Solar Power Cost -Solar Panels

Are you seriously considering installing solar panels for your home? There are many compelling reasons to do it now. Costs have come down, incentives have gone up, and electric rates only promise to go up more.

Making your own solar and wind power for less than 0

There’s more than one way to go about installing your new solar power system. There are many articles out there telling how you can save money by doing it yourself. While this is a good solution for some, many of us would be better served if we hired a qualified professional. Why is that a good choice?

Construction and Electrical Knowledge

Do you have experience with construction or electrical wiring? This job involves installing photovoltaic panels, usually on a roof. In addition to securing the panels to the roof, you need to be able to wire the system to the home electrical system. If you are handy around the house and have done many projects like this, DIY may be the way to go. But for those who lack this type of knowledge, hiring a professional will probably save you a lot of headaches.

Permits

Do you know what permits are required by your city and/or county? Do you know the process for applying, and what the inspectors will be looking for? Solar energy, being relatively new for residences, is new to some of the building inspectors too. A professional will be able to get through the permit process smoothly.

Making your own solar and wind power for less than 0

Thinking of going without permits? The worst case scenario is that the city might make you take it down or that the system is improperly installed and causes damage.  Even if everything goes well, appraisers usually can’t take non-permitted additions into consideration for your home’s value. This might mean that you won’t be able to get the full value of the system when you sell your house.

Stimulate the Economy

I’m not advocating spending willy-nilly or buying something you can’t afford.  That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. But if you’ve done your research and solar power is a wise investment in your situation, hiring a professional will give others a job. Our economy needs to get moving again. If people start spending judiciously, our economy can start recovering.

While doing it yourself may be the answer for some, I think that hiring a qualified contractor is the wisest decision for many of us. Be sure to get two or three bids, look for a licensed contractor, and check references from other clients.

Making your own solar and wind power for less than 0

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Did Canada Recover Quicker?

It’s a little puzzling that Canada has survived as well as it has during, what has been recently referred to as the Great Recession. Less than 24 months after it swooped through the U.S., Canada’s housing market has bounced backed with amazing force. The Teranet – National Bank measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes. According to them, Canada’s home resale price index is up for the seventh straight month in a row in all major metropolitan markets.

Vancouver leads, rising 1.9% and is the only market to exceed the national average. Both Toronto and Calgary recorded gains of 0.6%, while Halifax and Ottawa posted 0.4% increase. Montreal had the smallest rise, up only 0.1%. The year-over-year national increase was 2.6%.

This has many economists wondering how Canada seems to have escaped the home price correction that virtually every other Western country saw. The average price of a home is up 21% after a brief setback in 2008. On average, a single family home in Canada now costs approximately 1,000. The mystery lies in the numbers when we compare them to the US whose housing market plunged roughly30% (from their peak) and even Europe where the housing market numbers fell an average of 6%.

Many economists feel it simply defies logic. It’s not as though Canada was immune to the recession. Canadian stocks fell, unemployment rates increased by 8.5% with the loss of more 321,000 jobs. Our economy most certainly contracted and personal incomes fell. So the question is, what didn’t happen? Did we simply recover quicker?

There have been two suggested explanations. The first of them is that Canada’s real estate market is sitting in a bubble that will eventually burst. Some economists feel this will happen about two years after the rest of the world, which in essence, could be any day now. The second explanation has more to do with sound lending practices by Canadian financial institutions and the right amount of stimulus being injected into the economy by the Harper government. For the sake of this conversation, we’ll leave Stephen out of this one.

Many economists are leaning our success towards sound lending practices. Good money practices are essential no matter who we are or where our economy stands. But for many, those sound lending practices leave them out in the cold. For example, those with bad credit are now even less likely to obtain loans at standard financial institutions. For these individuals, there are alternatives such as secured loans with private lenders. Strict lending practices are great for the economy, but for the little guy who is in a financial bind, let’s be glad there are alternatives.

