If you're constantly battling the afternoon slowdown at work, take heart: You're not alone. A new Accountemps survey of senior managers confirms the late afternoon is the most common time for workers to hit a wall. Thirty-seven percent of managers surveyed said 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. is the least productive time of day for employees. Coming in second was 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., as cited by 28 percent of respondents.

Clearswift, the software security company, today unveiled its next research report outlining the impact of social media and Web 2.0 on today’s workplace. The research has brought to the fore the rise of a new group of workers - ’Generation Standby‘ – who never seem to fully switch off from work or home. Generation Standby are so attuned to this way of working that even in these economically challenging times, one fifth (21%) would turn down a job that did not allow them to access social networking sites or personal email during work time.

August picture mixed across the U.S. with moderate gains in Midwestern and Western States and dips in labor demand in the Northeast and South. Demand for management workers as well as service workers in sales, food preparation and serving, and personal care continues to rise. Online advertised vacancies dropped 57,100 in August to 4,236,200, following an increase of 139,200 in July, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released today.

The second quarter of 2010 revealed the highest quarterly rise in executive search industry revenues since the low point in the recession only 15 months ago. Building upon already strong quarters in the second half of 2009 and early 2010, the latest report from the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) shows a quarter-on-quarter 12 percent growth rate in net revenue worldwide and substantial year-on-year growth in the number of search mandates started across most industries and regions. Highlights include a 42 percent year-on-year rise in industry-wide revenues and a 38 percent year-on-year increase in the number of new executive searches started globally.

The latest focus study on skills, migration and off shoring in the CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook report shows that demand for migrant workers has increased in line with improvements in the UK labour market during the past year. Almost half (45%) of the 600 employers surveyed report vacancies that are hard to fill, with 21% saying they are recruiting migrant workers for engineering vacancies, and 18% for both IT and accountancy/finance positions.

Online advertised vacancies rose 139,200 in July to 4,293,300 following a very small increase in June, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series released today. The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.52 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in June (the last available unemployment data) but is down from its peak of 4.73 in October 2009.

The latest quarterly CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook survey indicates that the employment recovery has stalled, but that the disparity between the public and private sector remains significant. But worse is to come as redundancy intentions have picked up among the 600 employers surveyed, representative of the whole economy. The Labour Market Outlook net employment index, which measures the difference between the proportion of employers that intend to increase total staffing levels and those that intend to decrease total staffing levels in the third quarter of 2010, has stabilised and remains just in the black, but has fallen to +2 from +5 in the previous Spring report.

54% of large U.S. businesses that reduced staff in the past 12 months plan to rebuild their workforces to pre-recession levels within two years, according to a study released by Accenture. The "Accenture High Performance Workforce Study" found that, among all U.S. companies surveyed, 13% of executives said they plan to reduce their employee base in the next 12 months. The survey confirmed that companies are shifting their focus away from cost control and returning to growth. The percentage of U.S. companies focused primarily on cost control will decrease from 41% in mid-2009 to 185 in 2011, according to the study. And the percentage of U.S. companies focused primarily on investment in growth-oriented activities (e.g., hiring) will increase from 24% today to 37% within the next 12 months.

A major new study into the attitudes of Australian workplace participants has shown that companies that fail to keep up with community expectations about key issues like work-life balance and respectful and inclusive workplaces are at risk of lower productivity and higher staff turnover. Senator Jacinta Collins, Special Adviser for Work and Family Balance launched the findings of Diversity Council Australia's Working for the Future: A National Survey of Employees at a special event in Sydney yesterday, hosted by AMP. The findings revealed a pressing need to build managerial capability around providing and managing part-time work, and preventing and responding to inappropriate workplace behaviour.

Workers of all ages have a new appreciation for company stability when making career decisions, according to the results of a study released by Robert Half. But finding firmer ground might involve a career change, as 4 out of 10 professionals polled said they are more inclined to look for new opportunities outside their firms as a result of the recession.

