ARE YOU READY FOR THIS ?

“It’s a really unique situation where most of us are at a crossroads personally and professionally.”

If living and working in this economy of disappearing jobs, tiny budgets, and little recruiting is getting a bit old, then perhaps you have arrived at your own personal crossroads.

Wise career decision taken a year back is certainly looks like foolish decision.We all are desperately waiting for the economy to “get back to normal.” Personally, I have grave concerns about this thought because no one knows exactly what the new “normal” might be, and for all we know, this aberration might be the new “normal” and will remain such for years to come.

Now we all have two choices. It’s really a privilege to have some choice in this recession :-)

Expect Less. It matters little that what industry you are working, what designation you are carrying and what increments and promotions you are due for. The face and very composition of work is changing radically. As such, the rewards normally tied to work will probably change as well. Consider the work-a-day existence of your past and acknowledge that it is probably going to remain in your past. Perhaps benefits will disappear. Perhaps the concept of “full time” will be based upon organizational need as opposed to “employee” legal standing. Perhaps you will trade value for money to be paid every Friday with both parties reevaluating the relationship every few months. Either way, expect less and smile.

Expect More. This is an opportunity for the cream of the crop to do great things. I must say that it is also an opportunity for those who are not yet the cream to get there.Organizations will always need to hire great people in order to do great things. The time to get creative is now.

Please lower your price, because as cost goes down, value goes up Change your thinking because it will certainly not help your cause, your career, or your wallet.

BUILD CANDIDATE PIPELINE FOR JUST-IN-TIME HIRING

Everywhere we turn we hear about how “The Economy” is causing everyone to tighten their belts and hold off on making any decisions that may seem too risky. It has quickly become the catch-all answer for almost every difficult question that the corporate world is facing.

Of course, not being able to afford to make a purchase is always a good reason to reduce spending, but there are always those necessities that no matter how tight our belt gets, we will find some way to get them.

If companies keep this in mind, they may very well find themselves in a position to make significant gains during this time. For hiring managers and recruiters this could mean finding a stellar candidate who may have otherwise been unavailable.

Hiring freeze, layoff and retrenchment are more of mental block than anything else. Especially for companies who believe in Lead-Lag pay policy and does pay close to market regression line, recession is the best time for capability enhancement. Some may definitely disagree that the moment market will recover; all this birds will start flying.

But on the other side, there is nothing wrong in initiating a dialogue on various possibilities of association with your organization. The worst can be a healthy pipeline of candidates. And you will definitely agree that a good candidate pipeline can make wonders. At least I will definitely buy this idea. If worst situation is so useful that I would not like to mention the benefits.

Pipeline development is part of their growth strategy. Start identifying candidates who are equipped to be a part of your company’s success. I believe that long-term hiring success requires a process. It is a lot easier to keep a fire going than it is to start one, so we should maintain an ongoing dialogue with candidates with the intention of making an offer when the time is right. A developed candidate pipeline removes major competition from the equation. When the time to hire arrives, we should be ready with the offer or at least have top of the candidate’s mind. This reduces the chances of a salary war as well.Having healthy candidates on hand minimize delays. Sometimes unforeseen events can cause the ball to be dropped. A developed and managed candidate pipeline allows these companies to rebound quickly and efficiently.A company that is actively recruiting is considered a strong company. By continuing to engage prospective candidates, we can strengthen our own company brand among others in industry and remain aware of other trends within their market segment.

Use this or loose this opportunity. Just-in-time concept is definitely applicable to recruiting as well. :-)

EMERGING CAREER TRENDS

In today’s uncertain economic environment, setting a career goal effectively has become increasingly important, and difficult.

Each recession gives rise to hundreds of new careers and entirely new job functions as old ones are made obsolete. Car assembly people, for example, are a dying breed, and not many will survive this recession. Other jobs that are at the end of their life cycle include ordinary bank tellers, cashiers and checkout clerks, and even many call center jobs and may be us as well.

