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?

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

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

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

Retail and hospitality outlook

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

As Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, explained:

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

Where is seasonal hiring happening industry-wide?

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

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

Better pay is on the way

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

Seasonal hiring: Still going strong

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

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

From seasonal to all-season employees

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

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

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

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

Employers’ biggest seasonal hiring turnoffs

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

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

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

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

Are resumes -  as we know them – going the way of the dinosaur, Google Buzz and Kim Kardashian’s marriage? (Too soon?)

They might be, if Eugene Woo has any say in it. Today, Business Insider posted this interview with the visualize.me co-founder, who says that as paper resumes become “less and less helpful” to time-strapped hiring managers, visual resumes (or infographic resumes, like this now-famous one) are the way of the future.

But are they?

Sure, infographic resumes are undeniably more interesting to look at than the traditional paper resume (unless, of course, it’s been given the Elle Woods treatment), but are they truly the stuff every hiring manager’s dreams are made of?

Seriously, I’m asking for your input here:
Would you prefer to receive an infographic resume over a traditional resume? I could see both sides to this argument…

Pros
As mentioned earlier, visual resumes are definitely a lot more fun to look at – and definitely can help to set candidates who use them apart, enabling them to show their unique personalities in a way that is unmatched by a traditional paper resume; however…

Cons
I can’t help but wonder if the clever design could distract from what hiring managers might normally consider red flags. As my colleague Justin suggested, job seekers might use the technique thinking they can mask a lack of skills or experience with “pretty graphics.” And one more thing – are they really that much easier to read and review than clean, well-laid out traditional resumes?

What’s your stance on infographic resumes? Is it a fad that only adds clutter to your already crowded applicant box, or would you be happy to say goodbye to the traditional resume forever?

Leave your comments below, and we’ll share your thoughts (anonymously, if you prefer) in an upcoming post on our job seeker blog, TheWorkBuzz…

“Challenge your people to be better than they think they can be. People will produce more than they think they can if they’re challenged.”

In the following interview with CareerBuilder, Ray Titus, CEO of United Franchise Group, discusses how he ensures people get ‘the right seat on the bus,’ applies the Golden Rule to business and the evolving definition of ‘work hard, play hard.’

How do you engage with and relate to your employees?
We try to challenge our employees. I have 10 direct reports and they average over 20 years with the company; I’m really blessed with the people that have come along with our organization early on and stayed with our company over the years. We try to promote a fun, friendly working atmosphere but also one that accomplishes and is challenging at the same time.

What are the most import ant leadership lessons you’ve learned?
Lead by example would be the first one. If you’re going to ask people to work hard, you have to do it first. You have to be the hardest worker. Beyond that, you go with the Golden Rule of treating people the way you want to be treated. It’s all about, “What can we do together?” and creating a team atmosphere and a team among each one of the departments and brands. As a leader, I believe part of my job is to delegate to the leadership within each brand or each department. I want to give people the opportunity and the freedom to be leaders and the room to make decisions, right or wrong, and then help them make better decisions as we go along.

How do you define your company’s culture? As a leader, what role do you play and what is your impact on the culture?
Although I play a major part as the CEO and the founder of the organization, the people that we’ve brought in over the years are really what create the culture. Our company culture has always been: We work hard and we play hard. I started this business when I was 23 years old and have grown up in it. I’ve found that as one gets older, the ‘play hard’ part doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the culture of the business in the same way as it used to. For me, and for many employees, it’s now about balancing family values and family time with the business side of things, and finding ways to instill that in our organization. I think the more things we can do to get our employees in a good spot mentally, the better.

Some people believe HR to be the only department with the responsibility for the organization’s people. How do make your overall talent strategy a priority and what role do you play in driving it?
First of all, the people who think HR is the only department responsible are way off base. HR is a very important part of working with people, but everyone’s job organization-wide involves working with those people and getting them in the “right seat in the bus” as we say in strategic planning. HR actually helps in the initial hiring and they facilitate some of these moves, but these are business decisions that need to be made by individuals, departments, and brands as well as HR – they all work in conjunction.

How do you rally the team and reinforce your employment brand?
Getting everybody together is an important part — for people to be able to say, “Here’s what I’m doing” and show their work. With our employees, we accentuate their positives and are good-finders constantly. We’re not looking for the bad in any individual because you or I can always find the bad in somebody. To find the good and what makes them tick — that’s the key.

What would you consider the most important decision you’ve ever made as a leader?
From the business decision side of things, I believe it’s the lesson of not having to win every battle. It’s  understanding that parties in business are going to have conflicts, and learning to resolve those conflicts without taking a long-term approach or fighting to be a hundred percent right. I don’t think ‘compromise’ is a bad word.

What was the best hiring decision you ever made?
I would say it was to hire and to promote brand presence; to have brand leaders in charge of a company. Having people who eat, sleep and drink the brand is critical.

What other advice would you share with your executive peers through this piece?
Plan for success. You have to have one-year and three-year plans and keep them on your desk all the time and get back to them. Make your strategic plan a living, breathing document that you’re working with on an everyday basis. Challenge your people to be better than they think they can be. People will produce more than they think they can if they’re challenged.

RAY TITUS: Ray Titus is the CEO of United Franchise Group and its affiliated companies. Ray is a life-long entrepreneur who got his start with his father, franchising legend Roy Titus, and went on to develop a group of successful business-to-business brands and franchise development services. The company includes franchise industry giants SIGNARAMA, the world’s largest sign franchise; EmbroidMe, the world’s largest embroidery franchise; Plan Ahead Events, the world’s largest full-service event management company; Billboard Connection, the world’s largest out-of-home outdoor advertising franchise; and Transworld Business Advisors, a business brokerage and franchise consulting franchise. Ray Titus is an incredible leader and directly responsible for the continued success of the United Franchise Group as well as the many accomplishments yet to come..

ABOUT UNITED FRANCHISE GROUP: United Franchise Group (UFG) is the umbrella company to a successful group of the world’s largest franchise systems specializing in personalized business services including signage, embroidery, event management, business brokerage and outdoor advertising. The UFG corporate headquarters, located in West Palm Beach, Fla., controls operations for approximately 200 employees in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and offers support to the remaining countries around the world. The experts at UFG have used their over 30 years of franchising experience to grow the industry giant into a $500 million dollar success story with more than 1400 locations in more than 50 countries. The company includes franchise industry giants SIGNARAMA, the world’s largest sign franchise; EmbroidMe, the world’s largest embroidery franchise; Billboard Connection, an incredibly successful out-of-home advertising franchise; Plan Ahead Events, a home-based corporate event planning franchise, and Transworld Business Advisors, which provides business brokerage and franchise consulting services.

Who says you have to wait until a position opens up to recruit candidates? For 43 percent of companies recruitment is a day-to-day effort, according to a new CareerBuilder study.

The recent survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers nationwide found that two-in-five U.S. employers continuously recruit where they might not have an open position today, but still market to candidates in case a position opens up down the line. (Which seems impressive, until you realize that less than half of you get to enjoy the benefits talent pipelines offer.)

They also said that year-round recruiting helps cut down on time and money associated with recruiting:

• 72 percent of employers who continuously recruit say they have reduced their time-to-hire, with 41 percent stating it has shaved off at least three weeks on average.
• 41 percent of employers who continuously recruit say it has lowered their cost-per-hire with 22 percent citing a savings of $1,000 or more per hire.

While building a talent pipeline can save time and money long-term, it does require significant dedication on behalf of the entire organization. Fortunately, third-party resources, such as CareerBuilder’s Talent Network offering, are available to assist employers as they build their talent pipelines by:

1. Optimizing their jobs for organic search on search engines like Google so that they show up higher in organic listings and drive traffic back to their site.
2. Providing automated engagement emails to target talent using CareerBuilder’s proprietary matching technology that continuously matches qualified candidates to jobs.
3. Providing a lead and candidate management tool that allows employers to send targeted communications to prospects and candidates who didn’t get a job offer, but might be a good fit for another job down the line.
4. Delivering analytics around Internet sources of traffic and labor supply and demand to help employers build more strategic sourcing strategies.

For more information about the why’s and how’s of continuous recruiting…

• Check out these related articles: Smart Recruiting: Doing More More With Less Through Talent Pipelining and Recruiting for Tomorrow Today: 4 Key Reasons You Need a Talent Pipeline
• See a free webcast: “Your Company in 2020: Capturing Talent to Fuel Future Growth”
• Or visit the Talent Network page to learn more about the solutions available, as well as a full list of companies clients using the Talent Network solution, including WellPoint, Sunrise, IHG and Midas

Does your company recruit year-round?

Want to recruit top candidates? Start imitating them.

A recent study conducted by CareerBuilder and Inavero indicates that over the past several years, job seekers have developed a highly complex, multi-faceted approach to the job search, in which they utilize today’s sophisticated technology to their advantage.

According to the study, job seekers today now utilize five specific methods to ultimately find their next job:

• Search engines to find company, industry and job-specific information.
• Vertical sites (such as job boards and aggregators) for jobs that fit their qualifications and have a great company behind them.
• Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to post and share content.
• Corporate and career sites to find relevant news and information about specific companies.
• User-generated content sites such as Glassdoor.com to get a better sense of what it’s really like to work for a company.

As evidenced in the Inavero study, job seekers today are accelerating their efforts, using the opportunities they find on job boards as the starting-off point of a more in-depth search to find the opportunities – and the companies – that are right for them. It’s time for employers to do the same. By taking a cue from job seekers and applying this efficient, proactive approach to their candidate searches, employers can create a more efficient, effective recruiting process.

Five things today’s job seekers can teach employers:

1. Go mobile: The fact that over 300 million Americans use mobile phones today – and that mobile searches are up 130 percent over the past year – indicates a significant shift in the way people search for information. Not only are job seekers utilizing multiple channels to search for jobs (as shown above), but they’re also using doing so – increasingly – from their mobile devices. This shift in behavior opens up a huge opportunity for companies to reach job seekers anywhere, at any time of day. One of the smartest things you can do now to prepare your organization for long-term success in capturing talent is to mobilize your careers website.
2. Clean up your online reputation: Well aware that companies now check social media to screen candidates, the smartest job seekers proactively make an effort to clean up their social presence. Companies need to do the same. Thanks to the information available through social media and search engines, companies are more transparent than they’ve ever been. Job seekers can easily get information about a company’s organizational culture, the experience of working there, and what other employees think about the brand. Thanks to the vast reach of social media, companies also have the opportunity – and the need – to see what people are saying about them (on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, for example), become more robust in their employment branding efforts, and reach job seekers at every touch point.
3. Take ownership of the skills gap: : A CareerBuilder survey from earlier this year shows that many job seekers have begun going back to school to learn the in-demand skills that make them more desirable job candidates – and several have even switched careers. But the burden of closing the widening skills gap shouldn’t fall solely on job seekers. Companies have to take it upon themselves to reskill workers – and there are a number of (cost-effective) ways to do so. Consider just a few of the following options:  
• Create a mentorship program within the organization
• Partner with local colleges to offer training and recruit interns
• Set up a tuition reimbursement program or development program
• Promote from within the company
4. Focus on culture: The vast majority of job seekers (roughly 70 percent, according to the Inavero survey) say they would accept a lower salary to work for a company with a strong employment brand. Just as it influences a candidate’s decisions to accept an offer, culture should also play just as much of a role in an employer’s decision to hire. Author and business strategist Amber Naslund advises employers to “hire for culture, train for skills,” which means, hire people who truly believe in the mission of the organization and are passionate about its success. You can’t train for attitude, but you can train for skills. And what’s more valuable to the organization in the long run? (The added benefit is that these employees will likely end up being strong brand advocates.)
5. Do your research: The most in-demand candidates choose their employers wisely. As noted earlier, they not only have access to more information than ever, but they take advantage of it, too – by utilizing multiple channels to research the companies to which they apply. Whether they realize it or not, employers also have access to in-depth, accurate intelligence on job seekers as well. Data intelligence – if applied well – provides employers the insight they need to create a smarter, more efficient recruitment strategy. For instance, employers can utilize marketplace intelligence to pinpoint exactly where the supply and demand for people with their desired skill sets and experience levels are highest. In effect, they can find answers to such crucial questions such as, “Are we seeking talent in the right places? Is the talent we need even available? Who are we competing with for talent and what are they offering that we aren’t?” Without this valuable intelligence, employers simply can’t make the most informed recruitment decisions.

Bottom line: If what you’re doing now to bring in the talent you need isn’t working, you need to change what you’re doing. It’s as simple as that. In order to truly meet the demand for talent, today’s employers need a change in strategy. Perhaps Peter Capelli said it best in a recent Wall Street Journal article in which he calls for “a fundamental change in business as usual.” Because when it comes to recruiting in today’s job market, recruitment as usual just won’t cut it anymore.

Chuck Loeher is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where he is responsible for sales strategies and revenue growth for companies ranging from Fortune 1000 to midsized businesses throughout the U.S.

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.

Many companies are making great strides in social media recruiting. This is good – social media is an excellent place to find passive and active candidates, and connect with them on a more personal level.

In addition to talking on social media, are you listening? Listening is a key strategy for engaging with individuals on social media. In order to maximize the benefit, you should follow these steps to listen efficiently.

1. Comb through reviews on social media and job feedback sites.  In addition to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, sites like Jobitorial (formerly Jobvent) and Glassdoor can help you figure out if your employment branding strategies are working. Jobitorial and Glassdoor feature anonymous reviews of your company from employees and potential employees. Jobitorial offers employee perspectives, and Glassdoor gets further in-depth by including salary information, interview feedback and more. Both sites offer rankings one through five.
2. Look for negative and positive patterns. Do employees consistently feel that the benefits are great? Do they think the interview process was lengthy and cumbersome? Are the salaries fair? Track these patterns and make adjustments internally, if needed and feasible. To be even more strategic, check in on specific dates and update your spreadsheet or tracking document to see how things have changed.
3. Use the patterns to inform your employment branding strategy. Maybe job seekers are saying that your four-hour interview process is daunting. Can you change it? Experimenting with it might result in happier job seekers and a better employment brand overall.
4. Take stock of employee reviews and see what can be changed. Are employees from one location all complaining about a manager? Maybe you need to talk with the manager about his/her work style. Are all the employees incredibly happy with the office vacation policy? Maybe this is something that should be touted more to interviewees and potential employees! You can uncover benefits you didn’t even know you had, just by listening.
5. Look at consumer sites, too. If your company offers a consumer service or product, checking in with review sites like Yelp can help you see how your employees are faring. Traditionally, happy employees are happy to provide good customer service. Problems may indicate areas for improvement in your management or training styles.
6. Monitor other social media commentary to get the full picture. Sites like Socialmention and Klout can provide insight into what people are saying about you on social media as well as how you are performing. These insights can give you focus areas and direction for your social media strategy.

To get the most out of your social media endeavors, incorporate listening fully into your strategy! What are some of your favorite “listening” sites?

“Establish a vision, be flexible and agree that it’s okay to disagree with the boss.”

Pierre L. Gauthier, President and CEO of Alstom, a global technology services provider, talks leadership lessons with CareerBuilder in the following Q&A.

