Recruiter Today | Recruiting Trends and Tips for Recruiters - Page 253

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Popcorn and Child Labor Don't Mix

What comes to mind when you think of child labor? Do you picture children working in sweatshops in distant countries? Or do you imagine a long-lost chapter in American history in which kids toiled at sewing machines on the Lower East Side? The definitions of child labor are more specific than you might have imagined, but it is the obligation of employers to understand the entirety of child...

YouthBuild's New Recipients Off and Running

Who is the U.S. recruiting? Do your recruiting practices mirror the government's? Or are they quite different? In an attempt to help young people have more possibilities at a young age, the U.S. department has announced a list of recipients for grants to help employ and train young workers. The Department of Labor announced an award of $30,696,643 for its YouthBuild programs. Funds will...

The Jobless Diaspora

Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one the stars. --Frederick Langbridge (1849–1923), A Cluster of Quiet Thoughts What optimism is there to see beyond the mud of rising unemployment rates? Although the recruiter would rather hear about job growth, on a day when one is peculiarly given to feeling optimistic, one might see beyond the economic decline. Looking past...

Dogs, Sticks and Recruiters

—How an old dog can teach you new recruitment tricks "Walk softly and carry a big stick"—Teddy Roosevelt What does or should a recruiter have in common with a dog chomping down on and loping along with a stick in its mouth? More to the point, what can a recruiter learn from a stick-fetching and wood-toting dog? SOFT WALK, BIG STICK/Photo: Michael Moffa To answer that, it...

Finding A Job In Today's Market

Less than 4 years ago, a job candidate with a decent resume and little or no experience could walk into virtually any interview knowing that an offer was inevitable. Candidates would send out 10 resumes hoping to get 2 or 3 responses, but they would instead get 20 responses, many from head-hunters, whose business was booming like never before. Back then, it was almost impossible to find a...

Resume Presentation is Key

Key words are important when a résumé is being scanned, particularly when being scanned by software which a very few companies are doing now. However, when a human being is reviewing resumes, which is 98% of the time, resume presentation also plays an important role in winning an interview over the other candidates who are applying for the same position as you. When a resume looks almost...

Is Your Resume Hurting or Helping You Get That Interview?

You spend hours finding just the right words for your resume. You struggle over which font to select and what "action" words work best. But, do you know the way you format your resume and the information you include can undo all your time and energy? NEVER – I mean NEVER – use columns or tables. Most companies and many recruiters use databases to keep track of applicants. When...

Linkedin Year in Review and Profile Stats

With Linkedin's IPO scheduled, they are apparently in the dual mode of increasing profits and delivering new product innovations. Their product development appears to have kicked into overdrive - recently, there have been new tools and services announced regularly. Two relatively new services useful to recruiters are the new "Year in Review" tool and the new profile stats tool. Recruiters...

Split Considerations

Agency recruiters, especially those in smaller recruiting firms or working for themselves, often "split" fees with other companies or external recruiters. The aim is to improve recruiting bandwidth and coverage on a requisition, especially when it is a position outside your core competency. Conversely, by recruiting on splits, a recruiter can immediately have business to work on without spending...

The World's First Recruiter

THE ANCIENT ART OF RECRUITING/Image: Michael Moffa "And the woman said, 'The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."—Genesis, 3:13 Quick: Who was the world's first recruiter? Don't think, just answer—in terms of a specific real, legendary or mythological individual and/or a specific category. Your fast answer may reveal something about how you see your own profession, about how your...

New Jobs in Banking and Possibly Beyond

Recruiters know that hiring practices are complicated things to predict. A company may continue hiring new employees even when facing great pressure from public media or private investors. A curious, contemporary example of this potentially incongruous-seeming influx of hiring is currently seen in the actions of financial institutions. Although the crash of the housing market disrupted...

Where Work is Sparse and Getting Sparser

"Well, it's a great time to stay in school," said a brave mother to her child. She tried to put a positive spin on the job market her college graduate child is about enter into. As unemployment continues to impact every community in the United States, many people are trying to avoid the job market by various creative or risky measures. These people's choices are not necessarily reflected...

