Should We Cut the Word 'Multitasker' from Job Descriptions?
Multitasking is a word and action that many take for granted in the modern business world. It's a staple of the modern, white-collar, knowledge-worker's job description, and will be music to the ears of any time-pressured hiring manager, operating in a fast-moving, chaotic department. However, the phrase multitasking really shouldn't be taken for granted or bandied around quite so...
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The Workplace Clash Between Problem Solvers and Critical Thinkers: a Battle Between Too Much and Too Little?
A close read of some recent thinking about critical thinking reveals a lack of consensus about what it is, how and why it matters, and whether it, as some employers and academics characterize it, amounts to or includes problem solving as the or a core skill. To that debate and discussion should be added the implicit question "When is there too much on-the-job and personal critical thinking or...
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Tips for Breaking into the Travel Business
The travel industry is dying, right? That's why we all make jokes about travel agents disappearing, right? The industry may be changing, but it certainly isn't dying: employment in the travel industry hit an all-time high in October, reaching 8.027 million jobs overall. In fact, the travel industry has been thriving since we started to climb out of Great Recession, creating jobs 40 percent...
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Job Search Tips for Veterans
Veterans face unique challenges when searching for civilian jobs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experience higher than average unemployment rates. Despite this, there are steps you can take to help you succeed in your job search. Make a Plan The first step is exploring the resources that are available to you and forming a strategy. Don't...
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Can Wearable Technology Increase Employee Performance?
It seems like it was only yesterday that futuristic prototypes of smartwatches and smartglasses were being shown off at future tech conferences. Today, what we have before us is a wearable tech revolution. Smartglasses, smartwatches, and smart health gadgets have hit the street with a bang: it's already being $1 billion market and is expected to explode into a $508 billion market in just three...
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Simply Hired Employment Outlook Shows Healthy Uptick in Job Listings During October
Simply Hired, an independent, international job search, has released its November 2014 U.S. Employment Outlook report which finds that job openings grew 3.17 percent month-over-month in October 2014. This increase continues the ongoing job growth reported by Simply Hired over the past several months. "Steady growth in the U.S. employment market continues as the number of available job...
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iQSG Launches Cloud-Based Video Conferencing Service
iQ Solutions Group LLC. (iQSG), has announced the availability of a new video conferencing service, iQ Cloud Video as a Service (VaaS). iQ Cloud VaaS provides a subscription service that allows customers to more affordably get the benefits of video conferencing such as increased productivity, improved collaboration and faster problem solving. "Moving video conferencing to the cloud affords...
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Paychex Index Shows Small Business Job Growth Continues to Grow in October
While the Paychex | IHS Small Business Jobs Index grew 0.23 percent in the past 12 months, the national index remained even for October, coming in at 100.84. Though down 0.25 percent during the past three months, the national index is still in a position of strength, well above the baseline of 100. Employment growth in the Central regions put the West North Central region at the top of the...
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Are Hiring Managers Becoming More Rude and Destructive?
Few people like to think of themselves as rude, but others seem to thrive on it. Are you so rude as a hiring manager that people want to destroy your company if you don't hire them? That's an issue approached by Anne Kreamer in her article, "The Rise of the Rude Hiring Manager," for the Harvard Business Review. Kreamer, the former executive vice president, worldwide creative director,...
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SJV, TazWorks Announce Enhanced XML Interface with System-to-System Integration
SJV Associates, a leading provider of public records research to the pre-employment and background screening industries, has announced that its system-to-system integration with TazWorks, provider of background screening software, has been expanded to support SJV's new Medical Provider Data Products: MedEx. MedEx allows clients of SJV to check Medical Exclusions (Medicare/Medicaid), both...
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Private Sector Employment Increases in October, Reports ADP
Private sector employment increased by 230,000 jobs from September to October according to the October ADP National Employment Report. The report, derived from ADP's payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis. Payrolls for businesses with 49 or fewer employees increased by 102,000 jobs in October, up from 93,000 in...
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Citi Launches Interactive Working Capital Analytics Service
Citi has announced the launch of a new working capital analytics service that combines diagnostic capabilities with visualization technology and real-time interactive features to deliver enhanced visibility and insights across an organization's supply chain. Citi Working Capital Analytics helps drive strategic decision-making for a company's treasury, procurement, and shared service center...
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'People Skills': Does the Applicant Have Only Half the Package?
