Employment Expectations for October '07
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations have released their monthly SHRM/Rutgers LINE Employment Expectations Report for October 2007, providing industry insights on hiring and recruiting. Key findings are as follows: - Lowest October employment expectations since the LINE series was initiated; - Smallest manufacturing...
Read More »Investing in Education: The Under-/Overqualified Seesaw
A speech given by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to the Chamber of Commerce this week has gotten us thinking once again about education and its role in industry's future workforce. Education provides excellent returns, both for individuals and for society. [Education is] the key - to your success. [It] is the capabilities of the people you employ. To a significant extent, those...
Read More »Follow-up: No Contract, No Work
Detroit must be abuzz, as union workers at General Motors left the assembly lines yesterday after management and United Auto Workers (UAW) leaders failed to come to terms on a new four-year labor pact.** The national strike - GM's first since 1970 - comes nine days after the last labor contract expired. After weeks of late-night, closed-door bargaining talks that appeared to be making progress,...
Read More »Follow-up: Mattel's Apology Lost in Translation
After a long, hot summer of criticism and media-flamed suspicion over the safety of Chinese-made products, an executive of the Mattel toy company met with China's top product safety official on Friday to issue an apology. What the apology was for and to whom it was directed, however, were lost in translation. On Friday, Mattel, the world's largest toymaker, acknowledged that the company's design...
Read More »The China Supply Chain Bottleneck
Many companies have looked to Asia for product sourcing in the pursuit for lower costs. Yet as they rush to source from China, companies in North America and Europe could be walking into a strategic trap with higher overall costs and reduced profitability, according to a recent report. What can businesses do? Companies continue to leverage savings in various functions and processes in low-cost...
Read More »Light Friday: Out-of-Office Replies, Custer's Last Stand, For the Four-Day Workweek...
... Boeing and Deities, Dying Languages, Unfunny Videos and MUCH MORE. Now that The New York Times has discontinued its digital Times Select subscription program and made much more of its 150+ years' of content available for anyone to read, Kottke.org dug around to highlight some particularly notable items that the non-paying subscriber has been missing, including: - An article about the...
Read More »Auto-Union Talks Labor On
Bargainers for General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have been haggling over a new contract that recently expired. Intense negotiations have stalled, restarted, recessed, came back and nearly collapsed. And that's just over the past few days. Now they continue. The stopping and starting tone and direction of negotiations have changed quickly on several occasions over the last few...
Read More »Space Race 2.0
Last week, Google and X PRIZE Foundation offered a multimillion-dollar prize to the first team to land a rover on the moon. Let's not be shy. If you have the experience, and connections for launching expertise, systems guidance robotics, telecommunications and a source for funding, this is your big chance. The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the...
Read More »Get Safe and Sound
Between threats of natural calamities and innumerable workplace hazards, ensuring security and safety in business requires a multi-faceted focus on communication and culture. Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, hail, gale-force winds, even mud volcanoes - disastrous events in recent years have taught us that you really don't know what natural calamities will threaten to wreak havoc on...
Read More »Prevent Forklift Fatalities
Each year tens of thousands of injuries related to powered industrial trucks, or forklifts, occur in workplaces nationwide. Such accidents also kill more than 100 workers a year. Ensure your company doesn't add to these statistics. An IBM server worth $1.4 million was wrecked after it fell off a forklift during shipping, InformationWeek recently reported. Now the customer is suing. The rear...
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