Racist Hiring Practices Reprimanded

Have you ever recommended a job candidate and suspected that racism was the reason that the applicant was not offered the job? Proving such discrimination is another story. It often takes years to prove that a company has systematically practiced discrimination in its hiring practices. When the government identifies and condemns such behavior, one can be certain that hundreds of hours of...

NABE Revises Economic Forecast Upward; Unemployment Still High

The NABE (National Association for Business Economics) recently revised its forecast for economic growth for 2011 into 2012. The survey of economists forecast that gross domestic product will grow 3.3% in 2011, which is a revision upward from the 2.6% they forecast in November. They predict labor markets to improve throughout the year. Their forecast for labor markets call for monthly payroll...

The Impact of the "Flynn Effect" on Recruitment

—Have globally skyrocketing IQs affected applicant screening? "It is as if some unseen hand propelled scores upward at an unvarying rate between 1952 and 1982, a rate of 6 IQ points per decade, with individual nations scattering randomly around that value... Culture-reduced tests of fluid intelligence show gains of as much as 20 points per generation (30 years); performance tests show...

NCO University Recognized for its Training

What did the last training you went to teach you? What did it feel like? Were the subjects applicable to your everyday work life? Often trainings create lasting impressions for employees, determining how much they feel valued as a worker, as well as providing invaluable information. The time that goes into training sessions frequently passes without too much appreciation, but the magazine...

Manufacturing Shoulders the Brunt of Mass-Layoffs

As soon as lay-offs become an "event", it can't be good. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its figures from this past month's unemployment benefit claims due to mass lay-off events. Although the numbers suggest that unemployment is down in most industries, the numbers of unemployed workers this past January remains staggering. Compared to January 2010, this year workers in...

Google Tweaks Search... and your Job Postings?

Last night, Google announced a major improvement in the way they rank search results. Search results have been typically easy to manipulate and the result is that commercial sites focused on technical optimization do better than sites with high-quality, original content and research. These new tweaks by Google to its algorithms will apparently focus results on original, high-quality content....

Managing Third Party Recruiter Calls

Corporate recruiters often get bombarded with rather generic requests from staffing and recruiting firms. Fielding these third party recruiter calls and managing the relationships can become a big part of a corporate recruiter's job. Especially in this economy, third party recruiters are of course scrambling to dig up business (which really should be commended.) Third party recruiters...

Resilience Attracts Business

As recruiters evaluate how the economy is influencing the communities they serve and the companies they promote, a term that might have come up is "resilience." What resources help one community survive when one area of business closes shop? Which accounts that you work with continue to find ways to grown even though nationwide business is down? As you plan ahead for these uncertain times,...

"Right Thing to Do" in California

"What is the right thing to do?" This question weighs on the mind of many of us as we adapt to changing conditions in the economy and the environment. But very few of us are making decisions that determine what is the right thing to spend millions of dollars on. The Secretary of Labor Hilary Solis is in the unique position of determining on a daily basis where the nation's money should go. ...

Compensation Off-Kilter with Productivity

Does it seem like workers are frustrated with a gnawing sensation that something is awry? This itchy feeling that paychecks don't quite match up with work accomplished has particular validity in this decade. Recruiters are undoubtedly aware of this as they communicate companies' salaries to job candidates. There is often an accompanying sense that salaries are not growing, even as...

The Self-Employed Recruiter: Chicken-Fox or Chicken?

—An analysis of why there are so few self-employed recruiters "About 12,900 managers and specialists were self-employed, working as consultants to public and private employers."—Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Handbook, 2010-2011 (a figure representing only 1.4% of the total number of human resource and recruitment specialists) "Average is best"—the gist of one...

Recruiters: Follow the Money

During a troubled economy, where is there economic growth? Like stockbrokers or business analysts, recruiters may wish to take note of where people continue to spend their money even when their salaries suffer. While it's best not to gear your business around short term hiring trends, keeping an eye to future hot areas of employment is a very good practice. Following potential business growth...

