Skilled workers to come from outside US

FIFTY per cent of US HR professionals say that new workers lack some core competencies, and many organisations are recruiting skilled workers from outside the United States to fill skill gaps. In a survey of 489 recruiters, 29 per cent say that they hire foreign nationals when they cannot find a US worker with the necessary competencies or skills. However, overseas hiring was complicated by the following factors:

Visa/green card processing delays 64%

A complex visa/green card process 55%

Excessive processing fees 42%

Consequently, undergraduate educational assistance (59 per cent), job related skills training (55 per cent) and graduate educational assistance (48 per cent) were the top three alternative measures taken to close the skills gap.

Source: Society for Human Resource Management

Taking a sickie still popular

TWENTY per cent of people who tell their boss they are working from home are actually taking a sickie. According to a survey of 591 workers, a further 12 per cent have used the food poisoning excuse as a way to get a day off work, while some 17 per cent take a sickie just because they feel they have earned it. Employers are well aware of this however, with 63 per cent claiming they expect their staff to take the occasional sick day. More than a quarter of employees (28 per cent), say they take one or two days per year off and 16 per cent say they lie to their boss about the reason they are taking the time off work.

Source: Talent2

Senior management lose out as bonuses increase

MEDIAN bonuses have increased to 41 per cent of base pay, up from 39 per cent in 2005. A survey of 46 top management roles in 44 UK companies, found that while bonuses have increased, the salaries of executive directors and senior executives decreased slightly last year. Bonuses for group chief executives ranged between 16 per cent and 153 per cent of salary while those for finance directors were between 19 per cent and 140 per cent of salary. Results also showed that the majority of bonus plans used a combination of financial and non-financial measures. The most widely used mix of financial to non-financial indicators was 50:50.

Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting

Online the best way to recruit Generation Y

THIRTY-TWO per cent of Australian finance and HR managers say they use online job boards to recruit employees from Generation Y. Comparatively, only 22 per cent of HR and finance managers in the UK and 28 per cent globally use this method of recruitment to target younger workers, while traditional press advertising is used by a mere 13 per cent. According to the 1,765 finance and HR managers surveyed, despite Australian employers’awareness of Generation Y’s different needs, 46 per cent have admitted to not using different methods when targeting that age group.

Source: Robert Half Finance & Accounting

Training pays off for recruiters

EIGHTY-SIX per cent of Recruitment and Consulting Services Association (RCSA) members provide training to their recruitment consultants and other directly hired employees. The survey showed that training is provided in a variety of methods, both formal and informal, in-house and external, as well as mentoring and vendor training. RCSA members have the following relationships with Registered Training Organisations:

Use one ore more RTOs 51%

Have formal links to a RTO 13%

Are actual RTOs 9%

As a result, staff retention now ranks eighth out of a list of 11 member concerns, with only 31 per cent rating this as an issue.

Source: RCSA

Bosses hold back dads

THIRTY-SIX per cent of males say their bosses do not allow paternity leave. According to the survey, over one third (69 per cent) of organisations believe their employers are family friendly however, when it comes to fathers, there could be a lot more leniency. Results highlighted the need to provide appropriate paternity leave in order to maintain a motivated workforce.

Source: Talent2