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Diapers & Foodstams: Imagine re-using diapers – many mothers, especially in today’s economy do just that:

@@@@ If you are reviewing the article, please let me post the links within this release.  I just want to help on this issue.   Seriously, you don’t even have to post anything about my site on it.   This distrubs the f*&^ out of me.  @@@

A recent article in Time Magazine disclosed the fact that most mothers on state supported systems are intelligible for support for disposable diapers.   This article in full is as follows;

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1891733,00.html

This article details in full, how parents of babies are unable to make ends meet.   In today’s economy, families are put out on welfare, they lose their house, they end up on the streets because people have lost their jobs.   The economy is rebounding slightly, but the unemployment rate is very high, even in comparison to recent recessions. 

 One of the major misconceptions is that people on state systems should be able to find work, but this is not something that is happening right now.   People who have had great jobs their whole lives are unable to find work.  The decision comes down to work at McDonalds for .00 per hour, or go on welfare.  The solution is simple because welfare pays more.  The problem is that Welfare pays for what the government considers “essentials”, and diapers are not on that list.  

 The real victim is the children, the babies.  They are victims of their parent’s circumstances.   Huggies, along with other services, including www.thediaperbank.org, are working to provide children with diapers they need.  Although, and as the previously mentioned article notes, Huggies has an interest in selling more diapers, the children of these homes are the ones hurt by this.  Without the ability to do laundry, or even possessing adequate laundry facilities, mothers are unable to resort to clean cloth diapers.  Therefore, disposables are the only option.   In many instances, mothers of these children are forced to re-use diapers, and put their children at risk for disease and other potential serious issues. 

 Some may argue that in other countries, they go without disposable diapers, or even diapers, however, in the United States, the average person would be so offended by an infant allowing “nature to happen naturally”, that the parent would most likely never allow that to happen again. 

These charities and organizations, a partial list is below, help make sure these babies have the adequate hygiene – clean diapers – to transition from infants to children.   This is really a sad element of our society, and these organizations make all the difference. 

Diaper Drives and Diaper Donation Sites:

1)      The Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

2)      Huggies Every Little Bottom – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

3)      Bay Area Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

4)      Help A Mother Out – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

5)      LA Diaper Drive – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

6)      WestSide Baby – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

7)      Valley of the Sun Community Diaper Bank -Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

8)      Detroit Area Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

9)      Destiny Diaper Bank (of Southwest Florida) – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

10)  Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

11)  North State Diaper Bank (Northern CA) – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d u

12)  Northern New Jersey Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

13)  Bend Diaper Bank (Central Oregon) – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

14)  Southern CA Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

15)  Northern Indiana Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

16)  East Bay Diaper Bank (Contra, Oakland and Alameda Counties in CA) – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

17)  Diaper Bank of Southern Illinois – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

18)  Detroit Area Diaper Bank – Articlebase.com doesn’t want you to know.  Google it if you must.  We tried to help, these guys f*&$^d us

There are more diaper banks than this, but if you are interested in starting your own, the author suggests going to www.thediaperbank.org (but I’m sure Artilce Base doesn’t want you to know this).   The site has an abundance of resources, tips and knowledge.  Help parents help their children.

Video Rating: 5 / 5

Health Care Services: Contribution To Economy

In this era we have been witnessing the economy growing in a very rapid rate and so the living standard of the people changing with the same pace. To obtain life with more freedom the structure of the family is being individualistic day by day. People prefer living nuclear than living as a joint family.

People getting older and having no successor; or children living far away from them; many a times in order to get their bread and butter; or because of differing ideology; or many of the several other reasons; are very much apprehensive towards their future.

A single thought bothers them that who is going to help them out when they won’t be able to carry out their routine activities on their own. Absence of people who could serve them during their bad phase when they fall sick.

This has been the trend in history whenever we fell weaker in our personal life someone’s profession came into our way to help us out. So this field too didn’t leave out. Marketer found another field having a lot of potential to dig out. Today many of the specialized health care services exist to help us in some customized manner taking all needs of their customers into consideration. They have professionals well educated in their fields in both genders from all across the world.

