Archive for March, 2009

They’re not exactly love letters — but they just might steal your candidate’s heart. In fact, you might even fall in love with CareerBuilder.com’s My Letters tool if you’re really lonely. Continue reading

The gist:

• 
• Posted by: Amy Chulik on March 30, 2009
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Free Tools You Can Use

With many organizations restructuring their workforces to accommodate increasing pressure to “do more with less,” Profiles International conducted a study of nearly 800 business leaders nationwide recently with the goal to identify the primary challenge these organizations face when implementing their restructuring plans.

The company released the findings of its Reorganization & Recovery Survey yesterday – with some very surprising numbers.  Its key finding was that “most executives are unprepared to properly measure the strength of their workforce and affect workforce change.”  In other words, these business seemed know very little about the hiring and candidate selection practices at their own organizations.  Shouldn’t that, um, be kind of…important?

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 30, 2009
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Engagement, Survey Results

If the business world were 80s teen flicks (and I’m not saying it’s not…), your employees may feel like Say Anything‘s Lloyd Dobler right about now…especially if they’ve recently seen their benefits, bonuses or even pay taken away as companies try to save money. 

Much like John Cusack’s lovable, love-weary everyman lamenting, “I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen,” your employees may be feeling  little defeated if they’ve been putting 110 percent of their efforts into their work only to get little to nothing back in return. 

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 25, 2009
• There are 2 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Engagement, Philanthropy, Retention

CareerBuilder recently launched an ad contest for job seekers to create their own “It’s Probably Time” 45-second spot (a la our Super Bowl ad).  Go here to view the 10 finalists and vote for your favorite one. 

Even if you have no interest in voting, it’s worth checking out.  At the very least, you’ll get a cringe kick out of watching some of these submissions; however, you might also gain a little insight into what makes passive job seekers run to – and from - certain jobs and companies.  (They say every joke has its grain of truth after all…)

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 24, 2009
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Contest, Fun and Games

A co-worker recently pointed me to a very interesting blog post by Phil Johnson, president of PJA Advertising, who writes on Ad Age’s “Small Agency Diary” that his office recently renovated and changed from a closed-office environment to a a completely open floor plan with no private offices, with the goal of creating a truly collaborative work space. Continue reading

• 
• Posted by: Amy Chulik on March 24, 2009
• There are 34 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Economy, Employee Engagement, Employment Branding, Events, Generational Hiring, Retention, Social Media, Survey Results, Talent Acquisition, Technology

One more thing to add to the list of things to blame on the economy…

Six-in-ten workers (60 percent) over the age of 60 say they are putting off their retirement due to the impact of the U.S. financial crisis on their long-term savings, according to a survey released earlier this week by CareerBuilder.  According to the press release:

One in ten workers (11 percent) over the age of 60 who are putting off retirement say that the decrease to their savings may now cause them to never retire, while 73 percent think it will take them up to 6 years of extra work to recoup their lost savings. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) feels they can make their money back by working an additional year or two.

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 23, 2009
• There are 4 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Generational Hiring, Retention, Survey Results

Inspired by Entertainment Weekly’s ode to history’s great “bromances” (which was inspired by today’s release of the new comedy “I Love You, Man“), I decided to pay tribute to another rarely celebrated faux romance: That between manager and employee. 

I thought it would be a nice change of pace from the conversations about employer/employee relations that tend to focus on the negative.  (And…what can I say? It’s Friday.)  

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 20, 2009
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Engagement, Fun and Games

I recently posted the first part of of “7 Job Seeker Questions You Didn’t See Coming.” These questions are really to get you thinking more creatively about the types of questions that may be thrown at you before, during, or even after an interview. Continue reading

• 
• Posted by: Amy Chulik on March 19, 2009
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Engagement, Interviewing, Retention, Talent Acquisition

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I imagine a great majority of you spent the weekend celebrating responsibly(?) with green beer… Perhaps some of you were (like Amy Chulik and myself) at the SXSW Interactive conference (stay tuned for details!) …Still, others were likely strategically preparing for another early spring classic: March Madness.

Speaking of which…Today, CareerBuilder released its survey on workers who participate in March Madness office pools.  According to the survey of nearly 8,000 workers nationwide, 18 percent of workers said they have participated in March Madness pools at the office, while others have participated in slightly less traditional workplace bets – placing money on co-workers’ cholesterol numbers, who would be named Pope, and who could win a burrito-eating contest, to name a few.

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 17, 2009
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Engagement, Survey Results

When it comes to sourcing new, top talent, are outplacement firms the recruiter’s best friend? 

Several months ago, I wrote a post about how other companies’ losses can be a recruiter’s gain.  That is to say, the employee that one downsizing company is forced to let go can be another company’s next high performer.

Then today over on Fistful of Talent, recruiting and networking expert Jennifer McClure went one better, saying that recruiters should look to outplacement firms as a resource for finding these high performers. 

Continue Reading…

• 
• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on March 11, 2009
• There are 4 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Talent Acquisition