Note: TWM articles ARE still available BUT: (1) you must be a member (free for existing members, not free for new members)   (2) you must be logged-in for the link to work. If you get an error page, visit the homepage, login and then try the link again.

---

This is the first part of a 3-part analysis of staff attrition (turnover) and absenteeism, their costs, causes and management. Besides being a good general look at the concepts, the article cites various interesting and relevant cost studies. Some summary findings:

- The cost of staff turnover is best calculated as 80% of the annual salary for the job in question. This means that for every case of staff loss, there is an additional 80% hit to the salary bill.
- The cost of absenteeism without replacement by overtime or temporary staff is best calculated as 138% of salary - for the time that the employee is off work.
- The cost of absenteeism with replacement by overtime or temporary staff is best calculated as 212% of salary - for the time that the employee is off work.

Editor's Note:
Part 2, "Staff turnover and absenteeism - the causes"
http://www.theworkingmanager.com/articles/detail.asp?ArticleNo=668

Part 3, "Staff turnover and absenteeism - managing the problem"
http://www.theworkingmanager.com/articles/detail.asp?ArticleNo=670

Business boundaries continue to be tested and surpassed; what was once good enough to win the gold medal won't even qualify you to take part in today's race. This is principally the case for field-service retailers and other companies that deliver products or services that people use every day: packages, consumer goods, groceries, maintenance and repairs. Being able to simply cover the distance will never set you apart from the crowd.

This paper is intended for the growing number of companies with field-service operations. It explores options to keep pace with the latest strategies that deliver more value to both customers and shareholders. We offer examples of companies that have used these strategies to increase their competitive positions, and discuss how transforming delivery and service business models can propel long-term growth and strategic flexibility.

Let's suppose that the "usability" mantra you've heard over the past few years has finally convinced you that conducting user research with your target audience is an essential aspect of your company's Web site development efforts.

What are your first steps? How do you manage a lab-based usability project from the early planning stages through delivery of a great findings report for the development team?

Here are five things to consider that will help you plan a successful test, set realistic expectations with your colleagues, stick to a budget, and wind up with actionable results.

The debate as to the merit of behavioral finance is a hot one. Brav, Heaton, and Rosenberg discuss the debate over behavioral finance and conclude that neither side is totally correct. [FinanceProfessor.com Annotation]

Common wisdom for negotiations says it's better to wait for your opponent to make the first offer. In fact, you may win by making the first offer yourself.

Note: CEO Refresher articles are no longer free...

---

Selling has become so complex; its very nature has changed. A systematic approach provides a navigable path from the first step of identifying potential customers, through multiple critical decisions, the sale itself, and into expanding and retaining profitable customer relationships.

Recent research from the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business has underscored the fact that high-performance businesses get superior results from their employees by understanding their core skills and development needs, and by selectively investing in appropriate human capital processes and tools. The report summarizes three key sets of best practices that are vital to building and maintaining a valuable performance appraisal system.

The E.U.'s growth to 25 countries is forcing multinational managers to recast how they "glocalize."

Many executives are now realizing that building the learning capability of their organizations is critical to achieving their business strategy. But this recognition raises some difficult questions. With all the demands on already-scarce company resources, where will the energy come from to create a learning organization? And if you do manage to find - or create - the necessary energy, how can you sustain that energy over time? This article will address these questions and their implications for CEOs and senior leadership teams.

RFID technology may well revolutionize how companies track their products.

Editor's Note: this article is a bit topical, but I found its discussion of the pitfalls of RFID useful (and usually ignored in similar articles)

Your data is more at risk than ever as easily stolen laptops become more and more prevalent.

Whether the plan is to turn fx into a profit center or simply reduce its cost, companies are applying new approaches that help them meet their currency management goals.

Last week a new study furnished yet another strong argument for the "doing good is good business" crowd: corporate social responsibility may just help your human resources department snag up-and-coming MBAs without sending first-year salaries through the roof. Researchers found that a surprising number of recent business-school grads were willing to earn less to work for more socially conscious companies.

