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Archives for 2010

Economic Indicators: Pink Ties and Trash

economic indicator: pink tie

I must admit, I follow announcements of official indicators that measure where the economy is going. These are very involved data gathering and analytical endeavors. Currently they give no definitive picture.

I started to think that there might be other measures that are not compiled, yet might give less analytical but subtle indicators that would give an unofficial account of where the economy is headed. Then I found this article  “Economy: These Below-the-Radar Indicators May Signal Growth” on Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Seems that there are some uncommon economic indicators such as–

  • diesel fuel sales at roughly 7,000 truck stops across the country–climbed 3.1 percent in May from April, the largest monthly increase since February 1999
  • train shipments of waste and scrap materials–increasing at the fastest pace in 16 years
  • electricity usage and the service economy, ( this is compiled by the Edison Electric Institute releases weekly represents certain aspects of the service sector, such as office and retail space). Richard DeKaser, president of Woodley Park Research in Washington, D.C. says–

“When you’re filling up office buildings, and office buildings are working overtime—and the same for retail stores—that’s a good proxy for those sectors.”

This indicator for the week ended June 5 was up 10.8 percent from the same week in 2009.

  • While the the typical employment data is dismal, optimism in recent data concerning temporary workers. The May 25 report by the American Staffing Association showed May staffing employment up 3 percent from April and up 19 percent from a year earlier.

Then there is this article published by Forbes: “Uncommonly Clever Economic Indicators”. These indicators are a bit more interesting–

  • pink ties Bob Allsbrook, chief economist for Regions Bank, in Birmingham, Ala., looks for wisdom in neckwear–specifically, pink ties. … “Since the start of the summer(2009), I’ve seen lots of men wearing pink and fuchsia colored ties,” he notes.
  • the size of restaurant trash bags : Americans are eating out again, and that’s a good sign. You can see that trend in the size of the garbage piles behind restaurants
  • denim jeans sales –NPD market research firm says

    “Jeans are a relatively cheap investment and one of the first things consumers buy when the economy starts to bounce back. … denim sales have already started to pop: For the six months from January to June, denim sales jumped 5.3% to $7.6 billion vs. the same period in 2008.”

  • corporate hotel cancellations — cancellations for corporate meetings and events declined substantially. However, major event planners are booking space for 2010, 2011 and even 2012.

This article includes other interesting metrics such as shopping bags and Christie’s wine auctions.

Want to find out where the economy is headed? Put on a pink tie, get in your diesel truck and drive behind some restaurants.

The Global Talent Picture


Globe

Warm off the press:  Manpower Inc.’s 2010 Talent Shortage Survey.   After checking in with more than 35,000 employers across 36 countries and territories, Manpower found that:

Although the current global economic situation has increased the number of overall job seekers in labor markets worldwide, there is still a notable talent shortage in many countries and industry sectors. So the immediate problem is not the number of potential candidates. Rather, it is a talent mismatch: There are not enough sufficiently skilled people in the right places at the right times.

The biggest gaps are in Japan (76%), Brazil (64%), Argentina (53%), Singapore (53%), and Poland (51%).  In the Americas overall, 34% of employers are challenged to fill some positions, but that’s down a bit from 2009, and still a little below the global average.  North American employers are in much better shape than their South American counterparts, with only 14% having problems in the U.S. and 21% in Canada.  Whether North or South, technicians are the hardest to find, with secretaries/admins in the second position, followed by laborers and sales representatives–and those top categories remain similar across other regions as well.

As for Europe overall:  Ireland (4%), the United Kingdom (9%) and Norway (11%) are doing just fine in the talent match department, but in Italy, Germany, France and Greece 20-30% of respondents report gaps, with Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands all hovering in the teens.

Although the report includes a category for the Middle East and Africa, it seems to be empty—i.e., there is no information included for any country in those regions except South Africa, where the talent match gap is reasonably small, at 16%.  On the other hand, Asia and the Pacific are above the global average, with high numbers across the board for a regional average of 41%.  That’s a substantial increase of nine percentage points over 2009.  Japan’s sky-high number leads the region, with Australia and Hong Kong also problematic at 45% and 44%  respectively.  Bright spot: India at just 16%.

World of Work’s Newsline offers this analysis from Manpower chairman and CEO Jeffrey A. Joerres:

Employers have gotten more specific about the combination of skill sets that they are looking for, not only seeking technical capabilities in a job match, but holding out for the person that possesses the additional qualities above and beyond that will help drive their organization forward.

Job seekers who want to be competitive will have to develop higher skill levels, Joerres concludes, as companies look for ways to do more with less.  Uncomfortable reality:  The employment future could include both an increasing number of unfilled positions and a rising level of unemployment.


(Our brightly colored globe is an “orthographic projection, centred on 40 degrees S, 170 degrees W, with shoreline data from GSHHS.”)

Nielsen Charts World Cup Perceptions from 7 Countries

As the World Cup got underway, Nielsen published an interesting blog post last week that shows what people are talking about online related to the sporting event in seven different countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, Spain, Germany, and Italy.  You can take a look at the United States and United Kingdom charts below, and follow the link to read the full article (complete with all the charts) at the NielsenWire blog).

worldcup-buzz_united_states

worldcup-buzz-uk

In the United States, two things stand out as particularly interesting from the Nielsen chart.  First, the U.S. team was not the most talked about team in the U.S., and second, the power of David Beckham continues in the U.S.  Even though he’s out of the World Cup due to an injury, people are still talking about him — a lot.

