Some may recall the “Friends” episode featuring Chandler and his boss’s habit of touching at work. Chandler was extremely uncomfortable with this “habit,” while his boss (and fellow co-workers) didn’t see anything wrong with it:

Although “Friends” is a humorous look at the topic, it makes one wonder if many employees aren’t comfortable with touching at work, but simply put up with it lest facing alienation by co-workers or even superiors if they complain. With that said, the question of whether touching is deemed appropriate in the workplace likely depends on your particular workplace culture. For some environments, high-fives, hugs, and even shoulder massages are fair game. And again, this is assuming that every employee in the workplace is okay with these gestures. Some may not be — but may simply be pulling a Chandler. And what one employee deems inappropriate can lead to a lawsuit.

As the WSJ article’s writer mentions, however, “touch” is often encouraged in our online worlds, with concepts like Facebook “pokes” and Twitter “nudges.” We are encouraged to share articles and stories with our friends and colleagues or send virtual hugs, high-fives or greeting cards. Are we simply becoming a more touchy-feely society because there are accessible means to do so — and does that shift naturally extend to the workplace?

Many see a touch as a positive in our current economic environment; an arm squeeze, hug, or slap on the back is just another way for co-workers to show support for each other amid layoffs and economic strain and strife.  These same touch-supporters may also see a no-touch work rule as a sign of coldness or lifelessness at work. And as many people spend at least as much time at work as they do outside of work, spending that time in a friendly environment makes that pill a little easier to swallow.

But what exactly constitutes a friendly environment? What do you think — is touching okay or off-limits in the workplace?

Teimlo’s story

Mobile phone content provider Teimlo’s method of hiring for a marketing position is a bit, well, different. The Wales-based company is requiring those candidates interested in working as a marketer for Teimlo to apply via a single text message (and in typical mobile-phone-text-limit fashion, to do it in 160 characters or less). If a candidate makes it to the next hiring round, he or she will get a response from Teimlo — also via text message (duh).

The company explains this move by saying that they want candidates who work well with mobile phones. How do you prove your superior mobile abilities? Well, according to a recent article on Reuters, the company is looking for a myriad of traits. “If you are qualified, sassy, good with words, dynamite at events, Adobe compatible, having working knowledge of mobile and social mobile, and are a determined multi-tasker and networker we want to hear from you,” the company said.

That’s a lot to prove in 160 characters or less. But Teimlo also said the 160 character limit would help sift the “more savvy” about providing content from those who “just want any job.” The company says it wants people who are genuinely interested in their job — not just any job — and that this limited use of characters will force applicants to be creative. The job application process is open until September, so candidates have ample time to come up with their biggest string of Internet slang abbreviations most illustrious words to land that job.

What we can learn

Teimlo is not the only company dreaming up new methods to attract not only candidates — but well-matched candidates –  in today’s job market, but they are a great example of a business taking stock of the current economical environment, changing technologies, and the evolving online habits of job seekers to take their hiring process in new directions.

Successful candidates may express their excitement in short bursts of text as well, I imagine:

OMG guess what? Just got intvw w/that co.! Call me l8tr! xoxo

Or, you know, not.

So what do you think? Applying via text: Genious or just gimmicky? And if you could only get 160 characters of text from a candidate’s application, what would you want to hear?

Dunkin’ Donuts

Dunkin’ Donuts has made huge strides through their social media efforts, and their latest campaign ties their new product offering in with their Facebook fan page with their “Keep it Coolatta” sweepstakes. This new campaign allows users to turn their profile pics into prizes by taking pictures of themselves drinking the Dunkin’ Donuts beverage and showing how they are “keeping it Coolatta.”

While this campaign may target many customers, it is also getting Dunkin’ in touch with candidates who may not have known a lot about them before and who are curious to learn more about the company. Dunkin’ Donuts is smartly gaining a presence — and an interactive one at that — by tapping into potential employees’ social networks on sites like Facebook. Facebook, as is Twitter or YouTube, is a very viral platform in which to communicate an idea — and if it’s a good idea, it will travel fast and reach a lot of users. They’ll send it to their friends, and then they’ll send it to their friends… and — yeah, you get the idea.

