To gain a better sense of the pluses and pitfalls of consumer-driven plans, McKinsey & Co. interviewed more than 1,000 employees who have been covered by a consumer-driven plan for at least 12 months. McKinsey’s analysis compared the health behaviors of those employees with employees covered by other health insurance. As a group, the employees covered by consumer-driven plans were:
• 50 percent more likely to ask about medical costs
• 20 percent more likely to participate in company wellness programs
• 30 percent more likely to get an annual check
• Satisfied (44 percent) with the switch to consumer-driven care
• Dissatisfied (80 percent) with insufficient pricing information, specifically doctors’ charges
Source: “Consumer-Directed Health Plan Report—Early Evidence Is Promising,” June 2005

Workforce Management, September 2005, p. 58 —Subscribe Now!

The following letter relates to a recent article about a court ruling affecting integrity tests.

Dear Editor:

While there has been a lot of confusion regarding the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recent decision regarding an employer’s use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (“MMPI”), your publication’s recent article entitled “Court Ruling that Employer’s Integrity Tests Violated ADA Could Open Door to Litigation” really takes this lack of understanding to a new level.

Contrary to the article’s assertion that the MMPI is “…the most popular screening test used by U.S. employers…”, it is not a commonly used test in the employment domain. In fact, it is used only by a handful of employers to screen for safety-sensitive positions (e.g., flight crew, nuclear plant operator, police officer)–except in some isolated, misguided instances like Rent-a-Center’s use.

With respect to the recent litigation that stimulated the article, Karraker v. Rent-A-Center…(the) holding by the Seventh Circuit has no impact on the vast majority of testing instruments utilized by employers. The instruments used by most employers were not developed to help identify any disabilities nor do they contain items that are likely to reveal the existence of a disability.

According to the ADA and extensive guidance provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, such tests are not medical in nature and should be administered prior to tendering a conditional offer of employment.

The Seventh Circuit’s opinion relied extensively upon long-existing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines regarding medical examinations, and merely reinforced the commonly held notion that the District Court had erred in deciding that the MMPI was not a medical test. The decision’s impact is minimal except for correcting the District Court’s misguided decision regarding when the MMPI can legally be administered. The opinion merely said that the MMPI could not be administered prior to an employer tendering a conditional offer of employment.

Flying in the face of your article’s characterization that the MMPI is an integrity test, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that “Psychological tests that are designed to identify a mental disorder or impairment qualify as medical examinations, but psychological tests that measure personality traits such as HONESTY (emphasis added), preferences, and habits do not.”

The article also indicated that a “…recent survey found fewer than a dozen…” lawsuits had been filed against employers use of integrity tests. In reality, there have been approximately 35 complaints filed against employers who are using integrity tests–a relatively small number in light of the large number of these instruments administered.

And unmentioned in the article, these suits have been consistently disposed of (in favor of employers) at the administrative level (e.g., EEOC, California Department of Fair Employment and Housing) because the instruments have been shown not to exhibit disparate impact and have extensive validation evidence documenting that they are job related and consistent with business necessity. Apparently employers use integrity tests since they aren’t commonly challenged, they don’t contain invasive items, they don’t exhibit disparate impact and they have been shown to be job-related.

Very truly yours,

William G. Harris, Ph.D.
David W. Arnold, Ph.D., J.D.
Executive Director
General Counsel
Association of Test Publishers

Editor’s note: The story took particular note of the fact that the MMPI was not designed as a workplace integrity tool. It also pointed out that this has not prevented employers for using it as such, as was the case with Rent-a-Center. Further, the story did not contend that all integrity tests are now suspect. The issue is that integrity tests whose design is similar to the MMPI might run afoul of the ADA. And while the Association of Test Publishers believes that the 7th Circuit Court’s decision has limited impact, other employment law and testing specialists disagree, as the story shows.

As to the MMPI’s popularity, the story relied on research by employment law attorney John Canoni, who is quoted in the article. Mr. Canoni defers to the Association of Test Publishers in its assertion that that the MMPI is not the most popular test in use by employers. Finally, because of an editing error, the story incorrectly said that the 1991 decision in the Target case was a U.S. Court of Appeals decision. The court that handed down the ruling was the California Court of Appeals.

Dear Questioning:

Understanding what you seek to measure, and the value to be obtained, are critical success (of failure) factors for assessment initiatives. I refer to this process as “needs analysis,” which provides a clear understanding of the outcomes you seek, as well as the specifics skills/competencies that contribute to those results.

