The 2008 CareerXroads Mystery Job Seeker was James Knee Cricket (JimKnee Cricket to his friends). This year the two of us personally applied to all 100 Best Companies in America to Work For rather than engage our usual posse of volunteers. The result (other than the mind numbing frustration built into the application process of most ATS's) was that we found some improvements in how we were treated versus years past. For example, 18 firms (out of 100) actually responded when the position was filled- the most ever.
And yes, several recruiters still managed to overlook the obvious and call us trying to hire "James".
We're indebted to Tom Becker at Bank of America for pointing out this video by Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point, Blink) on "What we can learn from spaghetti sauce." This most entertaining 15 minute presentation emphasizes that many "ideal" solutions may simply be a useless averaging of legitimate demographic differences. By trying to find the silver bullet "brand" the message misses the unique clusters of candidates - each of whom is seeking a different experience to help them make their best career decision.
The video raises the question about whether our staffing processes - from web branding to onboarding can be customized (not just configured) to embrace the differences in the prospect populations we seek to hire. Microsites and highly customized landing pages would clearly be the way to go but the real learning is in how we analyze the data.
This WSJ article is just one of many in past weeks detailing the shake-ups and changes in Monster as well as the top job boards.We believe the product life cycle of the traditional job board is at an end. Growth is elsewhere.
We think firms should be analyzing the cost/yield for all their sources of hires and committing at least 10-15% of their budget for exploring alternatives.
Gina Ruiz , writing the Workforce Management article: Despite Success, There Are Reasons to Be Wary of Referral Programs correctly points out that "Employers unfamiliar with referral programs can inadvertently create an HR phenomenon known as inbreeding." The article goes on to list other problems to fill out the hook that ER isn't always what it is racked up to be.
The problem for us is that every employer in the US is familiar with ER (at least 98% of all US firms currently have an ER program according to several studies). Competitive firms are exploring ways to increase diversity and manage costs by investing heavily in ER programs rather than limiting them. The article, while well meaning, was more urban myth harkening back to the mid 20th century than reflective of approaches taken in the US today.
The real trend, especially with the rise of closed social and professional networks will be how to fully leverage ER beyond 50% where the best practice firms are now.
Pamela Babcock's SHRM article about PepsiCo. Inc. Chairman and CEO Indra K. Nooyi's views on mentors shared with an audience of women leaders was a bit different. Nooyi was quoted at a conference telling attendees "not to put a career plan in place. 'If you start doing that, she said 'you're going to behave [as if] you're running for office.'"
Similarly, Nooyi believes "Mentors need to find you" noting also that "If you ask somebody to be your mentor, and he or she says yes, you don't really want them to be a mentor."
We also noted that she credited mentors as a critical factor in her success. The challenge in making a difference as a leader is in mentoring others, and the best of the up and coming crop of leaders won't necessarily come to you, what are you doing to reach out to them?
Citing increased risks of privacy abuse and identity theft, Steve Rothberg's CollegeRecruiter.com has decided to ditch its resume database. We think it will be harder for more valuable niche resume databases of experienced professionals to follow suit but the growth of an entire industry of folks mining resumes for everything but jobs is epidemic.
We also believe corporate policies about how long to hold a resume before archiving it off-line (not necessarily deleting) and how much information to keep to maintain relationships with longer term prospects make them vulnerable. We've long held that automatically asking for SS#s of all applicants crosses the line.
A successful effort to create a community among sourcers is buoyed by a regular newsletter (this is the second we believe), a conference and occasionally some intriguing challenges. We're aware of the folks behind the scenes in this effort and happy to support them even though a few of them prefer an invisibility cloak.
Sourcing as a professional sub function within staffing has been growing for years. Staffing leaders need to spend time getting to understand where this specialty is going. This newsletter is a good place to monitor it.
Boston College Center for Aging and Work developed a very interesting paper that examines the connection between aging and work, and how changes in the labor force bringing higher participation of older adults will affect their states' workforces. It was especially interesting to see what employers said were the attributes that mature employees brought to the workplace.
This is a manpower planning exercise. Where are these activities bolted into your firm and how does staffing contribute to longer term thinking?
A landmark study that launched an educational reform movement more than 25 years ago, A Nation at Risk, is coming home to roost. The US has seriously lost its competitive edge and the impact on multi national corporation's seeking the best and the brightest does not bode well for the near future according to this article by Amanda Paulson, staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor.The three critical issues: teaching, time and standards are still on the horizon as challenges we need to address.
Do your staffing and HR functions have community-based initiatives designed to improve the educational capabilities of the workforce of the future? We're of the opinion that many more global staffing leaders of MNCs will reside outside the US in the next 10 years - because that is where the real action will be for core competencies.
They are running out of engineers in Japan. More precisely, fewer Japanese are choosing technology majors. The universities have a name for it "rikei banare" or "flight from science." At the root cause according to this NY Times article's author is a desire among Japanese to emulate Americans (how convenient).
No comment other than it isn't likely Japan will be an offshore destination for your engineering design lab
Dave Williams was the nice guy at the Corporate (Recruiters) Roundtable who oversaw all those cool reports members received. (We got a few complimentary copies and an occasional acknowledgment for our contributions). David left last year to become an author - - - of science fiction. His first work The Mirrored Heavens is out the end of this month.