Attrition Bomb

Do you remember the moment when job security became more important than opportunity? Than better bosses, conditions, benefits, commute? That inner gauge changes your career choice.

What happens when the pendulum swings the other way?

You regain the freedom to choose.

What do you get when the economy picks up? When that economic pendulum swings back? When it's safe to move again?

The attrition bomb. Career musical chairs. Released pent-up demand. An explosive frenzy of interviewing and job search.

Are you watching the pendulum swing? Are you ready for the attrition bomb?

Employment Brand Integrity

HCM's Dr. Mike wrote last week:

Something that has been bothering me for a while (I guess this is a "rant") concerns the emphasis on recruiting MATERIALS. There is such an emphasis on presenting the company in a positive light, making their Internet materials look spiffy, attractive, sharp, etc. All this may well induce an applicant to accept a job offer. But what about once he or she is on the job? Do we put enough emphasis on having good bosses, interesting work, effective learning opportunities? And, if the Internet materials look too good, might this not be misleading to the job candidates?

I think you're noticing the problem of integrity, being true to yourself. You know the 360 degree exercises that help you see yourself as others see you? Ideally, you can use that information to bring the two together.

Four minutes. Look at your career site. Contrast it with the stories insiders tell. Do you see gaps between image and reality?

I had a great conversation last week with Charles Helliwell, a London management consultant who performs Business Personality Audits. He compares the internal and external perceptions and does the consulting stuff you'd expect. This is a great way to drill down to systemic problems, to root causes. And a marvelous light to shine on your career brand.

I expect the Disney recruiting site to be all smiles, customer service, and continuous improvement. But a workplace where survival of the fittest is the rule, where everyone carries sharp knives and time not billed is wasted, that character should come through the career site. It will attract and repel exactly the right people.

So integrity matters. To the recruiter and the job seeker.

Welcome to the fray, Dr. Mike.

The Global 500 Recruit From Their Home Page

iLogos Research updated their Global 500 Web Site Recruiting Survey. 94% have career sites. The same across major regions (Europe, Asia, Americas). Some sectors have higher adoption than others:

• 100% of companies in the Healthcare, Transportation, and Wholesale sectors
• 98% of companies in the Manufacturing sector
• 97% of companies in the Consumer sector
• 92% of companies in the High Tech sector
• 91% of companies in the Natural Resources, and Utilities sectors
• 90% of companies in the Financial sector

Why the difference? Could it be relative sector dependence on Internet recruiting? The high cost of job advertising? Perceived availability of workers using the web? (lagging reality?)

The Other Diversity. Also notable, three percent of the worldwide workforce live in countries not their own, mostly in their home region. The web can help with cross-border and multi-cultural recruiting. Missed opportunity: Most United States employer sites do nothing to recruit locally in multiple languages. Neither do they market to U.S. subcultures. This despite the ten percent of the legal workforce that speaks Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Chinese at home. Pepsi advertises on Telemundo. What's keeping you from speaking the languages your workforces speak?

One mob.

David Weinberger has a way with words. Listen...

Businesses used to keep themselves distinct and safe and secure by selectively releasing information: If you wanted to know anything about a product, you had only one good source to go to. Now, I can learn more about a product and a business in five minutes on the Web than I could in weeks, and the best information comes from other customers.

Leading to ...

Now, in a hyperlinked, loosely coupled business environment, why imagine that what the mob outside the walls wants is any different from what the mob inside the walls want? With the walls down, we're all one mob now.

What does this mean for career sites? Go with flow:

• Ease those conversations.
• Make it painless to cite specific products (your jobs, organizations, roles).
• Make discovering relevant opinions feel like a happy accident.
• Encourage every visitor to your career site to open their mouths, shout what's on their minds, and sing what's in their hearts.
• Reward the vocal

The medium (blogs, bulletin boards, chat rooms, etc.) matters less than the intention. That you care enough to help foster communication. So much that you'll foster it outside your enterprise.

The result? Reputations become clearer, more granular, more available. Job seekers make better choices. Hiring managers and their recruiters can respond with better information and better behavior.

And the employment site becomes a better place to find work.

What stories does your site tell?

Ben at HyDeSign saw this:

Forlizzi: Theories of Experience Our goal is to make experience accessible to designers -- to make our theory of interaction design live in practice, by allowing designers to conceive of designing experiences rather than designing products.

Also check out the theories and the resources sections

via: brightlycolo[u]redfood

Career sites tell stories through interaction. What stories does your site really tell?

iLogos: 94% of big companies have career pages. And then...

SMS blogger wrote today:

OK so the latest iLogos study shows that 94% of the 500 largest companies use the careers page of their web site to recruit. What about the gazillion other companies out there? Who's studying that? Or do those numbers get included when Gartner of someone else does their penetration report?

Studies follow sponsorship.

In any case it's not newsworthy per se. It's more of a cool statistic that says, "Yes we're going in the right direction but does anyone know what we're supposed to do when we get there?" It reminds me of the Simpsons when Homer decided he needs to be on the internet with the Supermegacollossalwhatever company and says "Hmmmm, the internet eh"? and once he decides on the company name and sets up his desk and get's his pencils all sharp (and uses a stick of butter to stick them in!) he sits there and wonders what to do next.

