Author: Larry Litwin

6 Resourceful Tips

• Word count for this issue: 645
• Approximate time to read: About 2.6 minutes @ 250 words per minute

If your business employs a small yet dedicated staff, chances are that you’re anxious to survive downturns without having to resort to layoffs.  Experts say the instinct to avoid layoffs isn’t just human; it’s good business practice.  Layoffs may leave a company flat-footed when the economy picks up, and can also be surprisingly expensive when severance packages are figured in.  Below, you can find six resourceful HR cost-cutting tips to help you avoid having to make layoffs:

1.  Have Your Employees Contribute To Their Health Plans – This option is often an employer’s first move to reducing labor costs.  Small businesses that have been very paternalistic in the past may have lots of room to ask employees to contribute.  

2.  Use Subcontractors, Temporary And Part-Time Workers – When you lose an employee to resignation or retirement, try to replace that person with a part-timer, contractor, temp or self-employed freelancer.  These contingent workers do not receive the same benefits as other workers, and, if necessary, can easily be released by a firm.  As more companies lay off full-time employees during a recession, a deep pool of talented but unemployed individuals will be available for contingency work.  And when the economy turns around, if your contingent workers have proved their value, you can always bring them into your full-time fold.

3.  Freeze Or Cut Salaries – Although reducing employee salaries is a highly effective step in cutting HR costs, the move must be made carefully.  The first principle should NOT be fairness.  An across-the-board salary cut may hurt the organization in the long term if the move turns off top performers.  Although it’s important that everyone in the company share the pain, business owners should still try to compensate their top producers. 

4.  Reduce Contributions To Your Employees’ Retirement Plans – Companies with defined benefit plans don’t have much flexibility, because they need to make sure they are meeting the legal requirements for how much money is in their funds.  However, reducing or eliminating a company match for a 401(k) is a step that’s fairly easy for many companies to take.  Small businesses that use a standard format for setting up their 401(k) plans will probably find that they have flexibility about whether and how much they match.  In addition, employees will likely accept a one or two year reduction in the 401(k) match if a company communicates the reasons.

5.  Reduce Hours For Everyone’s Workweek – The 35-hour workweek has become an institution in many European countries, as well as in Asia.  Reductions in work hours — and corresponding reductions in pay — are considered far preferable to layoffs.  Treat the 35 hours as a base, and award extra leave to compensate for any excess hours worked.  Just be careful: if employees work overtime, they must be paid, or you run the risk of being noncompliant with the Fair Labor Standards Act.  You will risk a backlash if the 35-hour workweek is just a 40-hour stretch under another name.

6.  Attract Top Talent With Flex Hours – Flexibility has become a key factor in drawing top-notch talent.  Many workers are trading bonuses or pay raises for flexibility, allowing employers to get just as much productivity without the higher costs.  For small companies, using flexibility on a temporary basis is a great way to go during a downturn.  When trying to keep HR costs down, focus on output, not face time.

On Friday, May 2, 2014 Atlantic Cape Community College honored me with its “Faculty Pioneer Award.” I was asked to make a few remarks. Those remarks follow. To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com.

       Congratulations to all award recipients tonight. I am honored to be included.

       When I hear the term pioneer, I immediately think of the men and women who settled in the American west – back in the 19^th century. And, in spite of what some of my students believe, I was not there in the 1800s.

       I also think of those in more modern times – the men and women who helped establish the communication profession: Edward Bernays, his wife Doris Fleischman – known as the father and mother of public relations – and – Pat Jackson…who helped define the Triple Bottom Line Theory.

All four stressing…

it begins with RELATIONSHIPS.     

       A true pioneer was the first broadcast journalist… Edward R. Murrow. We mustn’t forget Alice Paul, from nearby Mount Laurel, who led the way for women’s rights in the early 1900s…and…I would be remiss if I did not mention journalist and strategic communicator, Walter Lippmann – the father of the MAC Daddy Triad.

       Where would we be today without their vision and legacy? All helped define public relations – something each and every one of us practices almost daily – even though…most times we don’t even give it a thought.

       So, what IS Public Relations? Public relations is as simple as a Thank You Note. But it is much more.

       It is now…Strategic Communication – including public relations, advertising, marketing, social, and other emerging media.

       Strategic communication is: good work, publicly recognized. It is the group itself saying:

This is who we are;

What we think about ourselves;

What we want to do;

And, why we deserve your support.

Those four sentences should help craft your personal mission statement.

             No matter how we define public relations…and deliver it, it is as Edward Bernays said…100 years ago, “Public Relations is establishing a reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group.” Again, it all begins with relationships…and relationships begin with communication.

       Some other advice from those communication pioneers I pass along to my students is…read read read – because you cannot become an outstanding strategic writer without reading – novels, online news stories, magazines, even comic books.

       Reading helps with your critical and strategic thinking…and as you learn to express yourself through writing – it will transfer to better oral communication.     Writing is and always will be theee most important skill followed by…I repeat…critical and strategic thinking, oral communication, planning, and relationship management.

       Yes, strategic communication helps contribute to your total package.

(PAUSE)

              I most appreciate being recognized as a Faculty Pioneer – it is a humbling honor.

       And while I do not consider myself a pioneer, I do view myself as someone who – to this day –tries to carry on…carry the torch…and emulate what those communication pioneers discovered many years ago.

