| SURVEY SAVVY
For Love or Money?
I t turns out money buys a little bit of
happiness, but love conquers all.
In a Gallup survey of 1,010 adults, those who
were married, at any income level, were as likely,
if not more likely, to report being happy and
satisfied than even the wealthiest single adults.
While 72% of respondents with incomes of $75,000
or more reported being very satisfied with their
personal lives, only 36% of those with annual
incomes of $30,000 or less did. And about 64% of
married people said they were satisfied with their
personal lives, compared with 43% of singles.
In terms of happiness, 56% of married adults in
the lowest income bracket reported being very
happy, compared with 50% of unmarried adults in
the highest bracket.
Those respondents who had both love and money
were happiest of all: 67% of married adults in the
highest income group said they were very happy.
Source: The Gallup Poll,
www.galluppoll.com .
FINANCIAL FUTURES
Red Tide Rising
T he next
big wave of bankruptcies is on the
horizon, say attorneys, financial
advisers, investment bankers and other
restructuring professionals. According
to a survey by Dow Jones & Co.s
Daily Bankruptcy Review
and the American Bankruptcy Institute,
82% predicted the next major group of
corporate restructurings would hit by
the end of 2007. The majority
of the restructuring experts said the
industries most likely to be affected
are real estate/construction, retail,
airlines, manufacturing and
transportation. The most
likely trigger: interest rates. Falling
home prices, higher commodity prices,
global competition and a bear stock
market also were expected to contribute.
Source: American Bankruptcy
Institute,
www.abiworld.org . |
SURVEY SAVVY
A Matter of Perspective
F ifty may be the new 40 as the
nations 78 million baby boomers approach
their 60s, but stereotypes still affect
how some managers view older workers,
according to an AARP survey.
Executives who managed at least some
employees over age 50 rated the workers
higher in the following qualities than
did executives who managed none in that
age group: communication,
professionalism, ease to work with,
enthusiasm, flexibility, independence,
innovation, experience, leadership and
technological savvy.
Moreover, the favorable ratings
increased with the number of 50-plus
workers managed. All the executives
rated older employees high in loyalty,
regardless of the number they managed.
Source: Business Executives
Attitudes Toward the Aging Workforce:
Aware But Not Prepared? 2006, AARP,
http://research.aarp.org .
|
GOLDEN BUSINESS IDEA
Mark of a Good Manager
Call it the trickle-down effect of
satisfaction: Happy employees make for happy
customers. Ed Rehkopf, author of
Leadership on the LineA Guide for Front Line
Supervisors, Business Owners and Emerging
Leaders, says an effective manager can
motivate workers by creating an environment in
which  Employees are
continually recognized.
An open flow of ideas,
opinions and information prevails.
Initiative and risk are
highly regarded.
Its more important to
find a solution to a problem than it is to assign
blame.
Every worker feels
energized and valuable.
Prestige is derived
from performance and contribution, not title or
position.
BUSINESS TRENDS
Taking Security Into
Your Own Hands
M ore than 80% of companies reported the
theft or loss of an electronic
data-storage device containing sensitive
or confidential information during the
previous year, according to a survey by
the Ponemon Institute, an
information-security research
organization, and Vontu, a maker of
data-loss prevention software. The
three storage devices most likely to
contain unprotected data were PDAs,
laptops and USB memory sticks.
Source:
www.vontu.com . |
BUSINESS TRENDS
Ill Raise You One
T he average
financial professionals salary is more
than 30% higher than the national average,
according to the 2006 AFP Compensation
Survey, and is growing at a quicker pace,
too. Of the 27 finance-related job
positions included in the survey, 25
received salary increases greater than the
national average of 3.3%. Base salaries
for management level positions increased
the most (5.3%). Whos benefiting from the
largest bonuses? Financial professionals
at the executive level, whose average
bonuses were valued at $46,500, or 34% of
base salary. |
BUSINESS
TRENDS
Most Audit
Committees Still Lack Accountants T he
number of accountants on audit committees more
than doubled from 2002 to 2005, according to Huron
Consulting Groups 2006 Audit Committee
Research Report (
www.huronconsultinggroup.com ), which
sampled the biographies of committee members at
178 public companies from Nasdaq 100 and
Fortune 100 listings. However,
more than 60% of the companies still did not have
an accountant on their audit committee.
