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Welcome Feel like your support team is on the losing side of a Red Rover game? Download the "Best Practices for Retaining Top Technical Talent", research report to discover expert recommendations for the most effective way to accomplish this goal. Click here to download the white paper.
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May 5, 2008  |
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| Compensation Costs Continue Steady Rise
The increasingly recognized link between high levels of employee commitment and bottom line results means business leaders all over the world are exploring engagement metrics and measures. They can be used to enhance the image of the company as a responsible employer, or improve employee retention in fast-developing markets where staff turnover is high due to a buoyant labor market. Rapid economic change and uncertainty in many markets makes such measures more relevant than ever. Levels of engagement are even beginning to be perceived by some investors as an important indicator of a company’s financial health and sustainability. Companies can plot levels of engagement for an entire workforce by looking at data relating to resignation levels, absence rates, employee attitudes, training hours per full-time employee (FTE), performance-related pay and incidence of grievance. These range from the high levels of engagement that produce positive behaviors such as flexibility and innovation to the other end of the scale where companies experience resignations, absence, pilfering, theft, oppositional solidarity, even sabotage. The report also charts the rise of a new kind of offshoring - Knowledge Process Offshoring (KPO) - where traditionally sacrosanct knowledge or judgement services such as research and sales and marketing are run from other countries. The KPO market globally is predicted to grow to $16.7 billion by 2010-2011, implying an annual growth rate of 39% and employing some 390,000 professionals by March 2011. Here, countries such as India, China, Russia, Poland, Hungary and republics from the former Soviet Union provide high levels of skills at comparatively low cost for many western economies experiencing skills gaps. A new concept of ‘connected sourcing’ is also emerging. This sees organizations increasingly focusing on what they do best and then orchestrating a portfolio of relationships for the rest. This requires a new approach and highly developed levels of collaboration, transparency, trust and relationship management. A further development is found in the area of talent management. The traditional focus on high performers and ‘high flyers’ is shifting to include ‘pivotal employees.’ These are segments of the workforce that are expected to create value and determine the success of the organization. They can range from the receptionist to the sales director and the contribution of these core people has a disproportionate impact on determining both the success of an organization and its sustainability.
Along with the widespread acceptance of wireless devices may come a lapse in proper etiquette. Of those surveyed, 18 percent admit to being reprimanded for having bad manners when it comes to their wireless device. This behavior extends in and out of work with another 39 percent saying that they respond almost instantaneously when they receive a professional email or call outside of business hours. With 38 percent of respondents describing their wireless device as a necessity, these gadgets have become exponentially more integrated into workplace culture:
As wireless devices become further cemented into corporate culture, a spectrum of acceptable and unacceptable behavior has emerged. Inappropriate wireless device etiquette (in order of least to most reprehensible):
Thirty percent say they left their jobs to seek new challenges or opportunities that were lacking with their previous employers. In addition, 25 percent said they left because of ineffective leadership; 22 percent cited poor relationships with their managers; and 21 percent said their contributions were not valued. Turnover can cost a company more than just a seasoned employee: Research found that it costs nearly three times an employee's salary to replace someone, which includes recruitment, training, severance, lost productivity, and lost opportunities. Only 43 percent of U.S. employees are fully engaged in their jobs, meaning more than half are not, according to Right Management's research.
An examination of the sectors reveals that software services added 82,600 jobs in 2007, up for the fourth year in a row. Engineering and tech services added 45,800 jobs in 2007, also up for the fourth year in a row, putting it at an all time high. On the downside, high-tech manufacturing lost 29,800 net jobs in 2007. Seven of the nine tech manufacturing sectors lost jobs in 2007. Only the defense electronics and electromedical equipment sectors added jobs. The communications services sector continued to shed jobs in 2007, albeit at a slower pace, losing 7,200 compared to a loss of 16,900 in 2006. On a state-by-state basis, Cyberstates 2008 shows that 48 cyberstates added jobs in 2006, the most recent data available. California led the nation, adding 21,400 net jobs. The next largest net gains in tech employment between 2005 and 2006 occurred in Texas (+13,700) and Virginia (+ 9,800). Rounding out the top five were New Jersey (+8,500) and New Mexico (+6,700). For the second straight year, Virginia led the nation in concentration of high-tech workers in 2006, with 91 high-tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. Until 2005, Colorado had owned this distinction since 1998. Massachusetts ranked second in 2006, with 87 high-tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. Colorado was third, with 83 tech workers per 1,000 private sector workers. The report also found that for the second straight year, venture capital investments in the technology industry rose, adding $945 million or six percent in 2007, for a total of $16.9 billion. High tech accounts for 58 percent of all venture capital investments in the nation. R&D expenditures by high-tech companies jumped by six percent in 2005, the most recent data available, totaling $74.9 billion, 37 percent of total U.S. industry R&D expenditures.
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White Paper: Turn Out of Warranty Tech Support Calls Into Revenue Click below to download this white paper and see how Sutherland developed an innovative program to generate revenue from out of scope tech support calls.Sutherland Global Services helped this client manage explosive growth and established a new channel to support tech support activity. This whitepaper will show you:
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| Your Help Desk career: Dead End or Launching Pad?
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 The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performersby Keith R. Mcfarland The vast majority of small businesses stay small — and not by choice. Only the most savvy and persistent — a tiny one tenth of one percent — break through to annual sales above $250 million. In The Breakthrough Company, Keith McFarland pinpoints how everyday companies become extraordinary, showing that luck is a negligible factor. Rather, breakthrough success turns out to be associated with a clearly identifiable set of strategies and skills that anyone in any business can emulate — from small startup to industry leader. |
| SupportIndustry.com Featured Webinar: Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 |
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