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Nuclear Regulatory Commission Aggressively Expands Headcount

Almost as soon as the nuclear power “renaissance” began around 2000, the industry realized it had a human resources problem. With little hiring since the partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in 1979, college and university programs in nuclear engineering and related disciplines had mostly vanished.


The next-generation pipeline was empty. Yet, the response for potential new jobs was swift.


“The industry’s recruiting has greatly increased across the board,” says Carol Berrigan, senior director of industry infrastructure for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear trade and advocacy group. “It’s reaching out to lots of two- and four-year colleges. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is [also] doing a good job of recruiting. It’s aggressive and filling vacancies for both retirement and new licensing.”


In the early 2000s, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission knew it would have to continue its daily monitoring and safety enforcement activities at all 104 nuclear power plants in the United States. On top of that, it was expecting up to 20 new nuclear plant license applications between 2007 and 2009 (to date, 17 have been filed). It would also have to address requests to increase the number of nuclear fuel processing facilities and evaluate the Department of Energy’s controversial proposal to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.


One nuclear plant review takes 100,000 hours or 30 months, not counting another 12 months for public hearings. To deal with the new work, the NRC needed more staff. The agency identified workforce development as a major organizational issue in a 2004 strategic planning document and followed up with immediate action to increase hiring.


“As part of the process for hiring at the entry level, you must invest a good bit into relationship-building at colleges,” says Susan Salter, chief of the NRC’s recruitment branch. “We work with the faculty to identify good candidates, and we have senior-level ‘champions’ adopt the school and provide a presence on campus.”


In 2007, the NRC held 37 on-site career fairs. It also began a series of continuing grant programs for faculty at selected colleges and universities, curriculum development assistance, and scholarships and fellowships for promising undergraduate and graduate students.


Security clearance delays for entry-level hires represent a major NRC challenge.


“If it takes 60 to 90 days before new hires can start, they might leave,” Salter says.


The NRC’s office of personnel management processes security applications, and it has added personnel to speed things up. Waivers were also instituted so new hires can work while they wait.


“It’s not a problem of getting the clearances,” Salter says. “It’s just the time involved.”


Sign-on bonuses and expanded training and development programs at the NRC have also been instrumental in bringing on entry-level personnel. From 2004 to 2006, the NRC expanded total spending for sign-on bonuses from $77,000 to $979,000, and individual awards went from $5,400 to $20,000.


Haile Lindsay received a sign-on bonus, but he credits the training, work environment and career opportunities as the main reasons he joined the NRC as an entry-level thermal engineer in the Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards. The Greensboro, North Carolina, native completed his doctorate in mechanical engineering in December 2007 and went to work for the NRC in March 2008.


“I met my colleagues in June when I interviewed with my future supervisor,” Lindsay says. “I saw how I’d be helped and trained. I like the feeling of communicating with peers and even with supervisors on a first-name basis.” Supervisors are open-minded and willing to listen, he says. “It gives you can opportunity to grow.”


Lindsay is in the NRC’s formal two-year nuclear safety professional development program. The program involves structured coursework, formal and informal training opportunities and two rotations. Lindsay’s first rotation will be in human resources and training; the second is yet to be determined. He’ll complete both by October 2010.


In the last three fiscal years, the NRC has hired 1,332 new employees: 369 in 2006; 441 in 2007; and 522 in 2008. With attrition levels totaling about 200 per year, the net gain is 169 in 2006; 241 in 2007; 322 in 2008.


About two-thirds of these are technical personnel, and about 25 percent are entry level, like Lindsay. The rest are at mid- and senior-career levels.


To compete with industries for experienced professionals, the NRC analyzes salary and other statistics for key disciplines like nuclear and health physics and strives to make competitive offers. As with Lindsay, however, less tangible criteria may be more important. “The NRC was voted the best place to work in the federal government in 2007,” says the Nuclear Energy Institute’s Berrigan. “It offers a positive environment for new people.”


The NRC makes good use of its best-place-to-work fame in hiring experienced personnel. “We look for people who are working in the industry and have lots of stress. The money may not be as competitive, but the working environment is good,” Salter says.


With all the entry-level and experienced new hires, the NRC now has a staff of about 3,800. That’s enough for ongoing and new responsibilities.


“From here on out, we’ll have little to no growth,” Salter says. “It will be mainly replacement hires.”


Nevertheless, the agency will maintain its college and university connections. “Even when you’re not in a big push, you want to keep the relationships,” she says.

