This weekend, the Bright Green Talent team had the pleasure of attending a panel at RMI2009 that consisted of the following environmental heavyweights: Amory Lovins: Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute; Ray Anderson: Founder and Chairman, Interface; Carl Bass: President and CEO, Autodesk; Janine Benyus: Author, Founder of Biomimicry Guild; and  Paul Hawken: Author of Natural Capitalism.

Though all the panelists had incredibly interesting insight to share, Ray Anderson stood out to me with his perspective on how integrating sustainability can improve a business, such as he has seen with Interface.

Here’s a cliff notes version of what he talked about:

• The “inevitability of the environmental movement”: “Once you get it, you get it.” He pointed out that he’d never met an ex-environmentalist; that is to say, environmentalism is a lens through which you come to see and understand the world, and once you get there, you can’t go back to ignoring environmental externalities and separating growth from resource limitations.
• The business case for integrating sustainability: For Interface, Anderson said: costs are down, products are better, the people are galvanized, and they’ve received good will from the marketplace. I thought the third point was especially interesting - he talked about how he’s been able to motivate Interface’s employees behind the product and the company, and how each is now an evangelist for the company.
• Biggest dishonesty in the market: lack of carbon pricing and acknowledging externalities.
• The state of the green business movement: “still in the stage of early movers and fast followers.” The key will be continuing to push growth and competition so that the whole industry and marketplace is integrating sustainability.
• Wise words for businesses: “Play to win, rather than not to lose.” He’s been focusing on sensitizing stakeholders, employees, and everyone else to environmental issues to establish Interface as an industry leader.
• Wise words for individuals: “Brighten the corner where you are, and then make that corner as big as possible.”

Of course, we don’t want to discount the advice and perspective of the other illustrious panelists.

• Janine Benyus, the biomimicry thought leader, brought up the shift in the environmental movement that she had perceived from scientists learning about nature to learning from nature. She believes there’s been a democratization of innovation - that small, innovative companies are going to break through and help lead the change.
• Paul Hawken talked about mobilizing the younger generations, his recent commencement speech (worth a read!), and his view on the inaccuracies of macroeconomics (memorable remark to an econ student’s question: “don’t worry about the macroeconomists; one coffin at a time”).
• Carl Bass of Autodesk talked about integrating sustainability into Autodesk’s programs in order to make sustainability accessible and scalable for designers around the world, and his belief in disruptive innovation.
• Amory Lovins spoke about his work with RMI (and how he’d worked alongside a lot of the other companies represented on the panel), as well as the importance of emphasizing hope over despair: “hope requires fearlessness.”

Some other coverage of the event:

• GreenBiz: Reinventing Fire
• Watch the RMI2009 site for videos and other materials from the event.
• Ray Anderson’s new book: Confessions of a Radical Industrialist

Three articles popped into my inbox this morning that are worth a read if you’re a jobseeker or if you’re in HR:

U.S. Jobseekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio (NYTimes)

This chart pretty much sums it up. What it makes me think is how important having an inside connection is - with all those people applying for every job, you need some kind of edge - and a personal recommendation is one of the strongest advantages you can muster.

Career Couch - Dissecting Why You Were Passed Over for a Promotion (NYTimes)

The take-away here? Don’t be defensive. Useful tips on how to manage the situation and leverage it to improve your chances for being promoted next time around.

Economic Downturn Leading to Decline in Employee Commitment, Morale, Watson Wyatt/WorldatWork Survey Finds Workers Expecting Decline in Value of Rewards Programs

Even those who are in jobs currently are feeling the stress of the downturn. The good news? People who feel they’re working for an ethical, sustainable company tend to feel more commitment to the company and purpose, and are more likely to stay within a company and recommend their friends. More incentive for companies to pursue CSR and sustainability agendas!

Like many jobseekers, we’ve seen how search processes have become jumbled over the past year - creating potentially negative experiences for candidates and companies alike. We’ve written on this topic a couple times ourselves - “How Green Companies Can Clean Up Their Hiring Processes” for GreenBiz, and more recently, “The Dangers of Haphazard Hiring” for Triple Pundit.

We came across another great article on this topic from Commongood Careers and thought we’d share it. Great advice on how to create a healthier, more productive hiring process.

