WhatEmployersDoForStarEmployees

1. What can an employer do to attract "star" employees? (Part II)

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Success Performance Solutions partners with PayScale to provide

     clients with real-time salary data

4. This Week's Featured Books

5.  Speaking Schedule

6.  New Book: Coming Job Boom

7.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

Instead of fighting "star wars", grow your own stars. You of course, need to start by recruiting good people. Good does not mean super-star. Good means good. Good means high-potential, up and comer. Good means identify the solid B players who have the capacity and motivation to become A-players, inside and outside your business.

The shocking thing is that many organizations have this ambitious, smart, and motivated employee right under their very own roofs - but they let them get away. They plant the seed but forget to feed (the good ones) and weed (and terminate the not-so-good ones). Attention and resources go to recruiting the A-players and then figuring out how to get them to re-gain their star status after they're onboard. Everyone else is treated as the fair-haired stepchild and left to fend for themselves.

If you don't have star talent working under your roof, don't fret. The current economic downturn is creating an unexpected source of good talent that won't require a headhunter's fee or signing bonus to get them on-board. Don't assume that the new-unemployed are unqualified. Sadly, most organizations just aren't managing their talent that effectively. High potentials and talented employees are being turned out along with every other employee who is receiving a pink slip. For businesses anticipating talent needs for their future, consider the rash of terminations as a rare clear day after being battered by the leading edge of the Perfect Labor Storm. It won't be long before the dark storm clouds move in again and make finding skilled workers tougher than finding a needle in a haystack.

Stars also like to hang out with other stars. When they are placed on a pedestal with a do-not-touch badge prominently displayed for everyone to see, they get a rush over the attention - but then get very lonely. One of the things that keep stars motivated is having other stars for them to compete with. If you want to hire and recruit a star, make sure you have a buddy on board for them to "play" with and a support team to pamper them. If you can't afford two and pampering isn't in your rule book, keep reading.

Do what smart companies are doing: look for the relatively unknown and up-and-coming stars from other organizations. Learn what skills, abilities, personality traits, and values other stars have and seek out these characteristics and attributes in your organization and beyond. Scour the small businesses. Network for contacts in the larger ones. Hunt down the ignored and neglected but consistently good performers from other businesses - small and large, even searching outside the industry. Find the emerging but so far unrecognized stars and pamper them with training, coaching and mentoring.

I know what you're thinking: "why invest in training when the employee is likely to leave when he becomes my most valuable employee?" Despite all the rumors to the contrary, stars don't leave companies that take care of them. This recognition and development becomes part of the retention. Sure, they might look but many don't leave. Home-grown stars recognize that their success is partially dependent upon the organization and many will remain loyal. The bottom line: recruit good prospects and grow them into great ones. Related articles:

For most employees, management announcing that fifty new hires will join the organization in the next six months is sign of job security. That brings a sigh of relief especially when all the economic news cries recession, economic downturn, and layoffs. There is one exception however: the HR manager.

If recruiting and identifying top performers is on your high priority list, call us today at 717.291.4640 or reply to this email for a free consultation.

Listen to the Maintenance Worker Crisis

Song now available for easier viewing on YouTube.

Read more about skilled worker shortages in the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)

NEW Chapters! Generational Conflicts in the Workplace, Managing the Future Workforce, Attracting Young Employees in a Seller's Job Market plus hundreds of new facts, trends and stats.

To order Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, call 800.803.4303. Discounts for orders of 10 or more. Specify hard or soft cover.

One of the biggest challenges our clients face is creating compensation packages that reflect today's job market rates. I am excited to announce that we partnered with PayScale to provide businesses like yours with the real-time salary data you need to retain and recruit today's top talent! PayScale has agreed to give all of our Total View readers a free PayScale Employer Compensation Report on a job title of your choice. There are truly no strings attached.

Here's all you have to do to get your complimentary report. Visit the PayScale website by going here. Once there, locate the link on the right-hand side of the page that says "Request a Free Trial Report." Fill out the form and within 24 hours, a PayScale product consultant will provide you with the information you need to create your own salary report.

Today's busy leaders and knowledge workers are looking for informative, to the point self-study resources that will answer questions, stimulate new thinking and help solve problems.

These management development pocket guides are ideal for self-directed learning, training and coaching workers, corporate universities, or to use in seminars and workships.

September 8 - Electrical Generation Systems Associatino - "The Perfect Labor Storm"

6. Hot Off The Press! "Coming Job Boom" - Buy Today!

Ira recently collaborated with Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder on a new book, The Coming Job Boom. Bonnie is the author of The Public School Parent's Guide to Success. The Coming Job Boom is the "ying" for the "yang" of The Perfect Labor Storm. While the Perfect Labor Storm is beginning to make managers feel like storm chasers looking for qualified workers, high school and college students must be smiling at this Upcoming Job Boom. For those young workers with the right skills and motivation, the job market will make these kids feel like - well, like kid's in a candy store!

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe." We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.