Human Resources News   ---  

Eli Lilly--which manufactures and markets drugs that fight cancer, diabetes, fibromyalgia and erectile dysfunction, among others--announced last year it was planning to cut costs of $1 billion in 2010, and the elimination of 5,500 workers is part of that cost reduction effort.

Eli Lilly has already seen about 140 layoffs, retirements and resignations in IT in 2010, according to the The Indianapolis Star. John Russell, a reporter for IndyStar.com, wrote the following on the latest round of layoffs:

"But it means 200 more information technology workers will lose their jobs this year. The company said 115 of those cuts will take place this month. Workers who are affected--or 'reallocated,' in Lilly parlance--are given several months to look for another position within the company. But openings for reallocated workers typically are extremely limited" Eli Lilly reported $5.486 billion revenue growth in the first quarter of 2010 -- a 9 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009. The company expects to see large costs associated with health care reform legislation that passed Congress and signed by the president earlier this year.

"Lilly delivered strong operational performance in the first quarter, even as we experienced continued weakness in the U.S. dollar versus prior periods and began to account for the impact from recently enacted U.S. health care reform," said the CEO in the quarterly earnings statement "Our volume-driven revenue growth remains solid and we are making the investments necessary to accelerate the flow of potential new medicines through our pipeline."

Eli Lilly announced on July 2 that it entered a definitive merger agreement to acquire Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology firm Alnara Pharmaceuticals, which has been developing a drug to help combat pancreatic deficiencies and those affected by cystic fibrosis.

Layoffs at Eli Lilly have not been isolated to IT; scientists, marketers, public relations representatives, sales professionals and others have all been let go from the company this year. Eli Lilly has roughly 40,000 employees globally and claims to be the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world. 

20 million U.S. IT pros? Of course there are far more than 4 million people who use extensive IT skills to do their job, people who would not classify themselves as anything like a software engineer or computer scientist. But consider that there are about 51 million total managerial, professional, and related workers in the U.S. Up to half of them are IT pros?

When will the DOL get this right ?

At more than 500 open information technology positions for Sacramento, the numbers are up by half from the same time last year. The tech job market in Sacramento has improved significantly. There is solid demand for engineers, project managers and programmers.

Officials at SARTA, the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance, seeing an uptick hiring. Other areas of the country like Austin, Texas and Raleigh, North Carolina are also seeing technology job demand increases. Austin and Raleigh are known for being smaller tech hubs due to the proximity to universities and colleges. Companies in these cities are vying for talent as hiring heats up in Silicon Valley, New York and other large metropolitan areas. Job opening postings rose even more dramatically in traditional tech centers such as Washington, D.C., New York and Silicon Valley, where job postings increased 68 percent from the same time last year. The three metro areas represent nearly a third of the website's available tech jobs.

However, more than 60% of IT Professionals feel they should be making more money.
Though the majority of IT professionals seem to be satisfied with their current jobs, it is not preventing almost 40% of them to start looking for new opportunities. Nearly  1 in 5 are either actively looking or will be looking within the next three months.

Tech CFOs were more positive across the board. The 53 in that group were feeling pretty decent about their budgets and hiring, but don't expect much of a raise or bonus in 2010. Only 11 percent of respondents said they plan to give raises this year, with 32 percent actually decreasing them this year.

In terms of hiring, 37 percent said they expect to increase headcount in the next six months, compared with 29 percent in all other industries. Only 2 percent of tech CFOs said they expect to lay off employees, compared with 9 percent in every other industry. Over 80 percent of tech CFOs are keeping headcounts flat. IT Salaries have remained flat. From the report:

"Fifty percent thought that the U.S. economy would improve over the next six months (versus 44% for their counterparts in other industries), 60% thought their own company's financial prospects would improve (versus 52%), and 37% thought the economy would come out of recession in 2010 (versus 28%). In terms of inflationary pressure, only 17% were planning to raise prices in the next six months, versus 24% for other industries."

