Joyce Gioia-Herman - Future Workforce Trends

More Single Women Buying Homes

As more women postpone marriage and family, we see them choosing to buy their own homes as individuals. Some say they are taking a stand for "financial independence" and others say they say they are investing for the future. Whatever the reason, there is a definite trend towards more single women buying homes of their own.

Right now, the bulk of home buyers are still married couples (60 percent). However, a recent study by the National Association of Realtors shows unmarried women represent 22 percent of the total homes purchased in the United States; up from 14 percent in 1995. That is a more than 50 percent increase in only 12 years.

Last summer, a study issued by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies found that unmarried women buy about one million homes every year; and between 2002 and 2003, they spent $550 billion on residential real estate.

According to this Harvard study, single women prefer homes in the city to the suburbs and generally will not choose new construction. Seeking a stronger sense of safety, while requiring less maintenance, most women buy smaller homes or less-expensive condominiums.

Continue reading "More Single Women Buying Homes" »

Posted at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

The Effects of Fear

Fueled by the publicity frenzy the press is enjoying, the current volatility in world financial markets is affecting many people at all levels of our societies.

From the employees' point of view, this uncertainty engenders insecurity. What will happen to my company? Will it be in business? Will I have a job? The reaction is that they continue "corporate cocooning", staying in the safety and sanctuary of their corporate jobs, despite their deep dissatisfaction.

A number of studies have confirmed that at least 35 percent of our workforce is unhappy. Thanks to a social network analyst Scott DeGraffenreid, we have a label for it. We call it "Warm Chair Attrition". The shame is these employees still collect paychecks, take up space, and infect their fellow associates. It would seem to be good news for employers: their workers will not leave. However, bottom line, disaffected employees are not particularly productive.

Continue reading "The Effects of Fear" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Internal Consumers Make "Ethical Choices"

According to the recently released Cone Cause Evolution Survey 2007, more than two-thirds of Americans say they consider a company's business practices when choosing or staying with an employer. The study, the culmination of 14 years of Cause BrandingSM and corporate responsibility research, found a substantial increase in the number of workers who want their employers to be good corporate citizens and support a social cause or issue over their previous study. The latter findings confirm our research of a few years ago for our book "How to Become an Employer of Choice" in which we found that "making a difference" was an important element for an organization being an Employer of Choice®. (www.employerofchoice.com)

According to Julia Hobbs Kivistik, an executive vice president at Cone, cause-related marketing efforts remain an effective way for a company to express its charity and core values. This study indicates an evolution in internal and external consumer thinking about the ways organizations can support society.

Continue reading "Internal Consumers Make "Ethical Choices"" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Domestic and Global Brain Drains Revisited

On numerous occasions in 1999, 2004, and 2006, we have written about "brain drains", from individual cities as well as the entire country (the United States). Here is an update.

First domestically, smaller cities like Council Bluffs, Iowa and Lynchburg, Virginia continue to be challenged to hold their young people after graduation. The city leaders say, "We are a great place to raise a family, so sometimes we get back our graduates, when they are ready to settle down, but we want and need to have these young people after college as well. Even if we can get them to stay for a short time, they invariably leave for more 'exciting' environments."

Continue reading " Domestic and Global Brain Drains Revisited" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

U.S. Competitveness

Yesterday, I delivered the closing keynote for the Annual Learning Festival for the country of Singapore. The title of my presentation was "Capitalizing on the Aging Workforce to Win the War for Talent". Sponsored by the Workforce Development Agency of their Ministry of Manpower, part of my job was to talk about a program called the Advantage! Scheme. This initiative gives employers up to SG$400,000 to hire and or retrain older workers which they define as 40+.

Advantage! supports a variety of services employers can provide for these older workers, including career guidance and health education, as well as improving the work environment to be better for seniors.

Continue reading "U.S. Competitveness" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Senior Workers and Keeping Up

When I spoke in Singapore last week, a member of my audience asked an interesting question: In Singapore, the younger, more highly educated workers are pushing out the more experienced, older workers, who do not have the same levels of education.

I was told afterwards by my clients that they thought this man wanted me to say that "the work culture in Singapore is 'bad' or 'wrong'". That is something I would never do. My view is that no foreigner has the right to denigrate the culture of a country being visited, particularly if that foreigner is a business person visiting the new country for work.

