The national and global economic challenges we face today are causing many employers to lower initial salary offers and to delay or defer annual raises. All is not lost however. You might consider, and your manager might be open to, discussions about alternatives such as individualized benefits. Everything can be open to negotiation. Negotiate for a win-win — you are both interested in receiving the maximum benefit from the final agreement. Plan (research and strategize) and communicate alternatives effectively.

Alternatives you might consider include:

• Flexible Schedules: Compressed scheduling, family-friendly flexible time, working at home. Prove to your employer that productivity will not be compromised.

• Health and Wellness: Support with fitness center memberships or rebates on purchase of fitness equipment. On-site access to fitness equipment. Healthy food choices at the worksite. Show your employer how a healthy lifestyle contributes to increased productivity from employees.

• Education Enhancement: Time off for professional development, and tuition reimbursement. Illustrate how your employer will benefit from your new learning.

• Dress Code: A more relaxed dress code for all or specified days of the week, depending on how much you interact with the public.

• Time Off: Additional vacation, unpaid time off, sabbaticals, special days (e.g., birthdays). Develop a plan for how the work will be completed during your absence.

• Family Benefits: Benefits for marriage partners and children. Support for tuition, help with school supplies, sponsorship for youth athletics.

• Green Initiatives: Incentives for adhering to the organization's “environmental” guidelines. Carpooling or cycling to work.

• Signing bonus: A one-time payment that does not increase your base salary, however, represents a good-faith demonstration that the company agrees you're worth more than they can pay you.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute [www.ebri.org] publishes a wealth of information on this topic. Its mission is to encourage, enhance, and contribute to the development of sound employee benefit programs and sound public policy through objective research and education. Results of the 2008 report “Preparing for Their Future: A Look at the Financial State of Gen X and Gen Y,” discussed further below, show that young adults place a high value on having workplace benefits, and the leading priority is health insurance (with an importance of 94 percent), followed by retirement savings plans (88 percent), and wellness programs (78 percent).

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• “Preparing for Their Future: A Look at the Financial State of Gen X and Gen Y” [www.choosetosave.org/pdf/preparing.pdf] is a March 2008, 63-page report issued by the American Savings Education Council and the American Association of Retired Persons describing the results of a survey of 1,752 individuals aged 19-39. The survey focused on how they manage their finances and prepare for their long-term financial security. Among other things the study revealed how many young adults do not align their actions with their financial values and goals.

• Entrepreneurial education programs teach students to completely evaluate a business idea congruent with market feasibility. In the “Top 25 Graduate Programs” (pp.70-72) and the “Top 25 Undergraduate Programs” (pp.74-76) [Entrepreneur, 36(10), October 2008, www.entrepreneur.com]. Nichole Torres provides information on these leading institutions and their entrepreneurship educational programs.

• The Internet is causing traditional print publishers to become innovative and will result in significant changes in reading, writing and publishing practices in the 21st century. Patrick Tucker in his article “The 21st Century Writer” [The Futurist, 42(4), pp. 25-31, July-August 2008. www.wfs.org] discusses how technology and market trends are affecting writing and publishing.

• The contribution of electrification and broadband communications to shifts in global values and cultures is the subject of “Global Trends in Culture, Infrastructure, and Values” [The Futurist, 42(5), pp. 18-23, September-October 2008, www.wfs.org]. Andy Hines discusses cultural multipolarity, media spread, cultural flow, electrification, the global networking, rising mobility ethical consumption, women’s power, social freedom, and transparency.

• Many employees stay with an employer for less than five years. Traditionally, organizations focus on employee-retention programs in order to reduce turnover. In “Rethinking the ‘War for Talent’” [MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(4), pp. 29-34, Summer 2008, www.sloanreview.mit.edu], Deepak Somaya and Ian Williamson discuss how the departure of talented employees can benefit a company. This upside can be accomplished by exploiting potential opportunities created by allowing knowledge to flow between organizations that may serve as the basis for future business. An interesting inset provides information on the traditional approach and a new approach of thinking about employee turnover.

• The need to consider the procurement of goods and services function in a broader organizational strategic context is discussed in “Rethinking Procurement in the Era of Globalization” [MIT Sloan Management Review, 50(1), pp. 76-80, Fall 2008, www.sloanreview.mit.edu]. Frank den Butter and Kees Linse discuss an integrated set of management functions required to oversee procurement.

• Three elements regardless of industry that are vital in shaping strategy are discussed in “Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption” [Harvard Business Review, 86(10), pp. 81-89, October 2008, www.hbr.com]. Shaping view, shaping platform, and shaping acts and assets as strategic approaches in concert with modern digital infrastructures, are the topics discussed by John Hagel, John Brown, and Lang Davison, that they believe will improve the odds for success.

• For some, managers are losing legitimacy and public trust. The authors of It’s Time to Make Management a True Profession” [Harvard Business Review, 86(10), pp. 70-77, 2008, www.hbr.com], Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria, believe that management needs to become a true professional, such as in medicine and law, with enforced educational standards and a code of ethics. A rigorous code of ethics will make for better managers and we will all benefit.

• The health benefits of nuts are described in “Choose Nuts” [Wellness Options, #36, pp. 30-33, www.wellnessoptions.ca]. Michael Filosa discusses the nutritional value of nuts and their benefits for the reduction of risk for cardiovascular disease type 2 diabetes, and gallbladder disease.

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