Thursday, August 31, 2006

How to hire passionate employees
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


"Steve Jobs has said he wants to hire only people who are truly passionate about their work - but how can you tell passion from mere enthusiasm? We'll tell you.

"Enthusiasm can be a false signal, and interviewers are often misled by it," notes hiring guru Lou Adler, CEO of the Adler Group, a consulting and training firm that has given hiring lessons to managers at dozens of Fortune 500 companies. Adler is also the author of a bestseller called Hire with Your Head (Wiley, $34.95). "You don't want just any passionate person. You want someone who is going to be passionate about this job."

...To gauge that, Adler recommends digging deeply into a candidate's work history. "You need to take the time to do a detailed, job-by-job review. Where did this person excel in the past? What specific achievements got recognized and rewarded? Why did she get promoted? Which job or jobs really gave him a chance to shine? This will show you pretty clearly what the candidate is passionate about. Then you can assess whether her passions match the job you're trying to fill."

Full article.


Three Steps for Immunizing Your Company From Overtime Suits
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


By taking a few simple precautions, companies can avoid falling prey to wage and hour lawsuits. By Alan L. Rupe

"If lawyers who represent employees against employers—plaintiffs’ attorneys—were rats in a maze, they would get to the cheese faster than a politician gets to a handshake.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers are maze-wise. They know how the system works. They know that if they can create factual issues of "he said, she said," throw in some "David and Goliath" pathos and skip past the trapdoors leading to legal issues, they will most likely get their client in front of a jury. And that leads to dollars in their pockets, either through settlement (because many employers would rather settle than go through a lengthy, painful trial) or through a substantial dollar award by a jury."

Full article.


Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Canada's Talent Pipeline Dries Up-Energy Sector Hit by Severe Labour Shortage: Deloitte Survey
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


" While majority of organizations confirmed the talent shortage already cripples productivity and impacts production, only 18% have strategies in place to face the challenge -

Canada's energy and resources sector is in a labour "pinch" that is expected to deepen in the coming years, reveals a Deloitte survey released today. According to the survey findings, a vast majority of respondents (80%) confirmed that talent shortage has limited the productivity and efficiency of their organizations, and more than half (55%) acknowledged the lack of skilled workers has impacted production requirements and customer demand. The 2006 Energy and Resources Talent Pulse Survey conducted by Deloitte, with the support of the Energy Council of "anada included 55 respondents from Canadian oil and gas, utilities and mining companies."

Full article.


Talent Mapping by Career Level: Executives... In Florida
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


As I continue with my research on my Pharmaceutical Industry Genome Project (I'm getting fantastic responses and input, by the way), I have added to my research project list. I will now begin mapping out talent based upon career level and why not start at the top... with the executive level. And since I will be in Florida for the next two upcoming weeks, I'll start with that location.

So.. this week I will begin reaching out to executives in the state of Florida. And like the Pharmaceutical Genome Project, my research will be packaged inside a ready to use adapted version of the Salesforce.com relationship management application.

If you are in executive level management and work in Florida, please let me know. :)


Thursday, August 24, 2006

A "Become An Expert in a Day" Workshop Worth Taking
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


Shally Steckerl, Research Manager at Microsoft and also who consults under the JobMachine.net flag, and Krist Bradford, Bradford Executive Search, will be giving an all day workshop at the ERExpo in Florida next month.

ERE puts two of these events on a year, and I always go to both and have yet to be dissappointed. David Manaster and the ERE team puts these on and this year he has Seth Godin, of marketing fame, as a key note speaker.

The session, "From Sourcing to Calling - Recruiting the Best Passive Talent," that Shally and Krista are putting on, if it is anything like Shally's previous seminars, will be well worth the cost. I've sat through Shally's seminars and webinars and constantly learn new tricks and tactics.

The secret to becoming an expert in anything...is to not to just listen or read about something...but to actually do it. So, Shally gives lots ways that you can "do it" so my suggestion is to make it a personal project to takes his class and "do it" each day for 3 weeks. You don't have to do it all day, but just each day. After that...you'll be an internet "people researcher" expert. If you can't be in Florida for this event...contact Shally about when his next webinar is.


Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Jack Welch and the GE Way
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


After listening to Peter Clayton's Total Picture Radio episode with Robert Gandossy I decided to start reading about Jack Welch of GE fame. Specificially, the Crotonville facility that GE has to develop their corporate leaders (not managers). There is certainly information out there already, but Peter and Robert brought it to my attention.

Coincidently, Jeff Hunter at Talentism also posted a blog about not only letting your employees become leaders, but helping them in the basic ways. The most basic way, to me, is to simply allow it. Lots of companys "fear" the independence of their employees. And fear never got anyone anywhere.

The book so far is great, and I highly recommend it. It really gets into what "true" leadership in the business world is..and what it takes...and what the risks are. The risks are great, so if you are going to give being a leader a real shot...be ready...ready to lose your job. But many times that 's exactly what it takes so as you do it...be sure to "brand yourself" and your successes and endeavors as you go.


Monday, August 21, 2006

Pharmaceutical Industry Genome Project
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments





"Genome projects are scientific endeavours that ultimately aim to determine the complete genome sequence of an organism." ~ wikipedia.org

Packaged inside a ready to use adapted version of the Salesforce.com relationship management application, this industry genome project will aim to map the following "DNA" of the pharmaceutical industry:

  1. Companies
  2. Company Location and Contact Information
  3. Company Products and/or Services
  4. Company Employee Listings (See Talent Mapping)
  5. Tracking Hiring Needs and Availablity Through Pipeline Managment
  6. Off-Site Industry Event Tracking
  7. Workforce Project Tracking
  8. Use of the Contingent Workforce via an approved Contractor list with Project History
  9. In Addition, Provide Easy and Organized Access to all Gathered Information
  10. In Addition, Provide Opt-In Talent Directory

Keep an eye on this blog as I will be updating it with my results.


Friday, August 18, 2006

Talent Mapping Project
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


I am about to start on a new project, Talent Mapping. Its purpose will be to accomplish the following:

A) Identify and "Map" Talent

Using a variety of sources, I will TAG the talent that I am able to find. Simply stated, talent are people/professionals. The tags that I will use be based upon three sets of information in additon to one's name.

My Primary Set is:
  1. Employer
  2. Industry
  3. Title and/or Profession
  4. Location

My Secondary Set is:

  1. Email Address
  2. Phone Number

My Tertiary Set is:

  1. Home Address Information
  2. Up to Date Resume or Bio Information


B) Organize and Distribute

All the information I gather will be organized into a "Talent Directory." This diretory will be based upon a web based CRM (Contact Relationship Management) system and have a heirarchy of information so that all "talent" will be related to their current employer. Essentially creating a who's... "who and where" and what do they do type list.

For distribution, a Talent Directory package will be created for each corporate sponsor so that they will have their "own data" and can begin to create a one-to-one relationship with key people in their industry. However, this single "per sponsor" package will also be able to be updated from a central location. This enables "talent" to update their information and have it distributed out to each sponsor who has a directory in one easy step.

C) More to follow.


Thursday, August 17, 2006

Why Business Schools Aren't Turning Out Good CIO Candidates
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


"Fewer and fewer MBA candidates are signing up for MIS programs, a troubling trend for America's long-term competitiveness.

Once a month or so, a small group of my friends and colleagues from the past 20 years get together for a one-hour conference call to discuss topics of mutual interest. Although we all met as management and technology consultants, we have diverse backgrounds and equally diverse current jobs. Our calls are wide-ranging and generally intriguing. Last week, one of us (who is now involved in postgraduate research administration) asked us to comment on the falling number of students signing up for his business school's "MIS" major. It seems that graduate business students just don't want to know about the internals of databases and programming languages or the mechanics of data center operations. Note that this isn't the Computer Science department in the School of Engineering that's making the complaint: their classes are full and doing fine. This is the "MIS Management" group in the School of Business. "

Full article.


Contractors treated like stars by talent agent
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


"The relationship between recruitment agents and contractors has always been stormy. Neither can do without the other, but there's no end to the tug-of-war.

But could it ever be more than dog-eat-dog? After all, a footballer's agent will work tirelessly to achieve the best deal for the player, and an actor's agent will manage their client's rise from treading boards to Hollywood Boulevard's walk of fame.

Many contractors conduct fulfilled careers with honest agents that openly discuss rates, percentages and renewals. But just as many, it seems, have serious gripes about the way business is sometimes conducted."

Full article.


