Currently, corporate social responsibility, although certainly a concern for most organizations, is not among the high priority issues. But one business executive argues that cultural and social changes may push the matter into the forefront of business planning – and so human resource departments need to be aware of it.

As consumers become savvier, as social media brings more transparency and accountability, and as resources become more scarce, all of these things will conspire to make corporate social responsibility more significant, says Susan McPherson, a business executive.

She sees this initiative taking several different forms.

One is with employee engagement. She predicts that companies will become more involved with non-profit organizations through employee volunteer work. This will be even more prevalent if the economy continues to struggle, she says. About 80 percent of all businesses are planning to do some type of employee engagement effort in 2012. These efforts also help with the productivity and effectiveness of employees – engaged employees report being happier at work. Also, the profits at companies where the employees were more engaged grew three times faster than for other businesses.

McPherson also believes that companies in the future will partner with non-profits to help grow the business and to improve image and exposure. A 2010 survey showed that two-thirds of brands are involved in some type of non-profit partnership, an increase of almost 10 percent over the previous year. Almost every marketing manager believes this is an effective business strategy.

Another trend that will drive these partnerships is the rise of social media, which will increase the pressures for more transparency from organizations. Consumers will have the means to communicate their feelings directly to businesses and non-profits. Businesses and non-profits that engage with consumers will come out ahead, McPherson says.

Corporate boards will be faced with corporate social responsibility issues more and more, McPherson says, with investors more concerned about environmental issues, with risks to business reputation, with political spending, with natural resource management, and with diversity issues. These issues will of necessity become part of business strategic planning.

With the depletion of global resources, things such as supply chains involving scarce resources and how they are handled will become more significant as well, McPherson adds.

Human resources professionals have a lot on their plate today: sourcing, hiring, planning benefits, employee engagement…and now social responsibility initiatives. Let Bayside Solutions help lighten your load by allowing us to help you find terrific workers for your San Francisco-area company’s temporary staffing needs. Contact us today!

If your human resources department is involved with overseeing volunteer programs for the company, here are several ideas for getting employees engaged within volunteer opportunities that don’t actually have them involved in some kind of volunteer assignment.

One thing a company can do is sponsor a kind of signature volunteer program that is of a short-term duration, but one that involves the entire company. For example, JP Morgan Chase has a volunteer program called Global Days of Service, which is a month-long effort of volunteer service each year by Chase employees around the globe. The Chase employees get together with family and friends to volunteer in a variety of service projects. In 2002, volunteers at Chase worked in more than 950 projects in 275 cities around the world.

In another kind of volunteer effort, companies can help out non-profit organizations by volunteering their skills and business expertise. An example here is America Online, which offers IT help to non-profits and schools. The goal is to help them more effectively use resources online for whatever purpose they have. .

To get the most out of your volunteer programs, your company should follow a three-point plan outlined by the Points of Light Foundation:

• First, your company should acknowledge that community service and employee volunteerism are not just the right thing to do, but important to your business achieving its goals.
• Next, your company needs to make a commitment to create and encourage volunteerism for all employees, and you need to look at community service the same as any other business function.
• Finally, you need to focus your efforts at serious social problems in the community.

Community service programs have wide-ranging benefits. They help workers do their jobs better, acquire new skills, work in teams, think creatively, and help with job satisfaction. They also are an important factor in attracting and retaining good employees. And, as is well known, they also improve the company’s image and reputation.

Will you need skilled and reliable workers for your San Francisco-area business in 2012? Then give Bayside Solutions a call! We can place one worker for a short-term assignment, or several temporary workers for long-term assignments. We can even help find great full-time employees for direct-hire assignments. Contact us today!

The White House hopes to drive $4 billion into building retrofits and create tens of thousands of new jobs—if private partners can deliver on their promises.

Can the Obama administration spur $4 billion in building energy efficiency retrofits without being able to get the money out of a deadlocked Congress? Apparently we’ll have the next two years or so to find out.

