The buzz in the media is about higher unemployment this summer.  But the forecast is for a worker shortage.  Baby boomers begin their retirements this year and employers are in the fight of their lives for skilled talent.  A 60 year old sheet metal worker brings 42 years of experience to his job.  His employer says “he’s invaluable, he is priceless”.  Employers are making the workplace more friendly to older employees to retain them.  Studies show the most acute shortages will be in manufacturing, healthcare and government.  Companies are showing a willingness to make work schedules more flexible.  At CVS pharmacies, they have a “snowbird” program which allows older workers to migrate between stores in different parts of the country as the seasons change.  Borders Books found that more than half of their customers are over 45, so they welcome individuals who are over 50 as employees.  However, a recent study did show that applicants under 50 years old are 42% more likely to get job interviews.  Also, some economists say that the worker shortage concern is overblown and that employers can restructure jobs, move jobs overseas and invest in labor saving technologies.  Most human resource professionals, however, are bracing for a massive exodus of boomer workers and critical worker shortages.   

We have moved quickly out of the information age into the knowledge age.  Organizations that share and USE knowledge are the successful organizations.  Intellipedia is the CIA’s wiki and blog which is used to adapt to the increased pace of the world.  Intellipedia has grown in two years to a ”rich tapestry of knowledge, collaboration and cross-agency efforts”.  The CIA is only on of many U.S. intelligence, diplomatic, and military organizations that use Intellipedia on top secret, secret, and unclassified networks.    It offers a powerful vehicle for individuals across the world to report information as it unfolds.   It improves communication and connects related data and efforts together.  “Senior members … can use Intellipedia to capture decades of knowledge which, without Intellipedia, would otherwise walk out the door when they retire.”    

CIA News   

“Say on Pay” is a movement and pending legislation that allows shareholders to have a “non-binding” vote on the pay levels of company officials / executives.  The executive compensation for corporation executives has gotten out of line.  Some CEOs make 262 times more than a typical worker in their organization.  Here’s the question though — who should decide how much is too much?  The board of directors who are voted in by the shareholders or the government?  CEO pay is out of whack but eventually corporations will get it adjusted.  The pendulum will swing back if the market is allowed to adjust normally.  Proposed legislation on the issue of executive pay is a slippery slope.  What would the government want to regulate next?   

In a hearing before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the unemployment figures for May 2008. The employment situation continued to worsen with the number of unemployed persons rising to 8.5 million or 5.5% of the U.S. population. This represents the largest month-to-month percentage increase in the unemployment rate since 1986. 

 (from WorldAtWork.org)

While we whine about offshoring “good” jobs , we neglect the looming scientist and engineer shortage crisis.  In The New American Workplace, the authors provide insight into alarming trends.  The number of doctorates in science and engineering awarded to U.S. citizens since 1997 has declined by 16 percent.  One quarter of all PhD scientists are foreign born.  Some 50% of technical graduate students currently studying in the U.S. are foreign born.  The odds of an infant receiving an engineering PhD from a U.S. university are greater if the child was born in Taiwan.  Immigrant scientists outperform American-born counterparts. Indian and Chinese immigrants account for over 25% of the new start-ups formed in Silicon Valley.  In the past the U.S. has benefited from supplementing its own lack of technical graduates by attracting the best and brightest workers from other countries.  However, times have changed.  Shifts in American attitudes toward immigration, fewer visas for highly skilled immigrants and more foreign-born graduates returning to their home countries are all creating a shortage of scientists and engineers.  Scientists and engineers are needed to keep America at super power status.  America can begin at the beginning.  It starts in K-12.  The relationship between education and workplace success is widely known and accepted  – and ultimately, American economic competitiveness depends on knowledge power.  The shortage of scientists and engineers requires action on many fronts on many public policy issues.  America needs a pipeline of thinkers and innovators and doers.   

During May of 2008, jobs in the service providing sector grew by 77,000 while good producing sector jobs declined by 37,000 and manufacturing jobs fell, for the 21st consecutive month, by 26,000.

This according to the ADP National Employment Report. 

Large businesses saw employment decline by 18,000 jobs.

Medium-sized companies (50 to 499 workers) declined by 3,000 jobs.

Small businesses GREW by 61,000 jobs during June.

