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It's a job interview, not a beauty pageant

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +1200

In a beauty pageant, the judges look over a slate of contestants, ask them a few questions, perhaps have the contestants perform a talent of some sort, and then all the contestants parade around the stage in fancy dresses or bathing suits. At the end of all this, the judges proclaim a winner. She cries because it’s so wonderful and all the other contestants congratulate her and then slink back home, depressed because they didn’t get the crown.

Somewhere along the line, people started treating job interviews the same way. We see the hiring manager as a contest judge who is to be feared and impressed. Instead of thinking, “what would I really do in this situation” we think, “what does this judge want to hear?”

The difference is at the end of a beauty pageant, the winner gets a crown, some money and the the obligation to ride on the back of a convertible in the town 4th of July parade, while the “winner” of the job interview “pageant” gets to spend 40-50 hours a week with the “judge.”

So, since the outcomes are not remotely similar, we need to stop treating the job interview like a pageant. This is not a place where the hiring manager gets to ask questions and you try to figure out what in the heck the answer is supposed to be. This is place where the two of you should be working very hard to determine if you are the best person for the job and if this is the best place for you to work. Yes, you need to look appropriate, but you aren’t being judged on your appearance unless it is extreme.

Remember, you are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. Here are some things you need to know before accepting a job:

Is this a new or existing position?
If existing, why did the previous person leave? If the person was promoted, great. If the person was fired, why? If the person left for a new position, why?
If new, are the responsibilities new or being taken from other people? How do the people whose responsibilities you will be taking over feel about this? Will you be walking into a tension filled situation or will people be thrilled. If the responsibilities are new, does the position have adequate support to be successful?
What is the hiring manager’s management style? If you are an independent, “I’ll call you if I have a problem, otherwise leave me alone” worker, having a manager who likes giving out checklists and following up all the time would be painful. Does the manager give regular feedback? Are you okay with that? Are you okay with receiving no feedback?
What type of people tend to succeed in this company? What type fail? If you are a status quo loving person and the company is constantly reinventing itself there will be trouble. On the other hand, if you are a new idea producer and they don’t like new, it won’t be a success.
If you will be supervising others, can you meet with these people before accepting an offer? Your relationship with them will probably be more critical then the relationship with your direct manager, likewise your peers. You will be working with an entire team, not just a direct manager. You need to know these people as well.
How often do “crises” arise? What is the usual cause? Are crises due to lack of planning in other departments? Lack of resources? Whims of senior management? Clients? You need to know how things really function.

There are other things you need to know, specific to your job and industry. For instance, if I was interviewing for an HR job, one of the questions I would ask is how layoffs are carried out. The reason I would ask that is that how a company treats the people who are being laid off tells me a lot about how they value their employees. I don’t want to do employee relations for a company that has a security guard stand over a newly laid off employee, questioning if that picture of small children is really personal property. That’s a red flag for me.

You should ask questions. You can even ask questions after an offer has been made and before you make your decision. If they don’t like your questions then that is a pretty big indication that they want employees who shut up and do what they are told. You know, kind of like a beauty pageant winner. Smile and look pretty and don’t stray from the script.

Migrants gaining residency via scam

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Immigrants are entering agreements with employers to pay their own taxes and wages in order to obtain New Zealand permanent residence, and the "scheme" even has its own name - PYO (pay your own).

Immigration New Zealand says it is investigating a case where such a scheme has allegedly been used to help a migrant to gain residency, and the agency is asking others with information about the scam to come forward.

Employment advocates say the practice is rampant and has been going on for years, with possibly hundreds gaining residence by paying their own way to meet immigration requirements for skilled migration.

The National Distribution Union, which has seen nine workers who had been in PYO arrangements with their employers in 2008, says there could have been hundreds of cases over the years.

"You just don't hear much because it is often kept within the migrant communities, with employers who are often migrants themselves entering into such arrangements with migrant employees from their own community," said Dennis Maga, the union's migrant workers support co-ordinator.

This week, South African migrant worker Jacqueline Sydow lost her personal grievance case in the Employment Relations Authority after alleging that her employer, Executive Recruiters International, had asked her to pay her own taxes and wages to support her residency application.

The Weekend Herald is aware of at least two other cases, which are in the mediation stages, where migrant employees are claiming they were made to pay their own salaries, taxes and fees to their employers in exchange for their support for residence applications.

"It's hard to say how widespread the practice is because you only hear from just a few, because many would not talk about it because they think it could jeopardise their immigration status or applications," said Beven Chuang, the Department of Labour's settlement support co-ordinator in Auckland.

"Some think such arrangements are an easy path to residency and are not aware that they are breaking the law, but others clearly go in with their eyes wide open."

Immigration New Zealand chief Nigel Bickle said: "If people have information about these types of cases, we need them to come forward ... for us to investigate."

Mr Bickle said this could be done either by calling 0508-558-855 or contacting the nearest Immigration New Zealand office.

"If we find sufficient evidence of this occurring, we would consider a number of options, including revocation of permit and prosecution."

An immigrant, who wanted to be known as Krystal, said she gained her residence only after paying close to $50,000 to her employer for her own wages and tax over nearly two years.

Getting a Ferrari when you only want a Lada...

Tue, 18 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200

It's no secret that the global economic crisis has had far reaching consequences in terms of employment. The most common has been companies downsizing and resultant redundancies.

What this has in turn created is record high unemployment, leading people to apply for jobs they might otherwise consider beneath them.

In employment law cases, employees have a duty to mitigate their loss. Accordingly, when seeking remedies, employees are often asked as part of Employment Relations Authority and Employment Court proceedings: what have you done to limit your loss/what have you done to obtain new employment?

I've seen lists that run to multiple pages of the roles people have applied for and heard stories of employees being one of 1000 people applying for roles at supermarkets and petrol stations; roles that they might not previously have considered on the basis that they were over qualified.

The latest consequence appears to be a consideration of 'dumbing down' your CV in order to get a lower level job. News outlets reported earlier in the week a story about a Napier woman who was told by Work and Income New Zealand to delete references to her political science degree from her CV as part of her applications for roles at Pak'n Save supermarket and KFC.

The rationale clearly was that with such a degree, she would be overqualified for the roles.

Some might say - but as an employer wouldn't you want to hire someone with excellent qualifications, even if it means they're over qualified?

However, someone's qualifications can raise questions about how long the person intends to stay in the role (are they intending to use it as a 'stop gap' and move on as soon as a more appropriate role comes along), and how will they fit in with the other employees?

If most of the other employees do not have tertiary qualifications or are school students or recent school leavers, how will the introduction of a new, more highly qualified employee in the same role, affect the dynamics in the workplace? Not so much putting a cat amongst the pigeons, as putting an owl amongst the pigeons...

The other issue this raises for employers is: how much can you rely on an employee's CV? Employers need to be mindful of their obligations under various pieces of legislation, such as the Employment Relations Act 2000; the Privacy Act 1993; the Human Rights Act 1993 and the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004.

Workplace pet peeve 2010

Tue, 18 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Employees would rather deal with gossiping co-workers than with colleagues who have poor time management skills, according to Randstad, a leading staffing firm and workforce solutions provider. The company’s new Work Watch survey, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs among more than 1,000 employed U.S. adults, revealed the top three workplace pet peeves to be: people with poor time management skills (43 percent), gossip (36 percent) and messiness in communal spaces (25 percent).

The results show a slight, but interesting, shift in employee sentiment on this subject since the last time Randstad conducted a similar survey on workplace pet peeves in 2007. In that survey, gossip ranked as the biggest workplace annoyance, followed by others’ poor time management skills and messiness in communal spaces.

“The economic occurrences of the past 18-plus months seem to also have impacted what annoys people at work,” said Eileen Habelow, senior vice president of organizational development for Randstad. “Whether it is budget cuts or staff layoffs, employees are being asked to do more work with fewer resources, which directly affects how they view their time in the office. Employees are looking for ways to increase their value at work, so it would only make sense they would be a bit bothered by coworkers who they believe are having an impact on their time, and, possibly company productivity.”

