Archive for January, 2009

Yahoo’s New CEO Get Tips from Past and Future Employees

Posted by • January 13th, 2009 • 2 Comments

The saying ‘where there is smoke there is fire’ came true today after continuous gossip over who the next CEO of Yahoo would be. Earlier today, it was officially announced that Yahoo has hired former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz, who left the post in 2006. A couple months ago when it was announced that Jerry Yang would be stepping down, we offered up some tips from Yahoo employees about what it may take to improve the company.  Below, we’ve added some recent insights from Yahoo employees about things that still need fixing that should be of interest to Carol.  In addition, we’ve included additional insights for Carol from the employees of Autodesk about the things that work well that she can hopefully take with her into her new seat.

As you’ll see below from the snapshot of company and CEO approval ratings, both companies receive a satisfied company rating in terms of job satisfaction, but where we see the greatest difference is with CEO ratings…hopefully Yahoo!’s new CEO will garner the respect of the company’s employees and in turn receive a higher CEO approval rating.

Glassdoor.com:
Company Rating
CEO Rating

Autodesk
3.5
56%

(CEO Carl Bass)

Yahoo
3.4
34%

(CEO Jerry Yang)

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Microsoft Layoffs Do Not Compute?

Posted by • January 13th, 2009 • 1 Comment

The rumor mill is alive and well with Microsoft layoffs expected to be as high as 15% of their workforce which is approximately 15,000 employees. As you’ll see in some of the employee comments below, some believe this is a necessary change that was only a matter of time whereas other employees view the company’s reputation for not laying off its staff as one the company’s greatest assets.

The Microsoft layoff announcement only worsens the fact that Wall Street’s optimistic Q1 projections were off the mark. According to an AP article, “The week’s economic news, including the Federal Reserve’s region-by-region assessment of business conditions, will be more worrisome after word Friday that the unemployment rate soared to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent during December.”

What’s ironic about this speculation over mass layoffs at Microsoft is their aggressive investment in new technologies. As TechCrunch just reported, Microsoft led a $24 million investment round for Israeli startup Intrig. Is this aggressive spending part of their strategy to stay ahead in hopes of carrying it out till the market improves?

And are Microsoft executives coming to the realization that the previous attitude of “we don’t do layoffs” is not good for business?  As you’ll read ...

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Employers: Do you use the “Standing In The Shower Talking To Yourself” Test?

Posted by • January 9th, 2009 • 2 Comments

The ADP numbers released Wednesday that showed nearly 700,000 people came off of payrolls in the month of December was even startling to those of us who expected to see a large number. I wrote recently here asking why companies still had to lay-off during the holidays. At least 700,000 people had that same question last month. And now here we sit in January with what I expect to be as many, if not more, job losses this month from the companies that did wait until after the holidays to enact changes. We won’t know those numbers until early next month, but I do expect that we are going to see another staggering number of people lose their positions. We should view the revisions to earnings estimates from companies this week as the precursor to more job cut announcements.

I am also hearing from more and more companies that they are now trying to reduce hours and salaries vs. reducing actual people from the business. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in November of 2008 vs. November 2007 that those full-time employees who were formally working fulltime (40 hours or more) but who were ...

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Reality Bites: Are Employees Disconnected from Market Realities?

Posted by • January 7th, 2009 • 1 Comment

It’s the first full week of 2009 and what’s on employees’ minds?  We were curious so we conducted a year-end survey with our friends at Harris Interactive to find out what employees are thinking about a variety of topics that affect our lives — layoffs, compensation, the future.  You can read our advisory with a summary of findings here, but we’ve added a bit more perspective below.  Overall, we were struck that there is an undercurrent of high employee confidence that runs counter to headlines and market realities of late. We’d love your opinions and thoughts on the findings.  Have people been living on an island? Or is it just a basic case of denial?

Little Concern about Layoffs

It’s hard to turn anywhere these days without hearing something about layoffs. Maybe you know someone who’s been laid off or maybe you know 10, but it feels like the effects are everywhere. In fact, we continue to see increases in the frequency reviews are coming in with the word “layoff.”   We did this original analysis in November.  Today the percentage of reviews with the word “lay off” is hovering around six percent.

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CNBC Reports on CEO ratings, the Future of Glassdoor and Who’s Getting A Bonus

Posted by • January 5th, 2009 • 12 Comments

Jane Wells, CNBC Reporter and Funny Business Blogger has been reporting all day today on Glassdoor.com. Jane stopped by our offices to do the taping right before Christmas (which also happened to be the day after our Glasssdoor.com holiday party – if people seem a little sluggish that’s because they were!) in the multi-segment series on her blog, check out further details from our CEO ratings report, discussion about the future of Glassdoor and information about bonuses. In addition, she’s gone a little deeper into companies like Dell and Chrysler.

Part 1:  Do You Love or Hate Your CEO?

Part 2: Can This Web Start Up Make Money?

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December’s Review of the Month

Posted by • January 5th, 2009 • Leave a comment

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Attention All In-House Recruiters: Extra Grace Required

Posted by • January 1st, 2009 • 18 Comments

Most recruiters don’t grow up being recruiters or end their careers as recruiters.  The work is hard and never-ending and every minute that you’re not working you are disappointing either a client or a candidate who thinks you only work for them.  The short-career span for recruiters is even more evident in corporate recruiters who do it for a “stint” and then want to move on to a different role in the company.  Because of the short cycles for most, there are not many who have seen the economic environment we are in today and they don’t know how to respond to the type of job-seeker who is out there right now.  This is not business as usual.

These are times that demand each of us to think differently and tune ourselves into people in a different way.   This is a time where extra grace is required.  Hank Stringer, the co-author of my book, Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business, has spent a career as a recruiter and a recruiting technology entrepreneur trying to teach, establish and build grace into the recruiting process.  I have listened with empathy when he talks about how blunt and ungraceful ...

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