Quality is job one.  That sounds familiar.  “We define quality as doing the right thing the right way the first time and every time” says Dr. Cortese, M.D., President, CEO, Mayo Clinic.  Whether in manufacturing or health care — improving processes and working as a team are vital to delivering quality products and services.  The manufacturing sector learned long ago that if you drive out waste, variation and defect in your processes, you are more successful.  In a recent article, “Quality at Mayo Clinic” in the Spring 2008 Mayo Magazine, Dr. Stephen Swensen, M.D. and medical director for Mayo’s quality initiative says, “if in health care we apply those same principles to drive out waste, variation and defect in the care of patients, we have fewer adverse events, fewer preventable deaths and you deliver the best care more reliably.”  In health care, the consequence of error is great.  The people at Mayo do a great job, but all people are fallible.  They have distractions, have lives outside of work that can preoccupy their thoughts.  Health care workers are asked to multitask and accept interruptions as a part of their job.  Emergencies are the norm not the exception.  This is the reality and nature of medical care.   So putting in place systems and procedures is important to cover for those rare occasions when a person is not at his A game.  People + systems + procedures = high reliability. 

The need to reduce “cycle time” is never more important than in health care.  The smaller the time between when a patient is admitted and when he or she receives angioplasty — the higher the success rate.  At Mayo a multidisciplinary team was created to review every case and look for opportunities forimprovement.  Dr. Kristine Thompson says the key is teamwork.   Transparency and communication are necessary components to a robust process improvement initiative.  The culture must reinforce that it’s good and right to seek help.  For more information on Mayo quality initiatives visit:  www.mayoclinic.org/quality and www.mayoclinic.org/quality/quality-measures.html

The following five stratgies for creating hope in the workplace are from Dr. Robert Veninga, a great leader in the research and education of hope in the workplace.  First strategy for employees is to protect their own health and well-being.  When we fly, the flight attendants tell us that if we are traveling with a dependent passenger, and if we should need oxygen, that first we must place the oxygen mask over our own face — and then secure the oxygen mask over our dependent.  We can’t help others if we aren’t capable.  There’s numerous ways to care for ourselves, and one good way is to begin each day by “centering” on what is important.  Strategy two is promoting respect in the workplace.  Surveys have asked the question, “do you get the respect at work that you deserve?”  Forty percent say no.   Third strategy for building hope is to promote an energized work environment — a place where employees want to come to work and where they have pride in what they do.  Tactics are numerous but the most powerful is recognition.  Fourth strategy is to unleash the intellectual capital of workers.  Empowerment is a buzz word but it also energizes employees.  The fifth strategy is to strengthen the leadership skills of managers and supervisors.  Many supervisors are promoted because of their technical skills and are good people but they just aren’t trained in the supervisory skills.  The last strategy for developing hope in the workplace is developing pride.  Pride in the work performed and pride in the organization. 

Hope is the belief that something IS going to get better.  Creating a hopeful workplace requires strategies to ensure employees have hope. 

Hopeful employees provide improved customer service, have healthier lives, display positive dispositions and all these impact an employer’s bottom line.  So let’s drive hope into the workplace.

Robert Veninga is a Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and has researched and written extensively about hope.   

The employment provisions of GINA will become effective November 2009.  The new law will prohibit an employer from discriminating against an individual in the hiring, firing, compensation, terms, or privileges of employment on the basis of genetic information.  This new law has been called “the first civil rights law of the 21st century”. 

It has been almost a year since the release of the Iowa Employment Values Study.  The study revealed that Iowa workers wanted to balance their work and family time more than their bosses realized.  It was also discovered that bosses did not realize that flexible time was just as important as pay to employees as a reason to stay at their jobs.  Recognition of hard work (respect) was rated as the most important aspect of the job by employees surveyed.  Employers are well served by understanding the values and needs of employees.  The study was conducted in 2007 by David P. Lind & Associates of Clive, Iowa.  The full report can be obtained through their website www.dplaconsulting.com.  If your organization would like to conduct an employee survey to determine their values, needs, satisfaction and engagement levels, contact us through our website www.wrightsources.com.  If you want to learn how companies profit by giving workers what they want — read “The Enthusiastic Employee” by David Sirota.   

Many of our Human Resource policies, practices, systems and laws were created for the workplace of yesterday.  We need to transform our thinking and make changes to reflect the current and future needs in the workplace.  We need new and better employment verification regulations and practices.  We need a complete overhaul of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.  Both employers and employees desire flexible work scheduling with optional overtime or timeoff compensation.  The 40 hour work week is arbitrary and restrictive.  Many workers perform their work away from their workplace and outside 8 to 5 parameters.  Our technology allows it, our customers expect it, our workers like it, employers are okay with it — but our out of date laws, policies, practices and “yesterday’s workplace thinking” prevent us.  Worker training, medical insurance, pension plans, income and payroll taxation, affirmative action plans are some of the issues and concerns that will need to be revamped to reflect that already changed working environment.  An interesting question is “what comes first –  policy (legislative) change or attitude change?”  The answer is both.  Sometimes it takes legislative action to change our attitudes and practices.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and subsequent Affirmative Action regulations on federal contractors, resulted in changed attitudes.  Our changing society and attitudes also impact and affect the laws that are enacted.   Who cares if it is the chicken or the egg that came first — let’s just “get ’er done”.     

