NEWS, VIEWS & INSIGHTS
BeechTree Partners delivers top headlines in search, recruitment and human capital news—from new books and survey statistics, to academic insights and business developments.
MetLife's 2011 Annual Study of Employee Benefit Trends: "Employers, Bolster Employee Satisfaction!"
MetLife's 9th Annual Study of Employee Benefit Trends is subtitled "A Blueprint for the New Benefits Economy." That blueprint outlines a clear message to employers: Bolster employee loyalty and satisfaction now; ignore it or wait for an economic recovery to act, and that recovery might blindside you with setbacks for retention and productivity.
Here are a few of this year's findings:
- America’s workforce has grown more dissatisfied and disloyal. Indeed, one-third of employees hope to be working elsewhere within 12 months.
- Evidently, employers don’t recognize this potential flight risk. Instead, focusing on the challenging business environment, employers believe they can count on high employee job satisfaction and loyalty.
- A loyal, satisfied workforce is an important element of business growth.
- Healthcare reform has created a distraction.
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Use Cyber-Sense When You Present Yourself on Social Media
In the past, and perhaps still (as long as no one has a hidden webcam or recorder going), a person could sit in a bar and rant and complain without those words would have no lasting ramifications. Recently, however, the new world of social media may have changed that forever. An article on msnbc.com called "Your Employer Wants You to Shut Your Big Cybermouth!" cites the high-profile case of the famous fashion designer for Dior, John Galliano. He engaged in a brief, drunken tirade and alleged assault at a Paris bar, which caused him to be arrested and to be suspended from his job for several days. Case closed? Not at all. Next, a video (just 36 seconds long) was posted on YouTube capturing his shockingly insulting remarks, and Galliano was fired within 24 hours.
The msnbc.com article comments beyond advising those employing social media on using prudence. They present an interesting look at the long-term implications in the workplace and in the law for this new frontier of communication and speech.
As a company that is newly embracing the world of social media, here's our take:
Executives (and everyone who strives to be), use cyber-sense. Especially if you are marketing yourself for an executive position or you wish to continue to climb your organization's corporate ladder, use good judgment. Consider that every tweet, every Facebook post, every blog post, even every comment you make in public that might be secretly recorded could end up printed out and placed on an HR Director's or CEO's desk.
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Towers Watson's Annual Survey Analyzes the Changing Health Care Landscape for Employers
Towers Watson, a global professional services consulting firm, in association with the National Business Group on Health, has published their 16th annual "Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care." This year's report has a more striking title than that survey title — "Shaping Health Care Strategy in a Post-Reform Environment," and it's an important look at how employers are addressing the dramatically changing landscape of American health care. According to the report, in planning for 2011, employers focused on how to comply with the coverage requirements of the new health care reform. With planning starting for 2012 and beyond, however, many employers are pursuing bolder actions to manage costs and improve the health of their workers.
Helen Darling, president of the NBGH, summarized matters by stating, "We cannot continue to think that the rise in health care costs is sustainable. Health care costs have experienced dramatic cost inflation over the past two decades, and employers continue to subsidize the majority of plan costs. But these costs are cutting into employers' profitability and the total rewards they are able to offer employees. Plus, concerns about the future 'Cadillac' tax add a new level of urgency to their challenges."
Towers Watson summarizes the situation, saying, "Employers pay 36% more for health care, and employees contribute over 45% more than they did 5 years ago. To mitigate costs, employers are redefining their financial commitments to health benefits by redesigning programs to incorporate enhanced point-of-care consumerism, positioning incentives more aggressively and redefining the employee versus dependent subsidy. Further, coming changes in the pre-65 and Medicare marketplace are fueling some employers to reconsider their commitment to retiree medical sponsorship."
Read a useful summary of the survey and its results by Towers Watson. Or link to the whole Towers Watson report.
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A 14-Point Plan for Career Change Success
Secret #1 for career change success? Stop delaying! So writes Curt Rosengren, a speaker, author and career coach, in his weekly online column in the U.S. News & World Report "Money: Careers" section in September 2010.
- Stop delaying.
- Prepare to feel fear.
- Analyze yourself.
- Lay the groundwork.
- Take action.
