Things are looking up for experienced talent. That’s right — the hiring landscape for executives is improving along with the rest of the labor market, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder and HeadHunter.com (a recruitment site dedicated to connecting employers with management and executive-level talent) of more than 2,000 hiring manager and HR professionals.

Just how much? Well, 31 percent of employers expect to hire for executive-level positions over the next six months, up from 23 percent in October 2011′s executive forecast.

Despite this boost in hiring, we’re still facing a deficit of diverse workers and women when it comes to taking on executive roles. Let’s take a closer look.

What’s ahead for executive hiring

Employers are recruiting senior leadership for a range of business functions, but some areas are more in demand than others:

• Nearly a quarter of employers (24 percent) will hire in business development
• 23 percent will hire in information technology
• 22 percent will hire in sales
• 19 percent will hire in marketing and 19 percent in accounting/finance 

As Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder  North America, observes, the need for diverse talent is paramount:

“Hiring trends for executive-level management mirror what we’re seeing in the labor market for all workers. As companies look to expand their sales force, develop new products and improve their tech infrastructure, the need for diverse, experienced leadership grows along with these initiatives.”

Demographics: Where’s the diversity?

Many hiring managers revealed they are still lacking diverse leadership at their organizations. Twenty-two percent of companies still don’t have female executives — not a surprise given that a mere 14.1 percent of women reportedly hold executive officer positions at Fortune 500 companies. In addition, 41 percent of companies do not have even one executive-level employee in any of the following demographics: African American, Hispanic, Asian, LGBT, and Disabled.

One in five companies have Millennial-level executives

One demographic that is seeing a rise in executives is Millenials; with the emergence of digital, mobile and IT as high-growth sectors, more Millennials are climbing their way to the top. Twenty percent of employers say they have executives under the age of 30.

What do employers (really) want in executive talent?

Often, employers will more heavily weigh prior accomplishments and demonstrated leadership ability than expertise in a particular industry. Though most hiring managers say prior experience in the industry for which a candidate is applying is a crucial requisite for landing a top job, 35 percent say they’ll consider candidates who don’t have a background in the industry.

The top qualities employers say they seek in executive-level candidates:

• Proven ability in addressing problems with effective solutions (62 percent)
• Adept at motivating others (54 percent)
• Can act with speed and agility in a changing market (47 percent)
• Is creative (43 percent)
• Has emotional intelligence (38 percent)
• Experience in different areas (37 percent)

It may come as a surprise to learn that only 20 percent say they look for an MBA or comparable higher-level degree when evaluating executive candidates.

Does anything surprise you from the latest executive hiring forecast in relation to your own hiring?

ABOUT HEADHUNTER.COM: HeadHunter.com is a recruitment site for management and executive-level talent. Founded in partnership with CareerBuilder.com, HeadHunter.com is a targeted approach for connecting high-level, experienced professionals with their ideal career opportunity. For more information, visit www.HeadHunter.com.

None of us likes getting rejected. In the past, many of you have cited “not enough time” as a reason you don’t send job rejection letters or e-mails. The reality is, we’re all under various types of constraints in our jobs, and while some things are prioritized, others fall by the wayside. Communicating with candidates, however, is a vital step in the recruitment process — and one that you should not be dismissing. But how can you achieve this important piece of communication without taking a chunk of time out of your work day?

The problem is twofold:
1) Candidates say there are not enough employers following up with them (particularly post-interview), which creates dissatisfaction among candidates.
2) Employers say there is not enough time to respond to all (or, in some cases, any) candidates whom they don’t choose to hire. So what gives?

Why should you care?

• Respect. No one wants to wait in agony for the possibility of bad news. Candidates shouldn’t have to chase you down to find out whether they landed your open job; they have applications to send out and interviews to go on! Think of the rejection like a Band-Aid, and give candidates the bad news rather than putting it off and dragging it out.

• Reputation. While today’s candidates are selling themselves to you, you’re also selling yourself to them.  Your employment brand and company image is at stake. Keeping the lines of communication open will help you build and maintain relationships with candidates who may become your employees at a later date. And even if they don’t become your employees, reputation is a powerful thing. If you don’t give candidates the respect of knowing whether or not they can cross your open job off their list, they might tell a friend. Who tells a friend. And before you know it, candidates may start to avoid applying to your company. Customers may also see your lack of communication as a sign of how you will work with them. A little communication can go a long way in how candidates — and customers — see your company.

• Organize and save time. Aside from reputation, keeping this piece of communication in your recruitment process can actually help you organize your process and save time. Why field tons of calls or e-mails from irate candidates who haven’t heard back from you? Why put them through the agony, and why go through it yourself? For not a lot of effort, you can get a big return.

Who has the time? Yes, time is an issue. But with the right tools, you can spend as much time as you have (which likely isn’t much) to get your message out there. If you do have the luxury of time, you can go the extra mile with candidates — but in my experience, making even a small effort is better than making no effort at all.

“It’s important that employers not lose sight of communication with candidates, which is so necessary, particularly in our current economic environment,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.

“While employers are facing many challenges in the recruitment process, they must remember that candidates are facing a unique set of challenges as well. By facilitating candidates’ job search process, employers are not only making the process less cumbersome for the people applying to their jobs, but also building a strong reputation and a culture of respect.”

Options:

• My Letters: My Letters is a free CareerBuilder Job Posting tool that enables you to create and save up to 20 different automatic response letters to send to job seekers after they submit an application to your job. With My Letters, you can get necessary information out to candidates quickly, easily, and effectively.  Create letters concerning the job position, needed candidate information, interview status, to alert of next steps in the process, to thank candidates, and more — and automate many parts of the recruitment communication process, without losing touch with candidates.

• Snail mail: While the heart may swoon at an ink-stained, handwritten letter sent the old-fashioned way, it’s not always the best option for your candidates. With that said, however, getting a response of some kind out, even if it is not as timely as e-mail, is better than nothing; at least candidates receive some kind of confirmation and closure. They can then either cross you off their list entirely or keep your company in mind for future opportunities (depending how open you keep that door in the letter, of course).

Tips for the best rejection letters or e-mails:

1. Be candid but gentle. Remember, this is a rejection — be respectful of candidates’ feelings and wish them success in future endeavors.
2. State a clear reason for the rejection; For example: “We have selected other candidate/s whose credentials were better suited to this position.”
3. Be honest. If there are other future opportunities and you will keep the resume on file or want a candidate to reapply in future, say so. If not, don’t. Don’t promise to keep a candidate’s resume on file if you have no intention of doing so, and if you do, state a specific time frame (six months, for example).
4. Be personal. Personalize the letter with the candidate’s name, position, and, if possible, a remark — or at least your signature.
5. While this is a rejection letter, it is still nice to compliment a candidate if warranted – “although your background and qualifications are impressive, we have chosen someone else for this position.”
6. Don’t send a postcard; this isn’t a “hello” from your Caribbean vacation, and it reeks of impersonality. A letter format is more appropriate. Plus, if you go the e-mail route, your costs are even more minimal.
7. Do not say who was hired for the position in question.
8. Respond to candidates in a reasonable amount of time.

You can check out examples of rejection letters here and here.

Recruiter 1: “So, how’s your Facebook investigation going?”
Recruiter 2: “Oh, you know — finding the usual: Some inappropriate photos, tons of really poor communication skills, misspellings across the board.
Recruiter 3: “Really? I’ve been all over Twitter, and I’m finding that most candidates are showing a ton of creativity in their tweets and have a have really wide range of interests that would fit in great with our company culture.”

No, I didn’t overhear this conversation at my local watering hole last night (I know, shocker!). Chances are you didn’t, either — but I’d be willing to bet more than a few of you are using social networking sites to research candidates, whether you’re looking to find the best people–or weed out the worst. How can I be so sure? Well, 37 percent of employers reported they’re using social networking sites to research job seekers’ every online move, according to a new CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers and HR professionals. But the motives for doing so are, just like job seekers’ reasons for using social media, extremely varied, and the number of employers and recruiters who admit they screen on social media versus those actually do is, I suspect, also quite different. Let’s take a closer look at what employers are looking for… and what they’re actually finding.

(SEE THE INFOGRAPHIC)

What kind of dirt are they digging up?

Though 12 percent of hiring managers say they’re using social media to find reasons not to hire a candidate, most say they’re trying to dig deeper than the traditional interview to find out:

• Whether the candidate presents himself/herself professionally – 65 percent
• If the candidate is a good fit for the company culture – 51 percent
• More about the candidate’s qualifications – 45 percent
• Whether the candidate is well-rounded – 35 percent

Who’s using social media recruiting most, and where?

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, cautions employers not to get too cozy with candidates’ online personas:

“Because social media is a dominant form of communication today, you can certainly learn a lot about a person by viewing their public, online personas. However, hiring managers and human resources departments have to make a careful, determined decision as to whether information found online is relevant to the candidates’ qualifications for the job.”

 

Are job seekers their own worst enemy when it comes to social?

Job candidates are using social media — that’s obviously not something that’s going to change anytime soon. However, things aren’t looking so good for many of them when it comes to employment: a third (34 percent) of hiring managers who currently research candidates on social media said they’ve found information that’s caused them to stop short in their tracks and run the other way.

There is a great opportunity for job seekers to become more aware of the public information they’re putting out there for the world — and their potential future employer — to see, and to start taking control of the message and use it to their job-seeking advantage rather than their detriment. After all, this type of behavior or information has already cost many candidates a job.

34 percent of employers said the following social media discoveries led to a candidate not getting the gig:

• Candidate posted provocative/inappropriate photos/info – 49 percent
• There was information about the candidate drinking or using drugs – 45 percent
• Candidate had poor communication skills – 35 percent
• Candidate bad mouthed previous employer – 33 percent
• Candidate made discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion, or other – 28 percent
• Candidate lied about his or her qualifications – 22 percent

Getting employers to “Like” them

OK, OK, so many of you (ahem) may have found things that have caused you to shy away from hiring a candidate. And maybe you were looking for something to validate an opinion about a candidate you’d already formed. However, you likely don’t always use social media to screen candidates out: 29 percent of hiring managers said some discoveries have led to them extending a candidate an offer:

• They got a good feel for candidate’s personality – 58 percent
• Candidate conveyed a professional image –55 percent
• Background information supported candidate’s professional qualifications – 54 percent
• Candidate was well-rounded and showed a wide range of interests – 51 percent
• Candidate had great communication skills – 49 percent
• Candidate was creative – 44 percent
• Other people posted great references about the candidate – 34 percent.

Again, this is a great opportunity for job seekers to tailor the message to their advantage, and it’s also great for employers, as they may actually be able to get a view into not only the strongest aspects of a candidate’s professional reputation but also their personality. As Haefner stresses to job seekers, “Filter out anything that can tarnish your professional reputation and post communications, links and photos that portray you in the best possible light.”

Have you used social media to screen out a candidate, or to help give you the information you needed to make a hire? Share your story with us in the comments below.

If you were on CareerBuilder’s recent webinar (you can still listen here) about 2011′s Opportunities in Staffing report findings, you’re already privy to many interesting details about the state of the staffing industry today; what your candidates, employees and clients think of your firm; and how you can make a bigger impact in your recruitment efforts.

GET THE REPORT

If you’re in a staffing firm placing candidates in the IT, tech and scientific sector, however, you have unique challenges that may not have been specifically addressed in the main report — and also significant opportunities to grow and improve this near year — which is why we’ve broken down the key findings from this particular sector for you below. Opportunities in Staffing’s findings may prove to be key in helping you grow your IT staffing firm and gain an edge in an extremely competitive industry in which jobs often outweigh available candidates.

Did you know, for example, that 43 percent of active clients of IT, tech and scientific staffing firms have also used a staffing firm as part of their personal job search at some point in their career? How you treat job seekers now can have a huge impact on how clients or employees treat you later on.

What’s really going on with your employees, candidates and clients? A few highlights:

EMPLOYEES

• Your employees are largely motivated by company pride: Internal staff rate their pride in working for their staffing firm highest among satisfaction drivers.
• Gen Y is a large component of the tech workforce: Roughly 27 percent of IT, tech and scientific staffing professionals belong to Generation Y (18-31 years old), significantly higher than most other sectors.
• Employees want more training opportunities: One of the areas most often rated lower by IT, tech and scientific staffing employees is around potential for advancement and training opportunities that support personal development.
• Many of them feel stuck: 42 percent said they didn’t feel they had opportunities for advancement within their firm, lower than staffing employees working in other sectors.
• They want more money: Only 29 percent expect their total compensation to stay the same or decline in the next year.

CANDIDATES

• You’re currently missing out on the majority of job seekers: A mere 19 percent of people looking for IT, tech and scientific-related jobs use a staffing or recruiting firm as part of their job search (Figure 13) and fewer than 5 percent start their job search with a staffing or recruiting firm.
• Job seekers want to connect with you on mobile: 28 percent of IT, tech and scientific job seekers view staffing firm websites on a mobile device, and 52 percent review job opportunities on a mobile device, significantly higher than in many other sectors.
• They’re savvy about how they want to receive information: Almost 80 percent say they would be open to receiving text updates about new job opportunities, or updates on jobs they’ve already applied for throughout the job search.
• There is still a large gap in male versus female job seekers: Less than 30 percent of job seekers in the IT, tech and scientific industry are female.

CLIENTS

• There is a big opportunity for firms to grow their business: The typical client only employs one or two staffing services.
• There’s a significant lack of awareness of firms: On average, clients of an IT, tech and scientific staffing firm can name between 1 and 2 additional staffing firms from memory, lower than the unaided awareness in any other staffing sector.
• Many clients were once your candidates (and had a bad experience): While nearly a third of this group rate their experience working with IT staffing firms as a job seeker very high (32 percent), even more (38 percent) rate the experience as being poor

These findings only cover a fraction of Opportunities in Staffing’s IT, tech and scientific sector findings – download the report here to read up on all the details or share with your colleagues.

Which results surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below.

Last week, Justin (for those of you not familiar with his smiling face, he’s the one tweeting at @careerbuilder and filling my office days with near-forgotten music videos from the 1990s) and I were fortunate to be part of #HFChat with the folks who started Hire Friday on Twitter.

What is #HFChat, and why should you participate?

#HFChat, for those of you who don’t know, is a weekly chat focusing on helping job seekers through topics ranging from resumes, to cover letters, to networking — and much more. It’s also a way for employers and recruiters to connect with these job seekers and give them live answers based on their own expertise, in 140-character bursts.

As hosts of the 3/30 chat, we chose to talk about “The next step – how you plan your long-term career goals.” We not only enjoyed discussing long-term career goals with everyone on the chat, but also received really interesting questions and feedback from job seekers and excellent advice from employers and recruiters who participated.

The questions “officially” discussed (aside from the great side discussions mixed in):

Q1: How and when do you identify long-term career goals?
Q2: In a job search, how can you ensure a job or industry isn’t a dead-end?
Q3: How do you supplement lack of experience if switching careers?
Q4: What are ways you can position yourself to move up in a career?
Q5: How do you adapt your current skills to new or other industries?

A few favorites from the chat:

@ChrisFleek Visibility within org is YOUR responsibility. Hard to learn, but subtly sell yourself around org at all times.

@FordCareers Show up early, stay late and never, ever say “its not my job”.#workethic

@TheResumeSmith To move up, dont just do the job you have, do the job you WANT. Show competency.

@WorkResults when in career transition, focus on transferable skills, expanding networks, working hard – it worked for me!

@Victoria_mpc The job you love today, may not fit tomorrow. Keep aware as your goals and aspirations develop.

@ChrisFleek People who focus on tasks have trouble changing careers – those who focus on skills & processes more easily transition.

@RobinResumes Before switching, make sure you are unhappy with the career rather than the company environment.

If you’re interested in seeing how Friday’s discussion unfolded, check out the transcript of #HFChat.

“I know I’m a big fan of free food and flip flops, as well as hanging out with smart people.” That was how Eric Presley, CareerBuilder CTO, began a discussion about what IT employees want most in an employer. If you missed that — and so much more — on this past week’s Reach, Recruit and Retain IT Talent webinar with Eric and CareerBuilder CDO Hope Gurion, don’t worry: We’ve got you covered. You can listen to the recording here or view the slide presentation here.

Eric and Hope discussed everything from the latest sources in the market to help you find the top IT talent, to ways to make sure your IT department growth is up to speed with your overall company, to building an IT team with a reputation for excellence and keeping your current IT employees engaged and motivated.

A few highlights of how to attract and keep your best IT employees:

•  Companies hiring IT employees today can’t afford to be in the dark about what candidates are expected to get paid & what their competitors are offering.
• As an employer, you must know the top IT employers in various geographical markets in order to be competitive in your strategy.
• Give your IT employees disciplined freedom — don’t box them in. Give them goals to achieve & let them formulate the solution.
• Let your IT employees see the value in their work by tying projects to overall business goals.
• Your IT recruiter can gain an advantage by truly getting to know your IT team and experiencing a “day in the life.”

Is your water cooler talk aching for fewer rose ceremonies a la “The Bachelor” — and more Derrick Rose? Not to worry, March Madness, the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, is upon us, and with a vengeance. But what does it mean for workplace productivity?

Talk of brackets, predictions, and major upsets will soon have offices around the country buzzing (including, most likely, yours): 20 percent of workers say they’ve taken part in March Madness pools at work, and nearly one in ten watch March Madness games at the office. How many games? Well, 17 percent spend, on average, more than an hour checking scores while on the clock, according to CareerBuilder’s annual March Madness survey conducted by Harris Interactive© among more than 7,000 workers.

Ladies like basketball, too

While men are more likely to participate in March Madness in the office, with 27 percent joining in office pools, 13 percent of women are sporting their favorite team’s hoodie and checking up on their brackets just as often as their male counterparts.

Regional pride

When it comes to regional involvement, workers in the Midwest were found to be the most likely to place bets at work: 23 percent of Midwest workers took part in March Madness pools, compared to 20 percent in the West, 19 percent in the South and 18 percent in the Northeast. Among larger markets, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Chicago were the highest-ranking cities.

Productivity and legality

Many employers are likely tensing up right now at the mention of March Madness, and with good reason — for a designated length of time, many employees will either be mentally or physically checked out at certain points during the tournament, either by not paying full attention to their work because they’re checking on games, or by not coming into work at all. Furthermore, many companies struggle with company NCAA pools, which are technically illegal. So what can employers do to fight the onset of worker distraction?

Well, one thing they can do is encourage it — in the right ways. If employees are going to find ways to watch a game no matter what, don’t force them to do it in the bathroom or hidden under the desk (with company hours quickly ticking away). Make the game available in the break room, or invest in a TV if you don’t have one at the office. Post a game sign-up sheet, where employees can request to watch games at certain times. Let employees know they can take time to partake in their pastime, whether at lunch or on work breaks.

Help employees by being a little more flexible in when they can take a lunch or take a break — but make it clear they are still accountable for their work. Work on creating an open culture in which employees understand you respect their interests outside of work, but that they must also respect your time as well as your trust in them to make the right decisions.

Betting on the best beard — and more

OK, so there are those for whom bets are less about advancing teams and more about breaking them up; less about fouls on the court and more about party fouls. Workers shared with us the most memorable office bets they’ve been a part of, and the bets below definitely topped the list. While some are funny, others offer a somewhat disturbing look at what worker morale is like in many workplaces:

• “Who will be the first person to drink too much at the company party?”
• “When will someone punch out the supervisor?”
• “How long will the CEO’s fourth marriage last?
• “Who in the office will be the last to get their power back after the big snow storm?”
• “How many accidents will occur at the intersection outside of the office building?”
• What fake illness will a co-worker call in sick with?”
• “How long will it take someone to quit?”
• “When will impending litigation be filed against the company?”
• “What’s the amount of news coverage a particular celebrity will receive in a week?”
• “Who will grow the best beard in one month’s time?”

So, tell us — as an employer, do you embrace March Madness at the workplace, or dread the onset of March every year for this very reason?

It’s happened: Doughnuts are trendy (at least here in Chicago). I know, I know — it’s a little ridiculous to be calling baked goods trendy, but there it is. Don’t worry — doughnuts will only last until scones are all the rage, and then that will only last until cream puffs take over every block in the city… until cookies make their long-awaited comeback. I was reminded of the power of demand (and the vital importance of supply) as I was waiting in line the other day at a trendy doughnut shop in town for many, many minutes, only to watch the last chocolate-glazed creation slip into the hands of the customer waiting in front of me.

And so it goes.

Doughnut-level job demand

You know, this doughnut conundrum (self-imposed? perhaps) is a lot like the current supply/demand inequality facing those businesses vying for candidates for the six in-demand positions listed below. Except, you know, there’s too many doughnuts (jobs) and not enough customers (candidates) in line to take them. It’s an odd situation in our current economy, an economy with so many overloaded positions and not enough jobs, but it’s real — and we’re giving you the scoop on some of the most in-demand jobs right now.

As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, says, “The labor market in the U.S. has stabilized, and there are an increasing number of areas where the demand for skilled positions is growing much faster than the supply..”

Which jobs are hot right now?

With exclusive data from CareerBuilder’s Supply & Demand portal, we’ve pinpointed six of the most in-demand jobs out there right now. Our Supply & Demand Portal helps you be smarter by giving you real-time access to 1) the availability of active talent for any position (supply), and 2) where you will find the most and least competition for that talent (demand).

Let’s take a look at some of the hottest positions:

Account Executive (sales representative)

• Mean national salary:  $85,000
• An example of who’s hiring:  ADP – Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
• Top college majors:  Business Administration, Accounting, and Marketing
• Average level of education:  50 percent have a bachelor’s degree and 22 percent have a master’s degree or higher.

.Net Developer (mobile developer, Web developer, software developer)

• Mean national salary:  $85,000
• An example of who’s hiring:  Hewlett-Packard
• Top college majors:  Computer Science, Business Administration, and Management Information Systems
• Average level of education:  49 percent have a bachelor’s degree and 37 percent have a master’s degree or higher.

Financial Analyst (business analyst, credit analyst, accountant)

• Mean national salary:  $65,500
• An example of who’s hiring:  Accountemps, a Robert Half Company
• Top college majors:  Business Administration, Accounting, and Finance
• Average level of education:  49 percent have a bachelor’s degree and 37 percent have a master’s degree or higher.

CDL Driver (truck driver)

• Mean national salary:  $44,500
• An example of who’s hiring:  Schneider National
• Top skills:  Commercial driver’s license, tractor trailer experience, and DOT medical card
• Average level of education:  71 percent have a high school education, 15 percent have an associate degree, and 14 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Health Care Case Manager (registered nurse, program manager)

• Mean national salary:  $68,000
• An example of who’s hiring:  UnitedHealth Group
• Top college majors:  Business Administration, Nursing, and Psychology
• Average level of education:  42 percent have a bachelor’s degree and 32 percent have a master’s degree or higher.

CNC Machinist

For a snapshot of these six hot jobs, check out the infographic:

 More about our Supply & Demand data:

• CareerBuilder’s Supply & Demand Portal pulls data from national employment resources like CareerBuilder.com, Wanted Analytics and EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.), accessing more than 45 million jobs, 40 million resumes and 140 million worker profiles.
• Based on the number of available jobs and available candidates, the portal identifies occupations and corresponding markets with the greatest supply and under-supply of candidates.

Is your company hiring for any of these in-demand jobs? What has your experience been so far?

Employers know as well as job seekers do that it’s still tough out there, and it seems they would be kind to overlook job seekers’ most innocent of mistakes, like spilling coffee on the boss’s suit, or letting it slip that “snugglebear” was one’s childhood nickname, or calling the hiring manager “Dad” in a moment of flustered introductions (No? Never happened to you?).

In a labor market where a single open position may receive resumes from hundreds of applicants, however, there are certain mistakes employers won’t — or shouldn’t — brush off. But which mistakes are blips — and which are total blunders? You be the judge, as CareerBuilder’s latest survey, conducted by Harris Interactive© among more than 3,000 employers, takes a closer look at candidates’ biggest interview mistakes – straight from the HR employees and hiring managers who experienced them.

What are the most harmful interview mistakes, according to hiring managers?

It’s hard to believe candidates would risk pulling out the iPhone during an interview to answer a text about Friday night plans, but it does happen. The mistakes below are surefire ways for candidates not to get the job, according to the majority of employers surveyed:

• Answering a cell phone or texting: 77 percent
• Appearing disinterested: 75 percent
• Dressing inappropriately: 72 percent
• Appearing arrogant: 72 percent
• Talking negatively about current or previous employers: 67 percent
• Chewing gum: 63 percent

Employers’ most memorable interview experiences

There are your run-of-the-mill “Don’ts” for interviews — and then there are some that are a bit more unusual. While, as we’ve said before, strange interview tactics can be a smart move, the tactics must show how a candidate will contribute to a company or display their strengths somehow. Do any of the tactics below pass that test for you?

• Candidate brought a “how to interview book” with him to the interview.
• Candidate asked, “What company is this again?”
• Candidate put the interviewer on hold during a phone interview. When she came back on the line, she told the interviewer she had a date set up for Friday.
• When a candidate interviewing for a security position wasn’t hired on the spot, he graffitied the building.
• Candidate wore a Boy Scout uniform and never told interviewers why.
• Candidate was arrested by federal authorities during the interview when a background check revealed the person had an outstanding warrant.
• Candidate talked about promptness as one of her strengths after showing up ten minutes late.
• On the way to the interview, candidate passed, cut-off, and flipped middle finger to driver who happened to be the interviewer.
• Candidate referred to himself in the third person.
• Candidate took off shoes during interview.
• Candidate asked for a sip of the interviewer’s coffee.
• A mature candidate told the interviewer she wasn’t sure if the job offered was worth “starting the car for.”

 Take a moment to reassess

It’s important for job seekers to keep in mind that with so many others applying to the position they want, every misstep can matter — and they need to be presentable, prepared, and courteous to those interviewing them, above all else. While many of the examples above show a lack of these qualities, it’s also important for hiring managers to remember to put themselves in candidates’ shoes for a moment (as seen above, possibly even literally), to reassess the situation.

What would your advice be to candidates on what NOT to do if they hope to ace the interview?

For U.S. veterans, returning to the workforce isn’t exactly easy. As of October 2011, more than 850,000 veterans were unemployed, and the jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans was 12.1 percent — well over the national average. According to whitehouse.gov, more than 1 million service members are projected to leave the military between 2011 and 2016.

CAREERBUILDER, “AMERICA WANTS YOU,” AND FREE JOB EXPOSURE

Despite these challenges, the situation just got brighter: Military veterans looking for work in this economy have a new champion in America Wants You, an effort bringing together the private sector and corporate America to find job opportunities for men and women who have served in the U.S. military. As the initiative’s chairman and CEO John S. Pike (who is a veteran himself), says, “America Wants You and its supporters are calling out to the corner offices to stand up and do their duty. It’s a corporate call to arms. There is no employer too big or too small to aid in this American effort.”

We’ve talked in the past about the multitude of reasons your business should be hiring veterans, and as President Obama said when referring to veterans’ wide range of skills, “This is exactly the kind of leadership and responsibility that every American business should be competing to attract.”

Now, CareerBuilder is powering the job engine for America Wants You, giving employers all over the nation an absolutely free way to expose their jobs to out-of-work military veterans who just may be the perfect fit for that quality and training analyst, RN, or project manager position you need to fill. Want to be one of the leaders in raising employment for veterans? Post your jobs for FREE on AmericaWantsYou in just a few simple steps.

POSTING YOUR JOBS TO AMERICAWANTSYOU.NET IS EASY (AND EVEN BETTER, IT’S FREE!):

To post a job to America Wants You, simply:

1.  Register for an account or sign into your current CareerBuilder account.

2. Send a blank email to jobs@americawantsyou.net from the email address registered to your CareerBuilder account. You will receive an email back confirming your CareerBuilder account has been added to America Wants You’s job search engine.

3. Log into your CareerBuilder account, choose “AmericaWantsYou” as your job type, and start posting! Your jobs will be instantly added to AWY’s database.

4. Done! Your job posting will be active until it’s filled and/or you remove it from your CareerBuilder account. When you receive new applications, CareerBuilder will email them to you.

*Note: If you’re an employer with more than 25 open jobs, contact jobs@americawantsyou.net for help automating your job postings.

A MESSAGE FROM CHRIS O’DONNELL

For those who want to learn more about the America Wants You effort (or who still, like me, sometimes quote “Circle of Friends,”) here is actor Chris O’Donnell discussing the importance of helping veterans in our current job market:

WHY HIRE VETERANS?

With their military background, extensive training, specialized skills and breadth of experience, veterans bring many unique elements to the workforce.  A few that you may not have considered:

1. Trustworthiness: Many military personnel have achieved some level of security clearance, demonstrating that he or she is recognized as a trustworthy person.
2. Background checks: With an honorable discharge, service members are essentially certified drug-free, and they have already had to go through rigorous background checks to be admitted into the military.
3. Dealing with high stress-situations: Veterans know the importance of deadlines, and they’re accustomed to being in high-stress situations and trained to deal appropriately and effectively. Though civilian workplaces offer different types of pressures, there’s likely nothing you can throw at them that’s more high stress than situations they’ve encountered while serving.
4. Tech savvy and international awareness: Veterans, because of the necessity to be aware of global affairs, are often one step ahead of many other workers when it comes to IT knowledge or the latest business trend or international security issue — not to mention IT training and hands-on skills.

CareerBuilder asked employers who have hired U.S. veterans or members of the National Guard to list the top attributes military personnel brought to their organization, and the following assets topped the list:

• Disciplined approach to work – 66 percent
• Ability to work as a team – 65 percent
• Respect and integrity – 58 percen
•  Leadership skills – 56 percent
• Problem-solving skills – 54 percent
• Ability to perform under pressure – 53 percent
• Communication skills – 45 percent

For more information about the America Wants You initiative, please visit AmericaWantsYou.net.

Are you planning on hiring veterans this year–or have you already? Let us know in the comments.

“Hey, remember when retiring was a ‘thing’? Those were the days.” While hearing that phrase might sound odd now, the fading out of traditional retirement not be so far off the mark: Fifty-seven percent of workers ages 60 and older said in a new Harris Interactive© study they would look for a new job after retiring from their current company–a sign that these days, retirement doesn’t necessarily mean the end of someone’s career. Some workers are postponing retirement out of economic necessity; they just can’t afford to quit. Others, however, are in fact choosing to continue the nine-to-five routine, for many different reasons (which I’ll get into more below).

The survey, conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder and PrimeCB.com (CareerBuilder’s job site for mature workers and retirees) among 3,023 hiring managers and HR professionals and 878 U.S. workers ages 60 and older, also found that 11 percent of respondents said they don’t think they’ll ever be able to retire.

Despite that discouraging statistic, there are still a good number of workers who, although they may not be ready quite yet, believe they’ll be able to retire within the next several years:

• 1-2 years (26 percent)
• 3-4 years (23 percent)
•  5-6 years (22 percent)
• 7-8 years (7 percent)
• 9-10 years (7 percent)
• More than 10 years (4 percent)

More hiring on the horizon

As an increasing number of older workers are putting off retirement, whether by choice or financial necessity, the timing of many employers couldn’t be better: Many of them are looking to hire within the 50-and-older demographic. This is great news, because as we’ve discussed previously, many older workers who want or need to continue working are unable to do so, simply because they can’t find an employer who will hire them. According to the survey:

• 43 percent of employers plan to hire workers ages 50 and older this year.
• 41 percent said they hired workers ages 50 and older in 2011.
• 75 percent of the employers surveyed would consider an application from an overqualified worker who 50 or older, with 59 percent of those employers saying they would do this because mature candidates bring a wealth of knowledge to an organization and can mentor others. (Note: Older workers have been found to have a host of other advantages as well, including quitting less, being absent less, and having better social skills and job performance than their younger counterparts).

“Whether mature workers are motivated by financial concerns or simply enjoy going to work every day, we’re seeing more people move away from the traditional definition of retirement and seek ‘rehirement.’ At the same time, employers are seeing the value these mature workers can bring to an organization, from their intellectual capital to their mentoring and training capabilities. In a highly competitive job market, mature workers can use these skills to their advantage.”

 

Finding out what older workers want

With more companies seeking the unique skills older workers offer, it’s vital for companies to know (or learn) what these workers want. Many of them want to keep working to stay active, keep busy and be social. They also want things like a friendly work environment, a chance to use their skills and depth of experience, respect from coworkers, the opportunity to learn, and a way to help others and do something meaningful.

When it comes to benefits, many older workers are seeking adequate paid time off, health care and insurance coverage, and a flexible schedule (doesn’t sound much different than what workers of all generations are seeking, does it?)

I recently saw lawyer Simon Heath speak at 2012′s HRPA conference about  older workers and age discrimination, and he also shared a few examples of methods employers may need to consider when accommodating older employees in the workplace:

• Flexible hours and conditions of work (i.e. compressed work weeks, flex time, and telecommuting).
• Part-time arrangements and job sharing, which both allow for a transition to retirement.
• Employing workers who have already retired on short term and/or fixed term contracts.

As Peter Cappelli, co-author of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, discussed at SHRM this past year, organizations can take steps to better work with older workers in their organization:

• Tailor your rewards and benefits to their lifestyle and interests: The promotion, bonus or stock options don’t matter as much to older workers, as mentioned above. Instead, provide motivation through meaningful work and social relationships; these factors are a bigger priority for older workers than financial- or career advancement-motivated rewards.
• Consult and empower them: Older workers want to be consulted, so ask them to participate in the decision process on a project or challenge a bit more. They have experience behind them and wisdom to solve many workplace problems, so ask them to get involved.
• Don’t ignore them: Older workers don’t want to be ignored, and they still need to be managed. Remember that managing someone older doesn’t mean you’re giving up authority; older workers must be held accountable, too.
• Initiate mentoring/onboarding: Companies like Deloitte have taken advantage of older workers’ unique talents by asking them to share problems they see in the organization that they’d like to work on and fix. Their attitude is, “If you think it’s a good idea, we will too, almost without exception. We trust you.”

Is your organization hiring more seasoned workers this year? What unique skills and experience do you see them bringing to the workplace?

It’s that time of year: People picking out the perfect card to express what the human heart cannot put into words; packing cupid-shaped PB&J sandwiches for that certain sweetie, and nervously squirming in their seats, palms sweaty, waiting to plunge into that bag of notes and suckers and candy “Tweet Me” hearts to see if their crush wrote them a special Valentine’s Day message.

(See the infographic)

That’s right, I’m talking about good old fashioned love in today’s workplace–and according to a new CareerBuilder survey, there’s a whole lot of love to go around. Let’s take a look:

Who’s the Boss? Sometimes, Your Soulmate

The survey among 7,780 U.S. workers found that while the majority of relationships blossomed between workers in similar job levels, 28 percent of workers who dated a co-worker said they’ve dated someone who’s at least a rung above them on the ol’ corporate ladder, and 18 percent of workers admitted to dating their boss.

In comparing the sometimes mystifying differences of the female and male species, it was discovered that women were more likely to date someone higher up in their organization: 35 percent of women said they had done so, compared to only 23 percent of men.

An Extra Dose of Hospitality

Hospitality leads the top five industries for office romances, coming in significantly higher than the national average. Here’s the breakdown:

• Hospitality – 47 percent dated a co-worker
• Financial Services – 45 percent
• Transportation & Utilities – 43 percent
• Information Technology – 40 percent
• Health Care – 38 percent

Real-Life Romantic Comedies

The premise of movies like “Maid in Manhattan,” “The Proposal,” and Notting Hill” aren’t as based in fantasy as you might think–though (spoiler alert) the endings may be. It turns out 26 percent of workers reported that what someone does for a living influences whether they would date that person. Unfortunately for you lovers of happily-ever-after endings, 5 percent of workers said someone broke up with them because either their job required too many hours at the office, they didn’t make enough money or the person didn’t like their line of work.

And to shatter your Hollywood dreams even more, while the majority of workers tend to date people in different professions or functions, 19 percent reported that they are more attracted to people who have a similar job.

Even Happier Hours

Chance run-ins and social settings outside of the office (like happy hours) were cited as the most popular places for workers to make eyes at each other and fall truly, madly, deeply in love. Running into each other outside of work (13 percent), happy hours (12 percent), lunches (11 percent) and late nights at work (10 percent) were among the most popular catalysts for turning “late-night deadline” into “late night at the movies.”

To Tell or Not to Tell?

Most workers who have had office romances said they were actually open about their dating situation, though 37 percent reported they had to keep the relationship under wraps.

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder and resident office romance expert has some sage advice for all those co-workers making googly eyes at each other across the boardroom:

“Whether you’re dating someone higher-up or a colleague at the same level, office romances are always tricky. First and foremost, it is important to know your company’s office dating policy. Remember to stay professional and draw a boundary line between your personal life and the workplace.”

 

Get all the intimate details about romance in the workplace today:

Have you dated someone at the workplace? Does your organization reject it, accept it, or go so far as to encourage it? Let us know in the comments.

I was at 2012′s HRPA conference last week, tweeting, blogging, jumping into sessions       about everything from the importance of cultural fit to the prevalence of age discrimination (more to come on those soon). I was also busy sneaking some peach gummy candy (CareerBuilder Canada had the most delicious booth ever, as evidenced by the picture on left of two of our CareerBuilder Canada employees, Jean and Brin, with a myriad of candy).

The conference was filled with engaging and thought-provoking keynote speakers and session discussions, so I thought I’d share some of the best tweets mixed in with my jotted-down favorites, all in short snippets. If you were at the HRPA conference (or even if you weren’t!), let me know your favorite takeaway in the comments below.

From Marshall Goldsmith’s “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” keynote: 

On motivation:

@pamelamaeross ”Are you too successful? Do you say
“great idea! Now let’s add __.” May make idea 5% better, decrease motivation 50%.”

From Emmanuel Gobiillet’s “Leadershift” keynote:

On leadership:

“Leadership is dead, in the way we currently know it.”

 “Most leaders you have are there because they’re good at what they used to do.”

“Leaders are readers!”

On social media in the workplace:

“By banning social media, saying to employees, ‘I’m going to let go of your attention.’ If you let it go, you’ll never get it back.”

On your employment brand:

“Forget your mission statement. What’s your story as a company?”

From Amanda Lang’s “The Canadian Economy, Business, & HR” keynote:

On curiosity:

“Little kids are taught very early that asking ‘why’ is going to irritate people, rather than that inquiry is a great thing.”

“Is asking ‘Why?’ welcome at your workplace?”

On passion:

“How do we get our employees as passionate about their jobs as they are about their lives?”

“You can’t force people to want to come to work; you can only create an environment that encourages it.”

On innovation:

@joannawoo HR and IT have been identified as the 2 biggest blocks to innovation in an organization.

“Your best assets are your employees’ brains.”

From Josh Linkner’s “Disciplined Dreaming: Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity” keynote:

On creativity and imagination:

@jenniferaking People get hired based on their resume but they get promoted by being creative and unconventional.

@pamelamaeross Asked kids are you creative in kindergarten 95% said yes. Asked high school grads. 2% said they are. We grow out of creativity.

@HRPATO Try Rolestorming – brainstorming as another character like Steve Jobs to encourage imagination in team meetings.

@geofframey Biggest inhibitor of creativity is fear. HR should help our teams crack through that fear.

On taking risks:

@joannawoo ”So many of us run our companies and lives by ‘playing it safe’, but that may be the riskiest thing of all.”

From Kevin Carroll’s “Rediscovering Play: Bringing Fun and Passion to Your Work… and Life” keynote:

On naysayers:

“Haters are just confused admirers.”

On hiring:

@JoanneRoyce ”Hire for passion & creativity. The rest will fall into place. Nike hires Kevin w/o having a defined position for him.”

On courage:

“Be courageous enough to speak up about your career, even when it’s terrifying.”

On including play in our lives:

@d_dimo  ”Play is as important to life as eat, drink, and sleep… A ball can change the world.” #PlayitForward

On leadership:

“The only question which should matter to you as a leader when regarding your success with employees: ‘Have I made them feel stronger and more capable?’”

From Peter Sheahan’s “Talent ® Evolution: Future Focused Strategies For Leveraging Human Capital” keynote:

On getting a seat at the table:

“You’ve got a seat at the table – I’m so sick of hearing about that – talent is the issue.”

On job hopping as the new normal:

@CJSearch4TO @PeterJSheahan says “get a job, leave that one, get a better job leave that one” the new normal to work your way up.

On your employment brand:

@weffythistle ”What are your employees saying about you after they leave? And they will leave!”

@HRPATO “Your employment brand is what everyone says about you when you’re not there.”

Other favorite tweets and ideas:

On trust:

“You don’t gain trust as a leader until you give it.”

On pay:

@JoanneRoyce ”Money sucks as a motivator. Only good for people to show up.”

@CBforEmployers ”Unintended consequence of being underpaid: Orgs develop undesirable culture, high turnover, difficulty recruiting.”

On culture:

@lizzpellet: “Employees either buy into your culture or they get out–it’s the best of the self-selection process.”

On employee engagement:

@raehanbobby “#1 element driving global Employee Engagement: The belief that management is sincerely interested in my well-being.”

On success:

@d_dimo “The gravity of success: learning a new strategy is quite easy to do, the hard part is unlearning the old strategy.”

@pamelamaeross Don’t take advice from people who don’t have what you want. Great advice from @paultobey.

On introverts:

Here was one of my favorite pictures from the conference, on understanding introverts.

You know them (or you may even be one yourself): The parents who “pop in” at company brainstorming meetings, or call the Dean of Students at her house just as she’s digging into her mashed potatoes, or hand-deliver their son or daughter’s resume to the hiring manager, singing-telegram style. There have been adult books written about them–and even cautionary children’s tales. I was leaving work last night when I heard a man refer to his mother as one. That’s right–I’m talking about helicopter parents. They’re everywhere–and the conversation about them isn’t going away.

