November 27, 2007

Opening up subject of pay
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:19 PM

Ah, the Internet. Has it changed the world yet? If you're a hiring manager or HR compensation specialist, your answer may well be "yes."

Why? Because information that was once off limits to employees and job candidates - data about their salary, how their position is compensated at other firms, and the sources of that data - is now broadly available. And that makes a difference come hiring and review time:

For years, as far as many employees were concerned, pay scales were created with secret formulas. Some employers tried so hard to keep workers from comparing pay that handbooks forbade them from discussing it, a practice that landed several employers in court for violating the National Labor Relations Act.

Now compensation information permeates the Internet, placing data a click away from [job candidate Pete] Herrera or anyone else who has a few minutes for research. The result is that from small businesses to multinational firms, companies are tweaking workforce strategies so highly sought candidates understand their total rewards. They also are training supervisors to turn questions about pay into opportunities to re-recruit workers.

"Information doesn't ruin the business," says Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation for Salary.com, which market-prices 3,500 jobs every month using employer-reported data. "It just levels the playing field and gives everyone an intelligent perspective from which to have a conversation."

Read the full piece in Workforce Management magazine online.

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November 21, 2007

Thanksgiving thought - we all need to dream
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:48 PM

If you do one thing this holiday, you should watch this "last lecture" from Professor Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon.  You see, Professor Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 6 months to live.  And, what does he do?  He delivers one of the best lectures about how to live your life that I've ever heard.  Visit the New York Times website to watch the video, but here's a still of the talk outline.

 

Click here to watch the whole thing.

Don't worry, you'll laugh more than you cry; so grab a cup of coffee, chardonnay or a beer and instead of watching another dumb reality show, watch a smart reality show and learn something from someone else's all too short life.  It's hard to imagine that this guy has only a few months, but he's making the most of it.  I could only hope that I would find the strength to do the same.

For updates on how he's doing and more about this amazing professor, visit his webpage at:  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

What I found most amusing was when he pulled on his letterman's jacket near the end of the lecture and it was from my rival high school, Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, MD.  So from this Wilde Lake Wildcat to an Oakland Mills Scorpian, I'd like to say, "this time I'm rooting for you, Randy." 

 

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November 19, 2007

Ding Dong the Queen Bee's dead
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:43 PM

At least that's what today's Wall Street Journal proclaims in one of the first "uplifting" columns I've read about women networking their way to the top.

Successful female executives used to be seen as loners who shunned helping other women and dutifully stuck to entrenched rules to succeed.

No one would make that charge today. A women's network has emerged in the corporate world that is working to counter the old boy's club. Its members, who include a fresh crop of female executives as well as corporate veterans, are helping one another advance and succeed -- and on their own terms.

The "queen bee syndrome" -- the belief that ambitious women strive for the most powerful position in the workplace while excluding all rivals -- is outdated, executives say. Equally outdated is the notion that women can't have both powerful jobs and fulfilling personal lives.

Click here to read the whole article.

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November 14, 2007

Addressing employee and corporate malaise
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:47 AM

We are all aware of downsizing and layoffs and outsourcing and all the other employment trends that have swept American business over the past two decades or so. Taken collectively, they have threatened to severely weaken - if not shred - the former social contract between employers and employees in the US workplace, fifty years and the gold watch and all that.

As a consequence of these activities comes the corporate hand-wringing about retention problems, job-hopping employees, the revolving door workforce, the disappearance of corporate loyalty, etc. etc.

Now comes a book that takes a closer look at these deep concerns, written by Judith Bardwick, a management consultant and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California-San Diego. It's entitled One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business:

A Dilbert comic strip struck a nerve in the 1990s when the evil boss proclaimed that employees were no longer the company's most valuable asset, but instead ranked ninth, behind money at No. 1 and carbon paper at No. 8.

Following massive layoffs and job exports, such sentiments don't seem that far-fetched, but a new book by Judith Bardwick, author of the best-selling "Danger in the Comfort Zone," says corporate America must do something about the "psychological recession" that is plaguing both business and workers.

