The survey found that businesses are putting a lot of resources into helping their employees enhance their health, in areas such as health benefits, health programs in the workplace, and using other healthcare resources outside the company. But despite all of these efforts by the companies, employees have not taken the time or effort to learn about or get involved in the programs.

The study was done by the Midwest Business Group on Health. Midwest worked with five client companies employing more than 250,000 workers over a five-year period to compile the information.

The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) is a non-profit, Chicago-based business coalition made up mostly of human resources and health benefits professionals  from more than 100 large, self-insured public and private employers. The coalition represents about three million people and more than $3 billion in healthcare benefits annually

To help companies get their workers more involved in their health, Midwest made a number of recommendations. It recommended that companies look at their corporate culture when putting healthcare programs in place at work so that these programs fit in with the culture at the company. Midwest also recommended that companies make efforts to improve their communication about healthcare not only with workers, but with the workers’ dependents and family members. Midwest also said companies need to offer more incentives as well to motivate workers to improve their health.

Also, Midwest recommended that companies make resources available to workers so that they can compare different health plans and actually see what their healthcare is costing them.

Midwest also recommended that companies develop initiatives to springboard off of clinical screening programs, such as tests for cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and other conditions, to use the screenings to motivate employees to make lifestyles changes.

Midwest also suggested that companies provide resources to help employees deal with setbacks and stress on the job and at home.

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People have physical and emotional resources that they use when they confront various situations, and people use these resources at work. When the tank needs fueling, we use things like vacations, support from friends and family, and a sense of fulfillment in our jobs to add fuel. What empties the fuel are such things as bosses who are hard to work for, worries about money, concerns about keeping a job, and heavy workloads.

When the tank is full, people have the energy and enthusiasm to take on new pressures and challenges. But when the tank is low, new pressures and tasks tend to create more problems for the person and become harder to achieve.

One example of this that was studied in detail was the response of workers when a hurricane hit, which naturally put a lot of additional stress on the employees. Research showed that the extra demands made on employees – things such as working longer hours to fill in for people who could not make it to work – caused more problems for people whose reserves were already depleted, whose gas tanks were already near empty. The extra stress actually caused a drop off in their efforts. But employees whose gas tanks were fuller were much more engaged when the hurricane hit.

When demands in the workplace increase, employees need to also increase their resources — their reserves – in order to be able to handle these demands, according to Dave Ulrich, a business analyst. When employees have more resources such as better control of their time, or the chance to learn and grow, they are better able to handle increased stress. The breakdown happens when demands outpace the resources, Ulrich says.

Several business analysts say that they see workers’ tanks nearing empty in the wake of increased demands at work after the recession. And while workers have been able to increase their productivity, the analysts say these increases will not continue if employees are not able to build up their reserves, if they are not able to put some gas in the tank.

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A new theory suggests that big pharma’s current woes stem from flawed business practices that the industry has followed for the past 60 years.

From 1950 to 2008, the FDA approved 1,222 new drugs and biologics. Over the same period, the annual investment into new drug R&D dramatically increased — growing at an average compounded rate of 12.3% per year to roughly $50 billion per year. Despite this massive R&D investment, the number of new drugs approved each year over the past 50 years has remained fairly constant: averaging 25 to 30 per year.

Therefore, spending more money on R&D initiatives did not help to improve innovation or drug development productivity in the life sciences industry.

Today’s pharmaceutical industry faces several major financial and business challenges.

• Longer R&D cycles and increasing regulatory scrutiny are causing R&D costs to spiral out of control.
• The impending patent expiry of many blockbuster drugs threatens to cut total drug sales revenues by as much as 41% by 2015.
• By the end of 2012, 20% of big pharma’s current sale revenues will be susceptible to generic drug encroachment.
• Generic prescription drugs are predicted to take a bigger chunk out of total global pharmaceutical sales by 2014.
• Healthcare reform legislation and downward pricing pressures imposed by insurance companies and third-party payors are driving down drug reimbursement costs and squeezing the margins of many branded prescription drugs.

Drug makers have attempted to control costs through job cuts, corporate restructuring and M&As. Over the past four years alone, the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies have eliminated over 200,000 jobs. During the same period, M&A activity has skyrocketed as big pharma companies rush to bolster their biotechnology product offerings. While both strategies are likely to help to control costs and boost company stock prices in the short term, neither is likely to help to improve productivity or spark innovation.