The first step in a good needs analysis involves defining your objectives, or understanding what you expect out of the assessment process. For instance, are you looking to use assessments to help with decisions on internal promotions? Or are you trying to help employees understand how they can enhance their skills?

Once you define the objectives, examine the specific outcomes you want to obtain. For example, are you interested in assessing specific bodies of knowledge or skills, or more general behaviors and traits? Each of these requires a very different type of assessment. If you are interested in several types of outcomes, a variety ofassessment tools will be needed.

Next, pinpoint the skills andcompetencies required to succeed at the jobs. This also will influence your decision regarding assessment tools. If you are assessing every employee, define the specific key elements that cut across all the jobs in your organization. If you are assessing only specific jobs, look closely at each position to determine the key elements needed for accomplishing your objectives.

Employees who work with sophisticated equipment, or whose jobs require familiarity with certain processes or procedures, would be assessed with assessment tools that measure the specific knowledge of skills they need. On the other hand, personality tools are best for measuring specific behaviors or personality traits that relate to an employee’s ability to perform a specific job.

You must be able to draw a clear link between your objectives and the assessments you are using. Ask questions that help you define those objectives, as well as the specific traits that allow your employees to achieve them.

SOURCE: Charles A. Handler Ph.D., PHR,Rocket-Hire, New Orleans, June 9, 2004

LEARN MORE: How to Develop Competency Models.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Ask a Question

Dear Workforce Newsletter

I t’s a difficult balancing act: Employers want to offer a solid benefits package, but costs are continuing to rise. For many companies, the answer lies in voluntary benefits. And a core element of this strategy is Supplemental Life Insurance.

Supplemental Life Insurance usually isn’t the first voluntary benefit that comes to mind. But it is an essential part of a comprehensive benefits package—and in many cases it fills a critical unmet need among employees.

It’s not enough just to offer Supplemental Life Insurance, however. To deliver the most value to employees—it’s important to educate people about their options, provide access and help them choose wisely. (And there is no better time to focus on Supplemental Life than now; September is Life Insurance Awareness Month).

How exactly do you create a focused approach to Supplemental Life Insurance enrollment—without additional cost or effort? MetLife offers five tips for success.

Tip 1: Make It Personal

According to MetLife research, the average person spends less than 30 minutes on their benefits decisions—which doesn’t leave much time for contemplating life insurance needs.

Life insurance is a cornerstone of a family’s financial plan—but many don’t realize what a valuable benefit Supplemental Life Insurance can be, or how important it is to their overall financial strategy. Research shows that 50% of employees continue to be underinsured, with coverage less than three–times their annual household income. This amount is seriously inadequate, especially for those with financial dependents.

To drive more participation, one of the first questions employers need to ask is: Who is taking advantage of the Supplemental Life Insurance plan? MetLife makes the process easy, with a detailed analysis that’s easy to access and use.

This data not only helps create an effective outreach strategy, it also provides a baseline to compare results and measure success down the road. An acceptable rate of enrollment is typically 50 percent or more, but MetLife has found that most companies have employee participation rates of only 25 to 30 percent in their group Supplemental Life Insurance programs.

What can close this gap? Personalized enrollment information, specific to the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit. When employees see their current life insurance coverage—and their options—in black and white, they are more likely to consider the benefit and appreciate its value.

Decision-support tools, such as MetLife’s Life Insurance calculator, also make it easy for employees to personalize the benefit and calculate their needs. And by offering educational information online (Life Insurance 101, Profile Tool) and in print, MetLife helps make it easy for employees to quickly find answers to their questions.

Of course, it’s also important that the enrollment experience meets the needs of all employees. For example, MetLife research shows that the majority of employees (56 percent) prefer learning about benefits through material distributed at work—but 41 percent prefer to enroll online. Providing a mix of options increases the chances that employees will take action.

Tip 2: Offer More Than Expected

MetLife offers a full–circle view of the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit, including services like Will Preparation, which gives employees and their spouses access to participating attorneys to prepare or update their wills. This makes life insurance useful to employees today as well as in the future.

Other services include survivor assistance. For instance, if an employee passes away, MetLife appoints a specially trained representative to help the beneficiary manage the claims process and provide support. Beneficiaries can also utilize a Total Control Account, an interest bearing money market account that provides immediate access to life insurance proceeds while providing the time families need for making major financial decisions.

