Google Searches for Staffing Answers
An algorithm for everything:
Concerned a brain drain could hurt its long-term ability to compete, Google Inc. is tackling the problem with its typical tool: an algorithm.The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a mathematical formula Google says can identify which of its 20,000 employees are most likely to quit.
Google officials are reluctant to share details of the formula, which is still being tested. The inputs include information from surveys and peer reviews, and Google says the algorithm already has identified employees who felt underused, a key complaint among those who contemplate leaving.
Applying a complex equation to a basic human-resource problem is pure Google, a company that made using heavy data to drive decisions one of its ‘Ten Golden Rules’ outlined in 2005.
Affect vs. Effect
Here’s a new grammar video that I recorded this morning at the Coral Castle, south of Miami. Check out the Coral Castle Web site — wanted to go here ever since I was a kid and saw a segment on “That’s Incredible” about the place. It didn’t disappoint.
Reclaim Tabula Rasa
One of my former students is taking advantage of her youth and traveling the world. Here’s an excerpt from her blog, detailing her decision to drive from Bulgaria to England:
The eurotrip started early in the morning on a Monday, and it was late afternoon by the time we got out of Bulgaria. After careful consideration and consulting with a couple of people who’d already driven to England, we decided to go through Serbia. The other possibility was Romania, and although it was the safer option as it is now in the European Union, it would have taken a whole day to drive through it as nobody bothered to build a highway there. At the Serbian border, we were stopped for a passport check and a few cops, dressed in post-Communist blue uniforms, interrogated us in regards to our bulky luggage in the car. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit nerve-racking. Even though both Bulgarian and Serbian are Slavic languages, I couldn’t always understand what they were saying. Mark, of course, didn’t have a clue, so I was the designated communicator/translator. One of the cops poked his head through our car window in order to take a good look at Mark and then, addressing me, said that Mark looked like a Turkish mafioso. For about four seconds, I was not sure what to make of that comment, as I didn’t know if the man was kidding or being dead serious, but then he suddenly burst into laugh and gestured with his hand that we could go. Like that wasn’t stressful enough, after a few hours of driving through the ‘ghost town-ly’ Serbia, we got pulled over by the police. As it turned out, the reason they’d stopped us was because Mark had overtaken a tractor on the highway. We were willing to pay them, but they would not accept Euros (as they begrudge the European Union) and that’s all we had. They asked us to find a place where we could exchange our money and then go all the way back to give it to them. Anyway, eventually they let us go and the minute we entered Hungary was the minute I finally relaxed. We spent the night at a motel and continued with our journey the next morning.”
She promises to continue the story from there. Now, that’s good living.
White House Czar Calls for End to ‘War on Drugs’
A welcome shift:
The Obama administration’s new drug czar says he wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting ‘a war on drugs,’ a move that would underscore a shift favoring treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce illicit drug use.In his first interview since being confirmed to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday the bellicose analogy was a barrier to dealing with the nation’s drug issues.
‘Regardless of how you try to explain to people it’s a ‘war on drugs’ or a ‘war on a product,’ people see a war as a war on them,’ he said. ‘We’re not at war with people in this country.’