Other workplace pet peeves making the 2010 list include: loud noises (21 percent), potent scents (20 percent), overuse of personal electronic devices in meetings (15 percent) and misuse of email (12 percent).

Since the original Randstad survey on workplace pet peeves was conducted in 2007, social media use, whether for personal or professional reasons, has exploded onto the scene. Additionally, America experienced a presidential election and a recession, each spurring a number of political hot button issues. These events prompted Randstad to add two additional choices for respondents to consider when identifying their top workplace pet peeve. Interestingly, social media use and political conversations didn’t rank in the top six selections of respondents pet peeves.

Peeves About Time Management: So what, exactly, do employees find most annoying about colleagues time management practices? The survey revealed that 22 percent of respondents listed people who take excessive breaks – long lunches, smoking breaks, online surfing – as their chief aggravation. After that, “pet peeve parity” kicks in as roughly one in ten workers named the following as their top time management frustration:

people who abuse sick days (11 percent)
meetings without agendas or structure (11 percent)
meetings that cut into personal time, including starting before or ending after traditional work hours (10 percent)
meetings that start late or run over (10 percent)
people who are distracted on their Blackberry or who text during a meeting (10 percent)
people who consistently miss deadlines (9 percent)

Not surprising, employees under age 35 were more likely than those who are older to say that their biggest time management pet peeve is when meetings cut into personal time (16 percent vs. 7 percent). However, 13 percent of respondents say that none of the above pet peeves bother them.

Social Media Impact: With only 12 percent of respondents saying that personal use of social media sites in the workplace was among their biggest pet peeves, it’s reasonable to say that this activity has either become a part of the “everyday” at work or that companies are now cracking down on social media use through formal policies. When asked what was most annoying about people’s personal use of social media during work hours, the top two responses were the amount of time wasted that should be spent on work assignments (28 percent) and when it causes users to ask others for help with their workload or responsibilities (20 percent). “This makes sense as both of these activities could impact a worker’s ability to manage, or not manage, their time,” added Habelow. “Just as telling is the fact the survey also found that 27 percent of respondents don’t have any concerns over people’s personal use of social media during work hours which again could be because of workplace policies or general acceptance.”

How Pet Peeves Are Being Addressed: Just as workers have a variety of pet peeves, they also tend to deal with them in different ways. In most instances, employees say that they typically deal with their pet peeve by saying something directly to the person involved (29 percent). Additionally, the survey found that very few opt to directly email the person (2 percent) when dealing with their pet peeve. The next best way for most workers to deal with or respond to pet peeves is by venting about it to co-workers (19 percent). Only 9 percent say something to their boss/supervisor and even fewer, 1 percent, leave an anonymous note or vent on a social networking site. Interestingly, more than a quarter of respondents (27 percent) stated they ignore the situation completely.

Additional findings from the survey included:

Workers under 35 are more likely than those 55 and older to say that loud noises (25 percent vs. 16 percent) and political conversations (15 percent vs. 8 percent) are pet peeves
When it comes to email pet peeves, forwarding chain emails and jokes topped the list (19 percent)
Women are more likely than men to be annoyed by unnecessary “reply alls” (15 percent vs. 10 percent)
Workers aged 18-34 are more likely than workers 55+ to be bothered by people who ask a question that was just answered in previous email (12 percent vs. 3 percent)

Mice love to dine 'al desko'

Tue, 18 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Take a good look at your keyboard when you get to work tomorrow - you may be surprised what dangers could be lurking beneath the keys.

The modern habit of dining "al desko" is leaving a smorgasbord of crumbs for unwelcome visitors in offices across New Zealand, say pest control officers.

They say rodent numbers - already high after a long, hot summer - are on the increase due to unhygienic practices.

It comes as scientists in the UK say they have found evidence that mice press down on keys to get at crumbs left by workers who eat at their desk.

Rentokil Pest Control national technical manager Jon Thompson said it was increasingly common to find mice infestations on the "top floors" of high-rise office blocks in New Zealand.

"They will get everywhere. There will definitely be odours of food coming out of the keyboard," he said.

Wellington Pest Management managing director Darren Labrum said mice had a strong sense of smell and were attracted by all kinds of odours.

Female mice can reproduce from 6 weeks old and give birth to between four and seven pups every 24 to 28 days after a 19-day gestation period.

Labrum said the mild autumn had triggered an extra breeding cycle. "After a week of cold nights they're now starting to go crazy and come inside.

"As long as there's people around there's going to be rodents around." He said it was important to educate workers on desk cleanliness and keep work areas food-free.

Labrum said rodents' favourite foods included meat, fish oil and peanut butter.

Terminator Pest Control Services owner Chris Ault said as well as rats and mice, his Auckland firm was seeing an increase in office cockroach infestations.

As well as the colder weather Ault put the change down to development around the city that is displacing colonies of rats, mice and cockroaches.

Healthy lunch breaks

Elle Patterson makes a point of eating lunch away from her office.

As well as enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, the 29-year-old Auckland legal secretary protects her computer keyboard and tries to keep it clean.

Patterson uses a fan to flush out crumbs about once a month, and wipes down her desk.

"I don't think it's a good look," she says of eating at the desk.

Patterson had a mice infestation in her flat while living in London and doesn't want a repeat experience.

She plans to keep her lunch breaks an outdoor affair as long as the weather lets her.

"It's much healthier for you if you get out of the office. It makes the day seem shorter."

Are salaries on the rise?

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Over the past month or so people have been asking me about salaries a lot - employers want to know if other companies have started to increase their staff's take home pay and candidates want to know if it's okay to start asking for more.

When our clients have annual reviews coming up they call us to see what the market is doing.

As the market is significantly better than last year, many employers are in a position where they are recovering financially and if that is the case, they should be making a big effort to recognise the staff who got them through the recession.

If not, as the market strengthens and more opportunities open up for good candidates, staff movement is inevitable. Now is not a good time to lose your star performers. We are finding that a big percentage of candidates coming into the business are currently employed and wanting new challenges.

With this movement on the cards, it stands to reason that the trend is for salaries to begin to rise in order to keep current employees happy or to attract the next staff member.

Job market reaches a turning point

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200

It is getting slightly easier to find a job and workers are getting longer hours after big cutbacks in the recession, according to economists' forecasts for figures due out later this week.

But pay rises are still hard to find, with wage growth likely to be at its lowest level for about a decade in figures out tomorrow, economists say.

The job market is at a "turning point" with a slight rise in employment expected in official March quarter figures due out on Thursday, according to economists.

ANZ Bank economists forecast a 0.2 per cent lift in jobs, in line with average market forecasts. That would break the year-long run of job losses during 2009.

ANZ also forecast unemployment of 7.1 per cent in the March quarter, down slightly from December, when the rate hit a 10-year high after the recession and global crisis.

Westpac Bank economists said the job market was on "the cusp of a turnaround" with business confidence up.

But Westpac predicted only a slight jobs lift, up just 0.1 per cent. That may not be enough to absorb all the new workers coming into the workforce. Unemployment may keep rising, to 7.4 per cent in the March quarter, though that would likely be the peak, the bank said.

ANZ said working hours were expected to rise 0.7 per cent in the March quarter, the first quarterly increase in almost two years. That would reflect a rise in business confidence and more job ads pointing to more jobs available.

But during the recession, the hours on the job by each worker dropped to multi-year lows and wages growth was low too. That prevented the unemployment rate from getting much higher than it has, ANZ said.

So in the recovery, there was likely to be a rebound in hours worked, rather than an "employment rich" rebound in job numbers, ANZ said. Total hours worked were still 4 per cent below pre-recession levels, so there was a lot of slack to make up, it said. It would take a prolonged pickup in demand for labour before the spare capacity was eaten up.

ANZ said the unemployment rate would improve slightly to 7.1 per cent in the March quarter, from 7.3 per cent at the end of last year.

