We found this interesting article on Business First of Louisville.
Few workers make job-related resolutions
Most workers don’t make career-related resolutions for the new year, but most of those who do keep them, according to a study by staffing firm Accountemps.
Of the 559 full- and part-time workers surveyed, only 12 percent said they made career-related resolutions at the beginning of 2006. But of those, 72 percent said they were successful in achieving their goals.
When it comes to professional goals for 2007, 24 percent of respondents named improving skills as their top priority. Earning a raise or promotion took second place, with 22 percent of the vote.
Twenty percent of those surveyed said obtaining a better work/life balance is their top resolution, while 14 percent said finding a new job is their primary goal for the year. Eight percent said they want to improve work relationships with colleagues and supervisors.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Accountemps has more than 350 offices in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Corra wonders if most employees who propose New Year’s Resolutions keep them, then perhaps HR Managers should have a contest where workers compete to see who offers the best intended changes for the coming year. It is a good a way as any to monitor who makes resolutions and who doesn’t. The ones who do will probably better themselves. The employees who don’t make resolutions are probably either content not to better themselves or not all that ambitious.
In any event, along with preemployment screening for actual job candidates, it may be wise to run periodic background checks on your current employers. Perhaps you may want to conduct wants and warrants checks, or civil records. If your employees have access to your valuable database records or proprietary information, you may want to run periodic credit checks. Credit checks, criminal records and often MVR Records are the best indicators of those who are most susceptible to stealing databases and intellectual property. Or, for that matter, anything else.
So with the New Year in its first week, make a resolution for your business. Conduct preemployment checks on all job candidates and at least consider running periodic checks on your current employees. As Corra says, check them out before you hire.