While all companies reported having a committee
member with financial expertise, only 23% of those
individuals had accounting backgrounds.
TOP 10
States with
the fastest growth rates
for majority
women-owned firms*
1. Florida
2.
Arizona
3.
Hawaii
4. Georgia
5. New York
6. Virginia
7. New Hampshire (tie)
8. New Jersey (tie)
9. Rhode Island
10. Nevada
Source: Women-Owned Businesses in 2006:
Trends in the U.S. and 50 States, Center
for Womens Business Research,
www.womensbusinessresearch.org .
*Firms with at least 51% female ownership.
| DATA
POINT
$190,000
The median fraud loss per
scheme in 2004-2006 by organizations
with fewer than 100 employees. The
amount was greater than in even the
largest organizations.
Source: 2006 Report to the
Nation on Occupational Fraud &
Abuse,
Association of
Certified Fraud Examiners. |
CAREER FRONT
Four Key Indicators Pointing
to Promotion
Are you READY? Are you
a star? Have you developed a reputation in your
field? Do you help others in your department? Are
you so known for your skills that people look to
you for help? Is the next move an obvious career
step? If the move doesnt make sense to you, it
probably wont make sense to others either.
Are you INCLUDED? Are
you the type who simply helps out while the choice
assignments go to someone else? Or do you get good
assignments so youre seen as a person on the
leading edge? Are you asked to represent your
department on important projects and task forces?
Do you volunteer for critical responsibilities,
including tasks for which your boss is
responsible? Are you ACCEPTABLE to
others? Do you get along well with your peers? Do
you get along well with your boss? Make sure your
boss looks to you for input. Have you supported
your boss and never undermined him or her? If not,
youre doomed. Have you become part of the power
center? Are you known to your bosss peers and
others above you? If no one knows your talents or
likes you, you wont be promoted. Are you in the RIGHT
PLACE at the RIGHT TIME? If you are doing
everything right, but your company is not doing
well, youre not going anywhere. Is your boss
going somewhere? If not, he or she may be a
roadblock. Consider lateral moves into
faster-growing companies. Think of ideas for
changing your present job to move it in the
direction you want to go. © 2006 The
Five O'Clock Club. Reprinted by permission.
SURVEY SAVVY
Top
Five Influences on Business Ethics M
ore than 1,100 managers and
human-resources experts polled by the
Human Resource Institute ranked factors
influencing business ethics today and 10
years hence:
| Factor
|
Rank Today |
Rank in 10 Years
|
| Corporate scandals |
1 | 4 |
| Marketplace
competition | 2
| 2 |
| Demands by investors
| 3 | 5
| |
Pressure from customers |
4 | 3 |
| Globalization
| 5 | 1
|
Source: American Management
Association/Human Resource Institute,
Business Ethics Survey 2005,
www.amanet.org . |
| SIGN OF THE TIMES
Workers
Tune In
A lmost one-third (32%)
of workers listened to music while
working using an iPod, MP3 player or
similar gadget, according to a Spherion
Workplace Snapshot survey. The
percentage of workers who felt that
listening to a personal music device
improved their job satisfaction or
productivity was highest among younger
adults, with 90% of workers ages 18 to
24 and 89% of those ages 30 to 39 making
this claim. In addition, of adult
workers who listened to music while
working, 55 percent felt it improves
both job satisfaction and productivity.
|
BUSINESS TRENDS
Missing the Train
T he
typical U.S. company spent nearly 50 times as much
to recruit a professional making $100,000 a year
than it did to train that person. Across all
compensation levels, U.S. companies spent $1,415
in recruiting costs for every $10,000 of
new-employee pay. But the median training expense
per full-time worker was only $288. Larger
companies did worse: Enterprises employing more
than 5,000 spent only $109. Source:
Deloitte Research, Its 2008: Do You Know
Where Your Talent Is?
www.deloitte.com . |
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