After months of working with former president Bill Clinton and a lot of private-sector and government partners, the White House says that more than 60 organizations have pledged to spend $2 billion to retrofit about 1.6 billion square feet of commercial and industrial property in the next 24 months.

The White House simultaneously announced a commitment to move forward with $2 billion in federal building “performance-based contracting” projects over the next 24 months. Because private investors and companies will pay for efficiency upgrades at government buildings, then pay themselves out of the energy savings, those projects can go forward without new federal spending.

Together, that $4 billion in projected commitments could add up to tens of thousands of jobs. Consider it a major new market opportunity for the building energy efficiency sector—and a major new challenge in making private-sector economics work in the absence of direct taxpayer support.

Also consider it a thorn in the side of the Obama administration—because they have been unable to get Congress to act on many of the proposals in its Better Buildings Initiative launched last February. The Department of Energy initiative laid out a laundry list of building energy efficiency initiatives, all aimed at making the nation’s commercial buildings 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020.

Part of that plan was the ‘Better Buildings Challenge,’ launched in late June 2011 at the Clinton Global Initiative. 14 initial private sector and local government partners pledged to spend $500 million to retrofit buildings totaling about 300 million square feet.

That included big public-private partnerships in Seattle, Los Angeles and Atlanta, as well as buy-in by USAA Real Estate Company, Best Buy and other corporate partners. Partners including Citi, Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Metrus Energy, Transcend Equity and Renewable Funding agreed to provide at least $525 million in project funding. San Francisco-based startup Serious Energy promised to execute $100 million in energy efficiency upgrades for customers as part of the initiative.

The $4 billion challenge is the latest move the Obama administration has made as part of its “We Can’t Wait” campaign to bypass a deadlocked Congress and spur job creation, even as the President pushes lawmakers to pass a $447 billion jobs bill.

The Political Economy Research Institute projected in June that the entire Better Buildings Initiative could create up to 114,000 jobs if implemented in full. Much of that would have to come via legislation, which seems increasingly unlikely, at least this year.

The big question is whether the economics of building energy retrofits are developed to the point where they can support a $4 billion boost in business without loan guarantees or other federal supports.

Companies today are complaining a lot about the trouble they are having finding the talent they need. But, according to business writer George Anders, the problem may not always be with the candidates but with the blinkered perspectives of the people doing the hiring.

The problem may be that the businesses are looking for the perfect resume – too perfect, in fact. They think the best person for the job is the applicant with the 3.9 grade point average from some elite school. But, Anders says, they are finding out that these people don’t show as much initiative as the companies would like to see. Too often they are waiting to be told what to do.

In looking for the perfect resume, businesses are unintentionally weeding out the more freewheeling types, the people who may not have had the best grades, but aren’t afraid to take chances, Anders says.

Anders says companies need to change their mindset, to take a harder look at people who have “jagged resumes,” ones that show successes and failures, because the failures might be evidence of risk taking, of people trying to transcend themselves. Steve Jobs was one such person – he never finished college.

On the face of it, it may look unnecessarily risky to consider such candidates, but if done properly, businesses can find good people, Anders says. To be effective, companies first have to determine what kind of character traits they are looking for, the ones that are indicators of future success. For example, Anders says Teach for America looks for perseverance. Linear Technology looks for the kind of people who like to tinker, and have been doing it since they were children. Resilience, efficiency, curiosity, and self-reliance might be other traits that are important. But whatever the traits, Anders says, the motto should be, “Compromise on experience, not on character.”

Also, Anders says, companies should determine what shortcomings are acceptable. For example, work histories that show that the person jumped around a lot may not really matter all that much. A little eccentricity or mediocre grades also may not be a problem, whereas ethical flaws, or a lack of motivation, may be deal breakers.

Because of the turbulent economy, more people than ever have these jagged resumes, For some hiring managers, that might mean instant disqualification of the applicant, but for others who are willing to look harder and more perceptively, there may be real gems found in the less-than-stellar resume.

