Job related work experience---what is that ???

Job related work experience---what is that ???
http://9gag.com/gag/aOq0ZpD

All of us know this expression in our faces when we read several job announcements, which require many years of job related work experience.
But how should we get them? With internships you are normally not able to get the required years of expertise.
How do you deal with this issue??
Do you think that employers are seriously demanding that much experience??
How would you argue at a job interview??

Online job board for people with disabilities

Hi there!

As I did my PTS at an Austrian online job board (careesma.at) in Spain, I would like to shortly present a very interesting initiative operated by this job board: CareerMoves.

I worked a lot with the team of CareerMoves, wherefore my interest in this topic increased day by day. CareerMoves is an online job platform for people with or without disabilities. The website is connected to the online job board Careesma, where Austrian companies can put job ads in order to find new staff. Careesma offers the possibility to implement the CareerMoves icon in a job ad to specifically address people with disabilities. Every company which decides to use these icons can then also find its job ads on careermoves.at. 

 

People with (any kind of) disabilities are asked to openly communicate their qualifications and limitations. The main idea is to facilitate the entry into the Austrian job market, as people with disabilities still face many problems.

Today, already more than 50 companies participate in this project, among others, Baumax, ÖBB, Thalia, Ikea or Mc Donald´s.

What do you think about this initiative? Would you recommend HR managers to implement the icon on job ads? Do you think the job board will further grow in the next years?

If you want to have a look at the homepage or at which jobs are offered, here is the link to the website: www.careermoves.at

As I am really convinced by this project I am looking forward to your comments on this topic!

Hello everybody,

i found another really interresting article. It is about a man who was fired from his job because of his age or an accident?? Yes i formulated this as a question as I want you to read the article and tell me afterwards what you think about it.

http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/Discrimination/Age-Discrimination/Was-76-year-old-employee-fired-due-to-age-bias-or-

-Steffie

Creating the best workplace on earth

(http://hbr.org/2013/05/creating-the-best-workplace-on-earth/)

Very interesting article that brings different perspective on how to create best workplace. What impressed me the most is this "when companies try to accommodate differences, they too often confine themselves to traditional diversity categories—gender, race, age, ethnicity, and the like. These efforts are laudable, but the executives we interviewed were after something more subtle—differences in perspectives, habits of mind, and core assumptions". We discussed topic of diversity not that long ago what do you think about that kind of approach? Personally I like it. 

Polina Svashenkova

Stress in Working Life

The attached article (unfortunately in German) is about stress in the working world and how companies can and should help their employees cope with it. Especially after the suicide of the Swisscom-CEO Casten Schloter, out of stress reasons, this topic came into the centre of attention. 

There are programms like the "health index" where employees fill out surveys, giving their employers and insight what workrelated stress they have. There are other attempts to solve the "stress problem". Volkswagen for example does not let any emails through to the Smartphones after working hours in order to prevent stress.

What do you think? Does the more and more interconnected workingworld cause more stress? Should one always answer the emails of a superior immediately, even at night? Also, what do you think can companies do to help people reduce the stress? Should there be a consultant, should every firm do it like Volkswagen, or is there also another approach?

http://www.zeit.de/2013/41/arbeitsplatz-druck-stress-schweiz

"The Internship"

I know that this is a bit offtopic, but yet, somehow it isnt :)
Has anybody already seen the movie "The Internship" or "Prakti.com" (as it is called in German)?
I watched it back in spring in the States and saw it again this week.
A nice movie about working at "Google" in San Francisco. And although it is "just" a movie, I think it is worth seeing. It gives a pretty good insight into google, the best place to work for and into diversity, team spirit and how interns are treated (does that ring a bell, dear fellows from the Russian course? *g*)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdnoqCViqUo

Title or Talent?

"By valuing a person's potential, drive and passion, and being prepared to invest in their development, both the employee and company will reap the benefits - whether they have a degree or not.", says the recruiting director of Phone4U, an independent mobile phone retailer in the UK.

