Monthly Archives: October 2009

Compensation, Compensation & Benefits, Employee Relations, Employment, Health & Welfare Plans, HR, HR Consulting, HR Education, HR Services, HR Solutions, Human Resources, Management, Staffing Services, Team Building, Training & Safety

PML Risk Management Will Be Accepting PEO Workers Compensation Submissions For Underwriting Quotes On An Invitation Only Basis

According to company owner Jim Shelton, “After more than three years of hard work and several set-backs, our program is finally ready for the PEO markets we have been trying to help”.

“The mid-market PEO will be able to breathe a refreshing sigh of relief with this program designed specifically for the PEO. In particular, smaller PEOs struggle to keep a workers’ comp policy, let alone afford it. Why? Simply put, workers compensation carriers have attached a negative stigma to PEO’s, requiring high collateral, deposits or “fixed” premiums based on an estimated annual premium, hurting the already beleaguered cash flow needed for the PEO’s day to day operations. Larger PEOs tie up precious cash flow and credit; that won’t happen with PML’s program”.

PML Risk Management, Inc. is trying to change the relationship between workers comp carriers and the PEOs who honestly and effectively manage their risk.

PML Risk Management, Inc, is not a professional employer organization (PEO), but the company owner has over 24 years experience as a PEO owner; fully aware of the workers compensation challenges and pitfalls facing the mid-market PEO, as well as the larger PEO.

This unique PEO program will offer qualified and accepted PEOs “Guaranteed Cost” Individual or Master Coordinated policies; all fifty states, No Collateral, little or NO deposit and a monthly reportable Pay-As-You-Go plan.

As an incentive, the program offers the PEO a profit-sharing dividend for keeping their loss ratio 40% or less. This program is the competitive blast of fresh air PEOs have been looking for.

If you would like more information about our PEO specific workers compensation program being offered through PML Risk Management, Inc, please visit www.peoworkerscompensation.com or call our licensed managing agent for more details ((210)) 380*2051.

Via EPR Network
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Reed Researched On How Organizations And Employees Have Reacted To The Current Recession

If you have ever wondered about how organizations and employees have reacted to the current recession and how this compares to responses to the previous recession, then Reed has the answers you are looking for. In fact, Reed has taken it one step further to include information about what we can look to predict in terms of the new challenges and opportunities people challenge, from these reactions.

Reed have undertaken a comprehensive study which benchmarks a new survey of over 600 organisations – representing all sectors, sizes and locations – against research completed in Spring 1992, in the depths of the last UK recession.

The results are fascinating. They reveal that a sea-change has taken place. Yes, employers across the country are making recession-fuelled redundancies, but today this is only one part of their response. Organisations from Corus to KPMG are dramatically flexing worker terms and conditions, including benefits, hours and pay, thereby reducing costs while retainingstaff.

In 1992 a culture of partnership between workers and bosses was the exception. Now, a spirit of informed co-operation is widespread and this has enabled a far more flexible response to this downturn. This bodes well for a swift resurgence when the upturn comes.

The study reveals just how much this recession has strengthened the role of HR professionals, accelerating their move to the strategic centre of organisations as they implement and lead their employers’ responses to the downturn. Yet in spite of this, a key finding of this research is the prediction that skills shortages will be an even greater threat to recovery this time than in the aftermath of 1992.

Employers tell us that as soon as the upturn comes they will recruit to replace the staff that they have cut. This applies to all roles, across all levels. However, skilled staff are the only category where things are noticeably different. Organisations plan to recruit considerably more skilled staff once recovery begins than they have cut in the downturn.

This suggests that the UK’s recovery faces a very real threat from growing skills shortages. The problem will become even more acute as post-recession Britain moves further towards becoming a high-skill economy.

This issue demands attention from both business and government, as it will not resolve itself. A key national priority must be to re-tool and re-skill the workforce, to keep Britain working.

Via EPR Network
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Acute Shortages Across UK Nursing Sector

Hays, the world’s leading recruitment experts in qualified, professional and skilled people, has reported that the acute shortages felt across the nursing sector in the UK has led to demand for professional staff from overseas.

The most affected areas for nursing jobs are in critical care (ITU), A&E, theatre, intensive care (ICU) and accident and emergency medicine nurses, with skill shortages also apparent for obstetrician and gynaecologist, orthopaedic, anaesthetic and recovery nurses.

“The available talent from abroad throws an important lifeline to the UK given the pressing need for skilled nurses. Around 10% of nurses working in the UK have trained abroad and the shortage of skills can only be adequately filled by targeted international recruitment,” commented Simon Hudson, Director of Hays Global Resourcing at Hays Healthcare.

