Top Managers Get Advice on Social Media, Workplace Issues From Young Workers
By LESLIE KWOH

Workplace mentors used to be older and higher up the ranks than their mentees. Not anymore.

In an effort to school senior executives in technology, social media and the latest workplace trends, many businesses are pairing upper management with younger employees in a practice known as reverse mentoring. The trend is taking off at a range of companies, from tech to advertising.

Mentors are teaching their mentees about Facebook and Twitter.
The idea is that managers can learn a thing or two about life outside the corner office. But companies say another outcome is reduced turnover among younger employees, who not only gain a sense of purpose but also a rare glimpse into the world of management and access to top-level brass.

Reverse mentoring was championed by Jack Welch when he was chief executive of General Electric Co. He ordered 500 top-level executives to reach out to people below them to learn how to use the Internet. Mr. Welch himself was matched with an employee in her 20s who taught him how to surf the Web. The younger mentors “got visibility,” he says.

Fast forward a decade and mentors are teaching their mentees about Facebook and Twitter.

At Ogilvy & Mather, world-wide managing director Spencer Osborn, 42 years old, says his younger mentors have taught him how to jazz up his Twitter posts, which had a reputation for being “very boring,” and tell him what’s hip on playlists these days. He finds the knowledge valuable in the fast-moving business of advertising and says he believes the program has also helped boost morale and retention at the firm, with many young mentors saying they feel their voices are now being heard.

The younger mentors have learned how to ask candid questions of their mentees. One young mother asked Mr. Osborn for his input on balancing her career with motherhood and child care.

Ultimately, Mr. Osborn says he envisions making Ogilvy’s reverse mentoring program global, using Skype and videoconferencing to connect mentors and mentees at the firm’s more than 450 offices.

Technology and global thinking are changing so quickly that older executives want to catch up, says Lois Zachary, president of Leadership Development Services LLC, a Phoenix-based consulting firm that helps companies implement mentoring programs. “But it also helps younger people get comfortable in a company. It promotes loyalty, it generates trust.”

That’s got younger employees at Hewlett-Packard Co. clamoring for reverse mentoring. While some workers there have already arranged their own informal reverse-mentoring relationships, the company’s Young Employee Network says it wants to formalize the process in the next few months, starting with the several thousand members who belong to the world-wide group. Logistics haven’t been ironed out yet, but they will likely involve virtual communication over the Web.

“This is a great avenue to speak with decision makers,” says Odile Kane, who sits on the network’s leadership board.

Andrew Graff, CEO of Allen & Gerritsen, a Watertown, Mass., ad agency, says he was one of the first to volunteer when his company launched a reverse mentoring program last year. Under the program, mentors and mentees meet every three weeks for 90 minutes over lunch or coffee.

The 47-year-old has since come to lean on his mentor, 23-year-old Eric Leist, for guidance on everything from the latest smartphone apps to the layout for a new office. Mr. Graff says the most important lesson he has learned is how to be flexible, including allowing employees to work unconventional hours and to check in from home or a coffee shop.

“There’s an assumption that if you’re senior, you have a lot to teach, and if you’re junior, you have a lot to learn, and I’m saying let’s challenge the status quo,” he says.

Mr. Leist says he was surprised when Mr. Graff began sharing management tips during their lunch sessions. “This allows me to take a step back and see what he sees,” says Mr. Leist.

When Cisco Systems Inc. started its Gen Y Reverse Mentoring Program nearly two years ago, “it became a badge of honor,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of social and digital marketing. “When the word got out that a few execs had a [junior] mentor, others wanted one, too,” she says.

Still, it’s not all smooth sailing. Many older workers bristle at the idea of being mentored by someone younger, especially since they usually have many more years of career experience, says Sanghamitra Chaudhuri, a senior lecturer at Ohio State University who recently co-wrote a research report on the topic.

“It’s a mind-set,” Ms. Chaudhuri says.

