The Hiring Site

Archive for March, 2010

Tweeting When You Should Be Digging? New Survey May Have You Rethinking That Social Recruiting Strategy

It goes without saying (at least, I hope it does) that you should know 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.

…Which is why you might find the recent findings from online advertising network Chitika interesting. Chitika recently studied users on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Digg, to find that each social site has a distinct makeup of users with unique tastes.

For instance, Twitterers mostly consume news, MySpace users want games and entertainment, Facebookers are into both news and community, and Digg’s audience has a mixed bag of interests.

Among the most interesting findings from the study:

  • Nearly half the traffic (47%) that Twitter generates falls into the news category
  • Facebook users top interests appear to be news (which accounts for 28% of traffic), community (17%) and how-to/DIY (13%).
  • MySpace users are most concerned with video games (28%) and celebrity and entertainment content (23%).
  • Digg users have nearly equal parts interest in news (18%), celebrity/entertainment (18 %), and video game content (17%), but the majority of their interests (26%) fall into “other.”

What do these findings mean to you as a recruiter? Continue Reading…

One Last Longing Look at March’s Recruitment News and Gossip Madness

March Madness is heating up, but we’re already looking ahead to next month. But we’ll allow ourselves just one last look back at the news, gossip, and trends of March before we don our raincoats and mudslide into April.

Money Woes

Continue Reading…

Oh, This is Awkward…How to Decline an Employee’s Social Networking Friend Request

Recently, a colleague of mine over at The Work Buzz answered a reader’s concern that, I suspect, is becoming more and more common in today’s workplace:

What’s the best way to decline a co-worker’s social networking friend request?

Certainly, there are valid reasons for following or “friending” your colleagues on social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo or Twitter; however, many people believe in keeping their professional and personal lives separate. A perfectly valid and reasonable choice, of course, but it can make for an awkward situation when that Facebook friendship request comes around…

And when said request is from a colleague someone you manage or are superior to, the situation can be that much more sensitive. While you might not feel comfortable having access to information on your employee’s personal life, this concern might not have occurred to your employee, and ignoring or declining their request could send the wrong message.

That said, we here at The Hiring Site decided to look at this issue from the manager’s viewpoint, and give some tips for declining an employee’s social networking friendship request – without damaging the workplace relationship: Continue Reading…

In Case You Missed It: News for the Week of March 26

While you were busy negotiating a reality show with A&E, participating in the most awesome March Madness bracket ever, or planning your trip to Orlando/buying a new cape…here’s what was happening in the world of hiring and recruiting this week…

The Most Important Factor in Determining Talent Compensation — And Why You Need a Strategy

What is your compensation strategy — or do you have one at all? In many workplaces, employers are often just throwing darts to ultimately decide upon the monetary figure which becomes an employee’s salary. Last week, we asked all of you to answer the following question for a chance to win a Talent Compensation Portal report for two job positions: “What do you think is the most important factor in determining compensation?”

We received some excellent and diverse answers from you, our readers, and here are a few:

Continue Reading…

FOX Television’s Recruitment Strategy: No Different from Anyone Else’s, Really

Hearing that the FOX network may announce on May 17 that it is recruiting Conan O’Brien (who famously severed ties with former employer NBC recently) for a new TV gig perked our ears over here at The Hiring Site for two reasons…

One, we’ve been going through serious “Celebrity Secrets” withdrawal, and two (because we always have talent recruitment on the brain…don’t be jealous), FOX’s move actually mirrors two current recruiting trends, which, just for a little hump-day fun, I thought I’d point out…

  1. Recruiting Candidates Going Through Career Transitions: Of course, while Conan’s departure from NBC wasn’t exactly a layoff, it was a case of NBC failing to recognize a good thing while it had it find the right fit for someone with Conan’s skills. By jumping on the opportunity to negotiate a deal with the newly unemployed Conan, FOX seems to be going the same route as many employers and recruiters lately and sourcing talent that other companies were forced to let go.  While it might not be as simple as picking up the latest issue of Variety to find that a coveted candidate is suddenly available, many recruiters have found luck by going to outplacement firms to look for quality candidates with real-world work experience and transferable skills who are making the transition to new jobs or careers. Continue Reading…

U.S. Employers Dish on Their Best Sources of Hire in 2009 and Job Opening Outlook for 2010

Someone whispering to someone else, cupped handsWell, kind of. If you’re imagining a bunch of ladies sitting around spilling their deepest, darkest employee secrets a la “The View,” replace that image with an independent report obtained with survey results from 41 companies and representing a total of 176,000 positions and 1.8 million U.S.-based employees in CareerXroads’ 9th Annual Source of Hire Study.

Still, the study’s findings are pretty interesting — and include survey results about how many companies plan to fill job openings this year,best sources of hire, and information on how companies can use and leverage this sources-of-hire data.