- Network.
- Assume success.
- Pay attention.
- Find good company.
- Get knowledge support.
- Help someone else.
- Deal with past failures.
- Be sure you're not getting in your own way.
- Get back on track after a derailment.
Of course, in his article, Rosengren elaborates on this occasionally cryptic 14-point bullet list.
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Your Mother Was Right — Quit Slouching!
New research published in the January 2011 issue of Psychological Science confirms the value of your mother's advice to "Stand up straight!" Moreover, the study "Powerful Postures Versus Powerful Roles," led by Adam Galinsky, a professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, demonstrates that the advice is important not just to please mom but in the business world — in the workplace and when engaging in a job interview. Study Abstract
Galinsky explained to U.S. News & World Report (January 11, 2011), "Standing straight is going to actually make you objectively perform probably better in the interview because you'll say things with more authoritativeness, more confidence. What you're demonstrating to other people is competence." The study found that participants with what Galinsky called "expansive" or "open postures" — that is, postures that open up the body and take up space — took more action than participants with closed postures, whether or not the open-postured person was in a more powerful position.
The new study is backed up by body-language expert Joe Navarro in his book What Every BODY Is Saying (HarperCollins Publishers, 2008). Navarro pointed out to U.S. News that good posture may not be intuitive when you're in a job interview; in fact, he explained, you may subconsciously tend toward bad posture. "We're going into a situation where we may feel humbled or we might not fit in," he said. That promotes slouching or sitting with one's hands under the legs. Navarro's advice: Make a conscious effort to sit and stand upright and to project what he calls "the body language of a leader." However, he adds, "It doesn't mean you puff your chest out."
Galinsky concluded, "So much of who we are in the world and how we act really comes from the way that we stand and present ourselves."
Here are four tips Galinsky and Navarro offer to people in job interviews and meetings:
- Make and maintain good eye contact.
- Lean forward occasionally to convey your enthusiasm; leaning back conveys the opposite.
- Before an interview or meeting, think about a time when you were powerful.
- Keep your hands visible—not under the table.
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Psychologist Links Personality to Workplace Success
Psychologist Robert Hogan has written an important book, Personality and the Fate of Organizations (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006). The 167-page volume links personality characteristics to people's behavior and offers a systematic account of the nature of personality, showing how to use personality to understand organizations, to staff teams, and to evaluate, select, deselect and train people.
Hogan has also developed several personality tests that have become widely used. They include: the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), introduced in 1980, which predicts how individuals will perform in a job on a day-to-day basis; and the Hogan Development Survey (HDS), introduced in 1987, which assesses 11 patterns of behavior that can derail a manager's career. More than one million adults have completed the Hogan Personality Inventory for pre-employment screening purposes.
Hogan's website can be accessed at www.hoganassessments.com, where the book can be ordered (as well as being available on Amazon.com) and information on the HPI and HDS can be found.
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Good HR Practices Pay Off Big
A two-year study headed by Prof. Christopher Collins at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations suggests that good human resource tactics pay off big—especially for small businesses (defined as fewer than 200 employees).
HR Magazine highlighted the study, "Human Resource Management Practices, Workforce Alignment, and Firm Performance," in its September 2006 issue. Small businesses profit by hiring workers who fit into their company culture, creating a "family-like atmosphere" where employees are trusted to manage themselves. Small businesses that follow such strategies reap 22% more revenue growth and 23% more profit growth than companies that have no similar hiring criteria, as well as 67% less employee turnover. Successful hiring strategies include:
- Hire employees to fit in with company culture, rather than hiring solely on a job candidate's individual skills.
- Trust employees to manage themselves, rather than enacting strict controls.
- Create a family-like environment, rather than trying to motivate employees solely through money.
The working paper by Professor Collins and his team following Phase 5 of the study can be found at http://www.summitbusinesssolutions.ws/docs/hr_cornell.pdf.
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Lack of Sleep Impairs Job Satisfaction
At a December 2010 TEDWomen conference, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, declared, "My big idea is a very, very small idea that can unlock billions of big ideas that are at the moment dormant inside us. My little idea that will do that is sleep...The way to a more productive, more inspired, more joyful life is getting enough sleep."View a 4-minute video excerpt of Huffington's thought-provoking and humorous talk.