Dunkin’ Donuts executive chairman Jon Luther recently got into a discussion with us here at CB about the company’s leadership philosophy (more to come on that soon). One comment that stood out to me was Luther’s assertion that “People are to us the most important part of the equation. I tell people we’re not cloning genes here, we’re building relationships and making sure they’re the most profitable they can be so we can be the best franchiser in the world.”

And sites heavy on user interaction, such as Facebook, allow companies to more easily build those relationships  that are hard to come by through the traditional hiring process alone. They also enable employers to more seamlessly integrate their brand into the user experience. Take a look at what Sea World has done, for example.

Think like an employer

Creating a social media campaign is all well and good, but still, you must determine your goals in launching an interactive, viral campaign on a site like Facebook. What are you trying to do — and with whom are you trying to connect? If primarily candidates, take a look at other companies running successful campaigns, and decide how you can focus in on job seekers in particular. Pitching your product or creating a fun game is a good start — but take it up a level. How can you connect with people who may be interested in working for you (and who just may not know it yet)?

A recent BtoB Magazine article lists 5 ways to optimize your Facebook marketing. These ideas, although specific to Facebook, can be applied elsewhere, and they are good starting points in your planning process.

Here are a few (full list here):

1. Have a strong presence: Secure your company name on as many social sites as you can. Not only will you beat others to the punch (Facebook custom usernames, anyone?) and prevent squatters or those posing as your company/abusing your company name, but once you secure your company’s presence, you can start interacting and creating interesting content right away under your official name.
2. Create an application: Build an application to engage job seekers with your brand. An application doesn’t have to be expensive or complex — but consider what type of application will allow you to grab the attention of job seekers most.
3. Throw an event: Get people together in support of your business, brand, or a particular product. Better yet, spreading the word through viral sites is cost-effective — and just plain effective. On Facebook, for example, you can invite fans of your page, and through Twitter, you can “tweet” out the event details and a link to your followers. Before you know it, you’ve got quite a guest list.

This is of course only skimming the surface — but it may trigger an idea and get you brainstorming. Any of your own experiences or ideas to share?

We decided to switch to @cbforemployers because we were already covering employer-related issues, and it made sense to change our name and cover even more ground for our followers. By representing CareerBuilder on behalf of employers, we will still discuss news from The Hiring Site–and all employer-related issues/news/topics on behalf of CareerBuilder as well.

Feel free to comment about our Twitter page, what you would like to see us talk about on the blog or on Twitter — or anything else that’s on your mind.

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.”

Still need more information about Applicant Explorer? Check out the video above.

By now, most of you have probably heard of a little thing called Twitter. People everywhere are talking about it: on the nightly news, late-night talk shows – it’s even recently caused troubles in, ah, celebrity relationship paradise a la Maniston.

As I’ve been using it for the better part of a year, both personally and via @thehiringsite, I’ve become pretty familiar with the medium. I am, however, by no means an “expert/guru/evangelist” and I tend to shudder at those who proclaim to be, because really, we’re all learning about social media together. I also don’t want to tell you how to use or not use Twitter, because everyone uses it for their particular purposes. But I would like to share a few things I’ve picked up along the way; I hope these bits of information will help you quickly learn the ropes of Twitter and get comfortable with your style of tweeting, following, and the like.

Who’s on Twitter?

The Twitter world is full of a wide spectrum of users –those who tweet humorous little “stories” or anecdotes; the social media “gurus,” the engagers; the celebs; the “I treat Twitter like an IM chat room” types; the marketers; the information sharers; the one-sided users; the thought-provokers –the list goes on and on.  Not surprisingly, the array of users you find on Twitter is strikingly similar to the diverse mix of people you are in contact with in everyday life. These users, as do your real-life contacts, also likely fall into different levels: real-life friends (what are those?!), business contacts with whom you like to talk shop,  those with whom you passively interact, and on and on.

