Age Is Just a Number, Not a Title, Right?

How would you handle the fact that your boss is younger than you?

The question is one to ponder considering that 43 percent of workers ages 35 and older reported that they currently work for someone younger than them, according to a CareerBuilder survey.

Similar circumstances abound with different age groups. Fifty-three percent of workers ages 45 and older and 69 percent of workers ages 55 and older say their boss is younger than them.

Occasionally, this situation can create some friction between older and younger workers. Sixteen percent of workers ages 25 to 34 reported that they find it difficult to take direction from a boss younger than them.

However, the percentages go down as the ages go up. Only 13 percent of workers ages 35 to 44, 7 percent of workers 45 to 54, and a mere 5 percent of workers ages 55 and up agreed with the same statement.

Some of the reasons that were cited as creating tension between an older worker and a younger boss included micromanagement; playing favorites with younger workers; having a sense of entitlement; giving a lack of direction; and acting like they know more than the employee when, in fact, they don’t.

Visions of Better Vision

Employees may be thinking clearly about their work, but they may not be seeing quite as clearly. A WellPoint survey found that 40 percent of American workers have trouble with their eyesight while on the job. As a result, mistakes occur, and some of them are not caught right away and can cause unfortunate errors.

For example, 1 in 10 respondents reported sending emails to the wrong person or misreading a text message or a caller ID. According to the Vision Council of America, uncorrected vision can decrease employee performance by as much as 20 percent, and vision disorders can account for more than 8 billion dollars in lost productivity per year.

Making sure employees have the option of vision benefits so that they can get their vision checked regularly is a smart and easy way to manage this problem within the workplace.

Skills Gap

Does your organization have a skills gap? If so, you're not alone. In a recent American Society for Training & Development survey that was published in the new white paper Bridging the Skills Gap, 79.2 percent of organizations admitted that the skills of their current workforce did not match the changes in their business strategy.

The education system and organizations in the United States, along with the local, state, and federal government, bear equal responsibility in closing this skills gap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 75 percent of the job growth in the future will come from three occupations: computer and math, healthcare practictioners and technical, and education, training, and library.

Have you assessed the skills and compentencies needed by your workforce now and in the future? Do you know how to bridge that gap?

There is no time to waste. Organizations will be left behind if they can't drive their business strategies forward.

What Does IT Have to Do with Corporate Responsibility?

Apparently everything, according to some workers. A Deloitte online poll showed that more than 40 percent of employees believe their company’s IT department is very involved in corporate responsibility and sustainability efforts. They aren’t so far off the mark in their expectations, but as far as actual demonstration of proof, there is still a ways to go.

The survey showed that 25 percent of companies have a green IT program in place while another 9 percent plan to have one within the next year. In addition, close to 17 percent reported that IT is directly involved in their corporate responsibility and sustainability strategies, programs, and activities throughout their company, rather than just limited to carbon management.

The poll was conducted during a Deloitte webcast called “Competing in the Low-Carbon Economy: The Essential Dialog [sic] between the CIO and C-suite.”

“Companies today are relying more on CIOs to help drive business strategies and innovation, and our polling indicates that IT is becoming recognized as an essential enabler of sustainability efforts throughout the enterprise,” said Lee Dittmar, principal of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Dittmar advised that CIOs need to be prepared to make a business case for IT in evolving sustainability strategies and programs. Points of preparation he suggested include knowing how to establish baseline measurements; aligning with corporate responsibility and sustainability goals and investments; determining information needs to measure progress at all levels; ensuring information availability and accessibility; and evaluating IT capabilities to measure, monitor, and report corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Moving Employee Mobility Programs Forward

The 2009 Total Employee Mobility Benchmarking Report, released by Runzheimer International in early October, shows that though businesses are investing in remote workforce programs, they do not have control over the associated risks, costs, or benefits.

Some of the major report findings included that 51 percent of the workforce is mobile on any given day, whether that means traveling, working from a virtual office, or driving for business. This number has gone up by 31 percent since 2006.

The total investment in workforce mobility has also gone up considerably in the past four years, and the number per-employee, per-year is $7,426, a figure that has gone up three percent year by year.

Despite this steady growth in investment, 73 percent of respondents have no policies in place when it comes to virtual office programs while another 56 percent are unaware if the programs they have instituted are productive. Sixty-four percent of companies reported that corporate travel costs are loosely managed.