These services take a holistic approach to life insurance. They increase peace of mind, and add a new dimension of value to the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit—without increasing the cost or workload for employers.

Tip 3: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

When vying for employees’ attention, enrollment materials are up against stiff competition.Everyone is busy—at work and home—so it’s important to make information user–friendly and accessible, particularly when it comes to Supplemental Life insurance.

One solution: communicate before, during and right after enrollment through a mix of channels to appeal to all employees, including print, online and face–to–face. E–mails and newsletter articles can help build awareness and drive people to enrollment Web sites. Online, employers can house educational information to make the decision process easy. And onsite enrollment is helpful, since some employees feel most comfortable asking questions in person.

No matter what mix of channels a company uses, one of the most important strategies is to send information home. Annual enrollment affects the entire family—and this is especially true with a benefit like Supplemental Life Insurance, since it is a fundamental part of a family’s financial plan.

Tip 4: Hold an Off-Cycle Enrollment

One of the best ways to focus attention on Supplemental Life Insurance is to hold an off–cycle enrollment event.

During this time, employees focus on the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit, assess their needs, and determine if their coverage is appropriate for their stage in life. Major life events including marriage, purchasing a home or having a child can dramatically affect the amount of life insurance needed.

Another option is to hold year–round enrollment. The Internet makes this type of plan effortless for companies, and it allows employees to receive the coverage they need, when they need it.

Tip 5: Evaluate Results

After the open enrollment period ends, it’s time to study the data. Companies that measure their success can fine–tune their strategy for even better results in the future.

To help with this process, MetLife provides detailed post–enrollment reports that include a follow–up participation analysis. This allows organizations to track employee benefits trends and determine how best to communicate with employees going forward—about Supplemental Life Insurance, as well as overall benefits in general.

The bottom line is this: If employees simply check off boxes on the enrollment form without really thinking about their choices, they will likely be less appreciative of the opportunity and value of the benefit.

With a focused enrollment approach and an experienced provider that understands the challenges, employers can implement effective, targeted outreach about Supplemental Life Insurance. The result: employees are likely to place greater value on their benefits—improving their overall satisfaction with their benefits program—and they will better position themselves to provide for loved ones.

To learn more, download MetLife’s new study “Patterns in Group Life Insurance,” which includes practical suggestions to build employee awareness and increase plan participation. The guide is available at whymetlife.com/life.

Plum Creek

Leveraging Enwisen’s AnswerSource On-boarding, Benefits Communications and Employee/Manager Work/Life Events solutions

At the leading edge of the timber management industry, Plum Creek implemented innovative HR/Benefits communications solutions that save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, free HR resources, improve service to employees while reducing costs and empower its 2500 employees and line managers to efficiently handle day-to-day work/life events such as hiring, on-boarding and enrollment.

An Immediate $300,000 Savings in On-boarding Costs

When Kayleen Rash, Plum Creek’s HR manager, wanted to replace their paper-based HR/Benefits communications with employee and manager self-service, she calculated how a new platform would pay for itself immediately while increasing its return on investment year-after-year. Plum Creek executives were intrigued but skeptical – especially since they had an existing HR intranet and many hourly employees without computer access.

An acquisition that resulted in a logistical nightmare, however, quickly paid for the project many times over. “The acquisition created 450 new employees in 100 locations spread across 19 states that needed to be oriented to our company and integrated into our benefit plans. With an average cost of $3,000 per orientation trip – which was 10 times our investment to get Enwisen’s AnswerSource Knowledge Center up and running – we had an immediate savings of $300,000 resulting in a first year ROI of almost 1000% in on-boarding costs alone. That turned even our most skeptical executives around,” Rash explained. Additionally, according to Enwisen research, studies show that while many blue collar employees do not have internet access at work, the large majority have access at home or from a spouse.

On an ongoing basis, Hitachi’s additional savings from the On-boarding module include:

• Approximately $20K per year in manager time and paper costs for on-going new hire orientations.
  
  
• $75K per year via eliminating the need for remote HR site visits.

