Industrial Process

Archive for November, 2009

Is Turnover Back In Vogue? One Trend To Pay Attention To In 2005

Upper Saddle River N.J. January 10 2005 With the start of the year a flurry of articles have appeared talking about what we can expect in the way of business trends during 2005. One of the most alarming issues is the intention of many employees to seek new jobs now that the economy is starting to improve. A recent joint survey by Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com indicated that 75 of the employees polled said they would like a different job; 43 want to increase their compensation. Similarly a recent survey by Monster.com indicated 93 of the respondents plan to job hop.

Many companies have taken credit for the lower level of voluntary turnover that they have enjoyed during the last few years. Although some improvements in turnover are based on positive actions that companies have taken others appear to be strictly related to the fear of employees to look for other jobs when our economy is limping along. We believe that the old adage the devil I know is better than the devil I dont know is a major influence in why employees have stayed where they are for the time being.

If the surveys are a realistic indication of what we can expect the question arises: what should companies do now to thwart a big increase in turnover of trained employees seeking better opportunities? Our experience has shown that there are five (5) key steps that a company can take to generate positive results. These steps are:

1. Clarify the Compensation Philosophy What is the labor market that the company needs to compete against for qualified employees? What is the level that the company should pay against that market? What is the best mix of pay elements for their employees? Is the pay program consistent with its Business Plan and Marketing Strategy? Addressing these questions will help the company establish a baseline against which to benchmark pay and pay practices and establishes the companys commitment to its compensation programs.
2. Review the Procedures for Determining Pay What are increases based on? How will they reward varying contributions of employees doing the same job but at different levels of performance? How equitable is the system and how consistently is it applied? Ensuring that pay practices are equitable builds trust among employees provides a measure of comfort with the system and allows employees to determine how their pay is impacted by their performance.
3. Review the Performance Evaluation Process What is the basis for making personnel decisions including pay increases promotions and transfers terminations assessing training needs identifying expectations and accountabilities etc.? Having a consistent means by which personnel actions are administered provides for fair treatment among employees and assists managers in applying policies and procedures consistently among their staff.
4. Identify the Top Contributors What is being done to determine which employees are most valuable and whose loss would seriously harm the companys ability to operate successfully? What is the company doing to insure that employees are happy and stay? Employees are a companys most valuable aspect. Ensuring that the best performers are recognized for the abovepar contributions to the organizations will further motivate them to exceed their goals and can encourage other employees to challenge themselves.
5. Evaluate the Communications Process Is management able to communicate effectively with employees? Is communication trusted and able to relay appropriate information to employees? Has management communicated its commitment to its employees and to fostering a rewarding work environment? In many instances the biggest problem is that employees dont know where they stand in the eyes of management. In addition they often dont understand how the pay programs work or what they need to do to move ahead. This lack of understanding leads to discontent frustration miscommunication problems and eventually to the feeling that the grass is greener elsewhere.

Addressing these issues doesnt insure that turnover will not increase. But it should certainly provide a strong indication to employees that their organization cares and is taking the necessary actions to improve their working environment.

About the writer:

Paul R. Dorf Ph.D. APD
Compensation Resources Inc. provides compensation and human resource consulting to midsize and Fortune 500 clients as well as public private familyowned and emerging companies. CRI specializes in Executive Compensation Salary Administration Performance Management Sales Compensation and expert witness services. Our reference library boasts over 4800 surveys.

atscompensationresources.com

Qualifying For A Poor Credit Business Loan

A poor credit business loan is designed for a business person or persons with a poor credit history.

In the life of a business virtually all come across a time where extra money is needed for business growth expansion a new venture or paying outstanding bills. Businesses owned and operated by an individual or individuals with a poor credit history are of no exception. The fall back on this type of situation is that it is difficult to qualify for a conventional loan if you are an individual or a part of a business partnership with an individual who has poor credit and are in need of a business loan.

Poor credit business loans are designed especially for business people with a poor credit history. Poor credit business loans apply to both new ventures and existing businesses and offer the business owner or owners the opportunity to turn around their poor credit rating while also providing much needed financing for the business.

Pros of Obtaining a Poor Credit Business Loan

1. A poor credit business loan can offer a business person or business persons with poor credit an opportunity to receive a loan when they may otherwise not qualify for a conventional loan.

2. Poor credit business loans can offer the business owner or owners the opportunity to improve their business and ultimately improve their financial situation economic standing and ultimately their credit ratings.

3. Loan terms for poor credit business loans can range from three to 25 years. Longer loan terms can offer the business owner or owners enough time to see the business through a rough financial period proving their worthiness of the loan and again improving credit scores so that future loans can be obtained at a lower interest rate.

4. A poor credit business loan offers the business person or persons a chance to improve bad credit history. The poor credit business loan will provide money required to help the business grow and overcome its financial problems as well as allow the business owner or owners the opportunity to become current on the new loan in order to increase credit scores by continuing to make monthly payments as scheduled.

5. An opportunity to have a lower interest rate is available on a poor credit business loan provided that collateral is available to the lender.

6. A poor credit business loan can provide the business with regular access to cash so that even in the worst financial situation the business need not sell the entire business or part of the business to another individual or company to raise money.

