Category: Technology

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IBM Announces Vendor Management System Acquisition

International Business Machines Corp. announced a deal to buy Emptoris Inc., a contract management software company whose products include a vendor management system for contingent labor.

Terms of the transaction were not announced. Emptoris is owned by Marlin Equity Partners.

Emptoris’ VMS ranked as the third largest VMS in terms of statement of work spend and as the largest in terms of outsourced service contract spend, according to the 2011 VMS and MSP Supplier Competitive Landscape report by Staffing Industry Analysts.

The acquisition is part of IBM’s “Smarter Commerce” initiative begun in March 2011 and aimed at helping companies respond to shifting customer buying patterns.

“Procurement is being asked to show how it can deliver value to the organization,” said Craig Hayman, general manager of industry solutions at IBM. “Adding Emptoris strengthens the comprehensive capabilities we deliver and enables IBM to meet the specific needs of chief procurement officers.”

Emptoris has more than 350 customers in 75 countries and is based in Burlington, Massachusetts.

The acquisition is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2012.

Emptoris’ staffing VMS at one time was part of a firm called Click Commerce Inc., a portion of which was acquired by Emptoris in 2009. At the time, Click Commerce’s VMS ranked as the largest with $4.64 billion in spend, according to Staffing Industry Analysts. Emptoris had acquired the pieces of Click Commerce from Illinois Tool Works Inc.

In 2006, Click Commerce had paid $15 million in cash and stock for VMS technology from Elance Inc., a Mountain View, California-based firm that now provides services for companies and individuals seeking to hire independent contractors online.

Filed by Staffing Industry Analysts, a sister company of Workforce Management. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Are HR Manuals Outmoded in the Digital Age?

Dear Useless Exercise:

A human resources manual/employee handbook may seem to be a trite item to distribute, especially if most employees glance at it only to toss it in the trash. However, the purpose of an employee handbook is to offer a set of guidelines and “house rules” for the employees to follow—however common-sense the policies and procedures may seem.

Compare your HR manual to the set of instructions that come with a piece of equipment. You have the gist of how to use it and can, by deductive reasoning, make fair assumptions as what not to do to break it. In fact, when people open the box, many throw out the instructions thinking “I know how this works, I don’t need it.” However, by throwing out the instructions you inevitably lose the details of how the equipment works and, worse, how to fix it in case it breaks.

An employee handbook is essentially the instruction guide for employees to reference should they run into questions related to company policies and procedures such as: vacation policies, Family and Medical Leave Act guidelines and employee benefits. The handbook also lays out company ground rules so employees are aware of what actions may result in a write-up or, worse, termination.

Further, a handbook solidifies company policies and procedures to protect the employer and employees should a dispute occur. As such, employees should sign an acknowledgement form agreeing to the terms of the handbook, and copies should be retained by both parties.

How often should a manual be updated?

Review your policies and procedures annually to make sure they reflect current state, federal and/or local regulations. If you make changes in real time to existing policies and procedures, be sure to communicate the changes to your employees. You also may request that employees sign an acknowledgment form to indicate they received, reviewed and understand the new changes in the handbook.

SOURCE: Tina T. Chen, Employco USA Inc., Chicago

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

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All this Technology Is Harming Communication

Despite having more ways than ever to communicate, it does not appear that our understanding of one another’s meaning is improving. Actually, I believe it’s getting worse.

I’m not the first to write that all these new technologies, great as they are, are also wreaking workplace and social havoc. I thought about this last week while traveling in Atlanta with an out-of-town colleague. She showed me her smartphone’s voice recognition capabilities allowing her to say a name and then place the call.

The problem is the person she was calling has a nickname using several initials at the start—she’s not Nancy, Joan or Sharon; she’s “A.J.” to us. She tried to make a voice-dialed call by saying her colleague’s name—the same way she’d say it in person—but could never get the right number.

Instead, she figured out a way to say the name so that the computer would hear and understand what she meant. She did this by blending the initials in a way that made sense to the computer’s artificial intelligence.

It hit me that this is what’s wrong with a lot of our person-to-person communications. We know what we want to say, we know what we want it to mean but we communicate in a way that means one thing to us, but it’s heard differently by the recipient. It all may be perfectly innocent but it can still cause friction and misunderstandings.

