There’s more to look forward to this summer than just beach trips, baseball games and US Weekly’s annual “Best and Worst Celebrity Beach Bods” issue…

In a positive sign for the economy, seasonal hiring is expected to increase over the summer months, according to CareerBuilder’s annual Summer Job Forecast.

Of the more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals who participated in the survey, three in ten (29 percent) plan to hire workers for the summer, up from 21 percent in 2011 and an average of 22 percent over the past four years.

The busier summer hiring season is likely due to a combination of stronger-than-expected growth in the manufacturing sector and increased consumer confidence. Employers in the following industries are expected to lead seasonal hiring:

• Manufacturing: 45 percent [plan to add summer workers]
• Hospitality: 44 percent
• Retail: 34 percent
• Finance: 31 percent

Beyond these industries, customer service, office support, information technology, research, engineering and sales will also be hiring hotspots.

“Confidence is up among the employers we most closely associate with summer hiring,” said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, in a statement for the press release. “The forecast is a strong indicator that the job market will continue to strengthen as we come closer to the second half of 2012.”

What’s Hot This Summer: Three Workforce Trends
The survey also indicated the following trends among employer behavior this summer.

• Full-time work potential: 71 percent of employers hiring this summer said they’ll be considering some hires for permanent positions. In fact, 39 percent of employers said they’re less likely to hire someone who isn’t interested in working beyond summer.
• Increased pay: A majority (64 percent) of employers will pay their summer hires $10 or more per hour – up from 58 percent last year.
• Late-in-season hiring: While 42 percent of employers report that they typically complete their summer hiring by April, 38 percent complete it in May and 19 percent will hire in June and beyond.

Tell us: How do your hiring and compensation plans compare to the above findings?

As one of today’s fastest-growing companies, Coinstar, Inc. is in the unique position to hire workers across multiple functions and contribute to economic growth. Learn more about how Coinstar is empowering employment in the following video, or read the Q&A below with Coinstar’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Raquel Karls.

What does Coinstar do to ensure employees perform to their highest potential?
Coinstar has a clear mission to reimagine the possibilities as we pride ourselves on finding new and better ways of doing things. We’re focused on making products and services more accessible to consumers than ever before.  The same holds true for our workplace.  Coinstar employees are encouraged to leverage their skills and are supported in their development as they focus on achieving individual and team goals.  For example, through our learning management system, Learning Central, employees have access to self-directed training materials, and we have tools to support individual development planning throughout the organization.

How does your growth make an impact on the local communities you serve? Coinstar’s growth has enabled us to be a strong employer across the U.S., with growth in jobs, opportunities and new communities every day. In 2011, Coinstar filled over 600 roles nationwide, with very little turnover, and 2012 is trending even higher.

How do Coinstar employees contribute to this impact?
Coinstar employees are working in our retail partners’ businesses each and every day- so they’re making an employment contribution and providing a great service in those communities all of the time. As well, our employees are paid for time spent participating in company sponsored volunteer service events in addition to matching funds for giving by employees.

What advice would you pass on to your peers?
Finding the right talent is an investment that has massively exponential returns- you have to know what you’re looking for not just for today, but for the longer term, be diligent in finding it,  and then proactively develop it within the workplace.

How is Coinstar, Inc. empowering employment?
Coinstar provides employees great, independent roles in a growing, thriving business. It’s the right balance of having the freedom to create and innovate with the resources to make those ideas come to life.  Not many companies in the US could come close to matching what Coinstar is doing, and it’s an exciting place to work as a result!

Want to learn more about how other companies like Coinstar are working with CareerBuilder to empower employment? Visit www.empoweringemployment.com

“If a candidate comes into your organization and asks three different people, ‘What is your employee value proposition?’ every one of those people should be able to provide a similar answer,” says Rosemary Haefner, on what it means to have a clearly defined employment brand.

As vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, Haefner recently spearheaded the initiative to define CareerBuilder’s own employment brand.

“Your brand is basically your commercial,” Haefner explains. “It’s what should come to people’s mind when they hear your company’s name.”  While CareerBuilder has always enjoyed a reputation as a great place to work, Haefner wanted to clearly define what CareerBuilder stood for as an employer and what the company offers its employees.

“If you’re not specific about who you are as an employer, you can’t as easily determine which candidates will be successful in your organization or if employees are fulfilling their potential, and you won’t know what investments you need to be making in your organization.”

The problem some companies encounter, however, is that who they think they are as an employer and how others actually perceive them don’t always align. “You might think your brand is one thing, but then your employees might have an entirely different opinion. It’s almost as if you need a mirror to tell you who you are,” Haefner says.

Not wanting to fall into this trap, Haefner and her team sought objective feedback from current employees and prospective candidates. “We interviewed people both in and outside the organization, basically just asking them, ‘When you think about CareerBuilder, what rises to top?’” Haefner says. After a while, a similar theme began to surface from the survey results: “The answers were all about different ways to learn – both personally and professionally.” The surveys provided a foundation on which CareerBuilder could then build its employment brand strategy.

Finally, after an intense several months of interviews, surveys and discussion around “where we want to be as an organization and what we have to do to get there,” CareerBuilder was ready to begin promoting its new “Growth through Learning” employment brand.  “This brand captures the idea that, if you’re open to learning, and if you’re game to be challenged, this is the place for you,” Haefner says.

Looking back now, “Growth through Learning” seems like an obvious description of CareerBuilder’s employment brand. After all, education and learning have always been integral to the culture at CareerBuilder. In addition to the company’s generous tuition reimbursement program, employees have access to a wealth of free career-related courses through CBLearn, its internal training portal, and in 2006, CareerBuilder launched the Leadership Development Series. The invitation-only, MBA-style program is taught by business school professors and designed to prepare high potential employees for higher levels of responsibility.

But educational opportunities go beyond classes and coursework at CareerBuilder. “We believe that learning isn’t just about sitting in a classroom. We’re always looking for ways to expose employees to new opportunities to learn,” Haefner says. Those opportunities come in nearly any form conceivable – from exposure to the influential leaders who come to speak at the company’s annual kickoff event (past speakers have included Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright and Jack Welch) to work exchange programs with the company’s international offices, to community outreach and company-administered volunteer events.  Understanding that competition and innovation are also key to learning, CareerBuilder encourages employees to come up with business plans for its annual Ideas from Everywhere contest and holds regular Hack Days.

While these initiatives would likely exist in some form or another without having gone through the exercise of creating a defined employment brand, chances are they would have taken much longer to execute. With “Growth through Learning” as the framework on which all company initiatives are based, Haefner says, “It’s easier to make decisions now on where to invest our time, effort and money, because we already know that, in the end, everything should come back to growth through learning.”

Stars: they’re just like us! They buy their own groceries, they pump their own gas, and they even cut their maternity leaves short and struggle with work-life balance!

According to CareerBuilder’s annual Mother’s Day survey, one in four (26 percent) working moms who have had a child in the last three years reported they did not take the full maternity leave allowed by their company, and one in ten took two weeks or less.

But while celebrity moms are more likely to take shorter maternity leaves because they need to fly to Germany to film a shampoo commercial, the mothers in CareerBuilder’s survey had arguably less glamorous reasons for doing so: Competitive work environments, demanding positions and financial pressures played key roles in respondents’ decisions to go back to work early.

According to the survey, 39 percent of working moms are the sole financial provider in their household, compared with 43 percent of working dads.  Working dads who are the sole breadwinner were almost twice as likely to earn $50,000 or more and were approximately three times as likely to earn six figures as working moms.  Women were much more likely to earn less than $35,000 compared to men.

How much time do working moms get to spend with their families?
Unsurprisingly, with so much pressure to be in the office, women also reported feeling a struggle to find a healthy balance between work and family life. One in four (25 percent) working moms feel they have to choose between their children and being successful at their jobs, and 24 percent say work obligations caused them to miss significant events in their children’s lives.

When asked how much time they’re able to spend with their children during the work week, half of working moms said they average around four hours of quality time each day, while nearly 30 percent spend two hours.

What can working moms do to find a better work/life balance?
Looking for a way to balance your work and family life, but lacking the help of a live-in nanny, personal assistant and bodyguards? Hope Gurion, Chief Development Officer at CareerBuilder (and mother of two), offers the following tips for working moms to better manage work and family.

• 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, cover responsibilities, etc.
• 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.
• 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 and playtime.
• 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.
• 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 such as going to the gym, taking a walk, reading, etc.

Tell us: How do you balance work and family life?

Ninety days is the amount of time most new hires have to lay the foundation for success in their companies. And according to positive psychologists and neuroscientists, it’s also the number of days it takes to make a new habit a way of being. Because onboarding is the process of getting new employees integrated into your company culture, competent in their roles and consistently delivering the results you expect of them, your onboarding process should be more than a one-day orientation or even a week-long employee training program.

Here are the key reasons why your onboarding process should extend throughout your employees’ first quarter and how you can ensure that you best meet your new hires where they are, and partner with them so they get to where you need them to be.

Habits Are Created Through Daily, Intentional Practice. If you want your new employees to be peak performers, make yourself a partner in their learning and development. Give them the knowledge they need to successfully perform their work and make yourself accessible to support their growth, ideally through weekly check-in meetings. Encourage them to book time with you whenever they need it—regardless of what the issue is. If you make it easy for your new employees to come to you with questions and concerns, you can nip any issue in the bud before it becomes a real problem.

It Takes Time to Create a Culture Fit. As Zappos founder and CEO, Tony Hsieh says, “If you get the culture right then most of the other stuff will happen naturally.” Unfortunately, for a lot of new employees, the first 90 days at a new job can feel more like a dress rehearsal than a final performance. New hires don’t yet feel like they are a part of their company culture, and yet they must before they can make positive contributions to it. There are a few key tactics managers can put into practice to expedite the process:

• Connect new hires with all the right people: Immediately introduce new employees to the colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders they will be working closely with. By facilitating these connections, you ensure that your employees have the people resources they need to be successful, and you give them a supportive community which will help them feel strong and supported.
• Demystify company and field jargon: There is nothing worse for a new employee than to hear other people using abbreviations or industry terms that they don’t understand.  Help them become a part of your tribe by giving them the inside scoop on words and phrases they can expect to hear.
• Hook young professionals into your company’s unique cultural features: Get your new hires excited about your team and company traditions and rituals. One of the easiest ways to get your young professionals involved in your culture is to have them share their experiences with it. Whether it’s writing testimonials for your Facebook fan page or employee blog, documenting colleagues at work (and hopefully sometimes at play!) for company events, or having them share their candid experiences with prospective new hires, when employees have the opportunity to reflect on the culture they will take more of an active role in it.

A successful onboarding process requires the support of everyone who has a stake in new hire success, e.g., hiring managers, HR, training, and a direct supervisor. It takes time and should be ongoing. In order to inspire the performance you want from your new employees, you have to invest time and energy in bringing them on board and welcoming them into your workplace family.

Alexia Vernon is an author, speaker, International Coach Federation (ICF) certified coach, trainer, and media personality who specializes in helping organizations recruit, retain, educate, and grow their young professional workforce. In her book 90 Days 90 Ways: Onboard Young Professionals to Peak Performance, Alexia demonstrates how to achieve the goal of getting new employees oriented, integrated and trained within 90 days of their employment. As a member of Gen Y and with her unique approach to talent development, Alexia has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including CNN, NBC, Wall Street Journal, CBS MoneyWatch, FOX Business News, Forbes.com, ABCNews.com, TheGlassDoor.com, and Mint.com.  To learn more visit www.AlexiaVernon.com and connect with Alexia on Twitter @AlexiaVernon.

Diversity is important in today’s business world. At least that’s the claim many employers make, despite not having sufficient diversity initiatives. Why the contradiction?

Perhaps in an effort to attract candidates, some organizations are only saying what they think candidates want to hear. They might be surprised, then, to see new research from CareerBuilder indicating that diversity isn’t the number one (or even two or three or…) factor diverse candidates want from their employers.

According to a recent survey of 4,000 workers nationwide:

• African Americans rank diversity seventh their list of most important employer attributes. Diversity follows compensation and benefits; advancement; training; work-life balance; interesting assignments; and appreciation by management, in order of importance.
• For Hispanics and Asians, diversity falls even lower on the list. It ranks below (in order) compensation; benefits; training; advancement opportunities; work-life balance; interesting assignments; good reputation; financially strong; high quality; good culture; and personal impact.

Given these findings, is it even worth it for employers to invest in diversity initiatives? Absolutely, says Andrea Briggs, Project Manager of Talent Intelligence and Consulting for Personified. Because while diversity might not rank as highly as one might expect among diverse candidates, it ranks much higher among diverse candidates than white candidates: It’s among the top 10 for 37.5 percent of diverse candidates overall, compared to only 29.5 percent of white candidates. This disparity, Briggs says, is significant.

“For organizations trying to recruit more diverse candidates and diversify their workforces, this should definitely be a part of their message in their employment brand,” she says. “Diversity resonates much more with diverse candidates, and even though they consider other factors more important, when an organization wants to differentiate themselves in the minds of diverse candidates, diversity in an organization is one way to do that.”

If these results surprise you, you may need to re-evaluate what you know about the candidates you hope to attract to your organization. These findings further underscore the need for employers to research their target talent – whoever they are – to ensure they’re sending the right message to the right candidates.

What are your thoughts? Do these findings surprise you? How do you ensure you’re sending the right message to the candidates you want for your organization?

According to one CareerBuilder survey, 38 percent of employees have embellished their job responsibilities at some point, while 18 percent have lied about their skill sets. Other common lies surrounded information about employees’ start and end dates of employment, academic degrees, previous employers and job titles. 

6 Ways to Keep Candidates Legit
Use the following tips as you evaluate candidate resumes moving forward:

1. Perform a standard background check on things like work history, residences, dates of employment, etc. Look for discrepancies between what the candidate submitted and what the reports reveal.
2. Check for red flags: Unexplained gaps in employment, a reluctance to explain the reason for leaving, and unusual periods of self-employment can be a tip off to false employment history. Always check references, including clients, for self-employed work history. Because even references can be fake, check the web sites of previous employers and use the phone numbers found online for employment verification.  (Can’t find a previous employer’s web site, even after you’ve “Googled” it? The Better Business Bureau or the local Chamber of Commerce are good resources to check, too.)
3. Utilize social networking sites. Social networking profiles contain public information that may help you verify certain information such as a candidate’s work history or education credentials.  (Just be aware of the possible legal ramifications of using social media to screen applicants. It’s probably best not to ask candidates for their Facebook passwords, either.)
4. Test their skills. Knowing that employers use keyword searching to find and qualify their resumes, applicants may include keywords for all skills required for the job – regardless of whether they have them or not. Find out if they’re embellishing by asking specific technical questions about the skills they claim to have and actually test their computer skills.
5. Be fair. Remember that mistakes and misunderstandings do happen. If you find a discrepancy, give the candidate an opportunity to explain.
6. Use common sense. Trust your intuition and experience. If something doesn’t seem right, follow up on it.

Do you have an experience with a candidate or employee who lied on his or her resume? Share with us in the comments below.

Editor’s note: This post was adapted from an earlier post about resume lies, which includes true life stories from readers sharing their own ‘fake resume’ experiences.

Call it the business world’s version of a “wardrobe malfunction”…an “inadvertent error” may be the undoing of Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson, who was recently outed for claiming to have a degree in computer science, when in fact he graduated with a bachelor’s in accounting.

The real issue at hand, however, is not so much what he lied about – after all, it doesn’t take a degree to learn how to code – but the fact that he lied. Sadly, Thompson is far from the only person who’s ever taken creative license with a resume. According to one CareerBuilder survey, 38 percent of employees have embellished their job responsibilities at some point, while 18 percent have lied about their skill sets. Other common lies surrounded information about employees’ start and end dates of employment, academic degrees, previous employers and job titles. 

6 Ways to Keep Candidates Legit
Regardless of Thompson’s fate, his story is a good reminder that no one is immune to being the victim of a fake resume. Use the following tips as you evaluate candidate resumes moving forward:

1. Perform a standard background check on things like work history, residences, dates of employment, etc. Look for discrepancies between what the candidate submitted and what the reports reveal.
2. Check for red flags: Unexplained gaps in employment, a reluctance to explain the reason for leaving, and unusual periods of self-employment can be a tip off to false employment history. Always check references, including clients, for self-employed work history. Because even references can be fake, check the web sites of previous employers and use the phone numbers found online for employment verification.  (Can’t find a previous employer’s web site, even after you’ve “Googled” it? The Better Business Bureau or the local Chamber of Commerce are good resources to check, too.)
3. Utilize social networking sites. Social networking profiles contain public information that may help you verify certain information such as a candidate’s work history or education credentials.  (Just be aware of the possible legal ramifications of using social media to screen applicants. It’s probably best not to ask candidates for their Facebook passwords, either.)
4. Test their skills. Knowing that employers use keyword searching to find and qualify their resumes, applicants may include keywords for all skills required for the job – regardless of whether they have them or not. Find out if they’re embellishing by asking specific technical questions about the skills they claim to have and actually test their computer skills.
5. Be fair. Remember that mistakes and misunderstandings do happen. If you find a discrepancy, give the candidate an opportunity to explain.
6. Use common sense. Trust your intuition and experience. If something doesn’t seem right, follow up on it.

Do you have an experience with a candidate or employee who lied on his or her resume? Share with us in the comments below.

Editor’s note: This post was adapted from an earlier post about resume lies, which includes true life stories from readers sharing their own ‘fake resume’ experiences.

I was going to talk about all the great giveaways and exclusive events going on at CareerBuilder booth #602 during SHRM 2012 in Atlanta this year, but then I decided to re-watch the ‘The Bachelorette’ on Hulu instead realized you could hear about it from celebrity chef Kevin Gillespie of the renowned Woodfire Grill and ‘Top Chef’ fame.

In case you didn’t view the video, here’s the gist of everything we’re cooking up – literally and figuratively – at booth #602:

• Special event: Cooking demo with celebrity chef Kevin Gillespie
• Enter now: You could win big during SHRM 2012
• While you’re at the booth…food, drinks, giveaways and more
• Presentations you won’t see anywhere else

Cooking demonstration with celebrity chef Kevin Gillespie:

Don’t miss the chance to watch the former ‘Top Chef’ contestant cook dishes from his renowned Woodfire Grill restaurant in Atlanta – all while enjoying complimentary food and beverages!

When: Sunday, June 25 from 5-6pm at the CareerBuilder booth

Want to meet Kevin in person? Fill out the form below to win a photo with Kevin Gillespie and VIP seats to his cooking demo.

Three ways to win at booth #602:

Be the first to learn about prizes and giveaways and enter for the chance to meet a Top Chef, receive VIP access and take home a Calphalon cookware set.

• On your phone: Text SHRM to 88769 to get updates about exclusive prizes and events.
• In person: Bring the cover band (from your SHRM Magazine pre-show Daily in your registration packet) to the CareerBuilder booth to enter for the chance to win a 10-Piece Calphalon cookware set worth $340. If, by chance, you don’t get the pre-show magazine, simply print this copy of the cover band.
• Right here: Fill out the form above for a chance to win a photo with Kevin Gillespie and VIP seats to our ‘Top Chef’ cooking demo.

While you’re at the CareerBuilder booth…

Don’t forget about the many activities going on during showroom hours at our booth:

Enjoy complimentary Southern-style food and beverages including mac ‘n’ cheese bites, peach cobbler, mini BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, Arnold Palmers and a Bloody Mary bar

Collect, Play and Win: Collect the recipe cards found at the booth to play CB Plinko for the chance to win great prizes, including Converse All-Star Athletic Shoes.

Check out the featured presentations you won’t see anywhere else:

Presentations for Monday, June 25^th

• 10 – 10:15 am: The Talent Mismatch
  Presented by: Jamie Womack, Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Branding, CareerBuilder
• 1:30 – 1:45pm: Hire Intelligence: Using Data to Recruit Smarter
  Presented by: Abdel Tefridj, Vice President, Workforce Analytics, CareerBuilder
• 3:30 – 3:45pm: Mind the Gap: Conquering the Divide Between Recruiters and Job Seekers
  Presented by: Bryan Johanson, Chief Operating Officer, The Adler Group, and Jennifer Seith, Managing Director, Business Development, CareerBuilder

Presentation for Tuesday, June 26^th

• 10 – 10:15am: Mind the Gap: Conquering the Divide Between Recruiters and Job Seekers
  Presented by: Bryan Johanson, Chief Operating Officer, The Adler Group and Jennifer Seith, Managing Director, Business Development, CareerBuilder

Stay updated! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or text SHRM to 88769 to make sure you don’t miss out on all the excitement CareerBuilder has to offer during SHRM 2012!

Today, Matt Ferguson, chief executive officer of CareerBuilder, spoke with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” about the April employment report and the outlook for the U.S. labor market.

Payrolls climbed 115,000, the smallest gain in six months, after a revised 154,000 rise in March that was more than initially estimated. The job outlook for recent grads, however, is the best it has been in three years. A recent CareerBuilder study shows more than half (54 percent) plan to hire recent college graduates this year, an increase from 46 percent last year, 44 percent in 2010 and 43 percent in 2009.

Below is Ferguson’s interview with Liu:

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.

“Every day, I hear stories from new hires about how happy they are to have found their home at Concentra.”

Tara Petty is the Assistant Vice President of Recruiting at Concentra, a national health care company where, she says, “employees are the company, and the ones who make a difference in the lives of our patients.” In the following Q&A, Petty details what it means to empower employees at Concentra, and how her team finds the talented individuals on whom Concentra’s success ultimately depends.

How do you describe the culture at Concentra? There’s a feeling that’s palpable when you walk through the doors at a Concentra clinic or at our corporate office. You can tell the people here genuinely care about each other and about our patients and clients. We’re a family, and we support one another in our cause of “improving America’s healthcare, one patient at a time.”

Does the culture influence the way you recruit? Absolutely. Technical expertise is obviously important and critical in hiring, but finding someone who is also welcoming, respectful and skillful is equally as important.

How does Concentra work to make an impact on the communities you serve? Giving back to the community is an integral part of Concentra’s culture. A strong community relationship between citizens and the local center team is essential to the success of our business. Our colleagues regularly participate in fundraising events, volunteer efforts and donation collections to support locally-based organizations.

How does Concentra empower employees to make a difference in people’s lives? At Concentra, we believe that who we are as a company is made up of the things we do as individuals. Our Orange Book is a collection of letters and testimonials from patients who’ve highlighted some of the ways Concentra colleagues have made a difference in their lives. We encourage people to give perfect service, from the inside out, and the Orange Book is our guide on how to provide perfect service. It is part of the fiber of our company, and we regularly highlight and recognize people who are living ‘Orange Book values.’

How did the idea for the Orange Book come about? The concept began after seeing how other service industry leaders equipped their employees with the right tools and messages to empower each person to deliver great service. Because the work environments can vary significantly at Concentra, our marketing department developed the book to give colleagues a way to keep those messages close and put the keys to great service in their hands.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your job? Recruiting clinicians. There is a shortage of physicians in America, and we are competing against a lot of companies vying for this small talent pool.

How has this shortage changed the way you recruit? Our primary recruiting goal for 2012 is to position our openings and company benefits in front of the right physicians. We are working with Personified to create a diverse recruitment advertising program, which includes using niche job boards, search engine marketing and optimization, as well as traditional recruiting techniques like e-mail and direct mail campaigns. We also have a physician referral program that pays $7,500 to any full-time colleague who refers someone we hire, and we’re attending more than 20 health care conferences this year to get the word out that we’re hiring.

What specific qualities do you look for when hiring? That’s simple – it’s our values: A healing focus, a selfless heart and a tireless resolve.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job? I’ve been given an opportunity to revamp the way Concentra goes to market with its recruitment initiatives. Every day, I hear stories from new hires about how happy they are to have found their home at Concentra. Without the enhancements we’ve made and the way we recruit, these colleagues might not have found us, and that’s what’s most rewarding.

What do you wish people knew about what goes into recruiting for Concentra?
At Concentra, we know the right people in the right position create the perfect experience. Our talented recruiters work very hard to ensure we find the right fit for our open positions. There are plenty of people who could “do the job” but we search to find the person who embodies our values and demonstrates the exceptional technical abilities to make the position and the person most successful.

When a new hire goes rogue or fails to meet expectations, employers are often blind to their role in the failure.  Instead of asking, “Could I have better supported my employee?” they instead say, “I hated to do it, but I had to let Suzie go” or “I had to put Bill on probation.”

We erroneously have a habit of viewing underperformance or shattered expectations as the fault of one person. Once we understand that we are as responsible for the success of a new hire as the new hire is, we can develop, apply, and refine strategies and corresponding techniques to ensure our new hires, particularly those who are new to the workforce and in their first one or two positions, get to where they need to be.

For sustainable workplace success, transparency is key. New employees can easily become lost and unsure of themselves when employer expectations are not communicated clearly. As a direct supervisor or manager, you should touch base with the new hire by the end of the first week about their chief responsibilities and how you will hold them accountable. During this conversation, you also want to clarify exactly what you expect from your new hire in each of what I call, the 4 P’s:

Professionalism

While some of these you may have addressed prior to the first day, it’s never a bad idea to revisit these important questions.

• What is the appropriate use of technology, particularly social media?
• Can employees take personal calls in the workplace?
• What kind of relationship can employees enjoy with managers outside of the workplace?
• Can colleagues date? If so, must they be in different departments? Have lateral positions? Report it to HR?

Performance

• What are three to five key indicators of outstanding performance in this position?
• What skills and behaviors do you want to see evidence of?
• What are key benchmarks in performance that must be met in the first 90 days?
• What are key project deadlines that must be hit in the first 90 days?
• How are promotions and raises decided?

Problem Solving

• What are proven best practices for handling the “typical” problems that someone in this role will encounter?
• How should a worker navigate a problem? At what point should a supervisor be brought in?
• What are company practices for handling internal conflict or conflict with a customer/stakeholder, should it emerge?

Passion

• What’s an appropriate workplace attitude?
• What values do successful employees carry into their work?
• How can professionals demonstrate creativity and innovation?
• How can new hires best incorporate themselves within (while actively shaping) company culture?

