The Strange Case of the Disappearing Job Offer
After weeks of tweaking resumes, scouring job boards, filling out applications, sitting through interviews, and struggling with persistent worry, it feels like a major life victory to finally receive news of a job offer. It is a victory for your career and your security. But what if your congratulatory behavior and celebrating turns out to be premature? What happens when days pass without any...
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Recruiting Babies
People don't talk about it enough but we've got a skills deficit a'comin. And it should (and does) freak people out and so we don't (but need to) talk about it. Right now in America these are the numbers: "The majority of boomers (two of every three) will be younger than age 65 in 2018, whereas by 2030 all of the boomers will have passed age 65. We expect that projections of the US...
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Online Recruiting Event: Tech Connect East
Are you recruiting for top quality technical candidates? Brazen Careerist offers the next generation of recruiting by bringing the traditional job fair to a dedicated online forum. Employers can participate in recruiting events from their desk – meeting candidates, developing their employment brand, and connecting with top talent. Brazen Careerist continues their series of online career events...
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Easy Job Posting System ZipRecruiter Adds Monster Integration
ZipRecruiter, a well known job distribution start-up that gives recruiters the ability to easily post jobs to multiple job boards at once, continues to expand on its integration with additional job boards. ZipRecruiter recently added Monster.com to its long list of over twenty five job board partners. ZipRecruiter's list of job sites now includes large job boards like Monster, Indeed, and...
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Metrics are the Problem Around Majors – Not Hiring Philosophy
One of the re-occurring themes of last year was the debate around liberal arts vs. more technical education as it relates to hiring. While a consensus that we need more STEM majors to fill STEM jobs in the US, there is still an active debate around which type of graduate is best to hire. Both the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review have recently discussed the issue. One side of the...
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California Worker's Compensation Battle Worthy of National Attention
Given the tradition of California as legislative trend-setter for the nation, it may be worth paying attention to the recent calls for reform within the state's worker compensation system. Backed by Governor Jerry Brown, labor unions, and a number of California-based employers, the main goal of the proposed reform is to increase payouts for injured workers while avoiding an increase in...
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Risk Managers Prepping for Hardening P&C Insurance Market
A Towers Watson survey conducted over February and March has found that a majority of corporate risk managers (63 percent) were moderately to seriously concerned over a hardening property and casualty (PC) insurance market. An additional one-third of respondents expressed at least a slight concern. Given this data, it is no surprise that most companies are moving to preempt potential...
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Max HSA Contributions may Increase in 2013
Health savings account expert, and former HSA consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department, Ray "Mr. HSA" Ramthun has finalized his 2013 projections for HSA after the release of March's inflation figures by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ramthun predicts that the maximum contribution to HSAs will rise in 2013 to $3,250 for individuals with self-only coverage and to $6,450 for individuals...
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Social Security Disability Provider Allsup Reports Rising Unemployment for People with Disabilities
Workers with disabilities experience a significantly higher rate of unemployment than the national average, reports a recent Allsup study who said the rate dropped considerably during the fourth quarter of 2011 but jumped to over 14 percent in the first three months of 2012. The study, officially named the Allsup Disability Study: Income at Risk, reports that the first quarter of 2012 saw...
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Battling Depression in a Recession: the Psychology of the Cave
Do you know the difference between "having NO reason to keep on hoping and trying" and "having a reason to NOT keep on hoping and trying"? You should. In this period of soul-destroying lost and vanishing jobs, declining incomes, home foreclosures, eroding hopes, crushing debt, crushed spirits and crippled wills, it's not surprising to hear the worst-affected and afflicted say, "I...
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Recruiters Behaving Badly
The blogosphere was abuzz with the doings of recruiters over the past two weeks and it wasn't always because they were doing something right. First up, there is the 3,000 word rejection letter. Now infamous recruiter Shea Gunther BCC'd hundreds of jobseekers who responded to his ad on Craigslist with a sometimes helpful, sometimes a bit patronizing rejection letter that included bullet...
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ABB, Inc. Found in Breach of Fiduciary Duties
ABB, Inc., a manufacturer of power generation and distribution equipment, has been ordered by a federal judge to pay over $35 million in damages to participants in its 401(k) retirement plan. The company was found to have breached its fiduciary obligations in two ways: by charging excessive fees in order to save money in other areas, and by switching its funds for other reasons than to provide...
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Pay-for-Performance Plans and Why They Don't Always Work
As payroll budgets remain tight, it may seem logical to offer pay for performance bonuses as an incentive for employees to stay motivated. But data shows that the plans rarely work as expected. Dave Logan from CBS News has recently highlighted a handful of mistakes companies often commit when using incentives. The four primary ways he identified incentive programs as going wrong include: offering...
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Cornerstone OnDemand and Visier Form Strategic Partnership for Delivering Workforce Analytics from the Cloud
Cornerstone OnDemand, a worldwide leader in cloud-based talent management software solutions, has announced the formation of a strategic relationship with workforce analytics provider Visier, Inc. Under the partnership, Cornerstone will be allowed to make Visier's cloud-based analytics solutions available to Cornerstone clients. Such solutions allow HR professionals to help their organization...
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PaperErasers Updates Workflow Management System with Document Review Feature
Online document management provider PaperErasers has announced the availability of its most recent version 5.0 which adds the ability to identify and audit incomplete document sets for reasons of legal compliance. The new update brings with it several features including the ability to capture, store, and manage documents quicker and with more efficiency. The new Document Review system allows...
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Stop Juggling. Start Engaging! One Stop Online Recruitment Software
Integration with Professional Social Network Highlights New Features of Zoho's Applicant Tracking and Recruitment Solution? Helping people work online, Zoho Recruit recently announced its integration with LinkedIn, the popular social network for professionals. This highlights the company's efforts to simplify recruiters' workflow and give recruiters more opportunities to actually engage with...
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7 Tips for Performing Effective Phone Interviews
A study by Cisco on the International Workforce has revealed that mobile working – be that at home, cafe, or hotel – is becoming the norm. In fact 60% of the survey respondents suggested 'that they don't need to be in the office anymore to be effective'. In an increasingly mobile workforce where top talent can be under time pressure, on the move or in far flung places, the phone...
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TechTarget Launches New HR Technology Site
With the launch of its new website SearchFinancialApplications.com, technology media company TechTarget, Inc. combines expert articles, tutorials and other resources to help technology buyers make better decisions when purchasing products in areas like accounting and general ledger, procurement, analytics, payroll, employee financials, human resources software and human capital management,...
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PeopleKeys Announces SMB version of its Online Job Matching Technology
PeopleKeys has released the newest version of its Perfect Match Hiring Technology which has been specifically designed to work for small and medium-sized businesses. Perfect Matching Hiring Technology is an online, pre-screening and assessment tool that helps ensure applicants are the best cultural and behavioral fits for an organization in order to improve employee retention and...
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HalfPriceSoft.com Updates EzW2 Software to Improve Installation and Device Compatibility
In response to widespread user feedback, Halfpricesoft.com has updated its ezW2 payroll software to include an improved installation package, easier access to help features, and an ability to be installed on a wider variety of devices. The 2012 version of the tax software also lets users to add unlimited companies and recipients to their account and to print an unlimited number of W-2 and 1099...
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Take these Recruiting Methods from Marketers
If Recruiting is just Marketing and Advertising in sheep's clothing, then we should all be doing the following, starting yesterday: 1) Expand your presence. Marketers in 2012 are making themselves available a little bit, everywhere. Should recruiters do the same? Marketers call this "streamlining your brand presence", which is a fancy way of saying "reflect the same persona to all people"....
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Dealing with a Bullying Boss
Many workers, at some point or another during their careers, work under a boss that comes off as overly aggressive or unreasonable in his or her expectations. In fact, recent studies have indicated that over one-third of employees have experienced a manager exhibiting bullying behavior. An additional 15 percent are reported to have witnessed a manager bullying an employee. Recognizing that...
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Are These Really The Only Three True Job Interview Questions? An Analysis of a Forbes Analysis
Intrigued by the Forbes article's title, "Top Executive Recruiters Agree There Are Only Three True Job Interview Questions", by George Bradt, and tempted to have a stab at guessing what they could possibly be before reading them, I gave it a try, in the spirit of trying to guess what the three best wishes anyone could possibly ask of the Genie in Aladdin's lamp: Ummm....well...."Do you...
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The Video Resume: A Recruiter's Timesaver?