These health care services are meant and executed professionally and are really very helpful for people getting older, customers of these health care services not only reap benefits by cure but they gets the benefits of primary consultation from experienced care takers. These professionals are at times well capable of noticing symptoms of probable diseases.

Again the service sector creates jobs to several unemployed graduates and also part time job seekers to earn and get helped on their own. So these special health care services help service industry grow and these jobs help economy grow even better.

Virginia Construction Jobs

Whenever the name of the state of Virginia comes up, the stunning history and backdrop of this place enchants us. The birthplace of eight presidents of United States, the “old dominion” is located in the southern United States out of the Atlantic Coast. Richmond being the capital Virginia is rich in the department of flora and fauna. With elaborate beaches, mountains, beaches etc. not only has this commonwealth nursed the first men, but it has also encrypted its name in golden words on the pages of the American history.

Virginia construction jobs    

The economy of this state is greatly influenced by the success of various sectors ranging from business, to government, military, farming, mining and construction jobs. Even over the years, the export- import business has boomed largely in this part. The service sector contributes religiously and very successfully on the overall economy of this place. Deciding to search for a job in Virginia, especially the construction sector will take you to such a place where it is holiday almost everyday.

Virginia construction employment  

When you are seriously planning for an employment in this region, keep a look out for the jobs on offering. It is with a regular scrutiny of the job-wanted columns in the newspapers and the internet, that you will clearly understand the requirements of the jobs in Virginia construction. This state is very versatile where history juxtaposes the present. With magnificent cities all around projecting towards progress on one hand and the museums and the state galleries on the other, there is no stopping Virginia construction.

Employment in Virginia construction

The property industry has seen a boom in the past few years, mostly because of the tourism sector and because of the various opportunities available in this region. It is with this that new openings have come up within the construction industry. With more people wanting to purchase a house in this state, the need for Virginia construction has risen up a lot recently. Virginia is the place from where originated several fairy stories, fantasy and history. Travelling around and to the nearest places from here is also very comfortable. All this reasons have accelerated construction jobs in the recent years.

While you are appointed as a construction worker in this region of the world, it is much more than job that you will be doing. Not only can you travel around the state, but as well as participate in the local activities very comfortably. Right from politics to economics, art, culture, Sports and industry everything is found in a perfect blend in this part.   Working with Virginia construction will not only make you feel proud of the history of the region but also on the other hand help you explore and reinvent the modern in your work.

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The End is Near?

I keep hearing news reports about the current economic situation and so many government economists are now saying that the end of this fiscal debacle could start to mend itself earlier than first anticipated….this year!  I kind of have my doubts but in keeping with my own personality, I always try to keep positive thoughts.

Just this past week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave an extremely optimistic report when he said he expects things to start showing growth patterns this year.  Bernanke, speaking to a joint Congressional Economic Committee, gave his most hopeful prediction so far about the end of the recession, telling us that he anticipates the U.S. economy to start growing this year — although the recovery could be weak and more jobs will be disappearing even after a recovery seems to take hold.  He said he saw hopeful signs, including more solid home sales, a revitalization in consumer spending and a small improvement in lending conditions for banks, businesses and individual borrowers.  Even though it’s Bernanke that said it, it’s still only one man’s opinion but it is good to hear some hopeful words for a change rather than the normal gloom and doom presented hourly (24 hours a day!) by our esteemed media.

The economists who are telling us their opinions today are doing so, I believe, to gain a foothold to fame.  Should an economist or analyst “hit the ball out of the park” with a prediction, they will be labeled a hero for the remainder of their career and might even win the Nobel Prize.  Stranger things have happened!.  And if they miss it, it probably will go unnoticed by the American population.  So, what do they have to lose?! 

My point is to stop listening to these harbingers of doom or those who sometimes deliver unsubstantiated good news via the media.  Chances are that sometimes both of them are right in some form or another and sometimes both of them are wrong.  What really matters is your personal economic situation.  If you have a job, the economy is in pretty good shape.  If you don’t have a job, the unemployment rate is 100 percent at your house.  It just depends on your personal perspective and that is developed by your individual situation as it pertains to your own life right now. 