By asking and answering these questions for yourself, you’ll be able to effectively communicate your expectations to your employees so that you and they are on the same page.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alexia Vernon is an author, speaker, International Coach Federation (ICF) certified coach, trainer, and media personality who specializes in helping organizations recruit, retain, educate, and grow their young professional workforce. In her book 90 Days 90 Ways: Onboard Young Professionals to Peak Performance, Alexia demonstrates how to achieve the goal of getting new employees oriented, integrated and trained within 90 days of their employment. As a member of Gen Y and with her unique approach to talent development, Alexia has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including CNN, NBC, Wall Street Journal, CBS MoneyWatch, FOX Business News, Forbes.com, ABCNews.com, TheGlassDoor.com, and Mint.com.  To learn more visit www.AlexiaVernon.com and connect with Alexia on Twitter @AlexiaVernon.

It sounds simple enough: company meets potential employee, company gets employee, employee leaves company, so company starts looking for new employee. Unfortunately, the classic hiring strategy is no longer sufficient in today’s job market, where competition for top talent is higher than ever. According to Keith Hadley, Director of Employment Branding at CareerBuilder, small businesses need to be more proactive in their approach to hiring.

With that in mind, CareerBuilder created Small Business Seeks Big Talent: CareerBuilder’s Small Business Hiring Guide, a modern twist on a classic recruitment strategy.  Learn what things like continuous recruiting, talent pipelining, onboarding and compensation strategies have to do with your small business – and how you can implement them into your hiring process today.

Whatever your hiring and recruiting needs, let Small Business Seeks Big Talent serve as a guide to attracting and retaining your company’s number one asset, your employees.

Small Business Seeks Big Talent provides comprehensive strategies and tips to help you:

• Bring in a better quality of applicants
• Put an end to hiring mistakes
• Save time and money associated with hiring
• Save costs associated with turnover
• Get more mileage out of job postings
• Conduct more effective interviews
• Leverage your position as a small business to recruit top talent

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.

Planning to hire new college graduates this year? You’re not alone. See where you fall among your competitors – and get tips for hiring college graduates.

College grads have it sooo easy these days. Or at least, they have it easier than alumni of the previous three years, according to a new joint survey from CareerBuilder and CareerRookie.

Among the more than 2,000 hiring managers who participated in the national survey, more than half (54 percent) plan to hire recent college graduates this year, an increase from 46 percent last year, 44 percent in 2010 and 43 percent in 2009.

The increased hiring plans are a promising sign for the state of the economy. “This is the first time since the recession that we’re seeing a majority of employers planning to add recent college graduates to their employee roster,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America, in a press release.

How does your compensation package compare?
Of the employers who plan to hire recent college graduates, 29 percent expect to offer higher starting salaries than they did in 2011. Here’s a breakdown of the expected salary offers. Where does your organization fall?

• Less than $30,000 – 20 percent
• $30,000 to less than $40,000 – 30 percent
• $40,000 to less than $50,000 – 21 percent
• $50,000 and higher – 28 percent

Which college majors are competing for most?
Business tops the list of most in-demand majors, with technical majors following closely behind.

• Business – 39 percent
• Computer and Information Sciences – 24 percent
• Engineering – 23 percent
• Math and Statistics – 13 percent
• Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences – 13 percent
• Communications Technologies – 12 percent
• Liberal Arts and Sciences – 9 percent

What jobs are employers targeting college grads to fill?
Companies continue to recruit recent college graduates for roles that drive innovation, sales and new market opportunities.

• Information Technology – 25 percent
• Customer Service – 23 percent
• Sales – 21 percent
• Finance/Accounting – 18 percent
• Marketing – 17 percent
• Business Development – 17 percent

Four Tips for Hiring Recent Graduates
The tricky thing about hiring recent college graduates is that they have little to no work experience, so it becomes hard to predict how they’ll be as employees. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Look beyond internships and part-time jobs: Ask college graduates about their volunteer work, class work, managing activities for sororities or fraternities, and sports, all of which can indicate leadership capabilities, collaboration activities, time management, communications skills and work ethic.
2. Hire for culture, train for skills: What college graduates lack in experience, they may make up for in enthusiasm and work ethic. Before you even begin hiring, determine the skills you absolutely need coming in, and which ones you’re willing to train for. Focus on finding employees who fit the culture and show potential.
3. Recruit on campus: Visiting campuses enables you to speak with soon-to-be graduates one-on-one and get to know them before they even apply. On the flip side, they get to learn about your company and ask questions, so they go into the application process already excited about the opportunity and familiar with your company’s culture.
4. Ask for employee referrals – Not only is it the number one way employers recruit recent college grads, but hires made through employee referrals have been shown to increase retention and keep hiring-related costs down.

For more insight and resources about recruiting this demographic, check out the recent white paper on millennial job seeker behaviors from CareerRookie.com, a site that matches employers with new or recent college graduates.

Ah, the awkward conversation. Much like death and taxes, the awkward conversation is something people will do anything to avoid.

…which is perhaps why so many managers are so poor at giving feedback: rather than have a potentially uncomfortable conversation about what their employee needs to improve upon, they avoid it completely. But giving feedback is a crucial skill that every manager needs to practice (in order to get better at giving it). After all, the only way you can expect your employees to get better at what they do is to give them constructive, candid and timely feedback. But, again, giving feedback is a skill that requires practice…and carefully chosen words.

Five Tips for What to Say (and What Not to Say) When Giving Feedback:

1. Say This: “I noticed that you’ve missed a few deadlines lately.” Not That: “You seem disinterested in your work lately.” When giving feedback, it’s important to focus on an employee’s specific behavior, not the impression you had of it. Telling an employee that he or she “seems disinterested”  or “appears disengaged” is actually a comment about your perception or impression of the employee – which comes across as a judgment - when in reality, the employee’s perceived disinterest could be the result of something completely unrelated to work. Focusing on the specific behavior that led to that impression opens up the door to have a clear discussion about the reasons why, rather than making the employee feel judged, alienated or confused.
2. Say This: “You were effective when you…” or “You could’ve been more effective when you…” Not That: “Good job.”  In other words, feedback that is generic and vague is also useless. Focusing on specific actions has two major benefits: It prevents employees from taking the feedback personally, and it also helps them understand what they should do (or not do) in the future.
3. Say This: “I’d like to offer you some feedback on this report, is that okay with you?” Not That: “Your report was…” Whenever possible, request to give feedback. Not only will your employees appreciate the gesture, but they’ll be more likely to take the feedback into consideration and apply it to try to improve.
4. Say This: “Your presentation was extremely well-researched. Here’s where it could’ve been stronger…”  Not That: “The research you used in your presentation was a little weak in some areas.” Preface with the positive.  Point out what the employee is doing well before delving into areas for improvement. When employees feel like their work is appreciated, they are much more likely to implement the constructive criticism – and to come to you for feedback in the future.
5. Say This: “Tell me, what was your understanding of what I asked you to do?” Not That: “You seem to have misunderstood what I asked you to do.” There’s that assumption creeping back in again, which does little to open up an honest, productive conversation.  Try to really look at your employees’ work through their eyes – and make the effort to understand their approach to their work. It will help you analyze the situation in a way that helps them reach their goals….And, perhaps most importantly, this approach will help you see how you can communicate with your employees more effectively.  

Thoughts? Feedback? Anything you would add?

“Flexibility doesn’t mean, ‘My personal life takes precedence over my work.’  It means, ‘I have the ability to make both work, but I’m going to make sacrifices in both arenas at times,’” says Delta Emerson, executive  vice president and chief of staff at Ryan, LLC.

If anyone can speak to the true meaning of workforce flexibility, it’s Emerson. At Ryan, a Dallas-based tax services firm with 900 employees worldwide, workforce flexibility is engrained in the culture, something she couldn’t say about the firm four years ago.

In 2007, voluntary turnover at Ryan had spiked and was hovering around 20 percent, and it didn’t take long for Emerson to figure out why: “The balance word kept coming up over and over again,” Emerson recalls from her conversations with employees both in the office and during exit interviews. “People would say, ‘This company expects me to give my entire self. I have no balance in my life.’”  But Emerson knew employee survey feedback and exit interview anecdotes wouldn’t be enough to convince CEO G. Brint Ryan (pictured above) that the company needed “a major paradigm shift.” She needed to talk money.

“We put a great deal of money into hiring the right people and training them.  If somebody leaves after only two or three years, it’s a huge cost to us,” Emerson says.  Add to that the costs associated with lost production from trying to replace and train new consultants, and the loss was even greater. “When Ryan started looking at metrics, those were numbers that spoke to him.”

The Tipping Point
Ultimately, however, it wasn’t Emerson who convinced Ryan to create more flexibility, but one of the company’s employees. “She said, ‘Brint, I love this job, but here’s my resignation.  I’m leaving,’” Emerson recalls. The manager was leaving for a job that offered flexibility – which just happened to be at a competitor.

That was the “tipping point” for Ryan, who finally realized everything he stood to lose. Not only did Ryan decide then and there to invest in a flexible work program, he even convinced the employee to stay and work with the committee in charge of creating it. Ryan tasked the workplace design team with creating an infrastructure focused on measuring individual and team results, as opposed to where, when and how long employees worked.

Ryan gave Emerson and her team six months to launch the program – an incredibly tight turnaround for the amount of details involved in the project. “We had to figure out how you make this happen to be compliant with State and Federal laws for benefits and employees who are exempt and nonexempt, and all that.   Let alone the training to get it rolled out,” Emerson says.

Despite the amount of work to be done, myRyan made its debut on August 1, 2008, right on schedule.

myRyan Reaps Rewards
Now, four years later, Emerson credits myRyan with helping the company “do a complete 180,” in terms of employee morale.  “People love the flexibility myRyan affords, and they’re not hesitant to say that,” Emerson says.  The positive response has had a domino effect on all aspects of the business. Not only has voluntary dropped by half, but company profits, client satisfaction scores and net promoter ratings are at an all-time high.

The program has also become the company’s “most powerful recruiting tool,” according to Emerson. She estimates that myRyan plays a role in about 85 percent of new hires’ decisions to accept an offer there. The program is even drawing former employees back to the company, as well as earning Ryan local and national recognition. The company has collected numerous  “best places to work” awards in recent years, and last year, Brint Ryan had the distinction of speaking  at a press conference on Capitol Hill, alongside Admiral Mike Mullen, on the value of workplace flexibility.

A Continuous Learning Process
While myRyan has been an enormous success, Emerson says the program is still a work in progress. Some people have a harder time getting used to the flexibility than others, creating the need to continuously re-evaluate the program. “You have to keep looking at it and figuring out what’s working, what’s not working.  Work with individuals who are struggling with it, but make sure you equip them with the knowledge and tools so that they can be ready.”

Implementing Change: Three Things to Know
For anyone hoping to implement a “major paradigm shift” at their own organizations, Emerson offers the following advice:

1. Find what works for you: “What worked for us won’t work for everyone. We’re happy to tell people our story and what we learned, but we can’t say, ‘Do exactly like we did, and you’ll be fine.’”
2. Involve your employees. “You have to have everybody involved so they have a piece of it. That way, when you encounter a pothole, they’re more likely to work with you than point at you and say, ‘Hey, you screwed up.’”
3. Anticipate growing pains. “Not everybody’s going to be thrilled with the concept of flexibility, and you’re going to have to manage to that and anticipate it.”
   

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.

CareerBuilder is proud to be working with MAXIMUS, where finding qualified jobs for qualified candidates is the ultimate goal. We help MAXIMUS find the talent they need to position both clients and candidates for success in today’s workforce. CareerBuilder believes in doing our part to contribute to a stronger economy, and we believe helping companies like Maximus empower employment is the way to get there.

We recently got the opportunity to talk to Mark Andrekovich, chief of human capital for MAXIMUS, on how his organization works to empower employment.

CareerBuilder: When you hear the term Empowering Employment, what does that term mean to you?

Andrekovich: At MAXIMUS, we operate several workforce services projects across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and we just recently launched a new project in Canada. When we staff these operations, we look for employees who are passionate about helping others. We primarily serve welfare-to-work clients, many of whom have never even held a steady job, much less a sustainable career. Our case managers recognize the barriers faced by workforce services program participants, but they provide encouragement and connect them to resources that will help them obtain a lifestyle of employment.

In our Tax Credit and Employer business line, we help organizations maximize available tax credits through programs that support hiring from targeted populations, including veterans, individuals with disabilities, and long-term welfare recipients. Our MAXOutreach® solution links employers and community-based organizations to help uncover hard-to-reach, tax credit-eligible applicants. So MAXIMUS empowers employment by helping job seekers obtain the right combination of skills and connecting them to job opportunities, while also assisting businesses and other organizations identify new tax-eligible candidates.

CareerBuilder: What areas of your business do you believe are the most important to invest in in today’s market?

Andrekovich: Our investments in people, process and technology have led to our company’s success today and will help drive our growth in the future. Our people support critical public programs – helping low-income families obtain health insurance coverage or supporting them as they transition from welfare into sustainable employment. The work they do requires a level of familiarity with government programs that are constantly evolving, so we make investments in training and re-training programs, as well as the necessary knowledge development needed to execute our business model.

At the same time, we are investing in the processes and technology that make our operations run smoothly. We place a high value on business process management strategies, which we use to operate more efficient government programs. We make regular refreshes to our internal technology systems and look for ways to leverage shared services across the organization.

CareerBuilder: There’s been a lot of discussion lately around “hiring for culture (or attitude) and training for skills.” Is this something you practice at your organization? Why or why not?

Andrekovich: MAXIMUS certainly takes cultural fit into account when we hire new employees. However, we also look at subject matter or technological expertise, depending on the position. The common thread we look for in new hires is the willingness to work hard and a shared commitment to our founding mission of Helping Government Serve the People®.

CareerBuilder: What skills – both technical and soft – do you see most valuable to today’s businesses?

Andrekovich: We look for candidates who have a level of technological expertise relevant to the position, but also the adaptability to learn new technologies and processes. Since we are a service-orientated Company, we seek trustworthy candidates who demonstrate personal pride in their work and a strong work ethic.

CareerBuilder: Where do you see your workforce in five or 10 years in terms of growth?

Andrekovich: MAXIMUS is experiencing growth in all our operations, in the US and abroad, so we definitely anticipate a more global workforce. As governments continue to seek more efficient public programs, we believe we will grow more technology-focused as well. MAXIMUS has experienced steady growth in recent years, so we anticipate this trend will continue in the years to come.

If you are proactively taking steps to drive economic growth in your local community or nationwide, we want to hear about it.

We may contact you about participating in our Empowering Employment series. Visit www.empoweringemployment.com for more information.

__________________________________________________________________

About Mark Andrekovich: Mark Andrekovich serves as the chief of human capital for MAXIMUS and president of the company’s Tax Credit and Employer Services business. Mark leveraged his human capital expertise to introduce innovative I-9, E-Verify and OFCCP Compliance services for hundreds of large and small employers for the Tax Credit and Employer Services business. Mark is an active member of the Human Resource Policy Association and the National Industry Liaison Group, and serves on the Business Advisory Council of Clarion University’s Dana Still School of Business. He is a highly sought after speaker on topics of Human Capital Strategy, OFCCP Compliance and Diversity Recruitment.

Prior to joining MAXIMUS, Mark worked for Banister International, a private human capital and executive search firm in Philadelphia. He has more than 20 years of comprehensive human resources experience with multi-national companies such as General Electric, Nordson Corporation and Cytec Industries. Mark holds a B.S. in business administration from Clarion University and an M.B.A. from Monmouth University.

About MAXIMUS: For nearly 40 years, MAXIMUS has operated under its founding mission of Helping Government Serve the People®. The company delivers administrative solutions for Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, welfare-to- work programs, child support services, as well as specialized consulting services. MAXIMUS offers a single-market focus and a unique understanding of how to deliver high quality, cost-effective solutions tailored for all levels of government.

In an exclusive Q&A, the co-founders of the American Freedom Foundation discuss the mutual benefits of veteran hiring initiatives.

If Robin himself – Chris O’Donnell – can’t convince you of the benefits of hiring military veterans, take it from those who’ve experienced it firsthand: CareerBuilder’s Director of Federal Civilian Solutions, Jen Fritz, recently sat down with SMA Jack Tilly (far right in the above photo from the 2011 American Freedom Festival) and Ted Hacker, co-founders of the American Freedom Foundation, to discuss everything from the unique value in hiring veterans to helping veterans make an easier transition to the civilian workforce.

Listen to the recorded interview with AFF’s co-founders here or read highlights in the Q&A below.

Jen Fritz: What inspired you to start the American Freedom Foundation?
Ted Hacker: When sergeant major Tilley was on active duty, he conducted what we call ‘The Hope and Freedom Tours’ of Iraq and Afghanistan, taking entertainers from all genres of music to perform for our troops. I was fortunate enough to go along once, and it changed my life. When we came back, sergeant major Tilley was looking for something to do to carry on the work he’d been doing in the army, so together we came up with an idea to continue to do concerts and shows for our military to support them, their families, our veterans and our wounded warriors.
SMA Tilley: Yes, I remember the conversation. I called Ted up on the phone and said, “I want to help our veterans,” and Ted jumped right in. We’ve been doing it now for eight years.

What do you hope people in the Foundation take away?
Tilley: I hope they take away the fact that veterans bring so much to the job market. I hope they understand the loyalty of veterans, and the commitment they have for our country. Right now, more than probably at any other time in our country’s history, our veterans and their families need help.

I think that’s a really good point. Could you talk more about the benefits organizations get from hiring veterans?
Tilley: Just think about it: people spend so much money training someone on leadership, but when you get a veteran, [you already get] the leadership they have, the commitment, the loyalty they have to the organization, the work ethic. And they’re all team players. You don’t have to train them as far as taking responsibility or completing the task. They’ve already been trained well in the military. Those are the kind of skills that are going to make your organization that much better.
Hacker: There are so many qualities and traits veterans have from their service in the military that are very attractive to a potential employer.

Yes, they’ve got focus, discipline and leadership, and they’re clearly capable of making quick decisions, all of which help organizations move quickly.
Hacker: Exactly.
Tilley: One of the neatest things I’ve ever observed was once when a unit in Iraq was having a riot, and there was a unit of infantry men in front of them, and the sergeant in charge there had the presence of mind to tell them to sling their weapons and kneel on one leg, and they stopped the rioting. They probably saved a lot of people from getting hurt. This sergeant was only 22 years old, and yet he had the presence of mind to take control of the situation and do the right thing.  When you look at the army and all the services combined, the number of techniques and tactics they can bring into the civilian workforce are just unbelievable.

That’s along the lines of what you were saying earlier about the amount of money corporations put into employee training and development. Think about the amount of money that has already been invested in these veterans before they even show up at the company’s door.
Tilley: The other thing to think about is how veterans can help you develop other employees within your organization. I’ve had employers ask veterans to come in and give leadership, communication or counseling classes. It’s really a win-win situation for any employer.
Hacker: I want to emphasize the earlier point about acting cool under pressure and being able to handle crisis management. These are very strong characteristics veterans can offer potential employers. Veterans are ready to go: They’re ready to act under pressure, and they’re ready to lead. I’ve witnessed it over my years of working here with veterans on multiple levels.

I agree 100 percent. The veterans in this office certainly make everyone take it up a notch. Switching gears, what are some of the challenges veterans face upon re-entering the civilian workforce?
Tilley: One of the biggest problems veterans have is just trying to fit in – that transition. There’ve been 6,000 veterans killed in this war, 41,000 wounded, 1200 amputees, and one in five have some form of PTSD or PTI, so the problem normally is, how do they adjust into the civilian sector? The other problem is that sometimes they wait just a little too long to make that transition into that civilian sector. So we need to educate corporate America on how they help veterans adjust to the civilian sector as well as what they should be aware of. One thing we point out is they have to adjust their workplaces to accommodate veterans who are wounded or have special needs. If they can do that, they’ll see the value of hiring a vet even more.

What are some other ways private employers can make that transition easier?
Tilley: Private employers should take it upon themselves to introduce themselves to the local military installation and educate themselves and find out what goes on at that military installation. They could also contact the Department of Defense or the National Guard and ask how they can assist in helping people make that transition.

A lot of companies have voiced an interest in hiring veterans, but they’re not quite sure how to get off the ground. Are there particular areas or industries that speak better to veterans’ skills?
Tilley: I think veterans who move into smaller businesses have a little bit of an easier transition. Also, I think the IT industry is good, as well as health care and operational things like management engineering.
Hacker: Here’s something else to keep in mind: 86 percent of the force is enlisted for all services, and 14 percent is comprised of officers and warrant officers. Sometimes the focus is more on officers’ employment, but the enlisted force has changed a lot over the years as far as education and development. Many of our non-commissioned officers and soldiers have bachelor’s and master’s degrees and, in some cases, doctorates. Education-wise, there’s a lot of opportunity for enlisted soldiers as far as any position you need filled in your organization.

That’s a good point. It’s important for employers to understand that “enlisted” has a different connotation now than it had in the past.
Tilley: Exactly. For the last 10 or 15 years, there’s been a tremendous focus on education in all services.

Any final thoughts?
Tilley: If you haven’t talked to a veteran, it’s so important to reach out and find out how veterans can make your organization that much better and that much more efficient.
Hacker: Veteran hiring has become such a big issue. I think the more it comes out how much hiring veterans benefits the company, the more we’re going to see companies taking action. Corporate America is stepping up. I think we’re in a groundswell of activity right now that we can take advantage of to really vet out veterans and help them find jobs.

Listen to the complete CareerBuilder interview with AFF’s Tilley and Hacker here.

Do you have an experience with hiring veterans that you’d like to share? Tell us how military veterans benefit your organization in the comments below.

Last month, I discussed a recent CareerBuilder survey of workers nationwide, which asked them which factors they consider most important when evaluating employers. Below are their answers, in order of importance, and what employers can take away from these findings.

• Compensation: It should come as no surprise that workers prioritize compensation when considering new opportunities and potential employers. This finding underscores the fact that employers need to create a compensation strategy in order to ensure you’re doing right by both your company and your employees when it comes to fair – and competitive – pay.
• Benefits: One way to ensure you’re providing optimal employee benefits is to start with the question, “Are employees using the benefits we offer?” Before you invest in new benefits, survey your employees to see what they’re actually taking advantage of, and if there are some opportunities to replace current benefits with new, desirable ones.
• Advancement: While you might not be able to offer every employee a promotion, you can probably find a way to empower them with the resources to learn new skills and take on bigger responsibilities or more diverse projects. The effort demonstrates your faith in their abilities and your concern for their professional success and career development, which can go a long way in promoting employee productivity and increasing retention.
• Work-Life Balance: “A lot of company cultures are passive aggressive, saying, ‘We care about our people, and we want them to have a work-life balance,’ but there’s an underlying pressure to work a 60- to 70-hour week,” says Matthew Kelly, author of ‘The Myth of the Work-Life Balance’. If this sounds familiar, consider taking stock of your employees’ satisfaction levels and work with them to find where there might be opportunities to provide more flexible work arrangements that work for both them and the company.
• Appreciation by Management: This finding supports the argument that companies that make an effort to recognize their employees have a competitive advantage today, according to Eric Mosley and Derek Irvine, authors of Winning with a Culture of Recognition. “Strategic recognition does not have to be costly,” they told me in an interview last year. “Though it does require investment. By consolidating multiple tactical programs, [companies] can fund a strategic recognition investment.”

While these findings give an overall view of what job seekers want, it’s still important to do further research into the wants and needs of the candidates you’re trying to pull in, which will guide your recruitment strategy, and help you stay competitive in the long run.

Inavero’s Best of Staffing™ Award, presented by CareerBuilder, is the nation’s only award program that recognizes firms that receive remarkable reviews from their clients and talent. The staffing firms who truly provide a remarkable experience are honored on the final 2012 Best of Staffing lists (presented at the end of this post).

Inavero surveyed participating staffing firms to obtain an understanding of unique service behaviors. As you review the findings below, think about your firm’s internal practices and explore different opportunities to evolve and improve.

Notable Findings & Highlights:

1. Revenue of 2012 Best of Staffing winners outpaced industry growth by more than 50 percent.
2. Only half of the participants expect their 2012 revenue to grow faster than their 2011 revenue.
3. Best of Staffing Client winners were more than three times as likely to say culture match was the most important attribute to ensure a successful placement. Those who didn’t make the Best of Staffing list were more likely to say it was matching technical skills.
4. Seventy-two percent of Best of Staffing Client winners have some form of health care available for their talent.
5. More than half of Best of Staffing Client winners get back to their clients within an hour, compared to only 25 percent of those who didn’t make the list.
6. Eighty-nine percent of participants respond to clients within the same day, but only 54 percent have the same policy for their talent.
7. Only half of participants report staying in contact with talent at least once a month while they are on assignment.
8. Participants report spending less than 20 percent of time with their clients educating them or discussing current recruiting trends. The majority of the time is spent selling.
9. Seventy-one percent of participating staffing firms that reported growth above the industry survey their clients at least twice a year, compared to just over half of those who grew at the industry level or slower.
10. Qualifiers of the 2012 Best of Staffing list for exceptional client service spend an average of $6,000 training each new internal employee, nearly 28 percent more than those who didn’t qualify for the list.

*NPS, short for Net Promoter Score®, is a technique popularized by former Bain consultant and author, Fred Reichheld. NPS simplifies satisfaction measurement down to a single number comparable across organizations and industries. The score is calculated by subtracting the firm’s detractors (those who rate the organization between a 0 and 6) from the promoters (those who rate the organization a 9 or 10).

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.

Most companies would agree – it is their people who differentiate them from the competition. Thus, attracting and retaining great people is critical.

CareerBuilder’s Senior Director of Talent Intelligence, Sanja Licina, and Director of Employment Branding, Keith Hadley, recently led the webinar, The 5 Step Approach to Identifying and Attracting the Right Employees. In it, they provided a practical five-step plan you, as a small- or medium-sized employer can use to  identify and attract the engaged, passionate employees who care as much about your organization’s success as you do. Check out some of the highlights below.