Here are some great quotes from some great historical giants. 

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”  Harry Truman

“Pessimism never won any battle.”  Dwight Eisenhower

“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t.  And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”  Robert Kennedy

“We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears.”  John McCain

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.”  Henry Ford

(some of above quotes taken from “Words That Work”, Frank Luntz)

In the book, “Words that Work:  It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear”, the author, Dr. Frank Luntz, says “If you say to your employees … that you respect them, you probably don’t.  It’s like a used-car salesman saying “trust me” …. Respect can certainly be articulated, but not by using the word itself.  You need to use language to show it rather than say it.”  Luntz suggests “the linguistic key to communicating respect is to talk about value”.  He gives the following good examples:  “the value of serving and satisfying customers”; “the value of a good day’s pay for a good day’s work”; and “the value of a simple thank you for a job well done”.   Today’s workers no longer expect a job for life but they do expect, even demand, to be respected for the work they do.   

The recent raid in Postville, Iowa, resulted in hundreds of undocumented (illegal) workers and their families to be rounded up, handcuffed and herded into detainee centers.  A very sad situation.  Employers and our elected officials MUST develop a method to verify employment eligibility.  Congress is considering using the “E-Verify” system which is a make-shift and unreliable system.  A better approach is NEVA “New Employee Verification Act”, H.R. 5515.  The lynchpin for true immigration reform is Employment Verification.  Under the H.R. 5515 bill, employers would use the state “new hire” reporting process which is currently utilized for child support enforcement to confirm the work eligibility of new hires.  The Social Security Administration database would be used for U.S. citizens and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) database would be used for non-U.S. citizens.  The bill would also create a voluntary biometrics option that employers could choose to use.  Susan R. Meisinger, CEO of SHRM, is working with U.S. legislators for a more secure, accurate, and reliable system.  Hopefully, someday soon, the sad images of workers in handcuffs will be only in the history books and no longer on the front page of newspapers.   

Economists and sociologists report falling birth rates and demographers and political analysts foresee a public debate within the next decade.  In fact, according to Jennifer Schramm, Manager of Workplace Trends and Forecasting Program for the Society for Human Resource Management, competing interests may already by playing out in the workplace.  A backlash against parent-focused benefits appears to be brewing.  As employees postpone parenthood or forgo it altogether, contentiousness may increase about employer sponsored benefits that appears to favor employees who are parents. 

The United States Senate and the House of Representatives recently approved the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.  The legislation will prohibit employers and health insurance companies from discriminating against or refusing coverage to individuals based on the results of genetic testing.  It is expected that President Bush will sign this bill.  

The power of praise to influence human behavior is well accepted and based on the behavioral sciences.  Now we have physiological proof as well.  Researchers are mapping what happens in the brain during social interactions using technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography as well as wave analysis.  Scientists can study neural connections as they happen in the living brain.  Discoveries are confirming HR professionals’ hunches about workplace behavior.  One study showed that social pain from being berated lights up in the brain.  Unfair situations generate amygdala arousals releasing cortisol into the brain that shuts it down and closes it to new ideas.  Social fairness and respect, such as when a manager rewards people and make them feel positive, also impacts the brain by “squirting” a chemical called serotonin which opens minds to ideas.  This is fascinating research with real implications for how we treat people at work — as well as the whole human family.   The above insights are based on findings from Dr. Ellen Weber, Director of the MITA International Brain Based Center and David Rock, CEO of Results Coaching Systems.

Discoveries based in neuroscience about human behavior come out every week and include breakthroughs with real impact on workplace management.  Researchers are exploring the concept of “reappraisal” which is the ability to look at a situation and change your interpretation of it.  If you hear your boss stomping down the hall, instead of concluding quickly that you are about to get in trouble, you reappraise the situation for what it is — your boss is having a bad day.  Reappraissal changes your brain’s interpretation of the event, dampens the amygdala response and changes the actions you take — for the better.  You experience decreased stress and increased job satisfaction and ultimately greater productivity, creativity and effectiveness.  To learn more about the “amydala hi-jack” and how you can tame your amydala and slow down your negative reactions, read up on “Emotional Intelligence”.  To learn more about “The Brain at Work” read the article by Adrienne Fox in the May 2008 issue of HR Magazine.