Publications, Articles, etc.
in Print by Dr. Boyd:
PUBLICATION ABSTRACTS: 1999
-- 2001 H. MICHAEL BOYD,
Ph.D.
Staffing:
Recruiting Metrics and Strategies
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
Recruiting
metrics are the base upon which staffing decisions, strategies,
and plans are constructed. Without them it is not
possible
to build an effective and efficient staffing strategy. Metrics
essentially represent the recruiting actions and their results.
One of the
most important costs of a company or department is that of
hiring critical staff. What is included in that cost and how it
is computed depend on the variables chosen by the employment
function; what is clear, however, is that determining hiring
cost is necessary for determining the cost of operating a
business. The cost may include non-monetary costs, such as the
time to become productive, lost productivity, management time,
and staff time.
This
report focuses on the importance and implementation of
employment metrics, explains the findings of a survey conducted
by IDC to determine metrics for recruiting and sourcing of
critical talent in the 21st century, and discusses best
practices used to achieve competitive business advantage and
employee satisfaction. Business advantage is created by having
the right person in the right place at the right time doing the
right work.
Unisys
Stakes Its Future on Its People
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
In the
new workforce of the 21st century, how will companies state and
deliver a value proposition that will engage their workforce,
their customers, and the financial markets?
IDC has written volumes on the new
paradigm of the workforce as we move into the new millennium.
This workforce settles for nothing less than personal
accommodation and has a sense of entitlement based on decades of
conditioning and labor market imbalances. Although many
companies have whined considerably about the shortage of skilled
labor and the high rate of people leaving their firm, Unisys has
planned and implemented sound and successful human resources
practices that ensure that employees are informed and kept in
the loop. They are cared for, and Unisys has presented its
business strategy as one where its people are its core and
fundamental resource. There is no equivocation here. Unisys is
clear: Employees are the foundation of its business. Period!
Transition Management:
Employee Dispositioning in 2001: One Example is Unisys
(#24173)
H. Michael Boyd,
Ph.D.
With
the slowdown of the U.S. economy and the growing number of
layoffs occurring across the country, how should companies avoid
becoming a bad place to work?
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, major
employers that had never before had to terminate employees
strictly as a result of depreciating business performance had to
figure out how to do so in a manner that was still consistent
with the new-age values of treating employees well. The late
1990s seemed to erase the memory of those practices, but now
that layoffs are back many firms are struggling with how to do
it well and not "shoot themselves in the foot!"
Employee Retention: Practices
that Work (#24143)
H. Michael Boyd,
Ph.D.
How are businesses able to staff
and retain their operating, line, IT, and sales operations in
this time of dramatic competition?
The boom in the U.S.
stock market has created thousands of new jobs in institutions
and firms across the country, making the competition for
employees at
all levels from
secretary to CEO both challenging and critical.
IDC surveyed a broad
range of firms across the United States to determine how severe
the problem is, what firms are doing about it, and what senior
human resources
executives thought the future would bring. The results confirm
that it's hard, it's critical, and the future will depend
somewhat on what the
market does.
Networking Skills Shortage:
No Letup in Sight (#24009)
H.
Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What is the current status of
the demand for skilled networking professionals around the
world?
In an extensive study
of the global demand for workers with networking skills, what
became immediately apparent was that the demand would continue
to outstrip the supply of available workers for years to come
and that the need for better, faster, and more networks and
networking capacity shows little sign of slowing down. One of
the significant gates to rates of growth is the shortage of
people that can actually do the work necessary to accomplish the
growth. In the year 2003, there will be a gap of almost 1.5
million networking workers worldwide. The criticality of the
shortage is especially clear to companies in the networking
business since their ability to compete and to grow is dependent
on their ability to hire a skilled work force and to ensure that
their customers have sufficiently trained people necessary to
adopt the technology.
American Workers Are
Contributors Not Capital (#23935)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How are
employers going to build a sense of commitment and loyalty on
the part of employees when the vendor community wants companies
to treat human beings as capital?
In many parts of the world, workers are
indeed capital. They are rented, sold, bought, and owned. Some
are slaves. Others are given for a fee, such as children for
adoption. In all of these cases, the human beings are managed as
human capital from which the management expects to extract a
profit.
Unfortunately, in the United States the
term "human capital management" is being applied to how a
company manages its workforce. American workers are not capital;
they are contributors, and they receive pay for their services.
Their work is voluntary, and they may quit. They can't be
capitalized – only their given labor can. Although this may seem
an issue of semantics, it is symbolic and gives the exact
opposite message to employees from that which a company needs to
communicate in order to have a competitive workforce.
Balancing Workforce
Diversity: Key to Organizational Survival
(#23587)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How do
the most competitive businesses and enterprises accomplish
innovation, creativity, and superior performance?
There is an old saying that "if you keep
looking at the world through the same window, you will keep
seeing only what you have already seen before." The same holds
true for thinking and opinion. If you only listen to the same
people or the same kind of people to whom you have always
listened, then there is limited possibility for new or
revolutionary thinking or action.
Organizational synergy is dependent on
both inclusion and diversity. Without these elements an
organization becomes stagnant, insular, and defensive. It stops
growing, becomes dysfunctional, and eventually dies. Making sure
that the organization has balanced human diversity is a
complicated and intensive undertaking, but the organization is
unlikely to survive without that balance.
Filling the Gap: The
Contingent Workforce (#23438)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How do
companies manage to get the work of the enterprise done when
they don't have the necessary people?
Finding workers with the necessary
training and skills continues to be a major problem in all
sectors of the U.S. economy. As a result, American businesses
are increasingly employing people through third parties and on
contract. This isn't a new phenomenon. Engineering in the early
days was primarily a consulting profession, farms and ranches
are worked by hired hands, apples are picked by migrant workers,
much clothing and apparel is made by piece workers, and many
attorneys make their living by representing clients on a
"contingent" basis. For the past 50 years, employers have
engaged contingent workers in order to control costs and ensure
availability of labor. A great portion of America's buildings,
roadways, and railroads were built with nonemployee labor. The
new millennium continues that tradition and extends it to many
categories of work previously reserved for people with
"employee" status. Traditionally, the employer determined who
was contingent and who was employee. More often today it is
workers who decide their relationship with employers, and
employers are competitively engaging these workers however they
can to have a competitive workforce.
Organizational Assessment:
Guessing Won't Work (#23312)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How can an organization be sure
that the culture of their organization is compatible with the
business goals, objectives, and new hires?
In
today’s fast, dynamic and competitive global economy, a critical
factor in the business world is organizational effectiveness.
Companies rarely have sufficient time to assess their own
employee culture and organizational processes but it is exactly
those things, which will either enable success or spell
failure. There are thousands of books and self-proclaimed
experts suggesting that they have a packaged strategy to insure
cultural alignment and organizational effectiveness. The truth
is, however, that there is no one answer or model that fits
all. It takes skill, experience, and work to assess and manage
a culture. Many organizations use professional-assessment
consulting firms that employ scientific testing and assessment
tools to accomplish the assessment. These firms have experience
in behavioral and cultural assessment. Such assessments can
spare organizations the devastating impact of a dysfunctional or
destructive organizational culture. Nothing will kill a
business faster than organizational failure. Few things will
create employee satisfaction better than organizational and
cultural harmony.
Candidate/Employee
Background: Individual Privacy or Company Necessity?
(#23250)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What is
the balance between individual privacy and a company’s
obligation to insure a safe workplace and it’s right to avoid
criminal behavior from employees?
One of the clear opportunities brought
about by the internet is created by easy and speedy access to
information about individuals, especially in the US where laws
are sometimes less protective, regarding every aspect of their
social, political, financial, legal, criminal, and employment
lives. While there is often agreement on some data that
companies should collect and use to deny or terminate employment
there is wide disagreement over what, how, and when it is
collected, and how it is used. The lack of solid guidelines
creates a high risk environment for everyone. Individuals are
feeling their privacy invaded and companies are being required
to provide safe and crime-free environments.
Human Resources, Intellectual
Entrepreneurs, and Time (#22867)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How is the entrepreneurial
perspective of modern IT employees and their demand for individual
accommodation affecting the human resources function?
Accommodating employees to hire and retain them is the challenge
of the human resources profession in the 21st century. As the
workforce is enjoying greater autonomy and demand, the enterprise
is struggling with strategies and practices that will engage and
retain the type of workforce it needs to meet its objectives. This
struggle has largely been the work of the company human resources
function, which itself is understaffed and regularly maligned
because for being the cause of worker shortages and high turnover.