Continue reading "Senior Workers and Keeping Up" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (1)

Sabbaticals---The Right Way

On numerous occasions in the past, we have written about sabbaticals. Originally offered to college educators, sabbaticals now provide employees of non-academic institutions with an opportunity to disconnect from their jobs for a period of between three months and one year. The purpose is to allow the individual to relax and rejuvenate so that they may avoid burnout and return to their jobs with renewed energy.

Reviewing this year's list of Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Places to Work®, there are 22 (surprisingly, down from 25 last year) companies that offer fully paid sabbaticals. The list of companies includes Adobe, American Express, Genentech, Bain & Co., REI, and others. There are many more companies not on Fortune's list offering sabbaticals as well. In fact, the benefits-consulting giant Watson Wyatt estimates about 20 percent of large companies offer this benefit.

Continue reading "Sabbaticals---The Right Way" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Herman Trend Alert: War Games II

Once a year, Fuld & Co., a global pioneer in competitive intelligence, hosts a “public” war game between business school students. This year's timely and competitive challenge took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts and included teams from the Harvard Business School, MIT’s Sloan School, Northwestern’s Kellogg School, and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

This year, the student teams took on the identities of executives from Google, AT&T, Intel, and Vulcan Capital. The topic for the 2008 War Game National Championship was “The Battle for the Wireless Internet”, a business sector with many billions of dollars at stake. The students used their creativity and business skills to develop strategies for this rapidly shifting market, as they vied for a $5,000 prize.

We were impressed by the cultural diversity of the team members. Observers of the competition from high-tech, pharma, manufacturing, consumer goods, and finance, gained valuable insights by watching some very smart young people tackle what is next for this industry sector.

There were only three dozen observer guests, mostly strategy planners and judges from syndicated research firms and venture capital groups. About ten students from each B-school participated in the event.

Continue reading "Herman Trend Alert: War Games II" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

War Games Observed, And the Winner Is...

Every year, the global leader in intelligence for business strategy, Fuld & Co. hosts a "war game", giving four business schools the opportunity to compete for a $5000 prize. This year's spirited competition titled "The Battle for the Wireless Internet", featured the B-schools from Harvard, MIT, University of Chicago, and Northwestern. And the winner was . . . (drumroll, please!) Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, representing Intel.

The kernel of their strategy was to dominate the handheld wireless market with a new chip. As we mentioned in our Herman Trend Alert of 03-04-08 and an earlier blogpost, we were struck by the diversity of the teams. In fact, one of the teams didn't include one United States-born student. Each B-school team included one woman; one team even had two.

Continue reading "War Games Observed, And the Winner Is..." »

Posted at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Productivity is Up---A Good Thing? Maybe?

Besides the election results, this morning the news media is featuring a story about productivity in US employment rising 1.9 percent. They're not concerned about that figure (it was expected to be 1.8) as much as they are concerned with an attendant rise of 2.6 in unit labor costs. We are much more concerned with rising productivity numbers, when many employees are already stressed out and overworked.

From an economist's point of view, any rise in productivity is good. From the POV of the HR consultant, it is cause for concern about employee retention. Employers that push their people too hard will never be considered an Employer of Choice®. www.employerofchoice.com

Looking Forward. . .

Joyce Gioia-Herman

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Herman Trend Alert: Second Life Revisited March 12, 2008

Last year the virtual world Second Life (SL), secondlife.com received quite a bit of media coverage when several Fortune 500 companies staged events or built virtual presences there. Not so long ago, we covered the use of SL for market research. (www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-21-2007.html ) Now, we revisit this topic to discuss some important developments. Second Life now has eleven million registered users with an average of 18,000 new people joining everyday.

In November, the hit TV drama CSI:NY aired an episode tracking a killer into this virtual world. At the end CBS aired a commercial, inviting viewers to go to their website to find a branded link to join Second Life and "continue the pursuit". The result: an extra 100,000 people signed up.

B2B and Consumer Products companies have also used SL for product development, recruiting activities, and staff meetings. Corporations, like IBM, bring in authorized staff from around the world to have virtual meetings that may include PowerPoint presentations, audio, video, interactive surveys on the spot, and more. Manpower has its own SL location and holds periodic job fairs.