Monday, August 14, 2006

Second Annual Contingent Workforce Strategies Summit to be Held October 25-26, 2006 in Dallas, Texas
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


"Staffing Industry Analysts, Inc., the world's premier contingent workforce analyst firm, announced today that the Second Annual Contingent Workforce Strategies Summit (http://www.cwsconference.com/) will be held October 25-26, 2006 at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The CWS Summit is the only conference for major buyers of staffing/MSP/VMS services.

The Contingent Workforce Strategies Summit will feature a comprehensive conference program that will address a wide range of topics relating to the contingent workforce, including how to get more value from the staffing budget, how to improve planning and forecasting for staffing requirements, how to maximize relationships with suppliers and how to select the right staffing solution."

Register and more info...


Monday, August 07, 2006

The Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on the Contingent Workforce
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


"The passing of the American Competitiveness and Corporate Accountability Act by Congress in July 2002 (also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after its two authors) came in the wake of well-publicized scandals that rocked corporate America and may well have ushered in a new era in senior executive accountability. SOX, as it is commonly known, has triggered a chain reaction with regard to business in general and human resources in particular. The law specifi cally applies to any American fi rm listed on any of the U.S. stock exchanges and primarily seeks to tighten fi nancial auditing procedures. According to the new act, CEOs and CFOs are legally responsible for compliance and for certifying the accuracy of fi nancial statements. Failure to do so can result in prison terms of up to 20 years and fi nes of up to $5 million. Undoubtedly, the way the law has been framed, the legal and punitive ramifi cations of the Act make compliance a critical concern for senior management and, by extension, human resources"

This document was written by Allan Schweyer, executive director at the Human Capital Institue, based off of a webinar that I was a panel member with some very knowledgeable people...
  • Douglas Berg from Hotgigs.com
  • Denny Clark from Wachovia
  • David Glue at Arachne GEI
  • Dwight Herperger at Working Ideas
  • John Silver at Provision Technologies
  • Elain Taylor at ILogos Research
  • Marion Dino at JP MOrgan Chase
  • Ginny Gomez at Taleo
  • Gene Zaino at My Biz Office
  • Judy Talyor at Xerox
Get the PDF document.

And here is a plug for another webinar (it's free) this Thursday that I will be a panel member of:

Assessing and Managing Risk in Contract Workforce Management

When: Thu, Aug 10 / 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ET
Where: On The Web
REGISTER

"As rich as the potential rewards are for successfully engaging and deploying a stable of contract talent, there are risks associated with turning over a significant portion of the work that a company does to individuals who don't, technically, "work for the company." Some of these risks are business risks; for example, what are the implications on ownership of intellectual property? Some of the risks are financial: how does the process of dealing with the IRS change? Other potential risks are related to compliance.

In Part Three of this series we will look at how the best companies are managing these risks, starting with how to determine potential exposure points then moving into the various methods companies use to mitigate them."

Hope to "see" you there.


Friday, August 04, 2006

How to plug your company's brain drain
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


When workers retire, they take critical know-how out the door. But one government agency found a better way to pass it on.
by Anne Fisher, Fortune Magazine senior writer

"(Fortune Magazine) -- In the switching yard at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, about 20 miles outside Chattanooga, stand eight gigantic transformers. The huge machines, which weigh nearly 700 tons each and dwarf the hard-hatted humans working on and around them, take power from Sequoyah's nuclear generators, ramp it up to 160,000 volts, and send it out to the Tennessee Valley Authority's grid, which spans five Southern states.

'If the transformers fail, you're not putting out any power,' says Dave Stinson, 26, a senior electrical engineer whose job it is to make sure that doesn't happen. "

Full article.


HR Technology: Contingency Systems
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


Technology saves money and time in hiring and managing contingent labor.
By Connie Winkler

"Talk about a double bonus: AARP’s adoption of contingent labor management services carried a zero-purchase price, but it was the half-million dollars the Washington, D.C., interest group saved this year that made the deal even sweeter.

'We’ve saved almost $500,000 through the competitive bidding process as well as by having an on-site project person who can talk to suppliers and really negotiate the best price on behalf of AARP,' says Laura Loffler, the HR project manager at AARP.