Those who are responsible for informing the American public, whether they are politicians or media reporters, are doing a disservice to our population by reporting what they believe in partisan truths.  It might be true but then again…..?????

The old adage of “sifting through the noise” comes to mind and I urge each one of you to apply this concept to your own life.  Determine what is important to your situation, find a source that you are comfortable with and then apply this information to your personal and professional life.  No matter what side of the political fence you sit, why read or watch a news agency that angers you?  There’s enough anger in the world so don’t amplify it. 

If you are conservative – fine! 

If you are a liberal – great! 

One thing is for sure, everyone needs accurate information, or what they perceive to be accurate, to make solid decisions.  So, filter the information you receive everyday to determine what’s important to your situation and then use it to find your own economic reality.

Whether things start to improve this year or not – generally the “big picture” is out of our control.  There is no sense in getting upset over what the economy is or isn’t doing.  Just fix what you can in your personal life, don’t get frustrated, and keep moving forward.  One thing is for sure; bad times always seem to improve and I truly believe this “bad time” will be no exception.  When the economy begins to improve is really not that important – the only thing that’s important right now is keeping your personal economic situation on the tracks.   If we are all strong individually – we’ll be stronger as a country.

Quality of Human Resource Management in Education Sector in India

1. Employment as Status of Respect, Growth and Security

At the same time, it is quite evident that many are attracted towards higher education jobs of the love for teaching or willingness to associate themselves with their alma mater. In order to make the higher education jobs more attractive, both government and private institutes are raising the salaries of professors and lecturers. The appeal by former President APJ Abdul Kalaam to raise the salaries of defense personnel and school teachers is a booster to this sector. Every year teachers are recruited in the army as Junior Commissioned Officers.Even by assuming that only as much as 11% of the Indians pursue higher education, the scope of mobilizing and deploying human resources in education sector will not be diminished. This has to be doubled to cope with the growing multitudes.

With enormous focus on the issues around human resources in the education sector, the importance of ‘knowledge societies’ has gained dimensions such as: i) education as a supplier of human resources ii) human resources for delivery of education. The first one needs a map to devise, implement and execute the delivery model through skilled support services like planning, administration, finance and quality heads.

The second one is the core component mainly poised to attract, develop and retain quality teachers through effective human resources management. The human capital thus mobilized has to be distributed on levels of ‘teacher demand and supply’ in rural, urban and metro areas. The channeling parameters are: employment requirement, grade separation, domain expertise, training level, working conditions, individual career options, performance monitoring system and continuous knowledge update for development.

            Recruitment of human resources to the education sector has basically three professional stages- fresher or newly qualified, probationers and experienced. As far as our country is concerned, HRM has responsibilities like forecasting the employment requirements based on the Planning Commission’s report and designing a fast and stable individual career growth and scope for upward mobility. Motivation and sprucing up the staff morale depend on the extent to which the status of a teacher is accepted and acknowledged in the society in terms of monetary value.

 2. Scope and Utilization of Quality Resources for Future

The strategies emerging in managing the human resources involve retention of quality manpower, optimum utilization of the skills and quality up gradation. A newly qualified teacher may stay the promising job for about 30 years or so, without much mobility upwards. If within a decade of high school teaching experience, if the secondary grade teacher adequately qualifies for an M.Phil or a PhD, he/she could be directly promoted to the rank of a Lecturer/ Asst.Professor.

            It is the management’s responsibility that the manpower recruited is utilized fully to the optimum level. Never should skilled staff be underutilized or ignored for want of basic infrastructure, non-availability of students, inadequate compensation and poor working conditions.

            A flexible lucrative system will definitely facilitate a continuous inflow of high quality personnel who will join the workforce, year after year. The sixth Pay Review Commission recommended fixing the age of superannuation of all college and university teachers throughout India at 65 years and selective reemployment on contract basis up to the age of 70. This will ensure optimum utilization of resources for the rest of the years. This concept applies to high school, secondary level and university faculty members also. At any point of time, more number of seniors will be available in buffer.