What is a helicopter parent?
According to Wikipedia, a helicopter parent is a “colloquial, early 21st-century term for a parent who pays extremely close attention to his or her child’s or children’s experiences and problems, particularly at educational institutions.” The term was originally coined in Foster W. Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay’s 1990 book “Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility.”

How it all started
The idea of “helicopter parents” really gained traction several years ago, when people started to notice baby boomer parents “hovering” over their Millennial high school or college kids and becoming much more participatory in their educational lives, doing everything from scheduling their courses to angrily calling teachers about a bad grade. This was something we hadn’t really been seeing in generations past–generations in which parents were much more hands-off (and, some would add, respectful of their children’s ability to function as adults). As Nancy Gibbs wrote about the mentality of baby boomer parents in an article for Time magazine, “We were so obsessed with our kids’ success that parenting turned into a form of product development.” She added that this type of parenting is largely driven by memory and demography–parents born after 1964 waited longer to marry, and their families are among the smallest in history, leading them to guard their children more closely.

From classrooms to boardrooms
Those Millennial students became Millennial workers whose parents hadn’t stopped working on their behalf, and the problem seeped into the workplace like a leaking My Little Pony lunch thermos. Embarrassing stories abound of parents calling HR to advocate for offering Gary more money for a job, give Lewis that promotion he’s been asking for, or demand to know why they didn’t hire Betsy on the spot. “Submitting resumes without informing my child” has become the new “scheduling all the classes for Bob I wish I would have taken myself.”

How should companies react?
The big question now is, as a recent NPR article points out, should companies push back against the mighty force of helicopter parents in the workplace, or accept–and even embrace–it? Some experts of generational trends stand by the idea that it’s futile to fight this generation of workers’ level of closeness to their parents, and that rather than fight it, businesses should use it to their advantage and get parents on their side. And some businesses are in fact embracing it, even going so far as to initiate “Take Your Parent to Work Day” with the intention of showing parents a glimpse into their child’s work environment (and smoothing over relations with the often irate person on the other end of the phone line). Even mobile applications are acknowledging that parents are an integral part of younger generations’ every move: A new Foursquare app enables users to add the hashtag #mom to a check-in to let mom know they’ve arrived safely at their destination.

Taking flight or running out of fuel?
Are helicopter parents helping their kids further their careers and start building toward their future–or are they sabotaging the very thing they’re trying to protect and nurture? Encouraging parents to be involved in a school setting, when their children still have the promise of a safety net and aren’t completely “free” yet, is much different than when they’re in their early 20s. At that latter point, they’re in the working world and, at least in theory, are living as independent adults whose goal is to grow without that safety net–to show the world who they are and who they’re capable of becoming.

As an employer, what’s your take on helicopter parents? Do you view them as a way to positively influence a candidate or employee–or nuisances who are hindering their son or daughter’s ability to make independent decisions, branch out, learn and grow? Do you look at a candidate or employee more favorably, as they have a caring and supportive background, or negatively, as that influence weighs them down and shows a lack of leadership and problem-solving skills?

What do you think about helicopter parents in the workplace–does your business reject or encourage the practice, and why? Have helicopter parents influenced your hiring decisions?

If you were on CareerBuilder’s recent webinar (you can still listen here) about 2011′s Opportunities in Staffing report findings, you’re already privy to many interesting details about the state of the staffing industry today, what your candidates, employees and clients think of your firm, and how you can make a bigger impact in your recruitment efforts.

If you’re in a staffing firm placing candidates in the health care sector, however, you have unique challenges that may not have been specifically addressed in the main report — which is why we’ve broken down the key findings from this particular sector for you below. Use Opportunities in Staffing’s findings to help grow your health care staffing firm and gain an edge in the recruitment space. This report is designed to help you explore new opportunities and improve your interactions with candidates, employees and clients (many of whom have belonged to more than one of those categories at some point). Did you know that 36 percent of active clients of health care staffing firms have also used a staffing firm as part of their personal job search at some point in their career? It’s true–and there’s more.

What do Opportunities in Staffing’s results say about perceptions of your clients, employees and candidates?

CLIENTS

• Clients are increasingly mobile: Seventy percent of health care staffing clients have data-enabled smartphones, up compared to a year ago.
• There’s a lack of recognition of staffing firms: The average health care sector staffing client can name their primary firm and just 1 or 2 others from memory.
• The average health care client uses between 1 and 2 staffing services, with 80 percent indicating they’ve used their firm to fill a temporary position.
• Many health care clients were once your candidates: More than a third of health care sector clients have worked with a staffing firm as part of their personal job search at some point in their career.

EMPLOYEES

• Most employees feel positive about their firm’s future:The majority of healthcare staffing firm employees are positive about the improvements their staffing firm has made in the past year (55 percent strongly agree their firm has improved), and 57 percent strongly agree they expect their firm will change for the better in the next year.
• Significant generational satisfaction differences exist: Those 31 years old or younger give their staffing firm an Net Promoter Score of 24 percent, nearly 3 times lower than the average score (61 percent) given by Baby Boomers who work for health care staffing firms.
• Employees want more training opportunities: More than a third of health care staffing employees reported feeling they did not have the training opportunities they needed and 44 percent said they didn’t feel they had opportunities for advancement within their firm, higher than staffing employees working in other sectors.
• Work camaraderie is extremely important: When it comes to satisfaction drivers, internal staff rate the enjoyment of working with their colleagues highest.
• Workers expect higher pay this year: Seventy percent of internal staff in the health care sector expect an increase in total compensation in 2012.

CANDIDATES

• Health care staffing firms have huge challenges–and opportunities–in front of them: Only 13 percent of job seekers in the health care sector use a staffing firm as part of their job search, and just 1 percent start their search there.
• Older generations dominate the market: Nearly 50 percent of health care sector job seekers are 50 years old or older and only 19 percent fall into Generation Y.
• There’s a significant lack of awareness of firms: Thirty-seven percent of health care sector job seekers can’t name a single staffing or recruiting firm from memory, and even when shown a list of some of the largest brands in the sector, half recognized 3 or fewer firms within the space
• Job seekers are looking for jobs on mobile devices: 37 percent review job opportunities on a mobile device.
• Lack of communication is their biggest complaint: A lack of communication and responsiveness remain the top issues brought up by job seekers dissatisfied with health care staffing firms.

How your firm can use these findings in 2012:

1. Optimize health care staffing employees’ overall satisfaction and engagement with staffing firms by reinforcing your mission to help place people in meaningful jobs and careers.
2. Don’t overlook your current clients. In many cases, health care staffing clients only use a single staffing service. Educate them on other ways you can help their organization manage growth with flexible talent.
3. Identify key relationships with your top talent early in the process and find ways to stand out with them. Their experience with your firm has a significant impact on their current assignment with your firm and any future assignments.
4. Take advantage of the significant opportunity to reach new clients and job seekers through mobile devices. Health care clients and talent are slower to adopt social media, but are quickly embracing interaction through mobile technology.

These findings only cover a fraction of Opportunities in Staffing’s health care findings–download the report here to read up on all the findings or share with your colleagues.

Which results surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below.

 It’s true that your company, no matter what other aspects you may excel and grow in, is only as good as its people. Yet, your people are only as good as your process of selecting them. As a company currently growing or preparing for future growth, how can slow down enough to reverse the cycle and improve your selection process to bring in better people–and see better business results? CareerBuilder and Inc.’s just-released report, “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” will help you prepare for the recruitment changes and challenges that come along with your company’s growth and make changes in the way you’re selecting candidates now that will prove crucial later.

Below, check out a sneak peek of Part II of “Geared to Growth” (and if you missed Part I about getting the right policies and procedures in place, read it here) — it’s all about the long-term people standards your company needs create to prepare for significant growth.

In reexamining your candidate selection process, where should you start?

1. Targeted Job Descriptions

First and foremost, take a look at your job descriptions–they may be harming your prospects more than you realize.The quality of your job descriptions can have a huge impact on your opportunities to attract the most qualified candidates and make them start thinking of your company as their employer of choice.

The U.S. Small Business Administration outlines these job description essentials:

• Job title and objective
• Description of the function and scope of the position
• Review of duties and functional responsibilities
• Overview of relationships and roles within the company

Following this formula for all job descriptions makes it easier for employees to understand not only what is expected of them and their colleagues, but also how each person on the staff contributes to the company’s overall success.

Even with these four main points in place, don’t forget to offer a short description of your company culture and make an effort to personalize your company further. For example, you might say something like, “We reward original thinking and ideas, encourage our employees to grow professionally and personally, and support their efforts to take on new challenges, whether it’s to learn a new language or run the Chicago Marathon.”

This can help you to attract candidates who will go above and beyond the responsibilities outlined in the job description and who want to work for you — not just any company.

2. Standard versus performance-based pay scales

Salary: It can sometimes feel like a never-ending headache trying to get it right. As your business grows, a standardized pay scale is a great way to manage employees’ compensation expectations in a way that encourages and rewards their contributions to corporate growth. Several formulas can help you to do this:

• Key compensation to skill development—for example, acquisition of advanced skills in certain computer programs—rather than tying pay to a particular job title.
• Implement competency-based pay for employees whose value rests more in what they know than tasks they perform.
• Employ broadbanding, which groups similar jobs (for example, administrative staff) within a pay range for the group as a whole, rather than as individual jobs.
• Create performance-based pay scales that match compensation to the employee’s success in meeting established objectives.

Alternatively, performance-based compensation strategy keys salaries to employees’ value in meeting revenue and profitability goals. This approach creates another opportunity to motivate employees to exceed expectations in their job performance. It ties compensation and incentives to:

• Productivity
• Work quality and results delivered
• Success in meeting difficult challenges
• Willingness to work under dangerous conditions

There is no one best approach to compensation. Choose the strategy that best supports your business model and protects your company’s ability to attract and retain the
employees you need. That’s true even in a job market that favors employers.

Catch Part I of Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul here, and stay tuned for Part III on benchmarking, coming soon.

It’s coming: The onslaught of buffalo chicken dips, foam fingers bigger than most people’s heads, shushing of those talking during the game, shushing of those talking during the commercials, vintage jersey envy, and a whole lot of whooping, shouting, and possibly even “pulling a Tebow” (hey, things can get emotional–I’m not judging).

Of course, I’m talking about this year’s Big Game, happening on February 5. As you may know, CareerBuilder is among those businesses participating in the game’s commercials this year–2012 marks our eighth year of participating–but what you might not know is how this decision is directly related to our commitment to giving our employers better candidates (and more of them). Here’s a little more information about how our investment in the biggest football game of the year turns into real results not just for us, but also for our customers, who are seeking the best people with the right skills in a still-tough economy.

Benefits Of The Big Game and What They Mean for Employers:

TRAFFIC. CareerBuilder’s traffic grew 43 percent year-over-year during the month of the Super Bowl when we first debuted as a Super Bowl advertiser. CareerBuilder has seen continued gains and, in 2011, we had an 18 percent year-over-year increase in traffic in the month of the Super Bowl.

What this means for employers: Increased traffic on CareerBuilder’s site equates to more job seekers looking for jobs–and more of them finding your open position/s. We are constantly looking for ways to make it easier for candidates most closely matched to your position’s requirements to find you, and an extra flow of traffic means more eyeballs on your jobs. You can take further advantage of this opportunity by making sure your job description appeals to job seekers and answers their questions, and by doing things to strengthen your employment brand and help job seekers get to know your company. And of course, more traffic leads to more applications, which leads me to my next point…

APPLICATIONS. Over the last seven years, on average, CareerBuilder saw a 24 percent year-over-year increase in applications to our employers’ jobs in the month of the Super Bowl.

What this means for employers: More applications means, of course, more people applying to your jobs. More than that, though, with CareerBuilder’s many solutions that help employers filter out unqualified candidates so they can focus on only the best-matched ones, the time needed to find the right candidates is cut down considerably with an even larger pool of people vying for your open position and a myriad of options for zoning in on the talent you want.

As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, says, “We have invested in the Super Bowl for eight consecutive years because we consistently see a positive return in regard to revenue, traffic, applications and brand awareness. No other venue enables you to reach an audience this large that is actively engaged in watching your ad.”

REVENUE. Over the last seven years, on average, CareerBuilder’s invoicing increased 36 percent year-over-year in the month following the Super Bowl. This consistently outpaced year-over-year growth in other months.

What this means for employers: Sure, who doesn’t love revenue? But increased invoicing means increased productivity internally — and also gives us as a company new opportunities to invest in our employers with even more solutions that address recruitment challenges from social media, to talent pipelining, to the current skills gap. It also helps us fund initiatives like CareerBuilder’s internal Hackday initiative (in which employees can dedicate a full day to creating any new business idea they like) and CareerBuilder’s Re-Employment Initiative, in which we recently recruited ten unemployed job seekers for an intensive, six-month IT training program.

BRAND AWARENESS. Per a Millward Brown awareness tracking study, CareerBuilder’s unaided awareness grew 29 percent from 2004 to 2011. Total awareness of CareerBuilder’s TV ads doubled in the week following our first appearance at the Super Bowl.

What this means for employers: Awareness leads to more traffic, which leads to more applications, but as we’ve talked about at length on The Hiring Site, brand awareness is key in reaching candidates you’re currently missing out on. It’s key for your business, and it’s key for ours — and by building more brand awareness, we’ve been able to gain the attention of a much larger pool of candidates and employers — and help them connect.

Which makes us want to come to work each day.

Oh, About That Commercial…
You didn’t think I’d leave you hanging without a sneak peek of CareerBuilder’s lovable chimps, did you? Below, enjoy a look at this year’s contender:

We’ve talked recently about how voluntary turnover is on the rise this year. As it turns out, many of those workers may not be remaining anywhere near their own backyard when they leave their current job.

A whopping 44 percent of workers say they’ll relocate this year for the right job, according to a new CareerBuilder survey conducted by Harris Interactive© among more than 3,000 hiring managers and HR professionals and nearly 8,000 U.S. workers. Many employers are doing their best to make the stress of moving worthwhile: Nearly a third say they’ll foot the relocation bill in return for great new talent.

(See the Infographic)

A new way for out-of-area workers and employers to get in touch

Fast on the heels of this trend, CareerBuilder has just launched CareerRelocate.com, a site dedicated to helping workers and employers connect and turn job relocation opportunities into realities. Employers can post jobs and search resumes through CareerRelocate.com, and candidates have many options as well when it comes to making the right career move (literally and figuratively). As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, explains, “CareerRelocate.com helps workers identify relocation opportunities and understand related costs, so they have the right information in hand for their next career move.”

Through CareerRelocate.com, workers are able to:

• Run a simple keyword or category search and view a map detailing where the most and fewest opportunities are for their line of work.
• View actual relocation opportunities in different cities.
• Learn what they would need to earn in order to maintain their current standard of living in another city.
• Research homes, property values, mortgage quotes, moving and storage costs.
• Tap into articles and advice on relocating and hiring trends.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s in store for worker relocation this year:

In 2011, many laid-off workers turned to jobs out of their area to find new work. Of full-time workers who were laid off in the last year and found new jobs, 20 percent relocated to a new city or state, according to a September 2011 CareerBuilder study.

“One of the key trends we saw coming out of the recession is the movement of labor in and out of markets across the U.S. Workers have had to expand their job search geographically and employers in need of hard-to-find, skilled talent have had to recruit across state lines,” says Ferguson.

Positions most likely to pay (for the move)

Employers who are experiencing challenges finding workers for skilled positions said they’re willing to pay to bring on great new people: 32 percent reported they would be willing to pay to relocate new employees in 2012, and 19 percent would be willing to pay a smaller first year salary in order to give a signing bonus to relocate an employee.

While employers say they’re willing to pay both current staff and new hires for a wide variety of positions, the areas which they’re most likely to pay to relocate employees are tied to technology and revenue-generation:

• Engineering – 30 percent of employers
• Information Technology – 23 percent
• Business Development – 21 percent
• Sales – 21 percent
• Financial – 16 percent
• Marketing – 13 percent
• Legal – 11 percent

Owners of a lonely heart?

We’re all human, and sometimes work changes call for sacrifices we’re not thrilled to make, even if they are best for us in the long run. It’s not a surprise, then, that some workers who relocated last year experienced pangs of loneliness or doubt: 41 percent of them said their family wasn’t able to relocate with them and they had to travel to see them.

Here’s what workers said topped the list when it came to their other biggest relocation challenges:

• Cost of living was higher – 26 percent
• Caused more stress on the family unit – 24 percent
• It was difficult to make new friends – 18 percent
• They were feeling homesick – 16 percent

No looking back

Seventy-seven percent of workers who relocated in the last year reported they were happy with the move and didn’t regret their decision. How did workers say they benefited the most?

• Made a fresh start – 30 percent
• Made new friends – 31 percent
• Had new experiences they wouldn’t have had anywhere else – 29 percent
• Earning at a higher level gave their family more spending options – 27 percent
• Better long-term career opportunities – 22 percent
• Area was nicer and schools were better – 19 percent

Check out our “Relocation Nation” infographic to get a snapshot of relocation trends for 2012:

 Are you planning on looking for out-of-area candidates this year to get the right employees in the door? Will you pay for relocation costs?

Growth can obviously be a huge boon to your company, but it can also lead to some stumbling blocks you weren’t exactly prepared to encounter. Well, detach the nails that you’ve just dug into your office chair in panic: CareerBuilder and Inc. have just released a new report, “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” with the sole purpose of helping you prepare for any changes and challenges that come along with your company’s growth, whether that growth happens tomorrow or 10 years from now.

Below, check out a sneak peek of Part I of “Geared to Growth” — it’s all about the policies and procedures your company needs to put in place to prepare for significant growth.

The employee manual

One critical component of a planned approach to growth is the sometimes dreaded, always indispensable employee manual. As Lisa Guerin, legal editor at Nolo and co-author of “Create Your Own Employee Handbook: A Legal & Practical Guide for Employers,” says, “The actual process of sitting down and writing an employee handbook is really valuable for a company. Many companies make the mistake of creating ‘scattered policies as they come up.’”

Sound familiar? Not only does this backwards approach make it much harder to create consistent policies for things like performance reviews, vacation time and employee leave, but it also leaves companies open to legal action. “The inconsistent treatment can lead to suspicions that there may be discrimination going on, or that there may be some kind of ulterior motive,” Guerin adds.

As a general guide, an effective employee manual:

• Covers internal policies .
• Includes your company’s statement of compliance with laws and regulations like the Family Medical Leave Act.
• Sets the standard for company behavior and employee conduct—for example, by stating that your company prohibits discrimination and harassment.

Guerin adds that the above three criteria handle part of companies’ need to comply with Title 7, the federal law prohibiting discrimination. “But,” she adds, “it’s also
letting employees know what kind of behavior is not acceptable, what kind of
behavior they should report, the complaint process, and what happens when
a complaint is filed.”

Note: Because the employee manual gets into legal territory, make sure your corporate counsel reviews it before you finalize and excitedly distribute it to Every. Employee. At. The. Company.

The manual is ready to go–now what?

Even though your employee manual is finalized, both your company and the world around it are likely to change from time to time. Consequently, you’ll need to review it annually and also when your company:

• Reaches certain milestones in staff size.
• Expands its operations or lines of business.
• Experiences significant competitive or market changes.
• Is affected by new laws or regulations.
• Faces cultural changes like the rise of social media.

Though a 2010 National Labor Relations Board ruling limited
the extent to which companies can restrict their employees’ personal activities
in social media, it is still important for employees to be aware of your policies and vigilant in using common sense in their social media activities.

How to get the employee manual to the people it’s meant for (hint: your employees)

Like the manual itself, how you choose to deliver your shiny new employee manual should fit the needs of your employees (if you want them to read it). For that reason, it’s best to
make it available in a variety of formats:

• Online is a good option for people who are comfortable with receiving information electronically and have access to a computer throughout the workday.
• Print is preferable for people who have limited exposure and access to computers.
• Employees with disabilities may be best served by another delivery system, like one that interfaces with an audio e-reader for people with visual impairments.

Did they get it — or did they get it?

Distributing your employee manual is only half the work — the real work comes in making sure your employees understand and comprehend its contents. Otherwise, what’s the point? Your goal should be for your employee manual to serve as a tool for corporate and individual growth and success.

Once the manual is distributed, schedule time for supervisors to conduct training sessions/grievance sessions. Yes, this is where employees can air any concerns or uncertainties they have about their rights and obligations within the company — and supervisors (or whomever you deem as point people) can give them the answers they’re seeking.

Get your complimentary copy of “Geared for Growth” and check out the Infrastructure-Building Resources on page 14 for more tools to help your company create its employee manual — and all the essentials on preparing your company for a period of growth.)

Just when we thought we’d heard it all — employees getting locked in the car trunk, dogs swallowing cell phones, and Botox appointments taking longer than expected — the results of this year’s CareerBuilder survey on employees’ unusual excuses for arriving late to work arrived — and we saw that this year, even a state governor was involved in an employee’s excuse for being late (more details about that one below).

2011 versus 2010

The percentage of workers arriving late to work has increased slightly from last year, according to the nationwide survey, conducted by Harris Interactive^© among more than 7,000 U.S. employees and 3,000 employers: 16 percent of workers reported they arrive late to work once a week or more, up from 15 percent last year. 2010 represented a dip in late workers, perhaps in part due to aftershocks of the recession and workers fearing losing their jobs over tardiness; 2011′s increase may reflect the fact that hiring has starting to pick up this past year and workers aren’t as worried about repercussions.

Here are 2011′s most unusual (and very candid) excuses for being late to work, rounded up from hiring managers themselves:

1. “My cat had the hiccups.”
2. “I thought I had won the lottery.” (She didn’t.)
3. “I had to take a personal call from the state governor.” (This also turned out to be true).
4. “I got distracted watching the TODAY Show.”
5. “My angry roommate cut the cord to his phone charger, so it didn’t charge and my alarm didn’t go off.”
6. “I believe my commute time should count toward my work hours.”
7. “A fox stole my car keys.”
8. “My leg was trapped between the subway car and the platform.” (This turned out to be true.)
9. “I wasn’t late because I had no intention of getting to work before 9:00 a.m.” (His start time was 8:00 a.m.)
10. “I was late because of a job interview with another firm.”
11. “I had to take a personal call from the state governor.” (This also turned out to be true).

The main causes for late arrivals to the office (aren’t so unusual)

Traffic, sleep schedules and weather conditions are the top three boring causes for late arrivals to the office, according to workers:

• 31 percent said they were delayed by traffic
• 18 percent said they were late due to lack of sleep
• 11 percent blamed the bad weather
• 8 percent said they were delayed because of getting their kids to daycare/school
• Other common reasons included: public transportation, spouses, watching TV or using the Internet, wardrobe issues, or dealing with pets. (With the frequency of pets being involved in so many unusual late excuses, that last one somehow doesn’t surprise me.)

In how many households is that snooze button being abused?.

More than a quarter (27 percent) of workers arrive late to work at least once a month, up from 26 percent last year. Hey, we all have rough mornings, and winter fully upon us, it’s sometimes hard to scrape down the car or trudge through the snow to make it to an 8:00 meeting.

While many employers are more flexible about work schedules and start times today than in the past, understanding that life sometimes gets in the way of work, 34 percent of employers surveyed said they have terminated an employee for being late (up 2 percent from last year’s findings). Are you one of those bosses?

As Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, points out, punctuality – or lack thereof – can impact how an employee’s commitment, reliability and performance are perceived by an employer.

Communication is essential

While punctuality can impact how an employee’s commitment, reliability and performance are perceived, it’s also important to remember that perceptions don’t always equal reality. I would stress that as a boss, it’s your responsibility to be open and communicative about policies and preferences for work tardiness–let employees know what you expect while breeding an environment of honesty and understanding.

• Let your employees know what your expectations are in the case that they are running late to work. Open lines of communication will mean more respect from your employees — and fewer headaches for you. And chances are, if you trust and respect your employees, they will return the favor.
• Make sure employee handbooks and guidelines are readily available to employees — and offer to answer any uncertainties or get employees in touch with the person who is able to answer their questions if you can’t.
• Give your employees the benefit of the doubt – they may be stuck wrangling keys from a sly fox, exhausted from being up all night with a screaming child, or going through a rough personal time. While these reasons don’t mean you need to give them free reign to do whatever they want, listening to your employees and trying to compromise a plan that will better fit their lifestyle while still satisfying your business requirements is a win-win in the long run: As I’ve said before, improved balance between life and work = happier employees = better business.

What are the most unusual late-to-work excuses you’ve heard from your employees — or that you’ve used yourself? And do you think employees feel comfortable enough with you to honestly communicate their lateness issues?

As we’ve talked about before, many members of Generation Y look at work a little bit differently than other generations.  ”I love my job, but I love my life more” is something you might hear Gen Yers say. Although members of Gen Y (the generational group comprised of those 18 to 29 years of age) have no problem with working hard, as a general rule, their job will never be the whole of their identity. Even more interestingly, as Aaron Kesher pointed out at SHRM 2011, their job and life may intersect in new ways than we’ve seen in past generations. “Gen Y doesn’t want a job – they want a life that hopefully includes a job.”

Hmm. So, what happens when that “life” is online — on Facebook, for example? How do their work and personal lives overlap, and what can employers learn from it? A new study, conducted by Millennial Branding, a personal branding agency based in Boston, Ma., of four million Gen Y Facebook profiles (gleaned from data and analytics company Identified.com), found that members of Gen Y, intentionally or not, are using their Facebook profiles to not only socialize with family and friends, but also to serve as an extension of their professional personality. And it seems that behavior on sites like Facebook is actually reflective of their attitute toward life and work as a whole. By understanding how Gen Y treats their personal and professional lives, employers can better understand how to attract, engage and retain this generation of workers.

Gen Y: Work versus personal lives on Facebook

Gen Y’s tendency to mix work and life appears to spill over into the way they manage the overlap of friends and family with co-workers on sites like Facebook, though the way in which they’re mixing their worlds may look different than you’d expect.

• Work stays at work (sort of): Sixty-four percent of Gen Y workers, for example, choose not to list an employer on their profiles, but have an average of 16 co-workers in their “friends” network. It may be that they’re comfortable with “friending” select people they’re closer to at work and sharing more personal details with them, but not comfortable making their Facebook profile a replicate of LinkedIn.
• Low on job pride? Eighty percent of Gen Yers list at least one school entry on their Facebook profile, while only 36 percent list a job entry; that’s a pretty significant gap. The reasons for this aren’t entirely clear — it could be due to them feeling a stronger sense of identity/pride/community with their school than with their job, a desire to keep work life separate from Facebook, or even good old college nostalgia. It could also point to the fact that with the current economy, many Gen Y and non-Gen Y workers aren’t in their ideal fields or jobs, and don’t necessarily want to highlight their current source of income.

Check out the infographic for more details about Gen Y’s Facebook behavior:

What does this mean for you, the employer?

For employers, it’s important to keep in mind that Gen Y workers, while similar to other generations in many ways, are seeking particular traits in an employer. By remaining flexible with workers and understanding that they value a life outside of work, a solid career path and the trust to try new ventures and fail, you’re one stop ahead of many other employers. As Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of Me 2.0, recommends, “you must allow your employees to become more entrepreneurial at work so they stay with you longer instead of working for a startup or starting their own company.”

In addition to encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit, connecting with Gen Y is not necessarily about a 180 degree company change, but about taking your current way of doing things and steering it in a new direction. Initiating flexible schedules, knowing that employees are often on all the time, is a start, as is making sure employees have a mentor and giving proper recognition for a job well done or sharing innovative ideas.

How could these findings help you better understand and connect with Gen Y employees?

The data and analytics for this study were provided by Identified.com.

It’s 2012. The year of presidential elections; the year of the world’s end, if you ask some; and, according to the results of a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive© of more than 3,000 hiring managers and HR professionals, the year of the temporary and contract worker?! Well, while that might be a stretch, it appears that 36 percent of companies will hire contract or temporary workers this year, up from 34 percent in 2011, 30 percent in 2010, and 28 percent in 2009.

Why the increase in demand for temporary and contract workers? 

As many of us are painfully aware, more than one-third (35 percent, to be exact) of American companies are operating with smaller staffs than before the recession. To address business needs and keep pace with market demand, many are turning to staffing and recruiting companies and temporary workers. And it’s good news for many employees: 35 percent of the companies hiring temporary and contract workers this year have plans to bring them on on a permanent basis.

When the hiring is happening

Some companies’ temporary hiring movement is already in full swing, and they’re not alone: 27 percent of companies will hire temporary or contract workers in Q1 2012.  As Eric Gilpin, president of CareerBuilder Staffing & Recruiting Group, pointed out, “Temporary jobs from staffing and recruiting firms are playing an increasingly important role in the economic recovery. Employers are relying on temporary and contract workers to support leaner staffs, and in many cases, will transition those workers to permanent roles.”

The most in-demand staffing and recruiting positions

We know that temporary and contract hiring is already happening — but where is it happening most?

Based on data from CareerBuilder’s Supply & Demand Portal, these are the most in-demand staffing and recruiting positions, broken down by industry:

Health Care
1) Occupational or Physical Therapist
2) Speech Language Pathologist

Industrial
1) Maintenance Technician or Mechanic
2) CNC (Computer Numerical Control) Machinist Information

Technology
 1) Java or .Net Developer
2) Network Engineer

Office-Clerical
1) Administrative Assistant
2) Customer Service Representative

Professional-Managerial
1) Business Analyst
2) Marketing Assistant

Temporary workers can provide a needed talent boost for businesses, while enjoying the flexibility that comes along with these types of jobs. “Candidates will find good pay, flexibility, opportunities to change careers, valuable skills training, and a bridge to permanent employment,” said Richard Wahlquist, president and CEO of the American Staffing Association.

Does your business plan on bringing on more temporary or contract staff this year (or have you already done so)? We’d love to hear how it’s turned out for you in the comments below. 

It was the best of after-work happy hour, it was the worst of “if my co-worker gives me the side-eye again, I am quitting on the spot” — or so the ancient saying goes. A lot happened in the workplace in the last 12 months, not the least of which involved Occupy Wall Street and the death of Steve Jobs. You’ve probably seen a great deal of coverage about stories like those — but some others might have slipped past your radar. Some of our picks below may not have broken as many front page headlines, but they still made us turn our heads (or drop our jaws).

1. Gabrielle Giffords briefly returns to the workplace: On Jan. 8, 2011, 23-year-old Jared Loughtner opened fire at an Arizona meet-and-greet. He shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head, leaving her in critical condition, and killed six others. Giffords not only survived the shooting, but briefly returned to Congress in August to vote to raise the debt ceiling. She is still deciding whether she will run for Congress again.
2. Steve Carell leaves “The Office”: It may not be “real” workplace news, but it affected many workers and non-workers alike who have connected with the main character of NBC’s “The Office.” After seven years on the American version of the show, Steve Carell — and his character Michael Scott — made their final departure on the show many have followed for the last several years. And the James Spader addition? I still think his best performance was in “Pretty in Pink.”
3. Wal-Mart makes a pledge to women: After being involved in a massive sex-discrimination lawsuit spanning several years — one that alleged women were getting passed over for promotions and paid less than their male counterparts — Wal-Mart, in a move the company says was unrelated to the suit, pledged to spend billions of dollars over the next five years to train female workers and support women-owned businesses. Leslie Dach, head of corporate affairs at Wal-Mart, said the initiative would help the company recruit and attract better workers.
4. Herman Cain’s ghost of workplace past reappears: Chicago resident Sharon Bialek was the first to go public with her charges of sexually inappropriate behavior against Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain (though she was the fourth to accuse him of such behavior). Bialek claimed that back when Cain was president of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, she met him for dinner to ask for help in her job search, he made unwanted advances in the car after dinner, and upon her refusal, responded, “You want a job, right?” Cain denies all the charges that have been made against him.
5. Woman says she was fired for breast feeding: Heather Burgbacher, a teacher in Colorado, filed a discrimination suit against her employer, alleging that she was fired from her job due to conflicts over her breast pumping schedule. As Galen Sherwin, staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project who is representing Burgbacher, said in an ACLU statement,“In order to achieve full equality for women, our workplace policies must take into account that breastfeeding is a reality in the lives of many women workers. Employers should certainly have no say in a woman’s personal decision whether to breast feed her baby.” The school responded by saying Burgbacher’s termination had nothing to do with the breast pumping issue.When it comes to women breastfeeding in the workplace, there are laws in place that require workplaces to accommodate women with time and a place to pump. Currently, 24 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws relating to breastfeeding in the workplace, and Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (signed into law on Mar. 23, 2010) requires employers to provide reasonable break time and a place other than a bathroom for women to express milk during the workday.
6. A homeless man with a “golden voice” gets a job: Columbus Dispatch videographer Doral Chenoweth III saw Ted Williams panhandling in Ohio back in 2010. Chenoweth recorded him talking and posted the video in the early days of 2011. It went viral: 7-million-views-in-two-days viral. Williams was getting voiceover gigs left and right, but with his drug and alcohol issues, ended up losing work and going to rehab. A hopeful update: Williams says he’s clean and on a positive path, and in November 2011, he scored a job with New England Cable News.
   
7. Employer thinks a “firing contest” is somehow a great idea: William Ernst, owner of a chain of convenience stores in Bettendorf, Iowa, who offered prizes to employees (ahem, a whopping $10) for correctly guessing which cashier would be fired next. Perhaps needless to say, a judge sided with Ernst’s former employees in court when it came to receiving unemployment benefits and called Ernst’s contest “egregious and deplorable.”
8. A study finds that working moms are happier: Though what is right for one mother may be very different than what is right for another, a Journal of Family Psychology study found that mothers who work report they’re healthier and happier than moms who stay at home with their children in their newborn-to-preschool years. What level of work do women find most satisfactory? Well, according to the findings, women who worked part-time fared the best overall when it came to health and stress. For mothers who do work, it’s not always easy to juggle everything, as being a mom is a often a full-time job in itself. Earlier this year, our own CDO Hope Gurion shared her tips for helping overworked moms thrive in and out of the workplace.
9. A Penn State scandal explodes: “Shock” was an appropriate description of public reaction as Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State football coach, was charged with sexually abusing 10 boys during his time as the university’s coach. Many of the incidents were alleged to have taken place in the university’s locker room — and public outrage compounded when it was found out that head coach Joe Paterno and others had reportedly looked the other way when the abuse was happening. The workplace scandal continues to unfold, as Paterno has been fired and Sandusky has yet to go to trial.
10. It’s the NBA season that almost wasn’t: For the fourth time in NBA history, the NBA experienced a lockout, effectively stopping all work — and games — from July 1, 2011 to Dec. 8, 2011. The main issues dividing the owners and players? The division of revenue and the structure of the salary cap and luxury tax. The lockout canceled all pre-season games and the first six weeks of the 2011-12 season, and some players signed contracts to play in other countries during the lapse. And how did fans react to the lockout ending? In one word, “meh.”

What workplace stories from this year stand out to you most? What did we miss?

In CareerBuilder’s recent webinar, Future of Recruiting, hosted by Beth Prunier and Chuck Loeher, area vice presidents at CareerBuilder, it became clear just how much recruitment has changed since — well, since shows like M.A.S.H. (you ‘ll just have to listen to know what I mean).

The way we consume our information is more fragmented, because we have so many places to get it.  And with each technological innovation that comes along, adoption of that technology gets quicker and expands into other areas of our lives. Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, for example, yet Facebook reached 50 million users in nine months. With these rapid market changes, we’ve seen an evolution in recruitment — perhaps more quickly than we ever imagined. Here are some highlights of what Beth and Chuck discussed; scroll down to listen to the full webinar or to check out the slideshow.

Future of Recruiting Highlights:

• You’ve got to fish where the fish are: Job seekers are already spending time on social media sites, search engines, and mobile devices, so it’s important to reach them in these places.
• The job search is now like buying a car — job seekers are consumers, and they’re accustomed to the process of making decisions and engaging with a brand.
• According to a Q2 Inavero study, 98 percent of candidates reported using search engines at the beginning of their research phase (when they’re searching on a more broad level, and not yet researching specific companies).
• Only 14 percent of candidates believe what a company says about themselves, yet 78 percent of candidates believe what users or employees say about a company.
• 58 percent of candidates say they complete all research before they ever apply to an organization.
• Retention today doesn’t begin when a candidate is hired into a job; it actually starts when a candidates learns about your organization, researches your company, finds interesting opportunities, and begins the application and interview process (can start 3-6 months before a candidate applies to a job at your company).
• The No. 1 reason employees leave their organization, according to a Deloitte study, is due to their relationship with their direct manager.
• Prospective candidates can research your company completely anonymously.
• It’s vital to survey and find out things like: “What do prospective candidates want in an opportunity?”, “Why did current employees join my organization?”, and “Why did former employees leave my organization, and in hindsight, do they believe it was the right decision?”

Three factors critical for successful recruiting in 2012 and beyond:

• Engaging with your candidates like consumers
• Building your recruitment strategies by position and geography
• Evaluating how — and when — your organization retains candidates

You don’t know what you’re doing wrong: You’ve spent hours writing a lovely, heartfelt job description, you’ve painstakingly posted it on CareerBuilder and taken advantage of all our free job posting tools, and you’ve even managed to pop thank-yous in the mail to everyone who’s applied — but you’re still not getting the right candidates.

Wait, that’s not usually how it happens? Oh, right. You’ve been given the task to post a job on top of your million other tasks, and you were supposed to do it yesterday, there’s no way you have time to personally respond to every candidate, and that job description is turning out to be more “heartache” than “heartfelt.” But that last “not getting the right candidates” part? Yeah, that’s pretty accurate — particularly during the holidays and 2012 recruitment preparations. So, what can you do?

It’s the little things

You know the cliché that little things can really make a big difference? Well, with job postings, that’s actually true. While you may think you have a perfectly fine job posting, you may actually be missing key information, using terms candidates aren’t searching for, or leaving candidates clueless about your company culture or benefits — or something else entirely. It may be something very fixable, but just out of your reach.

The majority of job seekers spend less than three minutes viewing a job posting–so you can’t take chances with your first impressions. We’ve already talked about the cost of a bad hire, and tips for attracting better hires, but beyond that, sometimes you just want an expert to step in and do the work for you. If so, Job Enhancement may be smart for you to consider.

More searches, clicks and applications? Yes please

Job Enhancement is like a facelift for your job postings. How it works is simple: CareerBuilder’s search technology experts analyze your job posting and add in the most relevant keywords, reprioritize the information you present to job seekers, and create compelling, clear, and competitive content (read: do all the work for you because your time is limited — and valuable. And hey, this is their actual job). The result? More relevant job searches, views, and quality applications. You can watch this short video to learn more, or ask any questions you might have about how it works in the comments below.

Clients who use Job Enhancement for their job postings have seen a 73 percent increases in search results, 45 percent increases in clicks on their job postings, and 40 percent more applications. Not too shabby!

Are you the recruiter or hiring manager who needs more time in your day and better candidates, fast?Job Enhancement is one way to see a rapid improvement in your job posting performance while taking some weight off your workload.  Get it here. If you prefer the DIY approach, check out our many job posting tips.

Either way, if you’ve got 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife (thanks Alanis), remember that sometimes it’s the small changes that really do make a big difference in your job postings’ performance.

The holidays are upon us, and you know what that means: A lot of wide-eyed excitement, crackling fires, fresh-baked treats, gatherings with loved ones, snowball fights, and more perks at work like bonuses, parties and gifts.

Wait, what was that last part? More perks in the workplace, just in time for the wallet-emptying tendencies of the holidays? Yes — but just how much extra merriment will workers see this season? Let’s take a look. (See the infographic)

2011 Holiday Perk Highlights:

Bonuses: less frosty

• Forty percent of employers plan to give their employees holiday bonuses this year, up from 33 percent in 2010. 
• Among that group, 73 percent are planning to give the same amount as last year. 
• Fourteen percent plan to provide greater bonus than last year, while 13 percent plan to provide less.

Parties: Mingling on the rise-

• Fifty-eight percent of employers are planning a holiday party for their employees this year, up from 52 percent in 2010.
• Thirty-six percent of workers say they plan to attend their holiday party this year.

Gifts: Naughty or nice?

• Thirty percent of employers plan to give holiday gifts, up from 29 percent in 2010. 
• Holiday perks in the office aren’t just coming from corporate; 22 percent of workers say they plan to buy holidays gifts for co-workers this year, with the same percentage planning to buy their boss something. 
• While gifting may be up, extravagance is still down: The majority (78 percent) of workers say they plan to spend $25 or less on average for each holiday gift they buy for the office. Thirty-eight percent plan to spend $10 or less and 12 percent plan to spend less than $5.

 Take a closer look at 2011′s Office Holiday Cheer Outlook:

A little really does go a long way

As we’ve discussed before, it doesn’t cost a large — or small — fortune to provide employees with some extra cheer this holiday season (or all year round). The price of the perfect holiday bonus is less than you might think, and a little really can stretch fairly far for your employees, many of whom are just happy to be recognized and appreciated. This season, consider budget-friendly alternatives that will avoid breaking the bank (and breaking your employees’ hearts):

• The gift of laughter: Take that holiday sweater with the light-up bells on it (c’mon, you know the one) and wear it — to work. Dressing up, or down, as the case may be, can actually do wonders for building morale and sparking holiday cheer at the office. Pick a day for everyone to don their favorite gaudy, holiday-themed sweaters and other gear, and to sweeten the pot, have employees vote on the most outrageous sweater for a prize.

Is your company giving more bonuses, gifts and parties this holiday season? How important do you think these perks are to employees?

Hey!  It’s mission-critical that we circle back on this very important matter of corporate jargon in the workplace. Let’s focus on the low-hanging fruit with a small group first and then loop everyone in. Being proactive about our learnings will really incentivize the group to focus on the most critical action items and value-add for maximum impact. Let’s start high level, drill down from there, and circle back after lunch to figure out next steps.

