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<b style="color: blue">Human Resource Associates</b>
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<span class="heading">HR - On The Job</span>
<p class="issue">Recruiting For the Long Term</p>
<p>Every hiring process brings with an experience of mixed emotions. Will we be able to bring together a productive team? Will we hire someone we wish we hadn't? Will we find that new candidate who can walk on water and maybe even show the others how it's done? We hope our fishing expedition will produce a good catch. For many of us it's all about luck.</p>
<p>But, companies that employ full-time recruiters don't rely much on luck. And, they don't wait around for the hiring season to begin the process. Their job depends on bringing in the right people for the right job at the right time and that takes a larger and longer view. They analyze the entire recruiting process and organize it into a program of vision, strategy, and tactics. Following is a guideline to that process:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p class="section">Workforce Planning</p>
<p>Don't wait for the job to come open. Know that you lose X number of employees each year and have to start recruiting that many just to stay even. Are you considering new products coming next year? Is someone about to retire? What if you lost Joe? Is Susan looking for a better job? Plan now for next season's openings and for your company's future needs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">Sourcing</p>
<p>Where are the people you are looking for? Where do they live? What do they read? What Web sites are they on? Who do they talk to? Who will you contact? It's not a shotgun approach. It's about identifying your targets. Know where to look for the type of position you are trying to fill.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">Recruiting</p>
<p>Review the job description. Rank the top 10 items (skills, experience, compatability, etc) that are essential to this job. Separate this list into three parts. First, identify the few items without which this job cannot be done. Second, identify those few items that would be very good to have if the candidate already had everything in part one. Third, look for those things that would be nice to have or to use as tie-breakers for those who already fulfill parts one and two. Fourth, Prepare and start the ads. And, finally, get the notices out. Start making phone calls. Contact schools. Set up job fairs. Contact previous candidates to see if they're available. Spread the word. Use all the recruiting Web sites related to the green industry. Consider using social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Understand the legal, practical, and ethical issues associated with this new communication tool.</p>
</li>
</li>
<p class="section">Screening</p>
<p>Start by eliminating everyone who does not have the items listed in part one above and any others who are obviously not in the picture. Identify those who are seemingly well qualified for the next step. Send out the “Thank you for applying, but …” letters to every candidate who applied but is not being given further consideration. Notify everyone of their status.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">Pre-Interview</p>
<p>This can often be done by phone, but this is a different type of interview. Here, you are taking the first step to become more familiar with each candidate. Get those primary qualifying questions resolved. Is this candidate a serious candidate? Do they truly understand the job? Are they now available? Is relocation a problem? Do they still seem qualified?</p>
</li>
<aside>Know that you lose X number of employees each year and have to start recruiting that many just to stay even.</aside>
<li>
<p class="section">Interview</p>
<p>This is where the professionals really do their magic. Skilled interviewers know the questions to ask, the answers they're seeking, and how to analyze what they see and hear. Difficult even stressful questions are asked of the candidates. Real on-the-job situations are presented, and how the candidate responds is analyzed. Here's where the final recommendations are made to the company and the number of candidates get narrowed down to those few going on to the next step. At this point, all remaining candidates are considered qualified to take the job. This is the most legally impacted step in the process. Most of the related EEOC lawsuits start at this step. This is not something to do off-the-cuff. It's not a casual conversation. Prepare thoroughly for the interview. Ask the questions that tell you what you have to know. Use a candidate evaluation form.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">Reference Checking</p>
<p>Professional recruiters never pass up this task. You must check references! This is when you may find out that the candidate was terminated for drug abuse or violence. A recent survey of hiring professionals indicated that more than 90 percent of all résumés are exaggerated to some degree. Understand the practical and legal issues of reference checking, including the legal risks for not checking references, and use reference checking release forms.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">Final Interview</p>
<p>At this stage, the last two or three candidates are interviewed in depth. This is where other company representatives may get together with the candidate, possibly at lunch. At this point, it's a lot more about the chemistry between the individuals and bringing out related details about the physical transfer.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">Hiring</p>
<p>This is the offer letter, the physical transfer, the relocation, and all the necessary housekeeping procedures leading up to the first day, Should this be an employment contract or an offer of employment? Understand the impact of each.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="section">On-Boarding</p>
<p>The welcoming, the tour, and the paperwork preparation should assure that the inevitable problems are smoothed out. Orient them to your employee handbook. Assign them to a mentor. Give them a schedule of goals for the next few weeks and months, and make sure the new team member is guided or mentored into as smooth a transition as possible. Many companies say this is the step, more than any other, cuts down on turnover and increases productivity.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>You can learn more about many of these steps at the association's web site, in the member section under HR University.</p>
