December 2009 Blog Posts (185)

@HRMargo's Holiday Miracle!

This morning, I received a telephone call from the President of the Company I worked for 2007-2008. His company went under during the Great Recession. He couldn’t afford to pay my salary for the last 6 weeks before he closed the organization.

I never fought for the salary I worked so hard to earn, because I liked him, and his family so much. They were good to me, and I appreciated his family more than he knew. I expressed my compassionate understanding, and wished him well, for they… Continue

Added by Margo Rose on December 24, 2009 at 4:00pm — 3 Comments

Talent Acquisition Triple Play

Congratulations to Sodexo on winning the 2009 Workforce Optimas Award for Vision

The company was able to improve hiring speed and quality even as it cut its annual recruiting advertising budget in North America by $300,000. The effort also has corresponded with better business outcomes. Customer… Continue

Added by Shannon Russo on December 24, 2009 at 8:45am — 2 Comments

Welcome Back Eager Beavers

If you had a job this year you weren’t so lucky after all. If you did NOT have a job you probably played tennis, golf and did a lot of blogging, tweeting and other fun social stuff.

So here is the deal. For those of us that had to work like 80 hours a week, were little pissed. Sure we read your corny blogs and follow your tweets about looking for a job.

But now you’re back in the office, just like an eager Beaver, and wanting to take it all on.… Continue

Added by Michael Glenn on December 24, 2009 at 5:00am — 4 Comments

Merry Christmas

"Oh, the silent majesty of a winter's morn... the clean, cool chill of the holiday air... an [expletive deleted] in his bathrobe, emptying a chemical toilet into my sewer..."

-Clark W. Griswold (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, 1989)

Yep, that sums up the outlook for the 2008 holiday season and the promise of prosperity in 2009. Only it was not Cousin… Continue

Added by Chris Hood on December 23, 2009 at 2:08pm — No Comments

Job Interviewing Is Like Dating

"So, tell me a little bit about yourself."

"Describe a time when you_____."

"OK, I'll call you."

Think quick - was that a job interview or a date? Not sure? No kidding! That's because interviewing for jobs is as lot like dating, and can be just as awkward. Both scenarios are characterized by two people looking for the "right fit." Both will require a commitment. And all parties want to make sure they're getting the best possible deal.

The average job tenure is 18… Continue

Added by Victoria Schanen on December 22, 2009 at 9:13pm — 3 Comments

What the applicant needs and what they get...Is this as good as it gets!

At times like this when there are so many recruitment agents, headhunters etc and everyone under the sun wants to give advice to the unsuspecting candidate, many for money, and some for not what is a person to do? How do they make their choices?

It seems that what we need is a way, an easier way to figure out the where what and how of fitting a candidate to job, in a supportive way.

Just a brief surf on the net shows me the vast amount of "stuff" that there is out there… Continue

Added by Peter Lanc on December 22, 2009 at 6:16pm — 2 Comments

Human Endurance and the Job Search

I had a long talk with a group of job seekers recently about how long they have been searching, how they are coping with the challenges they are facing and how they feel about their prospects. It was actually a much more broad discussion than that, but I think those areas sum up a lot of it.

The length of time ranged from 2 months to almost 18 months; and more than one person was at the higher end of that spectrum. To some in the group hearing how long others had been out of work was… Continue

Added by Randy Levinson on December 22, 2009 at 5:30pm — 2 Comments

Hybrid Careers & Cool Nerds

I read recently that hybrid careers that combine computing with other fields from medicine to Hollywood, will increasingly be the new American jobs of the future. These jobs do not match the classic computer geek, gear head or nerd image — a heads-down programmer, who is socially isolated. In the new hybrid careers, computing is a crucial ingredient and, economists say, such work will be the source of many new jobs of the future.

Basically, the nation’s economic… Continue

Added by Lester Wall on December 22, 2009 at 4:49pm — No Comments

2009 is dead! Recruitment outlook for 2010...

As 2009 gasps and wheezes its way to the finish line, all eyes and hopes are on 2010 and the fortunes the coming year may bring. Or not, as the case may be. If you listen to many commentators out there, both within the recruitment industry and outside it, you will hear much talk of recovery; lots of tweeting of potential upsides.

Me? I'm not so sure. And here's why.

For those not around during the last proper recession in the 90's you need to take a close look at what… Continue

Added by Gareth Jones on December 22, 2009 at 2:34pm — 8 Comments

Medical Recruiting In Todays Economy

I have been looking at the Trends in Recruiting within the Medical Staffing Industry specifically within Nursing and Respiratory and also some Radiology Recruiting. I have found that in the past couple of years a shift has emerged. Many hospitals are thinking twice first of all on to use Registries to staff and they are looking at cost to hire a temp to hire.

