Sun Cloud
Sun did some great announcements in the cloud space yesterday. What is a cloud or cloud computing? Watch this 4.51 min video and you know the concept. In case you never heard of virtualization you may want to spend another 5 min watching this prior to the above. Our strategy on Cloud Computing is very well described in this video by our Sr. VP Dave Douglas. You may also want to watch the recorded web cast from yesterday when we presented our Cloud concept at the CommunityOneEast Developer Conference in New York. We will be launching our Sun Cloud Storage Service and Sun Cloud Compute Service this summer!
One notion of the cloud is utility computing or what we called grid before, or call it network, using remote computing power on a needs basis. You do not own the hardware, you use power (CPU power in this context) over a data connection just the same as you use electricity or even the phone. You only take a phone in your hands, get a dial tone and start calling, not an awful lot of hardware in your house, no software to update. Wouldn't the same concept be nice for everything you do on a computer today? Just press a button and instantly have the network available to go look something up in the internet?
For me this is the future of computing not only for companies but also for each of us. I really dream of it mostly in those moments when I set up my computer again (usually takes hours to reconfigure everything), when I need to update software or store and backup my data. I really would love a provider do this for me in the most secure way, provide me with the latest software I need in this very moment, have a choice of applications that I could not all purchase myself for use a few times a year. I would be ready to pay a monthly subscription fee – absolutely yes.
Just think that you would never have to buy a computer again, which generally is a waste of money as 2-3 years afterwards you can throw it away and buy a new one. You have a thin client at home that simply does not need any updating and if so your provider just sends you a new one for free like they already do today for ADSL modems.
Already many years back Scott McNealy talked about what he was calling a “big friggin' Web Tone switch”. Still our motto today is “The Network is the Computer”. I really hope that I do not have to dream much more until this vision will really become true. With launching our grid a few years ago we were maybe a bit early but now the whole concept takes root as we see with Amazon Web Services' success.
Posted at
07:39PM Mar 19, 2009
by Volker Seubert in Sun |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
State of Enterprise 2.0
Updating myself a bit on the Web/Enterprise 2.0 buzz over the past week. You only need to look for it and you find the numbers 2.0 everywhere. Still since I touched on this topic here the first time in November 2006 it did not loose but rather gain traction. The trend towards Enterprise 2.0 started beginning of 2006, 3 years from now. It is persistent and no one should have any doubt that the future is going in that direction. Although talking to people in some businesses it looks like the notion of Enterprise 2.0 is only rarely understood or known outside of software and tech companies.
The benefits are huge. Companies who are under pressure to innovate at ever accelerating rates do not have a choice. They need to rely on their employees' potentials and therefor encourage a bottoms up approach for idea generation. Simply networking with colleagues across the globe and structuring knowledge in Wikis leads to huge productivity gains. Additionally with deploying Web 2.0 software the companies' intranets can be made attractive again very easily at lower cost, also because employees themselves are maintaining it.
The entry barrier for companies to join probably is that Enterprise 2.0 is not only about deploying software, it requires a culture shift to an open company that empowers employees. Managers and Executives are responsible for creating the framework and then need to purely focus on leadership, motivation of self directed knowledge workers, nurturing communities, etc. Bertrand discusses the 6 guidelines for going Enterprise 2.0 by McKinsey on his blog.
Also the Hamburg public-private-partnership Hamburg@Work which supports the growth of new media, IT and communications technologies and companies in the city has put Enterprise 2.0 on the title of it's latest edition of “Always On”. Two companies in Hamburg are mentioned as having fully embraced the concept of Enterprise 2.0 and these are CoreMedia and Qype. CoreMedia even created their own in-house Twitter as we did in Sun. Although both are software companies there is the internationally operating Hamburg-based mail order group Otto which created internal forums and wikis as well as an external fashion blog.
Posted at
11:19PM Mar 17, 2009
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[1]
Sunprise 2.0
Time to give an update. Lot of things happened. Sun announced a major restructuring back in November 2008 and I am very positive that we will come out of this as a much stronger company.
Although times
are difficult we keep momentum with our Enterprise 2.0 strategy. It
is really worth going to Peter's
blog and have a look at what happened mainly with our internal
collaboration tool SunSpace. Formerly the main users were our
technical presales employees and it was known under the name CE 2.0.
