April 30, 2003

Trends in Succession Planning
Posted by at 1:29 PM

Succession planning is no longer just a mandate from the Board. Senior management recognizes that in these tough times, survival is contingent upon how the business is managed through an economy with as many bumps and dips as this one. But are these plans well thought out and executed properly?

U.S. employers are more serious about management succession planning than they were five years ago, according to a survey of 210 human resource executives by Boston consultants J. Howard & Associates, a unit of Novations Group Inc.
More than two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) reported that succession plans at their company have grown more important since the late '90s, compared to 24 percent who said their organizations do not take succession plans seriously.

Read the entire article
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April 29, 2003

Attracting the passive job seeker
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 2:42 PM

There are only active job seekers (mediocre candidates) or passive prospects ("A"-level performers). Implicitly or explicitly, every organization chooses to focus its advertising on a subset of these cohorts. - - - - - If an organization wants to entice passive prospects and A-level performers, it must write an entirely different kind of job posting. This alternative recruitment ad functions as an electronic sales brochure. It connects with top talent and influences their actions by answering their questions (before they even have a chance to ask them), addressing their issues and concerns, and focusing on their interests. It provides comprehensive, detailed descriptions of the open position and the employer, and includes a persuasive, compelling description of the value proposition offered by the opportunity.

Read the Career Journal article. --------

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Another finger on the hiring pulse
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:45 PM

This is a follow-up on my Monday blog on the hiring outook. The SHRM (for the uninitiated, Society for Human Resource Development) web site provides polls just the way we do here at BostonWorks. The polls are non-scientific, but they do give a good general indication of trends. One of SHRM's recent polls on hiring reports 56% of over 3700 respondents plan to hire in Q2 this year. Check out the full results on the SHRM site.
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Harry Potter and the $100 million/year manager
Posted by Jason Butler at 10:24 AM

Entrepreneur and MIT professor Philip Greenspun discusses exorbitant executive pay, and the proper compensation level to balance happiness and focus.

Think about how focussed on work you'd be if someone handed you a $75 million check tomorrow. You'd probably move into a bigger apartment and redecorate. And wouldn't it be nice to have a few vacation houses? You know that you'll be traveling by private jet from now on, but to which of the 50 fractional jet ownership plans should you subscribe? You're going to get invited to a lot of fun charity events so you'll need a new wardrobe. In short, living like a rich person is very time-consuming.

Getting back to the owner's perspective... perhaps an investment would be best managed by a comfortably well-off manager, rich enough to afford a new car that won't break down and be a distraction from her duties but not rich enough that she spends several days per week shopping for private islands.

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When it comes to your single parent employees, are you a flexible employer?
Posted by at 9:42 AM

From the BBJ...

Gone are the days when the work day was strictly 9 to 5. Most workplaces in recent years have evolved into more flexible entities -- which is good news for the growing number of single parents juggling career and family pressures. While the new flexibility was not designed specifically with single parents in mind, human resources experts say a more malleable workplace especially benefits single parents

Read the entire article at bizjournals.com. Free registration required.
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April 28, 2003

Pivotal worker retention, and what it means for your revenue and profits
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:12 PM

Are there roles within your organization where a doubling of productivity would generate major financial gains?

The McKinsey Quarterly writes an extensive analysis -- well worth the required free registration -- of how to identify these high-leverage positions, and reviews tools to enable this analysis.

The macroeconomic implications of mastering what economists might well call human-capital management are far-reaching. Capturing these productivity gains at the company level could measurably boost economic growth. In the knowledge economy, labor is the fastest-growing expense, and talent, in cold economic terms, is inventory. Having too many -- or, worse, too few -- workers costs money and opportunities for growth. New human-capital tools can help a business to manage such surpluses and shortages and to develop and retain its most important people. Much as supply-chain-management software changed the rules of inventory management, the coming of age of human-capital management promises to usher in a new era for workforce management.

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Books on Recruiting
Posted by at 11:03 AM

Spring is here and it is time to take a good book and read it out on the lawn at lunch or at the beach. I am sure there are some of you out there that could write a few books yourself.

