Corporate Eye

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Cynthia Giles

Cynthia Giles

A Nice Place to Work . . .


Last week Katherine Ratkiewicz, a Senior Research Analyst at the Human Capital Institute, published a thought-provoking post on one of the HCI blogs.  Ratkiewicz recaps recent events in the U.S. that have prompted a national discussion about civility, and suggests the discussion should extend to workplaces as well as political institutions.

Office politics can be just as intense as any election campaign, and there’s no doubt that once toxic talk gets started in an organization, it can easily spread.  As Ratkiewicz points out “nothing is worse for an organization’s productivity and effectiveness than toxicity”–yet all too often there is no plan in place for recognizing and reshaping problematic situations.

For example . . . what happens when a project is behind schedule, or a particular unit is underperforming?  If the response is blame-shifting, finger-pointing, and/or scapegoating, the result is likely to be harmful to morale, and not particularly productive.  When this is the norm within an organization, there will be a lot of unhappiness.

These days, social media can alert job-seekers—and desirable passive candidates—to toxicity in organizations.  If there is negativity in the company environment, HR may or may not be able to surface the problem, and may or may not be able to foster a solution.  But if your company has a positive environment . . . how can the Careers website communicate that?

Just proclaiming that you have a happy workplace may not carry much weight.  Even employee testimonials, video diaries, event snapshots, and similar online promotions won’t convince most visitors that your company is a little slice of Eden.  In fact, it’s important to avoid the impression of overselling the environment, lest it appear there is something to hide.

A better strategy is to ensure that everything on the Careers site maintains a pleasant, respectful tone.  And design also sends subtle signals—a frenetic look (too much color, needless motion, etc.) can suggest a nervous environment.

For more thought-provocation about workplace communications, check out a new book from experts Vincent Waldron and Jeffrey Kassing: Managing Risk in Communication Encounters: Strategies for the Workplace. Despite the somewhat daunting title, this brand-new text is practical and readable—and it covers territory that is often left out of happy-talk manuals.  The focus here is “risky interactions that threaten identities, relationships, and sometimes careers, including voicing dissent, repairing broken relationships, managing privacy, responding to harassment, offering criticism, and communicating emotion.”  Worth a browse!


(Thanks to the Yorck Project for this image of Giovanni di Paolo’s fifteenth-century painting Paradise.)

Economies of Scale: Small Business Resources for Big Business Ideas


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I usually make time to watch MSNBC’s early morning weekend show Your Business.  And just about every week, I see something interesting and think “I should blog about that”—but then I think . . . small biz/SOHO/entrepreneurial ideas aren’t very relevant for a corporate audience.

Now that I’ve turned it over in my mind several times, though, I’ve decided that some “small” ideas really do apply well to “big” companies.  Two of the regular features from Your Business that provide useful ideas for recruitment and corporate communications are Elevator Pitch and Top Five.

To see videos from these (and other) segments, scroll down the web page and select from the Features dropdown list.  A couple that are worth viewing:  Top Five Apps for Monitoring Social Media and the IndiCustom Elevator Pitch.

It’s really fun to see what the Pitchers come up with, and how the volunteer venture capitalists respond to their presentations.  But beyond the entertainment value—what I’ve realized by watching these segments is how much the Careers website is like an Elevator Pitch!  Basically, there’s a very limited amount of time to capture a visitor’s attention and persuade him/her to “take a meeting” (i.e., find out more about your company).

For a speedy refresher on the elevator pitch, try this classic Fast Company article.  Rule number one for crafting the perfect pitch?  “Assume short buildings.”

Speaking of Fast Company–it’s not very corporate, but it is full of ideas about getting things done creatively in business.  Why not just flip through it occasionally?  Ditto for Wired.  Yes, it’s (almost) terminally techie—but if your company ever hires anyone under thirty or needs a steady supply of IT wizards, then it’s worth a few minutes every now and then to check out what the target group might be reading.

And here’s a blog that’s chock-full of interesting news and information, but you might miss entirely because of the name:  Small Business Labs.  FYI:  It’s future-focused, wide-ranging, and sometimes surprising, so . . . what’s not to like?


(Thanks for the scales, Mysid.)

