Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 April 2012

UK employers struggling to attract and retain quality staff

A recent survey carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and Xpert HR reveals that between September 2010 and September 2011 the number of managers resigning from their job has more than doubled, passing from 3.9% to 9.4%.

Despite the labour market is not really at its best, employers are currently experiencing serious difficulties both in attracting and retaining quality staff. More in particular, from the recruitment point of view, employers are finding it difficult to recruit individuals with the desired skills and capabilities. This result is actually made even harder to achieve because of their inability to offer individuals attractive salary packages.

Things are not going any better from the retention point of view. The rate of employers reporting talent retention difficulties has, in fact, increased from 31.7% to 55%, despite managers have received an average 3.1% salary increase, i.e. a 13% growth vis-à-vis the previous year.

The CMI said that 1 in 10 managers have possibly resigned just because they have received better offers (which, considering the relevance of the phenomenon, should slightly be in contrast with the current employers inability to offer better reward packages, unless a real war for talent is underway), but it is also very likely that many of them have just simply left the profession. Nonetheless, this trend is rather worrying considering that the UK Government is estimating a need for 544,000 additional managers by 2020.

Once again, the best solution could be represented by affective and well designed total reward packages. Though understanding employers’ difficulties to offer individuals better reward packages, in fact, the CMI urge employers having recourse to non-financial reward approaches in order to retain quality staff. As suggested by Kristopher Kinsella, acting Chief Executive of CMI, in fact: “A company that does not work hard to retain its employees and invest in its people will find itself in a difficult situation given we already have a shortage of high quality managers. Strong managers are the lifeblood of effective organisations and too many employers are realising this too late.”

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

Can a 3m X 4m sized CV turn to be a key factor for success?

Desperate for a job, a sales manager shouted his motivation on an advertising hoarding.

The first rule of CV writing is to keep CVs within a maximum of one or two pages. But there are people thinking this could just not be enough, Bruno Bourgeon is one of them.

This sales manager, actively seeking a job since April 2009, at the beginning of 2010 realised that just sending out CVs was not enough and that a different strategy and action were, then, required.

So that, this former estate agency’s director decided to rent a billboard in the surroundings of Angles, in the environs of Avignon (France), in order to publicly foster and show his professional ambitions. “Senior sales manager looking for whatever kind of opportunity. I want a job!” this is what people driving along this road could read on this 4m X 3m billboard.

“After my estate agency went bankrupt, I have scrutinised job advertisements, sent out applications and answered to many job advertisements”, explains Bruno Bourgeon, 57, “in a whole year I just got an interview and it did not lead to a job offer”.

In his case, he has no doubt, what penalises him is not the downturn but his age. “I started putting away my photo from my CV, then my birth date, but seeing as this was changing nothing, I decided to review my strategy and to think “big”.


Billboard owners were so touched by this initiative that decided to display his advertisement for free. But this is not all; the initiative also impressed the business producing posters which had been contacted by Mr. Bourgeon, which finally billed him just the poster’s production costs, namely € 70,00 instead of the usually required sum of approximately € 500,00.

“All of those support gestures were extremely moving”, explains Mr. Bourgeon, “and definitely encouraged me to carry on”.

Once the poster was displayed Mr Bourgeon received hundreds of encouraging calls and text messages. Many people also said that they recognised themselves in his story in that being, or having been, in that same situation.

Mr Bourgeon did never think he could become the seniors’ jobseekers spokesperson, but he thought that if his activity could have helped some people to sort their problem out, he would have been delighted to help.

His appeal finally reaches the right ears, or rather the right eyes. Last June, in fact, the CEO of a business selling products by mail, Mr Yves Jean, got in contact with him. Mr Jean says that he was just looking for a sales person when his accountant told him about the poster. “Actually, the billboard was just very few yards away from our factory, nonetheless, I had never seen it. I then went to take a look at the poster and called Mr Bourgeon”, Mr Jean recalls.

The two people connected since the very first meeting, so that Mr Jean proposes Mr Bourgeon to attend a three months vocational training programme, partly delivered at the local Pole Emploi (the French equivalent for the Job Centre Plus) and partly delivered at the business. At the end of the programme, just last week, Mr Jean made Mr Bourgeon an employment offer, on a permanent contract basis.

Mr Jean said “Mr Bourgeon initiative touched me, that was a clear evidence of his strong motivation and assertiveness and of his ability to give values to himself. These are three key qualities of a sales person”.

It really seems, that every cloud has a silver lining, in this case at least, pity this is not always the case.

Sunday, 21 November 2010

Can leadership abilities be detected in brain scans?


Whilst the debate about the root of good leadership is engaging an increasingly larger number of HR professionals, business leaders and academics, and is becoming the more and more passionate in a bid to ultimately find out whether leadership is an inborn quality or can be actually learned, scientists are investigating whereas it is rather a cerebral feature.