Wait, what? Annoying, right? If you’re anything like me, corporate jargon makes your skin crawl — but in today’s workplace, it’s sometimes hard to get away from it. We’ve likely all been guilty of at least one of the business “buzzwords” below.

“Outside the box” is the most popular—or unpopular, word depending on your view. The next-worst offenders are:

• Outside the box (31 percent)
• Low-hanging fruit (24 percent)
• Synergy (23 percent)
• Loop me in (22 percent)
• Best of breed (19 percent)
• Incentivize (19 percent)
• Mission-critical (19 percent)
• Bring to the table (18 percent)
• Value-add (17 percent)
• Elevator pitch (16 percent)
• Actionable items (15 percent)
• Proactive (15 percent)
• Circle back (13 percent)
• Bandwidth (13 percent)
• High level (10 percent)
• Learnings (9 percent)
• Next steps (6 percent)

Navigating workplace issues can be tricky enough without throwing flowery, cliché (or just plain made up) vocabulary words in each other’s faces. It only takes one brave person to turn “outside the box” into “creatively” or “let’s circle back” to “I’ll call you” — and suddenly, we can begin to peel back the layers of complexity and really talk honestly to each other.

Grasping for an original thought or non-business-speak term that describes what we want to achieve can sometimes be difficult, but it also makes it easier for others (inside or outside our workplaces) to understand us. It brings a fresh perspective to the same old “strategy planning session.” And it can make tasks easier, not just for employees who have been with the company for some time (and have deciphered the internal lingo), but for new employees, for whom clarity and simplicity is essential while getting used to a new role. Let’s stop wasting each other’s time and dumbing each other down with meaningless buzzwords — and start saying what we really mean.

Corporate Jargon: Breaking down the buzzwords

Here are a few examples of buzzword-worthy statements — each followed by an example of a simplified version. Dig around in your own emails — I’ll bet you have some examples to work with too. Sometimes, simpler words actually give us room to add more context around a situation.

Jargon: “It’s mission-critical that we do this.”
Instead, say: It’s important that our company do this to reach our Q4 sales goals.”

Jargon: “Let’s circle back in a couple of weeks.”
Instead, say: “Let’s talk again on Dec. 18. I will send you a calendar invite.”

Jargon: “Be sure to loop me in.”
Instead, say: “Please include me in future conversations about this.”

Jargon: “What does she bring to the table?”
Instead, say: “What specific qualifications would she bring to the position that other candidates are lacking?”

Jargon: “The social media element of this project will be a compelling value-add for the client.”
Instead, say: “By helping our client build relationships on sites like Twitter and Facebook, we can add more value to this project and help them meet their social media goals.”

Jargon: “How do we incentivize our employees to be more productive?”
Instead, say: “What can we do to make employees excited about coming to work again?”

 Jargon: “Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit.”
Instead, say: “What are the easiest goals for us to reach right now? Let’s focus on those first.”

What are your biggest corporate jargon pet peeves — or which are you most guilty of overusing?

Economy be damned – it looks like Cyber Monday may hit record sales this year. Cyber Monday, otherwise known as the online (and seemingly safer) version of Black Friday, has become the No. 1 online shopping day of the year. A new CareerBuilder survey shows that many workers are not only using Cyber Monday to satisfy their winter boots craving or snag a new TV at a bottom-barrel price, but are actually making their e-shopping habits part of a year-round lifestyle. With 57 percent of workers ages 25-44 and 42 percent of workers ages 45 and older planning to shop online at work this year, many employers are tightening their online policies — and even taking serious measures — to put a stop to it.

Though it’s expected that workers will use the Internet for non-work purposes during breaks, lunch hours, and in moderation, Web activity spilling into work time is when many employers put their collective feet (adorned with 50 percent off Black Friday Blowout shoes, thankyouverymuch) down.

See how workers’ Internet use at work has changed in the past year–and how employers are reacting to it:

Have you noticed workers’ personal Internet use increasing at work? Do you think it’s just a sign of our changing times — or a symptom pointing to a greater workplace problem?

CEOs, COOs, CFOs, senior vice presidents and other company leadership figures recently donned monogrammed robes, gathered around a bonfire in an undisclosed location, and answered a series of questions about their personal habits, including preferred style of dress, Bieber versus non-Bieber hairstyle, lunchtime brain wave patterns, and favorite martini garnishes. OK, not really (though that’s how it happened in my head). In reality, CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive© got together to survey 561 hiring managers in senior leader roles to get the scoop on senior leaders’ personal habits — and here’s what they had to say:

What company leaders said about their everyday habits:

Want to mass email this to everyone you’ve ever met? Download the infographic.

Which of these stats surprised you the most — or can you most relate to?

Tomorrow, on Veterans Day 2011, we take time to honor the scores of men and women who have fought for our freedoms. While we often honor our military veterans with words, how can we make a difference by taking action on some of those words? A great way for businesses to take the lead on this is by hiring a veteran. This Veterans Day is an opportune time for all of us to take a closer look at the strengths veterans bring to the workplace and discuss ways to help tackle the challenges many face — and a new CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,800 hiring managers helps us do just that.

What kinds of challenges are veterans facing?

Well, as of October 2011, more than 850,000 veterans were unemployed, and the jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans was 12.1 percent — well over the national average. This problem isn’t going away, but instead becoming more of a challenge: According to whitehouse.gov, more than 1 million service members are projected to leave the military between 2011 and 2016.

Veterans’ skills are often highly specialized, and it is sometimes difficult for them to determine how to translate those skills to those that employers are seeking in a civilian workplace environment.

Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, has some advice for veterans struggling to reconnect and adapt to a civilian workforce:

“The survey shows that employers recognize the unique value military experience can bring, but that they don’t always understand how military skills fit into corporate America. Veterans will need to clearly make that connection in their resume, cover letter and job interviews as they enter this new chapter of their careers.”

New job resources for veterans

Resources are popping up everywhere to help veterans adjust to their new civilian lives and find jobs. In New Brunswick, NJ, for example, veterans are learning to release stress, heal, and adapt to civilian life through music classes, and CareerBuilder has recently launched a job site matching military veterans and employers, EmployVets.com. Exclusively for veterans returning to the job force, the site includes a tool for discovering how one’s military skills translate to the civilian world, career advice and resources, and much more. Sites like VETransfer are aimed at helping veterans with an entrepreneurial streak start their own businesses by connecting them with financing and equipping them with the necessary resources to get their venture started.

Veterans who believe they have a skills gap hindering their job search can also participate in the CareerBuilder Re-Employment Initiative, a paid internship program aimed at helping veterans and unemployed job seekers bridge the IT skills gap. This paid program will consist of several weeks of classroom training followed by up to six months of on-the-job, hands-on training with an assigned CareerBuilder software developer. Interested?  See the job description and apply here.

For veterans coming off active duty: How can you increase opportunities for employment?

• Speak their language. Two in five employers (41 percent) reported it can be difficult to decipher how military experience fits into civilian positions. It’s important to highlight specific military skills and spell out how they are relevant to the responsibilities listed in the employer’s job ad. For example, if you served in the infantry, there are many relatable skills for police or security guard positions or for training roles within organizations.
• Advertise your experience. More than one-in-four employers (27 percent) said one of the biggest challenges in recruiting U.S. veterans for open positions is that veterans don’t always market their military experience. Include your military experience with a bulleted list of accomplishments that shows how you put your knowledge into action.

Government initiatives

The White House is doing something about the employment challenge veterans face — and many businesses are following suit. President Obama has just announced several initiatives to help unemployed military veterans, including the Veteran Gold Card, which gives the more than 200,000 unemployed 9/11 veterans access to enhanced services like six months of personalized case management, assessments and counseling at career centers across the country.

He is also currently urging members of Congress to pass two provisions to the American Jobs Act that will provide tax credits to businesses that hire military veterans: 1) The “Returning Heroes Tax Credit,” which provides firms that hire unemployed veterans with a maximum credit of $5,600 per veteran, and the “Wounded Warriors Tax Credit,” which offers firms that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities with a maximum credit of $9,600 per veteran.

Some businesses are taking the lead

More good news: Despite battling a higher-than-average unemployment rate, those returning from military duty and re-entering the workforce may find better employment prospects over the next year:

• One in five (20 percent) employers reported they are actively recruiting U.S. veterans to work for their organizations over the next 12 months
• 14 percent of employers are actively recruiting members of the National Guard.

Which industries offer the best options for veteran hiring?

Employers are planning to tap into the technical and communications skills and leadership abilities of U.S. service men and women. More than one-third of employers plan to hire for Information Technology positions, which topped the list of hot areas for hiring U.S. veterans.

• Information Technology – 36 percent
• Customer Service – 28 percent
• Engineering – 25 percent
• Sales – 22 percent

Why hire a veteran?

We’ve talked in the past about the multitude of reasons your business should be hiring veterans, and as President Obama said when referring to veterans’ wide range of skills, “This is exactly the kind of leadership and responsibility that every American business should be competing to attract.”

With their military background, extensive training, specialized skills and breadth of experience, veterans bring many unique elements to the workforce.  A few that you may not have considered:

1. Trustworthiness: Many military personnel have achieved some level of security clearance, demonstrating that he or she is recognized as a trustworthy person.
2. Background checks: With an honorable discharge, service members are essentially certified drug-free, and they have already had to go through rigorous background checks to be admitted into the military.
3. Dealing with high stress-situations: Veterans know the importance of deadlines, and they’re accustomed to being in high-stress situations and trained to deal appropriately and effectively. Though civilian workplaces offer different types of pressures, there’s likely nothing you can throw at them that’s more high stress than situations they’ve encountered while serving.
4. Tech savvy and international awareness: Veterans, because of the necessity to be aware of global affairs, are often one step ahead of many other workers when it comes to IT knowledge or the latest business trend or international security issue — not to mention IT training and hands-on skills.

CareerBuilder asked employers who have hired U.S. veterans or members of the National Guard to list the top attributes military personnel brought to their organization.

The following assets topped the list:

• Disciplined approach to work – 66 percent
• Ability to work as a team – 65 percent
• Respect and integrity – 58 percen
•  Leadership skills – 56 percent
• Problem-solving skills – 54 percent
• Ability to perform under pressure – 53 percent
• Communication skills – 45 percent

 What veteran job initiatives have you read about — or are you a part of — that are exciting to you? Is your business taking steps to hire veterans or help them re-acclimate to the workforce?

A few months ago, Amber Naslund (or @ambercadabra, as some of you may know her), VP of Social Strategy for Radian6 , hosted “Social Media for Small Businesses,” a webinar encouraging small businesses to take a look beyond likes, fans and followers and rethink the way they view how they’re using social media to help reach their business goals. Amber talked about how small businesses can apply the lessons of the book she co-authored with Jay Baer (@jaybaer), “The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social” to engage customers and employees and see bottom-line results.

The webinar was chock-full of great info — so much, in fact, that the session not only answered many participants’ questions, but brought to surface many more. While Amber did a fantastic job answering questions during the webinar, you all had even more dilemmas to be solved.

What better way to address your specific follow-up questions, we thought, than to ask our resident queen of social media, Jenny Weigle (@jennyweigle), CareerBuilder’s Social Media Manager extraordinaire? Jenny, a pro on all things social media-related, tackles your questions with panache. Read on:

Social Media & Small Businesses: Q&A with Jenny Weigle, CareerBuilder’s Social Media Manager:

Q1: Social Media is very useful for product-related companies… But how can you compare these efforts to service-oriented companies like IT professional services/consulting companies?

Jenny: Social media provides a platform for businesses to showcase what is unique about their products or services. Consulting or professional service companies can use social media to have an ongoing dialogue with their audience to better enhance the services they provide.  These companies can also use social media to join in on the conversation in their industry and work to establish their employees or executives as thought leaders. Think of social media as one more tool to help build relationships.

Q2: Do B2B companies have different social media “rules” as opposed to B2C?

Jenny: The “rules” aren’t that different, but your audience is. Sometimes it’s challenging to get a B2B audience to engage with you through social media. At CareerBuilder, we have found that our B2B accounts see increased engagement when they are more personalized. For example, on our @CBforEmployers account, Amy is the admin and we’ve added her to the profile picture and bio so that the audience knows there is a person behind this account. In my professional opinion, people are more likely to engage with another person than with a company or brand.

Q3: How would a business find comments about themselves out on the vastness of the Web?

Jenny: Two websites to start your search on are SocialMention.com and Search.Twitter.com. Try typing in your company name, and don’t forget to consider various spellings of your company or brand, even if they are incorrect. You can also try searching your company’s leadership names as well to see if they are being mentioned in conversations. Some other great resources are: CrowdBooster.com, YourOpenBook.org and Topsy.com. If you have a budget, tools like Radian6 can provide even more in-depth monitoring and reporting.

Q4: How would you know if there is a negative comment out there about your business?

Jenny: If you’re not monitoring your social media or online initiatives, then you probably don’t know if there are negative comments about your business. Start of by utilizing the resources mentioned in Q3. Then, if you come across negative comments, decide how you want to respond to them. Keep in mind that your response will most likely be public.

Q5. Do you have any suggestions for convincing company leaders of the benefits of social media when they view it as potentially “unprofessional”?

Jenny: People could be talking about your company or industry on social media, and chances are they already are. Business leaders have an opportunity to be part of that conversation through social media, instead of just being on the outside of it.

Q6. How do we build trust and perceive credibility?

Jenny: You can build trust in many ways. One way is not to remove negative comments from your social media account. Instead, respond to the person and start a dialogue to address the issue. While the conversation may be public, it will also show your other fans that you are listening and taking their concerns seriously.

Another way to build credibility is to offer your professional advice, free of charge. Don’t use your social media accounts to sell, sell, sell. Use them to show customers and potential customers that you are the expert in your field.

Q7. How do you feel about outsourcing social media management?

Jenny: Companies have many reasons to outsource social media management, and this could prove to be very successful for a company.  Social media is about being authentic, and the most authentic spokesperson for your company would typically be an employee of your company. If you do choose to outsource, make sure the person acts as an extension of your team.

Q8. How do you make the time when you already have little time to accomplish all the other tasks you have?

Jenny: Using tools like CoTweet or HootSuite allows you to manage many platforms at once. I always advise people not to start a social media account if they can’t keep up with it on a regular basis. To me, this is like opening a hotline for your business but only having someone occasionally available to answer the phone.

Q9. I was just hired to be the voice of a health care company. I am finding it hard to give life to a relatively very stiff field. Any suggestions?

Jenny: Take a deeper dive into the health care industry by finding people who are very passionate about their field. Ask to shadow them for a day, and then post updates and pictures on your social media accounts. Invite them to be part of a task force that you can tap for ideas on what to post on the health care company’s social media accounts.

Q10. If we use social media for business with customers, clients, and coworkers, how do we keep our personal life and friends private?

Jenny: Every business should create a social media strategy, plan and goals.  These items should be documented and shared with company leaders.  The strategy should only focus on the business, so it is the responsibility of the administrator to make sure that each post reflects the strategy and plan they put in place and that these accounts are maintained separately  from personal accounts.

As you get your business accounts started, you may want to reach out to your personal network and inform them about your new social media presence as a way to build your foundation of followers.

Q11. If you have limited time to keep up with social media, which one would you choose to do (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)?

Jenny: I would choose the one that your target audience is most active on. How do you determine that?

There are a number of ways. Here are a few:

• Survey your clients.
• Conduct research on the Internet.
• Participate in chats or groups on each network.

Don’t open a social media account without taking the time to learn about your audience and what conversations are taking place.

Q12. I’m a small B2B manufacturing business who sells to factories and people who have been around for 30+ years. These aren’t folks who would even know how to spell social media. The industry is very low tech and not technologically oriented; how would you approach this?

Jenny: As mentioned in Q11, I would do some research to find out if your target audience is on these platforms and what is being said about your business/industry. It’s possible that you’ll discover very little and may decide that it’s not worth opening a social media account for your business at this time. You could, however, also view this as an opportunity to be a trailblazer and the first person in your industry represented on social media.

Q13. What is the life span of a twitter post?

Jenny: Depending on how many people your users are following in their own accounts, it could be mere seconds. This is why it’s important to be active and consistent on Twitter. There are many studies out there with varying results on this. Overall, the life span isn’t very long, and you shouldn’t rely on one tweet to get your message out. Reword and rephrase the message so that you can send out multiple tweets on the subject.

Q14. I just started a new company, how can I use social media? Wow, where does one begin?

Jenny: A good starting point would probably be to read “The Now Revolution.”  Use the sites I recommended in Q3 to research the conversations taking place about your competitors. Use this information to decide which social network you want to be active on first. Also, be sure that your social media strategy is in line with and part of your overall marketing plan and goals.

Q15. We’re a non-profit construction trade association; we’re trying to make the most of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.). But, our members don’t seem to be participating… how do we address this?

Jenny: What do your members want to hear from you?  What’s important to them? What would it take to get them to engage with you on social media?  What kind of value are you bringing to your members through social media? If you haven’t asked them these questions, then you could do so through a survey, or post one question at a time on your social media account. Also, review your analytics. Just because they might not be commenting on posts doesn’t mean that they’re not viewing or sharing them. Bit.ly provides a great way to track your clicks and other analytics on the links you’re promoting through social media.

Q16. We have a unique opportunity — how do we get our message, such as recruiting sales reps, out to the social media?

Jenny: It’s important to first learn the behaviors and perceptions of your target audience before embarking on any sort of recruitment marketing campaign – that is, any sort of successful recruitment marketing campaign. Have a plan before you jump in. Remember that you are trying to foster a relationship with current, prospective, and even unknown candidates, and it’s something that you continually need to be working on. If you’re not consistently engaging with people, you’re going to see your existing fan base decrease.

Social media is really just an extension of what you’re doing today, so taking elements of your existing strategy that are successful and applying them to social media is the easiest way to start. For example, if internal referrals are a really great source of hires for your organization, take that internal referral program and spread the word on Facebook. Engage your existing employees on Facebook and provide easier ways for them to share openings or career opportunities at your company with their Facebook friends. We’ve seen a lot of organizations post up job openings on their Facebook wall and then encourage people to share that with friends who they think would be a fit, and they get a lot of really good applications that way. So, that’s one way to take something that’s a tried and true recruitment practice and apply it to social media.

Have a lot of engaged Twitter users? Don’t simply tweet out jobs, but also link to interesting articles about something fun /exciting/positive/interesting your company is doing right now. Work on building those relationships and putting a personality behind your online social media accounts. On Twitter, Facebook, or other online networks, post reasons about why it’s great to work for your company, pictures from employee gatherings/events, or testimonials from employees. And of course, give job seekers an easy way to see/apply to the job posting for your open sales reps positions on these various networks.

Many of the companies that we at CareerBuilder have worked with who are successful in social media have become that way by getting to the root of their story. Finding those little elements that are unique about your company’s culture, and really bringing those to light on the page, is the easiest way to engage and get started.

Lastly, check out our free eBook on social media recruitment, and check out blog posts like 10 Steps to Getting Started with Social Media.

Q17. What have been some effective ways restaurants have used social media?

Jenny: There are many unique ways that restaurants have embraced social media; this article by TheNextWeb.com highlights a few of them.

Q18. What is the best way to start marketing via social media?

Jenny: As I mentioned above, start by formulating your social media strategy, plan and goals. Align these with your overall marketing plan. Ask yourself key questions: What do your customers want to hear from you? What are your goals on social media? What is the added value that you are bringing to your customers through social media?

What other questions are burning a hole in your social media-filled heart? Let us know in the comments — and Jenny just may be able to give you the answer you’re seeking.

Last week, recruiters were treated to a webinar that delved into the inner workings of the staffing experience from the perspectives of the client, the job seeker, and internal staff. In Opportunities in Staffing: The Client, Job Seeker and Internal Staff Perspective, presented by Leah McKelvey, Director of Corporate Marketing for CareerBuilder and Eric Gregg, CEO of Inavero, talked about not only how job seekers and clients, but also your own employees, perceive your firm, based on the more than 14,000 respondents in the 2011 Opportunities in Staffing Guide (yep, it’s the most comprehensive study of its kind in the staffing industry).

Potentially scary, right? Considering stats like “38 percent of U.S. clients surveyed indicated they have also worked with a staffing firm as a job seeker,” it can be — but reports like these are a great opportunity to find out where your firm is falling short and work to make positive changes.

REMEMBER: You can also get your complimentary copy of the 2011 Opportunities in Staffing Guide, view the slides, or listen to the recorded session yourself.

2011 Opportunities in Staffing Webinar Highlights:

Did you know?

• Your brand is more personal and transparent than ever, as evidenced by the recent death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the very personal ways in which he was remembered, not only by customers, but by his own staff. How your brand communicates with its clients, job seekers and staff can make a huge difference in how your firm is perceived.
• Nearly half of your employees have worked for one of your competitors.
• Nearly half of your employees have had an interaction with a staffing firm prior to becoming an employee of your firm (either as an internal employee, as part of their job search, or as a client.)

The Employee Experience

How happy are your employees?

On a more alarming note, temporary and contract recruiters and sales/account executives had the lowest scores (27 and 32, respectively); staffing firms should be paying careful attention to this, as these are the two audiences carrying your brand message and talking to staff — and they’re the least engaged.

Driving loyalty and retention with your staff

When it comes to the factors that best predict retention in staffing, survey results found the following six values to be most vital:

• Optimism: “I believe my staffing firm will change for the better next year.”
• Pride: “Our firm’s client satisfaction is significantly higher than our competitor’s.”
• Community: “I enjoy working with my colleagues.”
• Valued: “I am completely satisfied with my current salary.”
• Appreciated: “I receive recognition when I do my job well.”
• Growth: “I am given the training opportunities I need to improve and grow professionally.”

So, where are staffing firms excelling — and faltering?

Staffing firms were found to be doing a great job of making employees feel proud of their firm and their job. On the other hand, they scored much lower when it came to making employees feel valued and appreciated. The lowest rating employees gave on the “feeling undervalued and unappreciated” scale involved them feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to complete in most weeks. How can your firm help alleviate this?  Keep in mind that your staff probably won’t take action on feeling overwhelmed if they know they won’t continue to feel that way in the future. As an employer, then, you can improve morale by reassuring your staff that the tough times will pass, letting them know why things will get better, and reinforcing that message on a continuous basis.

During the webinar, Gregg talked about how Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, helps employees progress without feeling completely in over their heads. Hsieh. Gregg said, has found that employees are more successful when the company gives them a path with shorter-term goals, and gives smaller advancements but more often so employees know they’re progressing toward something and growing in ways they can be proud of.

Something to consider for your own business?

What do staffing employees love/hate most about their job?

Love: Co-workers
Hate: Politics within the organization; management causing any barriers to the job seekers they serve

Love: Talent –- they love the mission of finding jobs for talent. Management must continue to pull people back to that mission.
Hate:  A lack of acknowledgment from candidates on how hard they’re working on their behalf can be frustrating.

The Job Seeker Experience

Building job seeker awareness

The top resource for job seekers when searching for jobs is national or local online job boards (57%), followed by local newspaper online classifieds (33 percent) and Craigslist (33 percent). Only 22 percent of job seekers use a staffing or recruiting firm in their search, and only 2 percent start their search with a staffing or recruiting firm. How, then, can staffing firms become more talent centric in working with those looking for jobs?

How job seekers currently become aware of staffing firms:

• Referral (25%)
• Online Ad (22%)
• I was called by a recruiter (13%)
• Traditional Media Ad (11%)
• Industry event or career fair (7%)

To get job seekers talking about you (in a positive way), consider how you’re treating job seekers:

1. Identify those who love you – help them tell their story
2. Do something surprising – worth talking about. What about a handwritten letter?
3. Give them a reason to be proud of being in the community
4. Make it valuable for the person referring and the person receiving

Responsiveness of Recruiters: Good news/bad news

The good news: Candidates think recruiters will be more responsive than organizations. But on a scale of 1 to 10 (from extremely dissatisfied to extremely satisfied), staffing firm 3.6 responsiveness rating only slightly edges out organization responsiveness’s dismal 2.3 rating, meaning there’s still much work to be done.

The job seeker experience is more important now than ever

Candidates are usually working with at least one or two firms once they engage with the industry. The biggest factors to choosing a staffing firm largely stem from economic concerns: The potential to become permanent (59 percent); the salary of the assignment (55% percent); the job’s proximity to their house (35 percent). It’s clear from the survey that candidates would rather receive bad news from a recruiter than no news at all: The NPS of those who were interviewed and turned away is -1 percent, while the NPS of those who were interviewed and never heard back from a recruiter with news is -29 percent.

Why should you care about detractors to your firm? Well, compared to promoters, detractors are twice as likely to quit an assignment before completion, four times less likely to refer you to other job seekers or hiring managers, and nearly three times less likely to accept a future assignment from your firm.

The Client Experience

Though the staffing market includes most organizations in the U.S., the penetration of staffing firms is equivalent to that of the original 13 colonies. Yikes! Between 70 percent and 80 percent of all U.S. organizations don’t use a staffing firm. Why? Many haven’t been educated as to value of staffing firms, or may have been told things that aren’t accurate.

Though 73 percent of clients said they were aware of a firm like Kelly Services, no staffing firm brand is top of mind with more than 9 percent of clients.

How can you improve this statistic?

• Be likeable.
• Do something surprising and worth talking about.
• Identify the right people – they’re not always your largest clients.
• Ask!
• Encourage referrals by making it valuable for the person referring AND the person receiving.
• Take advantage of mobile — 72 percent of clients now own a smartphone. 9 of 10 respond to email on their smartphone, and 4 of 10 use it to review applicants, and 3 of 10 use it to view your website.

What clients say will get your firm in the door: The inside scoop

• Getting a recommendation (49%)
• Sharing hiring trends for their region or industry (32%)
• Provide useful salary information (26%)
• Recognition of staffing firm/have heard of it (25%)
• In market — the rep calls when I need to hire  (18%)
• Building a relationship at an industry conference (18%)

Better client, job seeker and staff experiences

As we start to reset the expectations of what it’s like to work with a staffing firm, Gregg noted, people will want to work with us, and we will be re-setting the bar. Some companies are doing unexpected things to set themselves apart and delight, like the firm that offered unemployed job seekers the opportunity to get an outfit for an interview cleaned for free.

You must also understand, as a staffing firm, the culture of your client. Can you go to different events they’re hosting or see them speak at conferences? The more you start to hear their messages and understand their mission and culture, the more in demand your services will be.

Download your FREE copy of the 2011 Opportunities in Staffing Guide, listen to the webinar again, or check out the whole slideshow here for the full scoop.

What surprised you most about 2011′s Opportunities in Staffing Guide results?

As the carved pumpkins of Halloween were being given their final touches and trick-or-treating hosts were filling up their baskets for throngs of excited children, stores across the U.S. were already looking ahead to winter holidays — and many employers had already lined up their seasonal staff for the busy time ahead. Yes, seasonal hiring is in full swing, and though employers expect to hire at similar levels this year as last, according to a new CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,600 employers, a year’s time has brought more perks in pay, 29 percent of retailers planning to have extra hands on deck around the holidays (a moderate decline from 2010), and nearly one-third of employers planning to turn some seasonal staff into full-time, permanent members of their team.

INFOGRAPHIC: ‘Tis the Season for Holiday Hiring: What Employers Predict This Year Will Bring

Sales, customer service, technology, shipping, and administrative support are all hot areas for holiday hiring this season — let’s take a closer look at what else is happening:

Retail and hospitality outlook

As mentioned above, nearly three in ten retailers will have extra staff on hand to help this holiday season, a moderate decline from last year, and 10 percent of hospitality companies will add seasonal staff this year, the same percentage as last year. What do the similar patterns in seasonal hiring from last year to this year mean for the economy?

As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, explained:

“Employers are keeping the status quo for holiday hiring as economic uncertainties shake consumer confidence,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “While retail has the lion’s share of seasonal jobs, you can also find opportunities in various industries and corporate roles.”

Where is seasonal hiring happening industry-wide?

Many different types of companies are hiring for seasonal staff this year, in various functional areas where they need help the most during the holiday rush. Across all industries, popular areas for recruitment this holiday season include:

• Customer Service – 30 percent
• Administrative/Clerical support – 16 percent
• Shipping/Delivery – 15 percent
• Technology – 12 percent
• Inventory management – 10 percent
• Non-retail sales – 9 percent
• Accounting/Finance – 8 percent
• Marketing – 8 percent

Better pay is on the way

While the number of seasonal staff being brought on for the next few months may not look all that different than last year, one thing near and dear to many workers’ hearts has changed: what they’re getting paid. More than half of employers (53 percent) reported they will pay $10 or more per hour to seasonal staff, up from 48 percent who said the same last year. Fourteen percent will pay $16 or more, up from 9 percent last year. How does your business compare when it comes to pay — are you paying more or less this year?

Seasonal hiring: Still going strong

While there tends to be a mad rush to secure a seasonal job once the leaves start to change, many employers are still recruiting for candidates deep into the snowy underbrush of the winter holiday season:

If you’re still recruiting for seasonal staff, you may want to check out WorkinRetail.com, which connects retail job seekers with employers looking to fill retail positions from in-store to corporate and everywhere in between. It’s the perfect place to recruit for seasonal retail candidates when you need to find the right people fast.

From seasonal to all-season employees

Nearly one-third (30 percent) of employers who are hiring seasonal help plan to transition some employees into full-time, permanent staff, meaning there is a lot of room for workers to make their mark this season and secure a great job. Workers looking to turn their seasonal gig into a full-time, permanent position should consider the key traits employers are seeking for seasonal-to-permanent staff.

Many of the things employers are looking for revolve around employees being proactive, offering help above and beyond what is asked, and, believe it or not, simply showing interest in a full-time gig. When you look at the below criteria a bit more closely, most of the items mentioned are things all kinds of employers are looking for in their employees.

To stand out as a candidate for a long-term opportunity, hiring managers recommended the following:

• Provide above and beyond customer service. Offer help instead of waiting to be asked for it. – 66 percent
• Let the employer know up front that you’re interested in permanent employment – 49 percent
• Proactively ask for more projects – 45 percent
• Ask thoughtful questions about the organization – 39 percent
• Present ideas on how to do something better or try something new – 34 percent

Employers’ biggest seasonal hiring turnoffs

What are the biggest turnoffs for employers when interviewing for seasonal jobs? A lack of flexibility or expressed interest, unawareness of the company or brand, and discount-job-shopping top the list, according to employers surveyed:

• Someone who is unwilling to work certain hours – 70 percent
• Someone who isn’t enthusiastic – 63 percent
• Someone who is more interested in the discount than anything else – 40 percent
• Someone who knows nothing about our company/products – 36 percent
• Someone who shows up wearing clothes or merchandise from a competitor’s store – 22 percent

Read the full press release, send a snapshot to your co-worker with our seasonal hiring infographic, or snag the right seasonal candidates.

Do these results fall in line with what your organization is planning for seasonal hiring this year?

When (almost) alone in a room with American business magnate and investor Warren Buffett, what do you ask him? CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson appeared on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” this morning to talk about just that. Buffett, Ferguson and a few other business leaders met last evening during Buffett’s stop in Chicago for an event for Junior Achievement, and discussed everything from U.S. job creation and the outlook for our nation’s economic recovery, to philosophies on business and the housing market.

This was the first time Buffett and Ferguson had gotten a chance to meet. On “In the Loop,” Ferguson shared a couple of highlights from their discussion:

• Long-term predictions: Buffett believes that, while the U.S. is going through tough times right now, we will bounce back, the unemployment rate will come down and we’ll find ways to create jobs for everyone in society.
• Short-term predictions: Right now, Buffett is focusing his closest attention on the housing market. He believes that when the housing market returns, we’ll see a broad range of industries related to housing or down the system from what housing creates. He thinks the housing market bouncing back is a lot closer than many of many people think.

See what else Ferguson had to say about his discussion with Buffett:

The current skills shortage — and why we should care

Ferguson said our current skill shortage is a longer-term issue that, though it won’t be changed overnight, must be addressed now.

As a result of a long and deep recession, technology evolution, and globalization, we’re in a position where we have a lot of jobs — and not enough workers with the right skills to fill them. “We have to re-skill a lot of Americans into new industries, and it’s not something that happens in 3 or 4 months — companies have to participate in it and government has to incent it. If we don’t start investing in it now, we’re going to look back 2 years from now and say, ‘I wish we’d started that,’” Ferguson said.

In industries like information technology, health care, and engineering, Ferguson pointed out that we’re seeing a mismatch in skills.  There are more job postings for some types of IT jobs this September than last, for example, but they’re staying open longer because there’s an undersupply of people in the U.S. who have the right skills for those jobs.

The key, Ferguson said, is to reskill people into various areas of those industries and help provide employment in the long term for them — but as he stressed, it will take all of us working together to do it. The positive news is that broad-based areas like customer service, marketing and sales are starting to make a comeback — a good leading indicator, Ferguson said, of the underlying health of the economy, and a sign that we may see better job creation as we move into 2012.

What do you see happening for U.S. economic recovery as we begin to prepare for 2012?

If your workplace is anything like ours here at CareerBuilder, once the leaves start to fall, the office becomes riddled with sniffs, coughs, sneezes, shouts of “Gesundheit!” — you get the picture. Trash cans overflowing with tissue aside, though, you’re probably well aware that some employees who call in sick may actually have other reasons for being absent from work, whether it’s a mental health day or a holiday shopping trip. This year’s CareerBuilder survey about absenteeism finds that January-March are the most popular times for workers to call in sick, 29 percent of workers have admitted to playing hooky from the office this year, and that if you thought 2010′s most unusual excuses for missing work couldn’t be topped,you need to check out this year’s contenders.

INFOGRAPHIC: Are employees sick — or do they have the 9-to-5 bug?

Chilly days and empty desks

The survey of more than 2,600 employers and 4,300 workers found that, while employers reported heightened absenteeism around the holidays, the first quarter is the prime time of year for employees to call in sick:

• January through March — 34 percent
• April through June — 13 percent
• July through September — 30 percent
• October through December — 23 percent

“So sick, can’t be @ work TTYL”

How do your employees inform you that they’re not coming into work? Turns out, it’s becoming more common for employees to contact the boss through methods other than the traditional phone call. The legitimacy of this, of course, depends on your company or departmental rules, though as some bosses respond more on one medium versus another, it does make sense that more workers are relying on digital communications to get their message across. How do you feel about employees emailing or texting you to tell you they’re going to be absent — are both or either OK?

• Phone call — 84 percent
• Email — 24 percent
• Text message — 11 percent

2011′s most unusual excuses for missing work

• “My 12-year-old daughter stole my car and I had no other way to work. I didn’t want to report it to the police.”
  
• “Bats got in my hair.”
  
• “A refrigerator fell on me.”
  
• “I was in line at a coffee shop when a truck carrying flour backed up and dumped the flour into my convertible.”
  
• “A deer bit me during hunting season.”
  
• “I ate too much at a party.”
  
• “I fell out of bed and broke my nose.”
  
• “I got a cold from a puppy.”
  
• “My child stuck a mint up his nose and we had to go to the ER to remove it.”
  
• “I hurt my back chasing a beaver.”
  
• “I got my toe caught in a vent cover.”
  
• “I had a headache after going to too many garage sales.”
  
• “My brother-in-law was kidnapped by a drug cartel while in Mexico.”
  
• “I drank anti-freeze by mistake and had to go to the hospital.”
  
• “I was at a bowling alley and a bucket filled with water (due to a leak) crashed through the ceiling and hit me on the head.”

Peeping employers

Many employers take calling in sick without a legitimate excuse very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that 15 percent of employers said they have fired a worker for this reason. Twenty-eight percent have checked up on an employee — sometimes in cringe-inducing fashion. Of that 28 percent:

• 69 percent required a doctor’s note
• 52 percent called the employee
• 19 percent had another employee call the employee
• 16 percent drove by the employee’s home

But are some employees telling tall tales simply because they’re afraid employers can’t handle the truth (that they’re just overworked, or overtired, or way behind on life outside of work with all the work they’ve been doing)? As I’ve said before, it often comes down to trust and communication; while employees should be honest, employers should also be open and communicative about policies and preferences for work absence.

Let your employees know what your expectations are. Is it OK for an employee to tell you he wants a day at the zoo with his son, for example? By trusting and respecting your employees, they’re more likely to return the favor. And keep in mind that sometimes, taking a mental health day to catch up on sleep, spend time with family, or indulge in a day at the spa may be just what the doctor ordered for your employees — and the best thing for your business.

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, offers her thoughts:

“While outrageous events are known to happen, frequent absences and over-the-top excuses can start to bring your credibility into question. Many employers are more flexible in their definition of a sick day and will allow employees to use them to recharge and take care of personal needs. This is especially evident post-recession when employees have taken on added responsibilities and are working longer days. Your best bet is to be up front with your manager.”

Employers, what say you? Do you agree with Haefner that employees deserve more flexibility with their added duties, and that a “sick day” can be a day to rest, recharge or take care of pressing personal matters, as long as employees are honest about it?

Earlier this week, employees everywhere helped bosses celebrate National Boss’s Day. Some gave flowers, or left a handwritten card on their boss’s desk. Others took their bosses out to lunch at their favorite little bistro, or treated them to that pedicure their toes had been screaming for. Still others just wished their boss a heartfelt “Happy Boss’s Day.”

Right about now, bosses everywhere may still be basking in the afterglow of well-wishes, or high on endorphins from that chocolate cupcake display designed to spell out “B-O-S-S.” And they may be thinking to themselves, as they wipe cupcake crumbs off their suits, “Yep — they love me. So much that they wish they had my job.”  Truth? Probably not.

“I don’t want… your job”

Though it may be natural to think your employees would take your job in a heartbeat if they could, it’s not necessarily true. New research from OfficeTeam signifies that few workers today are fighting over the boss’s job. In fact, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of employees polled in the OfficeTeam survey of 431 office workers said they have zero interest in having their manager’s position. Could it be out of a mindset that they’re not equipped for the position? Possibly — after all, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of those workers surveyed believe they couldn’t do a better job than their boss. On the flip side, of course, that means that 35 percent believe they can do a better job than their boss — so what’s really going on here?

These findings remind me of a survey CareerBuilder conducted on how workers really feel about their bosses. What much of the “I can do my boss’s job better” thinking in that survey came down to was a feeling of disconnectedness and a lack of communication. Many workers reported being disenchanted with their boss’s leadership style, believing the boss wasn’t adequately focused on career development, feedback, or support.

So, maybe it’s not so important that workers don’t want their boss’s job, but why they don’t. Workers may never want their boss’s job, and that’s OK — but negative survey results like these should be a caution sign for employers to examine their relationship with their employees. If employees believe career advancement is hopeless — and don’t think their boss cares — they will start looking elsewhere. By opening up the lines of communication and working harder to give employees what they need when it comes to their careers, bosses can begin to repair that frayed relationship and show employees they have value, worth, and room to grow.

In regard to why many employees don’t want their boss’s job, Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam, points to the fact that many managers aren’t really fit for a role as a leader. ”Many aspects of management involve making difficult, sometimes unpopular decisions, and not everyone is comfortable in this role.” Being a strong individual contributor does not necessarily equate to being an effective leader. The most successful bosses excel at motivating others to achieve great results.”

OfficeTeam identified seven traits potential leaders must have:

1. Integrity. The best managers foster trust among employees by placing ethics first.
2. Sound judgment. Top supervisors can be counted on to make tough decisions based on logic and rationale.
3. Diplomacy. Handling challenging situations with tact and discretion is a must. Effective managers don’t take all the credit for results — they consistently acknowledge individual and team contributions.
4. Adaptability. It’s essential that leaders be able to think on their feet. They should be innovative while also encouraging team members to develop creative solutions.
5. Strong communication. To motivate and guide employees, influential managers freely share their vision with others.
6. Good listening skills. Successful bosses realize they don’t have all the answers and seek input from colleagues.
7. Influence. Great managers build strong networks within the organization to gain support for their ideas.

What do you all think? As a leader, have you found the above to be true — that employees, more than most other factors in the boss/employee relationship, seek career guidance and support? Let me know in the comments. And wipe that cupcake frosting off your chin!

As we move through still-uncertain economic times, it’s not a surprise that many companies are looking for new ways to main a competitive advantage. The more surprising thing to learn may be that nearly a quarter of employers (23 percent) expect to hire for executive-level positions over the next six months, according to CareerBuilder’s new nationwide executive hiring forecast of more than 2600 hiring managers and human resources professionals.

Which industries plan to hire for executive-level positions most over the next six months?

• 35 percent of IT companies
• 25 percent of health care companies
• 24 percent of sales companies,
• 23 percent of professional and business services, financial services, and leisure/hospitality companies.

Introducing: HeadHunter.com

With this increasing need in mind, CareerBuilder has launched HeadHunter.com, a job search and recruitment site dedicated to helping experienced management and executive-level professionals easily find relevant career opportunities matching their advanced skills and talent.

Employers who use HeadHunter gain the ability to:

• Attract candidates serious about their next career move
• Choose from prescreened resumes that fit their specific requirements
• Enjoy an ad-free experience with no entry-level job seekers and no hassle

“Companies have a perpetual need to attain competent, agile senior leadership. At no time is this more important than during an uncertain economic recovery. HeadHunter.com is designed to highlight opportunities for talented professionals looking for jobs on multiple levels of an organization – from senior managers and department directors to vice presidents and C-level officers.”

To learn more about posting jobs or viewing resumes on HeadHunter, visit the employer info page, call
(877) 218-1309, or contact your CareerBuilder account representative.

What do employers want in an executive-level candidate?