100
days after launch in July 2008 we had a dramatic increase of
registered users to 20000 Sun employees. Actually now we are at more
than 25000 (which is more than 70% of all Sun employees). Sun Space is a socially-enabled community, part Facebook,
part wiki, part forum and part document-sharing destination. It
allows users to create their own social networks and profile pages,
then join communities on a range of topics. But it is a lot more than
these simple words can describe, a lot of interesting widgets and
features, Peter described them extensively.
This is exactly the tool we are now using with our global HR Business Partner community. We created a place to share best practices in a structured way. In my opinion one of the most important things in our world of knowledge workers today. We developed an initial best practices taxonomy out of which someone posting a new practice needs to choose where to fit their own. Then a template helps to put some standard and structure around each of the practices posted which makes the process very easy. Finally attachments and/or links can be added.
The benefits really are obvious: enabling reuse of knowledge shortens our „time to client“, learning is fostered as is building our global community of HR Business Partners. We even have it in our job descriptions: „Collaborates across the function to effectively leverage in-house expertise in aid of solving client issues“. On top of all that people will learn to use new technologies! We are actually in the middle of rolling this out officially and starting to drive participation. I am just about to join the community leaders community....We're really taking a big step ahead in direction of HR 2.0!
Read this entry from Peter for a summary on Sun's Enterprise 2.0 activities. It is worth having a brief look at the white paper „The Estuary Effect“ which describes what we are doing from blogs, wikis, forums to socially enabled communities.
I also want to reference my former blog entries on the value of social networking for the enterprise and for HR (including a brief presentation) and Enterprise 2.0/HR 2.0.
Posted at
07:18PM Mar 08, 2009
by Volker Seubert in Sun |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
France and Strike
In an editorial note the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” on Saturday wrote about Unions and strike in France. There is something about the international reputation of France related to strong Unions and employees fond of going on strike. Let's hold some facts against it: in measured days of strike France is amidst the average countries in Europe. Also the Unions in fact are not as strong as it may look like. Only 8% of employees are organized in Unions which is one of the lowest rates worldwide. The perception we get is formed by a higher percentage of employees in public services compared to the general industry being part of Unions who regularly manage to focus strikes on key parts of daily life as transportation or schools.
Additionally the mood of the population does seem to change. Unions try to mobilize people and fail. Actually President Sarkozy puts reforms in place without encountering too much resistance. People may have understood that in times of international competition change is necessary. Nevertheless there is pressure in the system with energy prices going up and only “la rentree”, the school start after the holidays in September which traditionally is the time for protests will show what the situation is like.
Posted at
07:58PM Jun 23, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Europe & Beyond |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
Leadership Training
Based on Scharmer's Theory U that I laid out previously there are interesting concepts of leadership trainings. The U process describes 7 leadership capabilities that help leaders or teams in complex situations to find decisions, ideas and solutions by letting go of the past to realize the future as it emerges and connect to the best future possibility.
At Daimler, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Fujitsu more than 150 leaders in each organization went through leadership programs designed by Scharmer based on the U approach. Within such a program at Daimler for example the newly promoted directors conduct interviews with key stakeholders and do job shadowing with some peers. In a 5-day U-based workshop they discuss the results of those activities in small groups, reflect the basic questions of authentic leadership in a room of intentional silence and find their own authentic communication style by practicing with professional theatre coaches and their colleagues to give feed-back. Directors who experienced this learning environment have reported personal behavioral changes (such as better listening skills and a greater capacity to deal with pressure) that have led to new leadership techniques, behaviors and results.
The U process works really well in an environment that is facing the challenge to provide constant innovation to be ahead of the market. A successful top executive at Nokia shared with Scharmer that her focus was on facilitating the opening process. Working with an engineering team in the automotive industry he used a development approach adapted to the U process. The team went through a learning journey (observing and opening), a retreat with intentional silence and an exercise of instantly building prototypes. As the topic was to develop an electronic self healing mechanism for the car engine aspects of an interview with practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine were integrated into the prototypes.