If you think you have "people skills", try to imagine what you mean. Is it an image in your mind's eye of smiling, engaged, satisfied clients, colleagues and manager? Or is it an image of just you smiling and satisfied because you got what you wanted from others because of your "people skills"? Of course, the conventionally required answer is that the outcome of your interaction is that all...
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A Lesson in Brand Management, Courtesy of Bill Cosby
The Internet is a powerful tool. Use it well, and you can become the people's champion. Just check out the eternally goofy and slightly anarchic Tumblr presence of Denny's. An elderly gentleman hula hoops with an onion ring and receives the adulation of thousands of users. A goofball reference to Taylor Swift fares similarly well. Denny's runs a very strong Tumblr game by embracing the...
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Keep from Being Pigeonholed into a Position or Industry with Five Easy Steps
How are Hollywood actors related to you and other professionals in the working world? They are all at risk of being typecast for specific roles, thanks to past successes and recognition. For the working professional, this side effect can sometimes be very beneficial, both financially and for a set of career goals. But professional typecasting can often stymie job seekers looking to land a job...
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How to Reinvigorate a Fallen Star – and Avoid Costly Turnover
Many of you will have to someday reinvigorate a fallen star in your business -- that is, an employee who was once a high performer, but who for a number of reasons has become an underperformer, disengaged, and on the verge of becoming an expensive turnover statistic. In many situations, the employee's departure may be unavoidable or even desirable, but in other circumstances you can get a...
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HR Pros Concerned with Engagement, Leadership Development, and Recruiting in 2015
SilkRoad, a leading global provider of cloud-based talent management solutions, has announced the results of a new TalentTalk research report and infographic. Based on survey responses from over 150 HR professionals, the second-annual "What Keeps HR up at Night? Perspectives, Challenges, Concerns"reveals the four major areas of concern for HR and talent management leaders, as well as a number...
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Glassdoor Study: Job Candidates Drawn to Brand Management
Glassdoor, a leading recruitment consulting firm, has asked potential job candidates, in a new study, about their process for choosing jobs to apply for. What they found: Candidates are increasingly paying attention to how companies manage their brand, and they make job application decisions based on the type and frequency of information companies share on career sites. The major finding: 94...
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CTPartners Shares Forecast of Hottest Jobs in 2015
CTPartners, a leading global executive search firm, has released its 20th annual Hot Jobs forecast (video) of new and emerging executive roles for 2015. The top factors influencing these leadership positions are driven in particular by the ongoing dominance of big data in business, the technological advances in security and risk and the increased rigor demanded globally for corporate...
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How to Say 'No' at Work
There are myriad situations in the workplace where you should graciously accept the privilege of obliging: being asked to lead a high-profile project, requests to help your coworker meet an impending deadline, or most anything your boss asks of you. But there are other situations where a repertoire of canned responses can be helpful when saying "no" is the best option. You are only one person...
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Banish those New Job Jitters and Improve Your Confidence with Adaptive Techniques
Anxiety and fear are natural reactions to starting a new endeavor, be it graduate school, entering a personal relationship, or starting a job. That fear is the result of a host of unknowns that make your life suddenly unpredictable and seemingly out of control. First days on the job can be intimidating, since you probably don't know anyone, are unsure of how your team gets things done, and...
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Can We Do More to Help New Grads Find Work?
The economy is improving, but recent college grads are still having a rough time in the "real world." According to the Economic Policy Institute, recent college graduates face an 8.5 percent unemployment rate and a 16.8 percent underemployment rate. We can partially blame the economy for this, but we can also chalk some of it up to the mistakes that young job seekers make. Some recent...
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Deloitte Finds Confidence Gap among American Executives
According to Deloitte's inaugural Business Confidence Report 2014: The Gap Between Confidence and Action, America's top business leaders and C-level executives-in-waiting (CXOs and CXOWs) are confident in their ability to outperform the competition. However, they are not acting with confidence when it comes to making business decisions or addressing specific obstacles. A majority of...
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Survey Finds Americans Taking Fewest Vacation Days in 40 Years
A new study from the U.S. Travel Association's Travel Effect Initiative, "All Work and No Pay: The Impact of Forfeited Time Off," has found that U.S. workers forfeited $52.4 billion in time-off benefits (approximately 169 million days) in 2013 and took less vacation time than at any point in the past four decades. According to the study, in 2013 U.S. employees took an average of 16 days of...
