"Rapid Recovery: How to Rebound Quickly When Life Throws You in the Ditch" Wednesday, February 15, 2006 (5:15 to 8:00pm)
Embry Rucker Shelter Donations Update
A Message from the President
Greater Washington Employer Benefit and Work/Life Survey Launches January 18
Nominations Wanted!!!
CHAPTER DISCUSSION GROUP "Succession Planning" Thursday, Feb 2
Welcome to New Members
Mark Your Calendar
Checking up on Workplace Policies
Covering all the Bases

"Rapid Recovery: How to Rebound Quickly When Life Throws You in the Ditch" Wednesday, February 15, 2006 (5:15 to 8:00pm)

Whether your team just learned your number one project lost funding, you suffered through a gut-wrenching meeting with a critical decision maker, or you hit a significant setback in your career, you're ability to get back on your feet fast is critical to your sanity and success.

As the performance bar continues to rise and unpredictable changes rock us more often, how can we stay our best consistently? How can we lead and mentor others to stay their best during the hard times? What organizational practices support people to get stronger after a crisis?

Come and learn the practical lessons Executive Coach, Meredith Kimbell, has gathered from her work with dozens of successful top leaders. Meredith will give you new tips and tools for recovering rapidly, a chance to apply new ideas to your own work life, and a network exercise to explore additional best practices with your peers.

As an Executive Coach, Meredith Kimbell has assisted hundreds of leaders from professional service firms, manufacturing, and high technology companies to create new levels of success and satisfaction, often following notable setbacks. As President of Corporate Adventure in Reston, VA for 23 years, Meredith has consulted with startups, mid-tier and Fortune 100 companies to improve productivity, profitability and fulfillment during times of rapid change.

Meredith is a successful business woman and licensed Psychologist (VT-Master) who brings a unique blend of insight and inspiration to her clients. She is the co-author of Create the Business Breakthrough You Want with Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, et al. The book has won endorsements from business giants Dr. Stephen R. Covey and Ken Blanchard. For more information, visit www.corporateadventure.com.

WE WELCOME OUR FEBRUARY SPONSOR, IMPACT! VIDEO PRODUCTION

Impact! helps companies find effective media solutions to meet their needs. They specialize in video for conferences, training video production, and e-learning solutions. Get your message across with Impact! Visit their website at www.impactvideoproduction.com or contact Steve Mack at 703-869-9353.

EMBRY RUCKER SHELTER DONATIONS UPDATE

Members who attended the December holiday party donated $229 for the Embry Rucker Shelter. Donations were used to purchase Target gift certificates for the homeless. Thank you for your continued support. Reston Interfaith's programs address the most critical issues facing our neighbors: affordable housing needs and homelessness, nurturing and healthy environments for families, and social issues, such as domestic violence and substance abuse. For more on how to help, check out www.restoninterfaith.org.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Fellow Colleagues,

Happy 2006! New years are a good time to make resolutions, set goals, and implement changes! At Dulles SHRM, we are thrilled to announce some enhancements that will benefit you as members, employers, and sponsors! We hope these changes will confirm Dulles SHRM as your chapter of choice to attend our meetings, to network with our members, and to sponsor our events!

"But why the changes?" you ask. "I like Dulles just the way it is!" Well, I do too! I marvel at how the chapter operates like a well-oiled machine, thanks to past Presidents including Judy Perrault, Cindy Loison, and most recently, Kurt Cowles. Through their leadership and guidance, the Chapter has delivered programs with timely topics and quality speakers, facilitated discussion groups, grew our membership by double digits, maintained strong chapter financial health, planned study groups to help our members pass their PHR/SPHR exams, partnered with community organizations, connected with student communities, awarded scholarships and donations, and so much more while ensuring a welcoming and inclusive culture at all our events.

What else is there left to do? At Dulles SHRM, we are still hard at work, like mice in search of cheese, to deliver more value for your membership with us. We already have a brand new slate of speakers and topics lined up each month for 2006! Our SIG Committee will kick off the discussion group meetings in February, offering round-table and lively exchanges on timely and day-to-day HR issues. We will be offering vendors different levels of sponsorship packages, developing student outreach and mentoring programs, planning workforce readiness and disability awareness activities with community organizations, exploring joint membership billing with National SHRM, awarding at least 2 HR-related scholarships … And wait until you notice the changes on our website where you can register for meetings, renew your membership or join us, and pay online at the click of your mouse.