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Mass Staff Cuts Dont Slam the Brakes on New Hires

CEO Steve Ballmer rocked the high-tech world with his January 22 e-mail to Microsoft employees announcing that the company would eliminate 5,000 jobs in the next 18 months, including 1,400 immediately.


The layoffs and other cost-saving measures will help Microsoft save $600 million in the first quarter of 2009 and $1.5 billion for the full fiscal year ending June 30.


Ballmer noted, however, that net employment would contract by only 2,000 to 3,000 jobs. He explained the company would simultaneously “open new positions to support key investment areas during this same period of time.”


Microsoft’s decision to hire new employees in the middle of a mass layoff reflects a broader trend now under way. Nearly two-thirds of employers plan to lay off workers in 2009, but many will not freeze hiring, according to the latest surveys.


Instead, companies will continue to hire new employees for their still profitable units, upgrade their talent and replace higher-cost employees with lower-cost new hires. Hiring during layoffs, however, increases the likelihood of a discrimination lawsuit.


“We suggest to our clients that there is opportunity in the recession to hire talent if a company is able to do so,” says Michael Rosen, partner and employment law specialist at law firm Foley Hoag in Boston. “There is some inherent risk, but it can be minimized as long as the company is sensitive to it.”


The risk continuum
The lawsuits generated by layoffs are complex. Dell is now facing a $500 million class-action suit claiming the company targeted female and older employees in layoffs affecting 8,900 workers. The company is moving through a massive restructuring designed to cut $3 billion in spending by the end of fiscal 2011.


The lawsuit, filed in October by four female and older human resources managers who lost their jobs, states that Dell executives manipulated performance ratings to justify terminations and informed them that there were no other available jobs at a time when there were open positions. The complaint is a virtual catalog of the legal issues that arise in layoffs.


The risks entailed in hiring during layoffs run along a continuum, Rosen explains. The lowest levels of risk occur at companies with multiple divisions that are not equally affected by the downturn. The company may lay off workers in an affected unit while still hiring in units that are not.


“There is no legal requirement that you must move people from one division to another,” Rosen notes.


The risk level is lower when a company lays off workers but then consolidates or modifies jobs and hires new workers to fill them.


But it rises when a company lays off workers from within a group of employees and simultaneously hires new workers for that same group without changing the skills required or the job titles.


“These actions need to be defensible,” Rosen cautions.


Although hiring during a layoff may trigger charges of discrimination based on race, gender or age, employment law experts generally agree that lawsuits based on a claim of age discrimination are among the most difficult to defend.


In any mass layoff, the employer should test for disparate impact on protected groups.


“If you are laying off employees with a disproportionate impact on those over age 40, you need to be prepared to explain why you are hiring and justify who you are hiring,” Rosen notes.


The matrix approach to structuring layoffs now common among employers often ranks employees on factors that include salary and performance. Historically, disproportionate numbers of older employees, who tend to be more senior and more costly, are swept into the layoff list.


The Supreme Court has made it clear that layoff and hiring decisions based on compensation costs can be defended, Rosen notes. Although it is illegal to discriminate against employees age 40 and over because of their age, it is not illegal to lay off those who are at higher salary levels, even if this policy has a disproportionate effect on older workers.


Hiring younger workers to replace older workers increases exposure to a lawsuit, however.


“The real issue is not just whether you will win or lose a case, but the odds that you are going to have to spend the money to defend a case,” Rosen says.


Cases may turn on whether hiring during a layoff causes a shift in workforce demographics so that the average age drops substantially.


“On pure numbers, it exposes the employer to age discrimination claims,” Rosen cautions. “That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but you need to be prepared to defend both the layoff and the hiring decisions.


“If an employer lays off 10 employees who are over age 50 and costly and hires 10 who are under 30 at lower salaries, you can defend that. But this sort of one-to-one scenario produces the most glaring numbers, and I like a case where the numbers are not glaring.”


Business justification
A sharp increase in discrimination lawsuits triggered by recent layoffs is already apparent, according to Kevin Shaughnessy, partner at Baker Hostetler in Orlando, Florida.


“We’ve seen an extreme rise in claims nationwide, and not just age claims, but race and gender discrimination claims as well.


“Employer concerns about laying off older employees are well founded, but these actions can be managed. If money is the only issue and you can hire cheaper, you have to justify the disparate impact on older workers.”


Business justifications include the need to lower costs.