In figures due out tomorrow, wages were expected to lift an average 0.4 per cent and 1.4 per cent for the year, according to ANZ, the lowest annual levels in a decade. Wages were rising more slowly than general inflation of 2 per cent in the March year. The key figure for wage inflation is the Labour Cost Index, which measures the cost of a given quantity and quality of labour.

"Wage growth is expected to be contained," ANZ Bank said. But the key for the Reserve Bank would be the wage outlook when the job recovery strengthened later this year, the ANZ economists said.

Westpac said the figures would show "depressed wage growth" as the labour market slump eroded workers' bargaining power, with Westpac also forecasting a 0.4 per cent quarterly rise.

Low inflation would have also reduced concerns about the rising cost of living, taking the edge off wage negotiations,Westpac said.

However, ANZ warns of the inflation one-offs on the horizon, with the Emissions Trading Scheme in July, an expected GST rise to 15 per cent some expect in October, and a rise in tobacco excise. These factors would have an effect on "price and wage setting behaviour", ANZ said.

Wage inflation slumped last year, but the test would be whether the lid stayed on wages when the job market picked up, ANZ said.

With the big slack still in the job market, higher wage inflation was not expected to be an "immediate threat".

Are resumes still relevant?

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 +1200

LinkedIn has a great feature allowing its members to ask questions of other members as well as answer questions. Besides the obvious benefits of social networking, this is one of my favorite features! I have always been surprised by the amount of information that has been returned when I have asked a question or when I have been involved in discussion of someone else’s question. People are so willing to share not only their knowledge, thoughts and ideas. If you haven’t played with the question/answer feature of LinkedIn, I would recommend giving it a whirl!

As I was cruising through the questions one evening I came across one that at first glance thought it was kind of a silly question. Someone had posted “Are Resumes Still Relevant”? Of course they are, aren’t they? I have spent the last ten years doing nothing but working with resumes! How else would we see information about candidates that apply for our jobs? I didn’t stop to look at the answers and continued to look at other questions/answers. I came back to the question and started reading some of the answers and the various author’s theories behind them. The question has since been closed, so I can’t share the link, but the responses where varied. I would say it was pretty well split down the middle.

During my last few months of my work as a corporate recruiter, I actually become more of a corporate counselor for those who had found themselves in the unfortunate circumstance of a lay off. I went from reading resumes on a daily basis to helping write resumes and helping former co-workers search for a new job. I wrote resumes for past employees ranging from entry level to upper level management. All of the information was theirs, but many of the words and phrasings were mine. This is not uncommon; most professionals have hired a professional resume writer to craft their resume hoping to increase the odds of it being noticed in the sea of resumes that are out there. If people are actually having someone else help or even write all of their resume, how valuable is it to the person reading it? I feel that it still gives a good general idea of what the person had accomplished and positions held, but shouldn’t be the end all when deciding who to hire or even to interview.

Resumes should be carefully validated: Many people do not write their own resume; during the interview process information should be validated with well developed behavior based questions. By asking this type of question the interviewer steers clear of any potential discriminatory questions while digging deep on past examples of experience or accomplishments that should reveal future behaviors.

Don’t rely on one source: Although I think a resume is still a good tool to screen candidates, don’t forget the importance of references! It can be difficult to obtain a reference but make sure you try! If someone listed several accomplishments on their resume, validate it with the supervisor. I once received a phenomenal resume of someone who previously worked in staffing; it looked almost too good to be true; it was!

Social Media: Much controversy is out there about using social media to check out a potential employee. I don’t think that FaceBook or MySpace should be used when making a decision (although it might not hurt to take a peek!) but I feel professional sites like LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Spoke, ect should be reviewed for information that may be helpful in making a decision to bring someone in. Each company has its own policy regarding these sites, so make sure you check with yours first!

Application: Your applications should be the information gather. All of the info that you want (legal of course!) should be on your application. Resumes don’t always give the full story, such as reason for leaving a past position, salary requirements or even past criminal history! From time to time it’s good to review your application and update it. If your application is old enough that it asks for pager number and not a cell number, it needs to be updated!

Overall I feel that resumes are still relevant, although I don’t feel they carry the weight they once did. A resume should be viewed as a tool in gathering information about a candidate, but not making the ultimate selection. After all, one candidate may have access to a resume writer and one doesn’t, just because the resume is well formatted and uses action verbs to start each phrase doesn’t mean the candidate matches up!

Is Australia slow & behind?

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +1200

This morning I had a sensational meeting with a potential business partner for SR360. The one thing that we were both on the same page with is that Australian companies right now don't know where to start with being involved with Social Media. Backing this up, after the meeting I received an email asking the exact same question; Coincidence?

So here is the question....
"Australia is lacking behind in this field compared to other nations and when do you think the perception of social media recruiting might change in Australia?

It is a great question and one that I attempted to answer.

I totally agree with that Australia is behind in Social Recruiting understanding, implementation and use for a number of reasons. Firstly there is the old school mindset that print is still viable, what worked in the past will continue to work and that Seek is the best way to source candidates (and I worked at Seek for 5 years).

While some of this might be true, there is a bigger picture that needs to be considered. The game has changed, people are consuming information differently via different channels and no longer will candidates be sufficed with one way sales like communication. The Employer Brand, business brand and company culture are all crucial elements to deliver and discuss with any potential employee and something that they are digging around to find out more on. On top of that, recruitment agencies have the opportunity to build distinct community channels of like minded people ie. candidates to tap in to for referrals, future business, industry knowledge and much more that is simply going to waste by just putting an ad on Seek for instance.

When will this change? Well hopefully NOW! Corporates and recruitment agencies should really know by now about the opportunity that Social Media presents, however having spoken to a lot of these companies over the last few months, their biggest challenge is not knowing where to start and even worse, not knowing who to reach out to, to even get that ball rolling. Some companies are sitting back waiting for others to take the plunge while some think it is just to hard and don't get started. So it is a multi-pronged challenge.

What are your thoughts? What is stopping you and your company developing a Social Recruiting strategy? Naive, Ignorant, Lost, Confused, don't know where to start, speak now or forever be left behind........

Changing the world, one career at a time

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Ethics: the word seems to be everywhere. The idea of ethical investment has been around for a long time, and this year a travel guide was published to point out green (read ethical) tourism operators for discerning tourists.

Fair trade, free-range and organic, air miles, carbon footprints - the language of ethical decision-making is all around us, touching most areas of our lives.

The news for employers is that, when it comes to attracting the workers you want (as opposed to the only workers you can get), ethics matter to you, too. And the reason they matter to you is that they matter to the people you want to employ.

Once upon a time, a job was a job. You did your work well for your employer and in return your employer paid you. You didn't ask questions about where they sourced their paper, whether they wasted electricity, polluted the local stream or were making a real difference in the world. You were loyal to them, and they were loyal to you.

But over the past generation that has changed. Younger Baby Boomers, Generations X and Y have grown up in a different world. They've grown up in a world where they've seen loyalty to employers rewarded with cycles of redundancies.

They've grown up in a world in which pollution, climate change, starvation, deforestation and wars have been in the news daily. They've grown up in a world that constantly asks them what they are leaving behind for their children - and constantly asks them to question their loyalties.

In short, they've grown up in a world that has prompted them to ask "why?", "what for?" and "what difference will it make?".

And they have applied those questions to their jobs. "Why am I doing this job?" "What's it for?" "What difference will it make?"

A recent international survey by Kelly Services showed this graphically. The survey of 100,000 people across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific found almost 90 per cent of people responding said they were more likely to work for an organisation they believed was ethically and socially responsible.

Almost as many (80 per cent) said they would like to work for an environmentally responsible employer. And, interestingly, the willingness to accept lower pay to work for an employer with a good reputation was high across the generations - 53 per cent of Baby Boomers, 48 per cent of Gen Xers and 46 per cent of Gen Yers said they'd go for the good reputation ahead of the higher pay.

