A Conference Board survey of working people found that less than half of employees polled were “satisfied” with their jobs, with job dissatisfaction highest among employees under 25. Among the disturbing findings for employers was that older, more experienced workers who were dissatisfied were reluctant to share or pass on their job skills and experience to younger workers. Employers who are enjoying the current “glut” of applicants may find themselves blindsided by massive turnover when the economy improves - and it will. Now is the time to take steps to avoid staffing problems that will strike just as business is picking up.

National Public Radio’s Morning Edition reporting this morning that despite the enduring recession’s negative impact on jobs, over 3.4 million jobs are going unfilled because employers cannot find candidates with the necessary skills. For the majority of job seekers though, the market remains a grim place. Listen to the entire story here.

As if the economy did not give employers enough reason to put off hiring the people they need to grow their business, the Mental Health Parity Act, which kicks in January 1, 2010, is about to make your heath benefit plan even more expensive. In a nutshell the Act requires you to provide benefits for mental heath treatment that are on a par with medical/surgical benefits. And just as a nice touch, federal regulators have not yet written rules and guidelines for implementation. Thus does the US government “create jobs”.

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Merry Christmas!

Turnover has receded as the down economy has encouraged employees to hold on tightly to their jobs, whether or not they find them satisfying and engaging. And many employers are setting themselves up for a turnover crisis when economic activity improves and employment opportunities begin to expand again. Even in good times, studies suggest that more than half of your employees are actively looking for another job at any given time. They may be showing up for work and collecting a paycheck, but many of them have already checked out.

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A 2006 (better economy) research study of more than 300 organizational leaders from across Canada conducted by WarrenShepell, a leading provider of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and Canadian HR Reporter, Canada´s national journal of Human Resource management, concludes that there are seven critical factors that employers must manage in order to maintain a workforce that is engaged, loyal and productive. Interestingly, according to John Hobel, publisher and editor of Canadian HR Reporter, “…money, often mistakenly perceived to be one of the top reasons employees stay in their jobs, is not even in the top seven.”

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Now would be a good time to become familiar with these seven factors, before mental turnover morphs into real departures as the economy gets itself turned around.

I admit right up front that I am missing the “sales gene”. Selling is something that I have to work hard at, not something that comes naturally. I’ve been to a lot of training, and I make an effort every day to put it into practice. Over time it does become easier and, dare I say it, even kind of fun. But one thing that just doesn’t come easier seems to be asking for help. And maybe that’s why I sometimes struggle in sales.

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One of the things you need to do to sell is to “network”. There are all sorts of ways to do this but all of them involve getting out of the office and mingling with and meeting people. The ritual involves smiling, asking people what they do (while you mentally rehearse your 30-second speech) and then explaining to them in half a minute what it is you are selling. Then you exchange business cards and move on to the next smile. Sometimes you even meet someone who cares. After the event you throw away the business cards. This is the typical Chamber of Commerce event.

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The situation is somewhat better in regular networking groups that meet frequently and offer you a chance over time to really get to know the other members, understand their businesses and learn how to steer appropriate referrals their way. They are more focused on building relationships than collecting business cards. But even here, there is this emphasis on quickly explaining what you do and then letting everyone else have a turn.

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I was at a networking lunch today that I attend on a weekly basis, and I made a startling discovery.  People LIKE to help you! They often just really are not sure how best to do it. Instead of my standard networking spiel, today I shortened it to a few seconds (after all, most of the people there had heard my “30 second commercial” enough times to deliver it themselves) and then said “I really need your help. Here’s how you can help me.” And I told them. Very briefly, very clearly and very specifically.

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The results were startling. People stopped their routine to ask me questions and request more detail. My allotted time came and went and people still wanted to know more. Three of them promised to connect me with people they thought could probably use my help. Two more agreed to meet for coffee later in the week so they could find out more about what I did, and let me know how I might be able to help them. It was by far the most productive sales day I ever had with this group. All because I decided to just ask them for help and tell them exactly how they could assist me.

