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MEDIA PROFESSIONAL'S JOB RESOURCE GUIDE

BEST OF ARTICLES FOR EMPLOYERS

MANY COMPANIES ARE WOEFUL WOOERS Favorite

John Care recently went searching for an IS director spot. Despite his nearly 20 years of experience and a (then) hot job market, Care found many companies treat candidates like dirt. To whit:

• A Big Six accounting firm and a local bank said they would arrange immediate interviews, then never followed up

• A financial services company required Care to fill out a generic application listing "essential" qualities such as typing speed. When Care inquired about the status of the application three weeks later, the company responded with a second form, again asking for typing speed

• None of the interviewers were on time

• Half of the interviewers didn't read Care's resume beforehand

• Multiple interviewers at the same company often asked the same questions

• One company scheduled a long interview session with multiple candidates from 11am to 5pm in a hotel. No lunch or refreshments. The executives remarked on how all the candidates appeared to get testy as the afternoon wore on.

Care landed four offers in all, and accepted the one where the company responded to his initial inquiry within a day, had HR, senior management and staff follow up with him, and generally made him feel appreciated. Hiring managers who whine about the IS staffing crisis would do well to weed their own gardens first.

CIO, December 15, 1997/January 1, 1998

http://www.cio.com/

(April 1998)

EMPLOYEE REFERRALS ARE YOUR BEST SOURCE OF NEW HIRES Favorite

Faced with having to hire 70 Internet professionals in just three months, consulting firm NerveWire used every recruiting tool imaginable. They tried want ads, Internet job boards, open houses, even calling names mentioned in competitors' press releases. By far the best recruiting method was employee referrals. It was cost effective and helped ensure the right personality fit. To stimulate more leads, NerveWire decided to reward employees with $5,000 for each referral hired. The company met its recruting goal in the end, but costs topped $650,000, more than double expectations.

Forbes, "Anybody Out There?" 4/3/00

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/00/0403/6508092a.htm

(April 2000)

WHAT EMPLOYEES SAY ABOUT WHY THEY STAY - AND THE REAL REASONS Favorite

When surveyed, high-tech employees say the following are the top three perks that keep them in a job:

• Work/life balance

• Job security

• Financial rewards

Statistically, however, the real factors are different:

• Career advancement

• Financial rewards based on company performance

• Innovation and risk

It was socially correct for people to tell surveyors they wanted a life, but that was actually a minor factor in their decisions.

"Retaining Key Staff: What High-Tech Employees Say versus What They Do," Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, 3/4/01

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010304.html

(April 2001)

TEMPTED TO CUT YOUR EXPENSIVE OLDER WORKERS? Favorite

When companies downsize and restructure, they often take the opportunity to fire their older, more highly-paid workers. This plumps up near-term profits. It also signals younger workers that loyalty is not rewarded. Those workers demand higher wages to compensate for the greater uncertainty.

"Report: Older Workers' Fears Are Legit," HR Daily News, 12/5/01

(January 2002)

DON'T GET TOO CREATIVE WITH YOUR NEW PRODUCT DIRECTOR

Consulting firm McBer has analyzed what people actually do in their jobs, as opposed to their job descriptions. This exposed classic mistakes in who gets assigned to do what:

"To manage its new-product-development lab, for example, one firm had habitually looked for freewheeling, creative types; the lab's researchers were innovators, so naturally their boss should be too. 'It turned out that those with the best performance were actually less creative and risk-taking than others,' [McBer head] Richard Boyatzis says. 'The most creative people held onto ideas way too long. What distinguished the superior performers were other traits, like being able to informally steer people and to get engineers, market researchers, and scientists to pull together.'"

The Atlantic Monthly, December 1985

http://www.theatlantic.com/

(May 1998)

BAD INCENTIVE PLANS HOBBLE SALES

Does your incentive plan have these defects?

* Does not encourage growth of new, high-margin products

* Bonus formula has a regressive slope after budget is achieved

* Incentive payouts are late

* Many reps receive no bonus even when the company comes close to achieving budget

* Top producers earn little more than those who are merely above average

One telecom company's plan had all of these problems. After a complete overhaul, described in the SalesLobby article below, the company exceeded its sales target by 9% in the first three quarters of 2002, a year when sales in the industry as a whole were projected to grow just 1%.

"Rewarding Results: The Road to Sales Compensation Excellence," SalesLobby.com

http://www.saleslobby.com/Mag/0902/SCBB.asp

(October 2003)

CISCO WORKS THE NET TO SLASH HIRING TIMES & COSTS

Networking technology giant Cisco Systems has used the Web to slash its cost per hire from $10,800 to $6,556, and its time to fill a job from 113 days to 45. Cisco site visitors enter its jobs pages through a prominent link on the home page. They then check off categories that appeal to them or sign up to chat with current employees through the Make Friends @ Cisco program. Have no resume? Cisco's Profiler will help you build one.

To allocate recruiting ads, Cisco tracks where visitors go after they leave its site and puts banners in those destinations. The banners selectively appear only to those browsers from certain domains, such as high-tech firms like 3Com and Lucent, whose people are more likely to consider working for Cisco.

Cisco's sophisticated focus on Web recruiting allows it to fill 66% of its current openings from the Web.

Fortune, July 5, 1999

http://www.fortune.com/

Cisco Systems

http://www.cisco.com/

(July 1999)

JAPAN'S PRESTIGE FIRMS WINNOW WEB APPLICANTS WITH HURDLES

When you apply online to Sapporo Breweries, be prepared to spend three hours on their site reading about the lives of employees and answering questions like, "How do you deal with a customer angry about finding a scratch on his beer can?" Confronted with far more applicants than jobs, companies like Sapporo have deliberately complicated their application procedures to filter out casual inquirers. Last year, 35,000 students registered at Sapporo's site, but only 1,500 endured through the program to get an interview. Just as well, there were only 10-15 jobs available.

Students have been fighting back by sharing tips on how to game the system. One student raced through the Sapporo site in minutes when a friend told him what to click without having to read the content. At an information exchange called JobWeb, jobseekers disclose the answers to the latest HR quiz questions, forcing employers to dream up new challenges.

MSNBC, "Job Hunting in Japan Means Battling Employers' Web Traps," 4/13/00

http://www.msnbc.com/news/default.asp

(May 2000)

IRS TURNS UP THE HEAT ON INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS

New media companies often treat their developers and salespeople as independent contractors, but the IRS may not always go along, says AlleyCat News. Companies on the audit hot seat may find themselves facing up to three years' worth of back payroll taxes, state taxes and interest charges. Red flags that attract IRS scrutiny include:

• "Independent contractors" who work only for your company

• "Independent contractors" who are relatives of the business owner

• Inconsistent tax treatment of a worker by your company (i.e., worker was an employee last year and is a "consultant" this year)

• Inconsistent treatment of similarly situated workers

IRS classification audits have become more common in recent years. A small company may not be able to ensure full compliance at all times, but AlleyCat's article describes ways to keep potential liability down.

"Employer Beware!," AlleyCat News, 9/99 [has since ceased publication]

(November 1999)