What's in a Paycheck?

Maybe you began recruiting ten years ago. When you first began and told a job candidate that they were offered a salary of $4o,000, the salary meant something different than the same one does today. As a recruiter, it's important to understand what salaries can actually buy in today's market. The government analyzes this reality for the average worker under the term "real" to determine how...

Outreach to Workers Aching to Go Green

Overheard on the subway in New York City: "I wish I knew how to install solar panels." There is a certain mystique surrounding many of the jobs that have been identified as key to helping the environment. How does one tap into this growing industry? How does your knowledge base translate to helping protect the Earth when you go to work in the morning. (Or do you go to work at a different...

Predicting Panic

"The only thing to fear is fear itself," proclaimed Franklin D. Roosevelt. He condemned this fear as "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror." Speaking of the Great Depression in a speech to the nation, Roosevelt urged U.S. citizens to take action to change the economy. Fear continues to affect the economy in this era, according to cutting edge analysts. In fact, the results of fear,...

Must Resume Faxing Be Taxing?

"My fax machine ate my resume"—good excuse Internet faxing, iPhone app-faxing and their ilk have made faxing less taxing—in terms of time, energy and expense. Yet, some recruiters and job hunters reading this may through unfamiliarity, lack of alternative technology access or simple Luddite angst and stubbornness still be using conventional fax machines as their resume well and...

Had a Great Interview? Now What?

I almost never hear from a client or candidate that the interview bombed. Most interviewers are polite and make the candidate feel good about their experience and give them the impression there is a chance, if not a good chance that they will be called back for a 2nd interview. How can you increase your chances of getting to the next step if you feel you gave all you could in the interview? A...

Hiding Your Linkedin Connections

A lot of people advocate hiding your connections on Linkedin. The obvious reason here is to not let your competitors see who you are connecting with. It is feasible that your competitors could spend time Linkedin-stalking you, stealing away your precious connections and business opportunities. For people who are not very active on Linkedin, hiding Linkedin connections might be a good idea. If...

Production Prices on the Rise

Although there is a buzz about there needing to be more products produced in the United States to stimulate the economy, this task is neither cheap nor easy at any step of the way. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced that it has become a little bit more costly to create products in the U.S. at all of the various stages of production. According to the BLS, in January, the Producer...

Recruiters Face Roadblocks from Fully Utilizing Social Media

If you feel supported as you incorporate social media into your work recruiting new talent, consider yourself lucky. Many recruiters find that they are not able to fully explore the possibilities of social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn because they are discouraged by their employers. StepStone Solutions conducted a global survey of HR professionals to see how firms encourage or...

Dawn of the Robot Recruiter

"A pretty mechanical toy"—Lord (Herbert) Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War, assessing the newly introduced World War I weapon, the tank "It seems to me that the Japanese society (government) is preferring the robot-option to others, since the government is not making major reforms to increase children and immigrants" —Shinji Yamashige, Associate Professor, Graduate...

Sweet Spot Suburbs

As a recruiter, part of the job is encouraging job candidates to relocate for a terrific job. Once the excitement of landing the job drifts away a bit, the question for the new employee becomes, "where am I going to live?" Recruiters may be noticing that more and more people are choosing to live in first-tier suburbs, close to the cities where they will work. Trends suggest that many workers...

No Progress in Helping Poor Families

"Back when I was a kid, winter was really winter . . ." These types of reminisces cloud adulthood. It's hard to tell how much of your memory you can trust. Sometimes, statistics help clarify the disparities. In the case of the economy, we all know that we are facing hard times, but how do current programs to help destitute families compare to twenty years ago? Have the programs become...

Wrong Turns on the Road to "Green" Cars

Do you represent any cutting-edge companies? Do you think that their popularity is sustainable, or will their innovations quickly be replaced with something better? As recruiters, you may want to investigate what experts are saying about the cutting-edge fields you help every day. You might find some surprising information that might cause a diminishing need for you to find new employees to...

