Friday!!!

TGIF

 

Here's two great articles to start your weekend:

 

1) The Wall Street Journal says to cut pay, not people (click here). I think this is where some companies are going. They tell employees either to take an unpaid week off or take a 5% cut to save people from being laid off. Many people are all too happy to have a job even at 5% less than no job at all. The problem here lies in getting everyone to buy in to this. Some people who work hard may be upset with taking a paycut when freeriders get to keep their job with just smaller salary. Also, paycuts do nothing for employee morale or streamlining productivity. But there's one reason why many companies should think about pay cuts over employee cuts: "While...job cuts resulted in modest short-term gains in company financial performance, they also resulted in larger long-term financial-performance losses because companies did not have the necessary talent to respond to economic recovery."

 

2) From Fabjob.com, MSN and Careerbuilder.com (who has a great ad for the Super Bowl up on my personal blog here) which has five ways to turn off employers. The best has to be #5 which is "Keep Communicating Until They Get a Restraining Order". I had an interview a few months back where the candidate kept on calling and e-mailing wondering when they would get hired. We were still in the middle of interviewing candidates, but we kept on hearing from this one person. All the while, they had out personal ads all over LinkedIn and other social networking websites. There's being persistent and going after a job...and then there's being a pest!

 

Problems for HR

This report says that Legal and Ethical violations are rising without resources to control the risk: click here

 

Yahoo! also reports that Americans receiving jobless benefits has hit an all-time record: click here

 

But help may be on the way with relief for jobless and states in health care plan embedded within the new stimulus package: click here

 

Starbucks is going to cut 6,700 jobs amid falling sales (and cut decaf coffee after noon)

 

How social networking helped one company grow its business: click here

 

Also, make sure to read Jennifer's articles from yesterday and today...well worth the read!

 

What I'm Hearing...More on Ledbetter

Sent out today by the SHRM Government Affairs department: "Employers should note that it will allow not only aggrieved employees but other 'affected' individuals, including spouses and children, to file a claim, even after the employee has died."

You can read the whole article here: http://messaging.shrm.org/ct/0daBMYp1SRxH/

Pay discrimination is, of course, wrong. This approach to remedying the situation, however, seems to merely open the door to a myriad of lawsuits, many probably without merit.

What I'm Hearing...Changes to Compensation Planning Are Coming Your Way

Yesterday, Congress approved the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. BLR has a clear synopsis of the law at http://compensation.blr.com/display.cfm/id/156373.

At the moment, I have many conflicting thoughts on the passage of this legislation, and will spare our readers my stream of consciousness! :-)

As a first step, have HR professionals already audited their compensation programs to make sure discrimination does not exist? If not, now is the time to investigate and take positive action.

With the passage of this Act, it appears that a tidal wave of new HR legislation will be coming from Washington. With legal costs typically averaging $100,00 or more per case, advance preparation and positive action now are essential to ensuring a "lawsuit free" organization.

Labor Bill Opposed By Who?

It ends up that bailout recipients (including AIG and Bank of America) were some of the biggest opponents of a key labor bill (click here)

I figured I'd just copy the main text below (audio available on the site):

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

Bernie Marcus, the charismatic co-founder of Home Depot, led the call along with Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent and founder of the Center for Union Facts. Over the course of an hour, the two framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse.

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."

Donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republican senatorial campaigns were needed, they argued, to prevent America from turning "into France."

"If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs," Marcus declared.

Earlier he argued: "As a shareholder, if I knew the CEO of the company wasn't doing anything on [EFCA]... I would sue the son of a bitch... I'm so angry at some of these CEOs, I can't even believe the stupidity that is involved here."

