Erik Sorenson's Career Nation

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Executive Age Discrimination

With national unemployment poised to burst through the 10% level for October, it’s not surprising that thousands of execs over the age of 50 are tumbling into the job market.  Downsizing in virtually every major industry has spared no one – and no level.  In fact, with the rate of corporate saving so much higher when eliminating executive positions (high salary and, usually, fat benefits) veteran execs have had a target on their backs. 

In my own little world, I know more than a dozen such people.  Each has been squeezed out of positions in 2009 – or forced into the job market after a long absence to offset 401(k) losses - and a couple have already landed new gigs.  With lots of talented candidates available for every open job right now, landing on one’s feet isn’t easy.  And while there is no magic potion – no quick fix – there are some things you can do if you find yourself in this position:

• Your Career Brand – this is an old saw by now - but many 50+ execs (heck, many 40+’ers for that matter) have not really needed to search for a job for a long time.  Assess yourself and your key attributes and skills and shape all that into your personal “executive brand.”
• Market Targeting – if you have been out of the job market for a time, it’s not necessarily the best approach to target the same career path you exited 5, 10 or 15 years ago.  Most industries have morphed in the intervening years, so you need to think creatively about where your strengths can best be leveraged.  Get creative in terms of industries – and give consideration to Education, Government or Not-for-Profit opportunities.
• The 21^st Century Resume – most Boomer Generation job-seekers haven’t dusted off the resume for many years.  If yours hasn’t been updated since the 80s or 90s, you are going to need a makeover.  It’s not just that the format has changed in the past decade.  The personal brand description has to take center stage and you’ll need to tease that out of a maze of attributes you probably take for granted and haven’t thought about for years, if ever.
• Networking – I hate to raise this because it sounds almost cliché, however it’s the single most important thing to which you’ll need to pay attention.  Like the resume, you probably haven’t thought much about “your network” lately, but you need to wrack your brain (and your contacts folder) to scrape up every friend, colleague, friend’s colleague and colleague’s friend you can.  Most jobs – and most good jobs – come to seekers through a network conduit.  Despite the proliferation of internet solutions, a lot of networking is really fairly old fashioned:  people like to hire people they already know and trust - or people who are vouched for by someone they know and trust.   (That’s not to say the internet and technology can’t support and expand your efforts in this regard.  Along those lines, having a robust LinkedIn profile is a must.)
• Start before you need to – job searches are taking longer than ever right now for a variety of obvious reasons.  The best advice is that execs shouldn’t wait for the pink slip to start this process.  Even if you think your position is secure, it doesn’t cost anything to overhaul your resume, upgrade your personal brand message, research alternative industries and career options, and review your professional network.   It’s the cheapest insurance an executive can buy.

HEALTH COST BALLOON

While Congress and the White House continue to go back and forth on the issue of Healthcare Reform, businesses and their employees are bracing for another stiff round of increases in health insurance costs for 2010.  Insurance brokers and benefits consultants agree that small businesses in particular will be hard hit, on the order of 15% over 2009 costs – which is double the rate of last year’s increases. 

As an example, that means that an annual employee premium that was $2250 in 2008 and $2400 in 2009, will soar to $2750 in 2010.  Larger companies can better absorb the growing cost of healthcare because they have more scale with which to negotiate.  Firms of under 100 employees will struggle the most and be hit the hardest.

The insurance industry says it’s simply passing on escalating costs of healthcare and medicine.  Some suggest that insurers are jacking up rates partially to bank some profits before new healthcare legislation takes effect.  And others say such a strategy will ironically backfire by enraging taxpayers and egging on proponents of reform in Washington.

Hey, if it’s only small businesses, who cares?  Well, small businesses employ about 40% of Americans and these growing costs are putting even more pressure on revenue-strained companies leaving them little choice but to lay off workers.  It’s easy to see how this is turning into a vicious cycle at the bottom of the American business food-chain.

Will this phenomenon drive more American workers to larger companies?  Will it feed a general decline in employee morale?  Will it constructively inform legislative reform or will reform only make matters worse?  Since insurance benefits typically rank in the top five drivers of employee engagement, this is an issue about which we all need to stay aware – regardless of our career station.

Brave New World of Social Networking

Vault co-sponsored a series of awareness-raising seminars in October for recruiters across the country.  There is no hotter topic currently and interest ran high. On-line social networking – as defined by, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace – is here to stay.  Those who think it’s just a fad are mistaken.  And it’s not just the rage among Gen Y.  Much to their probable annoyance, users of social media scale the age ranks through the Boomer Generation.