“The company can still be profitable, but it becomes more difficult to justify the layoff if there are no pressing economic factors,” Shaughnessy says.


Exposure to a lawsuit can be reduced if the employer considers the laid-off employees for the open positions and those positions can be distinguished from the jobs included in the layoff.


“If the job title is similar, employers must carefully evaluate the job description for the open position,” Shaughnessy notes.


Shaughnessy advises employers to keep careful records on the business reasons for the layoff, the selection process used and the difference between the jobs that were eliminated and the jobs where hiring is taking place.


“In a large layoff of thousands of employees, there is some safety in the numbers, and it is less likely that the company would have engaged in discriminatory actions,” Shaughnessy says. “Financial considerations are paramount.”


Shaughnessy notes, however, that laying off senior people and hiring new employees at lower salaries can undermine trust in the company. The remaining employees may wonder at what age they will be terminated.


“There is a tremendous morale upheaval during a layoff and this is exacerbated by bring in new employees,” he says.


Employers should issue effective communications to all employees.


“There should be an explanation for the layoffs and the new hiring that is taking place,” Shaughnessy advises. “For example, explain that one product line is not profitable and layoffs are needed, but another product line is profitable and requires a slightly different skill set from the first. This doesn’t end the angst, but it can go a long way to ensuring less upheaval.”


During a layoff, hiring new employees into consolidated job functions and reorganized job titles is more common than simply replacing older workers with younger ones in the same job, according to Lisa Cassilly, partner in Alston & Bird in Atlanta.


“The law does not prohibit restructuring to reduce pay for jobs,” Cassilly says. “What is important is the need for clearly defined, essential job duties. This is a fact-intensive issue, and the clearer the demarcations, the better. For the open positions, there must be identifiable minimum qualifications. It is also wise to post the positions internally.”


If an employer lays off older workers and posts openings for the same position at a lower salary, Cassilly suggests that the employer should identify the position and the compensation and offer it to more senior employees.


“If they are qualified and willing to accept the compensation, they can be retained or hired back,” she says. “There may be morale issues, however.”


If an employer is using a layoff to clean out low performers, Cassilly advises that the performance criteria for any open positions should be specified.


“Be mindful of the temptation to include performance-related reductions in a layoff without noting that they were performance related,” she says. “If data-gathering for the layoff includes performance considerations, be honest about that.”


When hiring for the open positions, Cassilly advises employers to clearly define the qualifications required and measure them against the performance record of the employees who were laid off.


“If there are attendance or productivity problems that the employer hopes to remedy, for example, the minimum attendance or productivity criteria should be noted,” she says.


Employers that provide severance payments may be able to reduce the risk of a lawsuit.


“It is possible that we may see fewer claims than in earlier downturns because more employers are conditioning severance payments on obtaining releases from the terminated employees,” Rosen notes. “Releases are not always effective, but they will preclude a portion of claims.”

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Questions Remain Over Balance Billing Despite State Ruling

A ruling by the California Supreme Court in January lets patients off the hook for hospital bills they’ve accrued during emergency visits, but it does not resolve the larger issues that have put employers in the crossfire between hospitals and health insurers.


The court decision attempts to redress the hospital practice of balance billing, which typically occurs when a patient goes to an emergency room not covered under that person’s health insurance.


When a hospital does not get sufficiently reimbursed by the insurer, it often tries to collect the difference from the patient in addition to normal co-pays and deductibles. This is known as balance billing, and it often leads irate employees to call their health plan administrator to complain.


“A guy will say, ‘Hey, look, my wife dialed 9-1-1. I had a stroke, I ended up at the hospital and now I have a $30,000 bill,” said Russell Bigler, CEO of the Self Insured Schools of California, which manages benefits for public school districts in Central California’s Kern County. Bigler said the problem has worsened in recent years as more hospitals have terminated contracts with insurers.


“This is one of the fronts of the battle” of health care reform,” said Jonathan P. Weiner, professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.


The ruling provided a victory for patients, employers and health insurers. But that victory could be short-lived if hospitals reduce emergency services, as they say they will, if they can’t make ends meet.


Already, hospitals around the country are terminating contracts with insurers because they say they are not getting reimbursed enough to stay in business. That leaves patients who live in those areas effectively uninsured when they go to the emergency room.


Prime Healthcare Services, a 13-hospital system in California, is one company that has bought bankrupt or near-bankrupt hospitals and then terminated contracts with insurers because reimbursement rates were not high enough to stay in business.