Otherwise, most conversations within each country are about the teams and players from those countries, which is not surprising.  However, it’s not the conversation topics that I found most interesting in this post from Nielsen, but rather, it was the way the charts clearly show segmented conversations based on geography.  That’s some cool data that businesses should be gathering and applying to their own brands.

Let’s face it — marketers always have to show visuals and hard numbers justifying the various initiatives they need to secure budget dollars for each year.  Wouldn’t a chart like these help executives who still don’t fully appreciate the value of online conversations about brands get a better perspective?  It’s just another tool you can put in your marketing toolbox to help build the case for social media marketing investment.

Charts like these prove that people are talking.  As marketers, our job is to find ways to leverage those conversations and keep them going.

Dog Food and Corporate Tone of Voice

Do you read the back of cereal packets?

puppiesI read tins and packets all the time, and was struck by a curious ‘tone of voice‘ mismatch I saw on the back of a dry puppy mix packet this morning. (What, you don’t read those?)

See what you think about these two elements on the packaging:

  • Daily Feeding Instructions

    The section describing how much mix to give your dog is very clear, laid out in a table, so it is easy to find the right amount for a dog by age and predicted adult size. Clear, that is, right up to the final item, which said that for really large dogs who are feeding puppies, the frequency of meals should be ‘ad libidum’.

    As I was taught Latin all those years ago in my north-eastern comprehensive, I can have a pretty good stab at the meaning of this, but I suspect that some people might be puzzled.

  • The Legal Stuff

    Below this section was the legal statement, preceded by a very friendly introduction:

    the legal stuff

    OK, so this next bit isn’t very exciting for everyone, but it’s really important.

    … By the way, this product doesn’t really contain ash, that’s just the legal name we have to use for all the minerals we include…

Interesting. I know it’s a cliché, but wouldn’t you usually expect the legal wording to be the one that included Latin? (Even there, though it isn’t a good idea because it isn’t always easy to understand, even if the meaning is precise, because it assumes knowledge of another language).

Instead, ‘the legal stuff’ is written in a very chatty style, with no legalese to be seen. And it matches the friendly and reassuring style of the copy on the rest of the site, right down to the lack of capitalisation on the header.

I think it likely that the section about the puppy mix was written by a subject expert (perhaps even a vet) and the other section by a good copywriter with the corporate brand in mind, but that nobody looked at the two sections as a whole.

You’re probably not selling puppy mix, but are you sure that the language and tone of voice on your site is consistent throughout? It doesn’t need to be identical – after all, your site has a range of audiences – but it should be consistent. And, even more importantly, it should be written in language that your audience will understand.

Some Notes about Mental Health and the Hiring Process


Labyrinth

In a recent post I noted that concern over post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could be one reason for high unemployment rates among veterans.  Potential employers may fear—or even assume–that soldiers who served in combat zones are likely to suffer from PTSD.  And unfortunately, it’s not possible to dismiss these concerns as unjustified.  Rates of depression, dysfunction, and even suicide are reportedly high among troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the other hand, not all or even most combat veterans experience psychological difficulties, and even those who do are not necessarily unable to become productive employees.  As AMVETS communications director Ryan Gallucci explained in a recent Washington Post op-ed:

Veterans’ advocates and media outlets have called attention to how PTSD is a normal reaction to the abnormal and profound realities of combat. This message was intended to help veterans recognize it is okay to seek counseling while readjusting to civilian life. Unfortunately, the public may have received the message differently, assuming that all of today’s military men and women must suffer from some kind of mental illness.

In reality, any job applicant, veteran or not, could be experiencing psychological difficulties, or might have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder.  So it is no more fair to assume that vets are ticking time bombs than to think of every job-seeker as a closet crazy.

Mental health is a complex matter, and there are no simple answers to the dilemmas faced by recruiters and HR organizations.  The best plan is to take a step back, view the entire issue objectively, and approach it as a matter of good management.  The Canadian consulting group Mental Health Works offers some excellent information for employers, including an overview of best practices for the hiring process.  A couple of key tips:

  • When creating/posting job descriptions, identify any essential psychological skills required for the position. “Include any interpersonal or ‘emotional’ competencies that the job requires, such as the ability to multi-task or strong decision-making skills under pressure.”
  • When reviewing resumes, don’t assume that gaps necessarily mean an employee is not capable. “People with a mental illness may have gaps in their resume due to periods of illness or hospitalization,” but if your organization is committed to equal opportunity hiring for people with disabilities, that fact should not be disqualifying.

Unlike physical disability, which is often evident and relatively easy to understand, mental illness can seem like a mystery—and that makes it more difficult to craft and implement positive policies in this area.  For a better understanding of the psychological challenges that face combat troops, read about an innovative program that embeds mental health professionals in U.S. National Guard units.  And for insider views of living with mental challenges, learn from Temple Grandin (an expert on animal behavior who writes about her experiences as an autistic person) and Kay Redfield Jamison (a psychiatrist who herself copes with manic-depression).


(Thanks to AnonMoos—great handle!–for the graphic variation on a classic Cretan labyrinth.)