May 25, 2005

State of the state economy
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:38 PM

Here's a video clip of interest, from NECN (New England Cable News) Business Day with R.D. Saul. In the segment, Saul interviews Renee Fry, Director of the Massachusetts Department of Business and Technology. Fry addresses recent unemployment and job creation figures, the outlook for life sciences, and the Massachusetts economy beyond Boston. Click here to launch the segment. (Note: you may have to refresh the screen or hit the link twice to launch the video.)

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May 24, 2005

Good to Great Staffing
Posted by Jason Butler at 3:20 PM

I know many Good to Great fans, believers in Jim Collins' gospel. Just like Built to Last, Good to Great is an engaging read, a useful series of object lessons in building a business.

Good to Great is also concerned with hiring, specifically, hiring great talent and putting them in the right positions. Dave Lefkow writes about what recruiters can learn from successful CEOs and organizations.

"The old adage 'People are your most important asset' turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are." It is with this simple opening shot that the book delves into what it takes to turn a company from good or mediocre to enduring greatness. Over a five-year period, Collins and his team of researchers meticulously analyzed decades of business history, looking for the identifying characteristics of eleven companies that over 15-year periods beat the market by an average of seven-to-one.

What was it that catapulted these companies far beyond their closest competitors? Was it a function of market conditions? Was it innovation? Did radical restructuring play a role? Was it technology?

As you've probably already guessed, the answer was none of the above; the answer was great talent. And in order to be great, some of our most closely held assumptions about staffing need to be challenged.

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May 20, 2005

Good news on the local job market
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:22 PM

The state Division of Unemployment Assistance reports that the local employment situation is headed in the right direction:

Massachusetts' unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in April, down from 4.9 percent the month before, as the state posted its eighth consecutive month of job gains.

Last month's gain of 4,700 jobs brought the unemployment rate to its lowest point since December 2001, when the economy was in a recession that triggered a rise in unemployment.

Read the entire article.

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May 18, 2005

The company can't control everything
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:18 AM

How far does your company go when trying to control its employees' behavior? If you were Budweiser, would you fire an off-duty employee for daring to drink a Coors?

It appears that this action may have violated Colorado law.

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May 17, 2005

Did you make the list?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:24 AM

The Globe 100 list, that is, the annual ranking of Massachusetts' top companies.

This in-depth special section from the Globe's business editorial department profiles and ranks the Commonwealth's top firms by industry sector, revenues, and employees. It also provides feature stories on economic trends, interviews with leading area executives, a survey of CEOs, a ranking of fastest growing firms, and more.

So check it out and find out where you stand in Boston's business firmament. It's on newsstands now in today's Boston Globe as well as online at Boston.com.

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May 16, 2005

Women might want to consider the Nordic Track
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:20 PM

No, not the exercise equipment, but a career that takes them to Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark or Finland. The International Herald Tribune reports on a new gender gap study where those five countries were the best at closing (although not eliminating) the gap between what women and men are paid for the same job.

New Zealand, Canada, Britain, Germany and Australia rounded out the rest of the top 10. The United States ranked a dismal 17th.

The report noted that Nordic countries are characterized by strong liberal societies, government transparency, welfare systems and wide access for women to education, and political and work opportunities.

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Area hiring on the rise
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:54 PM

The region's leading human resources trade group, NEHRA (Northeast Human Resources Association), reports that a recent member survey shows hiring on the rise:

Hiring in the northeast is on the upswing. So says a sampling of the Northeast Human Resources Association's (NEHRA) 4,000 members, who expect to increase employment headcount over the next year. NEHRA recently conducted an e-survey of its members to determine hiring trends in local organizations. According to the study results, local hiring is on the rise, and recruiting budgets are expected to remain the same or increase slightly from last year.

Read the full piece in "NEHRA - The Voice of HR" right here in BostonWorks' Hiring Hub.

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How not to let someone know they're fired
Posted by Jason Butler at 9:54 AM

It's never easy letting someone go. You try to be fair, treating the person with respect and dignity.

Or, you could just mention it obliquely in a company-wide email.

[This is the e-mail from Mark Hoffman received by “Dennis Miller” staffers at 2:02 pm PDT. Hoffman is the President of CNBC -- Kevin Bleyer's employer until 2:03 pm PDT. Bleyer's real time internal monologue is in italics.]

"I wanted to let you all know that we will be expanding our signature Business Day programming into Primetime on the East Coast and will be adding an additional airing of "Mad Money with Jim Cramer" at 9 p.m. ET/PT."

Wait a minute. That’s my time-slot.

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May 14, 2005

No more poking fun at Volvo for me
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:31 AM

Volvo, the company that let a women's team design a new car, has done it again, they're putting a woman in charge. The National Post (of Canada) reports that Anne Belec has been appointed president and CEO of Volvo North America.

Hmmmmmmm. after years of swearing that I would never drive a Volvo, this VW girl might have to rethink her affinity for fahrfenugen.

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May 13, 2005

Get in on the action - er, auction
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:17 AM

Why hide your light under a bushel? Searchviews.com has picked up on BostonWorks' brand new auction approach to recruitment ad space, so it seems worth a mention here:

Taking a page from Google's playbook, The Boston Globe has announced they'll be auctioning off the front half-page ad in its Sunday recruitment section in a manner similar to Google's bid-based system (though the minimums are set, ummm...substantially higher).

Bids can be placed at BostonWorks.com, starting at $15,000 and increasing in $500 increments to a max of $39,500.

Interested recruiters can find out more here in BostonWorks' Hiring Hub. Searchviews also picked up on our Big Gig diaries.

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May 12, 2005

Show me the money ...
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:20 PM

... or at least an open seat at the table. It may be 2005, where women equal the number of men in the workforce and are outnumbering them at elite institutions; yet, we have less than 10 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 and corporate boardrooms remain astonishingly white male. The Washington Post reports on the lastest boardroom statistics.

As of Sept. 30, women claimed 200 of 1,196 board directorships, while men accounted for 996, or 83 percent, of board membership. Minorities held 178 director positions, or 15 percent. Blacks held 120 board seats, with 27 of those held by women. Hispanics held 46 seats, or 4 percent, with women holding six of those positions. Asian Americans, meanwhile, held just 12 seats, with women holding only three seats.

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Sabbaticals: not just for professors
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:19 PM

From this week's BostonWorks in the Boston Globe, learn how some savvy local employers are rewarding selected managers with more than just time off. For example:

The Community Service Sabbatical program is open to all full-time Citizens Bank employees who have three or more years of service there. Citizens Bank gives out the awards among each of the geographic regions it serves. The selected employees work a standard full-time schedule at a local nonprofit organization.

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May 9, 2005

The blogs are back! The blogs are back!
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:30 PM

We're back! We sincerely apologize, BW blog fans, for a prolonged absence. You may have missed us, but we missed blogging just as much. Guess we didn't realize how hooked we really were.

We went dark due to (ahem) technical difficulties. But we are glad to be up and running once again and are ready to serve up some juicy job news.

Speaking of which, here's an item from yesterday's Globe BostonWorks section on how skilled the local workforce is. So take a gander, then get out there and recruit all those skilled people for your company.

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