Perfect Labor Storm 2.0

One in Two Employers Impacted by a Talent Shortage

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While Washington Fiddles, U.S. Dropouts Burn

A U.S. debt crisis threatens to paralyze our government and disrupt the global economy.  But despite all the political posturing, the impasse will end sooner or later. 

What won’t end - and regrettably will get far worse due to budget cuts and falling revenues - is a high school dropout that is both discouraging and depressing.  Each year nearly four million kids begin ninth grade.  Nearly 1 million of them don't make it to graduation. That’s nearly one out of every four students fail to graduate. A fifth of schools identified by the U.S. Department of Education are identified as "dropout factories," where no more than 50 percent of students graduate.

The impact of the decision to leave school is lifelong, not only for the dropout but for every taxpayer. Dropouts are more likely to commit crimes, abuse drugs and alcohol, become teenage parents, live in poverty and commit suicide. Dropouts cost federal and state governments hundreds of billions of dollars in lost earnings, welfare and medical costs, and billions more for dropouts who end up in prison. Estimates of these costs run as high as 320 to 350 billion dollars.

Despite the staggering rate and associated costs, these rates may be conservative. They certainly are not accurate. Part of the problem is that every state has had a different definition for dropout. For example, in some states, students who leave school aren't counted as having dropped out if they enroll in adult education classes like night school or in a GED program. The U.S. Department of Education says GED recipients should be counted as dropouts - but few states and school apply the rule. Okay, you might argue, who cares how the student gets educated as long as they continue in school.

But get this? Students who did drop out because they go to prison aren’t counted either. Very few school districts count kids who are incarcerated — even in juvenile justice facilities. Some schools don't think they should be held responsible if a kid quits school because he gets in trouble with the law.

Responsibility in this case equates to funding. It's not in the interest of schools to have an honest, accurate account of dropouts — not just because a high dropout rate makes a school look bad, but also because there's serious money at stake. Most schools get funded based on attendance. If kids don't show up, schools lose money.

Some schools “fudge" the numbers by taking attendance at 10 a.m. rather than 8 a.m. - if kids show up at all, they come in late and would be counted absent if attendance was taken at the start or end of the day. A late roll call counts tardy students as present.

Why should employers care? The unemployment rate for dropouts right now is anywhere from 15 to 18 percent, double what it is for high school graduates. That’s an enormous financial burden on society and government which ultimately is paid for by mostly business taxes.  Possibly worse, dropouts in the future will essentially be unemployable, lacking even the most basic skills required to do even the simplest jobs.

So while all attention and theatrics is focused on the debt crisis, a high school dropout catastrophe simmers that will boil over if business, government, and the public don’t soon acknowledge the problem and begin to do something about it.

8 Reasons Why Recruitment of Employees Needs to Change

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Hidden Payroll Costs Significantly Drive Labor Costs Up

More articles about rising salaries and the cost of employee turnover seem to be surfacing again, concurrent with attrition trends pointing upward.  While many organizations consider cost of turnover just another cost of doing business that practice has increasingly serious implications for the bottom line. The costs are particularly troubling when the loss involves a top performing employee.

The recent KPMG 2011 U.S. Hospital Nursing Labor Costs Study identifies several trends and benchmarks in relation to hospital nursing labor costs in the United States.  Other businesses could learn quite a bit from the results as well, particularly the when it comes to “hidden” labor costs.

Respondents to the survey indicated it is not easy to quantify all labor costs related to full-time direct care registered hospital nurses and mentioned various “hidden” costs. These hidden costs may be significant and are the result of nonproductive labor hours and associated opportunity costs, attrition, and time required to fill a permanent direct care RN position.

On average, 13 percent of hours are believed to be nonproductive hours. This suggests that additional costs can be attributed to nonproductivity e.g., due to training, education, and personal internet use. These costs may be even higher if the nonproductive hours are made up during overtime at an average 1.5x base pay. It is recommended when calculating the “all-in” payroll cost of a registered nurse that 13 percent of payroll costs should be added. 

Respondents stated base wages of full-time registered hospital nurses are on average $56 thousand per year (or $26 per hour). Respondents further indicated that base wages on average 57 percent of all-in fully loaded cost ($98 thousand per year or $45 per hour).

