Every Organization is an Ecosytem.

Leadership: Passion > Aspiration

2011-06-17T11:25:00.002+05:30

Leaders who create extraordinary new possibilities are passionate about their mission and tenacious in pursuit of it. Many people have good ideas, but many fewer are willing to put themselves on the line for them. Passion separates good intentions and opportunism from real accomplishments.

To determine whether your passion matches your aspirations, try these 12 questions.

1. Do I feel strongly about the need for this?

2. Does the idea fit my long-held beliefs, values, and convictions?

3. Have I dreamed about something like this for a long time?

4. Do I think that this is vital for the future of people I care about?

5. Do I get excited when I think about it, and convey excitement when I talk about it?

6. Am I convinced that this can be accomplished?

7. Am I willing to put my credibility on the line to promise action on it?

8. Am I willing to spend time to sell it to others who might not understand or support it?

9. Can I make this the major focus of my activities?

10. Am I willing to devote personal time, above and beyond organizational time, to see that this happens?

11. Do I feel strongly enough to ignore negativity and fight for this?

12. Am I committed to seeing this through, over the long haul?

Passing the passion test is doesn't guarantee success, but without it, the journey can't even begin.

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in the harvard business review

Why American Management Rules the World : Harvard, LSE and McKinsey study

2011-06-17T11:22:00.002+05:30

The U.S. may lag at soccer, but Americans are the Brazilians of the boardroom, according to a group of European researchers

After a decade of painstaking research, we have concluded that American firms are on average the best managed in the world. This is not what we—a group of European researchers—expected to find. But while Americans are bad at football (or soccer, as it's known as locally), they are the Brazilians of Management.

Over the past decade, a team from Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, McKinsey & Company, and Stanford has systematically surveyed global management. We have developed a tool to measure management practices across operational management, monitoring, targets, and people management. We scored each dimension on a range of practices to generate an overall management score, surveying over 10,000 firms in 20 countries. This has allowed us to create the first global database of management practices.

Here are some of our findings.

Well managed firms thrash their poorly managed competitors

First, not surprisingly, we find that organizations with better management massively outperform their disorganized competitors. They make more money, grow faster, have far higher stock market values, and survive for longer. (For details see our previous HBR blog post.)

The American Management Century

Second, when it comes to overall management, American firms outperform all others. This U.S. dominance occurs in the manufacturing, retail, and healthcare sectors (but interestingly, not in high schools). Japanese, German, and Swedish firms follow closely behind. In contrast, developing countries like Brazil, China, and India lag at the bottom of the management charts. Southern European countries like Portugal and Greece appear to have management practices barely better than those of most developing countries. In the middle stand countries like the UK, France, Italy, and Australia, which have reasonable but not brilliant management practices.

Bottom dwellers drive the rankings down

While the ranking of countries is certainly eye-catching, the real story lies within the countries. Almost 90% of the cross-country differences are driven by the size of the "tail" of really badly managed firms within each country. Countries like the U.S. that excel have hardly any badly managed firms, while those like India that have low average scores have a mass of very badly managed firms pulling down their averages.

Every country has some world-class firms

But while there are many of these extremely badly managed, every country also hosts some excellent firms. Even bottom-ranking India has dozens of firms that use world-class management practices. A key takeaway is that individual companies are not trapped by the national environments in which they operate — there are top performers in all countries surveyed. Conversely, being in a world-class environment like the U.S. does not guarantee success. Even in America, more than 15% of firms are so badly managed that they are worse than the average Chinese or Indian firm.

What is the secret sauce of management success?

One of the biggest drivers of these differences is variation in people management. American firms are ruthless at rapidly rewarding and promoting good employees and retraining or firing bad employees. The reasons are threefold.

1. The U.S. has tougher levels of competition. Large and open U.S. markets generate the type of rapid management evolution that allows only the best-managed firms to survive.

2. Human capital is important. America traditionally gets far more of its population into college than other nations.

3. The U.S. has more flexible labor markets. It is much easier to hire and fire employees.

Many developing-country firms, even while trying to implement new techniques like Lean Management, ignore the fact that labor is different from other "inputs." Many of the Chinese firms surveyed did not even employ managers who spoke the same language as the workers, relying on interpreters or basic sign-language for communication. As you can imagine, this does not lead to a feeling of mutual support between management and workers.

But the U.S. should not be complacent. Other countries equal or better the U.S. in some of the other areas of management we examined, such as careful monitoring, lean production, and sensible targets. The manufacturing prowess of Germany, which has helped it weather the recent downturn so well, is built upon such advantages. Furthermore, although Chinese management practices are well below U.S. standards, they showed the fastest improvement since 2006 of any country we have looked at.

Changing the ranks and reaping the rewards

What lessons emerge for others wanting to reach the top of the ranking?

The answer is not for all firms to be more American but rather to consider some of the practices U.S. firms—and especially U.S. multinationals—continually exhibit and implement. Across all countries, organizations that properly incentivize talented workers, whether through promotion, pay, or other rewards, outperform others. As best practices spread and firms continue to implement these techniques they will narrow the existing gaps, reaping huge growth and profitability gains.

Do you want to know where your firm would fall in the rankings? For more on our research agenda and related work, go to the World Management Survey, where you can also benchmark your own organization and determine where you fall within the ranks of your industry or nation.

Provided by Harvard Business Review—Copyright © 2010 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

Live seamless discussions on the google docs

2011-03-17T12:13:00.000+05:30

Google launched live seamless discussions on the google docs platform.
This enables a group of people sitting at different locations to collaborate, chat and make changes to documents.

Though this option currently seems to be only available for each document separately, this could be a precursor to a fully functional collaborative workspace functionality on google docs.

Google's release notes

How to build a better boss: courtesy Google

2011-03-14T16:00:00.000+05:30

IN early 2009, statisticians inside the Googleplex here embarked on a plan code-named Project Oxygen.

Their mission was to devise something far more important to the future of Google Inc. than its next search algorithm or app.

They wanted to build better bosses.

So, as only a data-mining giant like Google can do, it began analyzing performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards. They correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints.

Later that year, the “people analytics” teams at the company produced what might be called the Eight Habits of Highly Effective Google Managers.

Now, brace yourself. Because the directives might seem so forehead-slappingly obvious — so, well, duh — it’s hard to believe that it took the mighty Google so long to figure them out:

“Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.”

“Help your employees with career development.”

“Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented.”

The list goes on, reading like a whiteboard gag from an episode of “The Office.”

“My first reaction was, that’s it?” says Laszlo Bock, Google’s vice president for “people operations,” which is Googlespeak for human resources.

But then, Mr. Bock and his team began ranking those eight directives by importance. And this is where Project Oxygen gets interesting.

For much of its 13-year history, particularly the early years, Google has taken a pretty simple approach to management: Leave people alone. Let the engineers do their stuff. If they become stuck, they’ll ask their bosses, whose deep technical expertise propelled them into management in the first place.

But Mr. Bock’s group found that technical expertise — the ability, say, to write computer code in your sleep — ranked dead last among Google’s big eight. What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.

“In the Google context, we’d always believed that to be a manager, particularly on the engineering side, you need to be as deep or deeper a technical expert than the people who work for you,” Mr. Bock says. “It turns out that that’s absolutely the least important thing. It’s important, but pales in comparison. Much more important is just making that connection and being accessible.”

Project Oxygen doesn’t fit neatly into the usual Google story line of hits (like its search engine) and misses (like the start last year of Buzz, its stab at social networking). Management is much squishier to analyze, after all, and the topic often feels a bit like golf. You can find thousands of tips and rules for how to become a better golfer, and just as many for how to become a better manager. Most of them seem to make perfect sense.

Problems start when you try to keep all those rules in your head at the same time — thus the golf cliché, “paralysis by analysis.” In management, as in golf, the greats make it all look effortless, which only adds to the sense of mystery and frustration for those who struggle to get better.

That caveat aside, Project Oxygen is noteworthy for a few reasons, according to academics and experts in this field.

H.R. has long run on gut instincts more than hard data. But a growing number of companies are trying to apply a data-driven approach to the unpredictable world of human interactions.

“Google is really at the leading edge of that,” says Todd Safferstone, managing director of the Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board, who has a good perch to see what H.R. executives at more than 1,000 big companies are up to.

Project Oxygen is also unusual, Mr. Safferstone says, because it is based on Google’s own data, which means that it will feel more valid to those Google employees who like to scoff at conventional wisdom.

Many companies, he explained, adopt generic management models that tell people the roughly 20 things they should do as managers, without ranking those traits by importance. Those models often suffer “a lot of organ rejection” in companies, he added, because they are not presented with any evidence that they will make a difference, nor do they prioritize what matters.

“Most companies are better at exhorting you to be a great manager, rather than telling you how to be a great manager,” Mr. Safferstone says.

PROJECT OXYGEN started with some basic assumptions.

People typically leave a company for one of three reasons, or a combination of them. The first is that they don’t feel a connection to the mission of the company, or sense that their work matters. The second is that they don’t really like or respect their co-workers. The third is they have a terrible boss — and this was the biggest variable. Google, where performance reviews are done quarterly, rather than annually, saw huge swings in the ratings that employees gave to their bosses.

Managers also had a much greater impact on employees’ performance and how they felt about their job than any other factor, Google found.

“The starting point was that our best managers have teams that perform better, are retained better, are happier — they do everything better,” Mr. Bock says. “So the biggest controllable factor that we could see was the quality of the manager, and how they sort of made things happen. The question we then asked was: What if every manager was that good? And then you start saying: Well, what makes them that good? And how do you do it?”

In Project Oxygen, the statisticians gathered more than 10,000 observations about managers — across more than 100 variables, from various performance reviews, feedback surveys and other reports. Then they spent time coding the comments in order to look for patterns.

Once they had some working theories, they figured out a system for interviewing managers to gather more data, and to look for evidence that supported their notions. The final step was to code and synthesize all those results — more than 400 pages of interview notes — and then they spent much of last year rolling out the results to employees and incorporating them into various training programs.

The process of reading and coding all the information was time-consuming. This was one area where computers couldn’t help, says Michelle Donovan, a manager of people analytics who was involved in the study.

“People say there’s software that can help you do that,” she says. “It’s been our experience that you just have to get in there and read it.”

GIVEN the familiar feel of the list of eight qualities, the project might have seemed like an exercise in reinventing the wheel. But Google generally prefers, for better or worse, to build its own wheels.

“We want to understand what works at Google rather than what worked in any other organization,” says Prasad Setty, Google’s vice president for people analytics and compensation.

Once Google had its list, the company started teaching it in training programs, as well as in coaching and performance review sessions with individual employees. It paid off quickly.

“We were able to have a statistically significant improvement in manager quality for 75 percent of our worst-performing managers,” Mr. Bock says.

He tells the story of one manager whose employees seemed to despise him. He was driving them too hard. They found him bossy, arrogant, political, secretive. They wanted to quit his team.

“He’s brilliant, but he did everything wrong when it came to leading a team,” Mr. Bock recalls.

Because of that heavy hand, this manager was denied a promotion he wanted, and was told that his style was the reason. But Google gave him one-on-one coaching — the company has coaches on staff, rather than hiring from the outside. Six months later, team members were grudgingly acknowledging in surveys that the manager had improved.

“And a year later, it’s actually quite a bit better,” Mr. Bock says. “It’s still not great. He’s nowhere near one of our best managers, but he’s not our worst anymore. And he got promoted.”

Mark Klenk, an engineering manager whom Google made available for an interview, said the Project Oxygen findings, and the subsequent training, helped him understand the importance of giving clear and direct feedback to the people he supervises.

“There are cases with some personalities where they are not necessarily realizing they need a course correction,” Mr. Klenk says. “So it’s just about being really clear about saying, ‘O.K., I understand what you are doing here, but let’s talk about the results, and this is the goal.’ ”

“I’m doing that a lot more,” he says, adding that the people he manages seem to like it. “I’ve gotten direct feedback where they’ve thanked me for being clear.”

GOOGLE executives say they aren’t crunching all this data to develop some algorithm of successful management. The point, they say, is to provide the data and to make people aware of it, so that managers can understand what works and, just as important, what doesn’t.

The traps can show up in areas like hiring. Managers often want to hire people who seem just like them. So Google compiles elaborate dossiers on candidates from the interview process, and hiring decisions are made by a group. “We do everything to minimize the authority and power of the manager in making a hiring decision,” Mr. Bock explains.

A person with an opening on her team, for instance, may have short-term needs that aren’t aligned with the company’s long-term interests. “The metaphor is, if you need an administrative assistant, you’re going to be really picky the first week, and at six months, you’re going to take anyone you can get,” Mr. Bock says.

Google also tries to point out predictable traps in performance reviews, which are often done with input from a group. The company has compiled a list of “cognitive biases” for employees to keep handy during these discussions. For example, somebody may have just had a bad experience with the person being reviewed, and that one experience inevitably trumps recollections of all the good work that person has done in recent months. There’s also the “halo/horns” effect, in which a single personality trait skews someone’s perception of a colleague’s performance.

Google even points out these kinds of biases in its cafeteria line. The company stacks smaller plates next to bigger ones at the front of the line, and it tells people that research shows that diners generally eat everything on their plate, even if they are full halfway through the meal. By using the smaller plate, Google says, they could drop 10 to 15 pounds in a year.

“The thing that moves or nudges Googlers is facts; they like information,” says Ms. Donovan, who was involved in the management effectiveness study and the effort to encourage healthier eating. “They don’t like being told what to do. They’re just, ‘Give me the facts and I’m smart, I’ll decide.’ ”

The true test of Google’s new management model, of course, is whether it will help its business performance of the long haul. Just a few hours after Mr. Bock was interviewed for this article in mid-January, Google surprised the world by announcing that Larry Page, one of its co-founders, was taking over as C.E.O. from Eric E. Schmidt.

Though Mr. Schmidt explained the move on Twitter by writing, “Day-to-day adult supervision is no longer needed,” the company made clear that the point was to speed up decision-making and to simplify management.

Google clearly hopes to recapture some of the nimbleness and innovative spirit of its early years. But will Project Oxygen help a grown-up Google get its start-up mojo back?

D. Scott DeRue, a management professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, applauds Google for its data-driven method for management. That said, he noted that while Google’s approach might be unusual, its findings nevertheless echoed what other research had shown to be effective at other companies. And that, in itself, is a useful exercise.

“Although people are always looking for the next new thing in leadership,” he said, “Google’s data suggest that not much has changed in terms of what makes for an effective leader.” Whether Google’s eight rules will still apply as the company evolves is anyone’s guess. They certainly aren’t chiseled in stone. Mr. Bock’s group is continuing to test them for effectiveness, watching for results from all the training the company is doing to reinforce the behaviors.

For now, Mr. Bock says he is particularly struck by the simplicity of the rules, and the fact that applying them doesn’t require a personality transplant for a manager.

“You don’t actually need to change who the person is,” he says. “What it means is, if I’m a manager and I want to get better, and I want more out of my people and I want them to be happier, two of the most important things I can do is just make sure I have some time for them and to be consistent. And that’s more important than doing the rest of the stuff.”

A version of this article appeared in print on March 13, 2011, on page BU1 of the New York edition.

Nokia retires decade old Symbian to embrace Microsoft. But where does that leave the Symbian developers?

2011-02-13T17:00:00.001+05:30

Entering a simple 'strategic partnership' with microsoft (which could be a prelude to merger), the world's largest mobile phone seller by numbers has given a quite burial to the symbian OS which it had pushed aggressively in the recent years. Symbian will be hopefully supported for the next couple of years before being phased out completely in favor of Windows mobile. Nokia's Elop expects this will make it a 'three horse race' with Apple and Google's android.

But what happens to the Symbian developer community in this 3 horse race? Sure Mr. Elop doesn't expect all of the symbian developers to move to windows mobile os development ? Its more likely that they would move towards the apple or android platforms. And it is highly unlikely that Mr.Elop expects any good number of symbian developers to follow him to Windows. He must be banking on the already existing windows mobile developer community.

And anyways, for the combined MS-Nokia phones, even after they start shipping together, the support of the developer community to bring in more apps it will be very crucial to keep the combined entity alive.

Hope they start shipping before it becomes a 2 horse race in the sales marketplace.

Or may be the developers will make it a 2 horse race in the developer human capital marketplace.

Zuckerberg is Time magazine's person of the year.

2010-12-18T01:12:00.000+05:30

Ben Mezrich and David Fincher may have labelled Mark Zuckerberg as Punk, traitor, billionaire, genius etc., . And he may be still grappling a couple of lawsuits or anti privacy concerns. But that didn't stop Time from naming Zuckerberg as the person of the year.

Zuckerberg's history or FB's privacy issues do not change the fact that facebook is a major force in the way the world's communication has changed in the past couple of years.

Time magazine cover on Zuckerberg as the person of the year

DOES LIFE EXPERIENCE OUTWEIGH AN MBA?

2010-12-10T14:07:00.000+05:30

Do you need a MBA degree to run a successful business or become a Chief Executive in world's top companies?

A Businessweek Equilar surveyed highest paid CEOs from companies with annual revenue more than 1 Billion USD . The report says that more than half of the list didn't have MBAs.

The article says that MBAs even from elite schools dont prepare graduates to run big businesses. Though executives without MBAs would have to struggle more than others with a MBA, the experiences of life seems to be more valuable than a MBA degree.

Read the full article.

The six keys to achieving excellence

2010-12-09T10:31:00.000+05:30

According to Tony Schwarz, the six keys to achieving excellence found to be most effective:

Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.
Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.
Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 Â½ hours a day.
Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.
Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeisterhas found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

from HBR

Is HR Too Important to Be Left to HR?

2010-12-03T10:50:00.001+05:30

Too often I hear even HR people saying, "HR is too important to be left to HR." I'm sick about it. To me it sounds like "HR is too weak to take care of HR by itself." Have you ever met a sales executive or a CIO who said: "Sales is too important to be left to Sales" or "IT is too important to be left to IT"? I doubt it. While leaders in most corporate functions naturally try to absorb and demonstrate power, HR diffuses responsibility toward its internal customers because of some major misunderstandings.

First, HR is not in the job of leading people. It's the managers' responsibility to lead their employees, manage performance, and provide guidance. Yes, managers often interview job candidates or identify the most talented employees as part of a talent management program. Yet HR is expected to play a leading role regarding how managers deal with their subordinates and how they perform HR-related activities. I see HR as a function that provides frameworks and supports internal clients just as corporate IT and accounting do. As such, HR must demonstrate clear directions: This is how we compensate our employees. This is how we conduct interviews. This is how we identify high potentials. HR does not directly lead employees, but provides required frameworks and support.

Second, line managers can't execute HR-related actions, like running interviews or performance appraisals, by nature. Yes, they are closer to the business and should know better what they need to do so they can meet their business goals. Moreover, almost everybody in a company has certain opinions about how to do HR. That's different in IT, accounting, or finance. Here we accept the fact that much expertise is required, and only some people in a company have it. HR is a function that must demonstrate specific expertise as well — competences only a few in a company could evenly show. It is a profession that deals with challenges many underestimate. I would guess 90% of all managers believe in their ability to undertake professional interviews. Probably not more than 10% actually run good interviews.

Third, making sure HR standards meet business needs does not mean HR should take a back seat. I can't imagine a successful HR function or any other function that makes isolated decisions. A strong HR function will always take into consideration opinions addressed by major stakeholders throughout the business. This is true for most other corporate functions as well. If you want to conduct an employee survey, ask business stakeholders about its relevance and how to do it. You want to build an employer brand? Talk to managers, new hires, applicants, and many others. But it must be HR that decides how things are done, based on the professional knowledge and insights only HR people will have.

To all HR people: be proud about the responsibility you have — or should have. Most companies need a strong HR. Take over responsibility and leadership. The business expects it of you. The more direction and expertise you show in what you do, the more acceptance and acknowledgment you will gain. And no one will suggest that what you do is too important to be left to HR.

by Armin Trost in HBR.

Google world's most attractive employer: Survey

2010-10-06T22:58:00.000+05:30

Google has emerged as the world's most attractive employer, but four global auditing giants are posing a challenge for the technology firm, says a survey by employer branding company Universum.

According to Universum's -- The world's most attractive employers 2010 - index, Google retains its number one position for the second consecutive year.

