Connecticut-based Insurance Company eyes on Staffing Firms

clipped from workforce.com American Staffing Assurance Co. has entered a risk-sharing agreement with Hartford, Connecticut-based Sparta Insurance Co. and raised $4 million from private investors, enabling it to begin selling workers’ compensation and other insurance to staffing firms nationwide. American Staffing, based in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, is offering the insurance, underwritten by Sparta, through its newly licensed affiliate, American Staffing Assurance Co. of Washington, D.C. “Assuming all goes well, we will accept more investment dollars,” said president James Farber, one of 11 investors in the deal and founder of Executive Strategies Inc. in Grosse Pointe Park, which will serve as program administrator. Five years from now, American Staffing hopes to have raised $250 million to fund the acquisition and operation of a shell insurance company licensed in all states, he said. “[But] at this time, the greatest return on investment is generated by partnering with Sparta,” said Farber.

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Gas Price Crisis leading to revolution in US WorkPlace

clipped from www.workforce.com Soaring gas prices top economic and political agendas, so it’s natural that they also are a topic of conversation at the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference & Exposition in Chicago. The buzz portends a fundamental change in the U.S. workplace, according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm. Challenger overheard some people talking about their pain at the pump while riding in an elevator at the show. The thrust of the chat: “How are we going to get around this gas situation?” Such worry is more than a transient concern. “The country is coming to terms with permanently higher gas prices,” Challenger says. Employees are hurting, and companies are responding by offering compressed work schedules, four-day weeks, telecommuting, gas cards and car-pooling.

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General Motors to Cut Jobs Bonuses, Dividends

clipped from workforce.com General Motors said Tuesday, July 15, that it will improve its finances through 2009 by laying off salaried workers, making more cuts in truck production, suspending its dividend and borrowing at least $2 billion as it rides out its worst U.S. sales in a decade. Those moves, combined with several other initiatives, are expected to improve GM's cash position by $15 billion through the end of 2009. The No. 1 U.S. automaker was compelled to cut costs and raise capital because of a deepening slump in U.S. auto sales. Through the first half of the year, GM’s total U.S. light vehicle sales are off 16.3 percent. GM said it will save $1.5 billion, or 20 percent of its cash costs, in 2009 through layoffs and changes in benefits to salaried employees and executives.

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HR software market keeps Growing this year

clipped from workforce.com Two new studies that speak to the state of the HR software market agree that spending on HR technology is likely to keep growing this year. The reports, from advisory firms Towers Perrin and AMR Research, indicate that a tumultuous, sluggish economy isn’t crimping sales of applications for such tasks as tracking basic employee data, recruiting new workers and managing compensation. Thomas Keebler, leader of Towers Perrin’s global HR function effectiveness practice, was surprised to see that just 15 percent of organizations surveyed by his firm expect to reduce spending this year on HR technology—a category that includes HR software expenses plus internal and external staffing costs. Last year, that figure was 18 percent.

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Dan Finnigan becomes the CEO of Jobvite

clipped from workforce.com Dan Finnigan, former head of Yahoo HotJobs’ online recruiting business and more recently entrepreneur-in-residence at a Silicon Valley venture firm, replaces Jobvite founder Jesper Schultz, who stepped into the role of chief product officer. “We have a lot of things we want to do on the product side, and we needed to get talent to build the company,” Shultz said. Finnigan “has experience in recruiting and has run big companies, which is why I’m excited to have him on board.”

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Taleo Begins Vurv Acquisiton By Job Cuts

clipped from humancapitalist.com On Friday, Taleo announced eliminating approximately 160 jobs at Vurv as part of the acquisition integration. Based on my most recent estimates, that is over 50% of Vurv’s total workforce.

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