• Employee surveys can unlock the secret to attraction and retention. There’s a huge disconnect between what executives believe their employees want and what workers actually want. In order to understand what compels employees to work for you – and stay with you – it is crucial that you administer employee feedback regularly through companywide surveys.
• Surveys are only as good as your follow-through. Follow-through is critical. Once you’ve surveyed your employees, be sure to tell them how and when you’re going to take action on their feedback. Provide regular updates on the progress you’re making.
• Stop talking about your company first. All too often, companies begin their story by talking about their company, when they need to start by talking about their employee value proposition. You only have 10 to 15 seconds to capture job seekers’ attention and compel them to dig deeper. Talk about what’s in it for them first, then get into the details about your company later.
• Job boards open doors for companies, but social media takes job seekers inside. The majority (68 percent) of job seekers use job boards to search for jobs, creating a way for smaller companies to get in front of job seekers. Ninety-two percent will of job seekers will then visit the career site of a company in which they’re interested, and 70 percent will go on to use social media to verify the claims companies make on those sites. Social media, therefore, is less of a place to advertise jobs and more of a way to build your company’s reputation.
• Mobile isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity. Anywhere from 13 to 20 percent of job seekers are conducting searches on mobile devices – and these numbers are rapidly increasing. Employers need to recognize the increasing importance of mobile technology and structure their recruitment strategy accordingly. By next year, mobile may very well be the main way people search for jobs.
• Embrace your unique employee value proposition. Small companies can and should leverage the benefits of working at a smaller organization to appeal to job seekers who desire more ownership of their work or the chance to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
• It’s not enough to look like a good employer. You have to actually be a good employer. Getting talent into your company is only the first step. To retain the talent you bring in, you have to make good on the promises you make during the recruitment process.

Want to learn more? Download the complete webinar for free here.

Hiring plans in the U.S. are getting back to pre-recession levels, according to CareerBuilder’s latest nationwide survey. 

One-third of employers added full-time, permanent employees in the first quarter of this year, on par with 2007 and the highest increase reported since the recession began.  The momentum is expected to continue with 30 percent of employers planning to add new full-time, permanent staff in April through June. More than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes participated in the latest survey.

Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, offers his take on the results:

We have moved from an anemic job market to one that is stable and growing. While still cautious, employers are feeling better about the state of the U.S. economy and the debt situation in Europe.  Forty-one percent of companies reported their sales have increased over the last six months, which is helping to fuel greater confidence in hiring.  The amount of job listings we’re seeing for key categories on CareerBuilder.com are similar to that of 2007.  All indicators point to steady improvement in the job market in the second quarter and beyond.

Here are some takeaways from the forecast:

• One third (33 percent) of employers added full-time, permanent staff in the first quarter of 2012
• Nine percent decreased headcount in the first quarter 2012, a slight improvement from 10 percent last year.
• Looking ahead, 30 percent of employers plan to increase their full-time, permanent headcount in the second quarter.
• Thirty-seven percent of employers hired contract or temporary workers in the first quarter, up from 29 percent last year.
• Hiring in companies of all sizes is showing signs of improvement.  The percentage of employers planning to recruit in the next few months increased by two to three percentage points over last year for different segments.

Challenges Ahead for Employers

Results from the survey indicate what employers can expect in the coming months.

Increased Competition for Talent: Of employers who recruited for positions in the last year, more than half (56 percent) reported that a candidate rejected a job offer from their organization.  Forty-one percent of those attributed the rejection to their inability to provide the candidate’s desired salary while 22 percent said they didn’t offer the position quickly enough and the candidate was already hired somewhere else.

Growing Skills Shortage: Despite the high unemployment rate, many employers struggle to find the talent they need, and the challenge is only growing. Thirty-one percent of employers currently have jobs for which they can’t find qualified employees, up from 24 percent last year, and 15 percent of employers reported that, because they can’t fill high-skill positions within their organizations, they’re not able to create lower-skilled positions that are tied to these roles. The findings indicate a need for employers to recognize the need to plan ahead and recognize how the growing gap between high-skill job openings and available talent has a larger impact on overall employment.

For complete survey results, download the full Q2 Hiring Forecast here.

Workforce gender differences has always been a hot topic of conversation – from speculation over why women still earn less than men, to the debate over which gender makes better leaders, to inherent differences over workplace personas, and even down to how their networking habits differ.

But when it comes to what they’re looking for in a potential employer, are men and women really all that different?

Not really, according to a recent CareerBuilder study on what job seekers value most in their current and potential employers. According to the survey, men and women showed little variation in what they prioritize when it comes to factors like compensation, benefits, training and development and culture.

The only areas that showed any difference at all were advancement opportunities, work/life balance and appreciation by management:

• Males are 25 percent more likely than females to value advancement in potential employers.
• Females are 20 percent more likely than men to focus on work/life Balance and 15 percent more likely to focus on appreciation by their manager.

“The findings indicate that employers who promote career advancement as part of their brand message may have a slightly more masculine appeal, while brands built around the relationships and connections of the organization may have a slightly more feminine appeal, which can be differentiators if you’re working to better diversify your organization” says Keith Hadley, Director of Employment Branding at CareerBuilder.

Yet, while these findings show that differences between what men and women want exist in some areas, they may not be as significant as people might expect. Thus, employers might be better off targeting their message by profession. Consider the following findings:

• Nurses (a female-dominated field) are more likely than all women to prioritize work/life balance
• Engineers (a male-dominated field) are less likely than all men or women to prioritize advancement

“Your brand will most likely play well with both genders, provided you are emphasizing attributes valued by your ideal candidates in terms of role or profession,” says Hadley. “Target by the kinds of roles and personalities that are going to drive your business in the future.”

All in all, the findings further underscore the need for employers to define their audiences, understand what their audiences wants and create specific messages that speak to those wants.  “Be intentional about defining your audience and about how well your message connects,” advises Hadley, adding, “and use data to confirm your hunches.”

Do these findings surprise you?

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.

In the following Q&A, CareerBuilder’s CEO, Matt Ferguson, discusses the company’s new Empowering Employment initiative, an effort to empower both businesses and job seekers alike to fuel job growth and bridge the skills gap.

Can you tell me, in your own words, what it means to empower employment? How do you see that unfolding at CareerBuilder?
To me, Empowering Employment means, “How do we help our customers and the companies we service hire really talented people to drive their business?”  For every company in the United States, their most important asset walks in and out of their building every day. CareerBuilder can help those companies understand who they should be hiring and how they can retain those people; and provide services to help make them smarter about that whole process.

On a larger scale, I think empowering employment is important for the entire United States, because we’re dealing with an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, and we have to get people back to work. CareerBuilder can be an important part of helping job seekers find the jobs of the future, get the training they need and help drive down the unemployment rate.

You’ve mentioned before that companies need to take the initiative to retrain workers if the right candidates aren’t applying. Could you talk a little bit about CareerBuilder’s initiative to reskill IT workers and your goals around that?
The goals of that initiative are just to get people back to work. There are a lot of really ambitious, talented people who’ve been unemployed in this country over 12 months, and they’re unfortunately not getting an opportunity to even interview for jobs. So all we were trying to do was find those really ambitious, talented people who wanted a new chance, a new opportunity, and give them the chance to develop technology skills they can use either here at CareerBuilder or somewhere else.  Almost every company out there of a certain size has an information technology group, and the thing about information technology is, you know for the next 50 years and beyond, if you have skills in that area, you’re going to have plenty of career opportunities.

You recently wrote about ways in which companies can navigate the skills gap, one of which is offering more competitive compensation. What do you say to employers who simply don’t think they can afford to offer higher pay?
I think every company is resistant to say, “I want to raise wages for everybody a certain amount,” but what you have to look at is, “What is the market for that kind of position? What’s going on there?” There are a lot of ways we can get our people to be more productive, which allows us to have more profits and pay our people more. We have to figure out the productivity part. Then we can afford to pay people more and make more money, which is in the best interests of everyone – the employees, the shareholders and the customers. Every company should be doing that. In some cases, however, if they’re trying to recruit for a particular position, the market may dictate that they have to offer a bit more in order to bring in the best people. Everybody wants talented people. Talented people come at a certain cost.

What other strategies can companies implement to bring in better talent? 
Pay is just one thing people are looking for today. A lot of very talented workers out there want the entire package. They’re looking for things like work/life balance, a company that has a social mission, the ability to give back, et cetera. If you can incorporate those other elements into the whole package, then pay just becomes one component of that.  For example, a lot of people want to work from home part-time or spend less time at the office. If you can provide balance in different kinds of ways to people, it may not be necessary to pay that much more, because you have a more robust offering across the entire employment scape.

Are there any industry leaders whom you admire or think are doing a particularly good job of empowering employment and driving economic growth?
There are so many companies that are doing it so successfully. When I look at the American economy as a whole, I think almost every company is trying to do things differently. They have really stretched themselves and their people to go to new heights and do different things. I see that across the board. We’re not the same economy that we were at the beginning of 2008. Obviously, it’s been a hard four years, but almost every company in the U.S. I interact with is doing things differently now, and in a good way. These companies are a lot smarter about their business, and they’re putting themselves in a position to compete globally in the next five years.

See the video: Watch as CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson answer the question, “What does ‘Empowering Employment’ mean to you?”

“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.”

A new CareerBuilder survey indicates that some American workers have about as much chance of properly identifying their CEO in a lineup as they do of winning the Hunger Games…but does it matter?

CareerBuilder recently surveyed more than 7,000 full-time workers to find out how well American workers know senior leadership at their organizations. Results indicate that while most workers have met their CEO, many don’t even know what he or she looks like. Below are highlights from the survey.   

• 40 percent of American workers say they’ve never met their CEO in person.
• 21 percent don’t even know what their CEO looks like.
• Only 35 percent of workers can name all of the C-level officers at their organization, while an additional 21 percent can only name some C-level officers.
• 68 percent of workers don’t know how much their company generates in revenue each year

What your employees don’t know (about the CEO)…Can it hurt?
According to Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, visibility is key to employee engagement. “Employees realize their top leaders can’t know everyone on a first name basis, but they do expect their leaders to be a public symbol that embodies the organization’s values,” she says.

And while it might not be feasible to give one-on-one time to every employee, finding a way to connect is an important part of the leadership puzzle.

“Leadership from the C-suite can be a difficult balance. The CEO and, in some cases, other senior leaders are the face of the company both internally and externally. Meaning, they need to find a level of accessibility that allows them to connect with employees, while on the other hand, dedicate the necessary time for building relationships with outside stakeholders,” Haefner says.

“How I stay connected” | Insights from the CareerBuilder Leadership Series
We gathered thoughts from various industry leaders on how they connect with employees at every level – and why establishing such a connection matters. Here’s what they said.

“It is difficult in a large company to have one-on-one relationships with all employees, but I find doing brown bag lunches and skip level meetings pay back immensely. It is great to know the people who are working hard every day for your success and let them know who you are as a person, not just a figurehead.” – Gregg Kaplan, President and COO of Coinstar

“Whether it be through pre-shift meetings, individual one-on-one meetings, sharing individual guest experiences, or technological communication, our managers live ‘The Message’ and do what they can to ensure our employees have a great experience. When the employees feel valued and respected it rolls right to our guests.” –Rick Frederico, Chairman and Co-CEO of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc.

“I encourage Sabre employees to follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my blog so they are informed regarding the direction of – and what’s going on within – the company.” –Philip P. Jaurigue, President and CEO of Sabre Systems, Inc.

“One thing I enjoy is the lunch and learn sessions we host. We go out into the field, give short sound bites of what’s going on the in company, then go around the room to hear from employees. It’s a great way to get a pulse of the organization.” –Maritza Poza-Grise, vice president of DuPont Human Resources

“In the first two years in my role, I visited over 200 facilities to allow me the most informal way to actually meet our caregiver teams. I met with as many people as I could, and I tried to get them to tell me what was on their minds. It was extremely valuable for me; and I felt that I really developed a special relationship with the employees I talked to.” – George V. Hager, Jr., CEO of Genesis HealthCare

“Senior management travels a lot to our regional and local offices; we’re very active in the business and strive to understand what our team faces every day in providing services to our customers. We’re always out there, kicking up dirt and turning over rocks to help uncover opportunities with our employees.” – Jeff Pederson, President of CORT Business Services

How does senior leadership stay connected with employees at your organization?

It’s official: job boards are still among the top resources for job seekers. According to the companies surveyed in the latest Career Xroads study, 20.1 percent of their external new hires credited the job boards with their finding the job posting.

While that’s good news for recruiters and hiring managers who are posting jobs on the more popular job boards, this isn’t necessarily an ‘if you build it, they will come’ situation. The truth is, some job postings just perform better than others, and it doesn’t always have to do with the job itself, but how you present it.

Job seekers spend an average of three seconds scanning a job posting, leaving you very little time to grab their attention. And that first impression counts: in a recent CareerBuilder survey, 75 percent of job seekers reported that the look and feel of a posting influences their decision to apply.

Keeping that in mind, here are a few things – must haves, if you will – to make your job postings stand out and bring in more applicants.

1. Specific job titles. Unless you’re hiring someone for your Bon Jovi cover band, do not advertise that you’re looking for a “rock star” for your next hire. In fact, there’s nothing rock star about putting it in your job posting title. Not only is the term cliché, but I don’t know any job seeker who would search for a job using the term ‘rock star’ (unless maybe they were doing it ironically). The same applies for ‘rainmaker’ or ‘visionary’.  In fact, if you want to be seen my more job seekers and come up in search results, the more you need to think like a job seeker and utilize terms they would be searching for.
2. A ‘Must haves’ category. Often short on time (and attention), job seekers are likely skimming your job posting for relevant information and missing key essentials in the process. Create a short, three- to five-item list of essential qualifications (such as years of experience, educational degree, etc.) so job seekers can quickly and easily assess whether or not they’re truly qualified for the job.
3. Bullets. Utilize bullets wherever possible to list things like required skills, the roles of the job, and company benefits. Don’t go overboard, however: a long list of bullets is just as ineffective and daze-inducing as a continuous block of text.
4. Compensation. It may be a controversial subject, but including salary information in your job posting increases performance and ultimately saves time. If you don’t want to include a definite number or range, consider including a benefit statement such as: “Great pay—higher than industry average, commensurate upon experience, bonuses paid each quarter, opportunities for additional commissions.”
5. Graphics. Wherever possible, include company logos or slogans in the job posting, which can increase applications by 13 to 21 percent, as well as icons linking to any recruitment videos you might have.  According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than postings without video, and CareerBuilder clients receive a 34 percent greater application rate when they add video to their job postings.
6. Keywords. The more keywords you include in your job posting contains that are relevant to the position, the higher it will appear in job seekers’ search results. Look at your job posting and consider where you can substitute key words that a job seeker might use to search for the position. (Instead of saying, “The person in this position will be required to…” for example, say, “The Marketing Manager will be required to…”) Again, think like a job seeker to include words they might use when searching for jobs.
7. An answer to the question, “What’s in it for me?” Why would someone want to work for your company? Whether you choose to communicate that message through employee testimonials, a listing of the best places to work awards you’ve won, or as the opening statement to your job posting, a truly effective job posting tells job seekers why they should apply to work for your company.

Understandably, taking the time to create a job posting is a luxury many recruiters and hiring managers don’t have these days. If that’s the case, you might want to look into CareerBuilder’s Job Enhancement feature, which takes your existing Job Posting and gives it somewhat of a facelift to increase visibility, click through rates and job applications. Check out the video below.

You just landed the recruit your company has been coveting. The offer letter is signed. The start date has been set. All you have to do now is lean back and bathe in the praises of management for a job well done. But wait, there’s still a chance your cream-of-the-crop hire may not exactly be signed, sealed, and delivered just yet.

More and more companies are offering their employees counteroffers in hopes of retaining their prized possessions. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any recruiter. After all, you were the one willing to do everything necessary to get this employee on board with your client’s company, so don’t act alarmed when this person’s current employer is willing to do whatever it takes to keep him or her.

You need to view this situation from the perspective of your recruit’s current employer. When an employee submits a letter of resignation, it can send a company into panic mode. The company will scramble to either make a counteroffer or find a replacement before the person leaves. Also, because the employee is still employed by the company and still working on site, he or she is vulnerable to an attack on his or her conscience. Employers will do everything in their power to persuade your recruit by leveraging:

• relationships with co-workers
• the employee’s sense of loyalty
• client relationships

And this is just the start. When an employer starts making the employee feel guilty and then offers your recruit more money, a better position, or an increase in benefits, it may be too late to save your placement. However, you can take some proactive steps to prevent your recruit from turning to the dark side and accepting a counteroffer.

Discuss the counteroffer early

Don’t wait until the last minute to discuss the possibility of a counteroffer. Once you know a candidate is good for one or even multiple clients, you should discuss the person’s current situation and how he or she feels about a counteroffer. Ask your recruit several questions to get a gauge on how he or she feels about his or her current employer. Use questions such as:

• What will your company do when you give your two weeks notice?
• How will your company react to your departure?
• What could your company do to provide you with a better opportunity than the one you’re exploring with me?

Asking these probing questions will earn you a better understanding of how the candidate’s current company may react.

Once you feel a candidate is right for a specific opportunity, you must get your recruit to perceive this new opportunity with your client’s company as simply the next and best thing for him or her professionally and that he or she absolutely must take the new position. It is your job as a good recruiter to hear the recruit verbalize this to you in as implicit of terms as possible. You should hear this long before you make an offer. If you’re not sure about how a recruit may answer, chances are he or she is not sure either.

Set expectations

Preparing a recruit for the possibility of a counteroffer is the best way to preserve the great work you’ve already done to find the right person for the open position. It’s highly advisable to inform your recruit of what he or she may encounter in the event of a counteroffer. You need to act as an advisor and tell your recruit how an employer may put an arm around him or her and say they love or need him or her. They may offer to change an employee’s title, create a new position, and even change the employee’s work location and hours. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility, and you have to prepare your recruit for anything. You have to make sure your recruit understands that even though the company may be offering him or her more now, it doesn’t change the reasons the person was willing to take a new job in the first place. The idea is to have your recruit say, “Yeah, the recruiter I’m working with told me you might try this.”

Ease the transition

Once your recruit has officially resigned by giving his or her two-week notice, give him or her support. Make your recruit feel comfortable with his or her decision. Tell your recruit to call you as soon as he or she resigns. You may even want to send a personalized card stating how excited your client is to have him or her on board and that you know your recruit made a great decision for his or her future. The next two weeks can often be the longest and saddest two weeks of your recruit’s working life, so do whatever it takes to show your recruit that his or her new company is the right choice.

Always expect the unexpected

Regardless of how well prepared your recruit is to reject a counteroffer, and regardless of how many times your recruit swore he or she would never accept your offer, your recruit is only human. Stay in close contact with your recruit for a few weeks after his or her official start date. This is the best way to avoid one of those dreaded, “You know, I’ve been thinking this over…” phone calls.

In the end, being a good recruiter means doing everything you can to not only hook the “big fish” but also reel it in without too much of a struggle. Armed with the right tools and knowledge for preventing counteroffers, you could find yourself asking management to order you a bigger boat.

What other tactics have you implemented to prevent or win the counteroffer?

In the world of professional sports, cross-training is an essential practice in order for athletes to maintain high levels of performance, avoid injuries associated with overuse and prepare their bodies for the challenges ahead.

In the world of workforce management, the same rules apply. Cross-training employees means teaching them the skills required to perform job functions outside of their main roles and responsibilities. As a result, companies reap the benefits of enhanced employee performance, better teamwork and a stronger organization overall.

Consider the following benefits of cross-training your employees:

• Reduce the risk of injury: Cross-training employees helps ensure business runs smoothly even when there’s a shortage of staff due to illness or vacation. Giving employees the skills needed to fill in for absent employees not only helps maintain productivity throughout the organization, but it also sets the groundwork for a faster, smoother transition should the opportunity arise to be promoted or transfer to another role within the company.
• Avoid burnout: Doing the same thing over and over isn’t only boring, it’s a recipe for worker burnout. Teaching employees new skills re-engages their interest in their jobs by giving them a break from their normal routine and enticing them new and interesting challenges.
• Enhance teamwork: Cross-training enables your employees see the work that goes into other roles within the organization, As a result, they will have a better appreciation and understanding of the work their colleagues do and ultimately be able to collaborate better across teams and departments.
• Promote loyalty: Research indicates that what today’s workers want most are recognition and career advancement opportunities from their employers. With cross-training, they get both. Giving your employees the resources to learn new skills and take on bigger responsibilities demonstrates your faith in their abilities and your concern for their professional success and career development.

Tips for implementing a cross-training program

• Do it early, and do it often. Don’t wait until there’s a need to cross-train employees. Start cross-training now so you have the flexibility to move staff around and cover extra duties at a moment’s notice.
• Set a goal. For any business initiative to be successful, you have to start with a goal. Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish with cross-training?” and be specific. Make sure everyone involved in the program understands the goals of the program and how you plan to measure success.
• Find what works for you. When it comes to how you administer the training, there’s no one way to do it. Consider what will work best for your organization and your employees. Training can take place through an on-the-job buddy system, a mentoring program or, if employees are comfortable with it, from supervisors. Another option is having employees take classes through a pre-existing internal training and development program.
• Provide balance. Your employees will get the most benefit from cross-training if they aren’t distracted with the notion that they’re neglecting their primary responsibilities. You may need to scale back some of your employees’ projects during training so they don’t get burned out trying to take on training in addition to their full-time workload.

Do practice cross-training at your organization? What methods have worked for you?

A new research study from CareerBuilder finds that money rules when it comes to appealing to the average job seeker.  Overall, compensation topped the list of things that matter to employees the most, followed by benefits, advancement opportunities, work/life balance and appreciation from management.

Yet, when broken down by various elements, the results show that there’s hardly such a thing as the ‘average’ when it comes to what job seekers want. The way job seekers evaluate prospective employers and opportunities vary according to several factors – including job seeker education level, industry, gender, age and ethnicity. Take a look at some of the findings from CareerBuilder’s survey:

• Job seekers with a master’s degree are more likely look at whether a company offers a good work/life balance and interesting assignments before they look at compensation.
• The more education you have, the less important opportunities for advancement becomes in job selection. For example, only 12.6 percent of job seekers with master’s degree t rate advancement opportunities as number one on their ‘most wanted’ list, compared with 23.2 percent of those with a high school diploma.
• IT professions are more likely to focus on Advancement, but not Engineers.  Instead, Engineers are 50 percent more drawn to Interesting Assignments than IT professionals (20 percent versus 6.3 percent overall).
• Nurses are 31 percent more likely to prioritize high pay and work-life balance than professionals in other fields.
• Compensation is more important to Baby Boomers (workers born between 1946 and 1964) than it is to Millennials (workers born between 1981 to 2000) by almost 5 percent. Millennials, however, are 47 percent more likely to value advancement opportunities than Baby Boomers.

If these results tell us anything, it’s the importance of understanding your audience when trying to recruit a certain segment of the workforce. If, for example, you’re trying to pull in applicants with master’s degrees, advertising that your company offers a good work/life balance and that the job will include interesting assignments will help your value proposition. The same ‘benefits’ may not be as compelling, however, to another segment of the workforce, such as IT professionals, who favor advancement opportunities.

Of course these results are just a snapshot of the available research out there on job seeker behavior, attitudes and perceptions.  The more research you do on the talent you hope to recruit, however, the smarter you’ll be about where to allocate your recruitment advertising dollars, and the more time and money you’ll save in the long run.

When it comes to filling open positions, recruiting from within your own employee base might just be your best bet.

Remember how, in Some Kind of Wonderful, Eric Stoltz’s Keith relentlessly pursues the attractive, but ever elusive Amanda, played by Lea Thompson, only to discover that (spoiler alert!) his true love was actually Mary Stewart Masterson’s Watts, who’d been by his side all along?

There’s actually a lesson there for recruiters and hiring managers: sometimes the very thing you’re looking for in terms of new hires is actually right in front of you. In other words, next time you’re searching for candidates to fill an open position, don’t overlook the perfectly good candidates who may just be right in front of you: your current employees.  You might not immediately consider your current employees – the Watts’ of the candidate world, if you will – when considering who your next hire is going to be, but if you look at the benefits of recruiting from your current employee base, you might find that they’re ultimately your perfect match.

Internal recruiting: Driving down costs while increasing productivity
Consider the time you invest when you bring in new hires, onboarding them and familiarizing them with the organizational culture. Current employees are already familiar with the culture of the organization and daily business operations. While that employee might need some training to supplement the skills needed for his or her new role, the costs of bringing in a new employee will likely still outweigh the costs of training a current one for a new role. Newly promoted employees can also assist in training their replacements while transitioning to their new role within a company, further driving onboarding and training costs for other hires.

Another beneficial side effect of internal recruiting is the potential to positively affect morale and productivity. Hiring from within your own company proves to other employees that you recognize their hard work, trust them to take on other responsibilities, and are truly providing the career advancement opportunities workers value so much. As a result, they’ll be driven to work that much harder to take advantage of those opportunities themselves.

As the labor market gets more competitive and candidates with the specialized skills you need become harder to find, employers are placing higher importance on the practice of hiring employees based on cultural fit and then, once they’re on board, providing them with the skills they need for the role. After all, you can teach a smart, eager employee certain technical skills in a relatively short amount of time, but you can’t necessarily teach values, work ethic and other soft skills that are just as crucial to the growth of the organization.

Prepare your company – and your employees – for future growth
Whether you currently have an open position or not, and regardless of whether you plan to hire internally when you do, it’s always a good idea to set the groundwork for the possibility of promoting from within in the future.

By investing in training and educational opportunities for employees, you not only make them more productive in their current roles, but you’re providing a foundation that enables them to move up and take on bigger challenges in the future. Take a cue from employers like AT&T, Esurance and 24 Hour Fitness, all of whom discuss how and why the prioritize employee training their companies in the video below.

Ahead of their upcoming webinar, The 5 Step Approach to Identifying and Attracting the Right Employees, CareerBuilder’s Senior Director of Talent Intelligence, Sanja Licina, and Director of Employment Branding, Keith Hadley, recently sat down for a Q&A to discuss some of the content of the webinar, as well as offer hiring advice small business owners and hiring managers can apply today.

What’s the biggest obstacle that businesses face today in terms of recruiting the right people?
Keith Hadley: I think small business are too reactive. They don’t typically have large numbers of vacant positions, so they go from requisition to requisition. And because they are so reactive, they don’t set down some of the basics you need to have in place to attract top talent.
Sanja Licina: I agree. I’d also add that sometimes the biggest challenges for small businesses are the obstacles they create for themselves, such as the perception that they’re always going to lose out to bigger businesses. Or the thought that they can only recruit in their location or that there’s something inherently about them that makes them inferior to other companies; however, our research has shown that that’s just not the case. I think it’s really important for them to not use that as a deterrent to reach out to the people they think would be the best fit for their organization.