Improved Employee Service at a Reduced Cost—Up and Running in Just Six Weeks

The only challenge was the deadline: six weeks. According to Rash, “Enwisen gave us exactly what we needed when we needed it. They delivered a first-class self-service platform, with an on-boarding tour that met our exact needs – and they met our challenging timeline with a minimum impact on our internal resources. As a result, we avoided almost all orientation costs and smoothly integrated our new employees into our company and plans. Now our remote employees get a far better level of service at a fraction of the cost.“

Phase II – Enabling Employee, Manager and eBenefits Self-Service

The success of the on-boarding project led Plum Creek to work with Enwisen to provide an “always up-to-date” HR Intranet to serve the ongoing work/life event needs of the entire workforce. In Phase II of their project, Plum Creek integrated Enwisen’s AnswerSource Benefits Communications, Work/Life Events and AnswerSource Manager components into their HRMS. The goal of this phase was to facilitate self-service initiatives for both employees and managers – including online benefits communications, recruiting, compensation reviews, career planning and more.

Because all information is personalized in Enwisen solutions, employees and managers get only the information that is relevant to them – up-to-date and delivered directly to their desktops.

Phase II resulted in:

• Improved data accuracy and reduced verification time for enrollment
  
  
• Increased employee awareness of benefits and streamlined communication

And, Plum Creek was able to eliminate their old HR intranet with Enwisen – saving maintenance time and money. “Our goal is to make employees as effective as possible in their careers at Plum Creek,” said Rash. “Enwisen’s solutions have allowed us to empower employees, deliver better HR service, and reduce costs. I expect our relationship to continue to grow.”

Hitachi Data Systems

Leveraging Enwisen’s AnswerSource Total Compensation Statement solution

As a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services, Hitachi Data Systems – with more 2,600 employees and a customer base that includes more than 50% of the Fortune 100 – deployed Enwisen’s web-based Total Rewards Statement solution to increase employee awareness, understanding and satisfaction of/with their total compensation packages.

The Challenge: Continuously Increasing Benefits Costs and Heavy Competition for Top-Tier Employees

In this era of ballooning benefits costs and heavy competition for top-tier employees, Hitachi wanted to ensure that their workforce understood the full value of their benefit plans in addition to their paycheck. Assembling total rewards data in a succinct and accurate way – from multiple data sources – was no trivial task, however.

That’s why Hitachi chose Enwisen’s AnswerSource Total Compensation Statement solution to deliver personalized, online total rewards statements to their employees. In evaluating printed personalized statements – or building a web-based solution in-house – Hitachi recognized that the Enwisen solution could do it faster, better and at a lower cost.

Showing Total Rewards vs. “Just What Shows” on the Paycheck

TIn addition to cash compensation, Hitachi wanted their statements to include the value of all non-cash compensation, including benefit elections, paid time off, retirement / pension contributions, and the impact of pre-tax contributions to flexible spending, dependent care, commuter, and 401(k) programs.

As an employee retention tool, the statement also needed to provide employees with a projection of their future retirement balances, including social security.

The Enwisen Total Compensation Statement was able to populate data from multiple internal and external sources, including retirement plan vendors, social security and Hitachi’s HR system.

A Big Win for HR Resulting in High Usage and Lower Costs

Last year in 2004, employee benefits and rewards became the second largest corporate line item – exceeded only by paid time off. And studies show that most employees do not fully understand their total rewards. To attract and retain a top-tier workforce, it therefore becomes critical that companies ensure employees are comparing “apples-to-apples” when considering “raised-based” job changes – and that recruits have a true understanding of the total comp packages being offered by various job opportunities.

According to Stan Kenyon, Practice Leader at Craford, Hitachi’s benefits consultant, “Each year the percentage of non-cash compensation increases, making the ‘hidden paycheck’ more important to communicate to employees. Enwisen has a very powerful solution for communicating this hidden paycheck. Their ability to deliver web-based, personalized compensation statements quickly and cost-effectively is unmatched in the market.”

The results for Hitachi?

• Online Total Rewards Statements – with integrated data from six sources – were delivered in under 12 weeks from start-to-finish.
  
  
• The initial web-based statements, including start-up costs, still represented a savings of more than 17% compared to traditional paper statements – which are usually out-of-date at delivery, especially if data such as live stock option values are included. Updates of the statement can be completed in four weeks for 50% less than a paper statement.
  
  
• Because the statement are online, Hitachi is able to determine how many people viewed their statements, and how often they returned to them. At the project kickoff, more than 75% of employees viewed their statements within the first five days they were available.

