Workforce Week®

	www.workforce.com
	July 29 - August 4, 2007 Vol. 8 Issue 31

In This Issue ...

Workforce News of the Week
Feature: Halo Effect—The Myth of Employee Satisfaction

Feature: What to Do When an HR Employee Sues

Free Benchmarking Report on Developing and Counseling Employees

Dear Workforce: How Do We Earn Employee Loyalty?

Forum Post: Skateboarding at Work

Blog: Reading List Quiz

The HR Capitalist: Good Versus Bad Turnover: Making the Call

The Last Word: Job Bank Heist


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Workforce News of the Week:

McDonald’s Faces Teen Labor Shortage: The declining number of teenage job seekers presents a super-size challenge for McDonald’s, where 40 percent of the top 50 managers—including CEO James Skinner—worked their way up from the cash register or fry vat, and which more than ever needs qualified workers to keep service from bogging down in an era of computerized cash registers and electronic ovens.
Click to read more. >>>
As Costs Rise, More CFOs Look to Shift Health Care Burden to Employees: Ninety percent of financial executives polled had concerns about rising health care costs, and 81 percent reported employee health care costs at their companies had increased anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent during the past year.
Click to read more. >>>
SAP Dust-Up May Have Little Impact on Fledgling Industry: Despite the recent news that software support specialist TomorrowNow improperly downloaded materials, some see a bright future for tapping a third party to support HR software and other applications.
Click to read more. >>>
IBM Establishes Individual Learning Accounts for Employees: IBM chief executive Samuel J. Palmisano announces that the firm has established individual training and education accounts for employees with at least five years of service.
Click to read more. >>>

Legislation Would Shed Light on Investment Fees: The latest effort to make the 401(k)s more transparent is being led by Rep. George Miller, who introduced legislation that would require plans to reveal more information about fees and conflicts of interest.
Click to read more. >>>

Retiree Benefits: Is UAW at the Wheel?
Click to read more. >>>

SuccessFactors Files Initial Public Offering
Click to read more. >>>

Quick Takes:
Surprising Findings: Working Moms Prefer Staying Home
Click to read more. >>>

Travel Anxiety: Business Travelers Dodge Dangers, Want Protection
Click to read more. >>>

Teutonic Bummer: Retirement Watch on the Rhine
Click to read more. >>>

European Employees to Companies: Control Fraud
Click to read more. >>>

Layoffs in China: Employee Loyalty on Skids
Click to read more. >>>

5 questions
Feature: Halo Effect—The Myth of Employee Satisfaction

Too often, observers and executives make assumptions about business performance that are not based in fact. For example, if a company is doing well financially, the assumption is that its leader is a brilliant and gifted individual, the corporate culture is amazing and the people are the best. That, according to author Phil Rosenzweig, is the halo effect.

The unkindest cut
Feature: What to Do When an HR Employee Sues

When an HR staffer alleges employment discrimination, it’s automatically a different kind of claim. Here’s how to proceed when the claimant is someone who is likely to know damaging, embarrassing or unflattering information about the company, and might be willing to use it to bolster a case. It’s not all bad news, however. Sometimes it’s easier to deal with an HR claimant.
Read more about what to do when HR sues. >>>

Also:
Avoid Getting Sued: Risks and Rewards in Recruitment Record Keeping >>>
6 Ways to Get Yourself Sued>>>
Top 5 Employer Mistakes Under FMLA>>>
Oops, I Did It Again: 10 Most Common Managerial Mistakes That Lead to Litigation>>>

Answers to your questions
Dear Workforce: How Do We Earn Employee Loyalty When More Money Isn’t Enough?

“How do we earn our employees’ loyalty—and more important, preserve it? Our bank has lost a number of key employees to competitors during the past five months. We were prepared to match the departing employees’ competing salary offers, to no avail.”

Click here to read the answer. >>>

Also:
Dear Workforce: How do we develop a set of best practices to target retention issues associated with managing a geographically dispersed workforce? >>>
Dear Workforce: We're trying to combat high turnover at our software company. How should we go about this? What do we need to do to reverse the trend of people leaving us in record numbers?>>>
Dear Workforce: How do I prove that the company would benefit from a low turnover rate?>>>
Click here to send your question to Dear Workforce.>>>
Click here to subscribe to the free twice-monthly Dear Workforce newsletter.>>>

Discussion
Skateboarding at Work

Posted in the Legal Forum:

A reader writes: “It was recently brought to my attention that an employee is skateboarding on company property during paid breaks. Does anyone have a policy statement regarding skateboarding at the workplace? I tend to think that if this employee should injure himself during company time we would be liable.”

Join the discussion. >>>

Blog: The Business of Management
Reading List Quiz

They say you can tell a lot about a person by the books they read. If that’s true, what does this list of the top-selling books purchased at last month’s Society for Human Resource Management annual conference in Las Vegas tell you about the HR professional in the 21st century?

The HR Capitalist
Good Versus Bad Turnover: Making the Call

Everyone agrees with the concept of good turnover and bad turnover. But as the HR pro reporting on it, you have to dig into all the termination scenarios to know which is which. And there are probably hundreds of variations. Here’s how to start sorting.

The Last Word
Job Bank Heist

In the end, it is pretty easy to see what killed America's Job Bank: bureaucratic indifference, government ineptitude and a singular shortsightednesss.