http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog Exploring the potholes on the road to motivated employees and loyal customers. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:24:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=21 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=20 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=19 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=18 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=17 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=15 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=14 Ok, so we have probably all felt married to our job at one time or another. But seriously? Would you? . 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=13 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; ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=12 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 ... http://www.tycheconsulting.com/blog/?p=11