A bevy of valuable information and research can be found with the click of a mouse.
By The Editors
In-depth information on the outsourcing industry is shared in our online thought-leadership center. You will find white papers, case studies, research reports, and more to help educate and guide you in making the right decisions for your organization. And all fields—benefits, recruitment, MPS, relocation, recognition, screening—are covered.
We wanted to deliver just a taste of the insight that is found in this online database.
Extend Health: The Medicare Confidence Pulse Report
The first Medicare Confidence Pulse Report reveals that retirees are both optimistic and pessimistic about the future. On the plus side, respondents expect the economy to improve and their financial situation to remain stable. Conversely, they are concerned about the impact of healthcare reform on the cost and availability of healthcare, and don’t feel confident in the long-term viability of Medicare. Some highlights:
Medicare confidence. In contrast to earlier surveys, at the end of 2010, retirees surveyed show a surprisingly large shift toward a slightly more positive outlook on the future of Medicare for both themselves and their children.
Healthcare reform. Survey respondents express a near-universal pessimism about the expected effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The majority of respondents expect ACA to reduce Medicare benefits, choice of plans, and number of doctors. Even more forecast the ACA to increase the cost of Medicare insurance premiums, prescription drug premiums, and out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses.
Healthcare and the economy. More than 64 percent of survey respondents rank healthcare and the economy equally as the biggest issues facing the U.S. in 2011.
Personal finances. Most of the survey respondents feel their economic situation has been fair or good for the last two years, and they don’t expect that to change in 2011.
Out-of-pocket expenses. A small but significant number of survey respondents experienced higher out-of-pocket medical expenses in 2010 than they had expected.
More from the report at HROToday.com.
Graebel: The Ever-Changing Global Workforce
The business landscape has changed immensely from the last decade with noteworthy events like the dot-com crash, September 11, 2011, and a severe world financial crisis. Organizations now face added complexity from new regulations, tighter cost-control measures, and demands for more accountability. These events and many others have influenced organizations and their employees. But what will the new global workforce look like? Some highlights:
Advancements in technology. New advancements in connectivity enable people to work from home and conduct face-to-face meetings without incurring travel costs. The growth of social media helps keep people in touch regardless of where they are located. Nearly 60 percent of all communication now occurs through e-mail.
The global workforce. Corporations are more readily using short-term international assignments—typically less than one year—to curb costs. With shorter durations, companies can decrease relocation costs by reducing the number of assignees returning prior to completion of their international assignments and lowering property management spending.
Changing demographics. Beginning in 2012 in the U.S., nearly 10,000 Americans will turn 65 years of age each day. While the U.S. population is aging, 30 percent of younger baby boomers (age 45 to 54) and 15 percent of older baby boomers (age 55 to 64) are under water on their mortgages. Many baby boomers will be forced to work past retirement age.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) characterized by their hard-working, active, and family-focused lifestyles, are more likely to sacrifice earning potential for their families. This could play a direct role in willingness to relocate. Generation Y or the Millennia! Generation makes up a third of the world’s population. This generation (born after 1980) will take the family-life balance a step further by doing more work from home.
More from the report at HROToday.com.
Staff Management | SMX: Case Study
One of the world’s largest information technology companies, based in Austin, TX, wanted to replace its master supplier staffing solution due to numerous service delivery issues. The company was heavily reliant on both temporary labor and vendor-on-premise (VOP) installations to support its high-volume facilities. The key stakeholders were unsatisfied with the service levels, on-site support provided, and the ability of the incumbent temporary agency to manage seasonal ramps.
The corporate stakeholders lacked insight into their temporary staffing usage due to program adoption rates of less than 60 percent and insufficient supplier reporting capabilities. The company was concerned about the lack of data visibility, inadequate diversity strategy, insufficient supplier network and access to talent, compliance issues, and risk exposure. The new staffing solution needed to focus on improving program performance and cost savings.
After a thorough analysis of its current model, the company identified that a vendor neutral managed service program (MSP) with an independent vendor management system (VMS) would best meet its needs. This approach allowed the company to unbundle program management from workforce recruitment to ensure adequate focus on both important components for its complex, high-volume program. It also reduced its perceived risk of having complete temporary workforce responsibility residing with one temporary staffing agency.
More from the case study at HROToday.com.
TalentWise: Screening Trends for 2011
By following simple best practices in employment screening, organizations can cut costs, increase efficiency and improve compliance—all while reducing risk to their organizations and those they serve.
Background screening improves quality of hire. Aberdeen Group’s research found organizations that incorporate comprehensive employment screening (screening which combines criminal background checks, employment/education verification, and reference checks), had greater improvement in their quality of hire metric than organizations that used some or none of these screening components.