Skimboarding Physics for Recruiters (Part II)

"There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch"— title of 1977 book by Milton Friedman, Nobel prize-winning economist A handbook of "Skimboarding Physics for Recruiters" would be quite thick. It would have to include applications to recruiting of the key physics principles that make all of the following and other skimboarding orientations, techniques and maneuvers...

Recruiting Internationally? Think Local.

Recruiting in your own backyard is hard work; accessing a qualified candidate pool in another country can seem like insurmountable challenge. Try to use the approach below to recruit internationally as well as if you grew up in the town over. The largest companies in America developed comprehensive approaches to international recruitment over the past twenty years. Recruitment on a large scale...

Are You Engaged in Social Media Marketing and Online Self Promotion?

If you are currently unemployed or maybe just want to position yourself for a better opportunity while currently employed you should realize that "A large majority of companies are moving away from job boards and toward social media as their primary recruiting tool. It is estimated that 92% of companies who are actively hiring this year, will "currently use or plan to" use social networks...

Skimboarder Physics for Recruiters (Part I)

"L = mvr, where L is the angular momentum, m is the mass of the small object, v is the magnitude of its velocity, and r is the separation between the objects."—from a physics webinar, Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville You don't need a Ph.D. in physics to be a good recruiter. But knowing something about the skimboarder physics of surfing over thin films of...

Consumers Face Changing Prices

Here's the good news... It's a good time to buy some curtain rods. A terrific time to quit smoking cigarettes. A lovely time to explore your neighborhood instead of going anywhere exotic. A fine time to join a tennis club and a decent time to buy some new underwear. Unfortunately, we all need to eat, and those prices are going up, alongside the price of gasoline and medical care. The...

Wisconsin Workers Rally for their Rights

What lessons can be learned from the tens of thousands of demonstrators in Wisconsin? Men and women are rallying to try stop a bill in which unions would lose their right to collective bargaining. Some of the workers spend their days helping children learn U.S. history and algebra. Others climb twenty sets of stairs to put out fires. Other demonstrators work nights in hospitals caring for...

Women Workers Push for More Flexibility

One way to think about improving the condition of every worker is to begin by improving the quality of the workday for traditionally oppressed groups. If life got better for these workers, the changes would trickle up to people with more access to hegemonic power. These week the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau hosted a conference on best flexibility practices for hourly-wage...

Prices of Both Imports and Exports Rise

Next time you meet someone from another country, and you are looking for common ground for a conversation, try kvetching about the price of imports. The price of imported products went up all over the world during the past fiscal year. Shopkeepers struggling to stay in business surely aren't the cause for these high prices. Most of the hikes in cost are attributed to the spiking costs of ...

Recruiting Software: Six Questions to Ask Vendors

Selecting a new recruiting software system for your company doesn't happen very often. Additionally, recruiting software can be expensive, difficult to implement, and (most egregiously) force a high learning curve on already time-strapped recruiters. When you do have the chance to change up your technology, it's important to do it right. It is easy to have your selection process mired in...

I'm Like...Not Getting the Job?

"Like, oh my God!..Like—totally.. Encino is like so bitchin' .. There's like the galleria.. And like all these like really great shoe stores.. I love going into like clothing stores and stuff... I like to buy the neatest mini-skirts and stuff ..Its like so bitchin' cuz like everybody's like super-super nice... Its like so bitchin'..."—Frank Zappa's song "Valley Girl",...

Hush-Hush Trade Agreements

As representatives of the U.S. government compete to gain voters' confidence that they are in favor of governmental transparency, it seems that the government does not think the public need to know the ins and outs of international trade agreements. Recruiters, whose business practices may be affected by these agreements, may want to know the details of these proposed agreements before they...

The 12 Commandments of Job Search

I was asked today after making a comment on salary negotiations, "How do you answer the money question?" I thought it funny at first as I reflected on the question and took a moment to think about the current state of the employment sector and a lot of talk that I have been hearing as of late. After taking time to sit and ponder, this is what I came up with in the big picture... First,...