Dr. Michael Kannisto on ERE.net.
In the July/August print publication Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership, I’m spelling out my “10 predictions for the coming year.”
We’re already seeing signs that many long-held assumptions about what success looks like are now open to interpretation. Forced to get creative, companies are now reviewing the long-term effects of traditional staffing models. Buying talent from competitors fills jobs quickly, but those people don’t always stay. Fighting for a top MBA grad at the best school may give your company bragging rights, but does the expense associated with managing them (and their expectations) yield a good return on the investment?
While some managers used to be convinced that there was no talent within their own companies, many are now taking a closer look at internal candidates when filling key jobs. Career paths are now often about moving sideways, not always up. As each and every hiring decision is placed under greater scrutiny, hiring managers will become more flexible in finding ways to get work done.
What would once have been an open job that would have involved an in-person pitch from a retained search firm, a parade of candidates, a consensus-driven decision, a nasty attempt to address a counteroffer, and an expensive relocation, might now simply involve a qualified long-term employee working remotely.
Faced with the reality that their jobs might be eliminated despite good performance, employees will be more open to lateral moves and developmental assignments. And companies, desperate to fill key roles, will be willing to give them those opportunities.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Social Media Is Not A Magic Bullet
Last week I had a chance to present part of our recruitment workshop at the 18th Annual Gulf Coast HR Symposium. The workshop, "Beyond Post & Pray: Effective Recruitment Strategies and Techniques for Today's Workplace," addresses the dangers of Group Think and illustrates why a blended basic approach is usually the most successful strategy in finding and hiring higher quality candidates.
Social media was a hot topic of discussion. What was surprising were the number of attendees in the audience who were already moving away from "social media" platforms as an effective tool for better recruitment results. It was a matter of "grief-to-dollar" ratio or, in this case, "grief-to-time spent" ratio.
Social media is a tool. One of many traditional and non-traditional tools at the disposal of recruiters and Hiring Managers. Many in the session voiced the opinion that while it was the new hot topic of the day, social media involved so many different platforms that they did not have the time necessary to be consistent and effective. To paraphrase a quote from a recent article about social media, "All the buzz around social media is similar to that surrounding a weight loss product. Losts of hype but you have to put out the effort, be consistent, and individual results will vary."
What's been your experience?
Social media was a hot topic of discussion. What was surprising were the number of attendees in the audience who were already moving away from "social media" platforms as an effective tool for better recruitment results. It was a matter of "grief-to-dollar" ratio or, in this case, "grief-to-time spent" ratio.
Social media is a tool. One of many traditional and non-traditional tools at the disposal of recruiters and Hiring Managers. Many in the session voiced the opinion that while it was the new hot topic of the day, social media involved so many different platforms that they did not have the time necessary to be consistent and effective. To paraphrase a quote from a recent article about social media, "All the buzz around social media is similar to that surrounding a weight loss product. Losts of hype but you have to put out the effort, be consistent, and individual results will vary."
What's been your experience?
Some Employers See Hiring Opportunity
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
By CARI TUNA
Cancer Treatment Centers of America Inc. received 19,000 applicants for 100 jobs at a new hospital near Phoenix, opened in December -- six times as many as when it last opened a facility, in 2006.
Applicants included administrators, physicians and nutritionists -- both unemployed and employed. Chief Executive Steve Bonner was so overwhelmed that he is considering hiring additional employees long before he needs them, likely in 2011. "I'm asking myself: where are my weak spots, and is this an opportunity to plug one?"
Jobing.com
Jobing.com's Phoenix career fair drew record attendance.
Like Mr. Bonner, some employers are seizing the recession as an opportunity to strengthen their talent pool, poach stars from rivals or rebuild after layoffs. Every opening attracts dozens of qualified, and overqualified, applicants. Unemployment is 8.1% (since raised to 8.5% as of the Friday, April 3, unemployment report), the highest since 1983, and 12.5 million Americans are out of work. Yet the Labor Department says there were fewer than three million job openings in January, the fewest since it began tracking the data in 2000.
Strategically hiring skilled, productive employees can help employers boost efficiency and save money, says DeLynn Senna, executive director of permanent placement services for North America for Robert Half International Inc., a professional staffing firm. Good hiring decisions now may allow companies to best competitors when the economy rebounds, she says.
Many of the employers that are hiring are in sectors such as healthcare, government or utilities, which are still adding jobs. The U.S. Census Bureau is staffing ahead of next year's population count. The Los Angeles regional office has received more than 80,000 applicants for an initial 10,000 jobs, from field workers to office staff. Applicants include PhD and MBA holders "who would not typically apply for temporary positions with the Census Bureau," says Celeste Jimenez, an assistant regional manager.
For the Palm Beach County, Fla. School District, the recession means savings on recruiting and training bus drivers. Two years ago, the district was so desperate for drivers that officials parked a bus outside a local mall and handed applications to shoppers. This school year, the district has received more than 1,000 applications for fewer than 100 driver positions, paying around $12 an hour plus benefits. Many applicants have commercial driver's licenses, which were rare in the past; that cuts training costs, says transportation director Yevola Falana.
Other employers still hiring are gaining at the expense of rivals. Revenue at Family Dollar Stores Inc. grew 8.7% to about $2 billion in its fiscal second quarter, ending Feb. 28, as overall retail sales for the same period fell 9.4%. The Charlotte, N.C., discount retailer, which employs about 45,000 people, plans to open around 200 new stores and add more than 1,350 workers in 2009.
Each opening attracts a surge of applicants, helping Family Dollar trim recruiting costs and fill jobs faster with stronger candidates. "We're seeing a level of applicant we haven't ever seen before," says Bryan Venberg, senior vice president of human resources.
A recent posting for a New York City store manager drew 700 applications in two days. A listing for a human-resources manager drew more than 100 applications in 24 hours. Two years ago the company would have tapped a recruiter to fill the HR position, Mr. Venberg says.
To bolster its information-technology department, Family Dollar contacted managers at Circuit City Stores Inc., which recently liquidated. Family Dollar ultimately hired four IT specialists from the defunct electronics retailer, Mr. Venberg says.
Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk A/S, boosted by sales of new diabetes treatments, is hiring salespeople and researchers in the U.S., as many pharmaceutical companies shed jobs. Novo Nordisk employs 27,000 people worldwide, including more than 3,000 in the U.S. Novo Nordisk drew more than 4,000 applicants for 80 positions at a new research facility in Seattle, opened in October, including research directors laid off elsewhere. "Highly qualified people are trying to get lower-level jobs," says human-resources manager Rebecca Capuano.
Ms. Senna, of Robert Half, says small and mid-sized employers are benefiting too, as some large companies lay off workers and cut wages and benefits.
Consider Model N Inc., a closely held Silicon Valley software maker. Kamal Ahluwalia, vice president of corporate marketing, says Model N traditionally faced tough competition for employees from software giants such as Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, as well as smaller startups.
"Now, all the big guys are on hiring freeze, and most of the startups are dying," he says. "In this downturn, we really do have an opportunity to hire the best talent."
Buoyed by rising sales of its revenue-management software, Model N plans to add 30 to 40 employees to its 275-person staff in 2009. In February, Model N tapped Jim Gavin, an SAP salesman in Palo Alto, Calif., to lead sales to big technology companies.