This is not the same problem as sending messages with salty, crude or abrasive language. Actually, it’s far subtler and more difficult to address.

Here’s part of the problem. Right or wrong, we form impressions of others that are both conscious and unconscious. If we have a positive relationship with a colleague or co-worker when we see their message, we’re inclined to presume a positive intent and interpret their message accordingly.

We’re likely not even aware we’re doing that. Conversely, most of us have nemeses in our lives; when we see their numbers flash up on caller ID, we take a deep breath or shudder, dreading the voice that we’ll soon hear.

The same thing happens with email. We see a message and if it’s from someone with whom we’ve had a bad experience or have a currently challenging relationship, we expect the worst even before we read the message that follows.

It affects how we read and interpret whatever is written. Two people can send exactly the same message, with the same font and punctuation, and it can be “heard” differently. Imagine getting this message from your best friend and then from the most annoying, irksome person in your work or personal life: “Great seeing you. That was some presentation you made. I couldn’t believe you did that.”

This “unconscious” problem is getting worse as texts, which are shorter and less thought out than emails—if that’s possible to imagine—are growing at astounding rates. These messages, more convenient than a face-to-face or voice-to-voice communication, may save time in the short run but cause increasing confusion. Further, as we increasingly work with and communicate with people of different generations, nationalities, cultures and idioms, misunderstandings are likely to grow rather than wane.

Technology will march forward as new devices are created and we work at a faster, more frenzied pace. I don’t have a ready solution to this type of miscommunication except that I think emails and texts should be used, when possible, for raw information rather than messages that require tone of voice and even body language—face-to-face or even via Skype or Face Time—to be effectively understood.

Also, the sender and recipient have twin responsibilities. The sender of a text or email should try to consider how the recipient will “hear” the message and take care it’s written with that in mind. The recipient needs not to read too much voice into the words on the screen or their ironically named “smart” phone. This does take time—a diminishing resource—but all of us can devote a few seconds of thought to avoid hours or more of disruption.

 

Stephen Paskoff is president and CEO of Atlanta-based ELI Inc., a provider of ethics and compliance learning solutions. He can be contacted at info@eliinc.com.

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O Captain! My Captain! I Know Not How to Build an App for That

For years, boat makers have required the skills of carpenters, mechanics and electricians. Now they need workers with computer technology know-how, as well.


Recently, Sean Tarpey, owner of Rumery’s Boat Yard, in Biddeford, Maine, was talking with a customer who wants to control all of his boat’s systems from his iPad and iPhone. “Some of the functions he’s looking for are available as apps, but others aren’t commercially developed yet,” Tarpey says. “But we’re researching it.”



Navigating a boat using a smartphone or tablet computer is a long way from sailing by star and compass, but it reflects the impact that advanced technologies are having on even the oldest of industries.


Finding employees who have the training and experience to work with new technologies can prove difficult for companies such as Rumery’s Boat Yard. Although the unemployment rate remains high, many jobless people don’t have the skills that are most in demand.


According to Across the Great Divide, a recent study by Corporate Voices for Working Families and Civic Enterprises, a Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit, recruiting nonmanagerial employees with the skills, training and education their companies need is a major challenge for 53 percent of employers. Another 31 percent said it is “somewhat” of a challenge; only 16 reported that it is either a minor challenge or not a challenge.


“Emerging from the recession, companies are now shifting their focus, with growth being top of mind these days and executives repositioning their companies for the long term,” says Ken Esch, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Private Company Services practice. Its recent Trendsetter Barometer quarterly survey of 243 privately held businesses released in March found that training and development is the No. 1 area of focus for attracting and retaining employees in 2011 (see  “Special Report on Employee Engagement: Losing Lifeblood”).


One way employed and jobless workers are acquiring skills for the 21st century workplace is through “sector partnerships”—regional alliances of government, business, academia and labor that focus on the workforce needs of local industries.


Typically convened by government agencies, industry trade groups or similar organizations, sector partnerships identify the skills that local employers require and work with community colleges, universities and other institutions to provide qualified workers. An estimated 1,000 sector partnerships have been established across the country.


