Author: Site Staff

Increased engagement among airport transportation security officers helped achieve an efficient launch to the holiday travel season, despite the challenges posed by recent changes in carry-on restrictions, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA has deemed “very reasonable” the 12-minute average wait time at screening checkpoints at the nation’s 40 busiest airports over Thanksgiving.

“Everything seemed to be working smoothly,” says David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, which represents the traveling public.

A TSA official gives much of the credit to the more than 40,000 security officers, formerly known as “screeners.”

The new nomenclature is one of several workforce management changes that the agency has implemented over the past year to improve performance and morale, says Gail Rossides, TSA associate administrator of business transformation and culture.

The word “screener” was dropped from the security workers’ title so that their role could be better integrated into the Department of Homeland Security’s law enforcement system, expanding career options for employees and deepening their sense of belonging.

Other improvements in the $20 million initiative included programs to reduce attrition and injuries and improve training for the officers, whose salaries range from $23,600 to $56,400. The TSA also is implementing a pay-for-performance program, despite problems with getting it approved elsewhere in the DHS. An August survey showed that job satisfaction has increased 24 percent.

The TSA says it bolstered recruiting by placing hiring authority at the local level, where officials can find a better fit between candidates and jobs. Over the past year, attrition among part-time employees has dropped from 70 percent to 41 percent. For full-time workers, it has decreased from 24 percent to 15 percent.

London authorities broke up a terrorist plot to detonate liquid-based bombs in flight, the TSA had to change carry-on rules instantly.

“They responded phenomenally,” Rossides says of security officers. “They were ready.”

Stempler was also impressed. “It was an extraordinary achievement that they were able to make the changes overnight on these new rules,” he says. “Usually it takes weeks or longer.”

But a Capitol Hill skeptic says the four-year-old agency—which was created when the DHS was formed following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks—has yet to prove itself.

Rep. John Mica, R-Florida and a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, says the private sector could better handle airport security. He favors using more technology and fewer people, while training those who remain to better identify potential terrorists.

“We need to reassess the whole system,” Mica says. “I’m going to be calling for a pretty dramatic overhaul. The check­point is one of our weakest points now.”

Rossides says that even as technology is integrated into the process, human officers will have to interpret the machines. And they will have to remain vigilant—and motivated—whether confronted with a summer threat, holiday travel or a routine day.

The challenge for the TSA remains consistent. “It is about hiring the right people, continuously training them and then giving them the incentives to excel at their jobs and the incentive to have a long-term career … in TSA or DHS,” Rossides says.

—Mark Schoeff Jr.

U.S. employees do not realize that their personal computer activities at work may wind up as business records—records that could be revealed in a lawsuit.

The report, from employee training firm WeComply, found that 39 percent of U.S. workers incorrectly believe a message sent from their personal e-mail account on a work computer remains a personal record. And two-thirds of all workers did not understand that personal instant messages to friends could become business records.

The findings take on particular significance given new rules for disclosing electronically stored information during lawsuits. The report said those changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which took effect December 1, make it more likely that inappropriate e-mails, Web searches, IMs and other electronically stored data will surface in pretrial discovery.

WeComply president David Simon says the stakes are high for employees to know how to keep their electronic noses clean at work.

“Anything you do today on your computer may see the light of day,” he says. “If you’re not careful, it could expose you or your company to legal liability.”

Many companies today are peeking in on their employees at the computer. A study last year on electronic monitoring and surveillance by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute found that about 75 percent of U.S. companies monitor workers’ Web site connections. Fifty-five percent of companies retain and review e-mail messages, and 36 percent track content, keystrokes and time spent at the keyboard.

About a quarter of employers have fired workers for misusing the Internet, according to the AMA report.

A desire to cut down on workplace slacking and comply with government rules may be prompting companies to monitor computer use. But employers who do so should be careful, says Brian Hengesbaugh, an attorney with law firm Baker & McKenzie.

Depending on the promises the company has made, employees may reasonably expect to have a degree of privacy at work, he says. As a result, Hengesbaugh says, employers that plan to monitor electronic activities should notify workers that their computer use on the job is not private.

In addition, he says global companies that have a policy respecting privacy rights in Europe could inadvertently post that statement to a company Web site. American employees might then expect similar rights.

“They may reasonably interpret that those rules apply to them,” he says.

The WeComply report involved a survey of 1,000 U.S. workers. Younger workers tend to be less aware of computer-use realities than older ones are, according to the report. More than half of those under 55 did not understand that sending an e-mail to a friend created a business record, compared with 39 percent of those over 55, the report says.