The Blockbuster Drug Business Model – No Longer Viable
The blockbuster drug business model is no longer viable or sustainable in today’s marketplace. There is general agreement among most industry analysts that big pharma companies must change to remain productive and relevant. These changes include:

• improved R&D productivity
• a continuation of drastic cost-cutting measures
• a strategy to rapidly garner market share in emerging markets.

While some analysts contend that conventional M&A strategies can address these issues, there is a growing consensus that fundamental changes to big pharma’s business model are necessary to ensure its survival.

Open Innovation
Historically, the life sciences industry has operated by using a “closed innovation” business model, which is mainly driven and protected by patents and IP, and product development is frequently done internally and secretly without much input from external sources.

An open innovation model — such as those used by software developers and information technology companies — is nimble and flexible and relies on both internal and external resources for product development and commercialization. Otherwise known as “crowdsourcing,” this business model leverages the collective external expertise of a network of contributors (the “crowd”) to help develop products that originated as internal ideas.

While most of crowdsourcing’s better-known successes have been realized in the software industry, like Linux software and the Google Android operating system, the possibility of applying it to pharmaceutical R&D is gaining support. Over the past few years, several big pharma companies have begun to apply the crowdsourcing concept to early drug discovery and development.

A Novel Idea: Crowdsourcing Clinical Drug Development
Most of big pharma’s experiments with open innovation have focused on drug discovery, most likely because it’s the least regulated part of the drug commercialization process. But, although substantial financial investment is required for discovery research and preclinical drug development, the most expensive part of the process is usually human clinical trials. And human clinical trial costs are rising, mainly because of regulatory agencies’ increased emphasis on drug safety.

Challenges
There is no question that open innovation drug discovery models are gaining traction at several major pharmaceutical companies. However, wholesale adoption or “buy in” of the open innovation model by the pharmaceutical industry faces several major challenges:

• the open innovation model would likely elevate the regulatory requirements associated with drug development because of the increased number and diversity of contributors to the process.
• implementation of the model would require careful design, ongoing and regular contact with regulators
• a large investment and commitment of overhead in project management and information technology support would be required.
• how will patents and other intellectual property generated during the open innovation process be handled and managed? Who will own the patents?
• Open innovation will require an unusually complex reward system for contributors that include fees for service, fees for success, and milestone and royalty payments
• As big pharma companies continue to become increasingly risk-averse, it isn’t clear what percentage of risk they will be willing to assume in open innovation drug development projects.

Stephen Paskoff, CEO of a provider of ethics and compliance learning solutions, tells the story of someone working at a financial services firm who had to complete 17 online courses covering financial transactions ranging from ethics and discrimination to harassment in about one day. The man said he clicks his way through the courses but learns little. He just tries to get through it as quickly as possible to get his bonus.

Another person who works at a manufacturing firm says he clicks through the courses as fast as he can. Everyone looks on the courses as pretty much of a joke, he said. Once the courses are completed, management never mentions them again.

Paskoff says when the courses are delivered this way – without any context or follow-up – they really are of little benefit to employees. These type of click-through courses are set up just to give employees some legal information and document that they received it. But just getting information in this way really doesn’t do much to change behavior.

Paskoff argues that to really change the types of employee behavior that causes problems in the workplace or that is even illegal, workers really need a strong motivation for change, and with that, simple guidelines to follow.

The information cannot be conveyed simply as a one-time event, without any follow-up or emphasis from management. Company leadership needs the tools and the know-how to continually reinforce the messages delivered in the online program.

The problem isn’t with the online compliance training, which can be very effective, but with the delivery of the message. The way these online courses are handled tells the employees that the company really doesn’t value them and what they have to say all that much. They come across as some unthinking ritual. A company’s leaders need to provide continual support for the messages in these courses, and the messages themselves must be clear, simple and direct, so that they can be easily followed. Otherwise, the courses will continue to be mostly a time-wasting exercise, providing merely the legal cover the company needs in the event of employee claims against the company.

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Dealing with diversity has now become more important than ever because of population shifts happening in every marketplace, making them look more multicultural, according to noted business consultant Sylvia Ann Hewlett. For example, in the United States, Latino, African-American and Asian-Americans make up one-third of the population and contribute to 85 percent of U.S. population growth. In the United Kingdom, minorities make up 10 percent of the population, but contribute to 50 percent of population growth. Developing countries now produce more than half of the global GDP and are expected to grow twice as fast as the United States and European Union.

