Archive for the 'Social Media' Category

What makes an organization a “best place to work?” Check out these common practices of companies that are frequently recognized among job seekers, consumers, industry analysts and – not least of all – their own employees for being great places to work.

1.  They’re not afraid to relinquish a little control. Despite reports that over half of employers still ban social networking at work, companies who’ve embraced it have found tremendous reward in enabling employees to use social media. Zappos was one of the first companies to embrace social media, giving employees the freedom to use Twitter.  The strategy has worked well for the online shoe retailer: By enabling employees to talk freely about their jobs, new products, or other interesting aspects of company life, they’ve effectively made their employees into brand advocates, and created buzz about being a great place to work. More recently, Whole Foods has taken a similar approach to social media, believing that letting individual employees’ personalities shine through is essential to for social media to work well and engage people.
2. They embrace new media as a recruiting tool. Staffing firm Kelly Services, a 2008 Best Place to Work in Western Pa., created a virtual community in Second Life to provide job seekers with an interactive experience to see what it’s like to work for Kelly. It has also helped to create buzz about Kelly and differentiate the firm from its competitors. For much the same reason, staffing firm Spherion decided to leverage the current popularity of viral video when it created its Web series, “The Temp Life.”  Seems to be working: the 17-episode series is clearly resonating with audiences, with over 1 million views to date.
3. They embrace new media as an engagement tool. IBM did it with Beehive. Best Buy did it with Blue Shirt Nation.  Now, companies of every size are utilizing online social communities for internal purposes - engaging employees and keeping them informed of important company news, events and projects. Over 50,000 companies worldwide, including Fox and Adobe use microblogging site Yammer, while companies like Starbucks and Pepsico have found success with cfactor’s “enterprise social networking” solution.  
4. They think outside the Facebooks. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of users on Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants? Think “niche.” That’s what Seattle-based Tableau Software did recently when it needed a Web developer with extensive knowledge of Drupal:  the company’s recruiters began surfing social networking sites that catered to Drupal enthusiasts, where they eventually found their new hire.
5. They ask for employee feedback (and actually listen to it).  Feedback from Aetna’s employee surveys – administered regularly to enable employees to voice their thoughts about how the company is doing and where there is room for improvement – led to the establishment of Aetna’s current recognition program, The Aetna Way Excellence Awards, according to CEO Ronald Williams in an interview for our Leadership Series. Leadership recognized that employees wanted more company-wide recognition events, so they delivered. “That whole program came about as a result of employees’ suggestions that came through the survey,” Williams said.
6. They work in partnership with Human Resources. “People decisions are some of the most important decisions I make, so I make those decisions in collaboration with my HR partners,” says Stryker CEO Steve MacMillan in a recent interview with CareerBuilder. “Responsibility for our people may be a human resources function, but we all manage it together.” It’s no accident that Stryker is a three-time winner of the “Gallup Great Place to Work Award,” in addition to other best place to work honors.  
7. They actively encourage learning and development. Smart companies know the power of providing opportunities for professional development and personal growth in helping to retain top talent.  Spectrum Health does both: The company’s relationship with University of Michigan provides opportunities for leadership members to gain experience in project-based work. And its EXCEL Professional Development Model program recognizes and provides monetary awards for nursing staff for academic and professional accomplishments, as well as community service.

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• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on October 23, 2009
• There are 12 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Building a Best Place to Work, Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Social Media

A few years ago I had the opportunity to attend a two-day corporate training event at the Human Performance Institute. The Institute’s message is all about managing energy – not time – as the key to sustained high performance.

While the information presented was really powerful, the one line that stuck with me all these years was something one of the nutritionists said. She said, “waste or waist,” meaning leftover food can either be wasted or go straight to your waist. Now choose the lesser of the two evils.

Well, “waste or waist” may be applicable for food, but at CareerBuilder, we hate to waste anything. And to my joyful surprise, when I arrived at work today I found 10 pristine CareerBuilder Jack in the Boxes left behind in a dark storage room.

You may not know this, but Jack took home the gold medal in the Special Promotions category of the 2008 BMA Tower Awards. So, needless to say, he’s kind of a big deal, and finding this guy robbed of all of his glory in a dark storage closet was kind of like finding a few extra Emmy statuettes carelessly tossed into the laundry hamper. (Relatively speaking, the Jack in the Boxes are probably more akin to statuettes from the Daytime Emmy’s, but still…) That said, here’s my challenge to you: Help me find this award-winning guy a good home.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you want to be a proud owner of the award winning Jack, simply become a fan of our employer Facebook page, CareerBuilder for Employers AND leave a comment on our Facebook Wall about a topic you’d like us to discuss on Facebook. We’ll choose 10 lucky new followers at random to win. This offer expires Monday September 28 at 5 pm CST. Don’t let our lonely Jacks go to waste!

Facebook fans have the opportunity to receive exclusive info and promotions, as well as interact with fellow fans (and us of course!).