—Ed Frauenheim

2007 Talent Wars: Competition for top talent is fierce and expected to heighten in 2007, according to a new survey.
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Boards Failing: About half of all corporate boards concede to doing a poor job of planning for CEO succession, with an even greater proportion failing to develop talent and future leaders.
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Workplace and Heart Attacks: Almost half of U.S. employers plan to spend more time and money on training and developing supervisors and executives in 2007, according to a recent survey.
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What Work/Life Balance? Although 90 percent of employees surveyed say achieving work/life balance is a high priority, only 15 percent claim to be anywhere close to attaining it.
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2007 Talent Wars: Competition for top talent is fierce and expected to heighten in 2007, according to a new survey. Applicant tracking system maker Cytiva Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, found that HR directors are viewing three potential solutions: 27 percent say they’ll improve retention programs, 20 percent will concentrate on improving their applicant tracking systems, and 15 percent plan to rely more on employee referrals. Less than 2 percent plan to outsource their recruiting function. The survey should be read with some caution, however: Cytiva is a vendor of applicant tracking software.

—Garry Kranz

What Work/Life Balance? Striking a balance between professional responsibilities and personal obligations continues to be an elusive goal, new research suggests. Although 90 percent of employees surveyed say achieving work/life balance is a high priority, only 15 percent claim to be anywhere close to attaining it, according to research from Opinion Research Corp. and Work+Life Inc. of Madison, New Jersey. Stereotypes appear to be holding most people back, including fears they will make less money, be viewed as less hardworking by bosses, or even lose their jobs.

Boards Failing: About half of all corporate boards concede to doing a poor job of planning for CEO succession, with an even greater proportion failing to develop talent and future leaders. Also, roughly half have no succession plan in place. That’s according to series of surveys of public, private and nonprofit organizations published by the National Association of Corporate Directors in Washington and Mercer Delta Consulting, part of HR consultancy Mercer. The surveys found that about 50 percent of corporate boards “consider themselves less effective” in aiding CEO succession. Also, less than 15 percent of directors believe their boards are effectively managing and developing future executives. The findings are in stark contrast to the intensifying scrutiny and oversight given to corporate boards in light of recent financial scandals.

The information comes on the heels of a study by Novations Group of Boston that found organizations may be rethinking their approach to succession. In its Internet survey of nearly 2,050 senior HR executives, Novations found that companies plan to devote 46 percent of their budgets to grooming future leaders.

—Garry Kranz

In the new IBM, not only are blue suits optional, but fairy wings are possible. IBM’s recent move to conduct employee orientation and mentoring in simulated computer worlds puts Big Blue on the cutting edge of corporate learning.

It’s also likely to give the nascent field of training in virtual environments such as Second Life a major boost, says Mark Oehlert, an associate at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

Oehlert works with corporate clients to explore potential uses of technologies such as Second Life, which is a three-
dimensional virtual space where someone could choose to appear as normal as a buttoned-down businessperson or as far out as a fairy with flapping wings.

“The importance of this is going to go far beyond IBM,” Oehlert says. “It’ll definitely be a major spur for companies to at least begin looking at virtual worlds.”

India, China and the U.S., and company interns in China, will use “avatars,” or representations of themselves, in either of two Internet virtual worlds, Plane­Shift or Second Life.

The idea is to expedite orientation, as well as improve mentoring relationships. “New IBM employees separated by thousands of miles will be able to mingle, interact and share ideas in the virtual world before their first day on the job,” Ted Hoff, IBM vice president of learning, said in a statement. “They can learn real-life working skills such as signing up for benefits, developing code as part of a global team, and ramping up sales skills before they meet with IBM clients.”

Hoff says video game play adds a dimension to training because people don’t perceive it as learning. That makes them more willing to take risks and be more flexible in their thinking.

IBM is also looking into creating its own “virtual world” technology for employee training.

Thus far, online virtual worlds for training represent just a drop in the bucket of a corporate training market that reached $55 billion last year in the U.S., says Josh Bersin, CEO of market research firm Bersin & Associates. But he says the technology could help engage a generation of workers who grew up playing video games with 3-D graphics. “It might be very attractive to young employees,” Bersin says.

Most IBM users of Second Life have chosen avatars that resemble the way they look in real life, says Chuck Hamilton, a learning solutions leader at IBM’s learning organization. Company CEO Sam Palmisano, for example, appeared in Second Life wearing a business suit. Still, Big Blue is loosening up on the new frontier. During a tour of IBM’s Second Life facilities, Hamilton appeared in a kilt.

But for a recent meeting that took place in Second Life, IBM officials took pains to make sure avatars weren’t too distracting, Hamilton says. “They asked us not to wear anything moving or shaking or beeping,” he says.

—Ed Frauenheim

Google has a launched a new stock option program that will help its employees better realize the value of their stock option grants, experts say.

By doing so, however, Google has taken away the pay-for-performance nature of stock option grants, they say.

