alstin communications

For me the answer to the chicken-or-egg question is: Oprah. It was watching Skype in action on her show – not all the great reviews I kept reading – that led me to give it a try. 

At the time, I hadn’t used my laptop’s webcam yet, and I definitely don’t plan to for Chat Roulette anytime soon either, yikes! So first things first, I gave my webcam and microphone a quick test. Downloaded Skype, created an account and was on a video call in less than five minutes.

Skype-to-Skype calls/video calls are free (there are low cost calling plans too) and you’re able to dial up regular “old-fashioned” telephones with it – Skype is not just a computer to computer thing. There’s a whole bunch of useful features that you can explore for both personal and professional use including the ability to create an online number with voice mail, IM your contacts, conference in others, share files while on a call and add it to your mobile device.

Skype is now even being integrated into TV sets. On peak hours there are 20 million of us Skyping away. In Q3 2009, Skype users made 27.7 billion minutes of calls (over a third were video calls) and a growing number of those minutes were spent conducting job interviews.

This piece from Time offered up a great overview of how recruiters are using Skype to interview. From the good: Saving time, money and carbon footprints. To the bad: A candidate’s barking dog cutting an interview short. To the ugly: A college student with a very messy dorm room quite visible in the background.

Considering the bad and the ugly possibilities that come with conducting video calls for job interviews, it is no surprise that companies such as 360JobInterview are now helping candidates get a leg up on the technology. One of their key services: One-on-one interview and career coaching sessions from HR professionals via Skype.

Skype also breaks it down to these three tips which provide solid advice for both the job seeker and the recruiter about video call interviews:

Smile and Focus – I know the first few times I used a webcam, my eyes were directed more so at the other person on the screen and not the camera. Don’t do that. Try to remember to maintain eye contact with your webcam and for sure, keep smiling.

Choose your Colors Wisely – What Not to Wear: I have to agree with the team at Skype – avoid brights and patterns that can distract.

Lighting and Background Check – You certainly don’t have to create a movie set for a video call, but give some consideration to lighting and your backdrop – besides your wardrobe, you don’t want any other distractions.

With 521 million Skype user accounts and growing, will it be lights, camera, action for more job interviews? Recruiters, what do you think about using Skype for screening candidates and conducting interviews? Have you already done so? Tell us about it. Plus, it almost goes without saying, if you want to give Skype a practice run, or have more questions, drop me a line here or at blog@alstin.com.

Undercover Boss turned out to be a real lemon of a show. I kinda figured it would, although I totally fell for the preview. To prove that good things can come from bad reality TV, here’s the proof:

Thanks to the PunkRockHR blog (where I first spotted this clip) for leading me to the hilarity I just shared with you. Saturday Night Live is officially DVR worthy.

Illustrating the state of U.S. unemployment in pictures today.

First up, labor writer and American University grad student, LaToya Egwuekwe, created this animated graphic which shows the progression of unemployment levels across the U.S. from January 2007 – about one year prior to the start of “The Great Recession” – to January 2010.

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words right? Well, I can sum this one up with one. Ugly.

Egwuekwe plans to update the graphic each month. Hopefully we will start to see a more sun shiny yellow breaking up the purple cloud of unemployment blanketing the country in the months to come.

That’s what the Obama administration is hoping for too. Here’s their visual take on the state of things:

Regarding the graphic, the Obama administration also noted the following:

“One year in, the evidence is clear – and growing by the day – that the Recovery Act is working to cushion the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and lay a new foundation for economic growth.

• According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Recovery Act is already responsible for as many as 2.4 million jobs through the end of 2009
• As a result, job losses are a fraction of what they were a year ago, before the Recovery Act began” 

Talk to anyone in HR and fellow Americans that are unemployed (and OK, most Republicans) and you might not get such a rosy picture quite yet.

