Recruiting Older Employees

A study by Allianz shows that in 2010 people between 60 and 65 will outnumber those between 15 and 20 in the European Union. 28.8 million EU residents are aged 60-65 compared with 28.6 million between the ages of 15 and 20.

This year, for the first time ever, the ongoing demographic change will affect the job market as there will be 200,000 more people approaching or entering retirement than the number of school-leavers.

Professor Michael Heise, chief economist and head of corporate development at Allianz said:

"As the baby boomer generation moves into retirement, this gap is set to widen over the next few years, rising to 8.3 million by 2030."

The Allianz study predicts similar trends in other G-20 states such as Russia, Canada, South Korea and China. In Japan the situation is even more dramatic than in the EU, with only 6 million school-leavers compared to 10 million between the ages of 60 and 65. However, the US is still experiencing growth in the number of people of working age because of its attractiveness as an immigration destination, and a rise in the birth rate.

Heise says that the EU's unemployment problems will not be solved as a result of the shrinking working population, adding that "Even today unemployment is largely a structural issue, i.e. the educational and training background of many job-seekers is irreconcilable with the requirements of the labor market." But, he argues, the demographic trend will not necessarily lead to a decline in economic dynamics and the further marginalization of Europe vis à vis "Chinamerica." Nevertheless, he contends, it is essential to adopt working conditions to the needs of an aging workforce.

Only a third or so of all people between 60 and 64 are still working in the EU but there are considerable differences between the individual member states. While Hungary has the lowest employment rate of just 13.3% for this age group, 63% are still working in Sweden. An additional 8 million workers would be available by 2030 if the rest of Europe could catch up with Sweden.

Heise concludes that increasing the proportion of older people working is a major challenge:

"The key milestones have already been achieved in pursuit of this objective in recent years, with moves to reduce the number of early retirement incentives being introduced as part of pension system reforms in many EU countries. The task now is to create the right environment on the labor market. If the European Union succeeds in this endeavor, it could serve as a role model in the face of an aging population worldwide."


SOURCE:http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/diversity/older-workers.htm

Mission Impossible

Identifying training needs is an important activity that relates to the overall performance of the business.

For further information about identifying training needs, see: Training Needs Analysis Concepts/Approach - a description and explanation of TNA.

"Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to coordinate training for our organisation" said the CEO to Dale Wood, the newly appointed Human Resources Manager.

Not that there was really any choice. At the weekend, the CEO had seen an old video. It had prompted memories of a popular television series a few years back.

The CEO had every confidence that Dale could organise the training.

Dale's thoughts focussed on the mission. Was it mission impossible? Certainly it was a lot to ask. The identification of all the training needs of the organisation, making decisions about priorities, assessing the resources required, the planning of a program, and implementation in a logical way, with equity and access - all had to be achieved.

"By the way, I want it ready to go when we meet next week" continued the CEO. "Any questions....... No. Good, now I want to talk about ......"

A little while later, Dale was reflecting on the CEO's request, before heading off to a management meeting about the corporate plan, the budget, quality processes and a few other current developments.

Dale thought about the immensity of the task and fitting it in with all the other developments. Like managers, Dale had a lot to sort out.

After the meeting, Dale had just sat down when a colleague entered the office. "What's up?" enquired Ashley. Dale briefly explained the immensity of the task of organising training when so much else was happening. "So?" prompted Ashley, playing a devil's advocate role.

"So, I'm not sure that we have enough time and energy to organise training properly" replied Dale.

"Let me ask a few questions" continued Ashley. "What is the organisation trying to achieve?"

Dale replied. "You know the answers - better service, reduced costs, increased productivity, increased accountability." "Yes that's all true" continued Ashley, "but give me one word that describes what restructure, enterprise agreements, etc are trying to achieve."

Dale thought about it for a moment and then said "Performance. All the programs, initiatives etc have improved performance as the underlying theme."

"Yes, that's right" replied Ashley. "What underlies performance?"

"The way staff perform, the methods and processes used, the culture of the organisation" Dale explained. "And training is the key. The really successful organisations have worked out their processes and train their staff to do the work properly. I discovered recently that often its the commitment to getting the basics right all the time that is the key to success."

