Featured Blog Posts – December 2009 Archive (78)

Twittersphere Christmas

Twas right before Christmas the twittersphere was a tizzy

Many recruiters and bloggers discussing how they were starting to get busy

You had recruiters texting how the upcoming new year brought hope

While the bloggers were writing that they think they can cope.

All around there was chatter and twits I could read

But there were a couple of people who seemed to be a different breed

See… Continue

Added by Paul Paris on December 16, 2009 at 2:14pm — 1 Comment

What Version are You?

How often do you update your software? For instance, do you update every time there is a new release to take advantage of the latest in technology? Do you update your operating system to gain advantage as soon as it's released, OR do you wait? Like most people you probably upgrade your software every couple years due to a forced change.

I mean why change right? If it's working and current software you have gets you by why change? The time it would take to learn… Continue

Added by William G Morgan on December 16, 2009 at 12:12pm — No Comments

Making Friends on Facebook vs Teams at Work

Friends Some of you whispered. Some of you spoke passionately. Some of you should be stuffing bills into this RecruiterGuy's cuss jar. But of the 22 responses (I was hoping for more) that were received via phone, email, and DM's as a result of my "Can I Just Whisper.." article, one…

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Added by RecruiterGuy on December 16, 2009 at 11:32am — No Comments

Shopping, Gandhi and IIT Bombay

From the beginning of our trip through Monday night’s farewell dinner, our 19 SHRM delegates and guests had little time off – clocking 14 hours on occasion but, not all of it was taking meetings.

Sunday we were tourists (three of our days in India- counting our trip to the Taj, were devoted to tourist activities) and a few of us “shopped til we dropped” whenever we had a chance to do so.

(About the buying of India’s wares, I’m sworn to secrecy- with the holiday season upon… Continue

Added by Gerry Crispin on December 16, 2009 at 9:30am — 1 Comment

The year in job boards: 2009 – what we learned

It was an ugly, painful year. I haven’t talked to a single job board owner – not one – who saw revenue declines of less than 35 to 70 percent. Many had to lay off employees, cut benefits, or otherwise pull back. They weren’t alone, of course – almost every aspect of our economy (Goldman Sachs excepted) has suffered.

So, we’re agreed – 2009 sucked. But surely we learned a few things, right? Hmmm….

1. Bailouts are for banks, not job boards (unless you’re Monster in… Continue

Added by Jeff Dickey-Chasins on December 16, 2009 at 9:04am — 3 Comments

Finding right person for the job harder than ever for recruiters

You would think that a recruiter's job would be easier than ever right now. Resumes from overqualified candidates coming in by the dozens. Job seekers eager to get back to work. Well, think again!

With 10% of the country looking for work and resumes flooding in, recruiters and human resource professionals are working harder than ever. According to some estimates, an open position that used to bring in 50 resumes is now bringing in as many as 250. Many job seekers are applying for… Continue

Added by David Blanton on December 15, 2009 at 11:42pm — 6 Comments

Employee Relations - Dwight Schrute Style

From ReThinkHR.org

Can you imagine what your world would be like if you had a Dwight in your office.

Dwight Schrute worships and views his boss as model of success. His ultimate goal it to be 2nd only to him and while Dwight craves authority he also takes the authority even when it is not delegated or given. Sound like anyone in you… Continue

Added by Benjamin McCall on December 15, 2009 at 6:30pm — 4 Comments

Candidate Care – do you value your currency??

Candidates are the currency of any good recruiter. We get paid by a client when we deliver a great candidate, and let’s not forget that today’s candidates become tomorrow’s clients.

We need clients, yes, but then clients can also brief any number of recruiters…it’s the recruiters with the best candidates, the strongest community, who will ultimately deliver.

Yet most candidates you speak to have a common complaint…no feedback, I blogged about it before and it is something… Continue

Added by Mervyn Dinnen on December 15, 2009 at 3:37pm — 2 Comments

Job Boards Will Die a Slow, Not Quick Death

Let’s face it – if a consultant is in-between projects or a full time employee has been laid off or in a bad situation; they are not hiding under a rock wanting recruiters/employers to not find them. They’re not hiding their profile only on social media websites where only a highly complex Boolean logic string will discover them.

Now you might say something along the lines of good people are always working & have a network, you don’t want anyone unemployed and passive/referred… Continue

Added by Greg on December 15, 2009 at 12:30pm — 6 Comments

Embrace Being Different in 2010

Be Different So we're just a bit closer to Christmas and the time when most people are starting to think about New Year's plans and resolutions. Yeah... Resolutions. The majority of which will likely be attempts to be more like the rest of the world. Attempts at losing weight, to stop smoking, spend more time with friends and family, get along with in-laws, become masters of our domain, etc.…

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Added by RecruiterGuy on December 15, 2009 at 9:14am — 5 Comments

I am Black and I am Proud

Sometimes I happen upon a bit of information that is so stunning, so out-of-this-world crazy, that I simply dismiss it as media hyperbole. This is likely what happened when someone mentioned Sammy Sosa's recent skin transformation, apparently an elective process, achieved by a "skin softening" cream.

