Survival strategies

Lower T2DM Risk With Veggies

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Medical News: Green Veggies Cut Diabetes Risk – in Endocrinology, Diabetes from MedPage Today

Increasing the daily intake of green leafy vegetables could significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, a British meta-analysis found.

Consuming 1.35 servings of these vegetables per day was associated with a 14% reduction in risk compared with consuming only 0.2 servings (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.96, P=0.01), according to Patrice Carter, a PhD student at the University of Leicester, and colleagues.

Mind Shift

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The hidden trend in the monthly jobs report — and what it means for you | paulacaligiuri.com

There is a big change on the horizon in the way we should conceive of the concept of jobs – and it is dramatically changing how job security will be created in the future. For many, jobs of the future may be more like multiple income generating activities (or gigs) where we leverage our talents and skills. Job security will no longer be derived from being employed 40 hours/week. Rather, it will be something we create for ourselves when our talents and skills are in demand.

This is a mind shift.

The emphasis of the future will be on the skills you bring, rather than the job you occupy. There will be a far greater focus on self-management of both our skills and our network, two critical components of career success. Possessing more sought-out skills and having a strong network will be related to more income opportunities, whether working for a single organization or as an independent contractor.

Perhaps we need to take a collective deep breath and realize that, while change is afoot, this free agent mentality may also come with some upsides:

  • You will now have tremendous flexibility to plan and grow your own career, no longer relinquishing career management to an employer.
  • You will now have the ability to craft your sources of income across multiple opportunities if this is what you chose to do.
  • You will now have the opportunity to engage in a career that fits with your life – and not vice versa.

Thanks Paula.  I could not have said this better myself.

Less is More

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For Real Productivity, Less is Truly More – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review

The way we’re working isn’t working — for employees or for their employers. There is a better way to fuel productivity and high performance. The first key to changing the way we work is recognizing that the value of those you manage isn’t generated by the number of hours they work, but rather by how much value they produce during the hours we are working. Working longer hours, juggling more tasks and answering more emails isn’t the solution.

Work as Paradox

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The Job Satisfaction Paradox for the Self-Employed – BusinessWeek

How can the self-employed earn less money, work more hours, and experience more work-related stress than the wage employed—yet still report greater overall job satisfaction? The answer appears to be that people value highly the autonomy, flexibility, and opportunity to work in a small organization .

Many studies show that the desire to be one’s own boss is one of the leading motivators of self-employment. Others report flexible schedules are a key motivator of self-employment. Moreover, human beings have a preference for working in settings where they can interact with all the members of the organization, according to research by Bruno Frey and Matthias Benz of the Institute of Empirical Economics of the University of Zurich.

In short, the paradox isn’t such a paradox after all. People will work harder, earn less, and put up with more stress so that they can enjoy the freedom, flexibility, and work environment that self-employment provides.

The Generational Gap Goes Global

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Facing Up to the Demographic Dilemma

This is a thought provoking article on the challenges and opportunities aging populations present to businesses.  Under Article Tools you can click the PDF button for a reprint rather than page through multiple web pages.  It still fascinates me to watch businesses in the US shed competent people of all ages while ignoring future workforce and critical skills needs.

ASTD Report – New Factors Compound the Growing Skills Shortage

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February 2010 Bridging Skills Gap – Free – ASTD

Click on the link above and you’ll be taken to the original source article for the statistics provided below.  The charts themselves came from a newsletter called Workforce Training.  The percentages in bold are my emphasis.  Scary statistics but fixable.

Did I mention we conduct skills gap analysis and custom training to address the gaps?

SKILL GAPS
 Seventy-nine percent of 1,179 companies surveyed by the American Society for Training & Development said they had a skill gap. The respondents listed their highest priority gaps as:
Skills of the current workforce do not match changes in company strategy, goals, markets or business models: 51%
Not enough bench strength in the company’s leadership ranks: 40%
Recent merger/acquisition where the organization brought in new employees or current employees are not up to speed on the new industry: 35
Training investments have been cut or there is lack of commitment by senior leaders to employee learning and development: 27
When hiring for certain types of jobs, there are too few qualified candidates (i.e., a gap in the pipeline): 25%
Lack of skilled talent in one or more of the company’s lines of business: 21%
Source: “Bridging the Skills Gap,” American Society for Training & Development, 2009
WHERE THE GAPS ARE
 The same companies listed these as their greatest skill needs:
Leadership/executive level skills: 50%
Basic skills (traditional building blocks of business-level competencies): 46%
Professional or industry-specific skills: 41%
Managerial/supervisory skills: 31
Customer service skills: 31
Communication/interpersonal skills: 31
Technical/IT/systems skills: 30
Sales skills: 30
Process and project management skills: 20
Other: 43
Source: “Bridging the Skills Gap,” American Society for Training & Development, 2009

Another View of the War in Mexico

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Business owners and investors!I’ll be in San Antonio for the annual AHOU meeting.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the city has changed since my last visit.

Who’s creating US jobs? Mexicans. / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com

“In fiscal year 2008, the US issued E-1 and E-2 visas to 1901 Mexicans and their families, nearly three times the level of a decade before. “

Where are all of these Mexican immigrant investors going? San Antonio!