Education

It’s not only experience that’s in demand when it comes to executive-level candidates; many employers are looking just as closely at a candidate’s education (and, as seen below, sometimes more important):

• One in five employers look for a candidate with an MBA, comparable degree, or higher level degree when recruiting executive-level positions.
• While prior industry experience is an important asset for many employers, 47 percent would still be willing to hire a candidate without it

The executive hiring forecast confirms that, for the most part, the right experience comes with age. According to employers, the average executive is 41 or older. Forty-five percent of executives are between 41 and 50-years-old and 29 percent are older than 50. Twenty-six percent of executives are age 40 or younger.
Other leadership qualities:

• Proven ability in addressing problems with effective solutions (74 percent)
• Adept at motivating others (63 percent)
• Can act with speed and agility in a changing market (55 percent)
• Creativity (52 percent)
• Emotional Intelligence (46 percent)
• Experience in different areas (44 percent)

What do employees want? Oh, that’s such a loaded question! I’m sure many of us could make lists the length of the office hallway detailing our opinions on what we believe makes employees happy. One thing do we know for sure is that employee morale isn’t a trend, but an ongoing effort. Within that ongoing effort, though, how do we know what’s on our employees’ own wish lists?

Well, a Staples.com survey released in observance of  “Improve Your Office Day” has come along, peeled ink-stained paper out of the Trapper Keeper (where I have just decided all employee wish lists are stored), and shared their M.A.S.H. results survey findings with the world. Let’s take a look.

The survey, which asked employees about their likes/dislikes at work, as well as their suggestions for improving the office environment, found many employees aren’t too pleased with their technology – or their humble surroundings: More than half (52 percent) of the more than 300 workers surveyed gave their office furniture and office décor a “C” grade or lower, and 41 percent gave their office technology the same grade. Also on their lists? Politics, the right to work at home (or lack thereof), and privacy.

What is on employees’  office-improvement wish lists?

• Eliminating office politics (44 percent)
• Allowing or encouraging telecommuting (41 percent)
•  Upgrading computers and other office technology (37 percent)
• Getting nicer or more comfortable office furniture (35 percent)
• Providing more private work areas and more flexible work hours (tied at 34 percent each).

Though it’s true that some employees do think they can do a better job than their boss, employees seem happy overall with their superiors. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents gave their boss a solid “A” grade, with a combined 78 percent rating their boss an “A” or “B.”

The snack dilemma

I know I’m not alone in saying that sometimes you spend what seems like days just staring at the office vending machine (or wall space where you imagine one should be), dreaming of that perfect snack you know won’t magically appear, no matter how many times you try your best Samantha Stevens nose twitch. And then, in utter despair, you don your heavy coat and slumber out into the crowded streets to hunt down the perfect piece of fruit or freshly made salad, all the while thinking of that big assignment you need to finish. But your stomach is winning the battle…

Wait a minute. Wouldn’t more snack and beverage options at work help save you a whole lot of time? According to survey results, yes: 57 percent of office workers have to buy their own snacks and beverages at work, and one in two respondents reported leaving the office on coffee or snack runs at least once a day, with some making as many as five trips per day. That’s a lot of lost productivity and unnecessary interruption. Now, I know what you’re thinking — employees can bring their own snacks. While this is true, it’s easy to forget those little things sometimes in the bustle of everyday life. As a wise man once said, sometimes, a bowl of bananas can make all the difference.*

*A wise man probably never said that… but still…

Happy employees don’t have to break the bank

Many businesses have taken measures to cut costs, and with that cost-cutting, those extras that employees enjoy so much are often the first to go. But doing little things to make employees smile or get through that extra-tough meeting don’t have to cost employers much at all — and they can make a big difference in the minds and hearts of the people so important to the business.

Staples offers these quick tips for improving the office in ways both employees and employers will appreciate:

1. Stock the kitchen or break room with coffee and snacks that will energize the staff and keep them going. Providing nutritious snacks keeps employees healthy and productive.
2. Take inventory of your technology, and replace outdated equipment that may be impeding productivity. In the last few years, technologies like wireless networks and all-in-one printers have advanced dramatically, while prices have actually fallen.
3. Consider office décor and furniture upgrades that don’t require a complete overhaul. Simply replacing old, worn desk chairs and/or redecorating conference rooms can be easy, low-cost ways to make the office more attractive and comfortable.
4. Arm employees with technology that makes it easy for them to telecommute. Tablet and notebook computers give employees the ability to take their work with them wherever they go, whether it’s on the road, at a client site, in a conference room or working from home.
5.  Take employee privacy concerns into consideration when expanding or redesigning the office. Many newer office furniture systems, such as Staples’ environmentally preferable e3 panel system, offer creative ways to preserve privacy while maintaining an open, collaborative environment.

Again, changes don’t always have to come with a parade and fireworks to be effective. Even slight (and free) touches like adding more natural light in the office or changing up the same old meeting routine can help employees — and your business — be more successful, stimulate creativity, efficiency and communication. And if you want to know more specifics about your employees really want, don’t forget to ask them.

What changes has your workplace made recently to give employee morale a little lift?

Image courtesy of theogeo on Flickr

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

— Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

Yesterday, we had to say our goodbyes to a man who’s been described as “a mentor and a friend” (Mark Zuckerburg), “a great man with incredible achievements and amazing brilliance” (Larry Page), “a visionary” (Barack Obama), an “iconic entrepreneur and businessman” (Meg Whitman), “clearly the most effective and successful American CEO in the last 50 years” (Eric Schmidt), and so much more by leadership figures, Apple employees, and admirers: Steve Jobs. Photographs of Jobs over the years have been shared in force — even some showing a side of him we may not normally see. (via @mike_matas)

Personally, I felt a deep sense of sadness yesterday as I heard the news, and I wasn’t alone. The remainder of my evening was spent reading and watching outpourings of #stevejobslegacy tweets, remembrances, articles, and videos from so many people around the world. Like many, I came back to this video, his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 (if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the 15 minutes of your time).

An outpouring of admiration

Wired posted a lovely tribute on its home page, and memes of #iSad and newly created tribute designs popped almost instantly. Reddit comments on the post relaying news of his death at last check had more than 8,000 comments, many of which have been personal anecdotes like “I would always trick or treat at his house” (with the inevitable “he only gave away half-eaten apples” jokes to follow) or “I accidentally hung up on Steve Jobs once” and the recounting of how Jobs called back, laughing.

Many sent, and are still sending, their thoughts, memories, and condolences to rememberingsteve@apple.com. The New York Times asked Twitter to discuss the impact of Steve Jobs’ work using the hashtag #stevejobslegacy, and they published their favorites here.  @stroughtonsmith was one of those people, who tweeted: “People leaving flowers at Apple stores; what other companies would expect something like that for their CEO?” So very true.

There’s a reason he was named the “world’s best-performing CEO in the world” by Harvard Business Review and “CEO of the Decade” by Fortune magazine. People didn’t simply leave flowers, either — a brand new Tumblr page dedicated to Apple store memorials shows the love and admiration people have for Jobs by displaying the photographs, candles (or images of candles displayed on their iPhones), bitten-into apples, and handmade signs left at stores around the world. Millions of people have also reportedly changed their Facebook pictures to honor Jobs.

CareerBuilder employees on what Jobs taught them

When I asked co-workers to send their stories about Jobs and what his life and leadership meant to them, it became clear right away that his legacy isn’t the same for everyone; he affected even a small group of people in such vastly different, but important, ways. Below are remembrances of Jobs from some of our own CareerBuilder employees:

“I always think about his last line from his Stanford address “stay hungry, stay foolish”. Stay foolish enough to believe you can change the world and hungry enough to make it happen. I watched it again when he announced his resignation. I showed it to our company at kick-off this year also. It provides terrific advice on life and business from the greatest CEO of our generation.”

– Matt Ferguson, CEO

“Steve Jobs was all about focus. It’s true that he dreamed big and took all sorts of risks to deliver on his vision, but what made him successful was that he knew when to block out the background noise and never to waver from his goal. He didn’t believe in focus groups and he didn’t care what analysts thought about his financials. He simply wanted to take the ideas in his head and do everything in his power to bring them to life.”

-- Rosemary Haefner, VP of Human Resources

“Certainly Steve Jobs was a great innovator and visionary, but as a leader I think his ability to inspire his employees to demand the best from themselves to give the best to Apple customers is what enabled him to create the most loved products and most valuable company. Sometimes the tactics were controversial, but you can’t argue with the results and a legacy that leaves his employees continuing to ask “What would Steve do?

While most people comment on the design and ease of use of the device, for me it has impacted me more from the fact that so many people and organizations are creating content that can be so quickly consumed on the device.   Netflix movies, educational or zombie-based games for my kids, TED talks, industry news shared through my social and professional network, all of this is possible because of Steve Jobs’ vision and ability to execute without compromise. I’m enjoying discovering on my iPhone today quotes and favorite articles from my network discussing the impact Steve Jobs had on each of them and the world.

-- Hope Gurion, Chief Development Officer

“When asked about his favorite Apple product, I’ve always read that Steve said he was most proud of the work they didn’t do. Meaning one of the attributes of their success was not to spread themselves too thin chasing down every idea that they stumbled upon, but forcing themselves to only focusing on the products that they really believed could be ‘insanely great. ‘This is much harder to do than it sounds, because all great ideas are not created equal and resources are scarce, so being able to make a bet and pick the right thing to work on, at the right time, is an amazingly valuable skill.”

“Personally, 10 years ago iPod allowed me to reconnect with my music. At the time I had hundreds of CDs all over the place and the level of effort involved in finding songs I wanted to hear increased exponentially the more music I bought. It got to the point that I would get excited about hearing a song, but I would talk myself out of it when I thought about how painful it was to find the music. iPod changed that in a profound way. It put the songs back at my fingertips and helped me rediscover how important music is. How do you value something like that?”

 – Paul Simmons, Website Development Director

“Steve Jobs, both because of his own way of seeing the world and the people he has used to create Apple’s products and culture, has done more to bring the role of design beyond just making things pretty and into the role of how things work, what it’s like to use them, and why they exist in the first place than any other person. Maybe ever. This has changed everything for many of us, from the way we create things to the way we expect them to be created.”

– Jonathan Stegall, Interactive Designer

“You don’t need everyone’s approval in order to be a success; if you really believe in your dreams nothing else can get in your way. To me, he really is the only person that truly embodied that. He went through a lot of misfortune in his short life but saw all those misfortunes as opportunities. Way too often people get sidetracked by a bad day or a negative opinion. Jobs was an adopted child, a college dropout, was fired from the company that he created, diagnosed with cancer, etc… but never let any of that break him down. Your life is what you make of it and you have control over all the obstacles that come your way. That is something that I always try to remember and something far too many forget.”

– Susan Densa, Graphic Designer

“My background is in music. With the advent of iTunes the delivery vehicle of music changed from physical to digital. This had profound impacts for the preservation and revitalization of many great recordings, since many were presumed lost and/or out of print since manufacturers would not realize a return on investment to distribute them. With iTunes, many of these titles are available again. Wonderful!”

 – Michael Taylor, Senior Director, Client Support

I think we can all agree that Steve Jobs saw things a little bit differently — and that our world is the better because of it.

It’s Your Turn:

What will you remember most about Jobs?

Many workers aren’t just enjoying the taste of coffee (as I am right this minute) — they’re using it to give their careers a jolt. From better networking, to rubbing elbows, to improved performance, a cup of Joe’s helping many workers make connections — and career strides. Workers are particular about their coffee fixings; some like it black, others with cream and sugar; and still others with another unique combination altogether. Whatever their blend of choice, they’re guzzling it down: 28 percent drink three or more cups a day, and scientists, education administrators, and marketing/public relations professionals, as well as nine other professions, adamantly say they’re less productive without it.

Let’s take a closer look:

You can also download the full infographic here. What’s your coffee drink of choice — and when have you needed coffee most at work?

“Diversity is included in everything we do – it’s a critical part of our mission. It’s so ingrained in what we do that we don’t even really see it.”

These were some of the words spoken by Cmdr. Brent Mitchell, Director of Marketing and Advertising for the Navy Recruiting Command, on day two of the recent ERE Expo in Hollywood, FL. During his “The Navy’s Record Year” keynote, Cmdr. Mitchell discussed many facets of the Navy’s recruitment successes and challenges — many of which translate not only to the entire military, but to employers in general. Below are some highlights about the Navy’s specific recruiting challenges, growth/success metrics, and tips that may inspire other employers or recruiters:

What’s it like to work for the Navy? A workplace snapshot

• 284 ships in commission
• 3700+ operational aircraft
• Personnel deployed: 52, 585
• Then (1992): 550,000 active duty; 406 ships
• Now (2011): 328,266 active duty, 203,796 Navy civilians, 102,080 reserves
• Navy recruiting command: Hiring 45,000 people a year, consisting of 42,079 enlisted, 3,989 officers, and 4,220 NROTC applications
• Hiring 45,000 people/year

Should be easy to reach their goals with such a great brand, right? Not so fast. “Lots of people have reservations about recruiting for the Navy,” said Mitchell. The reasons are widespread, but many stem from either physical concerns, fear (war and high-risk situations often pop into people’s minds) and cultural elements. Some of the most common concerns include those offered from the audience: “I hate push-ups; “I can’t swim” (the point, as Mitchell jokes, is to stay on the ship, not to fall off of it); “I’m going to have to cut my hair”; and “Where will I work, geographically? I have to leave home.”

Some of these are real concerns, and Mitchell acknowledges that they are a barrier the Navy deals with all the time. He went on to address other challenges the Navy faces both internally and externally.

Some of the Navy’s current recruitment challenges:

• Complex Mission: The Navy has what they call a “FIT” standard for talent — they need the right person, doing the right job, at the right time. In the old days, Mitchell said, you took a test to determine that you were morally and physically qualified, and then you were “in,” your job was chosen, and you were sent to it.Now, they have “gotten away from sending a general product downrange,” as he calls it, and it’s top-notch quality being sent off to boot camp. When you go to boot camp, you know what you will be doing after, and you’ve had all the security, financial, and background checks already done and the physical screenings taken care of.But this FIT element, Mitchell added, is like finding a blade of grass in a haystack, it results in frustration on part of applicants and recruiters, and it can be a strain on the most valuable resource — time.
• A shrinking population of qualified and interested youth: Mitchell asked audience members for a show of hands as to how many of their family members were in the military. Overall, he got about 50 percent raised hands; fewer, he said, than he would have gotten years ago. It used to be that entire families would consider the military as line of work — that 70 percent in that same audience would have raised their hands. Interest and military participation as a family tradition has dwindled, and with it a portion of the Navy’s target market.In addition, the skill sets for which the Navy is recruiting are intense; 98 percent of nuclear power plants, for instance, are run by Navy-trained officers — and this requires finding a very technically astute individual. Not easy to find, especially when two-thirds of the market (17- to 24-year-old males) isn’t even qualified to join the Navy.
• Navy Awareness lags all other services: In many ways, Mitchell said, the Navy is invisible to America. You can’t get on naval bases without an escort in most cases, if there’s even one near you — which makes it difficult for people to penetrate the barriers and get to know what the organization is really like. In addition, they have their own language of sorts — they use particular words for things that the general public isn’t necessarily familiar with, and they’re an insular, close-knit community. Kind of like an exclusive club, really — but this rep doesn’t do much for raising awareness.
• Resource reductions and the changing economy pose a moderate risk in the near term: Marketing for complex jobs is difficult, Mitchell pointed out. The Department of Defense has taken a $26 billion reduction, so trying to make decisions on whether to spend money on recruiting or equipment needs can prove to be quite challenging.
• There’s a high demand for professional skill sets in the private sector: The Navy also struggles with people relatively immune to unemployment — people with very specific skill sets and an advanced level of education, like doctors, chaplains, and dentists. With a shortage of Roman Catholic priests in the U.S. and many parishes in need of them, for example, it’s hard for the Navy to justify taking them away — and it can cause quite a dilemma.
• A sense of identity and awareness among the public: The Navy has suffered from the lack of a clear identity and awareness among the broader American public. News reporters and the public at large believe the Navy is manned by generals and soldiers, and they don’t know what service actually entails or what kind of impact the Navy has on their daily lives. Without this foundation, it’s difficult for the general public to support Naval efforts.This hurts when it comes to getting the right people in the door. There is currently a 7 percent female interest in the Navy, compared to an 18 percent male interest in the Navy. There’s a steady decline for female interest, though the Navy has more and more jobs opening for females — it’s a problem of perception versus reality. Not only does the Navy want more female recruits — it needs them. They’re about to onboard their first female submariners, which is huge.

How the Navy has overcome some of its biggest challenges:

As Mitchell shed light on how the Navy has tackled some of these challenges and achieved a record year for recruiting, it struck me that many employers face the same types of recruiting challenges — and that the solutions were often ones that translate outside the military environment.

• A supportive work environment: Mitchell talks about his early days of being a recruiter, when employment was only 3.8 percent in Phoenix. The district missed their recruitment goals by a huge margin, and he says the one thing that helped turn things around was visiting the sailors in their stations and examining their work environment, and listening to what bothered them. Many things were in disrepair, and it bugged them; they didn’t feel the pride and professionalism they had felt before. After a year of this, the district started to make its recruitment goals again.
• Ensuring quality of talent: Putting great talent in your open positions does, as we all know, make a huge difference in the business. Measure enlisted quality by 1) high school diploma graduates and 2) how they score on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) — Mitchell describes the latter as the SATs for the military. Eighty-eight percent score on the upper tier for this test, and 98 percent of enlistees have a high school diploma (77 percent is the minimum). Their recruiters must be doing something right: Their new hire program is holding at 11 percent attrition — as Mitchell said, “that takes a lot of time and attention and effort.

• Recruiters who get it: The Navy dubs their recruiters “Sailors on recruiting duty” — and for good reason. Although the brand image of the military recruiter isn’t that great (Mitchell mentioned the common perceptions being someone who’s stressed, running toward a quota and will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to sign the bottom line), “It’s anything but.”

  Their recruiters are actually high-performing sailors in the fleet who have done very well and qualified to become recruiters. They do three years of recruiting duty, then go back to the fleet to work alongside the people they brought into the Navy. In other words, if they recruit bad people, they’re stuck working with bad people. The Navy is a small community, Mitchell stressed that “we can get tough with each other with one phone call and one email, and we do. If you send a bad product (recruit), the fleet’s going to tell you. We’re picking our own team.”

• Better communication efforts: The Navy has adopted a multi-channel approach to fuel awareness. When it comes to the Navy’s communication efforts, Mitchell tells his colleagues, “It’s not one thing; it’s everything.”

  1. A simpler website. Whereas before, their website was full of internal language and buzzwords (sound familiar?), they realized potential candidates didn’t understand much of the language and fancy job titles and terms they were using — only internal employees did. This was hurting recruitment efforts. Now, the website is written from the point of view of someone who’s never been in the Navy. Users of the site want to understand what they would be doing in simple, straightforward terms, as complicated job titles no one understands causes many to lose interest.“Do you like solving puzzles” makes much more sense to a potential recruit than “Cryptologist.” “We have to put it in the language of our target market. Try to navigate your own website from someone who doesn’t speak your internal language,” said Mitchell. And he made a great point — once these candidates come into your organization, they’re going to learn to speak your language.

  2. Branding. As the Navy realized they suffered from a lack of identity and awareness, not only from the general public, but within their own organization, they decided to go down the pathway of branding.Prior to 2009, Navy’s communication efforts focused exclusively on short-term goals. i.e. recruiting prospects. The organization has had four different recruiting slogans since the inception of an all-volunteer force, all targeted to prospects ages 18-24 focused on a “what’s in it for me” proposal (do you remember the “Navy. It’s not just a job. It’s an adventure” or “Accelerate your life” campaigns?) They realized that these campaigns were very inward-focused, but they weren’t cohesive with what the Navy was about as a whole. They didn’t speak to older workers, Navy family, or retirees — and that’s a big part of the organization. Now, their mission statement is, “America’s Navy is the global force that protects the world by whatever means necessary 24/7.” This has been adapted into many different campaigns, but the message is true to their mission across the board.

• Diversity-focused engagement: Mitchell says they view diversity as a strategic imperative — and that it’s not just about race or ethnicity. “Your Navy forces should look like the population and the people it serves.” The Navy has initiated many diversity-focused efforts — but as Mitchell said, when asked what portion of his budget was reserved for diversity recruiting, he answered: “All of it.” “Diversity is included in everything we do – it’s a critical part of our mission. It’s so ingrained in what we do that we don’t even really see it.”But how did they get to this point — a point in which diversity just happens?The truth is, it takes a lot of outreach. They partner with various affinity groups like the National Society of Black Engineers, groups which are primarily student-focused and engineering-based, and they engage with them on a national, regional, and local level. This way, they start putting the Navy into students’ consideration process early on. The Navy also lets some of these students explore Navy jobs actually experiencing time with the Navy on the ships. They’re able to talk to people and ask them anything — and they tend to get honest answers about what they do and don’t like about their job, and to get the inside scoop from employees who are really proud of what they do. After all, is there a better way to get a real sense of an organization and its people than by talking to them?The Navy has also created focused diversity marketing and advertising campaigns. Mitchell recognizes that building trust takes time. As he put it, “you can’t ‘surge’ trust.’” They start early and often. “As we’re out there in the community, building trust is continual. With that, I have to make investment decisions that may not give me an immediate return on my investment. You have to start the investment early — that’s how you get top quality people.”

• Evolving technology: The military’s IT is the largest Intranet in the world, Mitchell said, but it’s built for security, not designed to be mobile or have 4G connectivity. “It’s designed around our primary business lines, but it doesn’t fit recruiting.” Yet, the recruiting command has made huge improvements. “We just armed our recruiters with laptops and mobile connectivity, and a biometric thumb device. Now, when signing paperwork, candidates sign with a thumbprint rather than a signature. This allows us to get to near real-time processing.” Sometimes, it’s the small process adjustments and simplifications that can make a huge difference in your recruiting (on both sides of the interview chair).
• Social media engagement: “We had a great plan. Be ready to change your plan. We have a saying that ‘no plan survives first contact with the enemy,’” Mitchell said, laughing. Initially, they had created 15 Facebook pages focusing on different elements of the Navy. Recruiters were already connected and wired, so Mitchell had them respond to inquiries and comments. The problem? Some did, but some also left — and when they did leave without anyone to take their place, that hurt engagement on the pages. They had to retool their plan, and “Now, I have 50 core recruiters at headquarters who respond to social media. Now, questions don’t go unanswered and engagement happens.” Of course, there’s good engagement (Recruiter to candidate: Here’s where you go to find out info, and if you have more questions, get in contact with me) and bad (Go to the website), and encouraging the good engagement is an ongoing process. NavyforMoms.comis one of their most successful social media efforts, with 1,222 new members per month,  more than 10,000 discussions on site, and a true sense of community and Navy mothers helping each other — it’s taken on a life of its own.

Mitchell included a great quote from Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations, part of which stated, “Many of our organizations have focused on leaders as communicators. Now, we have the chance to be leaders of communicators.” In social media, this couldn’t be more true — and organizations that get this are way ahead of those that don’t.

Times continue to change, and, from what Cmdr. Mitchell said at the ERE Expo, the Navy is learning to change along with them.

How do you think your organization could adapt some of their success strategies in your own organization — or how have you?

It all started innocently enough. Justin over on The Work Buzz, CareerBuilder’s job seeker blog, tweeted a link to The Oatmeal’s 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling graphic, and he was immediately bombarded with résumé spelling pet peeves from job seekers and employers alike, which he then included in a post about readers’ most egregious job seeker spelling crimes. That turned into me asking all of you on Twitter for the top three things that make you toss a résumé in the nearest trash can (or at your office neighbor).

The result? You fired at me from all directions with your most agonizing résumé errors — and I’ve included them below. There are those resumes that make you go hmmmmm (thank you, C+C Music Factory), but then there are those that make nails on a chalkboard a preferable torture — the latter of which is our focus today.

I’d like to talk about job seekers’ most aggravating résumé mistakes here, not because I want to make job seekers feel bad, but rather to empower them with advice from people who would actually be sitting on the other side of an interview. (Hint: That’s where you come in.) The more honest information you can share with job seekers about what you are — and are most certainly not — looking for, the more it will help both parties get what they want out of the recruitment process (and stop wasting each other’s time). Below is a collection of the tweets I received from some of @cbforemployers’ Twitter followers about their top resume pet peeves; not surprisingly, spelling, formatting, and unexplained employment gaps topped the list.

 Your top nails-on-a-chalkboard résumé mistakes:

@OSGCORP Lack of details & presentation, if resume has different fonts and misspelled words.

@AaronBahls Spelling! Formatting issues! and Job Hopping!

@mtATL When a candidate has little experience but a 3+ pg unformatted resume filled with nonsense & fluff

@prettylady1205  bad grammar, misspelled words

@DCC_Careers  Comic Sans! Background Images, and Headshots including marital status, visa status, blood type, eye colour, etc.

@hplumley Typos in the resume and / or cover letter, incorrect use of apostrophes.

@Amanda_McDaniel A bogus cover letter. Who needs ‘em?!

@NSagal 1. Spelling errors 2. Major formatting issues 3. Objective/Cover Letter that doesn’t match current job

@NicolaFranklin 10 pages of dense text; spelling/grammer errors; repeated applications for wildly varied job roles/levels…

@CobellRecruit  I would look past a resume that has misspelled words, has no contact details and, really bad formatting!

@Thiru_VM Its purely on the requirement 1. Salary range 2. Lack of skills 3. more break ups in career

@Jolive61 poor spelling, lots of different jobs with short tenure.

@KanthawalaYusuf  1) unreadable / fancy fonts, 2) very lengthy resume, 3) insufficient relevant data.

@BrianLoof  1. Spelling errors 2. Paragraphs instead of bullet points 3. Novels instead of resumes. Thanks for asking!!

@MorrisMelanie  typos!

@AimeeTRUJobs  Typos &/or incorrect use of words, poor grammar. Stuff that’s easy enough to fix. Spell check, people!

@DianneMHarrison Spelling errors, spelling errors and spelling errors

@SusanStrayer 1) typos & grammar errors 2) clearly created 4 another job 3) reads like job descript. w/ no details on what they act. did.

@PuppetRecruiter * objective &/or skills/expereince irrelevant to the job *wrong employer name * extensive spell/gramm errors

OK, so… now what?

By letting job seekers know what you don’t want, you are also shedding light on what you do want. They want guidance, direction, and advice — and some may need a little tough love, too. So feel free to add to this list in the comments with your personal list of worst offenses. But while you’re at it, remember that while getting stock of what not to do is essential, it’s also really valuable to job seekers to get clear, specific information about what you’d like to see more of on their résumés. What tips do you have to help job seekers improve their résumé game (and make it easier for their job history to stop ending up as a dartboard)?

They’ll appreciate you for it — and you’ll appreciate the end result.

So… about the other night. It was great. We really connected on a deeper level. No topic was off the table — we talked about our experience, turn-ons and turn-offs, and what makes us tick. We were brutally honest with each other.

You know, in the #cbjobchat. Remember? For one glorious hour (quick plug: It’s the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. CST — except for last night, because of the Labor Day holiday), we covered job seeker experience. Are experience requirements flexible? What are acceptable reasons for job seekers to have employment gaps — and what won’t you stand for? Should the candidate’s first job as an ice cream company mascot really have a place on a job seeker’s resume? And do you care whether a candidate was terminated or laid off?

We covered these questions and more — much more, actually. I tried to squeeze as many highlights in as I could, so you could see what your peers are saying (and job seekers can get some great tips), but I want to hear from all of you. What do you agree or disagree with? What do you have to add from your own employer, recruiter or job seeker experience, when it comes to experience?

#cbjobchat: All About Job Seeker Experience

Q1: How much leeway is in a job posting? Are experience requirements flexible?

(What job seekers said):

@Hansell_Gretel: if I really want the job, if I’m > 80% of them I will still apply & hope they love me enough to make an exception!

@CaressaCrawford: personally, if I meet half the requirements I’ll apply #jobseeker #cbjobchat

(What employers & recruiters said):

@SGaspary: Some experience requirements are negotiable, but be reasonable and ready to explain.

@kbaumann: Most job postings are straightforward. If you have the experience, apply. If you’re close…apply.

@Jeffrey_PHR: As a recruiter I can tell you #jobseekers do not adhere to work experience requirements, but recruiters do.

@creativevp: if i can make a connection btwn the skillset it takes to do a particular task then i am willing to be flexible.

@kbaumann: Job postings can be very subjective. It’s about the right fit. Exceptions can be made. Pay attn. to the posting. Requirements are usually mandatory; preferred qualities are more flexible.

@SalarySchool: My experience is that experience requirements tend to be more flexible with internal hires, or if the market is really tight. I have seen cases where that “director” job turns into a “manager” job to get the right person into the position.

Q2: What are OK reasons for job seekers to have a break in employment, if their skills meet the job requirements?

@khairyalonto for #Employers , ok reasons could be post-grad education, giving birth, even getting laid off, etc. It’s the “why” that matters.

@kbaumann: You have to be able to explain the gap in employment. “I was finding myself” isn’t an answer. Fill the time w/volunteer exp.Ok reasons for gaps: Deployment, family, etc. It’s not so much about the gap. It’s about what you did/accomplished.

@iJobSeek Relocated.

Q3: Should there be a cutoff point for experience or is all experience relevant?

@TomBolt Most companies will want to know all employment in last 6-10 years or last 3 jobs. Most valuable experience on resume is the most recent.

@lunarising As far back as ‘exp required’ requests or at least 5-6 yrs

@JLLCareersAUS Not all experience is relevant. But giving us details on your career path will also help us get an idea of your progression.

@mtATL depends on the relevancy and the experience requirements, though 10-15 years is usually a good cut off in general.

@khairyalonto #Employers won’t have time to go through everything. #jobseekers should share relevant experience that will help get an interview.

@JLLCareersAUS Last/current job is the most important. We prefer to speak w/ 2 companies though.

(And, from the job seeker perspective:)

@TheJobFactor I think we should give less importance to experiences which are not required for the applied job.

@PuppetRecruiter I want to see ALL in 10 yrs not just ‘relevant’, let employer detrmine what is/isn’t relevant, explains gaps!

Q4: How much does a termination or layoff influence a hiring decision for #employers?

@mtATL #Employers It can be a negative influencer. Candidates need to be prepared to talk about what happened. #tricky

@SalarySchool It can influence mgr, but if you have a good track record, you can easily address. Get great former boss ref’s

@TomBolt Layoff not a killer, but be prepared to explain the circumstances and what you have done since if still unemployed.

@khairyalonto for most #employers, termination is a red flag, but getting laid off really shouldn’t be. Finding out the behaviors is key

JLLCareersAUS  Termination/layoff: depends on the reference checks. Crosschecking with a 2nd/3rd reference helps us make a decision.

Bonus Q&A (aka unchartered territory):

And, as all good conversations do, we sidetracked a bit and delved into side topics (but great ones). Here are a couple of exchanges between #cbjobchat participants worth highlighting:

On age discrimination:

@edjalberts Does a “mature” future employee have a chance in the digital world? & how to NOT be discriminated due to age?

@abalderrama @edjalberts In digital jobs your skills(and portfolio) CAN (not always, sadly) outweigh bias. Let the work prove your worth.

On cross-country relocation:

@caligirl62011 Any advice for cross country relocation job seekers? I am not looking for $$ to relocate or interview-just a new job.

@danielkjacobs @caligirl62011 For my last job, I said I was willing to relocate at my own expense in my cover letter. Then negotiated relocation #CBJobChat

SalarySchool @caligirl62011 If you are going to be in the area for any period of time, mention that. e.g. ” will be in NYC for the summer.”

@abalderrama @caligirl62011 Mention your willingness to relocate at your own expense in your cover letter. They’ll know you’re serious.

Check out the highlights from past chats:

August’s #cbjobchat – Job seekers’ toughest interview questions
July’s #cbjobchat — Your most cringe-worthy hiring mistakes
June’s #cbjobchat — Your biggest lessons in candidate search
May’s #cbjobchat — All about the interview process
April’s #cbjobchat -- All about the application process

 So tell us — what advice do you have for job seekers that we missed?

These were some of President Obama’s words in his Presidential Address to Congress just a few days ago, as he stressed the need for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. Many of us watched, or tweeted about it, or argued about it over dinner — and some of us, like CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson, were discussing hopes for the speech to come before it happened.

The purpose of the American Jobs Act, President Obama said, is simple — “to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.” So what exactly did President Obama say to explain that would happen? I’ve recapped the highlights here of what Obama says the American Jobs Act will do if passed:

What President Obama says the American Jobs Act will do (in his own words):

• Lead to new jobs for construction workers, for teachers, for veterans, for first responders, young people, and for the long-term unemployed.
• Provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers or raise workers’ wages, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.
• Provide a jolt to an economy that is stalled, and give companies confidence that if they invest and if they hire, there will be customers for their products and their services.
• Cut payroll taxes cut in half next year for all small business owners. (If you have 50 employees making an average salary, that’s an $80,000 tax cut).
• Repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools.
• Put people to work right now fixing roofs, and windows, and installing science labs and high-speed Internet in classrooms all around this country.
• Put thousands of teachers in every state back to work.
• Give companies extra tax credits if they hire America’s veterans. As Obama explained, “We ask these men and women to leave their careers, leave their families, risk their lives to fight for our country. The last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home.”
• Give companies a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job. President Obama: “We have to do more to help the long-term unemployed in their search for work.”
• Extend unemployment insurance for another year.
• Provide tax credits to companies that hire new workers, tax relief to small business owners, and tax cuts for the middle class.
• Cut away the red tape that prevents start-ups from raising capital and going public

Other points of emphasis:

• Obama stressed that we can’t grow the economy and create jobs by both keeping tax loopholes for all companies, and giving small business owners a tax credit when they hire new owners — we must choose.
• He also acknowledged that the American Jobs Act addresses the urgent need to create jobs right away — but that we have to look more into the future and make a lasting impact in order to make America competitive “for the long haul.”
• He wants to make sure the next generation of manufacturing takes place not in other countries, but here in the United States.
• “The people who hired us to work for them — they don’t have the luxury of waiting 14 months (until the next election).” He mentioned, as we have before, that some people are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, or day to day – they need our help, and they need it now.

Before he ended his speech, Obama brought up Abraham Lincoln, and talked about how, in the middle of a civil war, Lincoln was also a leader who looked to the future. He was a Republican president who was able to mobilize government, Obama pointed out — leaders of both parties followed the example he set. Obama’s message in this comparison was clear — now is not the time for politics, but for putting them aside to make changes necessary for a better economy. But how successful was he in his plea?

Watch President Obama’s Address to Congress in its entirety:

How do you think we can create more jobs and make long-term economic improvements?

Well, September’s arrived, in all its changing leaves and apple picking and perky back to school-ness. But while we’re eyeing fall hayrides, relationships, report cards, or menu overhauls, let’s savor the last of the warm summer breezes, sit on the porch swing with a cool drink, and take a moment to enjoy August’s workplace news, trends, and gossip. After all, quite a lot happened in the last month — let’s take a look:

Klout is getting more and more buzz — but when it comes to your recruitment, what kind of impact should Klout have on your decisions (if any)? We took a closer look at the pros and cons. While you trying to improve your real-life clout by rubbing elbows with Michael J. Fox or Tony Hsieh at 2011′s SHRM conference, you just might have missed SHRM’s best presentations. Don’t worry, we’ve got some of them for you here. And hopefully you didn’t miss our monthly #cbjobchat, but if you did, you missed a lot of great exchanges about tough interview questions — not to worry, though, you can catch the next one on Monday, Sept. 12 at 7:00 p.m. CST. Join us!

Speaking of interviewing, we went ahead and created an entire ebook dedicated to the subject, From Q&A to Z: The Hiring Manager’s Complete Interviewing Guide (PDF). It’s free, it’s all for you, it’s all about interviewing... go nuts. And while interview questions can run the gamet from great to horror-inducing, resumes have their fair share of memorable moments, too, from statements about the Moonwalk to deadly animal bites.

While we’re on the subject of deadly things, have you thought about your personal brand as a recruiter — and how not having one may actually be really damaging for your business? If not, it’s a good time to start — there are some really easy ways to get your name out and legitimize you with interested candidates.

As an employer or recruiter, finding new ways to brand your company is essential — and many companies are turning to online video. Did you know it’s the fastest-growing medium for consuming content? All types of companies are investing in video to help them attract better candidates, brand themselves as an employer of choice, and more — you can download our free video, Streaming Talent, (just by answering a few questions) to find out how it can improve your own recruiting.

Shortly before July’s BLS numbers came out, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss job expectations versus job creation; the industry with the biggest skill shortage right now; the area hottest in wage growth, and more. When we did see the BLS numbers, we cringed a little. But then we realized the sky probably isn’t falling, so we hid that Chicken Little costume in the depths of our closets (you know, just in case). With finding quality workers a challenge for many employers, and unemployment still such a big issue, there are two worker groups that bring unique skills to the workplace and shouldn’t be overlooked: veteran employees and older workers.

We found out that while employers do value IQ, many are listening to their hearts (cue Roxette) and favoring emotional intelligence more strongly. But where does emotional intelligence matter most?

Many workers are also listening to their wallets — and finding them filled with empty promises (INFOGRAPHIC). Though the financial situation is improving for many, many workers are still living paycheck to paycheck — but there are still some things (cough Internet cough) they’re hesitant to give up.

 What did we miss? What was your favorite (or most cringe-worthy) August workplace news moment?

“Ask your neighbor what they do,” said Peter Cappelli to the room full of us in the Managing the Older Worker session at 2011′s SHRM conference. Most people in the room complied. “Then,” he continued, “ask them how old they are.” People laughed nervously; no one moved.

That was how Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School and co-author of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, started his discussion on older workers — and as he went on, he explained the current surge in older workers we’re seeing, shared his thoughts on ways in which older workers are better hires than their younger counterparts, discussed how employers can best engage the older generation, and more.

Why the big workplace shift?

The workforce is getting older — and it’s causing a lot of age-related changes in the workplace that many companies are ill-equipped to deal with. Why? Well, first of all, said Cappelli, we’re living longer — babies born in 2010 will live 10 years longer than those born in 1950. If your parents are 65, he added, there is a 50 percent chance that at least one of them will live to the age of 90.

Second of all, we’re also living healthier, and the percentage of older workers who need to work (to support living longer) is growing. And even they don’t have to work, many older people are healthy and want to keep busy; 84 percent say they would work even if they were set for life — not to work for the money, but to stay active.

As more people are increasingly working full-time and baby boomers are getting older, the workforce is also getting older. Basically, Cappelli said, longer life, baby boomers, and people working longer are the three main factors driving an older workforce.

What do older workers want?

Learning how to work with all the generations in the workplace is important for employers, but with a growing older workforce, it’s even more important that we examine what older workers actually want (hint: as mentioned above, it’s not really about the money).

• A friendly environment — 94%
• The chance to use their skills — 94%
• The chance to do something worthwhile — 91%
• To feel respected by coworkers — 90%
• The opportunity to learn something new — 88%
• The ability to help others — 86%
• Adequate paid time off — 86%
• Health care and insurance benefits — 84%
• A flexible schedule — 76%
• To do something they’ve always wanted to do — 75%

The problem? They’re not getting it — because they can’t find work

A whopping 75 percent of those workers approaching typical retirement age want to keep working — but of those workers, only about one-half actually do. Of those who do find new jobs, only one-quarter can actually get hired by somebody else. Many older workers become self-employed because they have a hard time getting anyone to hire them.

Why can’t older individuals find work?

After all, employers complain of not being able to find quality workers, but compared to their younger colleagues, older workers:

• Quit less, are absent less, and have fewer accidents (even car accidents)
• Have more knowledge and better social skills
• Have better job performance
• Are happier, as it’s shown that people get happier as they get older (you want happy workers, right?)

The only thing older workers are generally poorer at, said Cappelli, is solving novel problems under time pressure without aids (advice, calculators, or other help); for example, taking SAT tests — yep, that’s it.

What do employers say they want?

• A just-in-time workforce that doesn’t need training and can “hit the ground running.”
• Flexible workforce that isn’t expecting long-term commitments
• Better interpersonal skills
• Better “knowledge management” of tacit information

Older workers are a perfect fit for what employers say they want – more flexibility, better interpersonal skills and workers who can hit the ground running.

Do older workers cost more?

Quite simply, no. Though there’s a general misconception that this is the case, there’s no premium in the labor market for age – only for experience. Yes, older workers’ health care use is greater, Cappelli said, but they don’t have dependents to pay for (no pregnancies or little kids). In fact, doubling your percentage of 55-year-old workers raises your business’s total compensation costs by a mere 1 percent.

So why aren’t more older workers being hired?

To sum it up in a phrase, age discrimination. I was surprised when Cappellis said that age discrimination becomes apparent for 36.5 percent of older workers at the age of 50. As Cappelli pointed out, we as a society think certain topics or demographics are off-limits when it comes to comedy, yet the one topic deemed not offensive is making fun of older people, which suggests how common it is to hear, see, and accept people being disparaging about age. Age discrimination appears to be more common than gender or race discrimination, Cappelli added, and 67 percent say they’ve experienced or seen it on the job. In addition, 25 percent of employers say their organization is reluctant to hire older workers (and that’s only the percentage that admit it).

It’s even worse when it comes to the IT field: The majority of IT employers said they wouldn’t hire anyone over 40.

Older workers — and younger supervisors

As the workforce ages, executives are actually getting younger, and the percentage of supervisors who are younger than their subordinates is growing. It’s no secret that older workers and younger supervisors don’t exactly mesh all of the time — and as Cappelli said, this conflict is compounding the issue of older workers having trouble getting work.

We’re seeing retired workers coming back into the workforce and take lower jobs, because younger supervisors are acting as gatekeepers to keep many older workers out. But why?

