The Astron Road Show
On April 28th – 30th, National Director Jennifer Loftus and Technology
Supervisor Brendan Williams will be exhibiting at the SHRM Staffing Management Conference
in Las Vegas, NV. They’ll be meeting and greeting with attendees and
demonstrating our BlackBerry compatible Flare™! Jennifer will also
present A + B + C = Wow! Using Total Rewards to Your Strategic Advantage Wednesday at 3:30 PM. If you’ll be at the conference, stop by for excellent discussion, fun times, and valuable prizes!
Fact or Fiction?
There is a job for milking a snake. Fact or Fiction?
Fact!
Yes, this is actually true, believe it or not. There are over 2,900
species of snakes in the world, but only 600 of them are known to have
any type of venom. If you were ever to get bitten by one of these
snakes you would need to receive antivenins (anti-venom) to be OK. That
is where the snake milker job
comes into play. The snake milker gets the venom from the snake by
making it bite a membrane that is stretched over a glass receptacle.
The anti-venom is then created from the collected venom.
Announcing the Launch of MyHrWebsite.com!
Did you know that National Director Jennifer Loftus is launching a new web community called myhrwebsite.com?
How many times have you asked a handful of people that you know for:
• Who’s a good vendor for a specific HR service?
• How to do something in Microsoft Office?
• Word of mouth referrals for a job opening?
• HR trends in others’ organizations?
• Sources for a story you’re working on?
The network that you reach out to is probably small, relatively
speaking. And you may have a few people on LinkedIn, a few in an e-mail
group, and another few people on Facebook – groups that don’t necessary
interact with one another. As you know, the more people you reach out
to with a question, the more valuable information you’ll receive. Myhrwebsite.com gives you the power to reach out to
thousands of individuals with the click of a button, without the hassle
of having to remember to visit message boards or access listservs with
targeted members. How myhrwebsite.com works is when you have a question,
you visit the website and complete a quick form to submit your
question. Up to once a day, everyone in the community receives an
e-mail with all the questions submitted by myhrwebsite.com members. You
can answer the questions you have expertise in, and ignore those on
topics that you’re not familiar with. The Astron team will pre-screen
the questions before the e-mail goes out to prevent spam from getting
to you. If there's no questions on a day, we won't send an e-mail.
Today we’re asking you for a minute of your time to please do two things:
• Sign up to join myhrwebsite.com’s community at
www.myhrwebsite.com – we can’t do it for you because we’re not spammers – and
• Forward this invitation to individuals in your network whom you think would enjoy and benefit from this
free service.
Please let us know your questions after reviewing myhrwebsite.com. We
look forward to having you and your network join us, so that the next
time you have a question, you can say “let me visit myhrwebsite for the
answer!”
In researching fiscally sensitive lifestyle adjustments, this
Astronology
reporter discovered the growing trend of telecommuting. While it may
not seem like a common HR subject, telecommuting is becoming a highly
important topic in organizations. Right now, many organizations are
asking HR departments to creatively find solutions to cut cost yet
retain talent. Introducing a telecommuting program within your
organization may be the beacon of light needed to balance an
organization during this time of recession. What exactly is Telecommuting?
A worker who participates in
telecommuting
is someone who uses the flexibility of his / her job to make
arrangements to work outside of the office. These workers substitute
the average daily commuting ritual with telecommuting technology, such
as the web and phone in order to connect to the office remotely. The
standard of how many hours or days an average telecommuter will work is
debatable.
For instance, Sun Microsystems has an employment program called
Open Work. In this program employees have the option of working in 3 different settings:
• Sun Assigned- Assigned office on one of the Sun’s campuses,
• Flexible- Employees work in flexible offices, drop-in centers, and/or home whenever you choose to, and
• Home Assigned- Employees work directly from home.
According to Sun Microsystems, this platform program is ideal. The
company’s corporate responsibility page highlights that “Sun's Open Work platform is one of the top reasons that 85% of our mobile workers say they would recommend Sun to external people.”
Pros vs. Cons: The Positives
An MSNBC report
from
2007 states that, “12 million employees telework more than 8 hours per
week, up from 6 million in 2000 (Gartner Dataquest report).” The report
predicted that the number would hit 14 million by 2009. 2009 is another
year fortified by technology, with new releases of handheld office
friendly communication devices such as the Iphone (now with 3g),
Blackberry Storm, and
Palm Prè.
Due
to the advances in technology and the capabilities of these devices,
contact with supervisors is just as simultaneous as in the office.
