A lot of office places are grappling with the pros and cons of allowing their employees to telecommute. In this age where cost-cutting is a premium, minimizing used office space and allowing employees the flexibility of working from home seems to be growing in popularity. But with it comes pitfalls such as chance of lost productivity, a lack of oversight, and decreased amount of teamwork and camaraderie, among other negatives.
FINS has the 5 worst and best things about telecommuting from an employees side. The last negative is one to warn employees about if the option is given to them: "It could totally backfire. We hope it doesn't, really, but it's hard to know how you'll do working at home until you make a real commitment to it. Spending all day at home could leave you feeling cooped up, it can create tensions in your family life, especially if there's not a well-thought-out system in place, and you could find yourself really overwhelmed, or really bored."
If you allow co-workers to work remotely and issue them a smartphone, beware of the legal implications of overtime having to be issued to those workers as Workforce Management writes. The article cites one case from the Chicago Police Department but warns that it is "one of a handful nationwide in which employees have claimed overtime pay for smart-phone use—and apparently the first involving public employees. But lawyers say such cases are a clear warning to employers to put a smart-phone usage policy in place before they end up in potentially costly litigation."
And lastly, if you plan to have your employees work in the office or out of it, Monster.com has some tips for successful meetings (H/T Wendy). Warding off the "meeting vampires" is the key to making sure that meetings are effective and efficient.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Women in the Workplace
The past few months, two somewhat conflicting reports about women (and their looks) in the workplace have come out.
In August, Reuters reported that attractive women were being overlooked for certain jobs. The study by the University of Colorado Denver Business School published in the Journal of Social Psychology concluded "Attractive women faced discrimination when they applied for jobs where appearance was not seen as important. These positions included job titles like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor."
Then, earlier this month, the New York Post reported that skinnier women earn significantly more than those who are of average weight or classified as obese. The study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that "being 30 pounds below the average American female weight of 164 pounds can result in roughly $10,719 more in annual salary -- above the average woman's pay of $40,000. Being 30 pounds overweight can mean making $9,873 less than average." I think that this may be more of a case of skinnier people being more energetic, healthier, and confident than the case of discrimination, but it is interesting indeed.
Lastly, the EU parliament voted in favor of a number of measures to strengthen maternity protection in Europe including a 20-week full maternity pay for new mothers according to HR Magazine. The proposal also contains "rules employers will be banned from dismissing pregnant workers until six months after the end of their maternity leave."
In August, Reuters reported that attractive women were being overlooked for certain jobs. The study by the University of Colorado Denver Business School published in the Journal of Social Psychology concluded "Attractive women faced discrimination when they applied for jobs where appearance was not seen as important. These positions included job titles like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor."
Then, earlier this month, the New York Post reported that skinnier women earn significantly more than those who are of average weight or classified as obese. The study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that "being 30 pounds below the average American female weight of 164 pounds can result in roughly $10,719 more in annual salary -- above the average woman's pay of $40,000. Being 30 pounds overweight can mean making $9,873 less than average." I think that this may be more of a case of skinnier people being more energetic, healthier, and confident than the case of discrimination, but it is interesting indeed.
Lastly, the EU parliament voted in favor of a number of measures to strengthen maternity protection in Europe including a 20-week full maternity pay for new mothers according to HR Magazine. The proposal also contains "rules employers will be banned from dismissing pregnant workers until six months after the end of their maternity leave."
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Astronology - 2011 Compensation Budget Forecasts
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Thursday, October 14, 2010
Back to New York and Collaboration
After spending the week at a conference in Richmond, Virginia, I'm in a cab heading back to Manhattan. The conference I went to was the "Global Compliance, Legal and Government Relations" conference for my company. Two takeaways that I want to share on the blog are "Cool-aboration" and the "GFC".
"Cool-aboration" was a fun term for a presentation about collaborating with others. While most companies preach this, the conference had a big difference to talk about: actually listening to other people. When we discussed the great things each group had done the past year, it was all because of collaborative efforts--but even more important it was the communication and the listening of our associates that allowed for these great things to continue. Being able to feed off others and work with them in a collaborative manner is a sign of a great organization.
The other term I used above--the "GFC"--was a term I learned that the rest of the world was using for this recession which either stood for the Great Financial Crisis or Global Financial Crisis. But the important takeaway here was to understand the impact of Dodd Frank and other international regulations to your organization. Just because you are not located in your European office does not mean that what they are doing there doesn't effect your job, especially if you work in Human Resources and deal with employees' whistleblowing or executive compensation.