How important are academic achievements? Is it nowadays, in this struggling economy with unemployment primarily affecting the young work force, indispensable for young people to have a degree (if possible from a highly recognized educational institution) in order to eventually overcome the hurdle of unemployment, successfully beat the competition and finally get a job?

Or is it something else (rather than a degree) recruiters should pay their attention to when having to sift through a vast number of applications to find their ideal candidate?

Is a Master's degree a guarantee for employees being able to put their studies into practice and being more productive? And does "academic achievement" equal "being appropriate for the vacant position" or should there, in fact, be more to the equation?

I personally share the opinion of Phone4U's recruiting director on the fact that sometimes it really pays off for companies to invest in the right development programmes in effort to train and keep young talents, regardless of their educational background. But what do you think - title or talent, what do employers benefit the most from?

Recruit qualities over qualifications, says Phones4U director of recruitment

The Swedish Working Culture

http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Business/Business-culture/

After accomplishing my internship in Sweden I am totally in fond of the Swedish Business Culture.
Everything is easy going, relaxed and there are almost no hierachies.

I have to say, the fact that there are almost no hierachies and that despite or because of this (alsmost) everything is working out well impressed me alot. The best thing about my internship was that even my opinions were valued and were as important as the opinions of all other colleagues.

Furthermore, as the article states, the work-life balance in Sweden is really good. No one is working over time and everybody can handle family and work at the same time.

What do you think? Could you imagine a workplace without hierachies, being only on first name terms with your boss and even your clients? Do you think something like this could work out in Austria as well? Or are we too much fixed on being formal and having someone "above" us?

The article shortly describes how the work life in Sweden looks like. I'm curious about your opinion!

Lisa

Religious expression in the workplace as a trigger for discrimination

Earlier our colleague Marlene Jabinger posted an article about the strict "Look policy" of the American company "Abercrombie&Fitch".
I found this article (http://www.hrmorning.com/abercrombie-fitch-look-policy/) which highlights a new fact about Abercrombie's look policy. Two muslim women filed lawsuit against the company due to religious discrimination. They were discriminated or even fired because they wanted to express their religious believes by wearing a head scarf while working. Looking back at the presentation of TNT by Mr. Neuwirth he also pointed out religion as an element of diversity (if you remember his anecdote about the muslim guy starting to pray with his carpet in the office and how he received a special room where he could pray 3 times a day during his working hours). I believe that the religious expression can be a huge trigger for discrimination in a company. Do you think people should stick to their work during working hours (ignore all personal habits like religious habits, etc) or should they be able to follow their religious beliefs also in the office? Would you be okay with your co-worker praying 3 times a day for 10 minutes? What's your opinion?

Diversity

Dear colleagues!

Since we had a very interesting lecture on Diversity Management on Monday, I would like to start a conversation about that topic. I found an article which states that it is important to improve Diversity in the workplace and it even gives some guidelines which strategy has to be used in order to get a variety of employees from diverse backgrounds. I would like to know what´s your opinion concerning Diversity at work, do you think companies even care about it or do they tend to ignore this topic?

I´m looking forward to your comments!

Regards

Tanja

http://guides.wsj.com/management/building-a-workplace-culture/how-to-increase-workplace-diversity/

A company's most valuable asset

Dear colleagues, 

I found this very interesting article which is called „Nine Ways To Keep Your Company's Most Valuable Asset -- Its Employees“ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/08/20/nine-ways-to-keep-your-companys-most-valuable-asset-its-employees/)

The author compares the loss of an employee who leaves the company with the loss of a valuable asset. According to studies, replacing a key person costs between 70% and 200% of the persons‘s compensation.  

The author mentions that most of the retention strategies cost very little. Most of them are psychological, such as mentoring, having fun at work or having supporting managers and superiors. Hire the right people and leveraging the manager-employee relationship are other important factors. 