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Work Market Launces Next-Gen Enterprise Freelance Management Features
Work Market, a SaaS solution that helps engage and manage freelance and independent contractor workforces, has announced the launch of new features that enable enterprise organizations to identify and engage with multiple freelancers at once and manage their job performance. Major features offered in the update include: Bulk Uploader, providing the ability for companies to upload multiple...
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How Can I Get a Job if I Am Over 50?
The recession has been hard for everyone, but evidence suggests that Americans in their 50s and 60s have seen the biggest reductions in earning power of all age groups, according to this New York Times report. Household income for this age group is 21 percent lower than what it was in 2010, according to this Urban Institute report. So, it seems that people over 50 have the steepest hill to...
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The Ultimate Recruiting Selection Process
Eight candidates walk into a room. Each sits at their own desk. In front of them is a piece of paper that reads "candidate," followed by their respective numbers, one through eight. A representative from the company tells them the exam they just sat down to take will last 80 minutes. It is only one single question. The catch: they can't talk to the company representative or the armed guard,...
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Customer Disservice: a Terminal Case of Airline 'Flight of Hand' and Self-Contradiction
In the 2004 drama-dy "The Terminal"— about an immigrant trapped in an airport for months without a valid passport after his country ceases to exist, Tom Hanks had more fun than I did as I started to write this "Sleepless in Haneda" report, stuck standing in deserted counters C-D at 4:30 AM because of a series of airline "flight of hand" magical transformations comprising bait-and-switch...
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Applying to a New Job? 3 Reasons to Save the Ad
Unlike diamonds, job ads are not forever. Once a company fills the role or stops taking applications, that ad can come down pretty quickly. Why does this matter to you? After all, you found the ad and applied already. The advertisement has served its purpose. Sure, the ad has served its purpose for the employer -- e.g., it attracted talent -- but it can still do a lot more for you,...
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The Digital Job Hunt: Why the Game Has Changed and How to Win
Job hunters: from here on out, you're going to be judged from a distance. The days of marching into restaurants and asking for a job are dwindling. Although it can make an impression, most managers will ask you to just submit an application online. Don't take offense. That's just the manager's way of saying, "Hey, I'm crazy busy. I'm already getting tons of applications online,...
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appsFreedom Offers Backend-as-a-Service for Developers to Deploy Business Services
appsFreedom, a provider of a leading model-driven, enterprise app platform, has announced a codeless platform for citizen developers to sync organizations' backend applications as a BaaS (Backend-as-a-Service), enabling app developers to integrate and manage backend data, from any app development tool. The appsFreedom platform enables people within an organization who understand the business...
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Black Swan Launches Crisis Response Database for Mobile
Black Swan Solutions, a business unit of Empathia and a leader in organizational support in the realm of crisis or disaster, has launched a mobile version of its client database that improves vital communications during and after an organization experiences a high impact event. For example, to expedite the evacuation process during a crisis, the mobile version of Black Swan Solutions' database...
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Spark Hire Launches Video Interviewing Feature for Rejection Management
Spark Hire, a leading online video interviewing solution, has unveiled a new rejection management feature to help companies ensure proper documentation of a candidate's application status and allow for better communication with candidates. "We have many customers who video interview hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of candidates every month and we know it can sometimes be overwhelming,"...
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3 Best Practices to Back Up Your Job Descriptions
The traditional job description has been in the hot seat for some time now. It's been poked and prodded to see how it can be transformed into some miracle talent-attracting elixir. Many employers are revamping their career pages and reworking their job ads in hopes of increasing their applicant pools. The numerous tactics and techniques you've been soaking up to improve your employer brand...
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3 Ways to Negotiate a Higher Salary Without Sounding Like a Troublemaker
Even though we have come to the end of the Great Recession and CEOs are now earning 120 times more than the average worker, the fiscal upturn has not made its way down to most average staff members. Wage growth has been stagnant in the U.K. and U.S. for some years now, with average wages in the U.S. rising by about 0.5 percent per hour since 2009, according to this Bloomberg Report. The...
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Customer 'SIRvice': Examples of Institutionalized Polite Paralogic
My recent 6-week experience with Philippine customer service was hilarious, exasperating, expensive and scary—the latter in connection with bizarre prescription medication practices, the former with just about everything else, especially airline online booking service. Picking up where my "Critical Listening: Case Studies, Catastrophes and Analysis of Customer Service Without It" article...
