Recession and the Job Market

The recession has taken its hits on the job market and we've covered a lot of it on the blog. But no one (at least in the Mainstream Media) seems to write more currently about it than the Wall Street Journal's Careers section. Here are a few recent articles:

I happen to catch a glimpse of the WSJ while in a meeting in a co-worker's office the other day and one of the titles on the front page was "Life on Severance: Comfort, Then Crisis" (picture on right from article). I think it was a very interesting article, but I wonder if the severance package that was described in the opening paragraph was one that was supposed to get people's emotions stirred up. There are people who are a few years out of college, stuck with tons of student loans, and making $35,000 a year who maybe got a month of severance. Then there is the $200,000-a-year CEO who they describe in the article who got a year's worth of pay as severance and has $100,000 in savings. I don't think many people are crying for that guy.

But the point of the article is an interesting one: there is a growing severance economy of unemployed Americans who use severance pay and savings to keep up their lifestyles. The 405 Club asks if severance pay is the new welfare? I don't think that's the case, but for many, it's providing that slowly eroding bridge until the next job offer. How much severance does you company give? Do you think it's enough or would you, if you made the decisions give more? It's an interesting dilemma for companies who then have to worry about keeping happy those who are left behind.

Two more good articles:

• From today's WSJ, word that workers returning from layoffs have struggled to recoup the earnings power as wage erosion threatens to slow the economy's recovery.
• Lastly, this article is supposedly from tomorrow's WSJ (I told you we're ahead of the curve), and says that women now hold half of all U.S. jobs because of the large hits in layoffs to male-dominated industries. This has upended roles about which spouse stays at home finding more women heading back into the workforce to support the family as a single-earner. Very interesting indeed.
  

What I'm Hearing...Customized Rewards

Over the next two months, I'm going to be on the road giving presentations on total rewards. Hopefully among my travels I'll come across some blog worthy discoveries!

One of the key themes of my presentations is that, in today's economy, employers can't rely solely on base pay and benefits to attract and retain employees. Rather, total rewards is the new focus. Total rewards includes pay and benefits, and also adds work/life balance, career advancement and development, and performance management and recognition into the mix. Moving forward, organizations will have to tap into all 5 of these areas, and customize their blends to meet employee needs, in order to be successful.

In light of this I found two separate conversations I had yesterday quite interesting. In both instances, the employees' employers were trying to do something nice to reward their employees by tapping into the 3 new elements of total rewards. In both cases, the employees knew how much their company was spending on the "reward," and would rather have had the cash. They felt like their companies were forcing the "reward" on them.

Customization of rewards is key moving forward. To be done right, however, customization must be done from the perspective of the employee, not the employer. To truly reward and motivate, the compensation elements must be what the employee wants and needs, not what I as your manager think you should have because I happen to like it.

How much rewards customization does your organization use? Is it truly customized? How will your rewards programs change moving forward?

Worst Jobs for the Best Pay

BusinessWeek looks at the Worst Jobs for the Best Pay. Ever.

It harks me back to one summer, when I had trouble finding a summer internship, I got offered an intern position at a local branch of a well-known, national real estate firm. The pay was pretty good and the job was about a 10 minute drive from my parent's place. The experience seemed like a great way to learn more about real estate and maybe segue into that market. They had my sister as a part-time administrative assistant and they liked her. It seemed perfect.

It wasn't.

A little background: I had just graduated from my undergraduate studies from a top 35 University. I was in the middle of a 5 year BA/MA program getting a Masters in International Economics and Finance. I had interned for 3 summers at Deutsche Bank in Private Wealth Management. I was hungry to get my hands on something new and try it out.

Here were my tasks my first two days there: copy, staple, create binders, empty folders, fill folders, answer phones...and the best of all: fix stuff. This was a pretty successful operation in the heart of Scarsdale, NY at the top of the real estate bubble and they had the cheapest office equipment around. Everything broke. The worst of which was the copy machine, which my boss told me repeatedly was my fault because "everyone knows you shouldn't copy more than 25 pages at a time in a copier". I wanted to kill myself.

