Is There Prosperity in the Wind?
How many times must a windmill spin before you can see in the dark? As the United States mobilizes around energy-efficient light bulbs, there is still the issue of lighting them. Wind power is often touted as a powerful alternative form of energy. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) is committed to having more and more homes powered by wind. According to EWEA's website, the...
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Unsung Heroes of the US Economy: Cooperatives
Competition, competion, competition. It may be time for a little cooperation. At least, the United Nations seems to think so. The United Nations General Assembly has officially named the year 2012 as the "International Year of Cooperatives." For too long, the council concurs, governments around the world have not done enough to support cooperatives which create economic...
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How to be a Lazy Recruiter
Most recruiters are workaholics that beat themselves up if they don't answer their Blackberry at 10pm. They talk to candidates instead of their kids and take down job requirements in their dreams. Do you ever get tired of it? How are some recruiters able to dial it back a few notches and still make more placements than you? You might need to try getting a little lazier. The trick is, how...
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Prying Apart Privacy: Who Needs It?
In a world of ever-increasing surveillance and information penetration capabilities and demands, any insistence on your part that you have a professional or personal right to privacy of some kinds is increasingly falling on deaf, yet closely listening ears, or on watching eyes. For example, the city of Chongqing, China is installing more than 500,000 street cameras, at a cost of more than...
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USDA Backs More Rural Cooperatives
What keeps a project from getting off the ground? Sometimes, procrastination might be the culprit, but often there's a important missing piece of the puzzle. There's some research that must be conducted or technical assistance that must be secured. Other times what's missing is organizing community involvement and ownership of the project. For people looking to join together in their...
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Thoughtworks Makes Software Engineering Fun
The following statement appears on the website of Thoughtworks, Inc.: "The IT Industry has a terrible reputation, and it deserves it. Our commitment to changing the industry permeates every project we touch and far beyond that - we are working on ways technology can positively impact society and community for future generations." When does getting a good reputation feel like fun? ...
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KellyOCG Recognized as Leader in Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Recognition has once again been bestowed upon Kelly Services, Inc. This time, the outsourcing and consulting division called KellyOCG received recognition from two industry research groups for its global Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) practice. NelsonHall's "Targeting Recruitment Process Outsourcing" report identifies KellyOCG as the top global recruitment process outsourcing...
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Social Networks for Recruiters: The End of an Era?
Since my father got me a 14.4 baud modem, I've always been hooked on the Internet. But since I'm not a programmer, I actually started my real career in recruiting, which I still love to this day. However, when social media started getting traction back in 2006-07, my old love for the web hit me like a high school flame. I started building social networks in every bit of my spare time. The...
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DOE Loan Progam Creates Jobs
The rush of green jobs that some experts have touted as the best hope for our economy are starting to trickle in, with a little help, in the form of loans and loan guarantees. from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE's Loan Programs Office administers various loan and loan guarantee programs to support the deployment of commercial technologies along with innovative technologies that ...
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Short Stack of Trouble Growing at Milwaukee IHOP
It is important for employees to know their rights, and what recourse is available to them, if they are sexually harassed in the work place. Many companies as part of an orientation process have their new employees read a policy manual that outlines how to bring a complaint against a coworker or manager, and provide training to managers on how to avoid even innocently being perceived as...
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Streetcars, For Our Economy and Our Planet
Outside of a few quaint enclaves, like San Francisco, the idea of street cars brings to mind sepia toned nostalgia. But the Department of Transportation is looking to that nostalgic past for ideas for the future. A well used steetcar system would go a long way to reducing traffic in metropolitan area, and in so doing significantly reduce a city's carbon foot print. Further, building these...
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U.S. Government Getting Out of the Car Business
On May 24th, Chrysler paid back the last of its loans to the U.S. Treasury, a full six years earlier than they had to. But the the government still held a stake in the company, owning 98,461 shares. On June 2 the Treasury Department announced that it reached an agreement to sell to Fiat Treasury's 6 percent fully diluted equity interest in Chrysler Group LLC and Treasury's interest in an...