The Universum survey saw auditing majors -- KPMG, Ernst and Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte -- dominating four of the top five positions.

Auditing firm KPMG ranked second after Google, while Ernst and Young came third followed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte which were placed fourth and fifth in the list.

"We are witnessing the auditing firms and FMCG companies reconquering their talent group after a brief love affair with the IT industry," Universum CEO Michal Kalinowski said.

However, companies in the banking and investment industry, management consulting, and oil and gas now encounter the problem of being perceived as less attractive employers, Universum said.

Other world's most attractive employers in the list include Procter & Gamble (6th), Microsoft (7th), Coca Cola Company (8th), J P Morgan (9th) and Goldman Sachs (10th).

In the engineering category, the IT companies continue to dominate. With Google, Microsoft and IBM as the top three most lucrative employers in the segment.

German car manufacturer BMW is still the most powerful employer brand in the automotive industry. Apple has made a new entry at the 10th position.

The list also includes Sony at the 4th position, Intel at (6th), General Electric (7th), Siemens (8th), Procter & Gamble (9th).

Michal further added that "multinational corporations are increasingly aware of the current and future challenges of a shrinking workforce. To counter problems in securing their talent pipeline requires a talent attraction and employer branding strategy."

The survey took into consideration responses of close to 130,000 career seekers with a business or engineering background.

source: economic times

Monster Completes Acquisition of HotJobs

2010-08-27T13:39:00.000+05:30

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW - News) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Yahoo! HotJobs, a leading online recruitment website, from Yahoo! for $225 million in cash. Concurrent with the closing of the acquisition, Monster and Yahoo! have also entered into a three year commercial traffic agreement whereby Monster will become Yahoo!’s exclusive provider of career and job content on the Yahoo! homepage in the United States and Canada.

The acquisition of Yahoo! HotJobs further strengthens Monster’s position as the market leader in online job opportunities and global recruitment resources. Monster’s expanded customer base will have access to even more talent, with the brand reaching roughly 62 percent of the US internet population (130 million unique visitors.) Monster will also expand its newspaper partnerships from 400 to 1000 with the addition of 600 HotJobs daily and weekly newspapers providing local reach in all 50 states.

At the same time, job seekers will have access to more opportunities, since Monster is now the foremost source of job postings for employers in 19 of the top 20 industries and in 45 out of the top 50 cities as compared to any leading online career site.

source: http://finance.yahoo.com

HRO Today Magazine Announces 2010 Survey Results on Top RPO Firms

2010-08-05T19:07:00.000+05:30

HRO Today magazine today announced the eagerly anticipated results of its annual Baker's Dozen ranking of major recruitment process outsourcing firms. The results were based upon a survey completed by more than 600 HR executives who are current buyers of RPO services.

RPO providers were rated on the breadth of their service, the size of the programs they manage and the quality of service provided.

The market was grouped into three lists: the Enterprise Baker's Dozen list, which has been provided by HRO Today for six years and consists of the top providers in RPO. The magazine also provided results for lists of the top Global Market Providers and the top Mid-Market and Project/On-Demand Providers.

Bakers' Dozen Ranking:

SourceRight Solutions (formerly Spherion)
Adecco
Alexander Mann Solutions
The Right Thing
Pinstripe
Kenexa
PeopleScout
Kelly OCG
Aon RPO
Manpower
Futurestep
Talent2
Hudson

Global Leaders:

Alexander Mann Solutions
Kenexa
PeopleScout
Kelly OCG
Manpower
Futurestep
Talent2
Hudson

Project/On-Demand Leaders:

IBM RPO
hyphen
The Workplace Group
Accolo
Yoh
Resource Solutions
Princeton One
CDI & Worldconcert
Decision Toolbox

www.hrotoday.com

Forget interviews, tests and career advisers, a brain scan may soon be the best way to discover your ideal job.

2010-07-27T10:19:00.002+05:30

Brain scans may help guide career choices.

Neuroscientists are getting closer to being able to pinpoint your talents just by looking at the landscape of your mind.

They are slowly mapping the brain so they can match particular areas to particular skills and knowledge.

The so-called "psychometric assessments" could also show how good you are with your hands and whether you have any major "super talents".

The latest research by the University of California, scanned the brains of 40 volunteers and compared the brain map with the results of battery of eight cognitive tests to see if there was a correlation between brain and aptitude.

They found that the amount of grey matter – parts of the brain used for computations – and white matter – the part used for communication – and where they were positioned, seemed to indicate how good you are at a number of tasks including arithmetic, learning and remembering facts and figures.

The parts of the brain at the root of intelligence are called Brodmann areas and they are scattered around the organ.

Those with good speed of reasoning and memory from the tests were found to have large amounts of grey matter -special tissue packed with nerve cells – in the Brodmann areas.

Professor Richard Haier, a psychologist who led the research, said that science remained vague but eventually it could be used to guide your career choice.

"A person's pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses is related to their brain structure, so there is a possibility that brain scans could provide unique information that would be helpful for vocational choice," he said.

"Our current results form a basis to investigate this further."

The researchers discovered that men and women – although scoring the same results in IQ and other tests – had different brain make-ups which suggests that intelligence was not always linked to physical size of different parts of the mind.

The research was published in the journal BMC Research Notes

Read the research article on BMC website.

Before The Hiring Squad

2010-07-17T08:28:00.001+05:30

There's honour among poachers. Home to some of India's biggest infotech names, Pune's Hinjewadi IT park is proof. The IT sector's cut-throat competitors have always specialised in talent heists. But several top firms now want some soul put into scalp-hunting. They've reportedly reached an understanding: they'll hire from one another only if the recruits-in-transit serve out notice periods with previous employers. Salaries lost through unfulfilled contractual obligations won't be covered by head-hunters. Plus, new employees must produce letters confirming termination of services from the ditched companies. In short, let mian-biwi both be raazi about the modalities of professional divorce.

Pune's emerging code of ethics is a model for the pan-Indian IT fraternity. The slowdown-hit sector has seen heavy attrition. It's estimated that IT could be losing nearly $2 billion annually courtesy workers' exits, in terms of productivity drain and replacement costs. Necessity, then, is the mama mia of invention, peace pacts between brain-drainers included. Only, job-hoppers are devastated. Imagine: no more corporate lures like half a year's supply of pre-paid pizzas. Ugh. Life without extra toppings.

Last heard, our netas are studying the Pune pact. With a similar accord in the party-splitters' paradise that is politics, they could exult. For instance, who'd care if the Bellary brothers threatened to carry off 'supporters' from among BJP MLAs to patrons elsewhere? A Pune-like pact between political outfits would stop unscrupulous cadre theft. Deserters would need to give (and serve) notices. And they'd require written permission to leave. With mining turned a mine-field, the Karnataka CM could then rest easy. No matter how many agitating opposition MLAs held pyjama parties at the state assembly or where Bellary's siblings went, he'd never face the fate of the JD(S)'s wrecked boat in the past. And the mining barons would find new job offers harder to extract than iron ore.

Bengal's Left too could make notice periods a hammer-and-sicken policy against straying flock. And, by staging frequent Bangla bandhs, it could keep its offices closed in order to delay issuance of dismissal letters. The coming into effect of pink slips for Trinamool-bound turncoats could then be timed with a red-letter day: the one after the assembly polls! The Congress, on its part, could tame Andhra's ever-Reddy yatri. Rumour has it he may run away with quite a few MLAs if the town cries of "CM Jagan!" get any louder. But let's say he sought a promotion elsewhere. How'd he get the CM's gaddi if no other parties gave him the blessings (read numbers)?

If only netas themselves realised the worth of their work stations. Oscar Wilde once said: "The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one." Some don't need to imagine it. Like a just-reinstated BJP prodigal who no longer says: Jinnah bhi do yaaron. Rat-racers often discover it's a jungle out there. A Pune pact variant in rajneeti would help make movement of labour between rival parties orderly, with all horse-traders, neta-abductors and post-danglers laid off. What would that mean for politics? Jungle mein mangal.

©Times of India

Management should be accountable to staff too : Vineet Nayar

2010-07-14T16:11:00.002+05:30

Vineet Nayar, HCLT's Chief Executive who started a debate with his "employees first, customers second" philosophy says Every organization has four stakeholders viz. shareholders, employees, customers and society and its is th employees who create the value for the organization. According to him, management will have to be accountable for enthusing employees and ensuring they create value.
However organizations are in the stranglehold of only one stockholder - the stockholder. if the managements have the same transparency and resolve towards employees as they have towards shareholders, the organization will enjoy great success.
Click here to read the full interview.

Vineet Nayar's book -
Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down

One small idea can ignite a revolution just as a single matchstick can start a fire. One such idea - putting employees first and customers second - sparked a revolution at HCL Technologies, the IT services giant. In this candid and personal account, Vineet Nayar - HCLT's celebrated CEO - recounts how he defied the conventional wisdom that companies must put customers first, then turned the hierarchical pyramid upside down by making management accountable to the employees, and not the other way around. By doing so, Nayar fired the imagination of both employees and customers and set HCLT on a journey of transformation that has made it one of the fastest-growing and profitable global IT services companies and, according to BusinessWeek, one of the twenty most influential companies in the world. Chapter by chapter, Nayar recounts the exciting journey of how he and his team implemented the employee first philosophy by: Creating a sense of urgency by enabling the employees to see the truth of the company's current state as well as feel the "romance" of its possible future state Creating a culture of trust by pushing the envelope of transparency in communication and information sharing Inverting the organizational hierarchy by making the management and the enabling functions accountable to the employee in the value zone Unlocking the potential of the employees by fostering an entrepreneurial mind-set, decentralizing decision making, and transferring the ownership of "change" to the employee in the value zone Refreshingly honest and practical, this book offers valuable insights for managers seeking to realize their aspirations to grow faster and become self-propelled engines of change.

Vineet Nayar's website : http://www.vineetnayar.com/

One more best employer in India study: 2010 INDIA'S BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR

2010-07-14T16:08:00.002+05:30

‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ - 2010 list was produced by Great Place to Work^® Institute, India alongwith India's leading business daily, The Economic Times.

Rank	Company
1	Google India Pvt. Ltd.
2	MakeMyTrip (India) Pvt. Ltd.
3	Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd.
4	Marriott Hotels India Pvt. Ltd.
5	NetApp India Pvt. Ltd.
6	American Express, India
7	NTPC Ltd.
8	PayPal India Pvt. Ltd.
9	Ajuba Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
10	SAS Institute (India) Pvt. Ltd.
11	Crowne Plaza Today
12	Dow Corning India Pvt. Ltd.
13	Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
14	Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
15	Whirlpool Of India
16	InterGlobe Enterprises Ltd.
17	i\|Nautix Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
18	Hilti India Pvt. Ltd.
19	Titan Industries Ltd.
20	Intelenet Global Services
21	Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.
22	Federal Express Corporation
23	Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.
24	Jubilant Foodworks Ltd.
25	Classic Stripes Ltd.
26	Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.
27	Bharti Airtel Ltd.
28	BNY Mellon International Operations (India) Pvt. Ltd.
29	Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd.
30	Talentica Software India Pvt. Ltd.
31	Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
32	Yum Restaurants India Pvt. Ltd.
33	Monsanto India Ltd.
34	HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd.
35	Tata Teleservices Ltd.
36	Marico Ltd.
37	Claris Lifesciences Ltd.
38	Cadbury India Ltd.
39	Intuit Technologies Services Pvt. Ltd.
40	Quintiles India
41	Blue Dart Express Ltd.
42	Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd.
43	Eureka Forbes
44	Godrej Industries Ltd. (Chemicals SBU)
45	S.C. Johnson Products Pvt. Ltd.
46	Bajaj Capital Ltd.
47	Professional Assistance For Development Action, PRADAN
48	Firstsource Solutions Ltd.
49	LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd.
50	Pitney Bowes Software India

Detailed info at the Great Place to work Institute's website.

This 2010 list ranked the best companies to work with in India.
Business today had earlier this year published a list of Best Employers in India 2010.

Infosys and being the employer of choice in India

2010-04-14T23:47:00.002+05:30

Some interesting reads on the HR practices at Infosys, the top Employer of Choice as per the BT - Best companies to work for in India:

At the top, by a mile
A meritocracy that embeds and values skills in its people, which, in turn, ensures Infoscions (as company staffers like to call themselves) a financially secure future. As a recruiter, Infosys is the most soughtafter at engineering campuses nationwide, where they hire from streams as diverse as civil and chemical engineering. To be sure, it has little interest from the famed Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and top tech colleges. But every year, it receives some 1.1 million applications for some 18,000 positions—a 1.6 per cent intake ratio that ranks it in the same league as the IITs and 6 times choosier than Harvard University.

Infosys identifies itself, says Infosys' Human Resources Director T.V. Mohandas Pai, "with the needs and aspirations of the middle class". It is a company that parents want "their sons or daughters to work for".
Read the full article.

Infosys dangles 17% hike to retain talent:
INFOSYS Technologies will offer up to 17% salary hikes for over 100,000 of its employees this year,as the company seeks to retain staff and also attract new recruits in a year when most of the companys rivals are expected to lock horns in the war for talent.

With top customers such as General Electric,British Telecom and Microsoft expected to send more projects offshore to lower their operational costs by half,multinational rivals such as IBM and Accenture apart from Indian offshoring firms including Infosys will have to deal with double digit attrition rates,and ensure uninterrupted delivery of services.
There will be a war for talent and its one of our biggest worries in the medium to short term, S Gopalakrishnan,chief executive of Infosys said.
Earlier, nearly 4,500 Infosys employees decided to quit the company after introduction of a new employee rating system called iRace a new grading programme started by Infosys to grade employees last year across different levels according to their roles.Of these,nearly 2,500 staff were given promotion while the remaining were retained at the same level.

At the end of FY10,the total number of employees in Infosys stood at 1,13,796 and made a gross addition of 27,639 during the fiscal.For FY11,Infosys plans to hire 30,000 people of which 19,000 would be trainees.However,the attrition rate of Infosys went up during the fourth quarter of FY10 touching 13.4% as against 11.6% in the third quarter.However,about 3% of the 13.4% was involuntary attrition of trainees,which Infosys claims were unable to pass its benchmarking tests.According to Mr TV Mohandas Pai,VP, Human Resources,the company expects the attrition rate to stabilise in the next six months.

According to Mr Pai,the remaining impacted employees can expect promotion during the next promotion cycle in October.The iRace programme created a furore in the organisation,on blogs,in town hall meetings and even on websites.The company is now trying to pacify those employees,and plans to promote them too.Our learning has been that managers need to communicate with employees better.For an employee,its the manager who represents the company to him, said Mr Pai.

The iRace at Infosys
Infosys Technologies launched its iRace (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement) programme in June 2009 to sharpen the relevance of its current role-based career structure with its business imperatives and the needs of its employees. The company had decided to go ahead with the HR initiative even though many employees resisted the move. According to The Economic Times, Infosys now plans to continue the roll-out of the programme under which the company’s staff are required to wait longer for their promotions so that only the professionals with proven managerial skills can lead project teams. On the other hand, employees feel iRace makes the process of moving up the ranks longer for employees by bringing in needless intermediate designations in the promotional cycle.

The 10 best companies to work for in India

2010-04-14T23:29:00.002+05:30

Infosys Technologies has emerged as the best company to work for in India, according to the BT-Indicus-PeopleStrong 9th Annual Survey of India's Best Employers.

Even as the Indian IT major shone, many other biggies missed getting into the list of the 10 best companies to work for in India. These include L&T (11th), Hindustan Unilever (12th), ONGC (13th), Tata Motors (14th), ITC (15th), ICICI Bank (19th), and Tata Steel (20th).

About 9,000 employees from across 1,000 organisations across 800 cities participated in the survey.

They were asked to rate companies on six key parameters
The six key factors are-

1.Career & personal growth
2.Prestige/ Company reputation
3.Training/ Coaching/ Mentoring
4.Financial compensation & benefits
5.Good job content
6.Merit-based performance evaluation

While creative people in advertising and media gave little importance to the company's brand value, the administrative staff gave more value to the brand.

The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance and Services accounted for over 10 per cent of the respondents each, software over 14 per cent, manufacturing over 17 per cent, and ITeS accounted for 9 per cent.

Education/training, core sector, telecom and health accounted for 6.7 per cent, 5.7 per cent, 4.4 per cent, and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

The rankings are based on what employees think of their present, past and future employers.
Source: http://www.rediff.com/

Full list below:

Rank. Company (Index score)

1. Infosys Technologies (100)
2. Google India (52)
3. Tata Consultancy Services (46)
4. IBM (42)
5. Microsoft India (36)
6. Wipro (33)
7. State Bank of India (32)
8. Bharti Airtel (29)
9. HP India (28)
10. HDFC (27)
11. Larsen& Toubro (25)
12. Hindustan Unilever (24)
13. ONGC (24)
14. Tata Motors (24)
15. ITC (16)
16. Accenture (16)
17. HCL Technologies (14)
18. Cognizant (14)
19. ICICI (13)
20. Tata Steel (12)
21. NTPC (11)
22. DELL India (10)
23. HSBC Data Processing (9)
24. BHEL (9)
25. Infosys BPO (9)

This is the 9th edition of Business Today’s employee survey and Infosys has topped five of them, not a small achievement for any company. .

Other interesting information from Business Today survey:

•Tech multinationals and product companies offer 20 per cent more for junior employees than what Infy pays.

•Microsoft has 90,000 employees worldwide and more than 5,000 in India. The median age of employees in India is 31.

•Out of IBM's total workforce of over 400,000, around 74,000 are in India. (This information is dated; Big Blue quoted this number a few years ago in India).

•25% of IBM employees in India are women. It wants to increase it to 45 per cent.

•TCS has 1,25,000 employees, excluding 15,000 people with its subsidiaries. They come from 78 different nationalities in 50 different countries.

•TCS' largest software development centre, in Chennai, can seat 30,000 people - equal to the seating capacity of the Lords cricket ground in London.

•Google’s new Indian language transliteration tool came from the 20% project time of Rahul Roy Chowdhury, a Bangalore-based Google product manager.

•Google’s new recruits at Gurgaon office gain up to 20 pounds, or about 8 kg, in the few months of joining. Thanks to free and rich food.
The survey was conducted by Business Today with Peoplestrong.
Read full article here

IT firms still best places to work for in India ??
Nothing seems to stop the tech march in India at least from the employees point of view, and surprisingly so. After a year of furtive layoffs and frozen increments Indian IT firms still rank among the best companies to work for.

Indian economy has grown across sectors such as FMCG, retail and banking. But when it comes to work place, everyone seems to wish for an IT touch.

A new employee survey by Business Today ranks 25 best companies to work for in India. More than half of India’s top 25 employers come from the IT sector.

11 of 25 companies in the list are pure IT companies, with both Indian and MNCs represented. If you add Infosys BPO and HSBC Data Processing, not strictly IT but from a related sister industry, the number goes up to 16. If you further add, L&T and ITC, which have significant IT operations, the number raises to 16.

The top 6 ranks in the list go to IT companies, led by Infosys. If you count among top 10 companies, 7 are IT. Most of the big IT names are represented though there are a few significant misses. For example, Mahindra Satyam has missed out for obvious reasons. The scandal, acquisition, virtual pool mess and retrenchment, made life hell for employees. That is not the company you wished to be in 2009.

HCL, the company which has an employee first policy, is a backbencher at number 17.

http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jan/29/slide-show-1-indias-10-best-companies-to-work-for.htm

Are you a good employer?

2010-04-14T22:54:00.003+05:30

Do you want your organization to become an employer of choice?
How do you reach there?

I came across a senior manager in an a growing organization saying this - "Our company will be the best employer to work for in India". Nice thought. But how do we go there?

First -What do organizations need to do to become good employers [Best employer in the country is long way from there.]

A research done by the firm Corporate Executive Board has come up with 20 attributes to measure the effectiveness of a company's HR function. CEB claims to have drawn up this 20 attribute scorecard from their experience in working with hundreds of companies around the globe and across industries.

"Use the simple scorecard in this automated tool to self-assess your department’s current performance against these attributes. The scorecard will help you identify areas where you and your team need to focus resources and time on to maximize the impact HR has on your organization."

Please click on the scorecard image above to see in full view.
For each of these 20 attributes, the Corporate Executive Board has identified a wide range of practical approaches, best practices, implementation tools, and templates that can quickly help you close the gaps you identify.