A combination of more effective utilisation and retention of skilled nurses, increased emphasis on training new nurses and, in the short term, increased international recruitment, would seem to provide the optimal solution to the nursing jobs crisis.

“While most of our temporary and permanent recruitment is carried out locally, the demand for certain skills has outstripped supply. It is therefore our responsibility to help clients attract these key professionals from outside their local market,” stressed Hudson.

An international presence in 28 countries enables Hays to reach and target this extended pool of nursing professionals. “Our office network means we can source candidates from abroad and assist UK employers in finding correctly qualified nursing staff to meet their requirements,” added Hudson.

Hays Healthcare has now added a comprehensive project methodology programme, LOCATE, to its portfolio to provide further support to employers via its global network.

“This gives employers extra confidence to partner with us to fill the gaps in their workforce,” explained Hudson. “The new methodology, within an international recruitment context, helps our clients through the process – it is innovative and comprehensive, detailing exactly how each project will be handled to ensure that it is a success every time.”

The problems facing the nursing sector in the UK are further compounded by an ageing domestic workforce – around 60% of the worker population is due to retire over the next decade. However, the shortage of nurses is not just limited to the UK with demand outstripping supply across the world, which in turn fuels a cyclical international movement of labour in the nursing profession. Many UK nurses are leaving to go and work abroad, to destinations such as Canada, Australia, the Middle East and the United States. Hudson explained: “Clearly, lifestyle and financial reasons rather than an inability to find a job in the UK are two of the key motivators.”

Hays has also launched the Hays Healthclub, which supports existing and new workers. It provides new Hays members and those who refer others for roles, which are suffering from skill shortages with a £250 Healthclub bonus.

Via EPR Network
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Resume Wizard & Services Is Now Career Wizards Inc.

Career Wizards Inc. (formerly A Resume Wizard & Services) has announced a new business name and expanded service offerings in responding to opportunities created by the current economic condition and an increasing demand for quality career services.

To support its rebranding and expanded services, the company has launched a new Web site at www.careerwizardsinc.com.

A Resume Wizard & Services was founded in 1998 by current President and CEO, Deanne Arnath, who will continue in this role with Career Wizards. “Our rebranding is the culmination of the ongoing, extensive feedback we’ve received from career professionals and job seekers interested in a comprehensive suite of services intrinsically designed to meet their diverse needs,” Arnath says.

According to Arnath, the expanded service offerings available from Career Wizards include resume writing, individual career assessments, career coaching and webinars, social networking instruction and assistance, professional network development, and recruiter introduction services.

Arnath adds that the company’s services are easily accessible via the Web. “We have made all of our services available online to offer greater convenience to busy job seekers and career professionals.”

“One of our goals in rebranding the company is to bring some credibility back to our industry with regard to upfront pricing and customer service. We recognized an urgent need to raise the bar with responsive, personalized service, because many individuals unfortunately encounter frustrating obstacles when trying to advance their careers due to a lack of expertise and professionalism from service providers,” she says.

Arnath says the company’s new service offerings will enable it to maintain a distinct position in the career services industry. “With our newly developed image and expanded business operations, we are in a prime position to provide customers with a unique and comprehensive set of services delivered by a staff of highly experienced career experts.”

Arnath and her team of career experts collectively hold a number of industry certifications, which include the Certified Professional Resume Writer, Nationally Certified Resume Writer, Certified Federal Resume Writer, Certified Advanced Resume Writer, and Certified Career Management Coach.

Arnath is a contributing author for a number of career-related books and publications and has been published in Resumes for the Rest of Us: Secrets from the Pros for Job Seekers with Unconventional Career Paths, Directory of Professional Resume Writers: How to Find and Work with a Pro to Accelerate Your Job Search, and No-Nonsense Job Interviews: How to Impress Prospective Employers and Ace Any Interview.

Arnath also lectures at colleges and universities in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and participates in job seeker education programs with organizations such as the Graduate School of Business at the University of Texas at Dallas and Women for Hire Job Fairs.

Via EPR Network
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New International Recruitment and Jobsearch Website

Leading recruiter Reed Specialist Recruitment has launched a sophisticated but simple to use global website to help organisations and jobseekers quickly and easily find the right talent or role in 12 different countries – the UK, Australia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Qatar, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Developed at a cost of approximately £250,000 in association with Golley Slater Digital, www.reedglobal.com has four local language versions – Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland – twitter and RSS feed options, salary guides, reports and recruitment case studies, as well as useful talent finder and send us a vacancy functions.

Reed Specialist Recruitment marketing director Mark Milner explains the thinking behind this significant investment in the online recruitment space: “With the internet now an essential part of so many people’s working and leisure lives around the world, we wanted to make our recruitment expertise and experience readily available locally to employers looking to bring in the best local talent, and jobseekers in search of the right opportunity.

