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Employment

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The Battle for Talented Employees to Get Worse

The battle for talented employees has increased significantly in 2013. All of the data shows that there is a massive disconnect between the education levels of our current workforce and the high-paying jobs available today and into the foreseeable future. Combine that with the latest jobs number showing, a drop in unemployment to 7.7 percent, and an above expected increase of 236,000 new jobs in February, companies are scrambling to hire good employees.

This puts a premium on employees who are currently in the workforce-and those employees know it. From wage increases to signing bonuses, skilled and talented employees have several job options and they aren’t shy about pursuing their next job opportunity.

A new trend that we are seeing is ...

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Manufacturers Among Leaders of Job Creation in 2013

The good news is that manufacturing hiring was up in 2012, with more growth projected for 2013 and 2014. The bad news isn't enough trained skilled laborers in the American workforce to fill the jobs available.
 
According to a new hiring report from the Society for Human Resource Development (SHRM), its Leading Indicators of National Employment shows specifically regarding manufacturing employment, recruiting, and compensation the stats are:

•          42.2 percent of manufacturers plan to hire in the near future
 
•          Projected on an annual basis — January 2013 compared with January 2012 ...

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Finding Dream Job Takes Effort, Commitment

Posted By Todd Palmer, 01/02/13 at 10:50 AM

As the New Year begins, many of us take inventory of our lives and look for ways of improvement. Besides joining a gym or signing up for a language class, one area where some decide change is necessary is in their careers. In my book, The Job Search Process, I outline eight key points to land your dream job. Rather than cover the tried-and-true categories of resume writing or how to behave yourself in an interview, I focus on one overlooked area job seekers minimize: how to actually look for a job. So, for those looking for a new career in 2013, here is a guide to conducting your personal job search process.

It all starts with commitment. If you are currently employed, pledge a minimum of 10 hours per week to look for a new job. If you don’t have a ...

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Michigan Right-To-Work Legislation Long Overdue

With all of the talk regarding the Michigan Right-to-Work vote taking place everywhere I turn, I started to reflect upon the only time in my life I was a union member. I was 16 years old and had secured my first job at a car wash. I remember getting one of my first paychecks and noticing that there was a line item for union dues deduction. 

I went to my shift supervisor and let him know that there must have been a mistake; I was in high school, how could I be a union member? I was informed that I was indeed a union member and that there wasn’t an option not to be a part of it.

Thirty years later it still doesn’t make sense to me that I was forced to be in a union. By agreeing to work for that employer, I was ...

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Michigan and MEDC Miss the Mark with Talent Website Re-Launch

If the purpose of the new State of Michigan job connect website is to match employers with job seekers, the upgrades that have been made miss that goal — for both employers and job seekers. 

After a failed launch on October 1st, the second iteration of www.mitalent.org went live on October 16. The updated site incorporates 20-30 changes, designed to enhance the experience of the job seeker or employer. Unfortunately, what has been created does just the opposite; it creates barriers to connecting job seekers with employers seeking new talent. Considering the lack of talent in many skilled categories (IT, Accounting, Health Care, Skilled labor), the long term effect is the State may need to import workers or send the work to other  ...

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Leaders Make it Their Job to Look After Others

Our business, Diversified Industrial Staffing in Troy, recently celebrated its 14th year in business.  During that time, we have had several dozen internal employees and have placed several thousand in various jobs. When I started out 14 years ago, the relationship between me as an employer and my employees was very hierarchal and very top down in nature. Employees came to the office, did their job, and went home. The relationship was almost transactional in nature, devoid of warmth and intimacy.

I was running a small company like it was a big company. It reminded me of hearing my parents describe working for big companies and hearing them say that they were “thankful to have a job.” They had the mentality that they had very few job options ...

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Top 6 Mistakes Companies Make in Attracting Talent

Recent reports indicate that there are labor shortages for IT, manufacturing, mining, and medical professional jobs. Hundreds of thousands of job are currently unfilled in the United States. While there are many reasons beyond the control of companies  looking to hire, there are several factors that are within the control of companies looking to hire. Based upon our experience with both businesses looking to add employees, and employees seeking new job opportunities, I  have compiled  the Top 6 Mistakes companies make in attracting new talent.

1. Holding out for the “perfect candidate.” In areas such as skilled trades, where there is a significant labor shortage, companies that need to get ...

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Would You Pay Bad Employees $3,000 to Leave?

The average cost of making a bad hire, according to 41 percent of companies surveyed by CareerBuilder, is $25,000. The survey — conducted among 2,696 employers between Aug. 16 and Sept. 8, 2011, by Harris Interactive — found that a single bad hire can significantly affect an organization’s bottom line.

A bad hire can be measured several ways, including:

• Less productivity – 41 percent
• Lost time to recruit and train another worker – 40 percent
• Cost to recruit and train another worker – 37 percent
• Employee morale negatively affected – 36 percent
• Negative impact on client solutions

One company, online retailer Zappos, is ...

