Former Executives Seek to Monetize Talent
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In the wake of an economic tsunami that has caused organizations to reduce staff at all levels, the market today is awash with out-of-work executives competing for dwindling job opportunities. Even among the companies that are hiring, the pressure is on to keep costs down.
The current “cash-is-king” posture of most companies makes it difficult for hiring managers to justify big six figure executive investments. This is capping demand for even the most qualified of candidates. Executives in the corporate wilderness are left with a handful of choices. They can:
- Continue to work with head-hunters and recruiters to find employment that is commensurate with their talent and experience;
- Lower their executive sights - and salary expectations - by taking positions for which they are overqualified; or
- Consider launching a consulting practice as an interim or permanent career strategy.
I believe that the third option…hanging out a shingle…can be the most compelling option for experienced, talented and well-connected/regarded executives.
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What’s Your Next Employer’s Signature Experience?
Beyond the razzle-dazzle of beer bashes and company play days, “every company needs a signature experience that sets it apart.” That’s the thrust of a Harvard Business Review article called “What It Means to Work Here” by Tamara J. Erickson of the Concours Institute and Prof. Lynda Gratton of London Business School.
In other words, why spend the prime time of your life at Hyundai when you could be at Honda? Or at Novo Nordisk when you could be at Pfizer? True, it helps focus your decision when one company wants you and its competitor does not.
The authors state that “people also choose jobs-and, more important, become engaged with their work-on the basis of how well their preferences and aspirations mesh with those of the organization.” I’m not sold on that thesis, however. It is difficult at best to both assess corporate culture before we take a job and determine whether it meshes with our sensibilities, too.
Do Jobs Spread Virally Over Social Networks?
When the scientific study hit the wires establishing that obesity spreads virally across large “social networks,” I figured that science was simply appropriating a popular cyberspace term.
After all, if obesity could spread across Facebook, or MySpace, science would have a larger problem on its hands than excessive girth. Are my contacts on Facebook really that susceptible to my suggestions? If so, I have a get-rich-slowly scheme to sell them.
Still, it’s obvious that some news and ideas spread virally over the Net; think about how many times you have spammed your friends or associates with jokes, links to articles, blog posts or videos. Before there was e-mail there were fax machines and (lawyer) jokes made the rounds pretty quickly, too.
Is It Risky To Work With Friends?
They don’t teach this in management school, but learning how to build and maintain friendships in the workplace is a skill that can take you a long way in your career.
Just ask the founders of Google and Yahoo! But then again, when friends ‘break-up’ at work, whether it’s a legal partnership, two chefs at a bistro, or heads of a public company such as Disney, it can cause a permanent rift in the relationship. The truth is it’s risky to work with friends.
Yet it turns out that working with friends - or befriending co-workers - can enhance your job performance. Nearly two-thirds of employees believe that office productivity improves when co-workers are friendly outside of the office, according to a study by Accountemps, a staffing company for financial services professionals.
For many of us, friends are magnets that lure us to a new job and the ties that bind us when we might otherwise break away. Yet balancing the chemistry of friendships on and off the job is often a bit of an ordeal.
Can You Bulletproof Your Job?
Have you been distressed lately about the economy, your job or your boss? If so, you wouldn’t be alone.
When times are toughest, most of us tend to wait out the storm rather than seek out other, perhaps even riskier opportunities.
In his new book, Bulletproof Your Job, author Stephen Viscusi says that your “primary objective” at work is to protect your job because it is “your most valuable asset.”
Forget the financial crisis; the issue is more primal than that. “Here’s the cold hard truth: If you don’t click with your boss, all that merit and pedigree won’t get you anywhere when your job is on the line,” writes Viscusi. “What really matters is what your boss thinks about you.”
Gen Y’s Retention Deficit Syndrome
We recognize the signs. A young employee shows up late at work or for meetings, misses assignments or takes sick days when they’re on top of their game.
As a boss your first instinct is to rattle their cage. But what will that accomplish?
Employers fret about holding onto Gen Y workers who may be less inclined than previous generations to stick around through thick and thin. Given the cost of recruiting young talent, employers are understandably concerned about return on investment - keeping an employee long enough for them to develop into strong contributors.
Still, loyalty isn’t part of the “deal” any more between employers and employees, so it’s no surprise that, according to a new study by Taleo, an HR software company, 41% of those who are no longer working for their first employer out of college left in less than two years. That doesn’t strike me as an epidemic - a lot of first jobs simply aren’t good fits.
Taleo teamed with Harris Interactive to conduct a survey of 2,045 adults ages 18 and older, a series of questions about their first jobs and first employers.
Who Moved My Job?
Who Moved my Job? is a short story about globalization and the migration of work throughout the world. I’ve written several more formal books on the subject, and my next book is entitled Talking Outsourcing so you can guess what that’s about, but I wanted to try exploring some ideas of migration by using a story.
The English sheepdogs who live on Manor farm find that they are charged with training some new foreign dogs who join them on the farm. They are eventually replaced by the newcomers and they need to find how the skills they learned in the country might be applied to life in the city.
Here is the moment when the new dogs arrive on the farm:
It was dawn. The piercing whistle of the farmer brought Winston, Charlie, and Blair running from the barn where they liked to sleep. The barn was more comfortable than the farmhouse, even though the farmer would never mind them entering the house. In the barn they had protection from the cold, the sun, fresh water, and just the occasional rat to chase when they were not working – the young rats that had yet to learn about avoiding the dogs.
The farmer was down by the house and he had three dogs there alongside him. They were all sitting in a line looking rather like sentries guarding some historic treasure. These dogs were new on the farm. None of the Collies had ever seen them before.
Winston was perplexed at the strange sight. A sheepdog should only look like a Collie. A Collie can vary in height and weight a little and can be a mixture of black and tan and white, but a Collie is always a Collie. What could the farmer be doing with these strange new animals? They were all clearly dogs, but for certain none of them was a sheepdog.