“They’re a win-win for everybody involved,” says Larry Good, chairman of the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based public-interest agency that works with government, business and higher education to help create jobs. Sector partnerships “are one of the most effective things I’ve seen in my 15 years in workforce development,” adds Eric Seleznow, state policy director for the National Skills Coalition, a Washington, D.C., policy organization.


While many sector partnerships focus on “middle skill” jobs—positions that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year degree—some also address skills gaps among professional workers, such as engineers who are now receiving training to design and build electric and hybrid vehicles.


Many sector partnerships begin with federal funds channeled through state and local government. But as the federal government faces enormous fiscal constraints, the future of such funding is uncertain. Legislation to provide additional funding—the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success Act, or SECTORS Act—is pending in Congress.


The act is one of more than two dozen bills included in the Make It in America agenda for the 112th Congress. If adopted, it would add a new stream of government resources to supplement existing federal funds for sector partnerships.


In 2006, the federal government gave Maine $14.4 million to establish its North Star Alliance Initiative, a partnership designed to provide workforce and economic development to boat building.


“When the grant started, the biggest problem was being able to find qualified workers,” says Tarpey, whose company builds, maintains and repairs yachts and other recreational boats. “When the recession hit, our focus changed to expanding our employees’ skill sets so that we could do more of the work ourselves, rather than hiring contractors.”


The Maine Marine Trades Association in Portland helped organize and promote a series of industry-focused training programs that continue today, even though the grant has expired.


As part of the sector partnership, Tarpey sent a mechanic to study electronics at the Landing School, a post-secondary vocational school in nearby Arundel. Other employees completed certificate programs in hydraulics and other subjects.


“Certification tells me people not only know how to get something done, but they know the right way to do it,” Tarpey says. “When you’re 10 miles out at sea, you want to make sure your hoses below the water line are double-clamped so there’s no danger of them coming apart. There’s a little more at stake in this business.”


The aging workforce is also creating skill gaps for some industries, including manufacturers of precision optical components. That’s why Mike Mandina is on a mission to find tomorrow’s skilled workers for industrial companies in upstate New York.


“This region has a plethora of very skilled instrument and machinery companies,” says Mandina, president of Optimax Systems Inc., an Ontario, New York, maker of precision optical components, and a master optician himself.


The problem, as Mandina sees it, is that the baby boomers in the optics industry are heading toward retirement and there aren’t enough potential replacements. As a result, midsize manufacturers such as Optimax are competing with other industries for the same young talent.


To try to expand the talent pool, Mandina helped organize the Finger Lakes Advanced Manufacturers’ Enterprise in Geneva, New York, a sector partnership serving some 1,500 industrial companies in a nine-county region centered in Rochester.


As chairman of the partnership’s executive committee, Mandina spends a lot of time talking with high school teachers, students and parents about career opportunities in photonics—the study of photons and telecommunications—and machining industries. “Green jobs” represent another area with skill gaps. So the Michigan Energy, Labor & Economic Growth Department launched the Michigan Academy for Green Mobility Alliance to help jump-start skill development in the state’s burgeoning electric vehicle industry. The alliance brings together university researchers, auto manufacturers and key suppliers to develop training programs the auto industry needs to speed up hybrid and electric vehicle production.


“This is a much more efficient model than we’ve used in the past,” says Sean Newell, dean of Ford Motor Co.’s College of Engineering and chairman of the alliance’s governance board. “By joining forces, we are able to meet workforce needs faster and more effectively than individual employers could do on their own.”


Much of the initial training focuses on electric batteries and the advanced electronic systems that they power. Both employed and jobless workers are eligible to participate, with the state picking up a portion of the tuition costs. Some programs lead to certificates in “green mobility,” others to bachelor or master’s degrees.


“Three years ago, when we started out, we thought the industry might hire or promote 1,000 engineers into new green jobs,” Newell says. “Now we’re looking at somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 positions over the next three years.”


Workforce Management, July 2011, p. 3-4 — Subscribe Now!

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Software to Follow Rules and Boost Results

To human resources professionals, regulatory compliance is akin to having a crazy uncle locked in the basement. It’s an obvious issue, but discussing it can be uncomfortable. In an era of stepped-up government enforcement, though, companies have no choice but to tackle compliance head-on. And they are tapping software tools to help them stay on the right side of the law as well as boost the bottom line.