Truth of the matter there are only a handful of those companies Human Capital department (HR) who get it enough to really make good use of the real estate they are given online. Eventually you have to actually do more than just post positions online. It's the whole approach that makes you successful. A tool is just a tool. Anyone can pick up a hammer. The question is are you using it to crack open walnuts or are you building the foundation you need to really succeeed online.

[Shameless Plug] If you want to shape candidate behavior, you need a clear picture of how your career site is experienced. Candidate Voice measures how well your site performs, analyzes for patterns and priorities, and drafts your workplan. If you're doing fine, you may even earn the Candidate Voice Certificate, a web badge that stands for your commitment to being a great place to seek work. [/ Plug]

100 Things about David C. Buchan.

David joins The Yankee Blogger's 100 Things About Me project. Brilliant self disclosure. Some things to recognize for the embrander:

1. Personality, invididual voice shines through.
2. The list has lots of information relevant to choosing or rejecting David as a candidate for any given job.
3. None of that information would be solicited through any of the leading systems.

AECWorkForce Magazine: Getting the most out of your web site

Saman Chaudry of ZweigWhite is singing our song:

In our never-ending search for star employees, design firms have become used to the process of struggling, fighting, out-bidding and most of all, paying to fill our critical open positions. It's been so hard for so long, even a softer economy hasn't made it much easier. Good people are still employed and hard to attract.

We've become so accustomed to this struggle, we neglect the easiest place to start once a critical hiring need has been identified: the firm web site. This is the first place potential employees will look for information on your firm, and you want to make the most out of that interest.

Five tips:

1. Make it simple.
2. Make it punchy.
3. Describe the culture.
4. Always accept applications.
5. Mention benefits.

Just scratches the surface, but the attention is well placed. Does anyone return a call or show up for an interview without checking the web site first?

Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.

I knew that would be useful someday. Qapla'! (AP via CNN)

Chat rooms convert visitors to employees.

Business 2.0 reports about GoArmy.com:

The site's chat room is hosted by online recruiters. There, anonymous teens can ask questions like "Am I too fat?" It's turned out to be a huge driver: On average, 750 people chat each day. Of those, 10 percent end up enlisting.

Take aways:

• It pays to really talk with human beings.
• Anonymity makes job seekers feel safer.
• Safety encourages candor.
• Immediacy matters.
• Communicate like your customer: using their forms, media, language, cultural references.
• Communicate as yourself: authenticity is everything.

ROI on Pre-Employment Testing.

What is the value of screening candidates?

This Workforce.com article, Estimating the Financial Value of Staffing-Assessment Tools takes a stab at it. It spells out four back-of-napkin formulas (my favorites!) for calculating ROI. Sources: fewer bad hires, more good hires, reducing turnover, and reducing admin costs.

All four miss the point.

Screening only works if you believe you will always have a surplus of perfect candidates. That your labor market doesn't offer any candidates an alternative to you. That you don't need to compete for talent's attention and commitment.

For most jobs, these assumptions are short term pipe dreams. That aside, screening can burn your employment brand.

Why? Test before hire is rude.

Most screening exams burn bridges with potential employees. Like going out on a blind date only to be frisked for weapons, give blood, take a breathalyzer, consent to your credit being inspected, and ordered to complete a personality test before sitting down for coffee. And without your date consenting to any of the same.

What would you think of the date that behaved that way?

Rude. Insensitive. Control freak. Moved too fast.

And you'd tell all your friends about him.

Because there are too many fish in the sea to put up with that kind of unmannered abuse.

Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

What stories does your site create? We know it can relay packaged tales of personal growth and team accomplishment. But the very act of using your website creates a story in the mind of the visitor. Two books explain this clearly: Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace by Janet H. Murray and Computers as Theater by Brenda Laurel. Using software, online or off, has the emotional, dramatic, and narrative structure of a stage play or movie. The user has a goal, this creates tension as they overcome obstacles enroute to the goal. Each step of progress creates little moments of satisfaction and release. As they get closer to the finish, suspense rises and, upon completion, a cathartic whoosh and the endorphins kick in. Some stories don't work. No sense of plot, direction, engagement, context. No intermediate accomplishment. No enjoyment of the climax. Too long a denoument. Company career sites frequently suffer from the same agoniing problems. They ignore the many goals job seekers bring. They don't provide context. They don't status and acknowledge progress toward goals. They don't reward meeting milestones or small successes. Conversely, great video games engage. They manage to design in hooks that get people to invest dozens of hours in play. To get their friends to join. Enough that it's worth giving up meals and television. Career sites can be in that league, but usually aren't. I wonder why?

Canal Street Talent Management

Canal Street Talent Management is a talent agency for corporate senior executives. As power shifts to workers, entrepreneurs define new roles and carve out new niches. As referred by Bill Wick's XtremeNews blog.