"Yes, I agree" continued Ashley.

"This is all very nice" said Dale, "We know training is important, but how am I going to organise it to take into account all the other things that are happening."

Ashley said "The first thing is the need to achieve a balance between effort and result. Every situation is different, and you need to adjust approaches to suit the circumstances to achieve the maximum result. This diagram should help."


SOURCE:http://derekstockley.com.au/a-training-needs.html

5 Important Performance Management Tasks That Often Are Forgotten

Performance management should be much more than a process for documenting and delivering feedback, coaching and ratings. When expanded beyond these basics, it becomes a powerful tool for helping your employees develop and achieve their full potential, and for driving employee engagement. Here are 5 additional performance management tasks that should be a standard part of your performance management process:
1. Get Employees to Complete Self-Assessments

To drive up employee engagement in your performance appraisal process, and ensure an effective dialogue between managers and employees, it's important to include employee self-assessments as part of your process. You can use the same form you do for your regular performance appraisals, or create a slightly modified version. The purpose of the self-assessment is to get your employees' perspective on their performance. This is a powerful way to give them a voice in the process. Sometimes, managers worry about the value of self-assessment, thinking that employees will simply give themselves glowing reviews and ratings to try to drive up their actual ratings. Experience shows the opposite tends to be true; when we evaluate ourselves, we tend to be much harsher than others. Getting your employees' perspective is an invaluable way to get more information on their performance. It also helps managers be ready to address differences in opinion or perspective, and gain insight into expectations.
2. Gather 360 Degree Feedback

Let's face it, managers rarely have the full perspective on their employees' performance. 360 degree feedback can help managers avoid bias, get a different perspective on their employees' performance and better identify areas that need coaching or development. And employees often discount negative feedback as "just your opinion". Substantiating feedback by gathering if from multiple, credible sources can make it more objective and increase its impact. You can collect feedback from other managers, peers, subordinates, even customers - anyone who works with the employee on a regular basis and can give you insight into their performance. 360 degree feedback can be especially vital when there is conflict or tension between the manager and employee, when different personality types make the feedback process difficult, or when managers don't work directly with their employees (shift work, project work, etc.).
3. Align Employee Goals with Organizational Goals

We all know the importance of creating SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals for our employees. Part of what makes a goal relevant is its context. By aligning and even linking employee goals with higher level organizational goals, you give employees this all important "larger context" for their work. This helps employees understand why their work is important and how it contributes to the larger organization's success. While traditionally, managers have tried to accomplish this by linking employee goals to their own, a much more powerful practice is to align or link them to higher-level departmental, divisional, or organizational goals. Research on employee engagement has shown that this context setting is vital to employee performance. It helps them feel that their work matters.
4. Create Development Plans for Employees

Development planning is most powerful when it's an integral part of the performance management process, not a separate activity. The performance appraisal meeting is usually the principal time when managers and employees discuss performance deficiencies and career aspirations. Identifying learning activities to address any deficiencies during the appraisal meeting, helps to communicate both the manager's and the organization's commitment to the employee, and their expectations for improvement. Exploring opportunities to develop and prepare the employee for advancement gives them a sense that they have a career path or future with an organization. By including development planning in your performance appraisal process, you give employees a context for their learning and help increase employee engagement.
5. Reward Good Performance

Finally, it's important to reward and reinforce good performance. Performance ratings should be a known and visible factor in determining employee rewards and compensation. Integrating your performance management process with your compensation management process lets employees know that compensation practices are fair and based on their performance. This integration applies to more than just merit increases and bonuses; all forms of employee reward or recognition should be linked to employee performance and serve to reinforce desired behavior and performance.

This article was written by Sean Conrad, Senior Analyst at Halogen Software, a leading provider of online performance management software.


SOURCE:http://www.hrmguide.com/performance/5-tasks.htm

Do You Know Who You're Hiring?

Think resume checking and candidate background checking are a poor use of your time? Think again. During times of economic challenge, checking the background and credentials of your potential employee becomes even more important.