Differently from those who sustain that leadership can be learned, the advocates of the idea that leadership is an inborn feature contend that genuine leaders owe this ability to their “innate traits” and that individuals not having received this natural gift cannot gain leadership abilities by learning. Whether the scientists’ belief which leadership abilities relate to a “biological factor” should prove to be true, the theory that leadership is an innate aptitude may sensibly gain ground vis-à-vis that sustaining that leadership can be learned.
 


It is difficult to say whether in the not-too-distant future head-hunters will make their decisions about the recruitment of senior managers and executives on the basis of the applicant brain scans, rather than of their CVs and interviews. Nonetheless, the pioneering study conducted by the Reading University, regardless of the results it will produce and albeit it is too early to deem it promising, seems to be if anything really interesting.



The investigation is conducted by Dr Money, of Henley Business School, who outlines the aims and objectives of the investigation: "We hope to look at how leaders from different sectors make decisions, what actually leads people to move from making good to bad decisions, what goes on in people's minds and how they make those choices" (Money, 2010).



The launch of the investigation has seen protagonist Sir John Madejski, a leading British business leader, who after having been prepared by a team of scientists was gently wheeled into a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan, where he spent 45 minutes. During this period of time Sir Madejski was not indeed just passively waiting for the machine to perform its scan activities, but was asked to complete a number of exercises implying decision-making activities in the presence of Professor Saddy of the Reading's Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics.
 


Sir Madejski was basically asked to make some financial decisions, which were confirmed pressing the buttons of a special keypad placed inside the MRI scanner. "In this case", explains Professor Saddy (2010), "what he is being asked to do is make a judgement about whether given a certain set of information a short-term reward would be better than a long-term reward." Whilst Sir Madejski was performing his decision-making activity into the scan, his brain activity was measured by the cutting-edge £1m MRI scanner.



The investigation carried out with the help of Sir Madejski is not clearly enough to reach reliable conclusions; he was in fact the first volunteer available to start the experiment and was so enthusiastic as to promise to support the study encouraging other leading businessmen to “lend” their brains to the University for scanning purposes. In order to gather significant information the experiment needs to be obviously replicated several times. Neuroscientists, psychologists and management experts at Reading University aim at this moment in time at examining more in particular the brains of the business chief executives and of the senior executives of different industries like voluntary organisations and the military.

 
 
Dr Money (2010), who suggests to treat the experiment with some caution for the moment, especially as for what concerns the immediate results of the study, stresses the importance of conducting a significant number of experiments before reaching a conclusion: "It's way too early, we can't look at one person's brain and conclude too much. What we can do is look at different groups, say military and business leaders, and compare leadership education within those different groups."
 
 
 
Using technology to understand what makes a good leader is not actually a completely new technique. For decades organisations across the globe have used psychometric tests to select candidates, habitually for senior management positions, and to try and find out what behind a good leader.
 
 

Psychometric, nonetheless, is considered by many as a controversial science and has as such supporters and detractors. Saville (2010), who belongs to the former group, claims that such a technique dates back to the techniques used by Samuel Pepys to select naval officers and contends that psychometric tests make a valuable contribution to the process of selecting the right candidate for the appropriate position: "You still find interviewers who judge people on the first minute of an interview", he says, "all we are doing is reducing the odds of choosing the wrong person. It's science versus sentiment."



It is indeed sorely impossible to say today whether it is realistic believing that there is a chance that the recruitment industry, which already uses psychometric tests, will have the option to resort to brain scans or other technological means in the future. Virginia Eastman head-hunter with Heidrick and Struggles, who recruits candidates for senior roles in global media organisations, for instance, appears to be rather sceptical. She claims that new technologies are helping to make the process of communicating with and assessing suitable leaders more rapid but she adds: "Our whole profession is built on one thing, the consensus that we all know what good looks like, and that we make that judgement. No machine can replace that" (Eastman, 2010).

 
 
According to Eastman (2010), albeit neuroscientists and psychologists believe that they can make a real contribution to the head-hunters’ understanding of what makes leaders effective, those whose job is to select leaders still believe it is more of an art, rather than a matter of technology. Notwithstanding, it is extremely important do not forgetting that, irrespective of the results technology will be able to yield, brain scans (provided that the final findings of the investigation conducted at the Reading University will prove to be successful) and similar tests should not be exclusively used to make the final decision.
 
 
 
Both the CIPD (2010) and the British Psychological Society (BPS, 2010) recommend that tests have not to be used in a judgmental, decisive mode. Torrington et al. (2008) stress the idea that the results produced by tests have to be used only to stimulate discussion with candidates and that every time recruiters use test methodologies, candidates should invariably receive feedback.
 
 
 
The CIPD (2010) warns that using the information provided by such types of tests to make final recruitment decisions may result in breaching some regulations (for instance, in the UK the 1998 Data Protection Act) so that these should only be used as part of a wider process where the indications received from the results of these tests can be backed by other sources. Yet, Ceci and Williams (2000) have warned of the risks related to the use of norm tables, pointing out that these change over time so that using old tests with old norms might very likely result to be deceptive.