The interactive version can be accessed at the below link

http://www.executiveboard.com/India/20attributesHR/20attributesHelp.html

Indian e-recruitment industry trends over the last one year

2010-04-11T22:38:00.002+05:30

Indian jobsite market has long remained the stronghold of Naukri and Monster. Timesjobs and Clickjobs are also there. Over the last five years after Monster tookover and killed jobsahead, we have seen a handful of entrants itpeople.com, cybermediadice.com etc but none of them managed to make a significant dent in the market or eat into the share of the two market leaders and most of them wound up. Careerbuilder is still experimenting with patnerships and is yet to make a significant share.

A review of the e-recruitment industry in India from End 2008/early 2009:

US-based job search engine Simply Hired, a metasearch engine for job listings (thus also an example of vertical search), which claims to have more than six million job listings worldwide, launched its India specific site SimplyHired.co.in. Simplyhired consolidates jobs from the top job boards, content sites, newspapers, organizations and company career sites together to offer job seekers a single, powerful job search site - October 2008

Techtribe a jobs referral site shuts down, cites that the business model dint work out.- Jan 2009

Naukri launches www.firstnaukri.com , a fresher jobsite. - Feb 2009

Naukri launches chatbot for jobs - Mar 2009

New Online job referral site www.zyoin.com launched. - March 2009

Yellojobs [Yellomdedia [Bangkok] and NDTV joint venture in India, shut Indian ops - Mar 2009

Recession has taken its on the online market: Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO of job portal naukri.com said the Rs 800-crore online advertisement market has been growing at about 20-25 per cent annually. But, the segment suffered last fiscal and the trend is likely to continue this fiscal, he said. - Aug 2009

Monster.com launches rozgarduniya.com, a job engine for those in rural regions, in collaboration with ITC’s e-Choupal venture. The site is currently available in English and Hindi and can be accessed at e-Choupals in 4 states — Madhya Pradesh, Maharashta, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The company plans to extend this to all the e-Choupals soon.

Naukri launches a salary comparison tool named Naukri Paycheck. - Aug 2009

Timesjobs announced Campusdirect, similar to Naukri’s FirstNaukri.com

Monster ties up with DishTV

Clickjobs which launched the pay per contact model.

Timesjobs launched the Globalconnect platform

Naukri launches premium section. http://www.naukri.com/premium.php

Wallstreetjournal adds naukri as the partner for its premiumjobs.

Linkedin sets up India office.

India Inc is likely to see a rise in attrition rate

2010-03-31T20:19:00.001+05:30

With increasing job opportunities in a number of sectors, headhunters predict that there would be a rise in the attrition rate or the number of employees leaving jobs for better prospects, resulting in huge demand for middle and junior-level executives.

Read the full story here.

Brit teenager gets fired via Facebook!

2010-03-31T20:06:00.001+05:30

A teenage schoolgirl has become the first in Britain to get fired from her job through social networking site Facebook.

Chelsea Taylor, 16, who worked part-time at the Lancashire Tea Room, in Leigh, Greater Manchester, was left stunned when she logged on to the site and found a letter of dismissal waiting for her.

Social networks are increasing being recognized as recruitment tools though the debate about their intrusive and almost all pervasive reach still continues.
Prospective employers have also been using social networking sites to do background checks. But they havent been used as a medium of terminating an employee till now.

Is this an acceptable way of sacking an employee?
or is it going to be the way of the future ?

Is the era of cubicled workspaces coming to end?

2010-03-31T20:00:00.001+05:30

The future of workspace: R.I.P Cubicles

An article reporting that trend are indicating that it may be soon RIP for cubicles.

Your own library online

2010-03-01T22:56:00.001+05:30

Create and maintain your own library online.catalog your own collections, keep reading lists, write reviews, Browse the database by searching by author, title, tags, ISBN numbers and even barcodes.
It even supports barcode readers available off the shelf, flash them against the book and update your library!!!!!
Share it with friends, browse their libraries.

www.librarything.com/

What's Bill Gates upto now a days?

2010-03-01T22:36:00.001+05:30

Follow the activities of Bill Gates..what he is up to now a days after leaving his fulltime job at Microsoft.

What he has been reading, watching, listening to etc...

http://www.thegatesnotes.com/

Whoa: Microsoft Word is illegal

2009-08-24T18:57:00.001+05:30

RealNetworks wasn't the only company that got slapped with bad news from the courts yesterday. Microsoft was also the suddenly-announced loser in ajavascript:void(0) long-running case that could potentially have far more serious consequences for the average reader of this blog.

Specifically: Microsoft was issued a permanent injunction against selling Microsoft Word products due to a patent infringement dispute with a Canadian company called i4i. That means that, according to the ruling, Microsoft is required to stop selling Word within 60 days -- plus pay $290 million in damages to i4i for copies it has already sold.

The spat involves Microsoft's use of XML, which became a default file system beginning with Word 2007 and the new ".docx" format that it uses. i4i has a patent over the use of XML as it relates to Microsoft Word -- granted way back in 1998 -- and naturally it sued Microsoft in 2007 after the company began offering a similar feature out of the box. ANd sure enough, the court said that Microsoft's implementation of XML violated i4i's patent.

And that's that. Microsoft says it's disappointed, that it will appeal, and that i4i's patent is invalid. i4i is probably giddy with the possibility of getting a fat check from the company.

Realistically, though, Microsoft will undoubtedly do everything in its power to avoid paying the judgment as issued. Instead it will of course resort to endless legal tactics to stay the ruling against it while it most likely negotiates with i4i to work out some sort of licensing arrangement. The legal verdict against the company doesn't help Microsoft's position, but it's been in far worse straits before: Remember, this is a company that was once ordered to split into two separate pieces, and we all know how that turned out.

Will Microsoft Word really vanish from the market any time in the near future? Seriously: If it does, I'll eat this blog post.

cyberspace buzz

2009-07-09T20:10:00.003+05:30

for the past 2 months the cyberspace have been buzzing with activities which include launches and announcements that are "to change the way we work on internet or use computers or compute"!!

first was the announcement of wolfram which was touted as the google killer
but after it came out is now as a different and structured way of searching

then was google's answer to wolfram - google squared

soon was the launch of bing, microsoft relaunch of ms windows live search which came from msn search

and yesterday it was officially reported that google is working on a operating system called chrome which may have a different approach towards operating systems.

Schools Cancel GMAT Scores

2009-06-11T12:54:00.000+05:30

Top U.S. business schools canceled the admissions-test scores of 84 applicants and students -- including two enrolled at the University of Chicago and one who has graduated from Stanford University -- who allegedly supplied or accessed live exam questions posted on a Web site.

In June, the Graduate Management Admission Council, which represents the business schools and oversees the GMAT admissions test, obtained a federal court order that shut down the Web site Scoretop.com and won a $2.3 million judgment against its operator. The site had been selling questions from recent exams to subscribers who paid a $30-a-month subscription. The operator of the Web site, believed to be in China, didn't defend itself in court, and it wasn't known where any representatives could be reached.

The latest episode has rattled the schools, and it comes as they have been trying to increase security.

The business-school council recently announced that it would require those taking the GMAT to undergo a "palm vein" scan, which takes an infrared picture of the blood coursing through their hands. Officials said it was designed to wipe out "proxy" test taking, in which applicants hire high-scoring imposters to take the exam for them. Previously, the administrator had used digital fingerprinting. Five years ago, federal authorities broke up a ring of six fraudsters who took more than 590 exams, including GMATs, for customers who paid at least $3,000.

Donald L. McCabe, a Rutgers University professor of management, has surveyed 200,000 students over 19 years and concluded that those in business school cheat more than those in other disciplines.

Prof. McCabe said schools will have to evaluate the evidence against each student they had admitted with canceled test scores. But he said business schools have "got to do something" to protect their programs' integrity, though he suspects "some may tend to whitewash it and do something mild.'

Judy Phair, a spokeswoman for the admissions council, said a computer hard drive seized through court proceedings found 5,000 to 6,000 subscribers to the Scoretop Web site. But the group decided to cancel scores only of those "against whom we felt we have airtight cases," Ms. Phair said. In many cases, she said, it wasn't clear the students had used the service or knew that they were improperly gaining access to current questions.

Ms. Phair said her group had evidence that 12 students whose scores were canceled actually posted questions themselves. In those cases, which she said the organization considered a theft of intellectual property, the students won't be eligible to retake the test for at least three years, effectively keeping them out of business school for that period.

The other 72 students wrote a message on Scoretop confirming that they had seen items on their GMAT exams. Those students will be allowed to take the exam again. The admissions council also recently notified schools about their determination that these students had prepared improperly for the exam.

The business-school group didn't identify the students or the schools where they applied or enrolled. Representatives at several business schools said their administrators would consider penalties, including expulsion, in such cases.

Two of the students who acknowledged viewing live questions -- but not the more serious category of posting the questions themselves -- are currently enrolled at the University of Chicago's business school, said Rosemaria Martinelli, the school's associate dean for student recruitment and admissions. Ms. Martinelli said Chicago is considering action against the students, but "we haven't decided anything."

Stanford's business school said scores of 11 applicants had been canceled. Ten of them were denied admission, and one had already graduated. The school said it will meet with the student "to discuss this situation," Derrick Bolton, Stanford's MBA admissions director, said in a statement. If any applicant reapplies, he or she, "at minimum," will have to supply an explanation. He urged that those whose scores were canceled "might learn from the experience by reflecting on their actions and taking ownership for their errors, then sharing those explanations and insights with us."

Representatives at the business schools of Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale said they had no students enroll with the tainted test scores. In an email, Peter Winicov, a spokesman for the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said officials were still "analyzing the situation are not yet prepared to discuss next steps."

Showing how much the scandal has shaken some in business school, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business plans to hold an "ethics fireside chat" this month on campus to discuss the Scoretop cheating scandal, including officials from the business-school council.

About 4,000 business programs at 1,800 universities, including most top-ranked institutions, require the GMAT for admission. The business school council gives 230,000 tests annually and charges $250 for each exam.

John Hechinger
Wall Street Journal

Executive Job Market Still Healthy

2009-06-11T12:51:00.000+05:30

Despite frequent reports of layoffs in recent months, there's good news for most senior-level job hunters.

Demand at the top of the corporate ladder is strong throughout the U.S., with the exception of some areas within financial services, said Gary Burnison, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Korn/Ferry International, in a recent visit to the Wall Street Journal in New York.
The recruiting and talent-management company has seen a steady flow of search assignments for management and executive positions so far this year, he said.

Hiring at the senior level is strong even though the overall economy is sour because employers have a continuous need for highly educated, skilled workers, said Mr. Burnison. "For those individuals that attended college or have advanced degrees, their earning power is two to three times those that drop out of high school," he said. "The unemployment rate is equally higher for those who did not get advanced degrees."
According to Mr. Burnison, industries with the greatest need for experienced talent are life sciences, health care and industrial manufacturing. Most executive openings are for marketing and sales, supply-chain, sustainability positions, he said. In terms of geography, demand is strong across the board other than in New York where many financial-services firms have had to significantly trim their work forces due to mortgage-related losses, he said.

For job hunters looking to get on recruiters' radars, Mr. Burnison pointed to networking as the most effective strategy. "Work that network of friends and colleagues," he advised. "Remember that jobs go to people and people don't go to jobs."

SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

wsj.com

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

2009-06-09T12:39:00.001+05:30

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford Univ.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Watch the video here

SHRM India Hyderabad Chapter

2009-04-02T12:55:00.000+05:30

SHRM India is forming a Hyderabad chapter.
And a SHRM India Hyderabad Chapter group is now active on Linkedin.

You could join the group by clicking the below URL.
SHRM India Hyderabad Chapter on Linkedin

Creating a Positive Professional Image

2009-01-13T12:37:00.003+05:30

Creating a Positive Professional Image

Q&A with:	Laura Morgan Roberts
Published:	in the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Author:	Mallory Stark

Executive Summary:

In today’s diverse workplace, your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. Time to manage your own professional image before others do it for you. An interview with professor Laura Morgan Roberts.

Laura Morgan Roberts is an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at Harvard Business School.

As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are.

"People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish."

There are plenty of books telling you how to "dress for success" and control your body language. But keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and cut your hair to improve your appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color?

Roberts will present her research, called "Changing Faces: Professional Image Construction in Diverse Organizational Settings," in the October issue of the Academy of Management Review.

She discusses her research in this interview.

Mallory Stark: What is a professional image?

Laura Morgan Roberts: Your professional image is the set of qualities and characteristics that represent perceptions of your competence and character as judged by your key constituents (i.e., clients, superiors, subordinates, colleagues).

Q: What is the difference between "desired professional image" and "perceived professional image?"

A: It is important to distinguish between the image you want others to have of you and the image that you think people currently have of you.

Most people want to be described as technically competent, socially skilled, of strong character and integrity, and committed to your work, your team, and your company. Research shows that the most favorably regarded traits are trustworthiness, caring, humility, and capability.

Ask yourself the question: What do I want my key constituents to say about me when I'm not in the room? This description is your desired professional image. Likewise, you might ask yourself the question: What am I concerned that my key constituents might say about me when I'm not in the room? The answer to this question represents your undesired professional image.

You can never know exactly what all of your key constituents think about you, or how they would describe you when you aren't in the room. You can, however, draw inferences about your current professional image based on your interactions with key constituents. People often give you direct feedback about your persona that tells you what they think about your level of competence, character, and commitment. Other times, you may receive indirect signals about your image, through job assignments or referrals and recommendations. Taken together, these direct and indirect signals shape your perceived professional image, your best guess of how you think your key constituents perceive you.

Q: How do stereotypes affect perceived professional image?

A: In the increasingly diverse, twenty-first century workplace, people face a number of complex challenges to creating a positive professional image. They often experience a significant incongruence between their desired professional image and their perceived professional image. In short, they are not perceived in the manner they desire; instead, their undesired professional image may be more closely aligned with how their key constituents actually perceive them.

What lies at the source of this incongruence? Three types of identity threats—predicaments, devaluation, and illegitimacy—compromise key constituents' perceptions of technical competence, social competence, character, and commitment. All professionals will experience a "predicament" or event that reflects poorly on their competence, character, or commitment at some point in time, due to mistakes they have made in the past that have become public knowledge, or competency gaps (e.g., shortcomings or limitations in skill set or style).

Members of negatively stereotyped identity groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as "devaluation." Identity devaluation occurs when negative attributions about your social identity group(s) undermine key constituents' perceptions of your competence, character, or commitment. For example, African American men are stereotyped as being less intelligent and more likely to engage in criminal behavior than Caucasian men. Asian Americans are stereotyped as technically competent, but lacking in the social skills required to lead effectively. Working mothers are stereotyped as being less committed to their profession and less loyal to their employing organizations. All of these stereotypes pose obstacles for creating a positive professional image.

Members of negatively stereotyped identity groups may experience an additional form of identity threat known as "devaluation."

Even positive stereotypes can pose a challenge for creating a positive professional image if someone is perceived as being unable to live up to favorable expectations of their social identity group(s). For example, clients may question the qualifications of a freshly minted MBA who is representing a prominent strategic consulting firm. Similarly, female medical students and residents are often mistaken for nurses or orderlies and challenged by patients who do not believe they are legitimate physicians.

Q: What is impression management and what are its potential benefits?

A: Despite the added complexity of managing stereotypes while also demonstrating competence, character, and commitment, there is promising news for creating your professional image! Impression management strategies enable you to explain predicaments, counter devaluation, and demonstrate legitimacy. People manage impressions through their non-verbal behavior (appearance, demeanor), verbal cues (vocal pitch, tone, and rate of speech, grammar and diction, disclosures), and demonstrative acts (citizenship, job performance).

My research suggests that, in addition to using these traditional impression management strategies, people also use social identity-based impression management (SIM) to create a positive professional image. SIM refers to the process of strategically presenting yourself in a manner that communicates the meaning and significance you associate with your social identities. There are two overarching SIM strategies: positive distinctiveness and social recategorization.

Positive distinctiveness means using verbal and non-verbal cues to claim aspects of your identity that are personally and/or socially valued, in an attempt to create a new, more positive meaning for that identity. Positive distinctiveness usually involves attempts to educate others about the positive qualities of your identity group, advocate on behalf of members of your identity group, and incorporate your background and identity-related experiences into your workplace interactions and innovation.

Social recategorization means using verbal and non-verbal cues to suppress other aspects of your identity that are personally and/or socially devalued, in an attempt to distance yourself from negative stereotypes associated with that group. Social recategorization involves minimization and avoidance strategies, such as physically and mentally conforming to the dominant workplace culture while being careful not to draw attention to identity group differences and one's unique cultural background.

Rather than adopting one strategy wholesale, most people use a variety of strategies for managing impressions of their social identities. In some situations, they choose to draw attention to a social identity, if they think it will benefit them personally or professionally. Even members of devalued social identity groups, such as African American professionals, will draw attention to their race if it creates mutual understanding with colleagues, generates high-quality connections with clients, or enhances their experience of authenticity and fulfillment in their work. In other situations, these same individuals may choose to minimize their race in order to draw attention to an alternate identity, such as gender, profession, or religion, if they feel their race inhibits their ability to connect with colleagues or clients.

Successful impression management can generate a number of important personal and organizational benefits, including career advancement, client satisfaction, better work relationships (trust, intimacy, avoiding offense), group cohesiveness, a more pleasant organizational climate, and a more fulfilling work experience. However, when unsuccessfully employed, impression management attempts can lead to feelings of deception, delusion, preoccupation, distraction, futility, and manipulation.

Q: How do authenticity and credibility influence the positive outcomes of impression management attempts?

A: In order to create a positive professional image, impression management must effectively accomplish two tasks: build credibility and maintain authenticity. When you present yourself in a manner that is both true to self and valued and believed by others, impression management can yield a host of favorable outcomes for you, your team, and your organization. On the other hand, when you present yourself in an inauthentic and non-credible manner, you are likely to undermine your health, relationships, and performance.

Most people use a variety of strategies for managing impressions of their social identities.

Most often, people attempt to build credibility and maintain authenticity simultaneously, but they must negotiate the tension that can arise between the two. Your "true self," or authentic self-portrayal, will not always be consistent with your key constituents' expectations for professional competence and character. Building credibility can involve being who others want you to be, gaining social approval and professional benefits, and leveraging your strengths. If you suppress or contradict your personal values or identity characteristics for the sake of meeting societal expectations for professionalism, you might receive certain professional benefits, but you might compromise other psychological, relational, and organizational outcomes.

Q: What are the steps individuals should take to manage their professional image?

A: First, you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is. People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace. It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish.

Be the author of your own identity. Take a strategic, proactive approach to managing your image:

Identify your ideal state.

What are the core competencies and character traits you want people to associate with you?
Which of your social identities do you want to emphasize and incorporate into your workplace interactions, and which would you rather minimize?

Assess your current image, culture, and audience.

What are the expectations for professionalism?
How do others currently perceive you?

Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for image change.

Do you care about others' perceptions of you?
Are you capable of changing your image?
Are the benefits worth the costs? (Cognitive, psychological, emotional, physical effort)

Use strategic self-presentation to manage impressions and change your image.

Employ appropriate traditional and social identity-based impression management strategies.
Pay attention to the balancing act—build credibility while maintaining authenticity.

Manage the effort you invest in the process.

Monitoring others' perceptions of you
Monitoring your own behavior
Strategic self-disclosure
Preoccupation with proving worth and legitimacy

Keeping your job

2008-11-13T17:53:00.000+05:30

How to avoid getting the boot when layoffs loom.

The fretting began in September, as soon as Barclays said it would buy Lehman Brothers' North American banking business for $1.75 billion. Who will be laid off? We'll soon find out.
Over the next few months, Barclays will lay off at least 3,000 employees to eliminate job duplications between the two banks. The process will likely involve so-called "stack ranking"; managers will evaluate employees on various criteria, then assign each person a score. Everyone above a certain score stays; those below go. That scenario, or variations of it, will be repeated in the coming months as more troubled companies get gobbled up by bigger ones. But it's not a foregone conclusion you'll be let go. That's where you come in.