• 88 percent of employers worry about hiring older workers because of conflicts with younger workers (talk about a never-ending cycle), among them the fact that younger supervisors are less likely to give older workers feedback or hold them accountable.
• Younger supervisors are also more likely to believe that performance problems with older subordinates can’t be fixed.
•  Younger supervisors, many of whom rely on a “carrots and sticks” mentality that encourages a promotion for doing well and a demotion/getting fired for not doing well, are afraid of managing more experienced subordinates, because these things  don’t matter as much or go over well with older workers later in their careers. Older workers are less motivated by pay, and less afraid of being fired. The formal  “because I said so” or “because I know best”type of authority doesn’t work with them.
• Younger supervisors are uncomfortable managing older workers — traditionally, it’s been flipped, and they just can’t shake their feeling that they shouldn’t be in a position of power.

Can we fix this?
The short answer? Yes. The solution, according to Cappelli, involves a different model of leadership and management practices, and in his presentation, he mentioned a few ways for organizations to better work with older workers in their organization:

• Tailor your rewards and benefits to their lifestyle and interests: The promotion, bonus or stock options don’t matter as much to older workers, as mentioned above. Instead, provide motivation through meaningful work and social relationships; these factors are a bigger priority for older workers than financial- or career advancement-motivated rewards.

• Consult and empower them: Older workers want to be consulted, so ask them to participate in the decision process on a project or challenge a bit more. They have experience behind them and wisdom to solve many workplace problems, so ask them to get involved.
  
• Don’t ignore them: Older workers don’t want to be ignored, and they still need to be managed. Remember that managing someone older doesn’t mean you’re giving up authority; older workers must be held accountable, too.
  
• Initiate mentoring/onboarding: Companies like Deloitte have taken advantage of older workers’ unique talents by asking them to share problems they see in the organization that they’d like to work on and fix. Their attitude is, “If you think it’s a good idea, we will too, almost without exception. We trust you.”

Sometimes, Cappelli said, older workers have to help younger supervisors understand how to best manage them — and to engage younger supervisors in different types of relationships by taking initiative and speaking up for things like what motivates them, the type of environment they want to be in, or their strengths.

How has your workplace found ways to better integrate older and younger generations?

13.9 million Americans are currently looking for work, according to BLS statistics. It goes without saying, then, that making a positive impression with potential employers is of utmost importance to job seekers. Despite good intentions, however, the reality of these efforts sometimes falls short of the goal. While it’s clear that many of us have made a résumé mistake at one time or another in our job-searching experiences, as well as a few blunders during the interview itself — some mistakes are more, ah, memorable than others. Then again, some of them may not turn out to be mistakes at all. Let’s weigh in on results from a just-released CareerBuilder study of more than 2,600 employers nationwide — revealing the most unusual résumés they’ve seen seeing.

Resume reviews: Faster than you (should) brush your teeth

Turns out that nearly half (45 percent) of human resource managers said they spend, on average, less than one minute reviewing an application. Less than one single minute! While this comes as n surprise to those with the responsibility of hiring, it is quite the shock for many job seekers who think you’re spending hours poring over the intricate résumé details they worked so hard to perfect.

Not to fear, however: In that less than one minute’s time, human resource managers can retain quite a lot of the absurdities that come across their desk. When asked to recall the most memorable or unusual résumés they’ve gotten, human resource managers and hiring managers shared the following gems.

Employers’ 15 most memorable résumés:

1. Candidate said the more you paid him, the harder he worked.

2. Candidate was fired from different jobs, but included each one as a reference.

3. Candidate said he just wanted an opportunity to show off his new tie.

4.  Candidate listed her dog as a reference.

5. Candidate listed the ability to do the moonwalk as a special skill.

6. Candidates – a husband and wife looking to job share –submitted a co-written poem.

7. Candidate included “versatile toes” as a selling point.

8. Candidate said that he would be a “good asset to the company,” but failed to include the “et” in the word “asset.”

9. Candidate’s email address on the resume had “shakinmybootie” in it.

10. Candidate included that she survived a bite from a deadly aquatic animal.

11. Candidate used first name only.

12. Candidate asked, “Would you pass up an opportunity to hire someone like this?  I think not.”

13. Candidate insisted that the company pay him to interview with them because his time was valuable.

14. Candidate shipped a lemon with résumé, stating “I am not a lemon.”

15. Candidate included that he was arrested for assaulting his previous boss.

To hire — or to run?

Let’s keep in mind that while unusual résumés may be something some hiring managers guffaw over or use to perfect their free throw shot, smart recruiters and employers know that strange can sometimes lead to a successful employee. Don’t be so quick to write off a candidate who, upon further inspection, may simply be thinking outside of the normal résumé confines.

For example, maybe the candidate who included first name only was just being particularly cautious about his or her employer finding out that one of their star employees was job hunting. And the candidate who survived a bit from a deadly aquatic animal? He or she could have a fantastic sense of adventure and survivor instinct that may play well with your company culture. The candidate who wanted to show off his tie may simply have been making a genuine attempt to get your attention with humor. And the candidate who sent a lemon with the “I am not a lemon” wordplay? Clever, memorable — and probably someone you want to give a second look. In today’s extremely competitive hiring environment, a candidate who is willing to take a risk and be creative may be someone who will make the right risks at your company, brainstorm creative solutions to your business challenges, and be a huge asset to your bottom line.

That candidate who does a great moonwalk, though? While an impressive feat, to be sure, likely not one that will do much for your business (unless you are in the dance business, in which case I retract my hasty statement).*

*Also see: Candidate had shakinmybootie in email address.

And obviously, examples like No. 15 are a more serious matter altogether.

When trying to decide whether a résumé is unforgettable — or simply one you want to forget — consider the following factors:

• Is it relevant to the job?
• Is it clear and coherent?
• Is it smartly executed?

If your answers are “yes,” you should strongly reconsider tossing what some would consider a brilliant business move into the trash. Wouldn’t you rather a candidate work to get your attention, rather than blast out the same boring résumé to you and a dozen others? And hey, it’s not as if these candidates are lying to you on their résumé; if anything, they’re guilty of revealing too much.

Creativity solely for the sake of creativity isn’t always a winner, but if that creativity cleverly touches upon your company or open position, or a candidate’s skills in relation to the position at hand, you might not have such a lemon on your hands, after all.

As Rosemary Haefner (@haefner_r), vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, points out: “In a crowded job market, a stand-out résumé can be the difference between getting the interview and being lost in the pile. But job seekers need to ask themselves if they’re standing out for the right reasons.”

So tell us — what’s the most unusual résumé or job tactic you’ve come across? Was it worth giving the candidate a second look?

As many of us keep a close watch on the latest stock market news, CareerBuilder’s just-released survey on worker finances (PDF) shows the financial situation for some workers is actually improving (albeit slowly). Forty-two percent of workers in the survey of more than 5,200 workers say they usually or always live paycheck to paycheck, an improvement from 43 percent in 2010 and in line with levels seen back in 2007, pre-recession.

Signs that workers’ finances are improving:

• The number of workers who have missed a bill payment has decreased since 2010: 20 percent say they have missed payments on bills in the last year, a slight improvement from 22 percent at this time last year.
• 14 percent of workers making six figures say they live paycheck to paycheck, down from 17 percent in 2010.
• 6 percent of these six-figure earners said they can’t make ends meet every month — but that’s an improvement from the 8 percent who said the same last year.

Gender wars

It appears that, though both genders have their share of financial issues, female workers continue to struggle more with their personal finances than their male counterparts:

• 46 percent of female workers say they live paycheck to paycheck, compared to 38 percent of male workers.
• 24 percent of female workers say they have missed a bill payment over the last 12 months, higher than male workers at 17 percent.

 They work hard for the money (so don’t mess with their cable TV)

“The majority of U.S. workers (72 percent) reported they are more fiscally responsible since the recession and have made a variety of changes to their living and spending habits,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.

And while being more fiscally responsible may mean giving up some material comforts, workers said they would absolutely not give up the following regardless of their financial concerns:

• Internet connection – 56 percent
• Driving – 46 percent
• Mobile phone – 42 percent
• Cable TV – 27 percent
• Going out to eat – 11 percent

The future is now later

Although as shown above, workers may be loath to give up a night out at the newest restaurant in town, giving up money that’s not in hand yet is sometimes a little easier — so it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that some workers are making ends meet by dipping into their long-term savings.

• 21 percent of workers say they have reduced their 401(k) contributions and/or personal savings in the last year to get by.
• Others aren’t contributing to long-term savings at all: One-third (34 percent) say they don’t participate in any 401(k), IRAs or retirement plan programs.
• Nearly two in ten workers who make six figures have reduced their contributions to savings and 401(k) programs each month (17%) — and 9 percent don’t participate in a 401(k) program or other personal savings plan at all.

Consider the following tips to pass on to your employees (or to use yourself) to ride out the economic downturn and prepare for the future:

• Channel your inner Sherlock Holmes – Look at your expenses under a microscope. Takeout coffee, restaurant lunches and other everyday expenses can make a dent in your checking account. Create a spreadsheet to analyze what you spend each month. Once you see where your money goes, you can more easily determine where to cut back.
• Be like the squirrel – Put an amount away, even if it is small. Regardless of the amount, set aside money each month for your short and long-term savings. If you have trouble fitting savings into your budget (or remembering to do it at all), set up an automatic deposit into a savings account.
• Show off your flair for the frugal – Savings may be right under your nose. Talk to your HR department about how you can make the most of your organization’s benefits. Find out if your company offers discounts for vendors like banks, gyms, or car rental services, and ask for additional resources to help you select the right benefits plans for your budget.

Need a recap? Get a snapshot of workers’ current financial situations.

CareerBuilder continued our monthly #cbjobchat Twitter chat last Monday night (quick plug: It’s the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. CST)– so if you skipped the trainwreck that was the Real Housewives of New York Reunion Part II, you might have caught it! If you didn’t, do not fear — we’ve recapped the best bits of the chat for you.

This month’s chat was all about tough interview questions. Candidates aren’t strangers to them — those questions that seem to flow effortlessly from an interviewer’s mouth, but that leave candidates themselves speechless, or trailing off into a long, random story about sixth grade camp and s’mores and that cute girl with the pigtails and the camp counselor who told them to never be afraid. Never. Be. Afraid! Wait, now where was I? Ah, yes. Tough or scary interview questions — employers have to deal with them too (just on the other, less scary side). So this past Monday night was the perfect opportunity to merge the two worlds together, to share advice and give everyone the opportunity to learn a little more about the other side’s experience.

For those who aren’t familiar with #cbjobchat, we aim to bring together both job seekers and career experts to discuss today’s most pressing recruitment process questions.When job seekers had questions, you all didn’t hide your feelings. But job seekers had some opinions to share with you as well. Let’s dig in:

Chat Highlights:

Q1: How do you explain an involuntary departure, such as a layoff or firing? Do employers care about a layoff vs. being fired?

The general consensus here was that honesty is the best policy — layoffs have become more commonplace and job departures less stigmatized.

@KaraSingh Be honest. Keep it short and professional. If the hiring manager wants to know more they will ask.

@V167 Honesty is the best policy, but you have to remember to not insult a former boss or job regardless of the outcome.

@MatthewTForrest Seems like the stigma that was once there isn’t there for the most part. Just be honest about your situation.

@ChangePR Agreed. Layoffs are far too common nowadays anyway & honesty is always best policy.

Q2: How should job seekers explain leaving their current job without badmouthing a boss, and still sound sincere?

Experts advised candidates to look forward and stress how they can contribute to their full potential at a new company/in a new role. Recruiters need real reasons, but an employer wants to know what you are looking for in the future. Above all, candidates should not bash a former employer. Diplomacy is the way to go.

@mtATL Be positive about your old job, but focus on the direction you are looking to go. No need for badmouthing.

@michaelranaii If you badmouth your old company, who’s to say you won’t bad mouth ‘this company’?

@KaraSingh Say you’re looking for a position that will challenge you to your full potential.

All about the application process

If you were betting on job numbers, and you bet that 18,000 new jobs were created last month, thinking we’d have a repeat of June, you’d be wrong. But it’s probably a bet you’d be happy to lose, because in July, we added 117,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “The Employment Situation” summary for July 2011. This jump followed two months of very little growth (in May and June).

Despite this growth and landing above Wall Street expectations, we’re still below the number needed to really make a dent in the unemployment rate — but it’s an improvement. So, the sky isn’t falling — and let’s just say we’re cautiously optimistic, yes?

Other details from this month’s “The Employment Situation” summary:

• Net growth explanation: 154,000 jobs were created in the private sector, but with a loss in government jobs of 37,000, we saw a net increase of 117,000.
• May and June’s low growth numbers have also had positive net revisions of  56,000.
• The labor force, at 152.3 million, did not change much in July.
• The unemployment rate was little changed but we did see improvement, from 9.2 to 9.1 percent. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that this lower rate was due to more individuals dropping out of the employment search (labor force participation fell from 64.1 percent to 63.9 percent).
• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 10 cents to $23.13. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.3 percent.
• Neither average weekly hours or the number of temporary employees rose; as The Economist points out, both are indicators of future labor demand.

Hiring by industry

We saw job gains in health care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining. Specifically:

• Health care employment grew by 31,000 in July. Ambulatory health care services and hospitals each added14,000 jobs over the month. Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by 299,000.
• Retail trade added 26,000 jobs in July. Employment in health and personal care stores rose by 9,000 over the month with small increases distributed among several other retail industries.
• Manufacturing employment increased by 24,000 in July; nearly all of the increase was in durable
  goods manufacturing. Within durable goods, the motor vehicles and parts industry had fewer seasonal
  layoffs than typical for July, contributing to a seasonally adjusted employment increase of 12,000 jobs.
• Mining employment rose by 9,000; virtually all of the gain (+8,000) occurred in support activities for mining.
• Professional and technical services continued to trend up in July, with a gain of 18,000 jobs.
• Employment in construction, transportation and warehousing, information, leisure and hospitality, and financial activities changed little in July.
• Government employment continued to trend down in July, with a loss of 37,000. Employment in state government decreased by 23,000, due almost entirely to a partial shutdown of the Minnesota state government.
• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 10 cents in July to $23.13. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.3 percent. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 8 cents to $19.52.

See what CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson had to say yesterday on CNBC’s Squawk Box program about job creation, the biggest skill shortage we’re facing right now, and more.

What do you think about July’s BLS job numbers?

Your hotel may whisk you off to a Cirque du Soleil show, an upgraded luxury suite or a fabulous dinner.

That phone call about your computer issues that normally passes you through four different people may shoot you directly to Susan, the manager.

Your favorite airline may send you to the new Bali resort everyone’s raving about – on their dime.

And if you’re a job candidate, the employer you’re courting may be bowled over by your credentials and hire you on the spot –

– all because of your Klout score.

What?! Yes, it’s true – not only are brands using Klout on a consumer level, but recruiters and employers are starting to use Klout scores to gauge candidates’ effectiveness or fit as a potential hire. Is Klout + recruitment a passing trend – or a permanent hiring tool? Let’s take a closer look.

What is Klout?

Klout is, according to the company’s website, “the standard for online and Internet influence.” Klout insists it isn’t about the A-Listers, because they believe every person who creates content has influence. “Our mission,” the site says, “is to help every individual understand and leverage their influence.

And in a recent Twitter chat (#kloutchat), Klout shed light on how one’s score is determined: “Score is based on how how many people you influence, how much you influence them, and how influential they are.” It’s more about reactions to the content people create — than about the content itself; about how much people take action on your content through things like retweets, “Likes,” commenting, and clicking on your links. How much of what you do online causes people to take action? That’s Klout’s bread and butter.

Klout + Recruitment

The chatter about Klout has been growing stronger. Originally, it was about individuals using it to determine their online influence among their peers. More recently, brands have gotten into the mix and have started using Klout to create perks for customers or potential customers with a high influence index, like Spotify giving Klout users early access, Virgin America giving away tickets, or hotel upgrades or restaurant table VIP. The thinking is, getting influential users to experience your products will cause them to talk about your brand on online networks and spread sentiment about your company through their online influence.

And now, Klout is seeping into the world of recruitment — and faster than we may realize. Joe Fernandez, CEO of Klout, believes that social media is becoming an increasingly important candidate asset. “A person’s comfort and ability to leverage social media is becoming, if not critical, at least a differentiator among candidates,” says Joe Fernandez, CEO of Klout, in a recent Q&A blog post with Forbes blogger Tracey John. If he’s hiring for a marketing employee and two candidates have similar education and experience, but one candidate is active on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs and one is not Fernandez says, he says he will hire the one who is.

Klout can’t be the only factor in making decision on hiring, he adds – just as you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) base college entry based on SAT or ACT scores alone. “I think in terms of understanding somebody’s ability, comfort, reach and engagement with social media – which is becoming more and more important – that Klout is the standard and a great tool for hiring.”

The CEO of Klout isn’t the only one using Klout for recruitment. In Mark Schaefer’s blog post, The Making of a Social Media Slut, he says he recently heard about four friends or co-workers making — or being on the other end of — decisions that were arrived at because of Klout scores, all within a 72-hour time period. Though we’re far from Klout and recruitment being a mainstream practice, it’s happening — and we need to take a hard look at the potential positives of such a mix, as well as the potential pitfalls.

The Good

1. Competitive advantage.
Klout plans to externally expose numbers that signify exactly how influential individuals are about particular topics, stats which they’re currently tracking behind the scenes — meaning if you have an overall score of 32, you may still have a 65 in architecture, meaning you are very influential in that particular area. With this, not only will candidates be able to show their “social capital,” but they will be able to show potential employers (or their co-workers and superiors, if currently employed) what specific topics they’re passionate and knowledgeable about.

Java programming? Creative writing? Women’s studies? Klout has the potential to give candidates a professional layer based on the content they’re putting out there and the way others interact with that content – not simply based on their interests (e.g. “Info” listings in Facebook). If you’re particularly skilled in email marketing, Klout gives you another way to show off those talents. Because of Klout’s integration with LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, and its hopes to integrate with others like Tumblr, Google+ and WordPress, there are many places in which job seekers can make their mark in particular specialties or markets, and raise their Klout scores in those areas to stand apart from their competition.

People want to have control over their online professional reputation, and Klout offers another way for them to do that. As Brian Solis pointed out in a recent Fast Company article, “People are now part of the equation and are willingly shedding their “audience” moniker and vacating the branded auditoriums of yore in favor of building their own stages, their own personal theaters.”

2. A more complete picture.
When hiring, Fernandez said, you have a limited amount of information about a candidate from which to make a decision — which is often true. Klout offers candidates a way to showcase their skills and talents and give potential employers more information about themselves, and it offers employers a way to garner more information from which they can make a fully informed hiring decision. Should Klout be the single factor used in making a hiring decision? Definitely not (and if you’re a hiring manager using only Klout to decide whom to hire, you are likely in the wrong profession). Fernandez says Klout is just one ingredient — but that the fact that someone takes time to build their personal brand and share their expertise and passions is valuable to employers. And whether you’re a recruiter or a candidate, it is important to develop your personal brand.

Just how important is this one method, though?

The Bad

As much as Klout can be a powerful tool, there are many potential issues with Klout that employers and recruiters should watch out for when considering adding it into their recruitment mix.

1. Candidate experience.  Is Klout a platinum card for recruitment? In the Klout consumer experience, some businesses are giving customers with a high Klout score perks, as mentioned above — or preferential treatment. While this has problematic possibilities (if other customers are being ignored), we are used to seeing certain customers receive better treatment based on rewards systems calculated through money spent or customer loyalty. We have accepted the consumer reward-based system, and it does incentivize many customers to increase business with a particular company and spread the word about the company and its benefits.

However, some businesses may want to treat the candidate experience in the same fashion through Klout, by giving candidates with high scores better communication throughout the the interview process, choosing to give the job to the person with a higher Klout score, or even offering them a better salary. Beyond unfairness, poor hiring decisions, and possible legal ramifications, the potential backlash from candidates in situations like this is immense — and for good reason. Picking and choosing who you provide with a great candidate experience can severely damage both your consumer and employment brands.

2. Abuse/Lack of knowledge.  Klout as a business looks at candidates’ scores when seeking new candidates, but as Fernandez says, they won’t pass on a quality candidate just because he or she has a low Klout score. But what about a hiring manager with shiny object syndrome? You know, the one so enraptured with a high Klout score (even if he or she doesn’t even know what it signifies) who does pass on a quality candidate for the less qualified candidate with Justin Bieber-like Klout score because it looks cool, or because their peers or competitors are using Klout and they think they should be, too? A buzzworthy case study does not necessarily equal a quality hire — and as you probably know, hiring the wrong candidate can cost you thousands of dollars, not to mention a lot of time and resources.

Companies need to be smart about how they use any kind of recruitment tool, and Klout is no different. It’s perhaps even more tricky, because it’s not by design a recruitment tool, but a social influence tool. Adapting it to recruitment in a way that makes sense takes good sense on the part of the person hiring, as well as a willingness to understand and continue to learn and adapt as the tool evolves.

3. Accuracy.  I don’t talk about Coldplay on social media sites. In fact, the only time I did, it was to make fun of the name of their new song (c’mon, Every Teardrop is a Waterfall?). So I scratched my head for a while, trying to figure out why Klout listed them as one of my influential topics. I finally realized that it wasn’t because of how often I talked about Coldplay, but about how other influential people interacted with my one comment. My tweet happened to be retweeted by a pretty influential user, which, I am guessing, must be why Coldplay was catapulted to the forefront of my page. Still, it doesn’t seem accurate — and if candidates are associated with topics they really don’t know much about, but recruiters don’t realize it, where does that leave us?

Klout has said that the responsibility is on users themselves to remove topics they don’t think they are influential in. I have yet to remove Coldplay from my own topics — probably because it’s not a priority. But it’s possible that when candidates know potential employers are looking at their Klout scores, they will care, and they will remove topics that aren’t relevant to them in order to make their page more accurate or to showcase the items they want employers to see first. After all, it’s up to a candidate to make sure the information on their resume, or their LinkedIn profile, or anywhere else that’s online and public, is accurate, honest, and projects the image they intend to put forth. If it isn’t, the truth will likely come out in the interview process. Candidates can try to game the system — but it’s up to those hiring to sort out fiction from fact.

Not all candidates will curate their own profile, however. This may be well and good — after all, Klout content reflects the topics candidates have talked about online that others have taken action on, which is relevant in some sense regardless — but it may also be misleading if employers are putting stock into it (or just look bad: “Oh, I see you’re an expert in planking?!”). Which leads me back to #2 — those who are hiring must be smart about using the tool.

4. Fairness.  Among Schaefer’s stories mentioned above was one about his friend who Schaefer claims is very talented but who was rejected for a job at a major ad agency because his Klout score was too low. If this is truly why the friend was rejected, it’s a huge red flag for the future of Klout and recruitment. Though social media savvy, personal brand, and online influence may be preferred or even crucial in roles directly related to communication or social media, or in industries which depend on your established contacts, why would we want to force candidates to engage online if they prefer not to?

As mentioned above, according to Klout, every individual who creates content has influence, but what about those who choose to stand on the sidelines — those who prefer to consume content rather than create, and to engage in other ways? What about the collectives, joiners, and spectators? They may write killer ad copy and have an amazing creative mind — but hate putting their personal life on the Internet. Do we fault them for that? Even if the position is for a social media manager, in which social media engagement is a necessity, do we simply look at a low score and assume they’re not great at tweeting or being a community manager? We shouldn’t.

Furthermore, for many industries, the measurement of the extent to which influential people online are driven to act upon the content you put out there just isn’t that important — or isn’t important at all. You must ask yourself what qualifications you need for a particular position, and seek the candidate who fulfills those needs. Flashy new sites will come — and some will stick around — but it’s up to recruiters and employers to put a process in place that is accurate, fair to candidates, and makes sense for their business. As Fabrice Calandro points out, employers are attracted to Klout scores, because in theory, “an employee with more online influence will help your employee branding through blog posts, Tweets, Facebook posts and LinkedIn updates because they’ll reach a broader audience.” While this may be true, it shouldn’t be the factor your hiring decision is hinged upon. Employees will vouch for you if they like you, whether it’s online or offline. “Buying” the probability of an employee boosting your brand is a losing game.

5. Relevancy.  As @NicoleInDC points out in her comment here, it’s not always real people or professional accounts who have the highest Klout scores. It’s true; anonymous parody account @chuck_facts tweets only Chuck Norris “facts,” and is influential about Microsoft Vista, Africa, and television on Klout with a score of 74, about the same score as user @acarvin, who is an identified person and a strategist at NPR. I could add more examples — fictional account @themime, who has only ever tweeted dots (hey, he’s a mime), has a Klout score of 61. Not too shabby — and according to Klout, he’s influential in Wall Street, statistics, and law — yet there’s no rational explanation as to why. If scores are similar between the real and the conjured up, with influential topic choices sometimes seeming completely off the mark, how can those in charge of hiring possibly use Klout as a serious assessment tool?

The Bigger Picture in Recruitment

Fernandez has said that Klout is just one ingredient in the hiring recipe. And, although some have expressed concern that Klout scores will one day be the only factor hiring managers are looking at, it will likely be the exception rather than the norm. Different people vary ingredients in a recipe according to their needs and personal tastes. It’s the same with hiring choices – some employers may be more concerned with education, while others are focused on specific certifications, and still others care most about years of experience in a particular field. No one recipe is the same, so the idea of Klout becoming the sole factor in a hiring decision seems unlikely (not to say that it hasn’t or won’t happen).

As in any profession, there are good hiring managers, and there are bad ones. It’s the hiring managers or recruiters who don’t know what they should be looking for who will abuse Klout — or any other tool, for that matter. People in charge of making hiring decisions must be careful to make responsible, sound and ethical decisions, based on a person’s actual ability to do the job at hand.

For some roles, social media interaction is important, but for others, it’s not important to the role whatsoever. Does a manufacturing candidate need to be active on Twitter to successfully perform his or her job? I don’t think so. We have to be realistic about our expectations of candidates – just because hiring managers may want something doesn’t mean it makes sense to get it. Developing a personal brand, however, is a smart move for all types of candidates – after all, the majority of recruiters and employers do search for candidates online to find out more about them.

Hello, Is It Good Candidates You’re Looking For?

I’m no Lionel Richie, but I think the bigger question might be, what are you looking for from candidates? Do you know — or are you simply following the latest buzz, and neglecting those candidates who really might be perfect for your open position? Klout, like social media in general, has the potential to better your business — but it’s not meant to keep the lights on.

As Brian Solis has wisely said, “Social media will not save business, but it will challenge them to evolve, to adapt… to do better.”

Klout is another tool for candidates to showcase their experience and talents, and it’s another tool for recruiters and employers to view a snapshot of candidates through an online lens. Just how clear that lens is remains to be seen — and just how influential Klout itself is – well, time will tell.

In the meantime, tell us — would you — or have you — used Klout in your recruitment process?

On CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson discussed job expectations versus job creation; the disconnect caused by the structural mismatch between available jobs and available skills; the industry with the biggest skill shortage right now; and the area hottest in wage growth.

Check out what else Ferguson has to say about the state of jobs in America:

“What words come to mind when I say “Gen Y”? Aaron Kesher asked the many SHRM 2011 attendees packed into the room.  “Entitled!” shouted one person. “Job hoppers,” chimed in another. Soon, many in the room (many of them non-Gen Yers, with some Gen Y members sprinkled in) were shouting things like “smart,” “resume builders,” “technically savvy,” “stereotype,” “comfortable with change,” and “creative.”

Obviously, we all have specific words and phrases and ideas that match how we perceive Gen Y to think and behave in the workplace. Gen Y, made up of those born between 1980 and 2000, has their own notions of themselves, too. In Aaron Kesher’s “Why Y? Plugging Into a Generational Powerhouse” session at SHRM 2011, Kesher encouraged all of us in the room to rethink our notions of what we think Gen Y is all about, to consider the strengths they bring to today’s dynamic workplace, and to use this knowledge and understanding to more successfully recruit and retain Gen Y workers.

“Do not doubt that this generation will change the face of the American workplace as their parents did,” Kesher said. “In the next five to 10 years, Kesher said, the number of Gen Yers in the workforce will increase dramatically.”

As the number of Gen Y workers is only getting larger, it’s about time we as a collective workplace learn more about Gen Y so that we can understand them, appreciate their unique strengths, and more successfully integrate them with other generations in the workplace.

What is work from a Gen Y Perspective?

• Work ethic: Job loyalty, for a long time, was shown by how long you stuck around and paid your dues — and older generations still think in line with this. Gen Y, on the other hand, says, “I show you love by how hard I work, not how long I stick around.”
• Tech savvy: It’s not so much that Gen Yers are tech savvy, Kesher pointed out – they’re tech dependent.They’re the generation that’s come of age with the explosion of technology, so it’s natural that they would be comfortable with it.
• Communication and teamwork: Gen Y is not necessarily entitled; they just feel comfortable asking for what they want. When it comes to communication, you can often count on Gen Yers to spread out the message fast and often. We need to realize, Kesher said, that throughout Gen Y’s public education, the majority of the work was done in groups, and that their role wasn’t usually as the leader of a group – instead, many were “equal” team members. Therefore, many Gen Y members function fairly well as a group and as “team players,” but some struggle in standing out as individual, assertive leaders.
• Money:  Employers, listen up: Gen Y is talking to each other about the money they are (or aren’t) making at your organization. They are comparing how competitive your salary is with your competitors — and they’re not afraid to share their findings. One audience member mentioned recently hearing Gen Yers discussing openly the job offers and bonuses they were getting — and she was shocked.  After all, discussing how much money you make is one of the last great American taboos — yet Gen Y seems more comfortable with discussing this sort of information.
• Recognition: Gen Y is a generation of the “there are no losers – everyone’s a winner” mentality. “But they didn’t make that up (boomer parents),” Kesher pointed out, to a round of laughter. Gen Yers don’t care how it gets done – they just want to get it done. And they want to be told they did a good job once they do it; recognition is very important.
• Diversity: “Why do only white people work here?” might be something a Gen Y worker thinks while viewing a company site or sitting in the lobby while waiting to be interviewed and noticing the lack of diverse employees. Gen Y doesn’t embrace diversity – they expect it — and if your company says you believe in diversity, but then a Gen Y worker shows up and all workers look the same – they will think you’re not living up to your diversity message. This generation has grown up with a greater awareness of and comfort with diversity of all kinds. From home lives, to school experiences, to messages absorbed from pop culture, they often don’t see what all the fuss is. This can manifest as difficulty in understanding why others struggle with issues around differences. A question of whether gay marriage should be legalized, for example, is a non-issue for many Gen Y individuals — and this shift ties into a larger cultural shift in general.
• Work versus life: “I love my job, but I love my life more” — that’s something you may hear a lot of Gen Yers say. One of the critical issues that will need to be ironed out at work in the future, Kesher said, will revolve around workplace flexibility. We’re increasingly seeing workplace flexibility issues evolving in the workplace, and Gen Y workers in particular (though they’re not alone) want to know how they can maintain their relationship with work while still having the flexibility to live the life they envision. As mentioned above, Gen Y has no problem with work, or with the idea of working hard — it’s just that their job will never be the whole of their identity. They raised with the imperative to “follow your dreams!”, and their job and life may intersect in new ways than we’ve seen in past generations. “Gen Y,” Kesher stressed, “doesn’t want a job – they want a life that hopefully includes a job.”
• Being green: This is the generation that’s leading the green movement – so give them the power to build, make changes, and become leaders in your organization’s (existing or non-existing) green movement.

Why worry about Gen Y?

Ensuring that the different generations working together under one roof actually work well together is a big concern for many employers. After all, if knowledge isn’t able to be sufficiently shared from generation to generation, older generations will eventually retire — taking with them decades of experience. In addition, workers who work well together are likely to be happier, more productive, and better brand ambassadors for your company.

To effectively work with Gen Y workers, Kesher said, you don’t need to change who you are – just your approach. In a great reverse example of this, an audience member told the story of her (as a Gen Y worker) learning to compromise with a Silent Generation worker. The older worker, she said, took a long time to respond to emails, but whenever she had a printed piece for him to look at, he worked much more quickly. After figuring this out, she started printing out  her emails to him and putting them on his desk – and now his turnaround time on feedback to her is much faster. It’s small steps like this that can make a big difference between two generations that don’t always see eye to eye — or medium to medium.

By learning the “why” behind this generation’s interests, ideas, and behaviors, you will understand how Gen Y workers function best in the workplace, and you will be better prepared to recruit and retain them. Here are some ideas to get you started, courtesy of Kesher:

6 ways to more successfully recruit Gen Y:

1. Have fun. Use the media to get your company message out there. Gen Y is all over social networks, and as mentioned above, they are very comfortable with technology, so get in front of them on various mediums — and get creative in your efforts. Speak their language; what have you learned about the things that matter to them that you as an employer are able to provide? Connect work to their lives; how do the two successfully intersect in your work environment? Are you able to offer workers a great work/life balance and opportunities for them to enrich their lives outside of the office walls? Show them.
2. Challenge them. Gen Y workers are attracted to a challenge, so by providing your employees with interesting work that asks them to get outside their comfort zone and take risks, and lets them make mistakes and fail, you are likely to get these workers’ attention.
3. Give them opportunities. Do you give your employees multiple paths to explore when taking on a project, or find ways for their work to have an impact on the organization as a whole? Demonstrate to job seekers that you encourage employees to do work that is meaningful and and makes a difference outside of your organization. Do you give employees opportunities to further their training, brush up on their skills, or learn new disciplines outside of their current role to help them grow both inside and out of work?
4. Support their lifestyle. Recognize the importance their life outside of work has to them, and understand that they have often strong, close connections with their families (Kesher gave the example of parents calling to ask why their son or daughter got a bad review example, or dropping off a resume for their child — it happens more than you might think). Offer flexibility in your benefits, and realize that for many Gen Y workers, the line between work and personal life has blurred. Work happens at home, and vice versa — does your organization support a flexible workplace?
5. Embody diversity. Show it, don’t just talk about it! Demonstrate to potential employees how diversity integrates with your organization’s mission – but be authentic. Job seekers can see right through empty words; be true to your values by actually being a diverse workplace.
6. Reinforce your mission. Show job seekers the “why” – why is the work your organization does important to the rest of world? What is the larger context of the projects you take on, or of your core business? Reinforce your mission constantly, and help workers find connections to others in the organization through social media, your website, or in-person interactions.

… And 5 ways to retain them:

1. Make them feel at home the first day. This does not mean simply showing them the employee handbook, their cubicle, bathroom code, and then leaving them alone. Plan on a longer orientation duration than in the past. Establish personal connections with employees — and continue building those relationships throughout your employees’ tenure.
2. Give them feedback. They want more rather than less, and they want it sooner rather than later. Recognize everything employees are doing, and give them honest and open feedback. Waiting five years to get to the next step in an organization isn’t realistic anymore, Kesher pointed out — so provide them with the tools they need for success and career advancement. Give employees more chances for lateral development by helping them learn new skills, get new certifications, and expand their knowledge base.
3. Allow them to fail! Define clear expectations for tasks and projects, give them incremental goals along the way, and find ways to connect the work they’re doing to their personal values and goals. Let them stretch their boundaries, make mistakes, and learn from them — and most of all, listen to your employees. They want to give you input, so make it easier on them by asking for it where you can, and being available as a resource and mentor.
4. Again, listen. Pay attention to them (they’re going to talk to you a lot), be aware of their personal goals, and lead horizontally. They’re living in a world of connectedness and entitled communication; hierarchy isn’t as built into their mindset as it is in generations past. Try to be their leader without looking down on them.
5. Connect with them. Get to know them and what they’re all about (and hey, maybe even their helicopter parents, too). If you want respect from Gen Y workers, you have to give it. Many Gen Y workers feel misunderstood by their peers or their leaders; by working to connect with them and encouraging other employees to do the same, you will begin to chip away at the negative Gen Y stereotypes that are actually hindering generational progress in the workplace.

 Moving forward, together

During the session, a Gen Y professional raised her hand and pointed out that as an HR professional, she’s noticed a lot of overly negative critiques of Gen Y workers. She wondered why we couldn’t focus on the positive traits of Gen Y to hook into as a great resource — a great point, and one that Kesher drove home in his presentation.

After all, every time we think another generation doesn’t have something we have, Kesher said, we’re stereotyping. Every generation has boundaries and a work ethic — they may just happen to be different than ours.

But isn’t the fact that such a multitude of perspectives, ideas, backgrounds and behaviors exist what makes the workplace so great?

It’s the question on everyone’s mind (no, not “What are William and Kate talking about this very instant? or “Why did Michelle Obama eat a burger?“), but — where are the jobs? CareerBuilder’s just-released list, pulled from CareerBuilder’s Supply and Demand Portal data from the past six months, gives us some insight into just that.

The latest Supply and Demand Portal data reveals industries and positions where, for a multitude of reasons, there is a growing gap in the number of workers needed to fill job openings. We’ve already seen evidence that  47 percent of employers plan to hire full-time workers in the last six months of this year — and some U.S. regions are more promising more than others. By understanding the labor demand in particular markets and the ways in which talent pools grow or shrink depending on that demand, you can more effectively guide your recruitment strategy in terms of employment brand, compensation and overall advertising strategy.

CareerBuilder’s Supply and Demand Portal helps you be smarter by giving you real-time access to 1) the availability of active talent for any position (supply), and 2) where you will find the most and least competition for that talent (demand).

As CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson says:

“The Supply & Demand portal enables employers to gain valuable market insights to develop more productive and cost-effective recruitment strategies. More than one-third of human resource managers we surveyed said they currently have positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates, a trend that continues to grow as the economy recovers and job prospects improve.  While the U.S. still has a very competitive job market, there are areas within technology, health care and other fields that have a growing deficit in talent.”

So, without further adieu, the hottest industries with growing demand for workers:

1. Cloud Developer
   
   • Supply v. Demand: 0.32 active job seekers for every job opening (in other words, there are three open positions for every one available job seeker).
     
   • Average Salary: $100,000
     
   • What Gives? Career opportunities in this space have multiplied with the exponential growth of data and the corresponding need to store and manage it.  Demand will continue to grow as companies look to increase capacity and function without having to build new infrastructure.
2. Business Intelligence Analyst
   
   • Supply v. Demand: 1.01 active job seekers for every job opening
   • Average Salary:  $98,000
   • What Gives? This hybrid position that combines technical know-how with business and market insights is becoming increasingly critical as companies place a greater emphasis on business analytics.  Companies are using the value they have in their existing data streams and warehouses to make smarter business decisions and create better tools for customers.
3. Registered Nurse
   
   • Supply v. Demand: 0.38 active job seekers for every job opening
     
   • Average Salary: $65,000 
   • What Gives? A staple on lists of worker shortages, nursing is one of the most challenging areas for recruitment. In addition to a growing demand for healthcare services, enrollment in nursing schools is trending down due to a lack of nursing faculty.
4. Quality Engineer
   
   • Supply v. Demand: 1.05 active job seekers for every job opening. 
   • Average Salary:  $68,000
   • What Gives? The manufacturing sector is making a comeback as the economy recovers and exports grow stronger to meet the needs of emerging markets.
5. Truck Driver
   • Supply v Demand: 1.37 active job seekers for every job opening 
   • Average Salary:  $41,000
     
   • What Gives? While life on the road has distinct advantages, extended time away from home, long hours on your own and dealing with traffic are among challenges that can make these positions hard to fill.
6. SEO Strategist
   
   • Supply v. Demand: 1.75 active job seekers for every job opening
     
   • Average Salary:  $70,000
     
   • What Gives? With high Internet penetration in markets across the globe, there is greater need for individuals who can bring more traffic to company websites by elevating their ranking in unpaid and paid search engine results pages.  Companies with a large Internet presence are bringing these skills in-house to build effective and relevant sites.
7. Health Care Administrator
   
   • Supply v. Demand: 2.25 active job seekers for every job opening
     
   • Average Salary:  $88,000
     
   • What Gives? An aging population and more than 30 million newly insured Americans post-health care reform are fueling the need for more medical services and professionals who can keep operations flowing smoothly.

More about the data:

• CareerBuilder’s Supply & Demand portal pulls data from national employment resources like CareerBuilder.com, Wanted Analytics and EMSI (Economic Modeling Specialists Inc.), accessing more than 45 million jobs, 40 million resumes and 140 million worker profiles.
• Based on the number of available jobs and available candidates, the portal identifies occupations and corresponding markets with the greatest supply and under-supply of candidates.

You can check out the full report here.

 Is your company looking for employees in any of these fields — or where are you having a challenging time finding workers?

In anticipation of tomorrow’s BLS unemployment report, CareerBuilder’s CEO Matt Ferguson appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning to discuss job market trends; causes of current economic uncertainty; in which job areas we’re seeing the most improvement — and much more:

According to CareerBuilder’s Mid-Year Job Forecast:

• Nearly half of U.S. employers (47 percent) plan to hire new employees in the second half of the year, up from 41% in 2010.  The number of companies hiring specifically for full-time, permanent staff rose to 35% from 28% last year.
• Customer Service, Information Technology and Sales remain the top three areas where companies say they will hire first in the back half of the year.
• More than one-third (35 percent) of employers are concerned that key talent will leave their organizations as the economy improves, a trend that has become increasingly evident over the last six months; 18% of employers reported top workers left their organizations in Q2 2011, up from 14 percent in Q1 2011.

What’s your take on the newest job forecast results and on what Matt had to say about the market?

There’s good news (Justin Timberlake may save MySpace!), disappointing news (we’ll probably never get Friendster back), and news that makes us want to hug a stranger on the street: Despite ongoing concerns over threats to economic growth, CareerBuilder’s 2011 Mid-Year Job Forecast shows that employers remain positive in their hiring expectations for the remainder of the year. (It’s OK, you can hug that stranger on the street; we won’t judge.)

Just how positive are employers about the future of hiring, you ask?

Well, nearly half of employers (47 percent) plan to hire new employees from July through December of this year, up from 41 percent in 2010, according to the survey conducted by Harris Interactive© of more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals. (See the infographic here.)