All in all, tests and scans, provided that these may actually give significant information, should not be used to the detriment of the recruiter feelings, sensations and experience. Brain scans are likely to be extremely expensive whether it is necessary a £1 m machine to perform them. Yet, it is also very likely that the practitioners in charge of making the final reports might require time to submit these. It is hence improbable that recruiters may be able to effectually use these any time soon.

 
Longo, R., (2010), Can be leadership abilities detected in brain scans?, HR Professionals, Milan, [online].

Saturday, 13 November 2010

Poker tournaments and online videogames to lure and attract Generation Y, are these effective?

Recruitment professionals and practitioners are nowadays striving to find new, effectual ways to attract and retain Generation Y talent, using their imagination in the extreme to come up with appealing and original ideas to reach their target. It should not came as complete surprise hence that the creatives of an advertising French agency decided to organize a poker tournament to give applicants the change to literally win an internship at their agency. This is not a bluff; on November 26th the students of the most authoritative French universities and colleges like Sciences Po, the Essec, the Fémis and the HEC will dispute access to eight internships at the advertising agency H by playing cards.



The eight available places are divided into two types of internships:

Premium internships – to which will be admitted the first two winners of the competition, are due to last for six months. Interns will work in France during the first five months and in the UK for the last remaining month. These specific internships relate to a creative and a sales position;

Hybrid internships – which will be offered to six contestants, are expected to span six months, too. During the first five months interns are due to fill a strategic planning position, whereas during the final month these will have the opportunity to cover a creative role.



All of the individuals selected, or rather, the tournament’s winners will receive a remuneration package of €1,000 per month.



The agency, which boasts amongst its clients L’Oréal and Citroën, allegedly decided to have recourse to this type of event to lure Generation Y students and graduates, and desires to come in contact with the most “rebel” students of the best French colleges. It is likely that, in addition to the eight official winners, the agency may make some offers to the other contestants who will catch the attention of the agency consultants.



The advertising firm claims that such a contest will enable its partners to determine the rational qualities of the candidates, in particular their stress management and anticipation capabilities. The agency supports its unusual recruitment methodology claiming that its team wishes to adopt an approach giving its current partners the opportunity to spend a longer period of time with applicants, rather than the average one our time typically offered by a classic interview. This type of event, which the agency actually decided to organize by reason of having recently worked on the advertising campaign of an online gaming firm, will indeed enable the agency consultants to spend four to five hours with the candidates.
 

 

In order for the agency’s consultants to establish a closer contact with applicants and have the possibility to better discern and select the personalities of the agency’s future interns, these have planned to join the different tables during the unfolding of the contest. Elisabeth Billiemaz, the agency’s Managing Director, claimed that the tournament has been organized in order to make the students of these prestigious colleges aware of the agency activities. The adverting firm aims at attracting some “original personalities”, big heads with a “ludic potential.” Thanks to this event the agency also hopes to attract the media attention in order to introduce its activities to a wider audience of potential recruits. Mrs. Billiemaz averred that the advertising industry attracts less and less young candidates, who consider advertising directly linked to a consumer society image, which with the exception of hi-tech products these habitually tend to deplore.



Recruitment and selection professionals have react with astonishment to the organization of such an event and have expressed a certain level of concern. Students associations consider this initiative dismay and lacking of respect for students. In essence, these consider inappropriate asking candidates to participate in a poker tournament, based on gambling, for having an internship opportunity. The agency management has claimed to be aware that these young people have passed several and very selective exams already and that they are all hence likely to meet the requirements necessary to deserve the internship with the agency.


Despite advertising agencies are used to overexploit internships, critics argue that in this case the message is even more disastrous, insofar as some commentators even thinking that the next sensation advertising agencies will come up with is to invite applicants to combat on the arena as gladiators. The visual communication style used by the agency to get the message across has indeed been the object of, to put it mildly, controversy, too. The woman showed in the poster, who seems to bow just to, so to speak, increase visibility of her bottom and breast features, seems to convey the message that admissions may be subject to a certain form of “kindness and availability” from the side of the candidates. Mrs. Billiemaz responded to this allegation contending that the advertising is deliberately ludicrous; nobody could really believe that it is required to resort to charming strategies to obtain the internship. After all, continues Mrs. Billiemaz also during job interviews you try to be pleasant, of course in the most appropriate way. This approach has been deliberately adopted to draw the media interest and make it more amusing the recruiting activities, albeit this is indeed inconsistent with the firm values. The meaning typically attached to bluff is in fact in open contrast with the cooperation spirit fostered within the organization by its HR Function. Mrs Billiemaz added that the agency would never resort to such a method for recruiting staff, which does not clearly really help to understand why the agency decided to adopt this approach for attracting interns.

 

Organizations trying to lure Generation Y individuals are increasingly betting on this kind of strategy, which is somewhat in between HR and Marketing, albeit none of the investigations and studies conducted thus far amongst Yers has ever revealed that these individuals are prone to gambling or would like to find poker tables in a business canteen.