“In my opinion, the Hitachi Data Systems Total Compensation Statement is one of the most tangible wins that we have had in HR. Now that employees know the full value of their benefits, our investment in great compensation and benefit programs is producing its full payback!” commented Susan Ramirez, Hitachi’s Senior Director for Global Benefits and Administration.

To connect with soon-to-be-minted college and university graduates, Honeywell is unveiling a tool this month that few other corporate recruiters have deployed: the blog. The Morris Township, New Jersey-based aerospace and specialty materials manufacturer has entered the world of blogging as part of an overhaul of its recruiting channel on the Web and as a central part of its campus activities.

Kevin Gill, the company’s director of global staffing, says the blog will give recruiters a contemporary talking point when they make pitches at colleges and universities. Those are important areas for the company’s hiring efforts. Each year, Honeywell hires more than 50 students from graduate schools and more than 250 from undergraduate institutions.

To reach candidates with different backgrounds, Honeywell has enlisted people from IT, human resources and the supply chain to write three weekly entries on topics they choose. The idea, Gill says, is for content to lean toward ideas about career development instead of dry talk about benefits. To keep content fresh, three people will blog for three months, then relinquish their duties to new bloggers. All writers are volunteers who are recent recruits to Honeywell and hold graduate degrees.

Gill says the bloggers will help one another to ensure that posts comply with corporate governance standards, decency and grammar. As long as those requirements are satisfied, bloggers will be free to write about anything that they want, including negative experiences. “The sites will exist to relay what’s gone on in your job,” Gill says, “whether something is working out well or not.”

The company’s approach builds on that of a well-known predecessor in the blogging community: Microsoft. Heather Hamilton, a manager in Microsoft’s marketing and finance recruiting division, started a blog mainly as an experiment, but she says it has buoyed the company’s brand with potential applicants, helped establish relationships with them and put a human face on the company’s recruiting efforts. Blogging is now part of her job description.

Although Hamilton struck gold with her blog, she says companies need to have a distinct audience and purpose in mind before they start one. “I advise them to know why they want to blog,” she says, “not to do it just because it’s a new thing.”  

—Jonathan Pont

I t’s a difficult balancing act: Employers want to offer a solid benefits package, but costs are continuing to rise. For many companies, the answer lies in voluntary benefits. And a core element of this strategy is Supplemental Life Insurance.

Supplemental Life Insurance usually isn’t the first voluntary benefit that comes to mind. But it is an essential part of a comprehensive benefits package—and in many cases it fills a critical unmet need among employees.

It’s not enough just to offer Supplemental Life Insurance, however. To deliver the most value to employees—it’s important to educate people about their options, provide access and help them choose wisely. (And there is no better time to focus on Supplemental Life than now; September is Life Insurance Awareness Month).

How exactly do you create a focused approach to Supplemental Life Insurance enrollment—without additional cost or effort? MetLife offers five tips for success.

Tip 1: Make It Personal

According to MetLife research, the average person spends less than 30 minutes on their benefits decisions—which doesn’t leave much time for contemplating life insurance needs.

Life insurance is a cornerstone of a family’s financial plan—but many don’t realize what a valuable benefit Supplemental Life Insurance can be, or how important it is to their overall financial strategy. Research shows that 50% of employees continue to be underinsured, with coverage less than three–times their annual household income. This amount is seriously inadequate, especially for those with financial dependents.

To drive more participation, one of the first questions employers need to ask is: Who is taking advantage of the Supplemental Life Insurance plan? MetLife makes the process easy, with a detailed analysis that’s easy to access and use.

This data not only helps create an effective outreach strategy, it also provides a baseline to compare results and measure success down the road. An acceptable rate of enrollment is typically 50 percent or more, but MetLife has found that most companies have employee participation rates of only 25 to 30 percent in their group Supplemental Life Insurance programs.

What can close this gap? Personalized enrollment information, specific to the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit. When employees see their current life insurance coverage—and their options—in black and white, they are more likely to consider the benefit and appreciate its value.

Decision-support tools, such as MetLife’s Life Insurance calculator, also make it easy for employees to personalize the benefit and calculate their needs. And by offering educational information online (Life Insurance 101, Profile Tool) and in print, MetLife helps make it easy for employees to quickly find answers to their questions.

Of course, it’s also important that the enrollment experience meets the needs of all employees. For example, MetLife research shows that the majority of employees (56 percent) prefer learning about benefits through material distributed at work—but 41 percent prefer to enroll online. Providing a mix of options increases the chances that employees will take action.