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I don’t know if this was a fluke or if it is something fundamental about people and selling. But from now on I intend to  make asking for the help I need the centerpiece of my networking effort.

In the USA employee turnover averages about 12% (and in the call center industry about 35%) and about 75% of “new” hiring is done to replace an employee who left, according to a 1996 study by William H. Pinkovitz, Joseph Moskal and Gary Green. Of course this was well before the current economic meltdown and certainly turnover has declined as people cling more tightly to the “security” of a paycheck. But downturns end and we can expect the numbers to trend back toward their typical values, possibly after a post-recession “spike” as people begin to bail out of jobs for ones they consider better.

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The cost of all this to a company is commonly estimated at about 150% of annual wages/salary (and 200%+ for sales and managerial positions), but obviously this will vary from industry to industry and even company to company within an industry group. In his article “The Cost of Employee Turnover“, William Bliss, President of Bliss & Associates, a Wayne, NY consultancy has enumerated the various components of turnover costs and concluded that replacing a $50,000 a year employee can easily cost a company $75,000 or more. Any way you slice this cake its big money.

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But what does this mean to you? What are your numbers? The Pinkovits, et al article provides a nice cost calculator that you can use as a starting point to make one of your own. Its worth the effort. It might just be a real eye opener.

In his excellent book First Things First, personal development guru Stephen Covey introduces the concept of a “Law of the Farm”. In a nutshell, this suggests the commonsense principle that if you want to reap wheat during the harvest season you had better be planting wheat now and caring for it in the interim. If you want wheat, you better not be planting corn. If you aren’t planting anything then don’t be surprised if your wheat crop is scanty.

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In his FurstPerson blog, Jeff Furst points out that those of us responsible for filling seats at a call center are very much in a “Law of the Farm” moment. Because the call center industry is one of the few that is still doing significant new hiring it is creating an upsurge in the number of job applicants walking into call center HR offices. He suggests that call centers use the current economy and general hiring slowdown  to become much more selective in who we bring aboard, with an eye toward improving performance and reducing turnover over the long term.

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This is good advice not only for call centers but for any industry that is fortunate enough to be looking to hire additional employees right now. This includes healthcare, insurance, home and garden maintenance companies, wireless telephony organizations and many sectors in the retail industry. You will also find that there are sales jobs open nearly anywhere. Anyone in the happy position of needing to hire should be viewing it not only as a short term applicant boom, but as an opportunity to pick and choose people who will be assets to the company for the long haul.

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What steps ought hiring managers be taking right now to ensure a great harvest during the coming recovery?  Mostly the obvious ones.

1. Remember that everything is temporary. Eventually the economy will improve, the applicant pool will shrink back to more normal levels, and a lot of those “easy” hires will be leaving to take what they see as “better” or “more interesting” work.
2. Take the time now to know…. I mean to really KNOW…. what it is about your top performers that make them your top performers. Frame this in measurable, objective terms that examine not only their job skills but the attitudes, behaviors and interests that help them to excel.
3. Use this information to create verifiable “profiles” of your most successful and valued employees and put your profiles to work for you in the selection and hiring process.

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A little extra work now will reward you with a bountiful harvest later.

Ok, so we have probably all felt married to our job at one time or another. But seriously? Would you?

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In a February survey of  about 1,250 US adult employees working full or part time, some 15% professed such love for their work that they said they would be willing to marry their job. According to staffing automation software and performance management consultants Taleo, of Dublin, California, this is up from 9% at the same time last year.

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Given the current economic travails depressing the employment market, that is not really such a high number and smart employers are looking past the current glut of applicants hungry for any work they can find to the tightening that is sure to follow with the inevitable recovery. A 2004 Yahoo poll (when times were better and opportunities were abundant) found that nearly half (47%) of US workers were ready to change jobs “at the next opportunity”. Those numbers have fallen to about 25% in the current employment environment (with 13% now “actively looking”). The consequences of a large increase in employee turnover just as demand finally starts to accelerate are significant and go far beyond the obvious increase in hiring costs. For example, what it the impact on a company’s productivity, or even its ability to meet its production requirements, if 25% - 50% of its best and most experienced workers leave over a short period of time?