To create a sensation, the French firm L’Oréal has launched last January a videogame in the Internet, Reveal, aiming at expanding the talent pool of their cosmetics group targeting Generation Y individuals, that is to say “digital natives” and people born with the Internet. Irrespective of their nationality and profile, the videogame enables all the interested students to acquaint themselves with all the jobs available at L’Oréal, test themselves and face a whole range of different situations. The videogame test actually represents the first stage of the recruitment process.
 


The International Recruitment Director, François de Wazières, who bets on the potential of Generation Y people, claims that one third of the staff of the cosmetics firm is actually recruited by means of this method. Open to concepts like international, creative, connected 24/24 and the like Generation Y people would perfectly and globally match the type of personality sought by the group.



To attain its recruitment objectives and effectively reach and appeal to its Yers target L’Oréal does not skimp on means. Creator of business games of sector since 1993, author in 2007 of the first recruitment campaign in Second Life, the group does not really want to run the risk losing the “war for talent.” According to François de Wazières, Reveal has to this extent a triple advantage: enables the firm to diversify recruitment both in terms of profiles and nationalities, ensures candidates pre-selection on the basis of the videogame outcome and enables the organization to effectively promote and foster its image.



Despite technological advances, face to face interviews, which Yers do not regard as something particularly displeasing, can be by no means averted. Interviews are organized and conducted locally giving candidates the chance to be confronted with the organization reality.



L’Oréal hopes to reach the number of 100,000 Reveal registered users (or candidates) within the end of the year, 2010. Game over!

Thursday, 4 November 2010

Nap at work? Yes, since it seems it can effectively contribute to enhance productivity

According to the findings of different studies carried out by several researchers, it would seem that taking a nap at work bears fruit; 20 to 30 minutes, no more, will be in fact enough to boost productivity.

Some organisations have already implemented schemes inspired to this idea. Very recently, in fact, in the United States, staff at Nike have been allowed to access appositely dedicated relaxation rooms. In Pittsburgh, Deloitte & Touche has recently opened a siesta room to meet the requests of its 260 staff and in Kansas City architectural practice Gould Evans Goodman Associates has pitched three "spent tents" in a corner of its office, each of which is outfitted with air mattress, sleeping bag, foam pad, flannel pillow, Walkman, eye shades and alarm clock. Lowney & Associates, an engineering consultancy in Mountain View, California, has arranged a "quiet room" where employees can grab a pillow and a blanket and stretch out on the couch.
Is it just a matter of a whim? Apparently not really, it most likely seems a matter of strategy, instead. Napping is, in fact, supposed to stimulate brain activity.

In 2006 a feature in the Business Week invited its readers to “climb their career ladder sleeping”. An American consultant has even patented the concept of “Power nap”, at the very beginning it could seem something like a joke till you do not realise the benefits of having a siesta.

Research carried out by the NASA reveals that after a rest of 25 minutes astronauts perform much better and are much more alert. The same findings have been attained by many other scientific studies, which have all supported the idea that napping helps to increase staff performance, which is actually one of the objectives modern organisations are, in particular, trying hard to achieve.

Bruno Comby, health specialist, claims that having a nap helps people to be more effective and time saving, and that that should be why the busiest business men encourage its practice.

From the early Greek philosophers, through to creative geniuses such as Beethoven, Da Vinci, Dali and Einstein, napping has always been used as an effective technique to achieve better performance and results. Great leaders in times of War, such as Napoleon and Winston Churchill, were also known to have napped in order to help them dealing with their stress. It is actually a technique that has been employed by many US Presidents and UK Prime Ministers; including Margaret Thatcher, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

A strong supporter of “having a nap at work” practice is also the former French President Jacques Chirac, who, in the preface to the book “The praise of siesta”, suggests that taking a nap at work makes remarkably easier life and work of people who have made a habit of it.

In Paris some specialised centres have even been devoted to the practice of napping. In these peaceful places 20 minutes of relax are billed to companies’ managers between €15,00 and €20,00. Similar initiatives have also been implemented in Lyon (France) where 30 minutes of rest cost €15,00 if taken in group rooms and €20,00 if enjoyed in single rooms.

According to Bruno Comby the benefits of a micro-siesta can be appreciated everywhere and at any time, seated or laying down. What you just need to do is to lose your tie, undo the very first button of your shirt up, close your eyes, slow down your breath and the rhythm of thinking, relax your neck muscles, then those of your jaw, of your back, arms and legs and, bit by bit, the muscles of all your body.

After a bit of training some people are even able to sleep 20/25 minutes in front of their PC holding their head with hands.

"Power napping" has taken corporate America and Japan by storm. Workers are actively encouraged to take breaks in their day and have a nap; they are even invited to attend courses to learn how to do this. Today, napping is both considered a health trend and a workplace perk.

