by Joao Araujo

According to Wikipedia, “an organization is a social group which distributes tasks for collective goal”. With time companies build teams, establish processes, develop routines and, if all works well, create differentiated knowledge / products / services that are attractive to its target. It becomes a well-oiled machine, producing value to all stakeholders.

But anyone who has worked in one of these well-oiled machines knows how painful it is when you realize that someone is about to or has just resigned. In a split second, knowledge, routines and personal relations are gone or get damaged. The “well-oiled machine”, running with a missing or underperforming element, quickly loses part of its effectiveness and its charm. It will be a temporary situation, but to recruit new people, rebuild relations and improve the knowledge is costly and time-consuming.

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Three questions to employers on their opinion of parental leave and working moms

1. Do you believe that working moms perform less than non-working moms?
2. Are you open to the idea of your employees taking leave and do you provide flexible working time to allow them to cope between the demands of the job and family?
3. Are you prepared for when your top performers take leave?

These are some of the questions that employers should ask regarding their approach to parental leave. This topic is a difficult one to approach as the policies differ between counties. There are pros and cons to having generous parental benefits, but whatever one’s opinion, we must certainly all agree that it’s a human right to have a family – one which employer, government and society should not hinder or forbid. Read the rest of this entry »

Career Goals Heat map

How important is to be competitively or intellectually challenged on the job? What do students say?

Take a look at the heat map to see how cultural and regional differences play a part in what new talent want.

Austria is the country where it is the most important for students to be competitively and intellectually challenged by their employer, followed by Switzerland and Spain.

As a fun follow-up to yesterday’s post, I mentioned that the meaning or understanding of an employer offering can change depending on the culture or country you’re in, right?

Well, we saw that for the British a positive work environment was one of the most important criteria of work/life balance (27%). Now for the French, however, the meaning of work-life balance is somewhat different.

Close to 40 per cent of 26,800 French job-seekers say that work/life balance means mostly having enough leisure time for their private life, while respect for leisure time was important to only 13 per cent in the UK – a striking difference.

Another interesting dissimilarity between the two nationalities is with regard to both financial and job security. Eighteen per cent of French versus 26 per cent of British students thought financial security was an important component, as 10 per cent of  French versus 24 per cent of British students thought job security was imperative. It seems that the French are less concerned about money and losing jobs.  

Yet what do they have in common? Similar to students in the UK, the French also feel that a good office atmosphere (35%) and interesting and challenging work (26%) help contribute to finding a harmonious balance – something which both parties seem to agree upon.  So far, so good…we might have found the common denominators for both countries.

The meaning of work/life balance in France

• It’s mostly about generating a positive work environment and giving employees the means to live – a secure and steady income.

People would naturally assume that work/life balance would mean working less and having more spare time with family and friends. Or would it mean something else?

UK students define the meaning of work/life balance, based on the answers of 13,000 students. The good news for employers is that it doesn’t mean working less.

Surprisingly for UK career-seekers, work/life balance mostly means the following: a positive work atmosphere (27%), financial stability (26%), job security (24%), interesting and challenging work (23%), flexible working hours (22%), etc.

In fact, only a minority of students think that work/life balance should be: consideration for private interests when requesting leave (6%), leisure activities with colleagues (6%), adequate recovery time following peak work periods (5%), compliance with standard working hours (5%) . 

In short, if you’re an employer keen on implementing a work/life balance programme in the UK, you’ll just have to work on 1) creating a positive vibe, 2) remunerating people fairly, 3) offering them secure employment,  4) giving them interesting and challenging work as well as 5) flexible working hours – doesn’t sound hard now, does it?

Be careful though, work/life balance could take on a different meaning depending on the culture and country you work in. Therefore, don’t be to bold and claim you offer something, until you have confirmed how the labour market understands the employer offering.

The meaning of work/life balance

What that means for the American workforce and more importantly the American dream

The American dream is a national ethos that has traditionally been the pursuit of prosperity and success. Yet that dream for many in the US is proving hard to achieve. Something that has defined the country and the American people as a whole is being challenged to the core.  Americans have always been known to be driven and ambitious to reach insatiable levels of wealth. But the reality today is that a large proportion of Americans, including the middle class, are finding it hard to make ends meet.

Veteran US pollster John Zogby believes that the American Dream is in the process of being redefined. According to him, there is a growing movement of people rejecting materialism and becoming instead secular spiritualists. He explains that the new age mindset is about “being genuine, about achieving a legacy larger than one’s self, about leaving this earth a better place for family, community, and planet”.

Why is materialism being rejected? Here are his reasons. 

“Status Anxiety” — Try to keep what you’ve got, let alone purchase more
Today, 35%  of people work for less than in their previous job. A growing number of people are afraid of losing their current status, resulting in most changing their goals in life because the traditional materialist goals are simply unreachable. People earn less today despite working harder, so the pursuit of prosperity seems like a long-shot – it’s thus better to try keep what you’ve got. Our research confirms this trend as more than half of working professionals in the US are concerned about job security above any other career aspiration, such as being a leader or manager of people, being entrepreneurial or creative/innovative, being a technical or functional expert, etc. (research taken from Universum’s recent professional survey).

“Baby Boomer self-indulgence” — Find your true purpose and remove material noise
The baby boomers are changing priorities and will reshape America. They will be the first age cohort of one million to reach the age of one hundred. Most baby boomers, unfortunately, will not be able to retire at 65 and will have to continue to work. Yet they will not be working to earn a living per se, instead they will be volunteering to do work that brings self-fulfilment, meets their own requirements and helps them to make their legacy. Aside from the baby boomers, it also includes people that are trying to simplify their lives and rid themselves of the materialist illusion of happiness, i.e. of more stuff equals greater self satisfaction.