The average attrition rate for registered nurses was 14 percent. Respondents stated it takes on average 37 days, or over seven work weeks, to fill a permanent RN position. Taking into the account the 233 hours, or 28 work days, that are on average spent on new hire orientation and training, it appears attrition could have an impact of almost 65 work days, or 13 work weeks, on productivity related to the affected position. 

During that time, contingent staff was required to fill the open position or overtime hours were offered to existing staff. In some cases, services may be curtailed for lack of critical support.  In addition, managers and human resources are diverting attention to recruitment and replacement rather than retention and engagement of the current workforce. 

In addition to base wages, insurance costs, and non-productive time, recruitment costs added another 2 percent to all-in payroll costs. 

Quite a few lessons could be learned from this study.  The most significant story is the impact of hidden payroll costs on the bottom line. To lower and control payroll costs:

1. Calculate “all-in” payroll costs.  Most companies already compute and track the obvious costs – base wages and insurance costs.  But few businesses monitor “hidden” costs including the cost of turnover.  Start today.
2. Don’t be penny-wise, pound foolish. Assign a dollar amount to time-to-fill open positions.  That extra dollar your experienced employee is demanding may be a drop in the bucket compared to finding his or her replacement.
3. Track rate of turnover.  Find out why employees leave, then do something about it.  In addition to higher levels of employee engagement and customer satisfaction, employee retention saves lots of dollars on recruitment costs and lowers hidden payroll costs. 

All Work, No Games: No Business Benefit

Games are not just kid's play anymore.

The application of gaming technology in everyday business has become so popular we now have a name for it- gamification.  Gamification is an opportunity to enhance normally mundane learning experiences and operational functions for increased motivation and increased performance.  At the most rudimentary level consider the frequent flier programs. They are really 21st century scavenger hunts where customers are rewarded for "finding" items with different points. To the winner goes the spoils. Customers begin to make buying decisions based on points to get that brass ring.  One of the newest entries in the gaming of business are the location networking services like Foursquare and Facebook Places where frequent visitors are rewarded with badges like "mayor." The mayor then may receive special benefits or perks from the company they favor.

At this point you might be wondering how the heck your business could use games for improved performance and not more playtime for your employees.

Natron Baxtor Applied Gaming offers one solution. They call it "The Garden.". The Garden motivates employees toward higher levels of productivity through its integrated desktop interface. Response times and activities directed toward customers and team members are monitored. Player response times provide the flora with water, sunlight, and fertilizer. Failure to respond quickly - or at all - causes the garden to wilt and makes it susceptible to pests. The garden responds to attention: the faster and more frequent response, the more new plants and animals arrive.

Now consider how a game like this might increase referrals and leads. Or what it might do to meet or beat a project deadline and increase collaboration, especially as more workers find themselves telecommuting and working virtual. Games like this are now being used to onboard new employees, immersing both the recent hire and the existing workforce in the process. The Garden unifies employee behavior with corporate objectives.

Increasing the use of games in your business might also be the perfect prescription for the organization that finds itself facing a Baby Boomer brain drain, high turnover in the Generation Y workforce, or a disruptive rift between old and young workers. 55 and older is the fastest growing demographic using social networking sites on Facebook and Gen Y grew up with gaming devices, and now mobile devices, as extensions of their fingers. What better way to connect multiple genertions in the workforce.

Game technology comes in all shapes and sizes from social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook to the virtual 3-D world of Second Life. Multiplayer online games like IBM's Innov8 are being used to improve collaboration, productivity, and engagement. Games are being used to inform, reinforce, and embed business strategy, to drive motivation, and stimulate innovation. As the benefits of using game technology for business performance becomes more mainstream, you can't resist asking if an organization's next hire might not be a Chief Gaming Officer?

What do you think? How is your organization using gaming technology?
Do you see any drawbacks?

One-third of US Workers Fed Up; Looking for New Jobs

Unless you’ve just woken up from a 10 year sleep, it won’t come as any surprise that workers are fed up with their employers. Workers across the board share this feeling.

Mercer, the global HR consulting firm, found that nearly one third (32 percent) of American workers are considering leaving their organization, that’s a 40 percent increase since 2005. As bad as that sounds, another 21 percent says they are not looking to leave but are dissatisfied with current working conditions.  That means that more than half of all employees (53 percent) have mentally checked out of work.  That raises a question I asked several years ago to a group of business owners:  “How many unemployed people do you have on your payroll?”

The numbers can be staggering and the root cause in many cases can be traced back to managers and supervisors.

