Adapting Education to Overcome the STEM Workforce Shortage
Many recruiters these days are struggling to overcome the shortage of prized skills in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. To address this problem, the U.S. government recently announced a $200 million initiative to teach computer coding to young girls and minority students — groups typically underrepresented in the STEM field — in U.S. schools. The...
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To Find High Performers, Stop Looking at Resumes
Great companies hire great people. But where do you find great people? How do you locate the high-performing talent your organization needs? To answer, that, we first have to look at the typical qualities of a high performer: Intelligence: Fairly self-explanatory. Passion: High performers love their jobs, are proud of their work, and are willing to go above and...
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When Interviewers Ask, Be Honest About Your Weaknesses
"What is your biggest weakness?" has long been a favorite question of hiring managers across industries. This is a tough question all the way around. If you are too honest, you may eliminate yourself from consideration. If you're not honest enough, you may come across as evasive — again, eliminating yourself from consideration. So, what's the best way to handle this question? The...
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Taking a Gap Year: the Benefits of Being an Out-of-the-Box Candidate
While some employers might prefer prospects who make a beeline straight for college after high school, more and more graduates are taking gap years to work toward specific goals, including saving for college. If you're currently a gapper — that is, someone taking a gap year — or have a gap year in your sights, here are some tips for making that choice more appealing to your next...
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A Living Process: How HR Has Changed Over the Last 35 Years
Far from a static discipline, human resources is a living process. It evolves constantly, especially in this day and age when new technologies regularly cause drastic shifts in the ways we work and hire. Talent management and career transition services consulting firm Keystone Partners recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. To mark the occasion, we connected with Elaine Varelas,...
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It's Okay to Say No to Your Company's Holiday Party
The awareness of sexual harassment and gender bias in the workplace is at an all-time high. It seems that every day a new woman comes forward with a story of inappropriate behavior or harassment. In light of the current moment, many companies and employees are reevaluating their upcoming holiday parties, which often give workers the chance to drink heavily and act in ways they otherwise...
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Do Your Coworkers Annoy the Heck Out of You? You're Not Alone
Interpersonal relationships are the No. 1 source of tension in the workplace, according to a survey of 2,000 working Americans conducted by Olivet Nazarene University. In fact, 40 percent of those surveyed said they are annoyed with their coworkers on a regular basis; 21 percent said they get "quite annoyed," and 9 percent said they get "extremely annoyed." Only 4 percent of respondents...
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How to Build a Better Resume in 60 Seconds
You've probably poured hours — if not days — into making your resume perfect. The fact that you never seem to hear back from recruiters or employers after sending said resume out is just plain frustrating. Even worse is the prospect of overhauling the whole document to improve your response rates. But before you take drastic measures, why not check out the following infographic from...
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4 Question to Ask When Buying a High-Volume Recruiting System
Within an organization, the high-volume functions can be some of the most difficult to recruit for. This is doubly true in industries like healthcare, hospitality, and retail, where organizations often face high turnover rates and surpluses of entry-level workers. When it comes to filling high-volume roles, having the right recruiting software on your side is imperative. Unfortunately,...
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Sick of High Turnover? Let Your Employees Work Remotely
High turnover rates often result from a combination of factors. Fixing the issue completely generally requires extensive audits to identify all the reasons why employees are heading for the door. But while you're doing all that investigating, you might also want to try one relatively easy way to increase employee happiness and loyalty: Offer remote work opportunities. Companies that...
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When Interviews Turn to Stand-Up: HR Pros Talk Jokes
A good sense of humor is essential to keeping your sanity in talent acquisition. But no matter how experienced you are in the industry, you can never prepare for some of the shocking responses candidates can drop on you during an interview. We decided to collect a few of those responses below — with some commentary from the HR pros and hiring managers who heard them: 1. The...
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Networking at the Office Holiday Party Can Be Tricky. Here's How to Do It Right:
Ah, the office holiday party: free food, open bar, and a chance to see your company's most elusive executives let loose a little. The holiday party is a great time rub elbows with the upper echelons of your company, but it can be hard to make an impression, especially when you work in a big corporation. Here are a few tips on how to "network up" with your busiest bosses and potentially...
