Archive for the 'Employee Engagement' Category

It’s been well over seven hours and 15 days since “Project Runway” took its love away from Bravo.

Now that the Emmy-nominated reality show about fashion designers has moved to a new home on Lifetime, Bravo executives are struggling to fill the void the network’s highest rated reality show left behind – a struggle that any manager who has ever had to say goodbye to a great employee – for whatever reason – can identify with.

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• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on September 3, 2009
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• Categories: Employee Engagement, Employee Retention

In CareerBuilder’s recent interview with Ben Roth, founder and chief executive officer of Roth Staffing Companies, L.P., Ben revealed his thoughts on the “three circles of the hedgehog,” his advice to other companies on how to create a values-driven company, the importance of his company’s “Ambassadors” in driving employee engagement, and more.

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• Posted by: Amy Chulik on August 26, 2009
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• Categories: CareerBuilder Leadership Series, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employer Advice, Leadership Development

Wow…according to CareerBuilder’s latest survey, the number of employers using social networking sites to screen candidates has more than doubled in the last year.  

Out of more than 2,600 hiring managers, 45 percent reported using social networking sites to research job candidates’ backgrounds for information that verified – or supplemented – the information on their resumes.  This finding represents a huge increase from the 22 percent of hiring managers who said the same thing last year.

The most popular site to search, not surprisingly, is Facebook, followed closely by LinkedIn and MySpace. Searching blogs and following candidates on Twitter were also popular means of screening. (Looks like you’re safe, Friendster users.)

(Side note/shameless plug: As of yesterday, hiring managers have a new social networking site on which to research candidates: Brightfuse, CareerBuilder’s new professional networking site. Check out the press release here.)

Of those who searched social networking sites to screen candidates, as many as 35 percent found content on that caused them not to hire the candidate, such as: Continue Reading…

• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 20, 2009
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• Categories: Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Social Media, Survey Results

I was recently reading a recent Wall Street Journal blog post about the appropriateness (or lack thereof) of touching at work. The article discusses touching of the physical sort, from an arm graze to fist bumping. And the question remains: When is it okay to touch co-workers — or is touching just simply over the top?

Some may recall the “Friends” episode featuring Chandler and his boss’s habit of touching at work. Chandler was extremely uncomfortable with this “habit,” while his boss (and fellow co-workers) didn’t see anything wrong with it:

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on July 28, 2009
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• Categories: Economy, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Technology

Our latest CareerBuilder Leadership Series spotlight is on Ron Williams, chairman and chief executive officer of Aetna, one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies.

A strong proponent of meaningful health care reform, Mr. Williams has championed specific solutions in op-ed articles featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The Financial Times, and he lends his time and expertise to a number of organizations, including the Business Council as vice chairman and the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, which he currently chairs. Ron talks to CareerBuilder about the power of employee suggestions, how leaders play a critical role in employee engagement, how he focuses on driving home diversity in the organization, and more.

What is your philosophy as far as the role people play in your organization?

At Aetna, we have a set of values we call The Aetna Way. The values really start with putting the people who use our services at the center of what we do. We maintain an intense focus on employee engagement because it is so fundamental and critical to our success. As a service business, we are what our employees do. You cannot go into any store in America, and buy one Aetna off the shelf – it doesn’t exist. So our employees have to internalize the importance of their role in living our values and meeting our customers’ needs. One way we measure how we’re doing in this area is through an annual employee survey. This year, 94 percent of our 36,000 employees completed the survey, which is an extraordinary response rate. Through the survey they are able to tell us what they think is working well and where there is room for improvement.

Can you give an example of an instance where an employee suggested an improvement for the company that you implemented and some effects you saw from that?

One great example is that employees felt we should have company-wide recognition events. So we established The Aetna Way Excellence Awards to recognize employee excellence in living our values and meeting the needs of our customers. The awards are especially meaningful, because winners are nominated by their peers. Last year we had nearly 4,000 employees nominated for silver awards, the first level of awards. From that group of winners, we selected about 35 to 40 gold award winners, who went onto the Platinum awards or highest level of award, where roughly 10 individuals were recognized as the very best examples of the values of the company. That whole program came about as a result of employees suggestions that came through the survey.

How do you ensure that employee engagement starts from day one and continues through the 10, 15, 20 years they might spend with your company?

Our leaders play a critical role in employee engagement. We have a set of leadership expectations that lays out core behaviors, including the expectation that leaders will communicate, communicate, communicate. A big part of their regular communication is to help transmit the culture and the values of the company. For example, we put new leaders through a first impressions orientation program where a senior officer, like myself, the president of the company, the CFO or our head of human resources, will go in and talk with them to make certain that they understand the culture at Aetna, how seriously we take our values, and the expectations we have for them as leaders in fostering employee engagement.

What is your set of values composed of?

It has four values. The first is integrity, which is about both what you do and what you don’t do. And we talk a lot about how we honor our commitments, behave ethically and do the right thing for the right reasons.. The second value is employee engagement, which we describe as leading people to success, valuing diversity and building confidence and pride in our company. The third value is excellence and accountability. It is doing what we say we are going to do when we say we are going to do it. The final value is really about quality service and value. Quality is so important in health care because most members presume that they are going to receive quality, but in reality, they may or may not. So we focus a lot on quality as one of the core values in our organization.

How do you engage different members of your organization?

One of the goals of an executive is to define reality for the organization, and to help the organization confront that reality quickly and effectively, and at the same time inspire managers and employees that these challenges can, in fact, be addressed. To give you an example, as I moved around the business community in the last half of 2008, it became clear that businesses were facing very substantial economic challenges. When our service team met with the benefit executives in our client organizations, they were not yet feeling a lot of that tension in their organization at that level. But when you talk to many executive leaders, they were clearly sharing their anxiety about how they saw the second half shaping up. So as the leader of the organization it is my job to define that reality, bring that reality back into the organization and say, “You may not yet be seeing what will be happening, but it is going to happen. We have to prepare for it happening,” and develop the next set of products that will be responsive to where our customers are going as opposed to where they are today.

Who or what has made the biggest impact in how you lead or interact with people?

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on July 27, 2009
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• Categories: Building a Best Place to Work, CareerBuilder Leadership Series, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employer Advice

Do you know someone 55 or older who has been laid off in the past year and has had a hard time finding a new job? Are you one of them? If so, you’re not alone; mature workers have been hit particularly hard in regard to recent job loss. While almost three-fourths (71 percent) of those ages 25 to 34 who were laid off in the last 12 months have found new jobs, just over a quarter (28 percent) of mature workers have been able to do so, the lowest percentage of all age groups.

Competing with recent grads

A new study from CareerBuilder shows that many mature workers are overqualified for the jobs to which they are applying, and are expanding their job search to include entry-level positions, internships, relocation and other options in an effort to secure gainful employment. Because of changes in the level and type of job they are searching for, mature job seekers are also now competing with recent college graduates and other new work force entrants for entry-level positions — positions which they likely thought were long behind them. And 44 percent of mature workers have been told by employers that they’re overqualified for a job.

What your fellow employers are saying

The good news about all of this? The majority of employers (65 percent) say they would consider experienced candidates who apply for jobs for which they’re overqualified.

• One in four employers (26 percent) reported they have received applications from workers over the age of 50 for entry-level jobs
• An additional 11 percent have received entry-level applications from retirees

Mature workers offer a wealth of knowledge and experience that has translated into a significant competitive advantage for employers,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder. “Employers are considering mature job candidates for a variety of positions ranging from entry-level to senior-level to consultants to leverage their intellectual capital and mentor other workers. Twenty-nine percent of employers have hired a worker age 50 or older for a permanent position within their organization over the last six months.

“Need internship, will travel”

Mature workers are also seeking out internships as an alternate way to break into longer-term employment. Seven percent of employers reported candidates 55 and older have applied for internships at their organizations. Over half of them (55 percent) say they would be willing to consider mature workers for internships, while 4 percent have already taken action and hired them.

Relocating to a new city may often be an attractive option for those just out of college or in their early career years, but many mature workers are considering uprooting their current lifestyle and moving to land a new job. Pf mature workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and did not find a new job, 41 percent stated they would consider relocating to another city or state to find employment.

Becoming their own boss

Some mature workers are also using unemployment as an opportunity to open that bookstore, restaurant, or Internet business they’ve been talking about for (what seems like) years. Twenty-three percent of mature workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and did not find a job are considering starting their own business.

What about those who did land a job?

Of those mature workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and found another job:

• 26 percent took a job in another field, with the vast majority (75 percent) reporting that they are enjoying the experience
• In terms of compensation, 48 percent took a pay cut, while 40 percent landed positions with similar pay. Another 13 percent found jobs with a higher compensation rate than what they were previously earning.

Read the full press release on mature workers and entry-level jobs.

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on July 23, 2009
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• Categories: Economy, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Survey Results