Archive for the 'Free Tools You Can Use' Category

Money Magazine just released its “Best Places to Live” for 2009, and while perusing the “winners,” I noticed that the towns listed all had several factors in common to qualify them as the “best of the best,” including a strong local economy, little crime, short commutes to work, low rate of unemployment, robust industry, great schools, affordable homes — the list goes on. There is no one magic component that makes these towns desirable; it’s a combination of factors that come together and compliment each other to make up a best place to live.

Similarly, hiring isn’t simply posting a job and accepting the first person who comes along. Successful employers view hiring as a multi-faceted process — stemming from attraction all the way to retention, with several aspects in between. As an employer in today’s economy, you must be cognizant of changing job seeker practices, communicative during your candidate engagement efforts, active in encouraging employee satisfaction and retention — all while establishing and building a strong and recognizable brand and fostering a thriving internal company culture. (Whew!) There’s a lot involved in being a successful business with the best employees on board, and sometimes, you need a hand to help you brush up on those areas which you’ve neglected — or simply haven’t thought about before.

That’s why we’re happy to report that CareerBuilder’s Small Business Hiring Guide is now available for you to download (for FREE… we must be crazy, right?!).

What is it?

The Small Business Hiring Guide is a how-to guide full of advice, tips, and trends, compiled by CareerBuilder’s team of small business experts. It is designed to keep you up-to-date and armed with the latest on hiring so that you can make your most successful hires now — or whenever you’re ready.

In the guide, you will learn:

• How to improve your internal company culture
• Tips to strengthen your employment brand
• The importance of employee recognition
• The six essential steps of the Talent Supply Chain: Brand Establishment, Candidate Attraction, Application Management, Onboarding, Retention, and Succession Management
• …and more.

You can download the full guide here.

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on July 13, 2009
• There are 5 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Building a Best Place to Work, Economy, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employer Advice, Free Tools You Can Use

Candidate information — you can never get enough of it, can you? Resumes are a great source for a candidate’s work-related stats, but how do you get a more complete picture of that person you’re thinking of hiring onto your staff?   I recently wrote about CareerBuilder’s newly launched Applicant Explorer tool. If you haven’t been paying attention, this candidate snapshot tool is available to you for FREE if you have current Resume Database access.

Applicant Explorer enables you to immediately see the most useful and valuable information out there about that candidate, such as his or her Facebook or Brightfuse profile, dedication to an online engineering forum, food photography blog, or published article about business etiquette. Get access to the details a resume may not give you the opportunity to see — and get a more clear picture of candidates before you say “You’re hired.”

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• Posted by: Amy Chulik on April 29, 2009
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Branding, Employee Attraction, Free Tools You Can Use, Products, Social Media, Survey Results, Technology

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.

The gist:

My Letters allows you to create and save up to 20 different automatic response letters to send to job seekers after they submit an application to your job. Job Postings on their own are great, but if you’re not using My Letters, you’re:

1. Sporting this style of desk (and life) organization
2. Wasting a lot of time painstakingly hand-writing response letters with your old-school quill pen, you Thomas Jefferson wannabe.
   OR…
3. Ignoring candidates altogether. And really, that’s no good. No good at all.

Also known as:

The bento box of CareerBuilder’s Free Tools You Can Use. Y’know — Compartmentalize. Organize. (Yes, that’s Mario.)

Why you need it:

Communication is one of the most important elements of both personal and business communication — and with layoffs on the rise and more job seekers searching now than in the past, it is an absolutely crucial element of your hiring process. My Letters is a particularly effective tool to use with your Job Postings, because you can automate your communication to candidates, but still make your messages relevant and targeted to the candidates applying to your job.

Why job seekers love it:

My Letters enable you to get necessary information out to candidates quickly, easily, and effectively. You can create letters concerning the job position, needed candidate information, interview status, to alert of next steps in the process, to thank candidates, and more. Basically, My Letters are your canvas. Automate as much communication as you need to, and organize your candidate communication — no quill pens necessary!

And better yet, you’re not leaving candidates in the dark. You may not realize how much those candidates applying to your jobs want and need your attention and your responses, but they do. While that job may not be the first thing on your mind, people seeking a new job are likely checking their e-mail a million times a day. They’re applying like crazy, they’re busy working on their resumes, they’re setting up interviews — and they’re counting on that communication from you. By communicating with them in even simple ways, you’re setting yourself apart as an employer, and you are taking a huge and important step forth in relationships with those candidates who may be your next employees.

How to get it:

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

I don’t often invoke the music of Survivor in my posts — okay, make that never. But who am I kidding? I’d do it all the time if I could. We’ve talked before about cutting corners in your recruiting process to make your life a little less stressful and find better-suited candidates in less time. Our Resume Search Agents have been around for a while — did you know?

The dish: CareerBuilder’s Resume Search Agents, or RSAs

The gist: Conduct a Resume Database search, save that search, and have your new resume matches e-mailed to you as frequently (or infrequently) as you’d like.

Also known as: The tempting dessert tray of CareerBuilder’s Free Tools. The best of the candidates you’re looking for, brought right to you. View resumes in your inbox right away, or take a more in-depth look once it’s convenient for you. Like after dinner.

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on February 25, 2009
• There are 0 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Attraction, Free Tools You Can Use

We all have our little wish lists of things we want someone cool to invent, like, immediately. One of mine? Most recently (as in, this past Sunday), I had a moment of panic and thought I was out of my beloved Metropolis coffee. Right then, I longed for the existence of at-home coffee delivery. You say lazy; I say easy and time-saving. I’m sure someone, somewhere, has already thought of this — and for those poor decaffeinated folks out there, I sure hope so.

When we stop to think about it, most of the little gadgets we desire do something for us. They may save us time, money, hassle, for instance. As an employer, your hiring wish list is likely long. But those little tools — the ones that make it easier for you to talk with candidates, store your needed information (and access it at a moment’s notice), and communicate with your fellow colleagues about your open positions — are often the most valuable.

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• Posted by: Amy Chulik on February 18, 2009
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• Categories: Employee Attraction, Free Tools You Can Use

This week, Facebook, taking a cue from FriendFeed, introduced “I like this” to its list of features, allowing friends to express how they feel about each other’s shared content on the site. As I type this, thousands of users are likely giving a virtual thumbs up to friends’ status updates, posted links, and photos. I hit “I like this” a couple of times today myself — once for a video from The Office (the “boom-roasted” clip) and once for a WSJ story about the Shorty Awards (you twitter folks know these awards well).

The push for community is only increasing on the Web sites we frequent. We want to share, interact, and learn from each other. We want to see Bob’s news link and say, “Hey, that’s cool!” or ask him a question. We want to make a statement; to stamp our opinions on news, products, and people.

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• Posted by: Amy Chulik on February 12, 2009
• There is 1 Comment. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Attraction, Free Tools You Can Use