Continue Reading…

What Does It All Mean? Making Sense of the New Jobs, Healthcare Bills

With the recent passing of two major bills, the jobs bill (signed by President Obama on March 18) and the healthcare bill (signed by the House of Representatives on Sunday),  The Hiring Site thought it important to educate our readers on the specifics of these bills and the implications they will have on you as an employer.  Below is a summary of each bill, what the passing of the bill means for you, and where to go for further information: 

The Jobs Bill – HIRE (Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment) Act

HIRE was signed by the president March 18th. This bill is written to positively affect investment both in equipment and hiring. Business investment in equipment ripples through the economy, affecting suppliers’ inventories and their ability to produce and fulfill orders. Waiving taxes and giving credits to business is intended to loosen some of the hiring barriers, especially in a tight economy where a hire is seen as an expense rather than an investment in future growth. The main areas of focus include:

  1. Waiving the 6.2 percent social security tax for each new worker until December 31, 2010
  2. Getting up to $1,000 in tax credit for each new worker on payroll
  3. Company can write off up to $250k of new equipment in 2010 rather than depreciate over several years

Based on CareerBuilder research, employers report two of their top initiatives for 2010 are replacing lower-performing employees and rehiring laid-off workers. Employers are focusing their hiring efforts on filling jobs that drive revenue, evidenced by the year-over-year increase in job postings in the following areas:

  • Business development posting are up 4 percent
  • Sales postings are up 11 percent
  • Marketing postings are up 40 percent
  • Government postings are up 16 percent
  • Education postings are up 18 percent
  • Entry level postings are up 47 percent

For further information and analysis…

The Healthcare Bill – The Health Care &  Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010*

The healthcare legislation, as it is currently written, has elements taking effect both immediately through 2014 and beyond. Regardless, this bill will touch every business at some point and could have impact on hiring. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates 95 percent of legal residents will have insurance by 2019 under the current bill. The total cost of the bill is $940 billion over 10 years ,with $143 billion in deficit savings over the same time frame. The main points of the legislation include:

  • Immediate impact:  Health insurance companies barred from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions; children permitted to stay on parents’ insurance until their 26th birthday; indoor tanning tax of 10 percent
  • Effective in 2013:  New Medicare taxes go into effect for families with income over $250k and individuals over $200k; Medicare tax on “unearned” income such as dividends and interest; medical device excise tax imposed
  • Effective in 2014:  Insurance exchanges where individuals and companies can purchase health insurance will be created; subsidies begin for low- to middle-income people to purchase health insurance; employers with 50 or more employees must provide affordable health coverage or pay a fine up to $3k per employee; employers with fewer than 50 employees would be exempt from health care fines

The aging population continues to drive strong health care hiring numbers:

  • The health care industry has added over 631,000 jobs since the start of the recession.
  • Health care added 32,000 jobs in February 2010 alone
  • CareerBuilder experienced a 4 percent increase in health care postings in Q4 2009 focused on physician office jobs and home health care jobs.
  • More insured Americans will mean larger patient load driving the need for many different new health care roles.

For more information and resources, you can check out the following: 

*Based on the version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives Sunday, March 21st. Continue Reading…

Employment News for the Week of March 19

While you were busy trying to take ownership of your party name back, denying a link between your new weight loss plan and Scientology, or having a little trouble preparing your St. Patrick’s Day meal…here’s what was happening in the world of hiring and recruiting this week…

Building Trust With Candidates Using New Media: The Old Rules Still Apply

Once again, the worlds of marketing and recruiting have collided.  You’ve probably heard (and if you haven’t, I’m telling you now) that one of the most important elements of using social media effectively is to be authentic…but how, exactly, do you do that?

Mashable’s Greg Ferenstein recently addressed this issue on a blog post called “The Science of Building Trust with Social Media,” talking about how psychological behaviors of social media users can help guide companies in their marketing efforts.  

The same lessons, however, apply to recruiting efforts – that is, the same way companies might use social media to build trust with their customers can be applied to building trust with employees and candidates.  Here are some of the key takeaways of his article, from a recruiting standpoint:

A Quick Response is Better Than No Response at All
Because telling forms of trust – like voice intonation and body language – do not transfer over email, job seekers will instead base their opinion of how trustworthy you, as an employer, are on how quickly you respond.  Does this mean answering every job seeker question that gets posted to your company’s Facebook page?  

Actually, yes, it does. 

Even if you don’t have the time to give the most thought-out response to every single question right away, it is important that you show current and potential employees that their voice is being heard.  The least you can – and should – do is write a short post to acknowledge that you’ve seen the message and will answer the question in more detail at a later time.  “It is better to respond to a long Facebook message ‘acknowledging’ that you received the message, rather than to wait until there’s time to send a more thorough first message,” Ferenstein says. Continue Reading…

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