Mouse, you say? In 'Who Moved My Cheese?' author Spencer Johnson reminds all mice, men, and women to 'Enjoy the Taste of New Cheese!' I hope you will join the Dulles SHRM Board and me in welcoming the enhancements that the Chapter will be offering in 2006 like tasty morsels of Guyere, Gorgonzola, and Gouda.

May the cheese be with you!

Maggie Chan
President, Dulles SHRM
~ Your SHRM Chapter of Choice ~

GREATER WASHINGTON EMPLOYER BENEFIT AND WORK/LIFE SURVEY Launches January 18

Survey to Close on Friday, February 10

The highly anticipated 1st Annual Greater Washington Employer Benefit and Work/Life Survey launches today and is open NOW at www.insightexpress.com/s/benefitsurvey.asp. This comprehensive FREE local area survey is being conducted in collaboration with Dulles SHRM, WTPF, NOVA SHRM, The Washington Work/Life Coalition, and Wachovia Insurance Services.

The Greater Washington Employer Benefit and Work/Life Survey will gather benefits information from businesses in the D.C. Metropolitan Area, to be analyzed and published in April 2006. The findings will offer up-to-date, competitive information on benefits policies and practices for a range of industry groups and employer sizes.

Participating employers will receive an electronic copy of the survey results FREE OF CHARGE no later than April 3, in time for 2007 renewal planning. Non-participants may purchase results at a cost of $500.

Washington area organizations of all sizes and all industry sectors are encouraged to participate; please submit results by the closing date of Friday, February 10. Most questions are in a simple multiple choice format and can be answered with a mouse click. Participants should be able to complete the survey in less than one hour.

Respondents will be eligible to receive three FREE data "cuts" based on several group characteristics including employer size, annual revenue, industry, and geography. A minimum of 15 respondents in a particular "cut" will be required to provide statistically valid responses.

The survey content includes the full range of employee benefits topics: medical, prescription, dental, vision, plan design, rates and contributions, other medical questions, consumer driven health care, medical trends, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, supplemental life insurance, paid and unpaid leave, holidays, short-term disability, long-term disability, paternity leave, jury duty, bereavement leave, military leave, unpaid leave, telework, Internet connectivity, referral bonus, reduction in workforce policies, relocation, training, tuition reimbursement, 401(k), and outsourcing -- plus more.

The Greater Washington Employer Benefit and Work/Life Survey may be accessed at www.insightexpress.com/s/benefitsurvey.asp. Please refer to the detailed instruction document at www.insightexpress.com/client%20pages/wachoviasurveyinstructions.pdf prior to completing the survey.

Participants who have technical questions related to completing the survey or need support related to content questions should contact Chris Bartnik at (202) 772-4221 or Chris.Bartnik@wachovia.com.

All employers are invited to participate, regardless of membership status in the sponsoring organizations. Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone who would like to participate in the survey.

NOMINATIONS WANTED!!!

The 2006 HR Leadership Awards of Greater Washington will be held on Tuesday, June 6 at the McLean Hilton.

The HR Leadership Awards of Greater Washington honors HR executives for outstanding contributions to their organizations and to the field of Human Resources Management.

The Awards were established in 2001 to recognize individuals who have demonstrated exemplary service and contribution through organizational leadership, risk taking, innovation, vision and communication; community service; and ethics.

In 2006, the HR leaders of Greater Washington will be eligible for the following awards:

• Human Resources Professional Excellence Awards in the following categories:
• Large Commercial
• Small Commercial
• Government
• Non-Profit
• Community Service/Corporate Social Responsibility Award
• Ethics Award

• Telework - Allows employees to dramatically reduce or completely eliminate the time and money spent commuting to-and-from work, one or more days per week. For employers, savings can come in the form of reduced overhead such as office space costs and parking. In addition, telecommuting provides for lower absenteeism, higher productivity and helps businesses attract and retain qualified employees.
• Incentives - Commuter benefits reward and encourage employees for taking alternative means of commuting. Benefits such as transit and vanpool subsidies, pre-tax transit and vanpool passes and preferred or discounted parking for carpools and vanpools. Other incentives may include offering flex-time schedules, shuttle service or the provision of facilities and equipment such as showers and lockers for those who bike or walk to work.
• Marketing - Promoting the merits of ridesharing, transit and bicycling within a company is an essential part of a successful commuter program. Companies who educate and advocate alternate commuting options enjoy high employee participation rates in such methods. Employees arrive less stressed and better able to start their productive day.