How do you  – as the leader of such a large organization – engage and relate to your employees?
We have a people philosophy built around “Team, Trust and Action.” It is a part of everything we do. With our work, we have to work in groups: It’s the engineering department, it’s the manufacturing employees, it’s the project management team — everything has to run smoothly. You have to really count on the other people in the team so the project is a success. Action comes into play, because there are all sorts of things that can happen. For example, a shipment is delayed, or a supplier is having trouble. Every step toward the ultimate goal of delivering quality products to the customer in the scheduled time requires a lot of action. So, “Team, Trust and Action” is really what we work on with our employees.

What do you do to reinforce your corporate employment brand?
If you look at our company, we’re a business-to-business company. We don’t really have retail products that we can advertise or a name brand that is easy to recognize. We try to regroup all these businesses under what we call ‘One Alstom,’ and that is certainly one of the objectives that I have and that my peers have elsewhere in the world — to regroup a “One Alstom” brand and vision. That takes a lot of communication, and it’s not easy to do. People work very hard in making sure our employees in Chattanooga producing gas turbines are also aware of our employees in Hornell producing metros for transportation. The other thing we do to foster “One Alstom” on the human resources side is cross-mobility. We move people, especially the managers, from one business to another within a given sector, and from one sector to another. That way, we have managers who know as much as possible about the scope and global activities of our company.

What would you consider to be the most important decision that you’ve made as a leader?
I think the one that probably strikes me the most is probably not one you would expect, and it is disagreeing with my boss. That’s a trait also, I think, that goes along with our culture: We’re allowed to disagree. When you talk technical activities, everybody has his or her point of view. Obviously, you have to make a decision at some point for everybody to work together and support that decision whatever it is. In this case, it was the closure of a plant which I really disagreed with. In the end, with my team, we worked on an alternate plan and we went back to my boss and I proposed a restructuring plan which was accepted and turned out very well. Today, it’s one of our more profitable plants in North America. I think that’s part of doing business. I talked about managing risk — these are some of the risks, and that is something that you must as a manager constantly review. You must establish a vision, look at what’s going to happen in the future, and rearrange things within the organization in order to be successful. I think the more flexible organizations are probably the ones that will have the most success.

What was the best hiring decision you made?
I think probably some of my best decisions were to replace myself. I think that is important, because the organization is more important than any individual. If you want the plans and the vision that you’ve set forth to be executed, which often take a long time, you have to have the right people who will continue that. Otherwise, you wind up continuously starting back at square one on the learning curve. All the managers have to work at eventually replacing themselves, and that’s more work than somebody would think.

Can you give an example of how a person has made an impact on the organization?
This is where empowerment becomes very important — meaning that we’ve trained employees, we’ve given them the experience, and in that sense we enable them to do extraordinary things. One extraordinary individual is Mr. Stephane Cai, the former manager of our Chattanooga plant. He had the responsibility of rebuilding one of our biggest investments, which is today one of our biggest plants in the world, to produce nuclear steam turbines and gas turbines. He was responsible for building that plant, and then running it. He had to make sure he satisfied customers, that he had the right suppliers, and that his people were trained. This shows how one individual can really do it all — that’s the exciting part. The risky part, of course, is that he had to live with what he built, and therefore had to make sure that what he did was well done.

What advice would you share with your executive peers?
I think you have to stay very close to your customers. To me, that is the number one criteria. You have to constantly empower your people in order to satisfy customer needs and staff the organization accordingly. The market (your customers) is not static, and your organization has to constantly adapt to changing needs. I think you also have to be fast to adapt to the changing market realities. I remember when I was a much younger manager, we used to do five-year plans and even 10-year plans. Today, we do yearly plans and we review them every year. I think being fast and staying close to customers are two very, very key responsibilities.

ABOUT PIERRE L. GAUTHIER: Pierre L. Gauthier joined Alstom (then GEC Alsthom) in 1996 as Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Over the years, he held various leadership roles with the company before being named President and CEO of Alstom Canada in 2003. In 2008, his role expanded to include leadership of Alstom’s presence and activities in the U.S. In this capacity, he directs Alstom’s effort to address the country’s energy and rail transportation challenges. Gauthier is also Chairman of Alstom Inc. and Alstom Power and Transportation Canada Inc. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal and has pursued further studies in leadership and business administration at McGill University and the European Institute of Administration (INSEAD).

ABOUT ALSTOM: Alstom is a global leader in technology, equipment and services for power generation, rail transportation and power transmission. With a team of more than 6,000 U.S. employees across 45 states and the District of Columbia, Alstom delivers clean innovations to address America’s toughest energy and rail transportation challenges. Globally, Alstom employees 93,000 people in more than 100 countries. Visit www.alstom.com to learn more.

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

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

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

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

The current skills shortage — and why we should care

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m not looking for great storytellers. I want to figure out what makes people tick and how they operate on the job.” – Jay Goltz

In the following Q&A, small business expert Jay Goltz draws from his experience as an entrepreneur to discuss the lessons he’s learned – often the hard way – about what it really takes to hire and retain the best people to run a successful business (or, in his case, five). On Wednesday, November 9, Jay will host Hire with Purpose, a complimentary webinar to discuss insider tips, takeaways and tactics small business owners can apply right now to ensure they make the right hiring decision for their teams.

In your book, The Street-Smart Entrepreneur, you talk about lessons you learned the hard way. What’s your most memorable lesson in terms of hiring? I once interviewed a sales manager at a retail shop that had five salespeople, and I asked her, “How many people did you go through before hiring those five great salespeople?” And she said, “Just five.” I literally laughed and said, “Either you have much lower standards than I do, or you’re a hiring guru.” I hired her, and she turned out to be a hiring guru. She moved away about 10 years ago, but most of the people she hired while she was here are still with me.

The lesson there is that part of hiring well comes down to who’s doing the interviewing. There are some people who can hit a fast ball and some people who can’t. Likewise, there are some people who are great at interviewing and some who aren’t. There’s some element of natural talent there. And that realization has had a profound impact on my company. It used to be, when I hired, only 30 or 40 percent of the people I hired worked out great, and now it’s up to 80 percent. And that’s because we’re much better at hiring.

At the recent Inc500/5000 Conference, Gilt Group CEO Kevin Ryan mentioned how reference checks are often an underrated virtue of the hiring process. What’s your stance on that? I totally agree with that. Whenever I hear about people who are having problems with an employee, I always ask them, “Tell me how you hired this person.” No one has ever said to me, “I put an ad out, I interviewed a lot of people, I did some really thorough questions, and then I really checked references.” It’s always, “Yeah, I didn’t check references.” So people are getting what they deserve, I’m sorry to say.

The other thing is, when you’re doing reference checks, you have to read between the lines. I had a call in about a designer one time, and the reference just blurted out, “Oh, she’s really talented.” After interviewing [the candidate] some more, I realized she was really neurotic, but the woman I used as a reference clearly didn’t want to say that. All of a sudden, it made sense why the reference didn’t say, “She’s great. You should hire her.” When someone’s a great employee, people say things like, “Oh, you’re really lucky she applied. You should hire her right now. She’s a wonderful employee. I really miss her.”  Is reference-checking 100 percent reliable? No. Even if you do everything right, you’ll still probably only have a 90 percent chance of them working out – maybe 80. But if you don’t do everything right, those chances go down to 30, 40 or 50 percent.

Aside from failing to check references, what are some of the biggest mistakes people make in the hiring process? They don’t ask right questions on the interview. They don’t drill into the reasons people left their previous jobs. I’ll ask them, “Did you quit or get fired?” And a lot of times, they’ll say, “Well, it was sort of a combination of both.” And I go, “Oh, really? So you quit, and your boss said, ‘That’s such a coincidence – I was just about to fire you.’” To me, that sounds like bull.

Other mistakes people make include asking bad questions, not listening to the answer, hearing what you want to hear, or not asking enough follow up questions. I follow up with stuff, because the fact of the matter is, if someone’s looking for a job, (unless they’re straight out of school) there’s a story to tell. People change jobs for a reason. One of my favorite questions to ask is, “Tell me about the most difficult customer situation you’ve had to deal with, and how you dealt with it?” Those [behavioral questions] are always telling. I always say, “Past performance is the best indicator of future performance.” If someone’s had six jobs in the last two years, they’re probably not going to be with you too long. Questions like “Who’s your hero?” might work for some people, but I’m not looking for a great storyteller. I really want to figure out what makes them tick and how they operate on the job.

What specific traits do you look for when you hire? I have four things I look for, which we call the BATH test. B means I want someone who buys into the concept. In our case, the concept is that we’re a design company, we’re a customer service-driven business, we do what we can to take care of the customer, and we treat people well. I look for people who buy the concept of what we do and are into it. A means they’re able. I want to know from past jobs that they have the ability to do this, not just someone who says, “I’d like to do that. I’d probably be good at it.” The chances of that being true could be as low as 25 percent (when it’s a highly skilled position) – and it’s not that they’re not lying, they just don’t know. I want someone who has a proven track record. T means they’re team players. I want someone who’s going to tell me what’s on their mind, who can tell me right to my face, “Jay, you’re driving me nuts. What can we do about this?” And finally, H is for hungry. I want someone who’s hungry, who really wants to do this.

In your upcoming webinar, one of the topics you’re going to cover is creating compelling job advertisements. What constitutes a ‘compelling’ job ad?  A compelling job ad includes some piece of information about your company that might make candidates stop and take notice. Maybe you can offer them flex time, for instance. Or how about free parking? What about 401(k) plans, or health insurance plans? Employees are more enlightened these days. They want to work at a company where they have input in the decisions that are being made. The best employees are mission-driven. So if you can let them know that they’ll be involved in things at the company, that’s compelling.

What do you do to orient new hires into the company? After they’ve been here a month or two, we have an indoctrination where we tell them things like the whole mission of the company, where we came from, the history, as well as more tangible stuff such as if they have a problem, what they should do about it, etc. And we purposely don’t do it on the first day. We wait till they get a little used to the place, so that at the end of it, we can go, “Okay, do you think I’m lying, from what you’ve seen?” So at least one time, they’re sitting there with the big boss, and I’m telling them, “Look, if you think I’m full of it, call me on it. Feel free – I’m telling you right now: stop me in the hall, leave me a note, give me a call. If there’s something I’m telling you that really isn’t the case here, please tell me!” It lets people know we believe what we say, and if they’re not happy here, what they can do about it.

What is your stance on exit interviews? We do them. Our HR department conducts them, but, personally, I’ve never gotten any huge revelations out of them. That’s not to say that exit interviews are worthless, but if you’re running a good business where there’s open communication, you shouldn’t need exit interviews. If you’re learning something new, that’s the symptom of a problem. You shouldn’t be learning anything new in an exit interview. There’s a value in it, but they’re like seatbelts: Most of the time they’re useless, but once in a while, it might really make a difference.

Jay Goltz is a nationally recognized author and speaker on the topic of running a successful small business. Jay has been featured in various media, including Fox Business News, Inc. Magazine and Bill Clinton’s bestseller, Giving, and is currently a business blogger for NYTimes.com.

Want to get a free copy of The Street Smart Entrepreneur: 133 Tough Lessons I Learned the Hard Way? Simply register now for Hire with Purpose (happening live on Wednesday, November 9 at 1 pm CST), and be one of the first 100 attendees. Learn more…

Perhaps a trip to American Staffing Association’s Staffing World 2011 just wasn’t in the cards this year…or perhaps you were too busy attending sessions, entering to win a [insert flashy handheld electronic device here], and learning how to pronounce “beignet” to catch everything there was to see at this year’s conference, which took place earlier this month in New Orleans.

We had a feeling that might happen.

Lucky for you, CareerBuilder was there, shooting video from the expo room floor, and gathering feedback from fellow attendees on everything from lessons they’ve learned in this industry to current trends, to what they foresee for the future of staffing and recruiting.

Visit CareerBuilder.com/StaffingWorld2011 for complete video coverage or checkout highlights below.

Overheard at Staffing World 2011

 “You learn something new every day…Learn to love the new things.”

“We believe in giving people opportunities…to change their lives.”

“You’re only as good as your resources.”

“The more staffing firms can recognize that it’s a mobile environment, the better off they are.”

“I don’t think we’re going to go back to the way things were done before.”

Don’t forget to check out CareerBuilder.com/StaffingWorld2011 for more behind-the-scenes footage from Staffing World 2011.

A Different Kind of Conference Swag: The 2011 Opportunities in Staffing Guide
One of the hot topics at this year’s staffing world was the findings from Inavero and CareerBuilder’s 2011 Opportunities in Staffing Guide. The survey of more than 14,000 participants provides in-depth research and insight into the behaviors and perceptions of candidates, clients and internal employees…and – what’s that? – oh yes, it just happens to be available for download here.

Did you go to Staffing World 2011 this year? What was your biggest takeaway?

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

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

Chilly days and empty desks

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

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

“So sick, can’t be @ work TTYL”

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

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

2011′s most unusual excuses for missing work

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

Peeping employers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not too terribly long ago, life was a lot harder. People spent hours growing, finding and hunting their food, only to spend equal amounts of time cooking and preserving it so they wouldn’t starve in the winter. But as technology progressed, it brought along a couple of the more noteworthy inventions in recent history: the refrigerator and the microwave. Now, with the pop of a box and the push of a button, people can eat food that is grown anywhere, anytime, whenever they want.

And even more recently, something else amazing happened. While it seemed that the possibilities were endless, people started to realize that they didn’t need to be. Instead of wanting processed foods that are grown, frozen, shipped and eaten out of season, our culture has taken a step back and has begun to embrace fresh, locally grown foods.

Believe it or not, creating content on the web isn’t that much different. Providing a regular diet of fresh, organic content is the best way for you to stay engaged with your employees as well as active and passive job seekers, and grow your company’s social media presence. Because most interaction takes place on users’ News Feeds or timelines instead of a profile or page, posting new content is often the only way to stay connected with your online community on a regular basis. In fact, Facebook users are 40 to 150 times more likely to consume content via their News Feeds rather than visit actual pages. Fresh content also simply lets users know, “Hey – We’re here!” since a page with stale content or a stream of RSS-fed items doesn’t assure users that it’s a community where they’re likely to find new, useful information or have their questions answered.

Aside from keeping your company top of mind for job seekers, fresh content can truly differentiate one brand from another, separating you from your competition. Say, for instance, that you’re a relatively small lifestyle clothing company and you keep losing your target talent to your talent competitors – three more established clothing companies that also have a focus on lifestyle. When you obtain your target talent and hire them, 90 percent of individuals to remain loyal employees for at least five years. Meanwhile, your talent competitors experience consistently high turnovers every other month. Instead of simply bashing your competitors by announcing that they have much higher turnover rates or that their former employees are now a part of your team, take a different approach. Use social media to invite your current employees to share what they love most about working for your company. Interview individuals who have been with your team for years, highlighting their growth and career paths at the company. You could also take a flip cam to various retail locations to conduct store spotlight, featuring both employees and shoppers. It’s through these types of content and more that you can use social media to share your company story, allowing you to increase brand awareness, brand influence and your recruitment reach as well as build relationships with those in your community.