If you’d like to forgo culling the hundreds of resumes coming by your desk,talk to Bayside Solutions about helping you find the great people your San Francisco-area company needs. Contact us today!

What’s wrong with the traditional pharmaceutical drug development process? Why is it so expensive and inefficient? Critics of the industry blame thinning drug pipelines, escalating development costs and a lack of innovation. Many pharma company executives blame increased regulatory scrutiny, burgeoning labor costs and downward drug pricing pressures due to the generic drug market.

A new theory suggests that big pharma’s current woes stem from flawed business practices that the industry has followed for the past 60 years.

From 1950 to 2008, the FDA approved 1,222 new drugs and biologics. Over the same period, the annual investment into new drug R&D dramatically increased — growing at an average compounded rate of 12.3% per year to roughly $50 billion per year. Despite this massive R&D investment, the number of new drugs approved each year over the past 50 years has remained fairly constant: averaging 25 to 30 per year.

Therefore, spending more money on R&D initiatives did not help to improve innovation or drug development productivity in the life sciences industry.

Today’s pharmaceutical industry faces several major financial and business challenges.

• Longer R&D cycles and increasing regulatory scrutiny are causing R&D costs to spiral out of control.
• The impending patent expiry of many blockbuster drugs threatens to cut total drug sales revenues by as much as 41% by 2015.
• By the end of 2012, 20% of big pharma’s current sale revenues will be susceptible to generic drug encroachment.
• Generic prescription drugs are predicted to take a bigger chunk out of total global pharmaceutical sales by 2014.
• Healthcare reform legislation and downward pricing pressures imposed by insurance companies and third-party payors are driving down drug reimbursement costs and squeezing the margins of many branded prescription drugs.

Drug makers have attempted to control costs through job cuts, corporate restructuring and M&As. Over the past four years alone, the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies have eliminated over 200,000 jobs. During the same period, M&A activity has skyrocketed as big pharma companies rush to bolster their biotechnology product offerings. While both strategies are likely to help to control costs and boost company stock prices in the short term, neither is likely to help to improve productivity or spark innovation.

The Blockbuster Drug Business Model – No Longer Viable
The blockbuster drug business model is no longer viable or sustainable in today’s marketplace. There is general agreement among most industry analysts that big pharma companies must change to remain productive and relevant. These changes include:

• improved R&D productivity
• a continuation of drastic cost-cutting measures
• a strategy to rapidly garner market share in emerging markets.

While some analysts contend that conventional M&A strategies can address these issues, there is a growing consensus that fundamental changes to big pharma’s business model are necessary to ensure its survival.

Open Innovation
Historically, the life sciences industry has operated by using a “closed innovation” business model, which is mainly driven and protected by patents and IP, and product development is frequently done internally and secretly without much input from external sources.

An open innovation model — such as those used by software developers and information technology companies — is nimble and flexible and relies on both internal and external resources for product development and commercialization. Otherwise known as “crowdsourcing,” this business model leverages the collective external expertise of a network of contributors (the “crowd”) to help develop products that originated as internal ideas.

While most of crowdsourcing’s better-known successes have been realized in the software industry, like Linux software and the Google Android operating system, the possibility of applying it to pharmaceutical R&D is gaining support. Over the past few years, several big pharma companies have begun to apply the crowdsourcing concept to early drug discovery and development.

A Novel Idea: Crowdsourcing Clinical Drug Development
Most of big pharma’s experiments with open innovation have focused on drug discovery, most likely because it’s the least regulated part of the drug commercialization process. But, although substantial financial investment is required for discovery research and preclinical drug development, the most expensive part of the process is usually human clinical trials. And human clinical trial costs are rising, mainly because of regulatory agencies’ increased emphasis on drug safety.