I personally agree with the author regarding non-monetary rewards. I think it can be much more motivating to have a good relationship with your work colleagues or to feel like your work is valued than simply get paid more. Moreover, the fact that you can progress in your job and that you are doing something useful are very important. 

However, I believe that all this can be motivating once you get a sufficient salary. This means that if you don't get enough compensation for your work efforts, even great non-monetary rewards won't be enough to create satisfaction.

What do you think, are non-monetary rewards more important for employee motivation than simply paying more? From your personal experience, what motivates you to stay with an organization?

Equal Pay Day --> Today

Related to yesterday's guest lecture, I visited the International Equal Pay Day Platform and had to laugh about this video: Global Equal Pay Day Campaign

I know, this issue is not a new one. In fact it is as talked to death as global warming and the unstoppable climate change. Nonetheless, it did not lose in importance. It is turly incredible that women still have to face the fact that they are earning less than men for the same work and effort.
Personally, I feel that there actually should not even be the need of never-ending discussions about this topic in the first place!

Thus, not to talk this explosive issue to more death (sorry for this "highly creative construction"), just watch the video and quietly grin to yourself about our conservative society and outdated way of thinking.
(If you would like to comment, however, please feel free to do so ;) )

PUMA SE

Hey all,

I was just thinking about my PTS again and I wanted to talk with you about something I think they are doing really well.

As many of you know, I worked with PUMA SE in Herzogenaurach in Germany. I was an intern there for 7 months in the PLM Kids Apparel Team.

In the company there were around 120 interns besides myself. I believe this is an amazing measure to on the one hand save loads of money and on the other hand giving over 100 young people the chance to work in an internationally successful company.
What is more is that PUMA is giving all of their interns the chance to keep on working in the company by storing their data in the internal database. I was really surprised when my two bosses told me that they have been interns before. And I also heard that from the head of HR, the headwear PLM, two girls from the marketing department and so on.. So in my opinion this is really a good HR measure. PUMA has so many interns from all over the world and if they have a vacancy they just contact the former interns that would be perfect for the job. And one more time it is a win win situation. PUMA gets an employee who already knows a lot about the company, the systems and already have social contacts in the company and the former intern has the chance of getting a fixed position in this really amazing company.

What do you think about this measure? Is it good to have a lot of interns you can turn to if you have a vacancy or do you think it would be better to also give people a chance who never worked with this company before as they might bring in something new?

I am curious to hear your opinions on this topic.

-Steffie

as we talked about diversity in todays presentation of tnt, i was thinking about one specific company that hit the headlines a few months ago: abercrombie & fitch and their "look policy".

the CEO of abercrombie & fitch, mike jeffries, a self-proclaimed fan of cool-kid elitism explains that - only "good-looking" and thin people get hired for his stores in order to attract other "good-looking" and thin people to shop there
- marketing is exlusively for "cool kids" 
- for men they offer sizes up to xxl (sporty and muscular guys "need" bigger sizes) whereas for women they do not offer bigger sizes than 40 because anyone who is wearing a plus size is not cool enough to shop at a&f

what do you think? is it ok to say what a brand actually stands for by discriminating "not-good-looking" people? who decides which person is good-looking or not?
before writing everything down which crosses my mind right now i end this post with the following statement of mike jeffries:

…we go after the cool kids. we go after the attractive all-american kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. a lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/06/03/abercrombie-and-fitch-cool-kids-and-corporate-bullies/

when you click on the link above you will find a funny video of Ellen DeGeneres (american tv host) - who addressed the a&f controversy on her talk show - it really pays off watching it!!!

employee incentive programs

Hi all,

I just read an article about employee incentive programs.

There are many possibilities to motivate employees besides simply paying more.

Personally I think the best incentives are these, where you are able to spend some time with your colleagues outside of the office. 

As all of us already worked for some time, what did you experience?

Which incentive would you like?

