ALUMRISE

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas

Last week, I was invited by a thoughtful outplacement industry leader, to attend a breakfast to hear some data and insights about today’s talent economy.

Over some scrambled eggs and fruit, I had the chance to hear from research firm Birkman about the results of a multi-year leadership/talent survey and to also hear from John Challenger, the CEO of venerable outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas. Mr Challenger shared some personal hiring landscape insights and observations. (If you have not had a chance to hear Mr. Challenger speak or read one of his columns, I highly recommend it.)

With many today wondering what the hiring future holds, I wanted to share the morning’s key themes with members of our ALUMRISER network - which today includes both C-Level executives as well as many experienced middle managers seeking new opportunities. At the end of this post, I’ll also share some personal take-aways and implications.

Another One Bites the Dust: The landscape is changing – and it will take time to return to traditional hiring patterns

• Many companies are freezing salaries, or even taking across-the-board salary cuts — in some cases up to 30-50%; Others are mandating strategies like a 4-day workweek. The silver lining to the extreme moves? They are in most cases alternatives to layoffs — and designed to keep valued talent close. Midsize companies are more likely to use these tactics today, possibly because they are more lean and more dependent on key talent inside their ranks
• In contrast, large companies are actively considering severances; in fact, up to 67% of leaders at large enterprises (>5,000 employees) surveyed by Birkman, suggested they would use job cuts as a cost strategy in 2009. (The full White Paper results can be downloaded here – select “Business Implications of the New Reality.”)
• A “second wave” of impacts will now affect industries outside financial services & automobiles – impacted will be retail, technology, electronics, semiconductor and wireless among others

Jack be Nimble: Executives and line managers alike must think differently about job search

• It’s time to consider opportunities that would once have been off-limits, such as part time or “audition” positions if you are an experienced business person – the market may not support quick re-entry into a full time position 
• It’s an era that Mr. Challenger describes as one of “no fault job loss” which means companies will be quick to cut, so the ability to move across industry lines will be ever more important
• The willingness to cross-over by marketing functional skills and fungible talents will be a key to success in this economy; seek positions in sectors and geographies where hiring is still happening (apparently discount retail and hospitality and consumer goods as areas that may weather better, in addition to core healthcare and education)
• Titles that will be particularly affected by layoffs are professional support and middle management. Those roles of a more senior level; those of a more technical nature or in sales are less likely to be hit, reported Birkman as part of their survey results

I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Online): Job loyalty is being replaced by a free agent mentality, so both talent and companies will have to foster “outside the employment door” relationships using technology as an enabler

• For talent, retaining connections to former employers is a key way to renew and revive career opportunities – using either formal or informal alumni or career networks
• For companies, investing in long-term talent relationships is a key driver of longer-term success, as they are forced to swing employment patterns based on larger, uncontrollable macro-trends leading to job cuts and rehires- Challenger specifically recommends building privileged relationships that retain flexible connection using online community and networking formats

Are you an ALUMRISER?

ALUMRISERS - My take-aways and implications:

1. Don’t over-think opportunities – be open to a variety of job contracts including part time or temporary as well as newly engineered positions – ALUMRISE understands that today you are competing with millions of other job-hunters as well as a growing stream of income-seekers returning to the workforce to support displaced family members – so look hard at each and every message of interest. Your profile helps position you for a variety of types of interest – job, project, mentor/coach, board, etc. So get into action/contribute and meanwhile, enjoy the time life has given you back, either in your job hunt or after-hours in a (hopefully) less intense position that allows time for self-reflection.

2. Look hard at your functional skills & understand exactly which your fungible or transferable skills are. ALUMRISE can do this for you – by answering the few simple questions that create your profile you are in essence creating a ‘functional resume’ making it easier for you to found for a transfer between industries or sectors … your experience tells the tale for you to hiring mangers and recruiters within an ALUMRISE profile

3. Understand companies you’d wish to work for, and try to develop access to their existing networks or online networks they create. ALUMRISE is building private platforms for companies to stay connected to former talent that live inside the broader ALUMRISE Universe .. Once a member of ALUMRISE you can request to join relevant networks related to your experience and skills … Stay tuned for more on that.

Most days, when I wake up, I don’t have time to take a pulse. Life’s too busy.

But this Thanksgiving week is deliberately slow.

When the year gets quieter, I turn to literature both to help me move forward and to allow me to reflect on the past and ideas that have been fermenting throughout the year. For most of this morning, a certain quote has been stuck in my head:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.

