Look Around HR

I recently wrote about a bill in Iowa that attempted to undermine the right-to-work status of the state. You can read more about the bill here.

After a few weeks, the governor (a Democrat) decided to veto the bill in what was a major blow to labor. Iowa legislature control had recently flipped from Republican to Democrat making passage of this bill likely, until Gov. Culver decided to veto it.

You can read more on the veto here.

To put it bluntly, is not a good idea. HREOnline has a good column up talking about the technological direction for all workplace employees. When we think of Blackberry’s or company laptops, we think of professionals and executives (those classified as exempt), but these devices are finding their way to hourly, non-exempt employees.

Non-exempt employees, of course, must be paid based on the hours they work and overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week. While no lawsuits related to this issue have been filed, several lawyers said they could see this problem coming in the near future.

“Up to now, it hasn’t been an issue, since most nonexempt employees don’t have BlackBerrys or laptops through which they communicate with their employers,” says Anthony Oncidi, chair of the Los Angeles-based Labor and Employment Department at Proskauer Rose.

“But with universal wireless connectivity coming on strong,” he says, “it won’t be long before nonmanagerial rank-and-file workers are given electronic access to the workplace. And once that happens, lawsuits will follow.”

If employers do begin to go this route, the best thing they can do is educate their employees on company policies. Let them know whether or not you want them checking e-mail at midnight or working on a project after dinner. If they are working from home (and non-exempt), you have to pay them. Of course, you could discipline them if they break company rules. But not paying them will only lead to bigger problems further down the road.

I recently talked about the 2008 graduating class and how the job prospects look pretty good despite the lackluster economy. CareerBuilder has released these statistics on what new grads should expect to receive, by major/ profession. Overall, salaries are up about 4 percent from a year ago with increase ranging from a low of 1 percent to a high of 9 percent from a year ago.

From CareerBuilder:

Among those who will experience the highest increases are those with liberal arts degrees, whose average offer is up 9 percent at $33,258.

Graduates with technical degrees, such as computer science majors, saw their average offers rise 7.9 percent to $56,921. Marketing graduates saw a 5.2 percent increase, bringing their average offers to $43,459.

Collectively, engineering graduates enjoyed a 5.7 percent boost, with average offers of $56,336. Specialized majors saw even higher increases: Chemical engineering grads’ average offers rose 6.2 percent to $63,749. Civil engineering grads experienced a 4.8 percent rise to $49,427; 3.5 percent for electrical engineering majors at $56,512; and mechanical engineering grads saw the smallest increase of 3.4 percent, bringing their average offers up to $56,429.

Offer amounts are up 1.9 percent for finance and accounting graduates, to $48,795 and $47,413, respectively. Salary offers for business administration and management graduates rose by less than 1 percent to $43,823.

Here are 10 other starting salaries for 2008 graduates:

Economics - $52,926
Career options for economics majors vary from private consulting for businesses to working for government agencies.

Nursing - $52,129
Nursing majors can find job opportunities in hospitals, clinics, doctor offices and other medical facilities.

Chemistry - $52,125
Chemists can find work in laboratories, pharmaceuticals, chemical manufacturing or research and development – to name a few.

Political science/government - $43,594
Political science and government graduates have the option of working in the state, local or federal governments, as well as in the private sector or nonprofit organizations.

Human resources - $40,250
Human resources majors work as assistants and payroll or benefits coordinators, and in diversity training.

History - $35,956
A degree in history (aka liberal arts) means you can be an educator, researcher, communicator or editor, information manager, advocate or even a businessperson.

Communications - $35,196
Communications has much of the same focus as public relations, advertising, journalism, marketing and business management. The skills you learn in this major are transferable to many areas.

English language and literature - $34,757
English majors typically work in education, but other traditional fields of work include writing and editing for newspapers and publishing firms, public relations and broadcasting, or technical writing for advanced industries.

Journalism - $32,250
Journalism majors will find successful careers in print, broadcast TV or radio journalism, as well as opportunities in media relations.