The best part is that every digestible bit of information that these massively different Twitter users share, also called a “tweet,” comprises just 140 characters or less. Pretty amazing.

Oh, and did I mention that you can find all CareerBuilder-related Twitter accounts in one place?

Twitter Origins

Twitter got its start just about three years ago, in March 2006. According to the company, its user base has grown 900 percent in the last year alone. That’s some serious growth.

As Gregory Lamb notes in an article on Christian Science Monitor, “In a Twitter-fied world, no one ever need feel alone or unconnected.” The article mentions that when Twitter debuted in 2006, it was brushed off as “the latest narcissistic way to waste time online.”  Even now, naysayers (some of my own friends come to mind) are dubbing Twitter as nothing but an online tool full of narcissists. Yet, Twitter is growing at breakneck speed, and many of its recent uses are anything but narcissistic.

For example, Twitter broke the news of the Hudson River plane crash earlier this year, reporting the news about 15 minutes before the mainstream media. Twitter users were also tweeting constant updates during the terror attacks in Mumbai last year, providing each other with new bits of information and organizing the info with hashtags for easy referencing.

Here’s a few things you should know about Twitter:

• It’s free (there’s talk of paid corporate accounts, but we haven’t seen anything yet).
• It’s public. Whatever nugget of information you write and send out as a tweet is completely and totally public. It’s searchable on the Internet and viewable by anyone. It can be grabbed from Twitter and written about on someone’s blog, for example. Keep this in mind, and use your best judgment.
• You can access Twitter either through the Web or through a mobile device if applicable (there are a myriad of Twitter applications for the iPhone alone).
• Even if you do not have Internet access on your phone, you can text messages to Twitter that will appear as tweets. They will appear in your feed as they normally would. Simply turn on your mobile device alerts, text your message (in 140 characters or less) to 40404 and it will appear as a tweet.

Twitter Definitions, a.k.a. You Want Me to Retweet What?!

@ symbol – When you want to reply to someone, you use the @, or “at,” symbol. You can easily reply by clicking the arrow icon to the right-hand side of any user’s tweet (it’s right below the star icon). When you click this, you will automatically be taken to your text box and @Name will be auto-populated for you. Conversely, you may manually place the @ symbol before the person’s Twitter name at the beginning of your tweet, like so:

That Twitter user will get your reply in their “Replies” area, and they can then reply back to you. Keep in mind that when you reply to someone, all of your followers (and anyone reading the public Twitter stream or doing a Twitter search) can see your tweet. It is still a public tweet. If you want to send a private message to someone, you can send them a Direct Message in your “Direct Messages” area. And a word on sending auto-Direct Messages to your followers: Just. Say. No.

Retweeting – Retweeting, in Twitterland, is essentially giving someone else credit for their tweet or their idea (which they’ve tweeted). It works like this. When someone tweets something and you want to broadcast it out to all your followers/repeat it/spread the word, you “retweet” it as one of your tweets, and you write it like so:

I want to retweet this. So I write:

It’s as simple as that. RT is the abbreviation, add a space, write @Name, and then that user’s tweet.

Hashtags – Represented by the # sign, “hashtags” are simply a way for twitter users to mobilize, organize, and easily connect to important news, conferences, and other events. You can add existing hashtags to any of your tweets, or you can create your own.

If you are attending a conference, for example, it’s quite possible that a hashtag has already been created. Attendees of the recent SXSW conference in Austin (including myself) followeed SXSW-related stream of tweets by searching for and using the #sxsw hashtag at Twitter Search. Bookmark that search page – if you’re on twitter, you’ll be using it a lot. Lastly, Tagalus is a new site that allows users to define tags — and check for already-established tags. Check it out.