Management journals and New Economy magazines are filled with an unending stream of thinking and writing about entrepreneurship. But amid the proliferation of management gurus, there's one theorist whose voice pierces through the clutter: Joseph Schumpeter. More than a half-century ago, the Moravia-born economist coined the enduring term "creative destruction" as a great metaphor for capitalism. But his understanding of the dynamics of capitalism and the role of entrepreneurs are just as salient and incisive today as they were when he first made them.

What killed the CAPM? While there may not be enough evidence to pronounce a court sentence, a leading candidate is the inflation illusion. Cohen, Polk, and Vuolteenaho "show that an implication of this joint hypothesis is that the security market line (the relation between an asset's average return and its CAPM beta) is steeper [i.e there is a larger risk premium] than predicted by the Sharpe-Lintner CAPM when inflation is low or negative. Conversely, when inflation is high, the security market line is shallower [i.e. there is a smaller risk premium] than the Sharpe-Lintner CAPM's prediction." Another MUST read!
[FinanceProfessor.com Annotation]

Why foreign-based VCs are taking a closer look at U.S. firms.

This McKinsey Quarterly Reader contains several articles focused on web services. In "Edging into Web services", John Hagel points out that too much value lies at the fringes of organizations, where they interact with their partners, to leave the problem of uiversal connectivity unsolved. He argues that the technology will take off first at the connections among collaborating companies and then after proving its worth there it will be brought deep within the organization.

In "Loosening up: How process networks unlock the power of specialization," Hagel joins John Seeley Brown and Scott Durchslag to offer examples of companies that have built effective networks relying on low-maintenance connections.

If you still don't quite understand what Web services are or why they matter, read the brief nontechnical primer "When computers learn to talk." You'll also find a short glossary, which should help you avoid a dear-in-the-headlights moment when you discuss the topic with others.

To be effective, your sales letter must be opened, read, believed and acted upon.

To do this, it must attract attention, warm the interest of the reader, create a desire for your product or service, and cause your prospect to take positive action.

Here are five deadly mistakes that might be preventing your success. Eliminate one or more of these common blunders, and your response will surely improve.

Great brands have fanatical followers who can insure the brand endures. Make sure your biggest fans don't become your greatest enemies.

"Investors should continue to press for corporate governance reforms," says Lucian A. Bebchuk, a professor at Harvard Law School and director of its Program on Corporate Governance. His case for change, from Harvard Magazine.

Three MBA programs emerge at the forefront of sustainable business education.

Note: TWM articles ARE still available BUT: (1) you must be a member (free for existing members, not free for new members)   (2) you must be logged-in for the link to work. If you get an error page, visit the homepage, login and then try the link again.

---

"In groups, leadership is believed to fulfil two primary goals:
- to complete group tasks
- to fulfil group members' needs

However, a third function of leadership is to promote group integrity - maintaining the group as a viable system. Such integrity is largely the result of successful task completion and group member satisfaction - the two primary goals above - but it can become a primary goal itself when the group is threatened. In such circumstances, group loyalty - and often sacrifice - is required."

Companies beginning an outsourcing initiative often have more questions than answers. This article presents the results of a study by Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit, synthesizing the outsourcing best practices and ideas of hundreds of global executives from companies who have "been there, done that." In addition to the overall results, you can see specific survey results by industry, including automotive, consumer goods and retail services, health plans, industrial equipment, pharmaceuticals, and transportation and travel services.

"In the recently published Intentional Revolutions, A Seven Point Strategy for Transforming Organizations, my co-authors and I have developed a definition of organizational transformation and an approach that increases an organization's ability to sustain that transformation. In the course of conducting research for the book, we discovered a remarkable similarity in the profiles of senior executives and the roles they played in initiating and sustaining their companies' transformations - despite the fact that the companies represented different industries and national cultures, and that no two of the transformed organizations adopted the same outward form. This article will provide an overview of our definition and of the strategy we developed, and will draw upon a number of the actual change processes we studied to illustrate the crucial roles played by senior executives in leading their organizations through sustainable transformations."

Editor's Note: the bulk of this article is dedicated to explaining the authors' Seven-Point Resocialization Strategy, which describes how to use the seven ways in which people are taught how to behave to effect change.

Why would you need the Balanced Scorecard if your BPM system offers a scorecarding capability? Some say it's necessary to control metrics mania.