Tiredness costs on the annual activity of the United States has been evaluated by the National Commission on Sleep Disorders in several tens of billions dollars, so it might be worth to have a go.
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Sunday, 31 October 2010

Recent reports reveal the list of the most productive organisations in the USA and UK

Profile International has recently published the findings of two separate reports unveiling the names of the companies which are better meeting the current economic and market challenges and leading their sectors in terms of productivity, both in the USA and UK.
In the UK Profiles International analysed financial data from nearly 600 publicly-traded companies quoted at the London Stock Exchange. These companies were firstly grouped into 60 industry sub-sectors based on their Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes and then into 18 industries to produce a more meaningful analysis.
The results for each industry sector revealed the most productive companies to be:
Aerospace and Defence: Rolls Royce Group
Banking: Lloyds Banking Group
Business Services: Harvey Nash Group
Construction: Berkeley Group Holdings
Consumer Products: Diageo
Financial Services: Intermediate Group Holdings
Food Production: Hilton Food Group
Healthcare: Shire
Industrial: Johnson Matthey
Insurance: St James’s Place
Media: ITV
Natural Resources: Soco International
Retail: HR Owen
Software: Micro Focus International
Technology: Northamber
Telecoms: Inmarsat
Travel and Leisure: Enterprise Inns
Utilities: Drax
Profile International research also shows the amount of revenue each company generates per full time employee, so that the list of the most productive companies and their respective revenue per full time employee, looks like follows:
Soco International - £6.1m
St James's Place - £5m
Legal & General Group - £4.7m
Dana Petroleum - £3.6m
Anglo Pacific Group - £2.9m
Intermediate Capital Group - £2.2m
BP - £2m
Standard Life - £1.8m
Royal Dutch Shell - £1.8m
Prudential - £1.8m
The best performer is a natural resources company, Soco International, which generates £6.1m of revenue per full time employee, outstripping any other company in the report by a little more than £1m. Second in the list is an insurance company, St James’s Place, with revenue per full time employee standing at £5m.
In the USA the same investigation revealed that the most productive companies are:
1. AT&T Inc.
2. The New York Times
3. Bank of America
4. Capital One
5. LeapFrog Enterprises
6. Colgate
7. K-Swiss
8. Domino's Pizza
9. Cinemark
10. Wyndham Worldwide
11. Safeway
12. Blackboard
13. Coca-Cola
14. Priceline.com
15. Lexmark
16. Penske
In the USA the Profile International study covered over 2,200 companies and 203 industries.
With unemployment nearing double digits and companies looking to maximize resources, the Profiles Research Institute sought to understand the factors that drive employee productivity within an organisation.
To reach its conclusions, Profiles International defined productivity by using the well-accepted ratio of revenue produced per full-time employee.
For both the USA and UK investigations, once the companies ranking highest in each category were identified, Profiles Research Institute took a closer look at the practices that enabled them to out-produce their peers and analysed the results and the contributing factors behind the results. The follow-up research identified ten key attributes which were grouped in two different categories. In a group were included the attributes concerning and directly linked to people, in the other one were instead listed attributes more genuinely linked to the company organisational effectiveness.
People Attributes
1. Performance-driven culture
2. Effective managers
3. High employee utilization
4. High employee effectiveness
5. Encouraging innovation

Strategic and Operational Attributes
1. Technology sophistication
2. Financial sophistication
3. Operations sophistication
4. Effective distribution channels
5. Marketing and brand sophistication

Being named one of America’s or UK’s Most Productive Companies is a tribute to superior human capital management practices, as well as an acknowledgement of the hard work and commitment of the companies’ staff.
For winning organisations, this is a great opportunity to let their employees know how much their business leaders appreciate their contribution by celebrating the moment. This is also a very good opportunity to let prospective hires, as well as customers and prospects, know that these are well-run organisations and leaders in their respective industries.
According to the report, companies that can demonstrate a performance-driven culture, with effective managers who encourage innovation will generally achieve higher productivity, as measured by revenue per full time employee.
Technical, financial and operational “sophistication” were also considered important factors in maximising output per unit.
“It is more important than ever for companies to benchmark their people processes to ensure they maximise the productivity of the people they employ”, managing director of Profiles International, Martin Goodwill, said.
In the UK top ten most productive companies five are in the natural resources industry, while four are in the insurance sector. Just one financial services firm, Intermediate Capital Group, made it into the top ten.
A number of companies in the top 100 are not household names with the first bank, Lloyds Banking Group, appearing at number 96 on the list with revenue per employee standing at £265,000.
Profiles International UK managing director Martin Goodwill said: "We undertook this research to ensure that our employee assessments continue to reflect the requirements of today’s challenging economic environment. While the findings confirmed much of our existing knowledge, they also demonstrated that it is more important than ever for companies to benchmark their people processes to ensure they maximise the productivity of the people they employ. We have made the report available online – and we hope that managers will download it and use the information to inform and improve their own processes."