“By integrating the service offerings of Reed Consulting and Reed Learning into www.reedglobal.com, candidates and clients alike can use the site as a one-stop shop for recruitment and HR consulting.”

In the UK, the site has been carefully integrated with www.reed.co.uk – the UK’s largest jobsite – which contains easily searchable details of 100,00 live vacancies and approximately two million jobseekers, and regularly receives in excess of 1.5 million job applications each month.

Looking ahead, Reed are looking at the possibility of developing a mobile platform, as well as enabling greater interaction with consultants live on the site through functions such as instant messenger and live chat.

About Reed Specialist Recruitment:
Founded in 1960, Reed is a specialist provider of permanent, contract, temporary and outsourced recruitment solutions, as well as IT and HR consulting.

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Joslin Rowe Reports On Banking And Investment Employment In Scotland

Joslin Rowe has revealed new research conducted over a six-month period from March 2009 that shows signs that financial services companies are now finding it difficult to attract new staff to vital business areas, with some teams operating too leanly for any business up tick.

Data collected on recent job offers by Scottish financial services recruitment specialists, Joslin Rowe, shows a clear pattern of hot and cold spots emerging from the pay packets involved. Salaries for new joiners within banking operations have remained steady following the introduction of internal pay freezes whilst entry level roles have ground to a halt, with applicants at this level struggling to even gain a foothold via temporary work.

However, the corporate actions talent pool remains limited and this has exerted an inflationary pressure on salaries. For example, at the start of the year, the top range a corporate actions analyst could expect was £28,000, while today this is closer to £30,000. Team leaders could now secure up to £40,000, a big jump on the£35,000 ceiling that was in place in March.

“It’s important to understand that our research is based on the salaries professionals receive when they secure a new job rather than annual salary reviews for existing employers,” explains Margaret Dyer, Director of Joslin Rowe’s Scotland offices. “Whilst there’s an enormous amount of debate about remuneration in the financial services sector, moving jobs almost always carries a premium – especially if the skills required are in short supply and a prospective employee is working at a competitor. Indeed, many talented professionals would simply remain in their current company without this incentive. Fresh ideas are crucial to drive businesses forward through this recession so it’s imperative to attract the best staff.”

According to the Joslin Rowe research, business change professionals have been in huge demand in the investment management world, though salaries for permanent hires have remained steady since 2008. On the temporary side, however, average hourly contract rates are rapidly increasing (in some cases by over 13%) from £15.09 six months ago to £17.36 an hour now.

Dyer added: “Certainly, project driven roles are attracting higher rates of pay as firms work to effect real change for the future.”

Joslin Rowe recruits for financial services jobs in Scotland, including jobs in Edinburgh and jobs in Glasgow. The salary survey analysed salaries and rates of pay attached to job offers and vacancies comparing Sep08-Mar09 with Mar09-Sep09.

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Acas Urges UK Businesses To Tackle Mental Health In The Downturn

Acas, the employment relations service, is encouraging UK businesses and managers to prepare for the longer term effects of the recession and implement policies and procedures to help cope with mental health issues in the workplace.

In a recently published policy discussion paper, Acas looks at some of the lessons that can be learnt from tackling workplace stress. It advises business and managers to look at how they can anticipate and identify mental health problems in the workplace and what steps should be taken to respond to them.

Figures show that mental health problems cost UK organisations around £26 billion each year*. The latest figures also reveal that the total number of unemployed has now reached 2.47 million**, which could have a further adverse impact on employees’ wellbeing.

Ed Sweeney, Acas Chairman, said: “The economy may hopefully have seen the worst of the recession but the impact on workplaces will be felt far into the future.

“Implementing procedures to effectively deal with mental health issues in the workplace has strong benefits for individuals and organisations. Early intervention can play a critical part in reducing the problem of ill health at work and this ‘prevention over cure’ approach will ultimately help businesses and employees save time, stress and money.”

Measuring the impact of the recession on employees’ mental wellbeing can be difficult as the stigma associated with mental health creates barriers to measuring the true extent of the problem.

Acas is urging organisations and managers to implement effective policies and procedures to help managers deal with the long term impacts of the downturn and safeguard the health and wellbeing of employees. This might include:

- workplace training – to raise awareness of stress and
mental health so that line managers, in particular, can tell if an employee is
suffering from additional or excessive pressures

– Good interpersonal skills – to help nurture trusting relationships with staff who
may be anxious about disclosing their mental health problems

– A supportive organisational structure – that guides managers by providing clear
policies and procedures for managing mental health

Via EPR Network
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