By Lee Salz
There is a common belief that the primary cause of a sales team missing its revenue goal is a dry sales pipeline. If a sales team doesn’t have a healthy prospect pipeline, trouble lies ahead. Yet, there is a pipeline that is more impactful to the financial health of the business than even the sales one. That pipeline is the sales candidate pipeline.
Executives plot out the pathway for revenue goals to be achieved and correlate those with headcount on the sales team. If there are open seats, the math doesn’t work. Each member of the sales team may meet their annual revenue goal, but if you are 20% short on headcount, the department number is in jeopardy.

When salespeople get busy, the first thing thrown off their plate is prospecting. However, when salespeople stop prospecting, the pipeline eventually runs dry. The same principle holds true for sales leaders. When they stop prospecting for sales talent, they run with empty seats on their teams which means they have little chance of hitting the revenue goals.

Panicked, they rush to hire salespeople to fill seats instead of making smart choices. Further compounding the issue, once they hire the salespeople, they don’t have a plan in place to quickly get these new hires up to speed so they generate revenue fast. Some of the sales people make it, and others fail, leaving the cycle to repeat itself once again.

Not having a healthy sales candidate pipeline has a major impact on both the top and bottom-line of your business. Hold yourself accountable for maintaining a healthy sales talent pipeline just as you hold your salespeople accountable for keeping a strong prospect pipeline.

By SUE SHELLENBARGER

Most people assume being good-looking gives you a career boost. But just how much does it help?

A lot. Good-looking people charm interviewers, get hired faster, are more likely to make more sales and get more raises.

Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas in Austin, measures out the benefits in his book, “Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful.”

According to his research, attractive people are likely to earn an average of 3% to 4% more than a person with below-average looks. That adds up to $230,000 more over a lifetime for the typical good-looking person, Dr. Hamermesh estimates. Even an average-looking worker is likely to make $140,000 more over a lifetime than an ugly worker.

We asked Dr. Hamermesh to discuss his findings. Edited excerpts follow:

WSJ: You show that good looks are even more influential for men’s earnings than for women’s. Why do men’s good looks pay off more?

Mr. Hamermesh: There are two reasons. First, not as many women work for pay as men. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics says just 59% of adult women hold paying jobs in the workforce, compared with 73% of men.) If you are unattractive and you know you are going to be penalized for that, and if you have an option to stay out of the job market, you as a woman may choose not to bear that pain. Also, women in general are paid less than men; part of it is that they channel themselves into different occupations, and part of it is pure discrimination.

WSJ: What about the argument that better-looking people tend to sell more products or attract more new customers?

Mr. Hamermesh: Yes, [research] shows that happens. Better-looking workers bring in more for the employers, just as a more intelligent worker will. Paying them more is still a form of discrimination, but their attractiveness also tends to raise their productivity. That’s what makes it so difficult. I would argue that this is discrimination. But others would argue that it’s simply an indulgence of people’s tastes and preferences.

WSJ: If you are unattractive, what can you do to improve your odds of getting paid well?

Mr. Hamermesh: Looks are only one of many things that affect how much we earn, including education, age, health, company size and so on. But to your question: First, don’t go into an occupation where looks matter a lot. Don’t be a TV broadcaster; be a radio broadcaster. Don’t be a movie actor. Most important, go into fields that you enjoy, and that you have an advantage in doing. Accentuate your strengths, and try to avoid those things where you are relatively disadvantaged.

WSJ: Are there examples of occupations where you don’t have to be beautiful?

Mr. Hamermesh: You would think you could find examples of occupations where being unattractive wouldn’t hurt you at all. But in every one I have looked at, being better looking helps you. For example, you wouldn’t think it would matter much if you are teaching in college. But based on my studies, better-looking [professors] are more appreciated by their students. The only counter-example I’ve seen is a study showing that if you [commit] armed robbery or theft, it pays to be uglier. The white-collar criminals are more successful if they are better-looking, but for crimes involving force, I’d rather be an ugly robber because I’d scare the guys and they’d give me their money faster.

WSJ: Isn’t this unfair?

Mr. Hamermesh: Yes.

WSJ: Should something be done about it?

