Get Social: Cultivating an Intelligent Workplace [Part 2]
We all know that the success of any company depends on the productivity of its workers. And productive workers need to be led by people who understand the who, what, when, where and how-to of customer demand. Entering from stage left —intelligence. Along with an intelligent management team, productive workers also need leaders who are, well...people. No one wants to report to a robotic,...
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Fire These Troublesome Staffing Clients
In any service business, there will be clients that make your days joyful and productive and clients that are a continual drain on your time, money and energy. Whether you're a server with "regulars" that think a $2 tip will cut it or a creative director dealing with clients like these (click, it's good), you have to know when to cut these clients loose. The same goes for running a successful...
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DeskAlerts Launches Video-Recording Add-on for Employee Communication Tool
Only a few days after updating its employee communication tool with RSS functionality, DeskAlerts has announced the addition of an in-message video recording tool that will allow internal communications to contain video and audio content. Utilizing existing webcams, the new feature allows multimedia content to be created and disseminated quickly. Each multimedia message can be sent to specific...
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Hiring: How to Find that "Special Someone" [infographic]
Love is in the air, or at least it is for those "special someones" this Valentine's Day. As many people prepare to go on romantic dates, there are quite a few people who abhor this sweetheart-candies-and-Hershey's-chocolate-kisses-filled day. But, before you brush off all that romanticism, wait a moment —there may be a thing or two you can learn from this holiday. An infographic from...
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The How-To on Starting an Employee Referral Program [infographic]
According to the Jobvite Index 2012: Employee Referrals, employees who are recruited through an employee referral program have a 46 percent retention rate after 1 year compared to a 33 percent retention rate for employees recruited from career other sites. Even those hired from job boards only had a 22 percent retention rate. Numbers don't lie, and these numbers are telling us that it pays to...
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Manage Various Talent Networks with your own Branded Talent Community
Are you spending too much time managing various talent network sources such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+, Job Boards and employee referrals? MeshHire's Branded Talent Community solution helps recruiters to create their own branded talent community that works as a central hub to consolidate and manage different talent networks and social networks in one place. Here are some of...
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Cost-Benefit Ratios vs. Differences as Hiring Tools
When evaluating any decision purely in terms of the costs and benefits to yourself or to any single party—as opposed to the costs to you and the benefits to others in an act of altruism or reciprocity, you, of course, shouldn't decide only on the basis of the benefits. Huge benefits, but with comparably huge or even bigger costs, will not justify such a decision. That much is common sense....
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Fight for a Higher Salary
Salary is one of the most delicate topics today. How much do you ask for? How much is too much? How much is not enough? According to the Economic Policy Institute, entry level male workers with a college degree made only 57 cents more in 2011 than their equals in 1973. In 1973, the average male college graduate made $21.11 an hour. That number rose to $23.47 in 2000, but later fell to $21.68 in...
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STAYview Automates Engagement/Retention Efforts
The Stay Interview process has been brought to the cloud with a web-based solution launched by HRsoft and C-Suite Analytics. Dubbed STAYview, the automated tool is designed to improve employee engagement and retention using the principles set forth in Richard Finnegan's best-selling book The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention. David Kennedy, CEO of HRsoft, commented on the...
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Employees Found to Expect Flexible Scheduling but Doubt its Value
In a survey, HR recruitment firm Ortus has found that approximately 90 percent of workers believe that flexible work schedules will become the most common employment model over the next few years and 96 percent of HR professionals agree with them. However, only 12 percent of workers consider such a shift in flexibility to be vital. Comparatively, more workers found smartphones to be a significant...
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Are You Hiring Like it's 1999? Reasons to Crowdsource Talent in 2013
Hiring via crowdsourcing is not new. It's been hanging around in the wings for a quite a few years now in one form or another, with some forms of it having made it to the main stage but only for bit parts and have soon retired to the shadows. But, things have changed, and crowdsourcing as a hiring model is set to star and take center stage among the other more traditional recruiting methods of...
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Constructively Criticizing Your Boss
Whether a cubicle-bound peon or a high-flying CEO, the old adage holds that no one is perfect. However your boss may be affecting you or your team's productivity, you may find it necessary to send some feedback his/her way to keep things running smoothly in the workplace. But that action is typically much easier said than done. Not only is there the fear of retaliation from above, but also of a...
