Career Tracks: BT and Morgan Put Jobs On-Line to Curb Flight of Talent

Some banks are using their intranets to help employees switch jobs without switching employers.

Since April 1996, employees at Bankers Trust New York Co. have been using an interactive job listings data base designed to automate finding a new position and applying for it.

So far 80 Bankers Trust employees-most of them assistant vice presidents-have found new jobs using the data base, called BT Connect. Four hundred open positions have been posted over the last year.

In March, J.P. Morgan & Co. rolled out its interactive data base, dubbed Job Posting, which already lists 600 available positions. Chase Manhattan Corp. and Citicorp each have internal job banks, but they don't yet offer the ability to apply on-line.

Job postings are certainly not new to corporate America. Most companies post openings on lunchroom bulletin boards, or use telephone and E-mail to spread the word about available positions. But a growing number of companies are automating the job-seeking process.

The interactive data bases, built on Lotus Notes software and accessible through companywide intranets, satisfy a number of objectives, according to human resources executives.

"It increases the speed and efficiency of the job search, and it saves us money that we would have had to spend to hire an outside search firm," said Patricia Hammond, a vice president in employee relations at J.P. Morgan.

But the most crucial function is to keep highly valued employees from taking jobs with competitors, said human resources executives.

"We see it as half retention tool, half communications tool," said Mona Lau, a Bankers Trust managing director in human resources. "Over the years, we've had a number of strong employees who left for an opportunity across the street because they didn't know we were hiring for the same job."

The data bases at Bankers Trust and J.P. Morgan work in a similar way: A manager with an open staff position creates a listing and puts it into the data base. At Bankers Trust the data base is for officer-level positions up to vice president; at Morgan, clerical staff and managing director jobs are also posted.

Employees interested in a position fill out applications on-line (only those with stipulated qualifications can do so on the Bankers Trust system) and send them to the manager with resume attached.

From that point, the manager can E-mail or telephone likely candidates to set up interviews. J.P. Morgan goes so far as to offer resume-writing workshops and job-interview tips.

At Bankers Trust, managers must notify all unsuccessful applicants as well as the winners.

By most accounts, the services have been popular. In fact, overuse of J.P. Morgan's data base in its first week of operation crashed the computer server, Ms. Hammond said.

Ms. Lau said BT Connect is starting to function like a town hall. "People go in to see what's going on in the company," she said. "It's a wonderful way to make employees feel they are part of a global organization."

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