October 30, 2005

Claire Huxtable or Edith Bunker?
Posted by Diane Danielson at 6:45 PM

The Boston Sunday Globe BostonWorks' section reports on a Boston Club survey of successful Boston business women and found that a large number had mothers who encouraged them to work, and half had working mothers.

Of those surveyed, 50 percent said they had working mothers, and two-thirds said their mothers' decisions influenced their own career choices. At the same time, the Boston Club's report cited statistics from the Census Bureau, which showed that only 38 percent of women worked between 1960 and 1970. While no statistics were taken then on how many of that group were working mothers, that number is believed to be much lower, the report said.

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October 27, 2005

Ranking the states on employee-friendliness
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:05 PM

You want the good news or the bad news first?

The bad news is that Massachusetts didn't rank in the top five employee-friendly states in the country. The good news is that we didn't rank in the bottom five, either. And maybe the even better news is that the study was prepared by folks right here in our home state::

Delaware, New Hampshire, and Minnesota are the most employee-friendly states in the country, according to a ranking by researchers from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts.

The researchers looked at the working environments in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., analyzing data on average pay, employment opportunities, employee benefits, percentage of low-income workers, fair treatment between genders, and ability for employees to unionize.

So, want to guess where Massachusetts came out? Find out here.

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October 24, 2005

Downside of vc wages
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:51 PM

Today's Globe reports on the phenomenon of wages in an entrepreneurial tech economy:

A new study suggests that high-technology wages and venture capital, two of the elements that have fueled booms in areas like Boston, can hurt such areas disproportionately during economic downturns.

High-tech hubs such as Boston and Silicon Valley suffer more than other regions when the economy declines, partly because their wages are high and they're too dependent on venture capital, which flows to start-ups with unsound business models in the final stages of a boom, says the report. It was published last week by two professors at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business and Economics.

So it may take a little longer to bounce back. But as the article points out, Boston's technology base was more diverse than the Bay Area's, making it a little more resistant.

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October 22, 2005

Are you preparing for the baby boomer exodus?
Posted by Kim Provencher at 10:46 AM

In my job I have the pleasure of speaking with HR professionals all day long. When asked what they are doing in regards to succession planning most refer to the young up and comers or high potentials. Rarely do they mention their older workers and potential retirees. Shouldn't they be thinking of both? Yes, they should. According to an article in September's CareerJournal.com Bye-Bye Boomers? Employers May Face Exodus As More Retire more than 40% of the U.S. labor force will reach retirement age by the end of the decade. There won't be enough people to fill the available jobs. Forward thinking companies are putting retirement plans in place for their potential retirees to ensure that valuable skills and knowledge are passed on to younger workers. Exit strategies are being implemented along with flexible work schedules to accomodate those older workers who may not want to retire. They are a creating a win-win for both parties.

Many baby boomers, of course, may decide to stay on the job longer than previous generations -- particularly to shore up savings. Still, the number of potential retirees is stark: more than 40% of the U.S. labor force will reach the traditional retirement age by the end of this decade, according to a new study by the Conference Board, a New York research organization. In the next seven years, the number of U.S. workers between ages 55 and 64 will grow 51% to 25 million, meaning the fastest-growing portion of the work force is the one at most risk of retiring soon. At the same time, the number of workers between ages 35 and 44 is expected to shrink by 7%.

International Business Machines Corp. similarly taps some retirees to work on special projects so they can share their expertise with younger workers. And the company's 330,000 current employees are being encouraged to post detailed descriptions of their job experience in an online directory called the "Blue Pages," so that employees far from retirement can find "knowledge before it walks out the door," says Eric Lesser, an associate partner in IBM's business-consulting services unit in Cambridge, Mass.

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October 19, 2005

Teamwork
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 2:59 PM

According to this week's BostonWorks, an ability to work in teams is one significant characteristic that separates Generation Y from its predecessors.

"Even though reams of research show the effectiveness of teams in the workplace, baby boomer management has had a tough time with implementation."

Could this group blog be a good example?

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Help wanted!
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 2:59 PM

The latest Savvy Manager column argues that downsizing has prompted so many layoffs that high-level employees are forced to do clerical office tasks instead of doing their jobs.

"The downsizing demons have demolished so many support and administrative positions these days that many professionals spend hours gritting their teeth while trying to do things they really shouldn't. And not performing tasks that they really should, like analysis, strategy and execution."

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October 17, 2005

Retiring with class
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 11:34 AM

Retirement ain't what it used to be. That's good news, as those facing "the golden years" have more options beyond living their final years in an age ghetto, including the growing trend toward living near college campuses:

Spurred by growing research suggesting that mental activity fights off dementia, college-affiliated retirement communities have sprung up in 50 college towns across the country, linking the retired set with schools such as Notre Dame, the University of Florida at Gainesville, the University of Michigan, and Lasell College in Newton, according to Leon A. Pastalan, professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Michigan.