Use social media effectively. In a recent survey by ExecuNet, 77 percent of respondents said they use the web for screening potential job applicants. While it makes sense to leverage all publicly available information, improperly using social media sites for screening may lead to potential legal problems with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or claims under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Keep current employment legislation. Its important to be privy to new laws that effect employment screening like medical marijuana in the workplace and credit reports. For example, if a new-hire candidate has a medical marijuana permit but company policy states “100 percent drug free,” an employer may be able to deny employment. And there is speculation that the EEOC may enact guidance that prohibits credit reports for employment-related purposes entirely. For now, the EEOC is investigating the use of credit reports as a possible “discriminatory practice.”
More from the whitepaper at HROToday.com.
Yoh: Project-Based Recruiting
When selecting a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider, or considering an RPO program, many companies don’t stop to consider all the ways they might benefit from this type of recruiting resource. Most companies believe that they must take the plunge and commit to an enterprise-wide RPO program on a grand scale. While this is certainly realistic in some cases, in others, a project-based RPO program makes sense for peak-season sourcing, rapid recruitment projects, or other hiring events, like expansion.
Here are some basic steps to determine how you can start using a project-based RPO program to help meet your recruiting goals.
Determine level of need and priority. Look at your hiring needs over the next 12 months. Determine which areas have the most pressing needs, and group hires into the broadest categories possible.
Match needs and resources. Consider your list and determine the level of in-house resources available, along with the priorities. Look for areas where you do not have sufficient coverage or expertise. Consider the logistics and resources required to source, screen and on-board these groups on your own.
Divide and conquer. Determine the focus of your in-house resources and look for opportunities to outsource others. Look especially at hiring that must be ramped up quickly or that requires completion by a certain date.
Measure and monitor performance. Obtain performance metrics through tools, reporting, and analytics. Monitor and evaluate results for future efforts.
More from the blog at HROToday.com.
Achievers: Retaining Top Talent
With the economy gradually but definitely improving—and taking into consideration the changes that the recession, social networking and Web 2.0 have all brought to employee engagement—focusing on retention of top employees will become increasingly important for HR managers in the months ahead. Softscape’s annual global talent survey The 2010 State of Global People Management reports that one of the five top challenges for HR in 2010 will be that top performer flight will pose a risk to future growth.
Management experts in general know that top performers are a unique group and that they share at least these traits: They want to be appreciated, adequately compensated, and recognized and rewarded for their efforts.
Organizations that want to retain their top performers need to provide recognition that is:
Specific. It should be linked to specific motivating events (e.g., sales targets, living company values, etc.), clearly defined, and part of a total recognition system of the organization.
Meaningful. Recognition should be personal and individual to the recipient and their performance.
Timely. The recognition is more motivating if presented at the time of the accomplishment.
More from the whitepaper at HROToday.com.
Kenexa: RPO Best Practices
In a down economy, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) might be thought of as a recession-proof solution. An organization might slow hiring to contain costs, but might need to fill a significant number of hires in six months. With RPO, recruiting is no longer a fixed cost, but a flexible operating expense that enables organizations to scale up or down as business needs dictate—making it an especially appealing solution during an economic downturn.
Here are some best practices talent managers should consider when outsourcing recruiting functions.
Strategic talent management. An RPO provider should be integrated into the corporate culture as a valued partner, building an organization’s talent management function. RPO should have visibility at higher reaches of the organization because when planned and executed correctly, it offers a serious competitive advantage.
Establish metrics and reporting. Many organizations make the mistake of gathering huge amounts of data and then doing nothing productive with the information. Choose two or three key metrics of value that will enable the organization to not only gather information, but also make business changes based on the information received.
Define business goals and objectives. Whether it’s an element of the recruiting process or a full-cycle, soup-to-nuts approach, be sure to examine the business needs and then build an appropriate support model.
Enlist a strong project manager and core team. Your RPO partner can be only as good as the team it works with. Make sure you have someone dedicated to the project who is able to keep things moving and keep lines of communication open between the recruiting team, hiring managers and organizational leadership.
More from the whitepaper at HROToday.com.
Hudson RPO: Case Study
Like many companies, Harrah’s faced a difficult time in 2008 and 2009 as a result of the economy. As it looked to generate revenue, the company realized it needed a bigger sales force in major metropolitan areas across the country. This required a rapid time-to-fill, but the company had insufficient recruiting capacity for such a large-scale organization and lacked experience in recruiting top salespeople of this type.
Harrah’s explored a number of options, reports Brad Warga, corporate vice president of Talent and Employee Engagement for Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. Contract recruiters were low cost, but they lacked an internal database and were difficult to manage as they were geographically dispersed. Contingency recruiters, meanwhile, were cost-prohibitive and took limited ownership of the process. This lead Warga to RPO. “RPO cost significantly less than using contingency recruiters, could handle the volume spike, and left the company feeling that it had developed a relationship and taken ownership of the process,” Warga says.
More from the case study at HROToday.com.