Astronology - A Look Back at All That Happened in 2008

 

 

Astronology Volume IX Issue 24   January 27, 2009 Dear Andrew, Astron Solutions provides high-quality, low-cost, innovative human resources consulting services to organizations like yours. Call us for advice, innovative program design, and user-friendly Web/PC based software. 10th Anniversary Last Thursday, January 22nd marked Astron Solutions 10th anniversary. We would like to thank everybody who visited all of us at the office to help us celebrate this wonderful occasion. And we just want to send out our sincerest thanks for making all of this possible! The continued support of Astron has been amazing, and we hope to be able to say this again in January of 2019 for the 20th Anniversary! Also, keep an eye out for special 10th Anniversary events all throughout 2009! Fact or Fiction? Fact or fiction: Men own the germiest places in the office. Fiction (We were surprised too.) Women's office spaces are three to four times germier than their male counterparts' office space. How is this possible? Well, women tend to have more stuff in general on and around their desk and workspace. More stuff translates to more potential places with germs. There were over 100 surfaces tested for germs. Here are a few examples of which gender has it worse:    - Telephone: Women had more germs than men    - Mouse: Again, women more germs than the men    - Desk (the actual desk surface): Men more germs than the women For the full article and a listing of the most common items in a workspace, click here. The Astron Road Show Trade show season is inching ever closer...grab your calendars and mark Astron's first Road Show events of 2009. Our first show of the New Year is in Houston, TX. National Director, Michael Maciekowich, will be presenting at the Houston Society of Healthcare Human Resources Administration held on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009. For more information, please click here. Astron's next show is held in Albany, NY as part of the Capital Regional Human Resource Association (CRHRA) on March 19th. Director of Client Services Paul Hart Miller will be there meeting and greeting. Then on April 28th through April 30th, Astron Solutions will be exhibiting AND presenting at the SHRM Staffing Management Conference held in Las Vegas, Nevada. There, National Director Jennifer C. Loftus will be giving a presentation and meeting with the attendees at our exhibit booth. As more details and shows become available, we will surely pass them along. We hope to see you there! A Look Back at All That Happened in 2008 2008 was a memorable year for human resource professionals. There were far more challenging events in 2008 than in many prior years. The events of 2008 have also altered numerous human resource strategies for years to come. Below is a summary of some of the key events we'll be discussing for years to come....more Have a Question? If you have a topic you would like addressed in Astronology, or some feedback on a past article, don't hesitate to tell us!  Simply reply to this e-mail.  See your question answered, or comments addressed, in an upcoming issue of Astronology. Looking for a top-notch presenter for your human resource organization's meeting?  Both Jennifer Loftus and Michael Maciekowich present highly-rated sessions on a variety of compensation and employee retention issues.  For more information, send an e-mail to info@astronsolutions.com. The Fine Print We hold your e-mail address in trust.  Astron Solutions promises never to share or rent your personal information.  We also promise never to send you frivolous e-mails and will allow you to leave our list, at your option, at any time. To remove yourself from this list, please follow your personalized subscriber link at the bottom of your Astronology alert e-mail. Copyright 2008, Astron Solutions, LLC ISSN Number 1549-0467 Quick Links Client List Meet the Astron Team Contact Us World of HR Blog Bringing you Human Resource news from around the globe...compliments of Astron Solutions. More

Some Pictures From the Astron Party

 

The Hall of Fame Unemployment Line

Mixing a little baseball with Human Resources, this is a good article to read before heading into the weekend about a different type of "unemployment line": click here

 

 

Happy 10 Year Anniversary!

"Thank you for being an important part of our ASTRONomical growth in our first ten years." - Astron’s founders Michael Maciekowich and Jennifer C. Loftus

Congrats to Astron Solutions on it's 10th Anniversary! Let's hope there's many, many more to come. And check out our new logo on the right side of the screen. Pretty sweet!

Some links:

Microsoft resorted to their first layoffs, cutting 5,000 people--a sign of how bad the economy has gotten: click here

Gannett Newspaper employees are the latest to be asked to take a week of unpaid leave instead of facing layoffs...but when words like "scramble" and "uncertainty" are thrown around, it's never good news: click here

Lastly, Ask The Headhunter asks if you're pursuing the interview...or the job? click here

Off to celebrate with the rest of Astron. Congrats again! And after almost 20,000 people have visited the blog, thank you guys for making us so popular!