       It has been a great journey. One I hope is far from over. My wife Nancy and I have so much to be thankful for – from our chance meeting at our alma mater Parsons College in Fairfield, Iowa…even though we were both from the Philadelphia-area, two wonderful children

and their spouses, and three terrific grandchildren. We were fortunate enough to share mentors who touched our lives and helped shape me professionally.

       As many of you move toward professional careers in the next few years, I offer you the same advice my mentors and college professors gave me. Those Parsons’ professors were pioneers in their own right.

             They suggested my greatest thrills would not come from awards I might win, but rather when my current and former students are recognized. How correct they were.      To this day, I get emotional when I read good things about former students.    

       More advice from those who influenced my life: If you become a professor, do more than educate. Turn your classroom into a “laboratory for practical knowledge” and do it through edutainment. Be more than a teacher. Be a coach – because coaches teach “how to overcome adversity.” They teach hard work, stress getting up when you get knocked down, and demonstrate turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

       The best advice this coach can offer is exactly how those early pioneers practiced their lives and professions:

       They truly believed the definition of luck is “preparation meeting opportunity.” And please…never forget…as my parents taught me: “If you dream it, you can achieve it.”

       Thank you so much for this Pioneers’ Award. It is very special.

To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com.

[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]

This is Tip 178 from The ABCs of Strategic Communication. Check it out on www dot larry litwin dot com.

1. Always be prepared – Audiences quickly detect lack of
preparation.
2. Make others comfortable – If you are comfortable, your audience
will be, too. Comfort, on your part as the sender, exudes
confidence.
3. Be committed – Commitment is crucial. Audiences can detect
lack of commitment or sincerity.
4. Be interesting – An interested audience is more apt to receive
your message as it was intended to be received.

Roger Ailes and John Kraushar – Authors – You Are The Message

[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]

[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]

From Yahoo! hotjobs

http://career-advice.comcast.monster.com/job-search/company-industry-research/ten-job-sectors-in-decline/article.aspx?WT.mc_n=comcast800

What to Do If Your Industry Is on the Way Out

By Margaret Steen, for Yahoo! HotJobs

People in almost every profession may feel like jobs are scarce right now. For many industries, this is a temporary situation. But jobs in some fields are expected to continue disappearing even after the economy picks up.

Is your industry on the decline? The federal government projects that a number of industries will continue to lose jobs thru 2018.

“You can’t sit around and wait for news to come out about what’s going to happen to your industry,” said Alexandra Levit, author of New Job, New You. “You have to be proactive about this.”

Disappearing Jobs

Here’s a list of the top 10 industries expected to lose the most jobs by 2018 — and what to do if you’re working in one of them:

• Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing: Projected to lose 18.6 percent of its 544,000 jobs.
• Department Stores: Projected to lose 10.2 percent of the 1.56 million jobs they had in 2008.
• Semiconductor Manufacturing: Projected to lose 33.7 percent of the 432,000 jobs it had in 2008.
• Postal Service: Projected to lose 13 percent of the 748,000 jobs it had in 2008.
• Printing and Related Jobs: Projected to lose 16 percent of its 594,000 jobs.
• Cut-and-Sew Apparel Manufacturing: Projected to lose 57 percent of its 155,000 jobs.
• Newspaper Publishers: Projected to lose 24.8 percent of its 326,000 jobs.
• Mining Support Jobs: Projected to lose 23.2 percent of its 328,000 jobs.
• Gas Stations: Projected to lose 8.9 percent of its 843,000 jobs.
• Wired Telecom: Projected to lose 11 percent of its 666,000 jobs.

Semiconductors are one of several manufacturing industries on the declining list. Because so many different types of manufacturing jobs are disappearing, it will not be easy to simply get another manufacturing job. You may need to develop some completely new skills.

Levit suggests beefing up your resume with volunteer work so you can show skills that will be applicable in other industries. For example, helping a volunteer organization deal with its members can show that you have client-service skills.

She also recommends being innovative to keep your job. “You need to be front and center with management, giving them suggestions for how they can remain competitive.”

Are You Affected?

What should you do if your industry is on this list? First, don’t panic. The job declines in these industries are projected to take place over a decade. And many jobs — a majority in most of these industries — will remain even after 10 years.

Still, it’s good to start thinking about Plan B. Build your savings and start researching what other industries might be able to use your skills.

If you’re nearing retirement and had been planning to move into a different field, you might want to make the move earlier. And if you have many years of work ahead of you, you should consider seriously whether it’s feasible for you to stay in your industry for the long term.

“Start sharpening your transferable skills,” Levit said. These include project management, budgeting and customer service. “You want to be developing a resume that showcases the skills you have in all those areas.”

[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]

[To comment: larry at larry litwin dot com]

This is reprinted from Ragan’s PR Daily. It is written by Kevin Allen

Chances are, if you made it through college and are now employed as a professional communicator of some sort, grammatical errors drive you insane.

Especially these:

• Your vs. You’re
• Its vs. It’s
• Their/There/They’re

With social media now an all-encompassing part of our lives, we are forced to see which of our friends are total idiots by their misuse of the above.

For those friends (and other grammatically challenged individuals in your life) Copyblogger offers this handy infographic: