Friday August 22, 2008

Conferences

September 16-17 Equus Global Relocation Seminar Denver, CO
October 27-29 SHRM Diversity Conference Atlanta, GA

Promotions

Homeservices of Georgia has announced the promotion of Karen McRae to the position of Senior Vice President of Relocation for both Jenny Pruitt & Associates and Harry Norman Realtors. The two companies comprise the HomeServices presence in the Atlanta market.

Where are We Headed?

As part of my affiliation with LinkedIn I am a member of My VirtualPowerForum. Among the emails I received today from the group was a report of the release of a study on ethical behavior in the workplace. The summary was disturbing to say the least:

A report released last week shows trends that reflect today's values. The report was based on a study conducted across twelve Indian cities and the respondents were executives at the entry and middle levels.

* Nearly half of respondents said it was quite appropriate to use the
office telephone to make personal calls - even long-distance calls.
* About 55% said it was OK to fudge expense accounts.
* Almost half had no qualms about recording their entry times as being
within permissible limits, even when they arrived late. Similarly,
they did not hesitate to mark the exit time as required even when they
left early. (This finding was restricted to manual systems).
* 60% admitted to lying while applying for leave, a figure that
reached 75% in some cities.
* Another 60% found nothing wrong in carrying office stationery to
their homes, while 63% said it was okay to do personal work during
office hours.
* 62% considered offering someone a bribe "normal and ethical" behavior.

If this sample is representative of the rest of the workplace, what does that tell us about the transferee's we work with? Let me know your thoughts.

August 14,2008 Update

SIRVA signs Services Contract

SIRVA has signed a contract for the delivery of relocation management services to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau. The contract is valued at $10,000,000 and runs from July 2008 for a period of one year.

Starck Realtors Makes Strategic Decision about Their Future

Starck Realtors, one of the largest independent real estate brokers in the Chicago market, has made the decision to affiliate with the Prudential Real Estate Network. Its 13 offices and 500 employees will operate as Prudential Starck Realtors. In addition three area Prudential affiliates will join the Prudential Starck Family.

August 11,2008

Time Warner Cable Relocations

Associated Press has announced that Time Warner Cable is closing its Connecticut corporate offices and relocating 220 employees to New York City, Charlotte, NC and Herndon, VA. They will start in September and run through mid year 2009

August 6,2008

Government Announces that it has reached the H-2B Cap

According to the SHRM website, the following announcement has been made by the U.S. Immigration Service "

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reached its 33,000 cap on the number of petitions for H-2B workers for the first half of fiscal 2009.

The USCIS hit the congressionally mandated cap as of July 29, 2008, it announced July 30. The USCIS will reject any petitions for new H-2B workers seeking April 1, 2009, employment start dates that the USCIS receives after July 29, 2008.