Theory U is also one basic element of leadership development and training for Wolfgang Bischoff and his Human Culture Academy. Together with Andy Logan he is offering a three day course for senior leaders “The Essence Workshop”. Details for the next course can be found
here. The venue is a really nice location at the Baltic sea East of Hamburg.
Posted at
03:53PM May 20, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
Meditation Research
The German weekly news magazine Focus had a cover story last Saturday on mental training and the latest findings in science about stress and burn-out. Meditation and mindfulness turn out to be effective tools against stress and burn-out symptoms.
Very successful in the US is MBSR: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, which is offered as an 8 week course in 250 clinics all over the country. It has been developed by the Center for Mindfulness (CFM) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School: “The central focus of the Clinic is intensive training in mindfulness meditation and its integration into the challenges/adventures of everyday life.” Jon Kabat-Zinn invented this methodology and made proof that it is medically effective. It is based on an ancient Buddhist meditation technique: Vipassana Meditation which is also called insight-meditation and aims at self transformation through self observation.
There is more and more evidence from research on the effects of meditation. Psychologist Richard Davidson worked closely with the Dalai Lama who connected him to Tibetan monks with whom he could do his medical studies of the brain as it relates to meditation. The outcome of his work can be read here: Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources and Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation.
Sara Lazar at Harvard University found out that meditation influences cortical thickness of people who have meditated for a long time: “Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset age-related cortical thinning.”
In my previous blog entry I mentioned that meditation is still regarded as strange by many in our Western world. Although there have been already some meditation courses for executives in the past this type of mental training remains outside the corporate world. Through the type of research mentioned here this might change over time.
We see more and more adoption of Eastern philosophy in our Western world. Tools from Buddhism, Yoga, Ayurveda, chinese medical treatment... the list is long. Regularly there are features in the press or television about any one of these techniques. A probably more philosophical question is why we do not stick with our own techniques, our medicine, the belief in our religion? Apparently these are not able to fill a gap that has occured with the ever accelerating pace of the world around us which made us loose contact to our own roots, traditions, ancient wisdoms...??
Posted at
08:37PM May 14, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Personal |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[1]
Presencing
Some years ago I came across an interesting theory of a professor at MIT called Claus Otto Scharmer. Since I started this blog I always wanted to point it out. Now already one year passed since he published his book based on years of research including many interviews with leaders from all continents: Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges.
I have to admit that I am absolutely impressed by his forward thinking approach. Just the title “Leading from the Future as it Emerges” and the core element of his theory, Presencing: “Letting the inner knowing emerge” feels to me like a ground-breaking, eye-opening approach to start solving some of the worlds most prevalent problems by educating the leaders for the coming decades of this century in any organization or institution.
He writes in the executive review on the Theory U webpage that I will use here as I do not count on describing it any better in my own words (also the Graphic inserted is borrowed from there): “We are blind to the source dimension from which effective leadership and social action come into being. We know a great deal about what leaders do and how they do it. But we know very little about the inner place, the source from which they operate. And it is this source that “ Theory U” attempts to explore.”
In this article about Theory U that I invite you all to read he is referring to Albert Einstein who “famously noted that problems cannot be resolved by the same level of consciousness that created them.” And Scharmer continues: “If we address our 21st-century challenges with reactive mind-sets that mostly reflect the realities of the 19th and 20th centuries, we will increase frustration, cynicism, and anger.” To really address the systemic root issues of our problems he suggests a new Social Technology, consisting of seven essential leadership capacities: Holding the space of listening, Observing, Sensing, Presencing, Crystallizing, Prototyping, Performing which he lays out in any of the sources linked above. He starts very simply with listening and lists 4 levels of it: downloading, factual, empathic, generative... somewhere in his article there is a subtitle: “Slowing down to Understand” which best describes where most of us are at and where we should go...
I think this is enough to make you curious, there are more materials on the web at Ottoscharmer.com. There is also the Presencing Institute. I am always looking myself for ways to use any of the elements in my daily life and work. And I am coming back to a path that some may pursue after looking more deeply into Theory U, something I already mentioned while writing about Jim Collins' Level 5 Leadership and this is Meditation. A technique still regarded as strange by many in our western world but definitely used by some Asian leaders (although it is also practiced in Christian religions). We are at the essence here to solve some of the “Human Challenges” we are currently facing not only at a corporate level... This may lead us to connect more to our inner being and... no fundamental change without any fundamental transformation of Self!