Finding the right employees has always been a challenge and it will always take time to find the best possible fit. It is becoming easier though to find the right fit and make better use of your time through video resumes and interviews. Video resumes, according to an article on ReelSEO, are the wave of the future. One video resume referenced in the article received 50,000 hits and the video...
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Health Insurance Coverage for Employees Falls to New Low
The number of American employees receiving health insurance benefits from their employer has dropped for the fourth consecutive year 2011, reveals the 2012 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Survey. The survey showed that only 44.6 percent of workers received employer-sponsored health insurance plans, a number that has trended downward since 2008 where 49.2 percent of employees participated in such...
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PayScale Market Snapshot Shows Q1 2012 Wages at a Recent Peak
The PayScale Index for the first quarter of 2012 has revealed that compensation increases in the energy sector were widespread thanks to climbing gasoline prices and the rising prices of other mined commodities. Additionally, jobs in the related fields of mining, oil and gas exploration, and utilities (especially in those cities with strong markets for these industries) are also experiencing...
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Common Job Search Mistakes
From time immemorial job seekers have made the same interviewing, resume, and salary negotiation mistakes over and over again. Many mistakes go unnoticed and leave confused applicants despairing and uncertain of themselves. Some job search mistakes are easily recognizable if you just know how to look. Whatever the reasons you aren't landing a job, the following list can help you identify and...
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Regional and State Employment and Unemployment – February 2012
Unemployment rates at both the regional and state levels were largely unchanged during February 2012. The majority of states (29) experienced over-the-month decreases while eight reported rate increases and 13 plus D.C. saw no rate change. Over-the-year, all but one state registered unemployment rate decreases over the prior 12-month period. The national unemployment rate remained steady at 8.3...
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Chally Group and SkillSurvey Partnership to Offer Complete Talent Measurement Suite
Performance measurement firm Chally and online reference-assessment solutions provider SkillSurvey have announced a strategic partnership developed to offer a combination of assessment tools specifically aimed at increasing sales performance. Chally's assessments are derived from database containing predictive content developed over 38 years and sourced from hundreds of thousands of...
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Second Quarter 2012 Hiring Outlook Reflective of Pre-Recession Numbers
A CareerBuilder survey has shown that U.S. employers are returning to pre-recession hiring levels with survey participants reporting hiring increases that are the highest since the beginning of the recession. About one-third of employers have added permanent, full-time employees during the first three months of the year and this momentum is predicted to persist through the second quarter, at...
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Evolv Analytics Shows Job History not an Accurate Predictor of Job Success
A recent study by Evolv Analytics on the relationship between past work experience and future employment success has found that job history is a poor forecaster in determining an employee's expected job tenure. The study, which analyzed employment outcomes for over 21,000 hourly call-center workers from five different contact centers, found that the duration of previous employment said nothing...
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What do You want to Smell like After Hours?
While office jobs typically lack aromatic saturation, other jobs require its workers to deal with smells on a daily basis. Sometimes the smell may be thought of as a job perk but others can make work nearly intolerable. Don't overlook your nose when choosing a career - especially if you are picking jobs in one of the following list of the best (and worst) smelling occupations complied by...
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Google Glasses: The Cloud Comes to Earth
When I saw this, I thought it was another one of Google's well-known April Fool's jokes. But then I checked the date - nope, too late. Found it on 5 different major news sites - check. I guess Google glasses are real. But the world may no longer be. Google glasses appear to be Google's way to deliver what's known as augmented reality. The idea of augmented reality is to view the real world -...
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Asure Software Partners with HR Tech Provider Cumulus HR
Asure Software, Inc. is a leading provider of workforce management software, including time and attendance, asset optimization, and meeting room management designed to help organizations develop efficient and high-performing work environments. Its new partnership with HR Business Process Outsourcing provider Cumulus HR has been praised by each company as being the "perfect fit" for the...
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Innovative Enterprises Expands its Background Screening Solution
Innovative Enterprises' Infinity Screening Solutions Set, providing court research, data solutions, and ancillary services to the background screening industry, has received several powerful new services including its FirstAAlert criminal incident monitoring solution. FirstAAlert offers a year of daily monitoring for new arrests processed through over 3,000 national law enforcement agencies....
