Monday, September 24, 2007

Great article on Employee Retention in today's WSJ

There is a great article in today's Wall Street Journal on making sure that your key talent does not walk out the door. The article can be found here. While employees will give money as the reason they are leaving a company, in the majority of cases, that is not the real reason. In the article, Carol Hymowitz writes, "Carl Bass, CEO of software maker Autodesk, has found that employees are most likely to accept offers elsewhere if they don't think they are being challenged to grow. Most frequently, they leave if they don't get along with their boss."
A very interesting perspective on what can be done to keep your key employees is presented by Larry McClure, Liz Claiborne's senior vice president of human resources. In the article he says that he "... tries to create jobs with growth potential for the company's gifted employees instead of waiting for openings to occur on the organizational chart. 'You can't be a slave to your structure and tell a very talented director he can't be promoted to the next rung until a vice president leaves.' "


Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Virtual Recruiting

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.
The article, entitled "The New Battle for M.B.A. Grads" [subscription required] spoke about the incredibly competitive environment for hiring M.B.A. graduates. Ronald Alsop writes in the article, "With demand growing for M.B.A. graduates, it is a seller's market out there, making it tough for many companies to meet hiring quotas using old tried-and-true recruiting methods."
In the article, Alsop says that, "To be successful in the future, recruiters will need a different skill set. Rather than being event planners who are transaction-oriented, they'll need to become more adept and comfortable with technology and the online world." The reason for this shift -
as Karen Calo, IBM's vice president for global talent states in the article, "Technology is part of the DNA of today's younger generation.".
I believe that a Recruiter will continue to do what they have always done [i.e. Networking, Relationship Building etc.]. That has not changed. What has changed is the venue where these activities are conducted. Where once you met a candidate for lunch or set up a meeting at your office, now you email or IM them.