Mr. Hamermesh: It’s a complicated issue. On one hand, I don’t view this as very different from other forms of discrimination, whether it is based on race, gender or certainly disability; discrimination based on disability is analogous. Given that similarity, I find it very hard to oppose offering protections and trying to remove this kind of discrimination. On the other hand, we may not want the government to get involved, because if officials intervene on behalf of unattractive people, they will end up doing less for other groups which are regarded as more deserving.

WSJ: So what constitutes beauty?

Mr. Hamermesh: There is no unique view about beauty – no unique standard. But most beholders view beauty similarly. Some people are consistently regarded as above-average or even beautiful, while others are generally regarded as plain or even downright homely.

WSJ: For those of us who are beauty-challenged, what about plastic surgery?

Mr. Hamermesh: I know of only one serious study on that, and that research suggests it isn’t a good investment. While looks can be altered by clothing, cosmetics and other short-term investments, the effects of these improvements are minor. We are generally stuck with what nature has given us in the way of looks. Surgery pays back less than $1 for every $1 spent. But it might make you feel better

By JOSEPH WALKER
The application process for millions of job hunters will soon be simplified — as long as they’re on LinkedIn, that is.

Yesterday, the professional networking site announced a partnership with Taleo, the country’s largest job applicant tracking system provider, to allow job seekers to auto-fill basic biographical and professional history information from their LinkedIn profile into online job applications.

Taleo powers the careers pages of about 5,000 companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and United Airlines. Job seekers applying with those companies will soon see that they can use their LinkedIn information to fill out job applications. Applicants already have the option of auto-filling information from the Taleo “Universal Profile” service. Users will still be able to manually fill in their data, or upload their resumes on Taleo-powered sites.

The LinkedIn option will be available with the next updated version of Taleo’s enterprise software on September 23. Each company will have the option of displaying the LinkedIn tool and Taleo expects a high percentage of them to do so, said Karl Ederle, the company’s vice president of product strategy.

“We want to make it easier for candidates to apply for jobs and remove the friction in the process,” Ederle said. “We realize that now people are digitizing their profiles, and LinkedIn has critical mass.”

As of August 4th, LinkedIn says it has 120 million users.

Taleo currently has 26% of market share by revenue in the applicant tracking system sector, according to research from Bersin & Associates, a human resources consulting firm. The company’s software also analyzes the data it collects from applicants, and ranks the applicants based on their qualifications. Competitors Oracle and Kenexa have 11% and 7% of the market, respectively. According to LinkedIn’s site, Kenexa has a similar partnership with the professional networking company.

“This is going to change the way people apply for jobs,” said Katherine Jones, an analyst at Bersin. “It takes hours, in some cases, to go through these applications online and it’s usually pretty painful. This is much faster and more economical.”

LinkedIn launched a similar feature with its “Apply with LinkedIn” widget in July. Companies like Netflix and LivingSocial have adopted the widget, which is free. The button on Taleo career sites won’t be branded as “Apply with LinkedIn,” but will be effectively the same, Ederle said.

LinkedIn declined to describe the financial terms of the agreement.

By RUTH MANTELL

And you thought vandalizing your high school’s drama club room wouldn’t haunt you in adulthood.

As it turns out, your childhood misdeeds, along with whether you care about someone else’s bad day and how much you read, may have an impact on how a prospective employer views you.

To get a read on applicants, more employers are using pre-hire assessments, which can check personality, cognitive ability and competency, among other areas. About 56% of companies are using some sort of assessment tool as part of the hiring process this year, up from 48% in 2010, according to Aberdeen Group, a Boston-based research firm.

Proponents say assessments are a relatively low-cost tool to increase the odds of finding a good match. “Culture fit is an absolutely critical determinant of longer-term fit, and not easy to discern in an interview,” says Jay Gaines, chief executive of Jay Gaines & Co., a New York executive search firm. “There are some short psychological tests that might provide reinforcement and support to observations we might make on candidates.”

While senior-level workers may face in-depth assessments, workers at any level should be prepared to face an assessment. For instance, since August 2010, all applicants to Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke’s Hospital & Health Network have been taking an assessment that aims to pinpoint, among other things, an applicant’s attitude about customer service.

Here’s what job seekers should know about personality assessments and other hiring screens.

