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| Welcome | Welcome to the January 2008 edition of the Credential Check Examiner! This month we look at stereotypes and how they affect performance, tuition assistance benefits, and the under publicized manufacturing jobs in Michigan.
As always, please feel free to reply with your comments and suggestions!
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| Stereotypes Can Influence Work Performance
|  Can stereotypes influence your employees’ work performance? Recent studies suggest that stereotypes can actually decrease the performance of individuals, merely by the person knowing that they fit into a negative stereotype for a certain task. This is known as "Stereotype threat".
Stereotype threat is the fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies. It is generally suggested that people are concerned with confirming negative stereotypes and because of this they may feel pressure and fear which distracts them from the original task at hand. This phenomenon has been discussed since approximately 1995, when Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson discovered that African American students performed worse on an intelligence test when they knew that the test was measuring intelligence. The theory behind the study is that these students were aware of the stereotype that African American individuals are not as intelligent as Caucasian individuals. When subjects were not aware that it was intelligence that was being measured, they performed much better. This stereotype threat has been confirmed over the years, and more recently, research has shown that the stereotype threat plays a role in the workplace.
Specifically, ReducingStereotypeThreat.org (www.reducingstereotypethreat.org) reported that stereotype threat negatively influences the performance of women in negotiations, women in driving, and the elderly in memory performance. Additionally, research has revealed that stereotype threat can alter females’ professional identities. In fields that are typically dominated by males, such as mathematics and science, research demonstrated that females who reported a negative stereotype of females’ ability in mathematics and science were less likely to feel as though they could succeed in the workplace. The females who did not report the negative stereotype were more likely to express continued interest in their fields and their future working in mathematics and/or science.
What can you do to prevent stereotype threat from influencing the work performance of your employees? Researcher Sian Beilock suggests that encouragement of their abilities to complete various tasks can help by promoting a sense of value and worth. In doing so, employers can reduce the perceived threat of confirming a negative stereotype which will hopefully lead to an increase in work performance.
For more information regarding stereotype threat, please visit www.reducingstereotypethreat.org.
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| Corporate Tuition Assistance Programs
| Corporate tuition assistance programs have a well-documented history of increasing employee loyalty and reducing turnover. “Including benefit programs in your recruitment process assists in obtaining additional candidates and may help locate the right candidate for the right position” states Timothy Whiting, Vice President with Credential Check Corporation. And although most corporate executives may feel good about offering tuition assistance as an employee benefit it is becoming increasingly clear that organizations lack the necessary insight to administer them in a responsible manner. This lack of visibility has resulted in a misunderstanding of the return on investment, the amount of funds being distributed, and sometimes even the number of employees utilizing the benefit.
Examination of your tuition assistance program should evaluate the following features: - Eligibility rules: Do you require a minimum employee tenure before the benefit is available?
- Program requirements: Does the coursework/degree program have to be substantially related to the organizations work?
- Employee contract: Do you require a minimum time commitment to the organization after the completion of the coursework/degree?
- Coverage: Will you cover tuition in full? Do you cover expenses?
- Structure: How are payments made?
- Return on investment: How is it measured?
An audit should be performed on your programs to reveal the degree to which the programs contribute or retract from the overall corporate strategy. The organization is then better positioned to evaluate the program’s effectiveness in meeting objectives, both on the corporate level and on the individual employee level.
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| | Quote of the Month | "The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants them to do, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
-Theodore Roosevelt
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| | The under publicized manufacturing job openings within Michigan |
Thankfully job losses for the Big Three no longer have to mean massive job losses state-wide. As the automobile companies evolve, Michigan is changing to be strong without them. For example, Michigan's place in the health-care industry continues to expand, providing more jobs. Likewise, economic analysts see a bounce-back in local business in the near future, due to the development of the entrepreneurial culture which creates a thriving small business climate.
These changes away from dependency on the automotive industries, along with the long-predicted shift in employee under supply and over demand, will be the major impotence for the state's economic rebound. Even before Michigan's "one-state recession" is officially over, several industries are going to see increased demand for workers. Even though some analysts foresee a decrease in manufacturing jobs across the state, what they don't mention is a significant decrease in the amount of skilled workers entering the workplace. As the baby boomer’s move closer into retirement, skilled labor positions will go unmanned, as the generational shift continues. So even if the number of production jobs decreases, finding skilled people to fill the skilled trades positions will become increasing more difficult.
I believe that 2008 may hold some pleasant surprises for Michigan job market, including some important supply and demand numbers that seem to get ignored in the big picture, which may make some skills set surprisingly valuable this year and into the future.
Here’s hoping all of your hires are “A” players
Todd Palmer, President, Diversified Industrial Staffing
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| | Contact Information | If you are interested in obtaining additional information about these articles or the services offered by Credential Check Corporation, please contact one of the following individuals:
Thank you! We'll see you next month!
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