The evidence is that ethical business practices, and behaviour in general, play an important part in Kiwis' decision-making. In February, the Business Council for Sustainable Development released a study showing that ethics were important to business owners, managers and the self-employed - more than 27 per cent of them had changed a supplier for social, ethical or environmental reasons.

When it comes to employees, our experience at www.realchangejobs. co.nz shows that the sentiment crosses all boundaries. In February, almost 2000 New Zealanders visited www. realchangejobs.co.nz and spent, on average, four minutes looking for an ethical job.

Why? Here are the reasons two candidates of realchangejobs gave for being concerned about their employers' ethics.

"I have the opportunity to be paid to help make a difference in the world and I feel so lucky about it," said Sarah. "I know that I could get a more financially rewarding career in the private sector, but would I feel the same? Would I be excited every day about my work? Would I find it meaningful?"

And Renny gave a similar response.

"You spend more time with your employer than you do with your family so it's vital to be in tune with them," he said.

"I want to feel really good about what I do, proud of my employer, motivated to dig deep using all the effort and skills that I can muster, certain that my contribution is worthy."

So how can you ensure that those ethical job hunters consider your organisation one they want to work for? There are some obvious measures you can take: recycle what you can, source fair trade products where possible, support local charities, support ethical suppliers, develop a corporate social responsibility policy, develop a sustainability policy.

But there is more - a large part of being an ethical employer comes down to how you treat your employees.

It doesn't matter how much pro bono work you do if your workplace is known as one that tolerates bullying. It doesn't matter how much you donate to the local SPCA if your employees perceive you to be a slave driver.

Authenticity is the key. As Naomi Simson, founder and CEO of Australasian gift business Red Balloon, said in a recent podcast, employees want to see that their employers are backing their words with actions.

"You want to be able to trust and believe in your leadership - that they know where they're going and that you're going to sign up to that programme."

Even with high unemployment, there are still skills shortages out there. People with the skills you want still have choices, and one of the criteria they base their decisions on is whether it will be a good thing to work for you.

Their loyalty is no longer just to the organisation that pays them - it is now to the world their children will live in. If your loyalty lies in the same place, they are more likely to consider you an employer of choice. If it doesn't, you may just have to settle for the only employees you can get.

5 travel lessons you can use at home

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Here are 5 key ways in which the lessons you learn on the road can be used to enrich the life you lead when you return home…

1 Time = Wealth

By far the most important lesson travel teaches you is that your time is all you really own in life. And the more you travel, the more you realize that your most extravagant possessions can’t match the satisfaction you get from finding new experiences, meeting new people, and learning new things about yourself. “Value” is a word we often hear in day-to-day life, but travel has a way of teaching us that value is not pegged to a cash amount, that the best experiences in life can be had for the price of showing up (be it to a festival in Rajasthan, a village in the Italian countryside, or a sunrise ten minutes from your home).

Scientific studies have shown that new experiences (and the memories they produce) are more likely to produce long-term happiness than new things. Since new experiences aren’t exclusive to travel, consider ways to become time-rich at home. Spend less time working on things you don’t enjoy and buying things you don’t need; spend more time embracing the kinds of activities (learning new skills, meeting new people, spending time with friends and family) that make you feel alive and part of the world.

2 Be Where You Are

A great thing about travel is that it forces you into the moment. When you’re celebrating carnival in Rio, riding a horse on the Mongolian steppe, or exploring a souk in Damascus, there’s a giddy thrill in being exactly where you are and allowing things to happen. In an age when electronic communications enable us to be permanently connected to (and distracted by) the virtual world, there’s a narcotic thrill in throwing yourself into a single place, a single moment. Would you want to check your bank-account statement while exploring Machu Picchu in Peru? Are you going to interrupt an experience of the Russian White Nights in St. Petersburg to check your Facebook feed? Of course not — when you travel, you get to embrace the privilege of witnessing life as it happens before your eyes. This attitude need not be confined to travel.

At home, how often do you really need to check your email or your Twitter feed? When you get online, are you there for a reason, or are you simply killing time? For all the pleasures and entertainments of the virtual-electronic world, there is no substitute for real-life conversation and connection, for getting ideas and entertainment from the people and places around you. Even at home, there are sublime rewards to be had for unplugging from online distractions and embracing the world before your eyes.

3 Slow Down

One of the advantages of long-term travel (as opposed to a short vacation) is that it allows you to slow down and let things happen. Freed from tight itineraries, you begin to see the kinds of things (and meet the kinds of people) that most tourists overlook in their haste to tick attractions off a list. A host of multi-million-dollar enterprises have been created to cater to our concept of “leisure,” both at home and on the road — but all too often this definition of leisure is as rushed and rigidly confined as our work life. Which is more emblematic of leisure — a three-hour spa session in an Ubud hotel, or the freedom to wander Bali at will for a month?

All too often, life at home is predicated on an irrational compulsion for speed — we rush to work, we rush through meals, we “multi-task” when we’re hanging out with friends. This might make our lives feel more streamlined in a certain abstracted sense, but it doesn’t make our lives happier or more fulfilling. Unless you learn to pace and savor your daily experiences (even your work-commutes and your noontime meals) you’ll cheating your days out of small moments of leisure, discovery and joy.

4 Keep it Simple

Travel naturally lends itself to simplicity, since it forces you to reduce your day-to-day possessions to a few select items that fit in your suitcase or backpack. Moreover, since it’s difficult to accumulate new things as you travel, you to tend to accumulate new experiences and friendships instead — and these affect your life in ways mere “things” cannot.

At home, abiding by the principles of simplicity can help you live in a more deliberate and time-rich way. How much of what you own really improves the quality of your life? Are you buying new things out of necessity or compulsion? Do the things you own enable you to live more vividly, or do they merely clutter up your life? Again, researchers have determined that new experiences satisfy our higher-order needs in a way that new possessions cannot — that taking a friend to dinner, for example, brings more lasting happiness than spending that money on a new shirt. In this way, investing less in new objects and more in new activities can make your home-life happier. This less materialistic state of mind will also help you save money for your next journey.

5 Don’t Set Limits

Travel has a way revealing that much of what you’ve heard about the world is wrong. Your family or friends will tell you that traveling to Colombia or Lebanon is a death-wish — and then you’ll go to those places and have your mind blown by friendliness, beauty and new ways of looking at human interaction. Even on a day-to-day level, travel enables you to avoid setting limits on what you can and can’t do. On the road, you naturally “play games” with your day: watching, waiting, listening; allowing things to happen. There’s no better opportunity to break old habits, face latent fears, and test out repressed facets of your personality.

That said, there’s no reason why you should confine that sort of freedom to life on the road. The same Fear-Industrial Complex that spooks people out of traveling can discourage you from trying new things or meeting new people in own your hometown. Overcoming your fears and escaping your dull routines can deepen your home-life — and the open-to-anything confidence that accompanies travel can be utilized to test new concepts in a business setting, rejuvenate relationships with friends and family, or simply ask that woman with the nice smile if she wants to go out for coffee. In refusing to set limits for what is possible on a given day, you open yourself up to an entire new world of possibility.

Naturally, this list is just a sampling of how travel can transform your non-travel life. What have I missed? What has travel taught you about how to live life at home?

A cultural shift is needed to encourage flexible working

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1300

The secretary of state for work and pensions is expected to call for a "major cultural shift' in the way firms approach flexible working.

In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, Yvette Cooper said part-time work should not mean an end to career progression in a company.

According to The Independent on Sunday, Cooper (pictured) will promise that from later this year, every time a new full-time vacancy is advertised in a job centre, the employer will be asked if the position can be instead offered part-time, as a job-share or another variant of flexible working.

She said: "This will give people the opportunity to think again about what could be offered. It is still the employer's decision what kind of job they offer, but it is a process of changing the culture. We want to encourage a cultural shift.

"This is in the interests of business as well as in the interests of families, because there are a lot of parents who want to work part-time when their children are younger. Employers should want to use their skills and talent and experience, which otherwise are being wasted in the economy.