• Take pride in your team and what it can do
• Look for new challenges that can be met within the limitations of your staff and budget
• Keep pet projects going even if it means putting in more effort
• Let others know what you have done and are doingGive yourself rewards for the good work that you do
• Delegate your dirty work and work that does not
• Reward you to others on your team
• Revisit your career choices and validate that you are in the right field

From 2000, when high-tech employment and wages peaked, to 2008, Silicon Valley's hightech industries lost more than 108,400 jobs, or 19.9 percent of their employment.8 High-tech industries in the rest of the Nation lost 6.2 percent of employment. In addition, real wages fell by 13.5 percent among Silicon Valley's high-tech industries, while high-tech wages grew by 1.3 percent in the rest of the Nation.

Janco's Summary observations for the 2010 Mid-Year IT Compensation Study are as follow:

• Some recovery is occurring in compensation and hiring.  The total mean compensation for all IT Professionals has increasing to $78,210 from $77,690.  There still is softness in the executive ranks of mid-sized enterprises.
• Executives other than CIOs in mid-sized companies continue to feel a salary crunch with Chief Security Officers and heads of internal consulting seeing the greatest pressure.
• Companies have continued hiring and spending freezes in addition to laying-off of staff.  This has been augmented by extensive outsourcing, bonus reductions, and elimination of IT contractors -- which has decreased the demand for IT professionals and in some cases lowered wages, with higher priced positions being eliminated.
• Companies are continuing to reduce the benefits provided to IT professionals. Though benefits such as health care are available, IT professionals are now paying a greater portion of that cost.
• Flexible hours and work schedules are becoming more available as the recovery begins to take hold and is viewed as a low cost high value benefit by both employers and employees.
• As a result of outsourcing and layoffs, hiring for new positions has remained flat for several quarters.
• CIOs compensation has increased over the last 12 months. The mean compensation for CIOs in large enterprises is now $181,533 (an increase of 7.52%) and $169,303 (a 3.73%) in mid-sized enterprises. 
• In mid-sized enterprises, the mean total compensation for all positions has fallen slightly from $73,905 to $73,439.  At the same time in large enterprises, the median compensation has risen slightly from $82,475 to $81,652.

The company announced that it plans to spend the money to invest in a series of commercial data centers that will offer enterprise customers a more integrated platform on which to run their businesses. The initiative will also consolidate HP's data centers, networks, and applications. But as a result of the increased streamlining and automation, HP expects to eliminate around 9,000 jobs, or about 3 percent of its work force, over the next few years. HP has approximately 304,000 employees worldwide, according to a Fast Facts page on its Web site.

To pay for the enterprise restructuring, HP will take a charge of about $1 billion over an unspecified number of years that will be included in its financial results. Once the restructuring is complete, the company said it expects to save around $1 billion each year before taxes and between $500 million and $700 million after taxes and reinvestments.

• Belong to professional groups in your industry and be active -  To get the most out of networking opportunities, arrive on time for events or 15 to 30 minutes early if the event is a conference, lecture or trade show where your early presence won't impose on a host. When you show up early, you will meet the movers and shakers at the event.  In addition, you never have to worry about having to break into other people's conversations. If you're one of the first people in the room, others will begin to congregate around you.
• Treat networking events as ways to meet other professionals not sales opportunities. Trade shows, conferences and parties are opportunities to meet people, to create likability and commonality the two cornerstones of networking. No one at a networking event is going to offer you a job right then and there. So don't try so hard to sell yourself. Instead, find common ground with the people you meet. Break the ice by asking people about their interests outside of work.
• Give out your business card only if it is asked for or after you ask for the individual you are talking to.. When you immediately hand your business card to people to whom you're introducing yourself, the action suggests that you're interested only in selling a product or service to those people
• Networking is not a numbers game, aim to make meaningful connections with a manageable number of people.
• Talk about what you would like to do and never be negative.  Job seekers should state what kind of job they're seeking, as well as the industry and any specific companies that interest them.

eJobDescripion.com in conjunction with Janco Associates will be releasing its mid-year IT Salary Survey  June 21st and will include a forecast of the job market in that survey.  The current survey can be found at http://www.ejobdescription.com/IT_Salary_Survey.html .  eJobDescriptions.com said, “Enterprises that purchase the current survey will be eligible to download the new survey at no cost when it is released.”

