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White Paper Available:
Boomers to Bust Age Bias?
Baby Boomers Redefine Retirement
Reveille and Hyperbole:
Travis Software Corp., a leader of Advanced Employee
Benefits Software Administration and provider of TravisCobra software, announced the
availability of TravisCobra Release 8.0, with several enhanced features for advanced disbursement,
expanded options to mask Social Security numbers, new reports, and a whole new look and feel.
OffSurf.com is a free proxy bypass service which lets you
surf the web privately and securely.
This service can get around Employer blocked sites, firewalls and site filters.
In the
SHRM 2006 Workplace Forecast, the top ten workplace trends included identity theft and the
vulnerability of technology to attack or disaster. Background screeners are particularly
susceptible to both of these problems, and Integrated Screening Partners (ISP) shares tips for
safeguarding your information in their recent white paper "
Is Your Information Safe with Your Screening Provider ?"
PeopleScout, provider of recruitment process outsourcing, is helping companies recruit, screen, hire and retain staff with a blend of web-based technology and live recruiters.
The company's redesigned website reflects PeopleScout's expanded services in recruitment outsourcing, whether it's an end-to-end solution or an individual component in the recruitment process.
Expanded capabilities include not only RPO, but Candidate Process Outsourcing (CPO), Student Recruitment Outsourcing (SRO) and Employee Care Outsourcing (ECO).
The Washington Post Company (WPO) reported net income of $78.7 million ($8.17 per share) for its second quarter ended July 2, 2006, compared to net income of
$78.8 million ($8.16 per share) for the second quarter of last year. Results for the second quarter of 2006 included charges related to early retirement plan buyouts at The Washington Post newspaper and the corporate office (after-tax impact of $31.4 million, or $3.27 per share) that are largely being
funded from the assets in the Company's pension plans. Results for the second quarter of 2006 also included nOnRecurring transition costs from recently acquired Kaplan businesses (after-tax impact of $4.8 million, or $0.50 per share), offset by insurance recoveries from cable division losses related to
Hurricane Katrina (after-tax impact of $6.4 million, or $0.67 per share) and non-operating gains from the sales of marketable securities (after-tax impact of $19.6 million, or $2.04 per share). Revenue for the second quarter of 2006 was $969.0 million, up 8% from $897.6 million in 2005. The increase is
due mostly to significant revenue growth at the education division. Revenue at the Company's newspaper publishing, television broadcasting and cable television divisions also increased for the second quarter of 2006, while revenues were down at the magazine publishing division.
JWT Specialized Communications, one of the world's leading specialty marketing communications companies, has formed an affiliation with G2G, an
interactive communications agency located in suburban Boston, Massachusetts. G2G has over 11 years of online media design and marketing experience, with a special focus on the world of higher education. "We understand
the complex strategic objectives that educational institutions face and the multitude of audiences they must address online," said Andrew Child, co-founder and principal of G2G. "We're very proud to be able to combine our knowledge of this sector with the world-recognized interactive and branding expertise of
JWT."
CRNAs (certified registered nurse anesthetists) enjoy
flexibility and generous compensation, according to survey results released today by recruiting firm
LocumTenens.com.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of the 417 full- and part-time CRNAs responding to the recruiting firm's on-line
questionnaire in June 2006 said they have worked as a locum tenens (temporary) anesthesia provider, while
another 28% said they would consider it. Based on its 2006 survey, LocumTenens.com pegs the
average annual U.S. nurse anesthetist salary at $164,172, a 10% increase over the 2005 average of $149,147.
The recruiting firm's 2006 survey results indicate that 97% of CRNAs earn salaries of more than $90,000 per
year, while 40% earn more than $170,000 per year. More than a third of respondents (36%) earn
between $130,000 and $170,000.
