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Has Hispanic American Income Risen Faster Than All Others?

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  Note: Sources for this article varied in their use of Hispanic vs. Latino. For simplicity, the term Hispanic has been used.   In this article, the term ‘Hispanic’ refers primarily to immigrants from Latin America and their U.S.-born descendants.     Has Hispanic American income risen faster than any other in recent years?   The short answer is yes.   However, there are many asterisks to consider. The situation is a complex one, made even more complicated by the economic impact of COVID-19.   Income Growth of Hispanic Americans   In a recent Bloomberg opinion article , also picked up by Yahoo News, columnist Noah Smith detailed the income growth of Hispanic Americans.   According to the article, from 2014 to 2019, Hispanics logged greater income growth than any of America’s other main racial groups.   A r ecent post by the Pew Research Center backs up this claim, noting that Hispanic median personal income growth rose 5% between 2007 and 2017, vs. 3%
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Compensation Philosophy

  Robert Griffard and Geoffrey Griffard February 28, 2019   What is your company’s compensation philosophy? Did you know that you have one?   Every company has a compensation philosophy. Some are explicitly published by the company while others are implicit in the actions taken by various decision makers in the company. There are many who feel they have a philosophy but their employees do not agree. A 2017 survey by Payscale revealed that among their respondents, 31% of employers reported having a transparent compensation philosophy but only 23% of employees agreed [1]   The advantages of a published compensation philosophy are obvious. Compensation actions can be viewed in light of the company’s stated compensation philosophy to ensure conformance. It not only is more difficult to ensure conformance to an unwritten compensation philosophy, but such a philosophy can change without notice and is subject to the capriciousness of the person making the compensation decisio
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Your attitude stinks! You’re fired!

  Hold on there. Can you fire someone because you don’t like their attitude?   Of course, if you ask your employment lawyer, you won’t get a “yes” or “no” answer. You might get “yes you can, but…” or “no you can’t, unless…”. Using full sentences might be “yes you can but prepare to be sued” or “no you can’t unless you can prove that the employee’s attitude made it such that they did not perform their duties and responsibilities at an acceptable level”.   Even then the reason for employment termination would be the non-performance, not the attitude.   But wait a minute, many man managers complain about employee attitude because they observe behavior that is easily described as bad attitude (demeanor, posture, mindset, mentality, mood, tone, etc.).   At Perfecting Employee Performance (PEP) hrpep.com, we use attitude as one of our performance metrics. As with all performance metrics and competencies, we have defined what we mean with the following.     Attitud
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What is a Living Wage and Why Does it Matter?

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  Has the term “living wage” come up when discussing employee wages within your organization? What exactly is a living wage, and how can it affect your business?   What is a Living Wage?   A “living wage” is the wage an individual must earn to afford an adequate standard of living, based on the individual’s location, household size, and number of working adults. Those earning a living wage should be able to afford sufficient food, shelter, and other essential needs for their families.   The living wage varies by state, city, and county and is based on the Living Wage Calculator , developed in 2004 by Amy Glasmeier, a professor of economic geography and regional planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).   Living Wage vs. Minimum Wage   People often confuse living wage with minimum wage, but they are not the same.   Congress created the federal minimum wage to prevent American workers from falling into poverty. The minimum wage is roughly based
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Most HR Data is Bad Data – A Response

  Marcus Buckingham wrote an article published in the February 9, 2015 issue of Harvard Business Review titled "Most HR Data is Bad Data". He asks the question, " If you were my manager and you watched my performance for an entire year, how accurate do you think your ratings of me would be on attributes such as my “promotability” or “potential?”   What Marcus Buckingham is saying is that no one can rate another person and therefore rating systems are of no use.  He states that "The research record reveals that neither you nor any of your peers are reliable raters of anyone. And as a result, virtually all of our people data is fatally flawed." He goes on to cite research conducted over the last 15 years and documented in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Personnel Psychology in which it was found that ratings done were more reflective of the rater than of the person being rated.  " Bottom line: when we look at a rating we think it reveals something a
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Engagement Announcement

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  Exchange of Vows: I Fit  – I am in the right job for my skills, knowledge, and training. I Understand  – I know what I am expected to do and how to do it. I’m Valued  – I am respected by management and heard when I speak. I’m supported  – I know that won’t be thrown under the bus. I’m inspired  – I have trust in the leadership, vision, mission, and values of this company. Want  your  employees to be able to join in these vows? PEP can help create an “engagement” between your employees and your company goals, too. It’s time to overcome obstacles that keep employees from success—such as lack of enthusiasm, understanding or competence. We can help you implement and maintain performance plans to support employee and company success. Learn how to create a people-centric culture where: Exceptional employees achieve significant goals and objectives. Managers and employees alike fully comprehend the connectedness of individual performance with organizational success. Everyone shares a vision
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The Good, Bad and Truly Ugly about 360-degree Feedback

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  Just what is 360-degree feedback? Does your organization gather feedback about employees’ interactions from a variety of source types (such as customers, suppliers, colleagues, and supervisors)? That’s called multi-source feedback, or 360-degree feedback. What’s GOOD about it? The 360 strategy can provide insights into an employee’s leadership ability, customer service satisfaction, and readiness for advancement. The 360 strategy can provide insights into an employee’s leadership ability, customer service satisfaction, and readiness for advancement. Research shows that gathering multi-source feedback can benefit the organization by helping develop leaders (London and Beatty), improving customer loyalty (Smither and Walker), and creating a host of other positive outcomes, like increasing revenues, profit margins, sales, and contracts (Erickson and Allen). 360 feedback has been linked to higher employee satisfaction, lower turnover, and deeper engagement with the organization (Kazi et
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