For those of you as well-versed in baseball as I am, you likely remember… Continue

Added by Carmen Hudson on December 14, 2009 at 10:32pm — 10 Comments

11 KICK-A$$ Leadership Principles!!!

If you were accused of being a leader would there be enough evidence to convict you?

December 2, 1988

21 years ago...

A newly minted Marine Lance Corporal stood arrow straight staring at a full-length mirror pondering a question while studying the reflection that greeted him. Written on the mirror were the words: If you were accused of being a Marine would there be enough evidence to convict you? Instinctively, he inspected himself with the… Continue

Added by Brian Keith on December 14, 2009 at 2:13pm — 1 Comment

The 7 Habits of the Highly Annoying Social Networkers

1. Sending spam messages selling products on professional focused social networking sites. Yesterday I received an InMail on LinkedIn with a list of recommended holiday presents and links to purchase them from a fellow group member…seriously? How is this related to professional networking?

2. Sending personal anecdotes or jokes to people you do not know personally. Such as the… Continue

Added by Andrea Persico on December 14, 2009 at 10:50am — 40 Comments

The Social Media Recruiter Job Description

If I were in need of talent and just starting a company one of my first hires would not be a regular recruiter. It would be a Social Media Recruiter.

I believe over the next few years many companies will be doing the same. When it comes to recruiting in social media, it is very much a human driven strategy. Its takes an actual person, not technology to do it.

There was a lot of talk at the Social Recruiting conference last month about the 'tools' but… Continue

Added by Chris Russell on December 14, 2009 at 7:30am — 13 Comments

Education is what is left after you’ve forgotten what you memorized.

Saturday morning we arrived at Welingkar’s Business School in Mumbai (WE) and entered a room filled with students at tables off to the side but empty tables in front of us (and no professors or deans in sight). Our delegation only hesitated a moment before China Gorman said it was all right to go sit with them and we did. Eventually the deans showed up but the casual style of engagement for the next several hours that we spent with the students was set.

The time spent here was a… Continue

Added by Gerry Crispin on December 13, 2009 at 9:58pm — 2 Comments

Community DJ

I'm not a big fan of the term Community Manager. Manager implies command and control to me. From my experience of building online communities (eg Recruitment 2.0 Asia Pacific), this Manager nomenclature just doesn't seem to fit. Joining a community is typically voluntary and community members don't want some person pushing them to participate. The cold hard fact is that most people…

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Added by Paul Jacobs on December 13, 2009 at 3:25am — 3 Comments

#SHRMIndia Short Stack of Pics

I've taken over 1000 pictures most of which will never see the light of day, are understandable only with some explanation like a picture of a dish of chutney where I made the chef explain his personal recipe using lemon and toasted spices that short circuited my taste buds this morning.

I arrived fresh

Meeting with MDI faculty and students on Monday. China gorman sits between the Dean and a professor emeritus, Dr. Singh…

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Added by Gerry Crispin on December 11, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

What do Recruiting and Leadership have in Common?

If you read the majority of articles regarding leadership, a common attribute among the best is vision. Great leaders are able to create and convey their vision for the organization's success. Furthermore, they are able to provide a road map of how to get there. This is how leaders create buy-in among the troops and gain the commitment and dedication necessary to execute that vision. This aspect of great leaders made me think about how these same qualities apply to successful executive search… Continue

Added by Bill Ward on December 11, 2009 at 4:08pm — 3 Comments

Measuring Influence

Next week, as a part of the launch of the HRExaminer, we're going to release a ranked list of the Top 25 Online Influencers in HR. This list is completely generated by algorithm (think Google). The list ranks the Top 25 voices in HR based on their online footprint.

In the larger Top 100 project, we've been looking at the question of whether and how someone is influential…

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Added by John Sumser on December 11, 2009 at 1:45pm — 1 Comment

A Tear On The Cheek of Time

Yesterday I was reminded about of my first visit to China.

During the long drive from the airport to Beijing’s downtown, I marveled at the ability of the Chinese [gov’t] to hide thousands of its poorest citizens behind a never ending array of ingenious landscaping devices- miles of carefully planted trees and plants, well positioned walls and mounds, all designed to obscure our view of ordinary people going about their daily lives.

Regardless of China’s motivation for… Continue

Added by Gerry Crispin on December 10, 2009 at 3:24pm — 11 Comments