Deck Chairs:
ORC Worldwide (ORC), a leading international HR consulting and management firm, today announced the appointment of several well-known U.S. and European diversity
experts to seats on its Global Diversity Advisory Board. The newly formed Advisory Board will support ORC's work with leading organizations to define and enhance practices for effective global management of multicultural and multinational workforces.The new Advisory Board members, a select group of highly
strategic, forward-looking thought leaders well-known and respected in the North American and European
business communities, include:
Rohini Anand, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Of Sodexho, Inc.
Patti Bellinger, Director BP Leadership Academy and Group Vice President, BP, plc
Emilio Egea, Vice President, Human Resources, Prudential Financial, Inc.
Edward N Gadsden, Jr., Vice President, Workplace Diversity, The Coca-Cola Company
Leslie Mays, Vice President Global Diversity and Inclusion, Pfizer Inc.
You Should Know:
Canada:
Decline in jobs continues in July
Unemployment rate jumps to 6.4 per cent
Weaker-than-expected July employment numbers prompted some economists yesterday to start talking about something that recently seemed unthinkable: interest rate cuts. Statistics Canada reported that the labour market lost 5,500 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate jumped 0.3 percentage points to 6.4 per
cent. On average, analysts had expected the creation of about 23,000 jobs in the month, so the numbers were a shock -- for the second month in a row. In June, the economy lost 4,600 jobs, also in contrast to economists' projections of growth. (Globe
and Mail)
China:
What could still go wrong with China's economy
CHINA inspires superlatives, especially from Westerners marvelling at its space-needle high rises, landscaped highways, chic shopping centres, Shanghai bullet train and sprawling new industrial complexes. And its economy is on fire, expanding at a nearly 11% annualised pace in the first half alone. Indeed,
since 1978, when Deng Xiaoping set China on a capitalist course by decollectivising its agricultural sector, the nation has averaged annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of nearly 9%. Likewise, in the past 25 years or so, China has, in the words of the University of Michigan's Kenneth Lieberthal,
undertaken "urbanisation, marketisation, privatisation and globalisation" with unprecedented speed. And there's no reason why China can't continue to grow at a 9% rate for the next 15 to 20 years, adds old China hand Loren Brandt of the University of Toronto. No wonder an air of triumphalism can be detected
in the Middle Kingdom. Asians, and indeed many Westerners, feel that this century will see China become the globe's pre-eminent economic power. (The
Business)
Global:
YouTube, Digg, Wikipedia: Can Web 2.0 play hardball?
Tim O'Reilly says, in his 2005 treatise "What is Web 2.0?": The architecture of the Internet, and the World Wide Web, as well as of open source software projects like Linux, Apache, and Perl, is such that users pursuing their own 'selfish' interests build collective value as an automatic byproduct. Web 2.0
users, and others in the Web 2.0 community, seem to be pursuing their own "selfish" interests more and more. (ZDNet)
South Africa:
Doing business with HIV
The sky is purple, just after dawn, and the air is still chilly in the veldt spring. A couple of hundred miners are milling around above the shaft elevators at Goedehoop Colliery. The miners wear thick green coveralls, white hardhats, big rubber boots. Some are young and lean; many are old and grizzled. They
get their morning briefing: who's working where, lights are burned out here and cables aren't running there, what the day's targets are — all that, and a couple other things: One hundred per cent of employees who came back from leave last week volunteered to test for HIV, the supervisor tells them in Fanagalo,
the miner's dialect that is a hybrid of South Africa's 11 languages. More than 8,000 condoms have been given out this week. He also tells them how to recognize and prevent tuberculosis, which is the main killer of people with AIDS. This is not a special health bulletin, a message from the AIDS committee. Just
like equipment updates and shaft closing warnings, information about HIV goes out in Goedehoop's every single interaction with its 2,000 employees. "It's been incorporated entirely — it's a factor in this business, like the price of coal or the strength of the rand," said John Standish-White, the mine
manager. (Globe and Mail)
UK:
Recruitment site for rail professionals launched
Justrail.net the specialist recruitment site for Rail Professionals has launched its SMS job alert service, which includes Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile (Virgin & One2One) and Orange networks. qqqThe service has been introduced in partnership with Mobtastic, one of premier suppliers of SMS services in the UK. The