Employees have picked up on management's attitude that they are liabilities to be reduced, Bardwick writes in "One Foot Out the Door."

As a result, workers are either looking for new positions or just going through the motions at present jobs.

Read the full review from the Globe.

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November 12, 2007

Equal opportunity may lead to increased creativity
Posted by Diane Danielson at 11:35 PM

From CNN:  some good news for women in the workplace -- their presence may boost creativity and innovation, something that is going to be sorely needed in corporate America and other places.

The study by the London Business School concluded that teams of employees where the gender balance is equal tend to come up with more creative and innovative ideas than groups dominated by either men or women.

The mixed gender groups were on average more likely to experiment, to pool knowledge and to complete their tasks as needed, the report by the school's Lehman Brothers Center for Women in Business says.

This is the case regardless of whether the team leader happens to be male or female, it adds.

The study looked at more than 100 groups of so-called "knowledge workers" at 21 companies across 17 countries.

Click here to read the full report.

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Immigration and the Commonwealth
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:20 PM

All this week, local NPR affiliate WBUR is running a special series called "Counting on Immigration: Its Impact on the Massachusetts Economy" in its Morning Edition drive-time show:

A five-part series from WBUR on immigration as an economic driver in the state of Massachusetts. Population loss in the state is throwing a new light on the reality of a growing immigrant population, one that is at a 50 year high. Listen to this special series to hear how Massachusetts is reacting to the change: Is an increasing immigrant population a problem for the state or part of an important economic opportunity?

Today's segment, entitled "The Demographic Change: Facts and figures about the new wave of immigration to the state," features an interview with Andrew Sum, Professor of Economics and Director of Northeastern's Center for Labor Market Studies. Tomorrow's segment is on "Immigration and New Business."

Click here to go to the series' index page. From there you can access any of the segments or text transcripts of the programs as well as an array of "web extras," including photo galleries, interactive charts, and more.

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November 7, 2007

Redefining a successful life - Gen Y style
Posted by Diane Danielson at 10:38 AM

Got the heads up from The Huffington Post about a new Wellesley College survey on recent graduate expectations, which seems to be summed up by the following quote from the blog post:  To "have it all" these women are willing to sacrifice a little bit of everything.

As with all surveys of new grads, those of us who have "been there, done that" will chide them for being naive (about the economy, divorce, the ability to even find a significant other with whom to raise a child, elder-care needs, lack of daycare, etc.).  However, we didn't resolve those problems, did we?  So, who knows maybe they will.  Especially if they can convince the young men to agree with them.

Here are some tidbits from the survey:

1. To "have it all" these women are willing to sacrifice a little bit of everything. They envision a life plan in which they combine work and family while letting go of hardcore notions of success. They no longer feel forced to choose between becoming the top honcho and PTA mom of the year.
2. Interestingly, if money were not an issue 42 percent of the women surveyed thought they might be a stay-at-home mom at some point in their life. Money weighs heavily on this generation and staying at home is seen as a luxury, not a prescription.
3. Even though there has been article after study after salacious news program broadcasting the difficulties women face re-entering the workforce, these young women have strong expectations about how they will be able to become mothers and careerists.
4. These women would also be happy working part time and splitting childcare more evenly with spouses. This younger generation expects both men and women to be involved in parenting. Even without the guarantee of a top salary, most of the women expect to share childrearing and return to the labor force.
5. This home formula may be the key to the gender revolution that stalled at the threshold of the family door. While countries such as Spain have social policies requiring men to become active dads, young U.S. women are at least discussing the possibility of househusbands or partners sharing the family responsibilities.
6. Considering these work plans, it is not surprising that most of the young women think that parental leaves should be for six months to a year. If that were the case, then stay-at-home parenting might become a normal part of a work path rather than a terminating factor. It would also make the work/family juggle less stressful if all parents left paid work to care for their children.
7. While these young women may be accepting of present career ladders and expect to find individual ways to move ahead, they surprisingly imagine their children cared for in public settings. The nanny solution is not theirs. While working full-time they would like to place their youngest child in an after school program. These young women do not want to patch together care giving solutions; they want a seamless approach to raising children. Young women want their communities to play a significant role in meeting the demands of raising kids and continued employment.