Honesty is the best policy. It might be tempting to fudge assessment answers to sound perkier, more honest or more diligent than you really are. But some assessments contain scales to detect such misrepresentations.

“When people try to fake, they try to fake in very characteristic ways, and it’s really easy to tell when someone is trying to game the test,” says Robert Hogan, president of Hogan Assessment Systems, a Tulsa, Okla.-based personality assessment and consulting firm.

Job applicants taking assessments may try to predict what the company is looking for and develop a profile they think fits the bill for a good candidate. Others may check the box on the positive end of the scale for every question — a pattern that employers may look for.

“Sometimes companies will put in a kind of nonsense question to make sure people are paying attention,” says John Hausknecht, associate professor of human-resource studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Tests don’t have the final say. “Bombing” a personality assessment won’t necessarily lose you a job, experts say.

“For companies that manage their staffing system well, personality tests are going to be a small part of the process,” Mr. Hausknecht says. With assessments, “there is no one magic bullet that works for all people and all jobs. Personality tests might be combined with an interview, plus some kind of a work sample.”

Dana Landis, vice president for global search assessment with executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, says the firm has assessed almost 700,000 applicants over about 10 years. Rather than taking negative assessment results at face value, Korn/Ferry uses results to dig deeper, she says.

“We don’t want to ignore the results, but we also take them in context,” Ms. Landis says. “We often try to circle back to the candidate to ask follow-up questions.”

Assessment results generally don’t come into play until there is a short list of candidates. “When you get down to the last three, they tend to be really impressive, present well, have excellent track records,” Ms. Landis says. “But one of those people is a better fit than the others, and it’s at that point that we need the extra information.”

Charles Wardell, chief executive of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Witt/Kieffer, which specializes in executive searches for health education and nonprofits, says he treats assessments as another reference. “If you do very well on tests, I consider it a very good reference,” he says. “And if you don’t do well, I look at it as OK, not everybody gets 10 great references.”

They help applicants, too. While companies pay for assessment tests, applicants can reap some benefits.

“A personality assessment is like a two-way interview for the individual,” says Michael Anderson, senior research scientist at CPP, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of assessment tools. “If you feel you have to stretch your answers on an assessment, then maybe it’s not the position that’s best suited for you.” For example, while being conscientious might be helpful for most jobs, being extroverted may be predictive of success only for certain positions, he says.

Michael McDaniel, a human-resources and organizational-behavior professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, says applicants see certain tests as “fair” if they include questions that clearly relate to the job. He says these tests have “pretty good acceptance by applicants and are easier to explain to management.”

But Mr. McDaniel adds that “for those who have been out of school for a while, the thought of taking a test can make one anxious. No one likes the idea of being evaluated and being found not to be good enough.”

Accustomed to Updates, New Generation of Workers Craves Regular Feedback

By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN

The status-update era is changing the annual performance review.

With many younger workers used to instant feedback—from text messages to Facebook and Twitter updates—annual reviews seem too few and far between. So companies are adopting quarterly, weekly or even daily feedback sessions.

Not surprisingly, Facebook Inc. exemplifies the trend. The social network’s 2,000 employees are encouraged to solicit and give small nuggets of feedback regularly, after meetings, presentations and projects. “You don’t have to schedule time with someone. It’s a 45-second conversation—’How did that go? What could be done better?” says Lori Goler, the Palo Alto, Calif., social-networking company’s vice president of human resources. More formal reviews happen twice a year.

For most companies, employee reviews are still an annual rite of passage. Some 51% of companies conduct formal performance reviews annually, while 41% of firms do semi-annual appraisals, according to a 2011 survey of 500 companies by the Corporate Executive Board Co., a research and advisory firm.

And increasing frequency may not make much of a difference if the performance appraisals are ineffective to begin with, say some. One academic review of more than 600 employee-feedback studies found that two-thirds of appraisals had zero or even negative effects on employee performance after the feedback was given. “Why is doing something stupid more often better than doing something stupid once a year?” asks Samuel A. Culbert, a professor at the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles and the co-author of the book “Get Rid of the Performance Review!”