An increase in temporary workers, the first glimmer that companies are thinking of hiring, is another stat that I’ve been hoping to see for some time now. Last month’s stats delivered. The labor market showed an increase of more than 50,000 temporary workers in January 2010.

There are signs of growth in other sectors and markets too. And a hefty Job Stimulus bill may help small businesses make much needed hires. Let’s hope that the next pictures we paint (in 2010, or maybe not till 2011 and – gulp – into 2012) can be be summed up with some other words: It’s finally happening, we’ve turned the corner.

I came away from Jen Hitchen’s great overview of Google Buzz this week with a couple of key findings. Number one (and I really mean #1), I will be making a beeline for Philly Cupcake. Number two, with all of the privacy concerns buzzing about Google’s latest social media offering I’m likely to set up a unique Gmail account for my Buzz test runs before I dive in whole hog.

Privacy concerns aside, as Jen noted, another big question is – will we flock to yet another social media tool? With new technology coming at us in rapid fire, the way I look at is if it’s genuinely useful (and easy to use!) people will.

This month I thought it was about time that I added to the flock of 5 million plus users who find Delicious, a social bookmarking web service that’s powered by Yahoo!, very useful.

My bookmarks were starting to get a little out of control. Twitter will do that to you. Every time I stumbled upon (that might be another post!) a great link, I’d click “Bookmark this Page” in my Firefox browser and well, those bookmarks have really added up.

Do I eventually go back to each and every bookmark I make? Find my bookmarks again with ease? Delete old bookmarks that have no relevance? Do I even remember half the stuff I bookmark? Ummm, that’s a negative.

So Delicious, a free service that’s been around since 2005, seemed right up my alley. Here are a few of the main reasons:

Access – Between work and home, I’m likely to use a PC, two laptops and my iPhone to go online during any given day. I’ll now have access to my favorite links no matter how I log on. Plus if I want to limit the access to some of my bookmarks to the general public, all I have to do is check off the “Do Not Share” option and that keeps them private.

It Really is Easy – It’s easy to register and get up and running. You can also quickly import your current bookmarks with a couple of clicks. Me? I’m starting with a clean slate for the time being. I followed the instructions and added a Delicious Toolbar to my browser. Now all I have to do is click the Tag button when I come across something I like and viola, I’ve added it to my account.

Organization – As my list of bookmarks grew to an unwieldy level, the ability to tag my bookmarks with key words of my own making and combinations is a great feature. Plus, I can add notes about why I bookmarked the link in the first place. Also a great feature for when memory, alas, fails.

To Do List – My wheels are always turning. I’m forever inspired by what I experience, see and do each day. When I come across something that I think is good for me, someone I know, my clients, for Alstin while browsing the web I can create tagged bookmarks that I can (and will!) go back to that won’t get lost in the mix.

Sharing – Delicious provides me with an ideal way to share information with anyone, particularly clients. Rather than sending (cut, paste, cut, paste …) a long list of posts/articles that someone I know should check out for any given reason, I can now send one link that has all of my tagged bookmarks on the subject grouped together. (Recruiters, if you regularly send links to prospective candidates about your organization, good press, etc. this is a great one-stop/one click tool!)

Subscribe, Discover & Network – Another great way to take advantage of RSS feeds, you can subscribe to specific tags and users that interest you. Want to discover the hottest topics on the site and/or the most popular links for specific tags? Yep, you can do that too. Plus, and this is where the social part of the service comes into play, when you add a bookmark you can see other Delicious members who decided to bookmark the same link. So in addition to connecting with those you happen to know that are also using Delicious, this nice feature can also help you connect and share with people interested in the same subjects by adding them to your network.

As it stands now, after an hour tops on the site, I only have a handful of untagged bookmarks in my Delicious account, but realizing its potential I already know is not going to take me very long. Anything that helps me stay better organized, speed up research and connect with great people all while being incredibly intuitive to use (Who likes having to use an instruction manual to master something that’s supposed to make your life easier, right?!) is worth flocking to.