CHAPTER DISCUSSION GROUP "Succession Planning" Thursday, Feb 2

An effective succession plan ensures the continuity of business operations in a fast-paced and changing business environment. Succession planning ensures that highly qualified people are in all positions, not just today, but tomorrow, next year, and five years from now, to lead organizations through the tides of change. James "B. J." Johnston, President of Cornerstone HR Consulting, will facilitate our discussion on this topic. He has a diverse background in human resource, leadership and business development. In preparation, please reflect on the following questions:

• What are the critical attributes of an effective succession plan?
• Why is an effective succession plan so important in today's business environment?
• What are some best practices you've observed for effective succession planning?

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

Contributed by Lynn Padgett, Vice President, Membership

We welcome the following new members who joined the Chapter during December:

• Donna Asbury, HR Generalist, Deloitte Consulting
• Joyce Nash, City Human Resources Manager, LSG Sky Chefs
• Peter Taylor, Director of Human Resources, Washington Dulles Airport Suites Marriott

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

2006 Conferences:

• June 25-28 - SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition, Washington, D.C.

• February 15 (Dinner Meeting) - "Rapid Recovery: "Leading and Mentoring Others through Hard Times" with Meredith Kimbell, President, Corporate Adventure, Focus: Professional Development
• March 15 (Dinner Meeting) "Lessons I've Learned Training 5,000+ Supervisors, Managers, and Team Leaders" with Fran Gillen, The Training Guy with Karen Reser, VP of HR, iDirect Technologies, Focus: Training
• April 19 (Breakfast Meeting) - "Changing Landscape of the Job Marketplace" Focus: Recruiting & Hiring
• May 17 (Dinner Meeting) - "Compensation and Rewards - Programs that Work" with Jane Weizmann, Washington Office Practice Leader, Strategic Rewards, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Focus: Compensation
• June - No Meeting National SHRM Convention
• July 19 (Breakfast Meeting) - TBA
• August 16 (Dinner Meeting) - "Emerging Trends in HR" Presenter: Keith Green, SPHR, Focus: HR Strategy & Direction
• September 20 (Dinner Meeting) - TBA, Presenter: Caryn Pass, Krupin O'Brien, Focus: HR Law
• October 18 (Breakfast Meeting) - "Straight talk…Crucial Conversations" with Marcia Riley, Chief Learning Officer and AVP Talent Management, INOVA Health, Focus: Career Development
• November 15 (Dinner Meeting) - "Contact Count: Networking Skills for HR Professionals" with Wendy Mack, T3 Consulting, Focus: Professional Development: Interpersonal Skills
• December 13 (Dinner Meeting) - Holiday Party

CHECKING UP ON WORKPLACE POLICIES

Ring in New Year by taking stock of what worked, what didn't. By Carole Katz
Submitted by Evelyn Kaiser, Diversity/Workforce Education Director

Often, managers and human resources professionals are so consumed with reacting to time-sensitive problems and "putting out fires" that it is difficult to monitor whether preventive and compliance steps that are already in place are still up to standard.

The turn of the calendar page is an apt time to consciously check up on whether time has eroded steps or programs put in place and whether it is time to update them. For example:

1. Medical information in personnel files. Have you audited personnel files to insure that no medical information (such as doctors' notes or fitness-for-duty certifications) has inadvertently been filed in personnel files? All medical information is legally required to be maintained in a confidential file with only need-to-know access, yet all too often medical-related documents find their way into personnel files.

