Archive for the 'Events' Category

Day one of SHRM is a wrap! The day’s conference highlight was an opening keynote discussion with Jack Welch, who described HR professionals as his personal heroes. Among the business writer’s other notable soundbites, below are some of my personal favorites:

• HR should be as important as the CFO. How do you do this? Deliver.
• Jack Welch’s tough love advice for HR: Do not be a victim. Make change and impact.
• HR is important in good times but defines a company in bad times.
• The number one thing HR can do to elevate status: raise the bar by developing and training the team.
• Government involvement in corporate bonuses is stupid. Top talent will always follow the money.
• Get voice and communicate like hell. Let people know what’s going on every step of the way.
• See everyone as a teacher around you and take from the best.
• People buy into change because they understand it and know what’s in it for them.
• The only way to win is with creative thinkers and innovation. Act faster and smarter.
• Trust. Earn it everyday.
• There is no such thing as work/life balance, just work/life choices. Make the choices that you are passionate about.

Meanwhile, at the expo, CareerBuilder featured a Top Chef Reception featuring celebrity chefs Brian Malarkey, Casey Thompson and Richard Blais of Bravo TV’s hit reality show “Top Chef“. Check back in the coming days for the recipes for all the delicious treats they prepared.

Were you at the opening day of SHRM? What were your reactions? Anyone get spotted by our secret shopper for wearing your CareerBuilder beads? Don’t forget to check out our virtual SHRM experience site, where we’re constantly adding new video, or stop by and say hello.

• Posted by: Stephanie Gaspary on June 29, 2009
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• Categories: Events

It has been almost four years since Hurricane Katrina, and thanks to the dedication and hard work of residents and volunteers from all around the globe, downtown New Orleans is flourishing again.  Despite this progress, though, there are many residential neighborhoods outside the downtown area still in the process of rebuilding. This year SHRM offered its attendees the opportunity to work on a service project helping those in need, sponsored by CareerBuilder.

Roughly 75 SHRM attendees, including 20 CareerBuilder employees, teamed up with Beacon of Hope, a non-profit organization founded by Denise Thornton, whose entire Lakeview neighborhood flooded after the levee at the 17th Street Canal breached in the aftermath of Katrina.  Beacon of Hope’s mission is to coordinate and facilitate the infrastructural repairs needed to be done in order to make a neighborhood viable.

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• Posted by: Stephanie Gaspary on June 28, 2009
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• Categories: Events, Philanthropy

After close to 12 months of planning, SHRM 2009 is finally upon us. SHRM is always an exciting time for us, and it’s our largest event to interact with customers and prospects. Once again we’ve tried to pull out all the stops to ensure everyone has a great experience. SHRM is not only a time to educate employers on our evolving solutions designed to drive business success in this changing economy, but also a time to kick back and have some fun. This year the CareerBuilder team is also packing in time to give back to the local New Orleans community alongside other SHRM attendees, by working with Beacon of Hope to rebuild homes in Gentilly, LA.

With all the activity over the next few days, we built a virtual site to keep you up to date with everything happening at the CareerBuilder booth and the conference as a whole. This site is designed for all of you at the SHRM conference, and all of you who were unable to make the trip this year.

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• Posted by: Stephanie Gaspary on June 26, 2009
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• Categories: Events

Come experience an exciting roundup of events, games and learning opportunities at CareerBuilder booth #2037. To see the full schedule, vist: www.careerbuilder.com/SHRM2009.

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• Posted by: Stephanie Gaspary on June 2, 2009
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• Categories: Events

March is officially over, but we’re still shaking our head over, laughing at, or confused about some of its newsworthy — or not so newsworthy — events (and we’re sneaking this in from February because it’s worth a watch). Here’s a quick look back at the madness and the “meh” of that in-like-a-lion-out-like-a-lamb month before April — and how it’s been affecting you and your business.

More FREE stuff for you! In addition to highlights and how-to’s on our My Letters tool, we picked the finalists in our “It’s Probably Time” contest. Best of all, you still have six days to vote on your favorite video! Have your say and help us pick a great one.

Oh, and FYI, your next chance to score free stuff is coming up really, really, soon.

4 million jobs. Think the stimulus plan won’t affect you and your business? You may be surprised. We launched Stimulus Hiring in March — with a goal of helping you understand how your business can take advantage of the stimulus plan and create more revenue and jobs. If you missed the conversation, read up here.

We got a bit romantic. Okay, well, we didn’t, specifically, but we did wax poetic about the 10 greatest on-screen workplace “romances” (strictly platonic, of course). Dwight Shrute and Michael Scott, anyone?

Surfing at work — Do you care? We brought up a subject that’s not bound to go away anytime soon — your employees’ Internet usage at work. The discussion got a bit heated, and what the comments really conveyed is that you all have a LOT of differing opinions on this. The world’s changing due to technology, and while some employers are recognizing those changes, others are shying away from them. What’s your take on it?

Retirement? Maybe not. A CareerBuilder survey found that a whopping 60 percent of people over the age of 60 are being forced to postpone retirement due to the financial crisis and its impact on their long-term savings. Are you one of them?

The Interviewer’s Chair. Oh, how the tables have turned on employers. Job seekers are asking more questions than ever before, and they may throw some curveballs at you. Are you ready? We posted 7 Job Seeker Questions You Didn’t See Coming, here and here.

Harmless fun or lost productivity? About one-fifth of you have been wrapped up in March Madness office pools… and also less, uh, traditional polls, betting around such things as co-workers’ cholesterol numbers, who would be named Pope, and who could win a burrito-eating contest. Does your company participate or find them distracting?

We rounded out the month with a healthy dose of Fortune’s most-admired companies chatter and a debate on Millionaire Matchmaker and recruiter envy.

Lending a hand and looking up. Last but certainly not least, we talked about — yes — a bright spot in our current economy! No, we’re serious. Oh, and we talked about the importance of your business giving back to the community. Complete with a Lloyd Dobler/”Say Anything” reference.

And I think a movie about a girl and a pen is a perfect way to end this blog post. Whew… did we miss anything?

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on April 1, 2009
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• Categories: Economy, Events, Monthly Review

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.

With this, of course, came a bit of a new dilemma: With no doors and no high cubicle walls, everyone could suddenly see what everyone else was doing on the computer. Shoe shopping, twittering, gawking at Facebook photos — the works. So Phil came up with a very clear policy on employees’ Internet usage at work, and shared it with his employees.

The statement? I don’t care what you do on the Internet.

It may seem bold, but he explains his reasoning in this post. And I have to say, he has some great points.

In contrast, Helen A.S. Popkin stresses in a recent MSNBC post that “the Internet is not your BFF,” relating the recent story of a would-be Cisco employee who tweeted post-interview:

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on March 24, 2009
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• Categories: Branding, Economy, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Events, Generational Hiring, Social Media, Survey Results, Technology