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Archives for 2010

By the Numbers: The Psychology of Unemployment


Number Swirl

It seems like every day begins with some news report on jobs and employment.  It all runs together after a while, but the statistics fall into two categories:  Jobs lost/created, and People finding/not finding jobs.  There’s a big difference in the two perspectives.

Plus, each category has several different flavors.  Here’s a super-speedy example of the kind of real-life information that’s aggregated into statistical statements:

Acme is making fewer widgets, so it needs fewer widget-makers, so those jobs are lost—but only until or unless Acme needs more widgets.  Acme’s competitor A-Plus decides to make only automatic widgets from now on, so manual widget-maker jobs are gone forever there.  However Acme decides to make special Fourth of July widgets this year, so there are some temporary manual widget-making jobs for the employees laid off by A-Plus.  But there are many widget-maker wannabes in the unemployment line who will be happy to work for less than the experienced Acme personnel.  Meanwhile, A-Plus needs robotics-nerds, pronto, and there aren’t enough to go around, so headhunters are burning up their cell phones . . .

And if you are a laid-off English teacher or a downsized stock broker, the whole widget thing is fantastically irrelevant anyway.  Aggregate numbers are next to meaningless for real job-hunters–but they contribute to the serious psychological effects of being unemployed.  The worse the news sounds, the more hopeless things may seem if you’re one of the statistics.

In the run-up to Christmas 2009, it was easy to miss this important New York Times story on the effects of unemployment, but it’s message is summarized in the title:  Poll reveals depth and trauma of joblessness.

More than half of the poll respondents reported depression, anxiety, and insomnia along with their more practical problems such as the threat of foreclosure and the loss of health insurance.  So not only is the volume of applicants steeply increasing at many companies, more than a few of those job-seekers may be struggling not only to make ends meet but also to cope with the psychological repercussions of unemployment.

What does that mean in terms of recruiting and the corporate Careers site?  Big unemployment numbers are made up of real people who go to company sites because they really need jobs.  Which seems worth thinking about.  I can’t point to experts or examples of best practices in this area—unfortunately there don’t seem to be any.  But here are some possibilities I thought up:

  • What if companies put an encouraging message on their site, noting that while there may not be a lot of jobs right now, there are some–and they really want you to apply?
  • What if companies provided extra information on their sites about preparing for interviews, improving resumes, and making the most of your application?
  • What if companies reviewed their rejection letters and made them more friendly and supportive?  (There’s a great set of suggestions at Careerbuilder.)
  • In fact—what if more companies actually sent rejection letters?  Or even followed up on applications?  These days, a lot of people are putting a lot of hope into their applications, and most would appreciate being nicely told (sooner rather than later) that their application really was considered, even if they won’t be getting the job.
  • And here’s my most radical idea:  What if companies took some energy away from the hunt for “passive candidates” and put it into looking for well-qualified applicants that really need a job?

I’d love to hear opinions and idea!


(Thanks to Iragerich for the cunning number swirl.)

Corporate Ethics and the Corporate Website

integrity-compass

In my post on Ethics, I mentioned that I would provide more posts on Corporate Ethics.

One company that understands the importance of Corporate Ethics is an energy-based holding company — Pacific Gas and Electric.

First they follow one of our guidelines for reporting ethics on corporate websites: ethics is prominently displayed in their About Us section (see image, below)

In PC&E’s online Code Of Conduct, the company displays their Core Values, and the first is —

We act with integrity and communicate honestly and openly:

  • Act ethically and with integrity
  • Deal with people and issues openly, directly and respectfully
  • Take actions that are consistent with words
  • Do the right thing even if unpopular or risky

Placing Ethics at the top of Core Values is a subtle but telling indicator that PG&E is serious about Ethics. There is also a note from the CEO to employees that reinforces ethical behavior.

Yet another item that distinguishes  PG&E from other companies is this checklist offered to employees —

Compliance and Ethics Decision-Making Checklist

When faced with a business decision for which there’s no set policy or clear course of action, use the Core Values … and your own good judgment to determine the best approach. In addition, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Will I feel comfortable with my decision?
  • Could I explain it to my parents or children?
  • How would it look in a newspaper?
  • Have I made a decision that is fair and just?
  • Have I verified the significant facts?
  • If I’m not sure, have I asked?
  • Have I determined if it’s legal and within policy?

Brilliant: this straight forward, easily understood checklist captures the essence of ethical decision-making.