2. Definition of job applicants. If you are subject to regulation by the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, have you put in place processes and systems to comply with the final definition of an Internet applicant? At what point are you soliciting the race and gender of qualified Internet applicants for open positions, and what processes do you have in place to comply with the new record-keeping obligations? When hiring managers or recruiters are searching Internet job boards based on key word searches, they have to retain information on the job they are seeking to fill, including a description of the basic qualifications of the position, the date and databases searched, the query or key word search used, the list of resumes of candidates who met the basic qualifications of the position and some type of disposition system explaining why some qualified candidates were deemed by the employer not to be interested in the position or why the employer chose not to select certain qualified candidates for interview. Under most circumstances, employers must retain these candidate records for two years from the date the position was filled. The new regulation becomes effective Feb. 6, 2006.

3. Compensation, hiring and promotion policies. Have you insured that your managers do not have unfettered discretion to make subjective compensation, hiring and promotion decisions? Recent class actions have capitalized on employers who vest individual managers with unfettered discretion to make employment decisions, arguing that all members of the class are victims of the same subjective decision-making process and that this process is a thread that unites the entire class.

4. Training. Has it been awhile since your last harassment prevention or management training? Often, spending the time and money at the outset can prevent larger (and more expensive) legal problems later.

5. Harassment policy. Have you reviewed it lately to make sure it is state-of-the art? Is it limited to sexual harassment (it should not be -- the policy should also prohibit harassment based on race, religion, national origin, disability, age and all other protected classifications)?

5. Diversity program. Did you announce a diversity program that has died or withered on the vine? If so, it is time to assess why, lest you be perceived to have simply paid lip service to diversity.

6. Job descriptions. Do you have them for every job (or at least every job classification)? Collective actions based on allegations that a class of employees have been improperly treated as nonexempt and therefore not paid overtime continue to cause problems for employers, large and small, and there is no reason to think that this trend will reverse itself in 2006.

7. Outsourcing contracts. How effective are your outsourcing contracts? Many employers made the decision to outsource various functions years ago, and the current business climate might not be as conducive to outsourcing. Talk with your providers to determine a mutually beneficial resolution to any problems in the relationship. Or perhaps it is time to end the outsourcing all together, in which case you should closely evaluate with your legal counsel the ramifications of terminating any such agreements.

8. HIPAA privacy training. Have you insured all employees required to be trained are trained? For most employers, this will include the group health plan's "workforce." That is, those employees who have access to protected health information because they perform administrative -- or claims-related services on behalf of the plan.

9. Benefit plans and SPDs. Have you reviewed your employee benefit plans and related communications (for example, summary plan descriptions) to confirm that they incorporate any new law changes and conform to actual administrative practice? This should be done annually. Some courts have found that employee communications may "trump" actual plan provisions in the event there is a discrepancy, so accuracy is important. One 401(k) plan law change in 2005 relates to the new "automatic rollover" rules. Under the new rules, 401(k) plans are permitted to distribute participant account balances without participant consent if the balances are $1,000 or less. If participant account balances are greater than $1,000 but less than or equal to $5,000, plans may distribute participant account balances without participant consent but only if the amounts are rolled over into an individual retirement account.

10. 401(k) plan investment review. If you are an employer that sponsors a 401(k) plan, have you reviewed the plan's investment options? As 401(k) plan sponsors, employers have a "fiduciary responsibility" to the plan participants, which includes ensuring that the investment options offered are selected and maintained in a prudent manner.

It is good idea to take stock of what worked and what did not for your workplace this past year. Like it or not, problems that crept into your workplace while you were busy meeting deadlines and tending to immediate problems likely will not go away.

For the Pittsburgh Business Times

COVERING ALL THE BASES

Reining in health care costs, dealing with new legal compliance issues, fighting the war for talent--employers, and their HR departments, need to keep up with the latest trends in workforce management. By Leslie Gross Klaff
Submitted by Evelyn Kaiser, Diversity/Workforce Education Director

Companies today deal with all kinds of workforce demands--everything from designing compensation and rewards programs to analyzing tricky labor law dilemmas to crafting successful approaches to recruiting. Companies also must cope with other unique challenges--rising health care costs, the changing nature of workforce management in a global marketplace and the sophisticated nature of human resources technology. Here is a review of the most influential trends in workforce management in the coming year.