While telecommuting offers countless benefits, there is one significant drawback: It can be “hazardous” to an employee’s career, according to a recent study. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, found in a pair of studies — one involving in-depth interviews with office workers and another using a behavioral experiment — that being present in a workplace gives an employee an important edge. When bosses and co-workers see an employee at work, they tend to think more highly of that person. And their evaluation is even more favorable if the sighting is after normal business hours.

When it comes to employee compensation and benefits, being fair and consistent are key requirements. The idea of customized rewards packages is not readily welcomed by human resources or line managers. It is, after all, easier to treat all employees the same. Making 'special deals’ requires time, positive intention, creative thinking and discussions that many managers and HR practitioners have little experience or comfort with. But that’s exactly what is needed in order to effectively attract, motivate and retain the talent needed for organizational success, according to a new WorldatWork research report, “Beyond Compensation: How Employees Prioritize Total Rewards at Various Life Stages.” Next Generation Consulting (NGC) and Dieringer Research Group conducted the survey through a research grant from WorldatWork. The research was presented for the first time during a workshop at the WorldatWork Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition (Grapevine, TX, May 17-19).

A new survey by WFD Consulting and Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP) at WorldatWork, "The State of Work-Life 2010," found a steady commitment to work-life initiatives among senior management in a wide range of industries. However, the survey also found a curious mismatch between the most serious workforce issues identified by companies and where they are investing their resources.

(pte) - Führungskräfte interessieren sich für die psychische Gesundheit am Arbeitsplatz mehr denn je zuvor. "Innerhalb von zwei Jahren ist das Problem vom Randthema zum Schlager geworden. Spätestens als der Vizechef von France Telecom wegen den gehäuften Selbstmordfällen den Hut nehmen musste, wachten weltweit die Vorstände auf und erkannten, dass Lösungen gefragt sind", berichtet die Psychologin Rosmarie Mendel vom Centrum für Disease Management (CDM) der TU München http://www.cfdm.de/works im pressetext-Interview.

The loss of nearly 1 million full-time jobs and a shift to part-time working since the start of the recession has resulted in a drop of almost 10% in the number of UK men working more than 45 hours per week. However, summer 2009 marked the low point in working time, since when the number of long-hours workers has started to rise again. This is one of a number of facts highlighted in a new work audit, Working Hours in the Recession, published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Accounting services organizations are among those most interested in hiring the college Class of 2010, according to a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). NACE’s Summer 2010 Salary Survey shows accounting services employers extended the greatest number of offers to this year’s crop of bachelor’s degree graduates, followed by engineering services and financial services. The bulk of accounting services’ offers went to accounting majors, while engineering services organizations targeted mechanical, electrical/electronic, and civil engineers. Financial services organizations focused much of their attention on finance and accounting majors.

Dr John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) comments as follows on official labour market statistics published earlier today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which update the Labour Force Survey measures of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity to the quarterly period March-May 2010, the count of people unemployed and claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance to June 2010, and average weekly earnings for May 2010:

Responding to growing regulatory, social and environmental pressures, 35% of companies across Germany, France and the UK have seen an increase in workforce mobility over the past five years. This is one of the main findings of a European survey of senior decision-makers in 3,000 public and private-sector organisations designed to explore current attitudes to mobile working, undertaken on behalf of Citrix Online. The momentum towards greater flexible working in enabling a more effective workforce was common to all organisations across all three geographies, although the pace of change varied.

Following two bleak years for the job market which saw employees grateful to avoid redundancies and many employers putting a freeze on recruitment, recent research from Hay Group, the global management consulting firm, reveals that the tide has turned with 59 percent of employees in the United Kingdom starting the year with a firm resolution to look for a new job. Loss of talent delivers a hefty blow to a business’s bottom line, and Hay Group studies estimate the cost of replacing employees to be between 50 percent and 150 percent of salary. With businesses potentially facing a significant ‘brain drain’ in 2010, the pressure is on to find effective ways and means of preventing mass exodus of talent as market conditions improve.

A report today from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) – released to coincide with the official UK unemployment figures – concludes that economic growth in the next few years has only to be slightly weaker than the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) current central forecast for the jobs outlook to look a lot worse than the coalition government hopes.

