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Employee Job Hopping Creates Challenges for Employers in the Roaring Fork Valley

By Kari Porter

Historically, employers tend to follow the basic process of giving employees a yearly performance review, and if the economy is doing well, offer a standard 3% cost of living raise. In the Valley, where the population and overall economic growth continues its steady upward trend, this traditional approach is proving less effective. The result is a new trend called job hopping.

With more options than ever, employees have become less loyal and more choosey. To get the salary and benefits they want, some are changing jobs and, when on the market, are holding out for the right offer. For a company to be competitive, they’ll need to give raises to match the market or present higher starting salaries to fill their open positions.

Nathan Perry, PhD, associate professor of economics at Colorado Mesa University explains: “The labor market is insane right now,” he said, referring to employers. “You’re not going to be able to stop raising wages.” When an employee feels they can make more money somewhere else, they may leave, costing companies more money, time, and resources – forcing them to do a search, interviews, onboarding, and training. And if the employee isn’t a fit or finds something better, they have to start the process all over again.

This is where Hot Jobs comes in. By keeping a close pulse on compensation trends in the Valley, we work to find employees that will be a good fit from the start. We take care of searches, interviews, background checks, onboarding, even payroll. In addition, our longer-term temp programs (3+ months) offer both the employee and employer the chance to confirm the working relationship is good fit on both sides. This helps eliminate surprises down the line. If it’s not a match, the employee can move on at the end of the assignment, and if it is a match, there is the opportunity to negotiate and ensure both parties are happy upon rolling over to the payroll. Hot Jobs also provides headhunting and recruiting services for direct hires, so we can negotiate packages upfront, helping employees start off confident and ready to work.

Workers Plan to Look for New Positions in 2023

Workers Plan to Look for New Positions in 2023

Nearly half of U.S. employees plan to look for new jobs in 2023. This is despite the uncertain economic times. Robert Half’s biannual Job Optimism Survey of more than 2,500 professionals in the U.S. showed that 46% of respondents are currently looking or plan to look for a new role in the first half of 2023.

Those most likely to make a career move in early 2023 include the following:

  1. 18- to 25-year-olds (60%)
  2. Human resources professionals (58%)
  3. Employees who have been with their company for 2-4 years (55%)
  4. Working parents (53%)

The following factors are motivating job seekers:

  1. A higher salary (61%)
  2. Better benefits and perks (37%)
  3. Greater flexibility to choose when and where they work (36%)

Employees are leaving for several reasons including the following:

  1. Unclear or unreasonable job responsibilities (56%)
  2. Poor communication with management (50%)
  3. Misalignment with the company culture and values (36%)

There will be an increase demand in contract talent with almost 30% of respondents saying they would consider quitting their jobs to pursue a part time contracting career. Employers looking to attract top talent should streamline hiring process and showcase their company’s culture to avoid losing candidate’s interest during the job search.

Hot Jobs Temp-to-Hire program is an excellent tool for companies to manage their time management as an extension of their HR process. This allows companies and the personnel to engage with each other in the beginning stages before making a direct hire decision.

Seven Tips for Employee Appreciation and Retention

The most expensive thing you can do is to lose valuable employees. In a competitive workforce with an upcoming generation that cares about immediate lifestyle benefits and incentives as much as a competitive pay rate, employers should be looking for new ideas to show hard-working employees they are appreciated. So how do you offer incentives that attract and retain employees without breaking the bank?

1. Offer VIP parking for a week – Let them park up close and avoid the long walk from the parking lot or garage.

2. Bring a pet to work day – Employees will love the chance to show off their ‘best friend’ at work.

3. Lazy Mondays – As a reward for a job well-done, allow an employee to sleep in and start work an hour or two later than usual.

4. Work-from-home day – Most employees will appreciate the chance to work from home and avoid the commute for a day.

5. Double their lunch break – Once a work-related goal is accomplished, let an employee relax and take two hours instead of one for lunch.

6. Find an excuse for a holiday – Celebrate the first day of summer or Valentine’s Day by closing the office for a bonus holiday off.

7. Quarterly bonuses – With this competitive market, we are finding employers are looking at a more-frequent quarterly bonus instead of a yearly bonus. This will be helpful in retaining employees throughout the year and keeping your competitors at bay.

Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.

Creating an Effective Cell Phone Policy for Your Workplace

Determining when it is acceptable for your employees to use their personal cell phones in the workplace, and when it is not, requires a careful balancing act.

On the one hand, employers do not pay employees to converse with friends and family. On the other hand, a cell phone policy generally should not be so restrictive as to prohibit all uses of a personal cell phone. Employees may need to check in on their children, for example, or may need to attend to important personal matters during business hours, such as doctors or pharmacists.

Employers should take the time to communicate their expectations regarding appropriate employee conduct to all employees. Workplace policies should be expressed as clearly and unambiguously as possible, should not discriminate against any employee or group of employees, and should be applied consistently and fairly to all.

Here are some policies that might help create consistent and fair policies for your workplace.
1. Employees should make personal cell phone calls during break or lunch times to the maximum extent possible.
2. Frequent or lengthy phone calls are not acceptable as they may adversely affect the employee’s productivity and disturb others.
3. Employees should be encouraged to use common sense when making or receiving personal cell phone calls at work. For example, employees should speak quietly and reserve personal or intimate details for non-work hours.
4. Personal cell phone use, even when permitted, must never include language that is obscene, discriminatory, offensive, prejudicial or defamatory in any way (such as jokes, slurs and/or inappropriate remarks regarding a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religion, color, age or disability).
5. Personal cell phones generally should not be used for business-related purposes unless a business-provided phone is not available.
6. Employees should turn off ringers or change ringers to “mute” or “vibrate” during training, conferences and the like; when meeting with clients or serving customers; and if an employee shares a workspace with others.
7. The use of cameras on cell phones during work time is prohibited to protect the privacy of the employer as well as of fellow employees.

Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.

Things Managers Should Never Ask Employees to Do

In the United States, unless you have an employment contract, a manager can require an employee to do just about anything that’s legal. But, should they? It’s important to consider exactly what you’re asking before putting an employee in a difficult situation. Here are four things that a manager should never ask an employee to do.

1. Anything You Wouldn’t Do
Let’s talk about cleaning up dirty messes. They are unpleasant tasks, and you likely have maintenance services or building staff to take care of them. But what happens when you are stuck with a mess in the middle of the workday and that service or staff can’t take care of it? If there is someone who has that duty as part of their job description, fabulous. If not, you have to assign it. Don’t assign work like that out if you aren’t taking your turn. Sooner or later, in a small business, everyone has to do gross things. The boss gets to do it first, otherwise, don’t ask your employees.

2. Cancel a Vacation
Sometimes the world comes to an end, and you truly do need all hands on deck. However, most crises are caused by a lack of planning. Don’t ask an employee to cancel a pre-planned vacation, especially if there are other friends and family members counting on that person, and they have purchased tickets. Sure, if Bob asked if he could take Tuesday off to clean out his basement, it’s okay to ask him if he can take Wednesday instead, but otherwise, vacation time is a sacred time. It’s part of the compensation package, so don’t require an employee to cancel.

3. Work Off the Clock
This one should be obvious, but it’s not. So often managers are required to reach certain payroll targets, and they get punished for authorizing overtime, for instance. It means that a manager can be tempted to tell employees to clock out and then finish mopping up for the night. Don’t do this. Not only is it illegal—all of your non-exempt employees must be paid for every hour worked—it makes your employees bitter and angry. Not a good idea.

4. Work While Truly Sick
Yes, if you sent everyone with the sniffles home, everyone would be out of sick days by January 10, but for illnesses with fevers, vomiting, or other contagious conditions, let your employee recover. This is especially true in food service, which is notorious for not allowing sick days. If you force employees to come into work while sick, they will spread the germs, and everyone else will get sick too. Send them home; they’ll recover, and the rest of you will avoid the newest plague (hopefully). Good managers let employees use sick time (and provide sick time in the first place).

Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.