Medical and retirement benefits
As health care costs continue to rise far beyond the rate of inflation, consumer-directed health plans are taking off as a way to alleviate costs. "Health care costs continue to rise because health care markets don't work," says Joe Martingale, national health care strategy leader in Watson Wyatt Worldwide's New York office.

"The reason is that people haven't been spending their own money with health care … and the doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies know they're not spending their own money," he says. "This is an attempt to solve the underlying problem by asking people to take more responsibility."

Most consumer-directed health plans include a personal employee spending account, along with a high-deductible policy and full coverage for preventive care. "It does save money," says Helen Darling, executive director of the National Business Group on Health. "People will spend less when it's more of their own money."

Some observers, however, worry that employees may be putting off needed medical care until they save enough in their personal accounts. While it's too early to tell if consumer-driven plans will become the dominant way of offering health care, the trend is off to a strong start. This year 8 percent of employers offered health savings accounts, a key element of consumer-driven plans, and another 18 percent plan to offer them in 2006, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health. Additionally, 47 percent are considering the accounts.

As with health care, the trend in retirement benefits is to transfer the responsibility and risk from the employer to the employees. Traditional pension plans continue to be replaced with 401(k) plans, and employers are putting more of the onus on employees for saving for retirement.

"Employers are really moving away from a paternal view of retirement needs," says Kevin Wagner, practice director for Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Detroit. "It used to be that employers designed pension plans around what employees needed to live in retirement. " Now, he says, "it's 'We give you 5 to 6 percent of your pay and make sure you invest it intelligently.' " This requires a great deal of education on the part of employees, as they learn to make sound investment decisions. It also puts demands on employers, who carry some responsibility to provide that education.

Meanwhile, several retirement-related regulations are up in the air as 2005 comes to a close. Congress is considering legislation that would enable employers to give employees more advice on how to save for retirement without being held liable for market reversals. Another measure would allow companies to automatically enroll employees in their 401(k) plans with automatic increases in their contributions on an annual basis without fear of being sued. Employees would be allowed to opt out of the auto enrollment and increase provisions.

Also under consideration is a new type of hybrid pension plan that would limit an organization's financial risk while offering employees the same kind of retirement security that a defined-benefit pension once offered.

Sweeping pension funding reform also is on the table, as Congress tries to address the $23.3 billion deficit at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Another trend in retirement benefits, Wagner says, is that plan sponsors are redesigning 401(k) plans to make them more attractive to older workers. Some companies allow employees 50 and older to take advantage of a "catch-up" provision that lets them contribute additional amounts to their 401(k) plans, to a maximum of $4,000 this year and $5,000 in 2006.

Legal issues
In the wake of numerous ethics scandals, the corporate compliance spotlight is still on the finance divisions of many corporations. But more and more, it's also shining brightly on human resources. The portion of HR budgets directed toward legal compliance is growing, and almost 70 percent of all complaints on ethics hot lines are HR-related, says attorney Garry Mathiason, a San Francisco-based partner with Littler Mendelson, a national labor law and employment law firm.

"Chief compliance officers and boards of directors are finally realizing that a big chunk of the compliance arena is in HR, so HR is swept into this," he says.

For human resource professionals, this means having to coordinate compliance efforts with a person who oversees compliance issues across the company--in most organizations, the chief risk officer or chief compliance officer. This will demand greater knowledge of what it means to be compliant, and the "language of compliance is complex," Mathiason says.

"The difference is the visibility of the issue at the CEO/board of directors level," Mathiason says. "It used to be that HR was in its own silo. Now, it's not good enough to internally report compliance. … You're reporting to a chief compliance officer, who may not know anything about HR."

Employers also are dealing with a steady increase in class-action litigation, driven by the willingness of state and federal courts to certify such cases for class-action status and the fact that employers are increasingly settling these cases. Most cases are over wage and hour and meal and rest period issues. But Mathiason believes this trend may be reversed as more employers use arbitration agreements to resolve disputes. These agreements are usually enforceable by the courts and increasingly contain language waiving participation in class-action employment cases.

Another litigation hot spot can be found in the number of women who say they've been discriminated against on the job because they're pregnant. Such claims are rising even as the birth rate declines. Pregnancy discrimination complaints filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped 39 percent from 1992 to 2003, according to an analysis by the Washington-based National Partnership for Women & Families. During that same time, the nation's birth rate dropped 9 percent.