Psychology - $30,877
Psychology graduates can put their degree to use in the mental or social services sectors, as well as in business or education.

Public relations/organizational communications - $30,667
Careers in public relations include orchestrating PR strategies for companies and nonprofit organizations, writing communications and even working in advertising.

Nothing to surprising here with who earns the most, etc. I am glad to see the increases from a year ago. I’ve talked about “recession-proof” jobs, and I think the top key to being truly “recession-proof” is a college degree.

I must admit I am taking the idea for this post from Field and Stream magazine, just putting a little twist on it relating to HR and labor. Today’s edition of heroes and villains is the D.C. edition, focusing on two Senators in the news for labor related bills.

Hero: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
South Carolinians are lucky to have Sen. DeMint representing them. As the Senate was getting ready to violate the Constitution and force unionism on localities with H.R. 980, DeMint offered two amendments to protect the worker from forced unionism.

Here are the two amendments:

Right to Work: make it unlawful in any state to force public safety or private sector workers to pay fees to a labor union as a condition of employment. No American should be forced to pay tribute to a union in order to get or keep a job.

Secret Ballot Protection: make it unlawful to certify a union as the representative for a group of employees without a secret ballot election. No American should be forced to choose their representatives under pressure or coercion from a union or their employer.

And here are the Senator’s statements on the amendments:

“Organized labor is rapidly losing membership because the free market is helping workers more than unions. Realizing they can’t compete in a free market, organized labor is desperately trying to force more public workers to unionize.”

“Americans must have the freedom to work without being forced into paying dues to a union and they must have the freedom to vote by secret ballot in union elections. The right to work and the right to a secret ballot election are fundamental American freedoms that must not be trampled on.”

Villain: Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Like most national Democrats, regardless of ideology, Sen. Pryor is beholden to union bosses. So it is not surprising to note that Pryor has voiced his unconditional support for the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which he views as no big deal:

Mark Pryor on Wednesday said the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce has “probably exaggerated” claims about the impact of a controversial labor union bill to the state economy.

”I think they’re probably exaggerated, and I think the get a lot of this from the national organization,” Pryor said. “I think the people in Arkansas are very common-sense. They’re very hard-working. They expect when they work in a place to be treated fairly. Arkansas is a very good place to have a business.”

But the last line of the article is what really got me:

Pryor has said the bill is a first step toward modernizing American labor law.

I must say I am young but I have never heard anyone defend rolling back the right to vote with secret ballots as “modernizing.”

This weekend please remember all those who fought for your freedom, and who are serving today. We will be back on Tuesday.

When campaigning last year, Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee (or whatever the word is for the person who is probably going to win the nomination but it’s not offical yet) made this statement about the Employee Free Choice Act:

“We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s not a matter of ‘if’; it’s a matter of ‘when.’ We may have to wait for the next president to sign it, but we will get this thing done.”

So far Republicans have been able to block passage of the card check legislation, and currently have one key tool- the presidential veto. However, uccess or failure of this bill in the future will ultimately be dependant upon the Senate.

The Democratic House has already passed the bill, and with expected gains in the lower chamber in November, they should have no problem passing it next year. Assuming (and this is a big assumption), the Dems win the White House, the fate of this bill will lie in the Senate. The current split is 51D and 49R. It requires 60 votes to break a filibuster. During the 2007 vote on this bill, one Republican (Arlen Specter) supported it and no Democrats opposed it. This means Dems would have to pick up 8 seats to break a Republican filibuster. That may not be impossible, but is very unlikely even in today’s political climate.

The fact that Obama supports this should not be too surprising. The Democrats allegiance to labor is greater than any other tie to special interest groups (for either Rs or Ds).

John Lott, a senior research scientist at Univ. of Maryland, has a good column at FoxNews online breaking down Obama’s views on labor and the EFCA:

Obama claims that strengthening unions is good because unions will “lift up the middle-class in this country once more.” But protecting teachers unions from competition comes at the expense of students. Protecting workers from trade competition comes at the expense of customers and even other workers (e.g., if you protect steel workers from competition, the prices of American-made cars rise relative to foreign-made ones).

