By Gerry Crispin, SPHR and Mark Mehler
mmc@careerxroads.com
Since 1996 our Update has been published 10-12
times each year and aims to share commentary,
observations, perspectives and data we come across
during our staffing adventures. We hope you continue
to enjoy it and pass it on to friends. Coupled with our
Bellwether, a provocative monthly look at trends we
share with CareerXroads Colloquium members,
we are always willing to challenge the accepted
wisdom or poke a little fun at the staffing industry.
We invite you to keep in touch
and join us during the year at the various conferences where we speak or simply attend.
Building Relationships One Elite Millennial MBA at a Time
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We recently acquired insights into one company's program (a colloquium member whose name we've obscured) via an email (see below) sent to 1st year MBA students attending one of our nation's elite programs.
Email Subject: Facebook. We're on it. And, we'd like you to join us.
Your passion, dedication and intelligence as a [non-profit] finalist were clearly demonstrated in the December competition. We'd like to thank you again for participating in the competition and congratulate you on a job well done. We value your initiative to make a positive impact in the community through [the competition case study], and appreciate your recognition of [our company's] dedication to social responsibility.
As this year's competition is now over, we'd like to invite you to join [our company's] private Facebook group, an exclusive site by invite only, designed to be a useful resource and additional way for you to interact with us.
Our discussion board provides an exclusive forum for you to interact with us- former interns, current colleagues and members of the [our company] Facebook group. It's a perfect place to ask questions and exchange ideas. In fact, we will be hosting a discussion board on our site about the graduate competition. We encourage you to share your feedback and your experience in participating in this socially responsible case competition.
To get into this group, you must search for "The Official [ourcompanyname]" on Facebook, and then once you've found our Facebook homepage, press "Click to Join." The invitation code is: xxxxxx. Please remember this code is for your use only. Please do not share it with anyone.
Don't worry, we cannot see your personal profile. Our group exists for you to find out more about us, and as a current student, it's a great way to get the inside scoop on our latest news and events. Plus, you can participate in the [company name] challenge, our educational stock market competition that sits only on Facebook and allows you to play for exciting prizes.
We hope you'll join [company name]'s first-ever private Facebook group. We also encourage you to continue to visit our career website, [companyname].com/careers.
Please let us know if you have any questions in the meantime.
Thanks, Jill
We love the thought that went into this initiative. We would hope they compete for one of ERE's Staffing Best Practice Awards. This is about developing relationships. Think about how the success of a program like this would be measured. An increase in the number or percentage of students hired a year later? An increase in the percentage of acceptances versus offers? Retention over five years? How has your competition for attention among the best and brightest changed over the last five years? Should you be submitting your practices for an award?
A Sign of the Times? Or Signs of a Maturing Industry?
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The NACE conference in New Orleans during May is offering attendees an opportunity to work for a day (before and/or after the conference) with Habitat for Humanity. Last year, SHRM's Staffing Management conference included a similar community project.
The ERE Foundation, in its third year raising funds to support education for children, hopes to donate more than $30,000 from the staffing industry donations to worthwhile projects in the next few months. A Fall auction and various charity recruiter poker tournaments contribute to the cause.
JOBING recently funded their foundation with $1 million dollars to support locally-focused workforce development programs aimed at helping people improve their lives through career development.
Throughout the space, socially responsible programs seem to be cropping up in more than a few places. Kudos to these champions. We will make every effort to support them and publicize their efforts in the coming year. We encourage recruiting leaders to engage their staffs and join or initiate local efforts to give back.
"Graveyard Shift" Might Be More Accurate Then We Know According to Recent Research
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It's a good bet that in our litigious society Shift Work is about to get a very close look, a lot of press and recruiting for the "graveyard shift" might get a whole lot harder.
We're willing to bet that the scientists conducting research for the French-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) who recently concluded that shift work screws up internal clocks enough to increase the risk of cancer had themselves worked round the clock writing their final report. Perhaps their disrupted circadian rhythms caused them to conspire to prevent their ever having to work nights again. Then again - maybe not.
Even if the IACR monograph authors were sleep deprived, they are certain to raise a hue and cry among lawyers and make the jobs of lots of recruiters that much more difficult.
From a separate source we know that nearly 25 million US workers vary their work schedules (the Reuters article quotes the IARC as claiming 20% of all workers perform shift work.) We're not certain all shift work is equal but you can be sure some of our more enterprising US lawyers will make a class action suit out of this on behalf of the current and retired employees of a clueless (but cash rich) manufacturing company. We're doubtful that any of the litigators will consider the statement made by IARC's representative Vincent Cogliano (and buried in the article) that "the evidence was not yet clear enough for anyone to take any action."
While there is no indication about what it is in shift work that causes the cancer (nor do we really know how much the risk is increased), the headlines a suit would garner will likely cause some additional recruiting difficulty as well.
Jobs requiring shift work will have to be examined and questions about what can be done to accommodate and lessen the risk for those who are hired into these positions will have to be asked. Will there be a limit placed on the time shift work can be required in a persons career? Will past shift work have to be considered a pre-existing condition? Will there be a cancer shift work premium pay rate?
We've no doubt that France, already reducing the hours and days its citizens can work, will now move swiftly to ban shift work. Here in the US, we'll simply ignore the study until that suit. Stay tuned.
Lessons From the Political Stump: Finding Your Voice - What's Yours?