You have to have the right attitude. As a former Lehman Brothers employee, now a Barclays staffer, says, "It's become a very creative time here." If you want to keep your job, convince the higher-ups you're indispensable.
"If it's a job you really want, it's worth the fight." says Michelle Winkley, director of human resources for an Internet-based company and previous HR manager at Pricewaterhouse Coopers and The first to go: Staffers who resist change. Those are the people who complain about the new parent company and refuse to get on board--not a good idea.

Think of this as a new job. Set up meetings with your counterparts in your new parent company, particularly the managers and decision makers. Demonstrate that you're curious about how they do business and ask how you can help. If committees being formed to make the transition smoother, volunteer for them.
Don't beg to keep your job. Instead, explain to your bosses that you understand some people will be laid off. Ask how you can help them make the best decision even if you're not chosen to stay. "Ultimately, it pays you back," says career coach Linda Dominguez. "You learn, but it's also networking. In many cases, the boss's job is a duplication too, and that person will go somewhere else. Maybe he'll bring you along."
If you work in a department that doesn't generate profit, like human resources, do more with less. If you work in a profit center, ramp up your sales.
But none of that will matter if you're difficult to work with. Sure, technical proficiency in your job is important, but even more important is your ability to get along with others, communicate and motivate colleagues.
"Many times, when I have been a part of the discussions, the tie-breaker is behavioral and not technical skills," says Ron Wince, chief executive of consulting firm Guidon. "Do you come to work on time? What is the quality of your work over the long term? Are you always ready to jump in with both feet, or do you have to be sought out?"
One way to show the bosses your enthusiasm is by staying current. Take classes to sharpen your skills and learn new ones. Attend conferences. Don't be shy about letting the higher-ups know you're doing this.
Says Wince, "Sometimes it does come down to skills, and you want to be at the top of your game."

And be nice--it goes a long way.

http://www.forbes.com/leadership/2008/10/22/barclays-layoffs-lehman-lead-careers-cx_tw_1022bizbasics.html?boxes=custom

new sources of candidates for recruitment

2008-09-12T00:48:00.000+05:30

Twitter, Friendfeed, Socialthing, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr, Jabber. What do they have in common? They're all powerful new sources of candidates for recruitment, according to Geoff Peterson, editor of Staffbytes and a recruitment pro.

Recruitment Videos On The Rise

2008-07-16T21:25:00.000+05:30

CareerTV, with US’s largest collection of recruitment videos online, continues to attract job seekers and employers. January was the best month for traffic yet with over 300,000 unique visitors! Over the last two months, the website has undergone a major re-design and the addition of new features, functionality and career videos. A wide range of user optimization tools have been added and as a result traffic has soared.
The market has embraced the use of recruitment videos and this has created a buzz in the industry”, says Jim Buttimer, CEO of CareerTV.

CareerTV addresses job seekers’ demand for career information through video, as well as the employers’ demand for a professional platform to communicate their brands. The company signed a number of successful partnerships last year with other leading sites targeting young professionals, including; Yahoo!HotJobs, CollegeRecruiter, AfterCollege, CareerBuilder, WetFeet, and InternshipPrograms. “There is a tremendous opportunity out there. With the overall number of online video views steadily on the rise, video is still growing very rapidly as a recruiting tool”, concludes Buttimer.

Starting in March, CareerTV will also begin producing a monthly 30-minute show highlighting different topics and industries - revealing the top-ranked employer. “This is a way to solidify our position as the #1 site for recruitment videos. The monthly show will air online and through other media distribution channels reaching a potential audience of 6 million viewers”, explains Sean O’Grady, Executive Producer for CareerTV.

Video Resumes: Lights, Camera, You're Hired

2008-07-16T21:23:00.000+05:30

Although thousands of video resumes appear on YouTube and elsewhere on the Web, corporations in general are not embracing the trend. For one, companies fear that discrimination suits may surface. Also, dealing with the different data formats for video resumes can be a headache for human resources personnel.

Tens of thousands of fledgling job seekers have spent a great deal of time, effort and money devising video resumes, a variation on the decades-old task of letting a potential employer know a little something about you. However, while the new approach has garnered some sizzle, it lacks substance.

"Video resumes are dead because they just do not help companies in the job selection process," Tom Schmidt, president of Resumefit, told the E-Commerce Times.

The recent phenomenon stemmed from improvements in computer and networking horsepower. The fad got a boost from movies, such as "Legally Blonde," in which the lead character, Elle Woods, uses a video resume to differentiate herself from other candidates.

Many other job seekers followed suit. There are now more than 25,000 video resumes on YouTube Latest News about YouTube, and job search sites, such as CareerBuilder, host thousands more. Some video resumes look quite professional while others seem like they were slapped together in a few minutes. The candidates use a variety of techniques -- from eye-catching images to humor -- to differentiate themselves from the rest of the job pack.
A Superficial Look?

However, the differentiation may not be helpful in certain cases. In some situations, a candidate may send the wrong message. Rather than being seen as clever, managers may view the videos as too egotistical. Also, a generic video resume typically will not highlight the skills needed for a certain position.

These resumes can also create problems for the employer by skewing the hiring process, as managers may fear that hiring decisions will be based on appearance and theatrics rather than on qualifications.

Potential legal problems present another significant bugaboo. Along with the possibility that a company may judge a candidate on looks, video resumes make information like age, race and gender apparent, so discrimination rather than a lack of qualifications may be viewed as the reason why a candidate is rejected. Plus, a creative lawyer can quickly make a case for discrimination if it is known a video resume was viewed before an individual was rejected. Because of that, some job sites forbid the use of them.
They're Inefficient

The biggest problem with video resumes is their tendency to slow down rather than speed up the search process. While a recruiter can scan a paper resume in less than a minute, watching a video resume takes a couple -- sometimes several -- minutes. If a person needs to sift through 50 or more resumes, the time difference quickly adds up.

"One major issue is there are no standard formats for producing video resumes," noted Jim Buttimer, CEO of CareerTV. The resumes come in many iterations -- different software programs and length, and they support different data formats. The chances of a human resources professional being able to view each video resume with one program are slim. Compounding the problem, no group -- at least at the moment -- is trying to develop a set of standards to make the process of watching video resumes simpler.

Another limitation with video resumes is that companies cannot quickly search past submissions. It is quite common for a company to store candidate information in a database and then go back and try to match applicants with requirements. There is no way to characterize and then search such information in video resumes.

Because of these problems, many companies, such as CareerTV, have abandoned video resumes. The company, a television programmer and interactive Web site designed to help college students and young professionals begin their careers, dumped its video resume service in November. "Companies are interested in using video to interview candidates but not in place of traditional resumes," CareerTV's Buttimer told the E-Commerce Times.
Not Dead Yet

However, while many recruiters are down on video resumes, some companies are not quite ready to bury the technology. "Video offers individuals much more power in how they present themselves than paper," Allison Nawoj, a career counselor at CareerBuilder, told the E-Commerce Times. The company has a video resume service on its site.

Theoretically, the shortcoming with video resumes can be addressed, and the technology can become more popular moving forward. However, at the moment, there is a significant disconnect between candidates who view video resumes them as a way to differentiate themselves and companies who view them as a hiring drain.

Taleo’s Acquisition of Vurv Completed

2008-07-16T21:21:00.000+05:30

Taleo, a provider of on-demand talent management solutions, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Vurv Technology, a Jacksonville-based company also specializing in talent management software.

“The addition of Vurv’s employees, products and domain expertise will enable us to enhance our solutions for customers, increase efficiencies and significantly expand our opportunities for growth,” said Michael Gregoire, Chairman and CEO of Taleo. “This acquisition reinforces our leadership position and commitment to delivering continued innovation to our growing customer base. The combined power of Taleo and Vurv will allow customers to better leverage the benefits of a unified talent management platform, providing a cohesive view of recruiting, performance, succession, and compensation to drive improved business results.

Taleo first announced it was acquiring Vurv on May 6. The completion of the acquisition comes after Vurv laid off 79 employees mid-June.

http://www.recruitingfly.com/

The combined companies serve over 3,400 customers around the world, including 48 of the Fortune 100, and more than 2,800 small and medium-sized businesses.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.

2008-04-28T16:37:00.000+05:30

~Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American Industrialist and Founder of Ford Motor Company

Recruitment outsourcing catching up corporates' fancy in India

2008-04-28T13:02:00.000+05:30

Aping the success of business process outsourcing industry, companies are keen on transferring all or part of their recruitment activities to external service providers, cutting down their human resource expenses significantly, say experts.
"Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) analyses client and candidates in the best possible way. Besides, it saves time and cost for corporates as well," global recruitment firm Manpower's official spokesperson told the media. Corporates today are faced with rising attrition and are thus turning towards recruitment process outsourcing.
RPOs are designed to meet the need of speed and cost optimisation of companies, experts said. There exists a strong need for HR processes in the developing countries, especially India, that are witnessing growth in all domains -- top-level middle level or freshers -- at a never before rate, HR services provider PeopleStrong said.
"As an RPO, we see a great opportunity arising for our services in the next 4-5 years in the country's HR space. Going forward, we see the HR departments of corporates becoming leaner as outsourcing will prove to be more helpful for them," PeopleStrong CEO Pankaj Bansal said.

The human resource domain comprises of a group of activities, including payroll management, training, staffing, benefits administration, travel and expenses management, and retirement and benefits planning.

Kelly services to enter RPO space in India

2008-04-28T12:55:00.000+05:30

Kelly Services India, a staffing company and HR solutions provider, is planning to launch its recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) service in India as part of its outsourcing and consulting group. Says Dhirendra Shantilal, senior vice-president (Asia-Pacific), Kelly Services, "We already offer RPO services in other countries like Singapore and will introduce this in India by the second half of this year."
While RPO is new to India, it is already a big industry globally and some estimates suggest it is worth $30 billion. In high-growth industries, companies need to maintain a steady focus on the core, and it perhaps makes good sense to leave out the non-core business for experts to manage. Says Shantilal, "We are good at recruiting, training and putting people on the job. This way, the human resources function in a company can be freed up from the task of recruiting and training."

"Earlier HR would keep track of these things. But now the HR can handle more important tasks like employee development," he added. The advantage in having an RPO is that it significantly cuts down the time taken to recruit a fresh employee. And this goes beyond pure recruiting.

Says Shantilal, "An RPO typically shortlists potential employees, recruits them, and then handles the induction and training and does some handholding as well."

IT’s official.Tech sector pay hikes to be muted

2008-04-26T15:49:00.001+05:30

IT’s official.Tech sector pay hikes to be muted
Salary Rise At Oracle India Down To 8%, IBM Cuts Middle Management Fringe Benefits

The woes of the IT sector are far from over. Faced with a challenging business environment in the wake of the US sub-prime crisis, software major Oracle has pared annual salary hikes, while IBM is cutting down employee perks. The average pay hike at Oracle India, as well as Oracle subsidiary i-flex solutions, is down to about 7-8%, dipping to 5% in some cases. On the other hand, IBM India is attacking fringe benefits offered to its middle management — it has withdrawn the free-housing (on lease) facility recently.

The average salary hike at Oracle India last year was 12-14%. Company sources told ET that employees expressing their dissatisfaction with the hike were asked to put in their papers. When contacted, the Oracle India spokesperson declined to comment. An e-mail sent to IBM went unanswered.

Oracle India employees say that the lower wage hikes are primarily on account of lower work orders from the US, which is in the midst of a slowdown. “Many orders given by banks xand other financial institutions to IT companies in India have seen a dip due to the ongoing crisis in the financial services market,” said an official, on conditions of anonymity.

Employees in the IT industry have already faced some brunt of the US sub-prime crisis. TCS, India’s largest software services firm, earlier effected a small cut in variable pay of its employees, which had an average impact on salaries of 1.5%. And there is more to come. TCS has said its wage increases this fiscal (2008-09) will be in the range of 8-10%, against 13-15% last year. Wipro, too, is likely to go for an 8-10% hike this year, against 12-13% in FY08. Infosys’ offshore employees will get an 11-13% wage hike, compared to 12-15% last year.

“The average salary hike this year is going to be in upper single digits. Salary hikes only reflect the company’s growth. In case of a muted growth, salary hikes have to be subdued. This is also reflected in the slightly moderated hiring plans of companies like Infosys,” said offshoring advisory firm Tholons president Avinash Vashistha.

niranjan.bharati@timesgroup.com

What to Do When a New Hire Earns More Than You Do

2008-03-31T12:57:00.000+05:30

Q: A new person has been hired for the same job as mine but is making substantially more than me. What can I do about this?

A: It can be demoralizing when an employer offers a bigger salary to someone who will have the same role as you, but it's not unusual. For some jobs, the external market value increases faster than company salary levels, so employers must offer more to recruit such candidates, says Barbara Vietor, a compensation consultant in San Francisco.
"If you have been there a couple of years, your pay can fall behind the external market," Ms. Vietor says. "You could earn $80,000 but the company needs to offer $90,000 to get a new person."
Sometimes, applicants can demand more because they have skills current employees lack, says Fred J. Eck, director of human resources at CDO Technologies Inc., a consulting firm in Dayton, Ohio. This is common in technical or engineering fields, says Mr. Eck. Younger hires might earn more than older, more experienced employees since they have more up-to-date knowledge and skills, he says.
Skill shortages also cause external pay to rise. This is currently true for financial professionals and nurses, who are being paid more than existing staffers to join organizations, says Ms. Vietor.
Typically, what staffers make isn't as secret as managers might think it is and that means paying new hires more than current staffers can create "some employee relations issues," says Mr. Eck. He advises meeting with your supervisor to ask why the new recruit earns more. Your boss may say the increase was justified to attract someone with skills the company needs.
Before the meeting, review the company's compensation philosophy, which often is stated on its Web site or employee handbooks, says Ms. Vietor. This can tell you whether the company's intent is to reward performance and whether it matches or pays more or less than market to attract new people.
Ask what you need to do to increase your pay commensurately. You may need to learn a new skill, participate in more difficult projects or get involved in other activities. It's crucial to always speak in terms of your value and not about fairness. Try to make an agreement with your boss on goals and outcomes, such as a performance review in three or six months to assess your progress. It's possible that your performance hasn't met expectations and that you need to work on it.
"If you get the added knowledge and improve your performance, hopefully it will be recognized in your next review or salary adjustment," says Mr. Eck.
Some companies want to improve pay for current employees after bringing in higher paid candidates but their hands are tied because they lack funds to award increases or because company policies allow them to only do so at certain intervals. In these cases, employees need to be patient. "Companies often don't have the cash to fix it right away," says Ms. Vietor. "It may take time."

Write to Perri Capell at careersqa@wsj.com

10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn o Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet

2008-01-25T16:08:00.001+05:30

10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet

LinkedIn is a great tool for finding passive candidates who want to be found. This is its little-discussed power. No one would publish their profiles otherwise. While some recruiters are still reluctant to jump on board, others have been making placements since day one. Here are some ideas on how to get started right away to take full advantage of this remarkable networking tool:

Direct Recruiting. Using the advanced search tools, you can find people in your extended network who are potential candidates for your search, or who know someone who is. Since you can see the names and bios of people in your extended network, you can very easily call them up and just recruit them. An extended network consists of three levels of contacts. For example, I have 1,200 people in my direct network. (You can link to me on LinkedIn using this email: lou@adlerconcepts.com.) On average each of these people has 200 people in their own network. This allows me access to over 240,000 people by one degree of separation! I can also see their contacts as well, which gives me visibility to approximately 5 million people.
Get Warm Leads from Your Direct Contact's Network. Here's my big rule for successful passive candidate recruiting: only call warm leads who have been pre-qualified. As far as I'm concerned it's a waste of time making a cold call to someone you don't know. First, the person is less likely to call you back. Furthermore, the person might not be qualified, and in this case the person won't give you any good leads. The direct network of all of your first-level LinkedIn contacts can quickly become warm leads. Since you can see the names of the people directly connected to them, just call and ask them who are the most qualified. Then call and recruit them. Since they're all warm leads they'll call you back. During the call make sure you connect directly with them on LinkedIn. This way you'll be able to see their contacts. Call back the next day if they're not a direct fit with one of your current openings and ask them who are the most qualified in their network. This is an awesome way to only work with high-quality warm leads.
Leverage Your Employee Referrals. First, get everyone you've placed and currently work with to build a LinkedIn network of associates. Then when you need some referrals, find them on LinkedIn and ask your employees to vouch for them. Make sure the referring employee gets the bonus for any placements. This will go a long way in having your contacts proactively and dramatically increase their network. When you call the referrals tell them who referred you to ensure a return call. This seems quicker to me than using the LinkedIn email system. Additionally, look up some of the employees of your company you don't personally know but who might know people for some of your open searches. Then connect with them and get more referrals. They'll probably call you back and connect with you since you're employees of the same company.
Use Google to Search the LinkedIn Public Network. [Note: This tip is from Glenn Gutmacher (glenn.gutmacher@microsoft.com), internet sourcer extraordinaire.] Many people have made their LinkedIn profile public. You can find them using Google with this search string:
site:www.linkedin.com -intitle:directory -intitle:answers -intitle:directory plus your specific keywords, e.g., sales "Los Angeles area" "consumer electronics."
Network through Endorsements and Recommendations. LinkedIn provides a means to endorse others. These endorsements, which show up as recommendations on the endorsed person's profile, provide another series of connections. Not only do these dramatically increase your opportunity to find great candidates, make sure you mention the name of one of these connections when you call to increase your callback rat.
Build a Network of Top Candidates and Prospects. Whenever you talk with a good candidate, make sure you connect with them on LinkedIn immediately. Not only is this a great way to keep track of your candidate network, but you'll also be able to see the names and titles of everyone in their networks. Then whenever you need to contact one of these people, all you need to do is ask your initial candidate to pre-qualify the person before calling. Within a few months you'll have a huge network of people for all of your open assignments. To make this manageable, only network with strong people since they tend to network with other strong people.
Build a Private Tip-toe Network. When good people get the itch to check out the job market they always connect with their primary network first to see if anything's available. Make sure you tell everyone in your network you want to talk with these people who are tip-toeing into the job market. This is a great way to get first dibs on the best people in your field.
Email Your Network. LinkedIn allows you to export your contacts to an Excel file. From this you can then create a mass personalized email. (Word has a wizard for doing this.) This is a great way to keep your network apprised of new and upcoming opportunities.
Get Warm Targeted Referrals from Your Network's Network. Remember that you can see the names and bios of everyone in your network within three degrees of connectivity. The first degree are those in your personal network. The second degree is every one connected to them and the third degree is everyone connected to them. So before you call a second degree contact, review those connected to them to see if there are any prospects for your search. Then if the person you call is not interested or not qualified, immediately ask about specific people in their network. Mentioning specific names will generate more referrals than asking, "Do you know anyone?"
Be Found! LinkedIn has a number of tools for job hunters. You should check these out. In addition, make sure your profile is public and that someone using LinkedIn to find a job in your area of specialty can find you. To ensure this is happening go to the advanced search page and put in the terms someone looking for a job would likely use to find a hiring manager or recruiter. Then make any modifications necessary to make sure your profile comes up.

By Lou Adler

Ways 'Authentic' Leaders Acquire Management Skills

2007-12-11T15:22:00.000+05:30

Bill George spends a lot of time thinking about leadership. He led medical-device maker Medtronic Inc. for a decade before stepping down as CEO in 2001. Today, he's a director at Exxon Mobil Corp., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Novartis AG. He also teaches management at Harvard Business School.

In a new book, "True North," published by Jossey-Bass, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons Inc., Mr. George discusses developing what he calls an "authentic" approach to leadership. Mr. George and assistants interviewed 125 leaders from businesses and nonprofits, aged 23 to 93, about their development as leaders. Mr. George recently discussed his findings with The Wall Street Journal. Excerpts follow:

WSJ: What defines an authentic leader, and how do you become one?

Mr. George: They lead with their whole selves -- their hearts as well as their heads. They don't get pulled off course by seductions and pressures. Every leader who has failed, that I've seen, has not failed to lead other people, they've failed to lead themselves.

What we learned [from our interviews] was that leadership is not about traits and characteristics. What really stood out was their life stories. That's where they found their passion to lead -- their experiences. That's what gave them the authenticity of leadership. A lot of the inauthentic leaders got pulled off by trying to be something different than they were.

