From Me To We - How Everyone Profits from Corporate Social Responsibility
By Arupa Tesolin

"Craig Keilburger was just 12 years old when he started the “Free the Children.” Organization. Since then, with the help of his elder brother Mark, his organization has built 420 schools in 120 countries providing education for 35,000 students. He was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

His brother Mark was a parliamentary page at that time, with the very important job of bringing water and passing notes around for the elected politicians in the House of Commons in Ottawa. He laughs when he thinks of how his ambition at the time was to become a leader among the younger pages and teach them the tricks of the trade. He recalled that on his first day he accidentally spilled water on then Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. “He took it well but I was really embarrassed.” said Mark. 'Then he made a funny comment and put me at ease.'"

Full article.

Fieldglass Publishes Essential Report for Evaluating Contingent Workforce Management Technology

"Fieldglass, a leading provider of contingent workforce management solutions, today published the white paper “Evaluating Software as a Service for Contingent Workforce Management”. This white paper emphasizes the role of technical due diligence during the evaluation process and provides guidance on what questions to ask software solution providers in order to assess the quality of the underlying technical infrastructure.

During the evaluation process, many Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors emphasize the non-technical benefits of their solutions. Because the buyer of contingent workforce management solutions is most often a Procurement or Human Resource professional, many vendors avoid deep technical explorations by highlighting the SaaS delivery model which does not require customers to install or host software internally. This fact combined with attractive service level agreements is enough to turn most buyers from the technology clue trail. But knowing what makes the solution tick, technologically speaking, provides the best insight into whether or not a software vendor will actually be able to deliver on their SLA. In the new white paper “Evaluating Software as a Service for Contingent Workforce Management,” Fieldglass explores some of the issues that should be considered in a technical evaluation of SaaS solutions. "

Full article.

The State of Recruitment & Staffing: Be Aggressive, or Be Gone
By John Zappe

"As they begin to feel the pinch for talent, employers can't just wait for the résumés to trickle in. They have to emphasize active sourcing--tapping in-house referrals, networking 24/7 and snapping up top candidates at the first opportunity.

Todd Davis recruited for a needle in a haystack. As senior clinician recruitment consultant with California’s largest physician group, Davis sought out doctors and professional staff. He was accustomed to finding nurses with unique specialties and doctors in high-demand fields. But in January he was looking for a computer specialist with a medical degree to fill the job of director of medical informatics with 3,500-employee Health­Care Partners Medical Group."

Full article.

Corporate leadership skills gap revealed

"A 'skills gap' for corporate leadership positions, as well as trained talent at all levels is the top concern of chief executive officers, according to an annual survey by the Ken Blanchard Companies of San Diego, a corporate training company.

Forty-three percent of those surveyed put skills shortages in the top three business challenges this year compared to 34 percent in 2003."

Full article.

Contingent Workforce Management Trends
By Yves Lermusiaux

"Taleo Corporation (Nasdaq: TLEO), the market leader in global on demand talent management solutions, has released a research report that analyzes the contingent workforce management trends of a cross-section of the Fortune 500.

Findings of this study indicate that contingent workforce management remains an increasingly complex and unmonitored area of expense throughout large organizations.

'The Contingent Workforce Management Trend Report' was compiled and released by Taleo Research, the research division of Taleo. The Taleo Research study reveals that many organizations could not answer critical questions about the use and impact of contingent labor on their organizations."

Full article.

Fieldglass Taps Rick Onyshko to Lead Professional Services


Fieldglass, Inc., a leading provider of contingent workforce management software, announced today the hire of Rick Onyshko as Executive Vice President of Professional Services. Mr. Onyshko is a seasoned software services executive with more than a decade of industry experience including stints at Ariba and PeopleSoft. His appointment is aimed at assisting Fieldglass customers and staffing partners drive even greater benefits from their use of InSite, the company's flagship solution.

Prior to joining Fieldglass, Mr. Onyshko served in senior positions at iManage, Ariba, PeopleSoft and St. Gobain. As a leader for Global Solutions Delivery at Ariba, Mr. Onyshko built and led professional services at both an Americas and regional level. During his tenure there, his team completed the largest-ever deployment of the Ariba Buyer solution. At PeopleSoft, Mr. Onyshko built the professional services team for the Manufacturing Business Unit in the Midwest. That team completed the first deployment of the PeopleSoft manufacturing suite.