The Global Gender Gap Report


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The fifth annual Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) “assesses 134 countries on how well they divide resources and opportunities amongst male and female populations.” The report measures the gender inequality gap in four areas:

  • Economic participation and opportunity
  • Educational attainment
  • Political empowerment
  • Health and survival

Good news: The United States has finally broken into the Top 20, after hovering around 30 for the first four years of the report.

Bad news: The United Kingdom has tumbled from a ranking of 9 in 2006 to #15 this year.

Great story: The tiny Kingdom of Lesotho has advanced from #43 in 2006 to (drum roll, please) #8 in 2010.  Lesotho has just two million people and only a modest economy—but its literacy rate is among the highest in Africa.

More good news: Looking across the board at progress made since the first report, it turns out that gaps are closing in health and education, with current data showing that (in the 134 countries covered) 96% of health gaps and 93% of education gaps have been closed.

More bad news: Only 60% of economic participation gaps have been closed.

WEF also publishes a Corporate Gender Gap report, which is based on a survey of HR execs from 600 major employers in twenty countries, representing sixteen industries, and ranging in size from 1,000 to 30,000 employees.  The survey’s 25 questions assessed companies on:

  • representation of women within their establishments
  • the use of gender-equality practices such as measurement and target-setting, work-life balance policies and mentorship and training

The survey also gathered respondent opinions on:

  • the biggest barriers to women’s leadership
  • the probable effects of the economic downturn on women’s employment in their countries and industries.

The resulting report is not only informative but actually very interesting.  It provides detailed summaries of the findings by country and by industry.  From the report website you can download the whole report or a summary chapter.

High-level observations from report co-author Saadia Zahidi:  “The findings of the report are an alarm bell that the corporate world is not doing enough to achieve gender equality. While a certain set of companies in Scandinavia, the US and the UK are indeed leaders in integrating women, the idea that most corporations have become gender-balanced or women-friendly is still a myth. With this study, we are giving businesses a one-stop guide on what they need to do to close the corporate gender gap.”

My favorite factoid: Averaging all respondents, the top two “barriers to women’s rise to positions of senior leadership in your company” were identified as

  • General norms and cultural practices in your country
  • Masculine/patriarchal corporate culture

And amazingly enough—those were the top two choices in the US, and two of the top three in the UK.  Something to think about . . .


(That snow-covered landscape is the Afri-Ski resort in Lesotho!)

The (In)Famous Candidate Experience


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HR provocateur Gerry Crispin asked some good questions recently in The Candidate Experience: Is it just Smoke and Mirrors? The point of his post:  seems like people (on both sides of the process) would take the quality of the candidate experience more seriously if it were really important.  There followed an interesting exchange of opinions from commenters!

Summing up for the majority was recruiter Jerry Albright who puts it this way:  “Know what experience a candidate wants? To be hired. The rest is over-hyped.”

The main argument put forth by the minority:  Badly treated candidates will have a bad opinion of the company.  The majority response:  So what?

Looking over the discussion, I notice that it’s all pretty much about filling positions.  And several people point out that a badly treated candidate who doesn’t get the first job they apply for with Company X will very likely apply for another job at Company X if they think they might get it.  Which is probably true.

Someone notes that a good candidate experience will make for a better employee attitude on the part of the person who does get hired, which also is probably true—but how long will that difference last, and how much of an investment would it be worth?

Another person brings up the golden rule and common courtesy, but there’s not much support for that view either.

A different perspective can be found in Overcomplicating the Candidate Experience, an article posted on the Human Capital Institute blog by talent technology guru Peter DeVries.  His contention:  “Too often, companies create career websites that overcomplicate the candidate experience, making it difficult for candidates to complete one of the most critical activities on a company’s career website: applying for a job.”  DeVries points out several problems . . .

  1. Too many companies still bury the Careers link three or four clicks away from their corporate home page.
  2. Too many companies use unbranded third-party ATCs for the job search and application processes—which means the candidate effectively leaves the corporate site as soon as they start trying to find a job.
  3. Too many companies rarely update the information on their Careers site because the process is too cumbersome.
  4. Poorly designed applications discourage candidates—and don’t even gather good information.

DeVries has some good advice for dealing with these issues.  In fact the advice is so good that it’s worth another post.  So coming up soon, some alliterative alphabet magic:  from the potent potential of APIs for ATSs, to the powerful productivity of the CMS.


