Employers may want to pay attention to a new CareerBuilder survey that reveals that one in five workers are having trouble making ends meet. After all, financial worries don’t just take a toll on workers’ stress levels: Studies have shown that money-related distress can negatively affect employees’ quality of work - and, ultimately, the company’s bottom line. 

According to the survey of more than 4,400 workers nationwide, 77 percent of workers live paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet, up from 61 percent who said the same last year.  And as many as 22 percent said they’ve missed bill payment in the last year.

You might not be able to manually solve your employees’ financial problems, but you can help them better manage – and feel more in control of –  their finances. As a result, they will be less distracted on the job and more focused on their work: Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on September 1, 2010
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Economy, Survey Results

Due to factors like a struggling economy and advancing technology, more and more workers have been going back to school to advance or brush up on their skills and make themselves more marketable. With this in mind, we were curious as to what skills employers expect candidates to have in this economic climate, and what they’re willing to teach on the job. So, for The Hiring Site’s August contest, we asked all of you to answer the following question: “In an interview situation, what skills do you expect candidates to have already, and what are you willing to teach on the job?”

By responding, not only did five lucky winners get a free class of their choosing from CareerBuilder Institute (a $50 value each), but they provided some interesting answers as to which skills employers expect candidates to possess (or that they think can’t be taught), and which skills they’re more willing to work with employees to develop after the candidate’s already been hired. Let’s take a look.

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Amy Chulik on August 30, 2010
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Contest, Employee Attraction, Interviewing

If reading Amy Chulik’s recent post about how one third of employers use social media to promote their organizations – and one quarter use it to recruit and research potential employees – has you thinking that you should be doing the same, you might want to check out the recent interview between CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Jason Ferrara, and Melissa Murray and Christina Bottis of  Personified. 

As Emerging Media Consultants for CareerBuilder’s consulting arm, Murray and Bottis help companies build and manage their brand presence online to recruit employees and build customer loyalty.  The three recently sat down to discuss in more detail the various ways in which companies are leveraging social media to enhance their employment brands and recruit talent. Read excerpts from the interview below, or listen to the complete audio version of the podcast “How Companies Use Social Media to Recruit” here. Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 30, 2010
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Podcasts, Social Media

While you were remembering to pack your stuffed tiger for that upcoming trip (we’re looking at you, mister),  throwing in a live tiger while you were at it, or breaking your nine-month silence on someone named Tiger, here’s what was happening in the world of workforce management this week…

• Most American workers are satisfied with their pay, a suspicious-sounding survey shows.
• Clearly, Germany is on a quest to ruin everybody’s fun.
• It’s official: Shirley Sherrod and USDA awkwardly amicably end their relationship.
• Doing favors at the office isn’t doing you any favors, says science.
• Happy workers make for more productive workers, an obvious-sounding study reveals.
• “Fantastic” news from the boss could be anything but…
• If you’ve ever been exposed to an awful cover letter, you’ll appreciate this. And finally… Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 27, 2010
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Week in Review

What have companies been doing in response to tough economic times? Eating their feelings with lots of ice cream. Well, believe it or not, many companies have been busy digging into social media — and some are finding hidden treasure. According to a new CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,500 employers and 4,400 workers, 35 percent of companies have been using social media to promote their company in some way. Let’s take a look!

Of this 35 percent of companies:

• One-quarter (25 percent) of these employers said that they are using social media to connect with clients and find new business.
• 21 percent are using it to recruit and research potential employees.
• 13 percent are using social media to strengthen their employment brand.

And it’s not just those Fortune 500 companies getting into social media, either. Businesses of all sizes and industries report using social media to promote their companies:

• 29 percent of organizations with 500 or fewer employees
• 38 percent of companies with 501 to 1,000 employees
• 44 percent of companies with more than 1,000 workers

• The leisure and hospitality industry topped those surveyed, with 57 percent in that industry saying they use social media to promote their business. Leisure and hospitality was followed by 48 percent in the IT industry, 43 percent in the retail industry, and 41 percent in the sales industry saying the same.

Managing your company’s social media strategy

So, a lot of businesses — of all sizes — are trying their hand at social media. The bigger question (and the one some of you may be asking yourselves) is, how are businesses managing all of this? We know involvement in social media doesn’t happen magically; it takes people and time and dedication. And, judging by survey results, there’s no one way of doing it:

• 
• Posted by: Amy Chulik on August 21, 2010
• There are 3 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Attraction, Employer Advice, Social Media, Survey Results

While you were busy taking your bank-robbing business elsewhere, thankyouverymuch, doing your part to help more Americans develop heart disease, or taking some of the heat off of Dr. Laura, here’s what was happening in the world of workforce management this week…

• Is news that women aren’t moving up in the workforce like men really news?
• This might be the cuuuuutest workplace story EVAH!
• Unlimited vacation time with no catch? (Suspicious!)
• It was only a matter of time before America’s favorite unruly employee got his own reality show.
• A Massachusetts teacher gets, ahem, schooled on the dangers of Facebook.
• Guess what won’t be on Oprah’s list of favorite things this year…
• First it was God. Then it was the Web. Now, apparently, creativity is dead, too.
• The upside to high unemployment?
• CBS wants all of America to watch you get passed over for a promotion.  And finally… Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 20, 2010
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Week in Review

A recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times about Chicago Police Sgt. Jeffrey Allen’s lawsuit against the city of Chicago piqued my interest — not because he was suing the city of Chicago, but because he was suing due to the fact that he hadn’t gotten compensated for the off-duty time he spent working on his Blackberry.

As we’ve mentioned before on The Hiring Site, access to mobile devices are changing the way people work — employees are working from their smart phones while driving, on the train, or in the grocery line — and even if they don’t want to be working during all hours and from all places, bosses often expect them to. Some workers, particularly of the younger Millenials generation, are even sleeping next to their smartphones for fear of missing out on a single minute of Internet action.

And now, with this lawsuit, a new question comes to the forefront; a question that we’ve been building up to as the use of smart phones in workers’ every day lives has rapidly increased: Should workers be compensated for the work they do on company-owned mobile devices during non-work hours?

• 
• Posted by: Amy Chulik on August 19, 2010
• There are 2 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Engagement, Technology

The recent media overkill coverage of Steven Slater – the Jetblue employee and future reality TV star who became mad as hell on the job last week and wasn’t going to take it anymore - is just the latest in several high-profile incidents of employees behaving badly. We took some time to reflect on this and four other recent stories of employees whose antics caused some very public embarrassment for their (now former) employers – and how those employers were able to maintain their employment brand image in the aftermath. Take a look…

1. Jetblue Flight Attendant Leaves Passengers in Shock

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 18, 2010
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Branding

With multiple reports lately discussing how employers are having difficulty filling open positions – despite the high unemployment rate – now is the perfect time to invest in an employee referral program (ERP) – whether that entails creating one from scratch or enhancing your current one.

Referrals make up 26.7 percent of all external hires, making referrals the number one resource for them, according to the 2010 CareerXRoads Sources of Hire study. 

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 16, 2010
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employer Advice

While you were busy losing ground in your bid for “employee of the month”, providing too-good-to-be-true water cooler gossip, or hoping the other two stories would detract from your little workplace mishap, here’s what else was happening in the world of workforce management this week…
Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 13, 2010
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Week in Review