Standardized tests don't predict success:
Business executives put little stock in the ability of standardized tests such as the SAT to predict success in business, according to a survey released Thursday by the National Urban League.
The survey, consisting of interviews with 200 top executives at Fortune 500 companies, found that just 4% of respondents considered standardized tests important to long-term success.
Asked what traits they favored in job candidates, the executives placed far more importance on such subjective qualities as leadership, grit, integrity and communication skills.
—Jill Leovy, Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2001
* * * *
Avoid layoffs through performance reviews:
Sun Microsystems has toughened up its existing employee review process, aimed at avoiding layoffs by weeding out or improving the performance of the bottom 10 percent of its workforce.
Last month, Sun informed all employees that it has streamlined its "Performance Improvement Program," which annually identifies 10 percent of the workforce as poor performers.
And for the first time, Sun will offer a severance package for employees who either cannot or choose not to improve their performance.
—Therese Poletti, San Jose Mercury News, April 13, 2001
* * * *
Workers are their own harshest critics:
While 52% of middle managers say poor performers aren't tolerated, only 40% to 45% of other workers agree, says Hay Group Inc., a Philadelphia consulting firm that asked workers in 189 companies over four years.
—The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2001
* * * * *
Flexible scheduling grows:
Flexible scheduling benefits have . . . grown steadily since 1997. For example, the number of organizations offering telecommuting grew from 20 percent to 37 percent over the five-year period. The number of organizations offering flextime grew from 46 percent to 58 percent, while the popularity of compressed workweeks and job sharing benefits also grew.
—Society for Human Resource Management, 2001 Benefits Survey
* * * * *
Slowing economy sends many back to school:
When the going gets tough, go back to school. The Graduate Management Admission Council says the number of people taking the entrance exam for M.B.A. programs is up 10% for the first four months of 2001 over the same period last year. The jump mirrors similar increases when the economy cooled in the early 1980s and again in the early 1990s.
—The Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2001
* * * * *
E-mail overload:
Working Americans read about three-quarters of their average of 20 e-mails a day and consider only half of the 20 important, says a survey of 690 workers by Infogate Inc., a New York Internet information concern.
—The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2001