Full article.

Intelligence In Business - The Case For Intuition in Business
By Arupa Tesolin

"Mainstream corporations such as AT&T, PepsiCo, Aetna, and business schools from Harvard to the University of Southern California include forms of introspection training in their management development programs. With more responsibility and less certainty stressed out business executives have found the need to turn inside for answers. In fast shifting markets the unexamined life becomes a liability. Introspection helps people to live in the question, keep their antennae up and their eyes open by unlocking access to creativity and intuition. Fortune 1995

41% of companies on the Inc. "500" list of fastest growing companies in the US had no initial business plan. 26% were started with a rudimentary "back of the envelope" type of plan. A comprehensive analytical approach to planning doesn’t suit most start-ups, however flexibility and the ability to respond to the changing environment, both internally and externally have been found to be critical success factors. Harvard Business Review 1995."

Full article.

So You're the New Boss?

"Newly appointed bosses shoulder the responsibility of the performance -- and even the success -- of their teams. And in a once-coveted role, they are closer to being reviled than revered. "BOSS has become a four-letter word in the workplace," says Jim Concelman, manager, leadership development at Development Dimensions International. "Many new leaders are inheriting the bad feelings created by their predecessors and other less-than-competent bosses in the organization. These pioneers have a chance to repair these attitudes and change the preconceived idea that all bosses are bad -- but it needs to be done quickly while the person is new to his or her leadership role."

In a series of survey questions conducted by Badbossology, a bad-boss protection resource site, and DDI, a global human resources consulting firm, workers have spoken out on what they think about their bosses and what they could be doing better. What should every manager know as they embark upon his or her new job?

Here are eight little secrets that every new leader needs to know..."

Full article.

Golden handcuffs can cut two ways at work
By Wallace Johnston

"Employers who have people they would like to keep should try "golden handcuffs."

The term is used to describe incentives for people who employers think will make a long-term contribution.

The "golden handcuffs" limit the choices valued individuals have to make. Options for receiving the incentives are tied to periods of service. If a "handcuffed" individual chooses to leave early, the incentives are lost."

Full article.

Hire for attitude - train for skill
By Dan Bobinski

"All the leading business publications are pointing to a large hiring wave for 2005. With this in mind, it seems appropriate to highlight some points to make your hiring efforts successful.

The most important factor in hiring is attitude. Hire for it. Through the resume process you're going to find people who have the basic skill levels you're looking for. That's the first hoop. Then with a telephone screen you can find out if people have the foundational knowledge and the intellect for what you want.

But when you bring them in for an interview, the most important question you need to answer is 'Can we work with this applicant?' The second most-important question is 'Is this applicant teachable?'"

Full article.

March 27th: Authoria CEO to Address the Talent Gap, at Washington, DC Forum

Tod Loofbourrow Will Participate in Forum on "Maintaining America's Competitiveness: Recruiting and Retaining the Best and Brightest Minds" on March 27

"Authoria, Inc., the leader in strategic talent management solutions, today announced that Tod Loofbourrow, its chairman and CEO, will participate in a panel discussion on the "talent gap," which will be moderated by Evan Thomas, Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek Magazine.

The panel discussion, titled "Talent Gap: Maintaining a Skilled Workforce that Advances Innovation and Economic Security," will be held on Monday, March 27 at 10:30 A.M., at the Senate Russell Caucus Room in Washington, DC. The session will focus on topics including U.S. immigration policy for highly skilled workers, the challenges U.S. companies face in recruiting and retaining top talent, and policy recommendations that will improve U.S. competitiveness. Other panelists include executives from Cisco Systems, Keane, Core Capital Partners, and the National Association of Manufacturers."

Link.

The Human Capital Institute just put on this webinar in which I participated . I got 10 minutes to speak on Temps vs. Contract Talent. In particular:

• The distinction between traditional temp labor and Contract Consulting Talent
• Acquiring Consultants: HR vs. Procurement

Because time was of the essence, and because I always like getting them, I have added a few take aways for the topic. They will be made available on HCI's site, but you can also get them through the links below.

