Who To Follow In Minneapolis On Twitter

UPDATED: I should have titled this How To Find People To Follow...

I get this question regularly from new users to Twitter. I don’t put a lot of weight on the rankings on these lists (including my appearance on them) but they are a good place to start.

Note that you see Minneapolis and not St. Paul or Twin Cities. Most directories recognize Minneapolis as “the city” when they mean both. Some folks in St. Paul are being creative and in their Bio saying, “St. Paul not Minneapolis” and are getting listed in the Minneapolis directories.

To my friends across the river, no I am not trying to be a snob. I am just going with the crowd:

19 Minnesota Companies In The Fortune 500 | 32 In the Fortune 1000

The Fortune 500 has been released with little change in the list of companies from Minnesota. With mergers Northwest Airlines and Travelers are out. Added in 2009 is Michaels Foods.

Most of the Minnesota companies moved up quite a few spots from their 2008 rankings.

Here are a couple of rankings from last year:

• 5 Minnesota Companies In The 2008 Inc. 500 | 106 Minnesota Companies In The 2008 Inc. 5000
• 8 Minnesota Companies On 2008 Fortune Global 500 List

Here are the companies in the Fortune 500 list from Minnesota:

Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Announces 2009 40 Under Forty

This is the 16^th year the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has recognized leaders in our area based on professional achievement and community service.

Below is the list of honorees with links to their bio page or click Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s 2009 40 Under Forty for the main list.

Here is a link to past honorees 40 Under Forty Alumni.

Target Corporation To Keep Headquarters in Downtown Minneapolis

Did you hear that giant “whooshing” sound Thursday? That was a massive sigh of relief as Target Corporation announced that it would be keeping it’s headquarters in City Center (a big deal) and not moving them completely to Brooklyn Park (a really big deal).

Since the layoffs in January there has been noticeably less foot traffic in the skyways and streets in the immediate downtown area. As the economy comes back hopefully more jobs are added in the Downtown Minneapolis location.

Links to read more:

• Target news welcomed by city boosters (Finance and Commerce)
• Target will keep offices at Minneapolis City Center (Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal)
• Target to stay put in City Center (Minneapolis StarTribune)

Thoughts On Best Buy Voluntary Buyout And Involuntary Layoff

Seems everyone is aware (but just in case) that in recent months Best Buy offered 4,000 corporate employees the chance to take a voluntary buyout. Numbers I hear are a few more than 500 applied for it and a few less than 500 were accepted.

Unfortunately 500 (to make the math simple) were not “enough” so the announcement of an involuntary layoff was made.

As I understand around 250 jobs will need to be eliminated but they have 210 internal jobs that need to be filled.

OK, these numbers are not what this blog post is about but I wanted to catch everyone up.

What this post is about is how Best Buy has handled the situation.

Let me be clear, anytime people are laid off, that sucks. And on this scale and in our community I am guessing that most of us know directly or indirectly (a degree or two of separation) someone who was impacted.

But unlike all the stories we hear about people finding out they are laid off via phone, email, or the ones given five minutes and a box with the escort out the door Best Buy has done an outstanding job (in my opinion) handling this situation:

• Transparency – Best Buy has been very open about the changes that needed to be made. But more than that they have not tried to “hush” their employees from talking about it.

#bby500 is the Twitter tag used by Best Buy employees to talk with each other and share their thoughts. I monitored this quite a bit last week and even while folks were saying they were let go they also said how much they appreciated Best Buy was doing for them.

Barry Judge, Chief Marketing Officer, did this blog post My Thoughts On Best Buy’s “Voluntary Separation” Package. Read the comments, more people saying nice things about how Best Buy has handled this.

• Severance and benefits – The voluntary layoff package varied but if one took it between 6 months and 1 year pay included along with 1 year of health and life coverage was included. The estimated cost of this is $60M.

For those who were caught up in the involuntary layoff they too have a good severance package.

• Career support – Besides the usual outplacement service Best Buy has taken other steps to help those impacted. I was not aware of this until last week; Best Buy has a career services department. They have been holding classes on interviewing, resume writing, etc.

They have invited speakers from outside the company, including me, to present on career related topics. Feb 23^rd (and again March 2^nd) I did a LinkedIn and Social Media job search presentation.