"It is important to make sure the policies we are putting forward fit with women's lives. We have always challenged inequality and thought about what women want, and what opportunities there are for women. Working mums still feel they are stretched in eight different directions at once."

But commenting on the interview Working Families has called on all parties to make a bold manifesto commitment to recruiting all public-sector jobs on a part-time or flexible basis wherever possible.

Working Families has called for the public sector to lead the way towards advertising all jobs flexibly.

Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, added: "We need to move away from the full-time default setting and ensure many more jobs are offered on a flexible or part time basis. The Government and public sector can take the lead in shifting discussions about flexible working to the recruitment stage, so that a working pattern that suits both employer and employee is decided at the outset, saving time and money later.

"Job centres could also help private-sector employers rethink what skills they require and whether a job really needs to be offered only on a 9-5, 35-hour week basis. At a time of recession, every employer needs to be fishing from the widest possible talent pool. Our full-time culture means too many talents are wasted - particularly women and carers' - and the UK loses out.

"Flexible working is not a ‘perk' for the good times. The UK cannot afford to overlook the business benefits that flexible working can bring. There is a positive link between flexible working and performance. Costs of absenteeism, sickness and recruitment are reduced. There could not be a more important time to get the right talent in the right place: flexible working can achieve this goal."

Study says Gen Y wants easy, high paying jobs

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +1300

A study out in the Journal of Management offers some hard data to demonstrate how the generations do – and do not – differ, and the results are surprising.

The study claims that it has finally managed to tease the influence of generation from career stage by using a large nationally representative sample of young people surveyed since 1976 to compare the work values of Gen Y, Gen X and the Boomers at the same age. So what did they find?

Some of the conventional wisdom about Gen Y, such as their supposed preference for socially responsible careers that really make a difference, wasn’t supported by the numbers.

Press accounts often mention that Gen Y wants to help others and have a positive impact on society, but the study found no differences in preferences for jobs that helped others or were worthwhile to society – Gen X’ers and Boomers embraced such values just as much when they were young.

What was important to Gen Y? The youngest generation in the workforce said they want both work-life balance and high status and salary, a result that prompted the researchers to conclude they “want their cake and to eat it to:”

Striking differences emerged for valuing leisure. Gen Y was much more likely than previous generations to say they wanted a job with an easy pace and lots of vacation time, and less likely to want to work overtime. They also saw work as less central to their lives and were more likely to agree that “work is just making a living.” At the same time, they placed more importance on salary and status. In other words, the younger generation wants to have their cake (big salaries) and eat it too (work-life balance).

Jobs of the future

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +1300

It's January 2020. You've commuted to the office in your titanium flying car, to be greeted by a robotic receptionist. You travelate to your 3D, virtual, interactive desk which pours you a tall decaf and scans the morning's to-do list on to your retina ...

Or maybe not. Just as we're still waiting for the paperless office to arrive, the workplace of the foreseeable future will probably still be open-plan, beige and soulless. But according to futurists, trade unionists and human resource specialists, there's a strong chance that in 10 years' time, your job will be very, very different. So, what better time than the start of a new decade to figure out which sectors, industries and jobs are destined for growth?

By 2020, the UK economy will be even more globalised. The transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy will be in full swing. Rapid development in China, India and elsewhere will place huge strain on resources.

The gaming generation will be middle-aged - and virtual services will be the basis for many jobs. There will still be real jobs to be had - but you may have to switch careers to find one.

"Start from the assumption that 2020 will look nothing like now," says Stephanie Bird, director of HR capability at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

"We can't 'future-proof' careers," she says, "but we can 'future-adapt' them." So strap yourself in for our glimpse of the future.

1. Environmental

Green jobs are arriving in two breeds: some focused on reducing human environmental impact, others to "greenwash" their organisation's image. But Ian Pearson, a futurist who established BT's futurology practice, recommends caution. "There are some key experiments taking place by organisations such as Nasa and Cern which could turn our thinking on the causes of climate change upside down."

Job titles in 2020

Traceability manager Examines global supply chains and checks for suppliers that might be excessively pollutive or carbon-costly to buy from.

Cloud controller Buys the planet time - maybe 25 years - in the fight against climate change, by increasing the ability of clouds to reflect solar radiation.

2. Renewable energy

Alternative fuels - solar, wind, tidal, hydrogen - are going to be huge, although renewables might also see an influx of workers from the disappearing oil and gas industries. Nuclear too, will return, though a shortage of uranium might spoil that particular party.

Job titles in 2020

Hydrogen fuel station manager Produces hydrogen on site, so will need science as well as retail skills.

Uranium recycler Converts bomb-grade uranium from warheads into low-enriched uranium for use in nuclear power plants.

3. Advanced manufacturing

The next decade will see the return of manufacturing in Britain, forecasts Tim Page, senior policy officer at the TUC.

"The UK will identify niche sectors of manufacturing that are highly skilled and knowledge-intensive," he says, pointing to the government's recently announced strategy on composite materials as an example of the kind of state intervention needed to make it happen.

Job titles in 2020

Mechatronical engineer Combines mechanical engineering, electronics, controls engineering and computers into the product design process.

Metal skin consultant Manufactures self-healing composite materials for use on aircraft, ships and spacecraft.

4. Augmented reality

When the internet, video gaming and 3D TV collide with the real world. "In just a few years' time, video visor extensions to your Bluetooth earpiece will give you a full 3D overlay of the high street you're walking down," says Pearson. "It will merge everything you can find on the web and all you can do on a computer game with everything you can do in the real world."

Job titles in 2020

Digital architect Designs a range of virtual buildings for advertisers to market their products and services.

Avatar design-security consultant Designs, creates and protects the virtual you.

5. Robots and artificial intelligence

With search engines already guessing what we want almost before we ask, artificial intelligence will eliminate and transform many jobs by 2020. "We've just seen the NHS unveil a system that can predict the probability of a patient developing cancer," says Pearson. "Robots will take over the high-precision, high-value surgery, leaving surgeons redundant."

Job titles in 2020

Personal bot mechanic Domestic assistants will work 24/7, but will still need the occasional tune-up.

Powered exoskeleton engineer Designs wearable robots that assist and protect soldiers, construction and rescue workers or other people working in dangerous environments.

6. Business

In the wake of the financial crisis, business will seek to build on more solid foundations, Page predicts. And "entrepreneurs" - an "overused word for a tired stratagem of creating a company, jumping through venture capital hoops and cashing out", says American futurist and author Faith Popcorn - will receive a long-overdue makeover.

Job titles in 2020

Simplicity consultant Simplifies and streamlines processes, technologies and branding in an organisation.

LocaPreneur Starts up a local bank, makes local cosmetics or soft drinks that are able to compete head-to-head with the big corporations that no one trusts any more.

7. Nanotech and biotech

This could be the decade we witness an explosion of technological advances in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science, collectively known as NBIC. As these fields expand and converge, opportunities will arise to reprogram our bodies' "software", extending life, reducing deaths and alleviating poverty.

Job titles in 2020

Bioinformationist Scientist who marries genetic information with drug development and clinical techniques.

Geomicrobiologist Pieces together bits of geology, environmental science and microbiology to figure how micro-organisms might help make new medicine or clean up pollution.

8. Social services

Our ageing populations are already generating booms in home healthcare and nursing homes. But expect the growth to come at the sharp end of social services - nurses and carers - rather than in admin roles.

Job titles in 2020

Experimental therapist Connects patients with new and emerging treatments and navigates them through the maze of patient services.

Home companion-caretaker Enables people to stay in their homes and live with dignity.

9. Education

As future-proof a sector as exists, with schools, universities and private providers expanding to keep pace with the accelerating need to train and retrain.

Job titles in 2020

Online education broker Tailors a bespoke learning package for the client, dovetailing relevant modules from courses and syllabuses around the world.

Space tour guide With Virgin Galactic planning commercial flights from 2011, space tourists will need cosmic enthusiasts to shed light on all that darkness.