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"A Wake Up Call" for Employers Who Discriminate
When we hear about discrimination in hiring practices, we usually think of discrimination against racial minorities, or people with disabilities, or discrimination based on sexual orientation. But so-called reverse discrimination, where white people are denied jobs simply based on their race is becoming more of an issue. A few years ago there was a much publicized case in which an exam that...
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NUNA (No Unemployed Need Apply)
Signed reading, "NINA", used to hang storefront windows in the 1860s, letting recent Irish immigrants know that "No Irish Need Apply", i.e. they would not be hired. Maybe employers should print up new signs that say "NUNA - No Unemployed Need Apply." Last year, reports started to appear in the news media of employers discriminating against the unemployed, saying they would not consider...
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What Emotional Intelligence Isn't
EQ / Image: Michael Moffa You're a smart recruiter, which means that you have the intellectual horsepower to get, organize, analyze and disseminate information; deal with clients and to screen and assign candidates. But nowadays it also means that you have the emotional smarts to gauge the emotional and temperamental fit of applicants and candidates, i.e., you have the emotional...
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Hockey and Alien Workplace Invasions
I asked the supermarket aisle staff whether they stocked Vancouver Canucks-flavored toothpaste and elicited a puzzled look. I explained that because there seem to be no limits to the Canadian obsession with hockey, I thought hockey-flavored toothpaste would make a nice summer gift for those friends of mine who, unlike me, think hockey is more exciting than watching logs rot or oil...
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Networking with Theory
So you've signed up for LinkedIn and Facebook and feel good about being in a network with recruiting potential. All you have to do now is to sit back and wait for the web jiggles or to create some of your own. Ah, were it so simple. To imagine that is all you have to do is like imagining that there's not much to succeeding in the U.S. Army besides signing up and knowing when to...
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Transgender Employees Face Extreme Discrimination in the Workplace
In June, plenty of cities stop business as usual for Pride. But business as usual can be a difficult thing to endure in this society, especially if you are transgendered. The National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has released a comprehensive study on transgender discrimination that revealed employers have a long way to go before their workplaces...
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Employees Have Opposite Reactions to Performance Review
The days are getting longer, and somehow this means it's the time of year when a lot of bosses decide it's high time to review their staff's performance. Although workers are reviewed in confidence, plenty of workers compare how their assessments went. Often, employees come away from performance evaluations with the distinct impression that the process is bogus. Impact Achievement Group has...
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Houston Firm Expands its Recruitment Department
Cotton farmers aren't the only ones with more work opportunities in Texas. Recruiters may be interested to know that a Texas recruitment firm in Houston is expanding its workforce. Murray Resources has decided that it needs to hire more recruiters to fit clients' demand for professional and management talent. Since 2000, the professional division of Murray Resources has helped companies...
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I May Be Boring, But I'm Very Rich
Last Thursday, I finally got to see The Cars in concert at the House of Blues in Boston. The Cars hadn't toured in 25 years, so this event was the buzz of the town - the band members being "local boys" after all. I love live music - and over the years, I have slowly, but steadily, been checking off my huge "bands-I-need-to-see-before-I-die" list. There are a few bands that have been stuck at...
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Apply with Linkedin: Six Views
Business sites, social media outlets, and online recruiting sites are buzzing about Linkedin's new Apply with Linkedin button - and it hasn't even launched yet! Why is this little new job application service causing so much debate and speculation? Â Â Job search is one of the main uses of the web. The Linkedin apply button has the ability to transform the job search process. Job...
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Federal Aid Aims to Help Former Inmates Find and Retain Jobs
"If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence," wrote Charles Bukowski. This writer deemed a "laureate of American lowlife" by Time was onto something. While you're in jail, it can feel obvious who really cares about you, but also afterward. Trying to get a job after serving time in justice facilities is not an easy feat. Plenty of employers are quick to...
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Drunker, Messier Masses
As more and more states make it illegal to smoke in your local bar, it is apparently not having much of an effect on sales in bars. In 2009, drinking places were the sites of the largest increase in labor productivity (output per hour). At a bar, this productivity means workers pouring more drinks. Apparently, as unemployment swept across the country, people were still willing to spend...