In January, SAP had said it would cut 3,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce. The layoffs "put the whole organization on edge," says Mr. Gavin, who had worked for SAP for three years. He started looking elsewhere.
Model N tapped Mr. Gavin through a recruiter he had used to hire employees for SAP. Mr. Gavin's total potential compensation – between $260,000 and $300,000 – is similar to his target pay at SAP. But his fixed salary is higher and sales targets more achievable, he says. "Here you have a little bit more control," he says.
Mr. Ahluwalia says Mr. Gavin is better-qualified than his predecessors, who typically arrived from mid-sized technology companies with fewer contacts and less experience selling to big companies.
But hiring in a downturn can be tricky. Job seekers are not only more numerous but more desperate, hiring managers say. Weeding through hundreds of resumes is time consuming, and mistakes can be costly. Some employers are trying to screen out applicants who are merely seeking a paycheck until the economy recovers.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. expects to receive a record 1.5 million applications for around 20,000 positions in 2009, up from 1 million for between 12,000 and 13,000 openings in 2007, says Ken Disken, senior vice president of human resources.
He says interviewers have been instructed to pay closer attention to candidates' career goals than in the past. "We want to make sure they want to come to Lockheed Martin to pursue a career, not a job," Mr. Disken says.
By CARI TUNA
Cancer Treatment Centers of America Inc. received 19,000 applicants for 100 jobs at a new hospital near Phoenix, opened in December -- six times as many as when it last opened a facility, in 2006.
Applicants included administrators, physicians and nutritionists -- both unemployed and employed. Chief Executive Steve Bonner was so overwhelmed that he is considering hiring additional employees long before he needs them, likely in 2011. "I'm asking myself: where are my weak spots, and is this an opportunity to plug one?"
Jobing.com
Jobing.com's Phoenix career fair drew record attendance.
Like Mr. Bonner, some employers are seizing the recession as an opportunity to strengthen their talent pool, poach stars from rivals or rebuild after layoffs. Every opening attracts dozens of qualified, and overqualified, applicants. Unemployment is 8.1% (since raised to 8.5% as of the Friday, April 3, unemployment report), the highest since 1983, and 12.5 million Americans are out of work. Yet the Labor Department says there were fewer than three million job openings in January, the fewest since it began tracking the data in 2000.
Strategically hiring skilled, productive employees can help employers boost efficiency and save money, says DeLynn Senna, executive director of permanent placement services for North America for Robert Half International Inc., a professional staffing firm. Good hiring decisions now may allow companies to best competitors when the economy rebounds, she says.
Many of the employers that are hiring are in sectors such as healthcare, government or utilities, which are still adding jobs. The U.S. Census Bureau is staffing ahead of next year's population count. The Los Angeles regional office has received more than 80,000 applicants for an initial 10,000 jobs, from field workers to office staff. Applicants include PhD and MBA holders "who would not typically apply for temporary positions with the Census Bureau," says Celeste Jimenez, an assistant regional manager.
For the Palm Beach County, Fla. School District, the recession means savings on recruiting and training bus drivers. Two years ago, the district was so desperate for drivers that officials parked a bus outside a local mall and handed applications to shoppers. This school year, the district has received more than 1,000 applications for fewer than 100 driver positions, paying around $12 an hour plus benefits. Many applicants have commercial driver's licenses, which were rare in the past; that cuts training costs, says transportation director Yevola Falana.
Other employers still hiring are gaining at the expense of rivals. Revenue at Family Dollar Stores Inc. grew 8.7% to about $2 billion in its fiscal second quarter, ending Feb. 28, as overall retail sales for the same period fell 9.4%. The Charlotte, N.C., discount retailer, which employs about 45,000 people, plans to open around 200 new stores and add more than 1,350 workers in 2009.
Each opening attracts a surge of applicants, helping Family Dollar trim recruiting costs and fill jobs faster with stronger candidates. "We're seeing a level of applicant we haven't ever seen before," says Bryan Venberg, senior vice president of human resources.
A recent posting for a New York City store manager drew 700 applications in two days. A listing for a human-resources manager drew more than 100 applications in 24 hours. Two years ago the company would have tapped a recruiter to fill the HR position, Mr. Venberg says.
To bolster its information-technology department, Family Dollar contacted managers at Circuit City Stores Inc., which recently liquidated. Family Dollar ultimately hired four IT specialists from the defunct electronics retailer, Mr. Venberg says.
Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk A/S, boosted by sales of new diabetes treatments, is hiring salespeople and researchers in the U.S., as many pharmaceutical companies shed jobs. Novo Nordisk employs 27,000 people worldwide, including more than 3,000 in the U.S. Novo Nordisk drew more than 4,000 applicants for 80 positions at a new research facility in Seattle, opened in October, including research directors laid off elsewhere. "Highly qualified people are trying to get lower-level jobs," says human-resources manager Rebecca Capuano.
Ms. Senna, of Robert Half, says small and mid-sized employers are benefiting too, as some large companies lay off workers and cut wages and benefits.
Consider Model N Inc., a closely held Silicon Valley software maker. Kamal Ahluwalia, vice president of corporate marketing, says Model N traditionally faced tough competition for employees from software giants such as Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, as well as smaller startups.
"Now, all the big guys are on hiring freeze, and most of the startups are dying," he says. "In this downturn, we really do have an opportunity to hire the best talent."
Buoyed by rising sales of its revenue-management software, Model N plans to add 30 to 40 employees to its 275-person staff in 2009. In February, Model N tapped Jim Gavin, an SAP salesman in Palo Alto, Calif., to lead sales to big technology companies.
In January, SAP had said it would cut 3,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce. The layoffs "put the whole organization on edge," says Mr. Gavin, who had worked for SAP for three years. He started looking elsewhere.
Model N tapped Mr. Gavin through a recruiter he had used to hire employees for SAP. Mr. Gavin's total potential compensation – between $260,000 and $300,000 – is similar to his target pay at SAP. But his fixed salary is higher and sales targets more achievable, he says. "Here you have a little bit more control," he says.
Mr. Ahluwalia says Mr. Gavin is better-qualified than his predecessors, who typically arrived from mid-sized technology companies with fewer contacts and less experience selling to big companies.
But hiring in a downturn can be tricky. Job seekers are not only more numerous but more desperate, hiring managers say. Weeding through hundreds of resumes is time consuming, and mistakes can be costly. Some employers are trying to screen out applicants who are merely seeking a paycheck until the economy recovers.
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. expects to receive a record 1.5 million applications for around 20,000 positions in 2009, up from 1 million for between 12,000 and 13,000 openings in 2007, says Ken Disken, senior vice president of human resources.
He says interviewers have been instructed to pay closer attention to candidates' career goals than in the past. "We want to make sure they want to come to Lockheed Martin to pursue a career, not a job," Mr. Disken says.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Airline mechanics who can't read English!
10:03 AM CDT on Saturday, May 16, 2009
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
News 8 has recently revealed serious flaws in the way the FAA licenses mechanics who fix planes.
There is evidence of years of problems in testing these mechanics. There is also evidence that hundreds of mechanics with questionable licenses are working on aircraft in Texas.
Now there is evidence of repair facilities hiring low-wage mechanics who can't read English.
Twenty-one people were killed when U.S. Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003. The plane went wildly out of control on takeoff.
One reason for the crash, investigators found, was that mechanics incorrectly connected the cables to some of the plane's control surfaces in the repair shop. The FAA was cited for improper oversight of the repair process.
Repairing airplanes is a complicated business. Airplanes have many manuals. Typically, when mechanics repair a part, they open the manual, consult the book, and make the repair step-by-step, as if it were a recipe book.
They make a list of every action they take, so the next person to fix the plane (as well as the people who fly it) will know exactly what has been done.
If mechanics don't speak English, the international language of aviation, they can't read the manual and they can't record their activities.
There are more than 236 FAA-certified aircraft repair stations in Texas, according to the FAA's Web site. News 8 has learned that hundreds of the mechanics working in those shops do not speak English and are unable to read repair manuals for today's sophisticated aircraft.
Former FAA inspector Bill McNease told News 8 he regularly encountered applicants for pilots’ licenses who tried to pretend they could speak English — but could not.
"When I was based in Dallas, I had that happen every week," McNease said. "It was not uncommon at all to have foreign flight students. We had mechanics, but I handled the pilot end of it.... and I turned down people every week because they couldn't speak English."
"There are people [where I work] who do not know how to read a maintenance manual as they are spelled out, because they don't have a clue," said one certified aircraft mechanic who works at a Texas aircraft repair station. He wished to remain anonymous to protect his employment.
To certify a part for flight or repair an engine, a mechanic must be licensed by the FAA as an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic, known in the business as an "A&P."
News 8 discovered that mechanics at one licensing center in San Antonio were being tested in Spanish as late as last fall. The FAA ultimately shut the facility down.
Supervisors in Texas repair stations say they are supposed to oversee the repairs of dozens of untrained mechanics who can't read the manuals and can't write down the work they've done.
But the FAA does not require every person working at a repair station to be a certified A&P. One certified A&P can sign off on the work of dozens of uncertified mechanics.
That creates a huge problem, another certified mechanic told News 8. "I need an interpreter to talk to these people," he said. "They can't read the manuals, they can't write, and I have so many working for me I can't be sure of the work they've done."
To be sure of proper quality, the supervisor has to either re-do the work himself or take the chance that no mistakes have been made. There is a push to get work out the door and planes back in the air. But when he signs his name to certify the repair for flight, he is legally responsible for it.
The root of the problem is money, mechanics say. A certified mechanic can earn upwards of $25 an hour in Texas. Technicians who can't speak English are often hired for less than $10, according to mechanics interviewed by News 8.
"I've been wanting to leave this company since the day I got there," said one certified A&P. "But with the economy the way it is, I've got kids to feed and I have to stay there. I don't want to be anywhere near one of those planes when it kills somebody."
The FAA is supposed to police repair stations, but insiders say the agency is more focused on looking at paperwork than inspecting the facilities. Insiders also say inspectors warn repair stations when they're coming.
"In Dallas, most of them would map it out and tell them what day they were going to be there," said Gene Bland, a former FAA inspector.
Safety, mechanics say, is at risk. "In my opinion," said one, "company owners should all be locked up because someone's going to die eventually, if it hasn't already happened."
Texas' two biggest airlines, American and Southwest, both require mechanics and the technicians who work under them to speak, read and write English.
But mechanics who work elsewhere — whose repairs often end up on commercial airliners — say their shops are filled with non-English speakers.
The FAA declined to be interviewed for this report.
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
News 8 has recently revealed serious flaws in the way the FAA licenses mechanics who fix planes.
There is evidence of years of problems in testing these mechanics. There is also evidence that hundreds of mechanics with questionable licenses are working on aircraft in Texas.
Now there is evidence of repair facilities hiring low-wage mechanics who can't read English.
Twenty-one people were killed when U.S. Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003. The plane went wildly out of control on takeoff.
One reason for the crash, investigators found, was that mechanics incorrectly connected the cables to some of the plane's control surfaces in the repair shop. The FAA was cited for improper oversight of the repair process.
Repairing airplanes is a complicated business. Airplanes have many manuals. Typically, when mechanics repair a part, they open the manual, consult the book, and make the repair step-by-step, as if it were a recipe book.
They make a list of every action they take, so the next person to fix the plane (as well as the people who fly it) will know exactly what has been done.
If mechanics don't speak English, the international language of aviation, they can't read the manual and they can't record their activities.
There are more than 236 FAA-certified aircraft repair stations in Texas, according to the FAA's Web site. News 8 has learned that hundreds of the mechanics working in those shops do not speak English and are unable to read repair manuals for today's sophisticated aircraft.
Former FAA inspector Bill McNease told News 8 he regularly encountered applicants for pilots’ licenses who tried to pretend they could speak English — but could not.
"When I was based in Dallas, I had that happen every week," McNease said. "It was not uncommon at all to have foreign flight students. We had mechanics, but I handled the pilot end of it.... and I turned down people every week because they couldn't speak English."
"There are people [where I work] who do not know how to read a maintenance manual as they are spelled out, because they don't have a clue," said one certified aircraft mechanic who works at a Texas aircraft repair station. He wished to remain anonymous to protect his employment.
To certify a part for flight or repair an engine, a mechanic must be licensed by the FAA as an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic, known in the business as an "A&P."
News 8 discovered that mechanics at one licensing center in San Antonio were being tested in Spanish as late as last fall. The FAA ultimately shut the facility down.
Supervisors in Texas repair stations say they are supposed to oversee the repairs of dozens of untrained mechanics who can't read the manuals and can't write down the work they've done.
But the FAA does not require every person working at a repair station to be a certified A&P. One certified A&P can sign off on the work of dozens of uncertified mechanics.
That creates a huge problem, another certified mechanic told News 8. "I need an interpreter to talk to these people," he said. "They can't read the manuals, they can't write, and I have so many working for me I can't be sure of the work they've done."
To be sure of proper quality, the supervisor has to either re-do the work himself or take the chance that no mistakes have been made. There is a push to get work out the door and planes back in the air. But when he signs his name to certify the repair for flight, he is legally responsible for it.
The root of the problem is money, mechanics say. A certified mechanic can earn upwards of $25 an hour in Texas. Technicians who can't speak English are often hired for less than $10, according to mechanics interviewed by News 8.
"I've been wanting to leave this company since the day I got there," said one certified A&P. "But with the economy the way it is, I've got kids to feed and I have to stay there. I don't want to be anywhere near one of those planes when it kills somebody."
The FAA is supposed to police repair stations, but insiders say the agency is more focused on looking at paperwork than inspecting the facilities. Insiders also say inspectors warn repair stations when they're coming.
"In Dallas, most of them would map it out and tell them what day they were going to be there," said Gene Bland, a former FAA inspector.
Safety, mechanics say, is at risk. "In my opinion," said one, "company owners should all be locked up because someone's going to die eventually, if it hasn't already happened."
Texas' two biggest airlines, American and Southwest, both require mechanics and the technicians who work under them to speak, read and write English.
But mechanics who work elsewhere — whose repairs often end up on commercial airliners — say their shops are filled with non-English speakers.
The FAA declined to be interviewed for this report.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tripling Traffic to Your Careers Site With a Facebook Account?
by Jim Durbin, Apr 21, 2009
Curious as to the impact of social media on your search-engine profile? Try this experiment: Go to a search engine and type in “(your company) careers” into the search field.
If you’re most companies, you may get one or more entries that may or may not point a job-seeker to the correct website. If you’re a few companies I won’t mention, you sadly go to the archives of well-known recruiter blogs begging you to upgrade your site. For the company Sodexo, the first result is its blog, and the second is the careers site, and the rest of the page is profiles in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr.
Sodexo is one of the largest employers in the world, and yet it flies under the radar when it comes to staffing. Sodexo staffs food and facilities management services around the world, and employs over 120,000 people in North America. Imagine that req load.
Sodexo didn’t have to imagine. To add to the confusion, it recently changed its name, which means new branding, new marketing, and new search terms. So in December of 2007, curious about the blogosphere and the impact of social media on staffing, it launched its first blog. Sodexo Careers is written on Blogger, and covers issues of staffing and HR, but also corporate citizenship, technology, and culture. It’s the number one search result on Google for “Sodexo Careers,” beating out the careers site on Sodexo.com.
The blog started out private, but after a month of internal monitoring, got the green light to go public. The Staffing team didn’t have much marketing help in the beginning, so the task fell to Kerry Noone, a marketing associate with a background in branding to manage the social media duties. The blog success led Kerry to create a Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter presence, complete with hiring groups, touchpoints, and most important, live recruiters managing the action. For each site, the goal was to establish a presence, understand candidate expectations, and meet them.
Each site built on the success of the other profiles, and as Sodexo as a company got more comfortable with a site, individual recruiters begin linking to each other, supporting each other, and using personal profiles to create a lively and engaged hub for all of their hiring needs. What started as a single person writing turned into an organizational change that allowed each recruiter to use the company’s social media presence for their immediate and long-term hiring needs.
The focus was always on metrics. Traffic and hires were tracked as best as they were able (recognizing that hires often come from multiple sources). The result? A near tripling of traffic to the careers site by mid-summer, prior to the massive influx of resumes from the weakening economy.
In February of 2008, traffic to the site averaged about 50,000 uniques per month. Three months later, that traffic was at 120,000 a month, and by August 2008, the three-month rolling average was at 135,000, with peak numbers reaching 150,000 uniques.
These numbers only represent unique visitors to the careers site, and don’t count individual recruiter pages, fan pages, company profiles, or any traffic to the blog and other social media sites. YouTube alone saw over 60,000 video views in the first eight months of use.
Hires can’t be tracked accurately all the way from the first contact to the eventual hire, but recruiters do report regularly on the importance of social media in the initial connection, through the employment process, and after the offer. Candidates are better informed, and anecdotally more engaged and more excited about Sodexo the company.
The effects of integrating social media into the Sodexo employment process are undeniable, but the startling part of their success came from understanding the effects of social media on the internal workings of the corporation. Having a successful social media program that is highly visible has led to a high degree of cooperation between the Talent Acquisition team and other divisions. Other sections of Human Resources, as well as Marketing, Sales, Diversity, and Corporate Communications, use the Sodexo social media presence to better launch initiatives and connect with clients. Internal resources look to the Talent Acquisition team for its obvious social media expertise, and the executives have a firm grasp on the value of the effort, measured against other costs like advertising, job boards, and recruiting fees.
Anthony Scarpino manages the division for Sodexo, and with the firm support of the overall head of Talent Acquisition, he has seen results that far outweigh the costs of implementation. The campaign, made up of individual efforts (and light management oversight), has made Sodexo better at hiring the staff it needs. They are better recruiters because they actually carry on conversations with potential job-seekers in the medium the job-seekers wish to use. This conversation has helped teach Scarpino what job-seekers expect, and through that Sodexo has been better able to empathize and tweak the process for an improved overall experience. The result has been a steady increase in hires in the short time they have had the program working.
Most important, the success of the program has brought increased participation from the hiring staff. Recruiters aren’t forced into social media, but as they see results, they engage more and more, using the tools that best suit their hiring niche.
What Lessons Can Be Learned?
First, social media in recruiting may best be used at the individual level. Programs designed to give a company a presence online don’t work if they aren’t generating results for the recruiters in the trenches.
Second, supportive management is a key factor. The right amount of oversight and guidance is necessary to manage a system without dampening creativity and enthusiasm. In opening up to social media, Sodexo gave future employees avenues to speak with past and present employees. That’s a scary proposition for any company, especially one with so many employees, but the result has been a long-term positive reaction.
Finally, we see that it is possible to track the ROI of social media in staffing. Sodexo uses a mixture of branding and marketing metrics tied into standard hiring benchmarks.
The result in this case is an astounding increase in targeted traffic that once again shows that when social media is integrated into a company’s hiring DNA, good things happen. There are no silver bullets, but the earnest application of social networking can help your company put people to work.
Curious as to the impact of social media on your search-engine profile? Try this experiment: Go to a search engine and type in “(your company) careers” into the search field.
If you’re most companies, you may get one or more entries that may or may not point a job-seeker to the correct website. If you’re a few companies I won’t mention, you sadly go to the archives of well-known recruiter blogs begging you to upgrade your site. For the company Sodexo, the first result is its blog, and the second is the careers site, and the rest of the page is profiles in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr.
Sodexo is one of the largest employers in the world, and yet it flies under the radar when it comes to staffing. Sodexo staffs food and facilities management services around the world, and employs over 120,000 people in North America. Imagine that req load.
Sodexo didn’t have to imagine. To add to the confusion, it recently changed its name, which means new branding, new marketing, and new search terms. So in December of 2007, curious about the blogosphere and the impact of social media on staffing, it launched its first blog. Sodexo Careers is written on Blogger, and covers issues of staffing and HR, but also corporate citizenship, technology, and culture. It’s the number one search result on Google for “Sodexo Careers,” beating out the careers site on Sodexo.com.
The blog started out private, but after a month of internal monitoring, got the green light to go public. The Staffing team didn’t have much marketing help in the beginning, so the task fell to Kerry Noone, a marketing associate with a background in branding to manage the social media duties. The blog success led Kerry to create a Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter presence, complete with hiring groups, touchpoints, and most important, live recruiters managing the action. For each site, the goal was to establish a presence, understand candidate expectations, and meet them.
Each site built on the success of the other profiles, and as Sodexo as a company got more comfortable with a site, individual recruiters begin linking to each other, supporting each other, and using personal profiles to create a lively and engaged hub for all of their hiring needs. What started as a single person writing turned into an organizational change that allowed each recruiter to use the company’s social media presence for their immediate and long-term hiring needs.
The focus was always on metrics. Traffic and hires were tracked as best as they were able (recognizing that hires often come from multiple sources). The result? A near tripling of traffic to the careers site by mid-summer, prior to the massive influx of resumes from the weakening economy.
In February of 2008, traffic to the site averaged about 50,000 uniques per month. Three months later, that traffic was at 120,000 a month, and by August 2008, the three-month rolling average was at 135,000, with peak numbers reaching 150,000 uniques.
These numbers only represent unique visitors to the careers site, and don’t count individual recruiter pages, fan pages, company profiles, or any traffic to the blog and other social media sites. YouTube alone saw over 60,000 video views in the first eight months of use.
Hires can’t be tracked accurately all the way from the first contact to the eventual hire, but recruiters do report regularly on the importance of social media in the initial connection, through the employment process, and after the offer. Candidates are better informed, and anecdotally more engaged and more excited about Sodexo the company.
The effects of integrating social media into the Sodexo employment process are undeniable, but the startling part of their success came from understanding the effects of social media on the internal workings of the corporation. Having a successful social media program that is highly visible has led to a high degree of cooperation between the Talent Acquisition team and other divisions. Other sections of Human Resources, as well as Marketing, Sales, Diversity, and Corporate Communications, use the Sodexo social media presence to better launch initiatives and connect with clients. Internal resources look to the Talent Acquisition team for its obvious social media expertise, and the executives have a firm grasp on the value of the effort, measured against other costs like advertising, job boards, and recruiting fees.
Anthony Scarpino manages the division for Sodexo, and with the firm support of the overall head of Talent Acquisition, he has seen results that far outweigh the costs of implementation. The campaign, made up of individual efforts (and light management oversight), has made Sodexo better at hiring the staff it needs. They are better recruiters because they actually carry on conversations with potential job-seekers in the medium the job-seekers wish to use. This conversation has helped teach Scarpino what job-seekers expect, and through that Sodexo has been better able to empathize and tweak the process for an improved overall experience. The result has been a steady increase in hires in the short time they have had the program working.
Most important, the success of the program has brought increased participation from the hiring staff. Recruiters aren’t forced into social media, but as they see results, they engage more and more, using the tools that best suit their hiring niche.
What Lessons Can Be Learned?
First, social media in recruiting may best be used at the individual level. Programs designed to give a company a presence online don’t work if they aren’t generating results for the recruiters in the trenches.
Second, supportive management is a key factor. The right amount of oversight and guidance is necessary to manage a system without dampening creativity and enthusiasm. In opening up to social media, Sodexo gave future employees avenues to speak with past and present employees. That’s a scary proposition for any company, especially one with so many employees, but the result has been a long-term positive reaction.
Finally, we see that it is possible to track the ROI of social media in staffing. Sodexo uses a mixture of branding and marketing metrics tied into standard hiring benchmarks.
The result in this case is an astounding increase in targeted traffic that once again shows that when social media is integrated into a company’s hiring DNA, good things happen. There are no silver bullets, but the earnest application of social networking can help your company put people to work.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Oops!: Unintended Consequences of Lay Offs.
One of the reasons we stress Workforce Planning is so that our clients do not lay off the wrong people, the people they are going to need to do the jobs that will generate revenues.
A story in today's Washington Post illustrates the problem.
"...Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, noted that some cuts may be justified. 'You never want to see an individual be removed, but sometimes lost in the discussions is whether some of these positions should be eliminated,' he said.
...For instance, Florida's court system has cut 200 employees in the past 18 months. Judges lack staff members to prepare materials for trials at a time when property crimes and foreclosures are up significantly. The state cut so many hearing officers for traffic infractions that drivers started to realize that there was no one to hear cases and contested more tickets. This meant a big drop in revenue -- leading the state to rehire some of the officers.
(Source: Despite Stimulus Funds, States to Cut More Jobs, Alec MacGillis, Washington Post, May 12, 2009)
A story in today's Washington Post illustrates the problem.
"...Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, noted that some cuts may be justified. 'You never want to see an individual be removed, but sometimes lost in the discussions is whether some of these positions should be eliminated,' he said.
...For instance, Florida's court system has cut 200 employees in the past 18 months. Judges lack staff members to prepare materials for trials at a time when property crimes and foreclosures are up significantly. The state cut so many hearing officers for traffic infractions that drivers started to realize that there was no one to hear cases and contested more tickets. This meant a big drop in revenue -- leading the state to rehire some of the officers.
(Source: Despite Stimulus Funds, States to Cut More Jobs, Alec MacGillis, Washington Post, May 12, 2009)
It's A Good Time To Work For Uncle Sam!
Posted by Declan McCullagh
President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.
At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.
Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.
There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.
Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees. (These figures assume that Congress adopts Mr. Obama's 2010 budget without significant changes.)
A 39-page "dimensions" document accompanying the White House's 1,380-page appendix offers justifications for each new hire. Homeland Security says its new employees will "increase border security." The Agency for International Development wants to improve "the management and stewardship of foreign assistance programs." The Smithsonian Institution wants "additional security guards." And so on.
The final evidence that it's a good time to have a .gov e-mail address? Civilian government employees are set to enjoy a 2 percent raise. Not only are private sector workers are struggling to keep their jobs, but their earnings are stagnating and pay cuts are no longer uncommon.
President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.
At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.
Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.
There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
Meanwhile, according to Forbes' layoff tracker, there have been 558,087 layoffs since November 2008 at large public companies; even local school districts aren't immune. That's just a sliver of the total unemployed, which government data estimate to be 8.6 percent of the workforce, or an alternate method of reckoning that counts discouraged workers puts at 20 percent.
Some of the Feds' hiring increases have been stunning. If you look at the four-year period from 2006 to 2010, the number of Homeland Security employees has grown by 22 percent, the Justice Department has increased by 15 percent, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can claim 25 percent more employees. (These figures assume that Congress adopts Mr. Obama's 2010 budget without significant changes.)
A 39-page "dimensions" document accompanying the White House's 1,380-page appendix offers justifications for each new hire. Homeland Security says its new employees will "increase border security." The Agency for International Development wants to improve "the management and stewardship of foreign assistance programs." The Smithsonian Institution wants "additional security guards." And so on.
The final evidence that it's a good time to have a .gov e-mail address? Civilian government employees are set to enjoy a 2 percent raise. Not only are private sector workers are struggling to keep their jobs, but their earnings are stagnating and pay cuts are no longer uncommon.
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Curse of the Class of 2009
(Source: The Wall Street Journal)
The Curse of the Class of 2009
For College Grads Lucky Enough to Get Work This Year, Low Wages are Likely to Haunt Them for a Decade or More
By SARA MURRAY
The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.
The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show.
Andrew Friedson graduated last year from the University of Maryland with a degree in government and politics and a stint as student-body president on his résumé. After working on Barack Obama's presidential campaign for a few months, Mr. Friedson hoped to get a position in the new administration. When that didn't pan out he looked for jobs on Capitol Hill. No luck there, either.
So now, instead of learning about policymaking and legislation, he's earning about $1,250 a month as a high-school tutor and a part-time fundraiser for Hillel, a Jewish campus organization. To save money, he's living with his parents.
Low Wages Linger
For those who graduate during a recession, the effects on their earnings last years.
If asked a year ago whether he'd be tutoring now, Mr. Friedson says, "I would have laughed in your face."
Trading down to a lower-skilled job isn't just a hit to Mr. Friedson's ego. It could also hurt his bank account for years to come. Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads.
In short, luck matters. The damage can linger up to 15 years, says Lisa Kahn, a Yale School of Management economist. She used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government data base, to track wages of white men who graduated before, during and after the deep 1980s recession.
Ms. Kahn found that for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, those with the misfortune to graduate during the recession earned 7% to 8% less in their first year out than comparable workers who graduated in better times. The effect persisted over many years, with recession-era grads earning 4% to 5% less by their 12th year out of college, and 2% less by their 18th year out.
For example, a man who graduated in December 1982 when unemployment was at 10.8% made, on average, 23% less his first year out of college and 6.6% less 18 years out than one who graduated in May 1981 when the unemployment rate was 7.5%. For a typical worker, that would mean earning $100,000 less over the 18-year period.
The impact on wages could be just as severe this time around, says Ms. Kahn. That's because of the depth of this recession and the possibility that the unemployment rate may approach the 10.8% level not seen since the early 1980s. The rate hit 8.9% in April, the Labor Department reported Friday.
One reason behind declining wage potential, economists say: The caliber of jobs available in a recession, and their accompanying wages, tend to suffer. High-end firms hire fewer people and drive down salaries because jobs are in such demand.
That means many graduates end up with lower-wage, lower-skill jobs at less-prestigious firms or in firms outside their field of interest. Once the economy picks up and they try for better jobs, these workers have to learn skills they should have been developing immediately out of college. In the meantime, colleagues who graduated in a better economy have already developed these skills and progressed much further.
For Brad Dechter, a 24-year-old who majored in graphic design, this could mean starting at the bottom when and if he gets a job at an advertising agency. He studied at the Art Institute of Colorado partly because the Denver school advertises that 86% of alumni get a job within six months of graduation. So far, no dice.
Two recent college graduates are scraping by in the toughest job market in years. They're stuck between trying to find jobs that advance their careers and landing jobs that pay the bills. Eight months after graduation, Mr. Dechter is making just $500 a month freelancing for bands, designing flyers and album covers. When he runs short of cash, he borrows from his friends. He spends his days on Craigslist searching for job openings instead of learning the marketing and design skills he would have picked up in his first year at an agency.
"I've pretty much given up on trying to find my dream job," says Mr. Dechter.
Christine Pacheco, director of career services at the Art Institute, acknowledges that graduates face a struggle now. "They may need to take two part-time jobs and do some freelance rather than get a full-time job," she says.
College graduates remain better off than those with only high-school diplomas, in good times and bad. The unemployment rate in April among four-year college graduates between 20 and 24 years old was 6.1%; among those the same age with only high-school diplomas, it was 19.6%.
But a college degree isn't an automatic ticket to upward mobility, either. Even before the recession began, graduates were seeing their wages shrink. Between 2002 and 2007, according to government data, the inflation-adjusted hourly wage for men ages 25 to 35 with bachelor's degrees (and no graduate degrees) fell 4.5%. For the typical woman, inflation-adjusted wages fell 4.8%.
This year, employers say they'll hire 22% fewer college graduates than last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization of career counselors. At the same time, colleges are expected to see the highest number of graduates in a decade. The average starting salary for graduates who do get jobs, meanwhile, dropped to $48,515 this spring, down 2.2% from the same time last year, according to NACE.
Plenty of recent graduates are making far less than the average. Between her business marketing degree and numerous New York City contacts, Nicole Buckley, 21, figured she would find a marketing job after graduating in December from Siena College, a small Catholic liberal arts college near Albany, N.Y. She didn't expect to be working the jobs she has now, five months after graduation: As a full-time receptionist with a part-time gig as a model, promoting Bacardi rum and Grey Goose vodka to patrons at bars. But after doing two interviews a day and applying to more than 50 jobs, she had to do something to pay the bills.
"I don't think anyone went to college and said, 'I want to graduate and make $25,000 a year,' " says Ms. Buckley. She estimates her earnings at a little less than $30,000 between the two jobs.
Sarah Veilleux, 22, one of Ms. Buckley's two roommates in a $1,125-a-month Brooklyn apartment, graduated in May 2008 from the University of New Hampshire with a communications degree. For a few months, she worked selling band merchandise at a music venue. Then she found her ideal job: doing promotions for Sirius Satellite Radio. But they need her only 20 hours a week.
"As soon as I saw the offer for Sirius," she says, "it didn't matter how many hours a week." She spends the other half of her week doing administrative tasks for a staffing company, earning $1,500 a month -- $18,000 a year -- between the two jobs.
Still, Ms. Veilleux probably will be better off than those who take low-wage jobs outside their fields, says Till Marco von Wachter, a Columbia University economist. Mr. von Wachter, with a couple of colleagues, has looked at wage data covering 70% of all Canadians who graduated from college between 1976 and 1995, a span encompassing two recessions. His work indicates that graduates who get jobs in their fields -- even low-paying jobs -- are able to learn the right skills, and thus have an edge when the economy rebounds.
Mr. von Wachter also found that what recession-era graduates studied, and where they went to school, made a big difference in how quickly they caught up to workers who graduated in boom times. People who majored in fields that lead to high-paying jobs, such as chemistry, biology, physics and engineering, tended to catch up to other graduates more quickly, primarily by switching jobs during the economic recovery and landing at better firms. In contrast, says Mr. von Wachter, the wages of humanities majors at less prestigious schools were less likely to catch up to the wages of their peers who graduated in healthier times.
For some graduates, the recession has had an unintended upside: a career path they never thought they wanted.
Diane Hempe, 24, planned to be a teacher. But after graduating from the University of Maryland last year with an elementary education degree, she failed to find a job at a school. So she settled for working at a day-care center, where the $12 an hour she brought in felt like an affront.
In December, Ms. Hempe went in an entirely new direction. She took a job in the customer-service department at a Wells Fargo call center in Frederick, Md. "I definitely know I can move up," she says. "I can be in customer service; I can be in collections; I can be in so many different departments."
And in the meantime she's shifting her long-term goals. Instead of getting a master's degree in education like she once thought she would, Ms. Hempe says eventually she plans to get her master's in business.
Other are opting to ride out the slump doing public service. At AmeriCorps, a nationwide community-service network, applications more than tripled to about 48,500 between November 2008 and March compared to the same time period a year earlier. Teach for America received 35,000 applications this year -- 42% more than last year. About 70% of those were recent college graduates. Among the most common reasons people cited for applying, according to Teach for America, were poor job conditions and President Barack Obama's call to public service.
Another alternative to unemployment or a low-paying job: Stay in school.
Graduate applications for 2007-2008 were up 8% nationwide compared to the year before, according to the most recent numbers from the Council of Graduate Schools. Schools such as Northwestern University and Harvard are already tracking double-digit increases this year.
College grads who went to graduate school instead of the job market during the early '80s recession didn't suffer the same wage losses, says Ms. Kahn, the Yale economist.
That's the approach John Bence is taking. A 2008 graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio, the history major worked with a temp agency and did a six-month stint at an international consulting company. After repeatedly losing out on jobs -- at museums, universities, consulting firms -- to more-qualified candidates with master's degrees, he'll head to New York University to get a master's degree in history, specializing in archival management.
"I wasn't surprised I didn't get those jobs in, like, museums," Mr. Bence says. "But I was surprised that no one was willing to hire me to do anything."
The Curse of the Class of 2009
For College Grads Lucky Enough to Get Work This Year, Low Wages are Likely to Haunt Them for a Decade or More
By SARA MURRAY
The bad news for this spring's college graduates is that they're entering the toughest labor market in at least 25 years.
The worse news: Even those who land jobs will likely suffer lower wages for a decade or more compared to those lucky enough to graduate in better times, studies show.
Andrew Friedson graduated last year from the University of Maryland with a degree in government and politics and a stint as student-body president on his résumé. After working on Barack Obama's presidential campaign for a few months, Mr. Friedson hoped to get a position in the new administration. When that didn't pan out he looked for jobs on Capitol Hill. No luck there, either.
So now, instead of learning about policymaking and legislation, he's earning about $1,250 a month as a high-school tutor and a part-time fundraiser for Hillel, a Jewish campus organization. To save money, he's living with his parents.
Low Wages Linger
For those who graduate during a recession, the effects on their earnings last years.
If asked a year ago whether he'd be tutoring now, Mr. Friedson says, "I would have laughed in your face."
Trading down to a lower-skilled job isn't just a hit to Mr. Friedson's ego. It could also hurt his bank account for years to come. Economic research shows that the consequences of graduating in a downturn are long-lasting. They include lower earnings, a slower climb up the occupational ladder and a widening gap between the least- and most-successful grads.
In short, luck matters. The damage can linger up to 15 years, says Lisa Kahn, a Yale School of Management economist. She used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government data base, to track wages of white men who graduated before, during and after the deep 1980s recession.
Ms. Kahn found that for each percentage-point increase in the unemployment rate, those with the misfortune to graduate during the recession earned 7% to 8% less in their first year out than comparable workers who graduated in better times. The effect persisted over many years, with recession-era grads earning 4% to 5% less by their 12th year out of college, and 2% less by their 18th year out.
For example, a man who graduated in December 1982 when unemployment was at 10.8% made, on average, 23% less his first year out of college and 6.6% less 18 years out than one who graduated in May 1981 when the unemployment rate was 7.5%. For a typical worker, that would mean earning $100,000 less over the 18-year period.
The impact on wages could be just as severe this time around, says Ms. Kahn. That's because of the depth of this recession and the possibility that the unemployment rate may approach the 10.8% level not seen since the early 1980s. The rate hit 8.9% in April, the Labor Department reported Friday.
One reason behind declining wage potential, economists say: The caliber of jobs available in a recession, and their accompanying wages, tend to suffer. High-end firms hire fewer people and drive down salaries because jobs are in such demand.
That means many graduates end up with lower-wage, lower-skill jobs at less-prestigious firms or in firms outside their field of interest. Once the economy picks up and they try for better jobs, these workers have to learn skills they should have been developing immediately out of college. In the meantime, colleagues who graduated in a better economy have already developed these skills and progressed much further.
For Brad Dechter, a 24-year-old who majored in graphic design, this could mean starting at the bottom when and if he gets a job at an advertising agency. He studied at the Art Institute of Colorado partly because the Denver school advertises that 86% of alumni get a job within six months of graduation. So far, no dice.
Two recent college graduates are scraping by in the toughest job market in years. They're stuck between trying to find jobs that advance their careers and landing jobs that pay the bills. Eight months after graduation, Mr. Dechter is making just $500 a month freelancing for bands, designing flyers and album covers. When he runs short of cash, he borrows from his friends. He spends his days on Craigslist searching for job openings instead of learning the marketing and design skills he would have picked up in his first year at an agency.
"I've pretty much given up on trying to find my dream job," says Mr. Dechter.
Christine Pacheco, director of career services at the Art Institute, acknowledges that graduates face a struggle now. "They may need to take two part-time jobs and do some freelance rather than get a full-time job," she says.
College graduates remain better off than those with only high-school diplomas, in good times and bad. The unemployment rate in April among four-year college graduates between 20 and 24 years old was 6.1%; among those the same age with only high-school diplomas, it was 19.6%.
But a college degree isn't an automatic ticket to upward mobility, either. Even before the recession began, graduates were seeing their wages shrink. Between 2002 and 2007, according to government data, the inflation-adjusted hourly wage for men ages 25 to 35 with bachelor's degrees (and no graduate degrees) fell 4.5%. For the typical woman, inflation-adjusted wages fell 4.8%.
This year, employers say they'll hire 22% fewer college graduates than last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization of career counselors. At the same time, colleges are expected to see the highest number of graduates in a decade. The average starting salary for graduates who do get jobs, meanwhile, dropped to $48,515 this spring, down 2.2% from the same time last year, according to NACE.
Plenty of recent graduates are making far less than the average. Between her business marketing degree and numerous New York City contacts, Nicole Buckley, 21, figured she would find a marketing job after graduating in December from Siena College, a small Catholic liberal arts college near Albany, N.Y. She didn't expect to be working the jobs she has now, five months after graduation: As a full-time receptionist with a part-time gig as a model, promoting Bacardi rum and Grey Goose vodka to patrons at bars. But after doing two interviews a day and applying to more than 50 jobs, she had to do something to pay the bills.
"I don't think anyone went to college and said, 'I want to graduate and make $25,000 a year,' " says Ms. Buckley. She estimates her earnings at a little less than $30,000 between the two jobs.
Sarah Veilleux, 22, one of Ms. Buckley's two roommates in a $1,125-a-month Brooklyn apartment, graduated in May 2008 from the University of New Hampshire with a communications degree. For a few months, she worked selling band merchandise at a music venue. Then she found her ideal job: doing promotions for Sirius Satellite Radio. But they need her only 20 hours a week.
"As soon as I saw the offer for Sirius," she says, "it didn't matter how many hours a week." She spends the other half of her week doing administrative tasks for a staffing company, earning $1,500 a month -- $18,000 a year -- between the two jobs.
Still, Ms. Veilleux probably will be better off than those who take low-wage jobs outside their fields, says Till Marco von Wachter, a Columbia University economist. Mr. von Wachter, with a couple of colleagues, has looked at wage data covering 70% of all Canadians who graduated from college between 1976 and 1995, a span encompassing two recessions. His work indicates that graduates who get jobs in their fields -- even low-paying jobs -- are able to learn the right skills, and thus have an edge when the economy rebounds.
Mr. von Wachter also found that what recession-era graduates studied, and where they went to school, made a big difference in how quickly they caught up to workers who graduated in boom times. People who majored in fields that lead to high-paying jobs, such as chemistry, biology, physics and engineering, tended to catch up to other graduates more quickly, primarily by switching jobs during the economic recovery and landing at better firms. In contrast, says Mr. von Wachter, the wages of humanities majors at less prestigious schools were less likely to catch up to the wages of their peers who graduated in healthier times.
For some graduates, the recession has had an unintended upside: a career path they never thought they wanted.
Diane Hempe, 24, planned to be a teacher. But after graduating from the University of Maryland last year with an elementary education degree, she failed to find a job at a school. So she settled for working at a day-care center, where the $12 an hour she brought in felt like an affront.
In December, Ms. Hempe went in an entirely new direction. She took a job in the customer-service department at a Wells Fargo call center in Frederick, Md. "I definitely know I can move up," she says. "I can be in customer service; I can be in collections; I can be in so many different departments."
And in the meantime she's shifting her long-term goals. Instead of getting a master's degree in education like she once thought she would, Ms. Hempe says eventually she plans to get her master's in business.
Other are opting to ride out the slump doing public service. At AmeriCorps, a nationwide community-service network, applications more than tripled to about 48,500 between November 2008 and March compared to the same time period a year earlier. Teach for America received 35,000 applications this year -- 42% more than last year. About 70% of those were recent college graduates. Among the most common reasons people cited for applying, according to Teach for America, were poor job conditions and President Barack Obama's call to public service.
Another alternative to unemployment or a low-paying job: Stay in school.
Graduate applications for 2007-2008 were up 8% nationwide compared to the year before, according to the most recent numbers from the Council of Graduate Schools. Schools such as Northwestern University and Harvard are already tracking double-digit increases this year.
College grads who went to graduate school instead of the job market during the early '80s recession didn't suffer the same wage losses, says Ms. Kahn, the Yale economist.
That's the approach John Bence is taking. A 2008 graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio, the history major worked with a temp agency and did a six-month stint at an international consulting company. After repeatedly losing out on jobs -- at museums, universities, consulting firms -- to more-qualified candidates with master's degrees, he'll head to New York University to get a master's degree in history, specializing in archival management.
"I wasn't surprised I didn't get those jobs in, like, museums," Mr. Bence says. "But I was surprised that no one was willing to hire me to do anything."
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thought provoking quote about "sons."
"Your son is at five your master, at ten your servant, at fifteen your double, and after that, your friend or foe, depending on his bringing up."
--- Rabbi Chasdai ibn-Crescas
--- Rabbi Chasdai ibn-Crescas
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Citigroup eyes new ways to pay employees
Mon May 4, 2009
*Citi looking at commissions, other measures to keep staff
*New possibilities could be difficult to execute
*US banks losing staff to hedge funds, foreign banks
By Dan Wilchins
NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Citigroup may put more employees on commission or offer them larger base salaries as it tries to retain key staffers without running afoul of laws limiting executive pay at banks that receive government funds.
Three people familiar with the matter said the bank has examined a series of possible moves, including special stock-based bonuses, or offering employees a percentage of their group's revenue.
Banks across Wall Street are struggling to reward top performers without violating an amendment to the 2009 stimulus package limiting executive pay. That amendment calls for the Treasury Secretary to review compensation of top employees at any major recipient of funds from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Bonuses are expected to face particular scrutiny after Wall Street firms paid $18.4 billion of bonuses in 2008, a year in which the U.S. financial sector required more than $1 trillion of government support.
Some banks, most notably Goldman Sachs Group Inc, (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) hope to repay their TARP funds as soon as possible, in part to avoid having to comply with pay limits.
Citigroup, which has received $45 billion of TARP capital and is not believed to have much hope of paying the government back anytime soon, is having discussions with the government about measures that might be appropriate for retaining revenue producing employees.
A number of possibilities are under discussion, and generally are geared toward ensuring that employees are motivated to perform well. The No. 3 U.S. bank will have a better sense of how to proceed once the Treasury Department crafts more specific guidelines on pay, one person said.
Of particular concern is the Phibro business, which has been extraordinarily profitable. If Citigroup cannot find ways to compensate people there, the energy trading business may be spun off, sold, or opened to outside investors, a person familiar with the matter said. News of this possibility was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Citigroup had asked the Treasury Department for permission to pay special bonuses to key employees. One scenario discussed internally would be a one-time bonus paid to employees mainly in stock that would vest over at least three years.
Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen said in an emailed statement that the bank has not presented Treasury with any specific plan for staff retention or special cash payouts.
"Citi continues to examine ways to ensure its employee compensation practices are competitive in this very challenging market environment," Cohen said in the statement.
The alternatives that Citigroup is considering to standard discretionary bonuses still have flaws with them, experts said.
Commissions, for example, only work well for professionals in sales positions, and even then can lead to conflicts over which sales person was responsible for a deal. Giving percentages of revenue could result in outsized paydays if a business outperforms, which could lead to public outcry.
"There's no perfect answer to this issue," said Michael Holland, founder of Holland & Co, which oversees more than $4 billion.
STEMMING THE EXODUS
But banks have every incentive to figure out how to retain their top staff. On Monday, a source said two equity traders and a salesman from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) moved to hedge fund giant Citadel Investment Group. Foreign banks such as Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have also been able to hire employees from U.S. competitors.
In fact, banks that are not profitable will likely have trouble from a political standpoint paying employees anything but stock in bonuses, while banks that are profitable will likely look to repay TARP as quickly as possible to eliminate restrictions they face.
"I just don't think all this planning for other ways to pay people will amount to anything," said Paul Sorbera, a recruiter at Alliance Consulting in New York.
But for now, banks are concerned about retaining staff, and ensuring they are properly motivated.
"If we can't pay people competitively, we can't expect them to stay here," said one bank executive.
(Reporting by Dan Wilchins; Editing Bernard Orr)
*Citi looking at commissions, other measures to keep staff
*New possibilities could be difficult to execute
*US banks losing staff to hedge funds, foreign banks
By Dan Wilchins
NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Citigroup may put more employees on commission or offer them larger base salaries as it tries to retain key staffers without running afoul of laws limiting executive pay at banks that receive government funds.
Three people familiar with the matter said the bank has examined a series of possible moves, including special stock-based bonuses, or offering employees a percentage of their group's revenue.
Banks across Wall Street are struggling to reward top performers without violating an amendment to the 2009 stimulus package limiting executive pay. That amendment calls for the Treasury Secretary to review compensation of top employees at any major recipient of funds from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Bonuses are expected to face particular scrutiny after Wall Street firms paid $18.4 billion of bonuses in 2008, a year in which the U.S. financial sector required more than $1 trillion of government support.
Some banks, most notably Goldman Sachs Group Inc, (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) hope to repay their TARP funds as soon as possible, in part to avoid having to comply with pay limits.
Citigroup, which has received $45 billion of TARP capital and is not believed to have much hope of paying the government back anytime soon, is having discussions with the government about measures that might be appropriate for retaining revenue producing employees.
A number of possibilities are under discussion, and generally are geared toward ensuring that employees are motivated to perform well. The No. 3 U.S. bank will have a better sense of how to proceed once the Treasury Department crafts more specific guidelines on pay, one person said.
Of particular concern is the Phibro business, which has been extraordinarily profitable. If Citigroup cannot find ways to compensate people there, the energy trading business may be spun off, sold, or opened to outside investors, a person familiar with the matter said. News of this possibility was first reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Citigroup had asked the Treasury Department for permission to pay special bonuses to key employees. One scenario discussed internally would be a one-time bonus paid to employees mainly in stock that would vest over at least three years.
Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen said in an emailed statement that the bank has not presented Treasury with any specific plan for staff retention or special cash payouts.
"Citi continues to examine ways to ensure its employee compensation practices are competitive in this very challenging market environment," Cohen said in the statement.
The alternatives that Citigroup is considering to standard discretionary bonuses still have flaws with them, experts said.
Commissions, for example, only work well for professionals in sales positions, and even then can lead to conflicts over which sales person was responsible for a deal. Giving percentages of revenue could result in outsized paydays if a business outperforms, which could lead to public outcry.
"There's no perfect answer to this issue," said Michael Holland, founder of Holland & Co, which oversees more than $4 billion.
STEMMING THE EXODUS
But banks have every incentive to figure out how to retain their top staff. On Monday, a source said two equity traders and a salesman from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) moved to hedge fund giant Citadel Investment Group. Foreign banks such as Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have also been able to hire employees from U.S. competitors.
In fact, banks that are not profitable will likely have trouble from a political standpoint paying employees anything but stock in bonuses, while banks that are profitable will likely look to repay TARP as quickly as possible to eliminate restrictions they face.
"I just don't think all this planning for other ways to pay people will amount to anything," said Paul Sorbera, a recruiter at Alliance Consulting in New York.
But for now, banks are concerned about retaining staff, and ensuring they are properly motivated.
"If we can't pay people competitively, we can't expect them to stay here," said one bank executive.
(Reporting by Dan Wilchins; Editing Bernard Orr)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