"Tograding: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and keeping the best People", by Bradford Smart
"Hire with Your Head: Use POWER Hiring to Build Great Teams", by Lou Adler
"Time Management Secrets of Top-Producing Recruiters", by Bill Radin
More books on recruiting

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Hiring outlook, small firms and large
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:05 AM

From BostonWorks in the Boston Sunday Globe:

The economy may get worse in 2003, but some experts predict an upturn in hiring in 2004.

Meanwhile, as this week's "Out in the Field" reports, many small businesses already have plans to hire.

Read all this week's BostonWorks articles.

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April 25, 2003

Blogging with the best of them
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:12 PM

Is blogging the next breakout web application in the business world? Maybe, maybe not. But when it came time to consider the question, Business 2.0 magazine turned to, among others, BostonWorks' own Jason Butler:

Jason Butler, senior product development manager for regional job-search site BostonWorks.com, supervises two blogs, one for job seekers and one for human-resources professionals. "We opened up the HR blog because we want to be able to help people using our products," Butler says. "It's a tool to help them be better HR people, better managers. We're on the Web all the time, learning about our industry. Using the blog, we can get that information out so the community can benefit from our work." Similarly, the mission of the job-seekers blog is to keep the attention of people looking for new gigs by sharing interesting nuggets Butler and his colleagues have found on the Web.

Go Jason! Go bloggers!

Have a good weekend, everybody.
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April 23, 2003

More blogging and why it makes sense from an HR perspective.
Posted by at 5:28 PM

Manage knowledge and improve morale in a cheap and easy way: start a blog.

But what's the bottom-line blog potential in HR contexts? Are they just a variation on chat rooms and home pages-or are they something new, with real utility in today's business environment? Already, there are three key areas where blogs can make a difference for HR users: facilitating collection, preservation and dissemination of knowledge; improving employee morale, collaboration and cohesion in a time of great business culture strain; and controlling HR.

Read the entire article

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Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:10 PM

Tomorrow is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Those parents who have been in the workforce for awhile may remember that for the past ten years this has been simply "Take Our Daughters to Work Day." A Globe editorial reflects on the benefits of opening up the day to boys as well as girls:

. . .Two full-time jobs plus household work often equal more than two working parents can do. Sons and daughters who see this now could be a force for family-friendly change as they enter the workplace.

Maybe so. I'm planning to bring my son in. Will you bring in your future worker?
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April 22, 2003

Now business can go with the 'flow'
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:50 PM

In 1990 Hungarian-born psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [me-high-yee chick-sent-me-high] published his groundbreaking book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, which brought him to the attention of an audience well beyond his peers in the academic community. Now, thirteen years later, the graduate professor of psychology and business has brought his flow theory into the world of business with a new book, Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning:

Flow means being so absorbed in an activity that we shut out distractions and worries to devote all our energy to the task at hand. It can occur in work or play, but the focus here is how people can find flow when they work, and how leaders can encourage flow in employees.

Read the review of the new book from this week's USA TODAY. Learn more about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the Quality of Life Research Center at the Drucker School of Management.
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Talent management
Posted by at 10:28 AM

From the Electronic Recruiting Exchange:

Talent management is nothing new. It has been around for a long time and worn many guises. It is, however, holistically a concept whose time has come. And if you are an HR professional looking to justify your existence, bringing talent management to the forefront of human resources is a step in the right direction.

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April 21, 2003

Workweek figures, Heidrick #1, more
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:28 AM

From BostonWorks in this week's Boston Sunday Globe:

Shorter workweek skews figures:

Some employers, particularly manufacturers, shut down each year on Good Friday, which shortens the average workweek. When that week turns out to be the period for the monthly payroll employment survey - as appears to be the case this time - the one-day plant closures have the potential of depressing the average workweek for the full month.

From "Out in the Field", reports include: younger workers more likely to take off when the rebound comes; Heidrick & Struggles now #1 search firm in US; cross-functional training provides an edge for execs; absenteeism down in 2002.

Read all this week's stories.
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April 18, 2003

What does HR really stand for?
Posted by at 4:52 PM

A fellow HR professional has taken some time, personal time no doubt, to pull together HR acHRonyms. Scroll to find your HR discipline. Here are some examples for employment.