Unionization virtually always raises some workers’ salaries at the expense of other workers. If unions insist on increasing worker pay by threatening strikes that shut down companies, firms reduce the number of workers they hire. Some workers gain higher wages, but only at the expense of causing other workers to lose their jobs. Possibly this last point explains why unions want to scrape secret ballots.

It is hard to believe that Obama and Democrats really think that eliminating secret ballots is a good idea. Surely, they are not going to start proposing we start getting rid of secret ballots all together and let voters simply sign cards? But their desire to impose unionization, whether workers really want it, is overriding their common sense. Their proposal will make the country and most workers poorer.

Read the entire column here. It is a good one.

Last week, I wrote about a recent study linking higher gas prices to lower employee productivity. According to the study, the high prices were taken a burden on the employee and their family, causing stress, and other factors that affected work performance.

Some companies are being pro-active about the rising prices, and trying to ease the pain at the pump. This CareerJournal story has details into some of those plans:

Earlier this month, employees at Miller Grossbard & Associates in Houston found an extra $50 in their paychecks. The small accounting firm added the money- and plans to continue doing so on an interim basis- to help its 28 workers cope with rising gasoline prices.

Companies are launching a variety of relief initiatives such as providing alternate ways to get to work- including purchasing buses and vans to give employees free rides- and changing corporate policies to accommodate workers who travel for their jobs.

Some companies are increasing mileage rates, providing gas-related cost-of-living raises or even supplementing employees’ paychecks to relieve the burden. Others are reconfiguring sales professionals’ territories so they are more compact- leaving fewer miles to drive.

Many of these ides are all pretty costly to the company. As the economy continues to slow, I know a lot of companies may not have room in their budget for a company van or an extra stipend for gas. Look for ways that will not be pricey to your company that also shows the employee you are concerned for them and are trying to help (hint to Congress: if you followed this strategy your approval rating might get out of the teens).

As I talked about last time, there are many things you can do that are not to expensive if you get a little creative and promote it to your staff.

Starbucks recently released a new logo that is a little interesting to say the least. As you can see from the picture to the left the logo is a bit unusual- it is basically a topless mermaid and the main color has been changed from green to brown. Some thinks it’s a bit over the top but I’ll let you be the judge.

Starbucks has had some bad press recently. Their sales are down and they recently lost a class-action lawsuit in California. This past February they made the news when they closed all the stores for a few hours in what they called “emergency training.” This made the headlines and did what I believe Starbucks intended it to do- get them some publicity rather than really improve customer service.

I tend to believe that their new logo move was also about publicity. I am not a marketing expert, but know it is important to keep your company “fresh.” Now, this move certainly got Starbucks back in the press, but eventually that will wear down and the new logo will not be so new. Is someone going to not go to Starbucks because of the new logo, or vice-versa? My guess would be not.

The Heritage Foundation blog has this story about a California city, which recently declared bankruptcy, becoming the largest city to do so.

The Vallejo City Council voted May 6 to become the largest city to ever declare bankruptcy in California. The cause of Vallejo’s demise? Contracts with fire and police unions account for 74% of the city’s $80 million budget. Why did the city sign such ridiculous contracts? Because public sector unions are a controlling force in the Democratic Party and Democrats dominate Vallejo’s government. So when it came time for the city to negotiate salaries with its unions, the Democrats were represented and the unions were represented, but the city’s taxpayers were not.

This is interesting because the Senate recently voted to expand collective bargaining rights to all police officers, firefighters, and first responders. I talked about this pending legislation last week following a Wall Street Journal op-ed publicizing the scary bill.

The president’s administration has recommended a veto, but there is currently enough support in the both houses to override the veto. If it becomes law, city managers and administrators will have their hands full and the unfortunate situation of Vallejo may be seen across the country.