Friday, 1 October 2010

RECESSION GIVES BIRTH TO A NEW GENERATION

Not defined by an age range, but by their survival ability - Welcome Gen “R”

The good news is that the worst of the recession in many countries is over; organisations which have resisted to its effects are now relaunching their activities and preparing to get the most out of the envisaged and wished upturn.
The financial crunch has definitely been particularly hard for people who have lost their jobs but, although in a pretty different way, it has not been completely smooth sailing for those who have held their jobs either.
The pressure caused by having seen colleagues made redundant and leave their organisations, has clearly left its mark and had a negative impact on “survivors” too. Employees who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs have, nonetheless, also experienced a quite particular grim “climate” and mood within their organisations.
With business obliged to tight their belts and downsize, the remaining staff have been required to: carry out an increasing number of duties and activities, take more responsibilities, work harder and in leaner and more flexible teams.
In such situations staff has then acquired and developed new skills, widened their competencies and build an optimistic feeling up.
More specifically, according to the findings of a study recently carried out by the Recruiter Randstad, “World of Work”, private sector staff who have emerged from the downturn are more confident about their future and perspectives. To the extent, that a substantial majority of them consider themselves being ready for leaving their current job, if any good opportunities should come along.
Even though the international recession has, by and large, made employees rather prudent and wary about considering changing their job, Gen R employees consider themselves emerging more motivated from the crisis. They also feel being more skilled and with the ability to perform work in different, harder situations, and able to adapt to changes.
Thanks to these features Gen R people represent an opportunity for employers but, at the same time, they could represent a potential problem as well if employers should not capitalise on their abilities.
To some extent Generation R people, who are, then, not defined by age but by attitude, are very similar to Gen Y in that it would not really be enough a mere salary increase to persuade them to shift workplace, they are, in fact, mainly interested in a proper career path, good training opportunities and professional development. This could arguably be related to the circumstance that during the last 18 months these employees have had little or no support at all and have realised the pivotal importance of having the opportunity to gain access to these benefits.
The research also showed that, basically, these people have experienced new ways of working and do not want risk going back to the previous working methods. They have acquired so many skills that it is expected that the competition to hire them will intensify in the incoming future; are, then, we going to assist, in the course of the next months to a “war for Gen R” rather than to a “war for talent”? This is anybody’s guess; nonetheless, “war” or not, it is very likely that organisations will try to lure these “upskilled” staff in the near future.
The investigation also revealed that, although during the last 18 months 23% of respondents had to cover additional responsibilities, because of businesses recruitment freeze, acquiring new skills and abilities, on the other hand of it, nearly 50% of surveyed employees claimed that they have been under-utilised, whilst 10% even said that, because of recession, they had to cover positions which did not completely utilise their skills.
Generation R optimism notwithstanding, employees fears for redundancy is not completely over. According to the findings of the “Protection Gap Survey”, commissioned by Abbey Legal Protection, in fact, 26% of senior managers and 42% of Executives, without management responsibility, still consider redundancy as the source of main concern in the working place.
Clearly, despite the more positive appearance of the economic environment, job insecurity is still rife amongst staff.
Much more confident seem to be CEOs, who currently consider the risk of making staff redundant quite far from reality. Just 5% of them, in fact, mentioned redundancy as a likely risk they will have to cope with in the incoming future, showing much more concern for tax investigation by HMRC (12%) and for the impact of bad health on workforce stress (11%).


Sunday, 26 September 2010

THE END OF “RECRUITMENT & SELECTION” AS WE KNOW IT

Even though you might not be a Recruitment and Selection Specialist, as a HR Professional you surely know that the ultimate aim of the R&S process, considered as a whole, is basically to appoint the best, suitable person for the right position.
R&S Specialists have always been specifically and strongly warned to avoid any bias interference during the procedure in order to carry out a completely fair process.
Employment Law Specialists and Consultants have also pointed out and cautioned R&S Specialists that no matter the skin colour, the philosophical and religion belief, the political and union membership and the sexual preferences of applicants, what matters is just appointing the person who really has what it takes to properly fill the job in terms of skills, abilities, competencies and person specifications.
That is also why R&S Specialists continuously struggle to plan and implement the more and more “controlled” approaches to deliver the process, devising structured interview questionnaires and attributing a score to each question in order to give evidence, in case of employment tribunal claims, that the process has actually been fair and that, at the end of the process, the person who really and objectively deserved the job had actually been appointed.
Discrimination is a very sensitive issue and even when the process has been genuinely fairly carried out, giving evidence that neither direct nor indirect discrimination have affected the process could not be as easy as you could think it is (watch this video for a parody of the issue Fair recruitment interview?).
Well, this no longer seems to be completely the case according to the findings of a recent survey carried out by the UK HR Consultancy Reabur, which revealed that, before taking their final decision, employers consider many other candidates’ “personal specifications and traits”.
Although the survey was aimed to find out which traits and features make a candidate “unemployable” other than qualifications and experience, it is difficult to find out if these additional factors would genuinely be treated as “additional” and not as key factors on deciding whom actually appoint.
Nonetheless, the panel formed by 1,021 UK employers, expressed the idea that businesses would definitely be less likely to recruit people showing “poor personal hygiene” (68%), negative body language (64%) and “poor speech and grammar” (59%).
More in detail, the top ten list of what it takes to make candidates “unemployable”, devised on the basis of the responses provided to the question “ Which of the below traits would you make less likely to hire an individual?”, looks like that:
Amongst the employers claiming they would not recruit a candidate showing poor personal hygiene, 29% stated that body odour would be the main reason for that, whilst 21% said that the main reason for not to hire a candidate would be his/her bad breath.
Another good reason accounting for not making any employment offer to a candidate would be his/her late arrival at the interview. More than one on ten employers (12%) would even be ruthless, not even giving the chance to reschedule the interview, in the event the applicant could not attend the initial interview.

