Joyce Gioia-Herman - Future Workforce Trends

The Navy and Employee Retention

Yesterday, I was struggling with California traffic on my way back from meeting with Bob Beck, the Dean of the Naval Postgraduate School.

Bob, a fifteen tear veteran of IBM and some other household names, is a delightful fellow who really “gets it.” He understand the challenges of retaining human capital and shares my concern for making sure the Navy is able to hold onto its good (and great) people in the midst of this escalating workforce crisis.

He challenged me to tell him how I could contribute to his curriculum.

I asked if they were teaching “Employee Retention.” Of course the answer was “No.”

Most MBA programs don’t even touch on this topic, the greatest challenge facing business today. To their credit, a handful now offer courses in “Human Resources.”

So obviously, we will have further conversations.

Looking forward. . .

Joyce Gioia-Herman

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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.

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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.

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Employee Retention is a Global Issue

On September 10 and 11, I delivered a two-day workshop for the ETELS Training Networks in Kuala Lumpur. KL, as the cognoscenti call it, is a beautiful city. Compared to Singapore, it is dirtier and the infrastructure needs a lot of work. However, the city has large green areas and the largest bird park in the world. It also has an orchid garden, a hibiscus, the national flower of Malaysia.

Whenever I travel to someplace new, I allow at least an extra week to acclimate to the time zone, see the area, and most importantly, learn the culture.

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Latest Employee Retention Research Confirms Herman Group Forecast

On September 4th, Monster.com released the results of their most recent survey:

70% said that employee retention is a major business concern and 40% reported that recruiting has become more difficult in the last 12 months.

In another recent study, this one from Talent Keepers, almost half (45%) of the companies surveyed said that they expect employee turnover to increase; only 3% expect it to decrease. (We wonder what they're smoking?)

These findings line up perfectly with our 2007 Workforce/Workplace Forecast. You can read the whole thing at http://www.hermangroup.com/forecasts_2007.html.

These findings also point to employee retention being a growing problem for many employers. We can easily understand why increasing numbers of people want to sign up for The Employee Retention Specialist™ Certificate Program. There I teach everything HR professionals and other business executives want and need to know and what to do to attract and retain top talent.

Looking Forward. . .

Joyce Gioia-Herman

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A Fascinating Plane Trip

Often when we travel, we have an opportunity to sit next to people who have different and interesting perspectives. One such plane ride was my recent trip from Kuala Lumpur (KL) to Bangkok. There I sat next to a young man responsible for global investment for a major, Fortune 50 multinational organization.

He explained that his company had closed their office in KL in favor of opening one in Singapore. He explained that the cost of living in KL for employees being paid in Ringit (the currency of Malaysia) was higher than for those living in Singapore paid in SNG dollars, so they had an easier time hiring and keeping staff in Singapore than in KL.

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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.

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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

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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:

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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".

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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

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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.

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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."

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Job Growth at the Executive Level

The economic slowdown here in the United States is not having the expected effect on the demand for qualified executive talent.

ExecuNet's 2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report ; finds that increasing demand, along with a shortage of qualified talent and sustained economic growth overseas, are driving better than expected job growth at the executive level.

The sectors with the highest demand are High Tech, Healthcare, Business Services, Pharmaceuticals/Biotech, and Energy/Utilities. The factors credited with the continuing demand for executive talent are an aging workforce and global economic growth, despite the looming threat of recession.

The report also finds that despite evidence that the economy could continue to shed temporary and entry-level jobs, recruiting and retaining of executive-level talent will remain "a challenging priority" in 2008. More than 70 percent of search firms and corporate human resource professionals believe there is a shortage of executive talent, and two-thirds (67 percent) say the war for executive talent has intensified over the last year, amid increasing economic uncertainty. No longer is the United States economy the sole determinant executive demand.

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Social Responsibility is Good Strategy

Many indicators point to the fact corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a wise business strategy. In our book, How to Become an Employer of Choice, we discussed that people want to work for companies that are good corporate citizens.