“There would never be a need to bill the patient if the HMO paid hospitals fairly,” said Mike Sarrao, vice president and general counsel for Prime Healthcare Services.


Currently, 11 states have laws that make reference to balance billing, with the most detailed laws prohibiting hospitals from collecting additional money from Medicaid patients, according to the Conference of State Legislatures, a Denver-based policy research organization. Many hospitals though say it’s those low rates that force them to make up the difference elsewhere.


The number of hospitals that terminate contracts with health plans varies from region to region, but the occurrence is especially common in areas where hospitals have less competition from other hospitals, such as in rural and inner-city areas or in markets that have seen hospital mergers, health policy experts say.


These changes pose a challenge for employers.


“Hospitals are exerting more and more market leverage,” said Dennis White, senior vice president for value-based purchasing with the National Business Coalition on Health in Washington. “They are getting tougher on the rates they will accept to stay in the network.”


Hospital systems are forcing concessions by employers and health insurers, White said, such as prohibiting employers from making public information about quality differences among hospitals. Some have prohibited the use of tiered co-pays that would discourage employees to seek care from certain hospitals.


“This is, again, the market butting up against the rights and needs of patients, which some believe should surmount market economics,” Weiner said.


Caught in the middle are patients and the employers who pay for their care. Employees, for one, will not tolerate getting stuck with a hospital bill, especially in these tough economic times. And when they do, they will let their employer know about it.


“Rest assured,” Weiner said, “if the self-insured employer gets nothing but pushback from employees, they will need to change their approach … which is exactly what the doctors and hospitals want.”


—Jeremy Smerd


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New York Conference Hatches Initiatives for ‘New’ Economy

New York has launched an effort to ensure that bankers and other finance professionals laid off in the Wall Street meltdown stay in the city.


The Web site www.careerlinknyc.com provides guidance for the recently unemployed on how to apply for benefits and links to job search and training sites. It also includes links to stories with tips on how to capitalize from the Wall Street collapse.


The project is one of several initiatives discussed at the “Future of New York City” conference sponsored by Crain’s New York Business on Tuesday, February 3. The effort reflects the new reality that the financial services sector may not play as significant a role in the city’s economy as it has in the past. Professionals in the industry who have been laid off will need to reinvent themselves.


The city plans to spend $170,000 developing and marketing the Web site. In addition to that effort, Mayor Michael Bloomberg also announced plans for a new $10 million angel fund and a startup incubator to help new companies get off the ground. A spokeswoman for the city said details on those plans are not available.


Addressing a panel on emerging industries, Sara Horowitz, the founder and director of the Freelancers Union, said the city needs new policies to support independent workers. She cited an estimate from the city comptroller’s office that shows that half of the new jobs created in the city over the past decade are held by the self-employed.


Horowitz encouraged Wall Streeters and other laid-off professionals to consider becoming independent contractors. One way the city can help is by developing new zoning rules to encourage “co-working” spaces where independent professionals can share office space.


Even though independent workers may not go to work every day in a traditional office setting, Horowitz said, “People still want to go out and work with other people.”


All the doom and gloom in the financial community may provide an opening for the city’s biotech industry, said Sharon Mates, chief executive of Intra-Cellular Therapies. Consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry—most notably the possible merger of Pfizer Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.—is an opportunity to attract top talent from research institutions in New Jersey.


To capitalize on the opportunities, Mates says the city should provide more funding for public-private partnerships like the biotechnology centers being developed at the Brooklyn Army Terminal and the East River Science Park. She also said organizations like the New York City Investment Fund, a private investment fund that aims to diversify the city’s economy, should step up investments in biotech to help spur the industry.


“The intellectual capital here is unmatched,” Mates said. “This is an opportunity for growing it and there is still financial capital—it’s the price of the capital that’s changed.”


Filed by Matthew Sollars of Crain’s New York Business, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

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Senate Committee Cancels Vote on Labor Secretary Nomination

Rep. Hilda Solis will have to wait a while longer for her nomination as the next secretary of labor to come before the full Senate after a committee postponed its vote on her nomination on Thursday, February 5.


USA Today reported Thursday that the California Democrat’s husband had not paid $6,400 in tax liens against his auto repair business until February 4. Some of the penalties had been outstanding for 16 years.


White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a briefing Thursday that Solis’ nomination is not in jeopardy.


“We reviewed her tax returns and her tax returns are in order,” Gibbs said. “We’re not going to penalize her for her husband’s business mistakes. Obviously, her husband I think has and should pay any taxes that he owes.”