HigheR HiRe (a homonym you don't want to repeat...executive selection)
Hilarious Resumes ("Please overlook my resume and experience. [OK]")
Help Replacer (14 programmers by tomorrow? No problem.)
Hourly Recruiting (a duty that should be completely exempt)
Hair Reader (drug testing in a split-end second)
HallmaRk (when you care enough to hire the best)
Habitat Relocators (our movers ensure your bed will stay unmade)
Hollow References (more like a thud than a true ring).

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How to attract passionate people
Posted by Jason Butler at 4:09 PM

You have to build an environment where they can feed off one another's energy.

Passion-driven people are attracted by many things, but one of the biggest attractions is the desire to work with other passion-driven people who can challenge and appreciate them. As an organization grows, the challenge is to keep the bar high enough that critical mass can be maintained and new people will still continue to be attracted.

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April 17, 2003

Sweeping reform proposed for FLSA regulations
Posted by at 10:39 AM

Thought you were confused already by FLSA regulations...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed sweeping changes to outdated Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations that will affect most employers in the United States and its territories. This is big stuff, folks. Many of your current exempt status employees may become non-exempt under the proposed regulations (or vice-versa) due to increases in salary thresholds or changes in the various duties tests applicable to administrative, executive, professional, and outside sales exemptions.

Read the entire article.
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April 16, 2003

PHR and SPHR exam to become computerized
Posted by at 8:50 AM

Perhaps an easier way to take the exam and a quicker way to find out how you did....

Prometric, a part of The Thomson Corporation (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC), the global leader in technology-enabled testing and assessment services, and the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI), the leading generalist certification organization in the human resource field, today announced the conversion of the Institute's PHR and SPHR exams from paper and pencil to computer-based format beginning in 2004. Prometric will deliver the computer-based tests for HRCI's more than 20,000 annual test takers.

More HR news.
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April 15, 2003

Managing layoffs
Posted by at 1:00 PM

From the Washington Post,

For employers, downsizing staff is one of the hardest things to do. There are alternatives to downsizing such as freezing the hiring process, reducing the workweek, or restricting non-payroll expenses. However, sometimes organizations must resort to RIF's (Reductions In Force).

From experience and numerous surveys we know that many RIF's fail to improve morale, performance, productivity or profits. Unanticipated side effects often result in even greater damage to companies, organizations and employees. Most companies downsize due to financial difficulties or projections although sometimes companies use general or industry downturns to reposition themselves for new markets or to attract investors. In difficult situations like this, communication and careful planning play critical roles.

Read the entire article.
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April 14, 2003

Silly statements regarding recruiting
Posted by at 11:15 AM

Dr. Wendell Williams, has a strong opinion on recruiters making "uninformed personal statements" and mistaking them for "good practices". He has some words for the "uninformed".

In the last few days, I have read some truly "silly" statements (and I am striving very hard to be politically correct) concerning recruiting. We celebrate the fact anyone in this country can present his or her personal opinion without being arrested, but I advise readers to really think about whether some of the comments are "good practices" or just uninformed personal opinions.

Read the entire article
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HR audits
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:00 AM

From Career Journal, the following brief on HR audits, which lists key areas to target in assessing the performance of your department:

According to the Institute of Management and Administration, a New York-based subsidiary of BNA Inc., audits can show how well HR is keeping tabs on its vendors, meeting its strategic goals, helping to achieve its organization's overall strategy and earning the proper return on its investments.

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April 11, 2003

When the rebound comes
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:58 AM

What will happen to your employees when the economy rebounds? It might not seem as though it's around the corner, but it will happen, sooner or later. Interestingly, a new survey shows most employees are inclined to stay put:

"Job hopping was common in the late 1990s when unemployment was at record lows," says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps. "But an enduring recession marked by frequent layoffs has prompted workers to be more cautious."

Younger workers are the most inclined to search for other opportunities in an upturn. Forty-eight percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 said they would consider a switch compared with only 17 percent of professionals aged 55 and up.

Read the piece from HRNext.

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Hiring overqualified candidates could be a good move.
Posted by at 8:52 AM

This article in Entrepreneur Magazine, defines the term survivalist as that person who takes a job for which they are overqualified because having a job, any job, in this economy is a must. Yet, for recruiters, being inundated with resumes of overqualified candidates is more of a burden than a blessing....or does it have to be? Maybe hiring an overqualifed candidate can be a good move.

