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The Connection
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Vol. 1, Issue 1 4/16/2007
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Todd’s Thoughts
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The popular perception of Michigan today is one of a suffering economy, one where more and more people lose their jobs every day. Michigan's job market has been caught in a terrible storm for many years now.
However, change is coming, even if it takes a few years. But, the biggest obstacle is dealing with change. The hard truth is Michigan's economy depended on the success of the Big 3 automotive companies for decades, but those times are gone. The good news is there are things every job seeker can do to help make the shift to the new Michigan. Really, there are three options for general labor job-hunters looking for work. In the meantime there are things people can do now to help weather the storm. |
1) Relocate or reeducate. Whether it's moving to a state where the auto industry is still building up, or learning new trade skills, people have to be willing to change instead of waiting for the dream jobs to come back.
2) Lose sense of entitlement. When business was booming for the Big 3, general laborers could have realistic expectations of high-paying jobs with good benefits and retirement packages. Now some people are less likely to take lower-paying jobs because they feel they are worth more. Even so, more and more companies are expecting people to do more for less now. Realistically, smaller businesses cannot afford legacy costs and large benefit packages previously offered by large employers.
3) Risk becoming the chronically unemployed.
We are going from a manual labor economy, to an intellectual economy. People used to get paid for working with their hands, now they are getting paid for working with their minds. Job hunters are going to have make some concessions and show some flexibility to weather this current economic storm.
Implications of Bad Hires Increased management effort
By default, mediocre employees are higher maintenance and demand more management
attention and worry. Time spent managing the demands of problem employees could be better
spent on the best people in the team and bad managers have a multiplier effect on the
productivity of others.Image and PR
Mediocre employees send a message to the competition that you are becoming weak. It
also sends a message to future recruits that you are not a selective employer, which can be
especially damaging to those businesses who hire through their own networks of contacts or
employee referral programs. Mediocre employees send a message to current staff that a
downhill trend is beginning, where conversely, superstar employees motivate and inspire others.
High turnover rates prompted by mediocre hires send a message to other recruiters and
potential applicants. Other costs and implications
Bad hires often cost the same in terms of salary as their stronger counterparts. A Superstar
employee is likely to bring in 5 times their basic salary or more in terms of revenue. It is easy
to see the greater cost and strain on HR departments through increased time spent interviewing,
disciplining and firing mediocre employees. HR time and image is adversely affected. What you have to do is hire people who:
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Have more competencies (ones you actually need)
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Who develop without the need for company training
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Have a lower error rate and are less likely to need disciplinary action
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Achieve promotion more quickly
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Stay longer and deliver more before quitting
It's not rocket science - but how is this achieved? The answer is simple actually - 'Effective
recruitment and selection - getting the best possible person for the job with minimum fuss
and in the shortest possible time'. Souce: IdealPeople.net
The Value of Quantitative Measuring Before HR metrics revolutionized the way that Human Resources managers did their jobs,
staffing practices within the company were often based upon common assumptions
about what constituted a good job candidate, and whether or not a vacant position should be
filled immediately. It was assumed that all vacant positions should be filled as quickly as
possible, and indeed the performance indicators most often looked at to determine how
good of a job the Human Resources department was doing revolved around how rapidly
the department could fill a vacant position.
Now that it is possible for HR departments to quantitatively measure the cost of filling a
position versus the cost to the company of leaving it empty until the perfect candidate comes
along, Human Resources has actually become far more vital to the company’s economic well
being. Whereas it was previously thought that all positions should be filled as soon as they
possibly could be, with the advent of staffing metrics it has become clear that this is not always
the case. For one thing, there is the issue of turnover and costs associated with training: when
the company has to spend a good deal of money to train a new hire and that person leaves
very quickly, the company is out far more money than they would have been if the position had
simply been left vacant.
Also, if someone is hired simply as a “seat filler” and then the perfect candidate for the job is
found a few weeks later, the company is in an awkward position. They cannot simply fire the
less qualified employee, and so they must find another vacant position to transition that person
into, so that the more qualified candidate can fill the original position. All of this transition and
upheaval affects the efficiency of the department in which it is taken place, and the company
once again loses more money than they would have had the position remained empty in the
first place.
Source: Staffing Michigan - Snap9
Baby Boomer Shoes are Hard to Fill As the Baby Boom generation slowly exits the U.S. workplace, a new survey of leaders from a consortium of business research organizations finds the incoming generation sorely lacking in much needed workplace skills--both basic academic and more advanced "applied" skills, according to a report released October 2, 2006. The report is based on an detailed survey of 431 HR officials that was conducted in April and May 2006 by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). "The future workforce is here, and it is ill-prepared," concludes the report. The findings reflect employers' growing frustrations over the preparedness of new entrants to the workforce. Employers expect young people to arrive with a core set of basic knowledge and the ability to apply their skills in the workplace and the reality is not matching the expectation. Source: The Conference Board - HR Blog
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