As there's more pressure in the workplace for productivity, some employers ignore or skirt the laws that protect the rights of pregnant women at work, Mathiason says. Also, working women are more aware of their rights and more willing to stand up and complain. There's also a rise in the number of age discrimination cases being filed. A U.S. Supreme Court decision this year made it easier for employees to bring class-action lawsuits for age discrimination. The court found that age discrimination can be proved based on disparate treatment, which means that even though there isn't direct age discrimination, if a company policy has the effect of causing age discrimination, it is unlawful.

Rewards and recognition
More and more, employers today are tying rewards and recognition to a company's core values. At companies like General Electric or Microsoft, for example, where innovation is a key value, reward programs are making heroes out of employees who come up with new ideas and patents, says Adrian Gostick, director of communication at the Salt Lake City-based O.C. Tanner Co., a provider of corporate recognition programs.

"You're seeing more companies not just recognize great behavior, but behavior based on values," Gostick says.

Sixty percent of organizations have a written strategy for employee recognition programs, and 95 percent of those strategies are aligned directly with the organization's goals, according to a 2005 survey by the National Association of Employee Recognition and World at Work. In 2002, T. Rowe Price launched an online thank-you note program based on its then four core values of customer service, teamwork, leadership and innovation. In just six months, 2,000 employees sent 20,000 thank-you notes to one another based on those values.

"It's a very simple formula," says Gostick, who is the author of several books on employee recognition, including The 24-Carrot Manager. "Employees start to see what's really important to the company and how they fit into the big picture."

Retention-based recognition programs also are becoming more popular as the economy improves and employers are more concerned about employees leaving for a better job offer. In addition to rewarding the top 10 percent of employees, employers are trying to reach more employees with informal but personal rewards, such as movie tickets or a book from a favorite author.

"It creates loyalty," says Christi Gibson, executive director of the National Association for Employee Recognition. "If you don't reward your employees, someone else is going to be knocking at their door."

Relocation
With the economic picture looking brighter and companies in a hurry to ramp up global expansion, employee transfers are on the rise and more expatriates are working short-term assignments. The number of people who are being transferred by their companies increased about 15 percent in 2004, says Cris Collie, executive vice president of the Worldwide Employee Relocation Council. Much of the growth is intra-regional--more companies are interested in building a market in China, for example, and are moving their employees there from places like Singapore and Thailand. More and more, transferees are working short-term assignments--a year or less versus the traditional assignment of three years or more--because of the escalating costs of long-term assignments and the urgency for companies to globalize.

"If they're not global already, one way to do that quickly is through a short-term assignment," Collie says. More than 80 percent of employers expect short-term assignments in the Asia-Pacific region to increase this year, according to the relocation council. Steep increases in short-term assignments also are projected in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

As another way of cutting costs, employers are localizing expatriates, which involves phasing out housing and schooling allowances, paying employees in the local currency, switching the employee to local health benefits and eliminating payment of income taxes in both countries. More than 60 percent of employers project an increase in localized assignments in the Asia-Pacific region this year.

With the sheer volume of transfers increasing, employers now are demanding a greater range of relocation services and starting to fully outsource relocation. Relocation firms are often being asked to support expats for their entire assignments. And in turn, the relocation industry is expanding, with relocation services now ranging from real estate appraisals to security companies.

HR software and technology
Now that PeopleSoft is settling into its Oracle ownership, the news in human resources technology is talent management. The top priority for human resource professionals is getting the right people in the door, making sure they're productive and retaining them--and their technology must reflect that, says Steve Larson, a senior consultant for Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Miami.

"People are realizing there truly is a war for talent," Larson says. "There's more of a requirement to find the best talent and retain top talent." A survey by the International Association for Human Resource Information Management and consulting firm Knowledge Infusion found that companies understand the possibilities of using technology to cultivate, grow and keep talent, but only a small percentage have the infrastructure to make it work. Functions such as recruiting, hiring, measuring performance, and compensation and recognition programs all must be integrated, Larson says. Most companies have had separate tools for these functions, some from separate vendors.