One possible reason behind this lack of metrics could be that mobile workforce programs often involve multiple departments. For example, 80 percent of employees full into multiple categories of drivers, travelers, and virtual offices, and often have to interact with more than one department in order to fulfill their job responsibilities.

Since the mobile workforce is a growing body, and not an issue that will disappear anytime soon from organizational agendas, what are steps companies can take to better harness employee mobility programs?

When Your Boss Is Too Boss to Keep It a Secret

Do you wish other people outside your company could know about your boss who goes above and beyond his responsibilities? Well, now there’s a new website for that very purpose. GetaGreatBoss.com is a recently launched site that reviews employers and highlights jobs that have great bosses. Potential candidates can read the reviews which are completed by current employees.

The website rating system is composed of professional online profiles with an employee review element. All reviewer responses are kept anonymous and all employers can follow up on any anonymous comment by starting a private online chat with the relevant employee in order to receive helpful feedback and improve upon their management styles.

Furthermore, if the boss likes the review, she can link it to a job ad for prospective applicants to read, or also to her resume for executive recruiters or head-hunters. If a boss does not like her results, she can choose not to share them with anyone.

“We're not here to penalize bad bosses but rather to celebrate great ones,” notes the site’s CEO Gavin Symanowitz.

Job applicants may also be more willing to be financially flexible if they know that they will be in good hands at their prospective place of employment.

"High-quality career-seekers are far more negotiable on salary if they know they will be working for a high-quality boss," says Symanowitz. "By showcasing their management skills, great bosses are therefore able to keep their staff costs down.”

Australians Value Work Culture

What is more important to you: workplace culture or salary.

According to a recent study by the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, 96percent of Australian employers use engagement activities, flexible work options, or incentives to create a quality work environment.

Family and caregiver leave, and part-time work are the most common flexible work options available. More than half of all employees surveyed consider flexible work arrangements as one of the five most important contributors to job satisfaction.

As we slowly move out of this economic recession, organizations are going to need to evaluate employee engagement and really find out what makes employees satisfied and engaged with their work. Myriad studies are finding that many employees will jump ship when the economy turns around, so how can you as workplace learning and performance professionals engage and retain your high potential employees?

What matters to your employees? If you don't know the answers, you better not waste time before finding out because sooner rather than later, it's going to be too late.

Career Resolutions May Mean Pursuing Ambitions Elsewhere

The impending arrival of a new year may mean the desire for a new job for many employees. Sixty percent of respondents intend to pursue new job opportunities as the economy improves in 2010, according to a survey of more than 900 North American workers by Right Management.

In addition, 21 percent self-identified as “maybes” that have been networking in case something sparkly and better might come along.

“Employees are clearly expressing their pent up frustration with how they have been treated through the downturn,” says Douglas J. Matthews, president and CEO of Right Management. “While employers may have taken the necessary steps to streamline operations to remain viable, it appears many employees may have felt neglected in the process. The result is a disengaged and disgruntled workforce."

Only 13 percent of workers indicated that they intended to stay at their jobs, with another 6 percent saying a job change was unlikely though they updated their resumes to be safe.

“A segmented, customized and flexible talent strategy is critical to stem the alarming levels of employee turnover anticipated next year,” says Matthews.

I guess it’s not so far-fetched to say that as the recession reluctantly makes its way out of the hot buzzword arena, it just might bump into talent management brashly pushing its way back in.

Getting the Most out of Your Meetings

Have you ever been sitting in a meeting just watching the clock tick?

Well, now there’s a product that measures exactly just how much money is being wasted during unproductive meetings.

From Bring TIM! LLC comes Bring TIM!®, a time management cost calculator and clock. Users simply enter the number of attendees and the average hourly rate, and then press the start button to begin calculating.

Brad Johnson, president and founder of Bring TIM! LLC, created this device out of his own experience with meetings that ran four hours or longer.

A light-hearted gift with a valuable lesson, this machine literally demonstrates the meaning of the expression, “Time is money.”

Bring TIM!® is available for order now from BringTim.com for $24.95 plus shipping and handling.

Are You Undermanaged?

According to Bruce Tulgan, author of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy, more employees are undermanaged than micromanaged—missing the two-way communication that is craved by many employees.

Just as micromanagers can cause employees to lose interest in their work or leave the job, those managers who undermanage—fail to give the day-to-day feedback to employees—also lose their employees to disengagement.

The job of the middle manager is complex and is often overlooked when it comes to training. Supervisors and managers need to spell out expectations every step of the way, ensure necessary resources are in place, track performance constantly, correct failure and reward success.