"What Happens to your SS-8 and the IRS" & the IRS Form "SS-8: Determination of Worker Status"


IC or Employee - The IRS Training Manual Manager Independent Contractor Compliance Questionnaire and Contractor Independent Contractor Compliance Questionnaire Approved Vendor List, Independent Contractor and Consultant Directory, and the Preferred Agency List Managing Your Contingent Workforce

Working with the Contingent Workforce
By Esme Friesen

"Whether you are the owner of a small start-up company or the HR manager of a large firm, the thought of hiring a contingent worker is likely to have crossed your mind.

The squeeze on budgets continues the same as it has for well over a decade. Whereas everybody wants to expand their scope while increasing their bottom line, adapting to variable market trends is still the order of the day. In some organizations this means the hiring of new staff and for others this means a decrease in their labour pool. Either way, HR managers have had to find flexible staffing solutions and as a result, the demand for a skilled, reliable contingent workforce has risen.

Contingent workers cover a diverse group of employees and staffing situations, from Temporary and Contract Workers to Project Staff, Leased Executives and PermaTemps, the list goes on."

Full article.

Contingent Workforce Management Trends

"'The Contingent Workforce Management Trend Report' was compiled and released by Taleo Research, the research division of Taleo. The Taleo Research study reveals that many organizations could not answer critical questions about the use and impact of contingent labor on their organizations.

According to Taleo Research, large enterprises are spending an average of seven percent of overall company revenue on contingent labor, typically representing hundreds of millions of dollars. The findings indicate that major opportunities exist for organizations looking to achieve greater returns on contingent labor by leveraging centralized contingent workforce management technology."

Full article.

To have and to hold those valued employees
By Patricia Kitchen

"When it comes to finding and retaining talented workers, employers might want to start thinking less like recruiters and more like anthropologists. That's what Marc Cendella, president of TheLadders.com, a job site for high-earners, told a group of about 400 people attending a recent recruiting conference in Manhattan.

That means not only identifying top talent but also learning what motivates them so you can take steps to keep them engaged. That, as well as learning more about their behaviors - what events they attend, what bloggers they read - so you can find and recruit others cut from the same cloth."

Full article.

WHAT'S YOUR BRAND? Uncovering Your Unique Promise of Value
By William Arruda

"In a previous article, I shared with you the importance of understanding, building and communicating your personal brand and I outlined the three-step process for doing so. In this article, I provide greater detail into Phase I - Unearthing Your Unique Promise of Value.

Personal branding is critical to career success. Gone are the days of pension plans and corporate uniforms. Today, successful professionals manage every aspect of their own careers. They get ahead by establishing a solid reputation - by building and nurturing their personal brands.

When I work with executives on building brands, they're very comfortable building their corporate or product brands; but when it comes to applying branding to themselves, they're often more reticent. Executive branding can feel a little self-indulgent. Challenging. Weird.

So where do you start?"

Full article.

The Five Causes of Employee Negativity
By Susan M. Heathfield

"The typical workplace has its ups and downs in terms of employee negativity. Many workplaces are trying to be employee oriented. But, even the most employee oriented workplace can shudder under the weight of negative thinking. When employers understand the causes of employee negativity and put in place measures to prevent employee negativity, negativity fails to gain a foothold in the work environment."

Full article.

Battles Wax and Wane in the 'Permatemp' Wars
By Ed Frauenheim

"Companies largely are steering clear of trouble, but legal action against FedEx Ground and Hewlett-Packard shows that important issues have not been laid to rest.

Jennifer Miller was about as permanent a temp as you can be.

For 10 years, the Boise, Idaho, resident worked continuously at computer maker Hewlett-Packard but got her paycheck from a different employer. She was laid off from staffing firm Manpower in March, and is now the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit accusing HP of unfairly excluding workers like her from benefits including vacation and holidays. The suit seeks more than $300 million in damages.

"They would treat us as employees," Miller says, "but not give us the same benefits."

An HP spokeswoman says Miller’s suit and a related suit by an alleged whistle-blower 'have no merit.'"