PGE Ethics

In addition to Core Values and the Checklist, the company offers a comprehensive menu of references to guide ethical practices —

Finally, the company recognizes that the Board of Directors face more complex decisions so it offers a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics for Directors.

Kudos to PG&G for going well beyond a Code of Ethics and guiding its decision making via a well thought out Ethics Compliance Program – and for demonstrating this via the website.

Top Online Ad Networks Ranking Shows Big Growth for Microsoft

comScore released its December 2009 ranking of the top online ad networks, and the results might surprise you.  While Google dominates online search, the story is a bit different for online ad networks.

AOL Advertising ranks at the top of the list of online ad networks in December 2009 followed by Yahoo! Network and then Google Ad Network, mirroring the top three rankings in December 2008.  Note that the ranking measures the overall reach of each ad network.  Detailed results from the comScore press release are included in the chart below:

comscore_top_ad_networks_december_2009

Perhaps the more interesting statistic to review is the percent change in unique visitors that each of these ad networks reached from December 2008 to December 2009.  When you look at that data, you’ll notice that Microsoft Media Network US had a very good year in 2009 growing by 31%.  One can assume that the successful launch of Bing helped Microsoft in a lot of ways in 2009, including in growing the reach of its online ad network.

Another interesting piece of growth data is Google’s increase of 13% from December 2008 to December 2009 in comparison to the 8% growth by AOL Advertising and the 9% growth of Yahoo! Network.  Clearly, Google is continuing to grow its online ad network at a faster rate than its closest competitors.  Considering that the total Internet audience grew by 8% from December 2008 to December 2009 (according to the comScore report), Google, Microsoft, and several other ad networks are outpacing the organic growth of the overall Web audience.  That’s a good sign for the future for those ad networks.

The story to learn here is this: Google might seem to be the dominant brand and player online, but that’s not always the case when you look a little bit closer.  Furthermore, there is not one online ad network that is the go-to place for your online advertising dollars.  In reality, there are a number of choices that offer broad reach to help you spread the word about your brand.  Do your research and don’t be afraid to decide that the most well-known option might not be the best solution for your brand.  And never put all your eggs in one basket.

What’s What in E-Recruitment Software

After an extended detour through posts on the best of 2009, the possibilities of 2010, and a couple of hot topics—it’s time for the next installment of the Gartner Magic Quadrant tour.  As promised!

Gartner notes several significant factors influencing the e-recruitment market space:

  • Software as a Service (SaaS) dominates the space, with only 23% of study respondents using installed software—and that portion made up almost entirely of Oracle and SAP
  • Vertical markets are getting increasing attention—good example, software with specific workflows that help schools avoid discrimination claims
  • Holistic talent acquisition—i.e., mixing e-recruitment with “contingent workforce management”–is gaining ground, but less than Gartner expected
  • Vendor consolidation is a noteworthy trend, especially among the leaders—but new vendors (and new ideas) continue to enter the e-recruitment space

BIG number: “At least 400 vendors offer some form of e-recruitment capability.”

The Gartner Report (have a look, compliments of Peopleclick)  includes a handy outline of major e-recruitment functionalities; a helpful overview of Magic Quadrant definitions and criteria; and an explanation of what’s changed in the Quadrant since 2008.  Most interesting note:  “In this edition of the Magic Quadrant, we have broadened coverage to include more vendors from outside the U.S., and we have also strengthened our weighting for global features and support.”

Following up on that point, I’m going through all the vendor evaluations to see which ones are strongest in global implementation, and what that tells us.  So it looks like there will be a Part 3 focusing on this important topic.  But in the meantime, I’ll focus on the Quadrant group that always interests me most:  the “Visionaries.”

For those new to Q-land, the vendors are organized in four groups:  Leaders, Challengers, Niche Players, and Visionaries.  Visionaries inhabit the quarter that does well on “Completeness of Vision” (the horizontal axis) and less well on “Ability to Execute.”  These vendors generally have something innovative to offer, and it’s not surprising that their one-fourth of the Quadrant is often sparsely populated.