As a whole, to be successful in recruiting on social media, companies must produce engaging content that earns attention, creates trust, establishes credibility and authority, and, above all, converts fans/followers into people who take action. Sticking to the fresh food analogy, here are some ways to make the most of the content you’re producing.

Organic is *Usually* Better

Most people would agree that foods left to develop in their natural environments provide the most nutrients. The same is true of content. While third-party tools can be useful to cue up a large chunk of posts, studies show that using such devices can reduce engagement on Facebook by 88 percent. Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank to determine what appears in any given person’s News Feed; it is based on overall interaction, the type of content, and when it is posted. The algorithm does not prioritize content posted through third-party APIs, thus lessening such posts’ exposure.

When creating content for Facebook, it’s important to keep two other nutritional strategies in mind as well: variety does a body good, and watch your portion size. Recent studies show that status-only updates receive 94 percent higher engagement. But that doesn’t mean it’s all you should post. After all, Facebook users have the option to personalize their News Feed settings, so using a variety of content – such as links, photos, and videos – can help ensure you’re reaching the largest possible audience. Similarly, don’t gorge yourself, and keep updates concise and to the point – posts with 88 characters or less receive 66 percent more engagement, according to Social Media Today.

It should be noted that other social networking sites, like Twitter, don’t rank posts the same way as Facebook. Therefore, using tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck will enable you to schedule posts at different times of the day without severely impacting engagement.

Consistency is Key

Not eating all day and then binging on two pieces of chocolate cake at night is a great way to whack your metabolism right off track. Meanwhile, a consistent diet with a normal calorie intake is key to staying healthy.

Instead of pouring a week’s worth of content onto your account at once, space out posts to maintain a consistent level of engagement. It’s recommended to post 0.5 times per day, meaning most accounts should post 3 to 4 times per week.­ In addition, post around noon local time, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays to get the highest levels of engagement.

Content has a shelf life

We’ve all been there. You’re starving, you go to the fridge, and all that’s there is an iffy box of week-old leftovers. In today’s world, as new numbers and studies are readily available online, stats have a short shelf life. While it’s tempting to schedule posts months in advance with a third-party API tool, content should be recent and relevant to current trends and events. Make sure out-of-date content is pushed out of sight on your social pages by updating them regularly.

It’s All About the Experience

One of my favorite nutrition books, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, argues that the experience of eating is equally as important as the food itself. Relaxing with a glass red wine and enjoying good company are ultimately better for your health than eating on the run or in your car. Social media should strive to create a similar experience and engage fans in two-way conversation – not just shove content down their throats. After all, 80 percent of active and passive job seekers say they will not follow a company on social media if posts are irrelevant, uninvited or solely self-serving.  Asking questions, listening to your fans, and answering their questions are some ways to create a strong community online.

At the end of the day, each community is different. Finding just the right recipe often takes trial and error, so don’t be afraid to experiment identify and your target talent and create content specifically for them. What types of engaging content have you used on your accounts lately?

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

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

“I don’t want… your job”

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

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

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

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

OfficeTeam identified seven traits potential leaders must have:

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

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

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

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

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

Introducing: HeadHunter.com

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

Employers who use HeadHunter gain the ability to:

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

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

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

What do employers want in an executive-level candidate?

Education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is on employees’  office-improvement wish lists?

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

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

The snack dilemma

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

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

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

Happy employees don’t have to break the bank

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

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

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

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

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

Image courtesy of theogeo on Flickr

“I’ve always had the philosophy that strategy in leadership is as much about what you don’t do as it is about what you do.”

In the following interview for CareerBuilder’s Leadership Series, Sun Life CEO Wes Thompson reflects on the importance of people as they relate to sustainability, what he looks for in candidates, and the value of trusting your gut.

What do the employees at Sun Life mean to your organization?
People are really the only sustainable advantage that any organization has over time. Products come and go. Ideas can be copied. These are not sustainable differentiators. Companies that are truly sustainable are those that focus on A-player talent, because you can’t copy talent. So if you’re able to constantly recruit, retain and develop the best people, you can differentiate in the markets that you compete in, and you’ll have a sustainable advantage. It’s really that simple in my view.

What’s your philosophy in terms of how you find great people?
There’s a lot of hiring that’s gut-related, especially when you get more experienced at interviewing candidates. Technical competencies, product knowledge—those kinds of things can be learned over time. Oftentimes, I’m looking for the challenges individuals have taken on in their lives and careers. I look for examples that clearly demonstrate they’ve been able to overcome some significant challenges. I try to ascertain the values they stand for and if they fit with our core values here at Sun Life. This fit is critical to building a solid foundation and culture at any good company.

Throughout your career as a leader, what’s the best or most significant hiring decision that you’ve made?
It’s hard to quantify your best hiring decision. As I reflect on my career, there are so many talented people that I’ve had the pleasure of hiring and watching succeed. In one instance, I hired someone that was my peer at another company. I knew our competencies were extremely complementary, which is important. And we both realized that we could build something unique. I firmly believe if you surround yourself with great talent, you’ll figure out how to win.

Why would someone want to work here?
The culture at Sun Life is shifting and so are the reasons behind why our employees enjoy working here. Historically, you would want to work here because it’s a nice place to work and you could be here for 30 years. I think our employees are beginning to consider Sun Life a great place to work because you can be challenged, you have the autonomy to drive results, and the results are visible and rewarded.

What’s it like to work for this organization? How is the Sun Life culture reflected in the brand?
Our first ever national brand campaign in the U.S. has had a tremendous impact on the culture and the way our employees feel about working for Sun Life. Everyone wants to be affiliated with a company that has a strong brand. And it makes it easier when your brand reflects who you really are. We highlighted our strengths that are deeply ingrained in our culture, particularly our financial strength and focus on sustainability, but we had some fun with it and added some humor to the campaign. It resonated well with our employees, particularly long-term employees, because we stayed true to ourselves. Our people really embraced that.

What is your leadership philosophy?
First, I don’t believe that the leader has all the good ideas, and I’m open to being challenged. Leaders can’t be successful if people are afraid to challenge them. This will stifle the creativity of the organization and you will not get the best out of people. Second, I’ve always had the philosophy that strategy around leadership is as much about what you don’t do, as it is about what you do. Through my experience, I have found that it’s really easy to figure out what to do and what to start, but it’s really difficult to figure out what you’re not going to do, particularly when there are implications for not pursuing or stopping initiatives. And, third, I am big believer in rotating talent at all levels of the company. This not only develops our people but brings new perspectives to all areas of the business, helping to drive collaborative and innovative thinking.

So you just went through, a tough time, a recession.  What did you take out of it?  What did you learn in those last three years?
During a time when external forces are affecting your business, you must focus on the things you can control. You must have a long-term view of the business and what is truly sustainable under various market conditions, not just the favorable conditions. Alignment along all aspects of the value chain is critical in order to be sure you’re focused on markets that have sustainable value from a shareholder perspective.

ABOUT WES THOMPSON: As President of Sun Life Financial, U.S., Wes Thompson leads all aspects of the company’s growing operations in the United States across the annuities, employee benefits, and life insurance business lines. Since joining Sun Life in 2008, Thompson has been instrumental in renewing the strategic direction of SLF U.S. He has championed key initiatives focused on growing the business and positioning it for further success. Prior to joining Sun Life, Thompson held leadership roles at Lincoln Financial Group, where he created the company’s wholesale distribution organization, before becoming President of Employer Markets and then President of the Retirement Solutions division. Thompson started his career at Aetna in 1979 in the Executive Management program. He later joined CIGNA in 1994, where he played an active role in the integration efforts as Lincoln Financial Group acquired CIGNA’s individual life insurance business in 1998. Thompson received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University. He is an active board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Hartford and the Wadsworth Atheneum-Amistad Foundation.

ABOUT SUN LIFE FINANCIAL: Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth accumulation products and services to individuals and corporate customers. Chartered in 1865, Sun Life Financial and its partners have operations in key markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2011, the Sun Life Financial group of companies had total assets under management of US $484 billion. For more information, please visit www.sunlife.com/us.

“At the end of the day, it isn’t just about a having a visionary idea or business plan. It’s about employees who bring passion and flawless execution.”

Such is how Kevin Ryan began – and set the tone for – his keynote address, Hirer’s Remorse? Why 80 Percent of Business is Choosing the Right People, at the recent Inc500/5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Ryan should know a thing or two about what it takes to grow and run a business. He has launched several New York-based businesses, including Gilt Groupe (for which he is the current CEO), Business Insider, ShopWiki, 10gen/MongoDB, and, not least of all, DoubleClick, which he helped grow from a 20-person startup to a worldwide company with over 1,500 employees.

Drawing from his own experience, Ryan discussed the beliefs and practices that have fueled his success as a business leader, the foundation of which, are based on people.

Rules to Live – and Lead – By
Lessons from Gilt Groupe Founder and CEO Kevin Ryan

• Don’t just say people are your greatest asset. Believe it. “Your idea isn’t what’s separating you. It’s the execution. And that goes back to people,” Ryan says. While companies tend to claim that people are the most important thing to their business, they don’t really believe it. Instead, they operate under the illusion that products or ideas – not the people – determine success. If you want your company to be successful, recognize that people truly are your greatest asset – and you should treat them as such.
• Make recruitment your primary job. “Do you spend more time recruiting and managing people than anything else by far?” Ryan asked the crowd of entrepreneurs and small business leaders. Ryan says he spends as much time with head of HR as he does with CFO, because the two are equally important. “It’s just as strategic,” he says. “I want someone who not only has the skills to be head of HR, but who also has business skills as well.”
• Create success for your employees – even if it mean they won’t be your employees anymore. If you were the coach of a professional sports team, Ryan says, you would constantly be evaluating your players to ensure the team is operating at its best at all times, wouldn’t you?  The same goes for your organization. Don’t be afraid to say to an employee whose no longer a fit for your company or performing to your company’s highest standards, “Maybe this isn’t the right company for you. I want you to be successful, and I don’t think it’s here.”  If someone’s not working out, it’s your job as CEO to address it; otherwise, the more you let it go, the more you let the problem fester, the greater chance you have of ruining the morale and the performance of the whole team down the line.
• Don’t underestimate the value of the reference check. Of the three main steps in the hiring process – resume, interview and reference check – Ryan says, people tend to over-evaluate the first two and under-value the third. “When I think of why people don’t succeed, it’s not because they don’t have technical skills. It’s because of those intangibles that don’t come up in interview that are hard to judge.” Reference, therefore, are the key to finding out if those candidates have the intangibles you need. “People who worked with that person know,” Ryan says.
• Be the person you want to work for. “There’s a saying that A-level people hire A-level people, and B-level people hire C-level people…but I think it’s actually that A-level people want to work with A-level people, and the B-level people who are hiring can only get C-level people,” Ryan told the crowd.  “People will put up with a tremendous amount of unrest [at a company] if they wake up every day and think, ‘I like my managers. He/she supports me, and I’m learning from that person,’” Ryan says. He attributes Gilt’s low rate of turnover to the company’s “obsessive focus” on making sure employees are constantly having fun, learning, being challenged and being recognized.

In closing, Ryan made sure to reiterate that his number one focus as CEO isn’t on business results, but on people. “People, people, people. That’s what I do all day.”

By Russell Glass, CEO of Bizo

As hiring professionals, we’ve all been there. Your teams need support, but you don’t have the budget or resources to hire the desired people. Perhaps you find yourself in a hiring position, but can’t find the candidates that fit the bill. The difficulties of being a hiring manager are not characteristic of one particular industry or field. Everyone, from President Obama to the store owner next door, is faced with the difficult decisions that surround job creation and hiring.  So what do we do?

Location is Not a Barrier

As the CEO of Bizo, a fast growing company in the technology industry, I have a simple solution, “in-shoring.” Here at Bizo, we not only hire the most highly-skilled people, but we also hire them just about as fast as we can find them –wherever we can find them.  Bizo is just one of the tens of thousands of businesses that are in the same position.  We realized early on, that to successfully build our company, we needed to hire only the best people. However, hiring people solely based in the local San Francisco Bay Area was a significant limitation—and sacrificing quality talent was just not something that we were willing to do. At the same time, we didn’t feel that we could build the right tight-knit culture we wanted by off-shoring to countries like India, Belarus or other far-away lands.  The solution? Again, a simple one: use powerful, effective and inexpensive collaboration and communication technologies like Skype, Google Docs, Dropbox, instant messaging, and web conferencing to manage our company’s remote workforce and “in-shore.”

What does it mean to “in-shore”?

In-shoring is a simple idea that offers a plethora of significant benefits to everyone. At Bizo, we’ve built a culture that enables our teams to work together efficiently. By doing so, we’ve managed to:

• Build an infrastructure to hire incredible talent regardless of where they live in the country
• Lower our average cost per employee so we can hire more of them
• Establish networks around the country that fuel our ability to hire more great people

Today, our 45-person company is represented in 10 states around the country, including one person in Hawaii. It is my belief that better companies are built with a diverse foundation, and “in-shoring” has the potential to alter the landscape of this country’s job market.  If the laid-off auto worker in Detroit, the high school student in Little Rock or the former textile marketer in Greensboro, sees that there are jobs available to work for high growth Silicon Valley technology companies if they only had the right skills, they will go out and acquire those skills.

Bringing Jobs to the People

Job seekers need to believe that if they take the initiative to get new skills, there will be a job available to them.  This way, they will have the incentive to acquire the relevant skills they need to be successful.  Leading a technology company in Silicon Valley, I believe that I and others in a similar position have a responsibility to do our part to create and fill jobs in this country. This is simple economics.  If the economy thrives, we will be more successful and our children will be more successful. Ultimately, that’s why we all work in the first place, isn’t it?

With expanded education opportunities, a focus on “in-shoring” and continued innovation and next generation technologies, we can overcome the structural challenges that we face today and lead the world in high technology job creation for decades to come.

So what does “in-shoring” look like for your company?

Russell Glass is CEO of Bizo, a business-to-business marketing firm. Glass is a serial technology entrepreneur, having founded or held senior positions at four venture-backed technology companies. Other than business data, Glass’ passions include golf, anything in high def, and Duke basketball. Follow Glass on Twitter at https://twitter.com/glassruss.

From zero to 103,000 in 30 days…

What sounds like the tag line of a lame Nicolas Cage action movie (redundant?) actually describes the change in the number of jobs created since last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released September’s Employment Situation Report this morning.

Here’s a summary:

• Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000 in September; however, that number includes the return to payrolls of about 45,000 [Verizon] telecommunications workers who had been on strike in August.
• The private sector added 137,000 jobs in September, with health care and education leading the growth, while local government shed 35,000 jobs, including 24,400 in public education.
• The number of unemployed persons was relatively unchanged at 14 million and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent.
• The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was 6.2 million in September.
• Since April, payroll employment has increased by an average of 72,000 per month, compared with an average of 161,000 for the prior seven months.

While it’s nice to see that jobs were actually added this month (and even surpassed economists’ predictions of around 55,000), 103,000 still falls far short of the around 200,000 jobs needed each month just to fuel growth.