Avoiding 10 Common Search Pitfalls

By Commongood Careers

There are a number of ways that recruiting and hiring processes can go wrong, and hiring the right people into the right positions is too important to leave to chance. There are a number of common mistakes that can be easily avoided by utilizing some basic hiring best practices.

(1) Taking Shortcuts with Planning: Make sure that you have dedicated the appropriate amount of time to planning your search before beginning the process. Too often, organizations need someone hired “yesterday” and jump into the process by throwing a poorly developed job posting up on a random smattering of job boards. Instead, take some time to identify exactly what you are looking for in the role, make sure that all decision makers are involved at the outset and that all stages of the recruiting and hiring process have been outlined in advance. These steps will help you focus the search, keep it on schedule, ensure that everyone involved is aware of his or her role, and increase the chances of a successful hire.

(2) Defining Positions Poorly: It has been said that if you don’t know what “treasure” looks like, you can dig in the sand all day without knowing whether or not you have found it. So too with searches, it is essential to fully think through the nature of the role and its responsibilities, as well as the experience, skills and personality of the ideal candidate. This structure should not prevent you from exploring “out of the box” candidates and reevaluating your initial assumptions throughout the search, but it will give you a consistent standard to which all candidates can be equitably compared.

(3) Searching for a “Unicorn”: Whenever possible, define a position that is realistic and an ideal candidate profile that exists in more than a handful of people. Are you looking for a set of skills and competencies that often do not co-exist within one person? Recognize that if you go forward, your search may be challenging and may not lead to a successful hire without concessions being made. Consider recasting the position into something more realistic and test your job description with colleagues and peers to ensure that it is reasonable and clearly communicates the nature of the role.

(4) Setting Unrealistic Salary Constraints: Make sure that the salary range you have designated for the position matches the requirements and experience level you are seeking. Again, if you move forward with a misalignment in this area, such as looking for someone with 15 years of senior experience who wants to work full-time for $32,000; then your search may be slow and frustrating. Almost as challenging as low salary expectations are excessively narrow salary bands. For most searches, it is appropriate to have a $10,000 salary range for entry/mid-level jobs and a $20,000 range for senior roles. Going into a search with too narrow a budget may be a fiscal necessity, but it can also constrain your ability to consider a range of candidates and limit your room for negotiation.

(5) Making Insufficient Recruitment Efforts: It is best to use a broad variety of tools and resources to generate the largest and most diverse pool of candidates. Posting an ad to one or two job boards is generally insufficient. Make sure you tap “active” jobseekers through advertising as well as “passive” jobseekers through robust outreach to your personal and professional networks. A common mistake is to move in a gradual and staged approach, escalating efforts after initial postings have failed to produce results. It is best to be aggressive from the start and make a big splash with your hiring announcement.

(6) Losing Momentum: Recognize that searches follow a cycle and ensure that your search does not lose valuable momentum. There is usually a lot of energy at the beginning of a search, as staff members imagine bringing on great new talent and as initial postings bring an early rush of candidates. As the search goes on, however, people’s energy may wane as your colleagues realize how much time a search can take and as the number of new candidates begins to diminish. It is the hiring manager’s job to make sure that energy and results carry through until the successful completion of the search. This includes re-posting ads, re-mining networks, reviewing candidates efficiently and keeping the team informed.

(7) Lacking Respect for Candidates: Put yourself in your candidates’ shoes and make sure that you are treating them in the way you would want to be treated at every stage of the process. Think things through from confirming application receipt, to the timing and nature of correspondence about their status and the process, to making offers and communicating regrets. Recruiting is a marketing opportunity as well as a means to a hire. Remember that for any given position, only 1 person will be hired, but the other 50-100 individuals could become donors, board members, community partners, or future hires for other roles. Keep all candidate information in a database if possible.

(8) Conducting Weak Reference Checks: Don’t underestimate the power of reference checking. Too many organizations are so exhausted by the time they identify a strong candidate and are so anxious to “close the deal” that they overlook the incredible value of learning from others about their top candidate’s past performance. It certainly can be frustrating when you learn that your top candidate is not going to be the right fit for your position, but it is much more advantageous, both emotionally and financially, to come to that conclusion before the hire is made than two or six months later. Remember also that advice from references can be helpful even as you work to on-board and manage new hires.