Of the four Visionaries in this report, Kronos is so near being a Leader that I’m not counting it.  And that leaves Mr. Ted, Neogov, and Jobpartners.  Neogov turns out to do just one thing really well (it’s the “dominant player in the U.S. public sector market”) and both Jobpartners and MrTed are UK-based, with strength in the European markets.  Of these two, MrTed obviously wins my personal award for Most Whimsical Name, so let’s drill down:

According to Gartner, MrTed has “deep and broad functionality, with a strong and innovative product vision, especially in the area of social software.”  MrTed has actually just launched its latest product upgrade, which is called MrTedTalentLink v9 (aka, Cloud 9–yes, really).  The product apparently focuses on easy customization.  According to MrTed:  “It features a configurable candidate database that can easily integrate data from any source, an independent business logic layer exposed through web services, and an on-demand user interface so recruiters can customize their own workspaces. This open architecture makes it fast and easy to connect with other talent management and HR applications, so users get the full benefit of cloud computing on their desktop.”

That’s definitely getting close to a description of e-recruitment heaven.  But as for MrTed’s strength in social software, noted by Gartner—I can’t track down what they have in mind.  Part of the problem is that the search capability at MrTed’s website doesn’t exactly work.  (Results list appears, individual items listed mostly don’t.)  But it turns out that MrTed offers SmartRecruiters, a pretty cool and completely free SaaS product that seems to be very social-savvy.

Stay tuned for the Global installment.

Most Relevant Brand Identity Work of the Decade

I love the Brand New blog for its insightful critique of brand identity work.  If you love branding and haven’t checked that blog out yet, then I highly recommend that you visit.  This week, Armin from the Brand New blog published a recap of the most relevant identity work of the decade.  It includes commentary about some of the most interesting identity work unveiled during each year of the first decade of the 21st century.

Here are a few of my favorites:

cingular logo

Cingular — 2000

I miss this logo.  I loved how it was cleverly used in a variety of way to give the brand a personality.

obama_logo

Obama — 2007

The Barack Obama campaign identity was brilliantly put together by Sender LLC and will undoubtedly become the standard for future political campaign branding efforts.  You can read more about the Obama brand strategy here.

walmart_logo

Walmart — 2008

I’m still not in love with the little yellow burst, but I think Walmart has integrated it into its identity well.  The best part of the new Walmart identity, which was unveiled in 2008, is the omission of the dreaded hyphen that used to plague the Walmart name.  I was thrilled to see that hyphen go!

tropicana_packaging

Tropicana — 2008

Sometimes ‘relevant’ can be negative, and Tropicana’s brand identity faux pas brought us exactly that in 2009.  The lesson to learn from the Tropicana packaging mistake is this — don’t fix it if it’s not broken and do NOT replace a solid identity with a Plain Jane, generic package design.

Be sure to check out the entire decade identity recap on the Brand New blog.  What brand identity stories of the past decade resonated with you? What are the most important lessons you learned from other identity work during the past ten years? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Tweet for Points – How Clever Brands Tie Social Media to Loyalty Programs

tasti_d-liteHow to effectively use Twitter and other social media tools to boost sales and brand loyalty?

That’s the million dollar question that has companies investing large sums of money on social media marketing efforts.  The recipe to success is still unknown, but while we wait for someone to crack the secret code, we’re able to experiment with a lot of really interesting social media marketing ideas.  One of the most interesting I’ve heard about recently is actually very simple, but it could prove to be very successful.

Tasti D-Lite is a frozen dessert chain.  In an attempt to boost both brand loyalty and brand awareness, Tasti D-Lite is running a program where members of the Tasti D-Lite rewards program can earn additional rewards points by connecting their rewards cards to their Twitter profiles.  Each time a participating customer makes a purchase with his rewards card, a tweet about Tasti D-Lite (along with a link to the brand’s Web site) is automatically published in his Twitter stream.  The program also works with the mobile social networking tool Foursquare.  Members can also post their own updates to their Twitter or Foursquare profiles (separate from the automated updates that occur when they make purchases) to earn additional rewards points.

I think this is a great social media marketing effort that integrates well with offline marketing activities for Tasti D-Lite, and it could work for a wide variety of brands and businesses (both large and small).  I like that the effort works to raise both brand awareness and loyalty at the same time.  It’s this type of creative thinking that reminds us that social media marketing is about more than just talking at people.  You have to engage them and give them something useful and meaningful to want to share and discuss further with multiple audiences.

This social media marketing effort by Tasti D-Lite could integrate seamlessly with ads in various media, special discounts, contests, and other promotions, event marketing, point-of-sale collateral, and more.  It’s a perfect example of creating a simple marketing effort that can grow to surround consumers with your brand messages.

Could you create a similar social media marketing effort for your brand?  It might not be that difficult to do, and the ‘rewards’ could be significant.

What do you think?

Source: BrandWeek; Image: Flickr