Because in many ways people are attracted to small businesses precisely because they are small, yet small businesses don’t necessarily see that as being an asset, right?
KH: Yes, I know a lot of people who would love to find a lower-pressure job closer to home at a smaller company, where you can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

In your upcoming webinar, you talk about the need for small businesses to “tell their story” to appeal to job seekers. What exactly do you mean by that?
SL: Telling your story is about understanding what makes working for your company better than working somewhere else, and then saying it aloud, and saying it with confidence. The medium could be everything from word of mouth to social media – there’s really no limit.
KH: One mistake businesses make is talking about your company from the perspective of your products, your services, your industry, et cetera. That’s the most boring story.  Small businesses need to sit back and say, “How are we approaching talent? What is it that talent is looking for?”  A good story answers the question, “What’s in for me?” because it engages job seekers and makes them want to learn more.

Aside from the chance to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, as Keith mentioned, what are some other assets small business can leverage when telling their stories?
KH: I think one thing that makes small- and medium-sized businesses unique is they really are like families.  Because they’re small, everybody knows everybody else.  People are very connected, and there tends to be more loyalty in a small business because people are still very much people. And that’s a real strength.
SL: There’s more upward mobility in small business. Smaller organizations can often offer people much higher levels of responsibility much more quickly than bigger businesses.
KH: Another thing is that small businesses are more agile. Right now, I’m working with a big company that is just bogged down in multiple layers of decisions. Our point person on the project keeps giving us “yesses” and then coming back later with a change, because somebody above them in that hierarchy we don’t even know keeps changing things. There are so many layers of bureaucracy to navigate in bigger businesses that you don’t have to deal with in smaller companies.
Sanja: Yes, and that agility also makes it easier for them to adopt trends a lot faster than other organizations, because they can implement them a lot quicker. That’s a huge strength.

Could you speak a little bit about the importance of recruiting even when there aren’t positions open currently?
KH: Everybody gets that product marketing is an ongoing thing, and they proactively make a plan to put together a marketing presence. Small businesses need to do the same for their recruiting presence and really think of it as an ongoing thing they need to invest money in and focus on. 
SL: Yes, I think sometimes people look at the cost of doing something, but they don’t think about the cost of not doing something. Ongoing recruitment gets more people to know about your organization. When you realize you need to hire somebody it’s almost too late, because if nobody knows who you are and what you’re doing, the time it takes to get someone good is going to be that much longer. But if you’ve already talked with people about the benefits of working for your organization, you already have a lot of warm candidates you can bring on board a lot faster.

Do you believe it’s better to leave an open position unfilled or to hire someone who’s not qualified and hope it works out?
SL: I think it depends on the supply and demand, and understanding how difficult it is going to be to find these people. There’s data out there to show you whether the talent is out there or not, and if you see that there are a good number of people out there who you’re looking for, you need to get smarter about how to get in front of them and how to tell your story better. So in that case, my recommendation would be to wait and hire. Now, if it’s a position that’s extremely difficult to hire for, then you probably need to look at your requirements and determine what it is you’re willing to train for.
KH: But you definitely minimize the likelihood of hiring the wrong person by being proactive and increasing the pool of people you have exposure to, which feeds back into everything we’ve talked about.

Want to hear more? Join Sanja and Keith on Wednesday, March 28 for The 5 Step Approach to Identifying and Attracting the Right Employees. They’ll discuss more best practices for identifying and attracting the engaged, passionate employees who will help your small business grow. Registration is free. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter at #cb5steps

Much like online dating sites, temporary workers can’t seem to shake being the target of unflattering stereotypes. But if you know anyone who’s ever found their true heart’s desire through (or at least gotten a few decent dinners out of) online dating, you know better than to let negative stereotypes get in the way of what for many is a great experience.

Companies are often hesitant to hire temporary workers for fear these workers will turn out to be lazy, unproductive, and unqualified or unskilled. And while these fears are oftentimes unfounded, it creates a challenge for recruiters trying to sell their clients on the benefits of hiring temporary workers.

What employers need to realize is that today’s temporary workers are actually highly qualified, skilled individuals who have a strong work ethic and take pride in their work.

Oftentimes, they’re specialists in their fields who choose temporary work because they enjoy the flexibility and autonomy of it. Because they understand that their reputations follow them where they go, they produce high quality work for their employers in efforts to build their personal brands, resumes and portfolios.

In other instances, they may be stay-at-home parents, recent retirees, college students or other qualified individuals whose current schedules or situations do not allow for a full-time position; however, that doesn’t mean they’re any less capable than turning out consistent, high quality work.

In addition to providing high quality work and diverse skills, temporary workers offer other major benefits recruiters should emphasize when talking to clients.

Money-saving benefits
Hiring temporary workers saves companies from having to throw a larger than usual amount of money at candidates before knowing their level of performance. Temporary workers do not require incentive-laden benefit packages or costly insurance coverage. Temporary workers are paid only for hours worked, so companies get exactly what they pay for without having to offer a large salary.

Time-saving benefits
Temporary workers offer companies the flexibility to cover long absences and seasonal demands without adding an additional salary. When it comes to covering for employee who is out for an indefinite amount of time – due to something like maternity or medical leave, military duty or a sabbatical – a client may need to fill a position but not necessarily want to hire a full- or part-time candidate to cover this period. Temporary workers offer a convenient solution to this problem.

“Try before you buy” benefits
Temporary workers provide companies the luxury of getting to “test drive” employees before offering them a full-time position. Say, for instance, a company wants to expand its marketing efforts and see if there’s enough work to keep a full-time copywriter busy. Hiring a temporary copywriter would allow a company to see first-hand whether the position is warranted. If they like the copywriter’s style and think having one on staff full-time is beneficial, they can offer the temp first shot to come aboard full-time; otherwise, the company can cut the temporary copywriter loose with no strings attached.

Right now, it is more important than ever for businesses to hire temporary workers in order to save money. The competitive job market has forced many companies to increase salaries in order to fill open positions. According to CareerBuilder’s most recent Annual Job Forecast, employers expect compensation levels to increase for both current staff and prospective employees as recruiting for skilled talent becomes more competitive. Sixty-two percent of employers plan to increase compensation for their existing employee base while 32 percent will offer higher starting salaries for new employees.

A recruiter’s role is to provide clients with the best fits for their needs, but convincing clients of the benefits of hiring temporary employees is often half the battle – especially if those clients are already skeptical.

Temporary workers are not the answer for every client and every situation, of course, but understanding when temporary workers are the ideal option – and being able to effectively communicate these benefits to clients – is how successful recruiters earn clients’ trust and confidence.

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?

Roll out the red carpet and call Joan Rivers: awards season isn’t over yet!

CareerBuilder just announced the launch of its Big Strides in Small Business Award contest – an effort to recognize the small businesses that have done a particularly spectacular job of fueling job growth and fostering economic recovery this year…and we’re asking YOU to nominate your small business today.

Think your small business is a big deal?

The contest is open to small businesses with 250 employees or less located in the fifty (50) United States plus the District of Columbia.  In order to be eligible, the small business must have added a minimum of 10 employees to its company in 2011 and must plan to add a minimum of 10 jobs to its company in 2012. As always, some restrictions may apply, but you can get all those details – and fill out an application form – by going to the contest page now.

Did we mention there are prizes?

(Not that there needs to be, right? Because really, isn’t it an honor just to be eligible for nomination?) Okay, but for realz, the prize package is pretty sweet: the winner of the Big Strides in Small Business Award (see how the selection process works here) will receive a grand prize worth $12,000, including a complimentary pass to CareerBuilder’s upcoming User Conference in Chicago in October, and a slew of free CareerBuilder services. (I hear there was talk about throwing in a date with Nick Lachey, too, but apparently that’s been done.)

Did we mention you only have until April 15? So get on it! Nominate your small business today.

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?

Taking its own advice to “Start Building,” CareerBuilder sets out on a mission to build something bigger: the economy.

What began two years ago as a branding campaign to prove itself as a strategic business partner to clients has morphed today into a much larger initiative. With the launch of Empowering Employment, CareerBuilder hopes to communicate the company’s mission to create a stronger job market and fuel economic growth.

The idea for the new campaign generated from talks between CareerBuilder’s Jamie Womack, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding, and other company executives. “We felt the time had come to move beyond ‘Start Building’ [our employer-focused slogan since 2008],” says Womack. “We started asking ourselves, ‘What do we want to be known for? How did we become who we are today?’ We wanted to tell the whole story about the value we bring to our clients.”

More than a job board
While CareerBuilder enjoys the distinction of being the world’s largest online job board, consistently beating its competitors in both revenue and online traffic, Womack and others felt a need to spread the message that CareerBuilder’s impact goes beyond that. “We take pride in being a great company, but what does that really mean to the community?” Womack recalls thinking. “What’s the deeper meaning for CareerBuilder’s existence, and how can we rally our customers and employees around that?”

Taking all of the above into consideration, CareerBuilder chose the term Empowering Employment as a way to instill in both businesses and individuals the knowledge that they have the power to contribute to a better economy. “In the simplest terms, Empowering Employment means doing your part to increase employment in the United States – whether it’s what you’re doing to bring jobs back as an individual or whether you’re a business who’s hiring,” says Jamie Womack, Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding. “It’s about making the effort to really impact the economy.”

Empowering Employment also alludes to CareerBuilder’s own efforts to empower both businesses and individuals with the resources they need for success in a competitive labor market.

For businesses, CareerBuilder has been leveraging its technology to help clients make more strategic decisions about where they allocate their recruitment funds. “We’re using our talent intelligence portals to gather data about job seekers and the job market, which we can use to educate our customers, make them more efficient, and help them hire better people,” Womack says.

For individuals, CareerBuilder continues to offer the most jobs in the U.S., as well as a host of online courses job seekers can take to supplement their skills and make them more attractive to prospective employers. Companies can take advantage of these offerings as well, as they look to train and develop their current workers and bridge the skills gaps in their own organization.

On a larger scale, CareerBuilder is also stepping up its role as a thought leader. Last September, CareerBuilder announced a major commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an annual meeting that convenes leaders from all over the world to collaborate on innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. More recently, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson sat down with renowned business leader Warren Buffett to discuss the obstacles to economic growth and what is needed to overcome these obstacles. The company has also been making strides to help bring military veterans back to work, and it recently embarked on an initiative to help aspiring IT workers learn the valuable skills for which companies are hiring but can’t find in the current labor market.

Creating jobs is business as usual for some
CareerBuilder is just one of many companies taking the initiative to foster job growth and fuel the economy right now. Chase, for example, recently made a pledge to employ 100,000 military veterans, while Amazon and Starbucks have stepped up their hiring practices and found ways to create jobs that will serve their businesses in the long term.

Among the businesses taking a proactive approach to create jobs and retrain workers are CareerBuilder’s own clients, several of whom will be featured in the company’s soon-to-be-launched marketing campaign – spanning both print and online media. Not only does CareerBuilder want to recognize those clients who embody the Empowering Employment mission, but the company also hopes that driving awareness of companies doing their part will inspire other businesses – clients or not – to do the same.

Says Womack, “We want to create a message that compels people to wake up and say, ‘I’m serving this bigger purpose.’”  Empowering Employment, therefore, is less of a branding play for CareerBuilder, and more a call to action for all Americans.

Among today’s most baffling unexplained mysteries – the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, who killed Kennedy, the ongoing success of ‘Two and a Half Men’ – there’s one that is dominating the news lately: Despite the fact that more than 14 million people are unemployed, there remain 3.2 million job openings in America.

The reason for this discrepancy, many experts believe, is that today’s workers simply don’t have the skills employers need to fill these positions – and it’s leading to what’s commonly referred to as a skills gap.

While many workers have taken it upon themselves to go back to school and learn the in-demand skills employers are hiring for, many believe the burden shouldn’t fall on workers alone. “Corporate America needs to spend to train the workers it needs,” CNBC’s Brian Sullivan recently said. He’s not the only one who believes it’s up to businesses to do their part to reskill workers. CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson recently wrote an editorial for Harvard Business Review suggesting ways American businesses can navigate the skills gap, one of which would be to invest in employee training and development.

Training workers may not prove to be the final answer to the unemployment problem, but it may be one answer, and that’s exactly the theory CareerBuilder is testing out now with the launch of a new job skills project.

“The focus for the project was ‘What can we do to bridge the skills gap?’” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, of what sparked the idea for the recent initiative to provide free training for those hoping to switch careers or re-enter the workforce.

Not knowing exactly where to start, Haefner and other executives sought feedback from CareerBuilder employees, asking them to submit ideas for ways the company could contribute to job growth. After evaluating the responses, the company’s leadership team ultimately decided to concentrate its efforts on two different areas: reskilling workers for the industries most in need of help right now, and helping former military personnel make the transition to the civilian workforce.

“There’s a high demand for people with high skill sets, so we thought if we could take a group of individuals and give them concentrated skills, they would have what they need to at least get an entry-level position,” Haefner says.

Today, CareerBuilder is three months in to a six month commitment to provide currently unemployed workers –including former military personnel – basic skills that might help them find jobs in that field at the end of the program. While the premise may sound like that of an early-90s MTV reality show (this is the true story, of 10 workers, picked to learn IT skills, to find out what happens…), the hope is ultimately to create a model businesses can replicate to bridge the skills gap at their own organizations and across the country.

“Our initial goal was simply to test out the concept that, in fields within the U.S. that have a shortage now, it’s not unattainable for individuals looking for work right now to get the skills employers need. We wanted to provide training to help them get employed. Now, the objective is, is this model something that can be replicated? Companies are already calling us to find out how we’re doing it.”

After generating responses from an advertisement on CareerBuilder.com, conducting screenings and interviews, Haefner and others chose a class of 10 individuals – half of whom were in the military trying to find new position, and many of whom were on long-term unemployment but who possessed basic skill sets – to participate in the project.

They modeled the program to resemble something like a paid internship, comprised of a combination of classroom education and on-the-job training. Technology employees based in CareerBuilder’s Norcross office work alongside the individuals to provide hands-on training, but employees also attend classes led by a third-party company. Participants are learning technical skills as well as the business intelligence skills and career placement advice that will support their efforts to find employment down the road.

A Worthwhile Investment
While Haefner contends that the initiative requires an investment up front, she believes that it’s one that will pay off down the road. “There’s always a cost to hiring. And there’s always a cost to training,” she says. “With this program, you’re molding clay right from the beginning, plus, you’re getting some value back, particularly in terms of labor costs. When you break it down, in six months you’re getting fully functioning employees who have the skills you need and are versed in your culture.”

While companies might be hesitant to pay more up front than what they normally are used to paying for training, Haefner argues that they’re also getting labor out of it, too.  Another argument Haefner is quick to address is the fear companies have that these workers will still end up leaving them in the end.

“There’s never any guarantee that a new hire will work out,” she says. In fact, if anything, these types of programs might actually increase retention. “What usually doesn’t work out with new hires is the cultural fit, and with this type of program, the chances are even better it WILL work out because you’re training them within your culture.”

While the program has three months to go before completion, Haefner is confident that, if nothing else, this program will prove to be a valuable learning experience – as much for CareerBuilder as for the workers participating in the program.

“So far, we’ve learned it’s really important to be transparent about your goals. We tell the participants, ‘We can’t guarantee you’re going to have a job when this is over, but you’ll have these skills that are in demand right now, and that will increase your chances of finding a job elsewhere.’”

Employers discuss how job seekers can meet them halfway
CareerBuilder recently asked various hiring managers to offer their advice on how job seekers can increase their chances of getting hired by learning the skills employers need most right now. See their responses below. What advice would you add? 

More than a third of workers discuss politics at work, according to a new CareerBuilder survey – and the exchanges aren’t always so diplomatic.

Clearly, not everyone is heeding Linus van Pelt’s timeless advice to avoid discussing religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin in mixed company…

Thirty-six percent of workers discuss politics at work, according to a new CareerBuilder survey of more than 7,000 full-time workers nationwide. That number will likely increase in the coming months, as 43 percent expect they will be talking about this year’s presidential election with co-workers.

While most conversations around politics were good-natured or even-tempered, 23 percent of workers who have discussed politics at work reported they had a heated discussion or fight with a co-worker, boss or someone else higher up in the organization. (Awkward!) And one in ten workers even said their opinion about a co-worker changed – most often for the negative – after they discovered that person’s political affiliation.

Look Who’s Talking Politics | Breakdowns by Age and Gender
When it comes to gender, men are more likely to talk politics at work than women (44 percent of men versus 28 percent of women) as well as more likely to report an altercation with a co-worker over opposing political views (25 percent compared to 19 percent).

According to the survey results, the older the worker, the more likely he or she is to discuss politics at work. Among workers 55 and older, 43 percent say they discuss politics at work, whereas only 25 percent of 18- to 24-year-old workers say the same. The next age group most likely to discuss politics was workers aged 45 to 54 at 40 percent, followed by workers 35 to 44 (34 percent) and workers 25 to 24 (30 percent).

Office Politics vs. Government Politics: What’s worse?
The survey also found that, for 46 percent of workers, the competitive nature of government politics mirrors that of office politics. Another 19 percent of workers say office politics don’t hold a candle to national politics in its viciousness.

While most workers choose to keep political debates outside of the workplace, those who like a little healthy debate should keep at that – healthy. After all, work is stressful enough without adding politics into the mix.  To avoid letting political talk turn sour, keep in mind that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

“It’s important to always be respectful of your colleagues’ opinions and avoid emotionally-charged exchanges,” says Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder, adding that that advice applies at for any time you’re dealing with subject matter that is sensitive or potentially inflammatory.

(Including, perhaps, the Great Pumpkin.)

Do you talk politics at work? How do you keep it civil?

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.

Are you trying to climb the corporate ladder while the company is working through the recession? In other words, are you aiming to be a leader?

Well, behind every great leader, at the base of every great tale of success, you will find an indispensable circle of trusted advisers, mentors and colleagues. These groups come in all forms and sizes, and can be found at every level and in nearly all spheres of both professional and personal life. What they all have in common is a unique kind of connection with each other that I’ve come to call “lifeline relationships.”

In order to build these all-important lifeline relationships, there are four core mindsets that can be learned and practiced, and help lead you on a path to personal and financial prosperity. They are:

Generosity
This is the base from which all the other behaviors arise. This is the commitment to mutual support that begins with the willingness to show up and creatively share our deepest insights and ideas with the world. It’s the promise to help others succeed by whatever means you can muster. Generosity signals the end of isolation by cracking open a door to a trusting emotional environment, what I call a “safe space” — the kind of environment that’s necessary for creating relationships in which the other mindsets can flourish.

Vulnerability
This means letting your guard down so mutual understanding can occur. Here you cross the threshold into a safe space after intimacy and trust have pushed the door wide open. The relationship engendered by generosity then moves toward a place of fearless friendship where risks are taken and invitations are offered to others.

Candor
This is the freedom to be totally honest with those in whom you confide. Vulnerability clears the pathways of feedback so that you are able to share your hopes and fears. Candor allows us to begin to constructively interpret, respond to and grapple with that information.

Accountability
Accountability refers to following through on the promises you make to others. It’s about giving and receiving the feet-to-the-fire tough love through which real change is sustained.

The real key to establishing close relationships with people you consider your trusted advisers in your career and in your personal life is how these four mindsets work together.

The process starts with generosity. It jolts people out of traditional transactional do-for-me-and-I’ll-do-for-you relationships. Actively reaching out to and helping others gives us the opportunity and permission to take a relationship to a deeper level. This allows us to explore intimacy, ultimately to the point of being vulnerable and open with one another.

If we’ve created a safe space, a place where we feel safe enough to say candidly what we think and feel, we can take greater risks in the relationship. It can lead to making a commitment to mutually support one another through thick and thin and to hold one another accountable for doing the things that will allow us to achieve our dreams and destinies. Taking such risks can lead us to create more than just friendships — we can create lifeline relationships to a better future.

This process is iterative: The more you give, the deeper you get and the more profound your sharing becomes. That strengthens your safe space, and provides more freedom to be vulnerable and candid — which opens the relationship even more deeply. Trust builds incrementally, by stages, growing deeper and stronger as the mindsets are practiced more sincerely and passionately.

Once you work within the four mindsets, you will see it’s a truly inspiring experience. Whether you’re working with an experienced sales team or building a business from scratch, the lifeline relationships you build will become more than your colleagues or assistants. They will become you’re a trusted circle of advisers and your peers.

That’s worth repeating: peers. Equals. Even though one of them may have clear organizational authority — and the title and decision-making power to go with it — each member functions as a highly respected equal, offering up creative ideas, candid feedback and criticism voiced with authentic concern for the others’ interests, and rigorous attention to accountability around goals, goal setting, follow-through and, of course, results. Each member has free, open and respectful permission to call the others out when they are falling short (because we all fall short, and most of us, as I know well, tend to do so repeatedly).

Do you want to be more successful in your career and more fulfilled in your life? Then let’s get started.

Keith Ferrazzi is the author of Never Eat Alone and the founder of the myGreenlight, an online training program for networking that offers the structure and support to put Keith’s bestselling books into action in your life for unparalleled career success and satisfaction. Go here to learn more: mygreenlight.com. 

“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?

A new survey sheds light on how employers can overcome their top staffing challenges.

Forty-three percent of hiring managers and human resource professionals are concerned top workers will leave their organizations this year, according to a new CareerBuilder survey.

The survey of over 3,000 hiring managers and human resources professionals nationwide also revealed that 34 percent of human resource managers saw an increase in voluntary turnover (workers leaving organizations for other opportunities) last year. Given these findings, it’s no wonder retention is a concern for so many organizations right now

Moreover, hiring managers in the information technology, financial services, manufacturing and health care fields – industries that rely on high-skilled workers – expressed the most concern about a potential talent exodus.

In addition to retention worries, the inability to fill open positions presents a whole other worry for hiring managers: 26 percent say they currently have open positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates.

Retention, compensation among employers’ biggest challenges
When asked to name their biggest staffing challenges this year, survey participants gave the following answers:

• Being able to retain top talent (35 percent)
• Being able to provide competitive compensation (35 percent)
• Worker burnout  (32 percent)
• Maintaining productivity levels (29 percent)
• Being able to provide upward mobility (26 percent)
• Can’t find high-skilled applicants (24 percent)
• Don’t have the budget to recruit (13 percent)

Beyond salary increases, organizations can offer a broader range of perks and benefits to meet these challenges, according to Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder’s vice president of human resources.

Overcoming staffing challenges | Workers weigh in
In addition to hiring managers and human resource professionals participated, more than 7,700 workers nationwide also participated in the survey, revealing insight that could help employers meet these challenges. When asked what they consider most when evaluating a potential employer, workers who participated in the survey gave the following answers:

• Longevity/stability
• Good work culture
• Career advancement opportunities
• Flexible schedules

Note that even if your organization provides employees some or all of the above perks, you might not be communicating it to current and potential employees as clearly or as frequently as you think you are: a 2011 MetLife study found that 55 percent of employees feel their communication regarding benefits is either unclear or too infrequent.

Do these results surprise you? What staffing challenges concern you most?

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.

Whether the term ‘hacker’ brings to mind images of someone stealing your credit card information or of Angelina Jolie unleashing computer viruses on the federal government, chances are the last thing you want to associate with the term is your own staff.

And yet, several companies today are doing just that, launching what have become known as ‘hack days’ at their organizations. While the specifics differ for every company, generally, a hack day is one day set aside to let employees (primarily engineers and information technology workers) work on anything they want outside of the scope of their regular responsibilities and everyday tasks.

For companies like Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook and the Federal Communications Commission, hack days not only successfully generate new business ideas, but also (and perhaps more importantly) boost employee morale, promote collaboration across teams and departments, and enhance the customer experience.

CareerBuilder can certainly attest to the benefits of hack days. CareerBuilder launched its first Hack Day in August of last year, followed by another one in November, and kicks off its third Hack Day today, taking place in offices across the world.

“You’re starting to see companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon, where they utilize technology to drive innovation, and that sparked conversation about, ‘What can we be doing?’” says Roger Fugett, Senior Vice President of Information Technology at CareerBuilder, about what inspired the idea.

With the company’s long history of using technology and innovation to help companies source and retain employees – as well as a desire to “give people an entire day where they can explore their passion”- hosting a hack day at CareerBuilder just seemed to make sense.

Encouraging employees to pursue their passions is part of the culture at CareerBuilder. Every year, every employee has the opportunity to pitch a new business venture for the Ideas from Everywhere contest, and compete to receive the financial backing and resources to run the new business line. The addition of Hack Day, Fugett says, offers employees “just another–slightly less formal – path to innovation.” And just like with Ideas from Everywhere, participants can enter the projects generated from Hack Day into a contest for the chance to see their idea fully realized.

CareerBuilder’s Hack Day isn’t exclusive to its technology workers, either. Every employee in the company is invited to participate as a business partner in the process if he or she has an idea or simply wants to get involved. The business partner is then paired up with a member of the technology team prior to Hack Day to create a plan of action. Not only does this exercise generate a broader range of ideas, but it also promotes collaboration among teams that might not normally work together.

Going into Hack Day, Fugett explains, the goals were simple: “It was really to spark creativity and get people thinking about bringing new ideas to the table – whether that meant addressing market needs or what they’ve talked to sales reps about.” So it was a pleasant surprise to see just how passionately employees took to Hack Day. Over 300 employees actively participated in the first two Hack Days, resulting in a total of 75 new business ideas.

“The volume of participants exceeded our expectations, as did the ideas that generated from it. We started out thinking we’d probably pick just one idea from the first set of submissions, but we ended up picking fourteen – the quality of ideas was just that good,” says Fugett.

As for advice he would offer other companies that want to implement their own hack day, Fugett says, “You have to have a tolerance for failure. If you project manage stuff to death and need everything to have an ROI, pulling this off is going to be tough. If you’re going to be innovative, you have to anticipate some failures.”

He also adds that communicating the idea that failure is crucial when encouraging employees to participate. “You want all the ideas. You don’t want people to keep ideas to themselves in fear of being chastised for failing.”

Want to build a better relationship with job candidates? All it takes is one thing.

For the New York Giants, it’s Eli Manning. For Rachel Ray, it’s EVOO. And for recruiting and staffing industry professionals, your most valuable resource is your talent pool.

And much the way Ray devotees (yes, we exist) rely on the Food Network star to provide fresh, quality(ish) 30-minute meals on a regular basis, your clients consistently rely on you to provide quality candidates to fill positions.

The problem is, those qualified candidates aren’t always so easy to come by if you haven’t worked to build relationships with them through effective and frequent communication – even during those times your clients don’t have any openings for which they would be a match.

Communication: The Ultimate Candidate Relationship Builder
All you have to do is browse the self-help section of any Barnes & Noble for five minutes to understand that communication is key to building and sustaining long-term romantic relationships. The same is true of professional relationships – particularly those between you and your candidates. Consider the following (relatively painless) ways maintain frequent, effective communication with your candidate pool.