Middle management is one of the most important jobs in the organizations—as learning and performance professionals, you must take the time to give managers to skills and development they need to succeed.

Stealing Focus at Work

There is more at risk of being nabbed at work than just your lunch leftovers.

An OfficeTeam survey found that 29 percent of employees have had an idea stolen at work. Even more surprising is that 51 percent of these employees have done nothing about it in response.

In contrast, 26 percent of these employees spoke up to take credit for what was their idea while 13 percent told a manager and another 13 percent confronted the person who stole the idea.

One major reason behind this behavior could be a competitive and anxious workplace atmosphere due to the current job climate. Employees are eager to look like active and useful contributors, and may unconsciously pounce onto someone else’s idea.

OfficeTeam lists a few recommendations to prevent intellectual property theft in the workplace.

Firstly, give your manager regular status updates so that she is reminded of your ideas and their progress.

Also, look for patterns. Is one of your ideas being stolen a one-time occurrence, or is your work regularly attributed to others? This could be a sign that you are not assertive enough.

Finally, don’t act too hastily. If someone takes credit for your idea, make sure you hear his side of the situation. Similarly, if you are wrongfully given credit for someone else’s idea, make sure you clear up the situation to demonstrate your integrity.

Are You Engaged?

A survey by MidlandHR finds that although most companies agree that employee engagement affects retention and overall organizational performance, 49 percent of the companies don't understand the level of engagement of employees and 42 percent don't know how to engage them.

The survey of more than 100 business leaders in the United Kingdom's public, private, and charity sectors had some astounding results. Almost a quarter of all companies don't conduct employee engagement surveys. Of the companies that do conduct surveys, only 23 percent conduct them annually, while 14 percent do one every two years.

Do you do employee engagement surveys? Are they anonymous?

Engagement Loses Ground

Apparently having a job when many others don’t is no longer sufficient.

More than 50 percent of workers say their jobs are stagnant, according to a recent survey by DDI.

Among the reasons employees cited are having no room to advance, not being asked to do more, and not being challenged enough. The reasons are ironic given that many workers say they are burdened with too much work following layoffs and budget cuts.

Were it not for the abysmal job market, even more people would look to better horizons. Half of the respondents who said their jobs are stagnant plan to look for a new job when the economy recovers.

What the survey indicates above all else is that just because people are busier does not mean organizations should ignore engagement. It’s something leaders should focus on regularly.

The number of people who choose to do something else at work other than work is likely the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Social networking sites are just a new diversion for bored employees. Spring and summer fever is not new either. Twenty percent of employees called in sick as many as three times over the summer.

We should not read too much into the statistics and ignore the larger problem. Engagement of employees is an ongoing issue, not something that emerged in the Internet age. It is just as easy to ban use of the Internet, social media or personal phones as it is to find challenging roles and assignments for ambitious employees.

Actually Sick, or Just Sick of Working?

While we are entering flu season and people are lining up to be vaccinated, some employees may stay home because they just don’t feel like going to work. According to CareerBuilder’s annual absenteeism survey, 32 percent of employees have played hooky from work at least once this year under the pretense of being sick.

However, not all bosses are pointing fingers, or think that their staffs are lazy. Twenty-eight percent of employers reported that they think their workers are using fake excuses because they are burned out or stressed due to the recession.

Regardless, some employers are vigilant as to their missing people. Twenty-nine percent reported they have checked in on an employee who called in sick with 70 percent requiring a doctor’s note and 17 percent even driving by the employee’s house. Fifteen percent of employers have fired an employee for missing work without an acceptable excuse.

Twelve percent of employees who reported calling in sick said it was because of a work-related item such as missing a meeting, giving themselves more time to work on a project, or avoiding a supervisor or colleague. Other reasons for missing work included a doctor’s appointment (31 percent), needing relaxation time (28 percent), catching up on sleep (16 percent), running personal errands (13 percent), catching up on housework (10 percent), or spending time with family and friends. Nearly one-third of employees (32 percent) reported they didn’t feel like going to work that day.

The survey sample included 4,700 employees and 3,100 employers.

Employers shared some of the more unusual responses they’ve received from employees for missing work. Some of the more creative ones included:

“I hit a nun with my motorcycle.”

“A random person threw poison ivy in my face and now I have a rash.”

“I got sunburned at a nude beach and can’t wear clothes.”

“I got caught selling an alligator.”

“A bee flew in my mouth.”

“I’m just not into it today.”