Tip 2: Offer More Than Expected

MetLife offers a full–circle view of the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit, including services like Will Preparation, which gives employees and their spouses access to participating attorneys to prepare or update their wills. This makes life insurance useful to employees today as well as in the future.

Other services include survivor assistance. For instance, if an employee passes away, MetLife appoints a specially trained representative to help the beneficiary manage the claims process and provide support. Beneficiaries can also utilize a Total Control Account, an interest bearing money market account that provides immediate access to life insurance proceeds while providing the time families need for making major financial decisions.

These services take a holistic approach to life insurance. They increase peace of mind, and add a new dimension of value to the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit—without increasing the cost or workload for employers.

Tip 3: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

When vying for employees’ attention, enrollment materials are up against stiff competition.Everyone is busy—at work and home—so it’s important to make information user–friendly and accessible, particularly when it comes to Supplemental Life insurance.

One solution: communicate before, during and right after enrollment through a mix of channels to appeal to all employees, including print, online and face–to–face. E–mails and newsletter articles can help build awareness and drive people to enrollment Web sites. Online, employers can house educational information to make the decision process easy. And onsite enrollment is helpful, since some employees feel most comfortable asking questions in person.

No matter what mix of channels a company uses, one of the most important strategies is to send information home. Annual enrollment affects the entire family—and this is especially true with a benefit like Supplemental Life Insurance, since it is a fundamental part of a family’s financial plan.

Tip 4: Hold an Off-Cycle Enrollment

One of the best ways to focus attention on Supplemental Life Insurance is to hold an off–cycle enrollment event.

During this time, employees focus on the Supplemental Life Insurance benefit, assess their needs, and determine if their coverage is appropriate for their stage in life. Major life events including marriage, purchasing a home or having a child can dramatically affect the amount of life insurance needed.

Another option is to hold year–round enrollment. The Internet makes this type of plan effortless for companies, and it allows employees to receive the coverage they need, when they need it.

Tip 5: Evaluate Results

After the open enrollment period ends, it’s time to study the data. Companies that measure their success can fine–tune their strategy for even better results in the future.

To help with this process, MetLife provides detailed post–enrollment reports that include a follow–up participation analysis. This allows organizations to track employee benefits trends and determine how best to communicate with employees going forward—about Supplemental Life Insurance, as well as overall benefits in general.

The bottom line is this: If employees simply check off boxes on the enrollment form without really thinking about their choices, they will likely be less appreciative of the opportunity and value of the benefit.

With a focused enrollment approach and an experienced provider that understands the challenges, employers can implement effective, targeted outreach about Supplemental Life Insurance. The result: employees are likely to place greater value on their benefits—improving their overall satisfaction with their benefits program—and they will better position themselves to provide for loved ones.

To learn more, download MetLife’s new study “Patterns in Group Life Insurance,” which includes practical suggestions to build employee awareness and increase plan participation. The guide is available at whymetlife.com/life.

Fortune 500 companies that have figured out how to use the Internet to recruit talent are building a considerable lead over those that have not. That’s the conclusion of an annual study of those companies’ Web sites conducted by CareerXroads, a recruiting technology consulting firm in Kendall Park, New Jersey. The study is in its fourth year.

The report singles out 25 companies that excel in communicating effectively with job seekers. What distinguishes them, in most cases, is common sense, like tailoring content to a specific audience, be it college students, military personnel or individuals with a specific skill set. Outstanding companies also provide examples of why people want to work there, showing how real people have developed careers, and even giving details of actual work projects.

Though the list is not ranked, the report’s authors single out Xerox’s “best overall effort” to present an integrated staffing message. For job seekers, there’s “an ability to see yourself” at the company simply by visiting the site, says CareerXroads’ Mark Mehler.

Looking for opportunities at other companies may be a less pleasant experience. The report lists 106 firms whose sites need improvement, 32 of which put links to jobs at the bottom of a home page, bury career pages behind others or even lack any mention of jobs whatsoever. Among the companies the study ranks lowest: steel maker Nucor, security services firm Brinks and retailer Saks Fifth Avenue.

That’s why Mehler sounds a note of caution about the effect of the coming .jobs domain name. “Having jobs in one place will make searching easier,” he says. But before relying on a new domain, Mehler says, companies should try to get it right in the existing one.