By implementing software-as-a-service tools to manage its human resources processes, for example, the National Aquarium in Baltimore is trying to do more than simply comply with federal wage-and-hour regulations. The 550-employee organization thus far has also saved about $60,000 in overtime expenses since 2009 by implementing UltiPro, a human capital management suite from Weston, Florida-based Ultimate Software Group Inc.


That may not seem like much money to larger organizations, but to the not-for-profit National Aquarium, which already is facing tighter operating margins and dwindling contributions, $60,000 is a nice chunk of change, says HR executive Candace Osunsade.


The Web-based software platform replaces an antiquated process for timekeeping that placed the National Aquarium in jeopardy of violating the federal Fair Labor Standard Act, or FLSA. Until 2009, employees were responsible for manually recording their own hours worked on outmoded carbon time sheets. Managers then would tally up the data on the time sheets and forward it to the organization’s payroll outsourcer.


Although that ensured that employees were paid fairly and on time, the approach was too casual to rigorously track compliance with federal wage laws in the event of an audit, Osunsade says. The practice stemmed from the “mom and pop culture” that still prevails at the National Aquarium, in which people take ownership of projects and “do what needs to be done.”


Since implementing the UltiPro platform, the Aquarium has moved many HR processes online, thus eliminating paperwork in line with its mission of environmental stewardship. Automation also provides a record of compliance should federal regulators come knocking. Equally important is the system’s ability to produce analytical reports on how to efficiently allocate staff when launching new exhibits. That formed the crux of Osunsade’s pitch to persuade the aquarium’s executive team to invest in the new technologies.


“The first thing I talked about was the benefit of leveraging data in our systems for predictive decision-making. As a byproduct of doing that, we also are able to close significant compliance gaps,” Osunsade says.


The National Aquarium joins a growing list of organizations whose HR teams are concerned about tougher regulatory enforcement and the threat of lawsuits, according to experts. Topping the list of worries are disputes over wages and hours, often revolving around the proper classification of workers. Ensuring correct worker classification by employers has been a priority of the Obama administration.


Complying with federal guidelines on pay for hourly employees sounds simple, but can be quite complex, says Reid Bowman, the Baltimore-based general counsel with ELT Inc., a San Francisco company that provides online legal and compliance training to corporations.


Bowman says frontline managers generally have a poor conception of their company’s pay practices. As a result, managers make “deals” with employees on how and when work gets done, possibly offering them extra time off in exchange for working late or even answering work email during off-hours. “The problem with that arrangement is it may violate the law,” Bowman says.


Wage-and-hour disputes constitute the single-biggest compliance worry for HR executives, Bowman says. Of the 4,152 employment-related class-action lawsuits filed in 2010, wage-and-hour disputes accounted for 91 percent (3,785). “This is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Finally, organizations are starting to pay attention and put together strategies to make sure this issue doesn’t darken their door.”


ELT enables organization to use its internal learning management system, or LMS, for mandatory compliance training. ELT has seen demand for its LMS-based compliance training pick up in recent years as more and more companies awaken to the risks of noncompliance, especially amid a heightened regulatory environment at the federal, state and local levels, Bowman says.


Other technologies are emerging to help companies dot their I’s and cross their T’s. According to a report by Aberdeen Group, a Boston research and consulting firm, more and more organizations are beginning to implement software for automating workforce schedules. Of the 200 organizations surveyed for the report, titled Workforce Scheduling 2011, nearly 25 percent cite adherence to collective-bargaining agreements and federal regulations as key drivers for using the technology.


In addition to complying with wage regulations, contractors doing work for federal, state and local governments face a different set of regulatory hurdles, especially pertaining to workforce diversity. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, part of the Labor Department, last year intensified its scrutiny of contractors. It initiated more on-site investigations and hired more than 200 compliance officers “to conduct more comprehensive compliance evaluations and increase enforcement efforts” regarding affirmative action-based hiring of women, “underutilized minorities,” and the disabled, as well as pay equity, according to the agency’s 2012 budget request.