For
the most part, HR is part of the infrastructure, and it is quietly
expected to produce a workforce whenever, wherever, and with the
skills and knowledge necessary for the business to succeed. HR
representatives has many external partners and colleagues that
help them succeed, but the workforce is changing rapidly and
putting more emphasis on the most limited element: time.
Employers Need Recruiting
Resources with Domain Expertise: One Example Is
ComputerJobs.com
(#22742)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What are some of the
characteristics that suggest Internet-based applicant referral
services will add value to the corporate employment department’s
goals?
Recently, the number of Internet recruiting firms competing for
the corporate or staffing firms’ recruiting dollars has mushroomed
to an enormous and confusing array of resources that are available
for the company recruiter to choose from. This creates the
difficulty of knowing which services to use. Lots of metrics can
be applied to the recruiting activity and cost/benefit assessment
for each hiring company and recruiting intermediary. Because of
recent mergers and acquisitions in the Internet staffing industry
and the reduced tolerance for financial losses in the market, it
is important that a new characteristic be considered — that of
longer-term service probability. There are two characteristics
that will enable a firm to provide long-term service: domain
expertise and partnerships.
College
Relations Are Critical to Staffing Strategies (#22492)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What practices enable successful
college-relations and job-recruitment programs?
At a
time when the demand for educated and skilled IT workers is
overwhelming and the competition for those workers is fierce, the
emphasis on attracting new workers has assumed even greater
importance. There is universal agreement that not enough students
are graduating with degrees in computer-related disciplines, both
in the United States and the rest of the world.
Some
fault the academic institutions for the inadequate production, and
although IDC agrees that a higher number of graduates well versed
in IT areas would help, the global shortage creates a demand that
interested students from all academic fields will work to satisfy.
The current labor market has put impending graduates in control,
providing them with career choices and income potential that most
would consider amazing.
IDC
Forecasts Fewer than ITAA's 10 Million U.S. IT Workers
(#22375)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How does IDC’s analysis view the
Information Technology Association of America’s (ITAA’s) April 10
announcement that there are 10 million U.S. IT workers?
At
its annual Workforce Convocation in Chicago, the ITAA released the
results of a study in a report entitled “Bridging the Gap:
Information Technology Skills for a New Millennium.” The study
suggests that there are 10 million IT workers in for-profit,
50-or-more-employee companies in the United States — one out of
every 14 workers in the country.
This
figure is based on a very expanded definition of who is considered
to be an IT worker. IDC believes that the inclusion of non-IT
categories in this study separates it from other studies and
thereby disallows comparison. Some of the subsets identified in
the study, however, will be helpful for planning purposes in
specific skill areas.
Equity
and Wealth Sharing is the New Norm for Workers — Andersen
Consulting is Upping the Ante (#22031)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How will established firms compete
with dot-coms that have been using rapid wealth as a key
recruiting tactic?
For
the last few years the lure of fast wealth has been a key
recruiting advantage for the new startup technology and internet
companies. In the IT labor market it has been a significant
disadvantage for large established firms like Andersen
Consulting. IDC has been advising clients that they must consider
equity and wealth sharing with the workforce or risk being unable
to meet business goals due to insufficient staffing. Andersen
Consulting has initiated a new era of competition with changes to
its wealth sharing and partnership programs.
The 21st
Century IT Workforce: Success Depends on Skill, Experience,
and Fit (#22029)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
With all
of the competition for IT talent how can a candidate and company
both find a
successful match?
One
of the most difficult aspects of the relationship between IT
talent and employers is creating a relationship that is successful
for both the company and the employee. All too often the outcome
of a new relationship is less than what is desired or expected by
either the company or the new employee. IDC research has pointed
out the enormous impact of poor hiring – poor work and increased
attrition. IDC believes that attrition will be the critical issue
for IT for the next decade. In large part attrition will be a
direct consequence of how well employees fit with the organization
and the work.
The
Future of the IT Workforce, 2000 and Beyond (#21937)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
In the new millennium, the rate of
technological change will surpass the rate at which human systems
can change to meet it. What changes in the IT workforce must the
IT industry anticipate and accommodate?
As we
move into the 21st century, libraries of writing are being created
addressing the revolutionary change associated with the new
workforce. It is global, literate, intellectual, secure,
technologically enabled, and independent. Personal balance between
possibility and priority has become the guiding consideration of
the workforce.