Under the transferable stock option program, which Google announced Tuesday, December 12, employees can sell their options once they vest. Through a partnership with Morgan Stanley, Google has set up an online auction marketplace whereby financial institutions can bid for employees’ options.

The new options have a 10-year life span and the same vesting schedule as existing options, with some vesting after a year and all vesting within four years. The program is not available to executives.

“In addition to increasing the value of every option employees receive, the TSO program makes the value of their options much more tangible,” the Mountain View, California-based company said in a statement on its official blog (googleblog.blogspot.com). “By showing employees what financial institutions are willing to pay for their options, it is made clear that the value of their options is greater than just the intrinsic value.”

Given the value of Google’s stock, which closed at $482.12 per share Thursday, December 14, it might be hard for employees to appreciate the value of their options—particularly prospective employees who can’t fathom that the price could continue to go up, says Mark Reilly, a compensation consultant.

The new program addresses that issue. But at the same time, by giving employees the ability to sell their options so soon the company is no longer aligning the options with company performance, says Russell Miller, practice leader at Korn/Ferry Executive Compensation Advisors.

With traditional options, an employee loses money if the value of the stock decreases. But with the transferable stock options, the stock could remain flat or fall and the employee will still get the value of the grant.

“That’s the tradeoff,” he says. “The new program enhances employees’ perceived value of their options at the time they are granted, but diminished the pay-for-performance orientation of the grant.”

The new program also weakens the ownership culture that has defined Google, Reilly says.

“This doesn’t encourage employees to be partners in the business; it encourages them to cash out,” he says. “If they were going to do that, they could have just offered a bonus program.”

But stock options are too core to Google’s industry, and besides, creating a completely new stock option program for employees is “much cooler” than just offering a long-term incentive program or restricted stock, says Bill Coleman, president of Salary.com.

“It’s a trademark Google move,” he says. “They are saying, ‘We aren’t going to do what everyone else is doing. We are going the think through this and come up with something clever and creative.’ ”

Now that Google has made the move, it will be something that all technology companies will look at but only a few will be able to do, experts say. For one, the administrative costs to create such a program are high, Meltzer says. It also takes a special kind of company to attract financial institutions to want to engage in something like this, he says.

“This kind of program isn’t going to be available to everyone,” Meltzer says.