''If you look at traditional retirement communities, they do not provide much for personal growth," said Pastalan, who studies housing issues for older adults. ''They provide you with a nice place to live, but there is really nothing for the soul or for self-enrichment. I view this as an extremely important movement that is really just beginning."

Moreover, as the article from today's Boston Globe points out, such campus retirement communities are a two-way street, a new kind of win-win for the universities:

In turn, colleges perceive these educated and affluent retirees as ready-made mentors, teachers, cheerleaders in the football stands, and, perhaps more important, donors.

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October 11, 2005

Giving employees context and rules
Posted by Jason Butler at 8:29 AM

How do you train your front-line employees? Do you give them a stack of rules and regulations, or do you tell them what's important to the business and trust their judgment?

Never Work Alone takes a crack at this issue, summarizing a week's worth of newsgroup postings into one summary blog piece.

To effectively deal with unconventional customer requests, employees need context and rules. Above, I mention that the crux of this issue is deeper than training. Sure, training is important but it's more than process and procedure training. For employees to make appropriate decisions about handling unusual customer requests, they need to understand the rules, but the more they know about what makes the business 'tick' the better they'll be equipped to make the right call.

I've always been a big fan of the "commander's intent" method of managing. Hire people you can trust to think on their feet, then tell them:

1. The overall goal -- "This is what success looks like"
2. The constraints of the problem -- i.e., "We have to make it work within the current Boston.com publishing system"; "The budget is $10,000"; "This is worth 15 minutes of thought"
3. Things to watch out for -- "Make sure we don't duplicate any of the job listings."

From there, let your people do their jobs, and trust that they'll let you know how things are progressing.

Of course, this only works if you hire the right people...

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October 9, 2005

Mom's staying connected, not "opting out"
Posted by Diane Danielson at 9:31 AM

Despite the media promoted a massive trend of women opting out of the workforce, BostonWorks writer Maggie Jackson looks at a number of resources helping working mothers stay connected with corporate America.

While the number of moms who work and have children under the age of six has dropped from 65 percent in 2000 to 62 percent last year, this trend doesn't herald an ''opt-out revolution,'' as some pundits trumpeted. Most mothers who take time off for family reasons later want to return to work, research shows. The trouble is that women who have been home face an uphill battle. Their Rolodex is rusty, so networking is tough. They feel out of touch. And they face real discrimination, says Shelley Correll, a Cornell University associate professor who coauthored a recent study showing that job-hunting mothers are often penalized, even when they have no gaps on their résumé.

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October 5, 2005

Who are you really hiring?
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 1:56 PM

This week's BostonWorks covers why many companies now feel it's necessary to perform background checks before hiring.

According to one expert:

"'Many employers reasonably believe that information in an applicant's background is a good indication of what to expect in the future employment (or volunteer) relationship. It can be essential — or even mandatory — for an employer to determine whether an individual has a criminal history that makes him or her unsuitable for the position in question.'"

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When the pub gets in the way of hiring
Posted by Jason Tuohey at 1:27 PM

According to today's Globe, some Harvard University faculty members fear that the school's aggressive project schedule, which includes an Allston campus and an on-campus pub, is taking precedence over faculty recruitment.

FAS [Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences] will approve only 42 new job searches this year, fewer than had been expected. Many department heads have been told planned searches would be put on hold. With the multibillion-dollar Allston campus and expensive new student-life projects such as a pub and a cafe all on the drawing board, some are wondering if faculty hiring isn't suffering for the sake of other line items.

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Management tips from rocket scientists - for real
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:07 AM

"OK, so you're a rocket scientist," croons Shania Twain. But does he know anything about management?

An article from the current issue of TIME magazine takes a look inside the famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory to see if the way real rocket scientists go about their business can provide any lessons for us mere mortal managers. Here's a sample, the idea of a culture of critique:

Big-company R&D is a secretive thing, often taking place in isolated Skunk Works closed off from the rest of the company, to say nothing of the world. That's not the way things work at J.P.L. The lab is not owned by NASA but rather is a nonprofit, federally funded research center managed by the California Institute of Technology and does its work for NASA under contract. The academics who work there come from the world of peer review, in which even theoretical work isn't considered sound until a lot of objective eyes have had a chance to look at it. When smart people ask questions of other smart people, often as not they get smart answers. That has saved more than one J.P.L. mission.

Learn more from the science guys.

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October 3, 2005

The times they are a' changin'
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 12:08 PM

Boston Globe "@ Large" columnist Scott Kirsner puts the online recruiting industry under his high-tech lens today and sees a changing picture:

. . .Now that Internet job hunting is more than 10 years old, the established leaders -- companies like Monster, Yahoo's HotJobs division, and CareerBuilder, a joint venture of several newspaper companies -- may be showing a few flecks of gray, as a generation of scrappy young sites elbow in. SimplyHired, headquartered in Silicon Valley, is one new player, pulling together job postings from across the Web.

Another such jobs agrregator, Indeed.com, has a minority investment stake from BostonWorks' (and the Globe's) parent, The New York Times Company.

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