As the century progresses, only those firms
that understand and meet the expectations and needs of workers at
the individual level will continue as long-term business entities.
The most effective way to address the U.S. IT workforce issues are
with shared advocacy and knowledge through resources such as ITAA
and IDC. The shortage of sufficient IT workers to meet the
continuing increase in the number of openings shows no signs of
lessening.
Staffing
Mix for IT Depends on Experience and Attrition (#21699)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What is the optimum mix of
experience and skill for the professional staffing of an IT / IS
organization?
Given
the increasingly tight balance between human resource productivity
and organizational competency that is necessary to achieve
financial goals, organizations need to focus on achieving the
correct skills and experience mix for the individuals within their
organizations. In a perfect world, determining the correct mix
would be easy and straightforward. In the 21st century, however,
the organizational world is much less than perfect; attrition is
causing organizational imbalance to be the norm.
IT/IS organizations need to become better at
planning or they will continue to vacillate between high
organizational costs and low organizational performance. IDC
believes that individual accommodation is the key to success. At
the strategic planning level, the proper employee mix will make
individual accommodation more possible.
Organizational Relearning: A Key Knowledge Process for IT
(#21617)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
In an organizational environment
in which employee turnover can be as high as 100%, how can an
organization maintain organizational knowledge and skill?
The capacity to acquire, create, and apply
knowledge is at the core of a business enterprise in the age of
intellectual labor. In the IT industry, an organization’s
intellectual labor accounts directly and indirectly for anywhere
from 75% to 100% of the cost of operating. The difference between
profit and loss is often the organization’s ability to continually
relearn and recapture knowledge.
Emerald
Solutions: Core Values and Culture Attract and Retain Employees
(#21517)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How can smaller IT service firms
compete with the large firms for the most talented employees?
One
of the catch-22 issues for smaller and startup IT service firms is
that being competitive in the labor market may mean that they lose
the lower cost-competitive advantage that many firms must leverage
to sign new clients. Paying top talent to join a firm today can
easily mean a whole company of $200,000 employees. Even if revenue
and hourly billing rates can support that cost, the smaller firm
needs to offer exceptional financial promise, exceptional work,
and a balanced quality of life environment that is perceived as
extraordinary. Some firms are using effective practices to attract
and retain their top talent. Emerald Solutions is competing for
such talent with the largest and wealthiest competitors by
focusing on its core values and behaviors.
IT
Executive Assessment, Selection, and Development
(#21353)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How does an organization know that
the candidate that they have identified for a top IT / IS job in
the company is really the best choice?
In the fast paced search for IT talent
around the world today it is universally recognized that speed is
a critical factor in the competition. This often means that there
is insufficient time to obtain or consider extensive information
about candidates. Where there is primarily a need to employ
someone who can apply technology it is easier and usually
sufficient to rely on previous experience as an indicator of
future success. When it comes to senior management, however, that
is rarely the case. Intangible and style factors are the critical
success characteristics and they are not obvious nor easily
ascertained. Many firms use professional assessment consulting
firms that employ scientific testing and assessment tools to
suggest the amount of fit, or misfit, between the candidate and
the organization. These firms are often made up of experienced
psychologists with experience in job counseling and behavioral and
cultural assessment. While they are not inexpensive, the cost of
a poorly hired IT executive or senior manager can be devastating.
History,
Culture, and Values: Exceptional Retention at Compaq’s Customer
Services (#21279)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How does a business maintain the
people that it needs to excel during and after acquisition?
When Compaq Computer bought Digital
Equipment Corporation it gained its customer services business
which had a long tradition of profit and quality. The workforce
of this business needed to be maintained and retained or the value
of the acquisition would be challenged. Fortunately for Compaq
and the “DECies” that came with the business there were some solid
HR and management leaders who knew what was necessary. Part of
the result is to lower the attrition rate to 6% which is
significantly below most competitors.
KPMG:
Partner Commitment and Experienced Employees Create Positive
Workforce Environment (#21264)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How does a major consulting firm
create and maintain an experienced workforce in the competitive
labor market of today?