            There is a shortage of about 8, 00,000 primary and middle school teachers. Given India’s youthful population, the situation does not look promising: 6.5% of India’s teachers retire every year; at this rate, the country will be left with 3, 50,000 primary and middle school teachers by 2011 end.

Initially, all schools have to be mapped under a general pool and mobility to be facilitated within schools of similar boards or pattern of education. Vacancy and recruitment is a continuous process. Teachers retire every month and so vacancies do exist. Not always the vacancies are filled immediately; temporary staff or skilled non-domain teachers are appointed interim. Necessary steps have to be taken to bridge the gap by effective HRM by minimizing the lead time.

 3. Where Have the Teachers Gone, Hibernation or Migration?

Teachers are becoming like an endangered species. Many experienced teachers in our country have either migrated or changed the careers for better prospects.

            When teachers migrate within the country, their number is conserved but the respective state or school will be deprived of their services. If they migrate abroad, then it is brain drain. The whole nation is deprived of their services. What makes the highly experienced teaching manpower to be carried along with the overseas current?

            The school managements and local governments dealing with institutions of higher education in the West, particularly in the US and Britain, are satisfied with the quality performance of a large number of Indian academics hired by them. Going through the advertisements in newspapers or Internet, it is true that those countries have deficit manpower to handle Science, Math and English. In spite of the operational problems faced by them, there is a widespread appreciation for their academic and intellectual contributions. Our teachers who feel underestimated, underutilized, and underpaid and could not make it on the home turf, find migrating the next best option.

            Quite interestingly, our history has recorded the migration of Buddhist teachers during the period of Nalanda and Vikramasila to Tibet and China along with libraries and literatures. It also cites the exchange of learned scholars between Kanchi and Kasi. Today, our country has moved from being a job-seeking economy to one that is being driven by demand in developed nations for services and migrant workers.

4. Role of Consultancy in Recruitment of Teachers

Ma foi Management Consultancy started recruiting teachers in 2002 for schools in Dubai and Britain, where there is rising demand for Indian teachers. The hiring authorities pay consultancy fees and bear the airfare and other expenses of teachers they recruit. Many more consultancies have come out with official emigration licenses to help the English-speaking teachers fly on Highly Skilled Migrant Program called HSMP.

            When an exclusive recruitment drive is planned and designed to help our inland teachers to migrate, any steps put forth to foster improvement of human resources in education sector by Planning Commission will be futile.

            Though the Ministry of HRD has not yet come up openly to stop the overseas recruitment drive for teachers, it can at least slow down the migration by implementing effective management system across the country. Any surplus number of teachers, after attaining the goal of HRD, may be allowed to go abroad to serve the global education. Otherwise, the problem shall return to square one.

            India is the fourth largest developing commonwealth supplier of teachers to Britain. Though India is worried about the brain drain of teachers, it is more concerned about providing jobs to an estimated 10 millions graduates.

There has always been a shortage of personnel in all sectors. When it is faced by a sector that produces human capital for various sectors of the economy, a swift action is needed on a war footing to fill the lacuna.

5. Reforms to systemize Recruitment, Retention and Improve Quality

The teacher-student ratio is appreciable and India stands at 1:14 with one point up or down with respect to the US, Sweden, Germany, Japan, and UK. Predominantly, employability of manpower depends on a lot of soft skills like patience, communication, computer proficiency, presentation and people management skills, besides academic qualification, domain expertise and experience. The question here is how to make use of their growth for our economy?

            Many private institutions have come to offer short term courses on induction trainings. There goes a saying, ‘the art of teaching cannot be taught’. In spite of qualifying for a professional degree, one needs to master the techniques of reaching the students through participation.

            The Government and the UGC have to chalk out a plan to capture the vital human resources, targeting the coverage from higher secondary to college level. This span of education of students is essential for decision-making on future course of career.

