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Hidden Job Market: Increasing Your Awareness
One of the biggest frustrations clients tend to
express is how to find out about jobs that are never
advertised. While there are many avenues to uncover
these opportunities, a good way is to pay attention to
mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, and similar activities.
Too often, individuals focus on the negatives. The
latest headlines about government unemployment
figures, company layoffs, industry outlooks, and so
forth often paint an overwhelmingly pessimistic view of
the future.
Yes, a merger, an acquisition, or a company going
private often leads to layoffs, and it also generates
great opportunities for those who have cultivated a
strong, active network and who pay attention to
trends.
As company leaders re-align their strategies, they
analyze their existing and future talent needs in light of
new priorities, goals, and market drivers. Many
executives view an organizational change as an
opportunity to reinvigorate the workplace with new
ideas, address skill deficits, improve cultural fit, or
enhance innovation by bringing in new talent.
Just as the stock market tends to "buy the rumor
and sell the news," you should develop that type of
forward-looking thinking and apply it to managing your
career. Anticipate. Be creative, not reactive. Don't wait
until you're downsized or about to be downsized to
think about career advancement or your next career
move.
What is happening in your industry? Are your
customers increasingly concentrated in certain global
regions? Are there fewer companies in your industry
or sector? Is that trend accelerating? Why? Are these
companies being acquired or are they just going out
of business? Who are the new players in your
industry? What's happening in your own company?
What about industries that are closely related to your
industry? What changes are occurring in those
industries? What affect might those changes have on
your company? On your department or division? Are
you working on the most critical projects, products, or
services to your company's future strategy?
Once a merger is announced, many of the
insiders have already positioned themselves well in
advance to capitalize on the best opportunities.
Become more aware by listening, reading, and
networking. Sometimes the most important skill is to
listen more, talk less.
Before I started my business 20 years ago, one of
the most valuable skills I cultivated while in outside
sales was listening to others as I attended sales
conferences, industry trade shows, and so forth. Even
when people weren't in my line of business, I learned
valuable information by listening to what people
complained about with regard to their companies,
their bosses, their coworkers, and customers,
nodding occasionally, looking very interested, and
asking an occasional question to pull out targeted
information. People love to talk about themselves and
their companies, and you'd be amazed at what you
can learn.
The Internet and sophisticated business
intelligence software, like Salesforce.com, Oracle, and
the like, are useful tools for mining information to
uncover leads, but nothing beats the art of listening
and asking targeted questions to pinpoint leads that
help you advance your career.
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Greetings!
Do-It-Write, Inc., is the career marketing company
that empowers you to be your best and unleash the
power of choice by creating a personal brand,
providing you a deeper understanding of your value in
the marketplace, ramping up your job search, and
enabling you to negotiate prime compensation.
"What we see depends mainly on what we look
for."—John Lubbock
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| Future Workplace Trends |
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At the 60th annual national conference of the
Society for Human Resource Management held in
June 2008, employment experts from Challenger,
Gray & Christmas, Inc., predicted seven major trends
will transform the workplace over the next 20
years.
Four-Day Workweeks
Technological advances, rising gasoline prices,
and a desire for greater work/life balance will lead
corporate America to adopt four-day workweeks as the
new standard. In fact, 23% of companies are already
offering four-day workweeks consisting of 10-hour
days, according to a Challenger survey.
Mandatory Wellness Programs
Rising employer-paid health insurance premiums
will mean more employers will institute wellness
programs and mandate their workers enroll in them.
Some companies already refuse to hire smokers, and
two companies have terminated employees who
failed to quit smoking. More companies are forcing
employees to pay higher premiums if they have health
risks, such as obesity, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol, or tobacco use, and they do nothing to
ameliorate their risk.
Corporate Degree Programs
Some companies have long been in the forefront
of offering specialized degrees tailored to their
products or needs, such as AT&T, IBM, Cisco
Systems, and Microsoft. The high level of education
required for knowledge jobs will drive companies to
create degree programs focused on their company
culture, goals, and needs to ensure a strong pipeline
of well-trained talent. Examples will be degrees in
Web Design from Microsoft College or Virtual
Community Relations from Google University.
