Contradicting a 2004 study showing that using the Internet to look for work prolonged unemployment, a new study has found the better job boards, improved site design, and enhanced technology have dramatically improved the job seeker’s ability to identify positions, make application, and secure employment using the Internet. Also noted by the researchers was the percentage growth of unemployed individuals using the Internet—up from 25% in 1998/2000 to 74% in 2008/2009. In addition to the formal services, the Internet was cited as a valuable “networking” tool where the unemployed could communicate with family, friends and professional colleagues, thereby extending the reach of their searches. Enhancements to job site “user friendliness” were also cited as having an impact on their growing popularity.
Today we honor our military veterans. We take this day to recognize the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who set aside years of their life to serve us. For many the cost was much more than just a few years. I am proud that our country sets aside a day to reflect on the service these men and women have given to protect this great country.
There is more, however, that can be done to recognize, support, and serve these veterans. Many of us are in positions where we can provide life-changing and life-giving support. Some veterans leave the service with new skills and experiences that are valuable to our business community. Some veterans leave service with a new body, one that may be handicapped physically, but one that has the same spirit to contribute and add value to the country they love. Maybe the most tangible way to support our veterans is to give them a job where they can continue to contribute and serve.
A fantastic organization exists that helps employers and veterans connect. Hire Heroes USA is a non-profit organization created to offer transition assistance, job search assistance, and job placement services to those who have honorably served in the US military – and to their spouses – in order to reduce veteran unemployment. They are partnered with the USO and the US Chamber of Commerce. Employers can post jobs, search resumes, and offer assistance to veterans and their spouses.
If you want to do more to support our veterans, I urge you to join forces with Hire Heroes USA. You can be a Veteran’s Day contributor throughout the year.
A funny thing happened on the way to school last week. My son, a high school senior, was getting ready for an awards event. Before leaving he asked me to tie his tie for him. Putting a tie on is something I’ve done almost every morning for more than twenty years. You think I could do it in my sleep by now. But I couldn’t! First I tried to do tie it standing in front of him while it was around his neck. That was strange; I’d never done it before from that perspective. Then I tried to tie one around my neck, over my own tie, while standing in front of his mirror. For some reason that was even stranger. It took me almost fifteen minutes before I could get it tied. For years I put on my tie in the same room, at the same time, in the same mirror, the same way for so long. Now I was out of my element, in a new environment, and I couldn’t do it. The entire process was on auto-pilot and when something new came along the process broke down.
The same thing can happen if your job analysis process is on auto-pilot. When a job evaluation has been done the same way for so long it becomes ineffective. Companies that want to attract top talent must transcend the tradition of writing job descriptions. Today’s talent will not come to your company when the human resources process for job evaluation is a cut and paste operation. The HR job description from four years ago is not the same as a true performance based job analysis.
The process of job analysis consists of several steps (see my related post The Pros & Cons of Job Analysis). If you think your job analysis process is on auto-pilot, take a fresh approach. Start with your HR job description. This will have all of elements of what a person needs to have to do the job. But the job analysis process goes well beyond writing job descriptions. The next step is to understand what a person must do to be successful. This can be different from the HR job description. Would you rather have a person who has done the job successfully in the past or someone who has all the job description requirements? Most Strategic Employers would take the former, even if person didn’t have all the requirements in the HR job description.
Take your job analysis process off of auto-pilot. Begin the process of job analysis with what someone does to be successful, not what they need to have.
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Are you still Fishing for employee motivation? This was a popular employee motivation strategy several years ago. There are lots of books on Amazon.com that will teach you about how to motivate employees. Every business wants good employee relations and a happy, productive workforce. Strong and positive employee morale is necessary for optimum productivity. I can’t think of any client who has told me they didn’t want high employee satisfactory. All companies work hard to motivate employees.
Corporate leaders and business owners have a lot of reasons to know how to motivate employees. High levels of employee engagement make their jobs easier. They want less stress in their employee relations. They have profits to increase. They want to sharpen their competitive edge. They want to keep costs low and productivity high. They want to generate more revenue. They want, they want, they want… Are you reading this? They want to motivate employees for all their corporate reasons and this is why most companies fail in how to motivate employees.
Employee motivation, employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and employee relations will never improve if it is all about what the company wants. No one is going to work to make the company better or to reach company goals. Organizations will fail if they believe a slick, new “program” is the way to motivate employees. Employees will only be motivated when they know what’s in it for them. They will increase productivity only when their needs are met. Incentives to motivate employees must be tied to what they value and desire. Strategic employers know this. They work hard to understand what makes their employees tick. Only when employee values are linked to motivating incentives will companies succeed.
The link below is to an article in the Wall Street Journal about the President’s jobs bill. It is an excellent overview and every employer should read this. Some key points contained in the jobs plan….
Nothing really addresses the underling cause of current unemployment; the real estate mess. Until real estate, housing in particular, starts to make a comeback we will not see tremendous growth in jobs.
Like a domino effect, the housing crisis has created an access to capital crisis. This was cited in Inc. magazine as the number one reason why small businesses are not hiring in a robust way. According to the article below nothing about capital is addressed in the plan. Small business tax breaks are part of the bill, but they appear to be temporary and most small business owners will take those savings to the bottom line, not necessarily hire people.