Because of these changes, companies now have to reevaluate how they attract, develop and keep good workers, Hewlett says. Business can no longer use the same management techniques for everyone. How employees are managed needs to be tailored to different groups, according to Hewlett.

To attract top workers, companies are focusing more on women. Intel, for example, was losing many of its mid-level female workers, so it organized career development workshops to help women find and move into more challenging projects.

Companies also are trying to build global networks among their employees, Hewlett says. At Cisco, for example, the firm puts together workers from different job areas in locations around the world together with senior level managers from different geographical areas and also different ethnicity and gender, which helped make global connections.

Companies also are putting more emphasis on making work times and locations more flexible for employees. Studies have shown that a large majority of the employees favor these kinds of options in the workplace, according to Hewlett. For many workers, offering a flexible workplace is the major criterion in choosing where to work. Citibank is an example of a company focusing on a flexible work environment. At Citi, employees can set up different schedules for the days they will come into the office. The company began the program in a few cities, but plans to expand it worldwide.

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Simply put, it states that “actions of people always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.” Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it, according to economist Rob Norton.

It shows up in business decisions as well. New human resource policies or procedures may end up having unintended consequences – causing a chain reaction of events that end up where no one anticipated.

The law can be seen at work in the airline business, says business consultant Ron Ashkenas. In order to bring in more money, airlines are charging fees for services that used to be free, such as checking baggage and food service. While these fees have brought in a lot of revenue for the airlines, they have also had unintended consequences. One is that passengers are now jamming more things in their luggage, and people are bringing more food on board. This all has the effect of hurting customer satisfaction because it leads to more congestion and odors on the plane. It also may be affecting airline schedules, as people take more time to find overhead space for their stuffed luggage, delaying takeoffs, Ashkenas says.

So, unintended consequences are always there to be reckoned with. What can you as a human resource professional do to lessen their impact?  Ashkenas has a few suggestions.

First, he says you need to plan ahead as much as possible. Realizing that unintended consequences are lurking out there, you want to run through all of the possible results your change will have, to run through all of the scenarios with the people who will be affected.

Test things out on a smaller scale first, Ashkenas says, to see what the reaction to a change will be. He cites the example of a company that wanted to use a new sales forecasting method. Instead of instituting it companywide all at once, the company tested it out on one product in one region to see what the reactions of the sales staff would be, and how the other process changes would work. This gave the firm the chance to modify the program before rolling it out throughout the entire company.

You can’t foresee all the unintended consequences, but planning for them as much as you can will be a big help.

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Considering all that is riding on an interview, it is surprising that many interviewers still treat it as more of an art than a science, often relying on their “gut instinct,” their intuition about a candidate. Given that this is not an unusual practice, the natural question to ask is, how effective is it?

The answer, when you look at all of the psychological pitfalls involved, is: not very. There are a lot of things that can sway our “gut feeling” about a person, that don’t really directly tell whether the person will do the job or not.

One of the big things that can influence our opinion about someone is what is known as the halo effect. If you are interviewing someone who is very similar to you – for example, similar in age, in likes and dislikes, in what he or she does as a pastime, in opinions, in background – you are more likely to form a favorable impression of that person. She’s like you, so why wouldn’t you like her? But how much does this tell you about whether she’s capable of doing the job or not?

Another thing that influences our opinion — our “gut feel” — is how the person is dressed. Someone who is well dressed naturally will make a more favorable impression, but the question is, how well does this relate to her ability to do a job?

What can happen is that your “intuition” may end up giving an unfair advantage to a candidate because of psychological factors that might not even be directly related to the job.

What really counts is having a structured, organized job interview, one that is consistent with all candidates, and rates them all on the same scale, a scale that measures those criteria that are directly related to the ability to do the job.

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So, how can you avoid a big hiring mistake?

Human resource experts counsel that prevention is the key. You need to work on and refine the process itself, they say. It is more of a science than an art, adds Adele Lynn, business advisor.

You need to use a method that is clear and that is applied in the same way all the time. You can bring these qualities to the process by being aware of the kinds of things that are important to the business as a whole. For example, is creativity a must have, or analytical thinking? The interviews need to have a structure and include different people from the company. You also need to set up a standardized method of ranking the candidates.

Companies also need to pay attention to time. Often, companies are in a hurry to fill a position, and so they short circuit the interview process, merely asking a few catch-all questions and giving an applicant information about the job. This is asking for trouble.

