Like me, you have probably read dozens of articles that speak on how LinkedIn is primarily for professional networking and Facebook for personal sharing and pictures. Not any more, the line is blurred. Today, Monster announced Professional Networking Application on Facebook Platform. Monster is not the first mover, BranchOut came out with professional networking app few months ago and is going strong with 800,000+ users.

LinkedIn with it’s stellar growth in the past few years and recent IPO has changed the dynamics of passive recruiting and has been the major source of Talent acquisition in the recruiting market. LinkedIn with it’s 100 million users, is already tapping into the valuable data it has and will have the first mover advantage to build any kind of analytics platform. If you have missed the story, you can see Reid Hoffman talk about data Data Wrangler of The Modern Age .

Facebook, on the other hand has provided a platform and user base for applications like BranchOut and Monsters to leverage. With it’s 700+ million users and about 47% of users filling out their work experience (Source: Hodes Group from a survey of 5000 users) is quite compelling. Monster already has an advantage over BranchOut with it’s 35 million user base who could potentially use the “BeKnown” application. Both Monster and BranchOut are in very strong position to tap this huge potential. Over the coming weeks, it would be interesting to see what kind of explosion Monster will have vs. compared to BranchOut.

What do you think? Are you ready to extend your professional networking on Facebook. If you are looking for a job right now or in the next few months, would it change your preference of using one or the other platform. Would it be cool if there was a way to synchronize connections from 1 platform to the other and solve the end-user pain?

HRBartender.com Sharlyn Lauby has posted the April’2011 Edition of Leadership Development Carnival this morning. Sharlyn has put together 45 interesting posts on variety of topics that include leadership, management, executive development, succession planning, and coaching.

This is what Sharlyn has to say about our own blog that was listed in the carnival – Meg Bear shares the secret to success in Want to Enhance Your Career…Get Happy on Tahlent’s blog.

Other interesting reads

• All About Living with Life blog tells us Effective Ways to have a Successful Personal Brand
• Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership, I’m Your Boss, Not Your Friend: 10 Reasons Why Your Boss Shouldn’t be Your Friend
• Benjamin McCall at ReThink HR explains Leadership is about what you have
• Working Girl Laura Schroeder shares her experiences on managing more experienced workers in Project Social: Young Manager
• Is it really possible to “think outside the box” or is something else going on? Miki Saxon shares her theory in Entrepreneur Creativity Grows in Boxes
• Ken Klaus from Talented Apps writes Abandoning Successful Careers to Embrace Our Vocations: A Less Than Historic Lesson from the Life of Vincent van Gogh

Many Thanks Sharlyn for hosting and providing us some great sources of reading.

This is continuation to our previous article “Personal Brand: Key to career growth!”. According to the latest Kelly Global Workforce Index which obtained the views of 1,34,000 people in 29 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific for future career change and use of social media for “Personal Branding”.

Below are the statistics

Future Career Change in North America


          Almost two-thirds (64 percent) expect to have to change their career at some stage in the future, comprising Gen Y and Gen X (both 65 percent) and baby boomers (62 percent)

Use of Social Media for Personal Branding

          30 percent in North America are very actively using social media for personal branding, while 26 percent from Asia and 20 percent from Europe responded to use of social media.

Change as they say is the only constant in life. The proverbial saying is aptly true for the ever-evolving global workforce. “Job” is no longer just a job! Nor is the global worker just an employee working only to earn the bread. With work becoming an identity of a person, most are giving their personal touch to the way they present themselves for career growth or finding their next job.

According to the latest Kelly Global Workforce Index which obtained the views of 1,34,000 people in 29 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, people are increasingly taking the initiative to create their own personal “brand”.

Creating personal brand
The primary reason for this is enhancing employment prospects and remaining competitive in the fast-changing workplace. “A strong personal brand becomes critical for individuals to differentiate themselves and gain future employment,” explains George Corona, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Kelly Services.

Interestingly, when it comes to marketing personal attributes, all respondents worldwide identify verbal communication skills (64 percent) as the most important element to creating a personal brand, followed by technical knowledge (61 percent), résumés (57 percent), written communications (54 percent), personal attire (47 percent), and use of social media (36 percent).

A rather bold trend the study highlighted is the fact that people are also willing to invest in improving their skills or changing careers. In fact, approximately two-thirds of respondents are willing to spend their own money to upgrade their skills, while more than half believe they will change their careers or re-invent themselves in the future. “Many people are now embracing the idea of operating as ‘independent consultants,’ and accepting responsibility for managing their own careers and enhancing their marketability,” adds Corona.

Key Generational Findings
69 percent of those in Gen X are prepared to spend their own money on training to upgrade skills, higher than that of Gen Y (67 percent) and baby boomers (61 percent).
63 percent of those from Gen Y are “very optimistic” about their ability to keep pace with technology and other changes in the workplace, higher than Gen X (61 percent) and baby boomers (54 percent).

More than 60 percent expect to change their career at some stage in the future, comprising Gen X (65 percent) and Gen Y and baby boomers (both 62 percent).
Approximately a quarter of respondents describe themselves as “very active” in their use of social media for personal marketing, while another 37 percent say they are “somewhat active.”

A lot has changed in the global job market during the last 2 years. A lot still continues to change. Indian job market is no exception to that.

There’s no doubting the fact that the Indian job market has opened up significantly from where it was say last year and not just for the metro-city dwellers, but for those in smaller towns as well. Interestingly though, the hiring speed of most Indian organizations is still far from being in the fourth gear.

