Welcome to the May 17, 2006 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:

Don't forget to register for:

The Greater Valley Forge Human Resource Association
Organization Development Special Interest Group presents

Navigating the Talent Management Rough-Water:
Charting for the Labor Shortage Ahead

Keynote Speaker: Ira S Wolfe, Author - Perfect Labor Storm

What does all the current buzz about “Talent Management” mean in light of the impending labor shortages we face? This forum is your opportunity to get an insiders view of the latest statistical data as well as hear how several well known companies are “battening down their hatches” to prepare for the changing tides.

Listen to presentations and ask questions of:

• Ira S. Wolfe, Author and Founder of Success Performance Solutions
• Virginia Clarke, VP Organization & Talent Management, SAP America
• Gail Townsend, Organizational Development Specialist and Tiny Dyer, Human Resources Generalist, W. L. Gore
• Scott Cook, Sr. Director, Human Resources, Day and Zimmerman

To learn more or register for Navigating Talent Management Rough-Water.

1.   Wal-Mart - Changing The Way We All Do Business

The love-hate relationship people have with Wal-Mart is interesting. The Wal-Mart story is compelling. Wal-Mart is setting the pace of change and shaping the art of doing business whether you're working for them, buying from them, or plotting against them.

Sam Walton's mastery of lowering costs is nothing short of legendary. Whether you love or hate Wal-Mart, you've got to respect Wal-Mart for its financial discipline and determination and total commitment to squeezing the last penny out of doing business. Whether it is saving a few pennies through distribution efficiencies, reducing supplier costs or employing cheap labor, Wal-Mart is the poster child for driving productivity up and costs down.

Regardless what you think about Wal-Mart, it is changing the way we all do business - and who we do business with. While community's fight off Wal-Mart development, Wal-Mart insidiously penetrates nearly everything we touch and every move we make.

Wal-Mart is everywhere. You've got to respect what they've done and hate what they're doing.

Wal-Mart Facts

Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporation, according to 2005 Fortune 500 list. It operates over 5,000 stores worldwide, nearly 4,000 in the U.S. and employs over 1.6 million people-- 1.3 million in the United States alone. In the U.S., another 3 million people have jobs directly dependent on purchases from Wal-Mart. (Source: Wal-Mart)

In 1970, the country's largest employer was General Motors, with 350,000 workers. Overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Wal-Mart states it pays "full-time" employees $9.68 an hour with no defined benefit pension and inadequate health care. That translates into an annual wage of $17,114, and puts them below the Basic Family Budget requirement of $23,705. (Source: 2005 study by Arindrajit Dube and Steve Wertheim of the University of California's Berkeley Labor Center and www.ufcw.org)

Wal-Mart is as big as Home Depot, Kroger, Target, Costco, Sears and Kmart combined. Each year Wal-Mart sells more by Saint Patrick's Day than Target sells all year. More than half of all Americans live within five miles of a Wal-Mart store. Ninety percent live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart. With nearly 4,000 stores, that is more than one store for every single county in the U.S. Each year 93 percent of American households shop at least once at Wal-Mart. Worldwide, 7.2 billion people will go to a Wal-Mart store. (Source: The Wal-Mart Effect)

From 1997 to 2004, the U.S. population grew 7.7 percent. If jobs in retailing had grown at the rate of the population, the country would have added 1.1 million retailing jobs during those seven years. The country however added just over that number - 670,000 new retail jobs. Out of those 670,000 jobs, Wal-Mart created 70 percent of them. The remaining new retail jobs - 190,000 in the nation over seven years amount to just 540 new retail jobs in each state, each year. While the number of Wal-Mart jobs grew 67 percent, the number of jobs in the rest of U.S. retail grew 1.3 percent. (Source: The Wal-Mart Effect)

While Wal-Mart was adding 480,000 jobs between 1997 and 2004, U.S. manufacturing jobs during those years fell by 3.1 million jobs, a loss of 37,000 factory jobs a month. For the first time in U.S. history, the number of Americans working in retail (14.9 million) was greater than the number of Americans working in factories (14.5 million)

(Source: The Wal-Mart Effect)

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Alerts # 533 to 534

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

Just Released! Listen to "Trends That Will Change The Way You Do Business" - FREE Download.

Fact #533: According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep deprivation and its effect on work performance may be costing U.S. employers some $18 billion each year in lost productivity. Another study pushes this cost to over $100 billion.

Fact #534: Results from a study released in the February 2006 issue of Sleep show that 50 percent of employees who suffer from insomnia have at least one time of absence from work over a two-year period, compared with only 34 percent of good sleepers. Insomniacs also miss an average of 5.8 days of work per year, while good sleepers miss only 2.4 days.

Don't be caught in storm without all the facts. "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends for decades to come. Order your copy today - Only $7.95.

3.  Leadership Clues for Self-Development and Managers

Leadership Identifier is typically used by management to look at internal employees and how their core traits fit within a typical leadership role. The report shows a "Good", "Ok" or "Poor" fit for each of the individual's traits as compared to general leadership traits.
Leadership Self-Development

Leadership Self Development is designed to be used by an individual who wants to explore their own core personality traits and how they affect their leadership style. The report provides tips as to how the individual can develop themselves in a leadership role.

LeadershipClues reports will tell you how an individual's personality traits will affect:
Win-Win Team Approach
Decision Making
Feedback and Follow-up
Handling Confrontational Situation
Motivating Others
Problem Solving
Planning and Organizing
Consistency
Making Presentations
Handling Change

View a sample Leadership Clues report:

4.   Quotes from Hire Authorities

Talent wins games. Teamwork wins championships.
Michael Jordan

5.  Should Employers Be Required to Provide Health Care Benefits?

What role should employers play in ensuring that their employee's lives are covered? What role should employees play in taking their turn at the oars?

55 percent said NO when asked if employers should be required to provide health care benefits but a surprising say YES if employers who don't provide benefits should be forced to pay a subsidy for the uninsured.

Read the comments and see the full Health Care Benefits Survey.

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Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.