A Big Blue Ribbon for a Nifty Nonprofit Initiative

Wall Street may like layoffs, but show me a corporate executive who truly enjoys dropping the ax on thousands of people at once and I’ll show you a person whose dead soul will get him banished to the most punitive circle of hell.

Cutting jobs is a sad necessity, but IBM, anticipating a day when the large salaries and health-care burdens of its aging Boomer workforce will cause it to ready the pink slips, is trying in advance to help those folks and society at large. Big Blue recently announced that it would join with the nonprofit strategy firm Bridgespan Group “to address the shortage of leaders in the nonprofit sector by helping interested IBM employees transition to second careers in nonprofits,” according to a company press release.

IBM and Bridgespan’s Bridgestar initiative … will build a program and online platform to help IBM employees and retirees understand the transition into the nonprofit sector. The program will include access to tools and content that help users assess their readiness for the transition, identify potential opportunities and skills required, apply for available job opportunities with nonprofits, and receive mentoring. After the pilot with IBM, the tools and resources developed will be made available for other nonprofits and corporations to start similar initiatives.

Nobody loses here. IBM gets to trim its workforce with a clear conscience, its employees get prepped for a fulfilling new phase in their careers, and nonprofits get some help with the pending, and much-publicized, leadership crisis. Kudos to IBM for such forward, socially conscious thinking, and to Bridgespan for getting in bad with those evil corporate types for an initiative that benefits its primary public. | 501(c)

(Hat tip to Andrew Charlesworth at vnunet.com)