"These tools are all operating in silos," Larson says. "Now companies are seeing they need to connect the dots. They need to integrate systems and functions better."

As the human resources software market changes and companies invest more time and money in talent management, they will continue to outsource more of their back-office operations. Yankee Group predicts that global expenditures for human resources outsourcing will increase by 27 percent this year to more than $4.6 billion. In 2006, Larson says, employers need to do a better job of identifying those tasks that can be outsourced and making sure they're getting a return on investment. Rather than outsourcing one process, such as benefits, employers should look to better integrate outsourcing for all related areas, such as benefits and payroll. This will free up resources and allow organizations to focus on talent management, Larson says.

Recruitment and staffing
More than ever, the Internet and software technology are becoming indispensable recruiting tools for employers. Because of the focus on finding the most talented employees, employers are willing to change their recruiting technology. Applicant tracking systems of the past will be replaced next year by systems that integrate recruiting with other HR functions such as payroll, attendance and performance appraisals, says Mark Mehler, co-founder of CareerXroads, a recruiting technology consulting firm in Kendall Park, New Jersey.

"They want one-stop shopping," he says. "Customers are becoming more knowledgeable, more technical."

The Internet will continue to be a big spend by employers for recruitment as their reliance on newspaper advertising drops The Internet and employee referrals accounted for more than 61 percent of external hires in 2004 among companies surveyed by CareerXroads, and that figure has jumped in each of the past three years. Aggregated job boards, which collect jobs from multiple Web sites and corporations and put them on one site, also will continue to grow. "The job seeker wants one place to go," Mehler says.

Another trend that's expected to pick up is outsourced candidate identification--that is, finding candidate names. The work will be routed to such countries as India and Argentina, where labor is cheap and the education level is high, Mehler says. Employers are partnering with companies overseas or using contractors to do sourcing. "As employers get squeezed for money and squeezed for talent, they'll look for other alternatives" for finding qualified job candidates, Mehler says.

The job market is at a fairly even point right now, but it's getting tighter, says Richard Castellini, vice president of consumer marketing at CareerBuilder.com. Employers will need to pay better attention to retention in the coming months, he says. While three-quarters of hiring managers don't expect turnover to increase from current levels, almost half of workers expect to be looking for a new job in the next three years, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilder.com and Robert Half International Inc.

"That's definitely an increase companies need to be aware of," he says. "It's always better to keep the ones you've got than having to hire someone new."

Training and development
Employers today are approaching training and development with more of an eye on how it relates to business results. Companies are defining very specific goals for training and then showing how that training produced a return on investment.

"The biggest trend is an emphasis on performance," says Pat Galagan, the American Society for Training and Development's vice president of content. "It's much more business-focused. Companies are linking everything they do to the growth of the business." Whether it's learning new job skills, sexual harassment awareness training or job safety instruction, employers are being much more specific about the goals they're setting and then are crafting custom solutions, rather than offering standardized, one-size-fits-all programs.

Then companies are using very specific metrics to show that the training achieved results--improving job performance in a lagging area or instructing new employees, for example. At the same time, there's a strong trend to centralize training. Instead of offering programs from separate divisions throughout the company, training is being directed from the corporate level, Galagan says. Part of this movement is driven by an interest in spending on training, but it's also coming from the rise in e-learning and the large investments that organizations are making to buy and install companywide e-learning systems. The increase in use of e-learning has helped spending on training and development remain relatively flat, while employers have increased the number of hours of instruction.

The Internet has allowed companies to deliver training to more people, more quickly and at a lower cost, Galagan says. That average expenditure per worker on training and development has actually decreased by a few dollars, from $818 in 2003 to a projected $812 in 2004, according to ASTD's most recent State of the Industry Report, released in December 2004. At the same time, learning hours received per employee rose from 25.6 in 2003 to a projected 29.9 in 2004. From the planning to execution, there's clearly a trend toward efficiency, Galagan says. While spending on training has remained flat, the cost per learning hour provided has dropped, from $596 per hour in 2003 to $579 per hour in 2004.

That’s all for this month unless you have any ideas or suggestions? This is your chapter - let us know what’s on your mind!

Maggie Chan
President
Dulles SHRM
maggie.chan@bearingpoint.com