Challenges
There is no question that open innovation drug discovery models are gaining traction at several major pharmaceutical companies. However, wholesale adoption or “buy in” of the open innovation model by the pharmaceutical industry faces several major challenges:

• the open innovation model would likely elevate the regulatory requirements associated with drug development because of the increased number and diversity of contributors to the process.
• implementation of the model would require careful design, ongoing and regular contact with regulators
• a large investment and commitment of overhead in project management and information technology support would be required.
• how will patents and other intellectual property generated during the open innovation process be handled and managed? Who will own the patents?
• Open innovation will require an unusually complex reward system for contributors that include fees for service, fees for success, and milestone and royalty payments
• As big pharma companies continue to become increasingly risk-averse, it isn’t clear what percentage of risk they will be willing to assume in open innovation drug development projects.

If you work in human resources, one of your responsibilities may be the oversight of your company’s online compliance training. Online training is now widespread, and many argue that it can be an effective way of learning. But do you know how well your online programs are working?

Stephen Paskoff, CEO of a provider of ethics and compliance learning solutions, tells the story of someone working at a financial services firm who had to complete 17 online courses covering financial transactions ranging from ethics and discrimination to harassment in about one day. The man said he clicks his way through the courses but learns little. He just tries to get through it as quickly as possible to get his bonus.

Another person who works at a manufacturing firm says he clicks through the courses as fast as he can. Everyone looks on the courses as pretty much of a joke, he said. Once the courses are completed, management never mentions them again.

Paskoff says when the courses are delivered this way – without any context or follow-up – they really are of little benefit to employees. These type of click-through courses are set up just to give employees some legal information and document that they received it. But just getting information in this way really doesn’t do much to change behavior.

Paskoff argues that to really change the types of employee behavior that causes problems in the workplace or that is even illegal, workers really need a strong motivation for change, and with that, simple guidelines to follow.

The information cannot be conveyed simply as a one-time event, without any follow-up or emphasis from management. Company leadership needs the tools and the know-how to continually reinforce the messages delivered in the online program.

The problem isn’t with the online compliance training, which can be very effective, but with the delivery of the message. The way these online courses are handled tells the employees that the company really doesn’t value them and what they have to say all that much. They come across as some unthinking ritual. A company’s leaders need to provide continual support for the messages in these courses, and the messages themselves must be clear, simple and direct, so that they can be easily followed. Otherwise, the courses will continue to be mostly a time-wasting exercise, providing merely the legal cover the company needs in the event of employee claims against the company.

Do you need great workers for your Bay Area company? Then contact Bayside Solutions. We can source and place terrific employees for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you!

Although the economy is growing, it’s doing so very sluggishly, with unemployment  still hovering around nine percent. For every job available, there are about four unemployed people, according to statistics.

The news focuses relentlessly on layoffs and the long-term unemployed. As unemployment remains high, people become anxious about job security and the stability of their employer. It appears as if the job market has crashed and burned, that no one out there is hiring. Reading the headlines, it is easy to believe this myth, but it is exactly that, a myth. Companies are still hiring. In fact, some human resource consultants say the number of job offers made during a recession remains about the same as in a more healthy economy. Even in a recession, innovation and entrepreneurship are still at work, and companies are working to bring new products and services to market.

But, reading the doom and gloom in the headlines sometimes makes people feel that it’s not even worth the effort because the economy is so bad. But this is not true. The job market still exists; it has just become more selective. People who are valued for their skills, experience and accomplishments will have little trouble finding a job, and can get a job offer in a relatively short period of time.

Those in the worst position during a recession, however, are the long-term unemployed. They stand little chance of getting a job offer during a recession. They might even have trouble gaining employment in a growing economy, because there is little value placed on their skills and competencies.

The economy doesn’t stop during a recession, it just slows down, and the same thing happens in the job market – it slows down. Companies make more effort to avoid risk, and so hiring decisions tend to take longer. But, eventually, hiring managers reach a decision – they must, because they need to continue their operations so that they can serve their customers.

