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PPI Learning Services Acquires Exchange Group Corporate Sales
Since its acquisition by a US Private Equity firm in late December 2006, PPI Learning Services has engaged in several partnerships with key learning solution providers. In particular, its new HowDoI, based on the LearningGuide, is being introduced to its large strategic clients in order to deploy custom-designed training rollouts and to increase Help Desks efficiency. Meanwhile, PPI Learning Services has concluded its first acquisition with the merger of Exchange Group Corporate Sales, which delivers a broad range of services, including a range of flexible courses in the Microsoft arena.

Swedish Covenant Hospital Switches to Ultimate Software’s UltiPro
Ultimate Software, a provider of end-to-end strategic human resources, payroll, and talent management solutions, has announced that Swedish Covenant Hospital has increased the strategic contributions of its human resources team with Ultimate Software’s UltiPro. Using UltiPro’s functionality and the extra time that has become available since going live, the hospital’s HR team has undertaken more value-added activities, such as developing total compensation statements for its entire workforce, revamping its new hire orientation program, and delivering reports to more than 100 members of the hospital management team.

Significant Increase in Volunteer Vacations
Travelocity’s annual forecast poll found that 11 percent of respondents plan to volunteer during their vacations in 2007 -- up from 6 percent in 2006. Under the new Travel For Good initiative, Travelocity began a program called Change Ambassadors to help bring the idea of “voluntourism” to a broader, mainstream audience. Key components of the Change Ambassadors program are consumer and employee grants that will be awarded to people who wish to help others through volunteering, but do not have the financial means to take a volunteer vacation. Travelocity will award two $5,000 grants per quarter to customers and one $5,000 grant per quarter to employees.

Hint of Restraint in U.S. Hiring Plans for Second Quarter
In the United States, employers plan to tone down hiring activity during the second quarter of 2007, according to the seasonally adjusted results of the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, conducted quarterly by Manpower Inc.

Of the 14,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 28% expect to increase payrolls during the second quarter of 2007, while 7% expect to trim staff levels. Fifty-nine percent expect no change in the hiring pace, and 6% are undecided about their hiring plans.

The seasonally adjusted survey results show that employers are more likely to maintain or reduce staffing activity rather than ramp-up hiring. Employers in Durable and Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing, Education and Public Administration sectors express similar hiring intentions for the first and second quarters of 2007. Mining, Construction, Wholesale/Retail Trade and Services employers are less confident about hiring than they were in the first quarter, while Transportation/Public Utilities and Finance/Insurance/Real Estate hiring managers foresee improved job prospects during the spring months.

At the regional level, there are minimal changes in hiring expectations compared to the first quarter. Employers in the Northeast and South expect to maintain similar levels of employment activity, while those in the Midwest and West anticipate slightly weaker hiring conditions in the next three months. Among survey participants, those in the South are the most upbeat about hiring, and those in Midwest are least optimistic.

Overall employment expectations in the global labor market are mixed for the second quarter, with employers in 14 countries and territories expecting to increase the pace of hiring from both the first quarter of 2007 and one year ago. The Manpower survey showed the most optimistic hiring expectations for the second quarter are in Singapore, Peru, Argentina, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Employers in Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa and Switzerland reported their most optimistic hiring plans since the survey began in these countries.

Of the countries surveyed in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, job prospects are strongest in South Africa, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway and the UK, while French employers reported the weakest, but still positive, hiring expectations in the region. In addition to the improvement reported for Germany, Italian employers also reported a notable boost in hiring plans from last year at this time.

Employer hiring projections for the eight countries and territories included in the survey across the Asia Pacific region are mixed, with a weaker job market ahead for Taiwan, India and Hong Kong compared to last year at this time. On the other hand, seasonally adjusted data reveals demand for employees is heating up in Singapore and Australia.