But, on the other hand, I strongly feel that it will bring hundreds of new career as well. Already I can envision the time when everyone will have their website, recruitment firm with expertise in placing laid off employee and many more. It’s need which gives birth to creativity which can be commercialized under the umbrella of innovation. The whole idea behind several jobs, the way they are structured and they way they impact other will change. Technology shall be the prime driver. Technology makes stability impossible, and anyone who is in school today had better be able and willing to quickly adapt and learn new skills.

Academic institutions are very poor at identifying emerging careers, and most academic majors are traditional. This lack may be for the best, as the best preparation for skills that are not yet known is a broad and basic education.

Some of these emerging careers will require cross-functional multi-skilling.

I’d love to hear from any of you who have ideas about this or see emerging trends, careers, or occupations.

BADBOSSOLOGY

You're weary. You're frustrated. You're unhappy. You're demotivated. Your interaction with your boss leaves you cold. He's a bully, intrusive, controlling, picky or petty. He takes credit for your work, never provides positive feedback and misses each meeting he schedules with you. Or he caves immediately under pressure and fails to support you in accomplishing your job.

Some Bosses bully , intimidate , and belittle others. Underlings are expected to endure abuse that is condemned in other settings.

Every working adult has known one - a boss who love making subordinates squirm, whose moods radiate through the office, sending workers scurrying for covers, whose voice causes stomach muscles to clench and pulses to quicken.:-(

One of my close friend working with a reputed MNC describes his boss as: dash dash dash..... " like a dog barking at you for hours...He just yelled, ranted, and raved. He was condescending, belligerent, and disrespectful."

Another friend experienced that women are as likely as men to be the aggressors. His Boss(Beautiful Boss) is no more beautiful . She has developed a reputation for demoralizing employees by publicly dressing them down for missing sales and profit goals or for simply displeasing her...often the attacks were personal rather than professional, and infrequently laced with crude reference to sex , race , or ethnicity.

Unfortunately, what would be considered abusive behavior in families and other social relationships is accepted and even lauded in work situation more frequently than many of us admit

Fortunately, I have not experienced any :-)

What about you. ?? Think in case you are the one ????

I WORK HARD BUT......????

I have completed one glorious year at work and legacy left by me will definitely be remembered forever :-) .

But there was one very disappointing observation i made that people are working harder than ever but accomplishing less and less. I am thinking on this from quite a while now. when i look around any organization, everyone is busy, working very hard and staying very late to get work done. when i look at results then there is a mismatch between all the work done and result attained.

Earlier i thought that people are unchallenged, unfocused, and having no fun in their work. They never think about the results and just try to finish the task assigned to them. I guess i was wrong to some extent.

There was several occassions when i came across people who hate theire jobs. In spite of working very hard they could nor able to contribute any thing.

When i went deep into this then i realized the root cause of this observation. There was no understanding of goal concurrency with organization by employees. They never understood importance of their contribution into the success of their organization.

To understand it more clearly, employees never understood their own job, they never recognize the finish line and never able to focus & prioritize. The importance of understanding the people around you was also well misunderstood.

I will also like to blame few bosses(in silent voice) that they were not able to communicate the right thing to each of their team members. As a result the team members never understood the clarity and drive strategy from top to bottom.

If i dare to go deep into this that i will take advantage of WEB 2.0 to blame few head of departments as well who never able to make understand the execution managers that alignment to strategy is must before execution.

To summarize my thoughts, i call it a culture of fake work where people work harder and results are .....well , you are intelligent.

Let me know in case you are also working hard for fake work or you also hate your job in spite of working very + very HARD ???

AND THE AWARD GOES TO…….

Yesterday in San Diego, the winners of the 2009 Recruiting Excellence Awards were announced

Congrats to this year’s winners:

• Best College Recruiting Program - Ernst & Young
• Best Corporate Careers Website - Yahoo
• Best Diversity Program - Microsoft
• Best Employee Referral Program - Accenture
• Best Employer Brand - Ernst & Young
• Best Retention Program/Practices - American Cancer Society
• Best Strategic Use of Technology - Microsoft
• Recruiting Department/Function of the Year - DaVita

I always believed that technology in HR goes hand in hand. If we really analyze the award winners then one thing was common with everyone.

