employment

This interesting article on deskmag discusses the German government’s plan to force freelancers to pay a compulsory retirement ‘contribution’. Will it kill off entrepreneurship and destroy millions of independent careers? At least that’s the opinion of Tim Wessels, an IT specialist from Hamburg who has launched a petition against the so-called “Rewarding Life’s Work” law. With this law, provided it is passed, Freelancers will be forced to pay €350+ a month to support the broken pension system, on top of the €300-€600 they must already pay for health insurance (plus other taxes). Demanding that entrepreneurs fork out at least €650 a month in contributions before they earn a single cent will end innovation in Germany…

Hi all,

today we released a small membership account, called the “Starter” membership!

With this release we have added an additional, flexible membership option to projektwerk.

As a “Starter” you can use projektwerk for only 8€ a month, enabling a more extensive use compared with the “Basic” membership. The “Starter” membership probably suits you if you wish to proactively contact other users now and then and want to publish projects or profiles on a small scale.

Your benefits as a “Starter” user:

• Contact up to 3 project partners proactively each month – instead of having to wait for requests as a Basic member
• View complete project descriptions and profiles
• Receive detailed matching information on suitable project partners
• Bookmark interesting projects or profiles

More:

• Publish one profile or project at a time
• Receive daily updates for interesting new matches
• Refine your matches with location and relevance filters

The Cisco Connected World Technology Report provides insight into challenges that companies face as they strive to balance current and future employee and business needs amid expanding mobility capabilities, security risks, and technologies.

Cisco examined nearly 3,000 college students and young professionals in an international workforce study and questioned them about their behavior and expectations and looked at how their demands for information access is changing business communication and the future of work.

Among other findings, the 2011 report revealed:

• One of every 3 college students and young employees believes the Internet is as important as air, water, food, and shelter.

• Two of five said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.

• Regarding security-related issues in the workplace, seven of ten employees admitted to knowingly breaking IT policies on a regular basis, and three of five believe they are not responsible for protecting corporate information and devices.

Mobile job searching is on the rise, according to a recent survey by Kelton Research. While smartphones are mainly used to browse the Internet, take photos/video, check email and conduct general search, there is a growing number of people who use their devices to search for work. According to the study, some 86% of smartphone owners said that they would use their phone to find a job; nearly 50% reported that they would even apply to jobs via their mobile phone if they could.

This JIBE infographic shares additional Kelton Research survey data and reveals that jobseekers are increasingly using downtime to hunt for jobs. Unlike traditional methods, mobile job searching can be done anytime and anywhere: Respondents specifically mentioned portability and immediacy as major benefits of applying to jobs via mobile.

What does the rise of mobile job searching mean for businesses? With smartphone usage increasing rapidly – this is definitely a recruiting pool too big to ignore. Companies can attract these tech-savvy jobseekers by optimizing online job boards and making the application process simpler to complete via mobile phone.

Check out the infographic on mashable.com. Would you search for your next job or project with your smartphone?

“Tom Malone, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the HBR article “The Age of Hyperspecialization,” explains why breaking jobs into tiny pieces yields better, faster, cheaper work — and greater flexibility for employees…”

The future of work 2.0

“This interesting post, published by TechCrunch on February 4^th 2012, does not only remind us of how one of the greatest inventions of our generation has already changed the way we communicate, share information, or shop but also gives us a taste of what is still to come: The Internet is changing the way we work – the web is disrupting labor and transforming the definition of employment as we know it!

The post discusses the rise of the “independent worker”, who is one that operates independently and flexibly in today’s work environment – unattached to any particular company. The author, Nick Cronin, summarizes what he believes are the main factors contributing to this development, how these changes are affecting companies’ hiring processes, and the increasing importance of labor efficiency for maintaining a competitive edge.

“The era of the lean, flexible workforce is here and guess where both companies and independents are increasingly locating each other. Yep: The Internet.”

Read the full post “Labor Efficiency: The next great Internet Disruption” on TechCrunch

In that sense, check out the leading online project marketplace for freelancers and businesses in Germany:

projektwerk

According to an article on fins.com (2011), the job market for freelance technologists is continuously growing. Research company Forrester Research estimates the total U.S. business and government spending on IT goods and services to grow to $876 billion in 2012, up 8.8% from 2011 and a 16.2% increase over 2010 levels. Read the full post here:

We have known for some time now the rocketing demand for mobile app development, however, the fact that firms are literally scrambling for engineers who can write software for mobile devices is somewhat amazing. Apparently, the supply of sufficiently experienced software engineers is seriously lagging behind the high demand. According to the WSJ, companies have reacted with increased wages to retain top talent and outsourcing to third-party developers. Mobile apps have worked their way into various industries. As stated in the WSJ article, Google Inc. and Apple Inc. expect revenues for the App Store and Android Market to tripple to about $15billion in 2011…

Check out the full article here: Mobile App Talent Pool Is Shallow

JWT is one of the largest ad agencies in the U.S. and the fourth-biggest in the world. JWTIntelligence, the firms marketing communications network, is a well-known center for provocative thinking. It focuses on identifying changes in the global zeitgeist and revealing cultural shifts: “We make sense of the chaos in a world of hyper-abundant information and constant innovation – finding quality amid the quantity”.

100 Things to Watch in 2011 is a wide-ranging compilation that partly reflects broader shifts the firm has been tracking over the past few years. The list presents interesting trends, from the evolution of the mobile phone into an “everything hub” to the development of counter-trends, for example to balance out the growing immersion in the digital world, people will increasingly embrace face-to-face gatherings and digital downtime.

enjoy…

Human resources usually describes the individuals who comprise the workforce of an organization; often its most valuable asset. Therefore, the strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals are very important factors for most businesses.

Apparently, human resource professionals are still hesitant and critical when it comes to anything technology related, including applicant recruitment and employee selection through social media. However, social medias’ popularity and possibilities have forced H&R professionals to give the medium a second thought.

This post on mashable discusses the issue and looks at how social media is affecting the human resources field.

What are your experiences?