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Foreign-born Workers Find More Jobs in Physically Demanding Work Sector
The following pie graph may appear a bit deceptive at first. At first glance, it seems like foreign-born workers are an equal percentage of the workforce as workers born in the United States. As you examine the graph closely, you will see that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is simply comparing the occupations of both native and non-native workers. The figures suggest that native-born...
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Talent Pools and the Social Storm: iCIMS Social Recruiting Solution
As Linkedin's frothy IPO washes over the market, the few people that haven't been paying attention to social media are finally opening their eyes wide. The most staunchly conservative employers are building social distribution into their recruitment marketing and social networking into their sourcing efforts. Social recruiting can now, finally, just be called... recruiting. Building...
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Apply with Linkedin Button
GigaOm reported last night that Linkedin is launching a way for candidates to apply to job postings with their Linkedin profile. Much like a Linkedin Share button or a Tweet button, an Apply with Linkedin button would simply authenticate a user's Linkedin account and then transfer selected data to the application process. The system would help propagate Linkedin as a standard job application...
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Recruiters, Meet Texting
Recently, at a bar named for zombies, a young woman lamented the fact that she would have a phone interview in two hours. After polishing off several drinks, the interview-- sure enough-- did not go very well. Often the image that gets promoted with technology and the working person is the image of some peaceful beauty on the beach using the latest technology with blue skies everywhere. ...
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Can Hacker Attacks Create Jobs?
The New York Times reports in "Web Hackings Rattle Media Companies" by Brian Stelter how hackers have broken into the websites of PBS, Fox.com, and Gawker Media. These break-ins have had horrible results for all of the sites. According to Stelter, one of the producers likened the hacking to throwing rocks at a storefront window. As more and more people use the internet to gather their news,...
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Patent Reform With An Eye Toward Job Creation
Job creation comes from innovation. Where are the Edisons and the Bells of today? What's stopping them from turning the creative spark inside them into a roaring flame. Maybe it's the patent office. Filing a patent in the United States is tricky, and if the patent is disputed, could lead to very expensive litigation, making defending one's patent untenable for the small inventor fighting a...
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Military Health Care Costs Skyrocketing
One key aspect of the ongoing debate about the health care system in the United State is the sky rocketing cost to employers. The burden of providing health insurance means large corporations have less money to invest or to hire more people, while smaller business must fight to survive. There is still debate as to how effective the new health care law will be in curbing costs, but there seems...
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Highest Pay In CA and NY
It has long been conventional wisdom that in the United States there is a cultural divide between the states on the two coasts versus the middle of the country. The coasts, both east (especially the north east) and west, have different different politics and different values from the rest of the country, or so the argument goes. Maybe. But what does seem clear is that people living on the...
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College Students Remember Recruiters (and their pens)
The graduating class of 2011 is in a better position than recent graduating classes to walk past the podium and into a new job. Still, the senior year in college is a difficult one for students. Essays still need to get written, labs still need to be conducted, and parties still need to be planned. In between all of that, seniors need to somehow try to apply for some jobs. Not every senior...
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Bad News and Recruiting
Over the past couple of years, reading business magazines or watching the news has been kind of like going to see the Saw movies. If you don't leave in the middle, you'll probably lose a little of your humanity by the end. We are constantly bombarded with news about unemployment, looming inflation, and stock market crashes. Reflecting all that fear, your wedding ring is now probably worth...
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Seven Things Hiring Managers Lie About
Everyone loves to blame recruiters when things go wrong with a placement. When a candidate backs out, a client mysteriously stops returning phone calls, or a hiring manager tells a candidate that the position is closed (during the interview), one thing is always true: it's somehow the recruiter's fault. Recruiters, whether corporate or agency, are the facilitators of the talent transaction -...
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CA Technologies Deemed One of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women
The work of recruiters is not always recognized. But Working Mother, the only national magazine for career-committed mothers, has recognized some companies, in part because of the dedication of recruiters. Working Mother has released the 2011 Best Companies for Multicultural Women awards. The award honors companies that hold managers accountable for recruiting, retaining and promoting...