State agencies across the country are following the Fed’s lead, imposing new requirements on contracting businesses. The aggressive regulation has contractors on the alert. “The industry as a whole is seeing closer, more stringent oversight,” says Jason Zins, the HR director for Minneapolis-based Shafer Contracting Co., a heavy-construction firm.


Zins’ company is an early adopter of a new Web-enabled recruiting application, Diversity Outreach, aimed at construction, mechanical and engineering firms. The software is part of a broader candidate acquisition and management system provided by Des Moines, Iowa-based BirdDog and is designed to help contractors meet Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action mandates.


Like the National Aquarium, Shafer Contracting is trying to wring business value from compliance. The BirdDog application helps Shafer cast a wider net for diversity candidates. “We’re getting more qualified candidates than we have in the past,” Zins says.


Workforce Management Online, July 2011 — Register Now!

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More Companies Go With Online Tests to Fill in the Blanks

Companies are giving employment testing high marks these days. Despite a still-tepid hiring climate, spending on assessments of job candidates and existing employees rose about 20 percent last year, according to vendors in the field. Josh Bersin, president and CEO of Oakland, California-based research firm Bersin & Associates, estimates the global market for assessment tools and consulting to be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion annually.


Bersin attributes increased interest in testing partly to the rise of software systems that let employers create detailed profiles of employees and plan their development. “With the growing awareness of integrated talent management and the new talent management systems becoming implemented in many companies, the role of assessments is growing,” Bersin wrote in a January blog post.


Other reasons for the assessment uptick include the high volume of applicants in this weak job market, a push for globally consistent recruiting and promotion methods, and the need for legally defensible hiring practices.


Pre-employment testing can make for more efficient hiring at a time when companies are flooded with applications from unemployed workers, says Russ Becker, managing partner of Wayne, Pennsylvania-based Kenexa Corp.’s assessment unit. “People are applying for every job they can.”


Employment assessments can range from online exams for a specific computer skill to personality tests intended to predict customer service prowess to extensive evaluations of potential executives. A study published last year by consulting firm Rocket-Hire found that about two-thirds of companies use some form of pre-employment assessment tools. The report, which surveyed 148 recruitment and hiring professionals, also found that personality, knowledge/skills, and cognitive testing remain the most popular types of assessments.


Timken Co., a Canton, Ohio-based manufacturer of bearings, lubrication products and seals, hopes assessments will help it make smarter hiring choices. “We really are trying to improve the quality of hire,” says Candice Young, a talent acquisition specialist at the company.


Timken recently rolled out an online assessment for applicants in the United States who are interested in hourly positions. Among other things, the assessment covers math skills and other traits, such as attention to detail. Last year, the test was validated with existing Timken employees. Higher performers did better on the test. Timken, which employs some 17,000 people globally, plans to expand the testing of hourly candidates worldwide within the next two years.


Indeed, more multinational companies want to do consistent assessment throughout their global workforces, says Scott Erker, senior vice president of selection solutions at Bridgeville, Pennsylvania-based Development Dimensions International Inc. Through standardized testing, he explains, companies hope to create a “consistent customer experience” no matter where they operate.


Employers’ desire to work with a single vendor on a worldwide basis helped fuel a recent merger between assessment providers PreVisor and SHL. The resulting company, London-based SHL Group, has such multinational clients as Barclays Bank, Microsoft Corp. and Timken. (Initially, SHL Group will be called SHLPreVisor in the United States.)


Robert Morgan, chief marketing officer of SHL Group, says creating a standard, global approach to testing isn’t as easy as translating a test into multiple languages. Because of different cultural norms, companies and test-makers must “localize” tests. Morgan points to an assessment of situational judgment that asks test takers to imagine they are retail employees and to react to an incident in which a wine rack is bumped, resulting in a spill. This test item isn’t effective in Arabic cultures, Morgan says, given that some Muslims will not touch alcohol. “You have to show olive oil or something very different,” he says.


Businesses also are turning to tests to help them make promotion decisions, Morgan says. Judgments, he adds, about which employees are prepared to move up shouldn’t rely only on performance reviews. “The real issue is understanding potential,” Morgan says. “Past performance can also hide some key weaknesses.” (See “The Reviews Are In,” p. 20.) In addition, companies increasingly are using assessments to make sure their hiring methods can stand up to legal scrutiny, Kenexa’s Becker says. The objective nature of skills tests and other assessments makes it harder to accuse companies of discriminatory hiring.