• Posted by: Stephanie Gaspary on September 21, 2009
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• Categories: Contest, Social Media

If a friend tells you they’re not a huge fan of your three wolves T-shirt, well, maybe you’d defiantly wear it to dinner anyway because you know it looks, um, fabulous. But if your customers or candidates told you a new product of yours was hideous, would you scrap it? Well, that’s exactly what General Motors Co. recently did, with its recent cancellation of plans to launch a new Buick sport-utility vehicle after asking for feedback from its customers, employees, and many others about the vehicle — and then actually listening to that feedback.

As Vice Chairman of GM Tom Stephens wrote on the GM FastLane blog after the decision was made:

The Buick crossover we showed received consistent feedback from large parts of all the audiences that it didn’t fit the premium characteristics that customers have come to expect from Buick.

The negative buzz all started when Twitter users started calling the vehicle a “Vuick,” a reference to GM’s Saturn Vue that provided the basis for the Buick. Consumers’ complaints stemmed around the idea that the Buick was simply a retread of the Vue, rather than a new design. Add hashtag #vuick to a tweet, get others talking about it, and before you know it — Twitter’s all abuzz about it. And apparently, GM was watching — and listening. And the criticism didn’t end there.

We were all struck by the consistency of the criticism of the compact crossover. And what we decided to do in response is a good example of the essence of the new General Motors… acting quickly, and boldly, and listening to feedback from customers, employees, dealers, media and just about anyone else with an opinion, Stephens continued to say on the GM FastLane blog.

It appears that social media is taking companies to task in their business practices and behaviors. With customers, clients, and candidates reacting and sharing information and opinions on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, businesses are forced to take a harder look at what they’re doing — or suffer the consequences of ignoring the chatter and damaging valuable relationships.

I believe that this is a positive movement. Business practices are becoming not only more transparent, but more interactive. As an employer, you have probably already noticed this interactiveness if you participate on social networks. Social networking Web sites are be valuable tools for companies to embrace in order to connect with candidates, establish a brand presence online, and build valuable relationships.

It’s important to remember that you have the power to build or destroy relationships with candidates. You can ignore them or answer questions defensively, or you can reach out, engage, help — and, as GM did, listen. Really listen to what candidates and employees want. After all, it’s the best free advice out there.

So I ask: Are you paying attention to what your candidates and employees are saying about you? How are you responding?

• Posted by: Amy Chulik on August 27, 2009
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• Categories: Employer Advice, Social Media

Wow…according to CareerBuilder’s latest survey, the number of employers using social networking sites to screen candidates has more than doubled in the last year.  

Out of more than 2,600 hiring managers, 45 percent reported using social networking sites to research job candidates’ backgrounds for information that verified – or supplemented – the information on their resumes.  This finding represents a huge increase from the 22 percent of hiring managers who said the same thing last year.

The most popular site to search, not surprisingly, is Facebook, followed closely by LinkedIn and MySpace. Searching blogs and following candidates on Twitter were also popular means of screening. (Looks like you’re safe, Friendster users.)

(Side note/shameless plug: As of yesterday, hiring managers have a new social networking site on which to research candidates: Brightfuse, CareerBuilder’s new professional networking site. Check out the press release here.)

Of those who searched social networking sites to screen candidates, as many as 35 percent found content on that caused them not to hire the candidate, such as: Continue Reading…

• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 20, 2009
• There are 5 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Employee Attraction, Employee Engagement, Social Media, Survey Results

 “Social Notworking: The practice of spending time unproductively on social-networking websites, especially when one should be working.” – UrbanDictionary.com

In the ongoing debate over whether social networking is a productivity booster or a productivity destroyer, what’s your stance?

If you’re part of Team Destroyer, here’s new fuel for your fire: A recent study from Nucleus Research found that Facebook negatively affects office productivity.  The results of Nucleus’ survey of 237 office workers indicate that roughly half (47 percent) of office workers regularly log on to Facebook during working hours – and the vast majority of those workers (87 percent) can’t define a clear business reason for doing so – all of which result in an average of 1.5 percent in lost production across the entire office.

On the surface, this finding seems to support the argument for companies to ban access to social networking sites, but consider this Continue Reading…

• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 19, 2009
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• Categories: Social Media

Job boards are dying…at least if you believe some people.

The latest so-called evidence of this phenomenon is in this Wall Street Journal online article, which discusses how more companies today are enhancing their own Web sites in efforts to attract talent (a tactic I wholeheartedly agree with); but it also seems to imply that because of this, companies no longer have a need for job boards in their recruiting strategies.  That’s where I don’t so much agree, and here’s why… Continue Reading…

• Posted by: Mary Lorenz on August 10, 2009
• There are 4 Comments. Join the discussion.
• Categories: Branding, Employee Attraction, Employer Advice, Job Postings, Products, Social Media