In the middle of my third day, I got a call from Jennifer at Astron Solutions. We had the best interview of my entire life (to date) and I was hoping to get an offer from Astron. It finally came. Jennifer asked me if I had already gotten a job. I told her I had, but that I'd quit by the afternoon and be in first thing on Monday.

And I've been working, in some capacity, with Astron ever since.

Despite good pay was the worst job I ever had, but it also led to the best job ;)

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.

Executive Decisions

We're sorry we missed some of these articles, but we want to get back to you in style her at the Astron blog...

First, an old article recently reprinted in the Wall Street Journal gives some hints about what employers are seeking in Human Resource Executives: click here

Human Resource Executive Online follows up with an article about disclosing executive-pay goals: click here

HR Daily Advisor follows up on a recent SHRM discussion about when safety and religion collide: click here

Job Journal has an article about America's declining job readiness, a topic we have discussed on the blog before: click here

And lastly, following up on one of our big stories from last week...Jerry Manuel, the New York Mets new coach now has called the Mets fans a big pile of fertilizer (courtesy of the New York Post via FOX Sports on MSN): click here

This is an organization that's in need of some work...

Going To The Vault

We're sorry we've missed you...but we want to update you with all the latest news in Human Resources (links and info from Vault.com)

Weekly Jobless Claims (Seasonally Adjusted), Week Ending 05/31 (reported 06/05) 357,000
Weekly Jobless Claims Change from Previous Week (seasonally adjusted) -18,000
Payroll Employment (Nonfarm Jobs Created or Lost), May -49,000
Unemployment Rate, May 5.5 percent


Six Essential Interview Questions: Vault Blogs

by Judi Perkins
An interview is a two-way street. It's not only important for the interviewer to learn if you fit them, but you need to find out if the company fits you. You also need to know if there are potential problems lurking behind the scenes. Most job seekers go to an interview prepared with questions, but not the ones which will ferret out the type of information they need to know before they begin working there.
Below area few questions that should always be asked. Not only will they help you to ascertain if the job for which you are interviewing meets the criterion of your perfect job, but the answers, when put together, will give you a fairly accurate picture of what's going on behind the interview.
Read more on Vault: click here

Unemployment spike stirs stimulus talk
The dismal jobs report on Friday has prompted renewed calls for a second congressional effort to stimulate the economy. The Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May from 5 percent a month earlier. It was the biggest monthly increase in more than 20 years. Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill said the report shows that Congress and the Bush administration need to do more to help workers and the unemployed. Read more: click here .


Hillary Clinton shattered a political glass ceiling
A new CBS News poll shows most voters think that by making a serious run for the Democratic nomination, Clinton made it easier for other women to run for president. Sixty percent of men and 76 percent of women agree with that statement. Among Democrats, 75 percent agree; among Republicans, it's 63 percent. Overall, 88 percent of voters agree with the statement "I am glad to see a woman as a serious contender for president." In 1984, when Geraldine Ferraro made history as the first female vice-presidential nominee for a major party, a CBS poll found only 62 percent of voters were "glad that a woman was nominated." Read more: click here

Some employers helping workers ease cost of commuting
A nationwide survey released last week found that 57 percent of employers offer some workplace program to ease commuting costs. The most popular: a condensed workweek of four 10-hour days, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consultancy in Chicago. The survey of 100 human resources executives across a variety of industries also found that one in five companies organizes employee carpools, with 14 percent increasing their telecommuting options and 18 percent subsidizing the cost of public transportation. Read more: click here