<hr />
<p align="center"><b><i>Have an employment question?</i></b></p>
<p align="center">Send it to <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=From HR On The Job">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p align="center">Please include Company Name and Association in your e-mail. Company identification will be kept confidential.</p>
<hr />
<p class="heading">Hitchhiking on the Information Highway</p>
<p><b>Dateline:</b> June 2011</p>
<p><i>(Note: Although we attempt to provide the HRU update on the first of each month, we are normally delayed awaiting the release of several monthly government statistical reports. We will hereafter update the information as each report becomes available without waiting for all of them to be released.)</i></p>
<p class="section">Some Observations on Unemployment</p>
<ul>
<li>The unemployment rate has been at 9% or above for 23 of the previous 25 months.</li>
<li>The average unemployed person has been unemployed for 39 weeks.</li>
<li>If you include the number of people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits (and are therefore no longer counted as unemployed), and the number of people who left full time employment and are now working part time (counting only their unemployed hours), the unemployment rate is 18%.</li>
<li>In some states an unemployed person can collect unemployment benefits of over $500 per week for 99 weeks.</li>
<li>Many employers in high unemployment areas report that they are unable to fill current jobs as potential workers want to first exhaust their unemployment benefits.</li>
<li>In Europe where unemployment benefits could continue for up to five years, the unemployment rate didn't improve until after five years and two months. When the benefit allowance time was reduced to three years, the unemployment rate didn't improve until after three years and two months. When the benefit time was later reduced to two years, the unemployment rate didn't improve until after two years and two months.</li>
<li>In the U.S we are going in the opposite direction. In 2009 we increased the time limit from approximately 24 weeks (differs by state) up to 99 weeks and the unemployment rate is stuck around 9%. But then the 99 weeks are not up yet.</li>
<li>In order to return to the 5% unemployment rate we had just before the recession we need to add approximately 400, 000 jobs every month for two years.</li>
<li>In order to meet the 7% unemployment goals of the stimulus plan, we need to add 300,000 per month.</li>
<li>In order to stay at the 9% unemployment level we now have we need to add 150,000 jobs per month.</li>
<li>We have been averaging 80,000 jobs per month for the last two years.</li>
<p class="quote">
“Too bad that all the people<br />
who really know how to run the country<br />
are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.”<br />
— George Burns
</p>
<p class="section">The Fat Cats Just Don't Pay Their Fair Share</p>
<p>Whether we attribute it to human nature or call it the American way, it seems to be in our DNA to blame our troubles on those we see as better off than we are. Those wealthier or more successful than us must be doing something underhanded or unethical to be where they are. And we all know that the rich just don't pay their fair share of the tax burden. With all their unfair deductions and smart tax attorneys most don't pay any taxes at all. It's a fundamental complaint, universally accepted that sometimes even politicians use, it's called class warfare. Who's to deny it?</p>
<p>Well first in line to deny it is the IRS. From the annual IRS report the following data arises:</p>
<table>
<tr><td>Who Pays?</td><td>How much?</td></tr>
<tr><td>The top 50% of all income earners</td><td>pay 97% of all income taxes</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lower 50% of all income earners</td><td>pay 3% of all income taxes</td></tr>
</table>
<p>Further the reports show that the top 5% of all income earners pay 59% of all income taxes and that the top 1% of all income earners pay 38% of all income taxes.</p>
<p>What could be more fair than that?</p>
<p class="quote">
“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared,<br />
and the foxes have a sincere interest<br />
in prolonging the lives of the poultry”<br />
— George Elliot<br />
(Real name — Mary Anne Evans)
</p>
</ul>
<p class="section">Be Careful Which State You Move Your Company Into</p>
<p class="subtitle">The Union May Not Let You Move Out</p>
<p>Let's start this item with a definition. What is a Right To Work state? It sounds like something unions would like and should be fighting and striking in favor of. But unions hate Right To Work (RTW) states and they fight and strike against them.</p>
<p>In a RTW state an employee has the right to join a union if he or she chooses. But he/she cannot be forced to join a union. You cannot require a job applicant to join a union and you cannot refuse to hire someone who refuses to join a union. However, if an applicant hires into a company that has a fully represented union workforce, the union can require the new hire to pay a share of the union dues, but they cannot force the individual to join their union.</p>
<p>There are 22 RTW states in the nation. Those 22 states are where employers are moving to and where they are building their new plants. Those states tend to be more business friendly, have lower taxes and in many ways better workforces. Many companies are leaving the other states called <em>Closed Shop States</em>. RTW states on average are experiencing an 11.9% economic growth rate compared to <em>Closed Shop</em> states which are averaging 6.1%. Over the last decade personal income growth in RTW states has increased 53.3% compared to <em>Closed Shop</em> states increase of 40.6%. The 2010 census indicates that one worker is now moving to a RTW state every second of every day, 4.8 million since the last census.</p>
<p>Boeing Corporation builds airplanes in Washington state. They also build airplanes in South Carolina. Recently Boeing gained a new contract to produce 787 <em>Dreamliner</em> passenger planes. They intend to build them at their South Carolina plant which is a RTW state and not a union plant. The <em>closed shop</em> Washington state plant is union and they don't like the South Carolina non-union plant at all. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company saying that Boeing was retaliating against the union for past union strikes and difficulties.</p>
