7 Frightening Realities of the Post-Recession Economy

7 Frightening Realities of the Post-Recession Economy7 Frightening Realities of the Post-Recession EconomyThe recession ended over two years ago, but if youre one of the protestors occupying Wall Street or among the millions still looking for a job (or a better job), then you probably didnt bedrngnisice. The bad news things are not likely to get much better any time soon. The economy remains stagnant and political parties fight for position protestors are growing in numbers and the unemployment rate has shown no real signs of improvement as we head into 2012.All of that is likely to continue reshaping the employment market, and will affect everything from your ability to conduct a salary negotiation to the pace at which you can expect to climb the ladder- or even get on it in the first place.So whats a job seeker to do? Here are some trends to look out for in the short and medium term as careerists continue looking for work in a frightening post-recession economy.1. Doing mora with lessThe theme of this troubling economy has been to do more with less. This theme has run across companies, both large and small, in the post-recession era. After sacking thousands of employees in order to cuts costs, pummeling employee morale in the process, managers focusing on the bottom line remain hesitant to hire more bodies in order to explore more avenues of business, even when profits begin to pick up. Despite layoffs and hiring freezes, work still needs to get done. Companies are not going to cut back on how much work must be performed to turn a bigger profit. Instead, they simply turn to their existing employees, put a cool flosse on their shoulders, smile, and ask them to take on increased duties. Those who fear for their own job will not say no. When companies see that the work still gets done, they no longer feel the need to hire and thus begin a cycle that continues today and will continue tomorrow.2. Held back by housingAccording to the National Association of Realto rs, existing homes sold at an annualized rate of 4.9 million units in September. This number is only slightly ahead of the 4.77 million rate in June, which marked a 14-year low. With the U.S. housing industry still sluggish, homeowners who want to sell are forced to stay right where they are. What does that mean? Well, for those who are unemployed and struggling to pay their mortgage, it means a lot. If they cant move, they are forced to limit their options when it comes to the job search. Those job seekers are stuck looking in the immediate vicinity for work and their options to relocate become seriously limited - not unless you want to add on the extra expense of paying rent while you wait for your home to sell.3. Choose your education carefullyIts a truth universally acknowledged that applications to schools surge during a recession. There are no jobs, so why not get more training and make yourself a better candidate when there are jobs? Makes sense, right? But there are some dis turbing figures to consider when the highly held belief is that the economy wont be improving to acceptable levels for some time. First, graduates are not finding work. The unemployment rate for young college graduates reached an all-time high in 2009 and according to government figures 33% of people ages 20 to 29 were unemployed last year. Higher education is not helping students get ahead in this economy with many graduates having to make ends meet in jobs they are overqualified for, such as waitresses or bartenders. Not finding work is no excuse to not pay your loans. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the amount of loans taken out by students last year hit the $100 1000 milliarden mark for the first time. To make matters even worse, the total amount of outstanding student debt is expected to pass $1 trillion for the first time ever this year. That debt wont go away and will become an albatross around the necks of students, even if they end up finding the jobs of their dreams. There is nothing like being successful and still being unable to make ends meet. Choosing education has become a much more difficult decision to make.4. Age diversityAn aging workforce is going to continue to be a big challenge for employers, who increasingly prefer to cut costs on training for new positions. Compounding this is the fact that people are delaying retirement because of the recession. While gender and racial diversity will remain critical concerns, age diversity presents a new challenge for the corporate world.5. More short term jobsThe recession might be over, but unemployment figures have remained the same at 9.1%. This has forced Americans to look at jobs differently, with many accepting temporary and part-time positions rather than holding out for full-time permanent work. Thats helped the underemployment rate remain sky-high- climbing from 16.2% to 16.5%- and there are no signs of it changing anytime soon retailers are expected to hire around the sam e or even lower than the 627,600 seasonal holiday employees that were hired last year.Those hiring this holiday season include Macys, which plans to add 78,000 temporary workers Fedex, which will add 20,000 temporary employees to its workforce Kohls, which will hire 40,000 seasonal workers and Toys R Us, which is expected to hire 40,000 new workers to deal with the holiday rush. While some temporary workers might find full-time work, more than likely, when those temporary positions end, the unemployment rate will go right back to where it welches before they were created.6. The importance of internships and volunteeringBecause there is still a shortage of jobs, landing an internship is going to be more important than ever. Despite increased competition, if youre a college student or looking to break into a new field, theyre an integral part of your next career move.Starting in high school, students need to cultivate paid or unpaid work experiences that build skills, character, work ethic and resume. Employers use internships to prescreen and hire talent. Your career currency comes down to the following equation internship experience + skills. This is how you get your foot in the door and demonstrate your passion for your field of interest.Because competition for internships is so high, another possible avenue for job seekers is to volunteer your services. Unpaid labor is hard to pass up, especially in the non-profit industry, which, at times, struggles to pay for a full-time work force and can use the help. The skills you pick up at these companies is transferable to other jobs within your chosen industry.7. Negotiate a package, not a salaryWhile the recession has affected the number of jobs and the kind of compensation on offer, it hasnt changed how you should approach salary negotiations. However, what you negotiate for might change. While salary increases, stock options and signing bonuses might be in shorter supply, there might be opportunities to for othe r types of compensation such as at-risk pay based on milestones achieved, paid time-off and a flexible work schedule.You should value the entire package and quantify everything. How you do that is up to you. Your compensation number should factor in what is essential to you and what is non-essential. You could even give weights to the essential and the non-essential in determining the value of your offer. As an example signing bonus, relocation, 401k match, day care and base salary could get an 80 percent weight while the other 20 percent would fall under extra vacation, nicer title etc. At the end of the day, each person will be different on what they value and what they consider essential.Jon Minners, Phil Stott, Alex Tuttle, Vault.com