The Solis confirmation process has been stalled since her appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on January 9. Solis refused to state a position on a controversial bill that would make it easier for employees to form a union and did not offer her opinion about right-to-work laws and other policies.


After the hearing, panel Republicans submitted a series of written questions to Solis about the union legislation as well as her service on the board of American Rights at Work, an advocacy organization. Solis had not indicated her position in House financial disclosures, according to published reports.


Solis had apparently answered the follow-up queries from senators, but a committee vote was postponed indefinitely, according to a note posted on the door of the hearing room on Thursday.


The statement, issued jointly by Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, and ranking Republican Mike Enzi of Wyoming, said the vote was delayed to give committee members time to “review documentation submitted in support of Representative Solis’ nomination.”


Even if all Republicans on the committee voted against Solis, the Democratic majority would prevail. The committee also could send the nomination to the Senate floor without a vote.


Once Solis is put before the whole Senate, any member could prevent a vote by placing a “hold” on it. But Kennedy and Enzi said that has not happened.


“There are no holds on her nomination, and members on both sides of the aisle remain committed to giving her nomination the fair and thorough consideration that she deserves,” Kennedy and Enzi said. “We will continue to work together to move this nomination forward as soon as possible.”


If Solis gets a Senate vote, she will almost certainly be confirmed. Democrats hold a 58-41 majority, with the results of a Minnesota election still in dispute.


One of the stumbling blocks for Solis centers on a union measure, the Employee Free Choice Act. It would allow a union to form when a majority of workers sign authorization cards and prevent companies from requiring a secret-ballot election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.


Organized labor’s top legislative priority, the legislation is fiercely opposed by Republicans and business interests. Solis’ sentiment is no mystery. She is a co-sponsor of the bill, as was President Barack Obama when he was in the Senate.


Unions want Congress to act quickly on the measure, which could sharply increase the number of workers covered by collective bargaining units. Currently, about 7 percent of private-sector employees and 12 percent of the overall workforce belong to a union.


Although Solis doesn’t have a long record on employment issues, she has been embraced by organized labor.


In a statement, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney urged the Senate to quickly confirm Solis. He said she would promote training, “green-collar” jobs, wage enforcement, workplace safety and fairness and would be a union champion.


“She understands that working men and women deserve the freedom to choose whether to form a union without employer interference,” Sweeney said.


—Mark Schoeff Jr.


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Employers Believe Hiring Will Improve as Unemployment Numbers Worsen

Despite some bleak employment news this week, a large number of executives appear to be bullish on a need for talent.


More than three-quarters of executives surveyed by Korn/Ferry International Inc. say demand for talent will increase more in the next five years than in the previous five.


In addition, 52 percent predicted a recovery in 2009, with 35 percent saying it will be the second half of the year before there are signs of improvement. Another 39 percent said labor market challenges will linger until 2010.


Half of executives looking for jobs said they are “very confident” in their abilities to find one in 2009 that meets their expectations.


The Korn/Ferry report, released Thursday, February 5, arrived as the number of initial jobless claims in the U.S. climbed 5.9 percent the week ended January 31, the Department of Labor reported.


There were 626,000 initial claims for unemployment filed, up from the previous week’s revised figure of 591,000, according to the report released Thursday, February 5.


The Labor Department report corresponds with the most recent Monster Worldwide Inc. employment index, which fell 13 points to a reading of 118 in January. It is down 42 points from a year ago.


“The fact that employers have chosen to begin recruiting in 2009 on a cautious note is not surprising given the uncertain nature of the global economy,” said Jesse Harriott, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Massachusetts-based Monster.


“However, there are a few bright spots, including recruiting activity in public administration as well as in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, online recruitment activity still remains higher than levels seen during 2003 after the last recession.”


Monster’s index is based on a review of online job ads taken from a selection of corporate career Web sites and job boards, including Monster.


—Compiled by Rick Bell from Staffing Industry Analysts reports


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Deep Corporate Staff Cuts Heat Up H-1B Visa Debate

Job cuts by tech firms are putting the controversial H-1B guest-worker program in the spotlight once again.


Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, kicked off the latest debate in January by publicly calling on Microsoft to prioritize American workers over foreign guest workers as the software giant downsizes. In the wake of Grassley’s letter to Microsoft, questions have been raised about the legality of axing H-1B workers first. And H-1B critics have stepped up their attacks on a program they say makes little sense during a time of corporate belt-tightening.