Since recruiters specialize in finding top candidates, social networks become a logical point of entry.  And since recruiters are often responsible for the quality of the candidates they reel in, there is a great temptation to use profiles as a research tool.  As you may know, there is considerable (and justifiable) chatter in the HR ranks about the legality of such research.  Social media is so new, the law around what’s legitimate and what’s illegal discrimination has not yet been established, but the industry will be watching with eager anticipation.

Meanwhile, aside from recruiting, there are growing implications emerging in the workplace at large.  While making or accepting a “friend request” may seem harmless enough, there is liability risk to be sure.  And due to the often-fuzzy line between professional networking and pure social networking, one person’s friendly curiosity could be another’s stalking or harassment.  Managers have special vulnerability here, as the law expects more from them than rank and file employees.

Since, by definition, most social network sites are chock full of personal information (and gasp, photos) – bosses could be in a position to learn things about employees that could come back to haunt in the case of a discrimination suit.  Also, how’s a manager to decide which employees to friend and which to not – and could those decisions later come back as some kind of “evidence” in a legal matter.  Without a doubt, these are all unintended consequences, but those are often the most dangerous.

Another issue – what if an employee notices apparent behavior or action via Facebook that might be injurious to the company?  Where is that person’s obligation, legally?   Is it to the company or to the “privacy” of the individual in question?   And could an employee suggest, against the backdrop of a disciplinary action or termination, that his or her Facebook affiliations influence that employer action?

Finally – a word of caution to employees.  Nearly half of all bosses recently surveyed said they were “uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” being friended by their employees.  Probably not the best way to raise your profile with the boss.  (Note to my staff at Vault.com:  this is not a left-handed way of asking you not to "friend" me - however I much prefer linking through a professional site such as LinkedIn.) 

Job Candidate Test Drive

With unemployment still rising and the corporate caution light still flashing yellow, it is now clear to all of us that when it comes to recruiting this will be a buyer’s market for a good long time.  For those of us executives who are employed, this is a situation with advantages.  There is a lot of talent out on the street, so when we have an opening we can be choosier than at any time in recent memory.  Not only do we encounter more quality candidates per opening, we can also control the process since we are in the driver’s seat.

This means - at the risk of mixing my metaphors – everything goes, up to and including, taking an executive candidate “out for test drive.”  Since 40% of executives hired from the outside last only 18 months, why not put potential recruits through their paces on a trial basis before locking into a big contract with severance and other bells and whistles?   Some recruiting agencies have even established so-called “leadership on demand” services, essentially rent-an-exec businesses. 

While this practice seems like a no-brainer for companies that can get away with it, what about for executive job candidates?  On the surface, it seems like a negative development in career annals.  However, perhaps it is appropriate for the times in which we live now.  Even out-of-work execs don’t necessarily want to commit to the costs that sometimes come with taking a new job (such as moving the family across country.)  After all, even in tough times, the job hunter wants to be sure she is signing on with a boss and company she’ll really like long-term.   It takes confidence, but those with talent and moxie should not hesitate to submit to trial runs in the C-Suite.  It could be best for everyone.

Management Lessons from the World Business Forum

The World Business Forum just blew through New York and much of the talk centered around this Inflection Point we’re all experiencing.  We are in the middle of the worst economic conditions in almost eight decades.  On top of that, we’re in the midst of a shift from a knowledge-based service economy to something else (one speaker called it “The Creativity Economy.”)   Finally, many of our industries have been ravaged by technology or by foreign competition.

Renowned business strategist Gary Hamel told the Forum that modern-day managers must do three things:  challenge dogma; explore the fringe; and experiment.  David Rubenstein, co-founder of The Carlyle Group had lots of similar advice for business leaders:   focus on areas that are likely to grow; improve your skills of persuasion; and, take some entrepreneurial risk in your career.

I like that last one a lot:  entrepreneurial risk.  The dictionary says an entrepreneur is someone who creates value by offering a product or service, by carving out a niche in the market that may not exist currently.  Entrepreneurs tend to identify a market opportunity and exploit it by organizing their resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions within a given sector. 

Generally, the term is applied to leading a business, but it’s worth thinking the same way about your career.  Have you exploited a market opportunity in the talent department?  Do you understand your own leverage in terms of what you are best at – what you are special at?   And are you willing and able to take the risks necessary to really move forward and take advantage of any inflection point in your industry or the economy?

Experts talk pretty regularly and freely about risk-taking.  Talk is cheap.   Risk can be expensive, which is why they call it risk.  You have to be willing to lose something to gain something in an entrepreneurial situation – and that’s true of taking entrepreneurial risk in your career.  Often it means taking a step or two backward in title, or more likely, income.   But the payoff can be enormous – and ultimately “safer” than playing it safe – and standing still career-wise.

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