How Might the "Rich City" of San Diego Impact Talent Recruitment?

Is San Diego a Rich Person's City? According to the article The 10 Richest Cities in America San Diego is in the top 10 cities in the nation for households that earn over $150,000. The only problem is that you have to earn $101,000 to live comfortably while that number is $75,0000 in other cities; much lower in other areas of the country. The high quality lifestyle has an advantage for living but can be prohibitive for young professionals who want to move to the area.

Business thrives when motivated young adults move to the area, invest their time, and spend their money at local establishments. The price of living certainly is impacted by demand and supply. One of the most expensive aspects of living in San Diego is housing. For those who are young they are more likely going to be paying rent.

In either case, the cost is prohibitive and the higher income is justified if trying to recruit young people to the area. The problem is when companies must pay this higher amount to attract talent and still compete with businesses that have lower wage and building costs.  New businesses that attract young talent may find other places to set up their operations.

There are no easy solutions as demand economics has taken precedence. The charm of San Diego is its relatively clean environment, sunny beaches, outdoor activities, and trendy lifestyle. People pay a lot of money to live in places like that. If you want to eat the worlds best fish tacos while sitting over the ocean go for a walk along the beach and pick one of the many taco outlets.

Despite its charm there are a few things that could detract from talent recruitment. The higher taxes are prohibitive and anyone who moves to California should consider the tax rate when compared to other states. The difference can be substantial leaving long-term residence less likely as housing is outside the reach of most.

San Diego may be a rich city but it also costs a substantial sum to live within city limits. Understanding these costs helps in determining recruitment policy and helping people find affordable housing in the area. Doing so may tip the scales toward successful recruitment versus loosing qualified talent to another business. Companies will need to consider these benefits and detractors when designing their recruitment and compensation packages.

Can Small Businesses Use Size as a Recruitment Strategy?

Recruitment and employee loyalty are an important functions in any business but can make or break a small businesses. For smaller firms a few bad hires can really cause financial havoc. Not only is there lost time and money expended on poor hiring practices but also the cost of training. A paper by Allen, Erickson and Collins (2013) delves into the importance of developing employee commitment as it relates to revenue growth and firm performance. 

One of the very first criteria is that leadership must have a solid vision of the organization. Without a solid vision the overall hiring processes and the type of recruit will naturally be misaligned. Recruitment starts with knowing the type of person needed, their skill set and how that position will help achieve the organizational vision. 

It is often assumed that prestige and money are the most important factor in recruiting high quality employees and helping ensure they are retained for a significant period of time. Sometimes, highly paid industries are able to recruit bright minded people but these same people bounce from employer to employer seeking higher levels of compensation. 

Small businesses are limited in resources and simply don’t have the ability to keep increasing the pay to recruit and retain employees. They will need to compete where their organization is most likely to be successful-and that has nothing to do with size. The interactivity and relationships built in a small business can have a more profound impact than pay and prestige. 

Firms that follow an employee commitment strategy create attachments based on relationships, company identity, coordination of autonomy and informal control, and selecting employees based upon firm values. Such organizations are not command and control structures and seek to improve upon the positive affectivity the employee has with the firm. 

This is different than what you might find in larger organization. Even though large organizations seek to create stronger cultures it is much more difficult than smaller firms. The sheer size and power-distance relationships can be difficult to overcome. Instead many firms focus on compensation and prestige as driving factors. 

Nearly 65% of all hiring is based in smaller businesses. It is important for such businesses to focus on using their core strengths where size can actually be a detriment. Hiring people based upon their value systems, encouraging them to be independent in their thinking, foster close relationships, and creating commitment to the firm are important for success. 

Relationships and sense of belongingness can go a long way in gaining commitment. People are social creatures by nature and will stay in organizations that they develop positive and meaningful relationships. Smaller businesses offer an opportunity to socialize employees to a smaller group of people they can develop deep relationships over time. A family like atmosphere can be a significant draw for talent.

Allen, M., Ericksen, J. & Collins, C. (2013). Human resource management, employee exchange relationships, and performance in small business. Human Resource Management, 52 (2).

Does Business Strategy Have an Impact on Work-Life Balance?

Work-life balance is a common HR program that attempts to balance the needs between work and home life. That balance can be difficult to find if one is working in the service industry, consistent overtime, or in a high pressure salaried positions. Taking time to find that balance will help ensure that employees maintain a well-rounded and productive life that takes into account the whole person. The strategy a company uses to manage their business may have an impact on their desire to implement their own work-life balance programs.

A regular schedule can help people find a level of consistency that doesn’t occur if schedules are randomly changed every week. The unpredictability of work situations impacts work-life conflict, time-based conflict and strain-based conflict as measured through employee stress (Henly & Lambert, 2014). As schedules move around employees have difficulties planning activities from week to week. 

Certain sectors of the labor market have more difficulty in finding work-life balance. This is often a direct result of either too much overtime, as seen in hourly jobs in construction, or inflexible work hours in low wage occupations prevalent in the service industry. At this level, employees don’t have much control over their schedules that can cause stress when problems arise.

Executives can also have difficulty managing the demands between work and home life. When a person is responsible for a team of employees, a substantial amount of assets, and the success of a department it can be difficult to simply ignore problems to spend time with family. When an important phone call comes in it is expected that they drop what they are doing and handle the problem straight away.

The type of business strategy a company uses to guide its decisions will have an impact on their work-life balance. Those companies that follow a product leadership business strategy are more likely to adopt work-life programs when compared to those that are focused on cost leadership business strategies (Wang & Verma, 2009). 

