I recently had one of my articles published on Cheezhead about people boards as opposed to job boards.  Unsurprisingly, the article provoked a lot of reaction…..some negative (from seasoned job boarders I’m guessing) and a lot positive.

My simple and brief definition of a job board is as follows:

1. enables people to promote their skills
2. enables people to publish their availability and references
3. enables people to control how their data is presented and how they can be contacted
4. allows employers to search for people
5. 1-4 MUST be free of charge

Do you agree? Have I missed something from the list?  Let me know…I’ll behappy to debate it.

Sometimes when “something” becomes popular and successful for a long time it becomes a defacto standard, something that is just accepted, no questions asked.  Over time, other people and organisations try to catch hold of the coat tails of this success by copying (sometimes with slight variations, often with none) the original idea.

Often, everyone is too busy admiring this “something” to notice that times have changed and the world has moved on.  Such is the case of the ubiquitous job board.

There have been many massive market shifts by inventors and free-thinking people in history.  Think of the first automatically sliced loaf, a buzzer when you leave your car lights on, Dyson and the vacuum cleaner industry.  All were big revelations…the kind that make you think….well that’s obvious!

Well, it’s the same in the recruitment industry.  The job board market is lazily jogging along (fat from its profits) unaware that its nemesis the “people board” is about to sprint past it and leave it for dead (quite literally).

You see, times have changed.  The Internet is now much more people focused.  People/users demand more from Internet services and they want these services to be free.  Any Internet service that is going to succeed in a massive way must focus on the benefits for its users.

Job boards simply do not focus on their users.  What they do is in fact the reverse.  Many job boards focus on two areas; job advertising and a CV (resume) database.

For job advertising, they charge a lot of money for employers (or agencies) that wish to advertise their job vacancies.  The other side of the job board website, the CV database, is a little odd.  Essentially users can send their CV (free of charge) to the job board.  At first this sounds like a reasonable deal until you realise that the CV database is locked down.  Only employers who register with the job board and pay (far too much money) will be able to search for your CV.

There are three fundamentally bad things here:

1. The job boards are selling YOUR data and you gave them it for free!
2. The job board has effectively restricted access to companies who can afford to pay for the service. 
3. Your data is only visible for those periods of time when companies pay for it and actively search for some skills.

 People boards are the reverse of this and bring benefits for those actively looking for work, those not actively looking for work, employers and even agencies.

So what is a people board?

Here’s my definition:

A people board:

1. enables people to promote their skills
2. enables people to publish their availability and references
3. enables people to control how their data is presented and how they can be contacted
4. allows employers to search for people
5. 1-4 MUST be free of charge

We don’t need to overcomplicate the recruitment business.  There should only be two sides to it; employers seeking candiddates and candidates looking for roles in business. 

The objective of a people board is to make it much easier to put both sides of the recruitment equation in touch with each other, no matter what the business, no matter what skills the person has.

The people board is a simple concept, but then the best ideas usually are.

The following post is a summarised extract from a report published jointly by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and KPMG called Labout Market Outlook (Winter 2008-09).  The report is the result of surveying almost 900 companies asking a broad range of job and economic questions.

The full report can be found at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/3D88488C-C287-4840-8AF8-1E638E29DADC/0/4742LMOWinterWEB.pdf 

Recruitment and Redundancy Highlights:

1. Over a third (36%) of organisations in the survey expect a decrease in staff levels (Vs 18% in the autumn survey)
2. Recruitment intentions have declined significantly over previous quarters; 62% planning to recruit compared to 75% and 86% in previous surveys.
3. One third of employers expect to make some redundancies in the next 3 months.  Primary tactics to avoid redundancies are to freeze recruitment and terminate contract staff.
4. Nearly a fifth of companies have introduced short-time working.

Salary and Wage Costs Highlights:

1. The average pay rise is expected to fall over the next few months with an average pay rise expectation of 2.6% (compared to a previous value of 3.45%).
2. The factors affecting people responsible for planning pay reviews, quoted in terms of decreasing importance are; the organisation’s financial performance, inflation versus business confidence, staff retention, rewarding high-performers and, way behind, the Government’s call for pay restraint.

Economic optimism (or not!):

1. 80% of companies believe that the economic condition of the UK will worsen over the next few months, with just 2% believing that it will improve!
2. 34% of firms think that their company’s financial performance will deteriorate in the short term. With almost half (46%) not expecting a significant change.

