Archive for the 'Research' Category

There are lots of reasons why loving your job makes you a happier person. But did you know that job satisfaction also makes your marriage happier? That’s one of the surprising findings from my landmark Early Years of Marriage (EYM) project, the NIH-funded study that has been following and observing hundreds of married couples for…    Continue reading

We recognize the signs. A young employee shows up late at work or for meetings, misses assignments or takes sick days when they’re on top of their game. As a boss your first instinct is to rattle their cage. But what will that accomplish? Employers fret about holding onto Gen Y workers who may be…    Continue reading

Most of us want to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with our work. But the vast majority of us aren’t what HR experts call “engaged” by our jobs. What can we do about that? First, we can realize that this is a universal problem. A recently released study of 88,612 workforce members in 18…    Continue reading

International human resource managers have long struggled to articulate the return on investment for expatriate costs. Smart HR managers will be sure to highlight the findings of a recent study by Dr. Michael Dickmann in their next presentation on expat ROI. (Companies spend an average of $311,000 a year on each expatriate.) An academic authority…    Continue reading

Firstborns feel family pressure to excel and science backs it up: birth order is an important driver of career choices. What is less well understood is the role of birth order and intelligence – at least in my family. Birth order might sound a bit farfetched for a science or careers topic, like astrology, biorhythms…    Continue reading

What do you look for in a good corporate careers site? Good jobs, certainly. A design that’s easy to navigate? Information about what it’s like to work at the company? Most companies forget that last point or possibly they don’t know where to start. Deutsche Bank delivered on all of the above when it created several…    Continue reading

Here are three telling data points which, when properly assembled, paint an unflattering picture about working in America today: The wealthiest 1 percent sees their income dramatically outpace others; Men in their 30s today earn less than their fathers did in the 1970s; A parents’ economic success is one of the biggest pointers to their…    Continue reading

Lost in the heated rhetoric of the endless immigration debate is the basic fact that people want to go where there is work and governments want to regulate the matter. In a tight labor market it’s not surprising to see workers relocate for the right opportunity. In a recent study Manpower reports that 78 percent…    Continue reading

Let’s admit that it’s ironic to talk about talent shortages in a recession. Unemployment is rising in America, though it’s still better than in Europe. But in Manpower’s annual survey of 43,000 employers in 32 countries, nearly one-third of the companies experience difficulties filling open positions. Globally, that’s down by 10% in a year, clear…    Continue reading

Forbes released a careers package called  Worst Jobs for the 21st Century.  Although it’s neither uplifting nor funny, the report uses federal data to identify careers to avoid (assuming you still have a choice). Forbes reports that apart from manufacturing jobs, in decline because of productivity gains and offshoring, technology is undermining classic office jobs such…    Continue reading

A BusinessWeek cover story The Best Places to Launch a Career proclaimed that this was the “year accountants became sexy.” Does that add up for you? In a study promoting the best places for college grads to work, accounting firms nab the top three spots: Deloitte & Touche; PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young.  In a…    Continue reading

You can’t fault popularity contests – they’re so democratic. But are they a useful way to help job seekers find a job? Universum, a Swedish research firm, fields an annual study of MBA students on behalf of Fortune that ranks the 25 most popular potential employers. The MBA graduates who participated were asked to list…    Continue reading

Fortune’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list is out and the top 10 contain a few surprises, some might even say head scratchers. But then again what a boring list it would be if you could guess all of them without looking.   This year about 400 companies competed to make the list….    Continue reading

In 2017, we may look back and laugh at the primitive nature of today’s work. Women will shatter the glass ceiling. Racial and ethnic minorities will get further ahead and working conditions will improve for the ‘average’ person. These are among the key findings from a BusinessWeek “Future of Work” survey of 2,000 optimistic managers….    Continue reading

Meet the latest crop of college graduates – demographics, economics and productivity are on their side. They have reason to be a bit cocky: With record numbers of Boomers edging toward retirement, corporations are realizing that it’s time to staff up amid looming talent shortages. Employers plan to hire nearly 20 percent more new college…    Continue reading

The Fortune 500, the granddaddy of all business listings, touts size over innovation, quantity over quality, staggering profits over contributions to society. Such is life. We’re a “quant” nation – one that celebrates home runs rather than on-base percentage; horsepower over mileage; busty blondes (even if they’re recently deceased) instead of – well, you get…    Continue reading

The immigration debate is expected to heat up again with the release this week of an employment report showing that the U.S. engineering workforce is almost fully employed. The data runs contrary to the views of pundits who contend that low-wage-paying countries are eating our lunch in high-tech. The Cyberstates report released this week by…    Continue reading

Quality of living is a highly subjective area of research. Most of us feel we have a pretty good handle on where to live and the decision typically boils down to family roots and possible employment. No one that I know of has chosen where to live (or to repatriate) based upon the results of…    Continue reading

Today might be a good day to ask for raise. That is, if you have another offer in hand. Apparently, corporate talent supply lines are understocked and that’s putting the squeeze on hiring managers. Nearly four in five staffing directors expect the competition for talent will intensify this year, according to a new study of 3,725…    Continue reading

I always enjoy the lists that Forbes produces, except for the ones that exclude me, such as Top Models and World’s Richest. But I digress – let’s check out Forbes’ Best Cities for Jobs report. As you might expect, Forbes’ research was a domestic exercise and out of 100 metropolitan markets, 25 were deemed “best.”…    Continue reading