Newsletters: Simple, easy and effective, weekly or monthly email newsletters help keep you on your candidates’ radar without dumping too much information on them. Keep the content brief, but informative and relevant to their needs, such as information about upcoming training or certifications, candidate success stories (to keep them motivated), industry employment breakdowns and trends (to keep them informed), resume tips and career or job search advice. Over time, they will come to rely on these newsletters (and you) as a valuable source of information.

Contact people: Another popular method for communicating with candidates is assigning a “buddy” or contact person to a number of candidates in your pool. The role of the contact person is to call or email their assigned candidates – even the ones already placed by your firm – on a weekly or monthly basis. Not only will you maintain open communication with your candidates, but you will also be able to gauge your candidates’ needs and current career situation.

Emailed job recommendations: In addition to – or as part of – regular newsletters, send out daily or weekly (depending on their preferences) emails containing job opportunities that are relevant to candidates’ industries, experience, skill levels and interests. Segment candidates in a database by these qualifiers beforehand so you can quickly email those groups when new job opportunities become available.

Mobile devices: As an alternative to emails, let candidates opt-in to receive custom job opportunities via text message as well. Inavero research found that over 50 percent of smartphone users are interacting with staffing firms via text and email, as well as reviewing job opportunities – all from their mobile devices. The increased mobile activity underscores the opportunity for recruiters to connect with candidates anywhere, at any time.

Social media: It’s impossible to overemphasize the opportunities social media provides to keep candidates informed and engaged. There are a number of ways to utilize social media as a recruiting tool. For example, you could invite them to follow you on Twitter, become a fan of your Facebook page or connect with you on LinkedIn. Then use these platforms to do everything from push out helpful career information and advice to simply converse with candidates in real-time.

Yes, building relationships with candidates through consistent communication takes work, but working to foster loyalty with candidates will pay off in both the long-term (nearly 40 percent of staffing firm clients say they worked with a staffing firm before as part of their job search, according to CareerBuilder and Inavero’s Opportunities in Staffing guide) and in the short term (the same survey found that, on average, candidates tell eight people about their experiences – both good and bad – with their staffing firms).

When it comes to successful recruiting, what goes around comes around: take care of your candidates, and they’ll take care of you.

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?

Employee engagement is a crucial part of any successful workplace.

True engagement goes beyond job satisfaction and loyalty — instead, it delves into an individual’s personal satisfaction. From a company’s perspective, true engagement ultimately contributes to the organization’s bottom line.

What makes engagement work for employees? The equation is simpler than you’d think. For workplace engagement (or happiness), a job needs to provide meaning, enjoyment, and not surprisingly, a paycheck.

At WorkSimple, we love offering tips and trick to encourage employee engagement. However, there are only so many ways we can share the dos. What about the don’ts? After all, it’s just as important to know what to avoid (not mention, it’s kind of fun).

Here are six don’ts every manager (and executive) should keep in mind when working on employee engagement:

Don’t limit feedback
Limiting feedback to annual (or even more sporadic) performance reviews is harmful to employee engagement. It catches employees off-guard and usually pulls from specific instances instead of providing an overall picture. Ultimately, limited feedback keeps workers on their toes (in a bad way).

Engaged employees love frequent feedback. It gives them confidence and helps them move forward. More importantly, feedback helps them understand how their work fits into the team and the bigger company picture.

Don’t stick to long-term objectives
Picking one massive project for everyone to work on is not good for employee engagement. After a long day’s work, only a fraction of the project will be accomplished, leaving employees stressed and feeling unimportant.

Engaged employees prefer a combination of long-term and short-term goals. In reality, short-term goals reflect what is going on in the workplace today. It helps workers deal with shifting priorities.

Short-term goals can, however, contribute to a long-term direction. This leaves employees feeling more accomplished and less stressed.

Don’t go all-for-one
When management forces their employees to work separately, engagement goes out the window. Competition outweighs collaboration, leaving employees to feel like it’s them against the world.

Engaged employees prefer to work together in a group for most goals and projects. That way everyone’s best skills are used appropriately and a team dynamic is inspired.

Don’t stay by the book
Religiously following an original business plan can work against employee engagement. It allows no room for new ideas and your employees will feel like they’re a cog in the machine.

Successful companies that have existed for 10, 20, or even 50 years learn early on that change does happen from time to time. An engaged workforce will shift goals and techniques instead of remaining stagnant. Flexibility encourages innovation and the company as a whole will thrive.

Don’t criticize
A manager or executive who consistently focuses on where employees fall short is working against employee engagement. Constant micromanaging and layering on work without praise keeps employees tense and powerless.

In an engaged workplace, employees hear praise and constructive criticism often. This instills a sense of trust that they are improving and that they matter to the company.

Don’t keep management and workers separate
If there is a rift between management and staff, engagement won’t be able to thrive. Employees will have the distinct feeling that management is “above” them and management will lord over employees. In this scenario, employees feel condescended to and disengaged.

To increase employee engagement, turn managers in coaches. This encouraged the overall “team” feel throughout the company. Employees feel more comfortable working with management and vice versa.

What do you think? What other don’ts would you add to this post? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Morgan Norman is the Founder and CEO of WorkSimple, putting an end to performance reviews by providing a better way for coworkers and teams to share goals, work together, get and give feedback, and make each other shine. Connect with him and WorkSimple on Facebook and Twitter.

As your company grows, make sure it doesn’t leave behind the culture that makes it so great.

Organizational culture is one of those things that you don’t really notice – or appreciate – until it’s gone. Unfortunately, losing sight of one’s organizational culture is a common side effect of growth: You get so busy growing your business, you tend to forget about working to maintain the unique workplace culture you established as a smaller business.

Maintaining culture through growth is a difficult – but necessary – effort. Recognizing this, CareerBuilder and Inc. recently created “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” a new report designed to help companies deal with the common challenges that accompany organizational growth.

The following excerpt from “Geared to Growth” offers three tips to ensure that as your business grows, your culture doesn’t get left behind.

Dealing with the Cultural Issues Growth Brings
Although it’s nearly every company’s goal, growth doesn’t always bring with it positive change. Unless your company is prepared for the accompanying cultural shifts, growth can spark serious disruptions in your organization. Here are some tips for dealing with the changes growth can bring:

Account for emotion. Businesses often encounter particular emotional resistance to changes in the decision-making process, not only in the C-suite but throughout the organization. “In my experience, it hasn’t been as hard for the CEOs as it has been for the next level down,” says Barbara L. Davidson, Ph.D., a change management consultant and faculty member at Villanova University.

Prepare the entire organization for change. For that reason, it’s essential to prepare everyone in the organization for change and solicit staff input on growth plans before they’re put in motion. “It doesn’t guarantee failure, but it’s a set-up for failure if you don’t involve representatives from all functional areas and all levels of the organization in actually helping to design the change as well as execute it,” Davidson says.

Communicate the vision. Communicate the company’s organizational objectives and the impact those goals will have on employees’ responsibilities, job performance expectations, and prospects for advancement or new opportunities. Make sure they understand their roles in upcoming changes and are motivated to meet the challenges growth brings. That’s a critical strategy for maintaining their sense of investment in the company’s growth.

What does your organization do to foster culture?

Want to know more? View previous excerpts from “Geared to Growth” here, here and here, or simply download the entire report here.

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.

Unless you’re Angela Martin from “The Office”, opening yourself up to criticism about your shortcomings probably falls somewhere between picking up your dry cleaning and getting a colonoscopy on your list of favorite things to do.

While administering employee feedback surveys can feel like you’re putting both your company and your performance as a leader and manager in front of the firing squad, it also happens to be one of the most efficient and effective ways to understand the internal workings of your organization. Consider the following benefits to employee surveys (and take the ‘evil’ out of ‘necessary evil’).

Five Benefits of Employee Feedback

1. Turning lemons into lemonade (or lemonade vodkas, if you prefer). Yes, the chances you’ll receive some negative feedback are about as good as the chances E! will soon create yet another Kardashian-focused reality show, but negative feedback provides the opportunity to change things at your organization for the better.
2. Winning over new fans. If your organization were a television network, employee feedback time would be sweeps week for you. Just by virtue of taking an interest in your employees, you’re likely to see an increase in morale and productivity; however, those effects may only be short-term. If you want to retain those new fans (i.e. foster long-term employee morale), you must continue to meet the expectations you’ve now set forth (see #5 from the checklist below).
3. Reigniting that old feeling. Instead of just asking employees what they would change about the company or their jobs, ask them to vocalize what they love about these things, as well. Chances are they don’t often stop to think about these things, and it serves as a good reminder as to why they come to work each day, again boosting morale. Bonus: You can use this feedback to enhance your current employer brand message.
4. Saving money. Employee feedback can also give you better insight into how to better allocate your resources and enhance your benefits package. Be sure to ask about the benefits or employee-focused programs they take advantage of, which ones they don’t (you might find you’re wasting money on programs employees don’t want) and which benefits you should consider implementing to make them happier and more productive (and more likely to recommend you to prospective candidates).
5. Bring out the Steve Jobs in everyone. In addition to the above, employee surveys can build your bottom line by generating business ideas. Because they work closely with customers, your employees have a much closer pulse on customer needs. Thus, they’re likely to have suggestions for how to improve certain aspects of the business, services or products to meet these needs.

Administering Employee Surveys | A Six-Step Checklist
In order to get the best return out of your employee survey, the following actions are a must:

1. Ensure anonymity. If your employees think there’s any chance their feedback will be held against them later on, they might not be completely honest in their answers. In the end, that won’t help anyone.
2. Clarify your goals. Explain your reasoning behind administering the survey, what you hope to get out of it, and why your employees’ participation is important. Be sure to emphasize how these surveys will benefit them.
3. Get buy-in from all levels of leadership. From the CEO to your employees’ direct managers, everyone should be encouraging participation in the survey to reiterate the importance of participation.
4. Make it easy. The easier you make it for employees to give feedback, the more likely they are to participate. Keep the survey brief (according to Inc.com, the ideal length of an employee survey is between 35 to 55 questions and takes only 15 to 25 minutes to complete), and easily accessible. If possible, create an online survey that can pre-populate data such as name, department and title to save your employees time filling out these fields. Also, be sure to include a direct link to the survey through email invitations and reminders, as well as the homepage of the company intranet.
5. Live up to your promises. The most important part of the employee feedback process is also, unfortunately, one of the most underutilized. Don’t let your time and efforts to gather feedback amount to nothing. Follow up with your employees to go over the results of the survey, reiterate your goals and outline the next steps. Not only does failing to follow up mean you’ve essentially wasted everybody’s time, it’s also huge blow to morale, because it sends the message that you really don’t care about your employees’ wants and needs.
6. End on a high note: Remember, employee surveys are also a chance for you to reaffirm what’s great about your organization.  Take this opportunity to recognize those things that make working for your organization great. Use the follow-up meetings as a chance to say, “This is what you said you love about working here, and we take pride in that. Let’s celebrate this.”

How do you solicit employee feedback? What methods do you recommend?

Whether you are rooting for the New England Patriots or the New York Giants, chances are you’re going to be watching the Big Game with friends, family and even some co-workers. Instead, imagine leaving the stress of your job for a few days by hopping a flight to the U.S. destination of your choice. Unlike that last grueling business trip, we think travel should be nothing but fun and relaxation. And we have a solution for you…

Run the Ultimate Fly Pattern Sweepstakes
“Like” CareerBuilder for Employers on Facebook and then enter your name, address and e-mail for a chance to win $1,000 in complimentary airfare from CareerBuilder; the ‘Run the Ultimate Fly Pattern’ sweepstakes runs from January 30, 2012 to midnight, February 12, 2012.

We know your work is important, but everyone deserves to take a break to unplug, kick up their feet and get lost in a good book. 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.”

Where would you go if you won $1,000 in complementary airfare?

Creating a better benefits package isn’t just good for employees. It’s good for business, too.

Growing Pains: it’s not just a classic TV series desperately in need of a reunion show. While growth is a blessing for many companies, it also brings with it many challenges. With this in mind, CareerBuilder and Inc. have just released “Geared to Growth: Building an Infrastructure for the Long Haul,” a new report designed to help companies deal with the growing pains they may experience over both the short- and long-term.

The following excerpt from Part III of “Geared to Growth” (you can check out part I here and go here for part II) discusses how benefits are critical to attracting and retaining employees – and how you can deliver the benefits employees want (without breaking the bank).

Benchmarking Your Employee Benefits Package
Benefits play a crucial role in attracting and retaining productive employees. So how do you know if you’re offering a compelling benefits plan? Start with one question:  Are employees using it?

“One important factor is utilization,” says Professor Martocchio, who is author of Employee Benefits: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals. Take stock of which benefits employees are actually taking advantage of. Perhaps your company can replace some benefits employees don’t want or need with new benefits that they’ll appreciate more. “Before you invest in those benefits and spend the money, you need to do a needs test to find out what the employees will use.”

Don’t neglect non-traditional benefits like flex-time, telecommuting, and domestic partner coverage, which many employees today consider essentials, not extras. They expect employers to recognize and respect their personal and family obligations, even in the current economic environment.

It’s not just employees who get perks from these types of benefits, either. Offering those nonstandard benefits gives you a competitive edge in attracting highly in-demand workers – and in retaining your current employees.

Benefits don’t have to break the bank.
Some of the most valued employee benefits are also some of the most cost-effective to execute. Options include:

• Providing space for weekly weight-loss program meetings.
• Offering education on use of flexible spending plans.
• Bringing in counselors to help employees assess their financial planning and insurance positions.

“These are really critical issues,” Martocchio says. “Most of us do not know how to deal with long-term wealth building or long-term care, because it is so complicated.”

Be careful, however, not to endorse or sponsor financial or insurance advisors (which introduces the potential for liability) and make it clear that the company receives no commission on these referrals.

Staff members should have a voice in designing the plans. Several strategies can help you to gather and implement their input:

• Conduct periodic surveys of employee preferences.
• Invite feedback through use of a physical or virtual suggestion box.
• Create a representative employee advisory committee that reflects a broad cross-section of job titles and employee backgrounds, both personal and professional.

These strategies not only provide a simple, inexpensive way to gauge employee concerns—they also give executives and management a way to demonstrate that the company cares about and does its best to respond to employee concerns.

If you choose to launch an employee advisory committee, make sure you have a clearly defined purpose for it. Make sure the members understand the metrics the company will use to evaluate the committee’s effectiveness and contributions to corporate-wide productivity.

These metrics should measure concerns that “play to the success of the organization,” says human capital management consultant Paul Belliveau, SPHR, HRIP. These metrics should measure success “against the problems that need to be solved to achieve strategic goals and objectives from a corporate standpoint.”

For more information, download a complimentary copy of “Geared to Growth” – and check out the Infrastructure-Building Resources on page 15 for further assistance in evaluating and enhancing your existing benefits plan.

You don’t get it. You’re doing everything right: You’re offering a great job with a great company, you’ve ensured your job advertising placement is targeting the right group of candidates, and you’re positive you’re offering the most competitive salary. Even your job posting is flawless.

And yet, the job applications just aren’t flowing in the way they should. So what gives?

The truth is, while you might be doing everything right to attract the right job candidates and compel them to apply to your job opportunities, it might just be what happens after they hit “apply now” that’s the source of your troubles. 

Research shows that 34 percent of candidates who try to apply for jobs don’t complete the application process – simply because the application process is too much of a hassle.

(Think about it. Have you ever tried to enter a contest online only to find that the registration process is more trouble than the prize is worth? Applying to a job online can be just as frustrating. The more hoops you make candidates jump through just to apply, the less likely they are to complete the application process.)

According to CareerBuilder internal data, the top two reasons candidates gave for failing to complete the application process were due to usability issues and time constraints:

• 24 percent of candidates don’t apply to jobs because the “Apply Now” link is broken.
• 21 percent believe that the long application process isn’t worth their time.

The good news is that fixing your job application process to end candidate drop-off is a relatively easy fix. The hard part, however, comes with discerning exactly where and why candidates are dropping off in the first place – an effort that will inevitably require some data analysis.

While your current applicant tracking system might be able to offer some insight as to what you need to change or enhance about your application process, you might find you need the help of a third party that can offer objective analysis and insights.  CareerBuilder’s Applicant Experience offering, for example, gives insight into your application process by tracking candidates and surveying them within 24 hours of an interaction with your Job Posting, and then again a month later.

Not only will an external resource help you uncover holes your internal team is likely to overlook, but you’ll benefit from the expert solutions to create a better recruitment process overall.  It’s an investment up front, but one that will ultimately save you time and money (and frustration).

How often do you evaluate your organization’s application process?

 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:

Finding workers with the right skills can be a skill in itself.

If you find yourself complaining that you can’t find the qualified candidates you need for certain positions at your organization, the good news is you’re not alone – by a long shot.

According to a recent Manpower survey, 52 percent of U.S. employers can’t find the skilled workers they need to fill open positions.

Dire as these findings may seem, the situation isn’t hopeless. In a recent editorial for Harvard Business Review addressing how companies can navigate the growing skills gap, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson mentioned that companies need to take the initiative to reskill workers themselves. After all, many out-of-work Americans have skills they could easily transfer to a new career “if given the opportunity to build them,” according to Ferguson.

The question then becomes, how can you provide that opportunity? Consider the following ways organizations can take it upon themselves to reskill workers – and help close that ever-widening skills gap.

5 Ways to Train Workers for the Skills Your Organization Needs

1. Set up an internal training and development program. It’s no accident that some of today’s most successful companies also happen to make leadership development a priority. General Electric, for example, invests roughly $1 billion annually on training and educational opportunities for employees, while both Intel and McDonald’s have company-specific ‘universities’ where employees to go to learn new skills and develop existing ones. Don’t have the means to create an internal training program? Look into using a third party resource, such as CareerBuilderInstitute, which enables businesses to train their employees through online courses that range from hard- and soft-skill development to professional certification.
2. Create a mentorship program within the organization. Mentorship programs are a great, cost-effective way to prepare employees for leadership and management positions. But the benefits don’t end there. Research suggests that mentorship programs have a positive effect on morale, boost productivity and increase retention rates, as well.
3. Partner with local colleges to offer training and recruit. In hopes to reverse the trend of an increasing skills gap and labor shortage, companies across all industries are partnering with local colleges and universities to offer programs that ensure workers get the specialized skills they need for various industries.
4. Promote current employees first. When looking to hire for a new position, don’t overlook your current employees. Chances are you’ll have to train whoever you hire to some extent anyway, so why not have one of those people be someone you know is already the right fit culturally? Promoting from within not only saves time and money bringing in someone new, but it can also improve morale and increase retention, as it sends the message that you value your employees and provide growth opportunities.
5. Consider rehiring former employees. This can be a tricky one, depending on the circumstances surrounding the employee’s original departure, but rehiring a former employee could be a viable option to fill certain open positions. After all, rehired employees understand the company culture, and you don’t have to retrain them.

What is your organization doing to reskill workers?

Related posts: Four Things Great Companies Do to Develop Their Leaders

They may love their Facebooks, their Twitters and their YouTubes, but the members of Gen Y may not be nearly as swayed by social media as you might think. New research around social media’s influence on consumer behavior  indicates that, while millennials might be “digital natives”, they are actually more influenced by word-of-mouth marketing than social media when it comes to making purchasing decisions.

The takeaway for hiring managers and recruiters? Given that employee recruitment is essentially just another form of marketing, focusing more on word-of-mouth marketing techniques could enhance your recruiting strategy. (This doesn’t just go for recruiting Gen Y, either: The study showed word-of-mouth also trumps social media when marketing to members of Gen X and Baby Boomers as well.)

The question now, of course, is how? Might I suggest starting with your current employees?

We’ve discussed before the importance of turning your employees as employer brand ambassadors, and this finding speaks to that. Job seekers want to feel a connection with potential employers. They want to know first-hand what they’re getting into before they buy in and accept an offer. They want to hear from real people – people they feel they can trust – why a certain workplace is the workplace they want to invest in. As the face of your company, your employees are the way to accomplish these things. Consider the following tactics:

5 Ways to Create Word of Mouth Recruiting Using Your Employee Network

1. Make the most of career fairs. Career fairs are perhaps the most obvious way to get employees in front of candidates to recommend your organization. Send your best employees to these events, where they can meet job seekers, answer questions about the work culture, exchange information with candidates, and let their personality and enthusiasm for their jobs and workplace do the selling for you.
2. Sponsor employee memberships in professional organizations. Encouraging your employees to join professional organizations specific to your industry enables them to expand their professional network – and pool of potential candidates they can refer to your company. You’re also investing in your employees’ learning and development, a much-valued benefit among today’s workers (and one more selling point they can bring up to potential candidates).
3. Mind your ERPs. Research shows that a well-structured employee referral program (ERP) is one of the best ways to generate new hires, but they’ve also been shown to increase retention, lower costs and boost morale among current employees.
4. Emphasize the “social” part of social media. While social media might not be as influential as word-of-mouth, but you can still use social media to mimic the feel of word-of-mouth. How? Take a cue from online retailer Zappos, where employees create “connection channels” via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to connect with potential employees, freely answer questions about life at Zappos, and let their individual personalities shine through as they ‘live the brand’. Social media may never hold the weight of face-to-face conversations, but it does enable employees to speak – authentically and in their own words – on behalf of their employers. That’s not a bad consolation.
5. Create employee testimonial videos. Recruitment videos with employee testimonials are the next best thing to getting employees face-to-face with candidates (perhaps because it feels like face-to-face). See how companies like Noodles&Co and Madison Health Care Center utilize their recruitment videos to enable employees to tell their stories – literally in their own voices – about what makes working for these companies such a great experience.

Do you employ word-of-mouth marketing tactics in your recruiting efforts? How do employees at your organization help you recruit?

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.)

If you’ve ever known the pain of waiting for a certain phone call, email, text message or Tweet that just…never…comes (sad face emoticon), then you know the pain job candidates go through every time you go M.I.A. after the initial contact or interview.

Maybe you’re simply trying to avoid an awkward conversation, or perhaps you just haven’t made a decision yet – however innocent the reason, leaving job candidates hanging is wrong. And it isn’t just bad manners; it’s bad business. As evidenced by the bitter comments from a previous post asking why recruiters so frequently neglect to call candidates back, this behavior can not only damage your personal brand, but it puts you at risk of losing potentially great candidates down the line.

Even if a candidate you like isn’t the best fit for the position for which you’re hiring now, that doesn’t mean he or she won’t make an excellent hire for a future open position. Or what happens if the original person you hired doesn’t work out? Should either of those things occur, think of the time and money you’ll save recruiting if you already have a pool of engaged, qualified and interested candidates on reserve.

So how do you keep candidates engaged and interested (without feeling like you’re stringing them along)? Here are a few suggestions…

1. Keep the lines of communication open.  Again, be sure you follow up with your candidates to let them know where they stand in the consideration process. If applicable, explain to them that while you might not have any opportunities for them now, something might come up down the line. Invite them to opt in to receive custom job opportunities via email or text message. The keyword here is custom: Make sure you are only sending jobs that fit the skills and interests of the candidates. (Blindly sending out every open opportunity screams “spam” and is a huge turn off for job seekers.)
2. Show your personality. Engage candidates by showing the lighter side of your corporate culture. Post pictures to your social media sites from company events or use these sites as platforms to recognize employees. Better yet, create videos to give a more three-dimensional peek at what it’s like to work at your company. Keep the content fresh to keep potential employees coming back for more – and your company on their radar. This is also a great opportunity to engage your current employees by encouraging them to blog or Tweet about the exciting projects they’re working on.
3. Make it about them – not you. While you want to keep candidates informed of opportunities with your company, don’t make it all about you. It may seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes the best way to market yourself and draw candidates in is to take the focus off your company – and put it on them. Take Spherion Staffing as an example: Rather than consistently pushing out information about their job opportunities (via social media), the national staffing agency provides links to industry news, information and advice job seekers can apply to their career searches. This kind of “soft sell” approach not only keeps job seekers engaged – on your turf – but it sends the message that you want to see potential candidates succeed and ultimately positions you as a desirable employer.

Bringing it all together.
While email and web-based tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube serve as excellent platforms for communicating with job seekers, keeping it all together can be an overwhelming – and time-consuming – task. For this reason, some companies utilize automated talent networks to help them manage interested candidates and potential employees. CareerBuilder’s Talent Network offering, for example, enables employers to integrate all the things they are doing to attract job seekers, engage interested candidates, and measure the success of their efforts.

Or there’s always the option to disregard your talent pipeline altogether and simply hope that the right candidates just happen to fall in your lap at the right time. (Happens all the time, right?)

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?

If any of you recruiters out there, like me, obsessively watch have ever seen an episode of Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker, you may have noted the similarity between recruiting and matchmaking. Both jobs entail trying to deliver the best candidates possible to a customer in hopes to make the perfect match (and end up happily ever after).

The other similarity? “It’s a very crazy industry,” says Daniel Banfield, a former partnership director at a national staffing firm. Crazy, however, isn’t necessarily a bad thing: where some people burn out from the fast pace and high demands of the job, others thrive on these elements.

Whether you’re thinking of starting a career in recruiting and staffing industry, or you want to move up from your current position, Banfield and Erik Kelley, both account executives in CareerBuilder’s Staffing and Recruiting Group, offered up the following advice based of their own experiences.

