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.