Click here to read the full story.

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November 6, 2007

Searching for the right fit
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 9:43 AM

It's an ongoing quest for recruiters and hiring managers: finding the right fit between a candidate and the company.

If you do your job right, you're putting the right person in the right job every time, which means, among other things, getting the right fit between the candidate and the company's culture. Good employee fit also raises productivity and reduces turnover.

Now firms, such as playground maker KaBoom, pictured above, are trying new methods of assessing candidates' potential fit with their organization:

At KaBoom, a nonprofit that builds playgrounds, the board was hammering co-founder and CEO Darell Hammond four years ago over the organization's high employee turnover.

"I rationalized that they were on the road too much, when in reality, it was the wrong fit in the wrong role," he said.

He started thinking about who left and why, then focused on the characteristics of workers who stayed. The list of traits: Can do, will do, team fit, damn quick and damn smart.

His team kept a closer eye on job applicants in the reception area, which is set up as a playground, to see how they acted around playground equipment.

"If you're early, you may have to sit on a swing or the bottom of a slide," Hammond said. People who stand with a tight grip on their briefcases instead of sitting on the playground equipment aren't asked back.

Read the entire piece from today's Globe, which discusses other programs from adventure cruise outfit Lindblad Expeditions and computer server firm Rackspace.

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November 4, 2007

The problem with women is that they are women
Posted by Diane Danielson at 12:47 PM

Lisa Belkin over at the NYTimes conveys the frustration many of us feel with all the conflicting studies about women in the workplace. 

Catalyst's research is often an exploration of why, 30 years after women entered the work force in large numbers, the default mental image of a leader is still male. Most recent is the report titled "Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don't," which surveyed 1,231 senior executives from the United States and Europe. It found that women who act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes -- defined as focusing "on work relationships" and expressing "concern for other people’s perspectives" -- are considered less competent. But if they act in ways that are seen as more "male" -- like "act assertively, focus on work task, display ambition" -- they are seen as "too tough" and "unfeminine."

Women can't win.

Click here to read the whole article.

One of Belkin's experts sums it up by pointing a finger at corporations:

But Professor Glick also concedes that much of this data -- like his 2000 study showing that women were penalized more than men when not perceived as being nice or having social skills — gives women absolutely no way to "fight back." "Most of what we learn shows that the problem is with the perception, not with the woman," he said, "and that it is not the problem of an individual, it's a problem of a corporation."

Although Professor Glick lets me down in the final paragraph where his upcoming studies are mentioned:

And Professor Glick has some upcoming projects, too. One looks at whether women do better in sales if they show more cleavage. A second will look at the flip side of gender stereotypes at work: hostility toward men.

Yep, I can see it now, The Today Show will take its fembots story to a new low to show that working women really hate men and use their feminine wiles to get ahead ...

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November 1, 2007

Success story at local ad firm
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 4:33 PM

It's a name on the Boston business scene we all know well: Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopoulos, or Hill Holliday for short.

Today, forty years after its founding, the national advertising agency is busting at the seams:

Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos Inc. has started squeezing two workers into offices designed for one and converted an oversized conference room into work space for new hires.

After the retirement of cofounder Jack Connors last year, which came after two years of sluggish growth, some had feared that one of Boston's best-known advertising agencies was on its way to a middle-age slump. Instead, the firm approaches its 40th anniversary in May with renewed vigor.

"We're in a high-growth mode," said Karen Kaplan, the agency's president.

Roughly two-thirds of the company's 660 US employees last year worked in Boston. This year, it hired an additional 150, making its Boston presence 525 strong.

Learn more about the advertising powerhouse's secrets of success in this piece from today's Globe.

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