There’s another 20+” of snow falling on Philadelphia today. As we all went for a second cup of coffee this morning in Philly, it was good to see on the local news that Mayor Nutter  confirmed that none of it will wind up in our rivers this time around – remember that debacle?

Happily, we all live and learn!

When Washington D.C. had to essentially shut down from the last big East Coast storm, the stats were staggering- $100 million in lost productivity and opportunity costs per day.

With Philly also experiencing the economic impact of record-breaking snow this season, we’ve learned first-hand here at Alstin that having remote access to work is a great advantage for remaining productive – at least as productive as you can be between the shoveling, sledding, snowman making and cocoa drinking.

Cicso found that providing the ability to telecommute for their employees increased productivity, work-life flexibility and overall job satisfaction. Telecommuting also generated about $277 million in annual savings for the company – a nice contrast to that $100 million D.C. lost in one day due to all that snow.

If you’ve been affected by the snow, were you able to telecommute? Do you wish you were able to?

Alstin has debated the telecommuting option and while we’ve found that it may not be ideal for each and every work day, on mega-snowy days like these, it is (almost) as good as owning a snowblower.

The latest ad from Monster shows that even the Boogey Man can land his dream job in today’s economy. (Besides checking out the latest job postings, he might also want to take a peek at the 25 Next Recovering Job Markets in the U.S. from Business Week.)

Ever check out Glassdoor? “Anonymous salaries, company reviews, and interview questions and reviews for over 70,000 companies – all for free!” (And for all to see!) What about the thoughts, opinions and musings galore that are out there on social media sites? What are people saying about your company, its people and what it’s really like to work there?

Inquiring HR minds (and job seekers) want to know! So how in the world do they go about finding out?

A great way to get started is to set up Google Reader to gather RSS subscriptions from some of the free media monitoring sites that are out there. Before your eyes glaze over from fear that this post is going to start getting “too technical” for you, don’t worry. You are likely halfway there if you’ve got a Gmail account.

Once you set up a free account with Google, you’ll be able to experience all the joys of Google Reader – a place to aggregate and organize all of your search results in one spot. It’s really as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. Go to a free media monitoring site of your choosing.
2. Enter your search terms.
3. Click on the RSS feed icon to subscribe to a continuous feed of the search results.

That’s it. Once you click that RSS button your search agent is set.

The list of free media monitoring tools is a long one and new options are cropping up all the time. So if you are already playing around with these to keep on top of things, please share your favorites. Here are just a few that I think are worth checking out:

Social Mention is one of the best. They live up to their word: “It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web’s social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc,” Another plus, in addition to delivering real-time results, Social Mention also provides a social ranking score on strength, sentiment, passion and reach with each and every search. Already familiar with Google Alerts? Social Mention can also send Social Mention Alerts right to your email.

Twitter Search’s shpeil: “See what’s happening – right now.” Simply put, this tool is a great way to isolate tweets based on keywords.

Google Blog Search focuses only on the blogosphere. Use it to “find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice” through an index that is continually updated on blogs written not just in English, but many other languages too.

Technorati, BackType and BoardTracker are a few more for you to check out.

The reputation that precedes an organization can make or break their pipeline to top talent. While these tools may be at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to analyzing your brand’s rep (your competitor’s, industry trends, etc…), when you listen you are sure to learn.

Remember all the hype surrounding the “Cisco Fatty” tweet in 2009? “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.”

If you’re not familiar with this particular social media saga, Tim Levad, a Cisco employee, tweeted back: “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.”

Connor Reily, aka Cisco Fatty, tweeted herself out of an opportunity and in the aftermath admitted, “I should have been a little more careful … I certainly learned the hard way.”

I’m sure we could all attest to the fact that some of life’s best lessons come to us the hard way, even when it seems that common sense should have saved us.

What can we do to make sure that our current employees, some of our favorite “tweeps” out there, don’t make similar missteps on the web for all to see? Start by creating a set of social media guidelines.