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Employers may not be able to make in-laws of their employees, but  now is the time to be laying the groundwork for retention programs that will at least keep them in the family when happy days are here again.

It is hard to get out of bed in the morning any more without being deluged by reports of massive job losses and layoffs. Whole industries seem to be shedding employees like autumn leaves. Unemployment at more than 7%; monthly lob losses in five figures; long lines at job fairs; Congress tripping over itself to “rescue” failing companies as the talking heads solemnly invoke Depression era images of breadlines and unspeakable financial disaster. But if we can take a little break from preparing for the end of “life as we know it”, a startling fact emerges. Some companies are still hiring! Some industries are still growing! There ARE jobs out there. But where?

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According to The Herman Group, a management consultancy focused on future trends in hiring, employment and workplace issues, companies are hiring in a variety of industries right now. “Companies are still hiring,” notes their 28 January Weekly Trend Report.  Among the specific companies cited are Whole Foods, Boston Consulting Group, Scotts Lawn Service, and Fortune Magazines “Best Place to Work” NetApp. Not only are individual companies still seeking employees, but whole industries continue to create jobs. The insurance industry, health care providers of all sorts, wireless telephony companies and … yes… call centers are all still hiring.

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Looking down the road a bit, the report suggests that “highly skilled workers will continue to enjoy opportunities no matter how high unemployment goes.” And regardless of your opinion of the government’s “economic stimulus” plans, massive spending on infrastructure projects are certain to be a part of any legislation. This bodes well for heavy construction and the many industries that support it. Alternative energy projects and “green” initiatives will also likely thrive under the new regime in Washington.

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None of this is to say that times aren’t hard right now. As Ronald Reagan famously said “When your neighbor loses his job, its a recession. When you lose your job its a depression.” But lets not lose sight of the fact that setbacks and challenges are not the same thing as a lack of opportunity. Even in these discouraging times, jobs and opportunities continue to be available.

I was recently speaking with a client about a persistent turnover problem that they were having with their front line service delivery staff. This was a small organization of about 200 total employees and half of them, more or less, were front line customer facing people. Turnover in this position was about 25%, not enough to be alarming but sufficient to keep Human Resources scrambling to recruit people fast enough to stay fully staffed (which they rarely were). We spent some time looking over the numbers and eventually decided that they were spending just a bit less than $90k every year on the turnover problem between hiring costs and training and lost productivity.

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Now in the days of tossing in $150B “sweeteners” to get a $700B bailout bill passed, $90k may not seem like a lot. But it is money spent year after year and producing absolutely no benefit. In fact the turnover was a serious drain on resources and a negative factor on morale, so the real  number was probably on the low side. But here is the thing…. when it came down to talking about investing a little time and money (and it truly was a little), they decided they were “too busy” just trying to hire people to be “distracted” from that to fix the problem causing them to be too busy hiring. Still with me here? And they did not have “the luxury” of picking good hires, they had to hire anyone who was remotely qualified to keep up with the turnover.

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Too busy scrambling to deal with the symptoms to fix the problem causing them to be too busy. Now I have to acknowledge that fixing the turnover problem would not be easy. In the short term things might get worse, and the pain might be greater. But 9 months or 12 months or 15 months later the leak would be plugged and the problem would gradually shrink down to something minor. In effect, they decided they would rather just keep dealing with the issue forever and throw the money out the window every year than make a focused effort to fix it. I wish this were a unique circumstance, but it is not. I have run into some variation on this theme many times in many organizations and in many different functional areas.

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Is there just something about people that makes them prefer to suffer along forever with “the devil they know” than to endure a short term pain and have it over with? I would sure like to figure out a way to motivate an organization to make the change when I find this sort of situation. But in over 20 years of consulting I have not found one yet. If anyone out there has, do share.