Author: Site Staff

2005 SHRM Daily Conference News

Dear Lies:



You’ve got a good start with your search variables. Here are five additional things you should know when all is said and done.

1. Who hired these people?

2. In each case, was the turnover regrettable? (Be brutally honest.)

3. Looking at your experience across a reasonable period of time, what trends do you notice?

4. How do the demographics and responses of those who left compare with those of people who have stayed with your organization?

5. Looking at the personal demographics (age, race, sex, etc.) of the sample population, what differences, if any, do you notice?

You might also benefit from gathering some qualitative data against which to match the quantitative information. For example, what are the individual recruiting habits of the hiring managers identified by your search? Do they recruit constantly? Do they use a hiring profile? What type of interview process is used? What type of new-employee orientation is used?

We will assume that you’ll use appropriate data-gathering techniques and that you will involve a sufficient population in a broad enough time span to yield meaningful results.

As for the interpretation and application of results, look at the data to answer the following questions:

1. Which managers seem to be doing a particularly effective job of recruiting and retention? What can you learn from their efforts, and how can you best give them credit for their results?

2. Conversely, which managers struggle in this area? What help do they need?

3. To what degree is your retention problem related to recruiting, as opposed to job-satisfaction factors?

4. What systemic factors seem to be helping/hindering your efforts? Which of those factors present the highest-yield opportunities?

5. What are the three most actionable findings revealed by this effort, and what could be done about them? Who would be a good champion for each initiative? What metrics can you use to measure progress?

To stay tightly focused, look for an initial short list of three high-yield systemic improvements you can make, an equal number of smaller, more specific changes, and a handful of better practices you can recognize and replicate. When you have them, get going, even though others might want to study it to death. Good luck, and have some fun with your project.

SOURCE: Richard Hadden and Bill Catlette, co-authors,Contented Cows Give Better Milk, www.ContentedCows.com, August 5, 2004.

LEARN MORE: Strategic Human Resources Actions.

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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Dear Workforce Newsletter

Dear Proactive:



Your question is one of the most important that human resources professionals could ask. The implications for your organization’s return on investment are enormous. Managing performance is a continuous process of coaching and counseling–of giving individual feedback on performance in a constructive, goal-focused manner. In the case of poor performers, it may require the added step of documenting your conversations. Regardless, you’ll have to serve as a coach all year, not simply when doing annual appraisals.

Managing employee performance can’t be an afterthought if it’s going to work. You have to start long before you hire someone. Central to this is examining the critical goals for the job–those things for which the person would be held accountable. This analysis is far more comprehensive than a job description. Rather, these areas of accountability define why you’re creating the position in the first place. This knowledge enables you to identify the most important competencies for achieving those goals, including behaviors, motivators, skills/attributes and values.

You have to communicate effectively and in great detail to bring about changes in individuals. That’s the heart of coaching. These conversations can be at the water cooler or in a closed-door scheduled meeting. No matter where it occurs, make sure your discussion is well structured and outlines a clear purpose.

The Coaching Conversation Model, developed by Dallas-based CoachWorks International, outlines five specific steps for a meaningful discussion with employees. They are summarized as follows:

1. Establish focus. Understand the employee’s agenda and be sure that project goals are understood. Clarify any gaps between the goals and the person’s skill level.

2. Discover possibilities. Quiet your mind and listen nonjudgmentally to employees. Repeat what they say to confirm/clarify meaning. Help individuals draw out the consequences of their suggestions, and share personal experiences that relate to ideas that surface.

3. Guide development of an action plan. Regardless of the situation, always focus on the outcomes desired rather than the problem experienced. Divide large projects into bite-sized chunks and set target dates for completion.

4. Explore resources, uncover barriers. Ask questions to figure out the resources you’ll need. This also uncovers possible business and personal barriers. Determine what’s needed to clear these hurdles. Make note of where a manager can assist by ensuring cooperation with others, providing resources, changing work priorities as needed or delegating authority.

5. Have the employees recap. Ask employees to review what has been learned. Gain a commitment from them on the actions that should be taken before future meetings. Re-emphasize your support and how you will help. Establish accountability and time for follow-up.

In summary, identifying job goals, zeroing in on competencies and coaching employees provide a best-practices approach to managing your workforce.

SOURCE: Carl Nielson, principal, The Nielson Group, Dallas, July 27, 2004.

LEARN MORE: How to Wow Employees with Appraisals.

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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Dear Workforce Newsletter

United Airlines executives may be busy worrying about an employee strike, but the company will have to confront more long-term employee morale issues in the next several months.

After rounds of salary cuts and the pending termination of the company’s defined-benefit plan, United will be forced to deal with disgruntled workers and the task of convincing prospective employees that the carrier is a company for which they want to work.

Assuming that it does pull itself out of bankruptcy, United will have to find ways to make up for the fact that its compensation packages are among the lowest in its industry.

“Until those rates of compensation recover, that is going to be their biggest problem,” says Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Co., a Port Washington, New York-based airline analyst.

