Have Your Employees Shipped Out? June 14, 2007 From the all-new Sales & Marketing Management Newsletter
By Stacy Straczynski
As of March 2007, the war in Iraq has lasted more than four years, and, as such, employers still face staffing difficulties due to employee military obligations. According to a survey of HR executives released by the Horsham, Pa.-based Human Resource Executive magazine and Norwalk, Conn.-based ERC Dataplus, 23 percent of respondents report staffing and productivity impacts from employees taking leave for active duty in the Reserves and National Guard.
Of these respondents, 62 percent experienced a workforce loss of 1 to 5 percent to deployment, and 3 percent saw reductions of 6 to 10 percent. One percent of companies even has lost up to 15 percent of their staff. In addition, employers reported facing varying degrees of impact from "no impact" (39 percent) to "little impact" (38 percent). Four percent of companies went as far as to say they were "significantly impacted" by the loss of employees to active duty obligations.
The survey found that companies have utilized multiple methods to cope with these challenges. Among their solutions are: * Disbursing work among existing employees: 82 percent * Hiring temporary replacements: 32 percent * Hiring permanent new employees: 5 percent * Outsourcing: 5 percent * Other: 2 percent
"In addition," Human Resource Executive editor David Shadovitz says, "many employers are supplementing the pay or benefits of deployed workers." The survey found that 38 percent of employers offered additional pay to enlisted employees during their time of leave to compensate for a modest military salary. Also, 61 percent of employers continued their absent employees' health benefits.
But it important for companies to remember that their staffing challenges will not end soon. The study says two percent of HR executives have since needed to fill a position due to a military-related fatality, and another 3 percent of employers reported a need to hire due to a severely injured employee's inability to return to work.
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