Worsening standards of living, falling job satisfaction, and high levels of job insecurity suggest that any continued move out of recession, signalled by today’s GDP figures, has yet to filter through to the workplace. This is the message from a survey of 2,000 employees by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which shows employees are three times (29%) more likely to report their standard of living has worsened over the last three months than to say it has improved (10%), compared to 28% and 13% for the same findings last quarter.

Australian workers have reasons to be cheerful, as new research reveals that they have come through the worst of the GFC unscathed compared with the rest of the world. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) annual report into global unemployment shows that 17 million jobs must be created to get employment levels back to where they were before the crisis.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) increased again in May for the ninth consecutive month. The index now stands at 95.7, up from April’s revised figure of 95.2. The index is up almost 9 percent from a year ago. The ongoing growth in the Employment Trends Index suggested that the disappointing uptick in payroll employment in May could just be a one-month blip, and that jobs would likely expand further in the next several months, said Gad Levanon, Associate Director, Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board. However, as some of the components of the ETI had yet to signal robust gains, the pace of recovery in employment may remain moderate.

Waiting to graduate is increasingly being followed by waiting to work as competition for jobs increases. Graduates are facing the most intense scramble in a decade to get a job this summer, as a poll of employers reveals the number of applications for each vacancy has surged to nearly 70 while the number of available positions is predicted to fall by nearly 7%. The class of 2010 have been told to consider flipping burgers or stacking shelves when they leave university as leading firms in investment banking, law and IT are due to cut graduate jobs this year.

A new study by the University of Sheffield has uncovered new evidence of a strong link between workplace bullying and the subsequent psychological ill-health of employees. The study, which was funded by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), found that bullying from organisational insiders, for example colleagues, subordinates and superiors, significantly influenced levels of stress reported seven months later. The study, which will be presented for the first time at the Institute of Work Psychology´s Conference in Sheffield on 30 June 2010, found that 39% of employees in the study reported frequent (either weekly or daily) bullying from colleagues, subordinates or superiors in the previous six months.

With the holiday season in full swing, many employees are looking forward to spending quality time with friends and family. Whether traveling or spending time at home, time off packages continue to be a valuable asset to U.S. employees. The 2009 Compensation Data Services results found exempt employees in their first year are typically given 9.2 vacation days, while non-exempt have 8.2. Organizations who provide services offer a variety of time off packages to employees. The 2009 Compensation Data Services results found exempt employees have 10.9 days on average after their first year. Those with five to nine years of service earn 14.8 days. In addition to vacation time, both exempt and non-exempt employees receive three personal days and nine holidays a year.

The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) (NASDAQ: EXBD), a leading research and advisory services company, today announced that the business world's rising stars are increasingly disengaged and actively seeking new employment opportunities. The findings are the result of a recent employee engagement study revealing that 25 percent of employer-identified, high-potential employees plan to leave their current companies within the year, as compared to only 10 percent in 2006. The study, conducted by CEB's Corporate Leadership Council, also revealed that 21 percent of employees today identify themselves as "highly disengaged." This group has increased nearly three-fold since 2007. Based on its findings, CEB believes that businesses must place greater emphasis and urgency around leadership succession planning to ensure future success and preserve the bottom line.

For the first time since the second quarter of 2007, a majority (51 percent) of CEOs of the nation's leading private companies surveyed for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Private Company Trendsetter Barometer were optimistic about the U.S. economy’s prospects over the next 12 months (up six points from the previous quarter and up 32 points from the same quarter in 2009). Similarly, the number of CEOs expressing pessimism fell four points from the previous quarter to 11 percent, a 30-point drop from the same quarter in 2009. Private companies with international operations are slightly more optimistic than their domestic-only counterparts about prospects for the U.S. economy over the next 12 months (53 percent and 49 percent, respectively). International marketers' confidence in the global economy remains unchanged from the previous quarter (47 percent) but is up 32 points from the first quarter of 2009.

Australian businesses are taking flexible employee arrangements more seriously since the Fair Work Act was introduced, according to new research. EXECpulse, a director-level HR executive survey by the Australian Human Resources Institute, found that more than four out of ten respondents (41 percent) are now investing more time in order to manage flexible employee arrangements.