Worldwide Talent Pool
Geographic barriers will continue to disappear,
and companies will increasingly recruit the best talent
from wherever they reside. Firms in India will be as
likely to hire Americans as firms in America will be to
hire foreign engineers. A 2006 Japan Research
Institute report found that some European and Asian
countries are already increasing their recruitment of
foreign students. In April, the U.S. government made it
easier for U.S. firms to hire foreign students who
attend an American school for at least 29 months
without needing an H1-B visa.
No Cubicles
Employers will seek to facilitate greater
collaboration and teamwork among workers by using
open community spaces that feature common areas,
conference rooms, and tables, instead of individual
desks. More workers than ever before are
telecommuting, and this type of workplace design is
more flexible and less costly. Employers also believe
open design promotes greater productivity and
efficiency. Workers will use wireless laptops and
move from place to place as the work dictates.
Fewer Corporate Headquarters
As companies look to cut their real estate costs
and attract growing numbers of workers interested in
work/life balance, more employers will encourage
employees to work from home or from leased space
closer to their homes. Sun Microsystems, AT&T, and
Best Buy have already implemented this type of work
arrangement. Sun Microsystems estimates it has
saved $400 million in real estate costs over six years
by increasing the percentage of remote or
telecommuting employees.
Contingent Employees
Free agents have long been a part of the sports
and entertainment industry. Free agents are now
becoming the fastest-growing worker segment in the
U.S., and they are expected to comprise 40% of the
workforce by 2012. Temporary, freelancers, contract,
and consultant employees provide greater flexibility
and cost-savings to companies. Older workers tend to
oppose this arrangement, but many younger workers
like this option because they can sell their expertise to
the highest bidder and improve their work/life
balance.
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| Fast Facts |
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Executive Searches: The Association of
Executive Search Consultants reported increased
demand for senior executive talent in Q1 2008 despite
a decline in the financial services sector. Global
searches overall were up 9% from 4Q 2007.
Technology also dipped, but demand for
manufacturing executives had the biggest year-over-
year gain (10.1%). Although financial services
declined, executives with risk management and
valuation skills had the greatest demand. Executive
search demand in private banking, asset
management, private equity, and insurance remained
strong. The survey showed the following demand for
other industry sectors: consumer products (18%),
technology (15%), life sciences/health care (11.5%),
nonprofits (6%), and professional services (3%).
(Source: Workforce Management, June 12,
2008)
Worker Boredom: A survey of worker attitudes
about their employers had surprising results,
according to Sirota Survey Intelligence. The survey
revealed that employers should be more concerned
over workers who are bored than those who are
overworked because being bored may have more
serious consequences. The research firm surveyed
more than 1 million workers and found that worker
boredom stemmed primarily from two causes:
employees occupying poorly designed jobs or
employees occupying jobs for which they were poorly
trained or ill-suited. These employees reported "far
lower levels of job satisfaction, sense of
accomplishment and pride" in their companies as
compared to other groups of employees. (Source:
Workforce Management, February 12, 2008)
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| Recruiting Tools: Benchmarking Workplace Behaviors |
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Jobs today are increasingly complex, and employees
are constantly having to adapt to changing workplace
needs. Over time, job descriptions may encompass
the duties of three or four jobs, requiring an employee
to be all things to all people. Such situations create
extreme stress. Behavioral fit is a proven strategy for
improved retention, greater job satisfaction, and
higher productivity.
Using the Workplace Behaviors™ report, your
organization can benchmark key positions to
determine the special behavioral demands of each
role and the types of individuals who would likely be
the most successful in each of those positions. This
report in conjunction with the Management-
Staff™ report provides you the opportunity to
evaluate a candidate's natural style against the
benchmark for each position to determine whether he
or she would be a good fit for that role. The Workplace
Behaviors™ also helps you identify whether
managers have an unrealistic expectation of a job.
Sample report
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