Which incentive would you offer to your employees or which ones you would not?

http://www.allbusiness.com/labor-employment/working-hours-patterns-flextime/14634979-1.html

Facebook and Co. - How do you handle it?

http://www.hrmtoday.com/talent/recruiting/don%e2%80%99t-snoop-on-recruits-facebook-profiles/

I know the topic isn't really new, but I stumbled upon this article and would be interested in how you handle this issue? Do you consider it when you post something (especially some party pictures etc.) on Facebook? And would you give your Facebook details to a potential future employee?

For me the topic is especially interesting, because a friend of mine has worked several times in an Recruitment Consultancy during the summer and one of her main tasks she told me about was to actually screen the Facebook profiles of all candidates they had. Even before the candidates were contacted and interviewed, the company checked their Facebook profile. So the posts and pictures were basically then the first impression they had from the candidate. And as you all know, the first impression is hard to revoke, even if it was just one stupid picture or anything like that...

Looking forward to your comments :-)

Go ahead and pay more

Recently I read very interesting article that highlights challenges and need of creativity in HRM (http://www.hrmtoday.com/featured-stories/go-ahead-and-pay-more/).

I agree with author, especially in nowadays economy, companies are in need for creative solutions in order to find ways on how to avoid waisting money on employees who do not perform well. Author suggests one of possible solutions. What do you think about his method? Will it work?

Also author discusses "managers fear factor". I found it interesting because it sounds very controversial on one hand companies are trying to save every penny but on the other hand when time comes to act managers fear to be disliked if they use "harsh" way. How do you feel

Forget Employee Engagement; U.S. Companies Need Passionate Workers

Here a pretty interesting article from Businessweek - The Management Blog

Employee engagement is a short-sighted remnant of the 20^th century management thinking. What companies need today, in a fast-moving globalized world, are workers who are truly passionate about their jobs. This, however, imposes a real challenge on today’s managers.

Research claims that passion is highly related to pay (and the role or position a worker has in the company). Workers, however, state that their passion – even though having been in existence once – simply evaporates as companies do not keep their promises and as they constantly have the feeling of having “one foot out the door” since employers are constantly reorganizing and restructuring. Why wasting passion on the job when you might not even keep it..

But what is actually the difference between employee engagement and a truly passionate workforce? Which strategies could companies implement in effort to, first of all, select workers who exhibit a passion for their job in the first place and secondly, keep them passionate of and inspired by their work? Is passion – rather than skills and qualifications – a better criterion according to which employees should be recruited? Do you personally think that new technologies and an appealing physical design at your workplace could encourage your passion about your job?

What are your personal experiences with “passion for the job”? Have you ever been inspired by an employment?

Generational tensions

Dear colleagues! Here I have another interesting article: As population is getting older, more and more workforce will be aged 60+. Amongst others, the article below deals with the question if the younger generation of workers sees this as a direct threat on their career progression. What do you think, isn’t it an important and integral part to learn from or share knowledge with experienced staff?

Also the nature of the workforce is changing over time. Besides new trends in technology, can you think of any other tensions which may arise between the so-called ageing workforce and Generation Y?

I am looking forward to your comments!

http://uk.hrmanager.com/articles/share/85059/

Future Office Synergies

Dear fellows,

I kindly would like to ask you to read through this article I found on today´s version of The Entrepreneur. 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227422

Dealing with the future office installations and organization, I personally think all of us might deal with this in the future career. 

I recently talked to my brother-in-law about a similar topic - he was delegated to come up with the office layout for a new subsidiary of a Russian bank in Vienna - and he explicitly mentioned his focus on some topics covered in the article.

What do you think about future´s workplace? What are your experiences on this topic during your PTS, was the office layout keen on sustainability and efficiency? And what do you think about the one-on-one meeting room approach of Mr. Bercy, the architect of Bercy Chen Studio.

Looking forward to your comment and highly appreciate your colaboration!

Michael