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9/18/05
Emergency planning Despite the destruction of businesses and displacement of workers by Hurricane Katrina, many human resource professionals polled recently nationwide have yet to review their companies' emergency and disaster contingency plans. Only 30 percent of respondents to a survey of human resource managers on HR.BLR.com, an information website operated by Business & Legal Reports, said they planned on initiating a revision of their company's emergency policies, while ''There probably are a number of reasons for the 'no' votes, including some good ones,'' said Kevin Flood, manager of HR.BLR.com. ''For instance, we know that most HR managers review their evacuation and emergency-closing plans on a
Many said they are not concerned because they do not live or work in areas where hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other devastating weather events commonly disrupt business. Compensation.BLR.com, a website also operated by Business & Legal, reported in a separate survey that 59 percent of American companies have started their relief efforts for Katrina victims, and another 17 percent said they were encouraging employees to help out with independent relief efforts.
Compensation Bill Gates may be the poster child for how to strike it rich in computers in America, but the average tech geek would be better off elsewhere. Information technology professionals, on average, would be making significantly more money if they lived in Western Europe or portions of Asia, but they would need to acquire a wider variety of skills, according to a recent survey conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a firm based in New York. IT managers in the United States earn an average salary of $89,100, ranking them 14th among other national averages, the report showed. Switzerland ranked number one, with an average salary of $161,900. Germany, Denmark, Japan, Belgium, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Italy, and Spain rounded out the top 10, with average salaries ranging from $126,700 to $93,200. The company conducts a yearly survey of more than 5,300 companies from 36 countries with major information technology sectors. The reason for such a gap in pay from nation to nation? David Van De Voort, an IT workforce specialist at Mercer, said the lower US salaries could be attributed to a trend for IT workers here to limit themselves ''to be focused on a subset of skills, such as project managers, security specialists, and enterprise architects. In Europe and Asia, there is broader demand and very strong competition for experienced IT managers.''
Hiring Employers are not doing enough online to recruit the right candidates for their open positions, according to a report released recently by NAS Recruitment Communications and CollegeRecruiter.com, an online job hunting site geared toward recent college graduates. The report suggests that employers are not putting enough time and effort into both internal recruitment websites and their presence on external Internet headhunting ventures. Many are not portraying their companies — and the particulars of what they are looking for in a candidate — well enough, the paper says. ''A good employment site is often your first point of contact with a candidate,'' said Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com and the writer of the report. ''It creates... first impressions about your company and its opportunities.'' The report showed that many employment sites focused too much on specific requirements they desire from potential employees, which can discourage otherwise qualified candidates, steering them away in fear they won't be selected early in the hiring process. It also said most sites made it too difficult for a job seeker to submit their application. While some companies believed that a complicated application process would weed out weak candidates, Rothberg's report says that method will often turn off well-qualified applicants who would rather not bother with all the hassle.
The Workplace Bring on the sheet cake. According to a recent poll, employees enjoy parties in the workplace. While conducting research for a new product, Quill Corp. polled 1,345 business professionals on what their specific company policies were for parties. Almost half of companies reported having parties in the workplace, and just over 41 percent said they believe their co-workers don't celebrate nearly enough. One-third of respondents said they celebrate at least once a month. Those workers who do party in the office usually foot the bill, the survey also found. Over 52 percent of workers said their bosses do not provide a party or celebration budget, but just under 40 percent of those respondents said that does not deter them from partying anyway. Groups say green is good for the office A trans-Atlantic partnership advocating ''greener'' offices is encouraging workers to ask for more plants in their workplaces. The American initiative Plants at Work has joined with the European Union-supported Healthy Plants in the Workplace to push for extra greenery in work spaces, which the two groups credit with cutting down on health problems and stress. Besides adding a little natural distraction, the two groups said many of the benefits of plants in the office include cleaner office air, a reduction in illness-related absence, and an increase in worker performance. Wiccan beliefs cast a spell in Australia One Australian woman is taking a nontraditional approach to adding some magic to the boardroom. Stacey Demarco, an author and native of Sydney, has a background in public relations and marketing, but she credits her success to witchcraft. Demarco has been preaching the benefits of Wiccan beliefs in the office throughout her home country, and has even started ''Career Covens,'' where her followers gather to discuss their alternative approach to business success. The corner office witch craze has made headlines throughout Australia and New Zealand, where participation in Wicca has grown quickly over the past decade, according to Demarco. She credits the popularity of her magical marketing methods' ''more ethical, more feminine'' approaches to business practices. Nathan Hurst can be reached at nhurst@globe.com
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