Yesterday, Feb 25^th, Best Buy held a career fair. An email was sent out to local companies (including my Minnesota Recruiters list) to ask if local employers would like to speak with those laid off. They had space for 30 companies. 110 or so replied. Yeah, they had a wait list of companies to recruit their former employees.

I hear 200+ former employees (and a few current ones) attended.

Do not mistake that I am “happy” about this situation. I have friends who are involved in both the voluntary and involuntary layoffs. This is not a great time to be doing a job search.

But my point is this, name another company who has gone to this length to try and do right by their now former employees? I am sure that Best Buy has not done everything perfect or right for everyone but I do suggest that given the economy and their circumstances they have done well.

I do have one issue with Best Buy. It would have been great if executives had been talking about this more in a public forum. Maybe they have been so busy with the process that there was no time for it but I know of a lot of companies around the country who have interest in what Best Buy has done.

Maybe just maybe some companies will learn from Best Buy that in tough times and when tough decisions are made that lay offs are numbers but people who live and work in the community, have mortgages, car payments and children or parents to care for and that they should do the best they can to help those who helped build their company.

Two Minnesota Companies Make The Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For

Mayo Clinic and General Mills make the 2009 Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For list.

Click Mayo Clinic (#63) and General Mills (#99) to see their Fortune information. There are quite a few companies on the list with offices in Minnesota.

There is also a lot of competitive intelligence in the associated links including who is hiring, pay and percentage of women in the work force.

Minnesota Layoffs: Pentair | Colliers Turley Martin Tucker | Navarre | Select Comfort | Tennant | Graco

Here is a list of announced layoffs by Minnesota companies from December 15 - 18, 2008 . Not all layoffs are in Minneapolis, St. Paul or greater Minnesota:

Pentair | 1,600 | 10%

• Pentair cutting 1,600 jobs (Business Journal)
• Pentair cuts forecast; to shed 1,600 jobs – Update (RTTNEWS)
• Pentair cuts forecast, plans to cut workforce (MarketWatch)

Colliers Turley Martin Tucker | 11 | 10%

• Colliers cuts 10 percent of local workforce (Business Journal)
• Colliers cuts 10 percent of Twin Cities workforce (Finance and Commerce)

Navarre |10-20

• New Hope multimedia publisher to cut 10 to 20 jobs (Finance and Commerce)

Select Comfort | 120 | 22%

• Select Comfort cuts 22 percent of headquarters employees (Business Journal)
• Select Comfort employees won't be sleeping easy this month (MinnPost.com)
• Select Comfort Cuts 120 Jobs; Suspends SAP Implementation - Update (RTTNews)

Tennant | 240 | 8%

• Tennant cuts 8 percent of workforce (Business Journal)
• UPDATE 1-Tennant sees Q4 loss; to cut 8 pct jobs (Reuters UK)
• Tennant to cut 240 jobs, 8 percent of workers (CNNMoney.com)

Graco | 150 | 6%

• Graco to lay off 150 (Business Journal)
• Graco To Cut 6% Workforce – Update (RTTNews)

Study Shows 51,500 Minnesota Jobs Directly And Indirectly Tied To Auto Industry

A study called when When giants fall released by the Washington, D.C. based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank Economic Policy Institute shows that as many as 3.3 million US jobs are tied to the auto industry and as many as 51,500 in Minnesota.

The Economic Policy Institute has a good reputation of putting out fair numbers so until I come across another survey I will be quoting from this one.

Top 5 states hit hardest by total shutdown: Michigan, California, Ohio, Texas and Illinois

Top 5 states in terms of employment: Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee

Minnesota ranks #21 if just GM were to close. An estimated 14,200 jobs would be lost and if a total shutdown 51,500 jobs.

As a percentage of the work force the .5% to 1.9% of state employment ranks Minnesota #28

Included in the survey are the recently announced sales figures for November:

• Domestics sales -40%
• GM -41%
• Ford -30%

Not widely carried are the equally bad sales figures from foreign auto makers:

• Asian sales in US -35%
• Nissan -42%
• Hyundai -40%
• Honda -32%

I am sure it would be hard to quantify but I am wondering if the auto makers closed, what would pop up in their place? I find it hard to believe that the US would produce no cars or that other industries would not evolve from the carnage. That 3.3 million jobs would be lost and nothing to take their place.