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HR Technology: 3 Microtrends Driving Change
Technological advances have repeatedly reshaped the business world since the dawn of the internet, and the human resources field hasn't been immune to such change. Digital payroll solutions, applicant tracking systems, job websites, benefits management systems, and human resource information systems have all revolutionized the way HR gets things done. Even prior to the internet, HR...
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Rejection: the Worst Thing That Can Happen to Your Job Search?
When I lived in Tampa, I watched the Bucaneers go 0-14 in a season. It was brutal, but by no means was it as brutal as being rejected for a position after making it through several rounds of interviews. Sure, some of us can disengage our personal feelings from the process. Some of us handle rejection pretty well. But many of us don't. After a job search — especially a long one;...
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On the Job Hunt? Ask for Identity Theft Protection
It seems like not a week goes by without news of a cybersecurity incident. Equifax was recently investigated by Congress after the company sustained a massive breach affecting 144 million Americans. Similarly, Yahoo recently admitted that a breach from 2012 affected 3 billion accounts. If you're worried, you're not alone. A Pew survey from the beginning of this year found that almost...
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5 Steps to Developing Critical Thinking Skills
Article by Sam Milam Do you react to situations based on your emotions or personal biases? Are you looking for ways to improve communication with those around you? Do you want to achieve more in your career? By adopting critical thinking skills, you can improve your ability to make objective, effective choices and arguments. Without these skills, your arguments can often be one-sided....
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Social Recruiting Is Here to Stay; Here Are 4 Steps to Getting Started
When most people think about the cost of a hire, they think about the hours spent writing job descriptions, posting ads, screening resumes, and interviewing candidates. But that isn't the whole picture. Hiring also costs businesses in terms of lost revenue: The hiring process pulls people away from their daily tasks, meaning there are fewer people selling products or servicing customers...
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5 Things NOT to Do in Your First Interview
Congratulations on scoring your first interview! You've likely read up on what you should do during an interview, but this article focuses on the equally important topic of things you should not do in your first interview. 1. Don't Let Your First Interview Be Your First Interview Interviews can be nerve-racking, especially your first interview. Don't make the mistake of letting your...
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3 Keys to Building Collaborative Relationships With Hiring Managers
The relationship between a recruiter and a hiring manager is an interesting one. Both roles are necessary to making a strategic and suitable hire, but it's not uncommon for recruiters and hiring managers to be misaligned – or, worse, in outright opposition to one another. The hiring manager is the subject matter expert; they know the skills and character traits that best fit the team...
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The Recruiting Reel: How and Why to Hire for Cultural Fit
Everyone knows that hiring for cultural fit is important — but do you really have a firm grasp on what that means? Many people think hiring for culture fit means seeking talented people who are just like their current employees, sharing the same interests and similar backgrounds. However, this approach only leads to a lack of diversity. On this episode of The Recruiting Reel, Mark...
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9 Things Amazing Bosses Say to Employees
Being a boss is no joke. As with being a great parent, if you're truly great, you agonize constantly over whether you might be doing it wrong. To make matters even trickier, you're really, really busy. So, how do you ensure you're being a great boss and keep your employees engaged and happy? The following simple statements and questions can help you lay the groundwork for being a...
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Do Veterans Need College Degrees to Enter the Civilian Workforce?
Veterans usually leave military service with a stockpile of G.I. Bill benefits to help them pursue an education — but should they use these benefits? This question plagues many veterans as they struggle to find meaningful work upon exiting the military. Once upon a time, military service could completely replace a college degree in the corporate world, but those days are now behind us in...
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Your Ultimate Guide to Nailing the Interview Process
Let's not beat around the bush: For many of us, myself included, job interviews are downright scary. Few things are as anxiety-inducing as sitting down in front of your next potential boss and trying to impress them enough to give you a job. Partially, interviews are so terrifying because they feel like they're beyond our control. We're at the mercy of the person across the table. They...
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How Important Is Continuous Training to Your Employees?
Managers have a lot to concern themselves with on a daily basis: the bottom line, employee engagement, and of course, customer satisfaction. Amid all that busy day-to-day activity, one critical area might be falling by the wayside: continuous training and employee development. A dedicated training program can impact everything from recruitment and retention to performance. Unfortunately,...
