Each year, the College Employment Research Institute, under the leadership of Dr. Phil Gardner, puts together a look at the current state of recruiting with regard to college students (check it out here).

Based on a sample of 4,300 employer representatives, their reports indicate that "the new college labor market inches ahead with a 3 percent gain over last year across all degrees.  Strong demand for marketing finance, human resources(!), and advertising majors as well as the inclusive "all majors" group will push up hiring for Bachelor's degrees by 5 percent."  The large surprise in the report was the strong demand for Associate's degrees, which were up 30% from the previous year, and were outpacing four-year degrees for the past several months.

Its a long report (57 pages), but one of the interesting highlights was asking employers which talent management strategies they were likely to incorporate over the next three years to circumvent potential skill shortages in their organization.  The authors narrowed it down to six options (from an array of possibilities):

• Moving operations.  Few organizations (4%) identified this as a strategy they were pursuing.
• Mergers and acquisitions.   As with moving operations, only a small number of employers (6%) chose this approach
• Partnering with other organizations.  Nearly 16% of employers were considering this, with educational services, non-profits, and healthcare services most likely to pursue this option.
• Investing in technology. Here, less than 25% of employers indicated they were likely to pursue this choice, with larger organizations the most likely to make the effort.  
• Participating in early talent development programs on college campuses.  As with technology, organizational size made a difference with 50% of large employers (< 4000 employees) adopting this strategy compared to only 15% of very small organizations (< 10 employees)
• Increasing amount spent on training.  Nearly 45% of employers plan to expand their efforts in this area, with small organizations (100-500 employees) leading the way.

  Is your organization planning to increase spending on training?  Does this jibe with your 2013 recruiting plans? 

Over the past several days, you have seen 152,467 blog posts on Greg Smith's op-ed in the New York Times bemoaning the culture that had befallen Goldman-Sachs.  I'd much rather look at another, more positive culture - no, not Zappo's or Southwest - it's Michigan State basketball under Tom Izzo, yet again.

Over the past 15 years, MSU has reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament 10 times, with a possible 7th trip to the Final Four this year in that same time period.   One of the primary reasons for the success is predicated on a particular system that is adopted throughout the institution:

 “We just have a system down, and we use the same system but we tweak it here and there,” said Izzo, who breaks down film more like a football coach than a typical basketball coach. “I have a real confident belief that if we win the first game, that’s what I tell them: ‘You win the first game, I’ll get you through the second.’”

This devotion can be seen by some of the least appreciated members of the team - the student members.  Within minutes of the completion of the Big Ten Tournament, the student managers were in a van driving back to East Lansing to start putting together film of the opponents in the first weekend of the tournament for the coaches and players to watch:

Towels, water, errands and all the traditional manager duties are involved. But MSU also counts on its managers to record and dissect games of potential opponents — breaking them up into categories such as zone defense, man defense, made 2-pointers, missed 3-pointers, etc., and handing them off to (MSU Video Coordinator Jordan) Ott and the coaches for analysis.

After the victory on Thursday night over LIU-Brooklyn,  a similar process began:

While MSU’s coaches and primary players showered and prepared for media obligations, the team’s student managers created a basketball half-court in one of the Renaissance Downtown’s meeting rooms with duct tape. Assistant video manager and former Sexton head coach Doug Herner paced out the measurements, and a 3-point line, foul line, baseline and sidelines appeared on the carpeted floor. 

By the time Tom Izzo and his team arrived around 12:45, the walk-ons were ready to rehearse several plays of the Saint Louis offense at walking speed, with the regulars going through their defensive assignments. Then it was 1:15, bed time for the players and time for the coaches to really dig into some strategic nuances that might push No. 1 seed MSU (28-7) past No. 9 seed Saint Louis (26-7) in today’s NCAA Tournament third-round game at Nationwide Arena.

Finding individuals who are willing to take on this 40 hour a week task (plus extra during the postseason) at no pay is critical

Ott takes a month each fall to decide on his hires, for jobs that are not advertised. He wants people who are trustworthy, enthusiastic and hard-working. Love for basketball is a must.

However, there are long-term payoffs -  full time positions elsewhere:

When Auburn had a video opening a few years ago, its people called (MSU's Director of Basketball Operations Kevin) Pauga and asked which MSU managers didn't have jobs.

"That became their entire candidate pool," he said.

"The biggest compliment to those guys," MSU assistant coach Mike Garland said, is that when an NBA or college team has an opening, they always call MSU first. 'Who you got?'"

The real kicker in this story  is this...not only did current managers work on prepping the some 17 games of video they had on LIU-Brooklyn prior to last Thursday's match-up:

Some former managers even stopped by to help them start finding and logging game film into MSU’s computer system as soon as LIU-Brooklyn was announced as the Spartans’ first opponent.

Former employees...coming back...and helping...at no pay.

How many of your organizations can say they have alumni return to your place of employment to help out?

That's a true mark of a successful culture!