What HR Executives are Wishing for in 2017

What HR Executives are Wishing for in 2017What HR Executives are Wishing for in 2017What HR Executives are Wishing for in 2017 RossheimWhat do human resources leaders wish they could bring to their organizations in the New Year? We asked, and they and their advisors answered.HR professionals wish they couldGet rid of the tech glitches in the recruitment experience. There is acontinuous stream of innovations from makers of HR software, ranging from mobile apps toenterprise CRM. Yet these upgrades often bring related bugs and integration issues during the integration process. HR leaders wish they could eliminate these issues, which adversely impact user adoption.HR executives want to streamline the whole application and recruiting experienceinto a seamless ecosystem, says Kevin Mulcahy, a partner with Future Workplace and co-author with Jeanne experte of The Future Workplace Experience.Use mobile technology to streamline recruitment. Recruiters, hiring managers and job candidates wish they could keep up with search-and-recruitment transactions as they move through their days. Thats why 46 percent of retail hiring managers wish they had a mobile app for hiring 47 percent want a mobile job application for prospective employees, according to a survey by iCIMS.Find out what different groups of employees want. In times when many niche labor markets are seeing a significantskills gap, HR yearns to segment the market to recruit more successfully.Companies want to understand the demographics of their employee segments, by generation, by geography, by skill set, and by full-time employees versus gig workers, says Meister, a partner with Future Workplace.Market the employment value proposition to Generation Z. By one definition, Generation Zs oldest members are beginning to graduate from college. Forward-thinking HR leaders know that now is the time to learn how to recruit and retain the post-Millennial generation.They want to appeal to Generation Z as they enter the workp lace, says Mulcahy. Gen Z seeks experiences, theyre oriented more to visuals than text. To attract them, companies need to offer Gen Zers room to experiment they want to try things and make mistakes.Take a best-practices approach to the standardization of onboarding. HR leaders wish their lines of business could agree on how to give new employees the best possible start at the company.Some organizations are streamlining onboarding and delivering a better experience in the process, says Elissa Tucker, research program manager for human capital management at APQC, a non-profit HR benchmarking organization. Theyre looking at how its done in different parts of the organization and taking the best of each.Given the obstacle that people want to stick with what theyre doing, adds Tucker, its good to start by getting feedback from stakeholders about what they think needs improvement.Use data to better understand and manage people. menschenfreundlich resources professionals wish they had bet ter visibility into the data that correlates with employee behavior.HR people want to use data-driven human capital management to help them make decisions about where to focus, what types of talent will turn out to be successful candidates and who on your team is at risk of leaving if you dont give them new challenges, says Tucker. Having datahelps HR leaders get other executives to listen.Institutionalize better dialog between supervisors and employees. HR folks wish top management would take the lead in demonstrating that frequent and meaningful employee feedback is the norm.My no. 1 wish for 2017 is to have much improved, more frequent and regular ongoing steady dialog between managers and their employees consistent, regular, meaningful, helpful, good feedback, both positive and developmental, says Richard Morgan, senior vice president of human resources at Rocket Software.Distinguish performance evaluations form career development. Its difficult for many employees to listen to what their manager has to say about their professional future when minutes earlier, they were having an intense discussion in their performance review about how they measured up. Each manager should meet with each employee twice per cycle, first to do a performance review and then a few weeks later to keep it separate to discuss career development, says Morgan.Stand by the companys deeply held values. Finally, Mulcahy wishes that companies will adhere to their core values and workplace ethics, come what may.The president-elect has done many workplaces a favor by reminding managers that companies can have corporate values that are different from whats going on outside the organization, says Mulcahy. We elected a candidate whose behavior and words would have violated most HR policies.

