Yoh

March 8

In the world of the workforce, we are not immune to the shift from traditional to new or social media. Consider this piece on Mashable today about leveraging social media to help in the job search. What struck me here is that other than the mechanisms leveraged, there is really nothing generally new about what some inspiring young employables did to secure employment.

Networking, preparation, reference-ability, and adaptation. These tactics are the executable elements of any good career development effort. Today, our reach is simply wider, our resources seemingly limitless, and our experiences more easily shared.

It seems that the career candidates out there have no choice but to aggressively leverage the tools that drive communication. But what about those of us seeking to develop a dynamic strategic workforce plan? How do we leverage today's media to help us intelligently build a plan that will let us preemptively build the workforce we need?

Establish a social media policy. I almost hate using a word such as policy. It flies in the face of what these new technologies are all about, fluidity, candor, and accessibility. Policy sounds restrictive. Regardless, social media has an impact on how your organization is perceived in the public square. It is critical to develop objectives of how the tools will be used to help you build and maintain your pool of talent. Sending out today's version of the wanted ad is certainly one way to go, but a true comprehensive policy will result in a more dynamic recruitment effort that creates a community of potential candidates. And what about retention? Is your firm helping employees connect with peers in online communities?

Create presence metrics for HR and hiring managers. Some firms make the mistake of simply prohibiting social media participation. This is a mistake. Key hiring managers and most certainly, human resources need to establish an online presence. Discuss what is going on in the organization. As hiring managers and HR establish the public persona of the firm, it also provides them an opportunity to network for talent. Social media can be the ultimate career fair. Require attendance from key resources in your organization. Measure their public discourse, the number of followers or friends, LinkedIn contact group participation, etc. (Implicit in such a recommendation is that you establish a sound policy that protects against the well-documented social media pitfalls.)

Involve your workforce partners. More mature talent supply chains have well-ordered workforce partners that serve the needs of all employment segments. An integrated social media campaign brings the supplier and the employer closer together, creating an ecosystem of talent rather than just a benign black box supply chain. The idea is to compliment what the supplier is doing for your organization, promote their success, and call them out on their failures. Jointly discuss trends and ground-breaking methods for cost reduction, quality protection, or collaborative achievement of a critical business objective.

Last week it was announced that the U.S. operations of the Albany Group would likely be sold. This is more fallout from the funding issues that Albany faced in the U.K. at the beginning of the year. U.K. operations are being liquidated, and it appears that parts of the company are quickly being sold off, contrary to earlier reports that U.S. operations were fine and would continue.

So, what happens in Dussledorf may stay in Dussledorf, but the fact remains that it has implications here in the U.S. This highlights how connected our global economy has become. Particularly in the staffing industry, where there is quite a bit of non-U.S. ownership and broad global operations. While it may be bad here in the U.S., for companies who are spread out across the globe, the conditions are far more complex. Think about global banking, currency fluctuations, and employment laws in multiple countries and jurisdictions. Mensch! (German for "Oh my gosh")

First, full disclosure here: I work for a privately-held, U.S.-based company. So it would be easy to advocate that everyone simply buy U.S. However, the bigger point here is that in these next few years, recovery will take time, and it will happen at different rates in different places.

What I'm advocating is that companies take a look at their global workforce strategy a little differently than they might have the past few years. It might not be the best time to consolidate all staffing needs through a single, global supplier. The logistics for both your company and the provider might prove unrealistic, unsupportable, and ultimately, unprofitable.

My suspicion with companies like the Albany Group is that they focused on expanding into other countries, possibly (and quite admirably) to support client contracts and meet their commitments, only to find their resources stretched too thin. While they might have survived this, investors and banks have high expectations and short memories. And in this case, you should too.

If you haven't already, it might be time to look at your supply chain and create strategies to deal with the next few years of recovery. Flexibility and adaptability, both domestically and globally, should be part of the plan. I would submit that a global workforce strategy does not necessarily mean just using a single company.

And since we started with the earthquake headline to get your attention, I'll close by urging everyone to continue to support relief efforts in Haiti and now, Chile -- another example of how impacts can be felt globally, in a positive way.

March 5

Most of the discussion today is on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) February unemployment report. Joel Capperella has more details and analysis on the report, but a quick review shows that the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. Temporary employment continues to grow, with 48,000 jobs added.

Also in the news these past two weeks:

• IndustryWeek reports on a recent study by the Aberdeen Group that found "Strategic Workforce Planning is Emerging as a Top Priority." Sixty-four percent of companies surveyed expect organizational efforts in workforce planning to increase in 2010. 
• The Wall Street Journal posted a chart comparing 2008 and 2009 unemployment rates by state. The average unemployment rate for the nation, for both years, was 9.3 percent. 
• The New York Times explores how the economy has created a new class of people, the new poor -- those Americans used to life in the middle class who now have to rely on public assistance, possibly for years to come. The article also takes a historic look at the circumstances surrounding past recessions and depressions, and compares those recoveries to the struggles we might experience in the coming months.