Five Steps to Success in the Recruiting and Staffing Industry

1. Don’t expect success to come to you. The skills that it takes at one level of your career might not necessarily what gets you to the next point in your career. “Know what it takes to be successful, and be completely mindful of what it’s going to take to move up,” Banfield says. To do this, he suggests getting a mentor, who can help you set realistic expectations about your career path and what it takes to move up, including the challenges that come with the various roles. Make every effort to connect with others in the industry (which you can do through LinkedIn or joining a professional organization, such as SHRM or the ASA), who can guide you along in your career path.
2. Make yourself indispensable.  “You need to be looked to as leader, someone who’s putting people to work,” says Kelley, once an account executive at a national staffing firm, of how recruiters can set themselves apart and move up to senior recruiter and sales positions. How do you accomplish leadership cred? Again, it’s all about being proactive: join an organization that’s suited to your interests; attend recruiting conferences and events; sign up for free webinars online; follow industry experts on social media sites (such as Facebook.com/CareerBuilderforStaffing); and read up on industry reports to stay current on staffing and recruiting trends (such as checking out the recent Opportunities in Staffing guide), to name a few options. Become an expert in your field, and clients and colleagues will begin to see you as an indispensable resource.
3. Recognize that change is inevitable: Due to the dynamic, fast-paced nature of the recruiting and staffing industry, it requires a certain amount of agility and willingness to adapt to an ever-changing environment. “If you can’t deal with the element of change very well, then recruiting and staffing is not the career for you, because you will be on an emotional roller coaster with good days and bad,” says Kelley.  While Kelley loved “the satisfaction of putting people to work who deserved it,” there were definite downsides to the role as well, such as the disappointment of seeing a candidate ultimately not work out for reasons beyond his control – and the toll it would then take on his (compensation-based) paycheck.
4. Beware of burnout. “There’s a huge burnout factor,” says Banfield of the nature of the job. Yet there are ways to combat this, such as finding multiple projects to work on, joining a professional organization specific to your niche. Keeping up on the industry and continuously educating yourself are critical to staying ahead. Most importantly, find an organization to work for that encourages growth. “A lot of success is organization-driven. You have to foster that environment [as an organization].”
5. Do it because you love it. To paraphrase what Amber Naslund says about social media, If you don’t love it, you’ll suck at it. The same might be said about recruiting. (Okay, you might not suck at it, but passion to succeed definitely works for you in this industry.) “I think people go into recruiting by accident because they need a job, and they find out later that they either hate it or love it,” says Kelley. And it is those who love it, Banfield believes, who will find the most success in this industry: “If someone’s just out for the number, it’s not going to work out.”

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned by working in the recruiting and staffing industry? Do you think the pros of the job outweigh the cons?

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.

“Create an environment of respectful but robust debate and allow people to disagree.”

In the following interview for CareerBuilder’s Leadership Series, Coinstar, Inc. President and COO Gregg Kaplan talks leadership, philosophy, and leadership philosophies.

What is your philosophy as it relates to people and their impact on your daily business?
Hire great people and then get out of the way. Really ambitious, talented people will always be way out in front of you as a manager if you give them plenty of room to succeed. Some of the best innovations at Coinstar and Redbox have come from employees who were passionate about an idea and given the freedom to pursue it. I consider my best contribution to be finding the right people and creating the right motivation, and then being available to them as a resource, not as a boss.

How do you engage with and relate to your employees?
It is very important to get to know employees on a personal level to understand not only their professional goals, but also what is important to them outside of work. It is difficult in a large company to have one-on-one relationships with all employees, but I find doing brown bag lunches and skip level meetings pay back immensely. It is great to know the people who are working hard every day for your success and let them know who you are as a person, not just a figurehead.

What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
Good ideas can come from everywhere and anywhere: Be open and listen; be clear and decisive; admit mistakes quickly and learn from them; and hire good, talented people.

How do you define Coinstar’s culture? As a leader, what is your impact on the culture?
Our culture is fun, informal, and non-hierarchical, but serious about hitting our objectives. This may sound like it is in conflict but it isn’t. We show up to work in the summer in shorts and flip-flops, but in the same day will have a serious meeting with significant debate and discussion. In fact, just recently on Halloween I found myself in a viking helmet engaged in debate with a race car driver and a butterfly! As a leader it is my job to simultaneously demonstrate fun and informality, but also hold us to a standard of thoroughness, thoughtfulness, and rigor.

Some people believe HR to be the only department with a responsibility for the organization’s people. How do you make your overall talent strategy a priority?
At Coinstar, we make a tremendous effort to qualify the right people before asking them to join our team. For example, when making a hiring decision, we often involve upwards of six people in interviewing, and we look for a person we think would fit our values and culture as much as we look for talent – in fact, we grade people during the interview process on fit with values and culture. Also, we often ask employees to go through case study interviews, presentations, and a variety of realistic work settings before we determine that they are the right person for the job. That emphasis on values, culture, and demonstrating performance truly lives across departments and is not merely an HR mandate.

How do you rally the team and reinforce your employment brand?
We make sure we take time to have fun, which is a key characteristic of our culture. Whether it is hosting quarterly meetings at movie theaters with popcorn served, or having free lunch in the kitchen, we want to continue the fun.

What do you consider the most important decision you ever had to make as a leader?
Early in Redbox’s history, we had experimented with lots of kiosk providers. None of them met our internal standards for quality. In 2005, we were set to do our first major roll-out, and several months prior to launch, we decided we had to be in control of our own destiny and own the software and hardware of our future kiosks. We made the decision to drop our existing kiosk provider and buy a small company who had just started producing a scalable kiosk for us. Three months later, we began rolling out these new kiosks, which at first had quality issues, but with a lot of around the clock work, we fixed them and that is the machine you recognize today as the Redbox kiosk. Had we not made this risky decision in midstream, I am sure we wouldn’t be here today.

What was the best hiring decision you ever made?
There are so many it is difficult to cite just one. Every time I pick someone with great values who is smarter than I am I consider that a great decision!

What advice would you share with your peers through this piece?
Create an environment of respectful but robust debate and allow people to disagree. Anyone in the organization, regardless of their role, should be able to share a strong argument and make their point. The truth and a well-supported argument should always win out over politics and hierarchy.

ABOUT GREGG KAPLAN: As President and Chief Operating Officer of Coinstar, Inc. Gregg Kaplan oversees: Redbox, America’s destination for movie and game rentals, and the innovation and strategy team responsible for creating and identifying new automated retail solutions for Coinstar. Prior to joining Coinstar as COO, Kaplan was the Chief Executive Officer of Redbox Automated Retail LLC, where he brought Redbox from incubation within McDonald’s Ventures LLC to a disruptive player in the movie rental industry. A founder of Redbox, Kaplan worked in the Strategy and Business Development Group of McDonald’s Corporation, where helped McDonald’s create and build new businesses. Before joining McDonald’s Corporation, Kaplan held roles at divine interVentures and Streamline. Before Streamline, Kaplan was an investment banker at Furman Selz. Kaplan has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.

ABOUT COINSTAR, INC: Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR) is a leading provider of automated retail solutions offering convenient services that make life easier for consumers and drive incremental traffic and revenue for retailers. The company’s core automated retail businesses include the well-known Redbox® self-service DVD and video game rental and Coinstar® self-service coin-counting brands. The company has approximately 34,400 DVD kiosks and 19,500 coin-counting kiosks in supermarkets, drug stores, mass merchants, financial institutions, convenience stores, and restaurants. For more information, visit www.coinstarinc.com.

Should companies invest in executive coaching? If a recent survey on executive coaching by AMA Enterprise, a division of the American Management Association, is any indication, the answer is no. Dig a little deeper, however, and coaching might just be worth reconsidering.

According to the AMA’s recent survey of senior managers and executives at 230 organizations nationwide, only 26 percent of respondents believe executive coaching at their organizations to be effective. And only 35 percent say coaching delivers a measurable impact more often than other business tools (e.g., on-the-job training, workshops, formal courses, etc.).

Yet these findings do not necessarily tell the whole story, according to Sandi Edwards, Senior Vice President for AMA Enterprise. She believes the results indicate not necessarily the need for better coaching within organizations, but the need for a better definition of effective coaching. “If you aren’t transparent in your organization about what you’re doing and what’s expected of it, people really can’t give a fair and honest opinion of effectiveness,” Edwards says.

For these reasons, Edwards maintains that organizations shouldn’t give up on coaching as a development tool just yet. In fact, coaching offers benefits that other types of training and development techniques simply don’t. “Training is great, but it doesn’t focus just on you, whereas with coaching, you’re doing it one-on-one. It’s very specific and targeted toward the individual.”

Edwards says that executive coaching is also more “action oriented,” in that people get assignments and exercises to try out in real life leadership situations. More importantly, they’re held accountable to these assignments, because they have coaches checking in on them and offering continuous reinforcement throughout the engagement.

Four Ways to Increase Coaching’s Effectiveness:

While the survey focused specifically with executive coaching – that is, coaching for leaders at or on the cusp of the executive level, the takeaways Edwards mentioned from the survey apply to coaching at almost any level of any organization. If you’re considering coaching in your own organization, consider the following tips to get the most out of it.

Be transparent: As mentioned earlier, it is crucial the organizations clarify – from the onset – what they want to get out of coaching on both the individual and organization levels. “If it isn’t really clear and laid out what’s expected as an end result of the coaching, even there is a decent end result, some people will still think it’s ineffective.”

Rally the troops: “To me, the lesson learned of all attempts to develop people inside organizations and the rating of whether it works or not, is the need of a publicity campaign,” Edwards says. “There needs to be clear communication of why coaching is happening inside your organization and when coaching assignments take place.” The fact that survey respondents cited lack of sponsor/manager support and involvement as one of the top obstacles to effective coaching indicates the importance of having buy-in at all levels of the organization.

Practice reinforcement: Once you’ve clarified your goals, create an action plan to review regularly. At AMA Enterprise, for example, a coach might assign the person being coached different techniques to try to resolve various conflicts. Later, the coach will check in to discuss the results of those techniques, and from there can make a recommendation for next steps. “That’s the value of coaching – the constant reinforcement,” says Edwards. “You have to try things a bunch of times before you can get comfortable with them. That’s not what you can get in training.”

Enlist third-party support: At least when it comes specifically to executive-level positions, Sandi believes external coaches are crucial to effectiveness. “In order to get that different perspective, have the ability to really talk about your organization freely and get insights that might not be resident inside your organization, it would be very important to have an external coach for that.”

Does your company use employee coaching?

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. 

What’s the old adage? “A new year, a new resume database update”…? (Yeah, no, I’m pretty sure that’s a thing.) Anyway, it’s true: On Monday, January 9, CareerBuilder introduces a whole new resume database (RDB) experience.

Why the change? Trust us, we’re not trying to pull a Qwikster on you. After getting feedback from both recruiters and job seekers about their Resume Database experiences, CareerBuilder created these updates to best accommodate both sides and create a more effective and efficient recruitment experience.

“Recruiters showed us the need to be able to quickly and efficiently view and then communicate with the best candidates to meet their needs; and candidates showed us they wanted recruiters and hiring authorities to become more selective and targeted in their communication efforts,” says Greg Brass, Director of Product Marketing and Site Usability at CareerBuilder.

So how drastic are these changes?
Not drastic at all! (Unless by drastic you mean awesome, am I right?) Here’s what you need to know:

• New Default View:  Beginning Monday, when RDB users log into the resume database, there will be a new default view:  ResumeFlip, which is the recent addition to RDB that enables users to quickly and easily flip through full-screen resumes views.
• Freedom to Choose: Attached to the old resume database? That’s okay: you can easily opt-out of the new Resume Flip view and switch back to the traditional resume view.
• New Candidate Profile Information Added: Resume Flip continues to evolve and now users will be able to directly view the candidate’s resume in the style and format that the candidate wanted it to be viewed as well as a profile view with a candidates experience, education and desires in a consistent and easy to read format.
• Loving the “Like” Button: With these changes, users can now use ResumeFlip’s “Like” feature to quickly and easily bookmark and save up to 25 resumes, which they can then email, forward or save to another folder.  that then can be acted upon including emailing, forwarding, and saving to a folder.
• Email from ResumeFlip: With the launch of the Resume Flip “Like” feature, the ability to mass email or forward resumes has been moved from the search results screen to the Resume Flip experience.

(Or, to summarize the changes another way…think of resume database as your favorite daytime soap opera actor who just went on Dancing with the Stars. See, you liked resume database just fine the way it was before, but now you can see that it’s got all these new skills and tricks up its sleeves and you’re like, “Whooooa, now you’re even more awesome than I thought you could be.” Yeah? Hope that helps.)

Need a refresher on how ResumeFlip works? Check out the video below:

Are you looking forward to these updates? What new features would you like to see added to Resume Database?

“It’s so important to be able to go home at the end of the day and say, ‘What I did today was meaningful.’”

In the following interview, Bridget-ann Hart, R.PH., President and Chief Operating Officer of Kinney Drugs, Inc. discusses among other things, the undeniable link between employee satisfaction and customer loyalty, the importance of striving for 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time, and why ‘close enough’ just doesn’t cut it.

What is your philosophy as it relates to people and their impact on the daily business of Kinney?
As an employee-owned organization, our culture has always been centered on the people. That’s not to say that we underestimate the impact of financial performance; in business, that’s how you measure your success. Yet you never want to lose sight of the fact that it is the people who will ultimately drive that performance. Our success is dependent on our employees’ commitment to doing their very best.

How do you engage and relate to your employees?
Our company has very open communication. For example, a couple of weeks ago we received a letter from one our supervising pharmacists who brought forward a concern about our delivery program. That prompted us to take a look at that program not only within that one store, but within the entire organization and make some changes that would benefit the company and our customers as well. We also make a concerted effort for our administrative team to be out in the stores as much as they can, where some of our best input originates.

What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
When I was in pharmacy school, a professor once made the comment, “There’s no such thing as ‘close enough’ in pharmacy. It has to be a hundred percent perfect.” That’s something that can be translated into the business environment as well. Within our organization, we’re continuously trying to find ways to raise the hurdle and challenge ourselves to create a continual improvement process. If you settle for less in the work you do, you’re likely going to have to settle for less in your career as well. And when your organization is centered on trying to do the best for your customer, you really can’t settle for less.

How do your people affect your business, particularly as it relates to client services?
The real important work is done by the people in our stores who interact with customers, and the support departments that help support those interactions. It may say ‘Kinney’ over the door, but when our shoppers are going into the store, they’re going to visit their pharmacist or their cashier. We believe that personal relationship has an important impact on why our customers are so loyal to Kinney.

How do you define Kinney’s culture?
That’s easy….our employees have the spirit of ownership and passion for the job they perform. It’s that passion for what they do, and how they can better serve their customers, that has them focusing on how things can be improved. Each one of our employee owners is clearly the expert on their job, and they are closest to where the strengths and weaknesses are. It’s through their emphasis on finding new and improved ways to serve our customers that we continue to improve. While everyone has an opportunity to provide a lot of input in our organization, the best input they can provide is centered in their own areas of responsibility.

Some people believe HR to be the only department with a responsibility for the organization’s people. How do you make your overall talent strategy a priority, and what role do you play in driving that talent strategy?
Human Resources certainly play an active role in the implementation of our talent strategy, yet every member of the management team shares in that responsibility. Making sure we have “the right person, in the right job, at the right time,” a phrase we use throughout the organization is our continual challenge. We’re proud to say that we’ve been around since 1903, and that we have a very strong culture. While we enjoy the sense of pride that comes with such a strong heritage, we also have to make sure that pride doesn’t prevent us from acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers. To support that understanding, we continually are balancing expertise that has been developed from within, with talent and skills that have been gathered in different environments.

What advice would you share with your executive peers through this piece?
I would encourage everyone to be passionate about their career and what they do on a daily basis. So much of our lives are committed to our work that it’s important to take pleasure and personal satisfaction in what you do. It’s so important to be able to go home at the end of the day and say, “What I did today was meaningful,” and to see that it had some sort of a positive impact – on the organization, the community, the society at large, or even just on one employee’s life. Passion is what drives excellence, and excellence is a noble endeavor that drives success.

ABOUT BRIDGET_ANN HART, R.PH.: As president and chief operating officer of Kinney Drugs, Inc., Bridget-ann Hart, R.Ph. provides strategic direction and management of merchandising, human resources, loss prevention and operations of 91 retail stores with 2,900-plus employees and annual net sales of more than $780 million. Ms. Hart started her career in 1980 as a Kinney Drugs staff pharmacist before moving on to various leadership positions within the company. Since moving into her current role in 2006, she has helped grow the company into the fourth largest drug retail chain in the country. Under her leadership, Kinney Drugs has added many new pharmacy programs, educational clinics and free screenings to improve the accessibility and affordability of health care for people in the communities they serve. Today, Ms. Hart serves on the Kinney Drugs Board of Directors, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Services Board of Trustees, among other community organizations. Ms. Hart holds a bachelor’s degree from the Albany College of Pharmacy and is a graduate of the NACDS Executive and Finance for Executives programs at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School.

ABOUT KINNEY DRUGS, INC: Kinney Drugs is a leading community pharmacy and retail business. Founded in 1903 by Burt Orrin Kinney, the organization has grown into an employee-owned company with a network of 91 pharmacies in central and northern New York and Vermont. Many are freestanding units offering drive-through pharmacy services, free prescription delivery and online and telephone refill services. All locations offer a full line of healthcare, personal care and beauty care products, cosmetics, convenience food and beverages as well as digital photo processing services and greeting cards. Kinney Drugs operates its own distribution warehouse to service its retail locations.

“You have to give your talent the opportunity to be part of the decisions that are being made, because that’s truly when you get the benefit of working with an A player.”

In the following interview, Jorge Perez Izquierdo, Senior Vice President, Manpower North America, discusses why recruiting and retaining the best talent isn’t simply an HR initiative, but a key leadership role.

Who has had the single biggest impact on the way you approach leadership?
My father. He gave me the opportunity to have the benefit of perspective in life. Having different perspectives helps me weigh decisions and gives me the opportunity to step back before making a decision or embarking on a journey that may not be the best. When I talk about perspective, what I mean is just looking at the different sides of every situation.

How do you keep perspective?
I think it’s a journey. It’s giving yourself time and opportunity to reflect on others’ position and where they’re coming from. Something that’s been key in my career is just giving myself the time to keep that balance between reacting and being proactive in a very purposeful way.

Do you have a leadership philosophy?
You have to attract, retain and develop the best talent possible. Once you have that talent, you have to give them the opportunity to be part of the collaboration and the decisions that are being made, because that’s truly when you get the benefit of working with an A player.

How does collaboration happen at Manpower?
Collaboration, for me, is about creating the rules of engagement for how we’re going to work together. For example, how do you define who’s responsible for what? Who has to be informed of the actions? Who has to authorize actions, and who just needs to know about it? Then you strive to have those conversations. I have weekly calls with the team to share information, monthly updates with the business, and quarterly meetings where we spend a couple of days reviewing our strategy, thinking about the models we have to work around, where are we with that, where we are making progress and what we need to adjust in order to keep moving forward. That helps us a lot in trying to keep alignment.

How do you define Manpower’s company culture?
The culture is very value-driven. We have defined three values: people, knowledge and innovation. At end of the day, our asset is talent. We work with talent within, and it’s a service we provide to our clients – providing the best talent for the job they need to get done. We not only talk about talent as an asset, but we really treat people with respect, and we’re inclusive: we ‘walk the walk’ in that regard. What I mean by knowledge is, we really need to understand what our clients are trying to achieve so we can provide the best talent possible and drive better solutions. And innovation comes from the workplace solutions we provide for clients.

What are some of the ways Manpower keeps employees engaged?
First and foremost, we listen to them and understand their expectations and their needs. In today’s environment, investing in recruitment, retaining people and developing them is critical to the business. And that’s not an HR role; it’s a leadership role. The leader of the organization has to be very engaged in that process. We have a global people survey we run every year, based on areas that are very important for our business. We want to learn more about our employees, what they need, and what they expect to have. Based on the survey’s scores, we create action plans to work on the things we need to improve.

What is one piece of advice you have received that has stuck with you?
Always look at the bigger picture, and always put your principles and beliefs as a platform for where you base your decisions. The decisions you make might not always feel comfortable, but at the end of the day, if you keep the bigger picture in sight, you will always make the best decisions.

What is something you know about leading a company that you wish you had known when you first took over in your current role?
Understanding differences of culture is critical. That drives a lot of behavior and you can understand yourself and why things are the way they are. You have to attract, retain and develop the best talent possible. Once you have that talent, you have to give them the opportunity to be part of the collaboration.

What kind of leader do you strive to be?
Someone who always challenges people. Someone who has high expectations, but at the end of the day, those high expectations always come with recognition and reward. You have to have high standards and you have to have high expectations, but you can’t lose sight of celebrating the wins you have today.

ABOUT JORGE PEREZ IZQUIERDO: Jorge Perez Izquierdo is senior vice president for Manpower North America. Manpower is the global leader in contingent and permanent recruitment workforce solutions and is part of ManpowerGroup. Under his leadership, market share has grown 20 percent, with a network of more than 700 locations across North America. Prior to joining the North American organization, he spent seven years as the director general of Manpower Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic Region. Perez Izquierdo is also the founder and first president of the AMECH – the Mexican Association of the Staffing Industry in Mexico, representing the country’s top employment services companies. Perez Izquierdo earned a degree in Electromechanical Engineering from La Salle University, Mexico, and an associate’s degree in the Executive Direction Program from the IPADE Institute in Mexico. He also has completed advanced studies in Finance and Quality Management. Active in the community, Perez Izquierdo is a board member of Milwaukee’s La Casa de Esperanza Foundation and United Community Center. He is also a member of the Executive Forum of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility.

ABOUT MANPOWER: Manpower is the global leader in contingent and permanent recruitment workforce solutions, providing the personal flexibility and agility businesses need with a continuum of staffing solutions. Manpower is part of the ManpowerGroup family of companies, which creates and delivers high-impact solutions that cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. Recently, Manpower was named to Inavero’s 2011 Best of Staffing™ Talent list, the nation’s only satisfaction award that recognizes staffing and recruiting firms who provide an exceptional experience for the talent they help find jobs. More information is available at http://www.us.manpower.com.

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

Yesterday we released our 2012 Job Forecast, including some of our employment predictions for the New Year. But, before we jump into the future, let’s take a look back at the most read posts of 2011:

#1 – Workplace Bullying and Your Employees: What Can You Do?
Published April 20, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site 

A newly released CareerBuilder survey reveals that workplace bullying is still happening. We share 6 tips to help your company work toward a bully-free workplace.

#2 – Search and Review Candidates – Faster and More Efficiently with ResumeFlip
Published July 14, 2011 by Stephanie Gaspary, editorial director for The Hiring Site

Easily flip from one resume to the next with CareerBuilder’s enhanced Resume Database. You’ll view full, complete resumes – the way candidates want you to see them – instead of just generic-looking resume summaries.

#3 – 10 Global HR Trends for 2011 and How to Manage Them
Published March 17, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

Howard Wallack, the Director of Global Member Programs for SHRM, discussed 10 global HR labor trends for 2011 at HRPA 2011 and how companies can best manage them.

#4 – Emerging Media: The Best Opportunities You Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
Published August 31, 2011 by Andrew Streiter, VP of sales at CareerBuilder

As job seeker behavior changes, so too does your recruitment strategy. Learn how today’s recruitment experts use emerging media to find the best talent.

#5 – Recruiting for Tomorrow Today: 4 Key Reasons You Need a Talent Pipeline
Published March 17, 2011 by John Smith, SVP of sales at CareerBuilder

If you want to remain competitive in today’s market, you can no longer rely on “business as usual” when it comes to your recruitment efforts.

#6 –4 Things Great Companies Do To Develop Their Leaders
Published January 26, 2011 by Mary Lorenz, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

What turns ordinary employees into superior leaders? Learn the four essential characteristics the top 20 best companies for leadership share.

#7 – The Pros and Cons of Behavioral Interviewing
Published March 2, 2011 by Jennifer Way, guest contributor for The Hiring Site

Behavioral interviews are one of the biggest leaps forward in recruitment, but that doesn’t erase the responsibilities that come along with this type of interview.

#8 – How Can Job Seekers Get Résumés Out of Your Trash and Into Your Heart?
Published September 15, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

An overview of your most agonizing résumé errors here. After all, by letting job seekers know what you don’t want, you are also shedding light on what you do want.

#9 – A Recruitment Strategy Without Data Isn’t A Strategy At All
Published May 5, 2011 by Jason Lovelace, VP of sales at CareerBuilder

Gone are the days when employers could simply put an ad in the local paper in hopes people apply. Today recruitment requires strategy, the key to which is data.

#10 – Might As Well Face It, You’re Addicted To… Work?
Published January 4, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

A new CareerBuilder study examines signs of work addiction and explores ways workers can find a happy medium between work and personal time as we dive into 2011.

So there you have it – 2011 in review. Looking forward, what would you like our writers to focus on for 2011?

Employers expect to add new jobs in the New Year, but are waiting to see how the economy shapes up before turning up the volume on hiring, according to CareerBuilder’s annual job forecast. Nearly one-in-four hiring managers plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2012, similar to 2011. Employment trends among small businesses, which account for the majority of job creation in the U.S., are expected to show some improvement over last year. The nationwide survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive© from November 9 to December 5, 2011, included more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes. “Historically, our surveys have shown that employers are more conservative in their predictions than actual hiring,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “Barring any major economic upsets, we expect 2012 to bring a better hiring picture than 2011, especially in the second half of the year. Many companies have been operating lean and have already pushed productivity limits. We’re likely to see gradual improvements in hiring across categories as companies respond to increased market demands.”

What exactly does this mean? Here’s the breakdown:

Full-time, Permanent Hiring Twenty-three percent of employers surveyed plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2012, relatively unchanged from 24 percent for 2011 and up from 20 percent for 2010. Seven percent expect to decrease headcount, the same as for 2011 and an improvement from 9 percent for 2010. Fifty-nine percent anticipate no change in their staff levels while 11 percent are unsure. Small Business HiringSmall businesses are reporting more confidence in both hiring and retaining headcount in 2012. Plans to downsize dropped two percentage points across small business segments while plans to hire increased two percentage points among companies with 50 or fewer employees.

• 50 or fewer employees – 16 percent plan to add full-time, permanent staff in 2012, up from 14 percent for 2011; those reducing headcount fell from 5 percent for 2011 to 3 percent for 2012
•  250 or fewer employees – 20 percent plan to add full-time, permanent staff, up from 19 percent for 2011; those reducing headcount fell from 6 percent for 2011 to 4 percent for 2012
• 500 or fewer employees – 21 percent plan to add full-time, permanent staff, on par with 2011; those reducing headcount fell from 6 percent for 2011 to 4 percent for 2012

Hiring By RegionRegional data presents a mixed picture. Similar to annual forecasts for the last two years, more employers in the West plan to recruit new employees in 2012 than other regions. Twenty-four percent of employers in the West reported they plan to add full-time, permanent headcount, followed closely by the South and Midwest at 23 percent and Northeast at 21 percent. However, the West also houses the highest number of companies planning to downsize in 2012 (9 percent) – reflecting a blend of both optimism and uncertainty seen across regions. Eight percent in the Northeast, 7 percent in the South and 6 percent in the Midwest also plan to reduce headcount.

Four Employment Trends to Watch in 2012:

#1 – Compensation Getting More Competitive for Skilled PositionsEmployers expect compensation levels to increase for both current staff and prospective employees as recruiting for skilled talent becomes more competitive. Sixty-two percent of employers plan to increase compensation for their existing employee base while 32 percent will offer higher starting salaries for new employees. Among functional areas where human resource managers anticipate there will be the greatest increases in compensation at their organizations in 2012 are those tied to revenue generation.