(Thanks to metoc for the hand-drawn maze.)

More Skydiving: Adventures in Employer Branding with the U.S. Army


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There’s anybody-can-do-it skydiving . . . and then there’s “Army Strong” skydiving.  Just take a look at  the illustration on the right for an example of that second category!

Here’s the photo caption:

At a zero angle of attack, better known as a “No Lift Dive,” Sgt. 1st Class Cheryl Stearns, from the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights, holds her position to build enough air speed to execute the “style set” in a competitive amount of time.

Even for someone (like me) who definitely plans not to jump out of a plane for recreational purposes, this description sounds pretty thrilling.  And it paints a vivid picture of the challenges and achievements offered by an Army career.

A recent post on Top Rank’s Online Marketing blog describes how the Golden Knights are making skilled use of social media.  The GK media gurus invited Top Rank CEO Lee Odden, along with a few other “digerati types,” to make a jump with the Golden Knights—and his account of the experience is great reading, both for armchair adventurers and for HR marketers.

In addition to this clever outreach strategy, the GK organization hits all the social media marks, with its own blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, Twitterstream, and Flickr gallery.  There’s also a Golden Knights section on ArmyStrongStories, where “Soldiers, Cadets and Veterans of every rank, background and MOS are invited to share their unfiltered perspective on daily life in the military.”  The varied materials work together across all these channels to create a strong impression of challenge and reward—exactly the message the Army wants to convey.  And the emphasis on video really strengthens the effect.

All in all, the Golden Knights offer a great example of how to dramatize and distribute a career story.

Still haven’t had enough skydiving thrills?  Visit www.skydive-tv.com for videos of the 2010 USPA competition.  And last—here’s a less-thrilling but totally on-topic blog post from skydiving HR pro Trevor Nagle, SPHR:  Leadership and Skydiving: Lessons in Informed Risk-Taking.


(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army.  Caption by Cpl. Sean Capogreco.)

This Is a Post about Skydiving

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Actually, it’s a post about the idea of skydiving—and why the word “skydiving” grabs attention so effectively.  I’m thinking about this topic because the following subject line appeared in one of my inboxes:

What skydiving can teach you about attracting clients

I was intrigued!  Maybe (I thought) something about conquering fear would create a new level of self-confidence.  And that would be attractive to potential clients.  Or the exhilaration of the experience would enhance charisma, and that would be attractive to potential clients.

Either of those things might possibly happen, but as it turned out, the email wasn’t actually about lessons from skydiving as applied to client attraction.  The point of the email was:  by relying on expert guidance from the instructor and on the rigorous safety system provided for the event, the author was able to do something (i.e., jump out of an airplane) she couldn’t have done alone.  The email was really an invitation to purchase expert guidance and learn a system for attracting clients.

However!  This is not a post about deceptive or disappointing emails.  I get dozens of emails daily, all from sources (including the skydiver) that I’ve opted into; many of the emails are mildly deceptive/disappointing, but I keep their sources in the mix in case they bring something interesting to my attention.  Most of each day’s mail I don’t even open because I’m pretty sure the content won’t be interesting or informative.  I opened this one because it had a persuasive gimmick:  a “hook” that grabbed my attention.

One way to create a hook is to suggest an unexpected relationship—for example, skydiving + clients.  Another way is to reference one of the topics that appeal to our reptile brains—something about security, sex, power, et cetera.  And now that I notice, the word “attracting” in the skydiving email is actually one of the things that makes the subject line work so well.  (“What skydiving can teach you about getting clients” just isn’t as effective.)

A third component of the irresistible subject line is a buzzword of some kind.  Which brings us back to the allure of skydiving, and why it catches attention.  At a very basic level,  skydiving seems like something that takes courage, but it’s also something that anyone could do if they decided to.  We even hear about centenarians who celebrate by taking a dive–so in some ways it seems like the ultimate rite of passage.  Plus there’s the romance of floating through clouds and the lure of the adrenalin rush . . .

Believe it or not—we’re just halfway through this topic.  So come back for Skydiving Part 2:  Adventures in Employer Branding with the U.S. Army.

 

(Thanks to joebaz for the great skydiver shot!)