So, if you are a job candidate, you can be pretty sure there is a company out there that needs your help; you just need to be smart and savvy in your job search. Network, persevere and look for the companies that are attempting to start new projects.

Working on short- and long-term temporary assignments with Bayside Solutions in San Francisco can be a great way for someone to keep skills current and learn new ones. Contact a recruiter today to learn more about the different type of assignments we have available.

If you work in human resources you probably have experienced at one time or another one of the ironclad laws of human activity, one that economists have written about for ages – the law of unintended consequences.

Simply put, it states that “actions of people always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.” Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it, according to economist Rob Norton.

It shows up in business decisions as well. New human resource policies or procedures may end up having unintended consequences – causing a chain reaction of events that end up where no one anticipated.

The law can be seen at work in the airline business, says business consultant Ron Ashkenas. In order to bring in more money, airlines are charging fees for services that used to be free, such as checking baggage and food service. While these fees have brought in a lot of revenue for the airlines, they have also had unintended consequences. One is that passengers are now jamming more things in their luggage, and people are bringing more food on board. This all has the effect of hurting customer satisfaction because it leads to more congestion and odors on the plane. It also may be affecting airline schedules, as people take more time to find overhead space for their stuffed luggage, delaying takeoffs, Ashkenas says.

So, unintended consequences are always there to be reckoned with. What can you as a human resource professional do to lessen their impact?  Ashkenas has a few suggestions.

First, he says you need to plan ahead as much as possible. Realizing that unintended consequences are lurking out there, you want to run through all of the possible results your change will have, to run through all of the scenarios with the people who will be affected.

Test things out on a smaller scale first, Ashkenas says, to see what the reaction to a change will be. He cites the example of a company that wanted to use a new sales forecasting method. Instead of instituting it companywide all at once, the company tested it out on one product in one region to see what the reactions of the sales staff would be, and how the other process changes would work. This gave the firm the chance to modify the program before rolling it out throughout the entire company.

You can’t foresee all the unintended consequences, but planning for them as much as you can will be a big help.

If you foresee the need to ramp up your staffing for your San Francisco-area company, contact Bayside Solutions. We can help you find terrific workers for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire positions. We look forward to hearing from you.

When interviewing someone for a position, there is a lot riding on the decision. If you choose the right person, it can be a big boost for the company in productivity and revenue. Make the wrong decision, however, and you can have an even bigger headache, dealing with productivity problems, lost time and effort trying to get the person up to speed, and so on. If you terminate the person, there is the process of again looking for someone new and the time and expense for that.

Considering all that is riding on an interview, it is surprising that many interviewers still treat it as more of an art than a science, often relying on their “gut instinct,” their intuition about a candidate. Given that this is not an unusual practice, the natural question to ask is, how effective is it?

The answer, when you look at all of the psychological pitfalls involved, is: not very. There are a lot of things that can sway our “gut feeling” about a person, that don’t really directly tell whether the person will do the job or not.

One of the big things that can influence our opinion about someone is what is known as the halo effect. If you are interviewing someone who is very similar to you – for example, similar in age, in likes and dislikes, in what he or she does as a pastime, in opinions, in background – you are more likely to form a favorable impression of that person. She’s like you, so why wouldn’t you like her? But how much does this tell you about whether she’s capable of doing the job or not?

Another thing that influences our opinion — our “gut feel” — is how the person is dressed. Someone who is well dressed naturally will make a more favorable impression, but the question is, how well does this relate to her ability to do a job?

What can happen is that your “intuition” may end up giving an unfair advantage to a candidate because of psychological factors that might not even be directly related to the job.

What really counts is having a structured, organized job interview, one that is consistent with all candidates, and rates them all on the same scale, a scale that measures those criteria that are directly related to the ability to do the job.

If you need help sourcing and even interviewing great candidates for positions in your San Francisco-area company, give Bayside Solutions a call. We can help you find candidates, we can conduct preliminary interview, we’ll do all the necessary background checks, and more. Contact us today!