Nonetheless, some employment tests have been challenged in court. Last year, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a group of African-American job applicants could pursue a discrimination lawsuit against the city of Chicago related to an employment test. The applicants claim the city’s use of a test for firefighter jobs negatively affected African-Americans’ chances of being hired.


Employment testing presents other challenges, including the possibility of cheating and many people’s aversion to being assessed. Vendors have tried to counter the public sharing of test content through techniques such as adaptive tests, in which subsequent questions vary depending on the test taker’s answers to items. Providers also are working to make assessments more pleasant by giving them a video game feel.


Companies can appeal to job applicants by offering them feedback from the assessment, Erker says. Even those who don’t match up well for a particular job would receive advice on the kind of position that might be a better fit. “You’ve got to turn testing on its head and say, ‘What is in it for the person taking the test?’ ” he says .


Workforce Management, May 2011, p. 12-13 — Subscribe Now!

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Five Things to Consider When Developing a Social Media Strategy

The use of social media has exploded over the past several years. It is easier than ever to connect with hundreds, even thousands, of people in an instant through social media websites.


At the same time, the line between personal and private time is becoming increasingly blurred as more people telecommute, bring their laptops home to work after hours and stay in touch with the office virtually around the clock through technology.


By their design, social media sites foster a blend of the professional and the personal. On any given user profile, a person is likely to have contacts ranging from college roommates to current clients and colleagues to old flames.


Given their ambiguous nature, social media sites can create a tricky confluence of factors in the workplace. It can be challenging for HR managers and company leaders to develop a policy that satisfies employees, allows people to access the benefits of the technology, and protects the company from the darker side of these sites.


Some HR managers, so overwhelmed by the complexity of regulating the use of these sites, try to pretend the technology doesn’t exist. Others leave it up to individual managers, and still others believe that employees can police themselves—“We trust our employees to make appropriate choices” seems to be a common refrain.


However, here are five things HR managers should consider when putting together a social media strategy:


1. No policy is a risky policy. Unfortunately, not having a policy can expose the organization to an embarrassing incident, bad publicity or even legal action. There are several lawsuits working their way through the courts involving people who have sued their former employers after being terminated because of a post on a social media site. While it is noble to trust employees, some people—especially if they are new to a site—may not know how to use the technology appropriately. All it takes to create a potentially cringe-worthy situation is one novice user posting in the wrong place.


2. Blocking sites may hurt the organization. Other HR managers address the challenge by blocking these sites from the company’s server. Of course, this action comes with its own risks. By cutting access to these networking sites, organizations may also be turning away business.


Many companies attribute a significant portion of their annual sales to these sites, and some organizations request that their employees maintain Linkedin and Twitter accounts. Blocking these sites can also put your company at a hiring disadvantage as they can be valuable recruiting tools.


3. A policy should be explicit and specific. It only takes one employee who doesn’t understand the ramifications of using a social networking site incorrectly to put the company at risk. Assume everyone knows nothing when developing your policy. Be specific about the dos and don’ts for employees.


Some questions you might want to consider are: Can employees list the company as their workplace? Can they befriend clients and vendors? Can they post about clients, vendors, colleagues or the competition? Give examples of what is OK and what is off-limits. Also let employees know the consequences of inappropriate actions. Additionally, having a policy takes the pressure off employees who may not know what is expected of them when it comes to how they should be using these sites at work.


4. Define private. Many people are under the impression that what they do (or post) during their personal time with their personal computer remains private. Remind employees that posting on public forums is never private. Cyber-bullying a co-worker or badmouthing the organization on the Internet is akin to writing the message in spray paint on the office building and signing your name. Just because the action took place after hours and the person supplied the can of spray paint, it is still an attack on the company. Employees need to know that they will be held accountable for what they post on these sites, and that company representatives will be checking sites periodically.


 5. Give employees the tools to use social media effectively. You wouldn’t put employees on a manufacturing floor without being trained in how to use the heavy machinery. The same philosophy applies to social media sites. Organizations can take advantage of the vast business potential of these sites, but they must give employees the training they need to do it properly.