Dickens spent most of his life serializing the plight of the new industrial age. What children, what bourgeoisie, what farm workers were affected by the shift to factories and assembly lines?

This holiday season, we will have every opportunity to reflect on new shifts, seismic shifts, global shifts, in how we work and live.

Let’s make this quiet time, this holiday time, the best of times, by illuminating new solutions, not despairing the demise of the old.

How can we make 2009 the best of times?

In this our launch week, I’d like to take a moment to talk about some thoughts and perceptions on the new global talent economy.
 
I believe each of us will face some seminal challenges and emerging issues — but these are ones that we can solve, together:
 
We must come to terms with the struggle between private lives, and the growing pressure for a public brand identity to enable our continued employment and survival in a changing global landscape.

• How we will shape our dual or quadruple life brands? How will our future buyers react? How will we feel and act in this atmosphere of 24/7 exposure? To support our members, I’d like to continue to talk about privacy and public identity in the ALUMRISE blog, and I hope you’ll join in our future dialogue.

We must find new, flexible, real-time ways to grow skills and experience to ensure they we get ahead and do not, like the machines that drove industries of yore, become redundant due to macro economic shifts.

• In upcoming days and months, I’d like to talk about how a real-time talent economy tool like ALUMRISE can help move people more swiftly into new industries and new roles, helping them to define skills and opportunities much, much more broadly. And I’ll talk about the myth of work redundancy, driven by an industrial mindset that should no longer define us, and frankly probably never should have. I’d like to talk about the myth of the line between work and life for everyone from retirees, to exiting mothers and newly minted workers. I hope you’ll participate and share your earned wisdom via our blogs and future ALUMRISER forums, and also explore new solutions we’ll be launching. 

And we must reconcile with confusing issues like how to shape our own life stability if income is not fixed or if work is cyclical and dynamic, and learn how to shore up energy and resources to manage a longer life and work span than perhaps we started out being prepared to invest in and for.

• If you are facing choices or introspection around these topics, I hope you will join us in providing and supporting solutions and in proposing better ways to manage the changing nature of work, either by contributing your voice or perspective as a future guest-blogger, or by supporting our solutions for continued income and opportunity for all those across the demographic and life stage spectrum, from first-time workforce entrants, to the newly retired from work, but not life.

It’s about time we gathered ’round to talk about these issues, because we are all bound by common circumstance, common life stage, common realization or uncommon intellect, about the changing nature of the way we will work and live. 
 
I’ll end with a tip: Within our launch Gathering Place marketplace, simply press “go” to see ALUMRISER members in the simple search bar, and recognize that there’s others out there like you facing the same questions and decisions on a daily basis. I’ll admit our whole team still gets a thrill from seeing a new ALUMRISER sign up. I hope you do, too.

- Aassia Haq, President and CEO, ALUMRISE Inc

When ALUMRISE was founded more than two years ago, we could have not imagined the day we announced the launch of our full application to the marketplace, would coincide with the day that millions across the U.S. would vote in a highly charged, mixed atmosphere of great hope, great uncertainty and great pressure.
 
Do you, too, believe there are big changes brewing in how each of us will work and live?
 
As today’s U.S. election comes and goes, the real truth is that no matter which candidate you selected or supported, you should also consider a new vote - a vote for yourself. 
 
Consider standing up with us for your earned rights: to be a productive contributor, hooked in and hooked up to opportunity, income and influence - whatever your circumstance, location, choices, or work life stage and whatever the macro shifts of the global economy.
 
Together, we can re-enfranchise millions into the workforce, enabling a new source of productivity and growth for the global economy. The person dubbed an ALUMRISER is someone with real skills to offer, and their alum-sourcing is as valid a business/buyer strategy & solution today as off-shoring or downsizing. 
 
Our joining members, both buyers and ALUMRISERS, will help shape the path of how we work and live. You’ll be hearing more about ALUMRISE’s exciting vision for how to do that on our blog, and via the introduction of new features within our marketplace. 
 
If you are not an ALUMRISER today, tomorrow you might be. (With a shout out to those hunting for new opportunities on the streets of New York, or other towns and cities around the country and the world). So might your parents, children, spouse or partner, relatives or friends. Each of us can reach out and touch an ALUMRISER.
 
When you get out to vote - please also remember to vote for yourself.
 
It’s time to sign up.
 
Posted Nov 4, 2008 - By ALUMRISE Team