Vacation Days Gone Astray

How many of us spend day after day entrapped in four walls, caught in the corporate grind, while staring at a tropical scene on our computer desktop, wishing we were anywhere but at work?

Would it surprise you to hear that despite our tropical daydreams, 33 percent of working Americans forfeit much of their granted vacation time? According to Expedia, this group passes up an average of four paid vacation days per year.

“And it's not as if the United States leads the world in vacation days granted. The average is 14 days in 2006, according to the survey, which is far below that of many other industrialized countries such as Great Britain (24 days) or France (39 days).”

So why would someone pass up an opportunity to escape corporate America? Some top reasons given include hectic work schedules, increased stress that accompanies days off, and fear of what the boss will think, among others. Some employees even believe they will be labeled as “lazy” by their peers for using the vacation time granted to them.

Do you find yourself making excuses to pass up some well-deserved time off? Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer explains why this practice may be hindering your overall health and well-being. Read the full article.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

Minimum Wage, Maximum Impact

As the value of a dollar is stretched to the limit, so is the patience of much of the country’s workforce who find themselves on the losing end of the battle with the buck. The population caught in a minimum wage war may soon have something to look forward to as many cities across the country are fighting to increase the minimum in a “living-wage” movement.

“With federal minimum wage stuck at $5.15 since 1997, many cities and states are taking matters in their own hands. They are enacting minimum wages for city contractors and, increasingly, mandatory minimums for all area businesses in an attempt to lift the fortunes of workers on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. As it stands now, a worker making the federal minimum wage would make $10,712 a year, or less than $1,000 above the 2006 poverty line of $9,800 for an individual.”

What would be the implications of such a pay scale modification? Not only would the increases heighten the cost of business and therefore raise prices on products and services alike, but workers in higher-paying positions may be affected by the changes, seeing a slight increase in pay, themselves.

From a business perspective, organizations will be forced to layoff employees to accommodate these pay raises, while others will experience a shift in their workforce as younger workers scramble for these higher-paying positions once filled only by their more experienced counterparts.

How would a raise in minimum wage affect your company? Read the full report by Melinda Fulmer at MSN Money.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

Limited Job Security at the Top

According to a Reuters article posted on shrm.org, CEO turnover in public companies in the year 2005 was again at an all-time high and if the trend continues one in seven CEOs will be out of a job next year. While the mix of reasons for the turnover includes the expected mergers & acquisitions as well as retirements the bottom-line is that more than ever CEOs are failing to deliver results and are being held more accountable.

The figures cited in the article make one wonder are the expectations higher or are the skill sets weakening? Recent articles from the Center for Creative Leadership raise the issue of increasing ineffectiveness of executives due to their failure to change their leadership skill sets. Those same skills that have helped executives rise in their career are now causing their demise.

We have been conditioned over time to accept that absolutely no one is irreplaceable. However, the reality is that failures of a company's most senior level management can cause incredible and long-lasting damage to the entire organization. The symptoms of the pending executive failure include higher turnover, lower productivity, lower morale and reduction in quality. The transition to a new senior executive can include more upheaval as past problems are cleaned up and the new executive puts his/her mark on the organization and its culture.

Companies, boards of directors and executives need to remember that Leadership Development is not just for lower level leaders. Executives who do not continue to develop and sharpen their skill sets may very well find themselves in next year's executive turn-over statistics. Human Resource professionals need to be advocating appropriate development in the top levels of the organization as well as advocating succession plans that include accurate success profiles targeted to meet the changing leadership requirements of today's business environment.

Take a look around your organization. Are symptoms of executive weaknesses and potential failure becoming evident in the organization? Do you have executive who haven't changed their leadership style and approach in 30 to 40 years? What plans have you put in place to address weaknesses in the executive suite? Your future as well as your company's may be depending on the developmental actions you take this year and next.

To read Emily Chasan's article as posted on shrm.org click here: CEO Turnover At An All-time High


Posted by Denise Knutson, Senior Consultant, The H.S. Group

A Mother's Job? Priceless!

Are you a mom? After doing the laundry, cleaning up the house, shuttling the kids to and from activities and counseling your children, do you ever think, “I should really be paid for this!” What if you were paid? Just how much is a mother’s job worth?

Salary.com recently valuated the “mom job”. Moms work an average of 90 hours a week whether they are a Working Mom or Stay at Home Mom. If paid, Stay at Home Moms would earn $134,121 annually. Working Moms would earn $85,876. The top 10 job titles that match a mom’s job description include: housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist.

“People recognize that both Stay at Home Moms and Working Moms carry a heavy load of responsibility and work long hours,” said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. “It is an eye-opener for many people when they see the real market value of the work moms perform. This year, by adding information about the compensation for Working Moms, we hope to expand the recognition of just how hard all moms are working and of the economic value they bring to society.”

It’s Mother’s Day this Sunday. Moms do not usually ask for a paycheck. They do the job because they love their family. And since Moms could never be paid their worth, make sure to say “thank you” to yours.

