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Welcome Best Practices for Translating Customer Satisfaction into Revenue How do you quantify customer satisfaction? Download the Best Practices for Benchmarking Customer Satisfaction to get industry research from the Association of Support Professionals (ASP) on how to measure and leverage customer satisfaction. Download this research report to get:
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August 25, 2008  |
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| Aegus BPO Buys PeopleSupport for $250 Million
Among the 24% who find paying for health care or health insurance a serious problem, those in the poorest health and those with the most need disproportionately report difficulties. The figures are from the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008. The poll also reported: that one-half of the uninsured said paying for health care is a serious problem. And approximately four in 10 of those with annual household incomes under $30,000 (42%), those living with someone who requires care (42%), those who report their physical health as “fair” or “poor” (40%), and the unemployed (37%) reported struggling with the cost of health care. Members of two minority groups, Hispanics (39%) and African Americans (35%), indicate disproportionate problems paying for care. Three in 10 of those with two or more hospital overnight stays (31%) and two or more emergency room visits (30%) in the past year also report problems paying for care.
Overall business confidence of the 505 CEOs and top executives in the nine Bay Area counties surveyed between July 21 and July 30, 2008, was near the bottom recorded to date. The business confidence index – the number that distills the survey findings – registered at 39 out of 100, down two points from the last evaluation. A reading over 50 signals positive economic times and below 50 is negative. Prospects for recovery appear far over the horizon. The averaged survey respondent’s prediction for the beginning of California economic recovery is slightly more than 12 months. Forty-five percent expect economic recovery in nine months to a year, 26 percent say one and a half to two years, and six percent think it will take more than two years. On the more optimistic side, 20 percent of the Bay Area CEOs polled think recovery will commence in three to six months and four percent believe it is already in recovery. National predictions were similar, if slightly less positive. The averaged prediction on the beginning of national economic recovery was just over 13 months. According to the surveyed Bay Area executives, small businesses are faring much better than large companies. Nineteen percent of small business respondents expect to reduce their workforce size over the next six months, while 25 percent are planning increases and 53 percent plan no change. Forty-four percent of respondents from large companies, those with between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, plan layoffs, only 11 percent expect to increase their workforce. Layoffs are predominant throughout the Bay Area, with the exception of Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley, represented in the survey by Santa Clara County respondents, is the only place in the Bay Area planning more hires than layoffs. Indeed, 35 percent of Santa Clara executives are planning to increase their workforce, 23 percent plan layoffs. Layoff plans vary significantly by industry, and professional services and information technology seem to rise above the fray. Twenty-nine percent of executives in professional services plan to increase their workforce over the next six months, while 16 percent plan layoffs. Only 12 percent of tech or “information” executives expect to decrease their workforce, while 16 percent plan increases and 72 percent expect to hold steady. Taking the biggest hit was leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing. Indeed, 48 percent of leisure and hospitality executives are planning layoffs while only nine percent are planning to increase their workforce. Similarly 42 percent of manufacturing professionals are planning layoffs, 17 percent are planning hires. The snapshot of current economic conditions compared to six months ago varies only slightly across the Bay Area, with Silicon Valley once again reporting the least damage. Fifty-nine percent of Santa Clara respondents think that the Bay Area economy is worse off than it was six months ago, compared to 79 percent of San Francisco executives who believe conditions are worse.
The study explores workplace attitudes among three generations of employees and draws on survey responses from more than 7,500 individuals and interviews with 40 senior human resource and line managers. The findings indicate that at least one quarter of Generation Y employees are disengaged in all key geographic regions except India. Southeast Asia reported the greatest portion of disengaged Gen Y workers with 35%. The research suggests that the more senior the employees the more engaged they are, says BlessingWhite. Around the globe, senior executives are generally more engaged than front-line managers or individual contributors. Gen Y disengagement levels may reflect, to some extent, their low seniority since more Baby Boomers would predictably hold leadership roles. Increased engagement is an expected outcome from power and position. Another contributing factor is that younger employees often do not have a clear picture of what will make them happy. Often, they can’t find what they’re looking for because they don’t have the experience to know what they want. Lack of personal clarity can also influence engagement for Gen Y, in particular. The exception to a general picture of disengagement among Gen Y employees is India, whose younger employees have higher levels of engagement compared to other regions. This probably reflects the expanded opportunities as well as its young, fast-paced, knowledge-based economy. In fact, all generations in India are happier than employees in other regions. Engaged employees are not just committed or passionate or proud. They’re enthusiastic and in gear, using their talents to make a difference in their employer’s quest for sustainable success. As a rule, increased engagement results in increased productivity and performance. It’s a key business issue leaders need to address, particularly in times of economic downturn and uncertainty. Conversely, disengaged employees often feel underutilized, are the most disconnected from the organization’s strategy, and may indulge in contagious negativity.
The number of worker deaths dropped to 5,488 last year — the fewest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping track in 1992. That's down 6% from the 5,840 deaths reported in 2006. Still, the government found significant increases in some types of fatal injuries: a record number of workers died from falls and the number of workplace homicides increased 13%. The nation's most dangerous jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics? Fishers and related fishing workers (with a rate of 111.8 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers), logging workers (86.4), aircraft pilots and flight engineers (66.7) and structural iron and steel workers (45.5). Construction continued to have the most deaths of any private sector industry, with 1,178 in 2007. The overall U.S. rate was 3.7 fatal injuries for every 100,000 workers, the lowest annual rate ever reported by the fatality census. The number of fatal falls on the job rose to a record 835 in 2007, even though the number of deadly falls from roofs decreased. Workplace homicides also increased 13%, to 610, in 2007 after officials recorded an all-time low in 2006. While the construction industry had led the nation's private sector for five years in a row in workplace fatalities, the number of deaths in that industry dropped from 1,239 in 2006 to 1,178 in 2007, a 5% decrease. The 2007 numbers show that there were 10.3 fatal work injuries for every 100,000 construction workers. |
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5 strategies for quickly and effectively implementing a virtual support center Join us for a live, interactive Webinar on August 27 and learn how your organization can leverage the virtual support model to improve your support center's performance, reduce operational costs and retain top technical talent. At this live event you will:
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| Companies that Eliminate Perks Risk Employee Backlash
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Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage The source of competitive advantage has shifted in many organizations from reliability to innovation and flexibility. But what does it take for an organization that innovates to then manage effectively? In this follow-up to Built to Change, Ed Lawler argues that it is a combination of the right structure and the right people. First, organizations must decide what structure they are: are you a high-involvement organization that has products and services that require a high level of coordination and cooperation among employees? Or do you have a more global competitor structure in which you are constantly bringing in new talent and technological expertise? Lawler outlines the unique human capital strategy for each approach, shows what it looks like in action, and provides the foundation and tools for creating competitive and innovative organizations. For more information, or to order your copy... |
| 2008 Service & Support Metrics Survey Results Get your free copy of the survey results today! http://www.supportindustry.com/2008supportmetrics.htm White Paper: Improving Customer Service Using Web-based Support Tools |
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