March 9, 2011

Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Published by Success Performance Solutions.

What's Inside this issue of The Total View:

1. How Far Have We Fallen If Punctuality and Cleanliness Are Job Training Achievements?
2. Workforce Trends
3. What Motivates Employees
4. Annual Performance Reviews Simplified!
5. CandidClues Assessment

How Far Have We Fallen If Punctuality and Cleanliness Are Job Training Achievements?

Last month's gain of 192,000 net new jobs indicated that job creation might finally be on the uptick. The unemployment rate - down to 8.9 percent - has now declined nearly a full percentage point since November 2010, the steepest drop over a three-month span since 1983.

While that's good news, Elaine Chao, former Secretary of Labor, reminded participants attending the 2011 Human Capital Institute Summit, that we actually need 200,000 net new jobs per month just to keep up with our growing population. (That's not so bad compared to China, where they need 25 million net new jobs per year just to keep up with their growing population.) 

New jobs and a falling unemployment rate, despite what the press and political pundits might have you believe, aren't the only things that matter when we look toward an economic recovery.

The labor participation is still quite low. According to Chao, we're only at 62.4 percent, the lowest it has been in 25 years. Chao describes the reason for the low participation as a general lack of confidence that people currently have around their ability to find new jobs.

Chao also confirmed her belief that American workers still have high education levels and strong skills sets. It's just that we don't have enough of these skilled, educated workers to fill jobs in the fastest growth areas - Nanotechnology, Geospacial Technology, Life Sciences, and Healthcare - that will plague employers for years to come.

Up until this point in her presentation, there wasn't much to argue with - facts are facts.

Then the tide turned for me. It was her example of "one of the few great remaining training grounds" - the fast food industry. I'm not disputing that the industry isn't doing a good job. But I find it depressing that she felt their efforts warranted such attention because the fast food training curriculum must cover these basics:

• Punctuality is important.
• Personal hygiene is important.
• Anger management/conflict resolution.
• When the boss tells you something, it isn't a suggestion!

Is training workers to be punctual and clean something so compelling that a former Secretary of Labor feels it's worthy of commendation? Has our education and training systems fallen so far that timeliness and cleanliness are significant achievements? When we're talking about finding a way to ramp up the skills of workers so that we can compete effectively in a changing global marketplace, shouldn't we be recognizing companies or industries that excel at training workers to think creativity, solve complex problems, manage virtual teams, or deliver outstanding customer service?

The state of our workforce may be improving but if training for punctuality and personal hygiene is the best example of good job training we can offer, we will be seriously outmanned in our efforts to compete in a global economy. 

Workforce Trends

Fifty percent of respondents reported that management does not model the behaviors the company wants to encourage. Moreover, less than half felt that management recognizes employees for demonstrating the right values and behaviors. 

Source: Drivers for Success in Talent Management, Kelly Services 

For more  workforce and hiring trends, visit Perfect Labor Storm website and Perfect Labor Storm blog.

What Motivates Employees

Business values and motivators determine the "why" of human behavior.  
 

For managers, Business Values and Motivators answers the nagging question - How can I motivate my employees?  
 

For employees and individuals looking to re-energize their careers, the Business Values and Motivators report helps them understand what they value most.  As people, we tend to value certain viewpoints positively and judge others negatively.   How we value or judge determines our motivations and provide us with our sources of energy or conflicts and stress in our personal and professional lives.
 

What are Business Motivators? Read more.

Annual Performance Reviews Simplified!

Save time, increase productivity, and eliminate hassles when administering employee performance reviews with HReviewer.

Ask any manager what he or she hates most about the job and you'll often hear "performance reviews."   That's why we've created HReviewer.

We recognized a huge gap in the performance evaluation market between paper forms and online performance management. 

HReviewer is a user-friendly, centralized online solution to streamline and improve the annual, semi-annual or periodic review for small to medium sized organizations. It's convenient and very affordable too.  Our goal was simple: to help take the hassle out of getting managers to complete performance appraisal forms and giving employees more frequent feedback. 

The system comes with a library of competencies, an easy to use form creator, at-a-glance dashboards and reports, and a built-in reminder system to help HR track down managers when reviews are due....or past due!

More about HReviewer or Email us to schedule a FREE demo. 

CandidClues™

The cost effective solution to curb absenteeism and employee theft 

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.

CandidClues™ assesses six areas of potentially counterproductive behaviors by a self-descriptive inventory that taps six substantive areas of concern as well a Good Impression (validity) scale.

• Hostility
• Conscientiousness
• Integrity
• Substance Abuse
• Sexual Harassment
• Computer Misuse