Full article.

Talent Acquisition and Staffing Services to Experience Robust Growth Through 2009, IDC Finds

"According to a newly released IDC study, the market for talent acquisition and staffing services demonstrated solid growth in 2004, and early indications reveal that this trend is continuing through 2005. The study revealed that total market spending on recruiting and staffing services in 2004 grew 10.8% over 2003. IDC forecasts that worldwide recruiting and staffing services spending will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3% during the 2005-2009 forecast period. The comprehensive study also analyzes emerging market trends and technologies, and examines the performance of over 40 staffing and talent-related vendors.

'All areas of talent management are experiencing growth, and sourcing and contingent staffing are no exceptions," said Lisa Rowan, program manager for IDC's HR and Talent Management Services. "The war for talent is re-emerging and employers are realizing that a high performing workforce is key to competitive advantage. Suppliers are responding with new strategies and offerings to help them win the battle.'"

Full article.

How "Star" Power Impacts the Complex World of Competitive Advantage

"When Phil Jackson announced his return to coaching the Los Angeles Lakers in June, the basketball team's prospects went up considerably. But does his skill as a coach guarantee The Lakers a competitive advantage as the season begins? Such factors as talent and timing, contends Russ Coff, a professor of organization and management at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, challenge the long held belief that firms with competitive advantage are able to create more "shareholder value" than others in their product market. Coff presented his research findings during the 2005 Atlanta Competitive Advantage Conference held recently at Goizueta. "

Full article.

Do Women Shy Away from Competition, Even When They Can Win?

"At a recent presentation at Wharton, attendees watched as a New Yorker cartoon flashed on the screen showing a group of women in what looked suspiciously like a faculty club dining room. The caption read: “I hear we’re all getting Valentines from Lawrence Summers.” The reference, of course, was to the Harvard University president’s famous remark in January that the lack of women in science and engineering might be caused in part by gender differences in aptitude.

Stanford University economist and guest presenter Muriel Niederle, who clearly disagreed with Summers’ sentiment, used the cartoon to highlight some of her research into other possible factors behind the scarcity of women in top engineering and science positions. Niederle, the guest speaker at a Decision Processes Seminar, focused in particular on a paper she co-authored with University of Pittsburgh economist Lise Vesterlund titled, 'Do Women Shy Away from Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?'"

Full article.

Building an Intuitive Organization
By Arupa Tesolin

"The use of intuition in business has been steadily gaining respectability over the past few years. The trend is poised to escalate for good reason. Too many CEOs and executives have gotten it wrong and are now asking how to get it right.

Softer skills, like intuition, are highly capable of creating better results in productivity, performance, cycle time, responsiveness to the business environment, adaptability to change and innovation. Each of these directly impacts profit, success and survival in the business arena. Companies should think about ways to develop intuitive competencies and build collaborative intuition into business processes."

Full article.

'Exit' interviews helped reverse turnover problem
By Wallace Johnston

"A client asked me to look at turnover in his organization. It was high.

Many standard reasons had been given and accepted. They included a poor hiring process, decisions to hire based on filling a job rather than selecting the right person, a lack of orientation and the inability of new employees to learn.

I have heard all those reasons before. But my client's problem somehow did not fit."

Full article.

Network Your Way to a New Job or Career
Connections Made by Networking Are the Key to Finding a Job
By C.J. Hayden

"When Cookie Burkhalter relocated from Colorado to Wilmington, Delaware three years ago, she thought finding a new job would be easy. With first-rate qualifications and more than twenty years of professional experience at Fortune 500 companies, she figured she would land a new position quickly by surfing a few Internet job boards and sending out her resume.

But Burkhalter, an IT project manager, quickly discovered that it wasn’t going to be so easy. After months of applying for open positions, 'I never got a single interview from a posting on the Net,” she declared. 'Applying for all those jobs was a complete waste of my time.'"

Full article.

How to use online communities to recruit more candidates faster
By Lucia Apollo Shaw

"Online communities generally refer to internet watering holes where thousands, or in some cases millions, of people with like-minded interests meet to share discussions and commerce. Some well-known examples include eBay, Classmates.com, and Yahoo Groups. But just like undiscovered farm ponds, there are lots of lesser known, niche-based communities that are loaded with talented candidates!