But before I become too much of a Debbie Downer, I’ll just reiterate White House blogger Katherine Abraham’s advice to “not to read too much into any one monthly report.” Done and done, Katherine.

Related links:

• Get a read on employers’ hiring expectations for the remainder of 2011.
• See how unemployment rates vary by age, education and gender on NPR’s Planet Money.

From zero to 103,000 in 30 days…

What sounds like the tag line of a lame Nicolas Cage action movie (redundant?) actually describes the change in the number of jobs created since last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released September’s Employment Situation Report this morning.

Here’s a summary:

• Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000 in September; however, that number includes the return to payrolls of about 45,000 [Verizon] telecommunications workers who had been on strike in August.
• The private sector added 137,000 jobs in September, with health care and education leading the growth, while local government shed 35,000 jobs, including 24,400 in public education.
• The number of unemployed persons was relatively unchanged at 14 million and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent.
• The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was 6.2 million in September.
• Since April, payroll employment has increased by an average of 72,000 per month, compared with an average of 161,000 for the prior seven months.

While it’s nice to see that jobs were actually added this month (and even surpassed economists’ predictions of around 55,000), 103,000 still falls far short of the around 200,000 jobs needed each month just to fuel growth.

But before I become too much of a Debbie Downer, I’ll just reiterate White House blogger Katherine Abraham’s advice to “not to read too much into any one monthly report.” Done and done, Katherine.

Related links:

• Get a read on employers’ hiring expectations for the remainder of 2011.
• See how unemployment rates vary by age, education and gender on NPR’s Planet Money.

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

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

— Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

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

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

An outpouring of admiration

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

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

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

CareerBuilder employees on what Jobs taught them

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

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

– Matt Ferguson, CEO

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

-- Rosemary Haefner, VP of Human Resources

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

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

-- Hope Gurion, Chief Development Officer

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

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

 – Paul Simmons, Website Development Director

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

– Jonathan Stegall, Interactive Designer

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

– Susan Densa, Graphic Designer

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

 – Michael Taylor, Senior Director, Client Support

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

It’s Your Turn:

What will you remember most about Jobs?

For fashion designers, it’s Mad Men. For chef entrepreneurs, it’s food truck mania. But for employers, the economy and seasonality are what’s having the biggest influence on them this season – at least when it comes to their hiring plans.

According to CareerBuilder’s Q4 2011 Job Forecast, a nationwide survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals, employers are erring on the side of caution with their upcoming hiring plans, as they assess ongoing barriers to economic growth and wrap up 2011.

Only 21 percent of hiring managers report plans to hire full-time, permanent employees in Q4, according to the survey. While the finding indicates a slowdown in hiring from the previous two quarters, it is consistent with trends typically seen at the tail end of the calendar. Add to that a volatile stock market, concerns over Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, etc. etc…and it’s no wonder employers are showing more hesitance in their hiring plans this quarter, in comparison to the previous two.

According to CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson in a statement for the press release:

“While hiring is historically slower in the fourth quarter, recent world events and a structurally impaired U.S. economy are causing employers to be a little more guarded. Job creation levels are not yet high enough to drive down the unemployment rate, but the hiring trends we’ve seen through our surveys and on our job site still indicate an overall positive sentiment among employers. For eight consecutive quarters, 20 percent or more of employers reported adding new jobs and the same is expected for Q4.”

Q4 Hiring Trends: A Preview of What’s to Come

You can download CareerBuilder’s 2011 Q4 Job Forecast here, but below is a summary of what we should expect to see from employers in the coming months:

• Education and Skills Gap Remain a Major Concern: Two-thirds of employers (67 percent) expressed concern over the education and skills gap in the U.S. and corresponding deficit in talent for specialized positions, particularly when it comes to engineering (37 percent) and information technology (33 percent) positions.
• Temporary Hiring Remains a Crutch: To supplement staffs, 32 percent of employers turned to temporary help in Q3, while 27 percent plan to hire temporary or contract workers in Q4. Seventeen percent of employers expecting to transition some of these employees into permanent staff.
• Mixed Messages as West Leads in Hiring, Downsizing: While the West leads the U.S. regions in the number of employers expecting to hire full-time, permanent employees in Q4 (23 percent), it also houses the highest number of companies planning to downsize by year end (12 percent) – showing a blend of both optimism and uncertainty seen across regions.
• Slower to Hire, Slower to Fire? Small businesses continue to lag larger organizations in hiring activity, but are also less likely to reduce staff levels.  Of companies with 500 or fewer employees, for example, 17 percent plan to increase full-time, permanent headcount in Q4 and only 8 percent expect to reduce staff levels. Of companies with more than 500 employees, on the other hand, 27 percent plan to hire full-time, permanent staff in Q4, and 11 percent plan to decrease headcount.
• Raise? What Raise? The majority (41 percent) of employers anticipate no change in salary levels in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year.  On the upside, only 4 percent anticipate a decrease in salaries.

How do these findings compare to your own hiring plans this quarter?

“You can’t let fear cripple you to the point that success eludes you. Somehow you’re going to get through it if you just stay with it.” – Wayne Cederholm

CareerBuilder recently sat down with Wayne Cederholm, CEO of C.R. England, to discuss the leadership lessons he’s learned in his nearly three decades with the company.

What is your philosophy on people as they relate to your business?
I don’t believe there is an organization that can function competitively, competently or have any capability in doing what they’re supposed to be doing without very good people. People are your business. They’re the heart and soul of what you do. If you have poor people, you’re going to have a poor organization and product. Having the right people is one of the most critical elements of any organization. They’re the engine of your organization.

What leadership lessons have you learned throughout your 28 years with C.R. England?
I think creating autonomy for people is a big one. It is important to give your leaders and employees the leeway to do their jobs and inspire creativity. It’s all about letting them take the job somewhere you never dreamed it could go and allowing free thinking to occur, while holding them accountable to quantifiable measurements and goals.

What is the culture at C.R. England like today? How has it changed during your tenure?
At C. R. England we have always created a spirit of entrepreneurship. Chester England was an entrepreneur. Gene and Bill England, his sons, were entrepreneurs. This same spirit lives on in the 3rd and 4th generation. Gene England, to this day, still runs a little business from our corporate office. He’s 93 years old and the kind of role model we all grew up with. While we were always big on technology, I believe the biggest change is that it has advanced immensely now. The fourth generation is much more analytical than we ever were before and we’re all pushing for automation through advanced technology.

What is your overall talent strategy and how do you make it a priority?
We ensure all managers are involved in hiring decisions. It’s important to bring in the right person and essential that we’re right for them as well. We want an individual who can fit our culture, but we want them different enough so they add a unique perspective, too. If we’re all the same, we’re just going to do the same thing, over and over. It’s not a science. Hiring people is an art. And I’ve certainly had my hit and misses.

How do you motivate people?
I think the best way to motivate people is by ensuring that you’re communicating your vision and expectations, and then celebrating successes or talking about where enhancements need to occur. You need to create a culture where people feel they are contributing.

To what do you attribute your success with C.R. England?
Don’t quit. Just keep staying with it. In spite of how bleak it sometimes looks, you just have to say, ‘Okay, what do we do next?’, and keep moving forward. You can’t let fear cripple you to the point that success eludes you. Somehow you’re going to get through it if you just stay with it. That’s the only way I can explain it.

How would you describe C.R. England’s employment brand?
It’s our entrepreneurial spirit. We love creativity and innovation, and we’re cheering for those people who embrace it. That’s our culture, and our employees know it. That’s what’s exciting about our organization.

What do you consider the most important decision you’ve made at C.R. England?
I like to think of this question from the opposite angle. I believe not making a decision is the worst hiring decision you can make. The best thing about decisions is making it as timely as you can and having the guts and nerve to say, ‘Okay, I have to make this decision and move forward here.’ Often managers just procrastinate and procrastinate, and no decision is made. And the company struggles because of it. If it’s a hiring decision, or any decision, there are always tough decisions to be made each and every day.

What advice would you offer to your peers?
I can’t stress enough the importance of having great people and making sure you adhere to consistent management fundamentals. Your people need to share your vision of where the company is going. You need a strong bench of potential future leaders to ensure consistent growth. You also have to allow for creativity with dogged measurements to track your progress. The right people, who are challenged and have opportunity.

ABOUT WAYNE CEDERHOLM: Wayne Cederholm is the chief executive officer at C. R. England Inc., a Salt Lake City-based global transportation provider. Mr. Cederholm joined C.R. England in 1983 and held various roles before taking over as chief operating officer in 2004. He is responsible for overseeing the management of all asset and non-asset operations within C.R. England. At the start of his career, C.R. England was an $18 million company. Today, the company is a billion dollar organization. He has served on the board of the Professional Truck Driver Institute and as a chairman for the Utah Safety Council. In 2003, he received the Heart and Hands Award from Junior Achievement, where he serves on the board of directors. Mr. Cederholm has a degree in organizational communication from the University of Utah.

ABOUT C.R. ENGLAND : Founded in 1920, C.R. England, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the world’s largest refrigerated carrier and has grown to be one of North America’s largest transportation companies. C.R. England services include National, Mexico and Regional Truckload service in addition to Dedicated and Intermodal services. Additional services include Leasing, Brokerage, LTL/Parcel, Supply Chain Engineering, Special Project Engineering, Warehousing, and Global Sourcing. For more information, visit www.crengland.com.

Anne Loehr is a nationally recognized management coach and author of the award-winning book, A Manager’s Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best of Your Employees. I recently spoke with Loehr about her new book, Managing the Unmanageable: How to Motivate Even the Most Unruly Employee, a collaboration with workplace communications expert Jezra Kaye. She discussed some key takeaways from the book, including how to identify when an employee is worth holding on to and when it’s time to walk away.

How do you define an “unmanageable employee”?
We call an unmanageable employee (UE) an employee who exhibits constant, repeated, unproductive behavior. Everyone has a bad day, a bad week, sometimes even a bad month, depending on what’s going on in their life. But we’re talking about someone who’s constantly, repeatedly – on a fairly long-term basis – unproductive. This book is about helping managers uncover what they need to put UEs back on track.

The majority of organizational challenges are because the goals, the roles, and the processes are not clear. So people will say, for example, “Gosh, Mary’s driving me crazy, do something about Mary.” And I’ll go in, and I’ll do some work and then I’ll say, “Well, you know what? It’s not actually Mary – it’s never Mary – it’s Mary’s behavior that’s not working, for one. Two, she’s doing this because she actually thinks it’s her job, and you think that’s your job, and that’s the problem there.”

Do you find this happening a lot more now, with the economy and people taking on bigger workloads now, or is that always how it’s been?
I think that’s always how it’s been. You’re right – we have a lot of downsizing, a lot of reorganizing. Also what’s contributing to this is you’ve got a lot more virtual teams. So you’ve kind of lost that face-to-face feeling, which I’m not saying is a bad thing at all, but it’s just harder to have those kind of conversations to say, “What’s going on?” and it’s harder for a manager to spot a challenging, unmanageable employee until maybe it’s too late.

What makes managing the unmanageable different from other management books?
My work in general is very practical. I call it the one third/two thirds rule: One third, I’ll explain the model and two thirds is practical examples, practical exercises, and practical tips that people can walk away with. In my opinion, a lot of books right now are academic theory. Who’s got the time to read that right now? One third of my book is about understanding the [five C] model (detailed below), and the rest is, “Here’s how you do it, here’s how you have that conversation, here are the questions to ask.” That type of thing.

Does an employee ever pass the point of no return?
One question I get asked on interviews a lot is, “Why not just fire someone? There are so many unemployed people out there, why not just hire someone else?” But there are a couple of reasons. The Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) have done a study: to replace the average employee costs two and half times that employee’s salary. For someone who’s more specialized, it can be up to four times their salary. I don’t know of any company that can afford that right now.

The other thing is, you can bring someone off the street, but it’s not going to guarantee you’re going to find someone any better, especially if you haven’t done any of the internal organizational work to prevent you from hiring the same type of person. And you’re still going to have the onboarding costs even if you bring in someone new.

And sometimes it’s not worth it, to be honest; Sometimes it doesn’t work out. Sometimes organizations just grow so fast, they change so much, and sometimes a person who was good fit two years ago isn’t a fit anymore, and it’s through nobody’s fault. However, if you can hold on for five more months, and practice some of the things in this book, you might be pleasantly surprised, [and your UE] is going to be thrilled that someone is helping him or her grow, and you’re going to save a bundle of money.

Managing the Unmanageable: The Five-C Framework
When asked to contribute some tips managers can use to manage UEs, Loehr provided the following Five-C Framework, which she discusses further throughout Managing the Unmanageable. “Once people understand this framework and model, it will help them with not only the unmanageable side, but it will also help them help people get better,” Loehr says.

Commit or Quit: “What that means is, “Look, you’ve got to commit or quit.’ This step is about figuring out, monetarily – as well as with the soft tangibles – if it’s worth six months (which is usually how long it takes to salvage a UE) to spend on this person,” Loehr says.  Those intangibles to which Loehr refers are costs associated with decreased morale and lost productivity.

Communicate: Many managers try hard to avoid this step, “a frank and open conversation with the person who’s been making their life hell,” according to Loehr. Ongoing, honest communication, however, is a necessary and beneficial step to understanding the source of the problem and then overcoming it.

Clarify Goals and Roles: “The majority of organizational challenges are because the goals, the roles, and the processes are not clear,” Loehr says.  Oftentimes, employees aren’t consciously trying to be difficult; they are simply unclear on their roles and expectations. Making the effort to clarify these elements will eliminate a lot of challenges before they begin.

Coach: While the first two steps will help most UEs correct their own problems, some may still need a little help. This is where the manager comes in to assist the UE as he or she examines the attitude or mindset that is giving rise to the problem.

Create Accountability: In order to ensure UEs don’t revert to old habits, it is imperative to create a process that will help them maintain – and build on – the progress they’ve made up to this point.

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

Let’s take a closer look:

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

Do you realize…

…one in two job seekers want to find and engage with companies in social?
…80 percent of companies use social media to recruit?
…12 percent of job searches are done via mobile devices?
…54 percent of job seekers are more likely to apply to your job at your company after they follow you on social media?

Yesterday, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding, Jamie Womack, along with CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter discussed these very findings in the featured webcast, Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy. 

In addition to these findings, they also gave practical tips for employers on the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen employment branding and recruiting efforts, including…

…the latest tools, trends and techniques for attracting top talent
…what emerging media are and what they mean for your business
…how to integrate emerging media into your current recruitment strategy

Missed the webcast? Download it now at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial.

Keep the conversation going – use #CBGoSocial on Twitter…

During the webcast, participants were urged to join in the conversation by following and posting the hashtag #cbgosocial on Twitter! Visit Twitter and search #cbgosocial and put in your own two cents!

Related articles:

• Think Like a Marketer to Capture Top Talent
• Emerging Media: The Best Ideas You Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
• Why Video? 6 Benefits of Making Video Part of Your Recruitment Mix

New surveys released through three of CareerBuilder’s niche sites – MiracleWorkers (which caters to healthcare workers), WorkinRetail (serving the retail industry) and Sologig (focused on contract and freelance positions) – reveal the information workers value most on an organization’s social media pages – and what social media moves they despise.