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Small Businesses Reap Awards for Environmental Innovation
Although everyone's talking about green jobs, do you still have a vague image of granola roasters when you think about small companies working to protect the environment. The companies that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized for their environmental commitment sound like anything but DIY enterprises. The EPA is funding the continued work of innovative,...
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U.S. Confirms where Children Harvest, Mine, and Assemble
How often do you hear someone lament that everything causes cancer? Or that of course they are wearing clothes and eating food at the expense of another person's exploitation? In the United States, consumers often express their resignation about the cycle of violence and production. Although this weary acceptance of unfair working conditions persists in the collective psyche, every so often,...
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Five Ways to Hire More Veterans
It's a tough job market out there. This year, unemployment rates have been around 9%. For particular groups, such as veterans, it's even tougher. The unemployment rate for veterans who served in the military since 2001 was 11.5% in 2010. Young male veterans (18-24) who served during the Gulf War had a ludicrous unemployment rate of 21.9%. When nearly a quarter of our young veterans are...
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What Barcelona Football Club Can Teach Us About Business
Tomorrow, Barcelona FC and Manchester United FC will square off in the eagerly awaited UEFA Champions League final. This pinnacle event of club soccer (aka football) will be aired by 113 broadcast stations, covering over 220 territories. In excess of 300 million people from across the globe - myself included - will tune in, making this the biggest final in Champions League history. Each year,...
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Illinois Restaurants Busted for Elaborate Exploitation
Imagine that feeling when you open up a check. Yes, you might stare at the amount taken out for social security and wish that you could have that now. Yes, you might envision it quickly being eaten up by rent or root canals. But, at least for a minute, the money that appears on the check are yours. For at least 64 employees in Illinois, this basic right was not theirs. They would receive...
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Anticipating Changes from Google Wallet
"I've got my eye on a few things to spend my money on. I've got my own bank card but I am really good with money. I don't spend too much at all," said teen idol Justin Bieber. Well, things are about to change for Justin Bieber's generation. They will grow into adulthood alongside new technology that allows for easy spending. Google Wallet is a new application to put on your smartphone...
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Musicians Fight for their Spots in the Pit
Many recruiters help companies transition to more technology-based structures-- helping companies find people who can facilitate a digital revolution in the way their companies function. Success stories fill the news with how companies are run with more and more efficiency, workers thrilled by the ease of their jobs with the newest applications and computer programs. Not everyone is so happy...
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Governors Chime In on Trade
International trade is of course a key part of our national economy. And negotiating trade agreements is solidly in the purview of the Federal government. So what do can a governor of a state do if she/he has something to say about trade policy. Well, not much really. All our poor hypothetical governor can do is voice his/her opinion. Of course, the administration may be more willing to...
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Justice Dept Defends Employment Rights of Army Reservist
"Our country values its military reservists and the sacrifices they make. No service member should be disadvantaged because he or she heeded the call to duty," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice is fully committed to protecting the employment rights of...
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Employment Up In Most States
In a sign that the U.S. economy is well into its recovery, the vast majority of states showed an increase in nonfarm payroll employment in the month of April. Forty-two states plus the District of Columbia showed such an increase, leaving just 8 states having a decline in employment for the month. The largest over-the-month increase in employment occurred in New York (+45,700), followed by...
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How to Be a Better IT Manager
Managing an IT department is not an easy task and not everyone is cut out for it. Just because you're good at what you do, however, it doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. Here are some steps you can take to being even a better IT manager. Invest time and money into developing your staff. Information technology is an ever-changing field, and learning new technologies is not only...
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Intro to Custom Search Engines for Recruiters
When every other method fails, do you look for candidate resumes on the web? If you do, building custom search engines is a good way to quickly find targeted candidate resumes on the web. Since building custom search engines is a long way from what most recruiters do, not too many people bother with it. Building search engines with Google doesn't provide you with different results than a...
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