Posted at
11:17PM May 08, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
Pivotal Talent
I got some inspiration out of an HR meeting I have been in last week. We had an interesting discussion based on a concept from Boudreau/Ramstad about an effective talent strategy for the business. The authors get to the point how talent resources connect to strategic success. In consequence they describe how to identify a companies' “Pivotal Talent”. In order to do this it is crucial to know what are the key critical business processes that mostly contribute to the defined strategic success and then get clear about the people who are influencing these processes.
That way Federal Express in Asia identified couriers and dispatchers as being the pivotal talent. They needed to be knowledgeable about the logistics behind the scenes to give the customer the right answer if asked to wait another 15min because there are 10 more packages to come. Either they could do it knowing that the timing window at the airport hub is wide open or they would need to tell the customer that someone else will be picking up these additional ones.
The Disney example is also about increasing the customer experience and satisfaction as the main strategic goal. They identified the sweepers as most critical to help make people feel cared about waiting in the queues. They could for example get a new icecream for a child who just had it's fallen on the ground.
The pivotal talent may not always be the most obvious talent that we naturally tend to value. This shows that the concept of “Pivotal Talent” is even more important to apply!
Posted at
06:47PM Mar 20, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[3]
Brainstorming
Another really interesting learning I had over the past week was brainstorming with reverse assumptions. It may sound obvious or easy but a group doing it the first time needs a while to get into it. What would you say being part of a services group if you are NOT customer oriented? But exactly this provoking statement gets new ideas out of people. They start thinking about what this really means and things like bringing services proactively to the customer can arise – opening up to go beyond customer oriented!
Posted at
06:47PM Mar 20, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
Europe of Regions?
I was reminded of an interesting European reality during my stay in Barcelona last week. Europe is not as homogenous as many people may think. Alone the European Union consists of 27 countries. Within these countries there are a lot of regions that have own cultural traditions and own languages. Spain for example consists of several regions with different languages the most predominant being the Basque region (in the north-west around Bilbao/San Sebastian reaching pretty far into French territory) and Catalonia (region around Barcelona). One of the major German newspapers titled an article in connection with the Spanish elections last week-end “State without Nation”. Both the Basque and the Catalan got some autonomy within Spain, they have powerful regional political parties that play a role in the government. Also they are important economical hubs on the Iberian peninsula.
The Young European Federalists promote the idea of a Europe of Regions, power for what makes sense at the lowest political level, also to solve for Nationality conflicts like the one of the Basque who are split to Spain and France. I copied this from their website:
This could make a lot of sense to reduce bureaucracy for the benefit of the people if the complexity at a European level would not increase. With 27 countries and their governments all having a voice to decide on political direction the EU is already far too complex and limits its global role. Complexity at that level definitely needs to be reduced rather than increased!
Posted at
10:50PM Mar 13, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Europe & Beyond |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[1]
Arabic History
Let me write up some final notes casually collected around the Dubai topic. The most interesting piece really is that European history is related to Arabic culture. Who knows that the Iberian peninsula had been conquered nearly entirely by the Muslim moors of Arabic and Berber descendant back in the 8. century? They were known as being extremely tolerant towards the defeated Christian and Jew population. Everyone was explicitly permitted to follow their own cults and religion which was not at all common at that time. The Christian's were extremely intolerant in that regard.
Something that could have favored the quick learning of the Sheiks from the West is the fact that there are aspects of Islam religion which are apparently very much favoring the acquisition of knowledge for its believers. This was one reason why the Islamic world in historic times held several huge libraries, like at the University of Cordoba (today Spain) with half a Million books or the two caliphian libraries in Cairo with 2 Million. Science had an important place. In the year 1000 a scientific catalogue was published in Bagdad containing everything written thus far in Arabian on Philosophy, Astronomy, Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. At the same time Abulkasis writes a standard work on surgery valid for centuries, Albiruni already discusses that the earth is surrounding the sun and Alhazen discovers the principles of optics and experiments with the camera obscura.