The Graduate Management Admission Council, the non-profit graduate business school organisation based in Virginia, US, has released a survey finding that although job markets for new business school graduates remain tough there are signs employers have become more willing to hire, as their confidence in economic recovery grows. According to the survey the number of European Union employers planning to hire recent MBA graduates has risen since last year. In 2009 only 36% of European employers responding to the GMAC Corporate Recruiters Survey said they planned to recruit recent MBA graduates, down from 44% in 2008. This percentage has since returned to 44% for 2010.

The Netherlands is the third most attractive destination after the US and Switzerland to foreign researchers, according to a survey of 10 Western countries. SEO Economic Research, an economic research group, compared the Netherlands with 11 other countries with regard to their attractiveness to highly skilled workers. In the report, the 'attractiveness index' (labelled a 'Competitive Strength Index' by SEO) is composed of 27 statistical data from the OECD, Times-QS Ranking, Forbes 2000, the Freedom House-Freedom of Press report 2008 and Global Innovation Scoreboard.

An often cited rationale for hiring interns is the prospect of having someone around to handle the grunt work no one else wants to do. But these days, many companies have more strategic goals in mind for their internship programs. The latest study from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) - the world's fastest growing and largest corporate network focused on the practices of high-performance organizations - found that top-performing organizations are more likely to realize a return on their investment in internship programs by converting interns into full-time employees. Nearly a third of survey respondents (28%) said that more than half of their interns convert, compared to 12% of lower performing organizations.

Graduating college seniors who used their campus career center were more likely to get a job offer, according to a new study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). NACE’s 2010 Student Survey shows that, the more frequently a senior used career services, the more likely he/she would receive a job offer. In fact, among seniors taking part in the study, 71 percent who received job offers had used the career center, while just under 29 percent had not.

In April this year BlueSteps.com, the executive career management service of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), surveyed over 800 senior executives worldwide to discover the latest attitudes to work-life balance. (The Economist Intelligence Unit assisted with the development of survey questions.) Of those surveyed, over half reported that they currently do not have a satisfactory work-life balance – the highest dissatisfaction figure recorded since the survey began in 2006.

Many factors lend themselves to a healthy work-life balance, and the results of a recent poll of American workers indicate that workplace flexibility is a much appreciated benefit. A recent survey commissioned by Workplace Options found that while 83 percent of workers feel they have achieved a healthy work-life balance, there is still room for improvement. The tendency to juggle many things in life: personal happiness and well being, family needs and our jobs, is a constant struggle for many workers. And almost two-thirds of survey respondents (63 percent) said that all were equally important in terms of priority. While many occupations must adhere to a stricter nine-to-five schedule, the opportunities for flexibility in work hours and time away from work to take care of personal needs have become more mainstream.

The consequences of the economic and financial crisis have had a telling impact on German students: Their career expectations have plummeted. Whereas at the beginning of 2009, as the crisis was first making itself felt, one out of every four surveyed was still “very confident” as regards career prospects, now only one out of seven feels that way. At the same time there is a stronger yearning for job security, longer length of service with one employer, more loyalty in professional relations and regular working hours. These are the findings of the representative 7th “Continental Student Survey” of prospective engineers, natural scientists and economists presented by the international automotive sup­plier. At the company’s behest, TNS/Infratest queried around 1,000 students as to their opinions on careers, the work world and university-related topics. Other thematic focal points this year were professional qualification as well as university reform and its im­plementation in Germany.

In most countries more than 50% of the employees indicate that their workload has increased in the first months of 2010, according to the findings covered in the latest Randstad Workmonitor. Despite the increased workload, employees feel they are able to successfully balance work and private life. People are satisfied with the number of days off and with their holiday allowance. Striking a successful balance between work and private life does not always mean that employees can separate the two. A third of the employees continue to think about work and/or receive calls and e-mails during their time off. Most employees worldwide say they perform noticeably better after a few days off.