AWOL and Desertion in the US Military

AWOL and Desertion in the US MilitaryAWOL and Desertion in the US MilitaryAbsent without leave and desertion are similar in that military members are notlage where they are supposed to be at a given time.However, the biggest difference between the two is time. Usually, after one month of being AWOL, a military member can be considered a deserter. The terms AWOL and Desertion can be easy to confuse. Unauthorized absence from the military falls under three articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) Article 85, Desertion Article 86, AWOL and Article 87, Missing Movement. Of the three, desertion is the most serious offense. Missing Movement A military member has violated Article 87 if he or she is ordered to be on a ship or an aircraft, or deploy with a unit on a certain date and time and then fails to show up. It doesnt matter if the member failed to show up intentionally or because of neglect, but it is required that the member knew about the movement. If the member missed the movement through physical inability (as long as that physical inability wasnt a result of misconduct or neglect), that would constitute a viable defense. The possible punishment is more severe if the member missed the movement intentionally. Its not uncommon for Missing Movement to be charged in conjunction with AWOL or Desertion, depending on the circumstances. Going AWOL AWOL, or Absent without Leave, is usually called Unauthorized Absence (or UA) by the Navy and seestreitkraft Corps, and AWOL by the Army and Air Force. The use of UA by the Navy/Marine Corps and AWOL by the Army/Air Force has a historical component. Prior to enactment of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1951, the services were governed by separate laws. However, its official title under the current UCMJ is AWOL. It simply means not being where you are supposed to be at the time you are supposed to be there. Being late for work is a violation of Article 86. Missing a medical appointment is a violation. So is disappearing for several days (or months or years). The maximum possible punishments, which discussed later in this article, depends on the exact circumstances surrounding the absence. Desertion A charge of desertion can actually result in the death penalty, which is the maximum punishment during time of war. However, since the Civil War, only one American servicemember has ever been executed for desertion Private Eddie Slovik in 1945. The offense of desertion, under Article 85, carries a much greater punishment than the offense of AWOL, under Article 86. If one is absent without authority for 30 days or more, does the offense change from AWOL to desertion? Thats not quite true. The primary difference between the two offenses is intent to remain away permanently or if the purpose of the absence is to shirk important duty, (such as a combat deployment). Intent If a part intends to return to military control someday, he is guilty of AWOL, not desertion, eve n if he was away for 50 years. Conversely, if a person was absent for just one minute and then captured, he could be convicted of desertion if the prosecution can prove that the member intended to remain away permanently from the military. If the intent of the absence was to miss an important function of his/her job, such as a combat deployment, then the intent to remain away permanently to support a charge of desertion is not necessary. However, services such as drill, target practice, maneuvers and practice marches are not ordinarily considered as an important duty. Important duty may include hazardous duty, duty in a combat zone, certain ship deployments, and more. Whether a duty is hazardous or a service is considered important depends on the circumstances of the particular case, and is a question of fact for the court-martial to decide. Conclusion Regardless, when you sign the contract to enter the military, you will owe a stated time in the service and are expected to hono r that contract, just as the military is expected to honor its role as provider for income, pension, health benefits, housing, and food. If you do not honor your end, the military does not have to honor its end and will quit paying you and even place you into military prison if necessary. Usually, however, most members are just kicked out of the military with a less than honorable discharge.