KPMG
has a tradition of investing in seasoned consultants who have
already “been there and done that.” With a stronger emphasis on
recruiting experienced people KPMG must construct an environment
that supports a more mature worker that has a better idea of who
they are and what they want. This strategy works well for KPMG
Consulting which grew at a 41% rate. IDC believes that while some
research suggests that an older average age change the turnover
rate it also creates a more stable workforce of key contributors
upon whom the enterprise and customers can rely for fulfillment
and continuity of relationship. This strategy requires that HR
strategies, programs, and practices that are simple and
effective. Experienced practitioners find frilly and superficial
offerings tedious and insulting. HR functions attempting to offer
those kinds of services often are labeled useless by managers and
employees interviewed by IDC. HR at KPMG Consulting is a valued
partner in the minds of managers and employees alike.
Internet
Firms Will Increase Competition for Talent (#21000)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
In the fast paced competition for
IT talent, are the Internet companies finding new sources of
talent?
Everyone is competing for the same talent.
People who have the knowledge, skill, and experience to produce
the results needed by large and small companies alike that are
providing products or services over the Internet are in constant
demand. They largely have the choice of what work to do, when and
where to do it, and for how much pay to do it. The question is
whether or not these Internet-focused enterprises are finding
faster and more effective ways of acquiring new talent than the
general IT industry experience. IDC research has shown that
Internet firms are competing for the same IT resources as are the
rest of the IT industry. The traditional sourcing strategies hold
constant. In the established Internet services firms the emphasis
is on strategy skills and in the newer startups the need is more
for the “Webber” – that 21-year old to whom the Internet is a
natural extension of their self.
Andersen
Consulting: Strategic Planning and Human Communities Work To
Retain the New Free Agent Talent Workforce (#20704)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What are some strategies that
Andersen Consulting has developed and implemented that have
lowered employee attrition rates?
In 1997 Andersen Consulting was bleeding.
More than one out of every five employees had left. In 1998 they
had grown to $8.3 billion in revenues (25% more than 1997) and
brought 18,000 new people on board. They began worrying a lot
about attrition. Now, more than half way through 1999 attrition
has dropped to about 15% per year. Whether or not Andersen
Consulting will be able to maintain a 15% rate or less will depend
entirely on how effective its human resources programs address the
primary causes of turnover. IDC believes that the strategies are
informed and well-founded. Certainly, their reduced attrition is
evidence of success.
IT
Workforce 2000 - Boomers, Xers and World Crisis
(#20549)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How will the IT community cope
with a shrinking workforce that has more diversity of interests
and needs than ever before?
As
the world moves into the 21st Century it will find a
workforce that continues to be in great demand, interested in
security, demanding free-agent consideration, and increasingly
global in perspective. It will also be shrinking, getting older,
and working fewer years. Even before the dawn of the third
millennium IT firms are identifying finding, keeping, and managing
workers as the biggest challenge and business hurdle. IDC
believes that the future will only bring intensified challenges in
all of these areas. Only the astute worker-centric firms will
survive as profitable independent enterprises. The 21st
Century will present the modern world with a labor crisis. The IT
industry will find itself reminiscing about the “good old days” of
“shortages.”
Thought
Leadership: A Key Contributor To Engaging Employees and Clients
at Andersen Consulting (#20528)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
Why would a major consulting firm
desire to be perceived as a “thought leader” known for new and
innovative ideas and analyses?
As the Twentieth Century draws to a close
the era of intellectual labor and knowledge capital is firmly
entrenched in the global world of commerce. Competitive
positioning for client business, employee identification, and
market image is an intense effort on the part of all consulting
and service firms. Perception often is the prelude to success.
Perceived thought leadership is recognition that a firm has the
intellectual capacity to solve complex and new problems with
innovative leading-edge solutions. This positions Andersen
Consulting ahead of many of its competitors in the minds of its
clients, employees, and potential employees. IDC believes that it
creates a competitive advantage in the market.
Ernst &
Young LLP: Global Excellence Through Workforce Competency and
Commitment (#20405)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
In a consulting industry that
demands global solutions and in which consultants move from firm
to firm as free agents, how has Ernst & Young LLP managed to
reduce attrition from 23.5% to a 16.0% rate in one year?
One
of the most frequent reasons consultants leave the consulting
profession and consulting firms is a desire for better balance
between their work and home lives. The travel demands of
consulting often make balance impossible. To worsen matters,
clients want global coverage that, on the surface, would require
more — rather than less — travel.
Consultants also know that their market value is greatly dependent
on their knowledge and experience levels. They want the training
that keeps them at the top of their expertise and work assignments
that allow them to use the newest skills. Ernst & Young is
addressing employee needs through training, reorganization, human
relations, and communication.
