Doing the Talent Acquistion Limbo

January 31, 2008

In a new article from our board member, Steven Hunt, he talks about the challenges of keeping your selection standards high when the labor market is tight. He discusses the downside of lowering the bar to increase your applicant pools - increased turnover, decreased morale, lower productivity - and suggests a number of strategies to avoid the adverse consequences of lowering the bar for incoming talent.

While many organizations are competing for talent, one desirable population, the Millenials, may be underlooked. In a recent BusinessWeek article about the importance of the youth vote this election year, our board member Jared Bernstein is cited as saying Millenials “start lower and grow slower” than their parents did when it comes to employment opportunities in the US as many former middle class jobs have shifted offshore. Proactive organizations are reviving their college recruiting efforts and making investments in growing their talent from within. Although their recruitment strategies may be cutting edge (Facebook, MySpace) the employment brand value proposition may still be old school. It’s made clear in the BusinessWeek article that Millenials share many of the same priorities with their parents when it comes to employment - with health benefits topping the list.

What is your organization doing to recruit and develop talent from the Millenial generation?

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Labor Market, Recruiting | 1 Comment

What could you do with $150 billion?

January 25, 2008

Our board member, Jared Bernstein, speculated in a recent blog here on the options for the US government to intervene to stave off recession. Even as we speak, George Bush is urging Congress to pass a $150 billion economic stimulus package that would, among other things, generate tax rebates for an estimated 117 million US consumers.

The question this begs is whether the average consumer will go out and spend that money to its intended effect; i.e. to pump those dollars back into the economy via the purchase of goods and services. In this related blog at the Wall Street Journal, consumers are indicating that they’re cutting back on discretionary spending in order to be better prepared for potential workforce cutbacks.

What’s your plan? Remember the fable of the ant and the grasshopper? Do you blow your rebate on a big screen TV or tuck it away in a CD?

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Labor Market | 1 Comment

Punching in at the Ritz Carlton

January 21, 2008

In a new article we’ve published, Are Hourly Workers Professionals?, David Creelman explores the qualities that differentiate professionals who happen to be paid by the hour from those who are merely punching the clock to earn a living. In his article, he talks about duration in the job, content that requires expertise, and a feeling of pride in the job as the key attributes of an hourly professional worker.

“OK”, you say, “I get how that might work for nurses, technicians and other skilled professions. But how about store clerks, janitors, and other relatively lower skilled jobs?” David cites examples from just these kinds of jobs in his article. While several of his examples are drawn from outside of the United States, we can see recent examples here where companies have ignored the professionalism of their front line staff to their financial detriment. Circuit City and Best Buy have been in the news lately, with the latter’s superior results frequently linked to its investments in its employees and customer service.

Check out the article and let us know of your experiences with front line professionals who’ve won your business and your loyalty.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Customer Satisfaction, Workforce Development | 1 Comment

Guest Blog: Jared Bernstein - Recession Obsession

January 14, 2008

The following guest blog was written by Jared Bernstein, a member of the Workforce Institute Board of Advisors.

Economists, including myself, are obsessed right now with the question of whether or not the economy is in recession. It’s obviously an important question, but for many in the business community, it is, shall we say, a bit academic. The bottom line for most businesses is…well, it’s the bottom line. So at a time like this, with the economy definitely slowing- possibly, I’d say likely, to the point of actual recession - a better question is what impact might that have on the type of robust economic activity upon which businesses depend.

Let’s start with a look at the lay of the economic land, which isn’t too pretty right now. A speculative bubble in the many housing markets across the country burst last year, and the spillovers have been far-reaching. The direct impacts have been foreclosures, mostly in the sub-prime end of the market, and, much more broadly, falling home prices. But the damage to the economy goes much deeper. The housing bubble was inflated by all kinds of creative and innovative-those are the nice words for them-lending schemes.

The loan-rating agencies and bank regulators, including the Federal Reserve, were asleep at the switch, and lots of these shaky loans worked their way into the financial system, both here and abroad. This led to a freeze in credit markets, and this economy thrives on free-flowing credit. The Federal Reserve can cut rates and pump liquidity (cash) into the system, but if investors are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for this mess to get sorted out, it won’t help much. Also, as home prices fall, homeowners are much less prone to refinance their mortgages and pump some of that new found cash into the economy.