Cons of Obtaining a Poor Credit Business Loan

1. The rate of interest on a poor credit business loan varies greatly according to the collateral offered. An unsecured poor credit business loan will have a much higher rate of interest.

2. If a poor credit business loan is not paid it will not only affect the business owner’s or owners’ credit ratings but also it will only create even more problems for what was previously a grim financial situation.

3. A poor credit business loan will require a very high rate of interest to be paid if the borrower is considered extremely high risk to the lender. Collateral can assist in keeping the interest rate as low as possible.

Any business person who has the potential to repay a poor credit business loan and does not have a very severe credit history that includes things such as unpaid collections repossessions or serious late payments for a long duration can qualify for a poor credit business loan. Even individuals who have had the misfortune of a bankruptcy more than ten years ago can qualify for a poor credit business loan. Business owners with poor credit who wish to either start a new venture or require a poor credit business loan to improve or expand on an existing business are provided a unique opportunity to help their economic and financial situation turn around and improve.

Before applying for a poor credit business loan however be sure to have a viable business plan and prepare a professional loan proposal to show how much money is needed and how the loan amount would make a difference to the business’ future endeavors. Great care and consideration should be taken to ensure that the business venture expansion or improvements will not fail. If the loan appears to be a high risk for your business examine the situation carefully. An individual or individuals in business should take out a poor credit business loan only if it is completely clear that the poor credit business loan will make the situation better and not worse.

About the writer:

Rebecca Game is the founder of Digital Women an online community for women in business. A 30 year entrepreneur and dedicated to helping other women find small business loans. Visit her site: Loans for Women http://www.digitalwomen.com

Boycott WalMart

For the everyday individual companies like WalMart have been a source of great deals where goods can be purchased at a relatively inexpensive sum. These companies preach neverending low costs for the benefit of the consumer. Most of us have taken that as face value resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue annually. WalMart in particular has been one of the major beneficiaries of your hard earned dollar. They promote themselves as being concerned about the family about customer server. Recent events however have caused us to look a little more deeply into this chain of stores. Many of us have already heard about their North American corporate practices. They have responded to charges of forced overtime pay inequity unsafe working conditions with the usual corporate schpeal of having to better train their management staff. The average person has either accepted it or simply chosen to ignore it preferring to worry about the drama of their own lives. But that is not the end of this story. WalMart recently decided to close down the first and only unionized store to date sighting loss of profitability.

If a store like Walmart who routinely subcontracts their manufacturing to companies that pays their employees much less than minimum wage cannot make a profit in a unionized environment in North America than what it that saying for the rest of the companies out there? WalMart is not only in the business of providing low costs on merchandise but in human labour as well. While they are not the only ones doing it they are the ones that have profited the most by it. What prevents a company that sponsors 7 day a week 12 hour shift with NO overtime in the 3rd world from trying to do the same legal equivalent here? This is a company that has made over 9 Billion dollars in 2004.

What does that have to do with the average everyday individual? Plenty. Many jobs in the manufacturing industry are being lost to those same 3rd world countries because there is no protection for the common man. They do not enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that we do in North America. They cannot just pick up and choose to work elsewhere. They cannot just choose to go back to school and get government loans. They will take and stay with any job they can get regardless of their working conditions because there simply are no other alternatives. So when North Americans lose their jobs in that industry they are forced to work for lower and lower wages and subsequently their buying power goes down. With a lowering buying power companies like WalMart make more profit as people seek to stretch their dollar as far as they can.

Old Mom Pop stores cannot survive anymore either. When they moved out of the city and into the suburbs WalMart followed. Once the population on the outskirts of a city reach a certain density you can be sure that there will be a WalMart coming soon. One may even show up quicker on sites with highway access. WalMarts own buying policy is such that small time operations cannot afford to sell to WalMart and make a profit. Small companies cannot survive on the pennies WalMart leaves them nor can they compete with the chains themselves so they close down. Since this impacts more than the clothing industry more people will replace their lost jobs with lower paying ones and have to rely on stores like WalMart to maintain their own moderate lifestyle.

We are not powerless against this. Alone we can do nothing. Together we can change that policy. WalMart will continue to attract customers that is a fact. But we can make it so that there will only be MercedesBenz and BMWs in the parking lot. If we pull together we can cut enough into WalMarts bottom line for them to make serious changes.

If you are part of a social organization let them know what we are doing.

If you run a website put a link to this page.

If you are simply a concerned citizen Boycott WalMart!

Send the strongest message you can! Companies will not listen to your words they will listen to your wallet. Only if we change our buying strategy can we get them to listen to us. You can still get great deals at other related companies. The point here is to send a message. Start with the chain that has the most to lose and the most amount of money to do something significant to change things. The purpose is not to destroy but to rebuild. Once WalMart changes their policies the others will follow suit or they will be next. We want to build a new type of CoOp. A type of CoOp that can change the world with members of the global community. A CoOp of average everyday people.

Send A Message: Boycott WalMart

About the writer:

Gary Whittaker is the editor of T.E.N Magazine a social and sports commentary webzine with balls! Check out more articles at http://www.tenwebzine.com

editortenwebzine.com