Yet, the are forced against a wall. They must meet staffing criteria and meet those criteria safely for patients. What does… Continue

Added by Roy Vera on December 22, 2009 at 2:25pm — No Comments

Finding the Right People Is Hard Work

I was reading a blog post today over at Recruiting Blogs.com written by David Blanton, entitled, Finding the right person harder than ever for recruiters. David also blogs over on… Continue

Added by Justin Driscoll on December 22, 2009 at 11:27am — No Comments

Families Served

Like many generous people throughout the country, my son's Cub Scout pack tries to do their part helping people who are less fortunate and I wanted to share the following story from our Cub Scout Pack Community Service Chairperson.

The second family in Hillsborough was probably the neediest family that we have helped so far. I delivered their gifts to their home in a government apartment building. When I showed up two social workers were there. I explained who I was and that… Continue

Added by Todd Kmiec on December 22, 2009 at 8:17am — No Comments

New Year, New Decade, New Candidates!

In my experience, November, December and January have always been the worst of the worst as far as number of candidates in my funnel. But I take heart in the fact that very soon all of the year-end bonuses will be paid out and relocation weather will be here (in the Midwest).

What do you do in January that helps you get through the last of the annual dry spell? How do you attract qualified candidates this time of year? I make a checklist of things that really help build credibility… Continue

Added by Nikole Tutton on December 21, 2009 at 4:44pm — No Comments

Networking tips for finding a new job

(This column was originally published in SNEWS, the most trusted outdoor and fitness industry news source since 1984. www.snewsnet.com)

As the U.S. unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent, a large number of Americans are seeking jobs, and networking has become a critical skill.

There are about 6.3 people competing for each job, the U.S. Labor Department reported in October, so job seekers face plenty of competition. But they… Continue

Added by Eric Raynard on December 21, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Once More With Feeling Or Should I Just Stick To The Script?

Isn’t it great when an interview goes according to the script? The interviewer asks the list of question he has and the candidate feeds back the perfect answers. Everyone comes away from the encounter happy and the right candidate gets the right job. That’s of course, when the everything goes right.

Whether you know it or not, if you’re preparing for an interview – whether you’re the interviewer or the candidate, you’re scripting. You’re going over the questions in your mind and… Continue

Added by James Seetoo on December 21, 2009 at 4:22pm — 6 Comments

Top 10 HR Developments of 2009

For the most of us, the end of the year signifies an opportunity to think, reflect, and remember the life lessons, events, and topics that demanded our attention over the last 12 months. And professionals within the Human Resource and Recruiting industry are no exception. I think that I can speak for everyone that 2009 was a year many businesses, job seekers, and people in general would like to…

Continue

Added by Jessica Miller-Merrell on December 21, 2009 at 3:11pm — 4 Comments

Job Hunting and Credit Reports

For some reason, there are individuals and groups bent on scaring job applicants about credit reports by spreading miss-information that is just plain wrong. Whether these people are just not well informed, or have their own agenda to push, the fact remains that job applicants are under enough stress without having to worry about things that are simply not true.

In previous blogs, ESR debunked two commonly held myths.… Continue

Added by Les Rosen on December 21, 2009 at 4:54am — No Comments

The Resume - A Change We Can Believe In

It’s been a strange weekend. I went to see the new George Clooney film; waited in line and discovered that I went to the wrong movie theater. Now that I am back at home and with some time to kill, I thought this would be a good opportunity to write a new blog post. There have been many thoughts going through my mind lately with the wealth of new social media information that I have been internalizing about its application to recruiting and business in general. So, writing a blog post is… Continue

Added by Ken Forrester on December 20, 2009 at 4:40pm — No Comments

The Health Care Debate And The Free Market

John Stossel's new show is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. This week he had John Mackey, the Whole Foods CEO who wrote an Op Ed on the health care debate and how they handle things in a more free market way at Whole Foods. What amazes me is how this whole debate has been framed now to the point where the obvious advantages of a free market are completely ignored and the argument is over what level of socialism we need. Mackey understands this and articulates it well. It's really shocking… Continue

Added by Todd Kmiec on December 19, 2009 at 11:14am — 4 Comments

Want to write better job posts in 2010? Here's how.

I've been meaning to put together my thoughts about writing recruitment advertisements, or job posts as many call them, for some time. After all, I have written thousands of them down the years and, as many know, I have a real bugbear about bad job ads littering the web. So here goes. My gift to you all for Christmas. Why not resolve to put it into practice in the new year?

Think first

Get your understanding of the brief right (I am assuming you take a… Continue

Added by Alasdair Murray on December 19, 2009 at 9:30am — 4 Comments