Working with survivalists starts with finding out what they want. Is this person interested in using his or her best skills to add value to the company? If so, "the organization should get involved," says Marc Drizin, employee loyalty specialist for Walker Information, a research firm in Indianapolis. "If there are options for them in the organization or [if they] can acquire new skills that will make them more marketable, they'll stay longer and work harder."

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April 10, 2003

HR Blogs in the News...
Posted by at 2:26 PM

Electronic Recruiting News, produced by InterBizNet, has a web article today with links to HR blogs and points out that blogging is providing new insight into our industry. The BostonWorks Job Blog and HR Blog are mentioned.

Check out the article.
Check out the BostonWorks Job Blog.

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April 9, 2003

Are you classifying your contractors and temp employees correctly?
Posted by at 1:06 PM

Microsoft has run into some trouble with how they have classified their contractors and temp employees. Make sure you are classifying them correctly. If you are treating contractors like employees, it could lead to legal trouble.

...a group of temporary workers at Microsoft filed a class-action lawsuit against the company on the grounds that it was withholding full-time benefits and pay while working them like full-time employees....Microsoft had admitted to the IRS that it had misclassified a number of employees as temp workers when they should have been cited as full-time workers. After more than a decade of legal wrangling, the dispute ended in 2002 with Microsoft agreeing to pay more than $97 million in damages and legal fees.

Read the entire article.
Research the law for classifying contractors.

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April 8, 2003

Another reason to hate spam
Posted by Jason Butler at 12:56 PM

News.com: Unsavory spam can cause an employer hostile-work-environment liability .

Porn spam could begin to crop up in sexual harassment complaints from employees offended by the material. Even if companies aren't the source of such messages, they could be liable for hefty civil fines if managers know that porn spam is a problem and don't move to address it.

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Do well and do good
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:29 AM

HR departments may not be aware that their firms can qualify for a variety of tax breaks by hiring people with disabilities:

Using tax breaks to hire people with disabilities can help businesses “do well” and “do good,” according to Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).

“We want businesses to know that there are large numbers of skilled people with disabilities who have the qualifications they seek,” said Chao. “By hiring people with disabilities, businesses can also take advantage of a variety of tax benefits offered by the federal government.”

Learn more about the options available to you by reading the piece from SHRMOnline.

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April 7, 2003

Communicate the value of HR to your new boss
Posted by at 1:16 PM

This month's HR Magazine cover story discusses the CEO and HR relationship. When there is a new CEO, naturally, they want to meet HR and observe their function within the company. When meeting your new boss, remember that this is your opportunity to demonstrate the value that the HR function brings to the organization.

Usually, meeting with the head of HR is among a new CEO’s top priorities. In that visit, the CEO is looking for indications that HR has value.
It’s important to get off on the right foot. First impressions can lay the foundation for a fruitful partnership—or, as the HR chief at Centegra Health System discovered, they can be deadly. Shortly after Michael Eesley, Centegra’s COO, moved into the top slot at the faltering health care provider in suburban Chicago, he summoned his vice president of HR and asked how things were going.

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High-tech diversity, job loss and start-ups, more
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:33 PM

From this week's BostonWorks in the Boston Sunday Globe:

Many high-tech and biotech companies are lacking in diversity, but some folks are stepping up to do something about it.

Executive jobs may be leaving the Greater Boston region as big firms relocate top jobs elsewhere, but the availability of so much top-tier talent has also fueled an increase in area start-ups.

From "Out in the Field", our weekly round-up of stats and trends in the working world, learn about the most popular activity among co-workers when they are outside the office; Home Depot's involvement in community service; and tips to help employees cope with war-related stress.

Read all this week's stories.
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April 4, 2003

Describe opportunities, not requirements
Posted by at 10:15 AM

I love this article. Starting out as a recruiter, I always fought to write my ads to explain opportunity of the position and opportunity within the company but I would always get push back from the hiring managers. They wanted to include every boring detail about the day to day responsibilities. Sometimes I won and sometimes I lost. So, this article is very validating for me. Hopefully, you will get something out of it too.

Requirements-intensive ads are used to filter people out. Opportunities-focused ads induce people to explore. I was then going to elaborate upon this point, and finally prove it by showing two ads side-by-side, clearly indicating this difference. Everyone would instantly see why you need to describe opportunities, not requirements, in order to increase the number of top people applying to yours ads.