More than 500 workers nationwide in each of the above industries participated. Take a look at the results, and use them to inform your own social media recruitment efforts:

Healthcare

Fifty-three percent of healthcare workers who use social media are interested in seeing information on company social media pages, according to the survey from MiracleWorkers.com.

What healthcare employers should post…

• Job listings on company pages (wanted by 40 percent of healthcare workers)
• Fact sheets or Q&A about the company (26 percent)
• Career paths within the organization (26 percent)
• Employee testimonials (22 percent)
• Something that conveys fun about working for the organization (19 percent)

…and what they should avoid:

• Company communication reads like an ad (a peeve for 35 percent of healthcare workers)
• Failure to respond to submitted questions (33 percent)
• Failure to regularly post information on social media or blog entries (23 percent)
• Filtering or removing social media comments (20 percent)

Retail

Fifty percent of retail workers who use social media are interested in seeing information on company social media pages, according to the survey from WorkInRetail.com.

What retail employers should post…

• Job listings on company pages (wanted by 33 percent of retail workers)
• Facts sheets or Q&A about the company (27 percent)
• Career paths within the organization (27 percent)
• Employee testimonials (18 percent)
• Something that conveys fun about working for the organization (18 percent)
• Pictures of company events (13 percent)
• Videos of a day on the job (13 percent)
• Video of new products and services (13 percent)

…and what they should avoid:         

• Company communication reads like an ad (a peeve for 43 percent of retail workers)
• Failure to respond to submitted questions (38 percent)
• Filtering or removing social media comments (27 percent)
• Failure to regularly post information on social media or blog entries (24 percent)

Information Technology

Fifty-one percent of IT workers who use social media are interested in seeing information on company social media pages, according to a new survey from Sologig.com.

What IT employers should post…

• Job listings on company pages (wanted by 39 percent of IT workers)
• Fact sheets or Q&A about the company (32 percent)
• Career paths within the organization (24 percent)
• Something that conveys fun about working for the organization (21 percent)
• Video of new products and services (17 percent)
• Employee testimonials (16 percent)

…and what they should avoid

• Company communication reads like an ad (a peeve for 53 percent of healthcare workers)
• Failure to respond to submitted questions (32 percent)
• Inconsistency in company messaging in different social media venues (26 percent)
• Failure to regularly post information or blog entries (25 percent)

Employers must lead the social media path
Despite this interest, very few workers on social media (18 percent of IT workers, 12 percent of healthcare workers, and only 9 percent of retail workers) currently use it as a means to research jobs. Representatives from each site say social media users are waiting for companies to take the lead.

“Social media communication is a two-way street,” says Bill Meidell, product director of WorkinRetail.com. “Retailers need to keep their pages active and respond to as many fans and commenters as possible in order to see a positive return on their efforts.”

“IT workers are not only interested in learning about new career opportunities, but willing to refer jobs to friends or people in their professional networks, as well,” adds Jamie Carney, senior product director of Sologig.com. “Forty-one percent will pass job leads along to others, according to the survey, making social media the perfect vehicle for improving a job listing’s reach.”

Rob Morris, product director of MiracleWorkers.com, echoes this sentiment, saying, “The referral process makes social media a great avenue for career information. We found that 30 percent of healthcare workers on social media pass job opportunities to friends or people in their professional networks.”

Do these results surprise you? What industries are you interested in getting this type of info on?

Earlier this month, Target retail stores and its online site were overrun with activity from customers desperate to own a piece of squiggle-patterned luxury at a bargain price. On Sept. 13, famed Italian house Missoni launched a line exclusively for Target, and everybody wanted in. The Internet traffic caused Target’s website to crash, and the Missoni line was essentially sold out in a few hours. If you visit the website today, you will see most items are listed as “out of stock.”

It’s interesting that even in today’s economy, when many people are tightening their purse strings and have less disposable income, they still turned out in droves to spend on this collection, which, while affordable, is not comprised of necessities. People are even taking advantage of the craze by reselling the items on eBay at outrageous prices!

The consumer enthusiasm was (and still is) certainly driven by hype and Missoni itself, but Target did a lot to ensure that the line would be well-received. Though they made some mistakes , there are still nuggets of information to be mined from this situation – namely, building excitement without creating disappointment. How can you apply the good pieces of Target’s tactics to your recruitment strategy?

1. Create a buzz. Target released news and information about the Missoni collection months before it officially launched. They also included photographs of the entire line and pricing information. People started to get excited and planned their purchases. You can create a similar buzz about job openings by posting the information in several places and heightening the excitement. For example, if you have several marketing positions to recruit for, you can start tweeting and posting about them via social media. Sample post: “I’ve got a few excellent marketing positions coming soon! Limited-time offer, check back for updates! Going live 9/25.” This simple post gets people who are interested in those positions interested in your Twitter feed. They’ll start paying closer attention, waiting for the date when you post the opportunities.
2. Instill a sense of urgency in candidates. Target let consumers know that the line would only be available in limited quantities, for a limited time. You should let candidates know that the job opening will be filled quickly. Set a deadline, and stick to it. This is useful because it enables you to see which candidates can adhere to deadlines; it also lets candidates know that the job is desirable and there is significant competition. (If you’re worried about not getting enough candidates, you can always repost or extend the deadline later.)
3. Follow through on your marketing. Target has made it clear that, despite the high demand, they won’t be ordering any additional Missoni goods beyond additional scheduled shipments. They are sticking to the limited-quantity collection they advertised. If you set a deadline for applications, make sure you also set a deadline for yourself to go through them and respond to people. If you phone interview people, respond to them quickly about in-person interviews and so on. Instilling a sense of urgency but not following through on that promise will only serve to annoy some candidates.
4. Handle the resultant attention with aplomb. Target has been responding to customer feedback, but some customers are still dissatisfied because of delayed shipments and order cancellations.  If your number of applicants is much larger than anticipated, don’t panic. Send a note to each applicant letting him/her know you received his/her application, and that there was a high volume of applicants. Let them know that if they don’t hear anything by a certain date, then they should assume that the position has been filled by another applicant. That should alleviate disgruntled applicants.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some of the Navy’s current recruitment challenges:

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

How the Navy has overcome some of its biggest challenges:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today, CareerBuilder announced its commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in New York, which brings together leaders from all over the world to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The commitment is part of CareerBuilder’s ongoing effort to educate job seekers on where to find opportunities and put Americans back to work.

Hope Gurion, CareerBuilder’s Chief Development Officer, is going to be at the annual meeting this week to speak on behalf of CareerBuilder.  She recently answered a few questions for me about the mission and history of the CGI, CareerBuilder’s involvement in the initiative and what she hopes all of us can gain from this meeting.

Can you tell me a little bit about the Clinton Global Initiative?
President Bill Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2005. Over the years, CGI Annual Meetings have brought together nearly 150 current and former heads of state, 18 Nobel Prize laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made nearly 2,000 commitments, which have already improved the lives of 300 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued in excess of $63 billion.

What role does CareerBuilder play in the CGI?
CareerBuilder is a full member of CGI, and I represent the company at the numerous meetings throughout the year.  I actively participate on the “workforce development” committee, and this week I am in New York City for the annual meeting. The key focus area for the first day of the meeting is jobs, and I’m particularly looking forward to a healthy discussion around the opportunities to empower current and future workers with new skills.  This is an area where there is a lack of transparent and current data to inform both students and workers, and where we are focused to illuminate and inform people in making good choices that will provide them with income and opportunity.

What do you hope to accomplish by participating in the CGI?
CareerBuilder’s commitment provides CareerOneStop centers, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Labor, with complimentary access and usage of CareerBuilder’s online Supply & Demand Portal. The Supply & Demand Portal was designed to help employers zero in on the best markets to recruit hard-to-find talent as well as enable CareerBuilder to help job seekers discover occupations that are in high demand and hone skill sets for areas with great growth opportunities. CareerOneStop Center staff can use information from the portal to assist job seekers in the retraining and “re-skilling” they need for opportunities available today and in years to come. The commitment runs for 12 months starting on October 1, 2011 and offers a single annual license for CareerBuilder’s Supply & Demand Portal, available at no charge, to the 1,819 Comprehensive CareerOneStop centers and 1,095 Affiliate CareerOneStop centers across the U.S.

Want to know more about the Clinton Global Initiative? Follow @ClintonGlobal on Twitter or check out the CGI Facebook page for news and updates; visit live.clintonglobalinitiative.org to view and share session webcasts; or visit CGI’s Flickr page to see photos from the sessions.

This morning, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings issued an apology on the company’s blog for failing to show “respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes.”

For those who haven’t heard, Netflix recently announced it was going to start charging its streaming and DVD-by-mail services separately (now, the latter service will be named Qwikster). Now, Netflix customers who want only DVDs or only streaming can pay less for the one service, but will end up paying more if they want to keep both.

Not surprisingly, the veiled attempt to charge customers more while pretending that they’re charging them less made for some unhappy customers.  To add insult to injury, most customers didn’t even get the news directly from Netflix itself, but through stories leaked on various blogs and news sites. (I myself didn’t get so much as an email to make me aware of this change, and had to find out through Twitter.) To say the company lacked respect and humility is an understatement: Netflix had no regard for their customers whatsoever in this situation. As a result, the company will – and already has – lost a great deal of customers and business from the ordeal.

Now, as Hastings desperately attempts damage control, not only do businesses have the opportunity to learn from about what not to do when it comes to customer service, but leaders could also apply these lessons to handling bad news- and correcting mistakes – with their employees.

5 Do’s and Don’ts for Communicating Bad News – and Righting Wrongs

• DO: Own up to Your Mistakes. “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation,” begins Captain Obvious’ Hastings’ blog post. Well done: straight and to the point. Some leaders frown on admitting wrong, but in Netflix’s case, the admission was necessary. So overwhelming was the backlash from customers, that for Hastings to do anything less than apologize would be an even bigger insult – and more fuel for unhappy customers’ fire. Sometimes, all customers want is to know they’re being heard, and Netflix finally took the time to acknowledge their customers’ feelings. And while many will see Hastings’ post as too little, too late, it’s at least start in a long way to winning back customers.
• DO: Utilize video. Realizing that people have shorter attention spans today – and that angry people have even shorter attention spans -  Hastings also issued a 3-minute video apology for the many customers who likely will not take the time read through the lengthy apology and want to see and hear for themselves that Netflix is sincere in its efforts to appease customers (at least, we hope that’s the case). Video is the next best thing to apologizing in person, and it’s a quick, easy way to reach your audience – be they customers, employees or candidates.
• DON’T: Try to make bad news sound like good news. Netflix keeps insisting that what is really a price hike is really a better deal for its customers. C’mon, Netflix. Give us a little credit. As NPR’s Linda Holmes puts it, Netflix’s attempts to sell the price change as a bargain is “like a shoe company deciding to sell right shoes and left shoes for 12 dollars each where pairs of shoes used to be 20 dollars and thinking that consumers will notice the lower 12-dollar price but not the fact that it buys only one shoe.” Tell your customers/employees the truth from the start; otherwise, they will notice that you’re hiding something from them, and they will lose trust in and respect for you.
• DO: Listen to what people are saying about you on social media. Netflix customers used the greatest weapon at their disposal to fight the price hike – by taking to Facebook, Twitter and blogs in droves to voice their disgust. Finally, it got to the point where Netflix could no longer ignore the overwhelming criticism on social media – try as the company might have (which brings me to my next point…).
• DON’T: Wait two $&@%ing months to make an ‘official’ announcement. Two months? That’s decades in social media time, y’all! By the time Netflix customers got the ‘apology’ from the CEO this morning, the story had already been circulating the Internet for weeks, and Netflix was way past the “My bad! Forgive us?” stage of admitting wrongdoing. This, in my opinion, was the company’s biggest offense of all. Hastings was wrong to not alert customers about the price changes in the first place, but he should have owned up to that mistake far earlier than he actually did. Customers deserve better than that, and so do employees. The more you try to ignore a problem, the worse it will get, and it’s going to take one helluva a team bonding outing to undo that drop in morale. (Good luck!)

As we’ve discussed before on The Hiring Site, your employees are your customers, and if Netflix has taught us anything, it is how imperative it is that you treat this group with respect – especially when it comes to handling bad news – otherwise, you risk losing the loyalty and respect of your employees – if not employees themselves.

Do you think Netflix was right to apologize the way it did?  Were this a company CEO addressing his employees about a leadership wrongdoing, how would you have handled the situation?

More than two decades and countless discussions after the term “work-life balance” entered the workforce lexicon, we don’t seem to be any closer to figuring out how to achieve it. Author Matthew Kelly believes he knows why.

“The question has always been framed in the wrong way,” Kelly told me in a phone interview last week. “The term itself is fatally flawed.”

He says the term implies that work and life should be separate, when in reality, they are intertwined. “Most people spend the majority of their lives working. So when you tell them their work isn’t a part of their life, they don’t respond very well to that.”

In fact, prior to the early 1990s, when Fortune 500 companies started addressing the topic in their employee surveys, Kelly believes employees didn’t give much thought to having a work-life balance at all.  After interviewing more than 3,000 people as research for the book, Kelly and his colleagues found the same holds true today: workers don’t truly care about balance at all. What they want is satisfaction in both areas of their lives – personal and professional – at the same time.

An internationally renowned speaker and business consultant, Kelly has built a career around a core principle he developed as a first-year business school student: “becoming the best versions of ourselves.” Today, as president of Floyd Consulting, Kelly helps organizations and people become the best versions of themselves on a daily basis.

In his new book, Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to Personal and Professional Satisfaction, Kelly refocuses this core principle to help others become the most satisfied versions of themselves. When I spoke to Kelly last week, he discussed how employers could use the insights from his book to tap into their employees’ needs and create a more satisfied – and more productive – workforce.

Employers need to take ownership of employee satisfaction
While no one is more responsible for their satisfaction levels than themselves, Kelly says, companies do have a responsibility to help their employees achieve satisfaction.  And a large part of that responsibility lies in defining its culture. “A lot of company cultures are passive aggressive, saying, ‘We care about our people, and we want them to have a work-life balance and satisfying personal and professional lives,’ but there’s an underlying pressure to work a 60- to 70-hour week,” Kelly says.

Companies have an obligation to be honest and open with their employees about what is expected of them. He uses Microsoft as an example of a company that takes on this responsibility well. “At the start up of Microsoft, all these guys were working an 80-hour work week, but they knew what they were signing up for.”

At the same time, however, companies also need to be aware of the higher workloads their people are taking on and extra hours they are putting in, especially in light of the recent “macroeconomic meltdown.” Employees simply can’t withstand that kind of pressure over a sustained amount of time. “It’s okay if we know the fourth quarter is the busiest quarter, but every quarter shouldn’t be like that,” Kelly says.

In addition to defining one’s culture, Kelly says it is of vital importance for a company to have a compelling, clearly defined vision – “something people can work toward” – in order to keep them engaged.

