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The Employment Situation:
January 2007
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 111,000 in January, and the unemployment
rate was essentially unchanged at 4.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job growth continued in sev-
eral service-providing industries over the month, and construction employment
also rose. The number of manufacturing jobs continued to decline.
Reveille and Hyperbole: Vurv Technology (formerly Recruitmax), a global provider
of technology and services for
building great workforces, announced the launch of its new HRO (Human Resource Outsourcing)
Center of Excellence. This center has been specifically created to provide a dedicated HRO
services team to support Vurv's growing roster of HRO service solution partners and customers.
The Situs Companies, a Houston-based global
commercial real estate consulting and services firm, has established Situs Outsourcing Solutions in Robbins, North Carolina to provide outsourced commercial real estate services, delivering significant cost advantages typically associated with offshore outsourcing.
Situs Managing Director Steven Bean said the pressure to utilize offshore outsourcing can be remedied by turning to smaller U.S. communities that have been challenged by the increasing pace of job losses due to changes in the global economy.
Convergys Corporation, a global leader in customer care, human resources, and billing services, announced it will continue to provide outsourced learning services to Circuit City Stores, Inc., one of the nation's leading specialty retailers of consumer electronics, under the terms of a two-year contract extension. Circuit City has used Convergys' comprehensive outsourced learning services since 1999.
Accounting is an ever-changing field, and both university accounting majors and senior accountants alike must stay on top of the trends required of them to excel in their chosen industry. AccountPros selected LifeTips for content development services to share valuable information with professionals about getting hired and excelling in accounting and finance positions. AccountPros is now the exclusive sponsor of the
accounting jobs tip site in the LifeTips network.
Deck Chairs: Charlie Kiley, private equity pioneer and Senior Advisor to the Deutsche Bank
private equity funds management business, joins the Advisory Board of Collective IQ.
Survey Says:
Kenexa Research Institute Publishes 2006 Findings on Employee "Positiveness" Perceptions in Multi-National Organizations
-Latest Research from Kenexa Shows How One Size Doesn't Fit All When it Comes to Employee Perception-
The latest research conducted by the Kenexa Research Institute (KRI), a division of Kenexa® (NASDAQ: KNXA), a leading provider of talent acquisition and retention solutions, suggests that employees around the world who work for multi-national organizations do not necessarily share similar perceptions of their experiences with their employers. Using recently compiled data from 2006 Kenexa organizational effectiveness surveys on U.S. and European multinationals – that included data on more than 29 million survey item responses – it appears that the employee experience varies from country to country despite companies' attempts to standardize policy and practices and to instill a common organizational culture.
In sharing the results of this research, Jeffrey Saltzman, New York Practice Leader for Kenexa, said, "Kenexa has an unequaled treasure trove of world-wide employee data that gives us unparalleled insights into organizational culture on a global basis. This business-critical information enables international organizations to better maximize their overall performance."
In the "employee experience" study, Kenexa found that Indonesian employees of U.S. and European multi-national organizations top the list of most positive employees at 77%. In contrast, Japanese employees of these multi-national organizations report the least favorable perception, at 45%. The world-wide average came in at 62%.
Saltzman explained, "How we feel about our working environment is influenced by not only our experiences with our employer, but also our local socio-economic standards, desires, and customs. For instance, it's ironic that American employees of U.S. and European multi-nationals share more similarities with Russia in terms of employee positiveness, than with their neighbor to the immediate north, Canada!"
Saltzman continued, "Though it is very clear from our research that the fundamentals of what employees around the world desire out of their work environment is very similar, how that environment gets implemented and the perceptions of that implementation varies widely. Multi-national organizations are sometimes influenced by myths and differing assumptions of what employees around the world are looking for and how best to meet those needs. This data shows that the perceptions of these implementations are uneven at best."