Many supervisors possess sufficient skills to handle day-to-day production activities. Unfortunately few are true people managers – those managers and leaders who understand the motivational challenges that derail many workers. Even more troubling is how few are trained to avoid such traps in advance.

The failure to appreciate and understand what motivates workers is the weak link that leaves organizations vulnerable to employee burnout, disengagement, and employee turnover. Teaching supervisors how to manage and motivate effectively is both the prevention and the cure for controlling the spread of what I have called the Attitude Virus.

Just as the government funds the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose experts tackle health issues among the general population, businesses need Centers for Attitude Improvement and Employee Engagement, staffed with experts who tackle motivational issues in the workplace.

What follows are four steps that an organization can follow to immunize the workplace and end bad attitudes:

1. Diagnose. Recognize that there is an attitude problem. This requires an honest assessment of the organization from top-down, then extending out to your vendors, suppliers and customers. Acknowledge any underlying causes of the Attitude Virus and take responsibility for removing them.
2. Assess. Select and promote only supervisors who have the skills or potential to manage, and provide the tools and training they need to detect a contagious worker or new hire, before their “bad attitude disease” leeches the morale and motivation from the healthy workers. Effective supervisors hold the keys to employee retention and profitability.
3. Treat. Take responsibility for upgrading the skills of your first line of defense, the frontline supervisors and managers, who battle such “infections” and “exposures” on a daily basis. Develop and train supervisors to have the skills to “quarantine” or treat infected workers and coach them back to health. The Virus is mutating almost daily, and continuous learning is crucial.
4. Monitor, monitor, monitor. Just as attending a diet class and waiting for the pounds to drop off is ludicrous, providing skills training without reinforcement, feedback and re-testing is equally bad. Identify the skills that differentiate your highly effective managers from the average performers, develop training that is specific and responsive to those specific skills, and provide ongoing feedback and post-assessment to monitor progress and ensure protection.

Now is the time to attack the Attitude Virus and immunize your organization. Companies that are Attitude Virus-free will continue to grow and prosper, because they know how to select positive workers and quarantine their infected employees (either nurture and rehabilitate them back to health or “delete” them before they infect other workers.)

A work culture clean and free of the Attitude Virus is rewarded with a healthy bottom line, high rates of employee retention, and continuous productivity improvements.

Monster News for Recruiting: New Facebook App Rivals LinkedIN

Monster.com, the online career board, announced yesterday (June 26th) that they are set to launch a professional social networking rival to LinkedIn on Monday, June 27th, 2011. The new professional networking site is called BeKnown and will operate on Facebook’s platform. Click on the link to find out how the new service works.

What does launching of BeKnown mean to recruiters?

1. Larger and younger market. As most people in the talent acquisition industry know, LinkedIn has become a major force in the corporate recruiting market. The company’s stellar IPO and rapid growth as “the professional social network” has created a transformational platform for corporate recruiters and job seekers.  Corporate recruiting is LinkedIn’s fastest growing revenue stream, and the company is now aggressively building new tools and services.  Today the LinkedIn network has around 100 million users and is growing at a rate of nearly 3 million per month.

Facebook reportedly has over 700 million users and many of the users are not on LinkedIn yet. Facebook users keep in touch with friends, play games, share photos and family news, publish personal information, and often promote information about their children, pets, and local activities.  They even publish their location. And as the data below shows, they tend to be younger, of a lower household income, and of a slightly lower education level. And because of the way Facebook works, the information they share is not “sanitized” or “edited” for business purposes.

The following chart reveals the demographic differences between these networks. 
 
Fig 1:  Facebook vs. LinkedIn vs. Monster Networks (Comscore March, 2011)

So despite the LinkedIn’s rapid growth, there is a huge pool of young professionals on Facebook, who do not take an advantage of professional social networking. BeKnown has the potential to bring a professional social networking to this large Facebook audience without mixing the professional and social identities. Also, as we can see from the chart, Monster’s client base is very similar to the Facebook’s, which makes the Facebook platform an ideal place for launching BeKnown.

