A year ago we asked CXR Colloquium members if they had contingency plans for a slowdown in the economy. Few said yes and fewer cared.
Consider this scenario: What happens to your staffing organization, budget, and people if your leaders put a 6-month freeze on all hiring? Maybe now is a good time!
Learning Via Virtual World: How PC/Online Simulations Can Impact Your EVP - LongtermThis article on the use of simulations in learning by Anna Haislip published in the Denver Post noted Deloitte's 2008 Virtual Team Challenge (developed by brandgames.com) where students in several hundred high schools compete with one another. At each high school, students are divided into teams and use key business skills (finance, ethics, communications, promotion) to earn the most "virtual" money for United Way.
At the end of the competition, Deloitte will match the winning team's earnings with a donation to United Way - - - and get connected to some pretty interesting future hot prospects.
We're not sure of any direct connection between various sourcing and staffing components within Deloitte but the branding component alone has got to produce an outstanding long-term return. Simulations are also exploding within corporations as a means to enhance Leadership Development.
Remote Recruiters or Recruiting RemotelyA pop style survey we received over the transom, (paid for by a staffing agency as a PR ploy) offered one question and answer that rang our bel(wether).
150 respondents answered this question: "Do you expect the number of employees who work off-site or from remote locations to increase or decrease in the next five years?"
That no one was moving to pull back from remote work was telling. To the point, what percentage of your recruiting staff work off-site or from remote locations currently? How are the tools they need changing?
The Virtual Army Experience: Building Pipelines in Middle AmericaThe US Army has been using an online multiplayer game as a pipeline platform for engaging potential recruits. The simulation is featured at stops at amusement parks, air shows and country fairs across the nation, offering the general public a chance to get in a "BlackHawk Helicopter to fight off 'genocidal indigenous forces who are attacking international aid workers." The participants fire air-pressure guns at huge screens and receive scores based on how many combatants they can shoot.
Like many other simulations, The Virtual Army includes live components, that include meeting Iraqi War Veterans who tell their stories and encourage the players to visit the Army's web site. The army collects the names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of all participants and can contact the players who want to join or learn more about the armed services.
Reintegrating Women Scientists Into The Workforce. A Gender Issue Impacting a Critical Talent PoolJune's Harvard Business Review included a great article titled Stopping the Exodus of Women in Science. The contention of its three authors is that business (and staffing) leaders may be looking in the wrong place when they wring their hands over the shortage of scientists and engineers.
They contend that nearly 41% of the lower rungs of corporate America are made up of female scientists, engineers and technicians. The problem is that there is a precipitous drop of females from the work force - and especially in these job families - during the ages of 35-44 and few programs are available to bring them back. They estimate there are 220,000 women with specialized degrees currently available to return.
Talk about a pipelining opportunity worth selling your leadership on.
Future Candidate Legal Action Could Learn From Customer DissatisfactionLast month Target settled a "two-year-old class-action lawsuit alleging that visually impaired people were blocked from using their website by technical incompatibilities the company declined to fix."
The OFCCP has made some indication recently of the need for online and non-online alternatives as reasonable accommodation in the application process but does not say what would be acceptable. (Thanks to Peggy Yu for passing this on:http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/regs/compliance/directives/dir281.pdfandhttp://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/regs/compliance/faqs/dir281faqs.htm)
On the other hand, GE Careers Accessibility Statement is a clear effort to move forward (fewer than 5% of the Fortune 500 allude to alternatives to online as a reasonable accommodation).
We think this might be important to address - - -now.