United pays among the lowest salaries to flight attendants and machinists, two groups threatening to strike. The annual salary for a flight attendant who has worked for six years at United is $26,721, compared with $27,882 at Southwest Airlines and $29,331 at Delta Airlines. Top base salary for mechanics at United is $22.89 per hour, compared with $26.12 at Delta and $32.96 at Southwest.

Management will have to make some huge gestures to get employees to stay, says Richard Gritta, a professor of finance and transportation at the University of Portland. An amped-up 401(k) plan with a sizable match or a competitive profit-sharing program would be a good first step, but it’s going to take more than that, Gritta says.

When asked what United would have to do to improve employee morale, Sara Nelson Dela Cruz, a spokeswoman for Association of Flight Attendants, said nothing less than management stepping down would make a difference.

“This management team cannot run this airline,” she says. After 30 months of bankruptcy, Nelson Dela Cruz says, “they still don’t have a viable business plan.”

While the union would be open to discussion about a high match for its 401(k) plan, that does not address the benefits that have been lost, she says. The association is appealing the pension termination decision.

On May 16 United reached a tentative agreement with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, by which the union allowed for more pay cuts in exchange for job security. The agreement is subject to a vote by union members. The airline is still in talks with the Association of Flight Attendants, and the International Association of Machinists on more pay cuts and other concessions. United is talking about adding a match to its 401(k) plan, but nothing has been decided, United spokesman David Dimmer says.

If United does make it through the next few weeks without strikes, industry observers think the bad press about the company will eventually fade from public memory. At one time, industry employees stuck together, but today that solidarity does not exist. Nor is there widespread support among the public.

Striking workers used to be able to rely on the community ostracizing employers for being anti-labor, but that isn’t the case anymore,” says David Gregory, a labor law professor at St. John’s University.

The reality is that since Sept. 11, there has been a huge pool of employees looking for work, Gregory says. “A good mechanic will have portable skills to take to another industry,” he says. “But for flight attendants or ticket people, whose skills really are not transferable, this may be the best they can get right now.”

—Jessica Marquez

 

As senior-level executives finish paying for the kids’ costly college tuition and determine they have managed to give themselves a decent financial cushion for the future, many are taking early retirement. That’s leading to a growing shortage in the executive and management ranks, says Doug Matthews, executive vice president for global career services Right Management Consultants in Philadelphia.

Their companies, meanwhile, haven’t always kept up succession planning at higher levels, occasionally leaving key positions unfilled for a time. The shortage is having a favorable effect on people looking for work: It’s taking less time for them to get hired. For key executives, 45 percent got hired within six months, a recent Right survey found. That’s an improvement of about two months, Matthews says. In the lower ranks, too, hiring conditions are good. Nearly three-quarters of the lower- to mid-level managers surveyed got hired within three months, shaving several weeks off the time-to-hire stats from 2002 and 2003.

Matthews says the hiring environment should remain brisk through at least the first part of the summer. Moreover, hiring for management positions has some insulation against an economic slowdown, should one materialize, because companies have been slow to implement succession plans.

—Jonathan Pont

China’s online recruitment market will generate about $97 million this year, according to Sinocast, a Web site focusing on business in China.

Zhang Jianguo, president of ChinaHR.com Corp., says that 70 percent of job hunters in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen prefer to use the Web in their job hunts. Monster isn’t missing out: It’s investing in a popular Chinese recruiting Web site. Sinocast reports June 8 that ChinaHR.com may use the money to go public in due time, but for now the company will focus on expanding its business.

In other news, a government official in India is lobbying Intel to set up a manufacturing facility in that country.

According to Asia Intelligence Wire, the India’s minister for communications and information technology, Dayanidhi Maran, “said that the global giant had shortlisted China and India for setting up a factory.” Intel currently has a software development center (but not a hardware manufacturing plant) in Bangalore and does research and development in China.

Dear Feeling Slighted:



It is not uncommon to blame either the lack of talent or a bad recruiting message when futilely trying to fill critical needs. Often, however, this is the least of your worries. Instead, think about:

Where are you and where are they? Industry centers develop over time. In the United States, if you are a financial-services professional, New York City is your epicenter. Software engineers like to settle in Massachusetts, Silicon Valley or Seattle. A six-square-block area in Boston encompasses the most intensive concentration of medical-research facilities in the world.

A concentration of talent in any one area raises the cost of doing business. Consequently, many companies decide to seek less expensive places to set up shop. This has a downside: although it lowers the cost of doing business, it complicates recruiting and raises the cost of hiring. Persuading potential candidates to move someplace with fewer opportunities is an enormous hurdle.

India, your home country, abounds with talented information-technology professionals. You have to start asking, Why won’t they work for us?

Are you what you think you are? It may be that your company isn’t perceived as one of the best and brightest. This can be a major drawback for individuals looking to advance their careers; they’re more likely to look at your competitors, even in other regions. Knowing your company’s street reputation is important to understanding this issue. Seek outside expert advice. Reluctance to face difficult realities makes getting at the truth internally difficult at best.