Read the entire article.

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April 3, 2003

Uncle Sam wants YOU
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:20 PM

The Army: perhaps the prototypical recruiters (sometimes recruits don't even have a choice). Maybe, like me, you've noticed the new military ads on TV recently, including where the spots are running (such as MTV) and how they've changed. Public Radio International's Marketplace picked up on this too:

U.S. military’s new recruitment ads are a persuasive pitch for the hearts and minds of America's youth during wartime: Since we’re in the middle of a war, the Army decided to replace its usual ads that focus on ways to serve in active duty with ones that have a new wartime message. The ads are slick productions by top-tier ad agencies, featuring stirring, lofty music without narration. Some say the ads not only glamorize military life, but use powerful metaphors sure to appeal to youth. The ads serve a dual purpose: Not only do they appeal to recruits, but they are aimed at reassuring the civilian population that the U.S. military has the highest quality personnel.

To hear the piece as it ran on the show last night, visit the Marketplace website, then scroll down to "New Military Ads." After you listen to that segment, click back on the Marketplace page and scroll down a little farther to "Getting New Recruits" to hear Army recruiters talk about their jobs in the current climate.

Obviously this is serious stuff, especially when the country is at war. But an interesting lesson for recruiters of any stripe - meaning most of the rest of the recruitment world - is how the hiring organization's pitch changes depending on what's going on in the world, the larger environment in which it operates. The current economy may make it a buyer's market, but it's something to pause and think about the next time you seek a few good men and women.
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April 2, 2003

Worker shortage in 2015?
Posted by at 11:43 AM

We all know that today there are worker shortages in some industries such as healthcare. However, in 2015, there could be a worker shortage that spans all industry.

Jamrog, executive director of the Human Resource Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said that about 43 percent of current workers will become eligible for retirement within 10 years. The number of those who actually retire could be far lower because of financial and lifestyle pressures, he said. Many older workers may choose to work part time. Either way, he and others predict the search for good workers, especially managers, may be the next big challenge facing the U.S. economy.

Read the entire article.
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April 1, 2003

What are your thoughts on the war in Iraq?
Posted by at 2:05 PM

As this NYTimes article, as featured in our Job Blog, points out, Operation: Iraqi Freedom is such a hot topic right now, questions and opinions on it can spill over into an interview and it coaches job seekers on how to answer this question if posed to them. However, well trained HR professionals and hiring managers should not let any of today's hot topics come up in an interview.

There are laws, ethics, and widely accepted interviewing methods that recruiters and hiring managers should follow when conducting an interview. Typically, questions from the interviewer are centered around past performance, skillset, and how the interviewee matches up to the requirements of the job as laid out in the job description. Recruiters and hiring managers compare notes on all job related questions asked and decide on who to hire. In most cases, what Suzie Job Seeker thinks of the war is not relevant but if answered incorrectly, it could influence the interviewers decision.

Hopefully, you are not asking any of your interviewees questions that are not job related. If you do find yourself asking this question, just make sure you ask everyone the same questions. If you don't, it could be construed as discriminatory.

Read more on interviewing.
If you are a NEHRA member, check out all that they have on the topic of interviewing.

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Get your daily Dilbert
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:32 AM

We could all use a little levity, right? Especially when the news is pretty bleak across the board these days. And as my esteemed blogging colleague Svetlana demonstrated, HR folks can enjoy a good laugh. So you'll be pleased to learn that we've added a new feature on the BostonWorks.com home page guaranteed to give your working day a lift: Dilbert. You'll find everyone's favorite cubicle dweller riding low on the home page, bottom right. The Dilbert web site is updated daily with the same strip seen in papers nationwide, including Sundays. So grab your morning cup of coffee, log on, and check out Dilbert to start your day right: with a laugh.
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New testing tools, women's workplace gains, more
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:07 AM

From this past Sunday's BostonWorks in the Boston Sunday Globe:

Testing - sophisticated new testing instruments go beyond skill assessment to predict employee behavior and more.

Out in the Field - this week's briefings report on women's gains in the corporate workplace, the increase in employer healthcare and other insurance costs, and how job security has become a a major concern among executives.

Read all the Globe stories and columns.
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