Of the six countries surveyed in the Americas, employers in Peru and Argentina are the most optimistic about adding to their workforces, while employers in Mexico have the strongest hiring expectations since the survey began in the third quarter of 2002. The hiring pace is expected to be slightly weaker from one year ago in Canada and the U.S.
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Few Women Tapped for Board Vacancies
Ignoring calls by advocates of sound governance, shareholders and the socially responsible investment community for greater diversity in corporate boardrooms, the leadership of most of the nation’s public companies continues to fill board vacancies with individuals who look just like themselves: white and male. This is the key finding of the new report Women on Boards: Missed Opportunities published by the InterOrganization Network.

For years, it was expected that corporate leaders would embrace the business case for increasing the number of women and other minorities on corporate boards; it was also expected that the pace of board diversification would accelerate as many long-term directors reach mandatory retirement age or cut back on the number of boards on which they serve. To those who have counseled patience the ION report provides a blunt reality check. Instead of keeping pace with the acknowledged need for change, too many nominating committees remain locked in traditional patterns of board recruitment. As a consequence, men are chosen to fill the overwhelming number of open board seats and the homogenous composition of public company boards is perpetuated.

In the seven of eight ION regions for which board turnover was analyzed, a total of 539 new independent directors were elected to the boards of the public companies examined during 2006. Of that total, only 92 or 17 percent were women. Men filled the other 447 seats.

Additional findings of this third annual ION report include:

• Women hold just under 10 percent of the board seats of the 1126 public companies studied by the eight ION members.
• Thirty eight percent (427) of the 1126 public companies have no women on their boards.
• Women of color hold very few board seats, although their numbers increased from 2005 to 2006.
• Sixty-two (5 percent) of the 1126 companies studied have 25 percent or more women on their boards.
• On average, 26.2 percent of the companies studied have women among their top compensated employees.

In view of the minimal improvement in these statistics over the past three years, ION members conclude that no significant change will occur until more corporate leaders depart from the traditional way of doing things -- surrounding themselves with others who share similar backgrounds and perspectives.
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Firms Miss Out on Further Education Benefits
Almost two-thirds of small businesses lose out on increased productivity, profitability and retention of staff by ignoring free or low-cost training, according to research from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

The research found that 57% of small business do not use the further education (FE) sector to train their employees although it offers a wide range of free and low cost courses. It found that 43% of companies are not aware they could secure subsidized employee training at their local FE colleges.

However, 87% of small businesses said using an FE college to train its employees had benefited the company, 45% claimed it had increased productivity, and 11% claimed it had directly increased turnover. The study found that 58% of companies said FE training had boosted employee motivation and job satisfaction and 47% believed it had helped employee retention.
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A Majority of Americans Concerned, Unprepared for Retirement
Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe they have not or are not saving enough for retirement and more than one-third say they may never be able to retire, according to a new survey released by Scottrade, an online investment firm.

The No. 1 financial concern among Americans polled in the survey was retirement (56 percent), which was listed among a number of potential concerns, including having enough money for healthcare-related costs (47 percent), financially protecting family members in case of premature death/disability (44 percent), affording education expenses (31 percent), and caring for elderly parents/relatives (30 percent).

The survey also indicated that the majority of Americans are largely unprepared for retirement. Sixty-two percent of people surveyed said they have not saved enough, while 71 percent of respondents age 35 to 44 said they have not saved enough.

While respondents younger than age 45 are more likely than older Americans (45+) to say they want to have more than $2 million saved by the time they retire, they are off to a slow start; about half of Americans age 18 to 44 have saved less than $25,000. In addition, one out of five Americans are not sure how much they should have saved by the time they retire.

The study by Scottrade also found:

• Adults 34 and under generally had more financial concerns than older respondents. More than half in this age group said they were extremely or very concerned with managing day-to-day expenses, paying for unexpected major expenses, and having too much debt. Fifty-nine percent of 25- to 34-year-olds and 40 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are concerned about having enough money for retirement.