Everybody is a global citizen
We have come to realize that the pursuit of materialism is leading to the destruction of our planet. Global warming and environmental catastrophes are no longer isolated problems of one nation or another. Today, everyone is concerned and needs to be held accountable. Consumption for that reason needs to be sustainable and eco-friendly. The transition from the pursuit of materialism to globally conscience citizens is especially embodied by the under-30s.  John Zogby describes them as such, “They have passports and have travelled abroad. The world is in the palm of their hands, they are the least likely to say that American culture is superior to other cultures of the world, and they are by far the most likely of any age cohort to call themselves ‘citizens of the planet Earth’”.

A new dream in the making
Mr. Zogby believes that the under-30s or global citizens are “revolutionizing the worlds of work, philanthropy, relationships, governing, and music.” Research shows that contribution to society and sense of purpose is extremely important to the Generation Y cohort. Most employers struggle to address and satisfy this need. Universum’s research shows that 45 per cent of America’s undergraduates choose “To be dedicated to a cause or to feel that I am serving a greater good” as one of their top three career goals (2010 survey results). First comes work-life balance and second is to be secure or stable in my job. Again, it’s a reconfirmation that the American Dream is taking on new meaning.

Even working professionals are changing their perspective on life. Recent research shows that more and more employees are disillusioned: 30 per cent feel overworked and resentful about layoffs; 33 per cent believe they are underemployed or overqualified for their positions; and 23 per cent do not find their work engaging. Moreover, a large proportion of people are half way out the door from their current employer:  25 percent of professionals plan to leave their organization within the next 6 months; another 28 per cent within 1-2 years; and close to 50 per cent of professionals have applied for a new job either internally or externally (Universum’s data).  Are Americans looking to achieve the secular spiritualist dream of being true to one’s self and making a significant difference?

Perhaps the American Dream is in the process of creating new meaning and has changed to reflect the current reality that Americans are now confronted with, as Mr. Zogby suggests.  Does the end of materialism, however, imply the end to the capitalism? Or are we striving to attain a new version of it, one which is dictated not by maximizing profits and minimizing costs but driven by care and love for society and our planet? Maybe a new dream for everybody is not such a bad idea.

By: Grazyna Sotta

We can “blame” diminishing job satisfaction on today’s abundance of life choices. One can choose to travel, relocate or undergo a career change much more easily now, than let’s say two or three decades ago. We all know that bubbles burst and there comes a time when one has to make a life altering decision or remain miserable forever.  For whatever reason, we see people disillusioned by the corporate world and hear stories like an executive who turns to teaching because he finds it more fulfilling.  We can no longer ignore the general discontent or label it as a temporary fad.

Graduates are increasingly polarized in two groups. Some come out hungry for the business card, desk and handshakes – their ambition may rise or subside depending on the experience of their first office job. Others want a balanced life and getting the job or doing the job is not their sole purpose in life – a sentiment that is likely to increase when they face the corporate reality.

Sites, such as escapethecity.org, offer a forum, a way out and inspiration for the latter group. Escapethecity.org is “on a mission to liberate talented people from unfulfilling corporate jobs” by inspiring readers and community members to dare to do something different. According to their experience, many talented graduates feel stuck in unfulfilling jobs, but don’t dare to take the step to change. The site provides hero stories about branding professionals taking off to travel, others leaving professional services to start up a publisher of children’s travel books or finance analysts going green. The nearly 200 individual stories and over 20,000 community members prove that it’s a movement on the rise.

Despite the growing numbers of university graduates, companies are faced with talent shortages. On one hand, we have a crisis and growing unemployment increases the concern about job security and stability. On the other hand, we find a movement of black sheep, jumping off the corporate ladder and following the unbeaten path. Could this ants-in-their-pants phenomenon be the reason behind the war for talent experienced by corporations today? What’s the answer?

One solution could lie in increasing job flexibility. Offering talented employees sabbaticals is already offered by e.g. professional services companies; a practice other corporations would benefit from adapting and making common practice for their employees too. Part-time employment could be another solution that would allow for more personal space and developing projects in their free time, while keeping the knowhow in-house. The key in making these a success lies in de-dramatizing the process and listening to the new demographic rather than trying to form them according to the existing structures and one-size fits all models. For generation y, it’s not working. And in a world of tailor-made solutions and growing individualism, 9-5 one-size-fits-all is just not going to cut it.

Career decisions depend on personal connection
By Julia Zupko, Senior Associate Director, Career Management, Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB)

Developing strong personal relationships with students allows you to convey great aspects of your firm to candidates who may not be familiar with your industry reputation, have preconceived notions about your firm, or have never even heard of your organization. Additionally, strong relationships make students’ decisions to interview and/or accept an offer with your firm more compelling, as they feel as though they are directly impacting personal relationships they’ve developed along the way.

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Universum found that students in countries exposed to global markets typically find an international career to be an appealing choice, compared to students located in either strong domestic or geographically isolated economies. Because of the European Union, European countries are interconnected by default and thus students are encouraged to learn several foreign languages – an important asset for any student wishing to develop a promising career, in such a culturally diverse continent. Read the rest of this entry »

Employer brand managers must understand the needs of today’s career-seekers

For employer branding professionals, it’s important to understand the career aspirations of top talent. Students evaluate corporate ethics and responsibilities, just like they want to make their own positive contributions. Understandably, ones’ own benefits come first, yet many in generation Y would dismiss the trivial desk job over the opportunity to make a significant difference. Keep this in mind for your talent attraction strategy. Read the rest of this entry »