A large portion of the plan relies on government sponsored/funded construction projects. While this may offer some temporary unemployment relief for that industry, it is doubtful the Super Committee will spare the axe for these projects.
Read through the article and leave me your thoughts. The comments on the WSJ site are particularly interesting.
Whether it is true or not, this is not something you want employees to say. Often is beyond a company’s power to control how employees feel. However, company’s can avoid creating situations that might cause an employee to think or say this. Companies DO have a great deal of control in which they hire and promote.
In my executive search business we often hear from executives who feel this way. Either they have been passed over for a promotion or they have seen others passed over multiple times. Sometimes their company never considered an insider for an open position. Whatever the reason, these people feel like a commodity instead of a valued contributor. If this kind of perception starts to permeate the workforce the company is doomed – especially now that top talent is harder to find.
There are many reasons why a company would go outside to hire top talent; they don’t have a qualified person internally, they want fresh perspectives, they want competitor intelligence, etc… Hiring outside is expensive, time intensive, and dangerous (see steps 1 & 2)! Often it can be avoided if companies have a career development culture instead of an open seat culture.
Hiring from your current employees only works if you diligently practice Step 3. It also means a huge ROI on your labor expense. When employees believe they have the opportunity to grow and advance they don’t spend time looking elsewhere. When they enjoy a company development program they have greater confidence to take on more responsibility. Employees will take their performance more seriously and pursue self-development agendas. Giving an employee a career is a long-term investment strategy, one that every company must follow.
This is the final installment of the four steps to building a high performance team. Putting these steps into practice will have tremendous impact on company profitability and competitive edge. Don’t wait until your competition has all the top talent, beat them to the best people now!
Make recruiting a process that is structure and tracked
What would you think of a farmer who decided to skip all the plowing and sowing and jump right into harvesting? You’d think the farmer was deluded and crazy? How can a crop be harvested if the seeds were never sown? How can crops grow if the soil isn’t plowed and watered? It would be insanity to think a farmer could go straight to harvest without doing all the things necessary to cultivate their crop.
This is how many organizations approach recruiting. They have a critical opening and suddenly they want to harvest top talent. Like the farmer they too need to cultivate the talent pool and sow their employment brand long before they start to harvest. This means that recruiting has to be a process that is incorporated into the overall company culture . It has to be an ongoing activity that is measured and tuned.
Here are some simple ways high performing organizations sow seeds and cultivate a healthy crop of top talent:
Promote their company as a highly desired place to work
Create relationships with potential employees as early as high school
Advertise their jobs to attract top talent rather than screen out applicants
Profile key jobs
Establish an ongoing relationship with a niche search firm
Of course, there are variables specific to every organization. But the faster companies begin to cultivate their talent pool, the faster they’ll have the right people to hire.
Each week I get the opportunity to talk with 30 to 40 health care professionals about their career goals and job transitions. These people are incredibly talented, resourceful, competent, skilled, and capable. Over the past couple of years I’ve started to see a predominately emerging characteristic about what they are looking for in a their next career move. Many employers think it is more money. While money is always important it rarely ranks at the top of their lists. What seems to rank the highest these days is “appreciation”. They want to know that a company values them as an individual and values their contribution.
Appreciating employees is a one of the best investments a company can make. It builds loyalty, it is relatively inexpensive, and the boost in productivity can be dramatic. I’ve included a link to the list of this year’s ‘Best Companies to Work For’. All of them have a common theme of showing employees how much they are appreciated. Here are five unique and low cost ways any business can show appreciation:
1) Offer employees a monthly, 15 minute chair massage on site
2) Discount health insurance when employees engage in wellness activities
3) Bring in ice cream sundaes on the first day of Summer
4) A Day off if certain productivity goals are met
5) Recognition or time-off when employees serve in community or charity activities
Every business can be creative and find ways to show appreciation. The best place to start is to ask employees what they want. Employees will feel more appreciated if you are giving them something that they really desire.
In this short video blog I give employers three simple steps to take to attract, develop, and retain top talent in today’s marketplace.
Here’s the article I mentioned in the video: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303714704576385863720618134.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
In addition to how hospitals provide care to the Boomers, there is also an employment implication that hospitals must recognize. Just because Boomers retire it doesn’t mean they want to quick working. They will rapidly become an important part of hospital staffing as temporary and contract employees. Over the next ten years more than a half million nurses and almost 160,000 physicians will retire. The current nurse and physician shortages will only increase over this time. In fact, the BLS forecasts more jobs in health care than willing and able workers. Hospitals will not be able to maintain acceptable staffing levels with full-time employees.
Contract and temporary assignments are highly desired by outgoing Boomers. They have the skill, knowledge and expertise that hospitals need. By incorporating this talent pool into their overall strategy, hospitals will enjoy advantages such as:
Increased quality of care and patient satisfaction
For this to be successful organizations need to throw out their traditional view of temporary staffing. This is no longer a situation of just “filling in” until a full-time person is hired. Contract Boomers should be a permanent part of hospitals long-term strategy.
Posted by Richard Yadon 
that will teach you about how to motivate employees. Every business wants good employee relations and a happy, productive workforce. Strong and positive employee morale is necessary for optimum productivity. I can’t think of any client who has told me they didn’t want high employee satisfactory. All companies work hard to motivate employees.