10. Food

The demand for organic, healthy, locally sourced food will continue to increase. But since sustainable agriculture is all about small-scale methods rather than big machines and fertilisers, the world will need more, not fewer agricultural workers - up to tens of millions of them, according to journalist and food guru Michael Pollan.

Job titles in 2020

Farmer Agricultural entrepreneur as skilled in genetics as in marketing.

Personal food shopper Enables clients to hit their recommended daily allowance targets for nutritional balance, food-miles and organic sourcing.

... and careers that could be at risk in 2020

If your current job relies purely on intellect and knowledge, assume that you won't be getting paid to do it by the end of this decade, warns Pearson. "It's the human side of your job - that's where you will still be able to add value."

Hospital consultant Consultants can be replaced by a robot, but nurses can't, says Pearson. Nurses are making a huge mistake if they swap the most valuable part of their job, caring for the patient, in some misguided attempt to become more "professional", and effectively, cheap doctors.

Shop assistant Will decline gradually as online shopping continues to grow and existing stores install self-service scanners and robotic shelf stackers.

Union organiser Will become surplus to requirements unless unions arrest the trend of membership decline, and adapt to the needs of workers in knowledge, science and technology sectors.

Construction worker "3D printing" techniques, in which solid objects can be constructed automatically from computer models, will enable buildings to be erected in a matter of hours.

Soldier Why send men and women into combat when you can send a machine? The growing use of unmanned combat air vehicles suggest the job of fighter pilot may be the first to go.

But some jobs never go out of style ...

Lawyers While much of the knowledge side of the law can be automated, there will always be a need for lawyers with persuasive people skills to sway judges and juries, particularly in the growing areas of patent and intellectual property law.

Politician OK, so some of them fiddle their expenses, but we'll never rid ourselves of the need to be governed and led.

Writers The days of journalism (as we know it) may be numbered, but someone needs to write technical manuals for all these bots, rocket ships, prostheses and enhancements: all of these are new or evolving technologies, and none of them is exactly simple and self-explanatory. Someone needs to be there to write the manuals for these products, and that person could be you.

Artists and entertainers The impact of CGI on actors presents some risk, but art will continue to change and evolve with technology, not disappear.

Undertakers, prostitutes, tax collectors, religious leaders Because life, and death, go on.

Managing your documents.. and your time

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +1300

Have you ever sat there while your boss stands over you, desperately searching for that missing document he or she needs RIGHT NOW? Or have you kept a client waiting on the phone for several minutes while you've searched for a status report?

If you have, then however organized and effective you are in your day-to-day work, your boss and your client may have a less than perfect opinion of you, because in a key encounter, you've let them down. And if it's your job to help people, how much of other people's time are you wasting if you can't find the information you need when you need it?

You owe it to yourself to file effectively, however boring this may seem. Imagine how much more impressive it would have been if - when asked - you'd smiled, accessed a well-organized filing system, immediately found the document, and quickly given the answer!

Managing Time

On a typical work day, we deal with many documents, presentations, graphics, and other files. There's a flurry of data pouring in from all directions that we need to process and, usually, store to retrieve later. We want to be able to lay our hands on the information we need - at the right moment, when we need it - so it can be used for further analysis or report writing, or perhaps for creating a presentation.

All too often, though, we waste our own time (and often the time of other people) searching for data that's sitting on the very computer we're using! This adds to our stress, and makes the task of putting the data to use more difficult than it ought to be. So we need to get more organized and efficient with our file management if we're going to get our work done in a timely manner.

Managing Information Efficiently

When you receive a file in an e-mail from a co-worker, vendor, or customer, it's tempting to "just put it away" in some folder for the time being. "Hmm. looks interesting, but I'll take a closer look at this later, when I've got more time." Sound familiar? Or, worse still, perhaps you just leave the message and its attachment sitting in your Inbox. After a while, many such documents build up, leading to a lot of clutter. It's highly unlikely that you'll ever find time to go back and get all of that information organized, especially considering that you're usually under pressure with other things and have hectic work schedules to meet.

You can spend hours of precious time searching for data you've filed away somewhere, because it's easy to forget the filename - or even to forget that such information is on your computer in the first place. How can you go about simplifying your work? Get better at managing files.

Effective File Management

Managing files on your computer isn't much different from the way you've always stored and managed your paper files. It boils down to this: Store the information in folders - by category, and in a sequence that makes sense to you.

Here are some tips to help manage your files:

Avoid saving unnecessary documents. Don't make a habit of saving just about everything that finds its way into your Inbox. Take a few seconds to glance through the content, and save a file only if it's relevant to your work activity. Having too much data on your computer adds to the clutter that makes it harder to find things in the future - and it may, over time, slow down your computer's performance too - so be selective about what you keep.
Follow a consistent method for naming your files and folders. For instance, divide a main folder into subfolders for customers, vendors, and co-workers. Give shortened names to identify what or whom the folders relate to. What's more, you can even give a different appearance or look to different categories of folders - this can make it easy to tell them apart at first glance.
Store related documents together, whatever their type. For example, store Word documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and graphics related to a particular project in a single folder - rather than having one folder for presentations for all projects, another folder for spreadsheets for all projects, and so forth. This way, it's much quicker to find, open, and attach documents for a particular project.
Separate ongoing work from completed work. Some people prefer to save current or ongoing work on their computer's desktop until a job is completed. Then, once it's done, they move it to the appropriate location, where files of the same category are stored. At periodic intervals (for example, weekly or every two weeks), move files you're no longer working on to the folders where your completed work is stored.
Avoid overfilling folders. If you have a large number of files in one folder, or a large number of subfolders in a main folder - so many that you can't see the entire list on your screen without scrolling down - break them into smaller groups (subfolders or sub-subfolders). Think of creating a sequential menu, arranged either in chronological or alphabetical order, to make retrieval easy. For instance, you can divide a folder called "Business Plan" into subfolders called "BP2005," "BP2006," and "BP2007." Likewise, you can divide a folder for a client named Delta Traders into subfolders named "Delta Traders sales presentations" and "Delta Traders contracts." The idea is to place every file into a logical folder or subfolder, rather than have one huge list of files.

Having said this, there is usually little point in creating a folder for fewer than about five documents. If you do, the time you spend clicking through subfolders to get to the documents you need may not be outweighed by the greater ease of finding them.
Install Google Desktop on your PC. If you can (sometimes IT departments don't permit this), install Google Desktop on your PC - you can find this at http://desktop.google.com. This neat tool creates a desktop search engine that indexes all of your files and emails, meaning that you can search for them quickly and easily. This can be invaluable when you need to answer offbeat questions!
Make sure your filing system is backed up. Again, this is a bit tedious, but it's so important, as anyone who's had a failed disk drive will testify! Make sure, firstly, that your PC is backed up regularly and, secondly, that the backup includes the directories where you file information.

Prioritizing Your Files for Action

Take these approaches further by customizing your file management. This can help you prioritize your work, which can lead to better efficiency.

Organize files by dates. Incorporate a date into the file name. This will help you determine which is the most recent document in the folder, without having to open the file and read through the content. For example, a file named "Guidelines 12Oct07" would indicate a version of the Guidelines file dated October 12, 2007. (If you're working internationally, be aware that in some countries this date can be presented as 101207, while in other countries, this same date can be shown as 121007. This can be very confusing!)
Some people use version numbers to distinguish between documents that have been reworked or changed. Examples would be "Delta Traders contract v1" and "Delta Traders contract v2." This also makes it easier to pick out the most current file.

Tip:
If your document is going to be looked at, used, or amended by several people, you need to be particularly careful about version control: People quite rightly can get very annoyed if versions are mixed up and their work on the document is lost.

Make sure you put the version number in the file name here, and also consider having a version control table at the beginning of the document showing the version number, the date of the version, the person making changes, and, perhaps, the nature of changes made.