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How one company reduced employee turnover by over 80 percent

One of the biggest costs to any business is employee turnover. Regardless of the industry, there is a significant cost to losing employees (often to competitors), recruiting potential new employees, screening, testing and evaluating  the applicants, conducting multiple interviews, making job offers and sometimes counter-offers, onboarding new hires, and often many months of training.

This doesn’t take into account the lost productivity or missed opportunity costs of having an empty seat in your facility. Nor does it take into account the impact on a company's legacy and culture. According to www.hrtogo.com, calculations can easily reach 150 percent of the employee's annual compensation figure.

To put this into ...

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Career Builder Data Shows Woeful Lack of Available Machining Talent in Metro Detroit

Career Builder verified last week what many local manufacturers already know — there is a severe lack of manufacturing talent seeking new jobs in Metro Detroit. The Career Builder Active Candidate Ratio shows that there are 4 jobs for every 1 machinist in Metro Detroit.

Let me explain. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there are 9,600 active machinists (machine operators) in the Metro Detroit area. In a recent 90-day period, 346 of those machine operators posted their resume onto Career Builder, making themselves available for new job opportunities. In that same 90-day period, 1,372 help wanted ads were posted for machining talent. This data shows that in the Machine Operator category, the Active Candidate Ratio is .25% — ...

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U.S. Employers — Skills Gap takes toll on Morale, Quality, and Revenue

The same week when increased unemployment numbers were issued by the U.S. Labor Department, a Harris Interactive/CareerBuilder survey sent a much different message to the nation.s businesses.  Rather than dwelling on people who are not currently working, this survey sought to find out what is happening to U.S. companies that are looking for new employees. The results were that the lack of skilled talent, across many job sectors, is impacting both the morale of current employees, and the bottom line of the organizations seeking new talent, in a very negative fashion.

According to the employer survey, 34 percent of respondents reported that job vacancies have resulted in a lower quality of work due to employees being overworked, and 23 percent of ...

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Employee accountability vs. Employee entitlement

Baseball umpires and public school teachers, what could they possibly have in common?

 

Both groups of unionized employees have come under public attack for their lack of employee evaluation methods, each group preferring to go with longevity and tenure, over competency testing and management evaluations. On May 29th, Jim Leyland, the manager of the Detroit Tigers, went on one of his infamous rants regarding the poor performance of umpires in a game against the Cleveland Indians. In the 2010 documentary, Waiting For Superman, Michelle Rhee, then the chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public schools from 2007 to 2010, was featured in the documentary about the failing public school system, begging to have teachers evaluated ...

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Yahoo! must get rid of Thompson Now

It has been discovered that recently appointed Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson lied about his educational background on his resume.  The Yahoo! Board Member who vetted Thompson has since decided not to stand for re-election to the Board, while Thompson has refused to leave amid calls for his resignation. Thompson is arguing that this is a minor white lie. Legally, it borders on egregious fraud. Ethically, it goes against the values of the company he publically represents.

CEOs of publicly held companies are held to a higher standard than those in the private sector.  As the CEO of a company that directly utilizes the money of the public-at-large, this “little white lie” is a possible SEC violation.  The fact that Yahoo included ...

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The Human Capital Shell Game

The recently released unemployment numbers, showing a slight decrease to 8.2% in March 2012 from 8.3% the month before, are filled with false optimism. First of all, that extends the longest streak of 8%-plus unemployment since the Great Depression. Secondly, the U.S. economy hasn’t been below 8% unemployment since January 2009. Once you delve into the Labor Participation Rate, it is not an optimistic picture.

In January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of Americans not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million people. Fewer people in the workforce means the percentage of unemployed people in the workforce drops. So, how did the unemployment rate decrease, while the Labor Participation Rate also ...

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Close to 85% of Employees Plan to Search For a New Job in 2012

The tide is turning, the shift in mindset is here and now. The North American workforce believes that things are getting better, and employees who have been holding onto the job they currently have — no matter how much they hate their job — are now open to looking at employment opportunities. According to a survey conducted by Right Management, a whopping 84% of employees are planning on searching for a new job in 2012.  That compares to 60% of the respondents in a similar survey by Right Management conducted two years ago. The company surveyed more than 1,000 people in the U.S. and Canada. Only 5% of survey respondents said they were planning to stay in their current job.

Many business owners and bosses are concerned that their employees ...

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U.S. Manufacturing Employment: Strong Demand, Limited Supply

Would you be shocked if I told you that that manufacturing employment is on the rise in 2012?

The good news is that manufacturing hiring was up in 2011, with more growth projected for 2012. The bad news isn't enough trained skilled laborers in the American workforce to fill the jobs available.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal (1/19/12), the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. grew 1.2% in 2011, or 136,000, the first increase in employment since 1997. Some economists are predicting a 2.5% gain this year. That translates to 330,000 manufacturing jobs. According to the Journal, the hiring is occurring in sectors such as durable goods, computer and electronic products, electrical ...

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