            Some better ways to ensure retention of teachers are making the working atmosphere more acceptable and equivalent to that of a corporate, elevating the social status with good pay, providing ways for continuous learning and knowledge enrichment, non-traditional and informal ways of teaching methods, guest lectures, Internet and the broadband access, online tutoring etc. When invitees cannot make it up, teleconferencing facility can be provided. This mode of reaching the masses has already been followed by Indira Gandhi National Open University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and many others, since the 1980s.

            International or Inter-state Teachers Exchange programs could be mooted to give an online experience of cross-cultural adjustments, new system of education, syllabus content, examination pattern, interpersonal approach, psychology, counseling, management, combinational methods of teaching, evaluation procedures, lateral enrolment in higher education program for teachers etc.

            Teachers, as a whole, should be gathered ‘grade wise’ under the general system in every state. The compensation and benefits have to match the government prescribed norms for private schools also. When private institutions are unable to cope with the predetermined norms, highly skilled teachers either divert themselves or leave the job. If private institutions do not reach up to the expectations of the norms, licenses need not be sanctioned. Thus, the pilfering of human resources can be stopped. It is time that the government implemented the Minimum Wages Act and systemized the career of the underpaid teaching faculty.

            ‘Given our population, we need to double the number of teaching structure and this is not possible with the public sector alone. We need the private sector also to pitch in equally’, said Planning Commission Chairman MS Ahluwalia.

On par with corporate organizations, the Board of Education should evolve a time-tested method to redress grievances, look into dissatisfaction, improve performance appraisal and draw successful career plans. Political pressure and favoritism should be strictly kept at bay. Any unlawful and unjustified punishments in the form of transfers should be stopped forthwith.

6. Bifurcation of HRM System and Mass Drive

Every taluk, district and metro has to formulate ‘Action Groups’ under the supervision of an Educational Director, who may have all data relevant to his zone and sub-zone, at the click of a button. Number of schools at all levels, applications waiting for new sanction, each school strength, number of teachers, non-teaching staff, pay structure, info of retirees, memos, transfers, vacancies, exchange programs, standard of quality, etc. have to be streamlined. The management of resources module-wise, simplifies the task of the director and the focus of supervision is intensified with precision.

            At the micro level, Sub-Directorates will control primary and secondary boards of school administration in their respective zones and in turn, will be controlled by the Central/State Directorate. At present, the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board follows a single-window counseling to help it secure the desired choice of posting within available vacancy. It has been noticed in the Gujarat Board that fake certificates have snooped in along with the applications and a large chunk of time is being consumed in the verification of the job applications.

            Recently, the Government of AP has taken a decision to appoint teachers on a mass scale to fill the vacancies in the Government-aided schools of the state. As a result of this, more than 50,000 teachers will be appointed in 76,213 schools.

            To strengthen this process of new governance and management system, many non-teaching support services personnel have to be proportionately recruited at sub-zone level. Some senior teachers may be considered for the training faculty positions on deputation, optional career or contract basis, with the staff college. This new era of multi-employment helps to rejuvenate and strengthen the network and helps to ease the operations of the central workload pressure from several channels hitherto happening.

            As population is progressing, multiple routes are required to manage human resources with time and its optimum utilization to achieve the ‘win-win’ situation. Henceforth, the teaching profession will be a dignified and more sought after ‘white collar’ job in the near future.

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How Companies Are Bringing A Customer Approach To Employee Hiring

How companies are bringing a customer approach to employee hiring

By Mr. Ranjan Sinha

There is an ongoing war for talent globally. Even with the economy cooling from 10% to 7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the need to find and win high quality talent will be unabated because only 10% of the 2 million students graduating each year are considered immediately hirable. Finding high quality talent is going to be as hard as getting customers in a very competitive market. Good customers do not give you a good organization but a great organization will get you good customers.

