Sometimes I note a flurry of articles on related topics, which may point towards important trends. The other day I was hurrying through a mass of headlines, looking for good stuff to post on the “Recent Reading” page, when I noticed two interesting pairings of articles — on pension and distributed work themes, respectively (which I do not see as particularly related to each other, except they both caught my eye).

In the pension area, the cutting and freezing of traditional defined benefit pension plans (scarcely a new trend, though now reaching many of the hitherto most protected and well-provided-for large corporate employees) is accompanied by employees’ poor adaptation to the 401(k) defined contribution model, which is replacing defined benefit plans.

Result: short and mid-term benefits to employers, which could have substantial positive economic impact, but possible serious long-term social burdens from large numbers of impoverished elderly retirees in the not-too-distant future.

With distributed work, more types of work are being performed remotely, with great benefits for both employers and workers. In some cases, this trend is reducing “offshoring,” keeping jobs onshore and in the U.S.

The Wall Street Journal asks “How Safe Is Your Pension?”

Obviously not too safe these days:

• IBM is the latest in a litany of corporations that have announced defined benefit pension freezes in recent years, including Verizon and Sears. IBM increased contributions to its employee 401(k) retirement plan.
• Although smaller companies have been scaling back pensions in favor of 401(k) plans for years, two-thirds of companies that make up the S&P 500 still have pensions.
• A number of factors make it likely that more large companies could put the brakes on pension benefits soon. What’s more, this is likely to happen even if the companies and their pension plans are financially healthy.
• This is a good time for companies to freeze pensions, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, people aren’t surprised: they are used to hearing about a “pension crisis.” Also, as more companies end pension benefits, rivals can argue more persuasively that they need to also do so to stay competitive.
• Who gets hurt the most? Workers who have been at the company many years.

• The study of more than 220 large U.S. companies found just six per cent were confident their employees would take accountability for their own retirement future this year, down from 12 per cent in 2005.
• An increasing number of companies (23%) are putting in place automatic enrollment schemes “designed to get around the ‘lethargy factor’ and force employees who genuinely do not want to pay . . . to opt out.”
• 13 per cent were “very likely” to add contribution escalation features and one in five companies planned to add automatic rebalancing of accounts.
• In addition to automating pension plans, many companies were continuing to educate workers on the value of saving this year.

On today’s other “trend to watch,” “The sun shines on ‘distributed working’”

The latest workplace trend to emerge from the USA may herald the end of the workplace as we know it . . . Silicon Valley tech companies . . . have finally seen the light on flexible working and are taking the idea to its logical extreme. Companies such as the giant Sun Microsystems are devising schemes whereby employees can work from home, use remote worksites (so-called iWork Cafes) and book empty offices in any of Sun’s buildings around the world for conferences and meetings.

Sun says [.pdf] : “The Sun Open Work Practice has revolutionized what it means to ‘go to the office,’ and offers to help other companies develop similar strategies.

More than half of Sun’s 35,000 Santa Clara-based employees have dumped their desk for the roaming office, saving the company a fortune. According to Sun’s Eric Richert: “Space is a very expensive component of how any company works, so right now we are avoiding about $71m of real estate costs.”

Sun’s employees are much happier, too – which will soon work its way through to the bottom line.

And the related story: “Call Centers Tap People Who Want to Work at Home”

For many years, demand for at-home employment far outstripped supply, giving rise to a perennial crop of work-at-home scams, from pyramid schemes to phony job referrals.

Now, working at home is taking a leap forward — in the customer-service arena. Instead of sending call-center work to India or the Philippines, a growing number of consumer-products and -services companies, from Office Depot and J. Crew to Wyndham Hotels and Sears Holdings, are outsourcing work to people in their homes here.

The development, driven by expanded broadband access to the Web, cheaper computer technology and improved call-routing systems, has opened the door to an entirely new group of at-home workers. Home-based call-center agents have tripled since 2000.

See also: “Manage Off-Site/Telecommuting Employees - Management Career Advice from Monster.com”

Related Posts

George Lenard on Benefits, Human Resources, Retirement, Workforce Trends

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