Despite consecutive months of job losses nationwide, despite hearing about massive layoffs at a number of large companies, and despite some economists floating out the R (recession) word, the outlook for this years graduating class appears to be good.
 
According to a survey sponsored by CareerBuilder, 58 percent of employers plan to hire recent grads. The new grads will also be receiving higher salaries than last year’s class- as 39 percent of employers plan to increase the starting salary, with only 6 percent planning on dropping it.
 
Here is the starting salary breakdown:
 

Thirty-two percent of employers will offer new grads between $30,000 and $40,000 and 15 percent of hiring managers will offer between $40,000 and $50,000. Eleven percent will offer new graduates a starting salary higher than $50,000 and 42 percent will offer less than $20,000.

And here are some tips from the job board site:

- Stress your experience- this doesn’t include internships alone, but also volunteer activities, clubs, Greek organizations, and sports.

- Watch you attitude- a lot of managers have a view this view of generation Y that we all have a sense of entitlement. Even if you went to prep school, belong to a country club, and have a degree from the Ivy League, don’t act like you are better than anyone else. Mistakes mentioned by employers include acting cocky and arrogant, dressing inappropriately, and not knowing anything about the company.

- Be yourself- it doesn’t make sense to work for a company you will not be a good fit for, so start with being yourself, and take it from there…

We often hear of the bad sides of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Potential employers can search through your pictures and see your keg stand from last spring break or read inappropriate material on your wall.

There is a legal debate going on whether or not an employer can search these sites and disqualify you because of what they see. I’ll leave that debate for the lawyers, and move on to reality- which is employers are checking out these sites, as well as Google.

And that can be a good thing. You can use your page to sell yourself and look professional.

From baselinegmag.com:

“If you approach online profiles as a way to present your professional side to the world, then you have a great opportunity,” says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

More…

“Recruiters are taking a close look at those networks, since it’s like going through someone’s Rolodex,” Challenger says. In the past, he adds, proprietary databases were unique to a search firm, including information on larger networks, but these days, most rely on LinkedIn instead.

He notes, “They’re always swamping that site, because it allows them to search on very specific information. And as younger people move from MySpace and Facebook, it’s likely they’ll spend more time on places like LinkedIn.”

If I were advising someone in college whether it was a current student looking for an internship or a grad looking for their first job, I would let them know that they will be “Googled,” “Facebooked,” etc. And this applies to anyone in the professional world as well. If you do a quick search of yourself and don’t think it looks professional, make an effort to change it. Chances are the hiring manager won’t think it looks professional either.

These networking sites, along with blogs, can be a great opportunity for a prospective employee to find you. Take advantage of this and present a platform of yourself that you want to show off.

Yes, according to one researcher.

According to Wayne Hochwarter, a professor at Florida State University’s College of Business, a new study shows that rising gas princes cause employees to be less excited about going to work; and therefore their quality of work decreases.

“People concerned with the effects of gas prices were significantly less attentive on the job, less excited about going to work, less passionate and conscientious, and more tense,” Hochwarter says. “These people also reported more ‘blues’ on the job. Employees were simply unable to detach themselves from the stress caused by escalating gas prices as they walked through the doors at work.”

More…

“Several employees said they simply could not escape the media onslaught of bad news regarding the future of gas prices, and many reported their financial futures were looking bleaker and bleaker,” say Hochwarter.

One respondent said that rising gas prices have left him distracted at work.

“I spend more time at work trying to figure out what I need to give up to keep gas in my tank than thinking about how to do my job,” said the factory worker.

To show that your company understands the problem employees face, you may want to offer alternative programs to the traditional 8-5 such as 4-10 hour days or telecommuting if at all possible. You might also want to organize a car pool system employees can participate in.

I would also argue that the stress isn’t because of gas prices alone. It could be from any prices rapidly increasing, resulting in a financial hardship for that worker and their family. You may want to think about an employee assistant program offering financial advice that workers can speak with confidentially.

P.S. Remember when $2.00 a gallon seemed expensive?