2. The Use of Social Networks for Corporate Recruiting. It turns out, as the LinkedIn financials show, that social networks are powerful recruiting and job seeking tools. The $120 billion corporate recruiting industry is being transformed (and upset) by LinkedIn because the system is such a powerful tool for recruiters to find passive candidates.  People in the LinkedIn network maintain their profile actively, giving recruiters a real-time, highly accurate database from which to search and contact candidates. Recruiting companies are losing the value of their networks. Large job boards like Monster.com, CareerBuilder, The Ladders, and others are seeing job seekers (and recruiters) move their dollars and energy toward LinkedIn. The launch of BeKnown is a major move to change these dynamics and give Monster a significant opportunity to play in the Facebook network of job seekers and recruitment needs.

3. BeKnown – professional social network on Facebook. BeKnown will appear as an application on Facebook, but after you join and create an account you begin managing your professional network outside of Facebook. Your professional network isn’t limited to your  Facebook friends. In fact, your Facebook friends are not being revealed on BeKnown.

Some other key features include:

• The ability to invite connections from both Facebook and your LinkedIn network, Gmail, Yahoo, and other email systems;
• The ability to share different information and photos professionally than you do in Facebook today (a major important feature);
• The ability to claim and manage company profiles;
• The ability to post and share jobs;
• The ability to earn “badges,” which are professional achievements (a form of game rewards) for having the most number of connections, a large number of connections at the executive level, helping and endorsing others, etc.;
• The ability to give references and focus these recommendations based on a friend’s competencies or capabilities;
• The ability to follow companies and view jobs from those companies, which are matched against your BeKnown profile (and your Monster.com profile);
• Support for 19 languages.

4. Jobs. Since Monster is a talent acquisition company, the system has some unique features to help businesses recruit people.  It will proactively display your jobs which can be recommended by the potential employee’s friends (creating a “JobVite”-like referral network).  This is a significant opportunity for job seekers - making it very easy for them to see a customized feed of jobs that fits their interests every time they log on. Monster is giving the ability for the recruiters to post a fee for referrals and reward users who brought the person to the job. BeKnown is also free to recruiters. Monster jobs are incorporated there, so any user will see a good amount of jobs beginning on day one.

The BeKnown system has the ability to become a major force in the professional social networking. BeKnown extends Facebook with features to make recruiting far easier.  Recruiters can easily set up company pages, post jobs, create referral networks, and leverage existing Monster job listings among the BeKnown network.  The system’s features for badging, job sharing, job referrals, and company pages should quickly create a “market for jobs” which builds upon Facebook’s reach, but bypasses Facebook’s more generalized advertising system.

High Unemployment: Slow job creation is just part of the problem

By most accounts, the nation has weathered the worst economic downtown since The Great Depression.  But mere survival just won't be good enough this time around to transform our workforce back to greatness.

It’s no secret that our recovery has been hampered by slow job growth.  Our economy thrives when we people have good jobs with good wages. These wages are used to buy more things which puts more people back to work. The more demand for products and services, the more jobs we create. The economy grows when we provide a world class education to the next generations of innovators and inventors, who then become entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers that create new jobs. The problem this time is that we haven’t created enough new jobs fast enough, at least jobs that are based in the U.S.

Slow job creation however is just part of the problem. A much more significant cause is a shift in the nature of work and type of jobs being created.  Even when jobs created in 2011 have the same title as those created in 1991, the skill requirements are drastically different.  According to consulting giant McKinsey & Co., nearly 85% of new jobs created between 1998 and 2006 involved complex "knowledge work" like problem-solving and sculpting corporate strategy. That scenario has scripted a dramatic gap in the workplace between candidates seeking jobs and their qualifications required to fill them.

To make my point, a friend of my wife recently lost her job.  She worked in banking and the mortgage business for nearly 30 years.  You couldn’t ask for a more conscientious, honest, hard-working person.  Her next employer would get an employee of the highest character, if that’s all the counted.  But Betty (not her real name) lacked the skills most employers require these days. Unfortunately Betty didn’t recognize the skill gap.  When I asked her to describe her computer skills, she proudly shared she was “really good with Quickbooks and email.” But when I asked her about her proficiency with Word and Excel, she responded, “I’m really just too old to learn that stuff. That’s for younger people.”

And that’s the problem.  Computer skills – which today accounts for so much more than checking email and typing letters – aren’t just skills you can pass off onto “young people.”  Every worker - regardless of age - needs them along with minimum levels of proficiency with software and Internet skills.  Employees also need the ability to adapt, collaborate, think critically, and even work virtually.  Unfortunately the labor pool is filled with a lot of job seekers named Betty.