A Culture
Of Caring — Deloitte Consulting Will Remain An Employer Of Choice
(#20298)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
In an industry characterized by
constant travel and professional isolation how does Deloitte
maintain its global consulting workforce?
Business organizations are social entities
and consulting firms are at the high end of the scale with regard
to the need for a workforce that operates as a society. The most
frequent reason for the failure of IT consulting projects is the
inability of the consultants and the client to operate as a
committed team. The truth is, regardless of the greatest theories
of leadership and organization, that when people care about the
goal and each other the outcome is successful, and when they don’t
it isn’t. The problem for many of the consulting and services
firms is that they dance to the tune of the stock market and leave
the humanity of the enterprise to fend for itself. Deloitte
consulting has addressed its social environment by fostering
“caring.” It does work. People who feel cared for in turn care
for others. Where that includes the client you have social
synergy, employee satisfaction, and customer delight.
IT
Cost-Per-Hire and Recruiting Metrics (#20267)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
Why Are
Employment Metrics Critical?
One
of the most important costs of doing business in an IT firm or
department is the cost of hiring IT professionals. The debate
rages on about what is included in that cost figure and how it is
computed. It is a necessary part of determining what the cost of
delivering IT services is. IDC research shows the cost of IT
services is a minimum of 1/3rd of the spending of an IT
function. In addition to the actual cost of hire the cost drivers
are captured as recruiting activity metrics. These are critical
to understanding and managing resulting hiring costs.
IDC
conducted research to determine the actual cost-per-hire,
recruiting activity, and applicant sourcing metrics among
technical recruiting efforts in the United States. The findings
show a $4974 cost per hire for technical recruiting. There are
extraordinary fees and costs associated with executive recruiting
that were not a part of the responsibility area of most of the
survey participants.
Employing
Critical IT Talent in the 21st Century (#20032)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
What must IT firms do to hire and
retain the IT talent they need to compete in the 21st century?
There
are no signs that the intense competition for IT staff will abate,
making the 21st century a continuation of the late 1990s. Human
resources executives and company senior management are scrambling
to create a value proposition for the labor market that will give
them an employment advantage in both hiring and retaining talent.
According to the current market wisdom, the key differentiator for
companies is the working environment and culture they offer. IDC
believes that too many companies are “talking the talk” but not
“walking the walk” because they simply do not understand the IT
workforce or the labor market: They think they’re unique, but
they’re not.
A Collaboration for
Distance Education: Intel and PBS's The Business Channel Team Up
To Deliver Live Webcast
(#19740)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How are industry and the
educational content providers collaborating to advance the
state-of-the-art in web-based distance learning?
On April 7, 1999 a collaboration between
Intel Corporation and Public Broadcasting Service’s The Business
Channel resulted in a bold successful experiment that will
encourage faster development, deployment, and adoption of
electronic distance learning capabilities delivered to the
learners’ computers in business, government, and non-profits.
This bulletin explores the evolution of distance learning as an
early adopter of electronic media for delivery, how relationships
between industry and learning providers are creating electronic
learning environments, and the webcast on April 7, 1999 “Learning
To Lead: Lessons From The Top” featuring Jim Champy.
Professional Networks Essential to Recruiters: The Employment
Management Association (#19586)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
With overwhelming numbers of
services and resources competing for the IT recruiting dollar how
do you know what is effective and what’s not?
Every
time you pick up a newspaper or magazine, turn on the television
or listen to the radio, or sit at a computer terminal viewing what
is available on the Internet’s World Wide Web you are bombarded by
more places and ways for reaching and attracting IT candidates.
It’s more than you can possibly keep track of much less evaluate.
The Employment Management Association provides a network of
professional employment people and vendors who share their
knowledge and experience. If you don’t learn from their mistakes
and successes, you will have to keep creating your own. EMA
recently held its 30th annual conference dedicated to
sharing knowledge, experience, and ideas.
Using Placement Firms for Hiring Critical Skills
(#19567)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How does a firm use placement
agencies to recruit and hire the experienced IT talent that it
needs?
In
today’s increasingly competitive labor market it is next to
impossible to locate the best talent. In the IT segment of the
market about one-third of experienced hires are through
third-party agencies. This recruiting channel is highly
competitive and effective. It is also expensive and, like any
other source of hires, without guarantee. The best-in-class
employment functions have excellent relationships with the agency
community – they are part of the recruiting supply chain.
