Productivity Gains by Employers Bogus As Huge Contingent Workforce Ignored

By Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler

A very well-written article in MIT’s Technology Review, “Tectonic Shifts in Employment’, contends that Information Technology is reducing the need for certain jobs faster than new ones are being created. Noting that, “6.3 million fewer Americans have jobs than was true at the end of 2007. And yet the country’s economic output is higher today than it was before the financial crisis.”

The MIT article admits several elements are in play but claims that technological obsolescence is the predominant factor. A similar case was made in Bloomberg Businessweek, Did That Robot Take My Job? at the beginning of the year. There’s no question that technology destroys jobs (and creates new ones) but is the gap as wide as these articles suggest?

We’re not sure.

We think the use of contingent workers, for example, has increased to astounding levels and the accounting of this headcount is almost non-existent within companies when it comes to calculating productivity from F/T. As a result, firms show productivity spikes when in fact they may be using as much or more labor to accomplish their goals.

We’re also concerned about unmeasured anecdotal evidence surfacing where well-known large companies consciously ratchet their performance technology tools to push individual workers (in the service/exempt classification) to unsustainable levels i.e. burning them out by forcing them to work longer hours to meet quotas etc. (And no, we are not talking about some other country here perhaps someone has been adopting a few developing country techniques here.) These onerous practices are similar to what we used to study in grad school as abuses from the 2nd industrial revolution, 1880-1920, that led to the rise of unions.

It makes us think some of the productivity gains we report might just be sleight of hand.

– Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler work full time consulting, educating and discovering how talent and opportunity connect through emerging technology. They can be reached via email at mmc@careerxroads.com, phone at 732-821-6652, or on-line at http://www.careerxroads.com.

Time to Hire of 105 Days Better Than 135, But Fed Govt Should Still Be Ashamed

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin

Bill Leonard’s recent HR Magazine article, Wanted: Shorter Time to Hire, was an eye-opening update on the May 2010 executive memorandum directing the US Office of Personnel Management (and other Federal agencies) to reform their hiring process. The original memo called the candidate experience into question with meaningless, subjective essays and an average 135 days time-to-hire (never defined) being singled out.

To put the challenge into perspective Bill’s article notes that each year the federal government receives 21 million applications to fill 350,000 openings (that add to, replace or support 2.1 million Federal employees). Continue Reading

Definition of a Talent Community

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin

This brief but solid list of practical notions by Gautam Ghosh is well worth thinking about for 2012 (another thoughtful blog by Gautam emphasizing the marketing component of SM is also good). In part, Gautam said: Continue Reading

Does Your Employer Own Your Social Media Contacts?

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin

Is tweeting part of how you get your message out to prospects and communicate with your company’s candidates? Do you drive (or ask) the people you have sourced to ‘friend you’ on Linkedin even before inviting them to join your company’s Linkedin group? It might be time to consider a conversation about whose social media accounts are in play during the sourcing, wooing, selection and onboarding of your prospects and candidates: the company’s accounts, the recruiter’s accounts or, more likely, both. Continue Reading

Web Streaming Means Conferences Are At The Beginning of Their End

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin

Educational Technologies (broadband video, collaboration tools, e-learning development tools, marketing and distribution tools, apps, etc., etc.) passed a tipping point in 2011 and will change ‘training’ and ‘learning’ business models forever. 2012 is the beginning of the end for current approaches to how we attend conferences; collaborate at seminrs; develop ourselves and our colleagues; train our subordinates; support local-tax-based school systems; matriculate at college and much more.

This article in Forbes: M.I.T. Game Changer (passed on to us by Carmen Hudson) begins by noting an M.I.T. announcement from December 19, 2011 that it will offer online courses for free beginning in January (not its current decade-old OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative with 2300 courses online anyone could audit but) “a new online learning initiative, internally called M.I.T.x, which combines research, technical innovation and new online learning opportunities” and where “Students using the program will be able to communicate with their peers through student-to-student discussions, allowing them an opportunity to ask questions or simply brainstorm with others, while also being able to access online laboratories and self-assessments.” Individuals who complete the program will receive a certificate of completion. Continue Reading