The top ten ranked countries for the "employee experience" at U.S. and European multi-nationals:
Indonesia
77%
Peru
74%
Colombia
74%
Costa Rica
73%
Philippines
72%
Guatemala
71%
Ukraine
70%
Venezuela
70%
Bulgaria
70%
United Arab Emirates
69%
Saltzman summarized, stating, "A number of conclusions can be drawn from this survey data. For example, one could surmise that in Indonesia, an employee perceives more advantages to working for a U.S. or European multi-national compared to Japanese employees of a U.S. or European multi-national. Additionally, we could surmise that a U.S. or European company in Indonesia is offering compensation and benefits similar in magnitude to what is offered in their other locations, which might be exceptional in Indonesia, but average in Japan and therefore help contribute to employee perceptions." He shared, "For Japanese employees working for a U.S. or European multi-national in Japan, there might be a perception that they've veered off the career path most commonly followed in their country. There are, of course, additional local cultural factors and customs that also account for some of the differences we've uncovered in the employee experience."
The complete listing of countries identified in the Kenexa Research Institute study, as well as interviews with Mr. Saltzman, can be requested from the media contacts listed below.
About Kenexa
Kenexa Corporation (NASDAQ:KNXA) provides outsourcing, employee research and software to help organizations more effectively recruit and retain a productive workforce. Kenexa solutions include applicant tracking, employment process outsourcing, onboarding, skills and behavioral assessments, structured interviews, performance management, multi-rater feedback surveys, employee engagement surveys and HR Analytics. Headquartered in Wayne, Pa. (outside Philadelphia), Kenexa employs more than 1,200 people worldwide. More information about Kenexa and its global locations can be accessed at www.kenexa.com.
Media Contact:
Jeanne Achille
the DEVON group
732-224-1000, ext. 11
Deep Release:
A Program to Help Smaller Businesses Have the HR Policies They Need
Smaller businesses often don't have the resources to create their own workplace policies, and often do without. The good news is that they no longer have to.
A recent Daily Advisor article talked about the problems businesses have faced from the new practice of employee blogging.
This writing of personal diaries on the Internet, for all the world to see, encourages worker creativity and has even been used as a marketing tool. But it's also led to companies and co-workers being defamed and trade secrets being revealed.
Other new technologies have brought issues as well. Video surveillance of employee areas has increased security but also led to invasion of privacy suits. E-mail and instant messages have sped up communication but also left a trail of sensitive documents that have fallen into the wrong hands. And even the common cell phone, so good at reaching workers wherever they are, disrupts meetings and has even led to car crashes.
What it all points to is the need for control over how and when these devices are used in your business. And that leads to the need for written policies concerning them. That's usually no problem for larger companies, which have the resources to produce policies. Smaller companies are a different story.
Drafting Your Own Policies an Extensive, Expensive Process
The reason is that a policy is a legal document of your business and, therefore, must be drafted and reviewed with the same care as a law. You need to research all aspects of the topic and discuss your findings with all concerned. The policy will then most likely need to be revised, and reviewed again, perhaps by several levels of management.
Finally, the policy will need a legal review to ensure it meets both federal and state standards. Does the policy violate any safety regs? Does it ensure equal opportunity? Will it reasonably accommodate those with special needs? These are the questions your lawyers and, if you're not careful, government agencies, will ask.
No wonder small companies so often apply the "hope solution" to new policy challenges. They do nothing and hope nothing goes wrong.
We'd like to suggest an answer for these smaller businesses. It's BLR's prewritten policy program, 75 Must-Have HR Policies. Its origins are in BLR's popular Encyclopedia of Prewritten Personnel Policies, which offers hundreds of policies on every conceivable subject, but which also sells for a price commensurate with its completeness.
What our editors have done for this new program, however, is pull out the 75 policies you most need, every one of them professionally written and legally reviewed. Then we've put them on a single CD, for ease of access and storage. Just boot it up and pull off whatever policy you need, then customize it right on your computer, with your company's name and specifics. Finally, print and distribute. That's all there is to it.
What subjects are covered by the policies in the program? You can read the alphabetical list, from "attendance" to "telephone monitoring," by clicking on the link below. But it's our guess that you'll find everything you need to set a policy base on which your business can operate efficiently and legally.
There's one more reason for our recommendation of this program to companies of limited means. It's downright inexpensive, averaging just about $1 a policy. What's more, the marketing folks are also providing a bonus special report on How to Write Effective and Legal Policies at no charge as an additional incentive to order.
Bottom line: It's a good deal that meets an important need, and it's definitely worth a look. Click here for more information.
Strategic E-HR Conference
Using Technology for Comprehensive Talent & Performance Management
February 28 – March 1, 2007
Coronado Island Marriott
San Diego, CA
$2,195
Agenda
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