Additionally, alienating the professional recruiting community can
have a devastating impact on your own attrition rate – they know
who your top talent is and who wants to hire them.
The
Resource Gap in the Information Technology Industry — Too Much
Work, Not Enough Skilled People. (#19375)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
There
has been a demand for IT workers in the American workplace that
has constantly and continually exceeded the available supply of
trained people. There has been little research within the IT
market research industry itself that has addressed the question of
what the size of the shortage is and what does the future hold for
the IT labor market. This report provides both quantitative
analysis of the IT labor market and a qualitative discussion of
the meaning of the labor market numbers and dynamics. Most
important to companies competing in this hot labor market for IT
workers is understanding why it exists and what knowledge will
give them a competitive advantage.
In
1999 722,158 requisitions for IT workers will be created to meet
the growing demand for IT skilled workers in the United States.
60% of the openings will be in non-IT industry companies and
organizations. 30% will be in the IT services industry.
The
fiercely competitive recruiting activity evident over the last
several years will continue into the twenty-first century. The
larger IT firms will continue to set the hiring pace by leveraging
their size and market recognition to intensify the competition for
the best talent in the market. The IT services companies continue
to be the highest growth businesses with the greatest demand for
top workers.
The
US IT workforce will grow from about 3,350,000 to 4,906,900 in the
year 2002 – an 33% growth. The demand will keep exceeding the
supply. Each year through 2002 the gap between available workers
and the recruiting demand will increase by over 5%.
The
Journey to Employer of Choice—The Key to the Future of Unisys
(#19374)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How is it that a company once
regarded as unlikely to survive with employees embarrassed to
admit that they worked there is now seen as an exciting, vibrant,
and great place to work?
It is
not an accident, not a fluke that this Pennsylvania headquartered
company has been executing an amazing turnaround in its business
results and reputation as an employer. There have been waves of
solid economic growth resulting from astute repositioning and
reorganization orchestrated by its new Chairman - Larry Weinbach.
A number of companies in the information technology businesses
have similarly produced financial results with turnaround,
reengineering, etc. strategies, but the Unisys story seems more
dramatic – from very a old guard mainframe culture to a new
adventurous service and solutions focused enterprise. IDC
believes strongly that what has enabled and will perpetuate this
success is simply the dedication and good will of its employees.
David Aker is a key member Weinbach’s staff contributing to the
business strategies, but as Senior Vice President of Worldwide
Human Resources IDC sees him as a key member of the team that is
the architect of the new Unisys. He represents the conscience.
TeckChek's Technical Skills Assessment Helps Employee Selection,
Development, and Deployment
(#19364)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How do companies make sure that
they hire and deploy IT professionals with the right technical
skills?
One
of the most critical determinations that a manager must make is
just how proficient is the person that they are considering for a
job or assignment. Whether a new hire or an existing employee, the
person’s proficiency should play a key role in determining what
work he or she is assigned to do. If a person is more proficient
than the manager thinks, he or she may be underutilized and
insufficiently challenged. If, however, the person is not as
proficient as believed — well, those disasters are the
career-limiting HR decisions that IT managers make every day, the
ones they lose sleep over. Better information about the technical
proficiency of individual IT professionals — such as that gained
through such offerings as ScoreChek from TeckChek — can make the
difference between a successful assignment or a failure.
Sun
Microsystems Creates Education Consulting Services to Address
Broader IT Organization and Workforce Development Solutions
(#19362)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
More IT companies and IT
departments are struggling with keeping both individuals and the
organizational structure up to date and consistent with the
business goals of the organization. The question for many firms
is, how do they tie it together?
Customers of business partners and vendors
are asking for broader collaboration and participation in how they
run their businesses. Sun Microsystems has implemented a set of
integrated consulting services as a part of its education services
business. This capacity will be of particular value to Sun’s
traditional customers, who need to keep pace with the changing
technology, and to new Sun customers, who need to come up to speed
very quickly. The expanded or broader solution offering from IT
companies is becoming a very competitive and fast-growth arena.
The
Shortage of Trained IS Technical Workers in the United States:
Worker
and Shortage Defined (#19206)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
Why is it
so difficult to get agreement on the number of IT professionals
who will need to be hired this year?