WSJ: Who are authentic business leaders?

Mr. George: One example is Howard Schultz, at Starbucks. Howard still remembers growing up in Bay View [Brooklyn, N.Y.] housing projects. He was very impacted by his father losing his health care when Howard was just 7. He lost his health care, lost his job, just because he slipped on the ice [and was injured]. Howard is still primarily concerned with trying to create a company his father would be proud to work at.

Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon Products, was a star and on her way to the top of Neiman Marcus. At age 35 she walked out. I remember she came to my class and I said, "Andrea, why did you quit? Looks to me like you're going towards becoming CEO." And she said, "That was the problem. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life making luxury goods for upper-class women." So she walked out without another job and wound up at Avon Products. There she found her passion -- to try to help women achieve self-sufficiency.

WSJ: How should leaders balance the desire to empower and develop subordinates with more immediate demands for strong business results?

Mr. George: We've got to get back to giving people opportunities at very young ages to step up and lead without risking the firm. I was a general manager at age 27 of a $10 million business [at a unit of Litton Industries in the 1970s] that we built to $200 million. People have to learn early. Then when you get to higher-level positions you don't repeat those kinds of mistakes. Good learning organizations allow people to do that -- they give them those opportunities, they watch them closely, and then they give them feedback.

[General Electric Co. CEO] Jeff Immelt had a lot of problems in one of his assignments, in the plastics business. Inflation turned against him. He was under enormous pressure to get the results turned around. But he wouldn't deviate from his values. He could have -- by breaking contracts -- but he stayed true to the contracts and found a way through this high-inflation environment.

He said something very significant. He said, "Leadership is a long journey into your own soul." In other words, there's a time to get all the feedback, and then you've got to pull back and say, "What am I made of?" If [leaders] start to think it's all about their fame and power and glory, in the end they're going to do the wrong thing, and they're going to lose it along the way.

* * *

WSJ: How has the model of a CEO changed over the years?

Mr. George: We're going through a big change in leadership from the imperial CEO to the more empowering leaders. The reason we have to do that is that people in organizations have changed. I can give you three or four ways why that imperial 20th century style will not work in this century.

Today, you have knowledge workers who know more than their bosses. If you try to dichotomize workers and managers, you're going to get people totally de-motivated. The second thing is people don't just join your company and stay there for their career. They have options, so you better provide them with opportunities to step up and lead. The third is that the world is so complex these days that leaders have to prepare themselves for a world where they don't even know what they're getting into. The fourth thing is that people in organizations are looking for meaning and significance, not just money.

A leader who understands those four things is going to get a lot better results from people. I think of the 21st century leaders as people who can align people around a mission and values, empower them to step up and lead, and third understand their role is to serve their customers, and that's what turns their employees on, and then the shareholders will be served.

WSJ: What approach to leadership may eventually succeed the team-oriented style?

Mr. George: Every organization today that I know of is global, and in a global world we're recognizing our limitations. No business organization, even Exxon where I'm on the board, no government, even the United States government, or no non-profit organization, is powerful enough to solve really tough and complex problems like energy and the environment, health care, global poverty, global peace, education. These all require a collaborative approach. I think what we're going to see is leaders who are comfortable dealing in all of those sectors, and know how to bring people together being the most successful in solving tough problems. I think we'll see this globally integrated leader emerging.

WSJ: In some ways that's the most team-oriented you can possibly be.

Mr. George: You may be my competitor one day and the next day you may be my collaborator. Let's take the FDA. I used to have lot of battles with the FDA because I wanted them to do their jobs well in approving new products. But I didn't want no FDA. If the FDA is not regulating medical products you're going to have products out there from all over the globe that are going to be harming people.

I would argue that business leaders understand that. Maybe they've worked in government as I did [at the Defense Department from 1966 to 1969]. Maybe they've worked in non-profits. They know how to bring those forces together and get them to play together. That's quite a skill -- to bring together people from all sectors.

WSJ: Stan O'Neal at Merrill Lynch and Chuck Prince at Citigroup fell from power after revealing big losses related to the subprime mess. Why did they fail?

Mr. George: If we take them individually, Chuck Prince had a very tough hand he was handed by [former CEO] Sandy Weill. He had to clean up a lot of problems. But he may not have been the best team-builder to bring all the people together in Citigroup and really build the business. I think Stan O'Neal got caught way out on the risk curve of trying to be too aggressive in building some businesses they didn't know about, and too aggressive at getting rid of people. Both those cultures have a tendency where everyone's shooting at everyone else, so you build, over time, not very healthy cultures. That's a very serious problem.

I'd also in those cases fault the board of directors. How can you have an organization, in the case of Citigroup, of 371,000 people and not have any successors internally? Myself, I think it's a disaster. And the same at Merrill.

John Thain [the new Merrill CEO] is an excellent choice, a very authentic person. When he replaced Dick Grasso [at the New York Stock Exchange] people said, "Oh, no one can replace Grasso, he has all this charisma." But in fact Thain stepped in there and did a far better job. He's very down to earth, a straightforward guy, not a lot of charisma, but he gets the job done. He's going to do exactly the same thing at Merrill Lynch, I predict.

WSJ: What if you're a lower-level leader, and you're being ethical and true to yourself, but you're still not getting ahead?

Mr. George: There can be lots of reasons. That's where you need to have straight-up discussions with the people you work with. Are you getting these kinds of opportunities? Why not? And is there something holding you back? That sort of feedback can be extremely helpful.

Try to find a role that plays both to your motivations and to your strengths -- what we call the sweet spot. [Someone] could be a trader on Wall Street and be really good at it, but not be passionate about it, and they probably won't get ahead or be successful. Conversely, they could be highly motivated at something and just not be all that good at it.

People need to find that sweet spot that brings together their greatest capabilities with their motivations. That's where they're going to be most effective. Many people find themselves sidetracked in their careers and it's actually a good thing to pull back and have some consultation. We really need mentors to help us through those difficult times. My wife has been the best counselor I've had.

From The Wall Street Journal Online

How Can I Defuse Tensions With a Difficult Manager?

2007-12-07T17:32:00.000+05:30

Question: My boss is an authoritative manager who seems disturbed by any differing opinion and has been defensive several times with me. It's a small workplace and we need to work closely on projects. How can I break down the walls so I can feel safe to say what I mean without worsening things? I am 42 and six months into this job.

Answer: Confident executives don't take criticism badly. Since you have been there just six months, it's possible your boss believes you're still learning and isn't ready to hear your opinions.

But it's more likely that he's a tyrant and you would ultimately be better off working elsewhere, says Steven Berglas, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychologist who coaches senior executives and helps companies with executive selection.

"Your boss is probably stuck and isn't open to any threat to his authority," says Dr. Berglas. "It's a no-win situation, and it's time to get out of Dodge."

Career success comes from understanding what your boss wants and meeting his needs quickly so you can accomplish other goals, such as finding a new job. Stop questioning him, since it makes things worse for you, and focus on your next step, which should be to enlist his aid in helping you find work elsewhere, says Dr. Berglas, author of "Reclaiming the Fire: How Successful People Can Avoid Burnout." (Random House, 2001).

One way is to use "strategic" self-deprecation, or the "Wayne's World I Am Not Worthy" of working here approach, says Dr. Berglas. "Ingratiate him into becoming an ally and helping you get out of there by singing your praises," he says.

If the organization is large enough, lobby to move to a new department. If it's a small company and you aren't financially able to change jobs yet, it's worth trying to improve the situation, says Barry Zweibel, an executive coach in Northbrook, Ill.

When your manager is in a receptive mood, ask if he will meet with you. Some managers are most relaxed on Friday afternoons, while others are more open to requests after finishing a project. "Don't ask when he's preparing for a big meeting or has a major crisis going on," says Mr. Zweibel.

When asking for the get-together, use communication channels the boss prefers, and explain why you want to talk, such as, "I want us to discuss how I can work more effectively with you and tell you where I'm coming from as well." "Cranky bosses don't like surprises, so be clear about what you want," Mr. Zweibel says.

Try to keep the conversation on the issue, which is how the two of you interrelate. Explain that you want to exceed your boss's expectations and provide what he needs in a timely manner. Don't try to justify your point of view or back your boss into a corner about his management style because he may come out swinging.

Ask him if you're doing something unintentionally that interferes with your relationship. Try not to get defensive or withdraw emotionally if your boss says something insensitive. Also, be flexible about the outcome of the meeting since it may not turn out the way differ from what you expect.

At the end of the session, thank your manager for the opportunity regardless of how things went so that the lines of communication remain open between you. "Some conversations naturally have semi-colons in them," says Mr. Zweibel. "They are suited to be ongoing over a period of time."

If you have had issues with bosses in the past, the meeting may shed light on what you've been doing wrong. Perhaps you play devil's advocate when it isn't welcome, such as during brainstorming sessions or in deadline situations. If your relationship doesn't improve, accelerate your plans to find a new position elsewhere. Suffering under a tyrannical manager in exchange for a paycheck will erode your self-esteem and emotional well-being and may lead you to doing something you regret to get fired, says Dr. Berglas. "It's like staying in a bad marriage," he says. "Why risk burning out when you can exit gracefully?"

Strategies for Answering Weird Interview Questions

2007-12-07T16:12:00.000+05:30

Career experts advise job applicants to rehearse answers to common questions ahead of the interview. But what's a job seeker to do when asked an oddball query like: "What is your perception of the painting in the lobby?"

That question -- along with "Can you tell a joke?" and "What would you do with a million dollars?" -- were among some of the most bizarre questions posed by interviewers in the past year, according to a survey of 3,725 job hunters by Development Dimensions International (DDI) Inc. and Monster Worldwide Inc.

Marcus Gamo of San Francisco recalls being asked by a hiring manager: "If your alma mater was a cereal, what would it be?" Then a recent graduate of the University of Georgia, he says he paused for a moment and offered, "Fruit Loops," because it's "a little crazy, diverse and delicious."

Mr. Gamo didn't get the job. Today he's a director at a communications firm and says he makes a point of asking only conventional questions when interviewing candidates. "I don't want to put them in the same uncomfortable situation that I was in," he says.

Cathy Goodwin, a career consultant in Seattle, says some interviewers ask strange questions because it's company policy. "They don't know how to interpret them any more than you do," she says. The purpose is often to see how well job seekers think on their feet, so when posed an off-kilter question, it's best to not get rattled, she adds.

No matter how bizarre the question, offer a response, says Tom Gimbel, chief executive officer of The LaSalle Network, a recruiting firm based in Chicago. "Not answering doesn't accomplish anything," he says.

Find ways to address the job's requirements in your answers, advises Ms. Goodwin. In Mr. Gamo's case, she says a better response might have been Alpha Bits, the cereal shaped in letters. This way he could've reasoned that his school prepared him to be a great writer -- a skill required of most public-relations positions.

Beyond the goofy questions are the inappropriate ones. The DDI/Monster survey indicates that hiring managers also pose queries about personal matters. Some of the most offensive ones cited by respondents include: "Are you single?" "Is your hair color natural?" "Do you go to church?"

During an interview for a human-resources job two years ago, a recruiter pointed to Carrie McLemore's engagement ring and asked what her fiancé did for a living. After explaining he was an electrical engineer, she says the recruiter responded, "Well, why are you even interviewing? Aren't you just going to have a picket fence, kids and then quit work?" As a result, Ms. McLemore says she withdrew her candidacy for the position. "He wouldn't have been my boss, but if that's the kind of person they send out, it gives a bad vibe for the whole company," says the now 25-year-old in Memphis.

In fact, two-thirds of survey respondents reported that they have walked away from job opportunities after being turned off by an interviewer's questions. But, no matter how miffed you may feel, keep your cool, advises Mr. Gimbel. "Having an emotional reaction never is successful," he says. "You're creating more conflict."

You may be able to avoid giving a direct answer to an intrusive question by guessing the interviewer's motivation, says Scott Erker, a senior vice president at DDI, an executive-search consulting firm in Pittsburgh, Pa. For example, if an interviewer asks how many children you have, assume he or she wants to know if you'll be able to balance work and family, he explains. Answer by describing your ability to get the job done, says Mr. Erker.

Some job seekers consider it inappropriate for recruiters to ask how old they are in interviews. While it's unlawful for employers to discriminate against a candidate because of his or her age, it's not illegal for companies to request this information, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

To be sure, hiring managers aren't the only interview offenders. Mr. Gimbel says candidates have asked him questions such as: "Can I see the break room?" "How many sick days do I get?" "Do you have a bereavement policy?" "Do you track Internet traffic?" "How big is my expense account?" "Do you have free bagels on Fridays?"

While off-putting questions aren't necessarily candidacy killers, they can be damaging if a recruiter is on the fence about you.

Talking Too Much in a Job Interview May Kill Your Chance

2007-12-07T16:02:00.000+05:30

You can blow a promising opportunity by talking too much during a job interview.

That's how one facilities administrator ruined her employment chances at Clark Nuber, a small accounting firm in Bellevue, Wash. Asked to describe her strengths, the applicant delivered a long-winded reply focused on her cleaning of every cabinet in her home. "She probably went on for three to four minutes," recalls Tracy White, the firm's human-resources director. "I doubted she could get the job done in an eight-hour day."

Many nervous job seekers blabber endlessly about irrelevant information. They create a poor impression and cut short the hiring manager's time for further questions. "That official won't pay any attention to you unless you prove you're sharp during the first five minutes," cautions Robin Ryan, a career counselor, author and speaker in Newcastle, Wash.

"Oversharing in an interview is the most dangerous thing you can do," concurs Annie Stevens, a managing partner at ClearRock, a Boston executive-coaching and outplacement concern.

Don't despair. Here are four ways to steer clear of verbosity during a job hunt:

• Prepare short statements on how your background matches the job. Rehearse.

When a hiring manager says, "Tell me about yourself," you can offer a few war stories that recount a work problem, your corrective action and the measurable result. "The stories have to be powerful as well as engaging," lasting no longer than two minutes apiece, says Rich Gee, an executive coach in Stamford, Conn.

He helped Ward Smith, a talkative golf pro and instructor, to win a marketing spot with Black & Decker. During practice sessions with the coach, Mr. Smith supplied elaborate detail about the golf irons that he recommended to students. A hiring manager "doesn't need to know this," Mr. Gee interjected.

Mr. Smith soon realized he should translate "what I was doing into what Black & Decker was looking for," and keep it succinct. During his job interview, he used marketing lingo to describe briefly his teaching methods, explaining how he identified students' objectives, forged a rapport and enabled them to reach solutions. He now is an Atlanta field-marketing coordinator for a Black & Decker unit.

Embracing a similar approach, a jobless organizational-development consultant recently landed follow-up interviews with three possible employers. Callbacks rarely occurred when I "was running off at the mouth," he remembers. Defining yourself concisely also "builds an enormous amount of confidence for the next interview," he notes.

• Make sure you understand a question. Stop every couple of sentences to check.

If the interviewer requests your career history, you might inquire, "Do you want me to start with my present situation or at the beginning?" This type of response demonstrates a candidate "is preparing mentally for what's he's going to give me," says Peter D. Crist, head of recruiters Crist Associates in Hinsdale, Ill.

Pausing after you speak lets you collect your thoughts -- and seek permission to continue. Before you resume, Ms. White suggests asking, "Did I answer your question enough? Do you want more examples?"

• Watch the interviewer's body language for hints that your answers are getting boring.

He may stop taking notes, check his watch or glance at his computer. A loquacious middle manager ignored such warning signals after spending 15 minutes telling a West Coast recruiter about several extraneous issues, including her husband's problems with his boss.

"I was rolling my eyes and tapping my pen on her resume to indicate we should get back to work here,'' the exasperated recruiter says. He finally cut her off because he had many more questions to pose.

• Solicit feedback following an interview.

The West Coast recruiter decided against referring the middle manager to a client. "You had a number of stories to tell but they weren't relevant," he told her. "Use each minute to its best advantage to sell your background."

With practice, you'll be able to polish your pitch, adjusting the length of your responses until someone says, "You're hired!"

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Performance Reviews Need Some Work, Don't Meet Potential

2007-12-07T15:59:00.000+05:30

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Let's put it diplomatically and take the emotion out of it: The whole performance-review process, now in season, doesn't exactly exceed expectations.

Whether these annual events are meant to weed out laggards, reward achievers, assist development or act simply as a liability shield against discrimination lawsuits is anybody's guess. Whatever their purpose, they attempt to give employees an individualized and intimate portrayal of their performance, but can end up saying more about the company than the individual. "But enough about you ..."

If you hate performance reviews, that may be because you have spent more time than you can afford trying to understand whether the fact you "met expectations" is good or bad.

Worse, you may have to write the reviews, and suffer from the awkwardness of telling someone he's more or less living a lie. After all, saying negative things about someone can lead managers to self-incrimination, providing proof that they failed to manage someone as effectively as their managerial peers, who, in turn, inflated the grades of all their staffers.

"One reason they don't want to tell the truth is it creates responsibility," says Aneil Mishra, associate professor of management at the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University. Managers think: "If you're not doing your job, I have to figure out a way to make it better. And if you are doing a good job, I have to figure out a way to reward you."

Not surprising, performance reviews are lampooned online: "This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better. ... He doesn't have ulcers, but he's a carrier. ... If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change."

Books, such as "Perfect Phrases for Performance Reviews," provide plug-and-play comments. Those employees who need improvement in the "grooming and appearance" category, for example, might be told, "Some have reported unpleasant body odor." Note the "some have reported" construction intended to sound like fact instead of disputable opinion.

"I'm disappointed that there is such a demand for these books," concedes Robert Bacal, one of the book's co-authors and a consultant. "Managers aren't intentionally deceiving employees, they're deceiving themselves into thinking that what they're doing is an objective process."

Nowhere is that more evident than in the "forced ranking" systems where managers rate employees against their peers and fire the bottom percentage -- better known as "rank and yank." It's easy to get the impression that an unqualified judge is thumbing the scales.

Wayne Ryback, a former aerospace engineer and manager, once received a call on a Saturday morning from a group vice president telling him to downgrade one of his employees to "very good" from "excellent."

"The group vice president didn't have any clue as to what this person was like," says Mr. Ryback, who also believed the rankings were used to protect against lawsuits.

"If management were really interested in making a performance review helpful to the employee, they wouldn't do it [only] once a year," he says. It didn't matter "whether or not we communicated anything intelligible to the employee."

That's one of Bill Savage's beefs. The enterprise risk-management executive says reviews tend to raise more questions than answers. Once he was told by a former manager that he was below the proverbial "bar," which his manager conceded moved a great deal.

His other least favorite criticism: "nonteam player," which seems reserved to beat down overachievers who deserved promotions they didn't get.

"The big problem is not so much the words," says Mr. Savage, "but the inability of management to provide context on why they're using those terms."

Another method of review, the 360-degree feedback, aims to give a fuller picture of someone by corralling anonymous input from peers, subordinates and supervisors. At the manufacturing company that business-segment manager Ed Smiley works for, the 360-degree process has been suspended due to mutual back-scratching. "What you don't get is true feedback," says Mr. Smiley.

Mike Bach, a chief operating officer, once received 360-degree feedback that only confused him and his manager. Three anonymous peers reviewed him positively for decision making; three others, not so much. No one provided specifics. His boss shrugged and said, "I guess you only won over 50% of the people."

Brian Borkholder has no such shortcomings. For three years, the department leader has scored 29 out of 30 points total on various "metrics," such as job knowledge, interpersonal skills and adaptability.

"I'm great!" he says, "At least that's what my personnel file says about me."

How does he do it year after year? Simple: Mr. Borkholder writes his own reviews. "The last three years, I've turned in the exact same one," he says. "I've just changed the date."

In the employee comment box, Mr. Borkholder responds, "I agree."

Effective Interviewing Key To Making A Good Hire

2007-12-07T15:55:00.000+05:30

The ability to conduct an effective interview is a critical skill for all hiring managers. Knowing how to screen for the right candidate will save you the headache of a bad hire and help you assemble an all-star team, says career coach Cynthia Shapiro, author of the book "Corporate Confidential."

The goal of every hiring process is to select a candidate who not only has the appropriate skills but also meshes seamlessly with the company culture. But any manager can tell you: that's not as easy as it sounds.