• Sales – 24 percent of human resource managers
• Information Technology – 20 percent
• Engineering – 14 percent
• Business Development – 14 percent

#2 – Voluntary Turnover on the Rise – One-third (34 percent) of human resource managers reported that voluntary turnover at their organizations rose in 2011. Employers pointed to the desire for higher compensation and feeling over-worked as the top two reasons employees gave for resigning. Thirty percent of employers said they lost top performers to other organizations in 2011 and 43 percent stated they are concerned top talent may jump ship in the New Year. 

#3 –  Training Employed/Unemployed – There is an increasing number of areas where demand for skilled positions is growing much faster than supply, prompting employers to take “re-skilling” workers into their own hands. Thirty-eight percent plan to train people who don’t have experience in their particular industry and hire them for positions within their organizations in 2012.

#4 –Employers Targeting Hispanic Workers, African American Workers and Women – Aware of the benefits diversity can bring to their organization, 29 percent of employers said they will be focused on recruiting diverse workers to expand their employee demographics. One-in-five (20 percent) will be targeting Hispanic workers and African American workers to work for their organizations while the same number will be recruiting more women. Forty-four percent plan to hire bilingual workers in 2012.

What other hiring trends do you anticipate seeing for 2012 in your organization?

There’s been a lot of discussion lately over how employers can navigate the growing skills gap in the American workforce. In addition to adjusting compensation levels, retraining workers and refocusing recruiting efforts, one of the most effective ways employers can help ensure they bring in the qualified candidates they need is one they should already be doing: strengthening their employer brand.

Companies like Pepsico and AT&T have recently begun their own employer branding campaigns with the aim to build awareness about what it means to work for them and attract more relevant candidates to their open positions. Already known for their strong consumer brands, these companies realize having a strong employment brand as well will give them an edge in recruiting the most in-demand workers by positioning them as an “employer of choice” in the eyes of quality job candidates.

So then what, exactly, constitutes a “strong” employer brand? Generally, there are five ways to tell if an employer has an employer brand that effectively communicates the right message to the right audiences, according to Keith Hadley, Senior Director of Employment Branding Services at CareerBuilder. Below is a checklist you can apply as you evaluate your own employment brand.

Five Tests of a Strong Employment Brand

1.  Is it attractive? Are the benefits and opportunities you offer attractive to potential job seekers? In order to answer this question, you first need to consider your audience. Keep in mind that workers’ wants and needs vary depending on age and situation. For example, while younger workers might seek employers who offer ample advancement opportunities, older workers might be more focused on flexible schedules and retirement benefits. Rather than having a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, tailor your message to speak to and attract different audiences.
2. Is it authentic? Do you practice what you preach? Your brand should reflect the authentic work experience at your company; otherwise, I guarantee you people will find out: Thanks to sites like Yelp and Glassdoor, where employees discuss and rate their employers anonymously, it’s virtually impossible for companies to hide their true employer brands today. Not convinced? Search your company on one of these sites to see what people are saying about you. If you don’t like what you see, go straight to the source to see where you can make changes. Host an open forum to generate honest discussion and feedback or utilize employee surveys to find out your organizations of strength as well as opportunities for improvement.
3. Is it embraced? Does everyone – from the top down – believe in the brand and live it each day? A brand is an extension of the vision your leaders have for you as an employer. A well-defined employment brand aligns employee and management expectations so that promises made during the hiring process are delivered. Therefore it is critical your leaders work each and every day to deliver on these promises and reinforce the brand.
4. Is it unique? “Employment branding is about knowing who you are as an employer, but just as importantly, it’s about knowing who you aren’t,” employment branding expert Mary Delaney has said. Building a strong employment brand isn’t about trying to be Google or Apple; it’s about focusing on what makes your company unlike any other place to work. The best way to stand out is to find out which companies you might be competing with for workers, and then focus on what differentiates you from them.
5. Is it consistent? In order for any branding to be effective, it must be consistent. Would job seekers get the same impression about your employer brand from your company’s career site as they would when visiting your Facebook page? What about if they saw a job ad online or read it in a newspaper? What about if they talked to one of your employees? If you want to make a lasting impression on job seekers, you must ensure the message you send out is consistent across every possible employee touch point.

Easy, right? Okay, yes, it’s a lot to take in, and taking on such an all-encompassing initiative can be overwhelming. Fortunately, however, there are third party service providers available to help you evaluate your current employment brand and look at ways to enhance your efforts. CareerBuilder, for instance, offers Employment Branding services – including candidate and employee research, brand message development and creative – to help companies of all sizes build a foundation for a strong employment brand.

And if there’s any doubt as to whether building your employer brand is worth the investment, consider the words of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a recent interview in Wired:

“If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue.”

Bezos’ statement is just as true of employment branding. The efforts you make today to recruit and retain quality employees will help your business stay competitive in the long run.

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.

They may not have experienced the type of PR nightmares that Netflix experienced from its ill-conceived decision to launch Qwikster or Yahoo! Inc. saw after firing CEO Carol Bartz over the phone, but two-thirds of American companies say they’ve made business mistakes this year they wish they could take back. Those mistakes, according to a new survey, came in the form of bad hires, the results of which ended up costing them in more than just bruised egos.

According to a new CareerBuilder survey on the cost of a bad hire, 69 percent of employers reported that bad hires lowered their company’s productivity, affected worker morale and even resulted in legal issues.

Forty-one percent of companies estimate that a bad hire costs more than $25,000, and one in four said it costs more than $50,000.

While some mistakes are beyond the hiring manager’s control, there are ways to avoid hiring the wrong person. “The more thoroughly the candidates are vetted, the less likely they will be a poor match,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder.

Haefner advises employers to allow job candidates the opportunity to meet as many employees in the department as possible – especially if they will work closely together. Also, candidates should provide ample evidence to show they have the skills and work experience required for the position.

Hiring mistakes happen…but why?
When asked to give a reason for the bad hires, an estimated 34 percent of employers attributed the mistake to the fact that sometimes things just don’t work out. A rushed decision, however, topped the list of reasons companies gave for making a bad hire.

• 38 percent of employers said they needed to fill the job position quickly.
• 21 percent say insufficient talent intelligence contributed to bad hiring decisions.
• 11 percent didn’t perform reference checks (a commonly undervalued part of the hiring process, according to Gilt Groupe CEO Kevin Ryan.)

The price of a bad hire: It’s more than just money
The price of a bad hire adds up in variety of direct and indirect ways. For example, 9 percent of companies said bad hires result in legal issues and 11 percent said they result in fewer sales. The most common effects of a bad hire are:

• Lost worker productivity: 41 percent
• Lost time to recruit and train another worker: 40 percent
• Costs associated with recruiting and training another worker: 37 percent
• Negative impact on employee morale: 36 percent
• Negative impact on client solutions: 22 percent

How bad is bad? Characteristics of a bad hire
When it comes to what makes someone a bad hire, employers reported several behavioral and productivity related problems:

• Failure to produce the proper quality of work: 63 percent
• Failure to work well with other employees: 63 percent
• Negative attitudes: 62 percent
• Immediate attendance problems: 56 percent
• Subject of customer complaints: 49 percent
• Failure to meet deadlines: 48 percent

Can bad hires turn into good employees?
For more tips on how to avoiding hiring mistakes, check out the recent interview with Hire with Purpose author Jay Goltz. Wondering whether to fire or try to fix an employee?  Get insight from this recent interview with management expert Anne Loehr, author of Managing the Unmanageable: How to Motivate Even the Most Unruly Employee.

“Making our people the most valued asset in our company is everyone’s responsibility.”

Patrick E. Connolly, President of Sodexo Health Care Market, discusses the qualities he looks for in employees – and how these qualities contribute to his organization’s success.

Can you tell me about your philosophy as it relates to people and their impact on your daily business?
Almost all of the services we provide can essentially be commoditized to some extent. This is one reason we focus on people as the essence of how we deliver an experience. It’s about the patient’s and the resident’s experience, their family’s experience; and the hospital’s staff experience. Whether or not we serve turkey or chicken has minimal bearing on whether we make things better for them. It’s our people who make things better for them. Since the beginning, we’ve been focused on improving the quality of people’s lives. And it’s the people in our organization who make that happen.

What do you do and how do you engage with and relate with your employees?
The majority of my job is internal communications and messaging, direction-setting strategy. I invest a large amount of my time inserting myself in situations where I can make sure that the people know what the message is and what’s expected. For example, I do open forums as a way to make sure of that. Sitting down with 15 to 20 managers at a time, just me and them—no bosses, no format. Open, honest, unfiltered conversation around how I view our work, what I expect the rest of the organization to be like, and how they see it and what they expect.

What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
Authenticity in leadership is really important to me. Bringing your genuine self to work is really important. And, we’re inclusive of everybody’s perspectives. I believe that you have to build teams of diverse people, in order to be as successful as you’re going to be.

What are some of your leadership lessons?
I feel very strongly about living your values. If you look inside your heart and make your decisions from a grounded principled perspective, it makes leadership easier. It doesn’t mean you always make the easy decision, but it makes it easier to make the right decisions and then live with those decisions. I also think accountability is really crucial. I can’t remember who it was who said, “It’s easy to dodge your responsibilities; it’s not so easy to dodge the consequences of dodging your responsibilities,” but it rings true.

How do your people affect your business, particularly as it relates to client services?
There are a lot of other organizations that are in the same businesses as Sodexo. Our teams make the difference by the way they view their roles from the perspective of how they can improve the quality of somebody’s life. We do CARES behavior training—Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Enthusiasm, and Service. Those five behaviors are critical for us to succeed in doing what we do. Our associates literally make a difference in peoples’ lives. They make others’ lives better.

How do you define your company’s culture, and, as a leader, what is your impact on that culture?
Our culture is one of caring and inclusiveness. And the role that I play is serving as a living example of that culture. It’s helping people see  that’s what’s expected from everybody. We’re a spectacular organization. This is the most diverse and inclusive organization around. We’re committed through and through to being the kind of organization that treats everybody fairly, with dignity and respect; and gives everybody opportunities. The organizational culture is about values. Some people believe that responsibility for the organization’s people falls under the human resources department. Not us. Making our people the most valued asset in our company is everyone’s responsibility.

How do you make your overall talent strategy a priority, and what role do you play in driving it?
I don’t believe in traditional views of hierarchy. Whether you run business development or human resources or strategy, you are equally involved with me in the success of this organization. I’m very involved in the high potential people on our team, their training and development, and their succession planning. I know who’s stretching to be in the next role, because I need to know – because people are so important to the organization. All of the leadership people on my team are responsible for the success of the human resources component of the business—and they must be.

What’s the best hiring decision you ever made?
My answer would be that there really isn’t one. There are a hundred of them. There isn’t one best hire in a 22-year career. But, the best hiring practice might be not going hiring simply based on technical fit. So, the best hiring decision is how we approach all of our hiring – looking for the best people who fit our culture and saying, “That’s who we want.” For me, all hiring decisions are really important.

ABOUT PATRICK E. CONNOLLY: Patrick E. Connolly is President of Sodexo Health Care Market, representing $2.9B in revenue. Mr. Connolly joined Sodexo in 1989 in the Schools Division. In 2007, he was appointed President of Sodexo’s Health Care Market Group, which includes the Hospitals, Senior Living and Laundry Divisions in the United States. He also serves as Chief Operating Officer of Sodexo North America. Mr. Connolly focuses on driving growth in a portfolio of management services designed to improve the quality of life of patients and residents across the healthcare and senior living continuum. Mr. Connolly currently sits on the Board of Directors of Comfort Keepers, a leading in-home care company. He is a member of the board of directors of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership. He is also the Chair of the Sodexo Senior Living Market Champions, responsible for development of the Seniors market worldwide. Patrick is holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and a master’s degree from the J. L. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

ABOUT SODEXO IN NORTH AMERICA: Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), a member of Sodexo Group, is the leading provider of Quality of Daily Life Solutions serving more than ten million customers daily in corporations, health care, long term care, retirement, schools, higher education, government and remote sites. Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., Sodexo, Inc. operates in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, with $7.7 billion (USD) in annual revenue and 120,000 employees. The Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org) is an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $12.7 million in grants to fight hunger in America.

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?

In a typical football game, each team has 11 players on the field and at least 50 more suited up on the sidelines. That’s a lot of people to manage! The players all need to have highly developed specialties, and football coaches are always on the lookout for athletes who can fill these roles perfectly.

When you’re hiring, experience is very important. However, just because someone has an amazing array of skills doesn’t mean they can fill the right spot on your roster – you need to make sure they will work well with the rest of your first string.

Here are some “office players” you should be looking for to fill out your team, and how you can use social media to find them:

• The quarterback: Of course you need a quarterback! The QB runs plays, touches the ball on nearly every play and is responsible for making decisions on the field. You need to hire employees who you trust to make decisions. You don’t want them running to you for every little thing – hire employees who thrive on autonomy. Strong, decisive leaders will only serve to make you look good as the boss. Quarterbacks are also great communicators. They convey the necessary information to their teammates. How can you find yourself a good QB? One way is to find out how the individual communicates. In addition to interviewing candidates, check them out on social media platforms. Are their LinkedIn profiles clear and easy to follow? Do they have a lot of connections, or are their profiles empty and sad? If a Twitter profile has a decent number of followers; interesting, thoughtful tweets; and a good description, it may be a sign that the individual can communicate effectively in the workplace.
• Offensive specialists: The offensive players on a football team are responsible for gaining as many yards as they can on a play. They need to move the ball down the field without interference. Every office needs go-getters with lots of initiative, no matter the business. People who have the foresight to see how they can gain ground with clients and any project you toss their way are great to have in the office huddle. They are not afraid to try any avenue to gain traction. How can you find them? A good tactic might be to follow their lead and play some offense. Hunt candidates down on Twitter, using keyword searches that relate to a position and/or tweet details to people who might be a fit for the role. Search LinkedIn for the right experience and connect with people who meet your criteria. It’s a great way to find passive job seekers who may be open to opportunities that come their way.
• Defensive specialists: On the field, the role of the defensive players is pretty simple –prevent the other team from scoring. In office terms, you need defensive specialists to keep up with what your competitors are doing. Are your rivals encroaching on your territory? Your office defensive specialists will know their every move. They are experts at reading industry trends, “listening” to what is being said about you, and transforming those findings into strategic insights that shape the way you communicate both online and offline. To find them, step into their skill set. If you’re using social media for recruitment, pay close attention. What types of posts and tweets are working for you? Let the top performers shape your content plan, and reach out with the most engaging posts in your arsenal to help draw in recruits.
• Special teams: In football, special teams assist during kicking plays. While they may play other roles on offense or defense during the game, they have specially honed skills that help the team score extra points. Look for these types of players to round out your office roster. Office special teams players may be great at writing copy in a flash, designing an infographic, or knowing just what to say to soothe an angry client. They’re willing to step outside their role and do what’s needed to get the job done. To find those special teams players, consider expanding outside the major social networks into more niche ones. Looking for a fantastic designer? You might want to check out sites like Faveup.com, where designers show off their work. There are social communities for lots of professions. Even if they don’t have a special network, they may have a Facebook group or forum where you can connect.

When you’re drafting your office team, keep in mind that they all need to work together toward a common goal. What other types of “office players” or attributes are you looking for to complete your roster?

“You have to be in a place that’s more than a paycheck for people.”

In the following interview, Rick Federico, Chairman and Co-CEO of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc., discusses the simple philosophy that creates a huge effect, the three things that “keep it all going,” and why not having fun is a deal-breaker.

What’s your long-term proposition for your managers?
We’ve always viewed our business as a collection of individual restaurants, not a national chain. When we think of our long-term proposition, it’s truly geared towards the local restaurant entrepreneur. The philosophy was really simple: If I could find people who could live where they wanted to live, do what they wanted to do, and get a balance between home and work life, I would get a continuity of management leadership which would ripple into all aspects of each individual restaurant.

How do you create development opportunities for your employees?
We have two types of employees working in our part-time and hourly positions: one, those who are purely looking for part-time work to supplement their income; and two, those who want to start or further their career in the restaurant industry. The level of development is different for each, and we rely on the employee to share their aspirations and goals with the managers which allows our managers to provide the most appropriate development path. Then through having a continuity of leadership, we can create the right plan that says, “Well, if you want to get to here, here are the three steps you have to take in order to get there.”

Describe your culture. What characteristics does it take to be successful in your organization?
The culture of P.F. Chang’s lives in our message: “We are truly glad you are here, and we will do everything we can to make you want to come back.” When you think about every interaction you have – whether it be professionally or personally – you look for opportunities to create an experience that will trigger in either the guest’s mind or the employee’s mind that we want you back. At the core of the P.F. Chang’s culture and the characteristics we look for in our employees is a desire to serve and create amazing experiences for everyone we interact with each day.

What are some things you’re doing right now to go above and beyond to find the right people, rather than the traditional methods?
How and where job seekers find opportunities today is constantly changing – it’s very fragmented. Putting an ad in a newspaper and expecting the best of the best to walk through our restaurant doors is not a sustainable practice. It’s a big change for our managers, and having strategic partnerships with organizations like CareerBuilder gives us access to a large group of potential employees who can research our opportunities online and apply for the job or jobs they are most interested in. We need to make sure our job opportunities exist where people are looking versus expecting everyone to walk through our front door. The world has changed and we are changing with it.

What is the message you want me to understand about why i should come and work for your organization?
At the end of the day, you can go get a waiter job anywhere. So it becomes a function of, “Why A versus B?” One would argue it’s, “How much money can I make?” So beyond that, it becomes, “How do I feel about the team I’m working with?” How do I feel about their values? How much pride do I have in their product?” You have to be in a place that’s more than a paycheck for people. I have to feel good about what I’m serving, and I have to be doing it with people that I like. It all intertwines into that ability to have the cultural connection. If you can’t adopt it, then you’re not going to be happy. We like people. We’re a people organization. We want people to do well. We will give people more than second chances, if we believe that they’re actually trying.

How do your managers rally their individual teams and keep them focused?
Whether it be through pre-shift meetings, individual one-on-one meetings, sharing individual guest experiences, or technological communication, our managers live ‘The Message’ and do what they can to ensure our employees have a great experience. When the employees feel valued and respected it rolls right to our guests. Constant communication, maintaining high standards and keeping the focus on our guests is what keeps us all going.

What other words of advice to you have for other hospitality industry leaders?
In this particular business, you have to keep it fun. If you’re not having fun, it’s way too much of a job. It’s hard work running a restaurant. We will use as one of our recruiting advantages that we really do want a balance between work and home. I live it; I expect my team to live it. I will always err on the side of family before work. I would expect the organization to do the same.

ABOUT RICK FEDERICO: As Chairman and Co-CEO of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc., Rick Federico is responsible for the strategic growth and development of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and the company’s casual quick dining concept, Pei Wei Asian Diner. Mr. Federico began his career in the restaurant industry as a manager at Steak & Ale. He later moved on to Orville Beans and Bennigan’s restaurants before becoming co-founder/partner and vice president of operations at Grady’s Goodtimes. When Brinker International acquired Grady’s in 1989, Mr. Federico became senior vice president and concept head for Macaroni Grill, where he later served as president of the Italian Concept division. Active in the community, Mr. Federico is a founding director of Chances for Children and serves on several boards, including the Arizona Youth Hockey Foundation, the NotMyKid organization, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and the Rosen School of Management at the University of Central Florida. Mr. Federico is a graduate of the University of Tennessee.

ABOUT P.F. CHANG’S: P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Inc. owns and operates two restaurant concepts in the Asian niche. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro features a blend of high-quality, Chinese-inspired cuisine and American hospitality in a sophisticated, contemporary bistro setting. Pei Wei Asian Diner offers a modest menu of freshly prepared pan-Asian cuisine in a relaxed, warm environment offering attentive counter service and take-out flexibility. In addition, the Company has extended the P.F. Chang’s brand to international markets and retail products both of which are operated under licensing agreements. For more information on P.F. Chang’s, please visit the website at www.pfchangs.com.

When Jay Conrad Levinson first published Guerrilla Marketing in 1983, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey was a mere 7 years old, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born. So what does this book have to do with recruitment marketing via social media? In a word: everything.

Guerrilla Marketing separates tactics and approaches for large Fortune 500-type companies from those of small businesses for two main reasons. First, small businesses are more agile and generally have less red tape when making decisions. Second, small businesses have to make do with shoestring budgets.

For small businesses, the size of your company may determine how many resources you have. And chances are you’re working with a budget that’s smaller than a typical consumer marketing budget. Even so, Levinson encourages marketers to embrace this situation as it forces them to think outside of the box and stretch a budget as far as it will go. Social media is a great way to stretch those recruitment marketing dollars because it allows you to find and target job seekers who are interested in your employment opportunities for a relatively low cost.

In his book, Levinson shares “Sixteen Monumental Secrets of Guerrilla Marketing,” which serve as key tactics for small business marketing professionals. Our favorite three below are designed to showcase how you can apply his strategies to your social media recruitment efforts:

Think of it as an investment

While social media marketing is generally a cost-efficient strategy, don’t confuse this with free. Depending on your goals and overall strategy, you may want to consider hiring an emerging media specialist or consultant to help start your efforts in the right direction, purchasing advertising to help gain fans or followers, developing an app to further connect with candidates, or any number of other paid solutions.

Commit to your strategy

Once you’ve developed your strategy, stick to it. Growing a thriving online community can take months, if not years, before it can reach critical mass. If you don’t see an immediate surge in applicants through your community, be patient. Just like traditional advertising, social media is used primarily as a branding tool, so the results in increased brand awareness and connectivity with potential and current employees will grow steadily over the coming months, not in one immediate tidal wave.

Keep in mind, however, commitment should not be blind. Consider having quarterly checkpoints to evaluate your strategy, and adjust it as needed.

Commit to keeping your efforts consistent

Levinson stresses consistent advertising. If your budget only allows for 50 ads a year, spread the ads throughout the year instead of running all of them in a single push. Similarly, keep updates and engagement on social sites consistent. This way, you begin to create a familiarity with your audience. Often times, social media accounts will lay dormant until a company is running a promotion or needs to get the word out about a hard-to-fill job. But keeping a consistent stream of content is essential to a thriving social media community.

These are just a few tactics to consider for your social media strategy. How else can guerrilla marketing help your employment marketing?

If you had to wager a guess, what percentage of emails do you get on a daily basis that you really need? (And not just ‘you have to see this YouTube video of a kitten playing with a crocodile’ need but really need?)

Thierry Breton, CEO of tech company Atos, estimates that it’s as little as 10 percent, which is why he hasn’t sent an email in three years – and why he’s now banning Atos’ 74,000 employees from sending internal emails. Under Breton’s newly implemented “zero email” policy, Atos employees must now communicate with each other instant messaging and a Facebook-style interface, according to a recent ABCNews.com article.

While the policy doesn’t apply to external emails with clients and partners, Breton’s hope is to increase employee production and eliminating the data that is “fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives,” according to ABCNews. In lieu of emails, Atos employees use an internal Wiki to communicate by contributing or modifying online content, as well as an online chat system that allows video conferencing, and file and application sharing.

The End of Email As We Know It?
Unlikely as the move to eliminate workplace email might seem, the effort might just be part of a larger trend. Atos isn’t the only company utilizing alternative tools to replace internal email in an effort to eliminate the clutter and headache of junk email and increase production. In a recent blog post, Notebooks.com editor Josh Smith says his company has eliminated internal email altogether in the past year. Instead of sending email, Notebooks.com employees use Yammer – an internal social network similar to Twitter – as their primary means of communication on a daily basis. “Yammer lets us send messages to specific users, the entire team or as a private message to multiple recipients,” Smith says.

But because Yammer “will occasionally not update in real time,” Smith says the company also uses Google tools supplements.  Google Docs, for example, is ideal for collaboration on bigger projects, enabling employees to share and edit documents in real time; Google Talk helps team members stay in touch ‘for short one-on-one conversations;” and Google Voice enables employees to answer text messages by phone or computer, route phone calls and record calls for later reference.

I’ve discussed before how more and more companies today are utilizing internal social networks to encourage better employee communication and networking. (Over 50,000 companies worldwide use Yammer’s services, while a similar paid service is cfactor, which Starbucks and Pepsico utilize. Some companies have even built their own social communities, such as IBM and Best Buy, with their “Beehive” and “Blue Shirt Nation” hubs, respectively.)  It’s rare, however, to hear about organizations that are using these tools as a replacement for email altogether.

While email systems in the workplace probably aren’t in danger of going extinct any time soon, as alternative email tools become more streamlined and therefore easier to implement in day-to-day work, it’s very possible we’ll see more companies follow the example of Atos and Notebooks.com. Perhaps your company is next…

What’s your take on the move to eliminate email in the workplace? Are you use alternatives to email at your organization? If so, which ones?

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?

“If you’re not prepared for change, you have a tendency to get left behind.”

In this interview with CareerBuilder, Randstad US President Dan Foley discusses the importance of accepting change in the business world, having the courage to do what you believe in, and maintaining a sense of humor throughout it all.

What or who has had the single biggest impact on the way you approach leadership?
Really I can’t point to one person as much as I can say there was an influence of lots of people in my life, whether it was a Jack Welch, a Colin Powell, a Rudy Giuliani, my parents, my grandparents, or employees. I look at all of these different  leadership styles, and what I try to do is take the best of all of them, and then find a way to translate them into my own personal leadership.

Do you have a leadership philosophy or a motto?
It really starts with caring about people. And really being interested in looking out for what’s best for them. And that’s where you can get to this place of transparency and honesty, and really leading them when they need to be led.

What do you want your people to say about you when you leave Randstad?
Fundamentally, what I’d want people to say is that I made it a better place and that I helped it grow.

How do you define Randstad’s company culture?
I think it’s an entrepreneurial culture. It’s performance-driven. It’s fun. (Humor is a big part of what we do, and it’s a big part of my leadership style.) I think we’re progressive, family-oriented, and very core value-driven. “Work hard, play hard”: I think that’s how people might sum up our culture here.

Do you have any advice to share with your executive peers?
Be prepared for change. If you’re not prepared for change, you have a tendency to get left behind. Recognize that change is inevitable, it’s a necessary thing, it’s a good thing. It’s hard to do, but you need to do it. The other thing for me, personally, is I get very focused on the destination. What I’ve got to remember is that the journey is the destination. I think for some of us, with these executive level jobs, it’s almost impossible to see where things are today. You’re always looking down this one- to three-year window, and sometimes you just need to look at where things are today, enjoy the moment and kind of take it all in.

