Inside Human Resources Blog

Communication Skills Top The Most Desirable Trait List

The 95 Best Places to Launch a Career were listed in this week's Business Week issue (September 24, 2007). This is the 2nd year for the report. 

While not drawing attention to the following, the article included the "most desirable trait" sought along with the ranking of the top 95 companies (only the top 50 were listed in the print magazine).

Nearly 53 percent of the best places for entry-level workers to launch their careers listed a specific talent or competency as the most desirable trait required to be hired, as opposed to college major or GPA,  Twenty-three listed communication traits as most desirable trait, while 18 others listed analytical skills and leadership skills.  This supports the growing recognition that specific talents are more important in predicting successful performance than education and grades. 

For a complete listing of the rankings, go to "The Best Places to Launch a Career."

To learn more about identifying high potential candidates with the right talents for your organization, go to Strategic Success Model.

BELOIT COLLEGE'S MINDSET LIST® FOR THE CLASS OF 2011

Each year, Beloit College releases a list of events that shaped the values and behaviors of the most recent group of young adults entering college.  In just a few short years - or sooner - this Generation Y cohort will enter our workforce and your workplace.  To give you a brief look into the mindset of these up and coming workers, keep reading.

Most of the students entering College this fall, members of the Class of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead. 

1. What Berlin Wall?
2. Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.
3. Rush Limbaugh and the "Dittoheads" have always been lambasting liberals.
4. They never "rolled down" a car window.
5. Michael Moore has always been angry and funny.
6. They may confuse the Keating Five with a rock group.
7. They have grown up with bottled water.
8. General Motors has always been working on an electric car.
9. Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
10. Pete Rose has never played baseball.

To view the entire list, go to Beloit College Mindset List for Class of 2011.

Fat U.S. Workers Thinning Employer Wallets

Like tens of millions of other Americans, I’ve got a problem – I’m too short for my weight.   According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) “body mass index” (BMI), I am 4 inches too short for my 185 pounds.  

Of course, I have a good excuse.  After climbing stairs at the health club several hours every week plus putting my abs and other parts of my body through crunches, stretches and other tortuous activities, I figure the excess weight I’m carrying away must be heavy muscle mass. It certainly can’t be a result of overeating.

But however I rationalize it, I sadly share a similar fate with two-thirds of U.S. adults – obese or overweight.  These alarming statistics were just released by the Trust for America’s Health in its fourth annual report titled, “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America.”

In 32 states, 60 percent of the population is either overweight or obese. In West Virginia that number climbs to nearly two-thirds of adults.  In Mississippi almost one in three adults are obese.  What would it take for our friends in Ole Miss to get fit?  For anyone 5 foot, 9 inches tall, they would have to lose almost 40 pounds or grow to 6 foot, 5 inches tall!  And that is if they were just marginally obese.  Many of these people need to lose 100 or more pounds or become 8 foot giants to achieve normal weight.

Nationwide, more than 25 percent of adults in 19 states are obese. If you go back to 1991, only 4 states had obesity rates about 15 percent. None exceeded 20 percent.

Beyond all the health risks associated with obesity, this excess poundage creating fat medical bills for employers and putting bottom lines on a crash-diet.

Four studies linking obesity to increased employer costs for health care and worker compensation were released recently:

1. Moderate and severe obesity were linked to annual health care cost increases of 21% and 75%, respectively.  (Medstat Group, Inc.)
2. Duke University Medical Group linked obesity to higher medical costs and 13 times the number of lost work days than non-obese workers. Obese employees had medical costs seven times higher.
3. In a study at John Hopkins, 85% of the injured workers were classified as obese or overweight.
4. Obese employees run up medical care and pharmacy costs 75% more than a worker of normal weight (Thomson Healthcare).

Read more information about obesity and its effect on employee health and productivity in The Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, available at www.perfectlaborstorm.com.