new service will add value to Justrail.net which offers job-hunters an easy way to be alerted when new jobs matching their search profile are advertised. Anthony Bradley, Group Marketing Manager, says of the introduction of the service: "With so many quality Rail Jobs out there, we want to make it as easy as
possible for rail professionals to find out about the jobs which our clients are advertising with Justrail.net. "SMS offers an ideal service, letting rail professionals know about new vacancies without the need to log onto their PC which can be difficult for them during the working day." (EngineerLive)
'Daily Mirror' may be put up for sale by Trinity
Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror, has opened the door for a long-awaited sale of the company's flagship national newspaper titles, the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, after launching an "all-encompassing" review of its operations. Ms Bailey said it was too early to speculate about whether the
company will decide to split its regional and national publishing assets, but a sale of its troubled Mirror titles is now a definite possibility. "We do not rule anything in, we do not rule anything out. It is time for a good hard look at what we do," she said. Ms Bailey argued there was no single catalyst
for the review and added there have been no approaches from another party to buy either of its divisions. "This is about us being on the front foot," she said, adding that the review will be complete by the end of the year. (The
Independent)
Zambia:
AIDS, not overseas recruitment, stripping Zambian hospitals
AIDS is removing twice as many health professionals from the workforce from Zambia as overseas recruitment, according to a US-funded study published today in The Lancet, yet health care workers are not being prioritised for antiretroviral treatment. If the death rate of Zambian nurses could be cut by 60%,
says the author, "Zambian health institutions would benefit more than they would from a total ban on recruitment to the UK." Many African countries are experiencing a severe shortage of health care workers. The shortage has been blamed on recruitment into the health care systems of wealthier countries,
particularly the United Kingdom. Health service administrators have also reported a southward drift of health care professionals in southern Africa, with doctors from Botswana drawn to South Africa, and vacant posts in Botswana filled by recruits from less wealthy countries to the north. (aidsmap)
Deep Release:
Are Retention Efforts Working? Spherion Survey Shows Fewer IT Workers Leaving Jobs
More IT Workers Believe the Economy Is Getting Stronger; Half of IT Workforce Say It Is Not Likely That They Will Look for a New Job; Majority of IT Workers Say It Is Not Likely They Will Lose Their Jobs
The likelihood that U.S. IT workers will look for a new job dropped nine percentage points to 39 percent in the second quarter of 2006, according to the recent quarterly IT Employment Report released today by Spherion Corporation. Facing a unique combination of a tight job market, slowing efficiency gains,
labor shortages at certain skill levels and an up-tick in labor compensation, employers are placing more emphasis on attracting and retaining skilled workers.
Despite this factor, the Spherion® Report, conducted by Harris Interactive®, indicated that IT workers' feelings about the economy improved in the second quarter, as 31 percent reported that they believe the economy is getting stronger, up five percentage points from the first quarter.
"IT workers, along with other professional and business services workers, continue to have the upper hand in the current job market, but now they are starting to see more money in their paychecks," said Brendan Courtney, senior vice president of Spherion Professional Services. "The data from
this quarter's report indicates an increase in confidence among IT workers that they could find new jobs if they wanted to, yet the number of those intending to begin a new job search declined. These workers are clearly gun shy about pursuing new jobs despite their availability, which may be the result of
employer retention efforts. Wages are growing across the board, so IT workers may be thinking 'If I'm getting a pay increase, why leave?'"
IT Employee Confidence Index: The IT Employee Confidence Index was 58.4 for the second quarter of 2006, up 1.3 points from the previous quarter. During the same period, the U.S. Index decreased 0.7 points to 57.6. The Index, which measures adult workers' confidence in their personal employment situation and
the macroeconomic environment, may have increased because of a candidate-driven shift in the job market due to a combination of a growing IT sector and increased retention measures offered by employers.