 

Job Cuts on Main Street

A very interesting piece by CNN Money on how small business is being hit by the economy: click here

 

And, saw on someone's Twitter this new site for finding jobs in sports (especially sports journalism): click here

 

Morale Of Those Left Behind

Many times, while layoffs are occurring, people forget about the morale of the people still there. The Washington Post wrote about it today. But many people have looked over this. The truth is that I've heard from some people recently laid off in the finance industry describe it as being a "relief". When companies go through layoffs, workers have to look over their shoulders every day, wondering if they will be next. If they aren't let go, they are asked to take the responsibilities of those who have lost their jobs. And many employees are scared to approach Human Resources or their employers to ask for changes to anything--lest their employment status be the chance that occurs. If you're an HR professional, you have an obligation to cut costs and sometimes lay off people, but you also have an obligation to the people who still remain to make sure that they are happy.

 

About.com has advice on downsizing with dignity.

 

Workforce.com has an article about how to boost morale after layoffs.

 

Good advice to take.

 

Follow Us On Facebook

We continue to move further and further into the social networking arena...

Become a fan of our blog on Facebook: click here

Wonderful....

From Bloomberg: 21,000 Jobs Worldwide Erased in Day as Recession Chokes Demand....wow

Happy Friday!

Three articles for you this Friday before a long weekend...

 

U.S. News & World Report has an article on some "insensitive" advice on 401(k) loans: click here

 

The New Haven Register (via iStockAnalyst) says 46% of Connecticut businesses predict layoffs: click here

 

And some advice from Scripps News about whether a college student should skip human resources during a summer job search: click here

 

Have a great weekend!

 

Making Staff Decisions in a Recession from the Wall Street Journal

Job losses and pay cuts are mounting as the U.S. economy struggles. Ravin Jesuthasan of Towers Perrin says that health care and energy look like the safest industries in these tough times.

Laid Off and Looking

Laid Off and Looking from the Wall Street Journal

In this video blog entry, Dawn Jordan talks about her job search and the importance of networking.

Oxford's Business History Program

Oxford Offers a Business History Lesson from the Wall Street Journal.

Oxford University's Chris McKenna says during times of economic crisis, look to the past for a broader perspective. He speaks with WSJ's Alina Dizik about a new history course at the university.

Generational Divide...and other articles

women for hire has an interesting article on Handling Generation Diversity: click here

 

The You Grow has some really interesting stats about "The Millennial" in this newsletter (click here)...especially the numbers. These include:

9: The number of jobs held by the average U.S. worker between ages 18 and 34 - Staffing Industry Analysts

16: The number of months before an average mid-twenties employee leaves their job. - Bureau of Labor Statistics

83,000: The number of people who quit their jobs each day in the U.S. - Bureau of Labor Statistics

Cheezhead has a great take on the Millennial Generation in an article titled "if given the chance, i'll tweet for you": click here

Both HR and Compliance will find "The Fraudies Awards" for employee fraud from george's employment blawg: click here

 

On those same lines, MSN Careers and Careerbuilder have some true and outrageous resume lies: click here

 

HR Web Cafe has the best and worst jobs (according to the Wall Street Journal): click here

 

The Recruiters Lounge has advice on how to make introductions in business and social settings: click here

 

Lastly, HR Observations has an article about paycheck fairness (which they've covered before and will try to cover again until it is fixed): click here

 

Astronology - Changes in Human Resources: What Should We Look For in 2009?

 

