This Week's Herman Trend Alert The Consequences of Virtual Meetings

The Herman Trend Alert September 28, 2005 New Orleans and Gulf Shores Census Will Drop Katrina Job Help: The American Staffing Association is concentrating on helping workers displaced by the hurricane. One of the major job boards has established a special service for employers and employees at www.katrina.jobs. Your company can use the dot-jobs domain, too. Understandably, attention to the impacts of Katrina is focused on the immediate conditions and the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected. The devastated communities will face serious long-term challenges with far-reaching implications. The first is clean-up, including removing the health hazards caused directly and indirectly by the flooding. As a sense of normalcy returns, city engineers will be hard at work determining what structures are safe and what homes, businesses, schools, and other buildings must be razed because they are simply unsafe. Land use planners will face some hard decisions. Local leaders will be challenged to return cities to the communities they once were, but that will be impossible. It makes no sense, for instance, to rebuild low income housing that doesn’t meet today’s standards. Building in dangerous areas, or re-creating neighborhoods populated by people struggling to survive, isn’t the best use of space. Looking in hindsight will influence thousands of tough decisions. New homes constructed on sites where heritage homes once stood will be an emotional roller-coaster…and a political football. Expect substantial changes in how New Orleans and other cities redevelop---including massive urban renewal that could only be made possible by the intensity of Hurricane Katrina. The big story is what will not be rebuilt. A significant change will alter the affected areas dramatically. A large portion of the people who left the disaster area---particularly those who were treated shabbily by local rescue efforts---will resettle somewhere else in the country. They will not return to New Orleans, to Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama. There are too many memories and too few opportunities to truly advance in life. If attitudes of community leaders and employers do not change, conditions for people in the lower socio-economic levels of society will not change. Thousands of people who lived on the edge will not return. For many disenfranchised citizens, Katrina means a fresh start with opportunities to establish themselves for who they are now, not for what their pasts have been. The 2010 census will show a lower count and a different demographic than might have been expected. © Copyright 1998- by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists. (800) 227-3566 or http://www.hermangroup.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc." BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: RETENTION SPECIALIST PROGRAM A growing number of people have expressed an interest in attending our Employee Retention Specialist Certificate Program. We'd like to schedule on that's convenient for those who want to attend, but need your feedback to do so. Please place RETENTION SPECIALIST in the subject line and Joyce will personally call you back to schedule the workshop. Or you can call Joyce directly at 336-210-3548 (PDT this and next week). BUSINESS IS PICKING UP Most employers are unprepared. The recovery will bring a new set of challenges for employers that have been in prolonged contracted mode. They will need more skilled workers or will need now to begin to upskill their current staffs. But organizations can not engage in Strategic Workforce Planning, when they don't know how. That's where The Herman Group can help. We can help you with your "People Review"----large or small---so that you will know who you will need and when you will need them. . . and we can also guide you to the best sources for the people you will need. For more information, call Joyce at 336-210-3548 or e-mail joyce@hermangroup.com. FIND OUT WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES REALLY THINK AND FEEL Discover what’s really going on in the hearts and minds of your employees. Our InnerViews interviewing service uses SPHRs and PHRs, certified human resource professionals to probe for the information you really need to know. Exit and Stay Interviews, as well as Why-Didn't-You-Take-Our-Offer Interviews. Call Rosalie Catalano at 937-416-7066, or read more at: http://www.hermangroup.com/retentionconnection/exit_interviews.html. Herman Trend Alerts are produced by the Herman Group, strategic business futurists, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and professional speakers. New subscribers are welcome. There is no charge for this public service. 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