Venture capital firms have invested nearly $20 billion into hundreds of green technology startups over the past five years, according to Greentech Media, a San-Francisco based research and media company.

What kinds of companies are getting this funding? Many of them are trying to tap into alternative sources of energy including solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass and fuel cells. Most are pursuing somewhat similar technologies, such as photovoltaic cells in solar, turbines in wind and hydroelectric.

There is a handful of companies, however, that is taking a different approach to green technology and alternative energy. Here are five innovators that are developing even newer ways to capture and store energy, light up the world and power vehicles.

New Energy Technologies
New Energy Technologies has two interesting projects under development: Motion Power and Solar Window.

Motion Power aims to harness lost inertia from braking cars at places like toll booths, drive-through windows and traffic lights. The Motion Power device sits on the road in the braking area. As a car passes over the device, it pushes down mechanical treadles, allowing the device to help slow down the car’s momentum and simultaneously harvest some of its kinetic energy. The company calls this process an “external regenerative brake” that can convert wasted energy –normally turned into brake heat — into electricity that can be used to power road signs, street lights and emergency power storage systems.

New Energy’s Solar Window technology is putting a new twist on solar energy. Still in development, it involves spraying ordinary glass with solar cells that can turn windows into small-scale energy producers. While many photovoltaic cells require metal to help conduct energy, New Energy’s prototype uses transparent compounds to serve the same function. Unlike most solar films, which require high temperatures to be applied, the spray can be used at room temperature.

Lilliputian Systems
Lilliputian Systems, as the name implies, wants to use tiny technology to make big changes in consumer electronics such as phones and laptops. Born in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Lab, Lilliputian Systems hopes to replace lithium-ion batteries with miniature fuel cells. The cells will be powered by butane and sit on a chip to power a device. The device will then produce electricity by converting the butane into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. When the two are exposed to air and electrolytes, it turns into electricity, which will keep gadgets powered indefinitely. The process’ byproducts are water vapor and carbon dioxide. The company claims the fuel cells are safe, and has convinced the Federal Aviation Administration to approve the use of Lilliputian fuel cells on airplanes.

Beacon Power
Beacon Power is focused on energy storage, not energy production. They are working to improve existing battery technologies by using flywheels to store energy for later use. Flywheels are like mechanical batteries, turning electricity into kinetic energy that keeps a wheel spinning inside a vacuum chamber until the energy is needed again. When this happens, the flywheel spins more slowly and electricity flows back out of the device. The company says its flywheel chambers can be used for years with minimal maintenance and, unlike batteries, their storage capacity remains stable over time.

The U.S. Department of Energy has funded Beacon and says the company’s flywheels are up to ten times faster at responding to grid frequency changes than energy sources powered by fossil fuels.

Topanga Technologies
Topanga is working on developing high-efficiency lighting whose color quality, output and longevity are better than those of LEDs, halogens and fluorescents. The company produces plasma lights in warm, cool and white temperatures and sells to cities, large companies and building managers. Each lamp has an estimated lifespan of about 50,000 hours, or about 10 years. This is equal to the lifespan of most LEDs, and significantly higher than CFLs’ 12,000-hour and halogen’s 3,000-hour lifespans. By Topanga’s estimates, most fixtures pay for themselves in savings within three years and require very little maintenance.

Xtreme Green
Xtreme Green makes electric sports vehicles, including motorcycles, scooters and ATVs, and they are developing electric watercraft like jet skis. As environmental concerns about emissions grow, more lakes and wildlife areas no longer permit gas engines on the water. Xtreme Green’s watercraft will run on lithium batteries that will provide two hours of power. The company also produces curb-jumping three-wheeled patrol vehicles and motorcycles for police forces.

Xtreme Green’s eco-vehicles are designed with proprietary energy management systems and electric propulsion systems, giving them the power and ability of gas-powered engines, but without the particulate pollution, noise pollution or carbon footprint.