Astronology Volume IX Issue 23   January 13, 2009 Dear Andrew, Astron Solutions provides high-quality, low-cost, innovative human resources consulting services to organizations like yours. Call us for advice, innovative program design, and user-friendly Web/PC based software. 10th Anniversary 2009 marks a very special event for Astron Solutions - our 10th Anniversary! Astron Solutions would like to thank you for making this possible by having an Open House. Astron is planning an open house birthday celebration on Thursday, January 22nd 2009 from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Click here to see full details and how to RSVP. See you there! Fact or Fiction? Fact or fiction: It's possible to send over 10,000 text messages in a month. Fact A 13-year-old girl probably broke a world record by sending 14,528 text messages in the span of a month. That's just SENDING; if the total includes receiving that number is probably somewhere near 30,000. The math comes out to roughly one sent message every two minutes for every waking hour (based on 16 hours awake a day). Stories like these are the reasons why organizations impose rules on personal communication in the office. Imagine having an employee who just sits at their desk and texts ALL DAY? Imagine if an employee had this type of productivity with something else? The potential is amazing. For an article on the story, including an interview with the father of this girl, click here. The Astron Road Show The New Year is here! Now it's time to grab your calendars and mark Astron's first Road Show event of 2009. Our first appearance of the New Year is in Houston, TX. National Director, Michael Maciekowich, will present at the Houston Society of Healthcare Human Resources Administration conference held on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009. Astron's Director, Client Services, Paul Hart Miller, will also be present for the event. For more information, please click here. We hope to see you there! Changes in Human Resources: What Should We Look For in 2009? Changes. Without them, there's no indication of progress. As we prepare for the extensive work ahead of us to make 2009 a successful year professionally, it is beneficial to take a look at what may be in HR's future. Keeping current with possible changes allows one to be prepared to handle any potential challenge and make adjustments smoothly. Being aware of changes in the ever evolving field of HR is important as HR impacts an organization's livelihood and success. The Astron team has identified 4 areas of change in 2009...more Have a Question? If you have a topic you would like addressed in Astronology, or some feedback on a past article, don't hesitate to tell us!  Simply reply to this e-mail.  See your question answered, or comments addressed, in an upcoming issue of Astronology. Looking for a top-notch presenter for your human resource organization's meeting?  Both Jennifer Loftus and Michael Maciekowich present highly-rated sessions on a variety of compensation and employee retention issues.  For more information, send an e-mail to info@astronsolutions.com. The Fine Print We hold your e-mail address in trust.  Astron Solutions promises never to share or rent your personal information.  We also promise never to send you frivolous e-mails and will allow you to leave our list, at your option, at any time. To remove yourself from this list, please follow your personalized subscriber link at the bottom of your Astronology alert e-mail. Copyright 2008, Astron Solutions, LLC ISSN Number 1549-0467 Quick Links Client List Meet the Astron Team Contact Us World of HR Blog Bringing you Human Resource news from around the globe...compliments of Astron Solutions. More

 

How to Get a Good Job in a Bad Market...and other subjects

Associated Content starts us off with an article about how to get a good job in a bad market: click here

 

MSN Careers has 10 vital resume fixes: click here

 

TalentBar has recruiting bloopers and practical jokes: click here

 

The Boston Globe's Job Doc answers in a Q&A why no updates for a candidate after a job interview: click here

 

HR Lori explains what "Independent Contractor" really means: click here

 

Human Resource Blog has a Q&A about Virginia lunch/smoking breaks: click here

 

FeedAgg has and article (not very well-written, but interesting nonetheless) on the stages of alcoholism and how HR needs to respond: click here

 

Lastly, some news about updating an auto sector human resources study: click here

 

Much more to come...stay tuned here at the Astron blog...

 

 

 

HR Articles Galore...

Catching you up on the world of HR...

 

Three out of five employers say that layoffs are likely in 2009 according to SmartPros: click here

 

Staying with SmartPros, word that anticipating a tough 2009, companies are remaining selective in planning workforce, pay and benefit cuts: click here

 

The Ledger says that even though you can't give an employee a raise, there are still some low-cost alternatives to say thank you: click here

 

The Arizona Daily Star has the ins and outs of exit interviews: click here

 

The bad economy is taking a toll on women's health, according to The Courier-Journal: click here

 

The CRO cites a survey that finds most companies do no appraise employee ethics: click here

 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's jobs section says that industry associations are valuable assets: click here

 

Also from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the questions was posed to HR: What are some things job seekers can do to get their resume noticed by HR managers and recruiters? click here

 

From AsiaOne Business, a Q&A about a mid-career switch from marketing to Human Resource: click here

 

And lastly, a press release that says the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and JobTarget have released the first ever job board coupon book: click here

 

Enjoy! We'll have 10 more tomorrow!

