Business Up Front - November 2003

Business Up Front

THE KEYS TO HAPPINESS AT WORK

Giving employees something to smile about at the office may be as simple as offering them more control over their time, a recent survey suggests. One-third of workers polled said greater schedule flexibility would result in increased job satisfaction. The survey was developed by OfficeTeam, a staffing service specializing in highly-skilled administrative professionals.  It includes responses from 613 working men and women.

  Survey respondents were asked, "Which one of the following would give you greater satisfaction in your current job?"  Would you want:

More flexibility in your schedule	33%
More autonomy in making decisions	17%
More variety in work projects	17%
More collaboration with others	17%
Something else/none of the above	14%
Don't know/no answer	2%
Total	100%

Firms that have made staff reductions are relying heavily on remaining employees to assume expanded responsibilities," said Liz Hughes, vice president of OfficeTeam. "But more work often means longer hours, which can lead to burnout.  A flexible schedule can alleviate some of the burden and allow for greater work-life balance for staff." Hughes added, "The best managers focus on retaining top performers in any economy.  Turnover is costly, and employees who feel appreciated are less likely to leave when business conditions improve."

Positive Job Market Outlook for Nevada

Nevada employers expect to hire at a healthy pace through the fourth quarter of 2003, with numbers for Southern Nevada better than Northern Nevada, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released this fall. From October to December, 17 percent of Nevada companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 13 percent intend to reduce their workforce, according to Manpower spokesperson Dawn Hathaway. Another 67 percent expect to maintain their current staff levels.

National results reveal that U.S. employers expect to strengthen their hiring activity in the fourth quarter. Of the 16,000 employers surveyed, 22 percent planned to increase hiring, 62 percent foresaw no change and 11 percent predicted a decrease in employment opportunities.

$10 Billion Price Tag for Spam

According to technology research firm Ferris Research, unwanted email, commonly known as spam, will cost U.S. organizations over $10 billion in 2003. For U.S.-based Internet service providers, 30 percent of inbound email is spam, while at U.S.-based corporate organizations, spam accounts for 15 percent to 20 percent of inbound email. Ferris says spam consumes computing resources, uses up email administrator and help-desk personnel time and reduces workers’ productivity. Despite the increasing deployment of anti-spam services and technology, the number of spam messages, and their size, is continuing to increase rapidly. A report in DM News, a trade publication for direct marketers, estimated 40 percent of email messages are unwanted. Jupiter research estimates the average email account received 2,200 spam messages in 2002. Although a national "do-not-spam" registry has been proposed, Internet experts generally consider the idea unworkable. There are also plans to make senders pay for all outgoing email messages, much like paying postage for a standard letter, but that faces stiff opposition from many quarters. Until the problem is solved, spam will remain a part of 21st-century American annoyances, along with traffic jams, rude sales clerks and loud cell-phone users.