Work is Less Than Satisfying for Most Conference Board, February Lynn Franco 212-339-0344

A report released from the Conference Board on February 23, 2007 (based on a sample of 5,000 USA households) shows that a decades long decline in job satisfaction is continuing: now fewer than half of us are happy with work. And the trend is even more pronounced for workers under 25 where fewer than 39% are satisfied. Respondents rated bonus plans and promotion policies as the least satisfactory benefits of employment (23%). Lynn Franco, Director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research was quoted as saying ”perhaps this is why 2 out of every 10 employees do not see themselves in their current job(s) a year from now.”

Interestingly, the study showed that satisfaction increased as hours of work increased, up to 60 hours a week and then declined. We can’t imagine how anyone working that many hours even had time to do a survey. In another recent study, 39% of European workers surveyed NEVER let work interfere with their weekends. We’re ready. Seriously, satisfaction is a two-way street. What is the likelihood that some of the people you hire are going to be dissatisfied no matter what you do and, if you knew that before you hired them, would you have screened them out?

Fortune’s “Hire” Learning List Makes Boston and UNC Disappear, read article

Fortune/CNN published a Top-50 MBA Schools ranking in February. An outside research group called Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. (based in the UK) was contracted to do the rankings for Fortune/CNN. According to a writer we know working on a follow-up story the research group may not have been as familiar with US schools of higher learning because they missed the mark - badly - in at least two instances.

Apparently the research firm took info from 111 business schools in the USA and surveyed 100s of corporate recruiters to see what MBA programs were the best. N.C. State University results were confused with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the Kenan Flagler school at UNC which is consistently ranked in the top 15 by the Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Kenan Flagler was left off. They were understandably upset. They also apparently mixed up Boston College with Boston University.

The retraction that appeared on the Fortune site doesn't tell the whole story but it sure raises some questions about the sources and methodology of even the best known reports. We are also pretty amazed that a UK firm was able to reach so many “corporate recruiters” for this study when we have trouble pinning down people we’ve known for years. Anybody remember talking to the UK for Fortune about their favorite MBA schools recently?

2007 Sources of Hire, CareerXroads 6th Annual Study

Looking at Sources of Hire one more time, we are especially critical this year of the data collection methodology and mismatched attributions (company web site). However, corporations with a strategy that emphasizes the 4-5 sources that make up nearly 3 of every 4 hires remain productive and efficient and cannot go wrong.

We were pleased to see that the study’s results included Boomerangs (5.2%) and hires attributed to Search Engine Advertising (2.0%). To us this suggests more than merely an effort to measure but a movement to surfacing and mining specific pipelines.

Have Avatar, Will Travel and Recruit (virtually), TMP Press Release

TMP’s announcement about its own Second Life “Island” on the web for recruiters followed on the heels of last month’s Bellwether bit about IBM’s use of Second Life program (a virtual world inhabited by 4 million people) that was documented in an excellent article by Bill Kutik for HR Executive Magazine.

Unfortunately, as innovative as this new TMP experiment is, when Russell Miyaki, VP, National Interactive Creative Director, TMP Worldwide, claimed in the release that “TMP Island represents the future of employment recruiting”, we get concerned that the level of vendor hype will turn off many more than it will turn on. Russell needs to get a first life or get his PR flacks to write with some nod at credibility. To get a quick and interesting taste of the use of an Avatar, check out Bob Etheridge’s experiment at http://www.myresumepal.com/

Commuting for Love, ,Press Release, Inside Higher Education

With thanks to Paul Roden, a training manager at LaSalle University, we learned about InsideHireEd’s effort to encourage couples to search for new jobs together (must have come out of a brainstorming session for Valentine’s Day). The program allows you to search for two careers simultaneously.

This would be even more interesting if the site supplied data that indicated a high percentage of couples had jobs at the same institution. They didn’t, but they did offer chocolates to anyone who succeeded. We wonder how many firms promise support to trailing spouses? We hope to look at this issue in the spring in one of our colloquium benchmark surveys.

A Major Flu Outbreak Could Shut You Down for 90 Days, , SHRM Workplace readings- NY Times, February 1, 2007

According to a NYTimes article, the federal government said in new pandemic flu guidelines issued to states and major cities: “In the event of a severe flu outbreak, schools should close for up to three months, ballgames and movies should be canceled, and working hours should be staggered so subways and buses are less crowded.”

And your firm’s response would be? Companies caught without contingency plans for remote work, etc will be candidates for bankruptcy. Is there an HR Staffing component you are aware of to replace employees unable, or unwilling to work during a 3 month downturn?

Cost of Florida Land Might Drop -- into the Water, NY Times, February 2, 2007

The world climate report addressed concerns about seas rising from several inches to several feet in the next 100 years. Critics say these numbers are way off and a significant rise could be catastrophic in less than a decade.

Bummer. We are not planning to retire to Florida anytime soon. Be careful about where you plan to locate that next “Center of Excellence”.

Seeing Through the Candidates’ Eyes, Sarah Steele Wilson, Analyst, Staffing.org

“Picture this: a bunch of Proctor & Gamble managers prepare for the launch of a new line of diapers in a meeting room designed to resemble an oversized nursery. They sit in giant chairs and wear blurry glasses to better simulate the experience of being a baby. “

But do they wear diapers? Picture this - what if recruiters must annually walk a mile in their candidate’s shoes as an essential element of their development plan? Anyone applied through their own job pages recently? What would that look like? Anybody willing to try it?