—Jonathan Pont

THE GREAT COMMUNITCATORS
Bank of America	Merck
C.H. Robinson Worldwide	Microsoft
Exxon Mobil	Morgan Stanley
Federated Department Stores	Mutual of Omaha
Fluor	Owens Corning
Ford	Principal Group
General Electric	Procter & Gamble
Georgia-Pacific	Southern Co.
Goldman Sachs	Tenet Health
JPMorgan Chase	Union Pacific
Kodak	Xerox
Eli Lilly	Yum Brands
Source: CareerXroads

In his 22 years as a union organizer, Jerry Kraft has never seen anything more effective at getting the public’s attention than the giant inflatable rat. Towering rat balloons–some as tall as 30 feet–have been used by unions for years to call attention to companies employing nonunion labor.

Especially in New York, where Local 79 Construction and General Building Laborers is located, getting busy pedestrians to take notice is a challenge for Kraft and his fellow union members. “But the rat gets people to stop and ask questions about what’s going on,” he says. “That’s why we use it.”

Now, however, the giant inflatable rat’s days may be numbered. As lawsuits by employers fighting the use of the rat at their job sites pile up and move deeper through the court system by way of appeals, many say that one of these cases could end up in front of the Supreme Court.

“As a management lawyer, I would like to see this get decided by the Supreme Court because there are many employers that are impacted by this conduct,” says Kathryn Davis, an attorney in the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster. “Particularly now as the unions step up their recruitment drives and attempts to reinforce membership, we are going to see more of it.”

Two of the cases that are among the furthest along in the appeals process may signal the death knell for the rat. In The Ranches at Mount Sinai v. Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund and Concrete Structures v. Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund, an administrative law judge ruled in a single judgment that the union’s use of an inflatable rat at a job site constituted unlawful picketing.

As with many of these cases, the union in the case argued that the inflatable rat was a prop to get the public’s attention and thus should be protected under the First Amendment. Employers countered that using the rat, which is a well-known symbol of anti-union labor, along with fliers, is the same thing as picketing and thus should be restricted as such.

The union has appealed the decision, which will go before the National Labor Relations Board within the next several months. But the outlook appears grim for the rat. In the NLRB’s May report on case developments, General Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld discussed how the board had found that the use of the rat constituted unlawful picketing.

“This is the potential Pied Piper case,” says Gerald Hathaway, a partner at the law firm of Littler Mendelson. “It will be an opportunity for the National Labor Relations Board to decide that all uses of the rat would constitute picketing.” While this does not mean that the inflatable rat will disappear altogether, it may become an endangered species as unions avoid having their protests viewed as actual picketing.

Even if the rat is exterminated, however, there are other animals that unions can turn to, says Lowell Peterson, an attorney at New York-based Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein who is representing the Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund. Already some unions have started using skunk and cockroach balloons, he says. “There are plenty of other animals.”

—Jessica Marquez

 

Dear Not Seeing Results:

 

Recruiters must win the trust of both their customers and job candidates to be effective. Pay attention to clues that indicate if that trust is lacking. Watch for clues that the hiring manager views the recruiter as an administrative person who is simply needed to post job want-ads and quickly screen resumes. That can cause a lot of problems.

Also, make sure recruiters are being allowed to set up interviews with candidates. If they can’t, this is a clue that people view your recruiters as poor at assessing people’s skills. The problem also could exist because hiring managers take theinterviewing and selection process too lightly. Sometimes this is due to a lack of emphasis on the need to hire top people, or because managers don’t recognize the important role they play in hiring top people.

Recruiters must become partners to gain trust with hiring managers. Recruiters must know the real job, find top candidates and accurately assess their competency levels. Developing a service-level agreement whereby the recruiter agrees to some performance objectives in exchange for the hiring manager’s time is one way to form a partnership. The recruiter needs at least 30 to 45 minutes up front to better understand the job needs.

A formal process should accompany a list of potential candidates, with a clear statement explaining why each person is suitable for the job. Formalizing the process forces the hiring manager to treat recruiting more seriously and devote more time to it. In creating this process, recruiters must become better at delivering stronger candidates. Collectively, this is how the two sides become partners. When a hiring manager sees a recruiting partner as an expert in the hiring process, they tend to react more quickly and are less likely to dismiss candidates out of hand.

SOURCE: Lou Adler, the Adler Group Inc., Irvine, California

LEARN MORE: Hiring Manager Quality Survey. Also:Guerrilla Tactics that Recruiters Can Use on Managers.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

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