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Increased Card Usage adds $983B to Global GDP
According to a study by economic forecasting provider Moody's Analytics, using electronic payment products—like credit and debit cards—added $983 billion to the GDP of the 56 countries examined between 2008 and 2012. The participating countries represent 93 percent of the global GDP. The increases in card consumption contributed to an average additional growth in GDP of 0.17 percentage...
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Get Emotional: Cultivating an Intelligent Workplace [Part 1]
We all know that the success of any company depends on the productivity of its workers. And productive workers need to be led by people who understand the who, what, when, where and how-to of customer demand. Entering from stage left —intelligence. Along with an intelligent management team, productive workers also need leaders who, well...get it. Employees need managers and supervisors who...
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The Company Men and Outplacement
I recently watched a movie called "The Company Men". In it outplacement services had a brief but memorable role as initially depressing, then falsely cheerful and finally a source of hope and inspiration. It's not difficult to see why this would be the way unemployment, and its frequent companion outplacement services might be portrayed. After all, the standard for finding a job in the United...
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Recruiting: a Politically Neutral Profession?
Ask a recruiter whether recruiting is a fundamentally left-wing, right-wing or politically centrist occupation and you will probably and rightfully get a puzzled look. That's because every kind of economy and political regime has jobs that need to get filled and people who need them (although not always adequately compensated jobs, despite however "fair" the pay may seem by market,...
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SHRM Finds Onboarding Necessary for Job Transition, Retention
Despite the proven effectiveness of onboarding programs, many organizations fail to provide such programs and are worse off for it. According to a recent report by the Society of Human Resource Management Foundation (SHRM), about half of hourly workers resign within the first four months in a position while half of senior outside hires resign within 18 months. But the report also shows that...
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HR Firm Finds Talent Acquisition Now a Critical Issue
HR services provider NorthgateArinso (NGA) has found that 87 percent of employees agree that talent identification is critical to their company's success in the shot-term but greater than 50 percent think that their industry has a lack of qualified candidates. Furthermore, even if a suitable talent pool existed, 34 percent said that their company lacked a talent management program of any...
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Economy, not Jobs, Instills Confidence in U.S. Engineers
The quarterly Randstad Engineering Employee Confidence Index, which measures confidence levels of American engineers, has shown modest improvement over the prior three quarters, increasing by 3.4 percentage points to 57.8. The overall economy has garnered improved confidence within the engineering industry as U.S. engineers are optimistic about their ability to find new jobs. However, engineering...
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Is Recruiting Sexy?
Can Staffing be Sexy? That was the title of a recent Staffing Stream blog article and it took me a bit by surprise. Actually, I posted something on Twitter to the tune of: "Can Staffing Be Sexy? No. (I jest)." But can it be? What about recruiting? I mean, no one is creating entire television series around recruiting or HR (a la Mad Men) and there aren't even any reality shows (currently -...
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Getting a Job: Luck or Effort?
A recent article from Recruiter.com called 4 Habits of a Highly Successful Job Seeker stirred up quite an interesting topic (and/or issue). In the article, I offered this example: Meet Jane. Jane graduated college six months ago. She worked three internships while in school, graduated with honors, and has sent her resume to hundreds of companies. But, Jane is unemployed. Meet Bob. Bob...
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Novo Group Survey Highlights Corporate Recruitment
Integrated corporate recruitment advisory firm The Novo Group just released the results of its first annual Corporate Recruitment Benchmark Survey. The firm, which helps organizations attract top talent, surveyed executives and candidates to garner insights from both sides of the hiring process. Findings from the survey results are combined in a report, one the company says "provides a...
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ExecuNet 21st Annual Survey for Executives now Available
ExecuNet, the exclusive organization dedicated to job, career and networking information for senior-level executives, recently made its 21st Annual Survey for Executives available. The survey gathers executive data ranging from business type and role to online presence and which media outlets executives frequent most. The survey is available right now for participation. "For the past two...
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Resumes Are Not Dead
It might be tempting to listen to those who insist that resumes are dead. But here's the thing—they're not. Rather, expectations for them have changed. Instead of burying your resume, you need to revive it. Resumes are not dead. Not even close. And any job seeker who treats them as such is making a big mistake. Looking through our stats at ZipRecruiter, I can tell you that recruiters...
