January 30, 2004

Lessons from the gridiron: Bill Belichick, CEO
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:51 AM

As we count down the minutes to Super Bowl XXXVIII and the hometown New England Patriots head into the championship arena for the second time in three years, many have focused on the team's leader, coach Bill Belichick. How does he do it? What does he have that the others don't? What does it take to be a real leader?

The Boston Globe's business section asked GE's Jack Welch, Hancock's Dave D'Alessandro, and other CEO's what sets the Patriots' coach apart:

"He's done a brilliant job," said Stuart Sadick, who recruits executives for a living as managing partner of the Boston office for Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a search firm.

[GE's] Welch and Sadick were two of the people we consulted to evaluate Belichick as a manager. Our other consultants were chief executives themselves or academics who study organizations and leadership. It helped that all were Patriot fans.

GO PATS!!!
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Hire expectations: firms actively recruiting recruiters
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:33 AM

A great piece of news for the HR community, as reported in the lead article in the Business section of today's Boston Globe: in order to staff up for the economic rebound, businesses are now recruiting recruiters:

Employers optimistic about 2004 are snapping up recruiters, hiring managers, and other staffing specialists. Two Boston-area networking groups for unemployed HR executives report dwindling ranks as their members land jobs.

"If you're going to hire, you need hirers," said Nicholas Perna, a Connecticut economic consultant. "We don't have to sit around and wait for the government's next payroll survey to come out for me to add up the pieces that hiring is rising."

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January 28, 2004

How fresh outside pursuits can boost job performance
Posted by at 10:30 AM

What occupies your time outside of work? When I am not working, I am caring for a family member, food shopping, hitting the cleaners, out to dinner, and it always seems like the house needs to be cleaned. Are my extracurricular activities enhancing my job performance? Probably not, but they certainly allow me to escape.

The Wall Street Journal Online reports that well chosen after work activities can be enjoyable but they can also lead to better job performance. Choose an activity that will offer up self improvement. In an ever increasing multicultural marketplace, learn a new language. This will be an important skill for Human Resources professionals very soon. Gain exposure in your communiy by getting involved in volunteer programs or running for city council. Imagine all the passive candidates you can sources from that. Some of these activities can lead to new skills and new contacts that can directly and positively impact your performance at work. So, today, I am going put down that Swiffer, call Peapod, and enroll into classes at the Language Institute.

Mr. Stover became a better manager of employee stock plans by also serving as a city council member and mayor of Coppell, a Dallas suburb of about 40,000. Ms. Good, a 41-year-old senior network engineer in Miami, Fla., won a promotion in August 2002 partly based on abilities she honed during a sideline writing scripts for the TV fantasy series, "Xena: Warrior Princess."

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January 26, 2004

Re-thinking diversity recruiting, part 2
Posted by at 2:47 PM

On January 12th, I blogged ERExchange's article with the same name. Here is part two, the follow up.

In order to develop a world-class diversity recruiting program (DRP), it's critical to transform the failures of traditional DRPs (as highlighted in my last article) into organizational strengths and core competencies.

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January 23, 2004

That's just the way it is
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:39 PM

Ya know, you just can't go crowing about any good news these days 'cause something or someone comes along to knock you off your perch. Following on from my previous blog about leading national economic indicators being up comes this news about the local employment scene:

Massachusetts' unemployment rate rose to meet the national rate of 5.7 percent in December, breaking a nine-year streak of registering a lower monthly jobless rate than the nation, according to new figures from the Division of Employment and Training.

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Five ways to manage the prima donna
Posted by at 1:24 PM

Let's face it, we all have stories of company prima donnas. Some more nightmarish than others but we all have at least one. And whether these attention-seekers are male or female, the one common
trait they possess is a total disregard for company policies and processes that the rest of us labor so hard to honor.

Although these rogues lack interpersonal skills and scoff at corporate etiquette, their behavior does not mean they are inherently disrespectful human beings. Instead, have compassion, since they are
under the delusion that they are God's gift to Corporate America. Even though the rest of us can't imagine what it feels like to believe this school of thought, one can only imagine the personal
prison they have to subsist in.

So, how do we manage this breed of corporate animal in a professional way? Not as simple as rounding them up and sending them to Ohio to live on a preserve. No, you want to offer challenges that sharpen their stellar tantrum throwing skills. Here are more tips on managing them.

It's tricky. You want to support the peak performance, offering challenges that sharpen the prima donna's stellar skills. Simultaneously, you must rein in hurtful or inappropriate behavior and be careful that the prima donna doesn't outrage customers or alienate other workers.

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Leading indicators reach new high
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:36 PM

More positive economic signs, from today's Boston Globe:

An improving job market and increasing consumer spending lifted a key measure of future economic activity in December to its highest level ever, a private business group reported yesterday.

The 0.2 percent gain in the Conference Board's composite index of leading economic indicators met analysts' expectations -- and coincided with fresh government unemployment data that also suggested the economic recovery is solidifying.

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January 22, 2004

Public vs. private firms
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:03 PM

From the January, 2004 issue of SHRM's monthly HR Magazine, a discussion of the pros and cons of private vs. public companies and how to field questions on this subject:

For the moment, there seems to be no clear winner in the race for talent. What seems apparent, however, is that both public and private employers should prepare now to address concerns job applicants may have today—and in the future when the economy rebounds and the war for talent begins anew.

That rebound may already be under way. What is your organization doing to address this issue?