Coping with the credit crunch:

1. Almost two-thirds of companies experienced (or are about to) an organisational budget cut in 2008.
2. Travel budgets have been slashed or new restrictions (flights, taxis to name but two) have been put in place by many employers with many companies making use of telephone or video conferencing instead.
3. Increases in communication from top executives and senior management are also popular with many firms.

This is kind of an old urban myth (and I’m not sure what the original source is for this story) but sometimes you need to have something to give you a feel-good factor…..anyway here’s the story……

A professor stood before his philosophy class with some items in front of him.  When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.  He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of small pebbles and poured them into the jar.  He shook the jar lightly and the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.  He asked the students again if the jar was full.  They agreed that it was.

Next, the professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.  Of course, the sand filled up everything else.  He asked once more if the jar was full.  The students responded with a unanimous “Yes!”

The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.  The students laughed.  As the laughter subsided, the professor said: 

“I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.  The golf balls are the important things: your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions—things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”

“The pebbles are the other things that matter: your job, your house, your car.  The sand is everything else—the small stuff.  If you put the sand into the jar first there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.  The same goes for life.  If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. ”

“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.  Play with your children.  Take time to care about your health; the way you feel and the way you look.  Take your partner out to dinner.  Play another round of golf or go to the gym.  There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.” 

“Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.  The professor smiled and said,

“I’m glad you asked.  It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers.”

A philosophy we whole-heartedly agree with here at KK!

Who and what is safe in the current recession?  Are there certain industries and jobs that are recession proof?

Recession Proof Jobs

1. Healthcare - think doctors, nurses, surgeons, therapists, other healthcare workers etc…. (do more people get sick during a recession?).  Conversely though, jobs such as dentistry may not be as recession proof.  People will tend to put-off or avoid visits to the dentist in case there may be “hidden costs”!

2. Education - teachers (full and part-time), lecturers etc… people still need to send their kids to school although there is likely to be an impact on private schools as parents juggle their finances and save on school fees by sending their children back to state schools.   For higher education there will be a lot of people looking to hide from the recession by retraining.  So, anticipate an increase in demand for educators and trainers.

3. Other Public Sector - if you’re working on an infrastruture project that is government funded, the finance for the project is extremely likely to be cut.  These are the projects that the government is trying to use to kick the ailing economy (with steel toe-capped boots on) into life again.  You should be safe here! 

4. Computers and Technology - well, it’s the future and every firm (just about) relies on technology to underpin its business functions.  Good people (”Do-ers”) that are properly qualified are also hard to find.  I’m not totally convinced that all job types in computer and technology are safe as IT is still seen as a huge expense by a lot of companies.  New developments are likely to be shelved.  Whether or not you think the IT industry is safe also depends on how you are employed.  The ratio of contractors to permanent staff is important….contractors are a lot easier to shed in times of trouble than permanent staff.

5. Environmental Jobs - as concerns about global warming swell, more and more companies are turning green.  There’s scope here for employment for green engineers, scientists and consultants to help firms become much more eco-friendly, save money and comply with new government regulations.

6. Matters of Life and Death - surely all midwives and funeral directors are safe in a recession? Ditto for good cheap hairdressers!?!

 7. Despairing Urges - as we move further into recession many of us will sink into depression hence there will be a boost in chocolate manufacturers’ sales (think Eddie Murphy style logic in Trading Places). :-)  Ditto for breweries I think!

8. Accountancy - Boom or bust, the world still needs accountants.

Recession Prone Jobs

1. Foreign Travel - Due to certain weak currencies and a weak economy people are less likely to travel abroad whether on business or for a vacation.

2. Car Sales - Car prices are rock bottom at the moment (both new and used).  Maybe we’ll see the proper emergence of a “green car” soon.

3. Building and property - Any job title with the word “building” or “property” is looking extremely precarious.  House prices are falling, nobody is moving and few people are thinking of extensions.

4. Discretionary spending - Any industry that relies on discretionary spending is going to be badly affected.  Think of retail firms (how many high street firms in the UK will go bust this year?) or restaurants…. “eating in” will be the new “eating out” in 2009!

In the interests of fair play……here was the recent, positive statement from Apple….compared to Microsoft.

Best Quarterly Revenue and Earnings in Apple History, iPod Sales Set New Record

CUPERTINO, California—January 21, 2009—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.8 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.3 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. 

“Our outstanding results generated over $3.6 billion in cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.6 billion to $8 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.90 to $1.00.” 