Follows/Unfollows – The beauty of Twitter is that you can follow anyone you like (unless they have a private feed, in which case you must request/be accepted to follow first). It’s likely that you won’t know the majority of the people you follow on Twitter in “real life,” but that’s okay. Actually, it’s encouraged.  If you don’t want to follow someone’s tweets, you simply don’t follow (or unfollow, as the case may be) them. Viola.

I have found that everyone has different methods of following. Some follow back everyone who follows them; others follow almost no one at all. Not surprising that some users are very engaged, and others are involved in a very one-sided conversation (their tweets only). This is up to you, and I’ll get into the business side of Twitter in another post (as I think the rules shift a bit), but I have found that eventually, you get into a rhythm. You create your Twitter world based on those you follow. You may choose to follow people who engage, inspire, or teach you. Those you follow may be solely comprised of fitness experts, if that’s what you’re into. Or you may just follow users who make you laugh all day. Either way, over time, you will likely mold your Twitter stream into those people and those things you are most interested in. And that’s a great thing.

Blocking/Spam — Occasionally, you will get requests from spam Twitter accounts. You’ll usually know these straight away, because these types will have one tweet about “I made a ton of money online and you can too! Click here!” But sometimes, spammers won’t be so obvious right away. Use your judgment, and if someone is spamming or harassing you, you can block them in two ways: 1) directly from the user’s Twitter page, 2) via your followers list. Just hit “block” and Twitter will confirm.

You’ll also notice that Twitter is very much a community, and its users are vigilant about spammers. If you come across a spammer, you can block the user. If enough users block someone, Twitter admin will suspend the account. So, community involvement does matter. You can also follow @spam and direct message them with the Twitter offender’s name, and the @spam account will report the spammer.

Additional Resources to get you started:

A few great URL shorteners/snippers:

• http://tr.im
• http://bit.ly
• http://is.gd

TwiTip — Darren Rowse’s site dedicated to Twitter tips and tricks

The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter — this is a really comprehensive and excellent guide

Twitter Tutorial for Newbies (a video)

Twictionary: A Wiki Dictionary for Twitter or Twittonary: A Twitter Dictionary

Twittermania: 140+ More Twitter Tools!

Stay tuned for my next Twitter post: On What Twitter means to your business

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:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

A Cisco employee caught wind of her tweet and responded on twitter with:

Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

Pretty sure that ruined her chances at scoring the job.

There are two sides to Internet usage at work, and there are people on both sides of the camp. However, as Phil gets at in his blog post, employers are supposed to be encouraging employees to think in terms of technological innovation and work to mesh their offline and online lives for greater creativity — and productivity. Yet, many of these same employers hypocritically limit their employees’ Internet usage, instead of encouraging it and seeing its positive aspects.

The way I see it, it comes down to mutual respect. Give your employees the opportunity to blend their personal and work lives, and realize that although they may be shopping for that last-minute birthday gift at work, they are also likely responding to work e-mail at home and taking care of business matters on their off-hours. Accept and embrace the merging of these worlds — because with or without you, it is an inevitability.

What are your thoughts? Are you in the camp that promotes your employees’ inevitable Internet usage, and gets the benefits that come with that usage? Or are you in the camp that thinks personal Internet usage is strictly for off-business hours, and personal and business lives must be kept separate?

Agree or disagree, I’d love to hear your views.

We’re doing this for a couple of reasons. First, we want to give you an easy place to find and reference information about these tools when you need it. Second, we realize that you may not be aware of some of these resources, many of which can complement the products you’re already using — and make your life a whole lot easier. From now on, you’ll be able to find posts about these tools under the “Free Tools You Can Use” category on this site. We’ll be building on the list often. (It’s like a gift that keeps on giving, see?)

As always, we welcome your questions and feedback, and we want to know what you want to know more about. Is there a Job Posting issue you need clarification on? A tip you think will be of great help to others? Spill it.

Check back — we’ll be posting the first of these free tools very soon.