To learn more about how this job restructuring is impacting our recovery and shaping the Future of Work,  let’s begin by describing a few terms associated with the nature of work:

Transformational: Jobs that involve the extraction of raw material and converting them into finished goods.  Examples of transformational jobs are mining coal, running heavy machinery, or production line workers.  Once the type of job that defined progress and a robust economy, only 15% of American workers took jobs in this category by the turn of the 21^st century.

Transactional: Jobs that involve routine interactions. Examples of transactional jobs would be cashiers, office and accounting clerks.  Most of these jobs have become commodities and if not already outsourced, they’ve become automated.

Tacit: Jobs that involve more complex interactions – knowledge jobs. Examples of jobs in this category would include Executive/Manager, Nurse, Salespeople, and Mediators.  Many experts would even include positions like customer service representatives. Today even the CSR requires a vast knowledge base and advanced skills to service a diverse population who present complex problems.

For many years, companies have followed the Alfred Sloan pyramid style of business: a limited amount of tacit type of workers at the top supported by a large base of transformational and transactional types of workers.  This organizational model just isn’t working anymore. A new global marketplace demands an increase in the tacit workforce. It demands a new way of thinking.  No one is going to pay workers anymore just to show up. 

Or as Edward Gordon, author of “Winning the Global Talent Showdown” explains it , “we only have 20% to 25% of the current workforce that fits into jobs that are in high demand right now…”  Gordon describes this as, “An abundance of labor, and poverty of talent.”  

In other words, despite high unemployment rates, the U.S. does not have enough people with the right skills to fill the jobs that are being created. We do however have an ample supply of people ready, willing, and able to fill jobs that are or should be obsolete. That gap between job openings and skilled workers will keep unemployment high even if job creation ramps up.

How To Recruit Millennials and Recent College Grads

Whether we like it or not, Baby Boomers are tapering off in the workforce. It’s leaving a skills and employee gap that needs to be filled. Millennials, also referred to as Generation Y, will help fill in the gap. They will also bring fresh ideas and an enthusiasm and motivation not seen in years. 

But recruiting and retaining these young workers won’t be a piece of cake. Many employers argue that young workers lack loyalty and have a poor work ethic.  That’s only one part of a bigger story.

But rather than debate the shortcomings of Generation Y or how business and economy have fallen short, let’s take a look at the solutions for the impending recruitment climate change employers face moving forward.

Millennials will take a job because they want to work there, not because they have to.  The decision to take a position or not involves many factors.  A good job is no longer defined by money alone.  A recent Corporate Executive Board study revealed that 80 percent of Millennials will stay with the organization if future career opportunities are available; 70 percent will stay for development opportunities.  Only 61 percent selected compensation as the most important factor.

In other words, what young people are looking for is making a difference in the world, or the company. “Millennials are far less likely than Boomers at the same age to agree with statements like “the most important things that happen in my life involve work,” and “life is worth living only when people get absorbed in work.” (Collegiate Employment Research Institute, 2007)

Success will come from differentiating your business from the rest of the competition. “Get them interested early on”, says Neil Howe bestselling author of Millennials in the Workplace.  Offering internship possibilities is a great way to catch their attention. That’s a good thing because according to NACE’s 2011 Internship & Co-op Survey, internships are an integral and ever-important part of the college recruiting scene. The survey finds that employers expect to increase internship hiring by about 7 percent this year and co-op positions by nearly 9 percent. Furthermore, they will draw approximately 40 percent of their new college hires for 2011 from their internship and co-op programs.

The Class of 2011 Study released by iloverewards.com states some of the best ideas as they come straight from the horse’s mouth: Millennials spoke out about will interest them in a particular company and how to keep them there:

• I’d like to hear more about corporate culture in job descriptions.
• I’d like to see companies recruit more via local job fairs at off-campus school locations, along with on-line virtual career fairs.
• If a company makes a recruit feel like they would be valued at the company, recruits would be more likely to work for them.
• If I were given the choice of picking my own employer, some of the things that I would consider would be how established the company has been over the course of its life, the moral values by which the company is guided and operates under and last but not least the work environment.

It is also well worth noting that 88% of new recruits will seek you out directly if your company branding strategy speaks to the values of Millennials. Seventy-two percent say they will use an on campus career service while more than one third will find their next employer through social media – (7% Facebook, 28% LinkedIn, and 2% Twitter.)  Only 28%, down 6% from the year prior, search for a job using newspaper ads.

