Profit to nonprofit:
Eyeing a 'humane' approach

From...

By Patricia Keefe

(IDG) -- It's been a long, cold spring in the unemployment line, and summer isn't shaping up to be much better.

Consider that instead of decreasing as expected, May jobless claims rose by 8,000, to 419,000.

On Monday, CNN is carrying the news that Level 3 Communications -- a fiber-optic communications network provider based in Broomfield, Colorado -- has laid off 1,400 people. The rationale offered: customers' delayed purchases and delinquent payments.

The dot-com dead continue to pile up, jumping by 82 percent last week alone to break the 100,000 mark, according to The Industry Standard. Indeed, as this story goes to the Web, CNNfn is reporting another 200 people are to be laid off by PurchasePro.com, which makes electronic marketplace software meant to bring buyers and suppliers together online.

QUICKVOTE How would you feel about going to work for a nonprofit agency to take advantage of a layoff offer like Cisco's? Not for me. I'd feel the need to keep furthering my career in the for-profit sector. Better than nothing. I'd take it if I couldn't find an alternative. I'd jump at it. Great way to do something positive with the misfortune of being laid off. View Results

Meanwhile, old economy companies are laying off 10 percent here, 3,000 there. Lower IT budgets are forcing many managers to do more with less. IT hiring is at a standstill. CIOs are suddenly sticking close to home.

"Everyone wants a job and is nervous about keeping it,'' says Computerworld columnist and career specialist Fran Quittel. She typically receives about eight pages of career-related e-mails a week. Last week, she says, 72 pages came in.

Amid this gloom, a small ray of light popped up earlier this month in an otherwise brutal announcement from Cisco Systems, which plans to cut 8,500 workers.

In what some see as an innovative and humane experiment in downsizing, Cisco -- long known for leading-edge approaches to hiring and recruiting -- is to give employees who agree to work for a year at nonprofit agencies one-third of their salaries and full benefits.

The workers may also get their jobs back in a year.

Observers note that the program probably benefits Cisco on a legal, financial and image basis. And salvaging a measly 200 jobs from 8,500 seems to some a puny gesture.

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But that doesn't diminish the win-win situation for the employees themselves, the nonprofit groups that need access to experienced professionals and the community -- the unemployment burden and related fallout is lightened a bit.

For managers who just six months ago were struggling to find skilled workers, Cisco's experiment may hold enormous appeal.

Coupled with other measures, such as canceling bonuses and management perks, it could help limit the damage when cutbacks are necessary. It's also one way to hold on to valued employees.

This kind of creativity shows in real terms how to think beyond the balance sheet and how a company's actions can affect stakeholders in the company, not just the stockholders.

Because as analysts from time to time point out, without a dedicated, loyal workforce, there can be no light at the end of this economic tunnel.