 

The Faces of Networking

Prospecting Weekly's latest issue had an interesting article about the Two Faces of Networking: click here

 

Next, a good Bootstrapper article about savings and retirement plans for entrepreneurs and small business owners: click here

 

Lastly, from Sales Journal (from Naviga Business Services), an article about why goal setting is so important in sales (also applies to other areas as well): click here

 

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

 

 

Jobless rate 7.2% in December

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123150742539367897.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 

 

Facebook Us

Along the social media lines...follow our blog on facebook!

http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/welcome_to_the_world_of_hr/

What I'm Hearing...New Jersey Collegiate Career Day at Rutgers

Yesterday Astron had a booth at the New Jersey Collegiate Career Day, sponsored by Rutgers University. The event was featured on NJN News last night! NJN News is the nightly news program of New Jersey Network (channel 50), NJ's PBS affiliate.

Check out this link:

http://www.njn.net/television/webcast/njnnews/wednesday.html

to see our own Technology Supervisor Brendan Williams interacting with a candidate. Marketing Specialist Stephen Lella can be seen on the right in the background during the interview with Charles Kratovil.

Fast forward to 18:45 of the news video to get right to the story.

We had at least 300 candidates stop by our booth, keeping all three of us busy from opening at 9:30 AM straight through 2:30 PM.

Rutgers Career Day Wrap-up

Hi everyone!

 

We had a booth at the Rutgers Career Fair yesterday.  The event was featured on NJN News last night!

 

Check out this link:

 

http://www.njn.net/television/webcast/njnnews/wednesday.html

 

to see Brendan looking official!  Steve is also on the right in the background during the interview with the young man in the red shirt.

 

Fast forward to 18:45 of the news to get right to the story.

 

Enjoy!!

 

Jennifer 

 

 

YES WE CAN!

This is a great idea...

 

From TMQ on ESPN.com:

Sara Mednick, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego. Mednick has produced scientific proof that people ought to take afternoon naps. Her latest study, published in the technical journal "Behavioral Brain Research," is in my opinion irrefutable. Naps, she found, improve cognitive performance better than caffeine and better than placebos -- and as TMQ readers know, for even the most expensive medical intervention, to exceed the effectiveness of a placebo is quite impressive. Mednick is now campaigning for naps and even engaged in corporate nap consulting -- there's a 21st century field! She believes companies that allow employees to nap will realize improved productivity in the same number of work hours, a proposition that makes intuitive sense to me. Modern globalized life grows ever more stressful; the only sane response may be to take a nap. While most people who gain notoriety have caused harm to others, Sara Mednick is working to make our lives better, and for this she is the 2008 Tuesday Morning Quarterback Person of the Year.

I don't ask for much in life, but naptime during the day would be worth one of my three Genie wishes (of course, more wishes would be in there, so, really, that statement has little value...but still)...

 

 

Bad News

Of all the bad news on the job front we've posted here on the Astron blog over the past year, none really seems to be as damning as this one (click here) from Reuters which says that small businesses are now aggressively cutting payrolls in the face of the poor holiday shopping season. Long a bastion of hope, small businesses were thought to be quite secluded from the large job cuts that have gone on due to many factors including the lack of public scrutiny of their finances, their seeming distance from the interconnectivity of the larger corporate world, the ability of small businesses to absorb a few bad months, and the fact that cutting jobs can often be a matter of firing a relative or a friend who has been with the company for years (among other reasons).

A report on Wednesday showed private sector job losses of 693,000 in December, far greater than economists had expected. Small businesses accounted for an unusually large 40 percent of the decline, according to the figures from ADP Employer Services and Macroeconomic Advisers. (click here)

These small businesses are one of the biggest sources of non-government jobs in the U.S. making this data particularly worrisome. Let's hope this changes soon or things will continue to get worse.

 

Also in the news...

 

Reuters also says the the U.S. economic reports shows that the poor have been hit extremely hard by this financial crisis according to the Congressional Budget Office: click here

 

Yahoo! Finance says that U.S. companies are facing a $409 billion pension deficit: click here

 

Lastly, the Wall Street Journal says that even Wal-Mart has cut it's earnings outlook amidst this economic downturn: click here