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January 21, 2004

Putting a formal stamp on mentoring
Posted by at 11:00 AM

From NYTimes Job Market:

Dell is among a growing number of companies that have formalized the mentoring process, offering employees a chance to build relationships with executive colleagues who can assist and advise their careers. Some 60 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies now have some sort of formal mentoring, said Beverly Kaye, a career consultant and co-author of "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay" who surveyed those companies for her book

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January 20, 2004

And it is good!
Posted by at 5:18 PM

No, not an Adam Vinateri field goal but some news on employment trends for 2004. If you perused The Big Help on January 11th, you would have seen a remarkable increase in advertising in tech positions, financial services, and more. That is a great sign. The signs of improvement are everywhere - from news reports, to anecdotal conversations, to competitive advertising. Here are a couple of more great stories....

From Silicon.com - "Big Blue to add 15,000 jobs"
From the Houston Chronicle - "Energy sector expects growth"

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January 19, 2004

Survey: US business leaders see growth, not hiring spree
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:11 AM

From "Out in the Field," our weekly round-up of employment stats and trends in BostonWorks in the Boston Sunday Globe:

US business leaders may be bullish about economic and business growth, but don't expect a lot of hiring.
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. . .While the leaders of such [mid-market] firms seem enthusiastic about economic and business growth, few said that they planned to use profits to expand payrolls. Instead, only 39 percent said they would likely hire more workers in 2004. Thirty-four percent said they would make no changes at their firms. Twenty-six percent are planning to lay off workers or use other methods to reduce staff.

Read the entire piece.

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January 16, 2004

Ten things you can do today to be a better recruiter
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:51 PM

Maybe it's not such a bad way to start the New Year: take some concrete steps to improve your performance on the job. And if you're a recruiter, you're in luck, because ERE's Howard Adamsky will tell you what ten things you need to do:

If you want to be the best recruiter you can be, loved by all whom you serve, adopt the following 10 precepts as part of your day-to-day recruiting efforts — and you'll be on your way to being your organization's new darling.

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January 15, 2004

Companies hike retiree health costs
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:25 PM

Today's front page of the Boston Globe reports a major trend among firms' benefits plans: increasing the cost of health coverage to their retirees, or even eliminating it altogether:

Companies are drastically increasing what their retired employees pay for healthcare benefits, and many are eliminating them altogether, according to a comprehensive study on employer provisions for retiree health coverage.
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Pensions are protected by federal law, but employers are under no legal obligation to provide retiree health benefits or to continue existing plans.

"We have seen employers moving very aggressively to get out of the retiree healthcare business," said Ben Haas, a healthcare consultant in the Boston office of Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

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Contract to Permanent
Posted by Jason Butler at 1:32 PM

Johanna Rothman discusses issues around contract-to-permanent hiring.

Extended auditions, such as contract-to-permanent positions, are auditions for the candidate and for you as a hiring manager. If you take advantage of the contractor, or if you don't provide feedback, or if you don't monitor the work status, you are failing your audition as a manager.

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January 12, 2004

Re-thinking diversity recruiting.
Posted by at 10:28 AM

From Electronic Recruiting Exchange:

Diversity recruiting is becoming more and more important as the world becomes more global. Initially, legal compliance was the primary driver behind most diversity recruiting. But now organizations have learned that if they want to operate around the world, they must be able to recruit and retain individuals who are different than those who are in the majority at their corporate headquarters.

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January 9, 2004

Unemployment rate falls to 5.7 in December but job growth flat
Posted by at 2:08 PM

Just a thousand new jobs added in December nationwide. December is typically a slow recruitment month, anyway. So should we be concerned? Let's hope that the jobless recovery doesn't stay so jobless in 2004. As a recruiter, I find having just a few reqs to fill, not as enjoyable. From boston.com:

President Bush seized on the lower jobless rate as reason to be optimistic about the economy. "Unemployment dropped today to 5.7 percent . That's not good enough -- we want more people still working," the president told a gathering of women small business owners at the Commerce Department. "But nevertheless, it is a positive sign that the economy is getting better."

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Small business hiring plans rise
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:39 PM

USA TODAY reports some significant stats as part of the economic rebound, showing what small businesses are up to in the hiring arena:

Small business hiring plans soared last month to the highest in four years, a survey out Friday says. What's more, the share of U.S. adults considering a business start-up stabilized further last year, a separate study out Thursday said.

The findings are significant because small companies create most new jobs, especially in early stages of economic recoveries. Overall, the USA's 5.8 million small firms employ almost half of all workers.

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January 7, 2004

Mass. business confidence leaps ahead in December
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:19 AM

Good news from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts:

Confidence among Massachusetts businesses soared in December to its highest level in nearly three years as companies not only expect an improving economy, but expect sales and hiring to accelerate in coming months, Associated Industries of Massachusetts reported yesterday.

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A recruiting World's Fair: What would you include?
Posted by at 10:35 AM

From increase in hiring to technology playing a significant role in how we recruit, Kevin Wheeler offers up his thoughts on what 2004 will bring. From Electronic Recruiting Exchange:

I expect that hiring will pick up significantly after the first quarter of the year, and that many new advances in how we use technology in recruiting will appear and begin to be tried out by the adventurous and entrepreneurial among us.

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January 5, 2004

Got an uncomfortable, undesirable but really, really essential job that needs filling?
Posted by at 11:02 AM

We all have key jobs that are difficult to fill because of they are undesirably either in function or schedule. This article from workindex.com and Human Resource Executive Magazine reports on how the Navy handles recruiting for such positions.

In June it created the Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP) program, a market-based monetary incentive to attract sailors to three less-popular stations: Misawa, Japan; Naples, Italy and Sigonella, Sicily. Sailors coming up for reassignment can be eligible for up to $450 per month of extra pay by bidding for various available assignments.

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