In a recent discussion with CEOs and Head of HR, everybody was able to clearly and crisply define their products’/services’ USP. However, most of them fumbled or rambled when I asked them what their USP is to their employees or potential talent. Not surprising, many of them struggle with high attrition rates, relatively unsophisticated approach to talent supply chain management and very high cost of candidate acquisition.
Most successful companies have an evolved sales and marketing processes and technology. These companies spend significant amount of resources and money to understand their markets, develop products to address them, craft clever messages to attract customers, service them well to retain them and thoroughly analyze when they lose customers. Most companies have very effectively transformed themselves from license raj era of shortages – where a customer was at the mercy of the company (some of us remember the pay now and wait for a two years Maruti era) to a free market ‘customer is king’ economy. Many of the same companies are struggling to transform their talent strategy from a job constrained economy to a talent constrained economy and have devoted minimal effort to upgrade their methods, systems and thinking to be competitive companies. This single reason can significantly benefit the human resources of the company by bringing some of the best and proven practices of marketing into talent management.

Here are few of the common marketing practices that companies use to attract and retain customers, which can be effectively applied to attract the best talent and retain them:
Market Segmentation – It has been one of the revolutionary concepts of the past quarter century – the realization that consumers can be broken into subgroups of people sharing one or more characteristics that cause them to have similar product needs. A true market segment meets all of the following criteria: it is distinct from other segments (heterogeneity across segments), it is homogeneous within the segment (exhibits common needs); it responds similarly to a market stimulus and it can be reached by a market intervention. While companies have a very good handle on the demographic, psychographic, characteristic and product attribute preferences of their consumers i.e. market segments and how to differentiate against their competition they are unclear about what talent segments find appeal in their company. Regarding my work, I have spoken to companies that have 20-60% attrition rate (these are obviously unofficial numbers) and they all had a very fatalistic attitude towards controlling attrition. When asked if they knew what is common among the 80-40% of the employees that stay back, are productive and engaged, they are unable to provide an answer. Global Talent Metrics (www.stargtm.com) a psychometric assessment company recently published a report on ‘Attrition in India’ that segments the Indian white-collar work force into eight segments based on individual’s preferences and motivators for selecting an employer. The segments range from Cash and Brand i.e. people, motivated primarily by salary and need to work in a brand name of the company because of social gratification issues to Start –Ups segment where people are motivated primarily by exciting challenging work and flatter organizations. The company provides a tool that measures the attributes of a company and matches them with individual preferences to predict attrition risk for the potential candidates.

Do you know where the talent is? Cell phone companies and credit card companies very effectively acquire customers through e-mail and one-on-one marketing. They have built elaborate systems to track prospects, switch them from their competitor and stay connected with them. Many of the same companies struggle to apply those principles towards Talent Acquisition. Handful of leading companies has tapped executives from sales, business development or process management background to lead their talent acquisition efforts. These people bring a background of systematically mapping the talent pool, targeting them proactively as against waiting for them to respond and manage their hiring pipeline with the same discipline and passion as a sales funnel.

Web Site – A company’s web site is the single most important tool to communicate with the customers and prospects about companies’ product offering. Marketers want their site to Inspire, Inform, Communicate, Put the consumer in charge so they can browse at their pace. This way, they qualify the interest level of prospective consumers and then customize a communication to pull them along the sales process. I would ask our readers to do a simple test about their company’s job page/site. Does the page Inspire, Inform and Communicate, Put the prospective job seeker in control to browse through beyond “stock” job titles but discusses the USP of the company or the job and allow the candidate to qualify themselves so that the recruiter can be more informed when he/she engages with them? This just proves how effective the role played by a company’s web site is in talent acquisition, amongst its other uses.

It is not just about price (or salary) – Companies like Starbucks, Singapore Airlines, Jet Airways and others have built successful businesses by selling not the cheapest products but by delivering value that attracts and retains customers because they know everyone is not looking for just low prices. The Global Talent Metrics’ Attrition report busts the myth that everyone is a mercenary and most people stay or leave a company because of salary. Only 10% of the Indian workface is driven by ONLY salary. Companies need to define what they provide to their employees beyond salary and build a culture and organization that seeks those values. One of India’s largest IT services company is not the best paymaster nationally or globally but retains employees significantly better than its better paying peers. Companies must find these values and effectively communicate and assess talent for those values, to ensure strong talent engagement.