· Technology

· Response Management System

· Strategic alignment of HR with Business

Most of the Indian companies still do not understand the importance of recruiting program, career website, and referral program. Few who understand and make some investment in these lines are too busy to manage the response in real time. I call it strategic suicide by HR. knowing everything and doing nothing.

Most of the companies are concentrating on attraction while retention is left on employees and market opportunities.

Employer brand is highly correlated with the capacity of the company to pay well.

Was just wondering whom are we fooling..???

Ourselves?????

IF YOU CAN DATE, THEN YOU CAN RECRUIT AS WELL

I believe that if you are good at dating than you can be a good recruiter as well. The reverse is also true. Dating and recruiting have a lot in common. Let see that how we can improve our recruiting efforts by applying the most common dating rules.

Dating rule #1
First impressions are critical.

Recruiting application:
Differentiate yourself. Resist the “I have a great position for you” especially if you have never spoken to them.

Dating rule #2
Don’t believe everything you see. We have all heard stories from people that signed up for an online dating service and were shocked when their date was two feet shorter and 10 years older than the profile.

Recruiting application:
Candidates exaggerate their strengths and skills and down play their weaknesses. Do not assume anything. Prescreen, interview, administer assessments, and call the references before you present the candidate to your hiring manager.

Dating rule #3
Play hard to get. Desperation is the world’s worst perfume.

Recruiting application:
If you make a huge fuss over the candidate and beg them to interview, you will diminish your negotiating power.

Dating rule #4
Be selective. You can not change people.

Recruiting application:
Look for the red flags; don’t avoid them. It is better for you to uncover any candidate weaknesses or issues than your hiring manager discovering them. Your name and reputation is all you have in this business.

Dating rule #5
Prepare for the date.

Recruiting application:
If your candidate has spent 20 minutes on the phone with you and takes time off work to come to interview, and then you ask them “so, tell me what you want to do?” — you are wasting the candidate’s time. You should have notes on the candidate’s resume that you want to clarify.

Dating rule #6
Don’t talk too much. People who express the “enough about me, what do you think about me?” attitude sit home alone, a lot.

Recruiting application:
The candidate should be doing most of the talking. Assess what the candidate has to offer, what they need, and then set expectations of how you will work together. Let the candidate talk about the interview before you disclose the hiring manager’s view. If you blurt out “they love you, you are the best candidate they have ever met!” — what do you think happens to the candidate’s salary requirements?

Dating rule #7
Follow up with your date.

Recruiting application:
As an industry, one of the biggest complaints we get from candidates and hiring managers is the lack of communication. No news is still considered news to the candidate; make sure you keep your candidate in the loop.

Dating rule #8
Don’t be afraid to end the date early.

Recruiting application:
Prescreen carefully, ask the hard questions, and always tell the candidate the truth. If they are not going to fit into your recruiting focus (skills, salary expectations, location, etc.), coach or make suggestions regarding who may be able to help them in the market.

Dating rule #9
Improve your odds by hanging out where (like) people hang out.

Recruiting application:
If you are recruiting technology talent, sign up and participate in technology activities in your market. Volunteer at association meetings to check members in: you will meet every attending member, every meeting.

Explain to people you meet that there are two types of people you would like to be introduced to: those who are leaders in their field and are looking for an opportunity and those who are leaders in their field and are not looking for an opportunity right now. You are an expert in your market, so people who are not looking now would still benefit from knowing you and the people in your network.

Dating Rule #10
They will not buy the cow if they are getting the milk for free.

Recruiting application:
When you agree to represent a candidate, you are entering into a business agreement. You need to set clear expectations of how the process must work. If the candidate will not agree to the terms, they are not committed to you, so turn them loose.

Final Piece of advise: -Concentrate on controlling your own situation, without controlling everybody else

The disagreement with these tips will be highly appreciated . write to me at rishirajsingh@tataprojects.com