Use "Tickler" files. Tickler files, also known as the "43 folders" method, are a unique system that's used by many people for organizing files. Create 12 folders (one for each month of the year) and an additional 31 subfolders (for each day of the month). Fill each folder with the documents that you need to work with on that day. At the beginning of each day, open the folder for that day. Take all the items out of the folder and move them into a "today" folder or onto your desktop. Then move the empty folder into the corresponding slot for the next month. If you can't complete some work items by the end of the day, transfer them to the folder for the next convenient day. This system of file management helps you keep track of everything you need to do, and it also doubles as a diary.

For any system to be useful and effective, it must also be convenient for you. To some extent, this depends on the nature of your business or the work that you do. So, although there's no "one size fits all" solution to file management, you will likely profit by using some of these file management tips, and by customizing them in a way that best serves your own needs.

Key Points

Are you losing too much time searching through the clutter on your computer for files that you need? And when you're under pressure, can you retrieve information quickly and easily?

Spending precious time looking for data can take the pleasure out of any kind of creative work you might be doing - and it adds to your stress levels as well. Simple tips on file management can show you how to get organized with your information storage and retrieval.

Making This Part of Your Life:
We know this is boring, but you know you need to do it!

Clear an hour in your schedule somewhere in the next 7 days, and set your filing system up!

No gain from blocking access to social media

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +1300

More than two-thirds of New Zealand employers do not have a policy on their employees' use of social media, according to a survey.

Employment services company Manpower surveyed 34,000 employers in 35 countries, including over 500 New Zealand respondents, gauging employer attitudes toward social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter being used at work.

It found globally 75% of employers have no formal social media policy, while in New Zealand 68% of employers had no policy.

Of those organisations with formal social media policies in place, the majority said the policy has been most effective in preventing productivity loss (63% globally, 76% in New Zealand) and protecting intellectual property/proprietary information (33% globally, 40% in New Zealand).

"Social media is here to stay, and the distinction between work use and personal use is increasingly blurry," said Chris Riley, general manager, sales and marketing at Manpower New Zealand.

"Social media is redefining the way we work, so rather than trying to avoid it, businesses need to learn how to harness its power while managing its risks."

Limiting or blocking access to social media sites was not the answer, he said.

"There is not a lot you can do to curtail the use of Facebook or Twitter at work. Employees will simply pull out their iPhones or BlackBerries to get onto these networks. So the challenge - and the opportunity - is to turn them into a positive force."

The Manpower research argued that the connective power of social media can enhance productivity, innovation, collaboration, reputation and employee engagement within organisations.

"Leaders need to channel social media use in directions that benefit both the business and the individual. In fact, they can use social media in creative ways to do that. For example, challenge your employees to develop ways to do their job better through social media, and encourage them to share these innovations with their colleagues."

Some New Zealand employers acknowledged the positive potential of social media: 39% believed it could boost brand building, and 16% saw it as a promising method to foster collaboration and communication.

Job scene set to brighten next year (NZ survey)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +1300

Job seekers can look forward to more opportunities in the New Year, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

The survey indicates that employers in all industry sectors and all regions are reporting a more upbeat hiring pace for the first quarter of 2010.

521 New Zealand employers were surveyed.

The Outlook confirms that employer confidence is on the rise, with a substantial increase after four successive quarters of mostly disappointing projections. This is due to a rise in the proportion of employers planning to increase hiring (20 per cent, up from 14 per cent in Q.4) and a fall in the number who plan to decrease workforce numbers (six per cent, compared to 13 per cent in Q.4).

Whilst there is still a long way to go before hiring intentions reach the boom-time forecasts seen in 2007, the first quarter survey indicates the strongest employer hiring intentions since Q.3 in 2008.

"These results are good news and suggest that the New Zealand job market has not only stabilised, but is preparing for recovery. New Zealand employers are gradually gaining confidence on the back of more positive economic news," said Chris Riley, General Manager, Sales & Marketing, Manpower New Zealand.

"The New Zealand job market looks as if it is set to gain momentum in the early part of 2010, with employers gearing up for growth and on the hunt for the right people to drive that growth. Now is the time for employers to develop strategies to attract and retain the talent they will need to push their business forward."

Hiring expectations are strongest in the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector. Employers in the Public Administration and Education sector posted the weakest hiring expectations. Across the board, the Outlook for each sector has improved quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.

The job market recovery is spreading across the nation, with all New Zealand regions posting a positive employment outlook for the first time in over a year. The most significant boost in optimism was seen in Christchurch. Employers in Auckland and Wellington weren't far behind, however.

Riley points to recent Manpower research that revealed the drivers of employee attraction and retention. "Competitive pay, career opportunities, work-life balance and management quality should be focus points for organisations looking to keep existing employees and attract new talent.

"On the other hand, employers who do nothing will see a rise in staff churn in 2010, as employees pluck up the courage to move on to new opportunities."

Job seekers to gain upper hand despite unemployment

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +1300

JOB hunters could be back in the driver's seat next year despite predictions that unemployment will continue to rise until mid-2010, according to one of Australia's largest recruitment firms.

Hays managing director Nigel Heap has warned employers that their workers are restless and that areas of skills shortage are starting to appear.

"Financial and commercial analysts, estimators, business development managers and technical IT specialists are some examples," Mr Heap said.

Mr Heap is confident that the job market will stage a turn around in 2010 giving candidates much greater options to move up in their organisation or out to another job.

His list of "hot" issues for 2010 are:

Growth in new jobs

"Employers tell us they sense new optimism in the market. They are thinking of long-term strategies to strengthen their business and this includes planning for recruitment during 2010."

Restless workers will move

"Following a particularly tough year, we will see a significant increase in the number of employed people changing jobs as their confidence grows,’ Mr Heap said. He said many job shoppers will be 'passive job seekers' – those in jobs quietly looking out for a new opportunity."

Return of the skills shortage

"As we emerge from the economic downturn, the challenge for talent will once again rear its head. Already there are shortages of particular skills. Financial and Commercial Analysts, Estimators, Business Development Managers and technical IT specialists are some examples."

Good and bad employers sorted

"Employees were front-row spectators to their company’s GFC response. During the downturn, the ‘good’ employers maintained their focus on their employees’ career development and staff relations. These companies are well-placed to attract the top talent in 2010."

Strong temp market will continue

This risk-free solution for clearing backlogs or helping with project work will remain popular with employers during 2010.

Mr Heap said temping or contracting does offer some advantages for candidates too such as a variety of assignments and organisations "while adding skills and experience to your CV."

Return of candidate bargaining power

"Companies tightened the purse strings in 2009," Mr Heap said.

Many employers leveraged their sudden power in the job market by raising the bar on what skills and qualifications they wanted as well as hiring talented people on salaries lower than would be the case in the good times.

"As recruiting activity picks up, these changes need to be remedied," he said.

Employers need to communicate with staff

"The renewed focus on open and honest communication between management and employees is a positive change of 2009 that we hope will remain," Mr Heap said.

"Employees still want to be reassured that their company is performing. They have become genuinely interested in the senior management team and their decisions."

Forced career change permanent for some

Mr Heap said that redundancies and the tight labour market meant many people took jobs they wouldn’t normally consider.

He said the feedback from the market is that some workers are embracing a life of less work pressure and "do not intend to return to their old job now the market is picking up and vacancies are again available." Mr Heap expects this to continue in 2010.

Generation Y still hungry for more

"Prior to the GFC, Generation Y had only known a job market where there was a skills shortage," Mr Heap.

"The GFC was a reality check for this generation, and they have become more flexible (about the sort of work they will take). We expect to see an increase in turnover rates as this generation of candidates look for a new role to achieve their career development."

Studies Confirm Looks Still Matter for Working Women

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +1300

Psychological Reasons Behind Why Better Looking People Get Promoted

If you want to get a raise or a promotion, you might want to throw on a pair of heels and suck in that belly. Your looks can help or hinder your chances of getting a well deserved promotion, regardless of qualifications, especially in a sour economy when advancements are few and hard to come by.

Women who advance most at work, studies agree, are more attractive, thinner, taller and have a more youthful appearance than their female colleagues who are promoted less often.