The author is a member of the Board of Directors, Global Talent Metrics, Chairman and CEO, Summit HR Worldwide and a HR thought leader

by Bert van Dijk

Times are Tough: How Can New Graduates Get Experience When They Can’t Seem to Get Hired?

Mortgage crisis, stock market troubles, and the credit crunch, it seems like every time we turn around things fall apart. This has one group in particular feeling real ominous about their futures; new graduates

With no experience under their belts new graduates aren’t qualified enough to beat out the recently laid off. So what is a young graduate to do? There are a few options left; volunteer work, internships, or going into business for themselves.

Volunteer work is always a good option. You can help others while gaining some real world experience. Programs like AmeriCorps, City Year, and Peace Corp will take anyone, and pay a living stipend.

Internships are another great option for young graduates. Unfortunately the ones available still aren’t paid, but these are still better than doing nothing while waiting out the economic storm, and may get you some networking contacts when the company starts hiring again.

The best option may very well be going into business for yourself. There are many options that cost very little, and can prove to be absolutely invaluable in experience and cash, if you graduated with a business degree, consider doing consulting. If you have a marketable skill, consider freelancing. Of course if you don’t belong to either of those categories consider a business such as giving airbrush tattoos (check out www.tatstore.com) or even home parties such as Avon or Pampered Chef (www.avon.com, www.pampered chef.com) , that don’t require any particular skills.

Whatever young graduates decide to do, they must do something, because after the economy picks up employers won’t want to hear about how you beat every level of Halo while sitting in your parent’s basement.

Easy Ways To Make Money Fast For Kids – 3 Ways to Make Money That Teenagers Can Do Now

Easy Ways To Make Money Fast For Kids

As the costs of college go up and the economy continues to wade through it’s current malaise you are wondering what to do? Can you make the budget stretch or achieve your goals for those kids heading off to college? You may not have to, they may do it themselves. The internet, something that your kids have grown up with and know better than we can ever know, may be the answer. Here are 3 ways to make money Teenagers can do now.

The first opportunity is to launch an Affiliate Marketing career. Affiliate programs are free to join and offer commissions for any sales generated by the affiliate through their marketing efforts. Have your teen find products that they feel are popular with their intended market and join the Affiliate Program for that product. They can build Squidoo lenses (a free service) to promote their product and place their Affiliate link. Then go out to blogs and social networking sites and invite folks to try out the selected product. They can also run FREE ads at places like USFreeAds.

The second opportunity is to create their own product. Let them turn the hours of play on Runescape or World of Warcraft into money. Have them write an e-book guide, or make a video, offering secrets and tips on how to better play and enjoy their chosen game. Register the finished product with an Affiliate Network (like ClickBank) and launch their guide, charging a fee for the product. All you need is a word processing program or video software, a website (as little as a month with domain), and an auto-responder. Easy Ways To Make Money Fast For Kids

The third opportunity is to write articles for folks that are engaged in internet marketing. They could join a site like Elance and write articles like this one for others for a fee. Your teenager can review available jobs on many of these sites and bid on jobs. When they are selected to perform, they merely write the necessary article(s) and send it to the buyer. Upon receipt, the buyer will send the money via Pay Pal, transaction complete. There is a lot of work in article writing and web design and our kids know this stuff a lot better than anybody over the age of 40.

The internet and internet marketing are changing the dynamics of the world economy. Each year more and more commerce is being transacted over the internet and those that choose to play in this arena will benefit in the future economy. Help your kids learn to be self reliant and nurture their entrepreneurial spirit. Any of the above methods are proven ways to make money online and free yourself from the grind of a 9 to 5 JOB.

The economy of the past is slipping by us and the old days of finding a position with a “good” company and staying until retirement died with our parents. Our children will need to know much more about business than we did focusing on creating value and marketing themselves for both jobs and their own businesses. By choosing to market products on the internet our kids will be able to select the products and services they are interested in and passionate about and make money pursuing their dreams. Easy Ways To Make Money Fast For Kids