CareerXroads Colloquium™ Bellwether - September 07

Monster Gets Taken from the Inside: Let the First Stone - - - http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/archives/CMS_022815.asp#P-8_0

An August SHRM article by Rita Zeidner, titled "Monster Considering Stronger Password Protections in Wake of Security Breach," offered up the letter Monster sent to its clients explaining how it lost more than 1 million resumes to folks who had nefarious designs. In the end it was either a "bad apple" Monster client or someone who hacked a client's passwords who hacked the data.

We're wondering if a firm with contract recruiters have ever missed a few resumes (or copies) when the contractor left for new work. We are also not unfamiliar with (despite disapproving of) recruiters using passwords from old companies after taking on assignments with new companies - just because they can.

School is Back in Session - Are You?

After the end of each week's classes at most business MBA schools in the USA students are treated to free refreshments sponsored by - - - major corporations.

We're of the opinion that the most successful competition for MBA students in the future takes place before they even decide to get an MBA but the competition for face time on-campus will certainly accelerate in the near term. Last week's sponsors at Harvard (featuring corporate logos next to various beer kegs) were Amazon, Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte (details courtesy of Mark's daughter). Bain & Company put a letter into each first year MBA student's mailbox with a list of their fellow classmates who are Bain alumni.

Boomer Pressure May Plow New Ground for Flex Benefits - - - above ground that is. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20075038

Commenting on an MSNBC article about Boomers' intent to continue working, Jennifer Shram, SHRM's Workplace Trends editor, pointed out that "The influx of women into the workforce over the last few decades has not had as radical an influence on job flexibility as many predicted but older workers may succeed in convincing employers to make major changes."

We love the notion that Boomers will reinvent work as we know it.

FTC Examining the Use of SSNs  http://www.shrm.org/government/regulatory_published/CMS_022930.pdf

On September 4, 2007, SHRM submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the private sector's use of Social Security Numbers (SSNs).

Our take is that firms who collect SSNs as part of the initial application process (and there are quite a few) might consider dialing it back to when a legitimate background check is being done or put some serious efforts in deleting the SSNs of anyone you don't hire. Privacy concerns about identity theft are heating up.

Googleplex: A One of a Kind Culture  http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9719610

The Economist recently published the most interesting series of articles about Google. A company whose name is gaining the same cache in hiring that Cisco used to have in 2000, ought to give us all a moment to pause and smell the hype. Growing from 3,000 to 13,000 employees in three years is only part of the issue. Google's successful appeal to brilliant graduating bachelor, masters and PhD degree holders - even to the extent that they become unavailable to their competitors - may have some unintended consequences not to mention that the environment may not be so compelling to a more "mature worker."

We loved the concepts and the trappings but the reality may not scale as well. We are not predicting an increase in Google-like environments - unless they are much more constrained and clearly connected to performance and retention.

The Glass Ceiling has a Double Pane in Japan.  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/asia/06equal.html? _r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Japan has had a law forbidding gender discrimination in the workplace since 1985. Violators can be punished by having their company's names published. None ever have. Women in Japan represent 50% of the population but only 6% of supervisors and above versus 42% in the US.

Japan is not alone in having oppressive discrimination practices built into their traditional hiring and promotion systems of practice. Staffing leaders will need to address these "local" customs when integrating globally or certain failure is sure to follow.

Decline of Foreign Students Reversed  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20393318

Foreign Student enrollments have rebounded since their precipitous decline after 9/11, according to an MSNBC article reviewing a report from the Institute of International Education. There were 564,000 foreign students enrolled in US schools in 2006. Most surveys suggest that in Engineering and Science graduate programs foreign students represent 40% and more of the total student population.

Opportunities to hire talent - that fewer and fewer corporations find the time and energy to tap, in part, because of rapidly deteriorating immigrant policies. We will of course send these students back home whether they want to go or not, and then invest in hiring them for our operations in those countries. Hmmmm soon recruiters from other countries will be coming here in droves to hire for home. The geographic center of staffing is shifting. Where might the next generation of staffing leaders be located?

Average CEO Pay is More than You and Me - - - and 362 of our Friends  http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/28/news/economy/ceo_pay_workers/index.htm? postversion=2007082908

$10.8 million per year on average. Divide this fantasy comp by 364 and that's what the average Joe or Jane makes. The article implies that it is really tough for workers to maintain an "advocacy" attitude and a performance focus to the levels that get their company among the 100 best companies to work for when so much of the profit goes to so few.

We know the financial performance of the 100 best companies in America is beating most indexes by 15%. We would bet that the average CEO of these firms is making a much smaller ratio than their average worker.

Second Life Sure Looks Good on CNBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDRr4MoX8f8

And then there is Randstaad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5xF43POYv8

Dave Lefkow (formerly TMP and Jobster) did a good job offering a staffing view of Second Life and other technology tools on CNBC without going overboard. And then there is Randstaad.

The real clue is when the talking head exclaims that "dozens of people" showed up at a Second Life job fair. Experimenting doesn't mean shifting lots of money. Keep costs in perspective with the expected results.