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The Business Value of Recruitment
"Of course, human resource professionals have long understood the value of human capital, and they have struggled to find a way to communicate this value. That is the very essence of human resource management today: to define the value of human capital, to find ways to accurately measure it, and to ensure the investment in and protection of this human capital. Anything less, and HR...
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2014: the Most Popular Jobs of the Year and What You Need to Land Them
The job market continues to be highly competitive and low on jobs, but 2014 has been good year for many industries. This list shares the most popular jobs across industries and details what you need in order to land these sought-after positions. This way, you can find available jobs that both match your skills and pay well. Dental Hygienists This career requires less study time than...
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8 Interview Room Characters You Should Be Ready for (Part 2)
In the first part of this article, we analyzed the four typical characters that you may find in an interview room. These interview room personalities all have slightly different agendas and perspectives, and each requires a slightly different communication strategy. Below, you can find the next four interview room characters you should be ready for: 1. HR Managers HR managers are an...
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How Do You Stack Up to Other Recruiters on LinkedIn?
According to the 2014 Global Sourcing Survey, 96 percent of recruiters are the proud owners of a LinkedIn account. The survey, conducted by Social Talent and Alexander Mann Solutions, took a look at what 400 sourcers around the world had to say about the importance of LinkedIn in recruiting. Social Talent pulled together this infographic to highlight the most interesting...
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For Greater Interview Success, Hit the Scan Button on Your Inner Radio
I recently uncovered an effective recruiting application for a tool I've been using for years to coach clients through challenges and daunting circumstances of all types. It's a tool that helps people call upon and leverage valuable inner resources that lie dormant, vastly underutilized like muscles that haven't been flexed in years. It's premised on a radio analogy: people are like...
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BrightMove Launches Combined CRM/ATS Offering
BrightMove, a leading provider of on-demand recruiting software for staffing firms, outsourcing providers and corporate HR departments, has announced that it has enhanced the CRM functionality in its on-demand recruiting platform, BrightMove Deliver. The new functionality will enable staffing clients to streamline workflows while providing increased insight and visibility into overall company...
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Infinisource's iSolved Broker Workbench Offers Smooth Client Data Tracking
Infinisource has announced the release of the iSolved Broker Workbench, a set of feature-rich tools and reports within the iSolved human capital management technology that enables brokers to obtain critical visibility into their clients' workforce. Infinisource's relationship with the broker community has allowed it to partner with independent brokers and agencies to help serve their client...
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New Tool Provides Access to Employee Assistance Programs Online
Workers and their families can now request Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services online from their personal electronic devices thanks to the launch of an online tool, from New Directions Behavioral Health, that allows people to open an EAP counseling session and search for a provider. EAPs are designed to help people through major life challenges, including the challenge of time. The...
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Deloitte Releases c*link Employee Engagement Platform Based on Salesforce1 Platform
Deloitte has announced access to c*link, a fully integrated platform created to support the full range of HR services delivery. Deloitte's c*link provides access to HR information, self-service, and help in a mobile-friendly platform. According to Deloitte, the shifting and increasingly online-nature of HR business solutions require a system that can expand and capitalize on growth and...
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Calling All Employers: Support Your Women in the Workforce or Suffer
The year is 2014. Would it surprise you to hear that women are being passed over for key roles because they are ... fertile? Women face many annoyances in the workforce, ranging from sexism to gender discrimination. This talented and well-educated workforce is potentially not reaching its professional goals because of the very nature of its sex. Women have children, and women take maternity...
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Choosing the Right Words for Your Resume
Before jumping into words, let's see the data: a recent study from CareerBuilder found that 68 percent of hiring managers spent less than two minutes reviewing each resume they received, and 17 percent spent less than 30 seconds. That's right: 30 seconds to evaluate whether your carefully-crafted margins and well-thought-out headings were the right fit for their company. With so little...
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Truven Health Study Finds 20 Percent of Benefits Plans to Trigger 'Cadillac' Tax by 2020
Twenty percent of benefit plans will trigger the "Cadillac" tax provision under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the year 2020, according to a new study from Truven Health Analytics. Beginning in 2018, the ACA requires employers to pay a 40 percent tax on the net cost of high-cost health plans. Plans with costs that total more than $10,200 for employee only coverage and $27,500 for family...
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