(9) Hiring at the Wrong Pace: Don’t hire too quickly. It is important to resist the tendency to let your urgency to fill a position lead to an abbreviated process that lacks rigor and consistency. Similarly, don’t hire too slowly. Make sure that your process moves efficiently through the different stages, and resist the urge to “hold out” for an even better candidate to come along. This latter strategy often leads to a prolonged or unsuccessful search. Knowing in advance what you are looking for and holding to those standards will help you identify a candidate who will meet your needs.

(10) Failing to Document: Be careful what you write down during a search, but maintain a confidential file of each candidate’s application materials, the dates at which they moved through the different stages in the process, and the reasons why they were advanced or declined. This will help protect you in case of any allegations of inappropriate hiring practices, and also creates an invaluable resource of candidates for similar future searches.

This morning, my brother sent along this article on the importance of emotional intelligence as a hiring criterion - though it’s 3 years old, the take-aways hold more true than ever.

Demonstrating that you are emotionally intelligent will go a long way towards lowering the barriers between you and the hiring manager - if they feel you are someone they can trust and connect with on a personal level, they are much more likely to hire you. The opposite is also true - coming across as rude, unreliable, or disengaged will likely give the hiring manager an excuse to cut you loose from the process.

The article’s guidelines for demonstrating your EQ are below - if you’re interested in more reading, check out the class “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman (he also just put out a new book, Ecological Intelligence).

Read the full article: `Emotional intelligence’ a new hiring criterion
By Erica Noonan, Globe Staff  | September 10, 2006

Pay attention to key EQ buzzwords in the job description, (“innovative,” “flexible,” and “friendly,” for example) and incorporate them into your cover letter and resume.

Know yourself, and learn everything possible about the values and culture of the company you hope to work for. “It’s not emotionally intelligent to force yourself into an office culture where you won’t be happy,” said Edelson.

Demonstrate reliability and trustworthiness. One of Edelson’s favorite stories is about a 23-year-old woman who wrecked her car en route to an interview for a sales position at a pharmaceutical company. Instead of being a no-show, she called and explained the situation, and got a ride to the interview. “She was determined to show them she was reliable and would show up when she said she would,” said Edelson. (Impressed, the firm hired her on the spot.)

Never fib about anything. Don’t say you’re fluent in Spanish when you haven’t spoken a word since high school. Assess your skills realistically, but follow with a pledge to improve quickly if the job requires proficiency.

Send a thank you note to show off your good manners, another component of EQ. Handwritten, via snail mail.

Jobseeking can be a lonely, self-centered process.  People often sit alone day after day, slogging through job boards, online applications and career fairs where the continual refrain is “apply through our site.”  It’s easy to start to feel like they are constantly asking favors of friends and friends-of-friends to connect them to organizations who may or may not be hiring. Highly-qualified candidates begin to question whether they do indeed have much to offer since rejection, or even worse silence, seems to indicate otherwise.  If you fall into this category, please remember that it is an extremely challenging time to be looking for a job - be it green or otherwise!

Amidst all the statistics about skyrocketing unemployment and mass layoffs, the story that is often missing is the psychological toll brought on by a prolonged job search in a bad economy.  Jobseekers feel powerless, that their skills aren’t valued, and that their voices aren’t being heard.  As a career coach at Bright Green Talent, I have seen this time and again with the most impressive people you can imagine.

One of the most important messages I try to convey is this: Just as critical to a successful job search as resume polishing, cover letter writing and networking is finding ways to empower yourself.

The best way to do this can sometimes seem counter intuitive but is tried and true — helping others.  Rather than asking all of your contacts for connections, help another jobseeker find career opportunities.  Join a mentoring network through your alumni association or nonprofits groups such as Upwardly Global.  Find a volunteer project where you can contribute your unique skills to help an organization grow.  Join Net Impact and take on a leadership role in your local chapter.

I should emphasize that this is not an argument for creating good karma.  It is because the simple act of helping in and of itself is a way to move yourself in the right direction - from helpless to helper.  This action has a variety of benefits that have been studied at length within positive psychology but when it comes down to it, we feel better about ourselves when we help other people.  If you are a jobseeker, it is critical to understand that this will not only help you cope after long days of seemingly wasted time, but will also keep you articulate and sharp for when you get a chance to ‘pitch yourself’ in an interview or networking event.

