By Will Sturgeon, 21 January 2004 17:50
NEWS 21.01.1999: High-tech companies, SAS Institute, PeopleSoft and HP are among the 10 best US companies to work for, according to Fortune magazine.
Datawarehousing software specialist SAS Institute came third on the list, while PeopleSoft rose from 20th position last year to 6th this year. HP maintained last year's number 10 ranking. Also in the top 100 were Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Intel, Computer Associates and 3Com.
Many employees surveyed cited stock options as a good incentive to remain with a company. Training facilities, professional growth, democratic management structure, job security and creche facilities were also important for employee satisfaction.
21.01.2004: The latest edition of Fortune magazine shows how the landscape has changed over the past five years - and let's not forget that it's been half a decade which has included a crippling recession for the IT industry.
Adobe (6th), SAS (8), chip firm Xilinx (10), computer manufacturer CDW (11), Microsoft (25) are all in the top 25, while the likes of Cisco (28), Intel (46), Qualcomm (55) and IBM (72) are all in the top 100.
Among the most interesting tactics of survival employed by one of these companies was the brainchild of John Chambers, Cisco CEO, who encouraged staff to dress down and come into work in shorts in order that the company could turn down the air conditioning - thus saving money, and adding a little novelty to the workplace in the process.
Comments
There is 1 comment. Join the discussion
1. Michael Organe
British Internet Job Boards will have to inspect identity documents.
New EAA work seeker identification Regulations apply to Internet job boards and on-line recruiters.
We understand from the DTI Employment Agency Standards Office that their present intention is that all Internet job boards providing work finding services to work seekers or staff finding services to hirers are likely to be treated as Employment Agencies and governed by the new EAA Regulations.
This means among other things that job boards as well as employment agencies will have to confirm the identity documents of all work seekers before details are made available to hirers or other employment agencies.
Confirmation is being interpreted, in the published DTI/REC agreed guidelines, as seeing original identification documents (passports, etc) and education certificates and the retention of copies of the documents for at least 12 months.
Since Internet job boards are essentially computer systems and they do not have offices all over the country, this document inspection requirement seems impossible to implement.
The requirement to see and copy original identity documents before sending CVs to employers will also be very difficult for most recruitment agencies in dealing with remote candidates and clients because of the problems of obtaining the documents concerned when a candidate is first registered, especially if the registration is carried out on the Internet or by email.
The guidelines imposed by the DTI are considerably more onerous than those given to employers by the Home Office to enable them to avoid prosecution for employment of illegal workers or racial discrimination.
References:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/agency/regs-pl971.htm#agencies
(Who the Act applies to, Employment Agencies)
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/agency/conduct.pdf
(Part IV Regulations 19 & 29).
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/default.asp?PageId=49
(Paragraphs 1-4).
It will be interesting to see whether the DTI will modify their guidelines, following feedback from the seminars being conducted for members by the REC and Lawspeed over the next few weeks.
If not then many companies in the recruitment industry may find themselves operating illegally and liable to criminal prosecution from April 6th.