According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey results released by Manpower Inc. employer optimism in the global labor market is gradually improving, with employers in 30 of 36 countries and territories indicating stronger hiring plans compared to 12 months ago and 23 reporting improved quarter-over-quarter hiring plans. Despite uncertainty in the European market, fewer employers are reporting negative forecasts for the quarter ahead. Meanwhile, employers in China and Taiwan indicate their most robust hiring plans since the Manpower survey began in these markets in 2005, and the forecast from U.S. employers is similar to three months ago but notably improved from last year at this time.

Seventy-nine percent of employees report that their workloads increased as a result of layoffs at their company, according to a survey by Right Management. As many as 57% believe workloads have grown “a lot.” Right Management is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services.

Despite the sluggish economy, as many as three-quarters of employees in North America feel secure in their jobs, according to a new survey by Right Management. In fact, 38% claim to feel “very secure.” Right Management is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services. The firm analyzed responses from more than 1,300 individuals throughout North America via an online poll conducted during March in partnership with LinkedIn®.

Half of senior human resources executives expect their organizations to restructure within the next six months, according to a poll by Right Management. A change in their organization’s leadership is anticipated by one in five of the HR executives. Right Management is the talent and career management expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services.

The mid-year executive search industry outlook is positive according to the majority of consultants, with confidence rising 11% from the start of 2010. The findings released by Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) reveal that 67% of search consultants expect to see revenue growth in the second half of the year, while 27% predict revenues will stay the same. In total 94% are confident that they will see no decrease in demand for the remainder of the year. Nearly half the respondents plan to hire more consultants in the second half of the year, while 43% plan to maintain the same number of consultants.

Manpower released the results of its fifth Manpower Talent Shortage Survey, revealing persistent talent shortages in many countries and industry sectors. In the U.S., 14% of employers reported having difficulty filling key positions within their organization, down from 19% in 2009. Worldwide, 31% of employers are experiencing challenges finding the right talent, similar to the 2009 figure of 30%.

The UK seems to be in the middle of a stress epidemic, which often manifests itself in the workplace. But just how widespread is stress at work, and what benefits can employers use to address at least some of the causes and symptoms? The 2010 IRS stress management survey (SMS), published by XpertHR, collected the views of 98 employers on how they were managing stress at work. It found 79 percent of them had taken or are taking steps to reduce work-related stress.

Male full-time employment has recovered from a dip during the global financial crisis to regain prominence over all female jobs, both full-time and part-time. According to analysis by The Australian, male full-time employment counts for 63 percent of all jobs created in the past six months.

U.S. employers anticipate favorable hiring plans for Quarter 3 2010, marking three straight quarters of positive survey findings, according to the seasonally adjusted results of the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, conducted quarterly by Manpower Inc. Employers provided a seasonally adjusted Outlook of +6%, up from -2% during the same period last year. Ninety-eight percent of U.S. states have a positive hiring Outlook and 95 of the nation's 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas have a positive Outlook for Quarter 3 2010.

Online advertised vacancies were unchanged in May at 4,149,000, following a 223,000 gain in April, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine™ (HWOL) Data Series. Online job demand has been on an upward trend since October’09 and averaged 118,000 per month. The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.68 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in April (the last available unemployment data) compared to 4.76 in October 2009. “After the large 223,000 April increase in online advertised vacancies that kicked off the spring hiring season, employers essentially held steady in May,” said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board.

While CEO succession rates at the world’s 2,500 largest companies held steady at a high annual rate of 14.3% in 2009, the number of chief executives actually forced from office fell in nearly every region and industry, according to Booz & Company’s 10th annual CEO Succession Study.

It's tough finding staff with science and technology skills, and as the recovery sets in, it's going to get even harder, researchers are told. Employers fear they will be unable recruit students with the skills they need as the economic recovery kicks in, a new survey reveals. Nearly half of organisations told researchers they were already struggling to find staff with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem), while even more companies expect to experience shortages of employees with Stem skills in the next three years.

Taiwan has seen an increasing number of doctorate degree holders, yet it's getting harder for them to find full-time professor jobs, local media reported yesterday. Citing data by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the reports said that Taiwan's Ph.D holders increased 2.5 times, from 13,000 to 33,000, between 1999 and 2009.