Although there were many other things I took away from the conference, those are two that I wanted to share here on the Astron blog. Although many companies are already thinking about it, some "cool-aboration" is always needed to make sure good policies and procedures are implemented and enforced.
-Andrew
"Cool-aboration" was a fun term for a presentation about collaborating with others. While most companies preach this, the conference had a big difference to talk about: actually listening to other people. When we discussed the great things each group had done the past year, it was all because of collaborative efforts--but even more important it was the communication and the listening of our associates that allowed for these great things to continue. Being able to feed off others and work with them in a collaborative manner is a sign of a great organization.
The other term I used above--the "GFC"--was a term I learned that the rest of the world was using for this recession which either stood for the Great Financial Crisis or Global Financial Crisis. But the important takeaway here was to understand the impact of Dodd Frank and other international regulations to your organization. Just because you are not located in your European office does not mean that what they are doing there doesn't effect your job, especially if you work in Human Resources and deal with employees' whistleblowing or executive compensation.
Although there were many other things I took away from the conference, those are two that I wanted to share here on the Astron blog. Although many companies are already thinking about it, some "cool-aboration" is always needed to make sure good policies and procedures are implemented and enforced.
-Andrew
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Literal Self-Promotion and Human Resources
Besides being the baseball playoffs, tonight is also The Office night. The show is nowhere near as funny as it was in the earlier years, but it still is a funny, enjoyable half hour and well-worth the watch (at least until Steve Carrell leaves at the end of the year). Last week's episode was an interesting one, though because of Pam's literal "self-promotion" and Toby's mediation with Michael due to his "corporate punishment" from the week before.
Usually when we think about "self-promotion" we think of someone promoting their own brand. What happened on the last episode of The Office was quite different. When a sales person walked into the office and asked who the office manager was, Pam stepped up and took the position even though it wasn't hers. She then set out to convince the rest of the office that she had the position but had not received her salary bump. In the end, she got her way, but through less-than-savory means (well, she lied).
Now Human Resources should be encouraging employees to promote themselves to other members of the office. Taking responsibilities that are not there's to help out in the office is great as well and should be encouraged. But that's where this should end. Actually giving yourself a promotion and a raise was funny on the show, but is not exactly ethical.
As for Toby, he had another classic showdown with Michael. Toby is Michael's punching bag and usually doesn't bring a good face to Human Resources, but he shined much of this episode (except when he had Michael fill out his own form). Toby's inability to stop Michael from acting out has been one of his toughest thing to deal with but his ability to work with Michael despite all the abuse gets kudos from me.
We'll see what types of office hijinx happen on tonight's episode, but last week's episodes was certainly chock-full of laughs and Human Resource topics.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Jobs in the Financial World
With Warren Buffet coming out today (via Telegraph) and saying that next time the financial world goes bust, the chief executives of those banks and their wives should go broke too, I figured it was a good time to delve back into the job market in the financial world.
Within the same article came this ominous forecast: "Despite the difference in the fortunes of those on Wall Street and many Americans in other industries, analysts have said that banks may decide to cut jobs in coming months as trading revenues decline. Meredith Whitney, for example, has forecast that up to 80,000 finance jobs could go over the next 18 months." Eek
More specifically, Morgan Stanley came out last week and said they were going to freeze investment bank hiring in 2010 according to Bloomberg (H/T Wendy).
For those looking for a job in this market, FINS has some advice for college graduates about how to find a job in the financial world (one of the pieces of advice "Take on Internships" is a good one).
Also from FINS, a different type of sheriff is coming to town: the IRS is hiring special agents for their Criminal Investigation Division, one of its prime divisions.
Lastly, Corporate Compliance Insights has two Dilberts that hopefully don't hit too close to home for many compliance professionals.
Within the same article came this ominous forecast: "Despite the difference in the fortunes of those on Wall Street and many Americans in other industries, analysts have said that banks may decide to cut jobs in coming months as trading revenues decline. Meredith Whitney, for example, has forecast that up to 80,000 finance jobs could go over the next 18 months." Eek
More specifically, Morgan Stanley came out last week and said they were going to freeze investment bank hiring in 2010 according to Bloomberg (H/T Wendy).
For those looking for a job in this market, FINS has some advice for college graduates about how to find a job in the financial world (one of the pieces of advice "Take on Internships" is a good one).
Also from FINS, a different type of sheriff is coming to town: the IRS is hiring special agents for their Criminal Investigation Division, one of its prime divisions.
Lastly, Corporate Compliance Insights has two Dilberts that hopefully don't hit too close to home for many compliance professionals.
Astronology - Head Games
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