There is tremendous opportunity for organizations to tap into social media websites to increase their profits. With new users joining every day, it seems irresponsible for companies not to take advantage of this growing pool of customers, clients and future employees.


Yet, these sites can be dangerous because with the click of a mouse, employees can broadcast any message or photo they choose across the Internet. HR managers can help their organizations utilize these sites while mitigating risk by creating a detailed policy for employees to follow and giving them the training they need to use the sites correctly.


By giving employees reign to use the sites at work along with education and guidelines, they can post, link and tweet their way through cyberspace while growing the business as well.


Workforce Management Online, April 2011 — Register Now!

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Virtual Job Fairs Becoming More of a Reality

After failing to find a supply-chain or purchasing-agent job through networking and career websites, Antonio Beasley turned to the Big East Virtual Career Fair last November.


The 30-year-old Louisville, Kentucky, resident was pleasantly surprised to find roughly 30 firms there, and he contacted all of the recruiters online by writing a pithy introductory letter. About 10 to 12 answered with automated e-mail responses, and five recruiters even wrote a personal note. He obtained e-mail addresses from the recruiters and stayed in touch with several who said more supply-chain jobs could open up in the first quarter.


For job seekers, virtual career fairs are appealing because they’re a way to get your foot in the door without having to walk out the door. Similarly, virtual fairs are growing in popularity with employers because they can significantly expand their reach nationally and internationally at minimal expense. The Virtual Edge Institute, an organization in Pleasanton, California, whose member firms build online platforms for job fairs, says the number of fairs jumped 31 percent from 2009 to 2010, and its members expect 40 percent growth in 2011. The group declined to release the total number of fairs.


Wes Reel, a military recruiter for Houston-based Waste Management Inc., tested out three virtual job fairs last year, including Milicruit, which targets former military personnel, and Unicruit, which is aimed at college students. He sought to fill about 1,000 positions, including management trainees, maintenance directors, mechanics and accountants.


Virtual fairs usually last about five hours, though recruiters can receive


résumés online for as long as a week after the event. In its virtual “booth,” Waste Management provided links to its online career site, obtained résumés from candidates and interacted with applicants in a live chat room. Reel prepared a brief written statement that he sent to applicants online, describing available jobs. After he reviewed résumés, he sent a personal note to promising applicants.


Reel and other recruiters have found that traditional job fairs don’t always pay off. In addition to the time and expense of attending them in person, recruiters often find them inefficient because many people stop by their booth who don’t possess the right skills.


What’s more, Reel points out, transcribing e-mail addresses from lists after a job fair is time consuming. At virtual fairs on the other hand, recruiters pre-screen résumés, contact candidates who are a potential fit and store e-mail addresses automatically in their company’s computer system. If applicants pass the initial screening in the virtual fair, they typically must complete a questionnaire, take a behavioral test and do a telephone interview before meeting a recruiter in person.


Online fairs “are designed to be a first wave for recruiters. That’s it,” says Clark Walter, senior program manager at CDW, a Vernon Hills, Illinois-based company that sells computers and computer-related accessories. He used a virtual fair, for example, to interview students at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in November 2010. “CDW collected 61 résumés of potential hires,” he says. “It saved the company time and money and allowed students, even with their busy schedules, to meet employers.” Already, CDW has hired one sales account manager from the Kelley School and is considering other candidates from the university.


Felicia McKinney, another CDW recruiter who attends MBA virtual fairs to fill sales jobs, says that she must observe a candidate in an in-person interview for eye contact, confidence and general demeanor. Even so, she finds virtual fairs a valuable starting point and plans to begin recruiting information technology engineers, along with sales reps, online.


Dan Erling, author of Match: A Systematic, Sane Process for Hiring the Right Person Every Time, notes that some virtual job fairs include video content and webcams and that more will likely incorporate video because employers prefer to observe applicants. Without video, he says, virtual job fairs are “one-dimensional, lacking body language.”


But even with video, it is still easy to get distracted at a virtual job fair. Kevin O’Brien, vice president for business development at Chicago-based UBM Studios, which runs Milicruit and Unicruit, urges recruiters to man their online booths at all times. Too often, he says, recruiters try to multitask and leave the booth vacant.