Fraud is rampant. Job searchers are desperate. Employers are being duped. Why not find out those less than stellar facts about your favorite candidate before you've come to own him, love him, train him, and integrate him into your company, only to find out later that his credentials are fraudulent?

Do you know who you are hiring? Recent studies by various firms, indicate that most candidates mislead, exaggerate, embellish, and / or outright lie on their application materials including resumes, cover letters, and job applications.

One firm found that 64 percent of candidates overstate accomplishments, while 71 percent misrepresent the number of years they have held a position. Others found that over half of their applicants misrepresented their employment history.

So, what's an employer to do? These tips will help you avoid the consequences of hiring candidates who have misrepresented any aspect of their employment or academic history. Recent high profile cases say that it can happen to you. With comprehensive candidate background checking, you can increase your chances of knowing exactly who you are hiring.



SOURCE:http://humanresources.about.com/

Better Education But Worse Job Prospects For Minorities

Recent research by Christian Dustmann and Nikolaos Theodoropoulos from the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London, published in Oxford Economic Papers, found that members of Britain's ethnic minority communities, whether born abroad or in the UK, tend to be better educated than their white British-born peers but are less likely to be employed.

The study analysed data from the British Labour Force Survey from 1979 to 2005. Conducted by the Office for National Statistics, this catagorises ethnic background as white, Indian, Pakistani, black Caribbean, black African, Bangladeshi or Chinese.

Comparing women born in Britain, researchers found that those identifying as Pakistani are 25 per cent less likely to be in employment than their white peers and those as Bangladeshi 47 per cent less likely. In the early 1980s Pakistani and Bangladeshi women born outside Britain had 46 per cent and 60 per cent lower probability of employment respectively than white British-born counterparts.

The study found that British-born members of ethnic minority communities are better educated than their parents' generation born outside the UK and white peers. This improvement is greater for the majority of British-born ethnic minority groups compared to whites. Researchers conclude that this is indicative of the value placed on education but acknowledge differences between communities. The study found that of individuals born in Britain between 1963 and 1975, half of Chinese descent went to university, compared to 15 per cent of black-Caribbeans and 20 per cent of whites.

About 46 per cent of British-born ethnic minorities live in London compared to 10 per cent of their white peers. Consequently the former group tend to earn slightly more, particularly women. However, analysis suggests that if educational attainment and regional distribution were the same in both groups, British-born ethnic minorities would earn less than their white counterparts. This would especially affect men with an estimated discrepancy of 9 per cent.

Christian Dustmann commented:

"Our research shows that individuals of ethnic-minority descent born in Britain invest considerably into education, and more so than their British-born white peers. However, it is concerning that on average British-born ethnic minorities, and in particular men, would have a wage disadvantage if they had the same education, and lived in the same region, as their white British-born peers."


SOURCE:http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/diversity/race_report2.htm

Combined Benefit Plans, BLS Reports on Data

Employer-sponsored medical care plans and retirement plans account for around 12.5 percent of the total cost of employee compensation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In a recent publication, BLS Program Perspectives, the department focused on civilian employees' access to these benefits.
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According to the BLS, 64 percent of employees have access to both employer-sponsored medical care and retirement plans, 15 percent have access to only one, and 20 percent have access to neither.

The BLS analyzed previously released data and reported the highlights, including:

* State and local government employees (86%) were more likely than private industry workers (60%) to have access to both benefits.
* 86 % of employees in large organizations, those who employ 500 or more employees, had access to both benefits, while only 40% or employees in smaller organizations, those who employ fewer than 50 employees, had access to both benefits.
* Employees whose jobs were covered by a collective bargaining agreement (89%) were more likely to have access to both benefits than those holding a nonunion job (59%).

The full report, BLS Program Perspectives on Combined Benefit Plans, is available online.


SOURCE:http://hr.blr.com/newsAlternate.aspx?category=1&topic=18&id=82852

Human Resource Management (and Talent Management)

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.

Note that some people distinguish a difference between HRM (a major management activity) and HRD (Human Resource Development, a profession). Those people might include HRM in HRD, explaining that HRD includes the broader range of activities to develop personnel inside of organizations, e.g., career development, training, organization development, etc.