Candidates are also strongly suggested to have a powerful meal before attending an interview, since 7% of business owners said that they would less likely to recruit someone because of a weak handshake.
Although it could not be conceivable needing to wear a gas mask in order to be able to stay close to a work colleague, it is also true that you could not tell a judge that you did not hire an individual because of his/her disgusting body odour, if legally challenged.
The use of poor speech and grammar, in many occasions, could actually be considered part of the special requirements needed to get the job offer from an organisation. A sales person unable to articulate a correct speech would clearly be unable to effectively illustrate the features of the products or services he/she intends to sell to the business clientele, which could also account for the consequent loss of profits for the organisation.
Someone could also argue that business owners, just in that facing directly the financial risk associated with their business activity, namely the risk of failing and losing their money, could be free to hire whoever they want. Anti discrimination regulations, actually, also go in favour of business owners who will, very likely, be unable to make good business just thanks to well dressed and perfumed staff. In the end, filling organisations’ roles with the right individuals is actually of paramount importance for the success and growth of organisations themselves.
But the concern of employers is not totally unjustified. We all know, candidates included, that “the first impression” not only counts, but in such a case, is also fundamental in that there is no certainty for the applicant to have the chance for a second occasion with the same employer. If this awareness notwithstanding, applicants should attend interviews in noticeable poor personal hygiene conditions, recruiters could also be rightly concerned on trying to imagine the impact on an office “atmosphere” of the recruitment of such candidates.
Especially when the role implies a daily contact with customers, the personal hygiene of staff is particular important, just imagine a waiter/waitress serving food at a restaurant or in an organisation canteen in poor personal hygiene condition and with bad breath, to that point it could even sound discourteous wishing customers “enjoy your meal”.
Things would not be different amongst colleagues, these factors could, in fact, jeopardise social relations and “distract” other colleagues also when speaking of important matters.
Applicants, before attending a job interview, should need then, as generally suggested, be smart, positive, on time, carry out research about the organisation, prepare good questions concerning the position they have applied for and about the first goals the organisation is expected to be achieved by the appointed individual, and never forget to have a good shower and vigorous meal before attending the interview.
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Friday, 3 September 2010

Brits graduates lured by China’s increasing power

The international economic recession has, without any questions, contributed to change many things in the world, reportedly it has considerably contributed to disincentive and discourage young generations towards work and definitely it has contributed to their disillusion, to the extent that someone also thinks that the stereotype about Gen Y can be now considered anachronistic.

If anything, these hardships have possibly helped younger generations, and not only them, to be more creative and to dare more in their bid to find a new job or to improve their personal and working experience.

Instead of just waiting for something or someone who will never possibly knock at their doors, young people are trying to fill their time in a more constructive and useful way.

After all, nowadays young generations are no longer afraid to live away from home and, amongst young people, the passion for travelling; knowing new places and new people are undeniably widespread.

If the places they move to can, at the same time, offer them new exciting experiences, both at personal and professional level, contribute to acquire an international exposure and help them to differentiate in the ruthless job arena, then, the change even became very attractive and fascinating. After all, it also really seems that the job market in the UK has little or nothing to offer, at the moment, so that there is really nothing to lose on having a go.

All, or part, of that is possibly why the number of British graduates accepting unpaid internship in China has recently been booming. More precisely figures show that the number of unpaid internships has already doubled, compared to the total last year’s number.

Without any questions China’s reputation as an important international centre of business has recently dramatically increased and the exponential economic growth of the country, even when the rest of the world was coping with the recession and struggling to emerge from its aftermath, has obviously played a role too.

The number of requests for unpaid internship is growing so quickly that a number of agencies have decided to specialise in the activity of favouring organisations offer and young people demand to meet.

In China there are plenty of companies eager to take on unpaid internships, especially from the UK. Chinese business leaders are aware that, although there are a staggering 1,3 billion native Chinese speakers, the international lingua franca, especially in business, still remains English, so that Chinese organisations are obviously welcoming the chance to board top level translators within their organisations. But this is not really the only reason for Chinese business welcoming the opportunity to board foreign graduates. The fresh air young graduates can bring to their organisations and the international global input they offer could reveal to be priceless for Chinese entrepreneurs. And, in fact, Chinese companies do not need to pay anything to enjoy the energy and the hard work done by these young energetic and eager to learn, and possibly also to teach, people.

