http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=543017AC408011DC90D5000423CF381C
Peter Weddle's latest newsletter on video usage in recruiting included a millennial
version of the employee testimonial at Yahoo.
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar=2056&l2=21&l3=37&srid=17
SHRM's Workplace Readings for Friday, October 26, 2007 included a McKinsey Report whose findings
include this comment: "According to our survey of CEOs at companies
participating in the United Nations Global Compact, more than 90 percent of them
are doing more than they did five years ago to incorporate environmental,
social, and governance issues into their core strategies."
Corporate staffing brands increasingly include social and environmental components but we believe walking the talk will become an important differentiator. Annual reports that emphasize dumb lists headed by carpooling as a major environmental initiative - right next to that ubiquitous "our greatest asset" statement, will not cut it with the eco crowd.
http://www.shrm.org/ema/library_published/nonIC/CMS_023450.asp
http://www.towersperrin.com/tp/jsp/hrservices_html.jsp?webc=203/global/gws/gwshome.htm
An October article in SHRM's Staffing Management e- newsletter, Study: Employee 'Engagement Gaps' Widen, Hit Bottom Lines Hard, by Theresa Minton- Eversole, reported on the results of a Towers Perrin study on what drives attraction, retention and engagement. The article noted that "just 21 percent of nearly 90,000 surveyed workers from 18 countries reported being engaged in their work and willing to go the extra mile to help their companies succeed."
According to the SHRM article, "The global workforce study found that companies with the highest levels of employee engagement achieve better financial results and are more successful in retaining their most valued employees than companies with lower levels of engagement."
The report noted specific results indicating that "Firms with the highest percentages of engaged employees collectively increased operating income 19 percent and earnings per share 28 percent year to year. Companies with the lowest percentages of engaged employees showed year-to-year declines of 33 percent in operating income and 11 percent in earnings per share."
The top drivers of higher engagement according to the study are "senior leadership behavior, commitment to corporate social responsibility, a good reputation, and sufficient opportunities for learning and development."
This data should make us pause and rethink the bottom line impact of staffing systems that turn off a high percentage of new hires before they even come onboard.
http://www.interbiznet.com/ern/archives/071026.html
Last month John Sumser's daughter offered a week of columns - insights into the mind of a millennial. In her last column she detailed reasons why she chose a non-traditional and non-profit firm rather than - well, you. Here's a few of her comments:
"I choose an organization that sold itself to me with its heart, enthusiasm, flexibility, commitment to its staff and community and very little pay, over you."
"Why? Because I couldn't find you - I am internet savvy and highly capable of researching. I spent hundreds of hours online looking for jobs. And I still couldn't find you. Maybe I looked at some of your ads, I may have even sent in a resume (usually, with no follow-up email or communication at all - not even automated). Nothing sold me, stood out, or sparkled in any special sort of way. So I took a job that came directly out of my network with an organization that I wanted to integrate more fully into my circle. The questions for you remain: How can you get into my network? And, is your corporate brand worthy of becoming an integral part of my personal brand?
'Nuff said.
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4805&page=76
Congress may soon be passing the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act It is estimated that about 65,000 illegal immigrants graduate from high school here in the US each
year, according to the Wall Street Journal article, Dream Solution to Recruiting? Fewer than 1 in 20 "illegals" attend college, in part because they are ineligible for loans, grants, etc. Now the military might be tapping this pool by offering citizenship for these youngsters who join up for two years in addition to college benefits.
There is a great deal needed to improve our policies in immigration. This is a small piece and could be a source of much irony if hard-working parents are deported or incarcerated while their sons and daughters serve.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_34/b4047407.htm
A side comment in a BusinessWeek article about recruiting in Shanghai is well worth noting. Commenting on a new hire's interest in a short commute as an overriding consideration, the article's author noted that the employee's boss, (the managing director of Cisco's Shanghai research center) "keeps on his office wall a big city map dotted with red stickers. Each one represents an employee - many of them living within three miles of the office."
Have you mapped your employees' home addresses lately?
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_39/c4051003.htm#ZZZS3STUI6F
We wonder if we are really getting fickle as consumers. The UPFRONT column on BusinessWeek a month ago quoted a Harris Interactive poll result that had "roughly 80%" of 2000 adult respondents saying they "vowed never to buy from the same company after a negative experience." (up from 68% in 2006)
Just imagine if that translated to a negative job application experience. Nothing would ever be sold again
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118964622496625945-Upwxd1ZCDjoxbnW5zF6YMd8Ko1Q_20071012.html
Harvard Business School is one of several MBA schools to pre-screen Bachelors graduating
in 2008 for admission to Harvard in 2010. The program is called 2+2 and allows
students to lock in a spot in Harvard's by the end of their Junior year. They
will be required however to work for two years before entering.
Got a job for someone on the list? Got a list?
http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/welchway/welchway_08_10_07.htm
This summer Jack Welch responded to a reader who wrote in asking
advice about recruiting - particularly when the company moves into a fast growth
mode and is trying to avoid screwing up by hiring a bunch of duds. Jack and
Suzy's response was to make three people vote "yea or nay" then evaluate the
percentage of yea's that are at or above performance measures after 6 months.
Lots of gushing from pundits over what a great idea this is.
We just smiled. The article is compelling. We would love to see the recruiter and HR partner included in the vote (and the votes put in a sealed envelope). We would also love to see if a sample of nay's ended up screwing up some other company or taking them to the moon. We would love to see a stable measure of performance after 6 months. We're opting for a slugging percentage.
http://www.ereawards.com
Check out ERE's past winners of the Recruiting Excellence Awards. Then pick one or two elements of your recruiting process and share them.
The awards are presented in San Diego in March. You deserve to be acknowledged for what you do best.