Month: December 2008

Categories
Background Checks Economy Human Resources Miscellany Staffing Uncategorized

Holiday Greetings From the Corra Group

Corra Group wants to wish everyone a very Happy Holidays.  I realize this is a tough period for everyone.  the job market is tight, the economy is in a slump, and nobody wants to spend any money.   Besides all that, it is really cold all around most of the country.

But, hey, perhaps it is times like these that make us grateful for our friends and families and the times we share without spending that much money.  We can have fun, even if that fun includes laughing at our mutual insecurities about the economy, jobs, and other things that concern us all.   To digress, I saw one ad posted in a newsletter for all the laid off journalists and media people to congregate at a New York watering hole and mourn together the passing of their jobs.  I am sure others from different industries will join their associates in mutual commiseration.   The first drink should be on the ones who are still working.

So it’s that kind of world.  We have seen it before.  Or our parents and grandparents have.   It is a tough economy, but this too will turnaround.  And from it we can perhaps glean a better understanding of how we can live our lives, and how to re-energize the nation’s industries.

We here at Corra Group realize there is more to this world than background checks.   With the nation’s economy at stake, we must all consider the best means to move our country forward.   We must concern ourselves not only with survival but with overall success.   Because this nasty period will pass.  We may not laugh about it, and we may not forget about it for some time to come.   But we will move on.

Meanwhile, be thankful for what you do have.  And for those of us still working, be thankful for a couple of days off and a job to which you will be returning.   And above all, have a very safe and happy holiday.  From the Corra Group.

Check them out before you hire.

Categories
Business Research Economy Human Resources Miscellany Personal Background Checks preemployment screening Staffing Uncategorized

When Friends are Laid Off

I used to work in Hollywood.  Hollywood and the entertainment industry are great to work in.   But when you are out of work, things get cold and lonely very quickly.   All those loving moments you see on television, all that warm and fuzzy stuff, goes by the wayside quicker than the last piece of sushi on the strike lines. People won’t take your calls.  Friends avoid you for fear you are asking them to help you find a job.  Which you are?   You are forgotten easily.

Well, now with massive layoffs in publishing, media, advertising, and just about everywhere else, this same sensibility is becoming pervasive.   When your friends get laid off, and you don’t, it is hard not to think how easily it could have been you that was let go, instead of them.  It is difficult to not feel guilty to want to avoid their contact.   they will be asking for your help and at least a little tenderness and consolation. And your focus, naturally, is hanging on to your job.

The fact is most people know you can’t really help them find work when there is no work to be found.  In industries, such as the news media, where the entire industry has been decimated, you are only a friend and not a miracle worker.   The thing is, be a friend.   Help them where you can.  If they don’t know much about social networking website, then show them how to use the FaceBook, Linked In, MySpace, Twitter, and all the rest.   If you do, miracle of miracles, hear of a job opening, take the time to let them know.   And be kind.  Chances are it isn’t there fault that the economy was run into the ground.

There are reasons to show compassion.  The first should be that you want to be a decent human being and not just one more uncaring homosapien who feels the rest of us our heavenly graced by your presence on the earth.   It is time to be close not distant.   Also, things change.  Come one ugly Friday, you are out of a job and your friend is working again.   You may need his help.   You might even be working for him,   If you have been aloof and cold, avoiding his calls, it would be safe to say he will return the favor.   Your preemployment screening with his new found company may not go as well as you might have hoped.

So be cool.   Be cool by being compassionate.  Be helpful when you can.  None of us our saints, in case you haven’t noticed.   But we can do what we can and on our better days a little bit more.   When the phone rings and it’s your buddy, answer it.   A few minutes won’t hurt you any.  In fact, it may even make you feel a little better about the world.