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Are You Recruitment Ready? 3 Steps for Hiring Managers to Take
Where does your company's character come from? Sure, it is shaped by your values, your mission, and the day-to-day operations of your office, but the heart of your business is actually rooted in what happens during the hiring process. Make the wrong choices during recruitment, and everything falls apart. For this reason, it is vital to start any hiring process fully prepared to identify...
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Social Media Mistakes Your Recruitment Business Is Making
Are you scratching your head, wondering why you're failing to generate more new client leads from social media? Or perhaps you're concerned that the flow of candidates you expected from social media just isn't materializing? My aim in this post is to help you understand the issues that are holding you back on social media and how to address them. Let's start by considering the basics of...
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In a Job Seeker's Market, the Candidate Experience Matters More Than Ever
It's a job seeker's market out there as long as unemployment continues to hover just above 4 percent. When there are more jobs than people to fill them, candidates can pick and choose, forcing companies to step up their games if they hope to woo top talent. What does stepping up their games entail? First, companies need to work on their brands. Forty-seven percent of working Americans...
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Don't Forget to Check Employee Reviews When on the Job Hunt
Sometimes, it seems we spend more time researching the best hamburger in the city than we do researching prospective employers. Much like skipping restaurant reviews, however, failing to research a company can come back to burn you later. The good news is you no longer need an insider connection to get the scoop on a company. There now exist many websites, including Glassdoor and Indeed,...
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15 Ways Your Body Language Is Killing Your Business Etiquette
Etiquette's not just fodder for fusty advice columns. Despite the increasing casualization of work — in the sense of both increasingly gig-based work and Mark Zuckerberg's t-shirts — bad business etiquette can still blow a deal if you're not careful. That said, maintaining proper etiquette is not always easy. For starters, few of us are ever formally introduced to business...
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14 Job Search Tips to Use in 2018
If it has been a few years since the last time you went on a job hunt, you need to know that things have changed in the employment market. Sure, there's advice from 2011 that still applies today – for example, networking is still a great idea. That being said, you'll need to brush up on the latest job search strategies if you want to land a role . One particularly important new...
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A Founder's Perspective: 4 Things I Look for in a New Hire
In his book How Google Works, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that hiring is the most important practice at any company. I couldn't agree more. I founded and ran the cloud-accounting firm Interactive Accounting, and I am now the CEO and cofounder of Practice Ignition, a SaaS company with more than 30 employees. I've been through countless interviews and hundreds of employees. I've...
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5 Ways to Minimize Hiring Bias and Appeal to More Diverse Talent Pools
Diversity is more than a buzzword, more than a trend. It's simply the right thing to do – and it's good for business, improving the bottom line both directly (through access to a larger pool of top talent) and indirectly (through a better public reputation). Diversity starts with recruitment in the labor market. Unfortunately, diversity hiring efforts are often held back by the explicit...
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7 Qualities of an Effective Personality Assessment
Not all personality assessments are created equal. Does the one you're using make the grade? Whether you're looking to hire and develop top performers, identify high-potential employees and future leaders, address performance issues, or build more collaborative and productive teams, personality assessments can be an invaluable tool. An effective assessment shines a light on people's...
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3 Ways to Recruit Top-Notch Talent — Without Recruiting at All
Picture this: Quality talent — I mean talent that truly aligns with your team's mission and culture — is knocking down your door. And you didn't even have to do any recruiting at all. This scenario isn't as far-fetched as it may seem. If you improve your company culture, promote how awesome your team is, and have meaningful conversations with the right talent, you can recruit great...
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How Do Employees Feel About Performance Management? That Depends:
The annual performance review is dead. We need continuous feedback. Performance management should be a two-way conversation. You've likely heard these declarations and similar ones before. Today, it's all the rage to issue sweeping statements about performance management. But as with most things, it turns out performance management is a lot more nuanced than that. Recently, BambooHR...
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Get the Most From Your Employees in 5 Easy Steps
The one desired outcome that cuts across all verticals, roles, and management styles is great work. Leaders try to predict who will do great work when hiring, and they often grapple with how to maintain high levels of productivity throughout an employee's time with their company. After analyzing 1.7 million cases of award-winning work, O.C. Tanner discovered that great work isn't the...