There is a long-standing argument about where HR-related functions should be organized into large organizations, eg, "should HR be in the Organization Development department or the other way around?"

The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous change over the past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the "Personnel Department," mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the "HR Department" as playing a major role in staffing, training and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner.

Recently, the phrase "talent management" is being used to refer the activities to attract, develop and retain employees. Some people and organizations use the phrase to refer
especially to talented and/or high-potential employees. The phrase often is used interchangeably with the field of Human Resource Management -- although as the field of talent management matures, it's very likely there will be an increasing number of people who will strongly disagree about the interchange of these fields. For now, this Library uses the phrases interchangeably.


SOURCE:http://managementhelp.org/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm

Gender Inequality In Academic Researchers' Compensation

Research from the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital published in Academic Medicine found that women researchers in the life sciences still receive lower levels of compensation than their male equivalents, including those at higher academic and professional levels. The study also identified gender differences in career advancement paths.

Lead researcher Dr Catherine DesRoches said:

"The gender gap in pay has been well documented, but what was not understood was whether academic accomplishments could overcome the pay gap. Our study found that, across the board, men are being paid substantially more than equally qualified and accomplished women at academic medical centers."

Researchers explain that previous studies documenting gender inequality in compensation and academic rank did not consider differences in professional activities, such as leadership responsibilities. The current study investigated whether such differences exist, whether productivity (reflected by scientific papers published) continues to vary, and whether salary discrepancies persist after these factors are taken into account.

In 2007 researchers randomly selected more than 3000 life science investigators from the top 50 academic medical centers in receipt of funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2003-2004. Respondents completed anonymous questionnaires including details of professional activities; scientific papers published ; hours spent on professional, scientific and clinical activities; and total compensation.

The study found that women with the rank of full professor worked significantly more hours than equivalent men. This difference primarily reflected more time spent on administration and other professional tasks rather than patient care, teaching or research. There was no significant gender difference in hours worked by associate professors. Women at the assistant professor level tended to work fewer hours than men, the most common factor being less time expended on research. After controlling for differences in academic ranking, research productivity and other characteristics, researchers found women earned from US$6000 to US$15 000 less per year than their male counterparts.

Catherine DesRoches said:

"These differences may seem modest, but over a 30-year career, an average female faculty member with a PhD would earn almost US$215 000 less that a comparable male. If that deficit were invested in a retirement account earning 6 per cent per year, the difference would grow to almost US$700 000 over a career. For department of medicine faculty, that difference could be almost twice as great."

The researchers did not investigate reasons for differences identified by the survey, but suggest that the greater number of professional responsibilities taken on by female full professors could reflect their organisation's attempts to improve diversity at departmental and committee leadership level. Salary discrepancies may reflect on-going discriminatory practices or the specialist areas selected by women.

Principal investigator Eric G. Campbell, associate professor of medicine, concluded:

"Women working in the life sciences should not assume they are being paid as much as equally qualified men, and academic institutions should look hard at their compensation and advancement policies and their cultures. In the end, I suspect major systemic changes will be needed if we ever hope to achieve the ideal of equal pay for equal work in academic medicine."

SOURCE:http://www.hrmguide.com/diversity/researchers-compensation.htm

Human Resource Management

Human resource (or personnel) management, in the sense of getting things done through people. It's an essential part of every manager's responsibilities, but many organizations find it advantageous to establish a specialist division to provide an expert service dedicated to ensuring that the human resource function is performed efficiently.

"People are our most valuable asset" is a cliché which no member of any senior management team would disagree with. Yet, the reality for many organizations is that their people remain

* under valued
* under trained
* under utilized
* poorly motivated, and consequently
* perform well below their true capability

The rate of change facing organizations has never been greater and organizations must absorb and manage change at a much faster rate than in the past. In order to implement a successful business strategy to face this challenge, organizations, large or small, must ensure that they have the right people capable of delivering the strategy.

The market place for talented, skilled people is competitive and expensive. Taking on new staff can be disruptive to existing employees. Also, it takes time to develop 'cultural awareness', product/ process/ organization knowledge and experience for new staff members.