What is something that has surprised you about your job?
I think it’s probably how many times you have to deliver the same message before people really understand it. I’d be talking in a meeting, and I’d say, “This is the vision,” And yet, that was always the question I got: “What’s your vision, what’s your vision, what’s your vision?” And I started to understand that if you really want the message to sink in, you have to say it about 12 times. You can’t just say it once and expect people to remember it.

What do you wish people understood about leading a company or Randstad in particular?
What comes to mind is how fulfilling it can be when you’ve accomplished a task that was really, really difficult, or a great journey to get to. I think it can be really fulfilling to help people get to a better place. Oftentimes, people see some of the negative sides of it…and yes, it can be overwhelming at times, but that gets really into the background of accomplishing a major goal with either a team, an individual or a major organization. That, to me, becomes incredibly fulfilling.

Is there one person you admire or aspire to be like professionally?
His name is Jack Connors. Jack is a big Boston guy who started an ad company called Hill Holiday. To me, he’s done it all: He’s built successful businesses, he’s incredibly philanthropic, he’s a wonderful father, because I know his kids, he’s at all the charitable events, and yet he’s got extremely high business acumen. But he’s never forgotten where he’s come from.

Complete this sentence: “I couldn’t be a good leader without ____.”
Courage. I think if you want to be a good leader, you’re not going to be someone who’s wrought with fear. You can’t be so concerned about what people might think. You’ve got to do what’s right, what you believe in. You rely on courage quite a bit, especially when you’re making change. When you’re trying to make a major change initiative, you’re going to have a lot of people telling you why you can’t do it. The fear of doing it would cripple you. The courage to overcome it is often the right way. But you’ve got to have courage.

ABOUT DAN FOLEY: Dan was promoted to President of Randstad US, Professionals in 2008. Based in Wakefield, MA, he oversees all of the professional staffing segments, including IT, Engineering, Accounting & Finance, Human Resources, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Legal, as well as Managed Services. As president, Dan is responsible for working with the Executive Vice Presidents and Divisional Presidents in developing and supporting a market growth strategy for each of the segments. Dan’s management also extends over the professional brands within the recently acquired SFN Group. With over 20 years of industry experience, he manages all aspects of Sales and Marketing for Professionals and HR Solutions, and contributes to the overall strategic direction of the professional staffing brands.

ABOUT RANDSTAD: Randstad is a network of experts across industries placing talented individuals in your company who are ready to help you excel. Randstad US is a wholly owned subsidiary of Randstad Holding nv, an $18.8 billion global provider of HR services and the second largest staffing organization in the world. The company plays a pivotal role in shaping the world of work, leveraging the true value of human capital for the benefit of our clients, candidates, employees and investors. Randstad offers a comprehensive range of HR services to our clients. They provide temporary, temporary-to-hire, direct hire and outsourced placement services for local and global customers and fulfill all aspects of commercial and professional staffing within Finance & Accounting, Office & Administration, Engineering, Healthcare, IT, Legal, Life Sciences, and Manufacturing & Logistics. Other offerings include payrolling, managed services, recruitment process outsourcing and HR consulting solutions.

Less than you might think, actually.

Despite what Oprah may have you believe, $10,000 bonus checks, iPads and lavish Mediterrannean cruises aren’t the only way to say “thank you” to your employees. A new survey from Parago,  indicates that even a little bit can go a long way when it comes to recognizing employees this holiday season. In fact, the majority of employees surveyed don’t expect end-of-year rewards or holiday gifts from their employers at all this year.

Not that they would turn such rewards down…

Yet employers might be surprised to hear that it doesn’t cost much to make employees feel appreciated. According to the survey, 84 percent of employees say a prepaid gift card of $100 or less would meet their expectations for a reward. In fact, 64 percent said a prepaid card of $50 or less would meet their expectations for an end-of-year reward, with 55 percent expecting $25.

The survey also indicated that when it came to type of reward employees prefer, prepaid Visa or MasterCard gift cards won out above all other incentives, including other types of gift cards, company-branded merchandise or cash, due mainly to the fact that prepaid cards can be spent nearly anywhere at multiple retailers.

Did the prepaid gift card last year? Consider offering employees extra paid time off as another low-cost holiday incentive.  Almost everyone will appreciate the extra time to run errands, – especially at this time of year – or to simply relax and spend time with family and friends.

Are you offering any type of year-end bonus this year?

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?

“We want an ad so compelling that makes someone say, ‘That seems like a cool company. I want to check that out.’” – Jay Goltz

While discussing ways companies can bring in better quality candidates and eliminate hiring mistakes during his recent webinar, Hire With Purpose, small business expert Jay Goltz suggested companies pay more attention to the content of their job postings.

While it might not seem like it, job postings play a major role in the hiring process. After all, consider how much time you take to scan a resume – that’s probably about the same amount of time a job seeker takes to review a job posting. In other words, you have mere seconds to grab – and keep – a job seeker’s attention, so what you say – and how you say it – matter.

With a little effort, however, you can turn your ordinary job posting into one that truly stands out in the eyes of job seekers, drives more applications and leads to better hires. All it takes is knowing what to include – and what to avoid – when creating your next job posting. Consider the following tips:

DO THIS: Utilize keywords as often as possible. NOT THAT: Get keyword-happy.
The more keywords your job posting contains that are relevant to the position – and that job seekers might use to search for jobs – the easier it is for search engines to find it; in effect, the higher it will appear in organic search results. Look at your job posting and consider where you can substitute keywords job seekers might use in their searches. (For example, instead of saying, “The person in this position will be required to…” say, “The Marketing Manager will be required to…”) Just don’t flood the posting with so many keywords that you lose the message.

DO THIS: Go traditional with job titles. NOT THAT: Advertise for “rock stars” or “rainmakers.”
Not only are these terms nondescript, but job seekers aren’t searching for these terms. Stick to advertising for more traditional job titles, which will increase the ability for your postings to show up in search results on job boards, search engines and social media sites.

DO THIS: Think beyond healthcare and 401(k)s. NOT THAT: Leave out “Free Bagel Fridays”
What may seem like small perks are really a window into your company’s culture. And that, for job seekers, plays a major role when considering potential employers. While you should definitely still include traditional benefits like healthcare and retirement, remember that the little things count, too – and are often what differentiate you from any other organization. In fact, when considering which benefits to include in your posting, seek the advice of those who know best – your current employees.

DO THIS: Break it up. NOT THAT: Pile everything into one block of text.
The challenge with creating any job posting is finding a way to maximize what small amount of space you have in order to ‘sell’ your company to a prospective applicant. And again, most applicants are probably skimming your job posting for relevant key words – at best. Make the most of the space you have by creating categories (such as “qualifications” and “responsibilities of the role”) and utilizing bullets (to list required skills, responsibilities and company benefits, for examples). The easier the job posting is to read, the more likely a candidate is to read the posting in full and recognize whether or not he or she is truly qualified for the position.

DO THIS: Show. NOT THAT: Tell.
Text alone won’t grab job seekers’ attention. Create a visual experience. CareerBuilder data finds that job postings that include logos bring in 13 to 21 percent more applications. The number goes up to 34 percent when the job posting is accompanied by a recruitment video. Why? Videos help you communicate your employment brand more clearly than any other medium, because potential recruits get to “see, feel, and hear” what it’s truly like to work at your organization from the employees and leaders themselves.

DO THIS: Address the elephant in the room. NOT THAT: Leave salary information out.
Research shows that job seekers are turned off when companies fail to include salary information in their postings, so reference compensation information whenever possible—even if it is only a salary range or a statement such as “competitive pay,” “salary negotiable” or “compensation commensurate with experience.” It’s important that you let job seekers know your organization understands that money is, if not everything, at least pretty important.

DO THIS: Proofread. NOT THAT: Assume candidates don’t hold you to the same standards as them.
If you wouldn’t give a resume with a mistake in it a second look, why should job seekers treat a less-than-perfect job posting any different? Even the best, most thorough writers aren’t immune to the occasional typo, so proofread your postings yourself – or better yet, ask a colleague to check for errors that you might have missed.

DO THIS: Double- (or triple-) dip. NOT THAT: Post your job under one industry and call it a day.
If applicable, associate your job posting with multiple industries to increase visibility. Many professions can be cross-posted, such as public relations, accounting, web design and programmers, just to name a few. Doing so allows candidates to pull up your job posting in more searches – just make sure the industries are relevant to the position.

Got any do’s and don’t's of your own to share?

First it was Arrested Development. Then it was Beavis and Butthead, followed by layaway and (presumably) pantyhose. Now, the latest comeback story of the season involves middle management.

Middle management positions were a significant casualty of recession-era layoffs, but new research from CareerBuilder’s various industry sites indicate that many employers saw counterproductive consequences and are now rehiring for those positions.

Employers surveyed in the retail, IT and healthcare industries indicated plans to bring back previously eliminated middle management jobs for the purpose of bringing structural gaps and addressing market demands. When assessing the impact of downsizing middle management, employers who made cuts in these industries cited both positive effects (cost-savings and more efficient operations) as well as negative ones (structural and emotional drawbacks).

Don’t know what you got till it’s gone?
According to industry experts, part of the reason for the resurgence in middle management jobs is that employers are now realizing just how essential middle management is to the organization.

“Middle management often gets a bad rap for adding bureaucratic layers to an organization, but these roles can be essential in maintaining team cohesion, retaining core talent and providing direction to workers,” says Bill Meidell, product director of WorkInRetail.com

Jamie Carney, product director of Sologig.com, agrees. “When a department lacks leadership or direction, it is easier to see the value of middle management,” Carney says. “The data suggests that middle management plays an important role in making an employee’s work experience meaningful and productive.”

“Middle management is essential to providing balance and direction within complex organizations,” adds Rob Morris, product director of MiracleWorkers.com. “They play important roles from onboarding new employees and tracking progress to building positive morale and maintaining chains of communication – all things that are difficult to do without.”

Check out details for each industry survey below…

Retail
According to a WorkinRetail.com survey of 240 retail employers, of the 30 percent of retail employers who’ve eliminated middle management positions since the beginning of the recession, 32 percent plan to bring back these jobs.

While 73 percent of retail employers reported that cuts netted beneficial results, 77 percent indicated the following drawbacks:

• Lower morale (39 percent)
• Lower productivity (32 percent)
• Workers less motivated (30 percent
• Less communication given regarding company news (27 percent)
• Training is less effective (25 percent)
• Workers are less organized (24 percent)

Information Technology
A Sologig.com survey of 195 IT employers found that nearly half (45 percent) of the 27 percent of IT employers who’ve eliminated middle management positions since the beginning of the recession plan to bring back those jobs back.

While 73 percent reported that cuts netted beneficial results such as cost-savings and more efficient operations, 76 percent listed the following negative results:

• Lower morale (39 percent)
• Less succession planning (28 percent)
• Higher turnover (26 percent)
• Workers are less organized (24 percent)
• Less communication given regarding company news (24 percent)
• Less recognition for workers (23 percent)

Healthcare
Nearly a quarter (24 percent) of healthcare employers has eliminated middle management positions since the beginning of the recession, according to a MiracleWorkers.com survey of 282 healthcare employers. Of these employers, 44 percent plan to bring those jobs back.

While 81 percent reported that cuts netted beneficial results such as cost-savings and more efficient operations, 74 percent stated there were several structural and emotional drawbacks:

• Lower morale (47 percent)
• Workers less motivated (27 percent)
• Training is less effective (26 percent)
• Less communication given regarding company news (25 percent)
• Less succession planning (23 percent)
• Less recognition for workers (22 percent)

Is your organization bringing back previously-eliminated positions?

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?

“We’re all here to do the same thing: take care of our members.”

In the following interview with CareerBuilder, Eric L. Affeldt, President and CEO of ClubCorp, discusses the importance of being on a first-name basis with employees, how he gets employees to give 100 percent and the three things every leader should do to ensure success.

How do people have an impact on the daily business across the organization?
Our employee partners are the living embodiment of what ClubCorp is all about. We have some terrific physical plants and gorgeous clubs, but if the service isn’t there, and if the employees don’t make the members feel special, it doesn’t matter how pretty it is. 

How do you relate to your employee partners from a CEO level?
First of all, approachability is a given. Any employee partner who calls or emails gets direct access to me.  When I go out to visit properties in the field, my nametag says “Eric” not “Mr. Affeldt”.  I believe I should be on a first-name basis with them, and there should be no distinction between what they are doing and what I can help them do. We’re all here to do the same thing: take care of the guests. 

As far as leadership in general, what are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned along your journey?
I believe strongly that if leaders do three particular things, they’ll be successful no matter what business they’re in: First, establish a direction or a vision for either the company or a division.  Martin Luther King didn’t say, “I have a strategic plan.” He said, “I have a dream.” It’s very important for leaders to be able to visualize what perfection or what a really great day would look like.  Second, in order to achieve that dream or vision, leaders have to allocate resources—both in terms of capital as well as people. They have to put the right people in place as well as deploy the capital appropriately in order to achieve the dream.  The third thing is, ensure execution.  It doesn’t do any good to have a really neat dream and to have allocated the resources and then just kind of walk away and hope that it happens.  Great guest experiences are not the result of great accidents. They happen by design.

Is there anything else that you see as far as your employee partners affecting the business?
If you asked any of our employee partners what we do, I would hope that they say, “We build relationships and enrich lives.” That is our mantra. I hope that every day, employees are looking around and saying, “How can I put two people together? How can I make somebody feel good?”  Even if that means just doing little things that contribute to helping people feel better about themselves. 

How do you define ClubCorp’s culture from your standpoint as the leader of the organization?
There’s actually a quote by Aristotle I heard a long time ago: “What we are we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” That idea kind of gets back to ensuring execution [which I mentioned earlier].  From a leadership standpoint, it is imperative that we continually reinforce what we’d like our employee partners and ourselves to represent.

Some organizations believe that HR is really the only department responsible for people.  How do you make ClubCorp’s overall talent strategy a priority, and how do you play a role in that?
Two things:  I think really good leaders are people who nurture and encourage others.  I say, to everybody I work with, “I’ll help you go wherever you want to go in your career, even if it means that you leave our organization, as long as when you’re here, you give me 100 percent.” I think it’s the leader’s responsibility to help employees progress.  Second, I think it’s the leader’s responsibility to consistently look for ways to upgrade talent – whether that means new training for existing staff or visiting competitors and looking out for the best and the brightest, and trying to recruit those people. 

What do you do to rally the team and reinforce ClubCorp’s employment brand externally?
I try to be absolutely accessible, and stand up and take criticism when criticism is leveled at corporate or myself, in particular. I’m here to make the company better, and if you need to tell me that you think that there’s a better way to do it, that’s fine.

What would you consider the most important decision you’ve had to make as a leader?  Particularly with ClubCorp?
It’s a people decision.  Without the right people in place with the right training, you’re not going to be successful.  The most important decisions I’ve made have to do with, “Do I have the right people in place?  How do I get the best people?  How do I keep the best people?” It all comes down to human capital.

ABOUT ERIC L. AFFELDT: As President and CEO of ClubCorp, Eric is responsible for all aspects of domestic and international operations for “The World Leader in Private Clubs”. Prior to joining ClubCorp, Eric served as a principal of KSL Capital Partners, the private equity firm that purchased ClubCorp in 2006. Affeldt also previously served as president and CEO of KSL’s former golf division, KSL Fairways; vice president and general manager of Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami and the combined PGA West and La Quinta Resort and Club in California; and was a founding partner of KSL Recreation. In addition, Eric was president of General Aviation Holdings, Inc. He is currently an MDA Vice President and a member of the World Presidents Organization and serves on the Boards of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company and Fremont College. In 2010 Eric was a regional finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Religion from Claremont McKenna College.

ABOUT CLUBCORP: Dallas-based ClubCorp USA, Inc. is The World Leader in Private Clubs®. Since its founding in 1957, ClubCorp has operated with the central purpose of Building Relationships and Enriching the Lives® of its members. ClubCorp owns or operates a network of more than 150 golf and country clubs, business clubs, sports clubs, and alumni clubs in 25 states, the District of Columbia and two foreign countries that serve over 350,000 members, with more than 14,000 peak-season employees. ClubCorp properties include: Firestone Country Club (Akron, Ohio); Mission Hills Country Club (Rancho Mirage, California); Capital Club Beijing; and Metropolitan Club Chicago.

“There’s a connection between culture and recruiting,” Mike Grennier, Senior Director of Corporate Recruiting for Walmart Stores, Inc., told an audience of hiring resources professionals at the annual  HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas last month.

Grennier was leading a session on virtual interviewing, a practice Walmart began just two years ago in hopes to create a more efficient recruiting process that benefits both company and candidate. They consider the effort a success: Not only has the practice enhanced Walmart’s ability to recruit more candidates across many geographic regions at a fraction of the normal spend, but it also helped them to create a better candidate experience and, in effect, strengthen their employment brand.

“Candidates love that we take the time to do this because it shows that we care about efficiency, and it saves them time,” Grennier says. Not only that, but the effort also makes Walmart stand out from its competitors. “It tells the world we’re being more green.”

Walmart employs two types of video interviewing, depending on the position:

One-way recorded interviews

These interviews act almost like a ‘video resume of sorts: Enlisting the help of an external company’s online interview platform, Walmart sends standardized questions to a group of candidates. The candidates then record their answers and send them back to the hiring managers, who then review and rate the videos based on pre-determined criteria. Walmart then brings in the best interviewees for in-person interviews.  Walmart uses this technique for event-based hiring, volume hiring, campus hiring, and situations involving similar resumes. That is, when they’re interviewing for positions – such as pharmacists – wherein many of the resumes are similar in layout and style; In these cases, video interviews enable them to see if they have a good ‘counterside’ manner, something that wouldn’t come across on a regular resume.

Live, two-way interviewing

When hiring for professional level positions, or doing executive, campus or global recruiting events, Walmart conducts live, two-way interviewing, with the help of another online interview platform service. First, Walmart sends branded webcams to prospective employees. After a tech check to make sure all the equipment is working, a live interview on video can commence. Again, the process enables Walmart to evaluate the candidates virtually bringing them in for in-person interviews. If you’re thinking that the process sounds similar to using Skype, that’s because it is; however,  Walmart finds the benefit to using a third-party company is the additional technical assistance the company receives.  It’s also easier for candidates, too. While many of them may have webcams, they do not necessarily know how to use them or they might be hesitant to download additional software to enable Skype or a similar program.

And as for the results of these efforts, Grennier says the estimated the total savings from these virtual interviews will top $5 million by the end of fiscal year 2012. In addition to the significant cost savings, the practice has also helped lessen the company’s carbon footprint: Since Walmart began virtual interviewing, the company went from using up 623 kg of carbon dioxide to only 17 kg. (In layman’s terms, that’s like taking 315 cars off the road. Mother Earth would be proud, no?)

If others are wondering about the drawbacks to virtual interviewing, Walmart seems to have experienced very few. While Grennier asserts that there are costs up front, they end up being minimal compared to the money saved overall. And while the hassle of utilizing new technologies might scare some companies off, that’s where the third party technology companies come in to assist. Not to mention that these platforms are becoming ever more sophisticated, easier to use and more commonplace. “Before long, people are going to be able to do this on their iPhones,” Grennier says.

For Walmart at least, virtual interviewing isn’t even necessarily so much about being faster and more efficient as a company, so much as it is about the ability to offer candidates a better recruitment experience. “At some point, this will become less of a tech solution and more of a candidate experience solution.”

Get started

CareerBuilder offers an online video interviewing product that enables you to build a custom-branded application with your company logo and candidateswill  feel like they’re interviewing with you. You’ll no longer need to worry about coordinating schedules — both you and candidates have the freedom to use online video interviews on your own time.

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?

Earlier today, while you might’ve been busy vowing never to eat again, voting for your favorite Muppet (Swedish Chef, anyone?), or shopping for that very special Jaleel White fan in your life… Nationally recognized small business expert, speaker and author Jay Goltz was discussing small business hiring trends and best practices for a free webinar titled Hire With Purpose.

In case you were busy with any of the aforementioned activities – or simply want to hear it again – lucky for you, we’ve got two ways to make sure you don’t miss out on the webinar’s great content: Simply download a recording of Hire With Purpose here or keep reading to check out some of Jay’s best sound bytes on the following topics:

On why hiring the right people is crucial…

• “If you want to have a great company, you can’t do so without great people.” Seventy-five percent of management is hiring the right people in the first place, Goltz says. Unfortunately, most small businesses don’t have a hiring protocol, which can be dangerous, when, according to Goltz’s estimates, only 1 out of 10 applicants will be a great hire.
• “People might forgive bad service, but not bad attitude.” Case in point for why you need to have great employees – they are the face of your business. You can’t always account for things going smoothly in the world, but when you have great people in place to deal gracefully with occasional mishaps, your business will be all the better for it.

On three things to do now to hire great employees…

• “Create a compelling ad.” “We want an ad so compelling that makes someone say, ‘That seems like a cool company. I want to check that out.” Great job ads include things like, “You’ll love our culture,” “Our people are valued,” and “our environment is open and challenging with plenty of freedom.” Talk to your current employees to see what they love about working at your company and include that. “You want to inspire people to apply to your company.”
• “Conduct great interviews – or find someone who can.”Ironically, Goltz says, the very qualities that make people great entrepreneurs – a love of talking, the desire to see the best in people – make them terrible interviewers. They often do not dig deep enough to see why someone might not be a good employee. Fortunately, there’s likely someone at your organization who has a talent for the craft and can dig deep to find great employees. A key to conducting great interviews is to ask better questions. Below are some of Goltz’s personal favorites, the answers to which offer insights into a candidate’s personality, work ethic and drive:
•  “Why did you leave your last job?”
• “How did you handle a difficult situation at your last job?”
• “If you were in charge of your last company, what would you change?”
• “Check references. Always.” “Not only is reference-checking one of most important things you can do as part of the hiring process, but it’s also one of most unused resources out there,” Goltz says. Hiring someone without checking references is “like playing with fire.” When checking references, listen for the red flags. Great candidates’ references are often forthcoming with information and compliments; not-so-great candidates, however, have references who are less willing to talk (whether because they don’t want to be unkind or perhaps fear legal ramifications, etc.).  Whatever you do, however, do NOT skip this step, Goltz says. “Trust me, it’s better to make 20 reference calls to guarantee right employee than deal with nightmare of dealing with a bad employee.”

On the crucial first day…

• “Make sure employees walk away from their first day knowing they made the right decision.” Few things are as important to keeping new employees around as giving them a great first day on the job. To ensure this, to the following three things:  Introduce them to everyone they’ll work with; Have their work area prepared for them ahead of time; and have someone take them out to lunch (or take them yourself!)

On one final thought….

• “If you don’t love them, don’t hire them.” I can think of lots of people we weren’t sure about who didn’t work out. If you put a little more time into the front end of hiring, your life will change dramatically. You’ll have less grief in the long run if you hire people you love during the interview process and get great references. Don’t lower your standards.

Did you hear the webinar? What did you think?

Related links:

Hire With Purpose: Q&A With Small Business Expert Jay Goltz

From Q&A to A: The Hiring Manager’s Complete Interviewing Guide

Is your recruitment process based on what you know about job seekers…or what you think you know about job seekers?

If there’s one thing over 15 years of in-depth research on job seeker behavior and perceptions have taught us, it’s that now, more than ever, experience matters when it comes to the ability to drive quality candidates to apply for your open positions.

A recent CareerBuilder and Inavero study revealed that top talent wants to engage with prospective employers and experience what it’s like to work for their company before they decide to apply to a position – and they’re increasingly utilizing emerging technology to do it.

How do job seekers really see you? Three questions to ask
If you’ve never taken a step back to consider the experience you offer candidates – from their perspectives – it’s time to do so now.  Below are three forms of emerging media candidates utilize today to find opportunities and research potential employers. In effect, they also provide employers the opportunity to interact with and engage with job seekers on their terms. The following exercises will help you see the experience you’re providing candidates – from their point of view.

• Are You Mobile Friendly? Try searching for jobs at your company from your mobile device. Is your company’s career site “mobile-friendly” and easy to navigate? Are the pages easy to view and read? Can you easily search for and retrieve opportunities and information about your company? The rate at which people are using mobile devices to exchange information is growing exponentially – and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. If you don’t have a ‘mobile-friendly’ website that enables easy navigation and viewing, you’re missing out on a crucial opportunity to reach the growing number of job seekers who search for – and share – opportunities and information on their mobile devices.

• Do You Engage on Video? Enter the term “work at [your company]” on YouTube. Then do the same for your competitors. If you were a candidate, which company would capture your attention more? As the fastest-growing medium for consuming content, videos have an ability to engage candidates and tell a more complete story that is unmatched by any other medium. They are also easy-to-create and can live on nearly any platform by which job seekers search for jobs (job boards and search engines, social networks, company websites, etc.). From “day in the life” videos” to employee testimonials, video gives companies an edge in offering job seekers a peek into the experience of what it’s really like to work for an organization.

• Are You Social? Enter the term “work at [your company]” on Google. If you were a candidate, would you be impressed by what comes up? Now do the same for your competitors. How does your company stand out in the social space? (Or does it stand out at all?) Social media is where all of the above come together. Social networking is now the number one reason people go on the Internet, providing employers the opportunity to reach job seekers where they are truly engaged. What’s more, they can utilize social media to reach job seekers on their mobile devices and share video content with them as well (as discussed earlier).

Perception is reality when it comes to your employment brand. Only when you take a step back and truly evaluate the experience you’re offering candidates the way they see it – especially as it compares to your competitors – can you then move forward and create a more compelling reason to drive candidates to your company.

Beth Prunier is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where she is responsible for sales strategies and revenue growth within the Enterprise Sales Group. This includes field sales people as well as in inside sales team in Chicago. In her role, she covers a variety of Fortune 5,000 companies located throughout the Northeast.

Exclusive webcast: Join CareerBuilder’s Area Vice Presidents Chuck Loeher and Beth Prunier on Tuesday, December 6 at 11 am CST for Future of Recruiting: Are You Prepared for What’s Ahead? In this complimentary webcast, recruitment experts Loeher and Prunier will discuss the changing recruiting environment, how employers are responding and what you can do now to position your own firm for long-term, sustainable growth. Learn more or register here.

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?