One in three Job Seekers Working Full Time
Welcome to the October 4, 2006 edition of The Total View published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe 1. One in three job seekers working full time The warning bells about retaining skilled workers and the lack of available skilled candidates to replace them have been ringing loudly for several years. Many employers have opted to tune them out. That is unfortunate because the turnout of job seekers and employers at the 2006 Lancaster (PA) Chamber Job Fair again confirms the search for skilled workers is not only hot but heating up. Employers should be concerned that more than one-third of the job seekers attending the 2006 Lancaster Chamber Job Fair were already employed and working full time. For the fourth straight year, Success Performance Solutions surveyed participants entering the Job Fair, held on September 20. A perfect fall day attracted nearly 900 job seekers plus another 500 students. Under the grandstands at The Clipper Stadium, home of the Atlantic League Champions Lancaster Barnstormers, the job seekers met up with sixty-five businesses looking to find their diamond in the rough. Fifty-four percent of the employed respondents seeking new jobs at the job fair fell in the 27- to 54-years old age group. To employers that means more than half their replacements workers, employees ready to move up into managerial and professional roles as baby boomers retire and others leave, are looking to job hop. These results are consistent with the 2004 and 2005 surveys. The impending Perfect Labor Storm, according to author Ira S Wolfe and president of Success Performance Solutions. is not just about a shortage of workers. The problem is severely exacerbated by a lack of skilled employees. Over fifty percent of the employed job seekers held only a high school or GED diploma while as few as one-third completed an associate degree or higher level of education. When asked to rate their overall job skills, less than twenty-nine percent of the job seekers considered them excellent while over twenty-six percent reported they only had average or below average skills. Computer skills didn't fare quite as well. Only sixteen percent of the respondents rated their computer skills as excellent. Satisfaction with the work employees are doing isn't the primary reason for job hopping despite the fact that only fourteen percent were extremely satisfied. Less than four percent of currently employed job seekers were extremely satisfied with their pay and less than one-quarter were very satisfied. Satisfaction with current benefits didn't rate much better: Just over seven percent were extremely satisfied and twenty-seven percent were very satisfied. What would make an employee jump ship? Like past years, better pay was the most sought after benefit followed by respect and recognition from supervisors and job security. Regardless of what a candidate considered the most important benefit, health care benefits ranked second. The true cost of losing a key seasoned player is hard to estimate. Once he or she leaves, the value of the accumulated knowledge goes out the door too. If the Lancaster job pool is any indication about what's ahead, employers take notice: your employees are shopping for jobs and the replacement worker inventory is low and a bit of short on skills. To view the full report and sub-report of employed job seekers, go to Full report:
Employee only report:
============================================= 2. Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #579 to 580 Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm. Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites. Just Released! Listen to "Trends That Will Change The Way You Do Business" - FREE Download:
Fact #579: More than 60 percent of Wal-Mart employees--600,000 people--are forced to get health insurance coverage from the government or through spouses' plans--or live without any health insurance. The estimated total amount of federal assistance for which Wal-Mart employees were eligible in 2004 was $2.5 billion. ["Harper's Index," Harper's Magazine, Vol. 310, No. 1858, 3/2005] Fact #580: When other companies get tired of paying the bill for Wal-Mart, they drop or reduce health care benefits for their employees. There are more than 40 million uninsured working families. The more Wal-Mart grows, so do the number of the uninsured. Don't be caught in storm without all the facts. "The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is a must-read leading edge forecast that predicts workforce trends for decades to come. Order your copy today - Only $7.95.
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============================================= 4. The Value of 360 Degree Feedback Many employees in today's work environment are "feedback poor." This means they do not receive accurate feedback of how well they are doing. Adding to this problem, corporate culture and social rules can often impede honest discussions about a person's performance, especially his or her weaknesses. So what does an organization need to improve its overall performance if it is so hard for employees to learn how to improve themselves? The answer is 360-degree feedback. Multi-rater or 360 degree feedback is a tool used in many organizations for helping employees at all levels gain insight into their strengths and developmental needs by providing feedback from multiple perspectives -- peers, subordinates, managers, and internal and external customers. More about 360 Degree Feedback:
============================================== 5. Quotes from Hire Authorities A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor ============================================== 6. Get JobClues 24/7, including Leadership and HealthCare Clues JobClues?, a part of the CLUES? Assessments family of products, was designed by Leonard Goodstein, Ph.D. and Richard Lanyon, Ph.D. It is perhaps the world's leading psychometric assessment for screening employees. Business managers have tested more than 100,000 employees with JobClues? to measure how well they fit a job description. JobClues? requires just 15 minutes on-line. Learn more about Clues at:
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