$27.95
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219 pages
ISBN 9780787998097 Published Oct. 2007
Jossey-Bass
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Posted Dec. 5, 2007 8:15 a.m. by delicious
In General Business - 800 CEO Read Blog
I'm currently reading a very interesting book called, Giving Notice . It's about employee retention and why some workers just leave their work entirely even though they are some of the best, brightest people on their team. Here's just one of the examples given:
One weekend, Eric came into the office to put in more time on an important project. Dressed casually in a sweatshirt, jeans and baseball cap, he was stopped by the security guard. Again. It didn't take long to recall the other occasions when the guards had stopped him on working weekends when he came to the office casually dressed. This time, the guard fired off a barrage of questions about where he was going, what department he worked in, how long he planned to stay, and why he was at the office on a Saturday night. This time, Eric's company photo ID would not suffice, and he was asked to produce a driver's license to "validate" his identity. Then the guard asked him to remove his cap. As he did, Eric couldn't help but notice a white man in a baseball cap and jeans whizzing past the security checkpoint with barely a flash of his ID. At that moment, Eric's enthusiasm for work was gone, his desire to put in the extra time for the team evaporated, and his company loyalty faded. After getting the OK to proceed to the elevator banks, Eric simply turned around and walked out.
I found this not only a valuable piece of insight as to why people quit a job or feel uninvolved in a company, but how we as a society still stereotype regardless of our seemingly 'modern moralities'. Check it out!
Jack Covert Selects - Two books! - One Foot Out the Door - and - Giving Notice
Posted Nov. 14, 2007 2:16 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business by Judith M. Bardick, Ph.D., AMACOM, 240 pages, $24.95 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780814480588
Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay by Freada Kapor Klein, Jossey-Bass, 240 pages, $27.95 Hardcover, October 2007, ISBN 9780787998097
Two books out this fall address a serious issue facing employers: a nation of disengaged workers. In June I wrote about Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, a book that challenged the current career model and its shortcomings for women--and, consequently, a major brain drain in this country's businesses. These two books, One Foot Out the Door and Giving Notice, delve deeper into the reasons all types of employees are feeling dissatisfied in their work, and draw attention to a growing problem that has the potential to shape new generations entering the workforce.
In One Foot Out the Door, Judith M. Bardwick, a former professor of psychology and now a highly-regarded management consultant, begins by giving an overview of the economic ups and downs of the past half-century. She points to the economic recessions of the late '70s and early '80s as the time when our economy's unwritten "social contract"--employees work hard and employers take care of them--fell apart. As cutbacks were made, work was outsourced and people were laid off, the workforce became disengaged and discouraged as they saw their job security vanishing before their eyes.
Today, the author claims, as many as two thirds of American workers are in what she calls a psychological recession: "an emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable and afraid for their futures...[and] expect the worst to happen, so they see no reason to give it their all." They're either actively looking for new jobs or are going through the motions in current positions. Bardwick calls for a "twenty-first century safety net that will reduce the fear by providing financial support and a good sense of community, while avoiding a reinstatement of entitlement attitudes."
On another front, Freada Kapor Klein, co-founder of the Level Playing Field Institute, looks into discrimination that drives knowledge workers out of the well-intentioned corporations that don't fully realize the assumptions and stereotypes that continue to plague their corporate culture.
To show the cost of bias, financial and human, and to bring to life the types of discrimination and unfair treatment many people face, the author profiles three fictional characters "as they negotiate life in a high-end corporate workplace." Then, she offers a framework corporate leaders can follow to identify and uproot those barriers.
If you're looking for ways to recruit or retain talented people, both Bardwick and Klein offer strategic, smart suggestions for establishing a workplace that is welcoming to a diverse set of people and committed to their job satisfaction and growth.
Fall preview: Giving Notice by Freada Kapor Klein
Posted Aug. 6, 2007 5:20 a.m. by 800-ceo-read
In Social Responsibilty - 800 CEO Read Blog
We've had a steady flow of advanced copies of fall books. I thought I would go through a few of them, this week, and give you a preview of what's coming. Below is part of a press release that accompanied the book Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM STAY by Freada Kapor Klein, coming out in October.
Klein focuses on the hidden causes that are destroying workplace meritocracy (a system based on rewarding ability and talent). Giving Notice is "low on jargon and filled with common sense approaches to solve the current imbalance" of minorities and women in positions of leadership. This book is one of many we're seeing on the "international war for talent." It also fits nicely into a growing group of books on the current (and ineffective) career model. Using a combination of quantitative research and anecdotal evidence, Klein addresses nation-wide and world-wide biases, unconscious ideas about stereotypes and commonly accepteed business practices, and the economic, corporate, and human capitol costs of the brain drain. From the press release:
Corporate Leavers: What My Employer Could Have Done to Help Me StayThis revealing survey is based on the Level Playing Field's exclusive Corporate Leaver's Study conducted in January 2007. LPFI began with 19,000 potential survey subjects to yield 1,700 professionals and managers who met our criteria and completed the survey.**
People of Color: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...
- 34 percent: Offered better management which recognized your abilities
- 30 percent: Offered schedule flexibility such as flex time, alternative working hours, or telecommuting
- 29 percent: Offered to pay you more fairly
- 29 percent: Offered a more positive work environment
Gays and Lesbians: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...
- 43 percent: Offered more or better benefits
- 41: Offered to pay you more fairly
- 35 percent: Offered schedule flexibility such as flex time, alternative working hours, or telecommuting
Caucasian Women: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...
- 24 percent: Offered to pay you more fairly
- 20 percent: Offered schedule flexibility such as flex time, alternative working hours, or telecommuting
- 20 percent: Offered more or better benefits
Caucasian Men: Very likely to have stayed if employer had...
- 28 percent: Offered to pay you more fairly
- 20: Offered more or better benefits
- 18 percent: Offered better management which recognized your abilities
The survey also included results that indicated which aspects of work life each group felt more strongly about than their colleagues. It's interesting to see that people value the same things, just in different orders and strengths. Some might say, "we already know this," or "this is intuitive," to which one might respond, "so what are you doing about it?"
**Level Playing Field Institute was founded by Dr. Freada Kapor Klein in 2001. The Institute promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and the workplace.