• For those nearing retirement age (ages 55 to 64), one in four say they do not know how much they have saved. Twenty-nine percent of people in that age range say they would like to have between $500,000 and $2 million when they retire, but only 16 percent have that amount saved currently.

• 48 percent of people surveyed rely on a 401(k) as part of their retirement plans, 39 percent use savings accounts and 33 percent have an IRA, SEP or similar retirement plan.

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Employee Forgetfulness Causes Most Calls Into IT Help Desk
SupportSoft Inc., a technology problem resolution provider, announced the results of the first SupportSoft IT Headache Index, which evaluated nearly 2 million call logs from over 20 large, multinational companies, to determine which issues were driving the most calls into the enterprise IT help desk.

The SupportSoft IT Headache Index found that five groups of problems account for 75% of calls into the IT help desk. These problems include:

• Password problems -- drive 20% of calls, including resets and unlocks for applications.
• System issues -- cause 16% of calls, ranging from hardware failures and memory problems to system performance.
• Enterprise applications -- account for 16% of calls, including custom applications.
• Connectivity issues -- make up 12% of calls, and include remote access setup and VPN complaints.
• E-mail problems -- claim 11% of calls, where settings problems and send/receive issues are most cited.

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Contact Center Outsourcing Black Hole Costs Companies More Than $300M Every Year
Better management of outsourcing providers would save North American companies over $300 million a year in improved contact center performance as well as enhancing service for customers, according to research and analysis by interaction management software provider Exony.

Industry statistics show that 5 percent, or just over 3,000, of North America’s 60,000 contact centers, are outsourced. Furthermore, of a total of more than 3.3 million agent positions in the U.S. and Canada, 10.5 percent or 354,000, are outsourced. Exony calculates that improving organizations’ ability to measure and manage their outsourcing providers would save $900 per year for each of these outsourced agents, amounting to an annual total savings of $319 million in North America alone. These savings could pay for an additional 15,948 customer service agents, dramatically improving efficiency and cutting call waiting times.

By outsourcing, companies aim to benefit from a fast and effective solution to their customer service needs, either by working through a single outsourcer or in combination with internal and external resources in a Virtual Contact Center (VCC) environment.

Advances in IP technology mean that the outsourcing and VCC markets are expanding rapidly. However, the complexity of managing outsourcing relationships and gaining an accurate picture of operations spread across multiple sites and providers is dramatically reducing the benefits organizations are able to achieve. Issues such as increased management and reporting costs, lack of a single view of all operations and an inability to move resources in real-time are all holding back adoption.

Exony’s recommendations for taking action to improve call center efficiency include:

• Better routing and reporting on calls: savings through better integration and reporting on telecom links with outsourced providers.

• Improved management of extended networks: lower administration costs when managing resource changes, such as adding agents.

• Enhanced contractual terms with outsourcers: through a more detailed view of outsourcer performance, organizations can measure performance and decide whether to continue, amend or terminate contracts.

• Picking the most effective outsourcer billing method: better management information enables organizations to choose the optimum billing method for their needs, such as per-minute or per-transaction.

• Ensuring contractual compliance: through a more detailed view of outsourcer performance, organizations can measure and pay against SLAs.

• More accurate forecasting of current and future needs: detailed forecasting to ensure that the right resources are in place to deliver customer service levels without waste.

• Better visibility of agent churn: more granular reporting enables organizations to pinpoint newer or less productive agents and negotiate lower rates with outsourcers.

• Cost savings by not relying on outsourcer-produced reports: if organizations produce their own custom reports without dealing with outsourcers, it enables faster, more cost-effective service.

• Single version of the truth: avoid inconsistencies by creating and measuring agreed metrics across the whole contact center infrastructure.

• Data partitioning: be able to easily provide access to specific data for outsourcers and particular managers rather than allowing full view of potentially sensitive information.

More...