Only in 1492 with the conquest of Granada which marks the end of the centuries long Reconquista Christian rule was entirely reestablished in Iberia and with it prosecution and intolerance started to reign. Only source of wisdom was the bible, it gave all explanations how the earth was related to the universe. Just reading scientific papers was a sin. Paralyzed in this conservatism, it still took Christianity several hundred years until the age of enlightenment before starting to open up towards more liberal views.
Today it looks like the Islamic world is split. As stated here before the Emirates are definitely setting an example for a new Islamic openness following the footsteps of their far ancestors.
Posted at
08:54PM Feb 28, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Europe & Beyond |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[1]
Arabic Capitalism
Interestingly the German weekly news magazine “Der Spiegel” ran a title story on Dubai beginning of February. Looks like the topic is hot. It was emphasizing the superlatives aspect of Dubai, the Emirates being the country in the world with the most mentions in the Guinness Book of records. But far more interesting it was looking at Dubai as an Arabic/Islamic model for the future, an element against Islamic conservatism, poverty, civil war and terrorism in other parts of the middle east and north Africa. Located between East and West, with a population of 1,5 Billion in a radius of 3 hours flight, being close to the growing markets of India/Pakistan, China not being far, as well as the European Union on the other side, Dubai has developed into a major very liberal trading place, somehow reviving the ancient silk road.
The Sheiks of the Emirates are positioning themselves and their country as the spearhead of a new Arabic/Islamic openness and tolerance. During a conference of Arabian states Dubai's Emir and Emirate's Prime Minister Sheik Mohammed Ibn Rashid Al Maktoum threw the following words to his fellow senior government leaders: “Change yourselves otherwise you will get changed.” He is not interested if someone is Sunnit or Shiit, those who are good to their neighbors and work hard are welcome. During his latest visit to the Emirates President Bush gave his blessing, stating that the Emirates are a model of an Islamic state tolerant against people of all religions. Dubai Marketing is advertising with slogans like: “Imagine a world in which no one is a stranger!” 150 nations live together in peace, there are 50 nations amongst the Palm investors.
So the summary really is that the Sheiks are learning very quickly from the West and getting a lot of acceptance. They are very well positioned in the global competition to attract investors as well as consumers and tourists from all cultures. The Egyptian author Jussuf Ibrahim is quoted at the end of the articel, that for decades (Muslim) people travelled to Saudi-Arabia, Irak and Iran importing into their countries the ideas of islamic fundamentalism and bringing black shawls for their wives. Today they go to the Gulf, bring Jeans for their wives and ideas how to make business. "Long live Arabic capitalism!"
Posted at
07:11PM Feb 26, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Europe & Beyond |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
What Petrodollars can do!
We had a meeting in Dubai last week in one of our global top growth regions, the middle east. First impression was like coming to the US or even more precisely to Las Vegas. Huge roads, big cars, tall hotels that in terms of standard are amongst the best of the world as the Burj al Arab. Already before I heard that the city is a huge construction site with all crane capacities concentrated there – and it is. For an impression of the state the city is actually in watch this short video, a drive on Sheikh Zayed Road. The Burj al Dubai is supposed to become the world's tallest skyscraper. On February 5 it actually reached the height of 604.9m (1,985ft). Although the final height was to be kept secret it leaked out that the plan is to go up to 818m (2,684ft).
There are a lot of other development projects (click this link for an overview) currently in progress, planned or finished, like Ski Dubai a skiing hall in the desert, Dubai's Disney World “ Dubailand” and most interestingly all the artificial islands in the sea, the Palm Islands, The World, The Universe. Not to mention all the huge shopping malls that already exist like Souk Madinat Jumeirah or the Mall of the Emirates.
Although one will find Arabic elements in the architecture most buildings still feel pretty artificial. The most impressive building and an architectural success for me is the Burj al Arab built to resemble the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. People living in Dubai for years complained that the city lost much of it's Arabic character.
On January 24 the Herald Tribune reported about the project of “Lyon Dubai City”, the idea of Buti Saeed al-Ghandi the head of Emivest to build a little Lyon after he was overwhelmed visiting the city. The project planner was cited having said that this would not be Disneyland or Las Vegas, they want to make people feel that they are in Lyon without copying the architecture of the city itself!