Some firms have found that the traditional once-a-year review is so flooded with information—appraising past performance, setting future goals, discussing pay—that workers have trouble absorbing it all, and instead dwell on criticism without really hearing constructive ways they can improve.

When Grasshopper LLC, was founded in 2003, the company conducted annual reviews. “We very quickly realized that it was impossible and foolish to sum up an entire year of someone’s work in one meeting,” says David Hauser, Grasshopper’s co-founder and chief technology officer. The Needham, Mass., company, which provides virtual phone systems, then moved to quarterly reviews, but found that employees would spend anywhere from four to eight hours at the end of each quarter preparing and writing their reviews, which seemed like a waste of time.

Now, every two weeks, managers and employees of the 50-person company meet one-on-one for 30 to 40 minutes to discuss issues big (“I want new job responsibilities”) or small (“Can I move my desk?”). They also discuss performance during the previous two weeks and set goals for the next period.

“Instead of these big scary meetings, there are frequent meetings with much less pressure,” says Mr. Hauser. Mistakes have been caught more quickly and tensions have decreased between employees and managers, he says.

The downside is that the biweekly meetings are time-intensive for managers, but Mr. Hauser says that being in regular communication with reports is part of a manager’s job.

Mike Morris, Grasshopper’s vice president of customer acquisition and retention, says he blocks out every other Wednesday afternoon to hold feedback meetings with his six direct reports.

At first, he says, employees were worried that the biweekly meetings would be punitive, but he stresses that they are really about providing feedback and setting goals. “I do think it took a little bit of adjustment,” says Mr. Morris. “There really isn’t anything in those discussions that comes out of left field. As a manager, I’ve tried hard to make sure that it becomes much more of a regular conversation, as opposed to a scary review.”

New software programs are also making it easier for workers and their managers to share instant praise and criticism.

Facebook uses Rypple, a program that resembles the social-networking site and allows workers to give each other real-time feedback (“stop interrupting customers” or “great presentation at the last meeting”). Users can “like” co-workers’ activities, solicit reactions to their work or reward colleagues with virtual “badges,” says Daniel Debow, co-CEO of Rypple, a Toronto-based firm. Twice a year, Facebook managers pull summaries of the feedback to discuss performance, pay and promotions, says Ms. Goler.

Some managers, though, think that even the annual review is too much. Paul Purcell, chairman, president and chief executive of Robert W. Baird & Co., a Milwaukee financial-services firm, says that for his 12 direct reports, he does formal reviews every two years. Most of the company does reviews annually. Doing reviews more often is “redundant,” he says. “You’re spending too much time filling out paperwork.”

By JOE LIGHT

More companies are trying to tap Facebook Inc.’s 750-million-plus user base to find new employees, threatening traditional job boards and competing with LinkedIn Corp., which has dominated the online professional networking arena.

Facebook’s use as a job-recruitment tool remains small, but its appeal may be growing. Some recruiters say they have all but eliminated their spending on job boards, which can charge a few hundred dollars per job posting, depending on volume. Others note that while LinkedIn contains a more comprehensive résumé database, candidates tend to value referrals from their connections on Facebook more.

The majority of social-media traffic to Waste Management Inc.’s careers website comes from Facebook, beating out LinkedIn, said Jenny DeVaughn, manager of social media and employment branding. The Houston-based environmental services company is currently trying to fill 1,500 positions—from software developers to garbage truck drivers.

In addition to posting jobs and videos of current employees on its Facebook page, the company has recruiters and other employees find user groups and join discussions.

When asked for comment, LinkedIn referred to its chief executive’s remarks from last week’s conference call to discuss earnings. During the call , CEO Jeff Weiner said users tell the company they want to keep their personal and professional networks separate.

Indeed, Jeff Vijungco, vice president of world-wide talent acquisition for Adobe Systems Inc., said that in focus groups, prospective job candidates were sharply averse to being contacted through Facebook for jobs.

“The antibodies kicked in pretty quickly. They thought it was very invasive,” he said. The company posts job openings on its Facebook page, but Mr. Vijungco said they have had more success finding employees through LinkedIn.

Facebook hires account for less than 1% of the total hires companies are making, according to Jobs2Web, which helps companies track the sources of candidates and hires.