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A CIO Is a CIO Is a CIO?
Is the CIO you're checking out for a client evolutionary or revolutionary? Are they a top, typical, or trailing performer in digitalization? These are among the questions you should be addressing as you consider candidates for corporate clients. Just because the person you're placing has been a CIO for one company doesn't mean they've worked on the same kind of initiatives as the CIO of...
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Protect Yourself: 3 Workplace Cybersecurity Tips All Workers Should Follow
We live in a connected world, and most of us cannot complete our jobs without using a computer. In fact, according the United States Department of Commerce, 62 percent of working Americans use the internet as part of their jobs. But as more and more people rely on computers at work, that puts more and more organizations at risk. Consider, for example, the recent spate of corporate...
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6 Things to Consider When Defining Your Ideal Career Path
Whether you're new to the workforce or considering making a career change, it's important to have a clear career path in mind. Unfortunately, that isn't always easy. Especially during the earliest stages of our careers, we tend to make decisions based on what influencers like our family and friends tell us or by gut feeling. Perhaps this is why the average college student changes their...
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Accommodations in the Workplace: A Practical Guide
Not everyone who returns to the workforce after a work-disrupting disability is able to perform the same job in the same way they did before. Fortunately, a wide range of accommodations are available to help keep people in the workforce, and the good news is that companies are more than happy to provide them — as long as they understand the need for and requirements of such...
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Ready to Relocate? Do Your Homework Before You Move
Recently, I've watched a lot of people move into my area without first surveying the job market. The comments I read on social media and in the emails these people send me, as well as what I hear when I meet with them, tell me they did not do their homework. If you're looking to relocate, you must have a job search strategy in place before you move. You must do your homework to see if the...
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How Innovative Colleges Drive Student Success
Preparing graduates for the innovation economy requires a shift in our thinking about professional skills and attitudes. It means thinking deeply about how changes in technology, business models, and even culture create opportunities in every industry at every level. It means training, encouraging, celebrating, and demanding that kind of thinking and risking failure as part of...
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That Bad Hire Might Cost You Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars
Bad hires are, well, bad. Their productivity is low. They tend to drag down team- and department-wide performance. They don't get along with coworkers, causing disruptive disputes that can derail critical projects. They also cost money. A lot of money. According to a new infographic from Employment Background Investigations, bad hires can sap your company's cash in myriad ways,...
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For Career Success, Improve Your Executive Presence
Recently, I participated in two separate panels where we discussed the importance of executive presence and how people can improve their own executive presences. Now, you may be wondering exactly what "executive presence" is. There are many ways to define the phrase, but at its core, it simply refers to how people carry themselves. For example, a Business Insider article suggests...
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Not Getting Results? You're Probably Using Outdated Job Search Tactics
Those of us who are heavily involved in recruiting and hiring know that a lot of companies are extremely dissatisfied with the quality of their new hires. Those of us who are lucky enough to have insight into both sides of the coin — recruiter/employer and job seeker — also know that dissatisfaction is widespread. Job seekers, too, are unhappy with the current state of affairs in...
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Why Are So Many Workers Failing Drug Tests Today?
As a recruiter, your job is to find the best candidate for a position. On the surface, it's a simple process: match the responsibilities and qualifications in a job ad with the person who can fill the role. The puzzle pieces should fit together neatly! In reality, however, the process isn't always that simple. Even if a candidate meets all the criteria on paper and sails through the...
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5 Steps to Building an Intern Feedback Loop
Feedback, both positive and negative, is critical to employee success. In fact, 60 percent of employees want feedback on a weekly or daily basis. If your employees are begging for feedback, it's likely that your interns — whose job it is to learn and grow — want feedback just as much, if not more. How do you bring more feedback to the workplace? You start a feedback loop. A...
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How to Build Your Career by Volunteering
Volunteering in your community is a great way to gain skills in your chosen profession. Community service also looks good on your resume — and it will give you a warm, fuzzy feeling deep inside. Uncertain about the value of volunteering and how it helps with getting hired? Here are some stats that will make you ask, "Where do I sign up?": "ne out of every five hiring managers in the...
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