<p>The NLRB agrees with the union and intends to force Boeing to build all the planes at the union plant in Washington state. This would result in the closing of the South Carolina plant all together. Further, <em>the NLRB and the administration intend to initiate a new law that will deny any union company the right to locate work to any new state or to build any new plants there without first submitting the detailed economic justifications to their unions.</em> The NLRB plans to closely review all such plans on a case-by-case basis and to prosecute selected cases. The intended consequences (as earlier stated by NLRB representatives) are that all major business decisions will become subject to approval by the unions. NLRB representatives have previously stated their feelings that there should be union representatives on the board of directors of all major corporations.</p>
<p>This is a case that may take years to fight and could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court — but not during the upcoming election campaign. It's expected that Boeing will be allowed to stay in South Carolina but will be forced to make significant concessions to the union to do so.</p>
<p class="quote">
“The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people,<br />
but they have demonstrated time and time again that they have the management skills of celery.<br />
They're the kind of people who'd stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow set your car on fire.<br />
I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy.<br />
Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn't bother to stop<br />
because they'd want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club”<br />
— Dave Barry
</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center"><sub>© William J. Cook</sub></p>
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<span class="heading">Labor Stats</span>
<hr />
<b>Federal Minimum Wage</b>
<hr />
<p align="center">
<b>$7.25</b>/hour<br />
</p>
<hr />
<b>Average Income</b>
<hr />
<table>
<tr><td /><td class="u">July 2011</td><td class="u">July 2010<td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Hourly</td><td class="b">$23.13</td><td class="b">$22.61</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Weekly</td><td class="b">$793.36</td><td class="b">$773.26</td></tr>
</table>
<hr />
<b>Federal Povery Level</b>
<hr />
<table>
<tr><td class="i">one person</td><td class="b">$10,956</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">family of four</td><td class="b">$21,954</td></tr>
</table>
<hr />
<b>IRS Mileage Allowance</b>
<hr />
<p>July 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011</p>
<table>
<tr><td class="i">business</td><td><b>55.5</b> cents/mile</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">medical or moving</td><td class="b">23.5</b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">charitable</td><td class="b">14.0</td></tr>
</table>
<hr />
<b>Postage</b>
<hr />
<table>
<tr><td class="i">1 oz</td><td><b>44</b> cents</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">postcard</td><td class="b">29</td></tr>
</table>
<hr />
<b>Population</b>
<hr />
<table>
<tr><td class="i">world</td><td class="b">6.9 billion</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">U.S.</td><td class="b">311.9 million</td></tr>
</table>
<p align="center">
<i>one birth every </i><b>8</b><i> seconds;</i><br />
<i>one death every </i><b>11</b><i> seconds;</i><br />
<i>one new immigrant every </i><b>45</b><i> seconds;</i><br />
<i>net gain of one person every </i><b>15</b><i> seconds.</i>
</p>
<hr />
<b>U.S. Civilian Workforce</b>
<hr />
<table>
<tr><td /><td class="u">July 2011</td><td class="u">July 2010</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Total</td><td class="b">153,228,000</td><td class="b">153,628,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Employed</td><td class="b">139,296,000</td><td class="b">138,991,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Unemployed</td><td class="b">13,931,000</td><td class="b">14,637,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Want A Job</td><td class="b">6,575,000</td><td class="b">5,932,000</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">Unemployment Rate</td><td class="b">9.1%</td><td class="b">9.5%</td></tr>
</table>
<br /><hr />
<b>U.S. Workforce Productivity</b><br />
<sub><i>(The amount of goods produced, divided by the number of work hours it took to produce it)</i></sub>
<hr />
<table>
<tr><td class="i">1992</td><td class="b">3.7%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1993</td><td class="b">0.5%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1994</td><td class="b">1.3%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1995</td><td class="b">0.9%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1996</td><td class="b">2.5%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1997</td><td class="b">2.0%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1998</td><td class="b">2.6%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">1999</td><td class="b">3.3%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2000</td><td class="b">3.4%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2001</td><td class="b">2.9%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2002</td><td class="b">4.6%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2003</td><td class="b">3.7%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2004</td><td class="b">2.8%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2005</td><td class="b">1.7%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2006</td><td class="b">0.9%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2007</td><td class="b">1.9%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2008</td><td class="b">1.8%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2009</td><td class="b">+5.8%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2010</td><td class="b">+3.6%</td></tr>
<tr><td class="i">2011 1<sup>st</sup> quarter</td><td class="b">+1.8</td></tr>
</table>
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