Huffington was referring to a study by two University of Florida professors, Brent A. Scott and Timothy A. Judge. "Insomnia, Emotions, and Job Satisfaction: A Multilevel Study," published in the October 2006 Journal of Management, shows that lack of sleep not only makes people tired and cranky, but also causes them to dislike and even hate their jobs the next morning. The effects are more pronounced in women, who reported suffering more fatigue and hostility and being less attentive and happy than their male counterparts.
The study authors' recommendations included that companies can address the problem by giving employees flexibility in making their schedules, providing on-site child care and offering wellness programs designed to teach employees how to reduce insomnia. Individuals can exercise more and limit consumption of caffeine and alcohol. By not doing anything, businesses risk more frequent turnover if their employees aren't content in the workplace.
American workers are sleep deprived, according to many studies and sources, and it hurts them not only personally but at work. U.S. News & World Report addressed an October 2009 study from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which found that, among American adults:
- Only one-third say they get enough sleep every night.
- 50-70 million suffer from sleep and wakefulness disorders.
- 11.1% said they did not insufficient sleep every day of the previous month — 12.4% among women and 9.9% among men.
An August 21, 2006 USA Today article cited research from groups such as the National Sleep Foundation that supports the conclusion that 26% of adults get a decent night's sleep only a few nights a month, with a further 24% getting it only a few nights a week.
Among the consequences of lack of sleep are employee drowsiness, stress, errors, accidents, waning job satisfaction and health problems. USA Today reported that employer responses to employee sleepiness range from providing workers with caffeinated drinks, to napping and fatigue management programs. The article even noted that entrepreneurs had entered the scene with a franchise of facilities designed for 45-minute naps.
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Individual-Driven Culture Fosters Innovation
Teams may not promote innovation as much as individualism promotes innovation, according to Cornell professor Jack A. Goncalo and UC-Berkeley professor Barry Staw. Even when teams are asked to be creative, they generate fewer and less creative ideas than groups that focus on processing the viewpoints of individuals. The ideas were presented in "Individualism-Collectivism and Group Creativity," published in the May 2006 issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
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Women Executives Still Find the Top of the Corporate Ladder a Tough Climb
In its 2009 survey, "Census: Fortune 500 Women Executive Officers and Top Earners," Catalyst found that 13.5% of corporate officers at Fortune 500 companies were women. (The study authors note that comparisons to previous years cannot be made because the survey shifted to surveying "Executive Officers" from "Corporate Officers." For instance, in their 2005 survey, the percentage was 15.7% of corporate officers at Fortune 500 companies.)
Among the Fortune 500 companies, 29.2% had no women executive officers, 31.7% had one, and 21.2% had two. Less than one-fifth of the companies (17.9%) had three or more executive officers.
Click here to view the 2009 Catalyst Census
One theory as to why this number is low is that women may be drawn to working with non-profit organizations because it gives them the opportunity to serve as a backbone of support for community services, according to Prof. Patricia H. Deyton, Interim Faculty Director of the Center for Gender in Organizations and Assistant Professor of Management at the Simmons School of Management in Boston. This is a role where women have been historically active, and one that fits a commitment to improve society by working with groups such as the American Red Cross.
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For-Profit Corporations Can Make Management Blind to Ethics
They ethical transgressions of Enron Corporation are legend. According to Scott Reynolds, an associate professor of business ethics at the University of Washington, such lapses are not rare in for-profit companies. The environment and pressures of profit-driven organizations can cause executives to suffer from ethical insensitivities, Reynolds reports in two separate studies published in 2006 in the Journal of Applied Psychology. He asked 96 senior-level managers to rate five scenarios involving varying degrees of ethical violations designed to measure their moral awareness.
Reynolds found that people who focus on the ends recognize ethical issues when harm is done. However, they are less sensitive to ethical issues that only involve a violation of the means (someone lied, broke a promise, violated a policy, etc.). When it appears that no harm is done, ends-based decision-makers are less inclined to see the issue as an ethical one. Means-focused people, on the other hand, recognize both harmful situations and those situations where the means used were an ethical issue.
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