The silver lining in a lousy economy is employee retention, but as economic prospects brighten, most firms are thinking about ways to retain talent, according to the latest study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) on the subject of organizational turnover and engagement. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into big raises for most employees, who have seen few pay raises of late.

In this down economy, the study, the full results of which are now available to i4cp members in both standard and interactive form, found that higher market performing companies are more than twice as likely to offer pay raises to keep key talent from walking out the door than are lower performers.

The study showed that 18% of high-performing organizations have already taken the step of increasing compensation levels to reduce turnover, compared to 7% of lower performers. Over the next six to 12 months, the same ratio of high performers (18%) plan to implement pay raises, while almost a quarter (24%) of lower performers have plans to do so.

Read the full release.

Tags: new economy, research, employee retention, employee engagement, turnover, performance

Categories: Research | The Economy

Bill Conaty spent 40 years with General Electric, 15 of which as senior vice president for human resources. Now he works with private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and several Fortune 100 companies consulting on human resources leadership.

Conaty is speaking at the World Business Forum about talent management. Here’s a quick preview of the points he’ll make.

Attracting, developing, assessing and retaining world-class talent are the four critical leadership development building blocks that need to be addressed by any business to ensure a robust pipeline and a solid succession plan for the future. 

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Tags: talent management, employee development, performance, leadership

Categories: News

The study, conducted in May 2009, analyzes the future importance and current performance of people management practices relative to a manufacturer’s business success. It also reveals the challenges manufacturers are facing with talent shortages and offers strategies to address them.

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Tags: skills gap, talent management, management, performance, economic downturn

Categories: Research | The Economy

Waco, TX (PRWEB) – Profiles International, a global leader in employment evaluation and human resource management assessment tools, recently completed a report detailing the ways that companies can maximize their productivity by adapting effective management practices used by America’s most productive companies.

“We received such good feedback on our report outlining America’s Most Productive Companies that we decided to take a more in-depth look at how other companies might achieve the same success. This report outlines the top five ‘people factors’ that drive productivity for these companies, and then recommends specific practices that other companies might use in order to enjoy the same kind of success,” said Jim Sirbasku, co-founder and CEO of Profiles International.

The five people factors that are identified in the report include a performance-drive culture, effective managers, high employee utilization, high employee effectiveness, and the encouragement of innovation. They conducted a series of surveys based on these factors in order to gain further insight into the practices that separate the “most productive” companies from their peers.

Read the full release.

Tags: productivity, performance, innovation, managers

Categories: News

Businesses large and small have incorporated talent management to some degree. But before a human resources professional can leverage talent management initiatives within any organization, it must be quite clear how these initiatives impact the bottom line. Without recognizing the challenges and potential issues, without creating solutions and action plans, talent management could fail tremendously, wasting organizational dollars and precious time that human resources managers may not have.

Bouvier Williams, Vice President of Talent Management for MTV Networks, shares how he has leveraged talent management across an array of brands while linking the initiatives to the organizational needs?and showing the true impact it has on the bottom line.

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Tags: talent management, business acumen, performance, development

Categories: News

Have you seen the special event posted on the ASTD website? Marcus Buckingham will be delivering a webcast on “The Performance Multiplier: How to Use the Four Principles of Social Networking to Reinvent Performance Management”. During this webcast, you'll learn how to harness the power of an organization's strengths by creating an intense focus on performance and matching people with the right opportunities to play to their strengths. Whether you are responsible for performance management in your organization, management of a team, or contributing on a team, this webcast is for you.

The Performance Multiplier: How to Use the Four Principles of Social Networking to Reinvent Performance Management
Wednesday, September 9 at 2 p.m. ET

Capacity is limited, so be sure to act quickly. For a full description of the webcast and for instructions on how to sign up, please follow this link:
http://www.astd.org/content/education/Webcasts/buckingham.htm

Tags: membership, training, webcast, international, marcus buckingham, social networking, performance

Categories: International

CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new survey commissioned by The Workforce Institute™ at Kronos^® Incorporated and conducted by Harris Interactive reveals that 40 percent of respondents whose workplaces experienced layoffs in the past year feel that the overall productivity of their organization has been negatively impacted. The “Productivity Drain” survey examines what this means for employees and what they think their employers should be doing to be positioned for success as the economy rebounds.