Job applicants have become increasingly adept at dodging difficult questions and playing to their strengths. Given the fact that most executives aren't trained to interview, it should come as no surprise that few know how to look beyond the surface and spot red flags, Shapiro says.

Shapiro offers five tips for ferreting out bad apples and finding the right person for the job:

First, look within. Don't just settle for a candidate who looks good on paper. Find someone whose attitude and skills complement your own working style. Chances are you work well with people who possess particular talents and characteristics. If you're unclear on what those are, take some time to pinpoint the people on your team who you work well with. Are they energetic or patient? Independent or collaborative? You also want to look for employees whose strengths compensate for your weaknesses. Are you a big picture person with little interest in details? You'll want to populate your team with detail-oriented people who can pick up the slack. Once you've determined the character traits and skills you're after, carefully screen for them during the interview process.

Remember: it is not a popularity contest. "A lot of interviewers get just as nervous as the interviewees," says Shapiro. Why? Human beings are naturally empathetic and it's difficult to watch a candidate squirm without being affected. But it's not your job to put the people you're interviewing at ease. Nor is it your job to win them over. Your job is to uncover as much as you can about strengths and weaknesses and this isn't always a comfortable process. Heavily screening each applicant is the only way to protect the company from bad apples, so don't be afraid to ask the hard questions.

Be on the lookout for behavioral issues. People generally have their game faces on during an interview, which means it can be difficult to get an accurate read on them. To ensure that you don't get duped into hiring someone with authority issues or other behavioral problems, Shapiro recommends asking questions designed to get people to reveal themselves. Her favorite is: What's the most difficult situation you've ever encountered at work and how did you deal with it? You want an answer that demonstrates the person's ability to deal with conflict diplomatically. Be especially wary of candidates who appear negative, Shapiro warns. Those who can't maintain composure in an interview setting are unlikely to be a good addition to your team.

Do your due diligence. Checking employee references is no one's idea of a good time, says Shapiro, but it is absolutely essential. Why? Because references can give you real insight into a person's character if you ask the right questions. Shapiro recommends asking each reference to score the applicant's attitude, people skills and competence on a scale of 1-10. If the score is lower than a five in any area, this should be a red flag. It's also important to verify all the facts on resumes to ensure there is no misrepresentation.

If you feel uneasy for any reason, keep looking. Regardless of how qualified candidates appear do not proceed if you have any misgivings after interviewing and consulting references. In today's litigious society, it's become harder than ever to let people go when they turn out to be a bad fit, warns Shapiro.

http://www.careerjournal.com

10 career-killers to avoid

2007-12-07T15:39:00.000+05:30

Like other types of workers, IT professionals can be vulnerable to committing career sabotage -- sometimes without even recognizing it.

To help IT professionals become more aware of potential career blunders, Computerworld yesterday spoke with John M. McKee, president of BusinessSuccessCoach.net, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based career coaching and consulting firm. McKee is the author of author of Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Workplace Success. Here are 10 career-killers, with McKee's advice about how to recognize and avoid them.

1. Failing to have a life plan.

"This is the No. 1 biggest mistake that I run into with my clients. I work with a number of clients in IT, many of whom are in C-level roles. A life plan is a business plan, in the same way that a company leader creates an annual business plan for what the future is going to bring from a corporate perspective. Three life aspects to focus on include one's career, personal and family, and financial goals. If someone has a good title and a satisfactory personal and family life but they're struggling to make monthly payments, then they're not going to be satisfied. They should look at those aspects for themselves. They should look at the competitive environment, the job marketplace and whether their skill set is current. If someone can replace them because they're cheaper, faster or better, it's no different than looking at your IT requirements. Most importantly, this plan should be written down. Only 14% of people do that. 86% are putting their futures in the hands of others. It's not a good place to be in."

2. Not keeping your skills current.
"The business landscape is ever-changing and there is more demand for jobs than supply. Not staying on par with colleagues and those vying for your job will be a death knell. With individuals able to do the same work that someone is doing anywhere in the world today and the prospect that organizations will chase skill sets around the world, if you're not up to date with your skill sets in IT, you're significantly at risk of being replaced. This includes the need to stay up to date in technical skills, business skills and soft skills."

3. Failing to deliver results.
"Winners in business know that it's all about accountability. Those who harbor a sense of entitlement for simply having put forth effort, irrespective of the results of those efforts, are guaranteed to fall by the wayside. It's very easy in a corporation to believe that becoming more efficient will translate into becoming more effective. So becoming preoccupied with creating greater efficiency may be a short-term solution to helping the bottom line, but it doesn't help the organization to grow. I rarely see people get the big bonuses in the organization simply because they understand the policies and procedures of the company. It has to do with delivering the goods. You have to know your customers, know what your marketplace wants. Great leadership is all about asking questions."

4. Confusing efficiency with effectiveness.
"Those who think that communicating via e-mail replaces the need to actually talk with people around them fail to recognize the importance of personally connecting with others in today's highly automated and technological environment. Communicating in person whenever possible is imperative for success-seekers."

5. Believing that you are irreplaceable.
"There is no room for divas in the workplace. As soon as you convince yourself that you and only you can do the job 'right,' your star will surely start to fall. In any organization, any person can have a good couple of ideas, a good couple of years and a few successes under their belts and they start to think that the company can't do without them. They start to sit on their laurels and find themselves in greater jeopardy of losing their jobs. Comparing notes with others in the organization helps keep people grounded. It helps anyone in the organization to have different trusted advisers' perspective on what's going on and how their performance is being viewed."

6. Knowing all the answers.
"This old adage remains true: Knowledge is power. Professing to know it all can readily stagnate a career. Winners remain unceasingly interested in learning new ideas and approaches. Asking a lot of questions is a hallmark of great leaders and great managers. When one stops asking questions and starts believing they've seen it all, they are devaluing the amount of change going on in the world today."

7. Surrounding yourself with "brown-nosers."
"Losers like having people tell them how smart they are, whether or not it's true, while successful managers and other professionals accept and encourage intelligence and creativity in others. If you're constantly being told by your peers that everything you're doing is wonderful, you need a better group of advisers. If your supervisor believes that you're doing a great job, that's terrific -- it's probably reflecting well on him or her."

8. Forgetting to give credit to others.
"Losers inappropriately take full credit for positive events despite the help or input received by others, while winners give credit where credit is due. Losers inevitably reap what they sow. If your boss is a real pumpkinhead, you can probably get away with this a few times. But if you keep doing this, chances are your boss is going to catch on that you're a glory hog."

9. Failing to self-promote.
"Bragging is one thing, but letting colleagues throughout your industry know of your success through case studies, promotion bulletins, or other such tools is quite another. Losers often fail to recognize the importance of letting others know about their successes, or go about it in entirely the wrong way. In today's disconnected business world, where many people work at a distance from their supervisors, it's important to let your boss and leadership know your contributions and that you are a valuable asset. This could be as simple as providing your supervisor with an e-mail once a week to inform him about what you're working on and your progress. By doing that, when decisions are made for promotions or job transfers, you're more likely to get what's due to you."

10. Losing perspective.
"Intuitive businesspeople recognize that, despite their best attempts to do everything right, sometimes they approach roadblocks and seek the advice and perspective of a respected friend, colleague or even a business coach. Those who fail to recognize their shortcomings are destined for the unemployment line. It has everything to do with forgetting the reasons why their business exists, why they're in this business, and what it is they intended to accomplish when they entered this industry. You need to be excited about what it is you're doing, and you need to put more enthusiasm into what it is you're doing. If you're not looking forward to getting out of bed in the morning, you're working on a downward trend -- you just don't know it yet."

www.computerworld.com

Motivating Workers Worldwide

2007-11-20T17:11:00.004+05:30

In today's far-flung economy, companies need to manage recognition globally while tailoring rewards for local markets. Awards that are in line with business goals are the most likely to ensure a substantial payoff, but organizations expecting immediate results may be disappointed.

Employees at Dow Chemical didn't lack opportunities for recognition. For years, corporate leaders at the multinational corporation, which counts some 45,000 employees in 62 countries, had managed hundreds of programs highlighting exceptional work.

Still, satisfaction proved anemic, and the scattershot approach made usage and other results difficult to track, says Sylvia Kronwald, program manager for Dow's global recognition program. In 2005, Dow officials wiped the slate clean, hiring international recognition provider Globoforce to provide an approach that was centrally controlled but could be locally tailored to the interests of employees from Italy to Indonesia.

Since then, nominations increased from more than 107,000 in 2005 to 133,000-plus in 2006, Kronwald says. More than 75 percent of Dow employees have been nominated; 95 percent of them have received awards ranging from e-cards to gift certificates. Kronwald declined to detail Dow's investment, but she believes the money is well spent. "If a colleague, someone the employee works with, recognizes them officially, that helps with motivation and teamwork,'' she says.

As the recognition industry matures into its second decade, multinational companies are moving away from regional programs and expanding to the global stage, recognition professionals say. Motivating across time zones, though, still requires tight adherence to core recognition principals to make such investments worthwhile, they say.

Rewards should be closely aligned with the company's strategic goals and return on investment should be analyzed. Additionally, gift cards or other rewards should not be considered a substitute for less tangible rewards, such as managerial support and interaction.

In short, companies must learn to manage recognition globally, but customize such efforts locally, says Christi Gibson, executive director of Recognition Professionals International, located near Chicago. "What works in another country may not work here,'' she says. "And what works here may not work there.'' The nonprofit professional group, founded in 1998 as the National Association for Employee Recognition, changed its name this year to reflect that 10 percent of its 850-plus membership is internationally based.

If done well, effective recognition can develop an international cadre of engaged employees who help drive the company's long-term goals, says Bruce Bolger, executive director of the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement, which is affiliated with Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. The potential payoff can be substantial, says Bolger, pointing to a 2006 analysis by the Russell Investment Group, which compared stock performance for companies listed in Fortune's "Best 100 Companies to Work For'' with the S&P 500. Its findings: From 1998 to 2005, the cumulative returns were 200.6 percent for the "Best 100'' list, compared with 45.6 percent for the S&P.

But cultivating engaged employees doesn't happen over night, Bolger cautions. "Corporations today tend to prefer initiatives that can get them a result in a year or less,'' he says. "The major obstacle related to the implementation of people performance strategies is that it's a longer-term investment.''
Preventing job hopping Today's employees may be less inclined to put down corporate roots than even a few years ago, if the latest "World at Work'' survey by staffing company Randstad is any indication.

In 2003, just one-third of employees were scouting out job alternatives. By early 2007, more than half—54 percent—were poised to go elsewhere, according to the survey results, which involved 3,139 employers and employees.

Companies may not be taking sufficient steps to retain employees. Genia Spencer, Randstad USA's managing director of operations and human resources, says more employers—60 percent versus 55 percent—reported searching for new talent to fill anticipated vacancies than those who were grooming people from within.
"That personal touch—the personal thank-you, whether through a phone call or a quick e-mail—is so important." —Sylvia Kronwald, Dow Chemical
"Are we creating our own self-fulfilling prophecy?'' Spencer asks. "We expect for [employees] to leave, so we put our resources into planning for them to leave, versus finding reasons for people to stay.''

Job angst isn't confined to U.S.-based employees. According to analysis by Kenexa Research Institute published this year, positive employee perceptions toward their job experience in U.S. and European multinationals varied substantially among nationalities. Indonesians were most likely to report a positive job experience, at 77 percent, compared with 45 percent by Japanese, according to the institute's analysis of more than 29 million survey responses from multi national companies. The overall average was 64 percent; U.S. employee perceptions were 67 percent.

In some Asian countries, where skilled employees were once satisfied with landing a job, the bar is quickly moving higher, says Kurt Hosna, international solutions manager for St. Louis-based Maritz Motivation. Employees in bustling tech centers may move to a nearby building—changing companies in the process—every six to 12 months for salary differences of 5 percent to 10 percent, he says.

To meet that challenge, corporate leaders have been moving to a more globally consistent recognition approach to attract and retain talent, Hosna says. In 2006, Maritz unveiled its global rewards product. "Companies want to treat their workforce as one workforce,'' he says. "They say it's really key that employees outside the United States don't feel like they have a substandard program compared to the U.S. program.''
Aligning strategy and rewards Before 2003, Reuters recognized exemplary work, but the media giant's approach wasn't doing much to cement employee loyalty or effectiveness, says Danny Hackett, a Reuters program manager. The programs tended to be one-time efforts rather than part of a larger strategy or program, he says.

Of equal concern, employees perceived that the initiatives were largely confined to sales, and the same people always seemed to garner kudos, Hackett says. "That was a very negative perception to have.''

Reuters revamped its approach with an eye toward aligning recognition with the multinational company's business strategy. The Living FAST Recognition Program was born. FAST stands for Fast, Accountable, Service and Team-focused—behaviors the company wanted its 16,000 employees to embody. "The main focus was to get people invigorated and believing in the value of our FAST values,'' says Hackett, the manager of the program developed by Globoforce.

http://www.workforce.com/

Motivating Workers Worldwide

2007-11-20T17:11:00.003+05:30

Motivating Workers Worldwide

2007-11-20T17:11:00.002+05:30

BECOME A CHANGE LEADER

2007-11-20T17:11:00.001+05:30

One certainty in life is that the future holds unpredictable changes. We start every day not knowing exactly what to expect. Life brings lessons and opportunities that we don't always welcome. It forces us to take risks, become vulnerable, and open ourselves to the unknown.

If you can rise above that fear, you might become the special individual we're all waiting for. View change as a good thing. Beyond every corner is a new opportunity waiting to be discovered.

But how do you make a change when you have mortgages, kids, busy careers, and far too much to do throughout your days, weeks, and months? In order to make a change, you must lead your own change. This is done by becoming what I call a change leader.

All great leaders have one thing in common. They recognize that someone must take charge and make the decisions. Strategy is planned and a course of action is begun to achieve change because of that person. It's essential to your future to become your own change leader.

People can make changes without being change leaders, but long-term benefits are gained when you have courage to transform your attitude toward change from one of timidity and resistance to one of strength and appreciation for the opportunity to make your life better. Now you can take an active role and manage and direct it, to change your views of life from one of struggling to maintain the status quo to always looking for new opportunities and viewing change as a positive force.

All change leaders have this unique quality within them. Change becomes easier when you see it not as a mountain that seems too high, but as a gentle slope. In the journey of life, each step takes you gradually closer to achieving your goals.

What are some of the fears that keep you in your current circumstances instead of changing? The fundamental thing you need to do to make a change is to conquer your fears of the unknown or unfamiliar.

Becoming a change leader begins by evaluating your life now. Do this by recognizing where you are and identifying what areas need to change in order to improve your life. Acknowledge that you can't change everything at once. What you can do is choose an area to work on and take concrete steps, all the while being alert to opportunities to change in other areas you have identified. Mahatmas Gandhi said, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world."

Steps to Becoming a Change Leader
Create tomorrow, don't maintain yesterday.Anything that doesn't support what is most important to you needs to be abandoned. The focus must be on creating a tomorrow that you most want.

See your challenges as opportunities.Welcome unexpected difficulties because they represent opportunities to make something better. This process isn't an easy one.

Be willing to risk.People are used to maintaining the status quo rather than making changes. Taking risks is about becoming what you most want for yourself. It's important to know that when we risk, we are moving out of our comfort zone to a place that feels like an unknown.

Focus on successes and opportunities versus problems.Problems can't be ignored, but it's vital to focus on the opportunities that you'll be attracting in your life as you move toward your dreams.
View problems in the context of the larger vision you have for your life, and they become less important. Also, take note of the successes you've had as you move forward on this change journey so you will feel excited about what you've gained and accomplished along the way. By taking small steps with each success, you begin to make a major fundamental change.

Use resources wisely.A resource comes in such forms as energy, money, and time. Let go of any activities that won't move you toward the change you most desire. The question to ask is, "If I am to focus my resources on what is most important, will I do this activity?" If the answer is no, spend your resources on an activity that does advance your goals. Always question how best you can use your resources in each minute of your day.

Imagine new possibilities.Begin to acknowledge the new and exciting opportunities that lie ahead. Don't neglect this part of yourself. When you honor the new, exciting, and powerful possibilities that are within your life, everything has a way of supporting, co-operating, and assisting you towards the possibility.

Take action today for what you want tomorrow.Taking action is about embracing the concepts of discipline, motivation and perseverance. It's not easy to stay focused and in pursuit of what you want. When you are taking action, your steps should be specific, achievable, realistic, and timely.

@ www.garfinkleexecutivecoaching.com

What Makes a Company A Great Place to Work Today

2007-11-20T17:11:00.000+05:30

This the season for workplace rankings, with "best-workplace" lists sprouting everywhere this fall.

From Working Mother magazine's "100 Best Companies" to Business Week's "Best Places to Launch a Career," judges are sizing up employers' flexible scheduling and other perks as criteria for coveted top-employer rankings. And family-friendly companies are looking very different today than they did a few years ago. The waning of boomers with their uptight ways, and the rise of the we-want-it-all millennials, are spurring major shifts in employer programs.

Here's a look at what's hot:
• Wide-open flexibility: Workers want a new, more fluid flexibility in work practices -- versatile routines that work "whether you're 20-something and trying to earn another degree, or over 30 and taking care of children," says Carol Sladek, a principal at Hewitt Associates, Lincolnshire, Ill. Although Kevin Bourke, 30, general manager for a holding company, is still single, for example, the freedom to work from his Atlanta home was critical in selecting an employer; he wants flexibility to see his fiancée and parents, who live nearby, as much as possible, he says.

At a Wilmington, Del., unit of AstraZeneca, more than two-thirds of the 30 employees in a medical-resources group are regular users of alternative setups tailored to their needs, says Donna Holder, the unit's manager; "we don't have set hours" for being in the office.

The 50 employees at Motorola's technology-acceleration group in Chicago all work flexible hours from home, the office or elsewhere, says Jim O'Connor, a Motorola vice president. And at Abbott Laboratories' Columbus, Ohio, nutrition unit, where 75% of 108 employees are on flexible work setups and the rest have day-to-day flexibility, the only day everyone has to be in the office is Wednesday, says David Deis, director of research services.

• Broader programs: Among the most popular benefits are those that extend family-friendly programs beyond women to encompass men. Paid paternity leave is one example; Phoenix Cos. and Pfizer, among others, have added it recently.

Enviro-perks, or amenities to make the office more alluring: Young workers tend to be cubicle-averse; "if I could get the Gen Y-Millennial group all in one room and promise them anonymity, they'd all look at me and say, 'Why do I have to come to this place, ever?'" says Cali Williams Yost, a Madison, N.J., flexibility consultant. Dressing up the office with fitness centers and comfy cafes can help.

• Vacation time: High on the list of alluring perks for top recruits such as Andrew Malkin, a recent MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School, is lots of vacation, starting in Year One. In today's jobs, "taking long weekends doesn't do enough. You need to be off work seven days before you feel like you're really unwinding," says Mr. Malkin, who weighed competing job offers before signing on as a vice president in New York for a publisher. Xerox last year began allowing workers to buy an extra vacation week through payroll deductions; 7% of its employees jumped at the chance, a spokesman says.

What's not so hot:
• Rigid policies on flexibility -- a "top-down, 'here's our policy, check the box'" approach, with a set menu of fixed options such as part-time work, Ms. Yost says. Too often in the past, only a favored few women won those accommodations. Today, the best employers make access to flexibility "a conversational process" with all employees, Ms. Yost says. • Services that step in and perform family tasks so employees can stay at the office longer -- such as errand-runners who buy and send Grandma's birthday present. These were in vogue in the 1990s, when employees were more inclined to sacrifice family time for work. While concierges are still prized for routine errands, what workers want more now, Ms. Sladek says, is flexibility to take care of important family priorities themselves. • The outlook on corporate child care is mixed; it's still a powerful retention tool, and some companies are expanding their offerings. Citigroup, New York, opened an eighth child-care center in Jacksonville, Fla., in July.

However, the proportion of employers offering on-site care has been stagnant since 2004 at 4% to 6%, says a Society for Human Resource Management poll of 590 firms. And hard times recently led Ford Motor Co. and its union to shutter seven child-care centers. Growth in this area will depend on labor-market trends and the course of the economy.