Things are looking pretty good in other areas, too: The percentage of companies hiring is also higher than last year in some instances:

• Companies hiring full-time, permanent employees –  35 percent this year, up from 28 percent in 2010
• Companies hiring part-time employees – 15 percent this year, the same as 2010
• Companies hiring contract or temporary employees – 12 percent this year, up from 9 percent in 2010

Which jobs are hottest for hiring?

The top three job areas in which businesses plan to hire first are those that involve being on the front lines with customers, and those that drive innovation. Customer service still claims the No. 1 spot for recruitment, with information technology slightly edging out sales this year for the No. 2 ranking on the list:

1. Customer Service  |  23 percent
2. Information Technology  |  21 percent
3. Sales  |  20 percent
4. Administrative  |  15 percent
5. Business Development  |  11 percent
6. Accounting/Finance  |  10 percent
7. Marketing  |  9 percent

As CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson stressed, the U.S. is seeing job creation across the board, and though some factors may prevent a huge acceleration in hires, hiring activity doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon:

“Last year, certain sectors or departments in companies were producing jobs.  This year, the U.S. is seeing job creation in all industries, functions and company sizes,” said Ferguson.  “Our survey, listings on CareerBuilder.com, and conversations we have with employers on a daily basis all indicate that hiring activity will sustain and improve in the months to come with a diverse mix of jobs.  While higher energy prices, debt, inflation and other factors may deter a significant acceleration in hiring, employers have encouraging news for the millions of Americans who are looking for jobs.”

Hiring by region: Where are employers hiring the most employees?

There’s more news to make us look forward to the year progressing: All regions are trending above 2010 in hiring prospects for the second half of 2011, with the South leading the way in optimism:

• South: 38 percent are planning to hire full-time, permanent employees, up from 27 percent last year
• West: 35 percent, up from 28 percent last year
• Northeast: 34 percent, up from 29 percent last year
• Midwest: 32 percent, up from 28 percent last year

Two trends to watch for in the second half of 2011:

1. Employee Turnover:
   • The competition for specialized talent is expected to intensify as employers recruit and try to retain top performers for hard-to-fill, in-high-demand positions in areas like health care and technology.
   • More than one-third (35 percent) of employers are concerned that key talent will leave their organizations as the economy improves, a trend that has become increasingly evident over the last six months.
   • Eighteen percent of employers reported top workers left their organization in the second quarter, up from 14 percent in the first quarter. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as CareerBuilder’s 2010 forecast revealed that 25 percent of all workers planned to leave their organizations within a year.
2. Shortage of Skilled Workers:
   • Fifty percent of employers reported there is a shortage of skills within their organization, up from 48 percent last year.
   • The biggest shortages were reported in the areas of Information Technology, Customer Service and Communications.
   • More than one-third (36 percent) of human resource managers reported they have positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates, up from 32 percent last year.

What happened in Q2 2011?
This past quarter, 29 percent of employers added full-time, permanent headcount, up from 24 percent last year. Eleven percent decreased headcount (same as Q2 2010), while 59 percent made no change in staff levels (compared to 64 percent in Q2 2010) and 1 percent were unsure.

What will happen in Q3 2011?

• For eight consecutive quarters, actual hiring exceeded what was originally anticipated, indicating that employers tend to be more conservative in their hiring projections than in their hiring behavior. Looking forward, 26 percent of employers plan to add full-time, permanent employees in the third quarter (only 21 percent planned to do so in Q3 2010), but if trends persist, the actual hiring number may come in higher at quarter end.
• Eight percent expect to downsize staffs.  Sixty-one percent anticipate no change, while 5 percent are undecided.

To get in-depth survey results and further predictions for the second half of 2011, download the full forecast, or for a quick snapshot, check out our handy-dandy infographic.

Have you ever compared the experience job seekers go through when searching for a job to the experience you go through when, say, buying a car? Believe it or not, the two experiences are more closely linked than you may realize. We have specific reasons for deciding to go through with a car purchase — or walk away from it — and the same is true for job seekers considering your company as a future employer in their job search process.

The experience you provide job seekers through your recruitment process is something they will evaluate, engage with, and accept or reject, ultimately deciding whether or not to “make a purchase.” A new CareerBuilder and Inavero study of more than 4,500 workers demonstrates that that decision can happen at any point in the job search process, from the time they first start thinking about searching for a new job to the moment they have your offer letter in front of them — and everywhere in between.

The job seeker/employer relationship: It’s complicated

Today’s job search experience looks drastically different from several years or even several months ago, and it continues to evolve. Now, although job boards still have a prominent place in the job search, the job search experience has become much more complex. When job seekers embark on a job search, they are actively using five specific methods to find their next job: Search engines; vertical sites (job boards and aggregators); social media; corporate and career sites; and user-generated content sites. They are using these five platforms in different ways and with varied intensity as they move through four distinct phases of the job search — Orientation, Consideration, Action, and Engagement.

To effectively build and manage your company’s employment brand, reach a large segment of the many job seekers you’re missing out on, and continue to position yourself as a visible and desirable place to work in today’s rapidly changing world, you must have a diversified recruitment strategy that incorporates these five platforms — and you must understand the mindset and behavior of job seekers as they move through the four stages of the job search process.

Job seekers have changed — have you?

The CareerBuilder and Inavero study takes you through a job seeker’s typical job search experience as it happens in today’s recruitment environment, a time in which job seekers are hungry for information and have a wealth of online resources at their fingertips. Long gone are the days of faxing or mailing a resume and simply waiting passively to hear back from an employer — today’s job seeker is much more hands-on.

By learning what job seekers are thinking and doing as they move through four distinct job search phases (Orientation, Consideration, Action, and Engagement) and crafting your strategy to align with those thoughts and behaviors, you’ll be equipped to reach the best candidates for your open jobs, position yourself as a strong and desirable brand, and ensure your approach is consistent from phase to phase.

The Four Phases of the Job Search

Phase I: Orientation — This phase consists of a job seeker’s self-evaluation and evaluation of the market. Ninety-seven percent of job seekers reported self-evaluation as one of the first five things they did when starting a search.

Phase II: Consideration – During this phase, the job search moves from a solitary to an interactive, social experience. Job seekers are seeking to validate the brands in their consideration set by posting on social media platforms and user-generated content sites, and collecting opinions from members of their online social and professional networks in order to narrow their focus to a handful of jobs.

Phase III: In this phase, a job seeker is going through the action of applying to jobs.

Phase IV: In this last phase, job seekers are interacting with employers and actively interviewing. Although the majority of research on a company is completed pre-interview, job seekers are conducting social research in this last phase by having personal conversations with employees of your company or close family and friends.

(Learn about the job seekers’ mindset and behavior during each of the four job search phases here.)

The importance of a great recruitment experience

Job seekers today are largely dissatisfied with the current hiring process offered by companies. Only 10 percent of respondents said companies they have reached out to have been responsive. The impact of this is immense: Nearly half (40 percent) of job seekers strongly agree that a poor application experience impacts their job decision. In fact, it might surprise you to find out that more than one in 10 people turn down a job at least once a month.

Bad experiences during and after the application process can easily negate the work and strategic investment in media you’ve made to bring the best talent onto your team.

Begin to create a more candidate-centric recruitment process by adding a human touch:

• Communicate with candidates when at all possible, and let them know where they stand as the process moves from phase to phase.
• Unplug cumbersome technology and flawed screening filters, and provide feedback and coaching.
• View all candidates as a customer or potential future customer, client or employee.
• Get the most out of the resources you’re investing by being responsive — in the long run, you will get better quality talent, protect your employment brand, and maintain a better reputation with clients (who once may have been your candidates).

Getting them to say “yes”

Job seekers are using a wide range of methods to find the right jobs, and by gaining a large presence through these methods, you will deepen your talent pool, engage and create trust with candidates early on, find more diverse candidates for your open positions, and, ultimately, improve your bottom line. Start thinking of your recruitment experience as a consumer product — and start
getting more job seekers to consider your brand, like what they see, and say “Yes.”

For details on job seeker behavior and mindset within the four job search phases and our recommended strategies for best connecting with job seekers at each point in the process, download the full report or learn more about adding the right platforms to your recruitment mix.

You probably remember them from high school: The dreaded (or anticipated) “Most likely to/Best” lists. Best eyes: Sandy K. Funniest: Alex S. (you totally thought you had that one in the bag). Most likely to forget their kids at the grocery store: Lauren D. (yes, this one actually exists). Most likely to succeed: ??? This one, as many other results looking back, may not have panned out the way everyone thought it might. From the time we were filling these “popularity”-type lists out (or ducking from the paper airplane printouts of them being hurled at us), the way many of us define success, or perceive those most likely to achieve personal or professional success, has changed — and over time, so has the world around us.

Much is different since high school (including, hopefully, your hair style and taste for greasy squares of cafeteria pizza). And in the workplace, over the past few decades or even the past few years — the path to success, at least professionally, has become more open to diverse workers. The makeup of the U.S. civilian labor force has changed significantly, with women accounting for half of all workers and companies becoming both racially and ethnically diverse.

CareerBuilder’s 2011 Diversity in the Workplace Study surveyed more than 2,500 diverse workers to get a better grasp of how their work experience has evolved as their numbers in the U.S. workforce have grown. Much of what we found may surprise you. The study targeted the top 20 markets in the U.S. based on population, and the results for six diverse segments — African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, women, workers with disabilities, and Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) workers.

The survey findings point to continued inequalities between diverse and non-diverse segments in pay, career advancement and feelings of discrimination. At the same time, certain diverse segments ranked higher than non-diverse workers in compensation, reflecting a movement toward better equality in the workplace.

So, with that said, here’s a “Most likely to” list that hopefully won’t cause those high school-esque butterflies, but will instead make us all take a hard look at how far we’ve come toward workplace equality — and where we’re still falling short.

Compensation

Most likely to earn $100,000 or more:

LGBT workers, who lead the pack at 18 percent, outpacing non-diverse workers by 1 percentage point. Women were the least likely to report making $100,000 or more at only 6 percent, along with African Americans and Hispanic workers at 8 percent.

Most likely to earn less than $50,000:

Disabled workers. Among all segments, workers with disabilities were the most likely to report earning less than $50,000 at 58 percent, followed by women at 52 percent and Hispanics close behind them at 51 percent.

Discrimination

Least likely to feel discriminated against in their current job?

Asian workers, at 11 percent, were least likely to feel discriminated against in the workplace — and trended below non-diverse workers who were asked this question, 14 percent of whom said they felt discriminated against.

Most likely to feel discriminated against in their current job?

African American workers. When asked about their experience as a diverse worker, 25 percent of African American workers said they felt discriminated against in their current job — the highest of all segments asked. The next-highest group was disabled workers, 22 percent of whom reported feeling discriminated against, followed by women (19 percent) and LGBT workers (18 percent).

Career Advancement

Least likely to hold a management position?

Asian workers. Higher salaries don’t always mean higher titles, as survey results reinforced. Because while Asian workers were among the highest segment as far as earning six figures, they were the least likely to report holding a management position (only 11 percent did). Women and African Americans were right behind, with only 15 percent from each group reporting that they held a management position.

Conversely, 26 percent of non-diverse workers reported holding management titles, the highest percentage of all segments, followed by 22 percent of LGBT workers.

Plans to change jobs

Most likely to change jobs once the economy improves?

Asian workers (47 percent), African American workers (43 percent) and disabled workers (42 percent) are the highest segments to report a plan to change jobs once the economy improves. Nearly two in five of all diverse workers (38 percent) plan to make a move with an improving economy. Despite ranking lower in pay and title, women and Hispanic workers are the least likely diverse workers to pursue new positions, at 31 percent and 35 percent respectively.

What does the report tell us?

Well, while old high school lists may be good for a laugh, CareerBuilder’s 2011 Diversity in the Workplace Study results give us a landmark that we can use to consider how we’re educating about and treating all types of workers in our own workplaces, and gain new perspective on the larger diversity picture as it stands. And much like Debbie N.’s feathered mullet Best Hair award, it’s promising to think that we will look back on this several years from now and marvel at how different things “used to be” — and how much better they are now.

As Dr. Sanja Licina, Senior Director of Talent Intelligence & Consulting at CareerBuilder, says, “While companies have made strides in creating an inclusive workplace for all workers, there is still work to be done, especially n the areas of hiring, compensation and career advancement.”

Read the full report for other interesting details about discrimination, pay, and why some diverse workers don’t market themselves as such when looking for a position — or check out the infographic for a snapshot.

What are your thoughts on the report findings?

The woman in the grey sweatshirt stood up in front of roughly 100 others at Borders Books’ Chicago State St. location and tearfully told Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, that she’d closed her store and driven all night from her store in Ohio to see him speak in person. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be in front of you today,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.

She, like many of us, was at Borders to see a Q&A discussion between Schultz and CBS2’s Bill Kurtis on Schultz’s new leadership memoir, Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul (and perhaps get a book signed or a photo taken with the man who has changed the way many people think about coffee). After the woman thanked Schultz for all that he’d done for her and her employees, Kurtis asked her why it was that she drove so far to see him – why Schultz? “He’s an inspiration, and he’s honest,” she replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

It’s hard to argue with the fact that Schultz and the Starbucks brand have a die-hard following – and as I sat listening in awe to the woman who traveled all night from my beloved home state of Ohio to see Schultz and express her gratitude and devotion to Schultz and Starbucks in such a personal way, I realized I was seeing the power of the Starbucks brand in action. Here was a company that, more than most any others, had built up nearly impenetrable company and employment brands, gained a legion of loyal fans, customers and employees, and grown to a massive 16,000-store, “there’s a Starbucks on nearly every corner” giant. But, as Schultz would point out, things weren’t so rosy just a few years earlier.

Flashback to 2007

“I could sense, or small, that something wasn’t quite right,” Schultz said as he addressed the overflowing crowd of fans and curious onlookers before him. He was referring to February 2007, a time when, he said, he became concerned about what was happening at Starbucks – or rather, what wasn’t happening. Little by little, Starbucks had been losing some of the signature traits it had been founded on.

In 2000, Schultz had stepped down as CEO (or, as a Starbucks employee would write it, “ceo”– they have used lowercase job titles since their early days) and became chairman, moving away from day-to-day operations to focus on global strategy and expansion. In the years that followed, store growth accelerated and stock prices soared as sales and profits increased every single quarter – until they suddenly didn’t. By 2007, things were taking a turn for the worse. “Starbucks had begun to fail itself,” Schultz said.

Bitter times

Over time, the company had been expanding the brand beyond its core into various media like music, books, and film. In addition, every quarter, there was more intense pressure to maintain annual revenue and profit increases of at least 20 percent – an ambitious goal that Schultz admits he was complicit in promoting. Amidst battle cries of “More growth!” the team had lost sight of what the Starbucks experience was really all about. Starbucks, he pointed out in his book, has always been about so much more than coffee. “But without great coffee,” he wrote, “we have no reason to exist.”

So, on Valentine’s Day 2007, Schultz sent an email to Jim Donald, the CEO of Starbucks at that time, warning of the commoditization of Starbucks (the email was aptly titled The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience ), hoping to unleash an honest conversation that would prompt everyone to reexamine the path they were traveling. He stressed a need to get back to Starbucks’ core and make the changes necessary to evoke “ the tradition, heritage and passion they all had for the true Starbucks experience.” Unfortunately, he said, the email leaked, and the next thing he knew it was all over the Internet – and the public was in a furor. Starbucks – and Schultz himself — received a lot of criticism for his opinions, even from Starbucks’ own employees, and as he says, it undermined what he was trying to accomplish.

Online conversations took on a life of their own, and while the company was struggling to figure out how to create balance between growth and a need to preserve what the company was really about, Schultz realized that they could no longer use their stores and website to communicate and control the conversations – the public was really in control of what was being said.  Coincidentally, soon before Schultz’s email went out, three big communication changes had occurred: a week earlier, Apple had introduced the iPhone; four months earlier, Google had bought YouTube; and five months earlier, Facebook had opened up to the public.

Times were changing, and Starbucks was forced to either change with them or get left behind.

Back to the grind(s)?

Toward the end of 2007, as the situation reached a breaking point, the board decided Schultz needed to return as CEO. So, in January 2008, he did. It wasn’t his original intention, and it wasn’t an easy decision. In addition to having to tell Donald he was taking over, he was re-immersing himself in a company that was increasingly becoming viewed as one of the poster children of the recession (i.e. “save money, don’t drink at Starbucks”); people were being encouraged to look elsewhere for coffee easier on the pocket.

As he jumped back into his role as CEO, Schultz said, he realized that the issues he’d brought up in that now-infamous email back in 2007 were even larger and deeper than he had then thought. This was through no fault of people working there, he said — it was due to the fact that Starbucks was rewarding the wrong things. Factors like speed of service were praised, rather than keeping focus on the customer and the quality of the product.

Schultz’s reaction?

On February 23, 2008, “I closed every store to retrain 115,000 people – I said we were going back to the roots of the company.” Of course, the media frenzy that ensued from this decision brought many to believe that the end of Starbucks was near – that they were no longer relevant. Schultz admits it was a bold decision to retrain every single employee. His explanation? “It was honest, it was authentic, and it was necessary.” The company lost $6 million that day. And as he said, Starbucks still had a long, long way to go in solving their mounting problems – but this was a start.

Starting over, he said, involved metaphorically asking the question of employees, What does it mean not to be a bystander? “From this point, we had to create, attract and create new customers.” Gone, he says, was the time that Starbucks could do no wrong — that the company was on a “magic carpet ride” – and that profitability and likeability would happen automatically with every move the company made. Gone was the time that Starbucks was leading the conversation — now, they had to find a way to take part in the larger conversations that were happening.

Later in 2008, one month after Wall Street’s meltdown and a few weeks before Starbucks would announce significantly reduced profits for the fourth quarter, Schultz decided to get all of the store managers together — all 11,000 of them — for a leadership conference. They’d always done the conference in Seattle, and even though nearly every major city wanted to host them, Schultz said they chose a place very much in need of assistance: New Orleans. Despite the odds, Schultz knew it had to be done, to start rebuilding trust between Starbucks and its employees and invest in Starbucks’ continuing transformation — and New Orleans was the right place to do it.  Not only did they have a week-long meeting with interactive galleries, roundtables, and panels, but they also did service in the 9th Ward and helped to rebuild some of the city’s most devastated neighborhoods.

“I’ve always loved this company,” Schultz said in Onward. “Love is why I had some back as ceo and why I feel so personally responsible for its failure and success. Yet somewhere along our journey, the love our people had for Starbucks had blurred. New Orleans had brought it back into focus, and once again our values stood in stark relief… because of everything we experienced in New Orleans, it was apparent to all of us what it meant to love something — and the responsibility that goes with it.”

Moving forward

What’s happened since Schultz and the Starbucks team took major risks to turn the Starbucks experience around? Well, instant coffee (Via), for one. And Starbucks’ performance in the Q3 of fiscal 2009 marked its first earnings growth since Q1 2008 — the company earned $152 million, compared to its loss of nearly $7 million just a year earlier. As Schultz remarked in Onward, “for the first time in a long time, I felt as if we were winning.”

In July 2009, after riding out the December 2008 choice to make 401(k) retirement plans discretionary instead of automatic in light of a weak economy, Starbucks was again able to match the 401(k) contributions of eligible employees, which, to Schultz, “would not make headlines or mean much to shareholders, but for me… was as important as anything we were able to accomplish all year.”

In fiscal 2010, Starbucks revenues increased to a record $10.7 billion, and its operating income increased to $1.4 billion, up from $562 million in fiscal 2009. What’s next for Starbucks is anyone’s guess, but as Schultz says that every company must push for self-renewal and reinvention, constantly pushing the status quo, it appears he will continue to do just that.

Q&A with Howard Schultz & Bill Kurtis

After Schultz gave his initial thoughts on Starbucks’ journey over the past few years, Schultz sat down with Kurtis to answer some questions about what the Starbucks brand really means, his ideal employee, and more.

Q:  How do you define success to your employees?

A: “’Howard Schultz is not going to serve any customers — it’s you,’ is what I tell employees.” Schultz tells store managers they are responsible for what takes place in their stores, and that “The essence of what they do every day is the difference between success and failure.”

The greatest reason for the enduring relationship Starbucks has with its people and its customers is due to the values of the company, Schultz said. “We’re not perfect; we’ve made mistakes, and we’ll make some more.” “The last 12 months has been the most successful in Starbucks’ history,” Schultz said. “However, we did not leave people behind.” Part of that decision not to leave employees behind while striving to be financially successful involved keeping 401(k), cash bonuses, and benefits. Starbucks was, after all, the first U.S. company to offer both comprehensive health care coverage as well as stock options to part-time workers.

Which leads us into another question…

Q: Why are you not willing to cut the price of coffee?

A: “We will never – and I mean never – turn our backs on our employees,” Schultz replied.  The company wasn’t willing, he added, to get cheaper coffee or cut health care benefits for each of Starbucks’ employees to cut coffee prices. The premium price is tied into having the best quality beans and treating their employees well.

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Q: What will be the future role of businesses on a macro level?

A: As social services continue to lessen in government, Schultz said businesses will have to do more to provide a safety net for people, as well as provide a safety net for people to serve their communities. Social requirements of the business world are changing, and people expect more from the businesses they patronize. People have become more cost conscious, environmentally aware, health-minded and ethically driven — and are holding businesses to higher standards. Seismic changes with social and digital media, he added, are changing the way businesses must communicate with their customers; people are making buying decisions based on companies they trust and those that align with their values.

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Q: What is the Starbucks brand?

A: Schultz admitted this was a tough question to answer, as the brand really means so many different things. Instead of spitting out a textbook definition, Schultz said he wanted to explain by telling the story of Courtney, an employee in the Queen Anne, WA store. The story goes like this: Schultz walked into a Seattle store one day, and an employee there told him he was in the wrong place, and that he really needed to get to the Queen Anne store as soon as possible. When Schultz asked him why, the employee said, “You’ll know why when you get there.”

So, Schultz got in his car and drove to the Queen Anne store – a store where a long-time employee with special needs and past behavioral issues, Courtney, worked. When he walked in, customers were laughing and chatting, and he noticed that they had thrown a birthday party for Courtney. Schultz says this was such a testament for him as to the emotional relationship between the staff and customers at Starbucks. “You can’t invent or describe it,” he said –“you just know it’s real.”

Starbucks, he added, is defined by those who wear the green apron and what they stand for.” In corporate America, there’s been such a fracturing of trust; for whatever reason, there’s a lot of cynicism and unwillingness to believe.” Consequently, people are hungry to work for a company that’s larger than themselves, he said, a company in which they can find their unique place. Many people go from job to job with bad experiences, becoming increasingly cynical, and when they start working at Starbucks, expect the experience to be the same and are in disbelief that it’s actually different – that the employees and the experience is actually for real.

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Q: Who is your ideal employee?

A: “We want people to join Starbucks who have like-minded values. We need happy people – we’re a people company that serves coffee, not the other way around,” Schultz said. He added that while Starbucks is creating organic, fair trade coffee, people come into the store for a different reason. “The human, emotional experience our people create is why customers come in – it’s more than just for a cup of coffee.”

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Q: What leadership qualities do you look for?

A: Again, Schultz stressed that like-minded values are key. He said that when he returned as CEO, he had 11 direct reports, and he asked them all the same question: “If you don’t believe we can do this, or you don’t believe in me, this isn’t going to work – we’re going to have to have a private conversation.” In the next six months, he said, nine of the 11 people left the company. He needed people who believed in the dream; who believed in the business – and that candor left him with those who did.

Schultz said that as far as employee qualities, it’s important to have:

• People who trust one another
• Those who leave their egos at the door.
• Those who understand that success needs to be shared.

And to not have: People who do a great job of managing up but not managing down.

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Q: What is Starbucks’ biggest win in the last couple of years since you came back on board?

“Instant coffee,” Schultz said without hesitation. Why? “Because we were able to bring quality to instant. Great companies and entrepreneurs have to continue to push for innovation. People thought when we added instant coffee, it was the beginning of the end. But really, we did it to prove to themselves that they could replicate the taste of brewed coffee – and we did.”

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Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to take a leap of faith to pursue his or her dream?

A: In addition to getting a mentor, Schultz advised, “Dream big, then dream bigger. You have to put yourself in a position to win, and surround yourself with people who’ve done it before — with those with experience and the skill set to complement you.”

And from the look of things, Schultz isn’t done dreaming quite yet.

Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kick-off to summer, is upon us. Grills will be dusted off and fired up; burgers, brats and corn on the cob will be prepared; bikes will be ridden down ridiculously long paths; swimming pools will be cannonballed into; bathers will be sunned; time with family and friends will be had; and… work will be done?

A new CareerBuilder study of more than 5,600 workers shows that many employees are excitedly taking the fishing rods out of storage, only to sadly put them back hours later in an Arrested Development George Michael-type moment. Due to financial constraints and demanding work schedules, many workers are giving up their vacation plans this year by either choice or necessity (see a snapshot here). Twenty-four percent of full-time workers, in fact, reported they can’t afford to take a vacation this year, up from 21 percent in 2010.  Another 12 percent reported they can afford a vacation, but don’t have plans to take one this year.

Despite these sour numbers, the majority of workers are still planning to take some time away from work — the physical “work,” at least. Three in ten workers plan to take work with them on vacation. Thirty percent said they will contact work while on vacation, up from 25 percent last year.

On the flip side…

While some workers are stuck pretending their vacuum is a jet-ski this year, more than one-third (36 percent) of workers reported feeling more comfortable taking a vacation than they did in 2010. The economy is healing in various ways, and some people’s wallets are also healing enough that vacation is now an option. Twenty-six percent of workers are planning a vacation of 7 to 10 days, while 11 percent expect to be gone 2 weeks or longer. On the more conservative side, 24 percent are planning for a 3 to 5 days for vacation or a weekend getaway. And many (including CareerBuilder’s own VP of HR), say traveling across the world or just setting up camp in your house — and away from your office — is good for your health and may translate to better work while in the office:

“Taking advantage of vacation or paid-time-off benefits is critical not only to your well-being, but to your overall job performance,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.  “Workers who set aside time for R&R tend to have less burnout, more creative energy and higher quality output.  While financial challenges and heavy workloads may make vacation planning difficult, it’s important to find time to recharge away or at home.  It can ultimately translate into a more gratifying work experience that benefits you, your family and your employer.”

So, how can employers turn the vacation outlook from bleak to beachy? Here are Haefner’s tips for helping your employees — and you — take better advantage of time off:

1)  Encourage them to give plenty of notice. Twenty-four percent of workers reported they have had to work while their family went on vacation without them — which is the furthest thing from “fun.” Let your employees know it’s helpful if they coordinate schedules with family, friends and co-workers as early in advance as possible, to more effectively plan vacations before/after big projects and events. Advance notice also gives the vacationing employee, as well as his or her colleagues, plenty of time to prepare and adjust work loads accordingly. Set expectations as far as whether employees want or need to be contacted while on vacation, stick to what you both agree upon, and communicate that to the team as well.
2)  Don’t take them on a guilt trip. Twelve percent of workers reported they feel guilty that they’re not at work while they’re on vacation. Your organization’s vacation benefits are there for a reason — and by setting a positive tone and stressing that vacation is time for employees to enjoy themselves and forget about work as much as possible (and following through by not emailing and calling them while they’re away), you can ease that sense of guilt and show employees that they can, and should, feel good about taking time off work to relax and spend time with family and friends. The work can wait, and if you help them prepare effectively, their time out of the office will be virtually obstacle-free.
3)  Consider discounts — and if you have them, spread the word. Many employers offer discounts on personal entertainment and travel for employees that may make vacation plans more affordable — do you? If not, it’s worth looking into options for business-wide discounts; your employees will appreciate the perk and get better use out of their travel time, and you will be providing a valuable benefit that will not only make current employees happy, but will also help attract future employees to your organization.
4)  Make sure they’re covered. Don’t punish your employees who have scheduled a vacation by abandoning them — instead, give them a hand. Buddy them up with other co-workers to cross-train on responsibilities and keep track of upcoming deadlines, key contacts, and placement of important information to help everyone function more efficiently when someone is out of the office. Think broadly and evaluate how one person’s absence affects other employees who work with them; ensure that any involved parties are kept abreast of project shifts.
5)  Use ‘em or lose ‘em. Sixteen percent of workers reported they gave up vacation days in 2010 because they didn’t have time to use them. Remind employees that vacations don’t have to be an around-the-world trip; even a day off here and there can be a refreshing break from the office grind — and is better than no vacation time at all.

I would also add: Be realistic. If an employee misses 40 hours of work while on vacation, it’s not practical to expect them to make up that entire 40 hours of work once they return. Help employees prioritize what needs to get done before and after they’re gone, so they don’t feel so overloaded (and can actually enjoy their time off). Consult with them on what work is most important, and what can be eliminated or put off until they return and catch up. Some projects or tasks may be able to be jump-started early in anticipation of a vacation; others may be able to wait.

If you’re communicating with your employees and setting up expectations upfront that both parties agree upon, there won’t be surprises later — and employees won’t have to spend all year turning their cubicle into a beach resort and wishing the water cooler into a daiquiri machine.

Choosy moms choose — work? Or family? That’s the struggle many working moms are facing, as many working moms say they’re having trouble finding the time to both support their families financially and be home with their families.

Although the economy has made significant improvements since we talked with CareerBuilder’s Mary Delaney about working moms one year ago, many families are still surviving on just one working parent; more than one-third (35 percent) of working moms and 44 percent of working dads surveyed by CareerBuilder said they are the sole financial provider for their household.

In addition to the fact that one parent is often trying to be the sole provider financially while also being physically and emotionally there for their family, the burden may be even heavier for women, more of whom reported they earned a low salary than did male respondents.

Just how much lower of a salary?

Comparing these two groups, working moms who were the sole provider were three times as likely to earn less than $35,000 (45 percent of moms compared to 15 percent of dads), while working dads were more than twice as likely to earn $50,000 or more (63 percent of dads versus 28 percent of moms) and nearly three times as likely to earn six figures (18 percent of dads compared to 7 percent of moms), according to the 2011 CareerBuilder Mother’s Day survey. The survey was conducted among 484 working moms and 836 working dads, employed full-time, with children 18 and under living in the household.

Quality — but not quantity

Working moms are still facing less quality time at home due to financial challenges, heavier workloads and longer hours in the office — and despite an improving economy, this reality has actually worsened. One quarter of all working moms said they spend two hours or less with their children each work day, up from 18 percent in 2010.  Twenty-four percent take work home at least once a week.

Workers want employer support

Many workers are on the search to find that perfect work/life balance — and for working parents, it’s top priority. Despite any existing financial struggles, 31 percent of all working moms said they would take a job with less pay if it meant they could spend more time with their children.

For employers, that’s a statistic worth paying attention to. Working moms want flexible options to help them spend more time with their families — and in an environment when many of them are working with less pay, longer hours and extremely heavy workloads, consider the benefits to both them and your organization that more balance in their lives could bring. Happier employees who feel that their needs are valued in an organization are more likely to want to stay with your company and contribute in the long run.

“While all indications point to economic recovery, working moms are still waiting to feel the effects,” said Hope Gurion, Chief Development Officer at CareerBuilder and mother of two. “However, these moms possess a great deal of resourcefulness and resilience and continue to provide for their families.  While moms say they would give up things, including pay, to spend more time with their children, they are making the most of the time they do have and getting creative in work arrangements.”

Gurion recommends the following tips for working moms who are overworked:

1. Talk to other moms – Many families are in the same boat as you, and having a support network is essential to your personal and professional sanity. Get tips from other working moms on how they juggle personal and professional commitments, how they’ve managed through difficult financial situations and how they’ve moved ahead in their careers.
2. Keep an “I’m Fabulous” file – Keep track of all of your accomplishments within the organization, quantifying results whenever possible, and list out the additional responsibilities you have taken on in the last year.  It helps you to build your case when negotiating for a better salary or consideration for promotion with your employer.
3. Go in with a game plan – The vast majority of working moms who have taken advantage of flexible work arrangements said it hasn’t negatively impacted their careers, so talk to your supervisor or HR department and explore options. Make sure to come to that conversation with a game plan on how you can manage workload and cover responsibilities.
4. Get organized – Structure in your life will save you time, stress and mental energy. Keep one calendar for business and family commitments to avoid double-booking. Set up a schedule for chores, homework, family activities, playtime, and other family commitments.
5. Remember quality over quantity – Make the most of your personal time. When you’re home, it’s all about them. Wait until after the children go to bed before checking email or finishing up that presentation.
6. Schedule “me time” – Working moms need to take care of themselves too. Put actual time on the calendar for an hour or more of doing something you enjoy like going to the gym, taking a walk, or reading.

Don’t worry, working dads — though this survey focused on working moms, we’ve got you covered. Check out our five tips to help fathers better balance their work and family lives for some great ideas on de-stressing and re-focusing. And, really, many of the tips above apply to working parents in general, not just mothers — so they may also help you formulate the game plan you need moving forward.

Employers, have you been helping working parents achieve more of a work/life balance? If so, how?

As many of you are likely aware, today is the 41st anniversary of Earth Day (I know, doesn’t it feel like just yesterday that we were celebrating its 40th?).  Around the world, people are celebrating and raising awareness of Earth Day’s mission by taking part in everything from clean air and water projects, to bike rides as they ditch their cars, to sending text messages like “TREE” to donate to green causes. This year, 1 billion people are expected to participate in various activities toward making the planet a little bit greener. The goal of this year’s theme, “A Billion Acts of Green,” is to generate a billion acts of environmental service and advocacy before the global Earth Summit 2012 in Rio.

What are business doing to take part?

It’s not only good for the Earth for businesses to take part in Earth Day 2011 — it’s smart for recruitment. Job seekers are increasingly seeking out employment with environmentally responsible companies, and many companies are paying attention. As we reported last year, many companies are continuing to add “green,” or environmentally-focused, positions, and the trend doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. According to recent data pulled from CareerBuilder’s Supply and Demand Portal, jobs like “environmental engineer” are in high demand. In addition, green jobs are expected to grow at the rate of a whopping 1.3 million jobs per year through 2030, and federal, state and private funding is fueling openings for those able to develop solutions for pollution control, recycling, waste management and other public health initiatives.

Greenbiz.com’s Tilde Herrera talked with executives to find out what they’re doing today — or planning for this year — to take part in Earth Day. Answers included such diverse activities as nature walks, dumpster dives, plant-a-tree kit giveaways, and bike donations. Michael Kobori, VP of social and environmental sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co., says the company is piloting a sample fabrics recycling program, as well as partnering with Goodwill to donate wearable apparel during the design process. And Gerri Walsh, director of sustainability at Ball Corporation, says the company will hold a sustainability fair, complete with interactive booths and an electronic recycler for employees to donate old electronics.

The tech sector is also celebrating Earth Day. Facebook’s “Billion Acts of Green” app enables users to choose activities like sending a letter to Congress to support green legislation, getting a home energy audit, or planting a garden, and Sprint has just released its first Android phone, the Replenish (to add to its collection of three other eco-friendly phones), built with recycled materials and energy-efficient operation in mind. Earlier this week, Sprint also launched its Green ID set of applications for Android users, which bundles a green-themed news feeds, recycling tips, personal carbon footprint trackers and more.

Still other companies are celebrating Earth Day (or even Earth Month) with some initiatives that are a little bit different. Old Navy and TerraCycle, for example, are partnering for a “flip-flops replay” in which people are encouraged to turn in old flip-flops to be melted down and used in playgrounds across the country, and health care company Merck, in addition to other initiatives like recently installed solar panels, is offering financial incentives to employees who conduct an energy audit at home and set up a carpooling guide.

How are you celebrating Earth Day 2011?

What is your company doing to take part in Earth Day today — or what has your business done recently to become more environmentally friendly? What kind of an impact is it having on your business and on your employees?

If you are looking for ideas of service projects in your local area, check out the official Earth Day 2011 site. And if you’re looking for a fantastic light show, check out tonight’s Lyrid meteor shower.

Workplace bullying has been getting a lot more attention in the media lately after some high-profile bullying cases have come to light — but the issue is unfortunately not a new one. After all, the Workplace Bullying Institute has been around since the early 1900s for a reason, and many states have been in the process of trying to pass legislation against workplace bullying since 2003 (none yet with any success). But for as long as workplace bullying has been happening, it doesn’t appear to be stopping. A just-released CareerBuilder survey among 5,671 U.S. workers reveals that more than one in four (27 percent) workers have felt bullied in the workplace, with the majority neither confronting nor reporting the bully.

The most common bully? The boss.

According to survey results, 14 percent of workers felt bullied by their immediate supervisor, while 11 percent felt bullied by a co-worker.  Seven percent said the bully was not their boss but someone else higher up in the organization, while another 7 percent said the bully was their customer.

Bullying reports by gender and age

• Comparing genders and age groups, the segments that were more likely than others to report feeling bullied were women, workers ages 55 or older (29 percent), and workers age 24 or younger (29 percent).
• Women reported a higher incidence of being treated unfairly at the office.  One-third (34 percent) of women said they have felt bullied in the workplace, compared to 22 percent of men. Of course, this doesn’t mean fewer men are bullied, necessarily — just that fewer men report it. And, according to research by organizational behavior and leadership expert Denise Salin, women are more likely than men to self-label as a target of bullying.
• Workers ages 35 to 44 were the least likely to report feeling bullied, with only one in four doing so.

Bullying can come in a variety of forms, and what one of us considers crossing the line might make another cringe or blush, and a third person accept as simply “part of the job.”  When asked to describe how they were bullied, workers pointed to the following examples:

• My comments were dismissed or not acknowledged (43 percent).
• I was falsely accused of mistakes I didn’t make (40 percent).
• I was harshly criticized (38 percent).
• I was forced into doing work that really wasn’t my job (38 percent).
• Different standards and policies were used for me than other workers (37 percent).
• I was given mean looks (31 percent).
• Others gossiped about me (27 percent).
• My boss yelled at me in front of other co-workers (24 percent).
• Belittling comments were made about my work during meetings (23 percent).
• Someone else stole credit for my work (21 percent).

Since bullying comes in so many forms, it’s often difficult to define bullying by one specific action. The Workplace Bullying Institute, however, defines workplace bullying as “repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:

1. Verbal abuse.
2. Offensive conduct/behaviors that are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating.
3. Work interference, i.e. sabotage, that prevents work from being done.

Salin describes bullying in the workplace as a “form of negative interaction that can express itself in many ways, ranging from verbal aggression and excessive criticism or monitoring of work to social isolation or silent treatment.” It’s sometimes an accumulation of many minor acts, adding up to a pattern of maltreatment. The person on the receiving end of the bullying feels unable to defend him or herself successfully.

What are companies doing to combat this workplace bullying?

Twenty-eight percent of workers who were bullied brought the situation to a higher authority by reporting the bully to their Human Resources department. While 38 percent of these workers stated that measures were taken to investigate and resolve the situation, the majority of workers (62 percent) said no action was taken.

Of those who didn’t report the bully at all, one in five (21 percent) said it was because they feared the bullying would escalate. And with so few companies taking action on bullying complaints, reporting the incident may be an increasingly unattractive option to employees, because not only will they have to worry about the bullying getting worse, they will also have to fear making the culprit aware that his or her actions will not be disciplined by the company, essentially giving the person a green light to continue the bullying behavior.

Various sources from Salin’s research on workplace bullying also show that bullying seems to be prevalent in organizations that support, accept or allow such behavior, or where employees feel that they can “get away with it” or where it is accepted as part of a “tough” climate.” Even worse, new employees and managers can become socialized into treating bullying as a normal feature of working life.

The cost to your employees – and your business

Bullying is not only harmful for the employees experiencing it, but it also has a significant impact on the workplace environment as a whole. Bullying affects morale, motivation, work performance and productivity, and can also lead to higher absenteeism, health care costs and turnover — not to mention the psychological toll it takes on your employees. Some employers have realized the importance of taking steps to prevent bullying or make employees aware that they have a strict no-tolerance bullying policy, not only for the obvious reason of protecting their valued employees, but also because it’s good for business. Many employers, however, only seem to deal with the issue after it happens — if they deal with it at all.

Does your organization thrive on competition to the point of intimidation? Do you look the other way when an employee’s behavior seems to upset another employee? Or do you cultivate a culture of respect? While organizations can’t necessarily be blamed for bullying behavior, employees can certainly draw conclusions about acceptable or encouraged workplace behavior from the way they observe their organization treat its own employees and handle conflict.

By taking a soft stance on bullying, employees will view your workplace as tolerant of the practice, and will be less likely to come forward for help when they become a victim. What can you do to better protect your employees?

Six steps toward a bully-free workplace

In an article she wrote for the Scandinavian Journal of Management, Salin references many tips that various experts have found to be effective in helping to prevent or lessen the occurrence of workplace bullying.

Consider the following 6 steps:

1. Foster a supportive culture, and encourage open communication with both peers and leaders.
2. Introduce a specific, zero-tolerance anti-bullying policy to employees to increase general awareness of appropriate work behavior. The content of the document is very important; simply having one is not enough. It should cover the definition of what is regarded as bullying and what is not, as well as a statement of consequences of breaching your organization’s standards. It should also clarify who to report to, list specific contact persons and clearly explain the procedure for making and investigating informal and formal complaints.
3. Incorporate staff from all levels of your organization to help develop your policy, and increase awareness and acceptance of it throughout the organization — having a written policy is not enough. Policies are not just for the potential victim of workplace bullying, but are also helpful for managers, to give them advice and guidelines about how to deal with bullying. In turn, having a policy may make managers more willing and competent to react appropriately to a situation.
4. Include skills to identify and deal with bullying during management training; any action taken to increase leader competence in dealing with bullying is of utmost importance.
5. Spread knowledge of both the definition of workplace bullying and your organization’s policy at all levels, so that situations that could escalate into bullying can be quickly identified (and hopefully dealt with before the level of intensity increases). Increasing awareness may also encourage more employees to feel empowered to combat bullying by refusing to take part or refusing to silently watch it happen.
6. Increase the perceived cost to the perpetrator in order to deter potential bullies from taking action by making it clear that there will be serious consequences.