Roaring Fork Millennials – Ideas for the Workplace

The U.S. and many international marketplaces have been dealing with multiple generations in the workforce since the beginning of capitalism. This already challenging dynamic is becoming more complex as the average retirement age skyrockets. Thanks to the financial crash in 2008, many Baby Boomers are forced to work, at least part time, well in to their seventies. According to the Labor Force Demographic Data and the Bureau of Labor, by 2014, nearly one-third of the total U.S. workforce (32%) will be age 50 or older. This will be a significant increase from 27 percent in 2005. With Generation Y or Millennials beginning careers, it means the number of working generations has reached an all time high.

So what is the big deal with 22 year-olds working with 67 year-olds? The issue is summed up by the age-old term – the generation gap. This phrase is used to describe how older and younger generations have different interests and communication styles in one moment (i.e. parents and their children). Traditionally the “gap” resolves itself as the child grows up and becomes very similar to their parents. This paradigm has shifted dramatically in the post-Baby Boomer era. Generational replication is not happening for young adults have different values, ideas, perspectives, work and communications styles than their ancestors – causing a true shift in how generations relate to one another.

At work, generational differences can affect nearly everything, including recruiting and hiring, building teams, dealing with change, motivating, and managing. With such a variety of people with a wide range of ideals, values, and goals – there are bound to be miscommunications and misunderstandings. This causes tension and adversely affects moral, employee interaction and productivity.

The Generations

Understanding who people are and where they come from is paramount to navigating the multi-generational workplace. Obviously you must be careful not to stereotype individuals based on when they were born, but studies show there are commonalities in viewpoints, values and behavior in generations. The nomenclature may vary but below is a generational grouping snapshot:

  • Veterans, World War II, Traditionalists – born 1922-1945, value conformity, discipline, one-on-one communication, the radio shaped their worldview, they “make do or do without” and were able to sacrifice
  • Baby Boomers – born 1946-1964, the largest generation ever, competitive and job focused, all about paying your dues, optimistic, want to change the world, influenced by the advent of television
  • Generation X – born 1965-1980, informal, skeptical and independent (latchkey kids), take care of themselves and results-driven, always asks “why”, influenced by the advent of the computer
  • Generation Y  or Millennials – born 1981-2000 – a social generation on many levels, confident, flexible, love technology, want feedback, serve the community and achieve NOW, communicate via email and connect 24/7, the internet rules all

Suggestions for the Workplace

Being aware of inter-generational troubles is one thing, but truly addressing and managing them is another. The biggest and first step is to truly accept that all people, especially individuals from different generations, are different than you. It sounds so elementary but we get caught up in our own egocentricity and forget that everyone has a valid and varied perspective on the world and therefore on the way they communicate in and out of the workplace. Below are a few tactics that are based on this foundational idea.

No blanket communication strategies

You simply must adjust the mode and language in which you communicate based on the generation and the individual. Boomers may prefer to communicate by phone or in person. Millennials grew up being in constant communication with peers and coworkers so are accustomed to emailing, texting or sending instant messages. Figure out what works best for the recipient, not your favorite method.

Work environment

Offer different working options like telecommuting and working offsite. Focus on the results employees produce rather than on how they get it done. This will give employees some flexibility on how they want to work and put everybody, regardless of where they spent most of their time working, on the same scale to measure success. Telecommuting can also encourage Boomers nearing retirement to stay on staff longer since the option allows them to ‘gear down’ their workloads.

Dealing with changing work/life balance

It is easy to judge a Millennial for taking the afternoon off on a sunny day to take a bike ride or hit the ski hill for some turns, when your background as a Baby Boomer is all about dedication to a profession and “working to live”. Conversely Generation Xer’s might think Veterans “don’t have a life” and take work a bit too seriously. Once again we have to honor the work ethic and values of everyone. As long as the work gets done, does it matter?

Encouraging mentoring

Mentoring is somewhat a lost art in the modern working world. Supporting mentoring programs and structures in organizations increase cross generational interaction and has a host of positive benefits. Older workers have expertise and wisdom to share while younger employees have a fresh perspective and typically an incredible grasp on technology. Putting together brainstorming sessions from all age levels means more viewpoints and more creativity.  Why not capitalize on the differences rather than be hindered by them.

Sources:

Harvard Business Review

Forbes Magazine

The Center for Association Leadership

AARP Leading in a Multigenerational Workforce

Fairleigh Dickenson University – Generation Research

Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.

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