Abundance of Talent

The year 2006 seems like a decade ago. At the time executives sounded off about how difficult it was to find and retain the “right” people.

Now there’s definitely more talent in the marketplace. Instead employers are concerned with slogging through the pile of resumes in their inboxes and spending more time with the qualified candidates and less time with the undesirables, according to a survey by TalentDrive.

The recession turned the whole talent “war” into a myth.

With more people competing for scarce jobs, employers list improving their search techniques as the top priority for the coming year. Selecting the brightest just got a lot harder.

Online job boards are a giant void. Employers realize that to find the best workers among the younger generation, they must cast their nets online and through social networking sites. Their ease of use means a lot of unqualified people simply send their resume out hoping for the best, like buying a lottery ticket.

Employers now have to spend more time wading through resumes sent by people who should not have applied in the first place. Fifty-nine percent of organizations surveyed said the best means of finding top talent is through employee referrals.

Strangely enough, 54 percent of organizations said the quality of candidates was up to par once initial selections were made.

Maybe employer expectations are just too high. The best candidates are typically not in the market at the same time. They’re already working.

For all the false optimism about an economic recovery, there truly is no recovery until the job market is no longer flooded with resumes. Forty-eight percent of companies surveyed said their budgets for talent acquisition were cut or nonexistent. We’ll known when a true recovery occurs because at that point, employers will be looking for talent instead of people looking for jobs.

Attracting and Retaining the Mature Workforce

Just when you thought that Baby Boomers were exiting the workforce en masse, the economy went in the tank and the mature workers remained in the workplace. Some of the stereotypes about these workers haven't gone away either: Older workers can’t or won’t keep their skills current and older workers are not tech-savvy.

But as Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre showed in last night's Monday Night showdown with the Green Bay Packers, mature workers still have a lot of knowledge, experience, and heart to help their organizations succeed.

Does your organization have strategies to attract and retain older workers? Do you have a mentoring process in place that includes these invaluable employees?

Baby boomers are not leaving the workforce anytime soon, so you need to find ways to keep them engaged and ways to incorporate all generations into one workplace. The time is now.

There's No Business Like Small Business

Bigger isn’t always better. A recent CareerBuilder survey finds that 22 percent of workers who were laid off within the past year found new positions with small businesses. Of those who didn’t find jobs, 59 percent reported that they were interested in working for a small business and 29 percent said they would like to start their own small business.

Small businesses employ half of all workers in the private sector and provide half of the private gross domestic product, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

There were a multitude of reasons that working for a small business was an attractive option. Some of them included the family-like work environment (56 percent); more recognition of employees (49 percent); a sense of being able to facilitate change (48 percent); and the lack of corporate red tape (46 percent).

What are some other perks of working at a small business?

Does Your Company Have Clear Expectations Regarding Diversity?

According to the Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace survey results—commissioned by Capital H Group and released today—91 percent of managers and senior managers from DiversityInc Top 10 companies and a comparison group of Fortune 500 companies report that their organizations set clear expectations regarding diversity.

92 percent of those surveyed said their company's current diversity and inclusion practices have helped their organization's ability to attract and retain talent.

Does your company have a diversity policy? What is your company's definition of diversity?

One-third of respondents said their diversity policy only includes gender and race/ethnicity.

When you look for a job, is diversity an important factor in choosing which company to work for?

Productivity at All-Time High

Last week, news surfaced that productivity—basically the amount of work per hour—increased at an annual rate of 6.6 percent during the second quarter. That’s the best performance since the summer 2003 and easily exceeded the 6.4 percent gain economists expected, according to the Labor Department.

So what does that really mean? Are workers being asked to do more in less time? If so, how is workplace training playing a part in this productivity?

Are the workers who are remaining on the jobsite the older, more experienced group or are those workers left behind during a RIF being upskilled quickly to meet the demands of the organization?

Fear of Management

Did you see the most recent Harris Interactive survey that reported that most U.S. workers do not want to be managers? Increased stress is apparently the no. 1 reason why American workers are afraid to take on more responsibility.

Fifty-one percent of the people surveyed said they don't want to become managers, and 69 percent older workers—those over the age of 64—are not interested in moving up the career ladder.

Are you surprised? Why isn't more responsibility enticing for U.S. workers?

Are leadership development programs scaring away high potentials, or maybe it's the lack of good development programs that has workers weary of taking on more responsibility?

Whatever the reason, scaring away would-be managers is a sobering reality that could have company executives scratching their heads in the not so distant future.