjoyed inrecent years. Sullivan says the best way to retain prized employees at a time ofskilled labor shortages is to get managers to take responsibility for retainingtheir best people.

    In his work as head of SFSU’s department of human resources management, andas adviser to corporate giants such as Microsoft, Nike, and Schwab, Sullivansuggests HR take an active role in facilitating the following solutions:

• Set aside time on a regular basis for managers to meet with their employeesto discuss workplace concerns and possible solutions. Discover and define theproblem before it’s too late.

• Ask managers to regularly review workers’ expectations and their goals forcareer development. Work with them in creating long-term plans for growth thatbenefits the company and the employee.

• Regularly measure employees’ feelings about their manager by conductinginterviews. When legitimate and pressing problems arise, inform managers, andoffer to train them to address the concern. For example, if workers complainthat a manager is disorganized, give her the opportunity to take atime-management course.

• When turnover rates are rampant, hold managers accountable by tying theircompensation to retention. If the attrition declines, not only is it a sign ofimproved employee satisfaction, managers enjoy a more productive workforce andfinancial rewards.

Workforce, April 2001, p. 58SubscribeNow!

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James Daniels, a hot shot software developer for a small engineering firm insuburban Minneapolis, says he could leave his job today and have offers rollingin by week’s end. “I’ve done it before,” he says. “It’s done allthe time.”

    He’s not just another young workplace egomaniac. The 27-year-old computerexpert simply recognizes his opportunities. It’s an enviable position to be in.But for HR departments, the high demand for skills such as his is a royalheadache. On any list of disturbing workforce problems, today’s shallow laborpool is certainly one of the most troubling.

    Even as the once-roaring economydescends from a pinnacle of prosperity — and some companies have been forced todismiss large numbers of employees in headline-grabbing layoffs — the jobmarket continues to be strong for the well educated and tech-savvy. Given thisreality, skilled workers like Daniels are very much in demand, and enjoy plentyof opportunities to jump ship.

    People are changing jobs in record numbers, a fact that is fueling thehighest turnover rate in 20 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports thatthe typical American worker holds nearly nine different jobs before age 32.Granted, that estimate was compiled last year, when the economy showed no signsof slowing. But don’t be fooled, experts warn. No company, large or small, NewEconomy or faltering economy, is unaffected by an ongoing turnover epidemic.Consider this: 53 percent of U.S. workers surveyed at the beginning of this yearsuspected that at least a mild recession was imminent. Yet, 88 percent felt assecure in their jobs as they did a year ago. A study of 1,000 full-time workerscommissioned by the online recruitment firm Headhunter.net found that 78 percentwould take a new position if the right opportunity came along, and 48 percent ofthose who are employed are looking for new jobs.

    For job hunters, Strong Investments economist Jay Mueller says, “thepillars of support remain in place, and the long-run outlook for the U.S.economy is still favorable.”

    That said, it’s important to note that some degree of turnover is inevitableand can even be positive. It may open doors for promotions and the recruitmentof new talent. Excessive staff losses, however, inevitably prove disruptive andcostly. Employees are expensive to replace, and customer service and companyperformance are hard hit by unexpected staff changes. Much of this is due to themounting importance of industry-specific knowledge that people acquire whilewith a company.

    What’s at the heart of all this? The answer is surprisingly simple.

    While fair compensation and opportunities to advance are always importantfactors, most people decide to leave a company for another reason: bad bosses.In recent interviews with 20,000 workers who just left an employer, the SaratogaInstitute in Santa Clara, California, found that poor supervisory behavior wasthe main reason people quit. A recent Gallup Organization study based on queriesof some 2 million workers at 700 companies found the same results. It’s not somuch opportunities for raises or promotion through the ranks that keep employeeshappy. The length of an employee’s stay is determined largely by hisrelationship with a manager.

    “People do not leave companies. They leave bosses,” says BeverlyKaye, president of training firm Career Systems International in Los Angeles andco-author of Love’Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay (Berrett-Koehler1999).

    She and other workplace analysts say that companies in need of a retentioninjection must focus on making work interesting and building strong, flexible,attentive managers. They insist that such advice comes from legions ofdissatisfied working Americans. Daniels, the software developer in Minneapolis,is just the kind of example they point to. “I’ve worked at six differentcompanies in six years since college, and every time I left, the last straw hadsomething to do with my boss being completely oblivious to the problems hispeople were having.”

The role of HR

    HR’s role in sorting through this maze, experts advise, is to get managers totake responsibility for retention. That, of course, is much easier said thandone. A labor market low on skilled workers — at least when compared to demandfor the technically astute — has managers so strapped for talent that theyhaven’t the time to worry about recruiting and retention. Most would ratherattack the retention front by increasing salaries or offering the latest perks,from signing bonuses to vacations and concierge services. Those are all finerecruiting tools, observers say, but when it comes to turnover, they are onlystop-gap measures.

    So how can companies retain workers and, by extension, increase productivityand boost the bottom line? Help people feel at home by fostering personalconnections to the company, including customized responsibilities, long-termlearning opportunities, and plenty of informal feedback.

    Accomplishing this almost always begins with line managers.