As organizations vary in size, aims, functions, complexity, construction, the physical nature of their product, and appeal as employers, so do the contributions of human resource management. But, in most the ultimate aim of the function is to: "ensure that at all times the business is correctly staffed by the right number of people with the skills relevant to the business needs", that is, neither overstaffed nor understaffed in total or in respect of any one discipline or work grade.
Functional overview and strategy for HRM

These issues motivate a well thought out human resource management strategy, with the precision and detail of say a marketing strategy. Failure in not having a carefully crafted human resources management strategy, can and probably will lead to failures in the business process itself.

This set of resources are offered to promote thought, stimulate discussion, diagnose the organizational environment and develop a sound human resource management strategy for your organization. We begin by looking at the seven distinguishable function human resource management provide to secure the achievement of the objective defined above.

Following on from this overview we look at defining a human resource strategy.

Finally, some questions are posed in the form of a HRM systems diagnostic checklist for you to consider, which may prove helpful for you to think about when planning your development programs for the human resources in your organization, if they are truely "your most valuable asset."


SOURCE:http://www.accel-team.com/human_resources/hrm_00.html

Talent Management Best Practices

Some people say Talent is god's gift for a person. A person is said to be talented if he possess awesome ability in a particular activity or field. Every one is talented in one or another way. Nourishing the talent and utilizing it to the best is a challenge. Talent levels will vary from person to person. There is a scarcity of talents in all areas. Competition is always there for getting the talents between organizations, that is why the talent management attains significance.

Every organization needs talented persons in different levels to enhance the efficiency of the company. In this globalized era talented personals are having demand and are offered good remuneration. For discharging specific tasks talented and work ethic specialists are needed. In every field the case is same. It is not easy to find the right talent needed for the organization, it takes a wholesome effort involving lot of human resource to find the talents and recruit them.

Talent management is simply a process of recruitment of talents, developing the skills of existing workforce, promoting and retaining the employees, attracting highly talented and rated employees from other companies etc. Talent management is practiced by human resources department of each and every company.

Performance management is directly linked with talent management. In every organization the challenges as well as strategies are entirely different. Hence the focus is mainly on getting and connecting the talent with the organizational set up as well as making sure that the person can cope up with the organizational challenges and deliver the might.

For a successful organisation team of talented dynamic executioners, passionate leaders in right roles will make sure effective execution of strategies and correction if needed as per the situation. That means talent should be there in executive, middle and lower level of the organization. But setting up and maintaining this kind of persons for longer periods is not easy.

Senior human resource executives are dealing with the talent management and it is very important for companies as there is practice of rival companies luring away the talents. So motivation and retention of talents in an organisation is a real challenge for HR officials. With companies becoming global with overseas acquisitions, keeping the upward growth will depend on cost effectiveness, internal execution of strategies precisely with existing workforce as well as integrating new talents.

In good olden days the talent management was not a priority and hence it was taken care by personnel management departments in the organization. However in this new era talent management has become one of the top priorities of the organizations. Impact of talent management is directly visible as many companies are spending a chunk of their revenues to disburse wages as well as benefits. Wages are increasing every year rapidly for maintaining the talents in the organization.

Talent management best practices are competency based and some of the competencies are skills, personal traits, experience as well as knowledge. Talent management is for the optimisation of the resources in the organization, henceforth achieving good business results. Always there is chemistry between better talent in workforce and better business outcome. Leaders are developed through the talent management system.

Keeping the workforce satisfied is an important aspect which can't be neglected by any organization. Success profiles should be the main criterion for promotion. There should be some planned strategy for talent management since human resource is an asset for the organization in this new age business world.

Top level management including CEO and senior leadership should support the efforts of human resource department for developing talent pool. Line managers have a proactive role in talent management. They are the ones who can spot talents within organization for higher levels. Developing the talent within the organization is cost effective than really recruiting new ones in some cases and it can be termed as one the talent management best practices.

The demographics of the workforce across the world are changing as many companies are turning global and cheaper workforce with talent. This process is one of the talent management best practices. Hyper competition is the main factor which drives companies to have talent management best practices to keep the competitive edge...


SOURCE:http://human-resources-mgt.bestmanagementarticles.com/a-39546-talent-management-best-practices.aspx