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Interviewees Are Getting Smarter; Make your Questions Smarter too
Job candidates are getting smarter- well not literally smarter, (we'll leave the intellectual component to the scientists), but what I mean is that they are getting more practiced at, and therefore more proficient at the art and science of interviewing. With the "job for life" gone and candidates being more transient in a climate that is increasingly favoring contingency working, job-seekers are...
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Americans Judge Interview Process in HireVue Survey
HireVue, a leading on-demand, digital-interviewing platform, has announced the results of a survey investigating American workers' attraction to their most recent job interview. The results found that 35 percent of women and 28 percent of men rated the experience as "love at first sight." An additional 30 percent reported the interview process akin to a game of "playing hard to get....
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Opportunity or Obstacle: 3 Ways to Identify Career Distractions
An article by Quantum Learning Solutions Inc. lists six startling statistics about interruptions in the office. They are: The average employee spends 28 percent of his/her time dealing with unnecessary interruptions followed by "recovery time" to get back on track. (2009, Basex) The time spent per day being interrupted and trying to refocus is 2.1 hours. (2009, Basex) Physically...
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Fifth-Third Bank and NextJob Unite to Help Mortgage Borrowers Find Jobs
Fifth Third Bancorp and NextJob, a nationwide reemployment solutions company, have joined forces to offer an industry-first program that gives unemployed mortgage borrowers job search assistance, including one-on-one dedicated coaching, weekly webinars and online job search software. The program is fully funded by Fifth Third Bank. The two companies began a pilot for the program during 2012...
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2012 Candidate Experience Report Released
Talent Board, the nonprofit organization focused on promoting and elevating the job candidate experience, just released the Candidate Experience 2012 report, which shares the results of the 2012 survey of more than 17,500 employers and job candidates from its awards and benchmarking program, the Candidate Experience Awards. Also known as "CandEs," the Candidate Experience Awards seek to...
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4 Habits of Highly Successful Job Seekers
Meet Jane. Jane graduated college six months ago. She worked three internships while in school, graduated with honors, and has sent her resume to hundreds of companies. But, Jane is unemployed. Meet Bob. Bob also graduated college six months ago, no honors. Bob didn't work at any internships while in school and has never applied for a job, yet Bob is employed. One day while he was...
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What??
It gets limped around to me in the hijack and I raise with suited connectors. I get called by a nit in middle position who has me covered. I flop the world with an open-ended straight flush draw and he donks right into me. I Hollywood for a bit before raising. He re-raises and I tank for five minutes before finally shipping it all in. I brick out and he scoops me with top-top. I was shocked to...
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Over 50? Learn how to Compete in the Job Market in 4 Steps
Having recently gone through an employment change at 55, not by choice, I thought about the possibility that somebody would actually hire me, versus going with someone younger and cheaper. Preparing myself to compete in a tight job market required me to take stock of the factors that were motivating me to action. The first was reflecting on the question, "Why am I still looking to be gainfully...
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Professional Diversity Network, LinkedIn to Help Companies with Diversity Recruiting
Chicago-based recruitment firm Professional Diversity Network (PDN) and LinkedIn have entered into a partnership to provide compliance assistance for companies wishing to recruit a more diverse work force. The list of PDN's networking sites includes those targeted at professional groups of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, women, LGBT, veterans, and people with disabilities. "Last...
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Predictive Talent Models Improve Employee Engagement
In its research bulletin Career Pathing: Optimizing Engagement, Learning, and Retention Bersin by Deloitte has found that the use of predictive talent planning models can improvement employee engagement and retention through forging an alignment between individual career goals and the greater business needs. Specifically noting PageUp People's CareerPath, the report remarked how employees were...
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Get the Cool Interns
Facebook was named the no. 1 best company to work for by Glassdoor's 5th Annual Employees' Choice Awards. Sound familiar? It should, it's the second year in a row. A few common trends combined this year's award winners. Things like a strong company culture, opportunities for advancement, and a clear understanding of the company's direction and priorities. An award like this doesn't happen...
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Cyberloafing: Really an Epidemic?
The CBS St. Louis local news headline was as shocking as it was implausible: "Study: Americans Spend Up To 80 Percent Of Work Time 'Cyberloafing'" (sic). On one interpretation, so was the ambiguous statistical claim within the CBS report: "According to Newswise, the average worker spends 60 to 80 percent of his or her time at the office on the Internet, engaging in tasks that have...