The businesses more keen to board foreign interns are operating in the financial, banking and marketing sectors, which, in turn, could give to all of these young graduated an in depth knowledge of how, in this so different, fascinating country with a so long history, these activities are managed.


Potential candidates do not need to know the Putonghua (Mandarin) language, on the contrary they can leave home safe in the knowledge that, very likely, they will come back home with some basic Chinese ability they did not have at all before arriving there.

The only barrier, to live this exciting experience, is possibly represented by the cost these young people need to face. In general, costs to stay and live a couple of months in Beijing or Shanghai are of approximately £1,800, but to these expenses still need to be added the flight and the insurance costs.

Nonetheless, the experience is definitely worth the efforts, in that after a couple of months spent in China, graduates could add few lines in their CVs, showing that they have confidently lived and worked in China, getting an head start over others jobseekers on trying to get a job.

This can, definitely, be a good opportunity both for Chinese organisations and for graduates. Chinese business, in fact, could have the chance to seek for talents on a considerably wider pool and interns could always hope to have the chance to find a good job opportunity there or home once back.

到底我對未來致以最好的祝愿

Monday, 30 August 2010

More than hungry UK jobseekers seem to be thirsty for a job

According to a survey carried out by HireScores, UK jobseekers would definitely love working for an American organisation and, in particular, for the Cola-Cola Company, which noticeably stand clear at the top of the “dream employer” table.


A large number of respondents also showed a considerable interest for British companies, in particular for Virgin and British Airways.

The research, carried out amongst 1,326 Brits jobseekers, was mainly aiming to determine which company would be considered by respondents their dream work place.

According to the responses given by the panellists the top 10 most desirable companies are:

Rank Organisation Preference

1 Coca-Cola 76%

2 Microsoft 69%

3 Google 66%

4 Apple 61%

5 Virgin 57%

6 Vogue 54%

7 Facebook 51%

8 Disney 48%

9 Craft-food 44%

10 British Airways 41%

Of the considerable large number of people indicating the Coca-Cola Company as the best place to work, 23% admitted that it was for the “freebies”, whilst 42% claimed that the salary offered by the company was the main reason for expressing their preference for the soft-drink organisation.


According to the justifications provided by respondents to support their choices, it also emerges that many of them gave their answer on the basis of assumptions, rather than of a real knowledge of the working environment and conditions.

In fact, amongst those ones who, for instance, expressed their preference to work for Walt Disney, 34% stated that they were supposed it will have a fun atmosphere, whilst 28% unveiled that it had just been a childhood dream, rather than a current one.

At the question “Do you think you will ever achieve your dream job in your dream company?” a measly 16% answered “yes”, 38% admitted that it was just a fantasy, whilst 21% considered it “unachievable”.

According to the findings of the survey, women are much more likely than men to accept a job offer abroad. In particular, 56% of women claimed that their dream job would be abroad, whilst just 39% of men respondents said that their dream job would be out of the UK.

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

International and local banks in China resort to different recruitment options

Chinese banks recruitment approach

China, with its 1.3 billion citizens, definitely represents a very huge market and its banking market is not exception. Just to give a measurable idea, China’s four biggest banks can boast a staggering average of 20,000 branches each.


Agriculture Bank, for instance, has 23,000 branches across the country, and it is present in many remote and rural areas of the country too.

Needless to say, Chinese biggest banks also have to face incredibly high human capital costs, partly due also to the presence in their payroll of tens of thousands of branch managers. Recruitment, retention and promotions are all activities Chinese biggest banks manage on a very large-scale.


Obviously it is not just a matter of cons, all of that also has, in fact, a flip side of pros, in that Chinese biggest banks can, at the same time, rely on a very huge internal pool of talent, so that it is not really that difficult for them to source from within in order to fill internal senior and branch management positions.

Also foreign big banks like Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered and ANZ are now widely expanding their branches network across China. Since they are doing that starting from a sensibly lower base, they are currently keeping a more rapid rate, as they too are aiming to extend their branches network not only in Beijing and Shanghai, but also across many rural areas.

As foreign banks cannot rely on the same pool of local talents as the local counterparts can, in order to hire branch managers they need to resort to recruitment agencies.

But this is not the only hardship international banks have to face in China, in fact, they also have to face higher recruitment costs and, in order to attract the required talents, they also have to offer more attractive and expensive remuneration packages.

Moreover, international banks also face particular difficulties to retain staff, whilst local banks can rely on their staff considerably long loyalty and lower turnover rate. According to estimates, nearly two third of Chinese banks staff stays in his post for years.

On the other hand of it, the average reporting and analysis capabilities of Chinese branch managers are still regarded as less competitive than their international counterparts.

This does not really mean that local managers are cutting less deals, on the contrary it is just thanks to their success that many international banks have decided and are deciding to move to China.