News Facts

• 38 percent of respondents employed full or part-time said there had been layoffs in the past year at their primary place of employment. 

• Of those respondents who said that productivity had been negatively impacted by layoffs: 66 percent said that morale has suffered and people are less motivated;64 percent said that there is too much work and not enough people to do it; 37 percent said the wrong people or departments were laid off, leaving inefficient systems and workflows; and 36 percent said they are concerned that as the economy picks up, they won’t have the right resources to meet demand.

Tags: economy, performance, productivity, workplace, engagement

Categories: The Economy

(From Newswise) Your mother was right: You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Even in Corporate America, where just being nice can save a company millions of dollars.

USC Marshall School of Business professor Christine Porath discovered that employee rudeness hurts the bottom line while researching The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It, which published July 9. She co-wrote the book with Christine Pearson, who is a professor of management at Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Porath and Pearson state that job stress in the United States accounts for $300 billion in losses, as an uncivil workplace reduces productivity (aka "slacking off") as workers spend time looking for other jobs or helping others to do so. In addition, according to Porath and Pearson's research, 80 percent of employees who were victims of insults or bullying in the workplace lost valuable work time worrying about the incident and 78 percent said their commitment to the organization declined.

Read the full article.

Tags: workplace, stress, productivity, performance

Categories: News

NEW YORK, July 8, 2009…The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence, which had increased in the first quarter of 2009, surged in the second quarter. The Measure improved to 55, up from 30 last quarter (a reading of more than 50 points reflects more positive than negative responses). The survey includes about 100 business leaders in a wide range of industries.

“CEOs are considerably more optimistic than last time about the short-term outlook, however, their assessment of current conditions, while also improved, suggests the economy remains weak,” says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Among those expecting an increase in profits over the next year, the majority see cost reductions as the primary driver.”

CEOs’ assessment of current economic conditions was considerably less pessimistic. Now, 32 percent claim conditions have improved compared to six months ago, up from zero percent last quarter. In assessing their own industries, business leaders were also much less negative. Now, 24 percent claim conditions are better, up from just one percent in the first quarter.

Looking ahead six months, CEOs are much more optimistic. Nearly 55 percent of business leaders expect economic conditions to improve in the next six months, up from approximately 17 percent last quarter. Expectations for their own industries were also more optimistic, with 45 percent of CEOs anticipating an improvement in the months ahead, up from 26 percent last quarter.

Cost Reductions Seen as Primary Driver of Profits

On the issue of profit expectations over the next 12 months, 46 percent of executives anticipate increases. Executives engaged in the durable goods industry are the most optimistic, with 77 percent expecting profits to increase. Executives in the non-durable goods industry are second, with 64 percent anticipating a rise in profits.

Among chief executive officers who expect profits to increase, 56 percent believe cost reductions will drive profits up, while 33 percent cite market/demand growth as the main source of improvement. Only 7 percent cite new technology as a driver of growth and the remaining 4 percent cite price increases.

Survey results were fielded from mid-May to mid-June.

Source: CEO Confidence 2nd Quarter 2009

The Conference Board

Tags: economy, performance, c-suite, business news

Categories: The Economy

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the global recession wears on, employees are feeling increasing stress in the workplace that, if left unchecked, could impact business performance, according to Towers Perrin’s Workplace Watch, a newly launched quarterly look at employee opinions across a set of large global organizations. Based on opinions of more than 650,000 employees, Towers Perrin found that only 55% of workers agree they can balance work and personal responsibilities, down from 62% just one quarter earlier. On the other hand, employee engagement -- a key indicator of organization performance -- has held steady through the first quarter of this year.

While the global engagement gap that Towers Perrin has measured and tracked for more than a decade remains, the current crisis has not, surprisingly, widened that gap. Contributing to this outcome is the fact that employees are actually clearer about their job responsibilities and have more confidence in their long-term career opportunities now than a year ago.

But the data also confirm a drop in employees’ understanding of their company’s goals and long-term direction, as well as in their positive perceptions of leadership’s overall effectiveness -- both of which could signal the beginning of a downturn in engagement levels as this year progresses.

(Read the entire release.)

Tags: economy, performance, training investment

Categories: The Economy