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We really don't know if Hillary found her voice in New Hampshire or not this month but her line ("I came to New Hampshire, listened to you and - - - found my voice") was brilliant branding. It defined a controversial moment as her authentic self, and, played at 11:05 PM EST to a huge audience was timed perfectly.
What we do know is that every company struggling to compete for talent has to deal with the same issue: how their "voice" is seen and heard as being different from the other choices and, is above all, authentic.
Video is increasingly an aid in this quest. We trust what we can see. More so than written words or audio but the truth is that when all our senses are engaged we are more willing to judge (for good or ill) whether the "thing" we are considering - jobs, locations, people, etc. is authentic, genuine, not false or an imitation but, the real thing - and worthy of trust. Marketing efforts have become so slick - even in recruiting - that perhaps dialing it back a bit is the way to go.
We love two Microsoft pieces attempting just that. One reflecting an employee's
enthusiastic effort to share why he thinks Seattle is the
place to be and another - well lets just say that
authentic is too tame a word for how this piece shares
some insight into what it is like to work at Microsoft.
Check them out.
(Do you recognize "Amanda" in the second piece?)
Other "real" examples include a hokey rendition of "OC is ME" by Owens Corning employees and some interesting approaches by folks as diverse as Rohm and Haas, P&G and Sherwin Williams. In a staffing meeting last year we also viewed a moving video with Reba McEntire describing how Whirpool's contribution of appliances to Habitat for Humanity make a difference in people's lives. (She ends the video by saying "Join Us".)
And, just like with Hillary in NH, if I'm the target
audience then finding your voice makes a difference.
What does your voice look like? Who is your target
audience? Do they know it?
Blue Card May Trump Green Card in Global War For Talent
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Writing in the Washington Post, Craig stated that the U.S. could lose top talent and claimed that the EU may be more likely to be seen as welcoming a new generation of foreign born professionally educated workers. We agree.
The author clearly believes that the EU has "served notice that they are serious about competing with the US and Asia to attract the world's top talent to live, work, and innovate in Europe." Despite facing similar anti-immigration pressures, the EU is putting forth a Blue Card proposal to issue a temporary but renewable two-year visa with a streamlined application process that allows qualified prospective workers to start working in high-need jobs within one to three months.
The proposed approach would allow 140,000 workers annually (versus 85,000 in the US) and spouses and children do not count against the quota of foreign workers. Spouses would also be allowed to work. The quotas would also be distributed much differently than the US: "allocated equally across all countries around the world, regardless of population."
Toward the end of his article Mr. Barrett notes, "more than half of US engineering master's students and PhD recipients are international students." While US immigration laws do not easily allow these students to remain (let alone be welcomed) in the US, I'm sure our EU competitors will eventually thank us for becoming such a vital source of hire for their economic engine.
See the Washington Post article.
Health Coverage, Security Most Important in Choosing Job
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"It really is not all about the money."
According to a recent article published in SHRM by Kathy Gurchiek, "Health insurance is the most important factor in choosing a job, say 84 percent of 1,200 U.S. adults age 18 and older in a new poll from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for State & Local Government Excellence."
A phone survey during November of last year, asked
respondents to rank 15 workplace benefits and
characteristics that they consider when choosing a
new job. The rankings in order of importance were:
The survey found differences among demographic groups, "and differences that reflect the type of employer a respondent works for-private business, nonprofit or government - 74 percent of Generation X workers ranked the potential for promotions higher than baby boomers (58 percent). Generation X also tended to rank job security as more important than boomers (88 percent vs. 79 percent)."
We believe these differences are likely to be even more significant depending on who you as a company really target in both a skill and performance. What are the critical benefits that will retain your highest performers is the real question.
Quick Observation: Staffing Has an Ugly Underbelly
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A recent headline ran thus: Former HR Chief at AIG, Others Charged in Alleged Headhunting Scam
The article noted that Federal authorities have charged a former human resources VP of American International Group Inc. and three accomplices with defrauding the insurer of $1.1 million with phony bills for employee search services.
We know the debate over ethical staffing practices is open to different points of view. However, when abuses surface that cross the legal line, it is a reminder that staffing is in a position of trust that should have serious checks and balances, lest we all be tarred by the same brush. Much more can be done to reduce perceived conflicts of interest in our industry. We have little tolerance for those who fail to declare their representative relationships.
CareerXroads Colloquium 2008: New Year - New Locations - New Hot Topics
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The CareerXroads Colloquium is entering its sixth year with our unique blend of high level members, no vendor involvement and hands on learning - this is the group that will directly impact your job today and your career tomorrow.
Complete the 2008 CareerXroads Colloquium Application Form and contact Mark today to start enjoying your Colloquium benefits.
Where you’ll find us next:
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Full details of CareerXroads’ schedule can be found here.
Good Hunting! Gerry and Mark
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Recruiters and job seekers have permission to copy and distribute or post this update in full or part with the following restrictions. a) Let us know and b). We would appreciate your providing proper credits regarding CareerXroads including our names, URL and e-mail.
Links to CareerXroads are much appreciated but we provide no reciprocal agreements with any site. We want to maintain a level of objectivity free from even perceived conflict of interest regarding our opinions. We have no direct relationship with any job board or career site.
Gerry and Mark work full time consulting, educating and discovering how talent and opportunity connect through emerging technology. If we can be of help, you know how to reach us.
Copyright MMC Group © 1996-2008 all rights reserved.CareerXroads
The Staffing Strategy Connection
By Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler
mmc@careerxroads.com - 732-821-6652