There’s a treasure trove of examples over at SocialMediaGovernance, an online database of social media policies. I also recommend that you check out the set of social media guidelines Intel has created (and continues to evolve as social media does) for their employees. Why?

• It’s concise
• It’s conversational
• It connects back to the company’s code of conduct
• It’s full of common sense advice including: “If it gives you pause, pause.”

The extra second you (the employee and the person) spend to proofread, debate, analyze – really think about what you are putting out there for all to see – is so, so worth it. Heed Intel’s wise words!

James Lipton (and his beard) seem to know what I am talking about. His advice to teens – “Before you text, give it a ponder.” –  in a series of PSAs for LG, is really a universal message:

Do you work for an organization that’s created a social media policy? Share with us some of the key guidelines that you’re glad are there. If you are thinking about creating one, what guidelines do you view as essential?

The art of late night comedy seems to be imitating life, huh?

We sure have been hearing a lot about how 2010 may be a year marked by massive talent turnover caused by a disconnect between workers and their employers.

Which leads me to the many eloquent points made by Conan in his letter to the network in an attempt to connect his passion for his job to broken promises and ultimately his decision to not participate in a 12:05 broadcast of The Tonight Show:

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009. Like a lot of us, I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future … But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

From Conan’s perspective, could NBC be more disconnected to him? What about the disconnect to his fans? Is Leno the only one happy with this decision? (My guess, considering his recent stand-up routine, is that he isn’t entirely either.)

I also felt the sting when Conan went on to say he and his crew just want to do a great show “for a company that values our work.” When the latest stats point to a staggering 79% of workers likely to seek jobs elsewhere this year, and the high profile nature of the Conan debable over at NBC, what can we learn from all this? (Besides a great example of how to respectfully disagree with the boss.)

I don’t think any organization wants to be known as the company that cries wolf – lots of promises/no delivery. Hard business decisions that negatively impact top talent can have far reaching impact, but it is always a balancing act.

It’s your turn now: Can you relate to what happened with Conan? How do you best perform a balancing act when making tough decisions?

Good leaders are good listeners. They are of the sort that actively seek out feedback from the team, act on the good stuff, try to resolve the bad stuff and recognize that great ideas sometimes do indeed sprout from where you may least expect it.

Get some feedback on the behavioral economics of your workforce – the cognitive, emotional and social dynamics that drive the people behind your company. I can guarantee that for anyone in HR it will be a worthwhile effort. It can lead to a greater understanding of the whole and real discoveries on better ways to do business, collaborate, share ideas, lead a team … the list of pros really could go on and on. Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, sums up the how and why of this approach to leadership rather nicely:

It’s about understanding and managing ideas and talent — and states of mind. That’s where the new leadership breakthroughs will be. Leaders who can quantify states of mind and make decisions about their constituencies based on that information are the ones who will lead the world.

Right on Clifton! In my mind there’s no doubt that gaining a better understanding of employees’ states of mind will ultimately provide a true  state of the union.

So when I saw a preview for a new reality TV show that’s set to air on CBS this Super Bowl Sunday – stay with me here, reality TV is not my thing either – I thought back on Clifton’s words which continue to ring true.

The show is called Undercover Boss. CBS’s official spin on the show reads:

Each week a different executive will leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their company. While working alongside their employees, they will see the effects their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organization and get an up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their company run.

The preview tells me that this show just might be worth a watch (at least for the first episode) … and that I continue to be easily verklepmt:

In the end Larry O’Donnell, President and COO of Waste Management, found a “whole new appreciation” for his employees and that he planned to change the way he went about doing his own job. That’s a good thing. Coffee cans are meant to store coffee and later on, maybe some loose change.

Be inspired by how your team makes things work at work and in their daily lives. I can guarantee that you will likely marvel at the discoveries.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts around here at Alstin. I know I’ve described a fellow team member as “my right arm” on a project more than once. That’s at the core of why the a-team became an employee blog.

