U.S. employers added 52,000 temporary workers last month, marking the fourth consecutive month of increase for temp hiring, The New York Times reports.
The motivation for hiring temps is obvious: “An actual employee with benefits costs more than a temp or a contract worker,” as one employer said, “and as long as I can still get highly skilled temps, I’ll go that route. It gives me more room to reverse course if the economy weakens again and sales do finally sink.”
Still, in previous recessions, permanent workers were added after two or three months of increasing temp hiring.
Do you think that pattern will hold true this time? Is your organization turning to temps more often now? Are you expecting those jobs to become permanent next year? (read more…)
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There was no episode of “The Office” last night — not even a rerun. So sad! But still people were talking about the show and its ridiculous cast of characters this week.
Harvard Business Review blogger Andrew McAffee posted “Middle Management: The Importance of Being Michael Scott” on Tuesday, and since I have no new episode to blog about, I’m just going to blog on his blog post.
Too much blogging? Impossible!
McAffee examines the commonly held belief that technology is on the brink of making middle managers extinct. He once subscribed to this theory himself, but writes that he was swayed by two recent studies. The studies provide concrete evidence that technology is actually making the middle manager more important than ever. In McAffee’s words, “Employees at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin might have problems with their manager Michael Scott. But they’d have even more serious problems without him. (read more…)
Today’s guest post is by Aubrey Daniels, author of “Bringing out the Best in People,” and “OOPS! 13 Management Practices That Waste Time & Money And What To Do Instead.” He blogs on workplace and management issues at Aubreydanielsblog.com.
In “Up in the Air,” George Clooney plays a corporate downsizing expert who travels from city to city laying off employees for bosses that were too cowardly to do it themselves. With the film spotlighting a practice that many managers may eventually have to face, it is an ideal time to take a look at the best — and worst — ways to handle downsizing and layoffs.
First things first: Asking someone else to do the dirty work for you is not only hurtful and disrespectful to the people being let go, it further exacerbates feelings of fear and mistrust of upper management for those employees that remain. It is a short-sighted, easy way out for companies that think they are being efficient, but it will come back to bite them. (read more…)
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Smartbrief on Workforce — tracks feedback from leading managers and HR practitioners. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter and feature analysis from Lance Haun, vice president of outreach for MeritBuilder, the main guy over at Rehaul.com and a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board, on this blog.
Last week’s poll question: Do you serve alcohol at your holiday party?
- Yes, we provide an open bar with no set limits, 32%
- No, but we do provide punch, 28%
- Yes, we provide a bar with a few drink tickets covered by the company, 25%
- Yes, but it is just a cash bar so employees have to purchase drinks, 15%
“It is actually pretty surprising to me that 56% of companies are providing drinks to their employees at their holiday party (with almost a third of companies putting no set limit on the free booze). (read more…)
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