After all, the many budget cuts, layoffs and staff restructurings are forcing many hiring managers to rethink their recruiting methods, leading to changes that could remain in place long after the recession is over. 

It’s true that recruiting trends are shifting, regardless of the state of our economy (btw, Sullivan later addresses the topic here), but because the economy is what it is, it’s that much more necessary for companies to shift their recruiting strategy, like, now – because if businesses aren’t cutting talent or implementing hiring freezes, it seems they’re slashing recruiting budgets, which should be an absolute last resort.  

Luckily, today’s technology enables businesses to recruit in a completely innovative way, keeping them relevant and helping them spend money where it’s most effective. Take for example, the following:

• Social Media Taleo research indicates that 47 percent of candidates find a company’s poor job application process offensive, specifically the lack of communication and feedback from employers. Social media, which include networking sites, blogs, and podcasts, can change this perception by opening up the doors of communication between companies and job seekers.
• Social Networking Sites are one of the most effective – and inexpensive – ways for companies to engage job seekers, build relationships with candidates, and strengthen their employment brands. In fact, in a recent Execunet survey, 70 percent of executives and executive recruiters polled indicated that networking would be the key to either finding a job or finding candidates. (But take note: Social networking is an investment – albeit a worthwhile one – of time and energy on your part.  It’s often a collaborative effort, and success – however you measure it - won’t always happen at Paris-Hilton-gets-a-new-boyfriend speed, but it will happen.  Still confused by the above two? Dawn Foster provides a great social media “starter kit” for businesses.)
• Recommendation Technology For those companies that are overwhelmed with the number of applicants they receive, aren’t finding the right types of candidates they need, or both; recommendations, such as those provided by CareerBuilder.com’s Recommendation Engine, match candidates to companies based on the companies’ specified wants and needs. Clients can even upload resumes they like or consider “ideal” and the engine will know to find similar resumes. (If only Match.com worked like this…)
• More Sophisticated Search Hiring managers have long been able to get access to resume databases to search for candidates themselves, but search engine technologies are constantly evolving to accommodate user needs. (You may be familiar with CareerBuilder.com’s Resume Database, which enables companies to search by any number of factors like keyword, region, special skills, degree or a combination of several.) Today the technology behind both the Recommendation Engine and Resume Database is more intuitive than ever (recognizing “lawyer” as a synonym for “attorney,” for example, and turning out results for both), for even easier usability and maximum results.
• Easier-Than-Ever Employee Referrals – As CareerBuilder.com’s Jason Ferrara implied earlier this week, employees are your company’s best ambassadors when it comes to recruiting. Implementing an employee referral program is one of the most effective – and cost-efficient – ways to find new talent. If you already have an ERP, streamline it to make it as easy as possible for your employees to refer friends. Designate a place on your company Intranet that employees can quickly and easily find and upload resumes in just a few simple steps.

But even as I tout the wonders of technology, I’ll note that, as Workforce.com’s Samual Greengard writes, “Software isn’t always a panacea for recruiting and retention problems.”  While these tools, when used as part of your recruiting plan, certainly make finding better talent increasingly easy and accessible…the power of this technology lies in how you use it.

A few highlights:

• What we are doing to stay ahead of our competition

• Why we focus on core metrics like applications to jobs, not page views or time spent on site, to measure success

• How job seekers look for jobs – and what they don’t want

• Our product developments over the years, including our Recommended Resume technology, which has helped job seekers find jobs specifically tailored to them since its inception five years ago

• Size and scope of CareerBuilder.com’s operation, and more on our international expansion

• Our involvement with social networking sites – and our own networking niche, BrightFuse.com

• The future of CareerBuilder.com’s mobile technology development

• How our search and technology is more capable than our competitors’

“At CareerBuilder.com, we really invest in our technology and we believe that our search technology and our recommendation engine technology are real market leaders, and that it really helps job seekers be efficient in their process of looking for jobs.”