H-1B visas rarely go to exceptional talent and often are used by “body shops” that provide contract labor to other companies, said Ira Mehlman, media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform advocacy group. 


“H-1B visas are not being used as they were intended,” Mehlman said.


Controversy about the guest worker visas also has spilled over into the federal bank bailout. In early February, Senators Grassley and Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, introduced legislation to bar banks that have received a taxpayer bailout from the U.S. Treasury Department or the Federal Reserve from hiring H-1B guest workers for a year.


Their amendment to the stimulus bill under discussion in Congress came in the wake of an Associated Press report finding that banks receiving the most federal aid had requested visas for thousands of foreign workers even as they laid off employees amid the economic collapse.

H-1B visas are one of a number of guest-worker visas that allow foreigners to work in the United States temporarily. Long backed by the U.S. tech industry as crucial to American competitiveness, H-1Bs let computer programmers, electronics engineers and other skilled workers stay in the country for up to six years. 


Except in limited cases, companies do not have to seek an American worker before hiring an H-1B.


In 2007, Grassley introduced legislation to make all employers applying for an H-1B visa pledge that they have made a good-faith effort to hire American workers first and that the H-1B visa holder will not displace an American worker. Grassley’s recent letter to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer continued in that America-first vein.


He wrote it in the wake of the Redmond, Washington-based firm’s disclosure on January 22 that it would cut as many as 5,000 jobs in the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs that day. Microsoft has been among the most vocal advocates for additional H-1B visas.


“My point is that during a layoff, companies should not be retaining H-1B or other work visa program employees over qualified American workers,” Grassley wrote in his letter. “Our immigration policy is not intended to harm the American workforce. I encourage Microsoft to ensure that Americans are given priority in job retention.”


In late January, a Microsoft spokeswoman said the company was in the process of responding to Grassley. Microsoft, which had 95,828 employees worldwide as of December, also issued a statement about its layoff process: “We made the difficult decisions on which jobs would be eliminated based on a detailed assessment of our current and future business opportunities. The initial reductions we announced affect employees in a number of business units, and a significant number of the affected employees are foreign citizens working in this country on a visa.”


Microsoft’s statement also noted that a pink slip for a guest worker can be traumatic.


“We recognize the human impact that our workforce reduction has on every affected worker and their families. For many of the employees here on a visa, being laid off means that they have to leave the country on very short notice, in many cases uprooting families and children,” the company said.


Microsoft was among the top 10 firms getting approvals for H-1B visas in the year ended September 30, 2007, according to research by technology industry publication Information Week. The top 10 was made up largely of India-based firms that provide outsourcing services, including Infosys Technologies, Wipro and Satyam Computer Services.


Asked if it intends to cut any jobs in the U.S. in the coming year, Infosys said in a statement that it had no such plans “apart from any reductions due to restructuring of units or performance-related terminations.” The company also said it disagreed with Grassley’s call for axing visa holders first.


“In a globalized world, corporate decisions should be based on economic realities rather than on political considerations,” Infosys said in its statement. “The U.S. has succeeded in the past due to its openness and free trade both in products and services. Any changes which could bring artificial restrictions on free movement of goods and people will be a huge setback to the globalization process.”


Semiconductor giant Intel also ranked in Information Week’s top 10 list of visa approvals, while technology firms Accenture, IBM and Oracle made the top 100.


Intel and Accenture did not respond to requests for comment. Oracle declined to comment for this story.


IBM spokesman Clint Roswell declined to comment on Grassley’s call for prioritizing U.S. workers.


In a twist on immigration work matters, IBM recently began offering U.S. employees who have lost their job the option of working for IBM in a less-developed country, such as South Africa, India and China. Roswell said the offer includes help with visa matters and moving costs. So far, no IBM workers have taken the company up on the offer, Roswell said.


“It’s not for everyone,” he said.


It’s not clear whether a U.S. employer could legally follow Grassley’s advice and trim its foreign guest workers ahead of qualified American citizens and permanent residents. Cletus Weber, an immigration attorney based in Mercer Island, Washington, says he believes that arbitrarily laying off lawfully employed foreign workers first could subject a firm to potential legal liability under federal anti-discrimination laws.


Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bans employment discrimination based on national origin. Asked whether Grassley’s call for prioritizing qualified American workers during a layoff would violate that law, a spokesman for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—which enforces civil rights law in the workplace—declined to comment.


Commission spokesman David Grinberg said in a statement that his agency looks at charges filed with it on a case-by-case basis.