Hmmm…..not many records set here! Are we in the grip of a recession?  Mind you, what’s 5000 job losses for a company the size of Microsoft?  Bill Gates probably makes that in a lot less than the blink of an eye !

REDMOND, Wash. — Jan. 22, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, a 2% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.94 billion, $4.17 billion and $0.47, declines of 8%, 11% and 6%, respectively, compared with the prior year.

Client revenue declined 8% as a result of PC market weakness and a continued shift to lower priced netbooks. However, strong annuity licensing drove Server & Tools revenue growth of 15%. Entertainment and Devices revenue grew 3% driven by strong holiday demand for Xbox 360 consoles with a record 6 million units sold in the quarter.

During the quarter, Microsoft showcased significant new product innovations by debuting Windows 7, Windows Azure, Office Web applications, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Microsoft also announced general availability of Silverlight 2, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Windows Small Business Server 2008, Windows Essential Business Server 2008 and a new release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

“While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.”

In light of the further deterioration of global economic conditions, Microsoft announced additional steps to manage costs, including the reduction of headcount-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing. As part of this plan, Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today. These initiatives will reduce the company’s annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5 billion and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million.

Business Outlook

“Economic activity and IT spend slowed beyond our expectations in the quarter, and we acted quickly to reduce our cost structure and mitigate its impact,” said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “We are planning for economic uncertainty to continue through the remainder of the fiscal year, almost certainly leading to lower revenue and earnings for the second half relative to the previous year. In this environment, we will focus on outperforming our competitors and addressing our cost structure.”

Due to the volatility of market conditions going forward, Microsoft is no longer able to offer quantitative revenue and EPS guidance for the balance of this fiscal year. Microsoft offers operating expense guidance of approximately $27.4 billion for the full year ending June 30, 2009. This information supercedes the fiscal year 2009 guidance that Microsoft provided on Oct. 23, 2008. Management will discuss second-quarter results, and the company’s qualitative business outlook on a conference call and webcast at 8 a.m. PST (11 a.m. EST) today.

The whole world seems to think that their job is the next to go and maybe it will, but people need to keep in mind that a company shedding 25% of its staff would be big news indeed, however 75% are still in a job.

It’s also worth noting that the headlines in the Daily Mail, what I refer to as the ‘Daily Outrage’ that xyz bank is shedding half its staff does hide the fact that a good number of those will work for business unit abc which is being spun off or sold to another bank, so strictly speaking the Daily Outrage is correct the payroll will shrink by 50% but not all those 50% will be walking away clutching a redundancy cheque and a P45.

In the ‘Great Depression’ between 1929 and 1935 things were about as bad as they could get but only 10% of business folded, when the economy recovered the 90% of businesses that survived doubtless divved up the trade from the failed 10% between them. In a similar vein Matalan, Primark and Game are seeing increased trade from the demise of dear old Woolies.

This period of non stop bad economic news will, like all things pass and we’ll move on to better times, perhaps we’ll all be better people for the experience. But everybody should get this into perspective it’s not the end of the world or even the beginning of the end of the world. Things have been far worse than this; 1974 Britain had a government enforced 3 day working week. Power cuts and shortage of commodities particularly sugar I seem to remember were the order of the day. The recession of the early 80’s when I was starting my working life wasn’t a particularly rosy time either, that soon gave way to the boom years of the mid 80’s and the rise of the yuppie. Early 90’s another biggie which gave way to the longest continuous period of economic expansion Britain had ever seen, you remember that – the one that has just come to an end.

In a world of instant this and instant that, people’s expectation of action and effect has become distorted; an interest rate cut on Thursday lunchtime will not lead to the end of the recession in the following month.  Petrol prices have plummeted in the past 3 months, mortgage costs will be following them down, remember many people have mortgages that the payment level is set on an annual basis. These will start to fall typically from the February payment. Gas and Electricity prices will start to come down in the spring.

All these factors will lead to people having more cash in their pockets. However, what they need is the confidence to spend it rather save it. Mervyn King and Alastair Darling cannot give people confidence it’s something that will come from within!

Remember this famous mantra from Bill Clinton’s 1992 election campaign? I was in the states during that final month of the campaign and whenever the TV was turned on this was the cry from the electorate. I dare say that if there was an election in the UK in 2009 that would be the tag line from the opposition parties. Perhaps the cry should be:

 “ It’s Confidence Stupid”.