The need for efficiency and fiscal responsibility in handling contingent staffing initially prompted AARP to adopt the solution, the cost of which was offset by markdowns in staffing vendors’ bills. In 2004, AARP’s top executives realized that contingent labor spending at its 50 state and three territorial offices—mostly for clerical and administrative workers, including on ad hoc projects—was largely unknown. "

Full article.


Talent Management Solution Platforms: What's in a Name?
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


by Alice Snell

"Today, companies of all sizes have the opportunity to transform their talent management operations to be more effective and efficient. In the area of hiring management systems, small and medium-sized companies now can leverage technology and process improvements once only available to large enterprises. Great gains come from the combination of best practice processes, software as a service technology, Internet connectivity, and on demand availability.

This technology is here to stay, but what of the names and acronyms used to describe it? Are the terms application service provider (ASP), software as a service (SaaS), and on demand interchangeable? As you explore the implementation of a solution for your company, it is valuable to be conversant with both the definitions and benefits."

Full article.


Tap Ex-Employees' Recruitment Potential
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


By Peter Weaver

"Need to find the right person to fill a vacancy or help expand your business? You can advertise, of course, but more employers are tapping lists of former employees who may be able to provide just the right referrals because they know what kind of workers fit the bill. And, who knows? An employee who retired, or someone who left to take another job, might miss the scene and want to come back. They just need to be asked. "

Full article.


Thursday, August 03, 2006

There is a Leader in Orlando
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


Leader's are accountable for one thing... to get things done. Getting things done usually happens at what I call the "dirt level." Its where people get down, get their hands dirty, and get things done. Too many executives work too "high up," lets call them managers. But there are many people who work at or within the dirt level, lets call them leaders.

When it comes to our country and government, the mayors of this country can, and many times do, play a huge part in the overall health of our country by working at the dirt level... their community.

And getting things done sometimes... many times...requires investment. When it comes to politicians I usually don't see too much investment being done because there is too much concern in regards to the next election. Investors can sometimes be labeled as "spenders" and spenders don't always get elected.

I'm in southern California so I am getting to watch Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa get his hands dirty with work. He's pretty much just started, so this should be interesting because of his "let me take responsibility" attitude. Whether I agree or disagree with all his decisions is meaningless to me...just because he is willing to take that responsibility.

On the other side of the country in Orlando, FL, there is a leader on the move. Mayor Buddy Dyer is moving his community into the future. And he is doing it on rails. Its about laying out commuter infrastructure which can support a community's talent to work. Which is a HUGE factor to me in a geographical area, but not too many people to seem to care about doing anything about it. Except for Orlando.

You'll notice in the article that the mayor is not even mentioned....that's ok. Usually congress and governors get the spotlight. Its just the way it is.

To those of you who consider yourself a leader at your company or in your industry... have you ever met or even had lunch with your mayor?


Wednesday, August 02, 2006

How to Run an Effective Meeting
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


By Mike Myatt

"Early in my career I worked for a company where the CEO loved to have meetings. Meetings were held ad-nauseum about virtually every topic under the sun. Regrettably these meetings rarely resulted in anything being accomplished, and in fact, because the meetings were poorly conceived and poorly facilitated it turned out that most meetings just ended-up being rehashing sessions for the subjects not resoved in prior meetings. Non productive meetings not only serve no purpose, but they waste one of the most precious resources that a company has…time. One of the biggest mistakes a corporation can make is to take its top talent away from productive activities and sequester them away for a mind-numbing babble session. Bad meetings are not only a productivity drain, but they also can cause a decline in morale and a lack of confidence in leadership."

Full article.


Best Practices in Evolving Your Customer Feedback Programs
Posted by Sean Rehder (Permalink) | 0 Comments


By Jamie Grenney

"We spent the last two days at CustomerSat's Customer Leadership Conference meeting with many visionaries driving their businesses to new levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction. Attendees had titles like Director for Worldwide Customer Operations, Senior Director of Customer Advocacy, and Director of Customer Care. These folks worked for some of the most admired and prestigious businesses in the world today. What they all had in common was a driving passion to evolve their organizations to produce even greater customer experiences. They articulated very detailed customer experience management processes and programs designed to measure and improve key business performance indictors like customer loyalty, including if the customer was rationally loyal (loyal because of the tangible attributes of products or services), or emotionally loyal (loyal because they love the business). To learn their secrets, read on."

Full article.