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How to Offer Quality Customer Service
An interesting (and unfortunate) thing happened in the customer service world last week. Apparently instead of leaving a tip after dining at a St. Louis Applebee's restaurant, a pastor left a note on the receipt for his waitress. It read: I give God 10%, why do you get 18? I have my own, personal feelings about his actions, but we'll save those for another post. People come up with all...
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Personal Devices the New Legal Headache on the Block for HR
The inherent risks of allowing personal mobile devices in the workplace extend beyond IT and into the realm of HR who should be paying close attention to the growing phenomenon. As more employees begin to bring their smartphones and tablets to work and do their jobs on those devices, companies were expected to spend 48 percent more on smartphone management in 2012 than in 2011, according to...
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Small Businesses Need Staff but Unwilling to Hire
A TD Bank survey on the hiring practices of small businesses has found that despite 35 percent of small businesses reporting to being at least somewhat understaffed, just 21 percent actually plan to hire more employees this year. Most (70 percent) are anticipating that their staffing levels will remain the same as they are. When it comes to human resources, the biggest challenges facing small...
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You WANT people to apply to your jobs, right?
You know, it's really easy to be a writer and a consultant. I can tell you how bad your job ads are and how you need to increase candidate experience and like in this article, how truly easy it is to change your career site. But I'm not you. My deadlines deal with articles, white papers and campaigns; your deadlines are focused on quarter-end results, filling requisitions and letting candidates...
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Should you be Hiring for Cultural Fit?
There is a new paradigm that is really beginning to take hold within recruiting and that is the idea that employers should hire employees who fit the prevailing culture and that this will lead to more effective and harmonious teams. Many employers are recruiting this way and, sensing this, many candidates are beginning to select companies on the basis of culture fit to maximize their chances of...
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Write Emails That Speak for Themselves
Would you believe that the corporate world sends and receives an astounding 89 billion emails per day? From internal memos to important proposals, most of our written communication at work takes place on the web – and nowadays, most of our job-related networking happens in the same place. Before you personally meet with a potential employer to flaunt your firm handshake and charming smile,...
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Attracting Candidates Largely Affected by Online Corporate Image
A survey conducted by Spherion Staffing Services has found that 47 percent of workers believe that the online reputation of a company is as important as the job offer while 45 percent say a company's social media presence is an influential factor in deciding to accept a job offer. Additionally, 76 percent of respondents feel more satisfied with their jobs if their employer's reputations are...
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Temkin Group: Most Employees Now Engaged in Workplace
A survey by market research and consulting firm Temkin Group has found that 57 percent of employees are at least moderately engaged in the workplace, resulting in a notable improvement over the 47 percent recorded in 2011. Productivity boosts are the most obvious benefits to improved engagement as employees are more than twice as likely to stay at work later if they are engaged. Engaged employees...
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HR Leaders Favor People over Profit
A severe misalignment has been identified between the preferences of HR leaders and their company's business agenda. The findings from New Talent Management Network's 2013 State of Talent Managers report have revealed that most HR leaders prefer "to help people grow and develop" rather than "help my company maximize its profitability." Indeed, 77 percent of survey respondents were...
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Simply Hired Finds January Job Opening Increase
In its February 2013 Employment Outlook, job search leader Simply Hired has reported that job openings increased nationwide by 1.1 percent in January with a year-over-year increase of 7.6 percent. Job competition remained at a steady three unemployed persons to every one job opening. "As many seasonal jobs come to a close in January, it is encouraging to see job opening growth continue this...
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Back-to-the-Basics: Written Communication 101
"I'm just not a writer." Ever hear this before? Our world is full of "I'm just not a writer" people, yet there is a huge difference between being a writer and understanding how to write. No matter your profession—whether you're the CEO or the mail-room clerk—understanding how to write correctly is important, because proper writing demands proper grammar and punctuation. And...
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Hiring Lessons from the 30 Rock Series Finale
Last week marked the final airing of NBC's low-rated, but critically acclaimed comedy 30 Rock. Comedian Tina Fey starred in and helmed the show, originally about her experiences running the long running, late-night sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. Along its seven seasons, 30 Rock morphed into a sharp and incisive comedy about show business, and the tough balance between work and personal...
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