These are some steps your organization may choose to take to help curb bullying in the workplace — but I’d like to hear from all of you. What is your organization’s stance on workplace bullying, and what measures have you taken to prevent it? How have you dealt with bullying situations that have arisen?

Shane Creamer and Simon Parkin of Granite Consulting, a recruitment consulting firm based in Canada, spoke at February’s HRPA 2011 conference, Canada’s conference and trade show focusing on HR issues and trends, about 10 recruitment trends businesses can expect as 2011 progresses. So, what, according to Creamer and Parkin, will many businesses, particularly in the U.S. and Canada, see more of as this year continues?

Labor Market Trends

Creamer and Parkin started by sharing their observations on labor market trends in Canada. Canada currently has a 7.8 percent unemployment rate, and they discussed the effects of an aging population on a constantly changing workplace (something U.S. businesses can identify with as well); over 50 percent of the Canadian workforce is 40 years old.

We know companies are hiring again; as Creamer and Parkin put it, “the ice is coming off the market” and the economy has gained back jobs lost in the recession. As we’ve discussed here on The Hiring Site, employee morale should not be a trend, and the recession has made many candidates and workers less loyal and trusting of employers. Many employees, Creamer and Parkin said, are continuing to feel uncomfortable with their current employers, but aren’t willing to trust any new organizations recruiting them.

Among other things, companies will have to focus more on the retention of their own talent (as highlighted in the latest hiring forecast, many workers are already looking for greener pastures), and there will be a shift away from traditional career paths and work values as the generational differences in the workplace become more pronounced.

So, what else is ahead for 2011?

Top 10 Recruitment Trends of 2011

#10   Talent becomes more mobile in a stronger economy:
“More mobile” doesn’t equate to more workers using smartphones to look for jobs (though indeed more are) — no, it means more of your employees will be moving to other companies. As more new positions are created this year, companies will experience higher turnover (as mentioned above) and will have to recruit to backfill that lost talent. We will see more candidates countering or turning down offers as the competition for talent continues to heat up. It’s important for employers to remember that, in or out of a recession, top talent will always have job options.

Companies don’t necessarily have the luxury of time as they might think they do; candidates (or even their own employees) are out there talking to other companies all the time. Are you keeping the retaining and recruiting of your talent top of mind?

#9 Recruitment In-sourcing vs. RPO:
This trend is toward selective, not full, recruitment process outsourcing. We will see outsourcing occur more often in the recruitment of high-volume, repetitive roles, and for the function of candidate sourcing only. There will be more RPO growth in the U.S. than Canada; more Canadian markets are focused on building internally. More executive recruitment functions are moving in-house, which is reflective of a growing transparency in the market. Increasingly, candidates can go online and see for themselves who holds which recruiting or leadership positions at a company,for example, rather than being forced to stay in the dark or play the guessing game to get in contact with the correct person.

#8  Gen Y Recruitment:
Gen Y recruitment is nothing new — but it’s evolving. You’ve likely read at least a handful of blog posts or articles lamenting the impact of Gen Y on the workplace or pigeonholing members of Gen Y into a defined set of characteristics. And this knee-jerk reaction isn’t terribly surprising, as employers are simply struggling to figure out how to make so many contrasting generations work harmoniously together in the workplace. But as Creamer and Parkin point out, it’s not fair to restrict this generation of workers into the whole “this is what Gen Y’s about” bucket. Just like members of other generations generally have some commonalities based on the society and culture they’re grown up with, you can’t necessarily throw them all into a bucket with a clear label. It’s important that employers remember people in Gen Y are not all the same, either.

So what general observations can be made about Gen Y workers?

• Gen Y members were raised in a technologically sophisticated and stimulating environment and they’re generally accustomed to instant gratification.
• Gen Y workers likely bring distinct values and expectations of what relationships with employers, managers and the workplace should be like.
• These workers face rising tuition costs and escalating personal debt.
• Nearly a third of Gen Y members have a blog, and they share intimately with their online networks.

Speaking of blogging, the job search experience has become increasingly social, and it’s not uncommon for candidates to blog about their experiences with a company during the interview process. The thoughts on a company, positive or negative, once online, can be extremely powerful. Companies must be aware that individuals have the opportunity to broadcast their experiences to a very wide audience, and that that message has the ability to spread very quickly. Negative company sentiment can spread very rapidly, but the impact can be very long-term. Tread carefully and

Recruit Gen Y candidates by using the right key messages and proper mediums:

• A company can no longer tell candidates “work hard and the rewards will come” – Gen Y wants a more definitive timetable tied directly to specific rewards.
• The traditional corporate recruitment promise of a long-term career isn’t as much of a selling point to this age group, so focus on the growth opportunities you can offer them.
• This generation tends to be largely peer influenced. Have current Gen Y employees out there on the front lines of your recruitment efforts, leading the information and interview sessions with your candidates.

Employers are smart to learn more about Gen Y, but to keep an open mind about what they find. Gen Yers bring a lot to the table; learn how to view their differences as strengths for your business — and don’t assume that one experience with a candidate or employee is indicative of the behavior of an entire generation and let it dictate your recruitment process.

#7 Talent Management:
Twenty-five percent of new hires regret taking their new job within first year, according to a study by Deloitte. There is a larger focus on talent management as we move through 2011, as well as on internal talent movement. Many companies are focusing on building talent versus buying talent, and talent retention is also of course top of mind for many employers.

#6 – Growth of Contingent Labor in Canada:
In 2010, more than 1 million Canadians held contract roles for an organization. Now, one in every eight positions in Canada are contract or temporary. Canadian organizations are beginning to build an effective talent strategy around contract labor.

#5 – Talent Pipelining:
We’ve spoken at length about the importance of building a talent pipeline (and here and here), as it helps employers get more return out of their recruitment efforts using the fewest resources, build a stronger employment brand, and create better relationships with candidates. As Parkin and Creamer stressed during their presentation, talent pipelining needs to be built into the recruitment process for key roles, as the push of relevant content and information to “nurtured” candidates helps build a company’s employment brand and increase passive candidates’ engagement and trust. The emergence of candidate sourcing/research teams is also an increasing trend.

Creamer and Parkin add that many companies are also looking beyond the typical ATS to customer relationship management platforms (CRMs).

#4 – The Globalization of Recruitment:
I recently wrote about global HR trends for 2011, and as Creamer and Parkin discussed during their presentation, recruitment no longer has a solely local focus. Companies are looking internationally for new talent pools and hard-to-find skill sets. With this change comes adjustments to vastly different cultures and multiple languages — something that many companies are still sorting out. In a nutshell, recruitment is getting much more complicated and specialized.

#3 – Candidate-Centric Recruitment Process:
It’s no secret that many candidates are dissatisfied with the current hiring process offered by companies. As Creamer and Parkin joke, it’s as if employers are sending the message, Dear Mr./Mrs. Candidate. Thank you for taking two hours out of your busy life to apply to us online. Your resume has been sent to a virtual black hole, and no one from our company will ever verify that you actually exist. Expect never to hear from us.

As we’ve stressed in the past, treat candidates like you would a client or customer — in a very real sense, they are your customer (and down the line, they may in fact be in a position to do business with you). They also have a large network of friends and colleagues who will likely hear about their experience with your organization. And while you may have to let them down, letting them down is better than not responding to candidates at all.

A poor or lengthy recruiting process can really hurt your organization’s chances of bringing the best talent onto your team. Just as candidates must sell themselves to you, you must sell your company to candidates. What’s your employment value proposition; how are you attracting, engaging, and retaining quality talent?

Begin to create a more candidate-centric recruitment process by adding more of a “human touch” to your process. Communicate with candidates when at all possible, and let them know where they stand as the process moves from phase to phase. Unplug cumbersome technology and flawed screening filters, and provide feedback and coaching. View all candidates as a customer or potential future customer, client or employee.

#2: Social Media for Recruitment:
Social media: It can be really overwhelming. Most of us are familiar with the major social media platforms — and they are playing an increasing role in recruitment as companies realize they must diversify their recruitment efforts to stay on top. Mobile technology is emerging as a recruitment channel, as companies are also realizing the power of texting and mobile apps for recruitment. Even location-based social networking sites like Foursquare have growing possibilities for businesses and recruitment. Tablets like the iPad are also becoming more popular for work use as these devices increase the business applications offered, and companies are beginning to examine the power of tablet applications to help strengthen their employment brand and company profile.

Video interviewing is a trend that more and more businesses (and candidates) are starting to pick up on, and platforms like Skype, the largest network on the Internet, are also becoming more popular for use in interviews or for virtual meetings.

As Creamer and Parkin remind us, social media is just another factor in your recruitment success — it’s not the be-all, end-all answer. Using these mediums can be powerful — but the content you put out and the messages you are sending to candidates and employees must be relevant.

#1 — The Demand for Experienced Recruiters:
Recruiters today are being asked to do more with less, making it increasingly difficult for them to be successful. The demand for experienced recruiters is high — and the recruiter of yesterday has changed to reflect a demand for those who have an in-depth knowledge of the company for which they’re recruiting. “Generalist” has morphed into “Specialist,” “Administrator/Processor” into “Trusted Advisor/Consultant,” and “Gut Feeling” decisions to “Results/Metrics-Driven” ones. Successful recruiters are getting closer to the business and doing a lot of leg work to get results.

Let us know — What recruitment trends listed here are you seeing in your own business?

While at HRPA 2011, Canada’s conference and trade show focusing on HR issues and trends, I stopped in to check out Howard Wallack’s session, 10 Global HR Trends for 2011 and What You Need to Know to Manage Them. Wallack is the Director of Global Member Programs for Society for Human Resource Management, and in his discussion at HRPA 2011, he drew from several studies and surveys (EIU’s Global Firms in 2020, IBM’s Working Beyond Borders, BCG/WFPMA’s Creating People Advantage 2010, and more) and gathered input from SHRM’s Global Expertise panel to determine the 10 most prevalent global HR trends for the rest of 2011.

The business world is becoming increasingly global, yet as Wallack mentioned in his presentation, there aren’t HR standards across the globe right now. Inconsistent economies and policies add complications to an already complex mix; for example, while low job growth is an issue in the U.S. and Canada, it’s not an issue in Asia, where places like China, India, Singapore and Thailand are all currently experiencing at least 9 – 10 percent growth. The U.S. is less friendly than Canada when it comes to immigration, which can present a challenge. In addition, employee engagement is driven by very different factors around the globe: In Asia, employees want titles and learning opportunities, compensation and benefits comes down the chain; in the U.S., health care coverage is most important, then compensation, then responsibility. With that said, let’s take a look at what Wallack says are the most noticeable trends for the rest of this year:

10 Global HR Trends for 2011

1. The importance of globalization and integrating markets: Companies will become larger and more global in the next 10 years, handling operations in more countries than they do today.
   —We’re living in an increasingly border-less world.
2. Talent management: Finding and retaining quality talent continues to be essential to business sustainability. Finding and retaining quality talent continues to be essential to business sustainability, though its importance in relation to other challenges differs by location. (AUTHOR UPDATE: Respondents from Brazil and Sweden rated this issue in the BCG/WFPMA study as being of lesser importance than other top-10 HR challenges relative to respondents from 15 other countries. And when polled further to rate if there were no/some/high/very high talent shortage or skills gaps across 12 different specific industries/sectors, the Brazilian and Swedish respondents rated it uniformly as “No” across all the industries.)
   —There are more contingent workers, and the rationale behind work force investment is changing and moving in multiple directions. 

   —Most industries and countries are to experience a widening talent gap, notably for highly skilled positions and for next generation of mid and senior leaders.

3. Working virtually across functions and geographies will intensify, with implications for intercultural communication, business ethics and organizational effectiveness.
   —Localizing management of overseas operations is key, but a global outlook is just as important as local knowledge. 

   —Businesses need to find new ways to connect people to each other and to information, both internally and externally.

   —The expectation of having an “always-available” employee varies around the world.

4. Global employee engagement is tentative; companies that have implemented multiple layoffs have eroded a sense of security in the global work force.
   —There is a disconnect between what companies currently have to offer employees and what employees really value. 

   —Retaining valued talent is more important, but the drivers to retain that talent are different depending on the type of market (growth opportunity is paramount in growth markets; new or challenging responsibilities is paramount in mature markets).

   —The gap in creative leadership, executing for speed, and managing ‘collective intelligence’ must be addressed.

   —Employee engagement has suffered; companies are now trying to restore pride and trust.

5. The economic crisis and fewer existing business opportunities create a high demand on the global HR function to demonstrate greater adaptability.
   —HR will be an important link between corporate headquarters and overseas operations. 

   —HR is conducting too many initiatives, with mediocre outcomes.  Companies need to reboot their HR function and boost resources devoted to HR.

6. Economic uncertainties fundamentally change motivators that attract and retain employees.
   —There is a disconnect between what companies have to offer employees and what employees really value.
7. Human capital protectionism may continue to increase in many countries in non-tariff, nationalistic forms.
   
8. Global mobility of high-value workers continues as multinational companies restrict new hires and relocate talented employees from within their existing work force.
9. Companies that originate in emerging economies will continue to succeed in the global marketplace.
   
10. Increased demand for HR metrics may bring about a widely accepted set of analytic measures and methods (global standards) to describe, predict and evaluate the quality and impact of HR practices and the productivity of the work force.  However, globalization is also driving impetus toward the use of more metrics with greater cultural sensitivity.

How can HR do more to manage these trends?

First, Wallack says, as an HR professional, you must make sure your organization understands what globalization means to you, your company and your business sector — you must be the the one to advocate full understanding of what the drivers are. It’s important, too, to keep in mind that globalization means different things to different people across the world. Ernst & Young describes globalization in The New Mindset as “the level of a country’s integration with the world economy through the exchange of goods and services, movement of capital and finance, movement of labor, exchange of technology and ideas, and cultural integration.” Martin Wolf, in Why Globalization Works, sums it up more simply as, “economic integration across borders through markets.” And every person you ask will probably define it a bit differently.

A “global mindset” is often defined as a way of seeing the world and the globalization of markets, organizations and individuals. Developing a more global mindset enables your organization to be more effectively tackle functional, organizational, and cross-cultural boundaries and move forward.

Wallack offered some ideas to help organizations adopt a more global mindset:

• Global mobility: Deepen your employees’ knowledge pool by offering short-term, focused opportunities for individuals to work in new markets and geographies.
• Develop global leadership pipelines: There is a growing expectation for leaders to have work experience outside one’s country of origin; simply having an education that includes global topics is no longer enough. Travel is a strategic management development tool.
• Get involved in efforts to create global HR standards.
• As there is a higher demand on the global HR function to demonstrate greater adaptability, provide HR managers more exposure to and rotations in global business that they need to be effective internationally. Make HR the link between corporate headquarters and overseas operations.
• As far as talent management: Include nationalities and experience in your efforts to diversify talent in other functions and other industries. Increase the span of responsibilities and decision-making of employees.

You can find more information about Wallack and SHRM’s global work here.

Which of the global HR trends mentioned above (or others not mentioned) are you seeing in your own organization?

Are you keeping up with talent supply and demand in your market? As the most recent BLS Employment Situation Report revealed, 192,000 jobs were added in February 2011 — but how many candidates are applying to those 192,000 jobs? By understanding the labor demand in particular markets and the ways in which talent pools grow or shrink depending on that demand, you can more effectively guide your recruitment strategy in terms of employment brand, compensation and overall advertising strategy.

CareerBuilder’s Supply and Demand Portal helps you be smarter by giving you real-time access to 1) the availability of active talent for any position (supply), and 2) where you will find the most and least competition for that talent (demand).

The following information from Supply and Demand Portal shows examples of hot industries where there is a growing demand in the number of workers needed to fill job openings, based on data from the last six months.

1)      Nurse Practitioner: .23 active job seekers for every position
This year, the first wave of more than 70 million baby boomers will turn 65 and join Medicare – equating to approximately one every eight seconds. At the same time, there are more than 30 million newly insured Americans as a result of health care reform, driving the need for more medical services. Couple this with an increase in retail health clinics and a deficit in primary-care physicians, and you’ve got a huge need for nurse practitioners to help fill the gap.

2)      Database Administrator:  .26 active job seekers for every position
From the explosion of sites like Twitter and Facebook, to the evolution of the smartphone’s presence in both our home and work lives, the world’s dependence on sophisticated technology is getting more prevalent every day.  Companies, in turn, are using technology to make better business decisions and create new solutions for clients that live up to their ever-changing needs — and they need people who can effectively manage data to help create those solutions.

3)     IT Security:  .59 active job seekers for every position
Although it’s a concern when individuals like you, me or Ashton Kutcher get hacked, IT security is especially sensitive for companies, as they have to not only protect their own sensitive information, but that of their clients. It’s not surprising, then, that IT security jobs are often hard to fill, requiring candidates who need to be experts in various aspects of IT such as programming, hardware, network and database expertise.

4)      E-mail Marketer:  .69 active job seekers for every position
The way people consume information is becoming more and more selective — as are their e-mail spam filters and propensity to hit that worn-down “Delete” button on the keyboard. With all the noise coming at people from every direction, it’s now harder for companies to grab consumer attention — and e-mail marketers who know how to cut through the clutter and help them get in front of their target audiences are in high demand.

5)      Financial Adviser:  1.2 active job seekers for every position
With the after-effects of the recent recession still being felt, people are looking for guidance on how to build financial security after depleting their short-term savings, tapping into retirement funds and losing home equity. And with millions of baby boomers on the verge of retirement age, the demand for financial advisers to help build retirement plans is about to become even bigger.

6)      Environmental Engineer – 1.25 active job seekers for every position
“Green jobs” or “green-collar jobs,” otherwise known as jobs focused on environmental preservation, are all the rage. Green jobs are expected to grow at the rate of a whopping 1.3 million jobs per year through 2030, and, fortunately for green employers, more and more job seekers are seeking out employment with environmentally conscious companies. In addition, federal, state and private funding is fueling openings for those able to develop solutions for pollution control, recycling, waste management and other public health initiatives.

7)      Sales Engineer:  1.72 active job seekers for every position
As the economy begins to bounce back, companies are once again expanding their sales forces to increase revenue — and are relying on sales engineers to help close and manage deals around more sophisticated products. These experts are a key part of the sales process, as they compare solutions to competitor offerings, and troubleshoot any issues along the way.

8)     Social Media Manager:  1.78 active job seekers for every position
Social media (rapidly becoming known as simply “media”) moves quickly — and so does the need for those able to manage it. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have seeped into just about every aspect of both our personal and professional lives — and more and more companies are “getting it” and jumping on board to engage people in their brands, build relationships, market products and reach more individuals in new ways. To do this successfully, companies need people with social media savvy and strategic delivery — and fast.

9)      Compliance Analyst:  2.52 active job seekers for every position
These days, companies are being held under greater scrutiny and must meet with more stringent local, federal and state regulations. Health care and financial firms in particular need people who can understand relevant laws and help to establish policies and training programs.

10)  Writer (technical and other):  3.31 active job seekers for every position
From chip manufacturers to software companies, technical writers are needed to clearly explain new products, upgrades and features that are often very specialized. The race to stay on the cutting edge matched with increased investment in new technologies drives continued demand for this technical skill set.

More about the Supply and Demand Portal

How does it work?

The portal pulls data from national employment resources like CareerBuilder.com, Wanted Analytics, and EMSI, in turn getting access to more than 45 million jobs, 40 million resumes and 140 million worker profiles — meaning a ton of rich, relevant data turned into meaningful intelligence. Based on the number of available jobs and available candidates, the portal identifies occupations and corresponding markets with the greatest supply and under-supply of candidates.

The portal can also help your business understand:

• Where to open a new business or school
• Top markets with greatest supply of candidates for a particular position
• Top markets where demand for talent exceeds supply for a particular position
• Top employers hiring for the talent you need for a particular position
• Location intelligence through heat maps
• Common job titles for a given skill
• How to better hire for emerging or hard-to-fill positions
• How market saturation may be impacting compensation trends

By using talent intelligence to stay on top of trends in the current labor market, you’ll have a more clear sense of where to find your talent (and your competitors) — and stay one hire ahead.

Simon Sinek was one of the keynote speakers I was most interested to see at HRPA’s 2011 Annual Conference and Trade Show, Canada’s conference and trade show focusing on HR issues and trends — and he didn’t disappoint. Sinek has a way of getting people’s attention when he enters a room — and I can attest to the many HRPA attendees (including myself) focusing intently on his words as he began his Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action keynote on that still-early Thursday morning.

Don’t hire  people who need what you have, but who believe what you believe. This was one of the points driven home by Sinek over and over again. As he says, “people who don’t believe what you believe work for your money” — and their time with your company likely won’t last long. People who believe what you believe, however, will work for you with their blood, sweat and tears.

Sinek teaches leaders and companies how to inspire their people—by finding the purpose, cause or belief that drives them. I’d like to share some highlights from his keynote speech, but I recommend that you also watch his TED talk (below).

On Starting with “Why”

All the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world all think, act and communicate the exact same way, Sinek says — and it’s the complete opposite to everyone else.  All companies function on three levels: 1) What you do, 2) how you do it, and 3) why you do it. The problem, he says, is that most organizations don’t know “why” their organization exists. The “why” does not mean “to make money” — that, he says, is a result. The “why” is your purpose, your cause, or your belief. He calls this concept of what, how and why The Golden Circle. The Golden Circle theory explains why some organizations are able to inspire — and others aren’t. Innovative companies are not defined by what they do; they are defined by why they exist.

As Sinek pointed out, Steve Jobs is brilliant at giving context and talking about why Apple’s products matter. Inspiring companies work from the inside out — the “why” drives them. Rationally speaking, he says, Macs aren’t better, but people will defend the brand and culture to the death because Apple inspires people through the way they talk about their company. Lehman Brothers , on the other hand, was very good at what they did, but there was no sense of community and trust, and that made all the difference.

On how we hire

On the importance of the HR profession Sinek says, “If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.” Why do we care more about someone’s resume and about how much money they’ve made for our competitor, Sinek asks, than in what they believe? How do you know a candidate is not passionate about interviewing but about working for you?

On engaging employees

During his talk, Sinek asked how many of us loved our job. Ninety percent of people don’t, he said. Ninety percent! Now imagine how many of your employees that equates to. Although it may seem like common sense, it’s important to remember that people who come to work excited about their jobs do better work, and as Sinek points out, it’s cyclical: Happier employees will treat their kids and spouses better, and then their kids and spouses will be happier, and they will come to work the next day happier and treat their colleagues and customers better.

How can you help employees love what they do a little more?

On roaming the halls

Are your executives roaming the halls to talk to employees? If they aren’t, Sinek said, they can’t hear or see the impact of their decisions. And even if it’s not a “physical” walking of the hallway, are your leaders out there in the online world, listening to what employees want? Are they reaching out to employees and asking what matters to them? We’re detached from the impact of our decisions; we use polls and hire outside companies to find out what employees think — instead of simply asking them.

Sinek used the example of Stanley Milgrim’s shock experiment from the 1960s to illustrate the danger of people being separated from seeing the impact of their decisions. If leaders can’t see or hear how their decisions are impacting their employees, how many of them will stop themselves from making decisions that negatively affect or hurt those employees before it’s too late (or know that they are hurting employees in the first place)?

On being a great place to work

• Take great people and help them to do extraordinary things.
• Hire those who believe what you believe and wake up every single day and compete against yourselves.
• Worry about doing what you do better and how to do it better next week, and next month, and something remarkable will happen.
• Stating what do you in company vision statements = who cares? Sinek says your company vision statement should be about why you do what you do; it should be about what you believe.

Fortune’s best companies to work for aren’t doing anything differently, Sinek says — they make the list because people WANT to be there. To lead means you have to have followers, a follower is someone who volunteers to go where you’re going. Somebody who chooses to be a part of whatever is it you’re building — not because they have to but because they want to. Employees want to surround themselves with the people and products and brands that prove to the outside world who they believe they are.

Do your employees want to go where you’re going?

On this 100th (!) International Women’s Day, when women all over the world are celebrating the countless accomplishments of women or being honored themselves, I thought it would be fitting to share results of The White House’s just-released report all about women, called Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being. It was prepared for the White House Council on Women and Girls — a council created in 2009 by President Obama to “enhance, support, and coordinate the efforts of existing programs for women and girls.”

A report nearly 50 years in the making

This is the first Federal report that focuses on the progress of women in the U.S. since John F. Kennedy’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women issued 1963′s Peterson Report, which primarily focused on workplace discrimination and issues of workplace inequality — and which helped lead to the Equal Pay Act.

Fast forward from 1963 to 2011 — how have things changed?

Why women’s issues are important (and not just for women)

President Obama himself has stated that the social and economic issues facing women are not just women’s issues; many of these issues can end up affecting entire families.  The report gives a picture of women in America today by focusing on five areas: demographic and family changes, education, employment, health, and crime. Although I’d like to share findings on education and employment specifically, it’s worth perusing the report (PDF) for yourself to get a better sense of how various gender comparisons all fit together in the big picture. Women have achieved so much — and this report reflects that. Unfortunately, in some areas, there is still much progress to be made. Let’s take a closer look.

Women and Education

When it comes to educational achievement in particular over the last few decades, women have made huge strides. This holds true across racial and ethnic groups, and, in some cases, the educational achievements of women have significantly outpaced those of men over the last 40 years.

Highlights:

• Perhaps not surprisingly, high school education rates of women have substantially increased. Between 1970 and 2009, the percentage of women with at least a high school education rose from 59 percent (about the same as men) to about 87 percent (slightly more than men).
• Over the years, we’ve seen a huge surge in the number of women who have paved out careers for themselves and embarked upon that institute of higher learning known as college. The percentage of women ages 25-34 with at least a college degree has more than tripled since 1968, and women earned about 57 percent of all college degrees given in 2007-2008.
• In 2008, women accounted for 59 percent of graduate school enrollment.
• When it comes to doctoral degrees, the tables have completely turned in the past decade alone. In 1998, more doctoral degrees were conferred to men than to women. A decade later, it’s the opposite.

The science and tech gap

While women do earn the majority of degrees overall, they earn fewer degrees than men in science and technology. In the college level of engineering and computer sciences, women possess fewer than 20 percent of degrees earned. The good news is that the lack of women in these fields has not gone unnoticed; women in the tech field, for instance, are banding together and starting conferences, investing money and resources, and engaging in professional networking. These efforts aren’t without criticism, though — some believe that instead making efforts to differentiate themselves, women in these types of fields should be integrating themselves more forcefully into male-dominated events and circles. What do you think?

Women and the Workplace

Over the past several decades, women’s role in the workplace has changed dramatically. But where are women currently excelling – and where are we falling short? Let’s take a look.

Highlights:

• The earnings gap between women and men has narrowed over the years – but it’s still there. Among full-time wage and salary workers, women’s weekly earnings as a percent of men’s have increased from 62 percent in 1979 to 80 percent in 2009.
• Although we’ve seen older persons either staying in or going back into the work force since the 2008 recession, according to the report, the labor force participation rate of persons ages 55 and older began to rise in 1996 for both women and men, but that pace has slowed in recent years.
• Speaking of the recession — during the past four recessions, the unemployment rate among women rose less than the rate for men. This can be attributed to men’s concentration in more cyclically sensitive occupations, like manufacturing production and construction, compared to women’s concentration in more rapidly growing fields like health care.
• Women are considerably more likely to work year round than they were in past decades. In 2009, 75 percent of women worked year round, up from 51 percent in 1968.
• In May 2004, about 30 percent of wage and salary workers reported having flexible schedules that allowed them to vary their work hours to some degree. (That’s likely increased since then, with the larger focus on flexible scheduling that’s developed). What exactly the flexible schedules entailed, the report didn’t say, and it would be interesting to find out percentages of employees working from home or exploring other alternative scheduling with their employers now that 7 years have passed.

So, what do the findings tell us?

Well, as we’ve seen above, women have accomplished a great deal in the realms of education and employment since the 1960s — or even the 1990s. Yet, on average, women still earn less pay than that of men, and few women are venturing into the fields of science and technology. But the fact that this report leaves out legal issues of inequality which were the main focus of the Peterson Report of 1963 is a huge difference in itself, in only 47 years’ time. In addition, this report lays bare the findings that women are not equal in the aforementioned areas — but are there explanations involved that have more to do with lifestyle and culture than with unfair business practices?

And as author and history teacher Stephanie Coontz points out in her article on CNN International, the 1963 report cataloged the once-common practice of establishing quotas on how many women were admitted to educational institutions or sought-after jobs — an issue which has, at least in theory, gone away. Yes, discrimination against women still exists, and yes, some institutions’ or individuals’ mentalities may still be back in 1963. But this White House report chronicles just how big of a leap we’ve taken forward in such a short time.

How far do you think women have come when it comes to the workplace? Have you witnessed many of these changes over the years? Let us know in the comments!

Want to get involved with International Women’s Day? Find events here.

How many alarm clocks would it take to demonstrate the number of times your employees have been late to work — or that you’ve been late yourself? Is it commonplace — or out of place — at your workplace?

A new CareerBuilder survey on worker lateness shows that 15 percent of workers are late to work at least once a week, though that number is down from 16 percent in 2009 and 20 percent in 2008. It appears the recession has been a likely cause of the downward trend in lateness — though it hasn’t made it disappear altogether.

For the most part, surveyed workers shared a variety of “standard” reasons for being tardy:

• Thirty percent said they were delayed by traffic.
• Nineteen percent said they were late because of a lack of sleep.
• Nine percent blamed bad weather for their tardiness.
• Eight percent said there was a delay in getting their kids to daycare or school.
• Other common reasons included public transportation, wardrobe issues or dealing with pets.

Other workers, however, offered more creative excuses for being late to work — here are the best of the best (er, worst of the worst?):

• Read between the (facial) lines  | “My Botox appointment took longer than I expected.”
• Feline fury  | “My cat attacked me.”
• The Keanu Reeves Defense  | “I was delayed due to public transportation (employee produced a note signed by “The Bus Driver”).
• No breakfast in bed that morning |  “I didn’t get any sleep because my boyfriend’s wife threw me out of the house.
• Channeling Nicolas Cage  | “My car was inhabited by a hive of bees and I couldn’t use the car for two hours until bees left.”
• D’oh Nuts | “I knew I was already going to be late, so I figured I’d go ahead and stop to get donuts for everyone.”
• “Ready to pull a Britney  | “My hair was hurting my head.”
• Karma Policing  | “My Karma is not in sync today.”
• It’s not me, it’s you  | “I’m not late — the company clock is wrong.”

What’s your attendance style?

Although the excuses above are “outrageous,” that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not true. Either way, 1) tardiness issues appear to be on a downswing, and 2) most bosses understand that life sometimes gets in the way of work — though 32 percent of employers surveyed said they have terminated an employee for being late. Are you one of those bosses?

As Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, says:

“Whether it is a result of fear associated with the economy or just a shift in attitude, workers over the last few years are doing a better job of managing their schedules and getting into the office at the designated time. While workers will sometimes be late due to circumstances out of their control, they need to be aware of their companies’ tardiness policies. Regardless of the reason, workers who are running late should always be honest with their managers.”

Communication counts

I would also turn that around and stress that as a boss, you should be open and communicative about policies and preferences for work tardiness.

• Let your employees know what your expectations are in the case that they are running late to work. Open lines of communication will mean more respect from your employees — and fewer headaches for you. And chances are, if you trust and respect your employees, they will return the favor.
• Make sure employee handbooks and guidelines are readily available to employees — and offer to answer any uncertainties or get employees in touch with the person who is able to answer their questions if you can’t.
• Give your employees the benefit of the doubt – they may be stuck with an ornery puppy, exhausted from being up all night with a screaming child, or going through a rough personal time. While these reasons don’t mean you need to give them free reign to do whatever they want, listening to your employees and trying to compromise a plan that will better fit their lifestyle while still satisfying your business requirements is a win-win in the long run: Better work/life balance = happier employees = better business.

What are the most unbelievable late-to-work excuses you’ve heard from your employees — or that you’ve used yourself? Do you think lateness really matters, as long as employees get the work done, and done well?

We’ve all had a weird transportation experience at one time or another (some of us more than others.) From a guy on a bus jumping up and turning around in his seat to “scare” me with fake bloody teeth, to sitting next to a woman chanting incessantly next to me as the plane took off, to witnessing luggage fights with the flight attendants, I’ve had a few odd experiences myself. But none of them quite compare to the experiences workers in Careerbuilder’s latest travel survey reported.

Let’s not delay (travel joke) — here are survey respondents’ most unusual business travel experiences:

• Backwash city: “Woman next to me asked me for a drink from my water bottle.
• No napping on this flight: “Our plane was stormed by the Columbian military who thought there was a drug lord on board.”
• Scenic view? “A client mooned the plane.”
• Maybe he meant to say ‘the bomb’: “A drunken passenger next to me insisted my headphones were a bomb.”
• Room for two? “A naked guy tried getting in my cab in Indonesia.”
• Arrested development: “U.S. marshals arrested a passenger when the plane landed.”
• Strangers with candy: “A guy next to me had a carry-on bag filled with candy, which he kept offering me over and over and over again.”
• Hope she didn’t name her child after the airline: “A woman gave birth on the flight.”
• Upon reflection, not such a good idea: “After waking up, I accidentally walked into the hotel’s hallway instead of the restroom in my underwear. Got locked out and could be viewed by the elevator which was all glass windows.”
• This will make for an awkward rest of the trip: “Manager punched a co-worker on the plane.”
• Possibly more comfortable than airplane seats: “Fell asleep in the airplane restroom.”

Can you top these? Leave your craziest experiences in the comments below and let us know!

What do the travelers have to say?

While workers may joke about their crazy travel experiences, and while travel can definitely be rewarding, fun, and productive, there’s another side of business travel that isn’t always so amusing. While employers may be the ones pulling the strings as far as when, how often, and how their employees are allowed to (or must) travel, employees are the ones forced to sit in cramped airplane seating, get stuck at airports due to delays (hellooooooo, O’Hare), and, most importantly, be away from their homes, friends and families for extended or frequent periods of time. But how many employees are really travel warriors these days?

• The majority of workers (68 percent) surveyed said they never travel for business.
• Five percent said they travel every other month.
• Six percent said they travel every other week or more.

Though the numbers may be low, it’s important to keep in mind that the toll on those who are on a first-name basis with TSA agents can still be quite high. Nearly one in five (19 percent) of those who travel for business said the amount they travel negatively affects their home life — and that’s nothing for employers to take lightly.

To help smooth out the common bumps of travel for your employees, think about your current process:

• What’s working and what’s not?
• Have you asked your employees if they’re happy with the level of travel expected (particularly if it’s recently changed)?
• Communicate with your employees to find out if the frequency of travel is striking a fair balance, and try to work with employees to find a solution for both them and your business if there’s an issue.
• Remember to periodically thank your employees for putting in the time and work to travel on behalf of the company, a move that, yes, is part of their job, but that also actively and often takes them away from friends, family, and personal commitments.

What else have you found helpful in coordinating business travel with your employees (or with your own travel)? And what jaw-dropping experiences have you had while on business trips?

If you’re like many companies, you, in the spirit of budget-cutting, slowed down employee travel in 2010 — or even halted it altogether. According to a new CareerBuilder survey among more than 2,400 U.S. employers and more than 3,900 U.S. workers, 30 percent of companies say they cut back on business travel last year — and it wasn’t such a good move for many of them. Of the companies who cut back on travel, more than one-third (37 percent) said it negatively affected their business. Have you had a similar experience?

Lack of business trips and the bottom line

Budget cuts can often have ripple effects in other areas of the business. Many businesses who cut back on travel in 2010 had fewer opportunities for  face-to-face meetings, leading to communication issues, hurdles in fostering client relationships, and, ultimately, fewer sales. When asked how fewer business trips affected their bottom lines, companies reported the following results:

• Less effective internal communication: 12 percent
• Fewer sales: 11 percent
• Less effective execution on internal business initiatives: 10 percent
• Less customer loyalty: 8 percent

How will this year be different?

Based on 2010′s results, will companies alter business travel frequency in 2011? For the most part, it appears they won’t. The majority of companies (77 percent) report business travel levels will stay the same as last year. Eleven percent said their companies will take more business trips this year (perhaps to counter the negative effects of cutting back in 2010), while 13 percent said business travel will decrease.

Although frequency of travel may be “business as usual” in 2011, many companies have started taking a different direction to help cut unnecessary expense: Altering the way that employees travel.

“Business travel is an important part of many companies’ operations as it lets them stay connected with clients and employees across the globe,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder. “Some companies are revisiting their policies, though, to ensure they’re maximizing the effectiveness of their business travel initiatives.”

How are companies keeping a closer eye on travel expenses?

• Taking out the extravagance: Nearly one-third (32 percent) of companies are placing specific restrictions on business travel for employees since the recession, asking them to fly coach, lowering entertainment budgets, and having them only travel domestically.
• Virtual meetings: Forty-two percent of companies said they rely more on phone/Web conferencing now to conduct business with clients, with 31 percent saying they get just as much out of virtual meetings as face-to-face meetings.

Tell me — has your business cut down on employee travel, or otherwise changed policies around travel to cut costs? What has worked well — and what wouldn’t you do again?

CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson appeared on CNBC Power Lunch late last week to discuss findings from the Young Presidents’ Organization’s Global Pulse CEO Confidence Index, a survey gauging opinions of CEOs on the future of the economy. He also talked about changes in job activity on CareerBuilder’s site and answered questions about job creation for 2011 and which industries and regions are doing the most robust hiring right now.

YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization), a global network of 17,000 CEOs under the age of 50, surveyed 2,256 CEOs across the world representing companies of all sizes (1,144 respondents were in the U.S.) to measure economic sentiment. The Global Pulse CEO Confidence Index found, among other things, that the hiring outlook is improving both here in the U.S. and abroad.

Watch Matt’s full interview on CNBC Power Lunch:

Let’s take a closer look at a few key findings from the YPO survey:

1. CEOs are more growing more confident in the economy.

• Global confidence rose 2.8 points to 64.7.  The U.S. index rose 3.6 points to 63.5, the highest since the survey began in July 2009.
• 61% of CEOS said economic conditions have improved compared to six months ago, up from 46% last quarter.
• 67% expect economic conditions to improve over the next six months, up from 60% last quarter.
• The emerging markets are the most bullish while the European Union has been the least optimistic, though confidence levels are rising there as well.  Lower confidence levels in countries like Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal are tied to sovereign debt problems.  Latin America is the most optimistic.

2. The hiring outlook is improving domestically and internationally.

• The YPO employment index rose 1.9 points to 59.0 in the U.S. Hiring expectations were positive across all sectors, including construction, which prior to this point has lagged production and services.

3. Companies expect stronger sales this year

• The sales confidence index for the U.S. rose to 68.5 from 49.2 in July 2009.   Production and services companies remain enthusiastic about the pace of the sales in 2011.  Construction is growing more confident.

4. Firms of all sizes expect to boost capital spending.

• The investment confidence index for the U.S. rose 1.5 points to 59.7.

How do these results compare to what you’re seeing at your own organization?

If you’re asking author, advertising CEO and performance coach Nigel Marsh, the answer would be an enthusiastic (and Aussie-accented) “No.” In Marsh’s TED talk (you can watch the video at bottom of this post), in which he shares his thoughts on work/life balance and asks the oft-raised question, “What does a life well-lived look like?”, he argues that it’s not up to corporations or outside interests to determine employees’ work/life balance — it’s up to the employees themselves.

Work/life balance (or whatever phrase you want to use to refer to the idea) is often on the minds of employers and employees alike, and it’s an idea that continues to evolve as technology seeps into more and more aspects of our existence and workplace/personal lines are getting even blurrier. Marsh tells the story of his own transformation from a “classic corporate warrior” who was eating, drinking, and working too much and neglecting his family, to someone who turned 40 and decided to turn his life around and spend a year at home with his family — to a man who has, for the seven years since, spent his time struggling with studying and writing about striking a balance between “work” and “life.”

Marsh’s observations during the last seven years have led him to make four observations about work/life balance:

1) If society is to make any progress on this issue, we need an honest debate. The problem, Marsh says, is that all of the discussions about work/life balance involve people complaining about the phrase itself. He also argues that discussions around perks like flex time and dress down Fridays only serve to mask the core issue: That certain career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family. According to him, we need to start acknowledging the core issues and thinking about the issue on another level if we really want to see change.

2) We must be responsible for setting and enforcing the boundaries that we want in our lives. We have to take responsibility for the type of lives we want to lead, Marsh argues — not rely on others to do so. In his words, “If you don’t design your own life, someone might design it for you — and you might not like their idea of balance.” Translation for employers: it’s the job of your employees (and, in your own career, yours) to decide the boundaries needed to make work and personal lives work in harmony — and that formula is going to be different for everyone.

3) We have to be careful (read: realistic) with the time frame upon which we choose to judge the balance in our life. We need to elongate balance, Marsh says, without falling into the trap of, “I’ll have a life when I retire” – or of “I’ll do everything in a day.” It’s not realistic — we must find the middle road, Marsh says. We can’t necessarily achieve everything we want to in a day, but at the same time, we can’t wait until our personal lives have fallen apart because of work to find that perfect balance. And speaking of finding that perfect balance…

4) We need to approach balance in a balanced way. We must attend to various aspects of our lives, including the intellectual, emotional and physical. And the great thing is, Marsh points out, it doesn’t always take a major overhaul to strike more of a balance in our lives — small changes can radically transform the quality of our relationships and of our lives.

Which, Marsh hopes, will bring us to a more thoughtful, balanced definition of what a life well-lived looks like.