But H-1B visa holders have rights, Grinberg indicated. “EEOC-enforced laws protect all individuals in the workplace,” he said, “regardless of immigration status.”


—Ed Frauenheim


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UPS Suspends 401(k) Match

Package delivery giant United Parcel Service Inc. has suspended its 401(k) plan match for management and other nonunion employees.


Before the suspension, which took effect Sunday, February 1, UPS matched 100 percent of employees’ salary deferrals up to the first 3 percent of pay.


The suspension comes as UPS, like so many other corporations, has seen revenue and earnings decline as the economy has slowed.


In the fourth quarter of 2008, revenue declined 5.2 percent compared with 2007 to $12.7 billion, while operating profit, excluding certain one-time events, slipped 25.4 percent during the same period to $1.38 billion.


(Click here to read related stories, including those about other companies that have suspended their 401(k) matches.)


Filed by Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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Assessment Providers Scoring Well

You won’t hear assessment providers complaining about the recession. These bad times are good for firms that offer Fortune 1,000 and midsize companies the skills tests and behavioral assessments they use to screen job applicants to decide which ones are best suited for a particular position.


And screened they are. As layoffs increase, companies that still have openings are being inundated with résumés from out-of-work job seekers.


“One client opened a sales position and three hours later had 250 applications,” says Russ Becker, a managing partner at Kenexa, an applicant tracking and assessments provider.


Companies like Becker’s client are using assessments to make shorter work of processing all those applications. And in recent times, more are opting for assessments that can be given directly on their Web-based career centers and with the results funneled to an applicant tracking system or talent management suite, according to HR executives, vendor representatives and industry analysts.


As more companies demand assessments that can be integrated into their talent management technology, partnerships are cropping up between vendors of those two products—trends that analysts and HR industry watchers predict will continue and could eventually lead to mergers or acquisitions.


Insiders also predict that in 2009, interest will pick up in simulation-type assessments that use Web-based interactive media, role-playing and even video games to make tests more fun and interesting for job applicants. They also predict that, as with other aspects of their recruiting, companies will look to make assessments an extension of their corporate culture, so job applicants get a glimpse of what it’s like to work there from the get-go. If assessments are engaging enough, industry watchers say, they could turn job seekers—even those who don’t get hired —into loyal fans or possibly customers.


Assessments Gaining Acceptance
 Companies may be giving more assessments now that times are tough, but tests were already gaining a bigger foothold during better days. One reason: Assessments are more plug-and-play than they used to be, making them easier to administer and integrate into a company’s recruiting and talent management applications, according to Charles Handler, an industrial psychologist and proprietor of Rocket-Hire, an assessments consultancy.


Vendors have built on years of collected data to create deeper, more standardized offerings, so “you can be pretty sure that if you pull a sales assessment off the shelf it’ll have some level of accuracy,” he says. Those packaged or semi-packaged solutions generally cost less too, making them more attractive to midmarket companies, which is helping expand the market, Handler says.


As a result, more companies are administering more types of assessments, applying them to a larger universe of job categories and doing it online.


Dollar Tree is a good example. Three years ago, the $4.6 billion Chesapeake, Virginia-based discount store chain began using skills-based assessments to screen job candidates for certain administrative positions, including a corporate help desk that provides IT assistance to the company’s 3,572 stores. After adding assessments, turnover in those positions dropped significantly, says Julie Baldwin, Dollar Tree’s recruiting and placement director, though she wouldn’t specify by how much.


It was enough of an improvement to persuade Dollar Tree to add assessments to screenings for open positions among the company’s 700 corporate and branch-level managers—and put them online. Since July, job seekers can go to a career center on Dollar Tree’s Web site to see what management positions are open, apply online and, if they pass initial screenings, complete any necessary assessments. Those assessments include questions to elicit information on a prospect’s leadership and communications style, among other things, Baldwin says.


That’s gone well too—so well that Dollar Tree is working with Kenexa, its assessments provider, to develop two additional behavioral assessments for management job seekers that could be online in 12 to 18 months, Baldwin says.


In the past several years, more applicant tracking systems and talent management suites have partnered with assessment vendors to make it easier for the products to work together. Talent management vendor Taleo, headquartered in Northern California, signed a deal in November to incorporate assessments from Thomas International into its Taleo Business Edition suite for small and midsize companies. Authoria, the Waltham, Massachusetts, talent management software vendor, began offering an applicant tracking system seeded with competency content from DDI, a leading assessment provider, in January 2008. Roswell, Georgia-based assessments vendor PreVisor has integration deals with 19 applicant tracking system vendors.