But it is not Dubai alone seeking to invest the oil billions to develop a self sustaining economy. The big neighbor of the United Arab Emirates on the Arabian peninsula, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the world's leading oil exporting country has even more incredible plans. King Abdullah, the 83-year-old Saudi monarch, himself is pushing a plan to establish six "economic cities" to be completed by the year 2020 in different regions of the country to promote development and diversification. The cities will be King Abdullah Economic City on the western coast, near the city of Rabigh; the Knowledge Economic City, near Medina; and the Prince Abdulaziz bin Mousaed Economic City, in the north.
Referring to another article of the Herald Tribune from January 20 the cities are supposed to create one million new jobs and be home to as many as five million people. They will together have three times the population of Dubai, and an economic output equal to Singapore's. Other plans include building four refineries, two petrochemical plants and a modern graduate-level university with an endowment of $10 billion. The focus will mainly be on four main sectors: petrochemicals, aluminum, steel and fertilizers. One big industry project is already in progress and ready to start production of plastics end of this year: the refining and petrochemical plant of Rabigh that will as one of the world's largest petrochemical plants begin to put Saudi Arabia within the top three chemical producers in the world within a few years. It is a joint venture of the state-run oil company Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical of Japan.
All this investment would not have been possible without the surge in energy prices which have quadrupled since 2002 and reached $100 a barrel in New York in January. But clearly the oil exporting nations do not invest all their increasing fortunes in their own countries. The McKinsey Quarterly in January analyzes “The new role of oil wealth in the world economy”. Added liquidity from these countries has significantly lowered interest rates and increased real-estate values in developed countries. McKinsey concludes that petrodollars are creating inflationary pressures in markets for illiquid investments, such as real estate, art, and companies and states that if the pressures move beyond those markets, the potential asset price bubbles could burst. The question is how the world economy long term would react to higher oil prices that it has so far accommodated without a notable rise in inflation or an economic slowdown?
Last but not least I have to mention that I really enjoyed the Arabian food, one of my favorites being Hummus!
Posted at
05:03PM Feb 10, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Europe & Beyond |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[2]
Dubai
I spent two days in Dubai this week which inspired me pretty much. The picture shows the Burj al Arab lightened in different colours during the night. As a 7 star hotel it is known to be the best in the world. Being confronted with superlatives - this is what it means to go to Dubai. If I have some time over the next days I will write more...
Posted at
06:20PM Feb 08, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Personal |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[0]
Alumni Networks
More reading on social networks brought me to the term Corporate Social Networking (CSN) and SelectMinds, Inc., a CSN solutions provider, apparently coining this term. The results of their first annual client benchmarking study done last year, which examined the financial contributions of CSN solutions to a cross section of its client base of 60 leading, global organizations revealed that a better connected workforce through CSN technology can yield significant financial contributions to organizations. Key benefits noted included productivity contributions, retention contributions, new business opportunities and leverage to re-hire former employees!
The latter is an interesting fact. Let us just collect some of the benefits of keeping former employees connected with the company. These relationships are a source of business and employee referrals including the possibility to re-hire them. Social Networking tools are ideal to build an alumni community and integrate it with regular employees. In that way their knowledge can be more easily accessed which could play a major role with retirees.
But the fact of having more direct access to this population with the intention to re-hire them seems to be the most attractive by far as rehires are quickly up to speed when they come back. They bring a huge motivation with them as they experienced that the grass is not greener elsewhere. They came back because they learned to value the company culture more. And in consequence they are more successful than the average employee, get promoted more quickly and make their ways through the organization. Not to mention the obvious: hiring cost for this population is much lower!
Another aspect where Social Networking can bring value is “Relational Onboarding”. The Human Capital Institute found that the quicker new hires establish relationships the more productive, the more satisfied and loyal to the organization they are!
The business network Xing had a conference on alumni networks already in 2006. More information can be found in the SelectMinds White Paper “Increasing the density of connections to power business performance” which can be requested on their webpage.
Posted at
07:22AM Jan 21, 2008
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
Bookmark to del.icio.us |
Comments[1]