But if current growth trends continue, Facebook could rival traditional job boards in 2012, said Jobs2Web analytics manager Phil Schrader.

Matt Mund, Monster.com’s vice president of product management, acknowledged that Facebook as a recruiting platform is growing rapidly. The company, which hosts a job board and other recruiter services, launched its own Facebook app, dubbed BeKnown, in June, and the application now has nearly 800,000 monthly users, according to AppData.com, a market research group. Over the next couple of weeks, the company plans to launch a program where companies can offer employees cash rewards for making referrals through the app.

“While I wish every company used Monster, social is a solution that many people are using,” he said.

As the number of job postings overall has bounced back from the depths of the recession, Monster’s core job postings businesses have benefited. Revenue in the second quarter at Monster Worldwide Inc. rose 25% to $270 million from the prior year.

LinkedIn’s revenue from company recruiters is also growing rapidly. In the second quarter, the company’s hiring solutions segment—which among other things helps recruiters search through their profile database for candidates—grew 170% to $58.6 million from the same quarter a year earlier.

Still, Facebook is making a dent. VMware Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., cloud-computing company, hired its first full-time recruiter dedicated to working on social networks in November and is building a team of recruiters who will focus on social platforms. The company, which is hiring for about 1,200 positions, has cut back on the number of jobs it posts to job boards, said Will Staney, talent acquisition Web strategy manager.

While VMware still relies on LinkedIn to recruit higher-level executive talent, Mr. Staney said that Facebook users tend to spend more time on the service and are easier to reach than LinkedIn users. Since February, the number of monthly active users on its Facebook page more than tripled to 11,000, he said.

Beginning next week, the company also plans to pilot a new Facebook application that will allow them to search for candidates on BranchOut Inc.’s Facebook app which, similar to BeKnown, builds a professional networking layer on top of Facebook and has more than 2.6 million monthly users, according to AppData.com.

Candidates have been 50% more likely to apply to positions they found through Facebook than through other means, said Mr. Staney. “[Job boards] just blast it out. This is much more efficient and targeted,” he said.

While Silicon Valley start-ups race to outdo each other with increasingly generous and creative perks, more established companies in less popular locales are finding it tough to attract tech talent. High salaries and increased bonuses aren’t enough. The pressure is on to compete on fringe benefits.

“Hiring developers is the bane of my existence; it’s a tight market,” says Christa Foley, recruiting manager for Henderson, Nev.-based Zappos.com. “Vegas just doesn’t compete.” When recruiting, Ms. Foley’s team plays up the monthly computer programming events, themed mini-parades at product launches, an on-site free life coach and lack of dress code.

No longer a start-up—the shoe retailer was founded 10 years ago and employs 1,300 people—Zappos feels threatened by the latest tech hiring wave in the Bay Area and Seattle. “We’ve started targeting more Midwest [and] East Coast to try to attract folks just because there is so much opportunity” on the West Coast, says Ms. Foley.

The company has about 100 open technical positions ranging from IT to project management to mobile development and three full-time “technical recruiters,” Ms. Foley says. Last year it took up to six months to fill a technical opening whereas now it takes up to eight months, she says.

While unemployment remains high in the U.S. and most companies remain reluctant to hire, it’s a different world for tech professionals, including software developers, engineers and telecommunications specialists. According to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “demand for these workers will increase as organizations continue to upgrade their information technology capacity and incorporate the newest technologies.” Employers competing for these in-demand workers must figure out ways to stay appealing.

In Cary, N.C., SAS Institute Inc. offers a full roster of perks: racquetball courts, car detailing, even a subsidized summer camp for employees’ children. “The bottom line is we have under 4% turnover in an industry that’s seen closer to 20%,” says Jenn Man, vice president of human resources at the 35-year-old software maker. The company is less interested in offering employees the kinds of “cool” extras making headlines at a lot of start-ups and banking more on making its pitch as a family-friendly place to work.

A June survey at IT job site Dice.com found that 65% of nearly 900 hiring managers and recruiters anticipate hiring more technology professionals in the second half of 2011 than in the preceding six months. And according to a July study by human resources consulting firm Mercer LLC, 82% of IT companies increased spot cash bonuses, up from 77% in 2010 and 42% offered “aggressive” pay increases, up from 39%.