“Highly engaged people tend to have a vision for their life, and there are dreams that they are working toward,” Kelly says. Therefore, in order to increase engagement, employers should find ways to let employees pursue their passions at work – in any way possible, no matter how small.

“If we can nudge people closer to their core strengths so they’re spending a little more time doing something they’re really impassioned about…even if big changes aren’t made in that area, if employees are seeing their employers are interested in that, I think it makes a seismic shift in the culture.”

Help Your Employees Increase Their Level of Satisfaction with One Simple Exercise
In Off Balance, Kelly outlines various ways to increase one’s level of satisfaction. Here’s one you can suggest your employees try today: Suggest they carve out a half hour each week – say, on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning – and take out a notepad. Then, on a scale of one to ten, rate their level of professional satisfaction and rate their level of personal satisfaction. (Professional satisfaction, after all, can influence personal satisfaction and vice versa.) This exercise will do two things: First, it helps people identify the source of their dissatisfaction. Once they’ve identified this source, they can then begin to work toward changing it for the better. This step is where you come in. Be open to discussing ways your employees can increase their satisfaction at work – whether that means taking on a new challenge or perhaps scaling back in other areas.

Matthew Kelly is the New York Times bestselling author of The Rhythm of Life and The Dream Manager. His newest book, Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth, comes out today.

It’s Your Turn
What do you think? Is it your responsibility to support a climate of work-life balance, or is is the right focus employee satisfaction?

One in five Americans who work from home spend one hour or less working, according to new CareerBuilder survey.

(See the full infographic.)

It’s a debate as old as time: Is working from home an efficient alternative to the traditional office job or a productivity killer?

Thanks to the results of a new CareerBuilder survey on telecommuting, the debate…well, continues. According to the survey of nearly 5,300 employees nationwide, of those Americans who telecommute at least part of the time…

• 17 percent spend one hour or less per day on work
• 35 percent say they work eight or more hours per day (up from 18 percent who said the same in 2007)
• 40 percent work between four and seven hours per day

Thanks to the mass adoption of smart phones and advanced network technologies, Americans are able to work from home on a more regular basis than they were four years ago. Ten percent telecommute at least once a week – up from eight percent in 2007.

“The autonomy of working from home can be very rewarding so long as it doesn’t diminish productivity,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. In order to ensure telecommuters are staying productive, managers should be clear about expectations and establish daily objectives, Haefner advises.

Telecommuters are largely split as to whether time spent at home or at the office is more conducive to high-quality work.

• 37 percent of workers say they are more productive at the office
• 29 percent report they are more productive at home
• 34 percent say they are equally productive at home and the office.

What’s keeping workers distracted?
While most offices have their fair share of productivity roadblocks, home is hardly a disturbance-free zone. Telecommuters say the following are the biggest distractions:

• Household chores – 31 percent
• TV – 26 percent
• Pets – 23 percent
• Errands – 19 percent
• Internet – 18 percent
• Children – 15 percent

4 Tips for Managing Work-from-Home Employees
In July, I posted a recap from a particularly interesting SHRM session about managing remote workforces. Below are a few of the takeaways:

1. Put Your Expectations in Writing. Create a physical document that outlines the expectations and responsibilities for everyone on the team. The physical reminder will keep people aware and accountable for their duties. Schedule a time to revisit this document every six months.
2. Harness Technology. From project management software and CRM tools to micro-blogging sites (like Twitter and Yammer) and Wiki’s, there are so many resources today that enable remote teams to work together–it’s just a matter of picking what works best for your team.
3. Set Goals and Track Performance. Make sure you clearly communicate deadlines and projects. Everyone should know who is responsible for completing which part of the project when in order to ensure everyone’s on same page. Consider having employees submit short, weekly reports to keep everyone in the know of the projects they’re working on.
4. Build a Strong, Cohesive Team. Strive to build a sense of community by promoting teamwork and team building. It will make working remotely seem much less distant.

What do you think?
Do you struggle with managing employees who work from home? How do you keep them in check?

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

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

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

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

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

@AaronBahls Spelling! Formatting issues! and Job Hopping!

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

@prettylady1205  bad grammar, misspelled words

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@MorrisMelanie  typos!

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

@DianneMHarrison Spelling errors, spelling errors and spelling errors

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

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

OK, so… now what?

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

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

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

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

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

#cbjobchat: All About Job Seeker Experience

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

(What job seekers said):

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

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

(What employers & recruiters said):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@iJobSeek Relocated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(And, from the job seeker perspective:)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus Q&A (aka unchartered territory):

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

On age discrimination:

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

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

On cross-country relocation:

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

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

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

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

Check out the highlights from past chats:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other points of emphasis:

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

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

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

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

The one change you need to make to get a better quality of candidates may just be your mindset.

If you really want to know what it takes to recruit today’s best candidates and stay competitive in the market for top talent, it’s time to stop thinking of yourself as a recruiter and start thinking of yourself as a marketer.

Why? Because essentially, as a recruiter, your goal is no different than that of a marketer’s: to convince others to invest in a certain product or service. When it comes to recruitment, your company is the product you want job seekers to purchase.

Marketing to Job Seekers
All job seekers are consumers; therefore, the way they decide which jobs to apply to and which companies to work for mirrors the way consumers today make purchasing decisions. With increasing frequency, they base their decisions on research and peer recommendations gathered from websites, social networks and various emerging media.

Once you understand that your employment brand is your product and job seekers are your consumers, you can create your strategy around that. Start thinking like a marketer using the following steps:

1. Consider your audience as you create your selling point. There’s a reason CareerBuilder has put 15 years’ worth of time and resources into tracking and analyzing job seeker behavior. It’s the same reason marketers invest in focus groups and customer feedback surveys. Consumers make the call on what the latest trends are, not marketers. Marketers simply follow their leads. Likewise, as a recruiter, you have to understand how and where your candidates are searching for jobs and what they want from prospective employers. From there, you can create your selling point: a message that compels job seekers to want to learn more about your company, what benefits they gain when they come to work for you and what incentives they get for staying loyal to you.
2. Embrace emerging media. The most successful marketers recognize the power of emerging media. Emerging media are the various communication channels – such as social media, the mobile web and online video – that have surfaced in the last few years, but are yet to be considered mainstream. The rate at which users are embracing these channels, however, is unprecedented, underscoring an incredible opportunity for employers to reach job seekers at a faster rate, on a wider scale and on a more engaging level than ever before. But it’s not just consumers who are utilizing these technologies; increasingly, job seekers are utilizing these emerging media to research jobs and prospective employers.
3. Appeal to your audience’s emotions. Marketers strive to connect with consumers on an emotional level in order to earn their trust, business and loyalty. Employers can do the same with potential employees. Establishing an emotional connection with job seekers may sound like an unconventional recruiting tactic, but today’s job seeker experience has changed vastly over the last few years, and it requires a different approach to the recruitment process. Recruitment videos are one of the best ways to connect with job seekers on an emotional level, particularly when it comes to employee testimonials. Up-close-and-personal stories from real life employees captured on video provide a more personal experience for candidates, who get to witness what it’s actually like to be a part of something that’s bigger than them.
4. Allow your audience to take your product for a test drive. Creating an online recruitment video for job seekers is also like giving out a free sample of your product.  By seeing a tour of the facility, “meeting” the leadership team or watching employees as they go through their day and discuss their experiences, candidates get to see before they buy – in a more engaging and realistic way than flat copy in a job posting could ever provide.
5. Make their purchasing experience easy. Today’s consumers are used to “one click” features on sites like Amazon.com, which enable them to make their purchase almost immediately. While a job application might necessitate a few more steps, your online application process should still be as user-friendly as possible. The more hoops candidates have to jump through to apply for your positions, the less likely they are to complete the process. It’s also worth noting that retail companies always send post-purchase emails enabling them to review their orders and get updates on the statuses. Give candidates the same treatment: They’ll appreciate knowing their application didn’t just disappear into a black hole and it will save you the trouble of fielding calls and emails calls from confused and frustrated applicants.

Above all, the one thing you need to know about the marketer mindset is that consumer is king. When it comes to the most effective way to market your positions, it’s not about what you think you should be doing; it’s about what your target audience is doing. If you don’t know what your target audience wants – how they want to receive information and interact – you can’t put a strategy around it.

Understand your audience, and the efforts you make to recruit them will be that much more effective.

Jamie Womack is Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding at CareerBuilder, LLC, where she directs the development of strategic marketing for the corporate marketing team and focuses on the recruitment needs of employers of all sizes.

Exclusive webcast: Join Jamie Womack and CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter on Tuesday, September 27 for Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy, wherein they discuss the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen your employment brand and find the best talent for your organization. Learn more or register at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial

This year’s HR Technology^® Conference & Expo promises to be “the largest and most exciting in our history” according to the registration site.

Hmmm…what a coincidence that this also happens to be the year CareerBuilder will be there. OR IS IT? (Cliffhanger!)

If you’re planning to be at HR Tech, don’t forget to stop by CareerBuilder booth #333 – where you can snag a free Supply & Demand Report – and see for yourself why it’s one of our bestselling new solutions.

Register now for your free Supply & Demand Report.

Go for the demo, stay for the party…
You’ll also want to check out the CareerBuilder Demo Room for two reasons:

1. See demonstrations (it’s not just a clever name) of Talent Network, CBMobile and Supply & Demand Portal – our newest, most innovative solutions to date!
2. Get a free ticket to our exclusive Unplug and Unwind happy hour on Tuesday, October 4th: Mix, mingle and relax with fellow conference attendees – compliments of CareerBuilder!

CareerBuilder Demo Room Hours and Happy Hour Ticket Pick-Up
When: Monday, October 3, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Where: Booth # 333

Unplug and Unwind Happy Hour
When: Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 5:30 – 7:30
Where: Mix Lounge (atop THEhotel at Mandalay Bay)

About the Supply & Demand Report

This report, generated from our new Supply & Demand Portal, is completely customized to your organization and provides real-time access to:

1. Supply: The availability of active candidates for any position.
2. Demand: Locations where you will find the most and least competition is for that talent.

See you in Vegas!

The employment situation report for August is disturbingly similar to that of July.

Zero: It’s not just the amount of interest you have in seeing the remake of Footloose. It’s also the number by which both nonfarm payroll and the unemployment rate changed in August, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today.

(Un-fun fact: Today marks the first time since 1945 that the government has reported a net monthly job change of zero. Most depressing. Record-setting. Ever.)

Employment numbers across the board showed little to no change last month, but in case you don’t feel like clicking over to July, here’s a summary of August’s employment situation report:

• Total nonfarm payroll employment, at 131.1 million, was unchanged (0) in August. Employment changed little in most major private-sector industries.
• The number of unemployed persons was relatively unchanged at 14 million and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent.
• The labor force rose to 153.6 million.
• The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was about unchanged at 6 million.
• The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose from 8.4 million to 8.8 million in August.
• The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour over the month to 34.2 hours.
• In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 3 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $23.09. This decline followed an 11-cent gain in July.
• The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised from +46,000 to +20,000, and the change for July was revised from +117,000 to +85,000.

So, yeah. No change. No growth. No closer to buying that summer share in the Hamptons…This is usually the part where I try to be optimistic, but if “at least we didn’t lose jobs, y’all!” is the best thing I can say about this report…I’d rather go see Footloose.

OnStar, we have an emergency.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not only is video a dominant form of communication; it is proven to be influential, as well.  Consumers are not just viewing content, but absorbing it, and letting themselves be swayed by it. When it  comes to recruiting, potential and current employees are the customer, and the companies they choose to work for are the products they invest in.

With that in mind, employers need to consider the way users consume information as they evolve their recruiting strategies. Between employee testimonials, executive interviews, facility tours and special event footage, online recruitment videos help answer the following crucial questions job seekers have when deciding to apply for a position.

Why should you invest in using online video for recruitment? Consider the following benefits:

1. Increase your ROI: As technology gets more sophisticated, producing and housing online videos becomes increasingly cost-effective – even more so when you consider the high level of engagement and interest online videos generate over static text. You can also get a lot of mileage out of these videos by distributing them over multiple channels – and encouraging employees to share them with friends and over social media.
2. Stay competitive: As video increases its dominance as an online communication tool, recruiters who stick with text-based career sites and even text-oriented social networks will find themselves overshadowed by competitors who are using this medium to reach potential employees.
3. Widen your audience reach: As noted earlier, 178 million internet users watched online video for an average of 16.8 hours per viewer in June 20111.  Video’s popularity as a source for information is only growing, and it is reaching wider audiences on a broad scale, representing the opportunity for employers who use this medium to reach out to a larger, more diverse candidate base.
4. Strengthen your employment brand: No other medium so completely enables you to showcase your organization and truly make it stand out. 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.
5. Get higher response rates: According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than postings without video. On average, CareerBuilder customers receive a 34 percent greater application rate when they add video to their job postings.
6. Eliminate irrelevant candidates: Videos allow outsiders to decide for themselves if they are a fit for your organization – by enabling them to “meet” your employees and executives, tour the facility and get a feel for what life is truly like at the organization. A good recruitment video covers the most crucial questions job seekers have about why they should apply for your organization. Once job seekers understand what it means to work and be successful at your company, those who do not possess the relevant skills or see themselves as a cultural fit will be dissuaded from applying. As a result, they’ll effectively weed themselves out (saving you the trouble of doing it later).

Already using video in your recruitment mix? What other benefits have you seen for your organization?

Job seeker behavior has changed remarkably in the past few years. So why hasn’t your recruitment strategy?

In this competitive market for talent, it is imperative that employers be at the forefront of what job seekers find accessible. With today’s emerging technologies job seekers have come to expect a more interactive experience when it comes their job search. In order to meet the needs and desires of top talent, employers have to meet them halfway.  The smartest employers are taking advantage of today’s emerging media to connect with job candidates where they work and play, and deliver a more interactive and engaging job seeker experience.

Two forms of emerging media employers need to take advantage of right now are mobile and online video technology. Not only are mobile and video technologies surprisingly easy to implement into your overall recruitment efforts, but they are a must for any employer who hopes to remain competitive in the new recruitment landscape.

Mobile: The New Desktop
According to the latest findings from Pew Research Center, 83 percent of Americans currently own cell phones, nearly half of whom (44 percent) use their mobile devices to get access to the internet. This finding highlights the opportunity mobile devices offer employers to reach job seekers anywhere, at any time. The opportunities to use mobile technology for recruiting are vast, ranging from mobile-friendly websites that enable easy job searches on the go; to quick response (QR) codes that point smartphone users to job listings; to text alerts informing candidates about recruiting events and opportunities.

Regardless of size or industry, every company needs to take advantage of mobile recruiting opportunities. Increasingly, job seekers are using their mobile devices to receive job alerts, search jobs and research companies. It won’t be long until this behavior is commonplace, and those companies that do not embrace this technology are losing out on candidates every day.