Absent housing stimulus, we count on the job market to provide consumers with the income they need to keep the economy moving forward-consumption is 70 percent of GDP. But the job machine appears to be heading for a stall, as well. Last year, unemployment rose from 4.4 percent to 5 percent. Yes, that’s still a low rate, but every time unemployment has gone up that much, we’ve either been headed for a recession or in one.Let’s get technical for a brief minute. A recession is officially called by a group of econ profs called the Business Cycle Dating Committee, which sounds a little like a lonely hearts club for wonks. Their definition of a recession is “…a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”

I can tell you the following facts right now: real income is down the past couple of months, private sector employment fell (slightly) last month, industrial production is down (again, slightly) since the summer, and retail sales, strong in November, appears to have stumbled in December. But if the officials ultimately make the recession call, they won’t do so for at least six months from now. So the rest of us, especially those in the business community who’d like to get a sense of what’s coming are left to figure this out for ourselves. My take is that the pressures on consumers are too high to keep the economy out of a slump. I can’t be sure until we see if the job market is really heading for the tank. The December report was unequivocally weak, but one bad month does not a trend make.

Still, it has been slowing for the past year. Fed rate cuts will help a little, but with banks and investors still discovering new infections in their portfolios, they’ll remain spooked for awhile yet. If you read your papers, you’ll see that Washington, where I ply my trade, is talking about the possible need for a fiscal stimulus. I give the basic thinking behind that idea here in the TPM Cafe ; it’s the notion that when the private sector cycle is down for the count, the public sector needs to kick in to prime the pump. Given the problems documented above, this is clearly a case for a measured stimulus package that’s timely, aptly targeted, and temporary. The worry is that politics will queer the deal. Already, some folks are talking about large, permanent tax cuts that have everything to do with their agenda and nothing to do with a quick, temporary jump start, such as the one suggested by my organization, the Economic Policy Institute. Anyway, whether the recession daters tell us six months from now what most us already think we know is beside the point. The business environment, especially for firms that depend on robust consumer demand, appears to be in trouble. It’s happened before, and if we play our cards right, we could offset some of the damage. But, as much as I hate to go all dismal on you, the facts are pointing towards an economic slowdown.

Are you seeing signs of slowing growth in your business? How does that affect your workforce planning?

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Labor Market | 1 Comment

Performance Management Tips for Britney Spears

January 4, 2008

It’s performance review time at Kronos. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the 15 years I’ve been a manager giving feedback to people about how to improve their performance at work. While every employee is unique, there are recurring themes that I’ve needed to address.

Here are a few (illustrated with celebrity examples) that those of you on either side of the performance appraisal equation may find useful in thinking about how to improve your own performance or that of your employees:

Avoid “foot in mouth” syndrome. This is for those who don’t think before they speak (or who speak without being properly prepared). One of the best case studies in 2007 is Miss Teen USA South Carolina, Lauren Caitlin Upton - whose completely incomprehensible response to a question about the geographic ignorance of US high school students suggests that she will soon join the ranks of the underprepared workforce.
Admit to your mistakes, learn from them, move on. Two words - Britney Spears.
Be a gracious loser. No one is always right. Even when you are right, you won’t always get the project funded, the extra resources, or even the credit that you’ve earned. Try your hardest to win, but when you lose, conserve your energy for the next challenge. Last night’s Iowa Caucus gave a few high profile candidates a (perhaps unexpected) opportunity to demonstrate grace in the face of defeat. Here’s Hillary Clinton’s speech as an example.
Performance improvement starts with self awareness. Whether it’s listening to feedback from the boss, colleagues and customers or formal assessment testing, you can’t leverage your strengths or mitigate your weaknesses if you don’t know what they are. Steve Carrell brilliantly demonstrates lack of self awareness as the hapless manager on The Office.
Superior results often require taking some risks. Walter Lewin, a physics professor at MIT, has become a media star based on his unconventional teaching methods. Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs has made a career out of looking out over the horizon and creating solutions for needs consumers didn’t even know they had.