Moreover, one of the elements of being an Employer of Choice® is "Making a Difference". We know that when employers give their people opportunities to make a difference that the workers feel more "bonded" to the organization. In these times of a tight (and getting tighter) labor market, it is particularly important to press whichever buttons are effective in keeping people and keeping them engaged and productive.

From the scrolling list of CSR goals in the lobby of Marks and Spencer's headquarters to a handful of enlightened employers in Singapore reaching out to older workers to corporate entities like Coca-Cola working with Greenpeace to eliminate carbon emissions from its vending machines and coolers, employers around the world are expressing their support for social causes and the environment.

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Herman Trend Alert: Secondhand Smoke Injures Heart Cells

Whether you live in the United States, Brazil, or China, study after study has documented the negative effects of smoking.

A just-published study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) documents the seemingly permanent adverse effects of secondhand smoke.

For a while, we have known that the children of smokers are one-third more likely to develop serious lung disease. (In high school, I was the victim of my mother's secondhand smoke.) However, this recent study confirms "brief exposure to secondhand smoking increases the risk of vascular (fluid carrying systems in the body) disease and should be a major public health concern". The increased risk of heart disease is significant.

The study followed a group of healthy nonsmokers (average age of 30.3 years) who were exposed to 30 minutes of secondhand smoke on two separate days. The levels of smoke were gauged at the same levels commonly observed in passive smokers. For the non-secondhand smoke environment, researchers simply used smoke-free air. Measurements were taken before exposure (baseline), immediately after (0 hour), and at one hour, 2.5 hours, and 24 hours after.

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Herman Trend Alert: The Economy and Job Creation, What's Really Happening?

On a number of occasions, we have decried the fact that "bad news sells". In spite of the fact that the press wants us to believe that the economy is in very bad shape to sell media, the United States Commerce Department reported the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) actually grew in the first quarter of 2008 at a rate of 0.6 percent.

While that level is not particularly impressive, the definition of recession is an economy with two consecutive quarters of decline in the GDP. Since the economy actually grew in the first quarter, the United States is NOT in a recession. America is certainly experiencing an economically stressed period associated with the theft, fraud, and corruption connected to the sub-prime debacle.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, non-farm payroll employment decreased in April by 20,000. Job losses continued in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade, while employment in healthcare, professional and technical services increased.

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Herman Trend Alert: Unemployment---the Numbers Behind the Numbers

The latest jump in the United States unemployment statistics has finally prompted us to speak out about what is really happening in the US labor marketplace and what effects these changes will have on our trading partners around the globe.

Last Friday, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the unemployment rate is the highest since October 2004; this 10 percent boost was the biggest percentage point gain in 33 years. The Payroll Survey of employers is the basis for this increase. To its credit, the BLS does include in its notes: "in the establishment (payroll) survey, estimates for the most recent 2 months are based on substantially incomplete returns".

This increase in unemployment continues to mask the real situation. Looking at the BLS' Household Survey, in the month of May, the national unemployment percentages among adult men and women were 4.9 and 4.8. At the same time, the rate for teenagers, ages 16 to 19 jumped from 15.4 in April to 18.7 in May, an increase of 21.4 percent. While part of this increase is due to high school and community college graduations, these new job seekers do not account for this huge increase. Rather, we believe that something else is happening.

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Herman Trend Alert: The Near-Term Future of Air Travel

United States citizens are beginning to avoid air travel in significant numbers. This fact is in part responsible for the airlines announcing substantial cutbacks in service to a wide variety of US cities. Across the globe, airlines that expected to earn sizeable profits this year will instead have gigantic losses. . . in the billions.

The secretary general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani recently said, "The industry is in crisis, perhaps the biggest crisis we have ever faced." (IATA members account for over 90 percent of air travel worldwide.) According to a survey commissioned by the Travel Industry Association (TIA), US citizens are looking for ways to stay away from air travel because of higher fares, security hassles, and chronic schedule and service disruptions. Ask frequent flyers and they will tell you that not only is air travel not "fun" anymore, but it is a downright chore.

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