According to a recent study by World at Work: The number of Americans whose employer allows them to work remotely at least one day per month increased 63 percent, from 7.6 million in 2004 to 12.4 million in 2006. Based on government estimates of 149.3 million workers in the U.S. labor force, the 2006 data means that roughly 8 percent of American workers have an employer that allows them to telecommute one day per month. The article goes on to say that this trend is a result of the proliferation of high speed broadband, wireless access and the willingness of more employers to embrace flexibility in regards to work-life balance.… Read More
Continue ReadingText Messaging In The Car
As in driving the car! From Yahoo News’ Shd u txt, chat n drive? Young drivers say OK (my emphasis): A survey by the Zogby International polling firm released on Wednesday found 66 percent of U.S. drivers aged between 18 and 24 send text messages while driving and 93 percent talk on their cell phone behind the wheel. I have no problems with people talking on their cell phone while driving, but text messaging? I may be too old to appreciate this ability, but I have a hard enough time text messaging on my phone when I am sitting in a restaurant undisturbed. Unbelievable.
Continue ReadingSalespeople On An "E-Leash"
It’s 91° here in the Twin Cities today so vacation is on the brain. CareerBuilder.com offers up some interesting survey results in Using or Losing Your Time Off? E-leashes and hectic schedules are cutting into vacation time as increasingly wired workers are finding it hard to leave the office at home. Although an improvement from 27 percent in 2006, 20 percent of workers say they plan to stay in touch with the office during their vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual vacation survey, conducted by Harris Interactive of more than 6,800 workers. Nearly 15 percent of workers say they gave up at least one of their vacation days in… Read More
Continue ReadingChallenge Your Employees
Inc.com reports on a Korn/Ferry survey in Most Employees Believe They Can Outperform Their Bosses. I don’t think the results are all that surprising: Seventy-three percent of executive-level employees believe they would do a better job than their current boss, according to a new survey. … While a majority of executives admitted they would like to be at the top of the ladder, few indicated that they were actually dissatisfied with their boss. In fact, 42 percent of respondents rated their boss’s performance as either “excellent” or “above average,” while an additional 23 percent rated their boss as “average.” Only 11 percent of respondents rated their boss’s performance as “poor.”… Read More
Continue ReadingCountries With The Longest Work Weeks
From CNNMoney.com’s They work harder for the money: The International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, conducted a study of more than 50 countries and found that 22 percent of the total workforce surveyed (614.2 million people) worked more than 48 hours a week, an amount the ILO defines as excessive. Among the developed nations covered in the report, ILO found that the countries with the highest percentage of workers putting in a longer than 48-hour workweek are: Japan: 39.3% United Kingdom: 25.7% Israel: 25.5% New Zealand: 23.6% Australia: 20.4% Switzerland: 19.2% United States: 18.1% First off, it is a UN agency so that must be considered. I must… Read More
Continue ReadingNewspapers Circling The Drain
Toby Dayton at Diggings has a remarkable study regarding regional newspapers and their use of online employment ads in conjunction with printed employment ads. I posted earlier this week that I do not understand why some hiring companies continue to view the newspaper as the top option for ad placement. It isn’t. Online employment ads continue to expand while newspaper circulations continue to decline. Here are the results from Toby’s study (my emphasis): …we were surprised at how ineffective the dailies were in cross-selling print and online postings to their employer advertisers. Across all 6 categories, the average percentage of print ads that also appeared on their respective daily paper€™s web site… Read More
Continue ReadingSummer Vacations
This week school will be out for our kids and I found this SHRM article (membership required) interesting and timely. The article discusses how we here in the US are opting to move our vacations from the 2 week long once a year vacations to more 3-4 day weekend stints. A study was conducted by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. that looked at vacation habits of U.S. workers. €œWe are becoming a nation of the long weekend vacation, with workers looking ahead to each Monday/Friday holiday for the opportunity to turn a three-day weekend into a four- or five-day weekend. The switch to mini-vacations will only be accelerated by soaring… Read More
Continue ReadingMental-Health Day
I love that turn of phrase. And here from Inc.com is another good example of how we have far too many surveys taking place in this country. From When Warm Weather Arrives, More Employees Call in “Sick”: Of 1,077 full-time employees polled, 39 percent said they’ve called in sick to take a day off in the past, and 30 percent said they planned to do so again this summer, according to the “Summer Absenteeism” survey conducted by Harris Interactive. Among employees who faked sick days, most said they used their time off to go to the beach or go shopping. Not surprisingly, the most popular days to skip work were… Read More
Continue ReadingPlace Your Job Ads Online
I’ve mentioned before that I have talked to prospective customers who are adamant that newspaper ads are the best media to place job ads. I couldn’t disagree more with them. Along comes this quick-hitting article from Inc.com: The number of jobs posted online rose by 9,000 in May to 4,374,400, an increase of 0.2 percent from April, the Conference Board reported Wednesday. Online job vacancies were up 29 percent from the same period last year, the New York-based private research group said. I cannot understand why any company would choose to advertise in a printed newspaper.
Continue ReadingSmall Companies Continue To Hire
Private-sector hiring is occurring in the small companies around the country and has been so for the past 6 months. From Inc.com: Businesses with fewer than 50 employees continue to outpace all larger businesses combined in creating new private-sector jobs, a new report shows. Small businesses added 58,000 new jobs in May, with gains in service-sector jobs offset by slight losses in goods-producing sector, according to Automatic Data Processing reported, a Roseland, N.J.-based employment services firm. Overall, the increases are consistent with a three-month average of 56,000 jobs, the report said. By contrast, larger businesses in May accounted for just 39,000 new jobs. The results mark the sixth straight month… Read More
Continue Reading