The survey also revealed what terms young recruits use when searching for a job.  they use for seeking a job: 25% Position Title, 23% Entry level jobs, 19% Entry level careers, 15% Industry Title, and 18% Company Name.

It is also recognized that parents are well involved with their up and coming Millennials in searching for an employment opportunity.  The Collegiate Employment Research Institute reports that,
“Nearly a quarter of all employers have “sometimes” or “very often” seen parents involved in the recruitment and employment of recent college graduates. Forty percent of employers report that parents have called them requesting information about the company; 4 percent report parents actually attending the interview.

Although there is a fine line with this topic, Neil Howe recommends offering a constructive environment, rather than trying to block the parents.   “Keep the parents of young hires in the loop with parent newsletters or a parent section of your website. Allow them to engage personally with their children’s work environ¬ment through visiting days or special events.”

Read more: “6 Ways Parents Can Help Millennial Children Job Hunt.”

When all is said and done, Generation Y isn’t asking for things that are so different from any other generation: they want to be respected and recognized for their workplace contributions. They are however much more vocal about it.  And with social media forcing transparency and exposing deep dark secrets, companies need to take heed of the changing workforce climate. Understanding and being sensitive to the needs of Gen Y workers, as well as Gen X and Baby Boomers, will be the key factor in recruiting and retaining them. If you want employees to care about your company, show them that you care about them first.

Three Human Resource Trends That Will Change Small Business

I can’t decide if it’s complacency, lack of urgency, or arrogance. But there seems to be a business-as-usual attitude running rampant among small business owners when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees.  As I’ve been forecasting for over a decade, that attitude will eventually cause great harm to the competitiveness and bottom line of formerly great businesses.

A recent report by Deloitte, "Human Capital Trends 2011: Revolution/Evolution" identifies several critical 'game changing' trends that “will sweep through the field at an accelerated pace.”

Three of the trends highlighted in the report articulated with acute clarity the impact that demographics, technology, and globalization will have on even the smallest businesses regardless of the industry or region.

1. The corporate ladder is folding: Today's workplace isn't what it used to be. (How many times have you heard me say that?) Work will be more virtual, collaborative and project-based. The workforce isn't what it used to be either. Workers' needs, expectations and definitions of success now vary widely, rendering obsolete a one-size-fits-all approach to talent management. The Corporate Lattice is emerging.
2. Next generation leadership: Meeting emerging business challenges requires new skills and different qualities - and fresh models for finding, developing and engaging the next generation leaders. Given the demands of convergence, globalization, technology and the pace of change, organizations must rethink their approaches to developing next generation leaders.
3. Talent in the upturn: Companies are struggling to move beyond recession based talent approaches and turn their attention to retention and develop. High unemployment will likely continue to coexist with critical shortages in specific talent areas. The challenge will be even greater when rates of voluntary turnover return to normal post-recession levels.

While the report admittedly speaks to large, global organizations, small businesses can benefit a great deal about hiring and retaining employees by acknowledging and understanding these trends and observing how they approach solving them.

The report identified twelve trends: six revolution and six evolution categories. Five additional trends that I believe will have the greatest impact on small business are listed below. Or you can read the complete report on Human Capital Trends here.

Revolution

• Workforce analytics: It’s about time but HR is finally being held accountable for what it does. Moving forward, HR will be asked to justify, not rationalize, important decisions.  It will be required to produce more data, more information, and fresh thinking.
• HR in the cloud: Software-as-a-Service can and will improve service levels and new ways of controlling costs. For small companies, SasS services will include applicant processing systems, online performance reviews, and pre-employment tests.

Read about the other human capital revolution trends here.

Evolution

• Chief Operating Officers for HR: The creation of a chief operating officer (COO) role for HR is an emerging approach given the scale and complexity of HR operations and programs. The HR COO is the leader who focuses on how HR services are delivered, as well as the design, development and implementation of those HR services globally.
• Contingent workforce: Companies that understand the issues associated with contractors and manage them well, can benefit from improved operational performance, lower labor costs, smarter staffing decisions and stronger HR alignment with business objectives.
• Employer health care reform: With its far-reaching effects, health reform continues to compel employers to treat health benefits as a strategic and workforce planning issue.

Read about the more human capital evolution trends here.