Continue reading "Herman Trend Alert: Second Life Revisited March 12, 2008" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Cities Should Support Internships

From time to time, we are approached by second tier cities, complaining that they can not keep their young people. The answer is so simple, we didn't even get it on first exposure. One of the main reasons given by young people leaving their home towns is "employment". Their perception is that they could not find "the right employment" for them in the town. Often, they are wrong, but no amount of persuasion was ever successful in getting them to stay.

What will work is to engage them as interns, give them lots of training, show them working in a good culture is like. Trust me, they will be salivating to work with you after graduation. And the coolest part for employers is that they get the benefit of people who already know their cultures and how to get things done within the organization―--an issue that we maintain is a major driver of employee turnover.

Internships are win-win-win opportunities:

Continue reading "Cities Should Support Internships" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Our Wireless Future

One of the judges at the recent War Game, sponsored by Fuld & Co., in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a principal in a new organization called JumpTap.com. JumpTap is probably the leader in mobile search and related advertising.

In a recent report issued by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the data reflects that more Americans would find it more difficult to give up their mobile phones than the Internet, television, or landline telephones. The report also found that 62 percent of respondents use their cell phones and additional wireless devices for other activities, including text messaging, taking pictures, and sending e-mail.

Interestingly, it is not just the younger generations that appreciate this beyond-voice access, but African Americans and English-speaking Latinos are more likely than white Americans to use these applications on their cell phones.

Continue reading "Our Wireless Future" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Herman Trend Alert: Making HR Metrics Serve the Bottom Line

In our 2008 Workforce/Workplace Forecast, we discussed the growing importance of metrics (measurement) in Human Resources to drive more money to the bottom line. http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_12-12-2007.html

Recently, we met Janet Walsh, President of Birchtree-HR, Llc, the person who coined the term "Human Capital Financial Management" (HCFM). "In HCFM, we evaluate investments in people for their returns and link them to business strategy," said Walsh. "Research studies conclusively prove organizations that link human capital programs with business strategy enjoy six to 38 percent higher return on total capital than those that don't," she added. The best systems are the ones where there is a "clear line of sight" between the people programs and the business strategy.

A global Human Resource consultant, focusing on HR strategy, compensation and performance management, Walsh is often asked, "How do I link the business strategy of the company to my programs?" Agreeing with our previous Herman Trend Alert, "the future of training will be gaming and simulation" http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_2-11-2004.html , Walsh and her colleagues created an HR simulation, called "At the Table".

Continue reading "Herman Trend Alert: Making HR Metrics Serve the Bottom Line" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Herman Trend Alert: U.S. Employee Confidence Index Declines

The Spherion Employee Confidence Index, a monthly measure of workers’ confidence in their personal employment situation, fell for the seventh consecutive time last month. With this decline, it reached the lowest level since the survey's inception in 2004.

We see two reasons for this downturn: first, the United States has experienced negative job creation for the last two months, last month losing 63,000 jobs, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics; second, the media continues to beat the drum of doom and gloom, because "Bad news sells." We have written about the media's effect before. http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_8-15-2007.html

Continue reading "Herman Trend Alert: U.S. Employee Confidence Index Declines" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Our Tolerance for Uncertainty

On the LONG flights (total over 20 hours in the air) to Southeast Asia earlier this week, I had the opportunity to reflect on the previous few weeks. I remembered that my actual flight arrangements for 3-April had not been booked until very late in March. . .and that I had been waiting for a prospective client in Kuala Lumpur (KL) to decide when/if they wanted to schedule the two-day workshop that had been in discussions for months.

Just after they had opted to postpone the engagement until my next visit--due to internal project challenges--another prospect woke up and emailed to ask if it was too late to get onto my crowded schedule. After not booking until the last minute, I still ended up changing my flight arrangements three times to accommodate the new client.

As my professional speaker colleagues will confirm, our clients have been booking us to speak with less and less notice. My engagements for 2-April and 23-April in the US were both booked within six weeks of the date of delivery.

I think it is valuable to look at what's happening, why, and what it means to organizations moving forward. First, as we have said so many times before: the world is changing at an ever-increasing rate. The future is here today; that future we thought would take years to arrive.

Continue reading "Our Tolerance for Uncertainty" »

Posted at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Herman Trend Alert: Brazil's Bright Future April 9, 2008

When Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia traveled to Brazil in the 1990s to talk about the future of Brazil, they characterized the country as "a sleeping giant---just about to awaken".

The well-respected investment firm of Goldman Sachs has given the designation of "BRIC" to the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). In fact, the investment leader even offers an index fund of BRIC investments. The fund was created to tap these countries' "tremendous growth potential".