@wsj.com

Gartner: The 40-Hour Workweek Era Is Ending

2007-11-18T08:47:00.000+05:30

By 2015, there will be more workers who interact with technology, but they'll be working a whole lot less hours each week, finds a Gartner research report.

Gartner argues that three of the four traditional pillars of work—the living wage, long-term relationships with loyal employers, and government- or company-provided pensions—have already gone the way of the dinosaurs, leaving only the 40-hour workweek.

But this, too, is not long for the employment economy, the report said. Societal views on primary wage-earner and caregiver roles, as well as on retirement, are in the midst of changing, taking with them the de facto 40-hour work week. Individuals are already reconsidering its pervasive influence, the report argues, and the dialogue is becoming increasingly political. Those most affected are at the helm.

Retiring Baby Boomers, working-age mothers and Generation X workers are seeking a more fulfilling work/life balance, and the traditional workplace structure is holding them back. The report said that no longer will the workplace be dominated by single bread-winners who expect to retire at the end of their working life, and that businesses need to reckon with this trend.

"When people in these demographics have marketable skills, employers will find it difficult to ignore their requests for more flexibility," said Brian Prentice, research director of emerging trends and technologies at Gartner, in a statement. "The additional pressures of an aging population and skills shortages will lead to the adoption of digital free agency and flexible work structures as social, political and business necessities."The effect of these changes will be felt throughout the employment life cycle.

Organizations will be forced to redefine existing roles as well as craft new ones based on what can be realistically achieved in half the traditional workweek. The report suggests that rather than adopt a draconian measure of cutting in half the working hours of all employees, employers that create 20-hour job descriptions will be in the best place to attract and retain the most qualified workers. "The 20-hour-per-week job description is a relatively simple way of addressing a growing problem without radically restructuring well-established management models," said Prentic.

Digital free agents as change agents
Yet, the decline of the standard 40-hour workweek will not occur in a bubble, but at the same time as a consumerization trend increases the roles that IT plays in people's personal lives. "It will be very hard to draw a distinction between the personal and work computing environment.

The shift in power away from the organization, and in particular, the IT department, will be even more significant with these people," said Prentice.In what Gartner calls the emergence of the "Digital Free-Agency," individuals will be expecting to blend professional and personal computing requirements in an integrated environment.

The report said that the effect of this user-driven practice coupled with new 20-hour job descriptions will change the workplace as IT knows it. "As IT becomes woven into the fabric of people's lives and traditional work-home boundaries are rendered obsolete, digital free agency will emerge," said Prentice.

Report: The supply of IT pros is down, but the demand is up. Click here to read more.

Though this trend is only now in the early stages, Gartner argues that sharp CIOs will see digital free agency as a business-relevant trigger and link it to farsighted business benefits. "Gartner is asking the CIO to consider a long-term planning scenario that prepares for the 20-hour job description and the rise of digital free agency. That consideration needs to happen now," said Prentice.

The report states that smart CIOs will not wait to address two imminent trends: the need to control the computing environment on one hand, while providing increased user autonomy on the other. Doing so will put IT in the business drivers' seat."

Ultimately, by preparing for digital free agency, the IT department will be able to position itself as a proactive enabler of true business change," said Prentice.

By Deborah Perelman

Whither the Resume?

2007-11-18T08:43:00.000+05:30

It didn't happen overnight, but was once a dull murmuring that the resume is becoming extinct has risen in recent months to a fever pitch.

The paper resume went the way of the caveman nearly a decade ago. Web 1.0 recruiting technologies, such as big job boards and vendor-powered ATS ATS (application tracking systems) on corporate career sites effectively killed the need for a paper resume on 24-pound ivory stationary stock.

Now, Web 2.0 recruiting stands to rid candidates altogether of the need for a one page summary of their skills and experiences.

"Let's face it: The traditional resume just does a woefully inadequate job of telling your career story and showcasing your brilliant work to a recruiter," writes Bryan Person on his social media blog Oct. 8, and feels that it would be more current to adopt a social media resume as its replacement.

Person argues that one-page resumes don't reflect the thought leadership of any blogs a person has, doesn't tell potential employers about online conversation an individual may be contributing to, and it doesn't tell them about a job seekers professional network or online presence.

Though he is speaking largely about creative professionals, the trend of having a one-stop homepage that serves as a portfolio which gathers different aspects of an individual's professional life could work in a range of fields.

"I know this process won't work for every type of hire or every type of industry, but in the Marketing, Communications, Advertising and Public Relations spheres, it seems like a no-brainer," writes Mitch Joel on his marketing and communications blog.

Considering that a recruiter's or interviewer's first destination after they receive a resume is to search for more information on that person through Google, Facebook or LinkedIn, Joel says "Why not stack the odds in your favor and have a space that unifies who you are, what you're about and how you think?"

Good bosses - Bad bosses

2007-11-18T08:41:00.000+05:30

Good bosses

Help employees set reasonable goals
Partner to find the best possible outcome for all parties
Find new ways to deliver old messages
Are honest and up front, but not mean

Bad bosses

Sugar coat everything
Complain that “that’s just the way we’ve always done it, so that’s the way we’ll always do it”
Never set goals, because goals mean accountability
Take the credit when things go right, and point the finger when things go wrong

What do you think? What have your best bosses, and your worst bosses done to help you become a better manager. After all, everyone’s an example, for what to do or what NOT to do.

Which way do you lean…good…or E-V-I-L?

~ Trevor Gay

How To Work For An Idiot

2007-11-16T23:49:00.000+05:30

Idiot bosses exist only to stomp the life out of their intellectually superior and more innovative subordinates.

This keeps many good workers up at night. Some can't figure out why their ideas are rejected and their work is denigrated. Others sink into cynicism about their careers. A few devote all their energy to plotting revenge against the dummy in the corner office.

Instead, use a little jujitsu: Turn your boss's cluelessness to your advantage. Call it idiot engineering.

"A clueless boss gives you a wide-open field," says John Hoover, author of How to Work for an Idiot: Survive & Thrive--Without Killing Your Boss. "Learn what's important to your boss, understand what your company is looking for and help the fool meet those expectations."

Some workers, fed up by the knuckle-dragging incompetence of the idiot boss, spend a good part of the day making the twit look bad. The shrewd employee works around the idiot boss by becoming a boost to the ninny's career--not an impediment.

"You want to diminish the power of the boss's cluelessness to harm you," says Hoover, a corporate psychologist who holds a Ph.D. in organizational behavior. "You do that by becoming an enhancement to the boss."

Start by paying attention to what interests the bumbler and listen carefully when the schmo grunts. This will provide vital information in planning your winning assault on idiocy.

If your boss has a hockey stick in the corner, uses a puck for a paperweight and has the jersey of his favorite player mounted on the wall, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that he's a hockey nut.

Rather than laying out your proposal in detailed and complex language peppered with chatter about the "leading edge" and "getting the lion's share of resources," try this:

"Wasn't it Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky who said you shouldn't skate to where the puck is but to where the puck will be?"

A true idiot will miss the metaphor. Relax, you're talking hockey, and your favorite jackass will listen. If you make your presentation in hockey-speak, chances are the boss will love your idea--even if he doesn't understand it--and will give you the go-ahead.

That's your opening, and, as a non-idiot, the rest is up to you.

Some may see efforts to handle an idiot boss as butt kissing, but anyone who thinks that probably believes the road to advancement starts by making the boss look stupid.

"Idiot engineering isn't butt kissing," Hoover says. "The whole idea is to make working conditions more conducive to your career growth."

Remember: The key to overcoming an idiot boss includes blending your ideas with the nincompoop's language and agenda. If the schmuck adopts your ideas as his own, you've hopped the first hurdle to success.

"Even though idiot bosses are inevitable, they don't have to be terminal," Hoover says.

But no matter how successful your idiot engineering efforts are, remember who's the boss.

"The person with the institutional authority is always the 800-pound gorilla," says Hoover. "People who go to work thinking they'll out-wrestle the big monkey will lose every time."

A clueless boss isn't necessarily unconscious, and most know they're in over their heads. This creates great insecurity. As a result, the idiot boss spends most of his day defending his turf against all threats rather than advancing the interests of the company. The idiot boss's imperative is clear: prevent others from seeing his near-terminal cluelessness.

The turbo-charged jerk in pinstripes is more than happy to slaughter a sacrificial lamb on the altar of his own incompetence. You can avoid being that innocent lamb by making yourself indispensable to the big goof.

The rare non-idiot boss does a genius thing: talk to employees, ask about their job and how it can be done better. Jack Welch, former head of General Electric, nailed it. Clearly, someone knows which end is up at top-notch companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Apple Computer, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.

"I'm a recovering idiot boss," Hoover says. "If I stop talking to my people, I'm dangling precariously. I've got to engage them and learn from their skills. If I do that, I've taken my personality out of the equation, and that creates consistency."

However, if your boss is dumber than a fence post and beyond redemption, it may be time to find another job. Hoover says an inability to get along with the boss is cited as the top reason for changing jobs. Then comes job dissatisfaction, followed by inadequate pay.

"In a free market, we can vote with our feet," Hoover says. "Leaving may have consequences--pay and location, for example--so do a cost/benefit analysis before giving notice."

The battle against idiocy is a long, twilight struggle. As you gird for battle, take a hard look at yourself.

"Beware your inner idiot," Hoover says. "Success and stupidity don't mix. Your boss's stupidity is only half the problem. Your own stupidity can easily complete the disaster."

Tips on how to deal with seven types of idiot bosses

(Excerpt from the book: 'How to Work for an Idiot')

@ www.forbes.com/

Social networking could land you your dream job

2007-10-30T11:24:00.000+05:30

"Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life."
-- Confucius

We all wish for such a job, if only it was as easy to find. The problem is not whether such jobs exist -- they do -- but in landing them. Positions advertised in newspapers or job sites and those available through recruiters may not be what you're looking for, and the same goes for companies on the lookout for talent.

Enter social media. The hottest development on the internet in the last few years has become a place for people to meet, make friends, share personal stories, exchange information -- and get ahead in their careers. These include casual networking sites like Facebook and Orkut as well as professional ones like LinkedIn and Ryze.

Realising their potential, smart headhunters have ensured the have a presence on these sites as they go about their search for the right candidate. LinkedIn, by far the biggest professional networking site with over 14 million users, has over 200,000 recruiters registered. Scanning profiles of people registered on social media, these HR professionals are often able to find candidates who may otherwise have not been traceable. And these are only those actively looking for a change. Often, these sites throw up people who are in the job market only passively, or waiting for a job they would love.

"I use social media like Linkedin, Ryze, Hoovers and Zoominfo to identify prospective candidates, otherwise difficult to locate," says Nupur Arora, working in HR at Sapient Corporation, India. "Linkedin and Ryze are very useful for senior professionals, while Orkut works well for the more junior roles and those at associate and senior associate levels. With their strict terms of use, these sites allow people to feel comfortable in creating public profiles and connecting with strangers."

"The fundamental value of LinkedIn is allowing aspiring professionals access to unlimited career opportunities across these large growth organisations. It bridges the gap between great companies looking to add top-tier talent, and people only available to the perfect opportunity at their dream company," says Brendon Cassidy, Director of Corporate Sales, LinkedIn on the site's official blog.

So, how do you make social media work for your career? Here are a few tips to get you going:

~ Create accounts on select social media sites. It's best to choose a professional one (strongly recommend LinkedIn) and a casual one (choose between Orkut, Facebook and MySpace). Don't spread yourself thin by being on too many sites.

~ Let your profile make a statement: When you fill out details about yourself on your account, make it not only complete but also compelling enough for others to take note. Add all relevant information about your education, career so far, achievements, interests, hobbies, recommendations from others, photographs, links to your blogs and more. Everything counts when it is your dream job you are after.

~ It's not only professional sites that matter: The belief, not unfounded, so far was to use professional networking sites like LinkedIn and Ryze for recruitments. No longer -- even other social media positioned more for personal exchanges, dating, posting photographs etc are being scanned by recruiters to identify people or run background checks. You are being watched -- make sure you put your best face forward.

~ Your network matters: Social sites are only as effective as your network of contacts. The right mix of quality, relevance and quantity can optimise the benefits to you. Recruiters might also be calling upon some of your contacts for a reference check -- having the right network becomes all the more important.

"I am at a stage where I am looking at new jobs and LinkedIn has been instrumental in getting me in touch with some people in the industry. I cannot say that I have bagged the job of my dreams as yet, but I am pretty confident it won't be long," says Vandana Bagri* who moved to the US a few years back to work in the fashion industry.

~ Get discovered through active participation: Doing all of the above is fine, but lying dormant on these sites will not do much for your cause. Be an active participant on the various features offered here. The LinkedIn Q&A section is one where members exchange knowledge and expertise -- and thus get to know others better and improving chances of being discovered.

"I met someone through the LinkedIn Q&A section who asked a question regarding a technical topic of interest to me in hardware design. We started conversing via email, and it turned out he was the director of US operations for a European company designing EDA tools in the very area that I am interested in working. I quasi-interviewed via email (including with one of the founders), and now I am awaiting a formal job offer," says Matt Andrews, a US-based hardware engineer.

~ Recommend and seek recommendations: Some of these sites allow members to recommend one another for their professional capabilities. Seek some for yourself -- it boosts your profile. And don't be stingy in doing so for others either. It's all about give and take, fostering relationships in the process.

~ Seek out the employer you want: These sites are not only about someone finding you; they give you an opportunity to network with people in the right companies when you are actively seeking a change.

Normally you may not be able to just send an email to these people -- but if you approach them through your network, chances of a response go up dramatically.

"I am using social media seeking a job opportunity in the US. I am currently based in India and looking to migrate. I am in touch with recruiters who are currently working within my target companies, and who are open to networking," says Rohit Chugh*, a professional based in Mumbai. "There are a lot of recruiters out there who are open to finding quality candidates through such sites and are extremely responsive. Within the first three months itself, I received six job leads and landed four telephonic interviews. This would not have been possible through conventional channels."

Some additional advantages of using social media for career advancements

Your boss will not be alerted: Floating your resume on job sites and boards and among recruiters could mean your boss getting alerted of your intent. Simply direct recruiters to your social media profiles, and no one will be the wiser.
Get a better deal: When you get 'discovered' by a recruiter, it is for the latter to sell you the job. Implication? You can always hold out for a better package since you are not the one seemingly on the lookout.
Run a background check before committing: Social media allows you to find people who can tell you more about companies, bosses and other colleagues you would be expected to work with -- the feedback can help you take a more informed decision.
Join a new company, settle in quicker: Look up people on social media sites who work in the company you are planning to join, and chat them up -- developing a better understanding of the people and the company's culture can help you settle in quicker.

Dan Nye did not post his resume anywhere. Nor did he go out seeking a job. He was discovered by a certain gent named Reid Hoffman. Who are these people? Mr Nye is now the CEO of LinkedIn and Mr Hoffman is its founder and chairman.

Are you ready to be discovered on social media?

Ajay Jain

@ rediff.com

What the Bleep? Why Swearing At the Office Can Boost Morale

2007-10-30T11:21:00.000+05:30

Serial swearers take heart: Profanity in the workplace can be a morale booster and inspire a sense of team spirit.

It depends, of course, on how it's done and at what levels. "Social" or "annoyance" swearing can be effective in many office and workplace environments while vulgar or abusive cursing should never be allowed, according to a recent study.

And by no means should employees ever use profanity in front of customers, according to the study published in the U.K.-based Leadership and Organization Development Journal.

Yehuda Baruch, a management professor at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K., and graduate student Stuart Jenkins found that "apparent misbehavior can serve an organization well." Taboo language, they said, can manifest itself in solidarity that helps create a much more pleasurable and productive place to work.

That's not surprising to many workers who find toiling in droll environments far more exciting than passing the hours in a hear-a-pin drop workplace.

"Social swearing" is conversational and tends to define relationships between people and groups. The study points directly to all-male or male-dominated cultures -- think about a football locker room or the factory floor -- in which the "competitive nature of men's speech" creates a sense of harmony and oneness. Such organizations, the study said, are marked by a "lively boisterous communication style with friendly insults and witty use of coarse, casual profanity."

But many people don't work for the NFL or on a factory floor. Far more sit at desks in cubicles or open rooms. Often, workers will be within earshot of "annoyance swearing," what the report describes as a "relief mechanism" for stress and tensions. Maybe more important, however, is that annoyance swearing replaces "primitive physical aggression."

Women belt it out

The study also points to gender issues and an apparent double standard of men's swearing compared with women's cursing. "Female swearers are often perceived to be of a low moral standing," the researchers noted. Men, on the other hand, can generate reverence from swearing, though they tend to tone down the use of profanity in front of women.

It turns out, however, that women tend to swear more in mixed company as a means of asserting themselves and preventing the conversation from being male-dominated.

Not all swearing, of course, brings humor and overall goodness to the workplace. Bullying is verbally aggressive behavior that has adverse effects on workplace dynamics. The authors warn that repeated occurrences of swearing, threats and verbal abuse can lead to depression, stress, low morale, absenteeism, retention problems and sluggish productivity.

What's a manager to do? Banning swearing might be thought of as a form of strong leadership, but the researchers cautioned that it could tear apart that sense of solidarity. Doing that too could "seriously decrease morale and work motivation" that could too prompt an exodus of valued employees.

By Jennifer Waters

From MarketWatch

6 ways to be a great boss

2007-10-29T21:43:00.000+05:30

If you can't stand your boss and dislike your job because of it, you are just a small part of a large community who feels the same. But what if you have recently moved into the role of a teamleader, boss or people manager yourself?

While the 'perfect boss' is a utopian concept, here is a quick checklist that will save you the heartburn of dealing with attrition and unhappy employees.

Always meet your people with a great smile

A smile can make a lot of difference. Always be cheerful and energetic and spread the attitude within your team or organisation. It drives great results. A smile and a warm handshake can wear off the stress that most employees go through, not to mention that it adds to your desirability factor at work. Also, smiling is contagious, and most people will find it easy to forgive you even if you happen to be a bit demanding on occasions.

Catch people doing things right

People make mistakes and sometimes they can repeat them, sometimes doing irreparable damage. But, have patience and let them grow. When they do things right, find them out and tell them it's a valuable contribution thay have made. Every interaction with your colleagues in the office is either a deposit or a withdrawal. As important as the Big Picture is, it will mean little if the boss shows little value for his team members' performance on a regular basis.

Appreciate generously

There is nothing more encouraging than appreciation for the smallest of difference one makes. For eg, when you enter the office after struggling hard with the traffic jam and the office looks clean or different, appreciate the person behind the effort and make him/ her "feel" how important the effort is to the organisation. Send your team emails, create a section where people can give compliments, etc. Positive feedback helps in building long-lasting habits. If you take certain positive behaviour for granted, you will be wasting time in reinforcing them later.

Be ready to say "I am sorry'"

If you erupt in a meeting, criticise a colleague's work or make ill-timed comments that you regret, how do you bounce back? Apologise immediately to the targeted person and to everyone around. Don't offer a long justification about the work pressure or a possible misunderstanding like most bosses do. Just say "I should not have reacted that way" and "I am sorry". This will show that you are professional and reflects positively on your character. It takes years to build up a reputation, and only seconds to destroy it. No matter what, don't snap or your people will think of you as a 'reactive boss'.

Help people prepare their goals and create a checklist

Be clear in communicating the desired goals from an individual in a team or the team as a whole. You should know your people, their strengths and opportunity areas. Team your people in a way where everyone learns and compliments each other's strengths

A good manager not only coaches an employee to develop a skill but also helps in conditioning it as a behavior. In simple words, become a mentor, ie, a wise and trusted counselor/ teacher/ trainer, who can act as a catalyst for growth and nurture potential and talent. Building teams is not a one-time effort but an everyday process. Good managers involve, engage and inspire their teams on a daily basis.

Stay sharp

Read industry publications, reports and magazines and be aware of market trends. Your knowledge will reflect when you communicate with your team and they will look to you for advice and information. They will also talk positively about you with other members of the team. There is nothing better than third party publicity as it establishes you as a thought leader within your team.

Deeksha Singh is a managing partner and Head - Business development for WCH Training Solutions, a corporate training consultancy firm based in New Delhi and can be reached at deeksha@wchsolutions.com

Do You Have What It Takes to Manage Your Toughest, and Often Best, Employees?