This is in contrast with a recent ADP report which says that layoffs are down, hiring is up and cautious optimism is the rule of the day when it comes to employment figures. Payroll numbers show the most job growth in April came from the services sector and from medium to large businesses.

The news from ADP is that 32,000 new jobs were created in April, predominantly in the services sector and mostly by medium to large businesses. Small businesses were only responsible for 1,000 of the 32,000 total jobs added.

A visa program would be added - H-2C. H-2C visas would give workers the ability to change employers after one year, and allow them to earn lawful permanent residence if they meet sufficient integration metrics to demonstrate that they have successfully come part of the American economy and society.

Included in the proposal employers would not be able to hire an H-2C worker before an employer takes affirmative steps to recruit and hire American workers, including through AmericaÂ’s Job Bank and recruiting through State Workforce Agencies.

This proposal would add fraud and abuse protections for existing temporary high-skilled work visas. It will amend current law regarding H-1B employer application requirements to: (1) revise wage determination requirements; (2) require Internet posting and description of employment positions; (3) lengthen U.S. worker displacement protection: (4) apply certain requirements to all H-1B employers rather than only to H-1B dependent employers; (5) prohibit employer advertising that makes a position available only to, or gives priority to, H-1B [non-immigrants]; and (6) limit the number of H-1B and L-1 employees that an employer of 50 or more workers in the United States may hire.

Most H-1B holders are not likely to carry valuable and hard-to-replace paperwork on them at all times for practical reasons -- they could be lost or stolen. Under the new Arizona law, though, every police officer becomes, in effect, an immigration enforcement agent that can demand the paperwork at any time.

Legal experts said that an H-1B worker questioned by a police officer that has "reasonable suspicion" about his or her immigration status could be arrested while doing nothing more than going to a restaurant, grocery shopping or even taking a walk around the block if they don't have their H-1B papers at the ready.

If you plan to add new IT positions or re-organize your IT department in the near future, the Internet and IT Job Descriptions will save you many hours of research. Detailed job descriptions are the best way to communicate the responsibilities and requirements to both prospective candidates and to the remainder of your organization and they are already written for you!

We have compiled complete descriptions for the 230 plus most hired IT positions. Each 2-5 page description contains a detailed description of the responsibilities and of the recommended requirements for each position. The documents are in Microsoft Word format and can be easily customized to fit your unique needs.

You will save hours of time for each position you're hiring with this handy resource.

Google saw a nice 37 percent jump in profit in the first quarter and added 786 new employees to its roster in the first three months of the year, the company said April 15 on an earnings call.

Complaints from H-1B visa holders about non-payment of wages by IT consulting firms is a fairly routine matter for the Labor Department, but most are civil matters and are handled administratively. A criminal case puts this wage complaint into a different league. The two suspects face 20 years in jail, according to prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors said the two Illinois men arrived unannounced at the H-1B employee's residence and ordered him to get into a car. The employee said he thought he would be hurt if he did not comply. After entering the car, the employee was told that if he did not recant his statements to DOL he would "take care of" him.

A number of day's later, federal officials said the defendants allegedly entered the H-1B employee's residence without permission through a closed, but unlocked door, and "struck him in the chest and shoulders to awaken him." Later, the employee again met the defendants at a restaurant where he was offered $5,000 to recant his statements. He was also told that if he didn't accept the offer he would lose his H-1B status.

The IT consulting company is being investigated by the Department of Labor and owes some $142,000 in back wages to four of its employees, including the money owed to the man in this case.

Longer term, some  researchers estimate that nearly 3.6 million G&A jobs in North America and Europe will have been eliminated between 2000 and 2014. More than half of these losses, or nearly 2 million of these jobs are in IT, making it the largest back-office area to be hit by a wide margin.