Pentagon's latest recruits: professors
Military power requires brainpower, and the Defense Department is moving to engage a new generation of scientists and engineers to conduct research that may pay off in technological breakthroughs for the nation's military. The department last week announced the selection of six university professors who will form the first class of the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows Program. The professors will receive grants of up to $600,000 per year for up to five years to engage in basic research - essentially a bet by the Pentagon that they will make a discovery that proves vital to maintaining the superiority of the U.S. military. Read more: click here

A third of employed Americans do not take all the vacation days that they are entitled to
A global study by Expedia.com found that about a third of employed Americans usually do not take all the vacation days that they are entitled to, leaving an average of three days on the table. About a quarter of the workers in Britain do not take all their vacation time, and in France a little less. The only difference is that the British get an average of 26 days of vacation and the French about 37 - compared with our 14 days. 137 countries mandate paid vacation time. The United States is the only industrialized country that doesn't. About a quarter of all workers in the private sector do not receive paid vacation. And the number of Americans who said in April that they were going to take a vacation in the next six months is at a 30-year low, according to their regular consumer survey. Only 39 percent of those responding said they would go away on holiday over the next half year. Read more: click here (Free subscription required).

Helping teens find summer work
Only about one-third of teenagers 16- to 19-years-old will find a job this summer, a sign of slow economic growth and higher minimum wage for all workers in the U.S. In fact, their employment rate this season is expected to be the lowest in six decades, according to a study from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. Low-income and minority youths will have a particularly hard time finding work. For them, the study says, the job picture may look more like "a Great Depression." Some companies are cutting back or delaying summer hiring, while a tight job market is driving unemployed older workers into traditional teen jobs. Read more: click here

Some employers get tough on workplace gossip
In workplaces everywhere, gossip remains a daily fact of life. Around watercoolers, behind closed doors, and in e-mails, employees whisper about everything from office romances to rumored mergers and layoffs. Defenders insist that this chatter is often harmless, giving workers a window on legitimate news. Critics charge that it can be insidious and malicious, lowering morale. Read more: click here

Follow Up on Direct Deposit...

Way back in February, Jennifer wrote a "What I'm Hearing" post on Direct Deposit: click here

Jennifer's conundrum dealt with putting a finger on a good reason people wouldn't use Direct Deposit...

Well this week at work, I've overheard three different conversations (office eavesdropping is for another post...) of people talking about direct deposit.

The first is an employee who is new but could not figure out how to set up the direct deposit. One of the things that employers, and especially Human Resources, need to make sure to do is to allow for an easy and simple process for employees to enroll in direct deposit.

The second was from an employee who has been employed for 9 months and is not enrolled in direct deposit talking to one who is a lot more tenured and is enrolled. The formers' said she was so happy it was not only a Friday, but a payday. The latter said that since they had direct deposit, they had no clue when a payday was coming up. This is one of the hesitations of people to getting direct deposit because they lose out of the joy of the paycheck coming every other week. Some of this is remedied by the bonus checks being delivered in person or in paper form.

The last was actually a conversation overheard on the work shuttle where someone commented that they were reducing their carbon footprint by enrolling in direct deposit. Getting rid of the paper trail of checks and opting out of paper statements is a great--albeit small--way to help out the environment...and check with your bank; there may be financial benefits for opting out of paper statements/checks also...

So there are some answers for you, Jennifer :)

Harrasment Stops with Prevention

The HR Daily Advisor starts us off with the questions of who is being harassed in your workplace right now: click here

The best policy is not a reactive one but a preventive one...make sure to have a policy in place before some of the incidents they mentioned become a reality in your business...

Next, from the Business Review of Western Michigan, word that many employers are seeking outside help to lure good employees: click here

Lastly, we have a blog entry that asks if executive pay should be tied to firm performance: click here

Human Resources in Education

Education Week says that Human Resources of teachers is a weak spot that needs to be fixed: click here

Next, from HR Daily Advisor, word that quicker pay increases may save your best new hires: click here

Lastly from Reuters, continuing our previous theme, more information on how telecommuting can hurt office morale: click here