Although I’m the editor and a frequent blogger for the site, I didn’t want this destination on the web to be a one-woman show. As my first year of editing/blogging for Alstin winds down, I can also tell you that shining the spotlight on Alstin as a “whole” through our collective posts has been such a worthwhile effort.

It takes almost no time at all to set-up the framework for a blog through a free service like Word Press. However, there’s lots to consider before you launch a blog. Here are some of the very basics:

Look before you leap: I turn to blogs every day for information, insights, humor, tips, industry news (Oh Cheezhead, how I miss you!) you name it. I evaluated what it was that kept me coming back for more and made a list. (Note: Looking for more great HR blogs? Bookmark: RecruitingBlogs, FistfulofTalent and ERE.)

Establish some goals:  So what was I really hoping to accomplish with this blog? Build Alstin’s brand. Show off our company’s “personality.” Engage the team. Attract talent. Connect with others. Drive sales. Yes to all that and more. There wasn’t a singular mission – is there ever really one singular motivator for anything? – but I wanted the potential a blog has to be fully considered and become part of the strategy.

Tap into a good designer: I’ve got a big advantage. I have the likes of Jay Scheuerle a few paces from my office. (He designed the header graphic and the icons that occasionally populate our posts. On top of that he’s a great writer too.) Even if you don’t have an in-house designer, be sure to make plenty of consideration to the look and feel of your blog and ask for help when you need it. Our short attention spans are getting shorter. I know I’ve clicked on a promising link only to see an amateurish page and click away before giving the content a chance.

Stay focused, but don’t be afraid to mix it up: Alstin’s blog content is focused on offering you opinions, ideas and new media solutions for talent acquisition, retention and employee engagement. For the reader (and the writers!) we’ve gotta diverge from the HR talk sometimes. It’s a nice break and it keeps things interesting. Want to see what I mean? Check out our Favorite Things posts and views from the lighter side at the Water Cooler.

Keep it fresh: Another turn-off – blogs that have sporadic or very dated posts. I map out a schedule a month ahead of time. I know who is writing what so we don’t have any overlap and make sure that for each business day there’s something new. If someone needs more time, no worries. That’s my gig. I’ll write up something and fill in the blank. Selecting an editor that can provide an endless stream of ideas on what to write about, contribute as a writer, edit copy, source great photos – a person who can be a true content manager – will keep things on target.

No commercials! Keep it real: We’ve got amazing subject matter experts. We’re doing cool things for our clients. And we don’t want to read posts that are veiled ads any more than you do. A successful blog will be about sharing knowledge, not a sales pitch. For me, it is also important to keep in mind that the posts should be written just as much for my team’s benefit as it is for people outside the company. Posts need to be authentic, useful and highly informative.

Promote and network: Our blog’s URL is everywhere Alstin is electronically and in print.  We send out weekly eblasts to our clients and subscribers with links to the latest posts. You’ll see several of us commenting on other blogs to gain additional exposure and you better believe we’re chatting it up whenever we can. Use your internal and external networks to make sure people know what your are up to. They will take notice.

Have fun: I couldn’t wait to get this blog going and the excitement has never diminished. However, I also recognize and respect that not every employee wants to participate in writing content for it. No problem and comes with no demerits.

Have patience: I think the first week we were up and running our blog was viewed mostly by Alstin employees and my mom. Comments were slow to come, but they did! Then through team efforts to promote and network, so did the readers and the connections and the satisfaction of a job well done by all.

I’m keeping my promise of sharing campaigns that infuse an employer brand into their marketing message.

Here’s one from Barclays. Their ad draws you in through great visuals matched with intriguing narration about a mysterious company that’s “using their talents to become one of the fastest growing investment banks.”

Their ad certainly didn’t “fly under my radar.”  Enjoy.