Video: An Underutilized Advantage
For all of its power to influence and engage people, video is one of the most underutilized recruiting tools out there today. One thing CareerBuilder has seen consistently throughout our 15 years of research on job seekers is their desire to work for companies that care about their employees, work for the greater good and are at the forefront of innovation. Video enables companies to get this message across better than any other medium, because it enables candidates to really see and hear what the true employee experience is like. The evidence supports this finding, too: According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than postings without video. On average, CareerBuilder customers receive a 34 percent greater application rate when they add video to their job postings. At the same time, only 10 percent of job postings include video, underscoring a major opportunity for employers to take advantage of this technology and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Dispelling the Myths of Emerging Media
Change can be intimidating, but companies that fail to embrace these emerging media are only cheating themselves out of the opportunity to reach the growing number of qualified candidates who utilize this technology for their job searches. If what’s holding you back is the fear that implementing these technologies is too expensive or simply more trouble than they’re worth, consider the following popular misconceptions about emerging media.

Myth 1: It’s expensive. It’s surprisingly inexpensive to send text messages, create QR codes or create a mobile-friendly career site. Likewise, video is also inexpensive to produce, and it can be as easy as creating a video yourself and posting it (for free) on YouTube. It may not be the most polished video, but it’s a way to start the process and see how much feedback it generates.  From there, you might decide to invest in a more streamlined production process to get an even better return. Implementing mobile and video recruiting efforts can be an investment, but when you look at the return, cost should be an afterthought.

Myth 2: It’s too complicated. Mobile technology can feel like somewhat of a black hole for employers; however, integration with mobile devices is surprisingly simple, and the time it takes to build a mobile website is minimal. The same can be said for video. As mentioned above, uploading video onto any online platform – from a video-sharing site like YouTube to the company career site – is increasingly easy.  When in doubt, consult a third party expert to help you navigate these technologies for the best possible ROI. You won’t regret it.

Myth 3: It’s a trend. If there’s one thing to take away from this article, it is that emerging media, such as mobile technologies, social networking and video, is not going away. Consider the following statistics:

• In 2010 alone, the worldwide mobile phone market grew by 18.5 percent.
• More than 5 billion text messages were sent on a daily basis in the U.S. in 2010
• In the last quarter of 2010, smartphone sales surpassed that of PCs, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
• During the course of 2010 CareerBuilder saw over 400 percent growth in job searches on our mobile career site, and the number of job seekers storing resumes on their phones using CB’s iPhone App increased by over 350 percent.
• Web pages with video are 53 times more likely than pages with just text to show up on the first page of Google results
• Internet video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015.

These are just a few of the findings that underscore both the reach and power of emerging media, as well as the need for employers to adapt their recruiting efforts to keep up with mobile usage trends. As these technologies become the norm for candidates as they search for jobs and research companies, employers need to adjust their recruiting efforts accordingly to remain competitive. In other words, you might not be taking advantage of emerging media, but your competitors are. Don’t get left behind.

Andrew Streiter is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where he is responsible for developing human capital strategies for organizations ranging from Fortune 1,000 companies to mid-sized businesses throughout the US.

Exclusive webcast: Join CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter and Jamie Womack, CareerBuilder’s VP of Corporate Marketing, on Tuesday, September 27 for Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy, wherein they discuss the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen your employment brand and find the best talent for your organization. Learn more or register at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial

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

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

Why the big workplace shift?

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

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

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

What do older workers want?

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

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

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

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

Why can’t older individuals find work?

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

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

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

What do employers say they want?

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

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

Do older workers cost more?

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

So why aren’t more older workers being hired?

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

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

Older workers — and younger supervisors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Veteran employees bring unique skills sets to the workforce.

The holiday may be well over two months away, but really, is it ever too early to start preparing for it? I’m talking, of course, about Veterans Day.

Do you realize about one million military veterans today are unemployed? Hard to believe, considering the vast array of skills they possess, training they’ve gone through and discipline work ethic they demonstrate – all of which are valuable skills in any industry. So if you’re looking for suggestions on ways to acknowledge the upcoming holiday, you could start with focusing your recruiting efforts on this remarkable group of men and women.

But don’t take my word for it…

A 2009 CareerBuilder survey 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.

Survey participants cited the following valuable traits these employees possessed:

• Disciplined approach to work (cited by 68 percent of employers surveyed)
• Ability to work as part of a team (63 percent)
• Respect and integrity (57 percent)
• Leadership (50 percent)
• Problem-solving skills (46 percent)
• Ability to perform under pressure (44 percent)
• Communication skills (37 percent)

A few other things you might want to know about hiring veterans: With an honorable discharge, service members are basically certified drug-free. And many military personnel have achieved some level of security clearance, demonstrating that an individual is recognized as a trustworthy person. It’s also possible that you could qualify for government-paid relocation services if hiring a military person coming off active duty from another location.

And now that President Obama has proposed a new tax credit for employers who hire veterans, there’s even more incentive to hire military service men and women.

But perhaps Obama articulated the greatest reason to hire veterans when –during a speech last month in Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard – he said:

“Just think about how many veterans have led their comrades on life-and-death missions by the time they were 25 years old. That’s the kind of responsibility and experience that any business in America should want to take advantage of.”

To further help companies find employees with these valuable skill sets, CareerBuilder recently launched Employvets.com, dedicated to helping match employers and military personnel. Veterans and National Guard members can identify employers who are sensitive to their employment needs, while employers can benefit from targeting these uniquely skilled workers for their positions.

According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 60 percent of workers who were laid off in the last year have found new jobs. Of that 60 percent, 88 percent found full-time positions, and 54 percent found jobs in entirely different fields than where they previously worked.

Among the workers who are still searching for new opportunities, 56 percent said they are nervous about returning to work after an extended period of unemployment, citing the following reasons:

• Pressure to prove themselves (50 percent)
• Fear of the unknown (40 percent)
• Anxiety around new, unfamiliar technologies (21 percent)

The survey – which was conducted by Harris Interactive© from May 19 to June 8, 2011 and included more than 800 workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last year – also revealed the following workforce trends:

• Relocation: Of workers who were laid off and found new jobs, 36 percent reported they relocated to a new city or state. Of those who haven’t found new jobs yet, 38 percent said they would consider relocating for a position.
• Pay Increases: The majority of laid off workers who found new jobs reported their pay is similar to or higher than their previous position, with 45 percent taking a pay cut, (down from 47 percent last year), and 27 percent finding jobs with higher pay (up from 22 percent last year).
• Starting Small Businesses: Some workers may replace their job search efforts with entrepreneurship. More than one-in-four (27 percent) who have not yet found work said they are considering starting their own business.

But while it’s encouraging to see more companies hiring laid off workers (especially in light of recent reports that some employers refuse to consider unemployed job seekers for their open positions), it’s also crucial that they keep this momentum going.

It’s important to recognize that every segment of the workforce brings unique skills and value to the workplace, and that excluding any segment of the population from your applicant pool only cheats you out of talent that could benefit your organization.

In a statement for the survey’s press release, Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, discussed the significance of these findings and the need to keep hiring in this economy:

“We need to do a better job as a nation to help workers identify jobs that are in-demand today and are projected to grow in the future. We have a growing skills gap and the need to get millions of Americans back to work. As the economy recovers, we need to focus on retraining and ‘re-skilling’ workers to help them move to new fields with a greater number of opportunities.”

Not to mention that companies that invest in hiring and retaining currently unemployed workers not only qualify for certain government tax breaks and benefits as part of the HIRE Act, but they’re also helping the nation overall in contributing to economic recovery.

Have you recently hired a laid off worker? Any advice for your peers?

Recently, CareerBuilder released its new e-book,Streaming Talent: Using Online Video to Create a Virtual Candidate Experience, Differentiate Your Company and Recruit Top Talent. 

Video may have killed the radio star, but don’t judge it too harshly. When it comes to recruitment, more employers are finding that video is an increasingly powerful resource.

Online video is the fastest growing medium for consuming content, and companies are investing in video to help them attract better candidates, brand themselves as an employer of choice, differentiate themselves from their competitors and create a more efficient recruiting process.

Learn the secrets to their success with this quick-and-easy guide to creating and promoting your own online recruitment videos.

• See the latest findings about the influence of online video in decision-making
• Understand the benefits of implementing online video into your recruiting efforts
• Learn best practices for creating recruitment videos
• Overcome the challenges to creating recruiting videos – before you even start
• See real-life examples of recruitment videos from top employers

“We want good people, we want to hire good people, and we want to retain them—but my real focus is in building a team.” – Robert A. DiMuccio

In the following interview, Robert A. DiMuccio, CEO of Amica Mutual Insurance Company, talks trust, humility and the necessity for ‘speed bumps’, among other things.

What do your employees mean to you?  What do they mean to this organization?
We sell what I would term ‘intangible product’: security and financial protection for our customers.  Our business is based on our customers’ interactions with our employees: How professional they are, how empathetic they are, how much time they put in with the customer.  Our employees are the organization; they are what the company is all about.

As you look at the characteristics of the most successful people across your organization, is there a common pattern among those individuals?
I think we have successful people from all different academic disciplines and backgrounds.  Their success is not necessarily based on, for example, what sport they played and how good they were at them, nor what they achieved academically. All those things are important but are just pieces of the puzzle. It really comes down to the person.  Can that person make a connection with other people, and is that connection real?  I don’t think you can fake empathy.  People will figure it out very quickly.

What’s the best hire that you’ve ever personally made and why?
An organization is built around a team.  A good team is not built around one person. I have this list in the back of my mind – the things I look for in people – and it varies depending on the position, the duties and that sort of thing. If you’re looking for 10 attributes, you might get lucky and find six or seven, because we’re all human beings.  But in a team, you’re going to get all 10 attributes.  We want good people, we want to hire good people, and we want to retain them—but my real focus is in building a team.  I think that all of our greatest successes came out of team efforts.

What do you look for when you’re hiring talent?
Obviously, for a particular job there are requirements and you want to make sure that who you hire has the core requirements for that job. But beyond that, you look for a positive perspective. People who enjoy being around other people, who want to work with people. That’s number one.

What is your leadership philosophy?  What are the main tenets of what you believe in terms of leadership?
Number one:  Treat everybody with respect across the organization. Number two: Find the right people, let them do their jobs and trust them to do their jobs.  I think if you find the right people with the right with the right skills and attributes, they’ll come into work charged up every day.  They’ll be self-motivated.

I’ve seen this written a hundred times, so I can’t take any credit for it: There are certain attributes a leader should display and one of them is humility. To realize that there are people around that probably know more of the answers than you do. It is also important to celebrate their successes and be public about it.

During 2009 and 2010 years, a lot of companies had tough times, tough decisions to make.  Did you as well?  What did you learn during that time frame?
You always try to look back after an incident or period of time where you’ve had to deal with something and say, “What did we do well and what could we have done better?”  A couple of things that we looked at: In the period leading up to the recession, we managed our company with the same basic principles we had managed for the previous 20 years: Number one, solid customer relationships. Through the recession, we held our customer base very well. The customer base provides revenue and pays for your overhead, and in return we provide service to them.  Number two, we’re an insurance company. We’re designed to take risk; however, through years and years of experience, we’ve also learned to manage risk and cap risk where we think it’s appropriate. 

What do you consider the most important decision that you’ve ever had to make as a leader?
One of the things I’ve always believed is when you’re in a position to alter the course of somebody’s career or even life – those are the decisions you should put the most time into. If you’re in a position where you can impact somebody’s life, the decision should be hard to make. There should be speed bumps. There should be a process for getting input from a lot of different people, and there should be a feedback process.  Those are the hard decisions, and I always spend a lot of time on them. Your really important decisions are the decisions about people.

ABOUT ROBERT D. DIMUCCIO: Robert A. DiMuccio, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Amica Mutual Insurance Company, graduated from Providence College in 1979 with an accounting degree and began his career with the accounting firm KPMG Peat Marwic. DiMuccio joined Amica in 1991 as an accounting department vice president, and, over the years, has served as senior vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer. He was named executive vice president in 2003, and president and chief executive officer in 2005. In 2008 he was elected company chairman. In addition to his work at Amica, DiMuccio serves on the boards of the Property Loss Research Bureau and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, and as president of the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council.

ABOUT AMICA MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY: Amica Mutual Insurance Company, the nation’s oldest mutual insurer of automobiles, was founded in 1907. The company, with corporate headquarters in Lincoln, RI, is a national writer of automobile, homeowners, marine and personal umbrella liability insurance. Life coverage is available through Amica Life Insurance Company, a wholly owned subsidiary. Amica employs more than 3,100 people at Amica Center in Rhode Island and 39 offices countrywide. Amica has been acknowledged by financial services industry analysts for its superior financial strength, and it has been recognized repeatedly for exceptional customer service in auto and homeowners insurance surveys by a leading consumer publication.

Last week, CareerBuilder released the results of a recent nationwide survey, which found that 34 percent of hiring managers are placing greater emphasis on emotional intelligence when it comes to hiring and promoting employees post-recession.

The survey also revealed that 71 percent of hiring managers value emotional intelligence in an employee more than IQ; 59 percent would not hire someone with low emotional intelligence; and, for a remarkable 75 percent of hiring managers, emotional intelligence trumps IQ when it comes to deciding on employee promotions.

But how do those numbers compare when broken down by certain industries? Let’s take a look:

Government

• 34 percent of government employers said they are placing a greater emphasis on high EI for hiring and promotion decisions post-recession
• 70 percent value emotional intelligence in employees more than IQ
• 62 percent would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low EI
• 77 percent said they’re more likely to promote the high EI worker

Government employers also said they value emotional intelligence because employees who display this quality tend to resolve conflict effectively and are more likely to stay calm under pressure. In response to the findings, Chuck Loeher, area vice president for CareerBuilder, said:

“Government jobs aren’t just about producing information and ideas – there’s a lot of moving and organizing people, as well. A deep knowledge base is important no matter your position, but dynamic interpersonal skills are needed to successfully motivate groups made up of diverse personalities, ideologies and work ethics. All workers, at all levels of government, can benefit from deeper insights into their own emotional intelligence.”

Information Technology (IT)

• 37 percent of IT employers said they are placing a greater emphasis on high emotional intelligence for hiring and promotion decisions post-recession
• 52 percent value emotional intelligence in their employees more than IQ
• 55 percent would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low EI
• 61 percent said they’re more likely to promote the high EI worker

When asked why emotional intelligence is more important than high IQ, IT employers said they believe employees with high emotional intelligence know how to resolve conflict effectively and tend to make more thoughtful business decisions. Jamie Carney, senior product director of Sologig.com, had this to say about the findings:

“The data helps unravel the myth that the best IT professionals are smart people locked to their computer screens. Technical competency is a must, but when it’s down to you and another candidate for a promotion or new job, it’s dynamic interpersonal skills that will set you apart. Emotional intelligence is a sign of leadership and the ability to be a team player – that’s the type of worker most IT managers want.”

Retail

• 34 percent of retail employers said they are placing a higher emphasis on emotional intelligence for hiring and promotion decisions post-recession
• 79 percent value high emotional intelligence over high IQ
• 55 percent would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low EI
• 79 percent said they’re more likely to promote the high EI worker

For retail employers, high emotional intelligence is valuable in employees because it indicates they know how to appeal to customers and can stay calm under pressure. According to Bill Meidell, product director at WorkinRetail.com:

“The nature of retail work demands employees who can sense what their clients and customers need the moment they walk through the doors. A high IQ is important in any profession, but retail is a social space that demands dynamic interpersonal skills. Workers with high emotional intelligence are the key to customer loyalty.”