2007-10-29T21:37:00.000+05:30

It takes special skills to get such folks to perform at their best. After all, the most accomplished and talented people don’t think they need guidance. Here are several stories of dealing with unique personalities in the workplace.
By Sarah Klein

f you think leading employees in your small business is hard, try being responsible for opera divas, television news reporters, egocentric physicians, mercurial musicians or high-strung brides. You know, the types whose pictures could appear next to "high-maintenance" in the dictionary.

It takes special skills to get such folks to perform at their best. After all, the most accomplished and talented people don’t think they need guidance.

"A lot of them, one way or another, have always been able to get what they want," says James Redeker, chair of the employment services department at Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen, a Philadelphia-based law firm. "They have never tasted failure."

The challenge in leading such personalities—if your small business is lucky, you’ve got them—is that they are often extremely sensitive. Use the wrong approach and they may work against you.

Knowing that, Workforce Management sister publication Crain’s Chicago Business went looking for people across Chicago who are adept at managing these types, figuring their techniques to get the best out of difficult-to-manage employees and clients would apply to the wider world of entrepreneurship.

As it turns out, the five selected have a lot in common, and those shared characteristics seem to be the very ones that explain their effectiveness as leaders.

For starters, all are willing and able to demonstrate genuine respect for their employees and clients—no matter the industry or area of interest.

All are refreshingly unassuming about their abilities and effusive about the skills of the people they work with and for. If anything goes wrong in one of Chicago conductor Cliff Colnot’s rehearsals or recording sessions, for example, he blames himself and not the musicians. Marina Vecci, aide-de-camp of Lyric Opera of Chicago stars, considers the word "diva" a compliment. And you couldn’t pay Angela Rosemond, WMAQ-TV/Channel 5’s managing editor, to say a bad thing about her charges, even those whose prickly reputations are no secret.

All of them also are able to establish credibility with those they lead. They do it by demonstrating excellence in their field, and by being transparent about their goals. The "what you see is what you get" approach engenders trust. And it takes many forms.

Marina Birch, who plans high-end weddings, doesn’t accept commissions from vendors, unlike most in the industry, so her clients trust she has only their interest at heart. Joe Garcia, chief of medicine at the University of Chicago, shares what he values and what he’s after with anyone who asks. "He has great authenticity, and from that launches trust," says his boss, University of Chicago Hospitals CEO James Madara.

These leadership skills are, no doubt, difficult to acquire. But they are crucial to running a business and retaining staff, says Beverly Kaye, co-author of Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay.

Talented people aren’t as motivated by money as they are by the opportunity to improve themselves and their work. They are always asking themselves, "Am I getting what I need?" Kaye says.

If the answer is no, they won’t hesitate to leave, which could leave your small business in big trouble.

So here they are—leaders to learn from. Let the class begin.

Workplace acronyms you should know

2007-10-23T21:09:00.000+05:30

EOM? What does that mean? Even on -- Mondays? There is a form I am supposed to fill everyday -- and even on Mondays? No, wait. Maybe it means Eventually Out of Mind. My boss is a busy man; he must have forgotten to send the form earlier. So he's glad that it is "eventually out of his mind." Oh god, I was losing my mind! Without realising it, I said the word EOM out loud, pondering its significance.

"It's End of Message," said the girl on my right. Oh! The syllable "oh" managed to express the strange mix of relief, enlightenment, and utter shame that I felt.

�

Well, even if your first few days at work weren't as dramatic as mine, I'm sure you had your own little EUAs -- Encounters with Unknown Acronyms (okay, I made that one up).

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Short forms, acronyms, nicknames � they are all part of workplace culture. They are an easy and fun way to communicate for those in-the-know, but to people who have just joined the company they can be a nightmare.

�

FYI, there is no quick fix. Of course, you can always ask someone, provided you muster enough courage. And if you are a fresher, the situation is twice as bad because you don't know the acronyms, and you don't know whom to ask!

�

But fear not! Help is at hand! You can always turn to the internet and find a refreshingly helpful article (like this one) that lists common workplace acronyms. The list below explains the acronyms and also shows how they are typically used. So go on! Pin it up on your softboard, save a copy or just learn them by rote. And in case you don't notice, the acronyms are in alphabetical order. Why? JLT! (Just Like That)

�

~ Send me the report ASAP.

ASAP = as soon as possible (If this is an e-mail from your boss, drop everything else and work on the report!)

�

~ I read that article BTW. Not so great.

BTW = by the way (Some even use it to mean "back to work" -- safe for ending an online chat with colleagues.)

�

~ We don't have to pay the printer now. It's COD.

COD = cash on delivery (It is a mode of payment; you pay when the goods are delivered.)

~ Roohi, I will send you the details by tomorrow EOD.
EOD = end of day (End of day can mean before closing time or before you or Roohi leave for the day, whichever happens first.)

�

~ Find out the ETA and then send the car to get them.

ETA = expected time of arrival (This usually means phoren delegates.)

�

~ Our prices are FOB.
FOB = free on board (Warning: It's technical. FOB prices include the charges to load the goods on a carrier. Damage in transit is not your responsibility.)

�

~ FYI, this is the update I got from the team.
FYI = for your information (When you share information to keep people in the loop, it's FYI.)

�

~ Your KRAs will be defined at the start of the year.
KRA = key result area (Closely related to the next acronym.)

�

~ In your PA, you will get a rating on each KRA.
PA = performance appraisal (When your performance in a company is appraised, your superiors or peers rate you on the functions you perform.)

�

~ No. of participants: TBD
TBD = to be decided (You will know it eventually.)

�

~ Updated policy on office work timings (w.e.f. October 1, 2007)
w.e.f. = with effect from (The date that follows is very important!)

Why executives need to converse, through blogs

2007-10-23T21:04:00.000+05:30

Biz Blogging -- WORKS. It is of -- MONUMENTAL IMPORTANCE."
--�Tom Peters, author of 'In Search of Excellence'

How does a CEO engage with over 1,200 employees across 10 countries every working day? By writing to them daily. And the one person who has done this remarkably well is Rudy Karsan, chairman and CEO of Kenexa, a leading provider of employee hiring and retention solutions. And his mediums of communication are internal and external newsletters, and blogs.

And why does Mr Karsan write on his blog? "CEO stands for the only job with three bosses: Customers, Employees and Owners. One thus needs to develop a communications protocol for all three; and the larger a company becomes, the more efficient this process needs to get. When Kenexa started off 15-20 years back, I could talk to the small team anytime, anywhere. But as we grew and globalised, the number of locations and employees went up. And we realised the best way to touch them was through writing. I started a thought of the day, which could be the words of a famous person, or about what the company is doing, or my personal experiences besides other things. And these would wait on everyone's desktops as if to say, Hello, how are you this morning?" he says.

Not just employees, CEOs and other executives may need to blog to engage with the other stakeholders in their business. These include shareholders, customers, vendors, analysts, media and regulatory authorities besides others. And this can no longer be about passive one-way communication -- executives failing to be proactive risk losing out in the fiercely competitive marketplace. And this is where blogs come in. Just some examples of how blogs can be useful are:

~ Customers: Build a relationship of faith. Feedback, even if from a few customers, can serve as an early warning system.

~ Shareholders: Make them feel they are co-owners of the company. Let blogs be a direct channel of communication with the board. Benefits include saving stock prices from undergoing wild swings due to rumours or misinformation.

~ Human Resources: The most valued asset of a company, companies have to make that extra effort to attract and retain quality employees. A blog by senior management enables prospective employees understand what the company's values and philosophy are -- this message is often lost down the line of managers who may not always succeed in portraying the correct picture or with the same sincerity and passion.

~ Media: Help journalists with the latest news and insights. Blogs can also be a direct channel to stakeholders where media coverage is inadequate or incorrect. Companies like General Motors have benefited by blogs countering wrong media reports about a particular car being a flop.

~�Brand Promotion: The 'Sunsilk Gang of Girls' being a highly successful case, blogs have proven themselves to be a channel of creating excitement around brands.

"In today's global economy, companies have to provide value to stakeholders around the mantra of 'faster, cheaper, better'. As organisations strive to achieve this, they often lose sight of the smaller picture, ie, communicating with and keeping their employee base informed.

However, effective communication is a vital business tool for speeding up change and improving the quality and performance of any organisation. Handled correctly, it is a critical way of aligning, motivating and engaging employees. "I walk into any of our offices, and employees think they know me and connect with me even without ever having met me before. The writings are a reflection of the kind of organisation we are; it's a way of showing our values. We are seen as a company with integrity and highly service focused with a culture of fun," adds Karsan.

Some rules for successful blogging
Just creating a blog and writing on it may not be enough -- one needs to adopt certain practices to make them really effective and not being seen as just a PR exercise. These include:

~ Industry leaders should not hesitate to present their views.

~ Be open, transparent and speak with passion and authority -- your stakeholders will respect you for it and bond closer.

~ Allow stakeholders to comment; be open to negative comments. All comments are invaluable.

~�Counter negative comments with facts presented in a credible manner -- don't shirk away.

~ Have honest conversations; these lead to change and growth.

~ Write with discipline and consistency; stick to a schedule and don't let the rhythm break.

All said and done
Besides the above, there are some more compelling reasons why executives need to blog. These include:

~ There is a communications revolution underway: From a controlled one-way model to an interactive one. Blogs are ideally suited to this.
~ Blogging helps build trust and relationships with stakeholders.
~�It is the cheapest communication channel available enabling companies to reach out to millions for a relatively small cost compared to other channels.
~�Blogs are easily findable on the net.
~�Relevant information spreads faster through blogs than a news service.
~�Blogs do not replace company websites!

In a time when many businesses have no exclusive patents or technical developments to offer, they need other differentiators to stay competitive. Interactive and effective communication can be the one to help companies survive.

"Blogs are enabling markets to converse again as people tell one another the truth about products and companies and their own desires" -- from The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual, a bestseller authored by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.

This may well make the case of an executive blog.

Always think positive

2007-10-08T10:54:00.000+05:30

When entrusted with a difficult assignment or a tough deadline at the workplace, an optimist focuses his energies on identifying a solution and charting out a roadmap. He nurtures a mental attitude that admits positive thoughts, words and images, leading to success and happiness.

Our attitudes are shaped through constant conditioning as a result of interactions with family, friends and environment. They are so ingrained in us that it is an uphill task to alter them. Positive thinking is a hallmark of an optimist professional, who expects to see brightness and sunshine everywhere. The language of an optimist is 'I will', 'I can', 'It's possible'. A pessimist would lose precious time just thinking about the problem. An optimist focuses on the solution, the pessimist on the problem. An optimist would introspect and figure out the disconnect between performance and expectations and try and bridge the gap, never losing sight of the goals.

When caught in the quagmire of negativity, one's misperceptions overcome one's logical thinking. These irrational themes are manifested in many ways:

Filtering:

We magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter the positive ones. For instance, you have been promoted and you've got a good increment. However, the percentage of the increment is a notch below your expectation. You focus on the latter instead of celebrating the former.

Personalising:

You hold yourself responsible for anything that goes wrong. If the team overshoots the project deadline by a day, you take complete responsibility and curse yourself.

Catastrophising:

You live in the realm of Murphy's Law, expecting anything that could possibly go wrong, will go wrong! E.g. if you are organising a training programme, you will anticipate that the trainer will not turn up, the equipment will fail and the participants will either not show up.

Polarising:

You look at things in white or black. So the boss is either excellent or nasty, the colleagues are supportive or uncooperative, team members are performing well or not at all.

Making Positive Thinking a Habit:

Evaluate Your Thinking:

Watch your thinking during the course of the day. Check yourself the moment you find yourself edging towards negative thoughts. E.g. Instead of lamenting over lack of resources, think of creative solutions. Similarly, don't get overawed by tasks that seem too complicated. They'll seem less daunting if you break them up into smaller units and then address them. If you think that you do not have the expertise in a particular area, look around for experts who can help you. Try and induce more of self acceptance and less of self criticism. This will enable you to relook at 'problems' at the work place as 'learning opportunities' and handle stress in a realistic and constructive manner.

Exercise Positive Affirmations

Susan Jeffers, noted self help author, avers that positive affirmation is a proven tool for steering clear of negativity and fear. She explains, "Positive affirmation is a strong positive statement telling us that all is well. With constant repetition of this uplifting and soothing statement, the voice of doom and gloom is replaced with thoughts of peace, power and love." Pin up positive affirmations like "It is all happening perfectly" or "I am powerful and I can do it" at your office desk or in your car, and look at it on your way to work. It has been demonstrated that just repeating, writing or thinking positive statements lend us strength, whether or not we believe them. And if we say affirmations often enough, we ultimately start believing in them! Positive affirmations can certainly arm us with resilience for facing adversity.

Associate With Positive People

Both positive and negative thoughts are contagious. At the workplace one often encounters unhappy souls, who find something wrong with almost everything around them. They point fingers when things go wrong, they grumble, moan and find fault. It helps to steer clear of these people as they rub off their attitude and state of mind on us. When we meet people, we are affected by their aura and thoughts consciously or subconsciously. Therefore, it helps to be in the midst of people who are optimistic, upbeat and happy.
Positive thinking can empower us in a way that would boost our self esteem, expand our comfort zone and envelope us with well being and health, thus paving way for personal and professional growth. It has been aptly said that a positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible!

Big four recruiting:

2007-09-23T20:25:00.000+05:30

Recruiters Take Hip Path to Fill Accounting Jobs

Recent market turmoil may be putting a lid on hiring in some parts of the financial-services sector, but there is always room for another accountant.

Hiring at the Big Four accounting firms is running at record levels, and recruiting efforts are being ramped up as growing demand collides with a talent shortage. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said job postings for accounting majors in 2006 more than doubled from 2004.

To lure candidates steeped in Facebook and YouTube, the Big Four are turning to the Web. Deloitte & Touche asked employees to make short videos about their experiences at the company. The videos were a way "of taking the aspects of social networking and experimenting on how you can use the new tools of today to move forward into a workplace of the future," said Cathy Benko, chief talent officer. About 400 videos were made, and the 14 best will be posted on YouTube and used on campuses.

Ernst & Young is holding a contest at 75 colleges, asking students why people should become accountants. Dan Black, director of campus recruiting, said regional winners will get $1,000 and, in some cases, iPhones. And the winning team will join CEO James Turley on a business trip. "We're trying to show younger students we can connect to them, that we understand they are different, and we're a firm where they can come in and do their best," he said.

All of the firms cited the adoption of Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002 as the spur for the hiring explosion. The law describes specific mandates and requirements for financial reporting. A Deloitte spokeswoman said recruitment there has grown 15% since Sarbanes-Oxley was passed. Ernst & Young hired 3,200 students in 2002 and 5,400 students this past year, of whom 3,200 were full-time hires and 2,200 were interns. KPMG hired about 3,000 employees this year and expects to hire between 3,200 and 3,300 next year. PricewaterhouseCoopers said hiring has doubled from fiscal 2002.

By JOSÉE ROSE / wall street journal

Working From Home Fosters Job Satisfaction

2007-09-10T14:41:00.000+05:30

If asked who is the most devoted, loyal employee in your office you'd probably point to the guy at his desk long before you arrive and long after you leave, right? You might be wrong.

A new survey finds that workers who telecommute, either from home or other remote location, report the highest levels of satisfaction with and loyalty to their company.

Seventy-three percent of the remote and home-based workers surveyed said they are satisfied with their company as a place to work compared with 64% of office workers, according to the survey in June of about 10,000 U.S. workers.

Meanwhile, 70% of the telecommuters said they're "proud to tell people I work for my company" versus 64% of office workers, based on the annual survey conducted by the Kenexa Research Institute, a unit of Kenexa, a recruitment and retention consulting firm.

"When companies allow employees to work remotely or from home, they are explicitly communicating to them that 'I trust you to be dedicated to the accomplishment of the work, even if I'm not able to observe you doing it,'" said Jack Wiley, executive director of the Kenexa Research Institute, in Minneapolis. Kenexa is based near Philadelphia.

"It boils down to respect," he said. "I respect you and I have confidence in your commitment to the work, to do this under the conditions and at the time you feel will be most productive for you."

Some of the differences were striking, Wiley said, pointing to the 10 percentage point difference between the 54% of telecommuters who said there is "open, honest two-way communication" at their company versus 44% of the office workers who said that.

Fifty-three percent of the remote workers said they were not considering leaving the company within 12 months, while 46% of the office workers said leaving was not a consideration.

Fifty-eight percent of the telecommuters said "senior management demonstrates that employees are important to the success of the company," versus 51% of the office workers who agreed, and 53% of the telecommuters said they believe senior management speaks honestly versus 44% of the office workers.

Companies can reap benefits

Still, not all that many of the 10,000 workers surveyed work outside the cubicle: Just 4% say they work from home or remotely, a percentage that has remained fairly steady for years, Wiley said.

To some degree, that's because companies don't embrace work-at-home policies. "For many companies, there is still a command-and-control mentality," he said. "It's based on the notion that if you can't see the employee at work or can't walk down the hall and stick your head into the office, then you don't have a sense of just how productive they are."

There are other concerns, he said. Companies may worry "about how they administer a policy like this in a fair way across the board for employees."

Plus, there are cost concerns related to purchasing laptops and other tools -- tools which may double-up existing equipment in the office. "In order for this practice to be productive, there may be some expenses that companies don't want," he said.

But companies do reap benefits from employing workers who are satisfied and committed to the company.

"We have a significant amount of experience and research that's shown a link between employee engagement and a whole host of very desirable outcomes, including an employee's willingness to expend discretionary effort to get the job done and their intention to stay with their employer," Wiley said.

If such practices do improve retention, "that's going to accrue to the financial benefit of the company," he said.

Plus, Wiley said, "There's a substantial amount of research that shows that higher levels of employee engagement are predictive of higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty and improvement in market share," he said. "Making progress on employee engagement is associated with making progress on key business measures also."

And this survey's message to workers? "There are employers out there who do provide this flexibility," he said. "The benefit to workers is fairly obvious: It's about having more control over how and when you accomplish your work. When we have more control, for most people that's a huge plus," Wiley said.

In other research, he said, "when we ask people what are the most important things they want from the company for which they work in addition to their compensation, people want appreciation and respect. They want to be appreciated for the work they contribute, they want to be recognized for that, they want to be treated respectfully," he said. "This desire escapes the attention of many managers and employers in general."

By Andrea Coombes

From MarketWatch

I am not a teacher; only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead–ahead of myself as well as of you.

2007-08-28T12:48:00.000+05:30

~ George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British dramatist, critic, writer.

another social and professional networking site

2007-08-28T00:41:00.000+05:30

another social and professional networking site apnacircle is currently in beta.
it is promoted by Sabeer Bhatia.

seems like the indian webspace is really heating up.

googling to spocking

2007-08-28T00:05:00.000+05:30

We all heard of people being “Googled” — where you do a search on someone’s name.

A productized version of “being Googled” was launched last week called Spock. Spock is essentially a search engine destined to be the people version of Google. You can search anyone from Dick Cheney (you will get a kick out of his tags) to Larry Ellison.

"The Spock vision is to create a search result of everyone in the world."

What’s unique about Spock is that instead of pulling unstructured data from the wild wild west known as the Internet that is often incorrect (as ZoomInfo does), Spock leverages pre-populated, structured data from validated third party sources such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Outlook and Gmail. What’s also cool about Spock is that you can enter your own tags and have other tag you based on keywords that define you. Tagging, as you all may be aware, is important because it is essential for truly effective search.

Nonetheless, Spock could become a great tool for recruiters who are always looking for the next best thing to find, reach, and network with prospective candidates.

Jason Corsello

http://humancapitalist.com/

networking sites in india

2007-08-27T18:29:00.000+05:30

i was reading gautam ghosh's blog where he talked about the launch of another networking site and the fatigue with so many already.

However there is something which Gautam may have overlooked, there are two different types of networking sites viz. social networking and professional networking sites.The facebook, hi5, myspace in the international arena and the fropper, big adda [offcially called youth networking site] in India fall into the first category of general social networking sites. jhoos is a dating site if i may.

The second is the professional or business networking segment with linkedin, ryze, xing etc., where linkedin is the top ranked and this is the same segment where brijj would come into which is a hitherto unexplored segment but we should bear in mind that linkedin and ryze are well taken in India as well.