Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/276151
[ 7 ] MARCH 2014 | www.hrotoday.com way in developing new best practices that benefit people who have been, so far, facing challenging hurdles in the job market. At Seaton, our mission continues to be one of finding new ways to connect qualified candidates with employers who have unmet hiring needs. Signing this pledge is just the next step on an ongoing path to meet our commitment." Study: Top Staffing Challenges Is the recession really behind us? For many United States companies, the answer is no. Fifty-eight percent of employers said that when it comes to their business, it feels like the recession is not over. Among small businesses with 50 or fewer employees, the number of employers who share this sentiment is 66 percent. The national survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder, and included a representative sample of 2,201 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes. Stagnant or declining sales and human capital issues are among the concerns employers voiced in the study. Sixty-two percent reported that sales did not increase at their companies in the last half of 2013. While the outlook for 2014 is improving, more than half (56 percent) of employers don't expect a rise in sales in the first half of the year. More than half of employers say they currently have positions for which they can't find qualified candidates. In addition to recruiting high-skill applicants, some of the top staffing challenges companies say they are facing in 2014 include: • Retaining top talent: 32 percent • Lifting employee morale: 31 percent • Providing competitive compensation: 27 percent • Worker burnout: 26 percent • Maintaining productivity levels: 25 percent • Managing organizational changes: 20 percent • Employee engagement: 17 percent • Providing upward mobility: 17 percent • Providing enough training opportunities to employees: 15 percent • Cutting down on cost-per-hire: 12 percent • Lack of succession planning: 11 percent • Limited recruitment budget: 11 percent • Adapting to new ways to source/recruit candidates: 8 percent On the Move John Higgins recently joined training talent and solutions provider The Training Associates (TTA) as senior vice president of growth and solutions development. In this new role, he will be responsible for leading strategic growth and business development activities at TTA. Higgins joins TTA from Bridgeport Education where he was vice president of talent management. He previously founded Higgins Learning Group, an independent advisory firm. During his career, he has held several senior leadership positions with Fortune 500 companies including senior executive of global strategy and innovation at Accenture; chief learning officer at BearingPoint; partner at KPMG; and principal at IBM Consulting Group. Upside NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF WORK