I had the privilege last week to attend the launch of the San Francisco Summer Jobs+ and see Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Mayor Edwin Lee speak about the importance of the initiative.  This is a city based program that mirrors the…

According to a recent article on Kaiser Health News, a new study suggests that the healthcare hiring demand is expected to increase at a faster rate than general employment with a projected “jump of more than 40 percent by 2020.” With this expected increase, how can healthcare HR professionals prepare?…

Corra Group, the Los Angeles based background checking service, will soon be moving its corporate headquarters from its current location in the Marina Del Rey. On May 1st, 2012 the company will occupy a larger office space in El Segundo, California.

“We are really excited about the move,” said Nick Gustavson, Co-Founder of Corra Group. “We spent months looking, before we found just the right building. The new office space will facilitate our growth as we hire additional personnel and…

I have read numerous discussions over the past year in HR magazines and on Linkedin discussing the importance of hiring employees that match your company’s culture.  The reason being, if I have three equally qualified candidates from which to choose, clearly at that point I must hire the individual who best fits my organization’s culture. …

April 19, 2012

Had enough of political pandering? Whether it’s the President, the presumptive Republican nominee, or any of the typical cadre of elected officials, today’s politicians are masterful at telling each audience what they think they want to hear. This people-pleasing mentality may work to bring in contributions but does little to elevate the discussion as to what is truly good for the whole of the country. While frustrating to watch, their examples are illustrative as to how not to communicate…

LinkedIn's main professional-network competitor, BranchOut, has just announced today that they've hit the magic 25 million user mark (and 13.3 million active monthly users). This is brilliant news for recruiters…

SmartRecruiters is a great company and Jerome is a great person to follow.  Their latest campaign is looking to help small businesses create jobs.  I told Jerome that we would be happy to post this information for them.

From Jerome Ternynck - Founder and CEO of SmartRecruiters:

The nation's unemployment crisis can only be resolved if businesses, small ones in particular, start to create more jobs. In line with our mission to eradicate…

Why should I use a recruiter?

You are at your desk, or at home watching TV when you get a call from a recruiter who has found your contact information using the many secrets of the trade (sorry – that’s one secret I intend to keep). Before you hang up the phone, remember that recruiters can hold the keys to the hidden jewels of the job market. Use them and they may just open the door to a new career…

In a recent presentation with Dr. Charles Handler, I discovered that although both he and I focused on the ‘quality of candidates’ – as does anyone involved in recruiting – we weren’t able to find much data on exactly which recruiting techniques delivered the best quality candidates, according to HR and recruiting professionals. As I was preparing the annual Online Recruiting…

Whether you admit it publicly or not, you probably have superstitions - most people swear by them. They’re those little superstitious behaviors people do for luck, like: knock on wood, cross fingers, tap two feet before boarding a plane, or wear that certain pair of underwear before an important meeting. Professional athletes like golf legend Tiger Woods, hockey player Patrick Roy, and basketball champion…

This is not another blog espousing the virtues of social media… no social media, in particular Twitter can be a bitch.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter… I dedicate a couple of hours a day to the Twitterverse - usually early in the morning, or late in the evening. I love finding out recruitment news as it happens – and retweeting appropriately.  I enjoy seeing what roles are available and trending, and the witty banter between recruitment industry heavy…

Do you engage in public sector recruiting?  If not you may be missing a very important and sizable opportunity.  Let’s start with the size of the pie – 24% is the average percentage of employees in the public sector in Canada (March 2012).  The USA tends to be in the high teens with developing country average around 23% (Bureau of Statistics).  This means that one in four or five positions in Canada/USA are a public job:  government, Crown Corporation, university,…

So you have the perfect candidate for a hot job in your database. On the other side of the desk, you’re trying to capture the attention of a potential client. You can spend all day creating an email message that will entice them to work with you, but if they don’t open your email, your effort is wasted.

Use these five tips to craft a clickable subject line, and prevent your message from sinking under the radar.

1. Address Your Reader

Have you ever…

Yep, this is what you DON'T do when making a video about your 16 new internships.

Once my knee stopped pulsating I finally pulled myself together.  Well, as much as I could.…

The candidate experience encompasses every interaction with a candidate from first contact to ultimately hire (check out my latest post on this topic).  From your employment messaging to your apply process to how you handle candidate feedback in the interview process, all these areas affect how a candidate views and engages with your company.

While every aspect of the…

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I thought it was a good show today. The guest was an articulate young guy even though he did suffer from a certain amount of first appearance shrinkage. I got criticized for my critique of his Linkedin profile but I was right and my critic was wrong. And I got criticized for…

If you are interviewing with a company, think of yourself as a restaurant worker after you use the bathroom.  Simply put: Wash your hands.  Your mother told you this every day growing up so that when you got into public, it would be a natural habit.  Good habits pay big rewards.

Picture this:  I go to use our restrooms and run into someone I don’t know coming out of the stall where “Number 2” business was just taken care of.  I say “hello”, he says “hello”.   It’s just a cordial…

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in their March 2012 report that there are currently 5.3 million long-term unemployed people in the U.S. This figure is virtually unchanged from the previous month, meaning nearly 43% of the unemployed sector has been without a job for more than six months. That is a lot of competition when applying for a job.



To ensure that…

You only get one chance to make a first impression, which is why recruiters always stress the importance of dressing for success and staying positive. It's not impossible to overcome a first impression, but you're putting yourself at a distinct disadvantage if you skulk into an interview wearing a Tommy Bahama club shirt. It's an important lesson for candidates, but it's just as important for our clients and anyone that wants to land the top talent.…