Here is the latest news on some “revolutions” in the workplace:
Insightful Web sites: When employees sit spellbound at their personal computers, their bosses should not assume they’re browsing eBay. Instead, these stellar workers may be studying important in-house information. “The Web has revolutionized the way companies reach employees with information and basic human resource services,” concludes a recent poll of 208 business executives by Towers Perrin, a global management and human resource consulting firm based in New York. The study notes that 91 percent of those surveyed use the Web to communicate with employees and 48 percent to enable them to enroll in benefit plans or training courses.
So that’s what they’re doing!
A revolutionary idea: Concerned about the growing shortage and high turnover of nurses who work in hospitals (see story below), many health-care officials have been trying to figure out why. But Revolution magazine had a revolutionary idea: It found out from the nurses themselves.
The reasons nurses quit their jobs, according to a survey by the California Board of Registered Nurses, include increased workloads, inadequate staff/patient ratios; harmful changes in health-care delivery systems; decreased quality of care; problems linked to increased use of unlicensed personnel; and too much time spent on non-nursing tasks.
They sound to me like some very healthy reasons.
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The college revolution: With jobs harder to find, employers are talking about a revolutionary concept: The “perfect” job candidate right out of college. A study of 457 employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers based in Bethlehem, Pa., reveals the top requirements for “perfection” are oral and written communication skills; honesty and integrity; teamwork; interpersonal skills and a strong work ethic. It may be heartening for some to learn that grade-point average was at the bottom of the list.
Revolutionary workforce changes: There have been dramatic changes in America’s workforce. “It now is mostly white collar, almost equally composed of women and men,” according to Paul Almeida, president of the Department for Professional Employees of the AFL-CIO, based in Washington. Almeida notes that more change is on the way: “The percentage of white-collar workers will increase in the coming years and the greatest growth will be in the professional and technical occupations.”
Unions, too, have changed. Once thought of as organizations for non-professionals and blue-collar workers, Almeida’s organization represents 21 national and international unions with more than four million white-collar workers–another revolution.
Not so revolutionary news: Forced overtime may mean more money, but it also can result in poor work performance and problems at home, reports Lonnie Golden, associate professor of economics at Penn State University, and Helene Jorgensen, research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. Despite the downside, the researchers found that agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and communication have at least 25 percent of their employees working overtime on a regular basis. No wonder we’re tired!
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Carol Kleiman’s column also appears in Tuesday’s Business and Wednesday’s Working sections. Watch her Career Coach segments Sunday and Tuesday mornings on CLTV. Send e-mail to [email protected].