Many online communities have similar attributes, such as discussion forums and resource links of interest to community members. From a marketing and recruiting standpoint, this is a treasure trove opportunity to monitor discussions, pose (relevent) questions to groups, and create a data base of users as the basis for an e-newsletter (more on this topic in the next issue!)."

Full article.

Taleo Contingent 7.0 Named Winner in the 2005 Recruiting & Staffing Best in Class Awards

"Taleo Corporation (Nasdaq: TLEO), a worldwide provider of on demand talent management solutions, today announced that Taleo Contingent 7.0, its contingent workforce management solution, was named the winner in the "2005 Recruiting & Staffing Best in Class Awards." The award honors, recognizes and promotes innovative best practices in workforce management and planning. HR IQ, a division of the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC), presented Taleo with the award. Taleo also announced today the general availability of Taleo Contingent 7.0.

Taleo Contingent 7.0 is designed for companies looking to achieve control of global contingent labor processes, spend, contractual and legal compliance issues. Taleo Contingent replaces costly, inefficient, and paper-intensive processes and helps companies to regain control over contingent labor costs."

Full article.

Four Rules of Talent
How recruiters must adapt to the immutable laws of talent in our age
By Kevin Wheeler

"While human intervention is important to candidates and to hiring managers, we have to change when and how we intervene. As I have written about many times, the skills we need are vastly different from those that ensured success five years ago.

In my view, success in our profession is really all about how we interact and live with the four simple rules I've outlined below. Each of these rules has been tested over the past five years and stands strong. They cannot be argued about nor can we choose to like or dislike them. They are the way it is and we have to adapt to their implications if we are going to be successful."

1. Talent is scarce and getting scarcer.
2. Talent is wherever it is.
3. Develop talent or lose.
4. Technology is both talent blood and glue.

Full article.

'Raw talent' must receive the proper guidance
By Wallace Johnston

"There seems to be no better way to help develop "raw talent" into organizational contributors than assigning mentors.

Mentors help mold the "raw talent" by providing useful information and guidance about the culture of the organization and how to best develop relationships and become contributors.

Organizations tend to use two methods for choosing mentors. They can assign "raw talent" to specific individuals, or they can allow the "raw talent" to select a mentor. Just remember that the objective of having a mentor is getting honest feedback."

Full article.

Career Turbulence: Challenges and Opportunities for Talent Engagement
By David Creelman

"Globalization is touching and transforming every aspect of the employer-employee relationship. Consequently competition among employers to grab the limited supply of talent passing in and out of organizations is being played out on a global stage. The full effect on work and the workplace is as yet unknown. In North America and Western Europe, experts also grapple with the predicted impact of generational differences in employees' attitudes toward work and their employers. Loyalty, whether on the part of the employer or employee is said to be in decline and among younger workers, it is thought that the principle of 'living to work' (the mantra of the baby boom generation) is giving way to a 'work to live' mindset."

Full article.

Fewer Vendors and Changing Leadership in the Shifting HR BPO Landscape, IDC Reveals

"According to a newly released IDC study, the human resource (HR) business process outsourcing (BPO) vendor landscape has shifted over the last 12 to 18 months, resulting in fewer major players due to mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. These moves have primarily been undertaken to position for competitive advantage in the area of HR domain expertise. The IDC Leadership Grid within this document illustrates the shifts in vendor dominance since 2003, in addition to the report's examination of the U.S. HR BPO market and competitive environment.

"Not all service providers possess the needed skills to win," said Lisa Rowan, program manager for IDC's HR and Talent Management Services. "HR domain expertise, particularly benefits, has emerged as a core competency, and talent management looms as the next competency that will be needed to gain share. In addition, we haven't seen the end of market consolidation as additional areas of HR expertise will likely drive further acquisitions."

In 2004, 37% of U.S. HR outsourcing spending was on HR and talent management services. IDC projects that U.S. HR BPO services will continue to grow at a CAGR of over 16% to almost $16.5 billion by 2009. With this growth and recent vendor contraction, the market leaders are beginning to emerge."

Full article.