I am not suggesting we let the auto makers go quiet but just thinking about all the what if’s.

I am also wondering how current plants could be retooled to take on things like electric cars, batteries, green technologies, etc.

Lots of wondering and thinking on my part. The problem for me I am not seeing much more out of Capitol Hill or Michigan for answers. I would hope and expect they would be much further along in their thought process and have an answer or two.

So far I am disappointed.

As Usual.

Minnesota Layoffs: 3M | Hutchinson Technology | North Memorial | Park Nicollet

Here is a list of November and December 2008 layoffs, job cuts, whatever you want to call them announced by Minnesota employers. Not all layoffs are in Minnesota:

• 3M | 1,800 2% worldwide
• Hutchinson Technology | 900 - 1,100 | 20% -25% | Remaining to take 5% pay cut
• North Memorial | 380 | 7%
• Park Nicollet | 230 | 3%

Here are previous announced layoffs going back about 45 days. I know I am missing some so if you see a company to add, leave a comment.

December 2008

• U.S. Steel KeeTac | 400 | Could be temporary shutdown or all of 2009
• Hubbard Broadcasting | 18
• StarTribune | 25
• EnteroMedics | 13

American Red Cross Twin Cities | 15

November 2008

• Cirrus | 500
• Denny Hecker Automotive Group | Unknown number | Multiple dealerships closed
• Ryan Companies | Unknown number | 5%
• Taylor Corporation | Unknown number | 4% this year
• Ballistic Recovery Systems | Unknown number | 25% | Temporary
• IBM | 12
• Lawson Software | 200
• LifeTime Fitness | 100 | 12%

Paul DeBettignies In The New York Times And Business Journal

OK, it feels really weird to write my name in a blog post. Usually I say “MN Headhunter” but neither of the articles have anything to do with this blog.

The New York Times article from September 28, 2008, Turning to the TV for Explanations and Answers, is the first time in the paper and the second time on their web site. The first was in this blog post August 17, 2006 Northwest Workers May Strike, Judge Says.

The newspaper article came about of my watching CNBC coverage of the credit crisis, fledgling economy and particularly how this would impact national, regional and local employment.

I was contacted by Brian Stelter of the New York Times after he did (of all things) a search on Twitter for CNBC. He came across my MNHeadhunter profile and my many, many Tweets (as they are called).

He was a cool guy. Had a nice chat. And three days later I am in the paper.

A few hours into the day and into the next days I had quite a few cool email including old friends I had not seen/heard from in years including a guy I sat near in home room in high school for four years who now lives in Tennessee.

Some day I will be able to tell my kids (need a girlfriend and then wife to make that happen) one day about how I was named in an article with:

• Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman
• Henry "Hank" Paulson, U.S. Treasury Secretary
• Mark Hoffman, President of CNBC
• Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
• Jim Cramer, “Mad Money”

Who knows if my then kids will find this cool but for a couple of days I did.

The second article was September 26^th, 2008 in this Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal article Sites: not just for personal connections anymore. The article is about how social networking sites are not just for social purposes but also a business tool.

I am including my quotes below because I am not sure how long this link will work:

Recruiters, too, are increasingly turning to social-networking sites to find job candidates, said Paul DeBettignies, managing partner at Nerd Search, a Minneapolis-based tech recruiting firm. And they’re not just looking at LinkedIn; Twitter — a “micro-blogging” tool that lets people dispatch 140-character messages or “tweets” that can be shared with fellow users — is especially popular in the tech crowd, and fertile ground for IT recruiters.

“The idea is you should probably go where your talent pool is,” DeBettignies said. “If you’re an IT person, you want to go on Twitter. If you’re in marketing, get on Facebook.”

About 85 percent of employers use Facebook to either find candidates or do quick background searches on prospective hires, DeBettignies said. The technique is especially popular with recruiters who are competing for strong intern candidates.

And:

“The hard sell is dead,” Boardman said. “It doesn’t work door-to-door, and it doesn’t work on social networks.”

That’s a rule followed by many savvy recruiters, DeBettignies said. “What some recruiters do is become a bull in a China shop and start spamming people. Then it’s like fishing — they all scatter and don’t come back for a while.”