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Strengthening the Talent Pipeline
In recent years, the United States has compensated for its failure to adequately educate its own students by importing brainpower. Covering this competency gap may not be so easy in the future as improving economies in Asia, central Europe and Latin/South America allow foreign students to "stay home.” This should cause anxiety, as the renewal of our public enterprises in the future very much depends upon a talent pipeline that appears to be getting thinner in terms of volume, velocity and value. Public enterprises also face a challenge from the other end of the talent life cycle as incumbent workers queue up for retirement.
Full Article...

You Get What You Pay For
You don’t get Superman by paying Jimmy Olson wages. In other words, you can’t commoditize talent when the key skills for today’s success are flexibility, adaptability, creativity and technology. You have to pay for talent in order to compete in the global marketplace. This transcends all industries and organizations.
Full Article...

What’s Wrong with Management Today?
All is not well in the corporate world. Contrary to some opinions, people do not just job-hop for the fun of it or because they are irresponsible. Stress is up and morale is down. If you follow the trail backwards, it often leads right to Management's door.
Full Article...

Job 1 For The U.S. Economy: Build A Tech Workforce
What's the single biggest economic challenge facing the United States today? At a high-profile tech show recently, five technology industry CEOs in separate interviews all said the biggest obstacle to the country’s continued economic prosperity is our ability to produce enough skilled workers to meet the tech demands of the coming decades.
Full Article...

An Engaged Employee is More Productive
Employee engagement is vital for building a high performance culture. Employee engagement is about building a truly great relationship with the workforce and in ensuring that the bond lasts. Any organization that embraces fine employer principles, recognizes an employee’s talent and potential, and is committed to providing an enriching professional experience, is bound to succeed.
Full Article...

Pay Attention To Customer Service Staff
Attendance and punctuality are always hot issues in call centers and customer service work environments. Because of their direct interaction with customers, front line employees are a call center’s most important asset. Managers work hard to staff their centers with the correct number of qualified staff necessary to meet the needs of their clientele and customers. But absenteeism and lateness represent a difficult challenge and can negatively affect customer satisfaction and employee productivity, both of which impacts your bottom line.
Full Article...

Manager Goes Wacko; Now What?
We’ve all seen it happen. Self-destruction. Career-limiting behavior. Professional suicide. Some previously normal and capable IT manager suddenly starts acting strangely and destructively. He figuratively sets his hair on fire and runs around the building screaming of cabals at the top of his lungs. And we all stand by, watching the slow-motion train wreck, shaking our heads and whispering yet not knowing what to do. If you are the supervisor of such a person, you’ve got a challenge on your hands. What do you do with a solid performer who seems to be going down a rathole and may take others with him?
Full Article...

We are currently at the beginning of a seismic shift in the workforce. No one has enough foresight to predict exactly how this shift will play out, nor can we fully understand precisely how organizations should better prepare themselves for the challenges ahead. But one thing is certain -- few organizations are ready and many are just muddling through. In a knowledge economy, with the largest and fastest growing expense being people, this can be a costly mistake. Drawing from experts across a wide spectrum of disciplines, Workforce Wake-Up Call is a guide for business leaders seeking to move into the future of talent management and face these challenges head-on.

For more information, or to order your copy...

More books can be found in the RecognizeServiceExcellence.com Required Reading section: http://www.recognizeserviceexcellence.com/

White Paper: The Role of Web-Based Self-Service in the Support Organization
Today, as enterprise knowledge and content management takes on greater importance, self-service technologies are allowing users to search disparate, dynamic data sources using such sophisticated search mechanisms as natural language processing, precision optimization and adaptive learning. Not only are users exploiting Web-based channels to find answers to questions, diagnose problems and download fixes, but to perform such transactional duties as product registration, email opt-ins, user profile enhancements, service agreement updates and more. (please note – you will need your member log-in to view this white paper)

Read the full white paper:
http://www.supportindustry.com/members/selfservice_wp_2005.htm

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