About the Spherion Employment Report
As part of the Spherion® Emerging Workforce® Series of employment surveys, the quarterly Spherion Information Technology Employment Report provides a snapshot of the latest workforce trends among information technology professionals across the country. Three key indices are measured: the
Spherion Job Security Index, which captures how likely respondents think it is that they will lose their job or that their job will be eliminated in the next 12 months; the Spherion Job Transition Index, which captures how likely respondents are to look for a new job in the next 12 months and the Employee
Confidence Index that measures employees' overall confidence in the economy, their employer and their ability to find other employment. The Employee Confidence Index is calculated from the results of four components that reflect these aspects of employee confidence. For each component item a 'score' is
calculated by taking the difference of the percentage of positive responses and the percentage of negative responses. These four scores are then averaged to indicate an overall level of employee confidence and is scaled from 0 (no confidence) to 100 (complete confidence). A reading above 50 indicates a
positive confidence level.
Methodology
This 2006 Spherion® IT Employment Report was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Spherion Corporation among 9,022 employed adults, of whom 694 work in information technology positions (aged 18 and over) within the United States between April 4-6 and 10-12, 2006; May 3-5 and
9-11, 2006; and June 6-8 and 14-16, 2006. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education and region were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.
With a pure probability sample of 9,022 adults one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1 percentage point. Sampling error for the results of employed adults who work in information technology positions (n=694) is plus or
minus 4 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
About Spherion
Spherion Corporation is a leading recruiting and staffing company that provides integrated solutions to meet the evolving needs of companies and job candidates. As an industry pioneer for 60 years, Spherion has screened and placed millions of individuals in temporary, temp-to-hire and
full-time jobs. Positions range from administrative and light industrial to a host of professions that include accounting/finance, information technology, engineering, manufacturing, legal, human resources and sales/marketing.
With more than 650 offices in the United States and Canada, Spherion delivers innovative workforce solutions that improve business performance. Spherion provides its services to more than 8,000 customers, from Fortune 500 companies to a wide range of small and mid-size organizations.
Employing 375,000 people annually through its network, Spherion is one of North America's largest employers. To learn more, visit www.spherion.com
Coming Soon:
OnRec Expo 2006
12-13 September 2006
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ER Expo Fall Conference
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NAPEO
Professional Employer & Marketplace 2006
September 11-13
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AESC Researchers & Associates Summit
September 21st, 2006
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cdavies@aesc.org for more info |
2006 Healthcare Staffing Summit
September 19-21, 2006
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San Diego, CA
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2006
Strategic HR Conference
October 4-6, 2006
Westin Kierland
Resort
Phoenix, Arizona
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Human Resource Executive's
9th Annual HR Technology®
Conference
Oct. 4-6, 2006
Navy Pier in Chicago, IL
$!095
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Nat'l Association of Personnel Services (NAPS)
Recruiting Life
Oct 11-15
San Francisco, CA
$999
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2006 SHRM Workplace Diversity Conference
October 16-18, 2006
Century Plaza Hotel
and Spa
Los Angeles, California
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9th Annual Talent Acquisition & Staffing Summit
October 16-19 2006
Renaissance Atlanta Downtown Hotel
$2099
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Hunt Scanlon Advisors present
"Defining
Leaders"
New
York city
October 18 - 20, 2006
New York Palace
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HR.com's Employers of Excellence 2006
October 25 - 27,
2006
Red Rock Resort
Las Vegas, Nevada
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Kennedy Information presents
Recruiting 2006
November 8-9, 2006
New York City, NY
$1,195
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Bangalore HR Summit 2006
December 15 & 16, 2006
Leela Palace, Airport Road, Bangalore-1,India
$250
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