First, though, compile a checklist that asks key questions. Include the following:

• How competitive are our salaries and benefits?
  
• Do we lead the pack or remain stuck at the back?
  
• Do negative management issues dog us?
  
• Are we considered a financial risk?
  
• Do we settle for hiring less than the best?
  

Once you gather this information, you’ll need to craft a recruiting message to dispel any myths. This may actually require spending money in areas other than recruiting. Professional magazines, Web sites and industry associations are good places to start.

Are you looking for a ton of what exists only in ounces? Industries looking for rare and exotic technologies are always confronted with a “talent famine” if their only approach is to seek what already exists. Too few companies are willing to redefine hiring standards and levels to match the available talent pool. Be willing to nurture and train your existing talent. Invest in your own employees. This could transform them into that rare and hard-to-find commodity: topflight producers.

SOURCE: Ken Gaffey, principal, Kenneth T. Gaffey Consulting, Melrose, Massachusetts, July 27, 2004.

LEARN MORE: Forget What You’ve Heard: Come Work for Us.

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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Dear Workforce Newsletter

Though hiring remains flat in California’s Silicon Valley, the region’s high housing costs are rattling company leaders and prompting recruiters to look for talent closer to home.

In a recent survey by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, 68 percent of area executives cited high housing prices as the top business challenge–above onerous regulations, workers’ compensation costs and even health care costs. In the past 2 1/2 years, the median price for single-family homes has jumped 20 percent to $636,390, according to Economy.com.

Dick Hoell, director of global workforce planning for Sun Microsystems, says the company recently has focused on local candidates when hiring people for its Santa Clara headquarters. And some companies might pass up a first-choice candidate who lives outside a high-price region to avoid the costs associated with a move. That has had an impact even on high earners in executive positions.

Some firms, though, have begun to think once again about importing managerial talent from outside the state, says Ross Blanchard, managing director for executive search firm Boyden in San Francisco.

Blanchard says that in such cases, those likely to feel the housing pinch are middle managers earning around $100,000. That’s the income level where buyers often seek a “starter” home, like a condominium. In Silicon Valley, such housing is in short supply.

“We advocate a certain housing product type: condominiums, townhomes and apartments,” says Shiloh Ballard, director of housing and community development for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. But rampant lawsuits over alleged defects brought by homeowners caused developers and insurers to stop building these dwellings, and the supply has dwindled. Though the state Legislature enacted reform, Ballard says the demand for affordable housing continues to outstrip supply.

Other regions of the country are building differently, often with the workforce in mind. In Atlanta, for example, builders over the past five years have fueled that city’s growth with designs that combine thousands of apartments and condominiums with spaces for offices, businesses and entertainment. But Atlanta, which is home to dozens of Fortune 500 companies, telecommunications firms and biotechnology interests, has the advantage of being able to redevelop its urban areas, and leads the country in housing starts. That helps attract as many as 50,000 new residents a year.

“People are moving here because there are opportunities,” says Hans Gant, senior vice president of economic development for the city’s Chamber of Commerce. The price of real estate may prove equally attractive. In the same 30-month period cited by Economy.com, the median home price there rose by a relatively modest nine percent, to $160,260.

To ease the financial burden that buying a house can bring, Silicon Valley companies created a housing trust five years ago. With an initial endowment of $20 million donated by companies, it doles out loans at little or no interest for things like closing costs. And Boyden’s Ross Blanchard says that mortgage assistance is often part of a relocation package. That presumes, of course, that an out-of-towner can get a job offer in the first place.

—Jonathan Pont

 

 

Though the economy is expanding, one in five unemployed people in the United States have been out of work for six months or more, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The institute, which advocates particularly on behalf of low- and middle-income employees, says that “never before has the overall unemployment rate been this low while so many of the jobless have been out of work for such long periods of time.”

The report on the long-term unemployed was released jointly with the National Employment Law Project.

The researchers say this isn’t the first time that long-term unemployment–the share of the unemployed who have been out of work for 27 or more weeks–has continued at high rates even after a recession ends.

Following the 1990-91 recession, for example, the report finds that “as the unemployment rate fell from 7.8 percent to 5.8 percent, long-term joblessness remained above 20 percent for 22 of those 29 months.” This time around, however, the percentage of the unemployed who have been jobless long term has reached “an unprecedented streak of 31 consecutive months and counting.”

Women represent a larger share of the long-term unemployed than they have in the past. This is because the service sector, where female employment is concentrated, used to be “less sensitive to economic cycles,” according to the Economic Policy Institute study. Now, with the service sector more vulnerable, working women are less protected, says the Washington-based organization.

The heart of HR service delivery

More than 89 percent of the 250 companies Towers Perrin surveyed in 2004 had a core HR system. For the majority of companies in the survey, PeopleSoft (pre-Oracle) and SAP were the dominant platforms.

Source: Towers Perrin 2004 HR Service Delivery Survey

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