Melding assessments into applicant tracking systems and talent management suites isn’t always cut and dried. That has opened the door for systems integrators such as Inscape, a Montreal company that bundles assessments from multiple companies onto one technology platform that works with a variety of applicant tracking and talent management software.


Regis was an early fan of integrating assessments with applicant tracking software. In 2006, the $2.7 billion Minneapolis chain of 13,500 hair salons in 30 countries switched to an Authoria applicant tracking system with built-in assessments. Before that, Regis relied on paper assessments, mailing completed forms to test providers and storing the results in individual paper or electronic files. Going from that disjointed system to an integrated database was “like night and day,” says Cherie Coenen, Regis’ corporate recruiting manager. The upgrade saved money too, with costs for assessments dropping $5, to $65 each, “which adds up if you’re doing 1,000 a year,” Coenen says.


Currently Regis uses assessments for support, management and director/senior manager-level positions at its 800-person corporate office and in the field for area supervisors. Expanding that to the company’s 65,000 full- and part-time stylists is one of Coenen’s goals.


Economy Driving Trends
 Because of the bad economy, HR departments are being asked to do more with less staff, and they’re using technology like Web-based assessments to do it, says Kurt Ballard, PreVisor’s chief marketing officer.


Certain types of assessments are more popular because of the downturn, HR sources say. Companies are looking for top-tier sales representatives to help bump up revenue, and they’re buying behavioral assessments to do a better job of identifying those individuals, according to test vendors. “Helping our customers to find and source better candidates is the No. 1 request we hear,” says Jason Blessing, Taleo’s Business Edition general manager.


In 2009, look for more simulation-based assessments as well as tests that use Flash and other interactive media, test vendors and other sources say. Kenexa is helping one client develop a video game assessment during which job hunters move a game piece as they answer test questions.


“It’s tailored to computer-savvy individuals. That’s not right for everyone, but for their brand it is,” says Becker, the Kenexa managing partner.


As companies merge assessments into talent management suites, experts predict that more of them will use test results to help new hires get up to speed in their jobs more quickly, as well as for training and succession planning. If assessment results indicate someone is management material but lacks skills in certain areas, a hiring manager could use that to tailor a specific course of training for that individual, says Peter Mann, Authoria’s corporate development vice president. “Companies are realizing that candidates outside their four walls and employees should be assessed in a consistent way,” he says.


Workforce Management, January 19, 2009, p. 24-25 — Subscribe Now!

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Honing Sales Savvy to Compete in a Recession

When Chris Cassata started working in 2004 at the Glass Doctor franchise in Daytona Beach, Florida, the work was flooding in—literally. Several hurricanes had crisscrossed the state that year and glass-related repairs kept Cassata hopping.


These days Cassata feels like he’s swimming upstream, as the sales representative strives to peddle auto, residential and other types of glass in the economically depressed state. “It’s rough out there,” he says.


So in November 2008, he signed up for a three-day session at Glass Doctor’s brand-new training facility to sharpen his sales edge. The 3,600-square-foot facility in Waco, Texas, which held its grand opening amid last fall’s economic crisis, is part of the company’s long-term strategy to compete more on higher quality and better service than the lowest prices.


“When times are tough, people cut price,” says Kay Jacobsen, a sales trainer and franchise consultant at Glass Doctor, which has about 370 U.S. locations. The company is encouraging the sales force to get off the phone and schedule more in-person appointments with potential clients, she says. “During this time, it’s even more important that we are letting people know what we have to offer and setting ourselves apart.”


The new center’s classes not only delve into the myriad aspects of glass products, but also work on the psychological components of sales, Jacobsen says. “They have to be confident when they go out there.”


Cassata readily admits that he’s more comfortable selling auto glass because of his personal interest in cars. During his time at the training center, he focused on other types, such as residential or commercial flat glass. He also picked up some pointers on potential sales leads, such as marketing to the local police department or scheduling a meeting with the local hospital’s engineer.


But he talks mostly about the role-playing sessions, where he got feedback on his sales style. “When I’m not too comfortable going into a place, I notice I talk too quickly,” he says.


Since that training stint, Cassata now slows down as he makes his case. And he’s practicing other strategies, such as noticing family photos and other office mementos, in the hope that he’ll make a personal connection that later seals the deal in glass.