It’s too early to determine the return on investment for Waste Management, Reel says, but virtual job fairs tend to be cost effective because of travel expense savings. Most online job fairs cost companies about $1,000, he says, but those organized by business schools can be free. There’s always the risk, however, of poor attendance. Reel attended one fair where virtually no one showed up. “The problem,” he says, “was poor execution of marketing and advertising to the targeted candidates.”


Workforce Management, February 2011, p. 11 — Subscribe Now!

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Federal Agency to Award $241 Million for Insurance Exchange Technology

The Department of Health and Human Services announced it will award several states a total of about $241 million to design and implement the information technology infrastructure needed to operate health insurance exchanges.


On Feb. 16, the agency announced that Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Wisconsin and a consortium of New England states will receive the cooperative agreements from HHS to become so-called “Early Innovator” states that have committed to making sure the technology they develop is both reusable and transferable.


“Using the grants, they will develop the building blocks for exchange IT systems, providing models for how exchange IT systems can be created,” HHS said in a news release about the contracts. “This will help states to establish their exchanges quickly and efficiently using the models and building blocks created by the Early Innovator states.”


According to the department, the seven grantees offer diversity because they represent different regions of the country, as well as different exchange governance structures and information systems. This diversity, the agency says, will help ensure that a wide range of IT models are developed.  


Filed by Jessica Zigmond of Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


 


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Legal Static Over Issuing Smart Phones to Workers

For the past three years, the Chicago Police Department has handed powerful new tools to officers in the field—BlackBerry smart phones. But the BlackBerry may have backfired on the department, which is now being sued by a sergeant in the gang investigations unit for the overtime he claims he earned while using his smart phone off the clock.


The department “has willfully violated the FLSA [Fair Labor Standards Act] by intentionally failing and refusing to pay Plaintiff and other similarly situated employees all compensation due them under the FLSA” for their after-hours Blackberry use, Sgt. Jeffrey Allen said in a suit filed in May as a proposed class action. A judge has to certify the case as a class action for it to proceed.


The case is one of a handful nationwide in which employees have claimed overtime pay for smart-phone use—and apparently the first involving public employees. But lawyers say such cases are a clear warning to employers to put a smart-phone usage policy in place before they end up in potentially costly litigation. Smart phones “are very dangerous and risky for nonexempt employees to have if you’re worried about overtime,” says Jeremy A. Roth, a partner at San Diego law firm Littler Mendelson.


“Clearly there’s a tremendous benefit to being able to access work remotely,” says Howard S. Lavin, an attorney at the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York. “It’s a fabulous tool. The problem is when you take technology and apply it to longstanding laws, there are unintended consequences.”


Employers can minimize the risk of litigation by restricting smart-phone use to exempt employees or by instructing nonexempt employees to take calls from customers or clients only during regular work hours.


Under the FLSA, nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime compensation for “time spent working” beyond a 40-hour workweek. An employee does not even need to be required by the employer to work overtime but must merely do so for the employer’s benefit.


Allen said the police department provided him with a BlackBerry so he could “access work-related e-mails, voicemails, and text message work orders regardless of their location. Chicago Police Department work was routinely accomplished through” using his BlackBerry. An attorney for the Chicago Police Department could not be reached for comment.


In a class-action suit filed last year in Wisconsin, a former CB Richard Ellis employee said the real estate brokerage required him to answer messages and calls on his smart phone within 15 minutes “regardless of and without receiving compensation for the time spent doing so.” CB Richard Ellis did not return calls seeking comment.


While an employee’s off-the-clock smart-phone use may amount to only a few minutes here or there—and the FLSA provides an exception for “de minimis” overtime—legal experts say an employer’s liability can mount up in a class action.


Moreover, the electronic records stored on smart phones may give an employee solid evidence on which to base an overtime claim.


None of the suits has reached an adjudication on the merits. T-Mobile recently settled a case filed by sales representatives who claimed they were entitled to overtime pay because they were required to monitor their smart phones “at all hours of the day.” As part of the settlement, the parties agreed not to disclose the terms.


Workforce Management, September 2010, p. 8, 10 — Subscribe Now!