Kirby on Finance

Wal-Mart takes a page from Hospitals

You know how hospitals will place several doctor’s on call, and bring them in only when needed? Well, Wal-Mart is looking to employ this same method with its employees. They intend to employ a piece of software that tracks the amount of customers in the store, and based upon that data regulate the number of employees that are in the store at any given time. Wal-Mart hopes this is a new way to increase productivity and make the customer experience better by having the number of employees needed to service rise as store traffic rises. This is a relatively new phenomenon if it’s done on a large scale. The article points out that RadioShack has done the same in the past with success.

Generally, I like the idea because it’s a more efficient use of resources, but I can’t help but feel for the Wal-Mart employee who’s never sure exactly, or if the ever will, be called in to work. Working at Wal-Mart isn’t like working in a hospital where the compensation is much higher for being an employee there. It’ll be interesting to see if Wal-Mart will offer some sort of bonus pay for those who are called in to work, or some type of compensation for those who are on call, but never actually get called in to work.

Wal-Mart Introducing New Scheduling System [WSJ.com] Subscription Required

Flexo’s University of Phoenix experience

I’ve been enjoying Flexo’s series on his experiences pursuing an MBA at the University of Phoenix. I think it’s really fascinating how distance education, through the Internet, has the potential to change how we learn and potentially make learning more efficient and economical.

As many of you know, I’m a second year law school student who had to move to a new city to attend grad school. It’s a big city, so living isn’t cheap and I can promise you that my tuition more closely resembles the sticker price of a new car than what you’d expect the price of education to be. I often wonder if I might be better served (in terms of cost/benefit) by receiving my education through a method similar to University of Phoenix. My gut tells me no (perhaps something I’ll discuss in a later post), but I can’t help but wish that something similar would be a viable option for me. I should point out that distance learning for law school is available in some limited areas like California, but it’s not greatly accepted outside of the state. In any event, Flexo’s series is really interesting if you’re a curious outsider like me!

The Monster.Com Job Force?

Most of my friends are at the point in their lives where they’re looking to find a job. I took a different route and decided to continue my education but watching them hit the labor force has caused me to be somewhat surprised at the way they’re finding their jobs.

We grew up in a different age than most people before us. Everything we know about communication and business revolves around the internet. In terms of job seeking, we’re the “Monster.com” job force. The internet revolution led us to believe that gone were the days of sending our résumé’s around the community to find a job. My generation is supposed to send them around the nation, if not the world. We’re supposed to be the “connected” work force.

Well, you’d think the above if you read Newsweek, Time, or the Wall-Street Journal. They and other prognosticators would have you believe that the internet revolution would revolutionize the way we find jobs. I certainly don’t doubt that people get jobs that way these days. If that weren’t the case, Monster.com wouldn’t be around, would it?

All of my friends that chose the labor force over grad-school all posted a resume on an internet job site, but they found no success in doing so. Every single one that has found a job got it the old fashioned way – either mailing in a resume then interviewing, or from perhaps the best job getting method in the world – connections with ole’ Mom and Dad.

It’s amazing how far we’ve come, but how we’ve really stayed the same. Sure, my generation has a tough time putting together complete sentences (thank AOL chatting for that one), but we haven’t changed as much as people predicted during the internet revolution.