Product leadership strategies focus more on the holistic approach to creating and selling products. Culture is one of those important components to overall success and therefore decisions to encourage work-life balance can help in encouraging higher output on an organizational level. When cost strategies take precedence it doesn’t take long to find such programs on the back burner of corporate emphasis. Decision-makers should consider the long term needs of employees in addition to the short-term financial success of the business to ensure talent is retained and fully engaged.

Henly, J. & Lambert, S. (2014). Unpredictable work timing in retail jobs: implications for employee work-life conflict. Industrial & labor Relations Review, 67 (3). 

Wang, J. & Verma, A. (2014). Explaining organizational responsiveness to work-life balance issues: the role of business strategy and high performance work systems. Academy of Management annual Meeting Proceedings. DOI: 10.5465/AMBPP.2009.44257659

Funny Reasons Why Employees Call in Sick

Career Builder recently released statistics on some of the most outrageous excuses for missing work. Over the past year 28% of employees called in sick which is an improvement over the 32% the previous year.  When probed for a reason 30% stated they simply didn’t feel like going to work, 29% said they wanted to relax, 21% to attend a doctor’s visit, 19% to catch up on sleep and 11% wanted to avoid bad weather. 

Considering that employees in professional positions don’t generally provide a reason to use their personal/sick days there is little reason to track these statistics. One could simply decide to watch reruns of Lost and that would be excuse enough under company policies. Those who do not have an allotment of sick or personal days must call in with a reason or risk termination. 

Some of these excuses boarder on being quit funny and seem to beg employers to question their legitimacy. A few interesting top responses employers reported are:

1. Employee just put a casserole in the oven.
2. Employee’s plastic surgery for enhancement purposes needed some "tweaking" to get it just right.
3. Employee was sitting in the bathroom and her feet and legs fell asleep. When she stood, up she fell and broke her ankle.
4. Employee had been at the casino all weekend and still had money left to play with on Monday morning.
5. Employee woke up in a good mood and didn't want to ruin it.
6. Employee had a “lucky night” and didn’t know where he was.
7. Employee got stuck in the blood pressure machine at the grocery store and couldn't get out.
8. Employee had a gall stone they wanted to heal holistically.
9. Employee caught their uniform on fire by putting it in the microwave to dry.
10. Employee accidentally got on a plane.

Employers sometimes require the employee to provide some type of proof.  Sixty-six percent (66%) of employers required a doctor’s note, 49% called the employee and 15% drove by an employee’s house.  When unconvinced 18% of employers stated they fired employees for not being honest about their reasons. 

Employers should use wisdom when cracking down on employee sickness in low-wage fields where employees don’t have the same flexibility as other jobs. At times managers may not allow employees to schedule a day off in advance, may not want to discuss their medical issues with their employer, or may have an appointment they can’t get out from.  

On a positive note a total of 53% have gone into work even though they were actually sick. A total of 38% went into work sick because they could not afford to be set back on their paychecks.  It would appear that the far majority of employees seek to come to work even when they are not ill and generally don’t miss work when unless they have to. Managers should consider these statistics before assuming employees are being dishonest.

The Career Builder Survey

New Economic Indicators Point to an Improved U.S. Business Climate

The economy is picking up steam with positive markers in trade, manufacturing, consumer confidence and service industry growth. Multiple markers help encourage positive feelings among consumers and investors alike. As the market continues to show positive signs it will naturally influence the available purchasing habits of consumers and opportunities of investors.  Even though the positive signs are only blips on an economic radar they do lean toward potential new growth in the near future.

America is making its way back to global dominance as the trade gap narrows and worldwide demand for American products ticks slightly upward.  It is a small start…but it is a start. According to new numbers from the Trade Department the trade gap shrank 3.6% to $40.4 billion dollars from the prior month of $41.9 billion (1). This small adjustment in the trade gap highlights that there is some potential momentum in the market. 

Exports increased 2.1% to $193.9 billion in March (2).  This is good news for manufacturers and investors who seek to find higher rates of return. A small improvement in export growth indicates that there are opportunities within the market that are not fully realized or explored. Additional investment can help support those numbers to turn investment into profitable output.

Furthermore, information from the Institute for Supply Management also indicates that there is acceleration in manufacturing growth while the Labor Department states that 288,000 nonfarm roll jobs were added last month (3).  As production in manufacturing increases so does the likelihood of greater employment opportunities. 

Exports increased $3.9 billion in capital goods, industrial supplies, and automotive related products. Imports also increased $2.5 billion in consumer goods, capital goods, and foods, feeds and beverages.  The overall trend on the graph leans to the trend that growth in exportation is rising over time even though the individual quarters are bouncing from positive to negative. 

 Consumer confidence rose highly within the first quarter of 2014 sparked by a 6% increase with 44% of Americans feeling positive about putting money in the bank again (4).  The importation of personal products is a direct result of positive impressions in society as consumers make their way to the stores. Consumer confidence is also rising in other places creating an upward push on the demand for products and services. 

When consumer confidence rises people generally feel better about their prospects and are willing to spend more of their hard earned capital. This can create additional support for increases in manufacturing and service industry development. The service industry also saw a few percentage point rise around the first quarter thereby complementing other sectors (5). The countries that capitalize on supplying to the needs of the global market are more likely to see greater rebound. Before one can supply to that market they must understand the global market needs and put that within a progressive framework.

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