    “It’s time to hold managers accountable,” says Dick Finnegan, laborconsultant and author of a yet-to-be published book, titled Taming the TurnoverBeast.

    Fortunately, observers of corporate America’s talent struggles — fromFinnegan and Kaye to academics and economists — agree that what employeesreally want is often simple for managers to deliver.

    Take, for example, The Container Store, a Dallas-based retailer that Fortunemagazine designated last year as America’s best workplace, and a winner of Workforce‘s Optimas award for general excellence. It’s practicing what itpreaches when it comes to training and retaining employees. Every first-year,full-time employee gets about 235 hours of training, provided both formally andthrough ongoing interaction with managers, who not only ask what their peopleneed to do their jobs well but also regularly assess how to provide necessaryassistance.

    Guided by what its executive leadership calls a “do-unto-others”business philosophy, The Container Store’s more than 2,000 employees thrive inan environment that ensures open communication throughout the entire company,including regular discussions of store sales, company goals, and expansionplans. Couple that with the extensive training programs — customized bymanagers to meet individual skills and job functions — and team-based incentiveprograms, and it’s easy to understand why turnover here is about 20 percent.That’s a fraction of the turnover at most retail operations, which rangesbetween 80 and 120 percent.

    And The Container Store, which already has dozens of operations locatedacross the country, touts the rewards of a happy workforce. It plans to openthree new locations this year and to capture sales of more than $240 million.

    “With the labor market as it is, keeping people happy, keeping them onstaff, that’s crucial,” says Container Store spokeswoman Audrey Keymer.

    The movement’s success stories aren’t limited to industries historicallyplagued by high turnover. Financial-services giant American Express Co. lastyear unveiled a plan to double its cadre of analysts and financial advisers toroughly 20,000 in the coming decade. In the face of such massive growth, HRexperts at the New York-based company, often hailed for its focus on promotingfrom within its own ranks, began training managers how to become mentors toemployees whom the company views as “up-and-comers.” The idea is tobolster the development of prized recruits before they go looking for suchnurturing elsewhere.

    At Autodesk Inc., a San Rafael, California-based software developer, HR andtraining specialists recently designed an online retention workshop to helpabout 300 managers become skillful career advisers. The managers were taught howto discover employees’ personal career goals. With this information, managersand their charges can create a specific development plan — with target dates –that appeals to the company and its workers.

    There is another obvious but effective way to encourage managers to reduceturnover: Tie their compensation to it. Reward them with bonuses for keepingturnover low. Penalize them when attrition soars. It’s a tactic that soundspromising, but it has yet to receive widespread attention. Most managers areweary of agreeing to connect their own pay to the whims of others.

    Nevertheless, more and more companies are recognizing that retention is up tomanagers. This realization is gaining momentum because most retention strategiesare simple and inexpensive to implement.

A matter of survival

    The question today is, will the trend decline before it has a chance to showsome long-term results? Most experts agree that, even though the economy isslowing, there’s ample reason to stay focused on retention.

    A closely watched forecasting gauge, the Blue Chip Economic Indicators, ispredicting that the economy will grow by just 2.6 percent this year. That’s theweakest expected performance in a decade.

    “It’s like a car going 60 miles an hour and then suddenly slowing to 20miles an hour. You haven’t crashed, but you really feel the deceleration,”says Randell Moore, company executive editor.

    But he is quick to balance the assertion by reporting that the overwhelmingmajority of the 50 top economists surveyed by his organization believe that afull-blown recession will be avoided, and the overall job-market will weatherthe current storm.

    Most people are aware that they could lose their jobs at a time of sizablelayoffs at places such as Lucent, General Electric, and DaimlerChrysler. Yet,relatively few people fret over whether they can find new jobs. More areconcerned about keeping pace with technological change and taking advantage ofopportunities in New Economy companies that are still transforming workplaces.

    Sure, people worry about finances and job security. But not in the same waythey did in the 1980s when large numbers of people lost jobs as many Americanindustries reorganized to combat foreign competition. Nor do they worry in a waythat mirrors the early 1990s, when many more employees were bombarded by roundsof downsizing in an effort to create efficient and “lean” workforces.

    Today’s constant turnover is in many ways a reflection of the impatient,freelance spirit common among many young, well-educated members of the140-million-strong labor force.

    For HR specialists and managers, that means one thing: harnessing that spiritremains a major concern and a top priority.

    It isn’t always easy, of course, to convince managers to support newretention programs. Some say they lack the influence to reverse turnover trends.Others believe that it will eat up too much of their time. But if HR can givethem a place to start, nudge them in the right direction, and show them thatkeeping key talent is largely within their control, managers will begin to seegenuine results. By joining forces with their best people and finding themmeaningful work, growth opportunities, and the chance to be part of a team,managers can become better bosses and hold on to their talent.

    It’s an issue of survival that’s not likely to fade away. As advances intechnology make all companies increasingly more equal, staremployees become the all-important tiebreaker. “In most companies nobodymanages turnover,” Finnegan says. “If it’s going to be done, it has tobe the managers who do it. And HR can be the one to show them how.”

Workforce, April 2001, pp. 57-60SubscribeNow!

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