Further advances that make telecommuting a very ideal adjustment
include software such as groupware, virtual private networks, video
conferencing, and VOIP (Voice Over-Internet Protocol). The costs to
create an at-home work station can vary, as high speed internet
connections and VPN-capable routers have become reasonably priced in
recent times. Expenses are even lower if employees are willing to
contribute their own personal equipment such as a laptop or video
camcorder. Other positive aspects to telecommuting include the
conservation of space. For a company looking to grow, without the funds
to rent or buy office space, telecommuting may seem like the perfect
solution. “If you have 1,500 employees¬¬----instead of having to
provide workspace for each one you [can] provide 300 people with a
workspace on any given day while four-fifths of the organization is
working elsewhere,” states Rita Waltson, executive director of the Telework Consortium.
An organization can conserve energy and save costs by offering
telecommuting options. Sun Microsystems Open Work Program has lead to $387 million in I.T. and real estate savings, and a 28K reduction in CO2 annually. Background research for the book, “Undress 4 Success: The Naked Truth About Working From Home”
states that, “while less than 5% of the U.S. workforce currently work
from home, 40% have jobs that would allow them to telecommute.” If the
additional 40% telecommuted annually, they could: save 625 million
barrels of oil, reduce greenhouse gases by 107 million metric tons of
CO2 each year, and save almost $43 billion at the pump. Pros vs. Cons: The Considerations
With
every possible change or adjustment in organizational structure there
are positives and negatives. Despite the ever growing popularity of
telecommuting, there are still some concerns that have to be carefully
addressed. One concern is safety and security. For example, in healthcare, special consideration has to
be given in regards to security of documentation. Aurora Health Care, a
company that operates 13 hospitals and dozens of clinics, has several
hundred transcriptionists who work from home. The company also has
telecommuting radiologists. In order to protect classified information,
transcriptionists are given standard PCs with hospital applications and
antivirus security features. They also must use a secure VPN access.
Further, not everyone can handle the responsibilities of being a full- or part-time teleworker. As the previously mentioned
MSNBC article
pointed out, “Workers will have more of the onus on them to prove that
they’re worth their salt since they won’t be hanging around the office
where bosses can see them working away.” This means that your average
teleworker would have to be an independent self-starting individual
that can produce on a regular basis. The employer should have the
confidence that the employee will do their job well enough to work
without checking in with their supervisor at every stage.
With the invasion of the home office, some workers may not adjust to the personal part of home office working. Becoming
too
comfortable working at home may cause a problem with productivity. On
the other extreme, some employees may become overly zealous and work
24/7. In both cases, telecommuting can present some dilemmas for the
unprepared organization.
How Do We Get Started?
For those that are curious about presenting the option of telecommuting to their organizations, here are some tips:
• Present a written proposal and an oral presentation.
This demonstrates that a serious effort was made in order to introduce something new to an organization.
• Focus on the benefits telecommuting would bring to the organization, not to you personally.
Think
of it like job hunting from résumés…the more it sounds beneficial for
the organization, the better the chances of it becoming an established
program.
• Demonstrate that you are a capable worker at the office, and that the practices would continue while teleworking.
Note your best accomplishments and contributions to the organization. Ensure that the good work will continue.
• Propose a trial period.
Many
successful telecommuting proposals are those that include an offer to
test the program…perhaps during a season when activity is low.
• Give evidence of a workspace and detailed descriptions of the equipment needed.
Take
pictures or create blueprints of the area you would have designated for
work, including the equipment. Present not only pictures but actual
detailed specs about the equipment, what it will be used for, and how
much it would cost.
Although telecommuting may not work for
every organization or every individual, statistics show that more and
more organizations are considering and offering some sort of
teleworking program. With the economy still less than positive, and
utility expenses still high, perhaps telecommuting can help alleviate
some of the pressures that are perhaps being felt by your employees.
Why not take it into consideration and see if a pilot program would be
worth exploring? Looking for additional resources? Other sources for
statistics in support of the benefits of telecommuting include the
following: ITAC, The Telework Advisory Group for WorldatWork,
Work Options.com,
The State of Connecticut’s Telecommuting Website, and
Undress4Success Telecommuting Statistics.
Reader Poll Archive
Wonder what your fellow readers think about critical HR
topics? Is your organization unique from or similar to
others?
Click here to view
the results of our past polls!
Coming Next Time to an
Astronology near you!
Astron Road Show
Fact or Fiction?
Recession Slump…Helping Employees During the Crunch
Have a Question?
If you have a topic you would like addressed in Astronology,
or some feedback on a past article, don't hesitate to tell
us! Simply reply to this e-mail. See your question answered,
or comments addressed, in an upcoming issue of Astronology.
Looking for a top-notch presenter for your human resource
organization's meeting? Both Jennifer Loftus and Michael
Maciekowich present highly-rated sessions on a variety of
compensation and employee retention issues. For more
information, send an e-mail to
info@astronsolutions.com.
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Copyright 2009, Astron Solutions, LLC
ISSN Number 1549-0467
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