—Jessica Marquez

Body Art: Some HR organizations are grappling with updating their dress codes to accommodate younger workers who adorn their bodies with tattoos or piercings.
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Happy Old Year: It’s good to be a banker. Compensation analyst Johnson Associates Inc. said Wall Street investment bankers will earn incentives as much as 20 percent higher than a year ago.
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New Year’s Resolution: Almost half of U.S. employers plan to spend more time and money on training and developing supervisors and executives in 2007, according to a recent survey.
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Single and On the Move: Texas’ capital is deemed the best city for young professionals who are relocating because of their jobs.
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Train & Retain: Employees at multinational companies in Europe shouldn’t expect big pay raises in 2007. Instead they’ll get training.
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Just in Time for Tax Season: ADP closes its purchase of Taxware from First Data Corp. for $125 million in cash.
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Vendor News: Right Management has completed its acquisition of Grow Talent Company Limited.
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People moving into key executive positions
	Robert Price has joined TheLadders.com. as CFO Prior to joining TheLadders.com, Price was CFO at Buy.com. He also spent five years in several roles at PairGain Technologies, ultimately serving as senior vice president and CFO.
	Laura Cha has joined the board of directors at Tata Consultancy Services. Cha is a member of the executive council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and nonexecutive chairman of HSBC Investment Asia Holdings Ltd.
	Beatriz Prudden has been named director of operations for Primacy Relocation’s Chicago office. She has been with Primacy for seven years as a human resources generalist.
	Patrick Wadlington has joined Birkman International as senior psychometrician. Before joining Birkman, Wadlington was senior psychometrician at Hogan Assessments and conducted research for the Department of Defense and Office of Naval Research.
	Richard Carroll has been named vice president of U.S. operations for Primacy Relocation. Carroll has spent more than 18 years in the employee relocation field, eight of those with Primacy.
	Travis Unwin has been promoted to vice president at Blue Ribbon Digital. Unwin joined Blue Ribbon in 2004 as managing director.
	Daniel R. Gattis has joined the Jacobson Group as senior president. Gattis has 30 years of insurance experience and has worked at the Life Office Management Association, KPMG International, Chalke Consulting and ARM Financial Group in various senior executive positions.
	Chris Davis-Pipe has been named group vice president of information technology at Crown Worldwide. Davis-Pipe joined Crown in 1997.
	Kathryn Marinello has been appointed president and CEO of the Ceridian. Marinello previously was president and CEO of GE Fleet Services. She has also held positions at First Data Corp., First Bank System, Chemical Bank and Citibank.
	Chuck Armstrong has been named division vice president of operations at Hiring Management Systems, a division of First Advantage Corp. Armstrong has 15 years of experience in the software industry.
	Phillip D. Suiter has been named president and CEO of Gordian Health Solutions. Suiter most recently assisted Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the university’s Office of Technology Transfer on a software commercialization effort. In 2005, he served as president and CEO of Stinger Medical. His other positions have included director of development at Vanderbilt’s Center for Better Health, president and COO of NotifyMD and founder and executive vice president of Medical Properties of America.
	Jeffrey Campbell has joined Morton’s, the Steakhouse as vice president of chief people officer. From 1977 to 2003,Campbell has held a number of human resources positions with Darden Restaurant Cos., including director of employee relations for Red Lobster and the Olive Garden.
	Marva Smalls has been appointed executive vice president of global inclusion strategy at MTV Networks.
	Daniel K. Atler has been named interim CEO at Ikanos Communications. Atler joined Ikanos as CFO in 2003. Before that, he was executive vice president of strategic business development at Silicon Image.
	Neil L. Hazard has been named executive vice president, CFO and treasurer at Motient. Prior to joining Motient, Hazard was COO and CFO of Primus Telecommunications Group.
	Jeffrey W. Epstein has been named general counsel and secretary at Motient. He previously was director, assistant general counsel for Capital One Financial Corp.
	Gerry Davis has become regional managing partner for the Asia-Pacific division at Heidrick & Struggles. He joined Heidrick & Struggles in 1998.
	William L. McComb has been appointed CEO of Liz Claiborne Inc. He previously was company group chairman at Johnson & Johnson.
Judith Vance has been appointed senior vice president and chief human resources officer at New York Life Insurance Co. Vance began her career at Aetna, where she served as in various human resources function. After more than two decades with Aetna, she moved to Prudential Financial, where she served in various human resource positions for seven years.
Larry Stanczak has been named COO of Yoh. Prior to joining Yoh, Stanczak led the sales and business development efforts for MarineMax. Before that, he was COO of Kforce.
Nate Segall has been named president-elect for the National Association of Information Destruction. Segall is currently vice president and COO of AccuShred. He previously served on the NAID board of directors, where he was chair of the public relations committee.
Richard N. Marshall has been named senior vice president and CFO of Southern Union. Marshall has been treasurer for Southern Union since 2001. Prior to that he served in various financial and regulatory roles for Pennsylvania Enterprise Inc.
John Kennedy has been promoted to vice president of operations support for Unicco. He joined Allied Services in 1978, and that company was later bought by Ogden Allied Services, which was then acquired by Unicco in 1996.
Marie Augsberger has joined MassMutual Retirement Services as COO. Augsberger comes from ING, where she most recently was head of customer service and operations for ING U.S. Retirement Services. Before ING, she held various leadership positions with Aetna.
Christopher B. Burnham has joined Deutsche Bank’s Deutsche Asset Management as managing director and vice chairman. Burnham was previously undersecretary-general of the United Nations. He joined the U.N. after four years with the U.S. Department of State, where he was acting undersecretary of state for management for Condoleezza Rice and assistant secretary of state for resource management and CFO of the State Department for Colin Powell.
Neil Glass has been appointed vice president of finance and operations for Ziff Davis’ consumer/small business group. He was previously director of finance for the group.
Lara Cunningham has been appointed managing director of Waldron & Co.’s Portland, Oregon, office. Cunningham has more than 15 years of human resources experience. Eleven of those years have been with Waldron. Prior to her promotion, she was the vice president and leadership team member for Waldron’s Seattle headquarters.
Rebecca Maddox has joined the board of directors at Kenexa. Maddox has held such positions as CEO of Capital Rose Inc., senior vice president of marketing with Capital Holding and senior vice president of marketing with Citicorp.
Shirley David has been appointed director of diversity initiatives at the Society for Human Resource Management. She has 15 years of human resource experience. She most recently was director of diversity at Constellation Energy.
Michael Gizzo has joined ORC Worldwide as CFO and chief administrative officer. Most recently, Gizzo was managing director for the Johnsson Group’s New York office.
Patrick Moneymaker has been appointed CEO of Kforce Government Holdings Inc. Moneymaker is a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral. He has also served as CEO of Ocean Systems Engineering Corp.
Robert H. Brumley has been named president and CEO of Motient. He previously was president and CEO of Pegasus Global.
Robert Hanson has been promoted to president of North America and the Asia-Pacific region at Levi-Strauss & Co. Hanson will continue to lead the U.S. Levi’s brand as its president and general manager, a position he has held since 2001.
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