Thanks a MILLION, Mom!

Read What is Mom's Job Worth? as posted on Salary.com.

Posted by Amy Dennis, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

You'll Never Believe What Happened . . .

Did you forget to set your alarm? Or are you just running late? We’ve all been tardy at one time or another for a variety of reasons. In fact 13% of employees admit to being late for work at least once a week, while 24% are late at least once a month.

Employees cite traffic as the leading cause of tardiness, while they conceded falling back to sleep running a close second, and getting the kids ready for school or daycare not far behind. Additional reasons listed were anything from misplacing keys to forgetting things at home.

And if being late isn’t rough enough, your boss is probably waiting for an explanation. But should you tell your boss the real reason you’re late or cook up an elaborate story? That depends on why you’re late. If it was a simple hiccup in your day, it may not be an issue. A majority of hiring managers admitted that the occasionally tardy employee shouldn’t worry, with 30% of hiring managers stating that as long as work is of good quality and completed on time, they don’t have a problem with tardiness. However, this isn’t always the case. Some hiring managers would consider firing an employee if they arrived late once or twice in a year.

To read more about how employers view tardiness go to MSN Careers. You’ll enjoy the “Top 10 Excuses When Running Late.” However, I don’t recommend using them. I know my boss won’t believe “I ran over a goat,” and yours probably won’t either.

MSN Careers - Top 10 Excuses When You're Running Late - Career Advice Article


Posted by Heidi Brown, Recruiting Coordinator, The H.S. Group

Top-Notch Benefits Sweeten the Deal

So one of your top managers just renegotiated her benefits package for an extra week of vacation and you’re still sweating the details? According to a company focus by Michael Bush on MSN Money, you could be much worse off, as some companies go to great lengths to retain their top executives.

While perks such as healthcare coverage or a company car might be the norm, some of America’s corporate giants offer much more than a free health club membership enticing their workforce to stay put.

Take, for example, furniture-rental giant Aaron Rents out of Atlanta, Georgia. The organization sponsored $890,000 in private racecar driving instructions for the two sons of the company's director and president of sales and lease ownership.

Or what about insurer Assured Guaranty that offered its president a home in Bermuda worth $240,000. That, along with a number of stock options quickly added up to one of the sweetest benefit packages in employment history.

Is your free coffee machine down the hall not looking so good anymore? Read more from MSN Money on the luxuries granted to top corporate executives, and the write-offs by the companies offering them.

Posted by Shelly Paul, Career Management Coordinator, The H.S. Group

Hands Off

Ropes courses, trust falls, bungee jumping, tap dancing, gourmet cooking and spanking. What do they have in common? All have been utilized as a means of teambuilding or leadership development. "Trainers" seem to be consistently looking for the next attention getting, fun or action-packed gimmick to use in making their point. What ever happened to good solid content put together with solid instructional design principles? Boring? Not if done right. Impactful? If done right, absolutely.

Over the years I have seen trainers get excited about the latest physical gimmick or highly physical activity. I admit, I have even tried a few over the course of my career. I tried just enough of them to learn of their dangers and their ability to become a distraction if used inappropriately or with the wrong group. Too easily, the activity itself becomes the focal point and the true purpose is lost. Will participants remember the activity and maybe even have fun? Sure they will. Will they learn something meaningful or be able to explain to others exactly why the activity was included in the training? Not necessarily.

I clearly remember a time early in my leadership development career, scrambling to redesign a program that included two somewhat physical activities; physical in that they involved organized movement around the room and included some body contact. They seemed fun and innocent during the design process (and they were recommended by a consultant so they had to be good - right?) but much less so after a couple of participants expressed concern regarding the amount of contact, regardless of how innocent it was. The first concerns expressed were the wake-up call to make some quick changes. While the redesigned program was less active it was certainly no less effective and was in fact probably more effective because it was more content based.

While the actual gimmicks themselves seem to be fads that come and go, too often I hear of trainers who unintentionally but irrevocably damage their own credibility and effectiveness by forgetting why they are there AND by assuming their audience will be as excited about and as capable of physically performing the activity as the trainer is. While we all know that interactive sessions increase the degree of learning, interactive does not mean falling backward off a tree stump. Yes safety measures are built in to the more aggressive activities and there is always the "proclamation" that participation is strictly voluntary. Yeah, right!

You might be wondering, "Come on, what's the harm of livening things up a little bit?" You may want to address that question to Alarm One, an Anaheim, California based company that just lost a $1.7 million dollar harassment claim for spanking under the guise of camaraderie building exercises which all participants "willingly" participated in. As training and development professionals, we are not the activities director; it is our obligation to deliver quality materials that preserve participants' dignity while enhancing their professional capabilities.

Enough said. Hands off!

If you haven't already read about the Alarm One case click here to read a summary of the story as reported by Sacramento's CBS 13/KOVR: Woman Awarded $1.7 Million for Workplace Spanking

Posted by Denise Knutson, Senior Consultant, The H.S. Group