Perks can be less of a hit to a company’s bottom line. Many high-profile perks, like sponsored group sporting events, are “actually not expensive,” says Dave Van De Voort, a partner in Mercer’s human capital consulting business. “In total, if it’s 1% of payroll, it would be surprising—the reason is that not everybody participates.”

Later this month, Chesapeake Energy Corp., an Oklahoma City-based natural gas and oil producer, plans on opening an on-site child-care facility. This is added to a list of employee perks including its fitness center and health clinic and subsidized restaurants. On Wednesdays, employees can also head to the on-site farmer’s market.

The company, which has more than 11,700 employees, increasingly finds itself touting perks to nab hires.

One challenge is getting candidates to move to Oklahoma City—not a first choice for many in-demand engineers these days. “The thought of living [in Oklahoma City] at any point in the future never crossed my mind,” says Brian Donovan, who moved from New Jersey to be an engineer at Chesapeake Energy about a year ago. “But what they offer here is heads and tails above the other companies I was looking at.”

Unlike some start-ups, which push a 24-7 work lifestyle and offer perks like on-site meals, more established companies aim to attract more family-oriented employees. Recruiters play up seemingly less appealing locales by selling their cost of living.

“We have hired people from California, and it’s been a big plus for them to come here, no doubt,” says Brad Ramsey, vice president of engineering at 10-year-old NuStar Energy LP in San Antonio. “The cost of living is so much better here than it is there and in other places.”

NuStar’s benefits are generous even within the well-paying energy sector: The petroleum and asphalt transportation and storage company has a no-layoff policy, has an all-or-none bonus policy and offers use of the corporate jet for emergencies.

“It is a competitive marketplace for sure, and as a result [technical workers] are paid very well,” says Curt Anastasio, NuStar’s chief executive and president. “We have to pay them what the market demands to get them to come here—and we do. … You can have a really good quality of life here. …San Antonio is not a backwater.”

By CRAIG CHAPPELOW AND JEAN BRITTAIN LESLIE

Mid-career derailment can happen any time, but in today’s economy there is no room for complacency. With job opportunities harder than ever to find, it’s a particularly rough time to be fired or demoted or to hit a career plateau. You can reduce your risk for derailment by paying attention to your value and effectiveness and by focusing on interpersonal skills, adaptability, team leadership and bottom-line results.

Based on the Center for Creative Leadership’s ongoing study of executive derailment with clients around the world, here are 10 ways to avoid these pitfalls:

Ask for instant feedback. When walking out of a meeting, ask a colleague, “I think that could have gone better – what could I have done differently?” Listen to the response. Don’t defend or justify your actions and don’t interrupt. Sean Fowler, assistant vice president with insurance company IAT Group in Cold Springs, Fla., uses feedback from his co-workers as a reality check. “You have to develop a bit of a thick skin,” Mr. Fowler said. “Once you get past the initial shock, you really come to appreciate it. It’s a long-term effort made up of small steps, not a leap.”

Increase self-awareness. Become a student of your own behavior. Take stock of how you feel about your work and how you react when you are pushed outside your comfort zone. Explore the values that matter most to you and use them as an anchor during times of change, transition and stress. Amy Gillard, owner and operator of Gillard Enterprises, an event-management business notes that selecting work which is not the right fit will only create challenges with clients down the line. “Self-awareness is key in my business. You have to know who you are and what you have to offer,” she said.

Pay attention to organizational culture. To stay aligned with your organization as it morphs and changes over time, you need a clear understanding of the prevailing culture. Analyze how decisions get made and think about the underlying assumptions that guide the organization as it responds to challenges and opportunities.

Use empathy. Your direct reports, your peers and even your bothersome boss are all human beings worthy of your respect. Listen without judging. Take the feelings and perspectives of others into account. Don’t use humor inappropriately and always keep private conversations private. You’ll end up with stronger relationships.