Recently, a futurist colleague Stephen Aguilar-Millan, Director of Research for the renowned European Futures Observatory in the United Kingdom, highlighted the significant lack of western press attention to Brazil, compared to attention given to Russia, India, and China. He conducted his own informal research and discovered that since 1997, "The Economist" Magazine has featured 2,282 articles on Brazil, compared to 3,762 on India, 4,640 on Russia, and 6,845 on China.

Continue reading "Herman Trend Alert: Brazil's Bright Future April 9, 2008" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

Returning Vets Make Great Workers

Sandy Westlund-Deenihan, CEO of Quality Float Works in Schaumberg, Illinois is a model employer. "Nobody is really addressing the issues of greater numbers of people (returning veterans) coming out of the war with disabilities", said Westlund-Deenihan. Advances in battleground medical science have kept more wounded soldiers alive.

Having lived through the ordeal with family members, Westlund-Deenihan is on a personal campaign to hire and fast-track returning vets. The technology used in the military translates well to advanced manufacturing. In addition to having technological skills, they get themselves to work on time and stay focused. Some returning veterans are told to "dummy down", because they make their supervisors look bad.

Westlund-Deenihan also laments the fact that many employers are "uneducated" about the costs of hiring people with disabilities, as well as compliance issues. "They have no idea what outstanding employees these veterans make", she adds. "They even make excellent mentors for younger employees."

Continue reading "Returning Vets Make Great Workers" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

US Losing its Tourism Lead to China April 23, 2008

For years, the United States has held the number one position as the world’s most popular travel destination. However, according to the World Tourism Organization, by 2015 China will be number one.

Some hotel chains, including Wyndham Worldwide, are already making moves to capitalize on this trend. The chain opened its first hotel in Beijing in 2004. Since then, it has grown to have 67 properties in China, including Howard Johnson and Days Inn locations.

The chain Super 8 intends to double its mainland locations by the end of the year. According to Mitchell Presnick, Super 8 China's chief executive, "When economies experience this kind of growth, one of the first things that happens is people want to travel". (from BusinessWeek)

Continue reading "US Losing its Tourism Lead to China April 23, 2008" »

Posted at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Email this Blog to a Friend
Ask a Question or Leave a Comment (0)

	Onyx Coale Women Entrepreneur
	Dr. Robert Bocknek Parenting
	Dannion Brinkley Hospice, Grief and Life Review
	Kathryn Brinkley Hospice, Grief and Life Review
	Ken Blanchard Business Management
	John Bradshaw Inner Child
	Colette Chandler Green Marketing
	Deepak Chopra Mind-Body Medicine
	Dr. Steven Dell Health and Wellness
	Wayne Dyer Intention and Spirituality
	Joyce Gioia Future Workforce Trends
	Al Gore Global Warming
	Steven Halpern Meditation
	Jean Houston Global Community and Sustainable Leadership
	Louise Hay Spiritual Development
	Corbett Kroehler Global Warming
	Dr. Bruce Lipton Mind, Body, Spirit
	Bo Lozoff Kindness and Rehabilitation
	Dalai Lama Peace and Compassion
	Michael Masters Green Real Estate
	Michael Masters Enlightened Consciousness
	Dan Millman Life Purpose
	Raleigh Pinskey Branding Publicity PR
	Lori Prokop Keyboard Culture
	James Redfield Energy and Intention
	Salle Redfield Energy and Intention
	Anthony Robbins Personal Empowerment
	Don Miguel Ruiz Toltec Wisdom
	Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. Professional Development
	Dr. Bernie Siegel Patient Empowerment
	Patricia Sherman Healing is Possible
	Jinsoo Terry Leadership Training
	Jinsoo Terry Multicultural Education
	Brian Tracy Human Potential
	Marianne Williamson Peace and Spirituality
	Gary Zukav Authentic Power

Keyboard Culture
Expert Biographies

Keyboard Culture
Experts

More Keyboard Culture...

Keyboard Culture
Expert Biographies

Future Trends Archives

Keyboard Culture Expert Biographies

Keyboard Culture Experts

More Keyboard Culture...

Keyboard Culture Expert Biographies

Future Trends Archives

Keyboard Culture
Expert Biographies

Keyboard Culture
Experts

Keyboard Culture
Expert Biographies