The Failure Rate of New Hires

During the Technical Communication Manager certificate that I taught the weekend of May 14 at the Society for Technical Communication Annual Summit, I mentioned that about half of all new hires don't work out.

This morning, I saw some research from Human Capital Media, the publisher of Talent Management and CLO Magazines, which found that the percentage of new hires that don't work out is 46 percent. The study also found that the majority of the new hires did not work out for attitudinal reasons, rather than skills reasons.

If you would like to see a summary of the study, visit
http://www.leadershipiq.com/hiring-for-attitude-to-skyrocket-your-success-rate/?code=tm

Textbooks to Train Your Staff

Someone on the STC Management List asked about the best book to train new technical writers. I had some thoughts and posted them there, but thought I should also share them here.

Managers need to prepare workers through several stages of development as technical writers. Each one demands different books.

Preparation: Before workers are really ready to write an entire manual, they need to master the basic "components" of this writing and hone their professional writing style (which drastically differs from the academic and business-ese most are used to) to present information people will use.

So workers first need to learn how to write the "building blocks" of larger works, such as definitions, procedures, and procedures. Two types of books are useful at this phase:

• Books that explain how to write these building blocks. Any of the "big" textbooks on the field, such as Lay (Schuster) et al, Pfeiffer, Anderson, or Markel.

These are generalist books, but I've tried throwing new writers right into an entire manual and found that their lack of grasp of basics gets in the way of their handling more complex task.

• At least one grammar book. Strunk & White's Elements of Style continues to be a best-seller for a reason.

Initiation: after you're convinced they have the basics down, prepare workers to write a complete manual, help system or similar full-size project. At that point, you probably want two types of books:

• A primer on writing documentation. Price's 1985 book on writing a computer manual is probably THE classic. For the online era, his 2002 book with his wife Lisa is equally superb.
• A primer on the "work" of technical communication, such as Techniques for Technical Communicators (disclaimer--I co-edited it; I also recognize that it's old, but a lot of people have trained with it)

Expansion: To introduce more complex assignments and broaden their skills, such as writing in particular genres, and mastering particular parts of the process, such as visual communication, you'll need a different set of books.

• About genres--for writing instructional materials, Training Design Basics (disclosure--this is my book) or one of Bill Horton's books on writing instructions, or Jane Bozarth's More than Bullet Points
• 
  For particular aspects of communication--Slide-Ology (for writing Powerpoint slides), Bill Horton's book on illustrating computer documentation or Robin Williams' book on design for nondesigners, one of the many usability texts out there (Carol Barnum just published a new edition of her book--my students who have self-taught themselves usability found it very helpful), Ann Rockley's primer on content management, and Joann Hackos' books on management (I still prefer her 1994 edition, but the 2007 edition is more current)

This is just a starter list. Comments about other books would be welcome. I'll update the post with the feedback I receive.

HR Assurance of Learning

The U.S-based Society for Human Resource Management has launched its Assurance of Learning, which it labels as "the new universal benchmark for undergraduate level HR students."

Essentially, the Assurance of Learning is an exam for students graduating from Human Resources (HR) programs.  Students who pass the exam receive a certificate of learning that informs:

hiring managers that they have sufficient knowledge to enter the workforce.

This takes the general HR certification programs to a new level.  As other professions, like Training (Human Resource Development), and technical communication launch and develop their certification programs, the path of the broader HR profession from a group of isolated certifications to widespread recognition of the credential provides a model to observe.

Does Every Good Job Require a Four-Year Degree?

"Bunk," claims Mike Rowe, the star of the U.S. cable TV show Dirty Jobs (who holds a bachelor's degree), according to Mike Rowe, host of TV's 'Dirty Jobs,' in a recent article by Lorraine Mirabella in the Baltimore Sun, the news paper of Mike's and my hometown (no, I don't know him).

In his show, Rowe performs a different "dirty" job each week, which are predominantly skilled jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree.

The experienced has transformed him.  According to the article, Rowe commented that:

"When you portray people doing work that's dirty or difficult or dangerous, but you don't show them being miserable and completely wrapped in drudgery, you send an interesting message to millions of people" 

In response, he's made his mission to advocate for skilled labor.  In doing so, Rowe has launched the website,  MikeRoweWorks.com, "to highlight the decline in the trades and boost enrollment in trade schools."