For the past decade, demand within the
American technical community has exceeded the number of people
actually working in those industries. That shortage of qualified
workers has had a significant impact on the industry and shows
little evidence that it will be alleviated over the next several
years. A clear need is to define both what an IT worker is and
what the IT worker shortage includes. The next step is to create a
new set of classifications for identifying the new IT workforce.
This IDCFLASH will set the context for those categories by
defining the IT worker and the IT worker shortage.
Internet
Recruiting: Is There a New Focus on Demand Creation?
(#18459)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
Is the new Internet recruiting
practice of aggressively creating new job seekers going to cause
corporate intranets to exclude access to job-hunting URLs?
IDC
believes that the new form of advertising by some Internet
recruiting services, which aims to cause non-job seekers to become
interested in leaving their current employer, will result in some
companies prohibiting employee access to job-hunting Internet
addresses.
In
every company, there is a certain line between appropriate and
inappropriate use of company networks by employees for non-company
purposes. This new type of demand-creation recruiting may cause
management of some companies to question this use of company
resources and time. IS managers will need to be prepared to advise
senior management and participate in the creation of a company
position. Many companies have formal or informal policies on the
use of company computers and networks. The question that IDC
believes will need to be answered is how employee job-hunting
activities are covered by the policy.
Recruiting, Retraining, and Retention: Are IT Managers Doing
All They Can? (#18263)
Thomas D. Oleson and H. Michael Boyd,
Ph.D.
Are IT managers able to cope with
the fast-changing world of human resource management?
IT
managers are more at the mercy of a number of trends than in
command of the situation. These trends can be found in the
training of computer science graduates, the recruiting of this
scarce source of talent, changes in the demographics of society,
and changes in the makeup of IT jobs. These trends, which will
continue well into the next millennium, need to be recognized by
IT managers, who must adopt alternative strategies in order to
meet the needs of the business units.
Thinking outside the box will be the best means of meeting the
needs of IT departments in the future. IDC encourages companies to
look for college graduates with majors other than computer science
as well as company employees outside IT for a stable source of
potential talent and to take the time to properly train these
people. Companies are more likely to retain longer-service company
employees who have been retrained for IT positions than the
hotshots right out of college.
IT
Workforce Dynamics: Attracting, Retaining, and Leveraging Talent
for Competitive Advantage (#18249)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
Why do the primary providers of IT
services have great difficulty hiring and retaining the highly
skilled workforce necessary to execute their strategies?
The
single most common point of discussion within the IT
IT industry is about hiring and retaining qualified and
qualifiable people. To effectively attract and retain desirable
workers, the IT enterprise must pay close attention to each
individual’s material and social needs. The old process-focused
hiring and retention practices must give way to
relationship-oriented environments. That isn’t anything new, just
simple supply and demand, except that the focus is at a personal
level. Mass-market recruiting strategies for the intellectual
workers are a thing of the past in the new knowledge age.
IT
Staffing: Greater Demand and Fewer People (#18189)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D.
How will the IT industry and IS
departments meet their strategic objectives when they are unable
to get enough people to do the work? Are your hiring and retention
practices working?
IDC sees the current IT workforce shortage extending and becoming even
more competitive in 1999 and beyond. There is no indication that
the lack of experienced or trainable human resources will be
alleviated by an increased supply of people or by a decreased
demand for IT work and workers. The hiring and retention of the
necessary employees will require more work just to compete. The
workforce of the 21st century demands individual consideration and
accommodation.
Recruitment: A Competitive Weapon for U.S. Consulting Services
Firms
(# 17895)
H. Michael Boyd, Ph.D. and Marianne
Hedin, Ph.D.
Given the mission-critical hiring
requirements of the major consulting firms in the United States,
how are new employees being recruited?
In
light of the intense competition for qualified and talented
professionals at IT and consulting services firms, one would
expect these organizations to explore new ways of finding and
attracting new employees. Instead, IDC, in a preliminary study of
four large consultancies, found that they continue to rely mostly
on traditional recruitment strategies — college recruiting,
employee referrals, search firms, employment agencies, sourcing
events (such as job fairs), and media solicitation (print, audio,
video, and the Internet). Although these techniques remain the
same, their effectiveness seems to be the real source of
competitiveness among the firms. Moreover, recruitment strategy
varies from firm to firm and serves as another differentiator. IDC
believes, however, that the real source of competition in this
area is the ability to sell. In today’s marketpla