 What’s different in the economic landscape today compared to two years ago, the missing factor is confidence and without it we are lost. Confidence is the magic ingredient in so many things, love, careers being two good examples. Let’s look at Richard Branson, arguably Britain’s leading business person. Is he as clever as a chap with two heads? Although he doubtless has an IQ that is above average, I could probably nip to the back of the office and drag up two people at random that would out score dear old beardy in any given IQ test. Does he have innovative business ideas, mmmm airlines, mobile phones and fizzy pop had rather been done to death before he came and scrawled ‘Virgin’ across them. No, what separates him from the dull but worthy Arthur Pewty chap at the back of the office with an IQ pushing 200 and a great line in trousers made from man made fabrics is confidence. The confidence that 25 years ago lead him to say,

“Let’s lease some planes and start an airline”.

In matters emotional, the guys (or girls) with all the luck are not necessarily the good looking ones, they are the ones with the confidence to ask someone out on a date, knowing that the likely outcome is that they’ll agree to the date. Our dear friend Arthur with the large IQ isn’t getting a date because he’s never asked, as in his mind they would say no in any case.

January 2007 the world was still brimming with confidence, confidence that we could make the payments on that car loan, confidence that we could extend the mortgage and cover the increased payments, confidence that we would be in gainful employment in 6 months time.

Where has all that gone? It went out of the window when in August 2007 BNP Paribas decided that so many people in the US were not making their mortgage payments that that they could not place a value on the bonds that were at the far end of BillyBob and Emma-Lou’s mortgage payments. It had all got too much as their miniscule brains could not read the smaller print on the mortgage contract that said that the 2% interest rate was just for the first 6 months.

Once you can’t put a value on something it becomes effectively worthless thus all the banks’ balance sheets were full of worthless assets. A financial instrument just like your car or house has no intrinsic value; they are worth what somebody else will pay for them. Now, the banks are arguably architects of their own misfortune. The rather splendid idea of packaging up mortgage debts into bonds that you sell on to get the debt off your balance sheet is rather negated if you then nip out and buy in the same steaming piles that have been put together by other banks. That’s just selling something you knew exactly how risky it was (you lent them the money) and buying something that you’re not sure about.

So, that’s how we got here. The banks now need to rebuild their balance sheets. This involves lending much less to businesses and Joe Public and being far pickier over who they lend it to. I once read that for every dollar a bank loses their lending is reduced by 10 dollars. With the sort of losses that banks are announcing you don’t have to have the 200 IQ of our friend Pewty at the back of the office to see that there will be a massive shortfall between cash required and cash supplied.

This, as everybody knows is leading to mass layoffs in the banking and all other industries.

The way these layoffs are undertaken by businesses doesn’t help that magic confidence ingredient that the economy requires. A business seems to perform layoffs using the following timetable of events:-

1. Make an announcement that due to prevailing economic circumstances head count will be reduced by 15%. Consultation with workers’ representatives will take place and further announcements will be made in 4 weeks.

2. 100% of the employees clamp their wallets shut for the next 4 weeks as it could be them, 85% will have done this for no good reason as it’s not going to be them but just in case the wallet stays firmly shut.

3. Four weeks later the unlucky 15% will be served with their redundancy, they are likely to have 3 months notice, 3 months of being in the office/factory clearly sucking confidence away. The 85% that are left don’t particularly feel like booking a holiday and flaunting in front of the unlucky 15%.  

You can see from the above sequence of events that 100% of the people in a company reduce their spending dramatically for a 4 month period thus causing a ripple effect throughout the economy. 

Wouldn’t it be better to tap the unfortunate 15% on the shoulder one Monday morning give them a cheque and wish them all the best for the future rather than the protracted 4 month process outlined above ? It’s going to be horrible for them but it’s not going to be less horrible in 4 months time.

It’s quick, clean and all over in a day and the 85% can breathe a sigh of relief and get down to Currys for that flat screen telly, thus keeping the staff at Currys nipping round to Starbucks for a 3 quid cup of coffee flavoured froth and the economy slowly starts to get up off its knees!

Here are a few simple things that I believe job seekers really want from the Internet:

1) Maximum exposure of their CV or resume - not hiding in someone elses pay per view CV database!
2) Total control of what career and job information is displayed about them and when.
3) Ability to see metrics about who views their resume or CV and how often.
4) Display when they are available or looking for work (and update it easily).
5) Control over the keywords that describe who they are or what they do (not some kind of intelligent? robot that reads the resume or CV)

Any thoughts?