Rowe isn't the only one who feels this way.  A number of recent articles and books, like Anya Kamenetz's DIY U, raise the question.

But few are doing anything aimed at potential skilled laborers as Rowe.

Check out the article at http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-mike-rowe-jobs-20110118,0,7205510.story.

Go Northward My Friend

The relative strength of the Canadian job market and the reasonably high standard of living here has attracted not only Target stores (though I still have to wait at least 2 years for the first store opening), but also immigrants in search of a better life and opportunity.

As an immigrant to Canada, this issue resonates on a personal level with me.

Canada Lures Immigrants
In Defying Trend, Canada Lures More Migrants, reporter Jason DeParle, notes that, while immigration has become a prickly topic in many countries like the Australia, UK, US, and many European Union members, immigration successfully continues in Canada with little of the political fallout experienced by those other countries.

In fact, DeParle notes that some Canadian provinces are so eager to attract immigrants that they have successfully worked withCanadian immigration officials to develop policies that would attract immigrants to those parts of the country.  In many instances, immigrants fill huge gaps in the workforce and are the primary source of population growth.

Read the article at  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/13/world/americas/13immig.html?ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=all.

If You're Thinking of Immigrating
If it inspires you to immigrate to Canada, you might be interested in the practical employment advice offered to prospective immigrants by Sumedh Nene, a recent immigrant to Canada from India, a two-part article published in the Indus, the newsletter of the India chapter of the Society for Technical Communication.

In Canada Calling (http://indus.stc-india.org/2010/10/canada-calling/), Nene explains how the labyrinth of the Canadian immigration process, and provides practical information about living in the Toronto Metropolitan area.  Although Toronto differs from other metro areas, much of the experience is similar in most other metro areas  in the country.

In  The  Hidden Job Market of Canada (http://indus.stc-india.org/2010/08/want-to-work-in-canada-read-this-first/), Nene provides helpful, practical advice for navigating the job search process--from tips on preparing a resume (called a CV in parts of Canada, not to be confused with a CV in other countries), as well as the etiquette of the job interview process.

Even though Nene reports primarily contrasts the Canadian system with the Indian one, the insights should be useful to all potential and current immigrants to Canada.

Try It, Maybe Buy It

Employment Trends

The next several of posts address issues in employment.  The first two address job market issues, subsequent posts address skills .

Try It, Maybe Buy It
Reporting on what might seem obvious to many who follow the job market, New York Times reporter Motoko Rich reports that companies increasingly favor hiring contingent (temporary) workers in Weighing Costs, Companies Favor Temporary Help.

For example, Rich reports that:

This year, 26.2 percent of all jobs added by private sector employers were temporary positions. 

Then puts this in perspective of hiring trends in previous recessions:

In the comparable period after the recession of the early 1990s, only 10.9 percent of the private sector jobs added were temporary, and after the downturn earlier this decade, just 7.1 percent were temporary.

Although these figures come from the U.S. labor market, they reflect trends in the Canadian market, too.

Rich cites a well-known economist, when writing that:

Temporary employees still make up a small fraction of total employees, but that segment has been rising steeply over the past year. “It hints at a structural change,” said Allen L. Sinai, chief global economist at the consulting firm Decision Economics. Temp workers “are becoming an ever more important part of what is going on,” he said.

From my personal perspective, this is the realization of a trend predicted back in the early 1990s, when futurists predicted that work would be organized around small, flexible teams that come together for a project, then disband and move onto new projects, often with different people and, perhaps, different organizations.

In such an economy, workers are hired for their skills, rather than for their seniority.  In theory this sounds good because it provides everyone with flexibility.  If an employer no longer needs a skill, employers can lay off workers with those skills.  And if workers finds better situations that more effectively (or rewardingly) use their skills, workers can easily transfer among jobs.

The broader implications of such a system have not been fully thought through, much less implemented.

But that's beyond the scope of Rich's article.  It focuses, instead, on the people affected by this hiring trend.   Check out the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/economy/20temp.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all

Spending on Training Stuck in Neutral

At the Training Conference today, I presented Ingy Bakir's and my analysis of spending patterns on training between 1982 and 2008. As the title suggests, spending hasn't grown in the past 24 years after adjusting for inflation, although it did during some of the periods of the survey.

To see the original article in Training, visit

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nielsen/training_201002/index.php?startid=16#/18

The complete analysis is published in the third quarter 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Performance Improvement Quaraterly.