Learn to listen. Hearing isn’t the same as listening. Turn away from your email and concentrate on the person talking to you. Don’t be passive. Ask questions to make sure you understand. Stay in the moment and take notes to help you remember key points. Show people you’re really hearing them. Air Force Col. Trent Edwards, Commander of the 28th Mission Support Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base, learned to listen differently in response to feedback from his team and his family. He realized he was using a “war zone” mentality in non-war zone settings. With tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, Edwards describes his previous approach as “very action-oriented. Everything was always go, go, go. Now I try to listen with more patience, with an open ear to try to hear what is being said and also what is not being said.”

Collaborate. Try to not be the Lone Ranger. Be open and willing to disclose your decision-making process to others, along with important facts and feelings. Your influence and effectiveness will increase.

Deal with problem employees sooner rather than later. If a direct report’s behavior or lack of skills threatens the success of your team, confront the problem head on. Don’t let it fester. These kinds of problems almost never heal themselves. Document specific shortcomings and either dismiss the employee or create a development plan for improved performance. The cost of carrying poor performers can have a ripple effect across the organization – destroying morale and dragging down productivity.

Delegate authority. Don’t keep your employees tied down and stuck in the same roles and responsibilities. Allow them to test their wings. Assign stretch projects you think they can handle. As they prove themselves, increase the complexity of the assignments. Give adequate guidance and follow up to see how they are doing. Debrief shortfalls and use them as a learning opportunity. Above all, acknowledge positive outcomes.

Focus on the task at hand. While it’s great to have a development plan and to work on skills you will need down the road, don’t forget that your main job is just that – your main job. Organizations value managers who get work done. Focus on what you need to accomplish each day. Bring jobs to a close. Tie up loose ends. Document outcomes. Get closure, and…

Break out of a rut. Learn from the mistakes that you and others make. Stop talking about how things were done in the past. Bring a new idea or solution to the table. Break away from your lunch cliques. Identify a rut you are in and get out of it.

Become known for your skill at adjusting to change, building strong relationships, leading effective teams and getting results. Your colleagues will appreciate it – and you’ll reap the professional rewards.

By JOE LIGHT

LinkedIn Corp.’s splashy initial public offering of stock earlier this month underscored the company’s status as a major professional network. But several start-ups are banking that the future of career networking is actually on Facebook Inc.

These start-ups point to Facebook’s much broader user base: With 500 million users, Facebook is five times larger than LinkedIn.

But changing users’ mindsets might be a challenge. Some Facebook users are loathe to mix their personal and professional networks, fearing some private information might damage their work reputation.

Recruiters, meanwhile, say that LinkedIn has already established itself as the most robust source for job-candidate information.

This month, BranchOut Inc., which makes a professional-networking Facebook application, said it raised $18 million in venture capital, bringing its total to $24 million. On the day of LinkedIn’s IPO, Jibe Inc., which lets people use Facebook connections to bolster job applications, announced that it had raised $6 million.

Since January, BranchOut has gained more than 500,000 active users, Chief Executive Rick Marini said. The app helps users find Facebook friends at companies where they want to work.

Jibe CEO Joe Essenfeld said that its 200,000 active users have landed hundreds of jobs by sending applications through its service.

Mr. Essenfeld added that 26 large employers, including Amazon.com Inc. and MTV Networks, as well as 20 small businesses, accept résumés sent through the application, which lets users import connections from both Facebook and LinkedIn.

“Most people do not want to mix their professional lives with their personal lives,” said a LinkedIn spokesman, Hani Durzy, in an email.

Even though the apps are gaining in popularity among Facebook users, right now LinkedIn is still the go-to site for recruiters trying to find suitable candidates, said Debra Feldman, a job-search consultant.

“They’re using it over and above any other résumé databases, including their own,” she said. That means that if someone isn’t looking for a job but wants to field offers from headhunters, he needs a LinkedIn profile, she said.

Other job-related Facebook apps have been slow to catch on. Talentag, which lets users earn job-related “badges” and recommendations from Facebook users, had a strong debut last August, but its average number of monthly users has dwindled to 189 after peaking at 1,502, according to AppData, a market-research group.

Talentag couldn’t be immediately reached for comment on Friday.