Business Outlook vs. Employment Outlook…
Indian industry experts suggest that the Indian job market which is high on the business outlook front actually is in a rather somber hiring stage. The latest Teamlease Employment Outlook study for the quarter October – December 2010, indicates that the Net Business Outlook stands at 71%, an increase of 10% from the previous quarter. While Net Employment rises by 4 index points to 68%, still relatively lower than the business outlook. “This quarter shows the business sentiment improving but hiring intent lagging behind marginally,” confirms Sangeeta Lala, VP, TeamLease Services. Clearly, a consolidation seems inevitable in hiring numbers and patterns.

Interestingly, over the most recent two quarters, the Employment Outlook Index is trailing the Business Outlook Index implying a significant shift in the hiring pattern. Historically, employers’ sentiment for hiring has always been higher than their business sentiment. With business sentiment improving consistently over 6 subsequent quarters, the employment market seems to be gradually sobering their hiring sentiment. “This development implies that employers are cautious while hiring and giving importance to productivity and efficiency,” explains Lala.

City and Sector-wise Trends…
The sobering of hiring sentiment and the subsequent deceleration of the Net Employment Outlook Index has clear patterns across sectors and cities. Retail & FMCG is the only sector with a significant improvement in the Net Employment Outlook Index (8 percent points) during the present quarter while ITeS sees a significant drop in the index (6 percent points). Among cities, Mumbai (with 7 percent points) is the only one with a significant improvement in the index value.

What’s note-worthy here is the fact that Tier- II cities and Tier – III towns move up a notch in the hiring intent. While Metro cities continue their dominance, the hiring increase in the smaller markets highlights a marginal yet overall improvement in the employment status.

The other interesting hiring trend that the study highlights is the hiring at the entry levels which continues to be positive in comparison to mid-level positions that seem to be losing their sheen. Functionally, Engineering domain emerges as the second most sought after position in terms of hiring intent after Sales / Marketing / Customer Service which is far ahead in hiring Intent. The ‘Other’ category is witnessing incremental improvements as well implying a further addition of newer categories.

With respect to business outlook, Infrastructure and Telecommunications sectors drive the Net Business Outlook Index, up with 10 percent point improvements apiece. There is no other sector apart from the above 2 or even city, contributing to the upsurge.

“In totality, the development- city / sector wise, business outlook and employment outlook, means a relatively better supply-demand scenario in the employment market,” concludes Lala.

Much has been said about the age-old problem of employee attrition and battling it out with strong retention measures. But really why should you as an employer care? Simply because retention is a serious business issue and even losing one or two key people significantly impacts your profitability. Interestingly, according to Fortune magazine, it is the ability to attract and retain talent that serves as the single-most reliable predictor of excellence for many of the world’s most admired companies.

Getting started…
So how do you as an employer attain an effective retention policy? The latest workforce study “Employee Retention: How to keep the keepers!” conducted by the California based HR firm Trinet, highlights the effective retention measures employers can undertake. Another aspect that the study sheds light on is how managers can determine whom to keep and how to keep them as well as how to treat those leaving the organization.

Ok, so you’re all charged up to work towards that much desired goal of employee retention. What next? The first thing to think is your desired attrition. Is it ten percent? Fifteen percent? Zero?

If the latter, then you need to take actions to ensure you don’t lose anyone. But if some turnover is OK, you need to identify whom can you afford to lose? So then you should take a look at your workforce and the people in it. In other words, you have to evaluate the specialized skills of your workers versus the value of those skills to your organization.

Assessing key talent…
Still a relatively new tool, the Uniqueness Grid based on the principle of differential treatment is extensively being used in assessing key talent for retention. To put it simply, not everyone has the same skill set and not everyone can provide the competitive advantage you need. So you may have a person with highly-specialized skills, but these skills aren’t unique to your business. Perhaps, those are the jobs that you can look at outsourcing.

On the other hand, you may have a person with unique skills as well as a competitive advantage, such as a software designer who is critical to your business, so you retain such resources. Finally, you may have operational partners – people whose skills are less unique but critical to running your business operations. They too provide a competitive advantage.

Another assessment tool used for retention strategy is the “performance-potential.” This is used to look at the leadership potential of your employees – the potential to take on larger responsibilities. You don’t want to lose your stronger performers who score high in the leadership potential area, but you also may not want to lose those who have already demonstrated leadership even though they may only be mid-level performers. The idea is to strike a balance to maximize your productivity and profitability.

Treat them well…
The way you treat people when they leave a company – voluntarily or due to downsizing impacts retention. Your treatment of those asked to leave is going to be weighed by those who remain. If you make multiple layoffs, those people – as well as people outside your organization will wonder what’s going on with your company. Thus, you must work hard to build trust and respect among those who are left.

This implies transparency and treating people with respect – don’t notify them with an impersonal e-mail or conference call. Communicate openly and truthfully.

Do-list for managers…
Research points to the fact that managers’ roles in retention are critically important. There are some basic, fundamental things that managers need to do for your organization to keep its top performers:

• Empathize: Realize those who remain may be dealing with anxiety, confusion, grief, mistrust and hostility. Deal with the negative emotions with empathy.
• Communicate: Provide frequent, truthful and direct communication. Provide venues for employees to voice their concerns. Solicit ideas, opinions and actively listen.
• Explain organizational and individual goals.
• Encourage initiative.
• Recognize performance.

Retention really begins in the hiring process. You hire not only for knowledge, skills and abilities, but for core values and motivation, which is often just as important as competence. Someone who’s not a good fit with the culture may end up being rejected by the organization, or leaving. Thus, prudence at the very initial stage goes a long way in tackling the retention challenge!