I want to know — what are your thoughts as an employer? Do you feel responsible for your employees’ work/life balance, and do you think you have the power to make changes in the workplace that will translate to powerful and lasting changes in their sense of balance? Or do you agree with Marsh — that it’s not the job of an employer to be concerned with an employee’s work/life balance, or that, even if it is, there are no changes you can make to workplace rules and perks that will carry enough weight?

Is work/life balance about changing the structure and fluidity of the workplace to more effectively fit into our personal lives, or more about finding ways to increase our dedication to our personal lives so that they work within our given workplace structures?

Is it really up to an employee to find his or her own way (home)?

Watch Nigel Marsh’s TED talk on work/life balance here:

Just a couple of years ago, the world watched as Wall Street began to rapidly unravel, and we continued to watch as the weeks and months to follow showed further signs of trouble and revealed cracks in our economy that many of us hadn’t the slightest idea existed. When what we were going through was finally officially labeled as a recession, many employers had already thinned out staff levels, cut back budgets, and slashed benefits. Consequently, businesses were forced to “do more with less” (you know, that phrase you’ve heard 1,000,001 times by now.)

No money, no problems?

Faced with fewer resources, many companies decided to roll up their sleeves, get creative, and find new and inexpensive ways to communicate with their clients and job candidates. Some of those inexpensive ways of communicating included Web-based tools like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and they were really starting to take off. Not surprisingly, many human resources professionals were suddenly tasked with taking them on, in addition to all their other responsibilities.

Without proper methods of tracking candidates found through sites like Facebook and Twitter, however, HR managers and recruiters were spinning their wheels and wasting a lot of valuable time. In fact, according to a recent CareerBuilder study, 60 percent of recruiter time was being wasted on non-value-added activities, the majority of recruiters weren’t measuring ROI, and candidate tracking was often only 25 percent accurate due to ATS limitations. Executives were expecting HR to perform miracles through social media — and it wasn’t happening.

While HR was focused on time and cost to hire candidates, business executives were stressing the need to convert HR data to business intelligence.

Now what?

CareerBuilder realized companies needed a solution that accomplished both parties’ objectives — and soon after, Talent Network was born.

Okay, but what is it, exactly?

Talent Network, a custom career site that helps employers build their own pipeline of talent,  enables employers to connect the dots of all the things they are doing to attract job seekers, engage interested candidates, and measure the success of their efforts. Let’s break it down:

Awareness

Talent Network builds awareness for your jobs through five key areas:

1. Social — Add a link to your Talent Network on social sites all over the Web, including Facebook (via CareerBuilder’s Work@ employee referral system) and Twitter.
2. SEO — Turn your internal job terms that may be abbreviated, vague or full of company lingo into title descriptions that job seekers instantly understand, and in turn, show up in more search engine results for job seekers looking for your open position.
3. Mobile — Your Talent Network site is mobile-enabled, giving you instant reach to people searching for jobs on their mobile devices. Tap into a market with explosive growth.
4. Career Site – Get a designed, hosted and supported career site, drive your target candidates there, and track your progress.
5. Job Distribution —CareerBuilder’s partnerships with sites like Indeed.com help you gain strong referral links to your jobs.

Engagement

Interact with candidates who have expressed interest in your business or open positions and give them a more satisfying experience.

• With the click of a button that exists on sites all over the Web, potential employees can arrive at and join your talent network, stay keyed into your available job opportunities, and get personalized alerts with jobs at your company that most match their interests and experience.
• Capture job seekers’ information before they leave your site, welcome them to your community, and start connecting with them on a deeper level.
• Send members of your network tailored job recommendations and customized messages. You can even send automated communications when you need to get a broad message out to many people at once.

Measurement
Quality measurement matters. Drive informed business decisions with accurate and in-depth information about your Talent Network’s search traffic, job interactions, and candidate conversions; in other words, gain the most insight available about members of your network.

A Better Way

How does Talent Network solve some of the biggest recruitment and business challenges companies are facing? Let’s take a look:

Old way: Potential candidates are gone before you can get them to take any action on your website.
Talent Network: Encourage visitors to leave a footprint before leaving your website.

Old way: You’re missing out on job search traffic because your jobs are hidden behind your ATS.
Talent Network: Expose and search engine-optimize your jobs, driving relevant candidates to your job openings.

Old way: Your recruiters keep contacts in their own databases, which creates a lot of one-off lists.
Talent Network: Keep all recruiters’ candidate contacts in one location.

Old way: You know who your target candidates are, but you’re struggling to reach them.
Talent Network: Take advantage of the custom SEO landing pages developed exclusively for your organization, and get in front of those elusive candidates.

Old way: You’re not really sure where your website traffic is coming from.
Talent Network: Get detailed, helpful insight into where your visitors are coming from, as well as what they’re doing once they get there.

Still have questions? Learn more about Talent Network:

Watch a short video or view product demos

Visit the Talent Network page

Read the press release

Feel free to post comments and questions here as well, and we will do our best to answer them.

What do drive-in movie theater dates, Hypercolor t-shirts, and Justin Bieber-inspired haircuts have in common? They’re all trends that have passed through our lives over the years (or, in some cases, are still in our lives). New trends seep into our everyday existence all the time, and the world of hiring and the workplace is no exception. A new CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive survey of more than 2,400 hiring managers and 3,910 workers nationwide identified 10 key trends in business, hiring, work culture and job search to watch out for as we kick off a new year.

Let’s get right to it – here are the 10 top hiring and workplace trends to keep an eye on in 2011, according to survey results:

1) Shifting Business Directions: A whopping 42 percent of employers said their company has changed business directions as a result of the recession. The majority of these employers kept their core business, but added new revenue streams – although 27 percent of those who shifted direction said they changed their core business altogether or expanded into areas that will eventually become their core business.

2) Working Leaner: Thirty-five percent of employers said their current staffs are smaller than pre-recession levels. Of those employers, most don’t foresee adjustments to headcount in 2011, with 57 percent reporting that they have become used to handling the workload with less people.

3) Changing Jobs: Workers are becoming more optimistic about their job prospects in 2011. Fifteen percent of full-time, employed workers are actively seeking a new job, and 76 percent said that although they are not actively looking, they would change jobs in 2011 if the right opportunity came along.

The majority of workers aren’t necessarily focused on a bigger paycheck, either. Sixty-eight percent said affordable benefits are more important to them than salary.

4) Creating New Functions: Along with more traditional job opportunities, employers are adding new functions within their organizations in response to popular movements. Jobs centered around social media, green energy and health care reform are just a few of these “emerging” roles being added in 2011, and hiring managers reported that “cyber warriors,” whose roles are to protect Internet sites from security breaches or fraudulent activity, are in high demand as well.

5) Video Interviewing: With smaller recruiting staffs facing larger numbers of job applications, employers are turning to technology to help find the right candidates. Six percent reported they have conducted video interviews with potential job candidates, while 11 percent plan to do so this year.

6) Less Moonlighting: While making ends meet is still a challenge for many U.S. households, fewer workers are reporting the need to work more than one job. In addition, only 12 percent plan to take on second jobs in 2011, compared to 19 percent in 2010.

7) Taking a Global Perspective: Nearly one in five U.S. employers (18 percent) reported they will be hiring for their operations in other countries in 2011, while 5 percent stated they will likely recruit workers from other countries to work in U.S. locations.

8 ) Relocating Talent: Of workers who were laid off in the last 12 months and found new jobs, 23 percent relocated to a new city or state. For those workers looking to relocate this year, good news: 33 percent of employers said they would be willing to pick up the moving tab for select candidates this year.

9) Promoting Without Pay: Forty-one percent of employers are concerned about losing their top talent as the economy improves. While the majority of employers plan to increase salaries for existing staff in 2011, 39 percent will not be providing raises. As a gesture of recognition to employees without pay increases, however, 13 percent are offering higher titles.

10) Going Casual: Employers are becoming more relaxed about set schedules and dress codes as they work to enhance the typical work experience. Fifteen percent reported they will allow for a more casual dress code, and 33 percent expect to offer more flexible work arrangements like telecommuting and alternate schedules in 2011.

Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, offers his take on the trends:

“The recession produced fundamental shifts in how companies and workers view the market. “Businesses are becoming more agile and changing direction. They’re operating leaner and recruiting for opportunities in emerging areas. Workers are transitioning to new fields, are more open to relocation and are more apt to consider opportunities outside of their current employers.”

Which trends do you foresee most aligning with your business direction in 2011?

Are you one of those people addicted, not to love as Robert Palmer once claimed you were, but to work? Or worse yet, are your own employees stuck to their ergonomic yet stifling cubicle chairs, desperately looking for you to help them regain a sense of balance?

You might have caught my recent blog post about the increased usage of mobile devices, and how the technologically “on” mentality these devices spur is affecting the way many people work — even when they’re not actually at work. While access to mobile devices may add pressure for workers to be available at all times of the day or night, it’s just one of many reasons people are spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about, talking about, and even dreaming about Ryan Reynolds work these days. A new CareerBuilder study of more than 3,100 workers examines signs of work addiction, takes stock of how many workers are suffering from it, and explores ways workers can find a happy medium between work and personal time as we dive into 2011. 

Can you identify with any of the following signs of work addiction?

1. You spend most of your day – including your free time – thinking about work. (24 percent of workers surveyed reported that when they’re at home or out socially, they’re still thinking about work. Nineteen percent say they often dream about work.)
2. You’re more concerned about what your boss thinks than your own family.
3. You would rather be in your cubicle than in your home. (15 percent of workers surveyed said they feel this way.)

Longer Hours and Water Cooler-Themed Dinners

The leaner staffs and heftier workloads of 2010 encouraged (or forced) many employees to work longer hours than usual and take work home with them. One out of two workers said their workloads have increased over the last six months, and there’s no indication that trend is changing:

• More than half of workers (52 percent) reported they put in more than the standard 40 hours a week, while 14 percent said they work more than 50 hours a week.

• As far as taking work home, 31 percent bring home work at least once a week, while one in ten bring home work at least every other day.

• Some workers just can’t stop talking about work to family, co-workers, and friend, either. Sixteen percent of workers said most of their conversations – at work, home or out socially – always tend to focus on work.

A High Price to Pay

If you guessed that all this heightened focus and pressure on work, work, work is taking a toll on workers’ relationships with themselves and with their families, as well as increasing their stress levels and causing health issues — well, you’d be right on target.

• 22 percent of workers reported they don’t have time to pursue personal interests because they say they’re always working.
• 12 percent said the amount of time spent on work is causing friction with their family.
• 27 percent have not taken a personal or sick day in the last few years.
• 26 percent have experienced health issues tied to stress on the job.

“With increased demands at the office and greater accessibility through mobile devices, the workday literally never ends for some workers,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder.  “While a strong work ethic is valued, a lack of balance with your personal life can ultimately work against you in the long run.  As the year wraps up, take inventory of your personal time and see where you need to make adjustments in 2011.”

Stop the Insanity

So what’s an overworked soul to do? Well, if you find you or your employees are hitting the Excel spreadsheets a little too hard, and neglecting the gym, the dinner table, or the kids’ soccer games, here are some tips, courtesy of Haefner, for achieving a more manageable schedule and a better work/life balance:

1)    Set aside personal time. You schedule business meetings and events successfully, so do the same for “me time” or “family time” and stick to the schedule you create.

2)    Let go. Learn to delegate work-related tasks and responsibilities to others.

3)   Take off the e-leash. In most cases, that e-mail or text can wait.  Turn off your electronic devices at a certain time.  Take care of personal commitments and put the kids to bed before turning it back on.

4)   Talk to others who understand your situation. Check out support groups such as Workaholics Anonymous and find out what others have done to achieve their recovery.

New Year, New “You” Time?

As we enter a shiny new year, unmarred by any mistakes we will inevitably make (and hopefully learn from), we are ambitious in our determination to make this year better than the last. Rather than solely focusing on revenue, productivity, and the “bottom line,” then, let’s pause and ask ourselves this question: Am I being mindful of balance in my own life — and in the lives of my employees?”

Only you (and your employees) know the answer.

I’ve been reading more and more articles lately about company executives and key leadership figures making a greater effort to reach out to employees in light of an improving economy — largely because of their hidden fears of employees leaving for greener pastures now coming to life. While it’s worth applauding the effort of a company’s leaders to engage employees and actually spend more time getting to know them and their concerns, the underlying motivation of some is a bit concerning. After all, your employees don’t want to feel like a commodity that’s only valuable in certain economic conditions — and they shouldn’t be made to feel that way.

One anecdote that stood out to me was from a Wall Street Journal article back in April that mentioned executives being asked to “increase the efforts” to talk with workers, as the economy turning around brought more of a risk of losing people.

Ouch.

Now don’t get me wrong — it’s better that these executives are being asked (or deciding on their own) to interact with workers now, rather than not at all.  And positives are coming out of the efforts; one company mentioned in the WSJ article, for instance, increased pay raises in July rather than September, as a result of the CEO interacting with workers and listening to their compensation woes. That’s great — but engaging with employees isn’t a retention tool to turn off and on when it’s convenient for a business; it’s a full-time job. Of course there will be times that leaders need to invest their efforts in other things, but the needs and well-being of employees should never be far out of mind.

Because while there is truth to the idea that many workers plan to leave their jobs as the economy turns around, think of how many of the employees currently plotting their escape from a company could be satisfied and happy if leaders had started consistently engaging them from the moment they walked in the door.

Hey, we can’t go back in time, but we can learn from the past — and hopefully, some leaders are realizing the errors of their ways. Despite shaky motives, the recession may still have taught (and be teaching) businesses that listening to their employees and taking the time to talk with and get to know them better is a positive move for everyone involved. And if the recession has moved some employers to make a bigger effort, well, maybe the end results of that increased interaction will make them realize it needs to be a permanent, genuine shift — not just a “strategy” worked into the “recession recovery plan.”

If your company has been slacking on engaging your employees, there are things you can do to breathe some life into your employees and make them excited to come to work again. Check out Mary’s post about keeping your employees informed, then read about seven ways to inspire them, to help you start thinking in the mindset of engagement and what that really means to employees. And remember that, while some employees may already be spending their free time making collages with their future employer’s company brochures, there are things you can do to revive and reengage other employees who are still willing to give you a chance to make things right.

A Robert Half Management Resources survey showed that 11 percent of employers have learned nothing from the recession — which, as the author notes, is worrisome for 100 percent of their employees. But that also gives us hope for the 89 percent who have learned a thing or two (or 10).

What the biggest lesson the recession has taught you or your company?

Does the fact that you cringe at the sight of your neighbor’s 20 cats and prefer the company of your trusty Lassie companion mean you’re more likely to have a job as a police officer — or a CEO? Does your love of slithering reptiles mean you spend your days as a salesperson or a social worker? Does your strange obsession with your foul-mouthed parrot mean you’re more likely to be in construction or public relations?

Pets bring many things into our lives — including companionship, fun, and, unfortunately, more cleaning duties. Research has shown that pets may also make their owners more trustworthy, better at making connections and more apt to help out others by volunteering — “social capital” traits that can carry over into the workplace. So what do our choices in pets tell us about our professions? CareerBuilder’s newest survey of more than 2,300 workers with pets examines a person’s choice of pets in relation to chosen profession, compensation and job satisfaction — and the results may surprise you:

Which pet owners make the most money — and are happiest with their jobs?

• Highest job positions: Workers with dogs were  more likely to report holding senior management positions like CEO, CFO, or Senior Vice President.
• Most money: Workers with snakes/reptiles were the most likely to report earning six figures.
• Happiest with their jobs: Workers with birds were the most likely to report being satisfied with their jobs.

In terms of career paths, those in certain professions were more likely to have certain types of pets.

Does your chosen profession match up with your pet of choice?

• Dog owners were more likely to be professors, nurses, information technology professionals, military professionals and entertainers.
• Cat owners were more likely to be physicians, real estate agents, science/medical lab technicians, machine operators and personal caretakers.
• Fish owners were more likely to be human resources professionals, financial professionals, hotel and leisure professionals, farming/fishing/forestry. professionals and transportation professionals.
• Bird owners were more likely to be advertising professionals, sales representatives, construction workers and administrative professionals.
• Snake/reptile owners were more likely to be engineers, social workers, marketing/public relations professionals, editors/writers and police officers.

Do you think pets help you be a better person in your professional life?

I recently attended a brunch linner lunch seminar hosted by the Business Marketing Association of Chicago which featured the findings of a study called Talent 3.0:  Solving the Digital Leadership Challenge — A Global Perspective. This seminar was particularly interesting to me, because while it’s common to hear about the importance of employees learning about new technologies to stay relevant in a changing workplace, it’s not as common to hear about how the efforts to do so are actually playing out in the real world. The clashes of technologically adept employees versus those who are having a difficult time embracing new technologies are real, and it’s vital that we talk about them now in order to figure out how to move forward.

So, Digital Walks Into a Workplace…

With more and more consumers and clients embracing new technologies, companies across the board are investing more in all things digital — including their platforms, media and employees. And this is great, right? After all, employees adapt to changes in the workplace all the time: that water cooler with 10 confusing options, the new guy who sings Scorpion tunes in his cubicle, the announcement about the new office and the new (huge) commute. So why should adapting to technology be any different?

Technology in the workplace isn’t just a change to adapt to — but a  potential ticking time bomb for many employees. While we all might not enjoy Scorpion tunes, we can easily ask said employee to stop singing them (or don our trusty headphones). We can’t, however, just ask technology to stop affecting the way we work. It’s making its way into more and more aspects of the workplace, it affects the way people do their jobs, and it complicates the already complicated blend of different generations trying to work together as a team. It also puts a spotlight on the fact that some employees are digitally savvy — and some aren’t. Some are willing to learn, and some are fighting it. Some have a wealth of experience in addition to stellar business skills, while others can work their way around digital media in their sleep. How can we all work together to achieve a common goal while juggling our differences in digital expertise?

A Multi-Generational Workplace Meets Technology

As Forrester Research found, the technology generation gap is widening, largely due to Gen X and Gen Y’s rapid integration of mobile and social behaviors. In almost every online behavior, Gen Y leads the adoption curve. Gen X isn’t far behind of Gen Y in terms of adoption rates, though they specialize in maximizing the functional benefits of technology. Both Gen X and Gen Y outpace baby boomers and mature workers in almost everything technology-related.

This can complicate a workplace situation in which many different generations are working together to reach the same goals. Workplaces are more multi-generational than ever, with Gen Y, Gen X, baby boomers, and mature workers all working under the same roof and struggling to make themselves heard. When it comes to technology, many younger workers don’t think their older counterparts can keep up with them, while many older workers think their younger co-workers lack the experience and work ethic they themselves have.

Organizations, meanwhile, are looking for their leaders who possess classic business management and leadership capabilities  to lead the business through cultural and structural shifts — but at the same time, they need to develop future leaders who will have the ability to operate in technology-driven environments. Add to this the need to bring in new employees who already have digital capabilities, and organizations can have a real challenge on their hands.

Real-Life Workplace Troubles

We’re already seeing these complications in real workplace situations. Recently, William K. Marimow, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, was demoted to a reporter position; he was told by the company’s new management that despite Marimow’s national reputation as an outstanding print journalist, he didn’t have the background in digital media necessary to continue to lead the paper.

Some companies, however, are wading through these changes more successfully. The authors of the Talent 3.0 study have created 10 suggestions to help organizations successfully build a digital  workplace and thrive in a digital world.  Below, I’ve touched on each of them:

1. Build a comprehensive digital strategy that is shared broadly and repeatedly across the organization.
As the authors say, “You will never reach your destination if you do not know where you are going, how you are getting there and who is on the bus.” A well-articulated strategy that supports the core strategic drivers of your business will help your organization identify and prioritize new business opportunities and anticipate emerging competitive threats. Make sure everyone’s on board — including the CEO and senior execs.

2. Embed digital literacy across the organization.
They’re not just talking marketing campaigns and flashy e-mails to employees, but about internal communications to employee groups and external communications to vendors, suppliers and shareholders. It’s about doing product and market research and initiating multi-regional, 24/7 real-time collaboration. Your organization needs to work to seamlessly integrate your chosen technologies across most all of your business activities and processes.

3. Renew focus on business fundamentals.
Technology and rapid innovation means competition coming at your organization from all sides, at any time. Technology also brings a demand for more transparency to your products and services, and it’s important to continue to focus on the quality of those. The best digital strategy won’t succeed if you suffer in other areas of your business.

4. Embrace the new rules of customer engagement.
Customers are now in control more than ever before, with multitudes of research at their fingertips. Marketing today is less about pushing your brand messages and more about brand intimacy and building relationships through dialogue with customers. Strive to listen and inspire and remember that even though some interactions may be through digital platforms, respect, relevance and responsiveness are still of the utmost importance.

5. Understand global differences in how people access and use the Internet.
People in different parts of the world access, adopt and consume technology very differently, and successful organizations will prioritize geographic opportunities when executing digital initiatives and building teams, and localize programs where needed to account for cultural and lifestyle differences.

Your leaders must be willing to dive into data and learn about the technology advances that enable these initiatives, as well as help to define the most meaningful issues for your business.

7. Focus on the customer experience.
Putting the customer at the center of your decision making enables you to break down those organizational silos and overcome operational and resource barriers that can hinder your technology-driven initiatives.

8. Develop leaders with skill-sets that bridge traditional and digital expertise.
People with both business savvy and digital expertise are in short supply and high demand. Your organization should, in the short term, focus on building a team with the right mix of skills and a diverse group of viewpoints and approaches who can help you think through your opportunities and challenges.

Experienced senior-level employees who didn’t grow up with digital technologies must be willing to take a leap of faith and invest time and energy into learning about them and the opportunities they bring to your organization, while up-and-coming digital leaders must learn to look outside of their digital comfort zones, collaborate with people across your organization in various functions, and build those classic business management capabilities.

9. Pay close attention to cultural fit when recruiting digital leaders.
Web-centric and Web-enhanced cultures, although similar in many respects, are still worlds apart. Your organization must find and empower leaders who can advance digital objectives, given the pace, values, intensity, structure, decision-making process and role of digital in the business.  “Start-up” workers, used to a free-flowing and highly intense culture, generally have trouble adjusting to a corporate environment with more formal processes and slower decision-making. The same can be said for employees from traditional backgrounds who get hired at a start-up; they often struggle to adjust to the intense pace and fast decision-making start-ups are known for.

As these examples highlight, it’s important to assess candidates’ cultural fit within your organization, which can depend on many factors, including the way your business is organized and the pace of activity and degree of senior-level support for digital initiatives. At the same time, your organization should take a look at itself and identify and address those elements of your culture that stand in the way of the collaboration necessary to drive digital initiatives. How is your organization holding itself back?

5. Understand the motivations of your top talent.
The best digital talent is in high demand, and they are often drawn to a certain type of company culture. To optimize your chances of attracting — and retaining — your best people, it’s important to have  a clear digital strategy, strong C-level sponsorship, and an entrepreneurial culture that values experimentation and creativity and encourages employees to contribute.

I’ve summarized these ten guidelines in this post, but you can read them in full, as well as the complete Talent 3.0 study, here (download the PDF).

What do you see as your organization’s biggest challenge right now in an increasingly digital and multi-generational workplace?

Feel like something’s been, well, different at the office lately? That things seem a bit emptier at the workplace? A bit quieter? Well, you’re not crazy — you’re just observant. Turns out many employees are calling off of work to crawl back under the covers and hide from the recession, build a delicious burger cake, or explain a cow break-in to the cops.

Yes, I said cow break-in. CareerBuilder has just released its 2010 survey of the most unusual excuses for missing work, and if you thought 2009′s most unusual excuses lived up to their name, you’re in luck — 2010′s list is just as full of wacky, creative, and head-shaking employee excuses.

Sick… or Sick of the Recession?

CareerBuilder 2010 survey on absenteeism, which included more than 3,100 workers and more than 2,400 employers, reveals that 29 percent of workers (a slight increase from 28 percent last year) have pulled a Ferris Bueller and played hooky from the office at least once this year, calling in sick when they were actually well.

But why? While the excuses can be off-the-wall, the reasons behind them might  not be so out there. Last year, I mentioned that, although some workers call off of work every year, 2009′s high rate of absences due to fake excuses were for the first time likely a reflection of recession-induced stress and burnout. That recession-related stress could be seeping into 2010, as 27 percent of employers in this year’s survey think they are seeing an increase in bogus sick excuses from employees due to continued stress and burnout caused by the weak economy.

The majority of employees surveyed say they call in sick with fake excuses because they “just don’t feel like going to work,” followed by “needing to relax” and “catching up on sleep.” Other reasons included doctor’s appointments, needing to run personal errands, and plans with family and friends. In addition to recession burnout, the workplace/life balance is shifting more and more, and as many employees are working while off the clock, they’re also feeling a need to get more personal things done while on the clock.

2010′s Most Unusual Excuses for Missing Work

Time to moooove:
“A cow broke into my house and I have to wait for the insurance man.”

Why did the chicken cross the road?
“A chicken attacked my mom.”

PG version of “American Pie”:
“My finger is stuck in a bowling ball.”

Bad hair day:
“My hair transplant has gone bad.”

Kids can be so mean?
“My girlfriend threw a Sit ‘n Spin through my living room window.”

Just kickin’ it:
“My foot is caught in the garbage disposal.”

Not-so clever comeback:
“I’m not feeling too clever today.”

Thanksgiving faux pas:
“I burned my mouth on a pumpkin pie.”

Eh?
“I was in a boat on Lake Erie and ran out of gas and the coast guard towed me to the Canadian side.”

Just a law-abiding citizen:
“I have to mow the lawn to avoid a lawsuit from the home owner’s association.”

It’s a Matter of Trust…

While the majority of employers said they believe their workers when they say they’re feeling under the weather, 29 percent admitted they’ve checked up on an employee who called in sick, and 16 percent said they have gone so far as to fire a worker for missing work without a proven excuse.

• Of the employers who checked up on an employee, 70 percent said they required the employee to show them a doctor’s note.
• While half called the employee at home, 18 percent had another worker call the employee (shady!) and 15 percent drove by the employee’s house or apartment (am I the only one who just had flashbacks of The Office‘s Michael checking up on Oscar?).

… And It Comes Down to Communication

“Six-in-ten employers we surveyed said they let their team members use sick days for mental health days,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “If you need to take some time away from the office, the best way not to cause yourself more stress is to be open and honest with your manager.”

On the flip side, employers must also be open and communicative about policies and preferences for work absence. Let your employees know what your expectations are, and keep in mind that by being open-minded with your employees, they’re more likely to return the favor.

The recession has been hard on everyone, not least of all the employees who have weathered the ups and downs with your business. Sick or not, taking a mental health day to rest, go on a bike ride, get a massage, or spend time with family may be just what the doctor ordered for  them — and the best thing for your business. Remember that trust and respect of your employees will generally equate to trust and respect back from them — and less headaches for you.

What are the most unusual (or most unbelievable) sick excuses you’ve gotten from your employees — or that you’ve used yourself?

Today’s the last day of the American Staffing Association’s Staffing World 2010 conference in Las Vegas, and although what happens in Vegas normally does stay in Vegas, we’ve managed to  snag some PG-style videos and commentary about recruiting and staffing firm leaders’ views on social media trends.

1) Hear how some staffing firms are using social media right now, even during the conference, to promote their firms and engage with candidates:

2) Here are panelists from yesterday’s social media panel at Staffing World, talking about adopting and managing social media, and addressing the question so many are asking: Where’s the return on investment in social media?

3) Lastly, here’s Richard Wahlquist, President and the CEO of ASA, discussing the state of the staffing and recruiting industry today, which issues are top of mind right now for firms, and where the industry is headed as we work toward economic recovery:

Remember, you can check out all of CareerBuilder’s videos from Staffing World here, or follow along with the tweets.

The American Staffing Association’s Staffing World 2010 conference, taking place at the Venetian Casino Hotel Resort in Las Vegas, NV, is well underway. Throngs of recruiting and staffing professionals have been mingling and networking, attending professional development sessions like keynotes and workshops, browsing exhibitor booths (like CareerBuilder’s — yes, that’s a shameless plug), and generally having a great time while learning more about how to not only adapt but thrive in our rapidly changing workplace. And we want to share some of those learnings with all of you.

New Economy, New Attitudes

We all know businesses are rethinking their strategies, doing more with less, and thinking creatively to get ahead in today’s  economy. What’s worked in the past won’t necessarily work now, and everything from the role of contingent workers to the attitudes of Gen Y in the workplace are shifting. As ASA says on their site, “The “Great Recession’ reset the global economy to a ‘new normal.’” We’re all figuring out how to adjust as the dust settles, and conferences like this are an opportunity to share ideas and push the conversation forward.

Although I’m going to post more videos in a subsequent post, you can find all of CareerBuilder’s videos from Staffing World here and peruse them at your leisure — and be sure to follow along with the conference tweets with hashtag #sw10.

Here’s the first video I wanted to share — it features Bruce Tulgan, keynote speaker at Staffing World 2010 and founder of Rainmaker Thinking Inc. In the video, he talks to CareerBuilder about what we’re dealing with right now: a highly uncertain business environment,  a high-pressure workplace and a high maintenance work force. Although he focuses on what this combination means for staffing firms and talent, much of his advice can really be applied to any business:

What’s your take on what Bruce has to say?

Twenty-one percent of employers expect to add full-time, permanent employees in the fourth quarter, according to the latest survey from CareerBuilder and USA TODAY (download the full report here) of more than 2,400 hiring managers and human resource professionals and more than 3,100 workers.

While we’re not necessarily “in the clear,” “over the hump,” “on the comeback trail,”breathing a sigh of relief,” or (enter overused phrase here), some aspects of Q3 were positive in terms of hiring, and Q4′s projections put us on track to continue the past several quarters’ positive trends.

The state of 2010: Projections versus reality

• Looking at the state of hiring in 2010 thus far, 24 percent of employers reported adding full-time, permanent headcount in each quarter from January through September — better than original projections for that period, which averaged 21 percent.
• In addition, actual hiring has consistently beat projected hiring for the last six quarters of the survey. If trends persist, we could be looking at the actual number of hires for the fourth quarter exceeding projections as well.

Where were we a year ago?

In terms of actual hiring back in Q4 2009, 20 percent of employers reported they had hired full-time, permanent staff, while 13 percent decreased headcount — so, if actual hiring meets this quarter’s projections (which, as stated above, is likely to happen, as actual hiring numbers have trended to not only meet but exceed projections for the last year and a half), we’re looking a bit better in terms of hiring (and downsizing) than we were a year ago.

CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson on this year’s trends and where we’re headed:

“We have seen positive job creation trends throughout the year, where positions are opening across industries each month,” said Ferguson.

“The return to pre-recession employment levels will take some time.  Although the recession officially ended a year ago, we still have an economy burdened by debt.  Employers are watchful and gradually augmenting their staffs with permanent and temporary hiring.”

What happened this past quarter?

Q3 2010 also showed signs of improvement over Q3 2009:

• More hiring: For one, 25 percent of employers reported they added full-time, permanent employees, up from 18 percent in the same period last year.  This signifies three consecutive quarters of both sequential and year over year improvements in 2010.
• Not as much downsizing: In addition, 12 percent of employers decreased headcount, down from 15 percent last year.  Sixty-two percent reported no change in their number of full-time, permanent employees while one percent were undecided.

What’s ahead for Q4?

Well, things are looking consistent as far as projected hiring, as this is the fourth consecutive quarter where at least one in five employers planned to increase headcount. Specifically:

• Twenty-one percent of employers plan to increase their full-time, permanent headcount in the fourth quarter, while 10 percent expect to downsize staffs.
• Sixty-five percent anticipate no change, while 4 percent are undecided.

Other Forecast Highlights

Temporary Hiring

• Many employers are hesitant about ramping back up to full capacity. As a result, 30 percent hired contract and temporary workers in Q3, and 27 percent plan to do so in Q4. And some employees will be looking at full-time gigs: 24 percent of employers said they’re planning to turn some of these positions into permanent jobs.
• At 27 percent, IT leads the pack as far as most likely to hire temporary or contract workers in Q4, followed by engineering and finance/accounting.

Hiring By Company Size

Although small businesses continue to struggle with accessing credit needed to operate and expand their businesses, some of them plan to add staff by the end of the year (as do some larger companies), while other companies plan to reduce work force in Q4:

• Thirteen percent of employers with 50 or less employees, 24 percent of employers with 51 to 250 employees, and 26 percent of employers with more than 250 employees plan to increase headcount in the fourth quarter.
• Seven percent of employers with 1 to 50 employees plan to reduce their work force in the fourth quarter, compared to 8 percent of businesses with 51 to 250 employees and 12 percent with more than 250 employees.

Compensation in Q4 2010

Many employers aren’t looking to increase salary — but the good news is that only 5 percent anticipate a decrease in salaries, and many employers are looking to give at least small salary increases.

• Forty-one percent of employers anticipate no change in salary levels in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year.
• Thirty-five percent expect there will be an increase of 3 percent or less.
• Fourteen percent expect their average changes will be between 4 and 10 percent and 1 percent predict an increase of 11 percent or more.

The Worker’s Perspective

As we’ve mentioned before in our mid-year job forecast, only half of full-time, employed workers said they are happier with their employment situation today than they were one year ago.  The other half, predictably, are not.

Why the lack of job satisfaction? Well, workers report several contributing factors; one of the biggest is that they say they’re not able to contribute to their roles at the levels they would like to be.

• Nearly three in ten workers (29 percent) reported feeling underemployed.
• Of these workers, 71 percent stated their skills and experience aren’t being utilized to their full potential, 45 percent don’t feel challenged and 30 percent stated they don’t feel a sense of autonomy in their positions.
• Nineteen percent said they feel underemployed because they took a job during the recession that was lower than their previous position.
• Twenty-seven percent of all workers reported they don’t feel loyal to their current employer.

You can read the full report here.

What do you think about Q4′s job forecast and the outlook for hiring?

Autumn’s a time of change. This past month, we learned that Rahm’s leaving the White House for Chicago to make a mayoral run, we said goodbye to Tony Curtis and Greg Giraldo, and we said hello to Google Instant — and  a new planet (?!). In the world of recruitment, we also saw a lot of changes in September — let’s take a final look back at some of them before we fully admit to ourselves that there’s now less than a month to stock up on candy and find that perfect costume before Halloween hits.

Just when you thought you knew all about generations in the workplace, Linksters came along. Who are these members of the “Facebook Generation” — and when will they be invading your office?

Speaking of things you may not be familiar with, if you’ve been wondering what the heck niche job sites are and why your business should care, we break it all down for you here. You know what else you should care about? Seasonal hiring — holiday carols are going to be piped throughout shopping malls before you know it. We’ve got 7 tips that will make your holiday season staffing as smooth as possible.

Candidates and employees aren’t thrilled about a lot of things in the workplace right now, and your salary offer may be one of the reasons why. Heck, a third of your employees think they can do your job better than you can, and others may even be blaming you for their finances. But wait — don’t panic. Here’s some ways you can reignite the flame with burned out employees.

Many workers are drinking this to get through the busy workday and avoid hypnotic states, and other workers are, well, trying to hypnotize potential employers into hiring them. And by learning how to run an extremely successful employee referral program, you won’t have to hypnotize any of your staff to refer candidates — they’ll be lining up to do it.

Readers have been sounding off on performance reviews: Do they belong in today’s workplace, or do you have a better idea for how to evaluate performance? On the note of things that don’t belong in the workplace, do smartphones need to make their way out of the meeting room and back into people’s pockets? I talk about why they’re distracting — and disrespectful.

What bit of recruitment news did you find interesting this month?

A while back, a friend (we’ll call her Penelope) complained to me that her manager often wouldn’t pay attention to her in one-on-one meetings. As Penelope poured her heart out and told her manager of her work woes and recent successes, her manager busily listened and offered insightful feedback typed away on her Blackberry, checking messages and responding to e-mails (likely nodding occasionally and raising her head to give Penelope an empty smile or concerned furrowing of her brow).

Troubling, yes? At the time, I was shocked, but since hearing this anecdote, I’ve encountered this type of situation many times myself. My question is, when did the “other” things we’re doing become so important that we can’t pay full attention to the person speaking to us — and is it affecting employees in ways we may not even realize?

Phones and disrespect

The other day, Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich, wrote that the use of phones in meetings is extremely disrespectful — and I agree. As she says, phones aren’t allowed in meetings — although it’s never been expressly stated as a “rule.” It’s just part of the company’s culture. It’s clear that the company’s employees have enough respect for one another not to be tapping away on their phones while someone is talking.

How many times have you walked past a table of people eating lunch and every one of them is texting or e-mailing? Although the sight of it always seems ridiculous to me, I’m in no way innocent of the texting-at-restaurants trend. However, in the workplace, work needs to get done (often in a team setting), attention needs to be paid to the matter at hand, and the expectation should be different. Shouldn’t it?

What kind of message are you sending to employees?

The people using smart phones in meetings aren’t always lower-level employees; often, they’re managers and leaders. After all, leadership sets the tone for what’s appropriate and what’s not — and employees follow their lead. If a leadership figure  is habitually texting, e-mailing, or browsing on a phone during meetings, how do you think employees are perceiving that person — as well as the importance of the meeting?

Employees interpret leaders using their phone and not paying attention to what’s being said (even if they say they are) as not caring — and if they don’t care, why should their employees? It’s a poor move for morale, and it’s setting a terrible example as a leader. Plus, the person speaking or presenting likely feel pretty lousy when his or her manager or even the CEO is doing other things rather than listening to this really important thing that affects the organization.

Not a hard-and-fast rule

There are of course exceptions for any employee — your wife’s about to go into labor at any moment;  you are on deadline for a project and are expecting a call or e-mail that you must respond to right away; you’re attending to an emergency work or personal situation. I get it — it happens to everyone, and that’s why I’m not necessarily saying we should have a hard and fast rule of “No phones, no exceptions.” Not at all.

There are times when using phones can even benefit a meeting; you may be able to answer a question instantly with a quick Internet search and move on to the next item in the agenda, or e-mail someone not in the meeting and get a quick answer back that you can share with others present. Or, you may want to jot info into your phone pertinent to the meeting.

What I am saying is that there are times that using one’s phone can be more detrimental than putting it aside — and we must discern between the two.

Surviving in a technological world

There was a time (you may have to strain to remember) when we didn’t have smart phones or PDAs. There was a time when people had to leave others a message on (shudder) an  answering machine. And e-mail — what was that? While technology has made communication in the workplace a million times easier in many ways, it has also made it harder to draw a line where our technological communication must end and our human interaction must begin. It’s far too easy to do and not to think — but by not thinking, we’re doing a disservice to employees. And, as an article on ComputerWorld points out, we may not be as productive as we think while multitasking on these devices; by discussing something off-topic on your phone, you may be giving half your attention to two places but ultimately accomplishing less.

Some technology power users, however, say that it’s impossible — or at least not smart — to fail to answer work-related messages in real-time.  Business happens so fast that if you don’t stop to answer, you might miss something important.

Then again, life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. (Thanks Ferris.)

What do you think about phones at meetings — and is your workplace culture for or against it?

What’s special about today? Well, sure, it’s Wednesday, which means we’re halfway through the work week. And, yes, the first U.S. Congress adjourned on this date back in 1789. And it’s also true that writer Henry Robinson opened his Office of Addresses and Encounters – the first historically documented dating service — on this day in 1650. But no, I’m talking about something a little more… delicious.

It’s NATIONAL COFFEE DAY! Judging by my caps, I may or may not have enjoyed some already this morning. (I did.) To celebrate National Coffee Day in all its glory, I suggest you:
1) Consume some of the tasty brewed beverage if you are so inclined (many coffee shops are offering free or discounted coffee),
2) Grab a cup of java for your employees if you are not,
3) Discuss your love of all that comes from the coffee bean on Twitter via #nationalcoffeeday or on Facebook,
4) Read on for a dose of the latest coffee consumption trends brewing in the workplace, courtesy of a new joint survey by Dunkin’ Donuts and CareerBuilder among 3,661 full-time U.S. workers.

According to survey results, a cup of coffee a day helps keep us U.S. workers productive and energetic! But just how productive and energetic — and are your workers benefiting the most? Let’s take a look:

• Too many TPS reports: Nearly a third (32 percent) of workers said they (yawn) need coffee to get through the workday.
• Ridin’ the coffee wave: Forty-three percent of coffee drinkers reported they are less productive if they don’t drink coffee while on the job.
• Younger workers need their fix: Forty percent of American workers aged 18 to 24 admitted they can’t concentrate as well without coffee.
• Time to brew a new pot: Thirty-seven percent of American workers drink two or more cups of coffee during their workday.
• Delivery service might be in order: Seventy-five percent of American workers who buy coffee during the workday only travel a quarter mile or less for their daily brew.
• “I deserve it!”: Twenty-four percent of American workers aged 18 to 34 buy coffee as a way to treat themselves for a job well done.

Certain professions seem to drink coffee to keep them productive throughout the day more than others. Those who said they need coffee the most?

• Nurses
• Physicians
• Hotel workers
• Designers/Architects
• Financial/Insurance sales representatives
• Food preparers
• Engineers
• Teachers
• Marketing/Public Relations professionals
• Scientists
• Machine operators
• Government workers

Why do so many workers perk up when it comes to coffee?

As John Costello, Chief Global Customer and Marketing Officer at Dunkin’ Brands, says, “A large percentage of people start their day with a cup of coffee, and more than any other product, coffee has a unique place among hard-working people looking to make it through their increasingly busy and hectic workday.”

It’s true — we’re all busier than ever, and coffee’s one way many workers are either coping with their jam-packed days, winding down after work,  or catching up with co-workers and friends. In addition, coffee can be a great morale booster. What employee wouldn’t love a fresh pot of coffee first thing in the morning after a long commute? On The Hiring Site, we offered a three-month Dunkin’ Donuts coffee subscription as one of our monthly contest prizes, and our winner, Donna, said it best: “My team will love it.”

Do you provide free coffee for your employees at work? Do you work in a coffee-adoring workplace?