Categories
Background Checks

TV Guide is Updating an Old Format in a Changing World

Once upon a time in this country, if you owned a television set, chances are you bought TV Guide to go with it.  TV Guide is the weekly publication that served for years as the Bible for television viewers.   You either bought it at the supermarket, or if you were really in the zeit geist, you had a subscription.  It was the last word for consulting TV programming.   The television directories that most newspapers included in their Sunday editions just didn’t cut it.

But life was simpler.  For one thing you didn’t have six thousand odd channels, or whatever it is.   You had but a few.  And then a few more.   And then you had cable.   So then the TV Guide was comfort food.  That and the horse racing handicapping publication were the pride of the Annenberg Group.  Then TV Guide became outdated.

So TV Guide went on television, appropriate enough.   There you could consult the programming listings.   But every local cable channel did the same thing.   TV Guide as it was, faced obsoletion.   The end of the era.

But then TV guide got the idea to develop its own original programming.   Features, etc., mixed in with channel listings.  Not bad, but still a little threadbare.  So what to do for the current and gradually disappating viewership.

Macrovision, the owner of TV Guide, just sold it to One Equit Partners for $300 million.  to some, that may seem like a lot of money, but in its day, relatively speaking, TV Guide would have commanded a lot more money than that.   Projections as low as they were, initially had the sales figure higher.Times and all of its changes.

Allen Shapiro, noted producer, and one of the new owners intends on making the TV Guide Network a destination site for original program.  No more mere listings, punctuated by a few features here and there.   TV Guide instead will be a full blown destination site with original programming.   It should be interesting to see how this progresses.

So the moral of the story, at least for now, is when you deem your product obsolete, but the branding is still strong, then look to repurpose it so that it will find appeal in the current time.   Recycling older brands is a bit of an art form and you will need the right employees to render the changes.   Maybe you will find employeees in-house, or maybe you need to outsource.  You may consider hiring new personnel, but if you do so run the proper background checks so you can judge if they are qualified to make all the necessary changes.

Meanwhile, we shall watch and see if viewers once again watch TV Guide

Categories
Background Checks Business Research Economy Human Resources Miscellany News preemployment screening Staffing Uncategorized

Weather Channel Layoffs Marks a Change in the Weather

There has been a marked change in the weather.   At the Weather Channel that is.  NBC Universal had bought the Weather Channel back in September.   Now come the layoffs and the buyouts.  I suppose there is not enough weather to go around.

While in this harsh economy it is necessary to cut costs, cutting staff is not always the best of solutions.  Sometimes it is, mind you, and there are situations where it is strategic to cut back on employees.   but other times employee layoffs are a reflexive action.   They are a planned action, but those making the choices do not always understand  the ramifications.

If you have a business that brands itself as distinctive and special, this is often your edge over your competition.   But when you start cutting staff your customer service will suffer, your internal efficiency.  In fact, whatever distinctive qualities you have as a business may be lost in the shuffle, and you are just another generic company.  Layoffs will often lead toward the generic.

In the case of the Weather Channel, the programming while necessarily repetitive was also quirky and highlighted with special features.   The weather casters at times were odd ducks, kind of lovable outcasts from local television channels.   They didn’t try to overwhelm you with the magnificence of their warm and fuzzy personalities,  call it cornball, the way the locals often do.  There was something offcenter and engaging about the Weather Channel men and women.

If  you tuned in during the middle of the night or real early in the morning, often you would find the casters struggling to stay awake.   they would all but yawn int he camera sometimes.   I found it endearing.  Hey, how many times can you go over the weather in Syracuse and try to make it exciting.   Or Los Angeles, where it seldom changes.   Tough work when you are half-asleep, the coffee is just out of reach, and you are trying to be friendly.

So let’s see what happens?   There is an example here how you can take something that is original and in the religious belief you are being cost effective cut the guts out of it.   too many layoffs will cause such an overload.  He can be original when you are struggling just to keep up with your duties?    I hope the Weather Channel doesn’t rain on its own parade.

But who knows what will happen now?   May be it becomes little more than a bloated  version of the local news and weather.   Just another blah-blah spot on the television.