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Benefit Resource Streamlines Verification Requirements for Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements
Beniversal Followup, Benefit Resource, Inc's new online tool for submitting receipts, repaying ineligible claims and submitting substitute claims for FSAs and HRAs requiring IRS verification, has gone live at BenefitResource.com. "With a growing online-driven society, we are committed to making every aspect of our business paperless. While the IRS permits benefits cards, like our...
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The Public's New Opinion of the Health Reform Law
After days of hearing arguments both for and against Obama's healthcare reform law, the Supreme Court is working towards a June verdict to decide the Constitutionality of the legislation. New data from a CNN poll has revealed that the current opinion of nearly three-quarters of American adults is that some or all of the provisions will be overturned. Nearly one-third of respondents said they...
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RPO is on Fire
Riddle me this! What's a $1 to $1.5 billion market and will experience heavy growth in the future? Anyone? Bueller? The answer is of course, recruitment process outsourcing or RPO. The Staffing Industry Report estimates RPO as a nearly $1.5 billion market and projects that the market will experience some serious future growth. RPO offer some great benefits for companies, like speed,...
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Pinpointing Bad Job Postings
One of the biggest time wasters in the job search process is responding to postings for jobs that match neither your qualifications nor your personality. Though most career counselors recommend not spending much time applying to job board ads to begin with, when you do, you should be sure the effort is justified. To this end, there are several warning signs to look for when filtering the...
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5 Tips for Selecting Staffing Software
In the staffing world, the work begins when you make a placement! Having the right kind of staffing software can literally make or break your business. The technology that staffing companies use is in a way much more comprehensive than direct hire recruiting firms, as it must cover a variety of functions, from consultant management to payroll. Not only must staffing salespeople organize their...
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New Federal FAQ Released to Clarify Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) Mandate
The embattled healthcare reform law requires employers who sponsor healthcare coverage plans to provide employees with summaries of coverage for all plans that begin on or after September 23, 2012. Documents must be provided during open enrollment. Key points touched upon by the FAQ include: One SBC will suffice in lieu of multiple documents for employee-only, employee-plus-spouse, and family...
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Staffingbook Offers Recruiters Job Posting and Split Placements
Web based company Staffingbook, specializing in connecting employers with talent, has announced that employers now have access to its free job posting tool. Recruiters from different companies may also choose to split recruiting fees when a recruiter refers a candidate and the other works with the employer to lead in to a job offer. With Staffingbook, employers have the opportunity to quickly...
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Wellness Programs are Key to Containing Healthcare Costs
A new ADP survey has revealed that employer-provided wellness programs are a key part of any successful HR strategy when seeking to improve the health of employees, boost productivity, and control healthcare costs. However, the survey revealed that while 79 percent of large companies and 44 percent of midsized companies have developed wellness programs, nearly two-thirds do not measure ROI....
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Salary Data Provider Offers LinkedIn Users Immediate Access to Salary Reports
PayScale's new Instant Salary Report app allows users to sign in under their LinkedIn account in order to gain a better understanding of their true value in the job market. It should be useful when negotiating salary or finding market rates for particular jobs. Using LinkedIn's Application Programming Interface, the application allows LinkedIn members to first log into the PayScale website...
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How to Become an Employer of Choice
Being an 'Employer of Choice' means that you have created a great working environment within your business, which means that the best people want to work for you. This positive employment brand helps a business to both attract and retain staff, which is vital during current times when exceptional talent is in such short supply due to the global war for talent. It has been shown by a Mckinsey...
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The Future of Teleworking: You Can Bed on It
How important will or should teleworking—working from home—be to workers and employers? Cisco Corporation has reported that, by 2016, 43% of working Americans will be working from home, as "teleworkers", at least on a part-time basis. Teleworkresearchnetwork.com (TRN) estimates that although less than 2% of U.S. employees work from home the majority of the time (not including the...
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The Motivations of Passion and Money
In their recent book "Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future", Schlesinger, Kiefer, and Brown determined that, in order to do your best work, you must either be doing something that you love or something that will lead you to something you love. The desire to do your job well will allow you to be more creative and efficient thus speeding up the progression of a career...
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Tips for Mediation
The mediation process need not be painful. If successfully executed, the process should bring about complete resolution to the issue at hand. However, especially in the case of employment and workplace issues, it's important to manage expectations and continue strong rapport and trust. Employees have to continue to work together, so more than simply solving the problem, the HR professional or...
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