Welcome to the April 18, 2007 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

What's Inside:

1.  Plugging the Brain Drain, Crashing the Gray Ceiling

Warnings about the near apocalyptic "brain drain", when baby boomers would leave the workforce en masse to travel, play golf, visit grandchildren or consult, have been front-page news for nearly a decade.

Many forward-looking companies responded and have been putting strategies in place to retain older, experience workers longer. The Society for Human Resource Management reports that more than half (55%) of big U.S. companies are "giving managers the tools to increase retention of baby-boomers," including flexible or reduced schedules and retention bonuses.  

The good news is the planning paid off - sort of.  

Boomers are staying put longer for a whole host of reasons.  Topping off the list is a lack of money to retire in a style in which they are accustomed. Next, eighteen holes of golf every day isn't all that it is cracked up to be. But just like a medication that eliminates an infection, it sometimes creates a side effect that may be worse than the cure.  

The workplace side effect in this case is that twenty- and thirty-something managers are in trouble. Fifteen-hour days and being handcuffed to a Blackberry have become the norm. All this might not be so terrible if that big promotion from middle-management hell into the senior ranks was just around the corner.  

But increasingly, younger workers are finding that no matter how many hours they put in or how much their bosses rave about their work, they're just plain stuck. An entire generation is bumping against something called the Gray Ceiling.  Just a few years ago this term meant something very different: older workers who couldn't get promoted because they could be replaced with less expensive younger employees.  Today, Gray Ceiling takes on a new meaning: In today's leaner companies, executive jobs are fewer, and boomers who have hung on to them are in no hurry to let go.  

The Gray Ceiling is purely a function of mathematics. Between 1946 and 1964, the U.S. experienced the baby boom, a demographic surge of 77 million new Americans.  The children of these boomers, known as Gen Y, are forming a second demographic bulge. But sandwiched in between is the baby bust, or Generation X. Known variously as the laziest generation and the most entrepreneurial, they are unambiguously the smallest generation since the Great Depression.  

The affect of this go-stop-go demography is that it is causing hiring and retention fits for employers.  The workplace makeup has changed dramatically from just a decade ago. In 1996 there were 64 million U.S. workers between the ages of 30 and 39 and only 43 million ages 40 to 59. Now the situation has reversed. As of June 2006 there were only 40 million ages 30 to 39 and 69 million workers 40 to 59, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

What worked to the Gen Xer's favor just a few years ago is what is holding them back today.  Fortune Magazine in its August 21, 2006 issue described this workplace dynamic: "Generation X, it would seem, is in danger of turning into the Prince Charles of the American workforce: perpetual heirs apparent awaiting the keys to the kingdom."  

But Xers, long known for their fast-track careers, free agency, and need for continuous stimulation aren't waiting around anymore. Many Xers have decided that the fastest way out from under the Gray Ceiling is to ditch the corporate ladder entirely. Gen Xers don't talk to their boomer bosses about it. Instead, they just quit. Employers in kind have said good riddance, breathing a sigh of relief when these uppity, independent workers leave.  The last words often heard are "don't let the door hit them in the butt in the way out."  

Is that really a smart move?  Add your comments to our HR Blog.  

An important moral of this story is this:  one strategy doesn't fit all.  Naiveté is a pervasive condition circulating around many C-Level suites and HR departments when it comes to workforce solutions. What works for one organization may not work for another.  A strategy that attracts and retains workers in one business may repel candidates and employees in another.  Like the weather today (Nor'easter slamming Northeast U.S.) it's not only rain that is the problem.  It's not the winds that are the problem. It's not the cold air that is the problem. It is the rain AND the winds AND the cold air.   

It's the Perfect Labor Storm.  

For more information about the Perfect Labor, keep reading.

2.  Bogus Resumes Contain An Average of Three Lies  

Employers are being warned that job candidates in the financial sector are becoming increasingly brazen in lying when they submit a curriculum vitae (CVs) for job applications.  

A study of more than 3,000 CVs submitted by candidates during 2004 showed that 25% of resumes in the financial sector contained false or incorrect statements.  

The study, by employee screening firm The Risk Advisory Group, also showed that these incorrect CVs contained an average of three lies. In previous years The Risk Advisory Group studies have shown that where any problems with resumes have been discovered there tended to be only one misleading statement.    

The omissions from resumes include information about a poor credit history, fraud, previous addresses, previous directorships, job titles, academic qualifications and details of employment dates and gaps in employment.  

These results show a marked increase in the lengths to which candidates are prepared to go to adapt their resumes to make them more attractive to potential employers.  

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is now available. The year 2007 will see an increase in skilled worker shortages and more competition. The result will be higher salaries, more training and career advancement opportunities, and more flexible work cultures.  How prepared is your company to find skilled and dependable workers?  

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is the newly updated and revised 2007 edition of best-selling book first published in 2005.  You can now download an advance copy of PLS 2.0. a $10 value with every purchase of the original Perfect Labor Storm, still a great value at $9.95. 

Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm.   Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites.

3.  New! Upcoming Webinars, Workshops and Training Dates

CriteriaOne DISC: Building Teams That Click, Not Clique
Webinar - May 1, 2007 at 11 AM to Noon EDT
Registration: Free (Limited to 10 participants)

Hiring Tool Kit 101
Webinar - May 15, 2007 at 11 AM to Noon EDT
Registration: Free (Limited to 10 participants)

ASSESS Expert System Certification
Date: June 12 and 13, 2007
Time: 8:30 - 5:00; 2nd day ends at 12:30PM
Place: Lancaster, PA
Tuition: $1500 per person; $1000 for 2nd person, same company

ASSESS Expert System User Certification has been rescheduled due to the inclement weather experienced in the Northeast from April 15-17. New dates will be June 12 and 13.

For the first time ever, Bigby Havis and Success Performance Solutions have partnered to sponsor a 2-day ASSESS User Certification in Central PA. (Bigby Havis is one of the top U.S. organizational psychology consulting firms with domestic and international clients.)

Participation is limited and over half the seats are already filled.
Don't wait. Call 800-803-4303 for information.

4.  Assess Expert System for Management and Leadership

Assess Expert System is a premier psychometic employee evaluation tool that will take the guesswork out of hiring and promoting key employees. A state of the art web-based system, ASSESS produces job
specific reports linking key personality traits to managerial and executives competencies. Every selection report comes with a customized behavioral interview guide and every development report
includes performance improvements tools and tip customized to the employee, based on his/her responses.

ASSESS Expert System assists management in the selection of outside candidates and in the promotion, placement or development of internal managers, supervisors and professionals. The
assessments provided are industry-standard, and each item has been carefully validated and documented.

Click here for more information about ASSESS.

5.  Honesty and Integrity Pre-Employment Tests  

There is wide-spread concern about the honesty and integrity of employees.  Most organizations have serious problems of pilferage, absenteeism, tardiness, employee disagreements that lead to violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and computer misuse.  The annual loss from these counterproductive behaviors is estimated in the billions of dollars.  There was a clear need for a brief assessment that could be used as part of the pre-employment screening process.  CandidClues™ was developed to meet that need.   Click here for more about Candid Clues.

6.  Quotes from Hire Authorities

"Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence in seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control."

Tom Landry, NFL Coach

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission