There are many sides in today's debate about job gains or losses in this economy. Wanting to present all sides, here is an article from today's WSJ:
By WILLIAM MCGURN/WSJ/June 9, 2009
Tony Fratto is envious.
Mr. Fratto was a colleague of mine in the Bush administration, and as a senior member of the White House communications shop, he knows just how difficult it can be to deal with a press corps skeptical about presidential economic claims. It now appears, however, that Mr. Fratto's problem was that he simply lacked the magic words -- jobs "saved or created."
"Saved or created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing for American jobs. His latest invocation came yesterday, when the president declared that the stimulus had already saved or created at least 150,000 American jobs -- and announced he was ramping up some of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan will "save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years."
The president should 'save or create' more jobs in Cleveland.
Mr. Fratto sees a double standard at play. "We would never have used a formula like 'save or create,'" he tells me. "To begin with, the number is pure fiction -- the administration has no way to measure how many jobs are actually being 'saved.' And if we had tried to use something this flimsy, the press would never have let us get away with it."
Of course, the inability to measure Mr. Obama's jobs formula is part of its attraction. Never mind that no one -- not the Labor Department, not the Treasury, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- actually measures "jobs saved." As the New York Times delicately reports, Mr. Obama's jobs claims are "based on macroeconomic estimates, not an actual counting of jobs." Nice work if you can get away with it.
And get away with it he has. However dubious it may be as an economic measure, as a political formula "save or create" allows the president to invoke numbers that convey an illusion of precision. Harvard economist and former Bush economic adviser Greg Mankiw calls it a "non-measurable metric." And on his blog, he acknowledges the political attraction.
"The expression 'create or save,' which has been used regularly by the President and his economic team, is an act of political genius," writes Mr. Mankiw. "You can measure how many jobs are created between two points in time. But there is no way to measure how many jobs are saved. Even if things get much, much worse, the President can say that there would have been 4 million fewer jobs without the stimulus."
Mr. Obama's comments yesterday are a perfect illustration of just such a claim. In the months since Congress approved the stimulus, our economy has lost nearly 1.6 million jobs and unemployment has hit 9.4%. Invoke the magic words, however, and -- presto! -- you have the president claiming he has "saved or created" 150,000 jobs. It all makes for a much nicer spin, and helps you forget this is the same team that only a few months ago promised us that passing the stimulus would prevent unemployment from rising over 8%.
It's not only former Bush staffers such as Messrs. Fratto and Mankiw who have noted the political convenience here. During a March hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Max Baucus challenged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the formula.
"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong," said the Montana Democrat. "If the economy loses two million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."
Now, something's wrong when the president invokes a formula that makes it impossible for him to be wrong and it goes largely unchallenged. It's true that almost any government spending will create some jobs and save others. But as Milton Friedman once pointed out, that doesn't tell you much: The government, after all, can create jobs by hiring people to dig holes and fill them in.
If the "saved or created" formula looks brilliant, it's only because Mr. Obama and his team are not being called on their claims. And don't expect much to change. So long as the news continues to repeat the administration's line that the stimulus has already "saved or created" 150,000 jobs over a time period when the U.S. economy suffered an overall job loss 10 times that number, the White House would be insane to give up a formula that allows them to spin job losses into jobs saved.
"You would think that any self-respecting White House press corps would show some of the same skepticism toward President Obama's jobs claims that they did toward President Bush's tax cuts," says Mr. Fratto. "But I'm still waiting."
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Microsoft to move jobs overseas if Obama tax plan goes through
This recent article by Ryan J. Donmoyer, of Bloomberg, addresses interesting dilemma: how do you grow companies and create jobs if corporate tax structure drives companies abroad?
"By Ryan J. Donmoyer, June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.
“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”
Obama on May 4 proposed outlawing or restricting about $190 billion in tax breaks for offshore companies over the next decade. Such business groups as the National Foreign Trade Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have denounced the proposed overhaul.
U.S. tax rules let companies defer paying corporate rates as high as 35 percent on most types of foreign profits as long as that money remains invested overseas. Obama says he wants to end such incentives to keep foreign profits tax-deferred so that companies would invest them in the U.S.
Microsoft reported an overall effective tax rate of 26 percent for 2008 in its last annual report. “Our effective tax rates are less than the statutory tax rate due to foreign earnings taxed at lower rates,” the report said.
Barry Bosworth, an economist in Washington at the Brookings Institution research center, said many software companies such as Microsoft have exploited tax and trade rules in the U.S. and other countries to achieve a low overall tax rate.
Ireland Subsidiary
Typically, he said, a company like Microsoft develops a product like Windows in the United States and deducts those costs against U.S. income. It then transfers the technology to a subsidiary in Ireland, where corporate tax rates are lower, without charging licensing fees. The company then assigns its foreign sales to the Irish subsidiary so it doesn’t have to claim the income in the United States.
“What Microsoft wants to do is deduct the cost at a high tax rate and report the profits at a low tax rate,” Bosworth said. “Relative to where they are now, the administration’s proposals are less favorable, so there will be some rebalancing on their part.”
Ballmer is one of 10 U.S. software company executives pushing back against the tax proposals in meetings today with White House officials including Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council, and the heads of congressional committees such as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat.
Expense Deductions
Among other things, Obama proposed limiting expense deductions such as those for employee compensation when companies defer U.S. tax on foreign profits.
In a roundtable discussion today, Ballmer, Symantec Corp. Chairman John Thompson and the heads of smaller companies such as privately held Bentley Systems, an Exton, Pennsylvania-based maker of engineering software, said such policies would hurt domestic investment, reduce shareholder value and increase the cost of employing U.S. workers.
Ballmer said that, while the Obama proposals would preserve expense deductions related to research and experimentation costs, the overall deduction limits for companies that defer tax on foreign profits would raise the cost of employing U.S. workers. Fiduciary responsibility to shareholders would require Microsoft to cut costs, he said, meaning many jobs would be moved out of the country.
Worldwide Employees
Microsoft employed 95,029 people worldwide as of April 21, of whom 56,552 were based in the United States, according to the company’s Web site. The company announced it was firing up to 5,000 people in January while hiring some new workers; the company has shed about 1,000 jobs since then, spokesman Lou Gellos said.
Ballmer estimated that higher taxes under the proposal would reduce profits for companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average by between 10 and 15 percentage points.
“It’s just a question of how much will the Dow come down,” Ballmer said. “It’s not about companies anyway; we’re talking about shareholders.”
In addition to limiting current deductions for companies that defer U.S. tax on their foreign profits, Obama proposed altering a set of rules known as “check the box” that allow companies to shelter foreign profits in offshore subsidiaries that can be disregarded for U.S. tax purposes.
Duck Liabilities
While the rules were designed in 1997 to protect U.S. companies from paying excessive tax to other governments, Obama administration officials say it has evolved into a way to duck U.S. liabilities. Altering the rule, which Obama dubbed a “loophole,” would generate $86.5 billion in new revenue by 2019, the administration says.
The third international tax proposal would change rules governing how companies can claim tax credits for levies paid to foreign governments. Officials say some companies abuse the rule to accelerate tax credits before they could otherwise be claimed.
Obama has said his proposals would protect or create jobs in the United States.
Thompson of Symantec, the Cupertino, California-based maker of Norton anti-virus software and similar tools, said software companies are frustrated by being called tax cheats and compared with companies that moved their headquarters to low-tax countries such as Bermuda.
‘Counterintuitive’
Thompson called the Obama proposals “counterintuitive” to the administration’s other stated goals of fostering an innovation-oriented economy.
“It is a little bit ironic that most of our most significant trading partners and partners globally have taken the tack that they’ll reduce corporate tax rates to stimulate economic growth and not raise corporate tax rates,” Thompson said."
"By Ryan J. Donmoyer, June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.
“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”
Obama on May 4 proposed outlawing or restricting about $190 billion in tax breaks for offshore companies over the next decade. Such business groups as the National Foreign Trade Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have denounced the proposed overhaul.
U.S. tax rules let companies defer paying corporate rates as high as 35 percent on most types of foreign profits as long as that money remains invested overseas. Obama says he wants to end such incentives to keep foreign profits tax-deferred so that companies would invest them in the U.S.
Microsoft reported an overall effective tax rate of 26 percent for 2008 in its last annual report. “Our effective tax rates are less than the statutory tax rate due to foreign earnings taxed at lower rates,” the report said.
Barry Bosworth, an economist in Washington at the Brookings Institution research center, said many software companies such as Microsoft have exploited tax and trade rules in the U.S. and other countries to achieve a low overall tax rate.
Ireland Subsidiary
Typically, he said, a company like Microsoft develops a product like Windows in the United States and deducts those costs against U.S. income. It then transfers the technology to a subsidiary in Ireland, where corporate tax rates are lower, without charging licensing fees. The company then assigns its foreign sales to the Irish subsidiary so it doesn’t have to claim the income in the United States.
“What Microsoft wants to do is deduct the cost at a high tax rate and report the profits at a low tax rate,” Bosworth said. “Relative to where they are now, the administration’s proposals are less favorable, so there will be some rebalancing on their part.”
Ballmer is one of 10 U.S. software company executives pushing back against the tax proposals in meetings today with White House officials including Jason Furman, deputy director of the National Economic Council, and the heads of congressional committees such as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat.
Expense Deductions
Among other things, Obama proposed limiting expense deductions such as those for employee compensation when companies defer U.S. tax on foreign profits.
In a roundtable discussion today, Ballmer, Symantec Corp. Chairman John Thompson and the heads of smaller companies such as privately held Bentley Systems, an Exton, Pennsylvania-based maker of engineering software, said such policies would hurt domestic investment, reduce shareholder value and increase the cost of employing U.S. workers.
Ballmer said that, while the Obama proposals would preserve expense deductions related to research and experimentation costs, the overall deduction limits for companies that defer tax on foreign profits would raise the cost of employing U.S. workers. Fiduciary responsibility to shareholders would require Microsoft to cut costs, he said, meaning many jobs would be moved out of the country.
Worldwide Employees
Microsoft employed 95,029 people worldwide as of April 21, of whom 56,552 were based in the United States, according to the company’s Web site. The company announced it was firing up to 5,000 people in January while hiring some new workers; the company has shed about 1,000 jobs since then, spokesman Lou Gellos said.
Ballmer estimated that higher taxes under the proposal would reduce profits for companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average by between 10 and 15 percentage points.
“It’s just a question of how much will the Dow come down,” Ballmer said. “It’s not about companies anyway; we’re talking about shareholders.”
In addition to limiting current deductions for companies that defer U.S. tax on their foreign profits, Obama proposed altering a set of rules known as “check the box” that allow companies to shelter foreign profits in offshore subsidiaries that can be disregarded for U.S. tax purposes.
Duck Liabilities
While the rules were designed in 1997 to protect U.S. companies from paying excessive tax to other governments, Obama administration officials say it has evolved into a way to duck U.S. liabilities. Altering the rule, which Obama dubbed a “loophole,” would generate $86.5 billion in new revenue by 2019, the administration says.
The third international tax proposal would change rules governing how companies can claim tax credits for levies paid to foreign governments. Officials say some companies abuse the rule to accelerate tax credits before they could otherwise be claimed.
Obama has said his proposals would protect or create jobs in the United States.
Thompson of Symantec, the Cupertino, California-based maker of Norton anti-virus software and similar tools, said software companies are frustrated by being called tax cheats and compared with companies that moved their headquarters to low-tax countries such as Bermuda.
‘Counterintuitive’
Thompson called the Obama proposals “counterintuitive” to the administration’s other stated goals of fostering an innovation-oriented economy.
“It is a little bit ironic that most of our most significant trading partners and partners globally have taken the tack that they’ll reduce corporate tax rates to stimulate economic growth and not raise corporate tax rates,” Thompson said."
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Disappearance of the Traditional Career Path
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.
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.
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.
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