For our own part at Bright Green Talent, we’re always trying to find ways to help our social and environmental impact reach around the world to the places where it’s needed most.  We recently launched a campaign in which, for every 50 resumes that are registered with us, we’ll sponsor the education of a child in Madagascar for one year.  Yes, having more resumes on hand helps us place people into meaningful careers with environmentally-minded organizations more quickly — recruiting is, to some extent, simply a matter of being able to find the right people at the right time.

Beyond that, we believe this campaign plays into the concept of empowering jobseekers to feel that they’re part of a larger movement of good work. Education - both about environmental issues and to promote economic security and development - is key to promoting stewardship of the world’s natural resources. Spreading education and opportunity to others, is one of the most important tasks we can take on whether employed or not.

So if you are a jobseeker, find ways to pay it forward.  Your actions are more powerful than you can ever know both for the receiver and for yourself!

Christina Gilyutin, Bright Green Talent’s Director of Development and Chief Career Counselor, attended Stanford University before heading over to the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute of Global Sustainable Enterprise, where she earned a joint MBA/MS in Natural Resources and Environment.

We just started using Scribd to post our documents, such as a sample resume and our extensive interview preparation packet. Log in to our Greenhouse to access the others!

[scribd id=15629617 key=key-2929zxlc3buxgg8qptz3]

Since February, we’ve been putting out daily advice for green jobseekers. If you’re new to our blog or want to poke around in a specific topic, here’s a nearly-complete list of our advice posts. Have a look around!

General:
Bright Green Talent’s 5 Ways to Ramp up your Job Search
Getting Oriented to Go Green
Getting Radically Tempered: Creating Change from the Inside
Paying it Forward
To School or Not to School?
Job Search Tip: Quality over Quantity to Keep Your Sanity
Linking People and Planet: Our Partnership with Solar Richmond
“Oh no, please don’t make me NETWORK!”

Sustainability Consulting:
Sustainability Consulting: What is it, and am I qualified? Part I
Sustainability Consulting: What is it, and am I qualified? Part II

Career Transitioning:
Perspectives from a Green Career Transition-er
To School or Not to School?
Getting Oriented to Go Green
Getting Radically Tempered: Creating Change from the Inside

Engineering:
Renewable Energy Inroads
Solar Opportunities to Match your Skill Set
Solar Classes and Certifications

Students and Recent Grads:
The Real Deal on Green Jobs for Students and Recent Grads
Get Skills; Get Savvy Part I
Get Connected (Networking 101)
How Not to Be a Jobseeker Horror Story
Resume Boot Camp I
Resume Boot Camp II
Resume Boot Camp III
Get Linked(In)

Networking:
“Oh no, please don’t make me NETWORK!”
Get Connected (Networking 101)
Get Linked(In)

Career Coaching:
Here to Help: BGT Launches Career Coaching
Career Coaching: Launch is a Success!
Kudos to Christina: Career Coaching Feedback

Tom’s (Rules of) Thumb
Green Jobs: The Definitive Article
Top Skills for Getting a Green Job
What’s the Best Way to Find a Green Job?
Twit Your Way to a Green Job
On Eco-preneurship

Here is an interesting article about CSR and HR and how the two work together. Some of the key extracts:

• If there is something that is guaranteed to make businesses sit up and listen it is competitive advantage. Human Resources agrees that CSR practice adds value to busines.
• So why is corporate responsibility important for HR? When asked to rank the top three benefits of CSR in the workplace, the most votes overall went to helping to retain staff, followed by the ability to attract the best talent and helping increase motivation and engagement. But when asked to rank the single most important benefit, 57% of you said creating a strong organisational culture is the most important aspect of CSR.
• Research from resourcing communications agency TCS finds that 44% of employees say an organisation’s CSR policy is likely or very likely to affect their decision to apply for a job within that organisation.
• According to a survey by BPRI and BMRB last year, 44% of the public and 66% of MPs think the motivation behind CSR is enhancing image, rather than contributing to the community or motivating employees.
• Nearly 30% of people would compromise their salary to work for a company with a good CSR policy.
• Business executives, NGOs and policymakers believe that CSR will become a core business strategy in the next five years. A survey released at the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) annual conference in San Francisco found that 82% of 330 business leaders polled at the event were optimistic that this would be the case.

Tags: HR, CSR