Health care

• 37 percent said they are placing a higher emphasis on emotional intelligence for hiring and promotion decisions post-recession
• 81 percent said they value high emotional intelligence over high IQ,
• 72 percent of health care employers would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low EI.
• 87 percent said they’re more likely to promote the high EI worker.

The ability to stay calm under pressure and resolve conflict effectively topped the list of reasons health care employers place such high emphasis on emotional intelligence in their employees. Looking at these results, Rob Morris, product director at MiracleWorkers.com, said:

“High Emotional Intelligence is important in the health care field because understanding a patient’s emotional needs is sometimes just as important as treating their medical condition. Moreover, stress can take its toll on health care workers. Emotional Intelligence is a sign that professionals will be able to ease the pressure by empathizing with both their patients and colleagues.”

How important is emotional intelligence in your industry?

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

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

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

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

Employers’ 15 most memorable résumés:

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

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

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

4.  Candidate listed her dog as a reference.

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

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

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

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

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

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

11. Candidate used first name only.

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

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

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

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

To hire — or to run?

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

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

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

*Also see: Candidate had shakinmybootie in email address.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today, CareerBuilder released its new e-book, From Q&A to Z: The Hiring Manager’s Complete Interviewing Guide. 

Few things are as critical to the hiring process as the interview. If nothing else, the interview process is a networking event – an opportunity to brand your company in the eyes of a potential employee, brand advocate or customer. But ultimately, if executed correctly, it can help you find the right fit for both the job and your organization overall (and, as a bonus, reflect well on you for finding this person).

This quick-and-easy hiring guide covers everything from preparing for the interview to evaluating candidates afterward.  Readers will walk away with the following takeaways:

• Steps to take to prepare for the interview
• The importance of body language
• When to raise the red flag (and when to let it go)
• The best and worst interview questions
• How to avoid asking inappropriate interview questions
• What the candidate wants to know

Get From Q&A to Z: The Hiring Manager’s Complete Interviewing Guide for free today. 

Get the inside information you can apply today to conduct more effective interviews and make smarter hiring decisions.

Heeding the timeless advice of Roxette, a majority of employers are listening their hearts when it comes to hiring, and placing a higher emphasis on candidates’ emotional intelligence than their IQ’s.

That’s according to CareerBuilder’s latest survey, which indicates that 71 percent of employers say they value emotional intelligence over IQ.

What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a general assessment of a person’s abilities to control emotions, to sense, understand and react to others’ emotions, and manage relationships.

The survey of more than 2600 hiring managers and human resource professionals nationwide reveals that EI is a critical characteristic for landing a job and advancing one’s career. According to the survey:

• 34 percent of hiring managers said they are placing greater emphasis on emotional intelligence when hiring and promoting employees post-recession
• 71 percent said they value emotional intelligence in an employee more than IQ
• 59 percent of employers would not hire someone who has a high IQ but low EI
• 75 percent are more likely to promote an employee with a high EI over one with a high IQ

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder, cites today’s competitive job market as a reason employers are focusing more on emotional intelligence when it comes to hiring.

“In a recovering economy, employers want people who can effectively make decisions in stressful situations and can empathize with the needs of their colleagues and clients to deliver the best results,” Haefner says in a statement for the survey’s press release.

Survey participants gave the following reasons for placing a higher value on EI over IQ (in order of importance):

• Employees [with high EI] are more likely to stay calm under pressure
• Employees know how to resolve conflict effectively
• Employees are empathetic to their team members and react accordingly
• Employees lead by example
• Employees tend to make more thoughtful business decisions

Looking for Signs: How to Spot a High EI
HR managers and hiring managers assess their candidates’ and employees’ EI by observing a variety of behaviors and qualities. The top qualities they look for, according to the survey, include the following:

• They admit and learn from their mistakes
• They can keep emotions in check and have thoughtful discussions on tough issues
• They listen as much or more than they talk
• They take criticism well
• They show grace under pressure

What do you think of these findings? Do you place a higher emphasis on EI than on IQ?

“We strive to nurture an environment where you are able to develop and grow; one that helps to develop your personal interests and clinical skills.” – George V. Hager, Jr.

In the following interview, George V. Hager, Jr., CEO of Genesis HealthCare discusses overcoming professional challenges, the importance of instilling confidence in people, and the experiences that have shaped his leadership philosophy.

Can you talk a little bit about how Genesis Healthcare has evolved over the last 10-15 years?
Genesis HealthCare grew via acquisition in the late 1990s. Acquisitions present interesting challenges as well as opportunities. The first issue you are dealing with is cultural. There is a culture you want to create, especially in a mission-driven business. Trying to fully integrate the acquisition companies into the Genesis culture presented many challenges. I think people underestimate how difficult integration can be and how long it really takes to fully integrate, especially considering the number of acquisitions we completed over that time period. Many of those acquisitions created opportunities for us in new and existing markets and allowed us to adopt a best practices approach to merge the companies.

As the CEO, how do you stay engaged with your employees?
That’s a real challenge for a company like Genesis. We have 40,000 employees in 250 inpatient sites of service, and nearly 1,000 Rehabilitation Therapy provider sites. Fortunately, we are somewhat geographically concentrated.

I think the first thing you need as the Chief Executive Officer is confidence in your management team and the people on the ground doing the heavy lifting. The challenge I faced was the fact that my background was finance. (My prior work experience was as a partner in charge of the healthcare practice at KMPG.) Not only was I challenged with leading a clinically-focused organization, as a finance person, I was dealing with huge capital and technology needs, and an over-leveraged balance sheet. I had to find a way to grow through all those challenges in an industry that still suffers from a poor public perception. The first thing I did was dedicate two days every month to visiting our facilities.

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 did not go out with the Chief Operating Officer, the President of the region, or the Executive Vice-President. I went out with one person from our Public Relations group. She was a great resource to the field, and she organized all my visits. She was also well respected in the field. When the two of us would go out to the facilities, I met with as many people as I could, and I tried to get them to tell me what was on their minds. Believe me, I got an earful. They  wanted to make sure I knew what the issues were from their vantage points on the frontline. It was extremely valuable for me; and I felt that I really developed a special relationship with the employees I talked to.

What was your biggest takeaway from those visits? How did that experience make you change the way you operate today?
The center leadership teams were incredible during my tours through the facilities. As I walked around the facilities (typically with the Administrator and the Director of Nursing), they would grab anyone who walked by and say, “Hey, I want you to meet George.” They would introduce me by first name; and it did not matter if the person was in housekeeping, the kitchen, or in a nursing area; they couldn’t care less. There was no question that they took an interest in their people, and you could tell their staff reacted positively to them as well. The effective leaders were engaged with the residents and patients, as well. Sometimes they would grab one of the residents in a wheelchair and take them with us. It was fascinating to see. In some instances I found leadership not well engaged with staff, patients or families. I noted differences in leadership style and ability which impacted on center relationships and operations. The importance of the leader’s commitment to the people who carry out the mission of our company every day, was the most obvious take-away.

When you decided to create a formal leadership program, did your leadership team develop it, did you bring somebody from the outside, or was it a combination of both? How did they come together?
We used outside consulting resources to help us design the programs and to help us run the classes in our Leadership Development Program with our in house experts. It was a combination of both, but it was led internally in our HR function. Our Leadership Development Program was given a high priority despite the limited resources we had at hand to get it started. Enabling our leaders to get the job done in alignment with our mission and core values has driven our program’s success. If you do not think leadership development is the most important part of the company, you should not be leading the company.

What is it about Genesis that makes it a place where people want to work?
I would say that you would come to Genesis because your choice of profession has an inherent mission element to it. Our mission statement reads: “We improve the lives we touch through the delivery of high quality healthcare and everyday compassion.” If you don’t buy in to that mission, then you probably shouldn’t be part of our team. That said, we are hopeful—I am hopeful—that we serve our employees as we serve our patients. We strive to nurture an environment where you are able to develop and grow; one that helps to develop your personal interests and clinical skills. We also are very passionate about the patients and families we touch every day. Our staff strives to make a difference in the lives of those they care for.

ABOUT GEORGE V. HAGER, JR.: With over 25 years experience in the healthcare industry, George V. Hager, Jr. serves as Chief Executive Officer of Genesis HealthCare, LLC. He joined Genesis in 1992 and, prior to being named CEO, served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and later as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. George spent the first 13 years of his professional career at KPMG, LLP. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Dickinson College and a masters in business administration from Rutgers Graduate School of Management. He is a certified public accountant; Board member and audit committee chair of Adolor Corporation; member of the Board of Trustees and finance committee of The University of Sciences in Philadelphia; member of the Board and executive committee of the National Investment Center; member of the Board of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association; and member of the Board and audit Committee chair of REACH Medical Holdings, Inc.

ABOUT GENESIS HEALTHCARE: Genesis HealthCare, one of the nation’s largest long-term care and rehabilitation therapy providers, employs over 40,000 people, each one dedicated to the delivery of quality healthcare to the residents and patients in its Centers.
Genesis has more than 250 Skilled Nursing Centers, and Assisted Living Communities, located in 13 eastern states, while its Genesis Rehabilitation Services division provides contract therapy to over 750 healthcare providers in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
As a premier care provider since 1985, Genesis offers a variety of compassionate care services to patients, residents, and their families. Genesis is committed to clinical excellence and is ranked among top providers for overall satisfaction and quality medical care, according to national independent research.

While you were busy hobnobbing with Michael J. Fox, greasing up with the Thunder From Down Under or singing along with da best singer in da world at Caesar’s Palace, here’s what you might’ve missed at CareerBuilder’s booth during SHRM 2011…

The following videos feature presentations given by our recruitment experts during SHRM’s annual conference in Las Vegas this past June, and they cover everything from social media, video and mobile recruiting efforts to the wonders of data intelligence, to what CEO’s really want from HR.

See below, or check them on our YouTube channel.

Emerging Media and Your Recruitment Strategy

Here, CareerBuilder’s VP of Corporate Marketing, Jamie Womack, discusses how and why companies need to utilize social media, online and mobile platforms for recruitment right now.

Your Company in 2020

Building an integrated recruitment strategy is a much different task today than it was three years ago. Here, Jamie Womack talks about how to build a talent pipeline to fuel your company’s future growth, pulling in aspects of messaging and emerging media and compensation.

Data Not Just For Data’s Sake

Personified’s VP of Development, Abdel Tefridj, demonstrated both the need and the opportunity for business leaders to use data – and use it more efficiently – as they make critical decisions daily in an ever-changing world.

What Your CEO Wants to Know

This year was particularly exciting for CareerBuilder, as our CEO, Matt Ferguson, presented during the SHRM official sessions. Here he is at the Las Vegas Hilton, discussing a recent nationwide survey of CEOs that highlights how the CEO/HR professional relationship has evolved over the last five years.

What’d you think? Anything we didn’t cover that you’d like to see next year? Let us know!

“My number one priority is to seed the organization with bright, young, innovative thinkers that can become the next generation of leaders for CORT.” – Jeff Pederson

In the following interview, Jeff Pederson, President of CORT Business Services, discusses where ‘kicking up dirt’ comes into play at his organization and how doing business can sometimes feel like performing an autopsy, among other things.

What is your philosophy as it relates to people and their impact on your daily business?
Our business is our people. Our client companies and customers are involved in transition or planning something special in and around their job or personal life. We deal with people in relocation, long distance temporary assignments, project management, marital transition, college students, first time job professionals as well as trade show, party rentals and special event furnishings. In addition, thousands of companies rely on CORT to provide their temporary and permanent office furniture. Our B2B clients and consumer clients count on CORT’s people to understand what their needs are and to find solutions that are appropriate for their circumstances.

How do you engage with and relate to your employees?
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 everyday 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.

 What are the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
There are a couple that have stood out to me over the years…”be yourself, forget yourself and be interested in others,” and to “keep your commitments.”

How do your people (employees) affect your business, particularly as it related to client services?
Our people are all about who they service. We get a lot of testimonials that start off with “I don’t know what I would have done without [this employee]’s help….” Without that level of customer service and customer caring, we wouldn’t survive.

How do you define CORT ’s culture? As a leader what role do you play and what is your impact on the culture?
CORT’s culture is entrepreneurial…to a degree. We like to develop best practices and be able to repeat best practices from market to market. We always strive to be “best in class.” Again, senior management strives to meet with our employees regularly and do our best to listen. I think that has led to a collaborative environment with very little turnover.

Some people believe HR to be the only department with a responsibility for the organization’s people. Can you tell me how you make your overall talent strategy a priority and the role you play in driving it?
We are fortunate to have tremendous tenure at the middle and senior management levels. That is a blessing and poses challenges as well. My number one priority is to seed the organization with bright, young, innovative thinkers that can become the next generation of leaders for CORT. This mixed blessing is something our management group talks about all the time and is a priority at every level.

What do you do to rally the team and reinforc e your employment brand?
There’s very little cheerleading I need to do to reinforce the employment brand. There is however a challenge to reveal our business to an upcoming group of young motivated managers. Most people are surprised to learn that CORT is a Berkshire Hathaway Company and likewise surprised to hear about our reach and scope of business. Expanding that piece of the brand will help draw additional talent into the organization for our future development and expansion.

What would you consider the most important decision you ever had to make as a leader?
There isn’t one particular decision that comes to mind, but having done a Chapter 11 reorganization back in the 1980’s taught me that it’s much easier to build a business than it is to carefully deconstruct one. It’s akin to an autopsy…as you never realize what’s under the skin of an organization until you’re forced to do that kind of forensics.

What was the best PROFESSIONAL decision you ever made?
Taking a leap of faith, trusting our Chairman and joining CORT.

ABOUT JEFF PEDERSON: Jeff Pederson has held several executive management positions of increasing responsibility with CORT Business Services since he joined the company in 2002. Jeff has been a director of the Company since 2004 and was named president of CORT Business Services in September 2006 following two years as chief financial officer. Prior to joining CORT, Jeff held senior executive positions at rental companies including Globe Business Resources and Budget Rents.

ABOUT CORT: CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, is the world’s largest provider of rental furniture. In business for over 40 years, CORT has served millions of individuals and over 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies. The industry’s leading provider of residential and commercial rental furniture, CORT is also a leader in the rental of Tradeshow & Event furnishings, offers a full line of houseware rentals and provides access to millions of available apartment units nationwide through its free online apartment locator, ApartmentSearch. In addition to over 100 showrooms and clearance centers across the US, CORT also has established a global network of business partners in close to 70 countries around the world. CORT’s greatest assets are the more than 2,000 employees who understand the difficulties and stresses involved with major transitions. CORT’s motto, “Wherever you’re heading, we’ll be there,” embodies its commitment to make transitions for individuals and companies as smooth and pain-free as possible.

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

Signs that workers’ finances are improving:

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

Gender wars

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

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

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

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

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

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

The future is now later

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chat Highlights:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All about the application process

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

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

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