A landmark study from Cornell University found that when white females put on an additional 64 pounds, her wages drop 9%. And according to a 2007 paper from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a statistically significant "wage penalty" for overweight and obese white women. ("Previous studies have shown that white women are the only race gender group for which weight has a statistically significant effect on wages," according to the paper.) The obese take a bigger hit, with a wage loss of 12%.

Being large leads to negative stereotypes thinking that person is sloppy, lazy or slow, for example for women that just aren't true, says Bill Fabrey, a director of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.

Fabrey recounts incidences of several plus-size female colleagues who have gotten interviews with prospective employers only to be told the job had been filled once they showed up for an in-person interview.

"There are interviewers who don't care [about weight], but those are not as plentiful as the other kind," he says.

Being average looking comes with a hefty price, too. The best looking echelon of attractive females the top one third make about 10% more annually than those in the bottom sixth of the genetic pool, according to research by Daniel Hamermesh, Ph.D., a professor of economics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Top 5 best practices for writing effective e-mail

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +1300

Writing e-mail isn't exactly Shakespeare, but there's an art to it nonetheless. Indeed, if Shakespeare were alive today, he'd probably have committed the occasional e-mail faux pas, like YELLING AT Christopher Marlowe or sending typos by forgetting the U in colour.

Read on for the top 5 e-mail dos and the top 5 e-mail don'ts.

Top 5 Dos

5. Put important information in bold, so it's easier to see. Likewise, if you've addressed an e-mail to several people and there's an action for a certain person, bold his or her name when you address the issue. Use bold sparingly, though.

4. If action is required, say so at the start of the e-mail. Don't tell a long story with the requested action at the bottom. This is called the BLUF method, but I also tend to call it "getting to the verb."

3. Keep your signature short and professional. Lose the pithy quote and just include your title and phone number.

2. Keep the subject line relevant. If the topic changes over the course of a long thread, update the subject so it's relevant.

1. Proof your e-mail before you send it. And make sure your spell checker is running.

Top 5 Don'ts

5. Don't ever type anything in ALL CAPS, even to get someone's attention. If you need to catch someone's eye with something important, put it in bold.

4. Don't include your entire team or your boss on every e-mail you send. Be selective.

3. Don't send large attachments unless absolutely necessary, especially to a mailing list or distribution list. If possible, upload your files to the cloud, such as DropBox or MemoPal and provide a link.

2. Don't send e-mail when you're emotional. If you're responding to someone that has made you angry, save the message in your drafts folder until you can proof-read it more objectively, and then send the e-mail.

1. Don't try to be funny, especially to a mixed audience. The chances of being misunderstood are astronomical.

Skills shortage will return next year

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +1300

Skills shortage will return, says experts
Due to drop in training positions
Business Smarts: Check the latest

COMPANIES will again find it difficult to recruit and retain qualified staff as trading conditions improve, experts warn.

The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) and consultant Deloitte warn that the skills shortage will re-emerge because of a drop in training and number of apprentices.

This is despite businesses doing all it can to hold on to staff during the economic downturn.

A survey of 500 chief executives released by Ai Group and Deloitte today showed employers were favouring shorter work hours, salary freezes and forced annual leave over laying off staff.
Employee numbers were expected to drop by an average of 3.8 per cent across all industries, the research found.

Of the respondents to the survey, 45 per cent said they were reducing non-labour costs, 40 per cent were shortening work hours, 35 per cent had introduced salary freezes.

Some 32 per cent had brought forward leave as an alternative to cutting staff.

Employers appeared to have learned the lessons of previous economic downturns and wanted to retain staff in order to capitalise on economic recovery, Ai Group chief executive Heather Ridout said.

However, she warned that cuts to training budgets and a lower intake of apprentices would contribute to a skills shortage once trading conditions improved.

The survey showed 37 per cent of employers of apprentices indicated they planned to reduce the number of trainees, while the uptake of new apprentices was expected to drop by nearly 11 per cent.

Expenditure on training was likely to fall by about four per cent in the current financial year, the research showed.

"These mean that, as night follows day, when we come out of this downturn we are going to have a re-emergence of the skill shortages that we had in the lead up to the downturn," Ms Ridout said.

"So it's a big issue, going forward for the economy."

Deloitte Australia chief executive Giam Swiegers said he had no doubt a skills shortage would be evident before the end of calendar 2010.

Ms Ridout praised the Federal Government's incentives to businesses employing apprentices but said more needed to be done in areas such as higher education to address under-trained workers.

"The message I get from this study is there's a lot of here and now problems for skill shortages," she said.

"The Government has moved some way down the track to address them, more will need to be done. Industry is going to need to do its part as well."

Five rules to take control of your email

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +1300

I have a few questions for you:

How much time do you spend in your inbox every day?
How much of that time is truly productive?
Does your boss pay you to read e-mail?

If your answers were, in order: A lot, a little, and no, then step right up, because it’s time for an e-mail intervention. Here are some tips for being more productive with your e-mail every day so you can actually spend more time on the stuff that matters.

Schedule your e-mail sessions. Unless you need to monitor e-mail continuously through the day for mission-critical activities, try to schedule several e-mail sessions through the day — such as 8am, noon, and 4pm — and close the program in between. If you leave your inbox open, you’ll be tempted to respond to e-mail all day long, distracting you from work you should be concentrating on.

Handle mail once. This is advice I learned on my first after-college job in 1987, long before I even had a computer in my office: Take something out of your inbox, read it, act on it, throw it away. If you’re the sort of person who reads all your mail and then marks it for action later, you’re wasting valuable time through e-procrastination.

Send delayed responses. When you reply to an e-mail, there’s a good chance that the recipient isn’t nearly as disciplined as you are and will write back right away. So, just as you were about to turn your attention to other things, in comes a response. There’s a good chance you’re about to kick off a string of e-mails that might as well be instant messages. The remedy? Delay all your e-mails — schedule them to go out later in the day, no matter when you write them.

Use filters and rules. Let your e-mail program filter out spam automatically, so you don’t have to. And use rules to automatically move incoming messages to project folders. If you subscribe to some professional mailing lists, for example, teach Outlook to file them for when you have downtime to read them later.

Minimize e-mail folders. I’m a big fan of rules to sort mail into folders, but keep it simple. If you make dozens of folders, it gets harder — not easier — to find an important email later. Especially if you try to take advantage of Outlook 2007’s superb instant search feature, which is fast and efficient, but only searches one folder at a time.

The tangled Web of social media in the workplace

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +1200

Twitter, blogs, Facebook and the like are wreaking all kinds of havoc on the workplace.

How to write a resume that doesn't annoy people

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +1200

The best you can do is try to achieve the maximum content with minimum peculiarity.

LinkedIn Observes The Rise of Professional Ninjas!

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:46:44 +1200

Recently, our Chief Scientist, DJ Patil highlighted an interesting trend around the migration of professionals post the collapse of several of the major financial institutions. In that post, we also solicited your ideas and questions. Well, this week we take on one of the more popular topics - the emergence of new job titles.

What's an example of one of these emerging trends? Between 2002 and 2007, we have noticed a surge in the percentage of job titles that include the term "ninja". Modern day ninjas are not experts in martial arts or stealth soldiers - today they are more likely to throw Java exceptions rather than steel stars.

Other ninjas come from the social media, computing and design sectors. Professionals in customer service, advertising and finance have their share of ninjas too; for example, check out real life Investing Ninja Assassin Ann Miura-Ko.

How much has the job title "ninja" grown? The attached global "ninja" chart shows the percentage of people starting "ninja" jobs relative to all LinkedIn members who started a job year. This allows us to make meaningful year- to-year comparisons and discover interesting labor market movements.

Ninjas aren’t the only creative job titles we’ve seen emerging on LinkedIn. Since 2002, non-religious titles containing the term “evangelist” have taken off as well. “Guru” had been on the rise since 2002, but popularity has been declining since 2008.