Interviewers also need to be very clear about the specific skills they need for a particular job. They need to determine how much experience they would like a candidate to have. And they also need to be clear about the kinds of behaviors that are necessary to be successful in a job – assertiveness, working with others, analytical ability?

Questioning during the interview should attempt to get at the motivations of the applicant, about what drives his or her behavior.

After the applicant is hired, the new employee should have the proper support and help at getting oriented and brought up to speed in the new position. The new employee also should know clearly what the expectations are for the job.

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Recent published reports can shed some light on these questions.

How Does the U.S. Solar Industry Stack Up?

The U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says that the U.S. market share of worldwide solar installations has fluctuated between five and seven percent since 2005.

According to the Solar Foundation’s National Solar Jobs Census 2010, there were 16,703 solar employers in the United States in 2010. Over half of those employers were in the Western U.S. Twenty percent were in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region.

Most U.S. solar companies, about 65 percent, are involved in installation. About 50 percent are in wholesale trade and about 25 percent are in manufacturing. On the installation side of the industry, 92.1 percent of solar firms install photovoltaic (PV) systems, 50.6 percent install water-heating systems, and 21.9 percent install space-heating systems. Solar manufacturers tend to be more diversified, with only 64.6 percent making PV systems.

SEIA reports that although the U.S. solar industry imports goods such as PV equipment, polysilicon, and PV feedstock, the industry is in fact a net exporter. The country imports $3.75 billion and exports $5.63 billion, for net exports of $1.88 billion. U.S. solar installations for 2010 had a total market value of $5.96 billion.

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) says 60 percent of U.S. PV solar installations are in California. In such western states, solar irradiation is high. Electric rates there are high as well, so EPIA believes that in those markets “PV will become competitive relatively rapidly.”

Solar’s Place in the Overall U.S. Energy Picture

In 2010, the Solar Foundation surveyed utilities that are active in solar energy. Even in those utilities, solar still makes up a small percentage of their generation profile. Nearly 70 percent said solar was less than one percent of their generation; 11.4 percent said solar was between one and two percent of their energy profile; 10.1 percent of those utilities said solar made up more than 5 percent of their generation. Over 90 percent expected their solar capacity to increase in 2011.

Solar should gain market share as it becomes cost-competitive with conventional energy sources. The Department of Energy (DOE) projects that the cost of PV energy will continue to decline and gain in market penetration over the next two decades, becoming fully competitive for utility generation between 2015 and 2020.

“Green Jobs” in the Solar Industry

One huge positive for the solar industry is that it is creating jobs in the U.S. According to the Solar Foundation, the U.S. solar industry now employs 100,237 Americans, a 6.8 percent growth since August 2010. This compares to growth of only 0.7 percent in the overall economy, and a loss of 2 percent of jobs in fossil-fuel generation.

Reliance of Solar on Government Incentives

In the United States, many states have adopted renewable portfolio standards that require electric utilities to generate certain percentages of their power from renewable sources. This is driving adoption of solar and other renewables in the U.S.

Governments provide funding for solar projects through tax credits or rate-based subsidies, offer financing support for solar purchasers and work with banks to support lending to solar-industry businesses. They also fund research and development in solar technologies.

There are several different strategies you can use to try and address this situation. One is talking to your boss to discuss different options – taking on more responsibilities, for example. Another option is a transfer within the company. If these alternatives don’t work, your next choice might be to look for work elsewhere.

If this is the course of action you are considering, you might also want to think about contingent work. Contingent work is not often thought of as a way to boost your career. Many consider it a stop-gap measure, a way of keeping your skills fresh if you get laid off.

But, while temping doesn’t offer the security of a permanent job, and benefit plans vary, it does have advantages if you are trying to jump start your career.

By working in different companies in different jobs, you get to add to your skills, which can help you down the road in looking for a permanent job. You also get valuable experience in seeing how different organizations work. In fact, the skills you pick up doing the temporary work will make you a better candidate when you do apply for other jobs.

Another advantage of contingent work is that you get to meet people in various companies, allowing you to build up a network that might eventually help you when you look for full-time employment.

A good personal support network is helpful while going through this transition. Family and friends who are supportive can offer the stability to help balance the change in your work life.

If you’re looking to make a change, contact Bayside Solutions. We have many direct-hire, temp-to-hire and short- and long-term temporary assignments with some of San Francisco’s best firms. We look forward to hearing from you.