The Alstin crew will be belly up to the bar at McGillin’s Old Ale House next week enjoying some Christmas cheer, the warmth of the holiday season and without a doubt many a shared tale or two of Alstin holiday celebrations of yore.

Our celebrations have ranged from:

The over the top extravaganza – We transformed the Valley Forge Convention Center into a Jersey shore-esque boardwalk complete with said boardwalk, a ton of games, a full sized merry go round, some guy on stilts, a popular Jersey shore cover band … over the top can’t even really begin to describe that one.

The somewhat silly – We were told by our dear party planner to “think Manhattan night club” for one year’s event. Considering some of the parties Alstin threw we all wondered, were we heading up to NYC? Many cool clubs in Philly were debated. Well, that venue turned out to be little more “Chucky Cheese” (a pre-teen disco resplendent with kiddie birthday photos on every inch of wall space) than nightclub, but we still got our groove on that is for sure.

The attempt at sophistication – We once had students from a local culinary arts school prepare a lovely seven-course meal for us. Immediately after we made a beeline for McGillin’s and placed an order for several edible items (mostly “fried” items) along with the pitchers.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports that just over 60% of U.S. companies are planning holiday parties this year, down from 77% in 2008. We invite you to take the latest poll on our blog (top right of the page), or let us know what your company is up to this year.

One thing is for sure, and we all can agree over here at Alstin, you don’t need a large budget – just a time and a place – to celebrate the holidays with the people you know and love and get to call your co-workers.

By the looks of this blog, you might think we over here at Alstin eat, breathe and sleep all that is recruitment and retention. Every so often we’ll stray from the HR talk and bring you more on some of our favorite things, places and activities that also populate our daily lives.

Long before I could download a song for $.99, I would get my cheap thrills in the dollar bins. Still a favorite weekend pastime of mine, spending a Sunday afternoon flip, flip, flipping through bin after bin of vinyl records, each for $1, never fails to deliver.

I’ve bought albums for the sheer nostalgia of having owned the same record in my youth, the love of a particular song (It’s only a buck!) and even for crazy cover art that is either way cool, or just flat out hilarious. But most of all, I still buy a ton of music on vinyl for the joy of bringing home good tunes, unwrapping the plastic, firing up the hi-fi and letting it spin. Some vinyl lovers, my husband included, also like to claim that records just sound warmer.

I’ve never counted how many records I have amassed over the years, but a good guestimate is in the 1,000’s. Not all of them picked up at the bargain bin rate and not all of them used lost treasures.

Answers to FAQs: Yes, you can still get new music on vinyl Yes, there are a lot of other people like me who also buy music on vinyl. Yes, there are actual stores that still sell them, new and used. (My regular haunt is Princeton Record Exchange.)

If you have ever seen the movie High Fidelity, or read the book by Nick Hornby, you get a pretty good glimmer of what it’s like to have a wee bit of an addition to collecting vinyl. The scene where Rob Gordon, played by John Cusak, rearranges his records based on his autobiographical moments really slayed me when I first saw it. Still does. I relate. I’ve conducted bizarre personal sorting and arranging of my records too.

When I am making a pasta dinner I like to play a little gem I found called Mandlino Italino. I spin Irish folk music on St. Patrick’s Day and on the first real blustery fall afternoon you can bet that Vivaldi’s Four Seasons will be blaring out of my speakers. I even have a record put out by one of the Mummer String Bands that I pop on while making breakfast every New Year’s Day … “Oh ‘Dem Golden Slippers”. Life always needs a little background music.

One of the wackiest albums I have ever come across I don’t (yet) own. It remains at the DeHaven homestead and was purchased, oh I guess sometime in the 50’s or 60’s by my father, a lover of the automobile and a former racecar driver. It’s of the Indianapolis 500. It’s just the sounds of the racecars going around and around the track. Over and over. It is totally insane. He won’t part with it, which I tell him is also totally insane because there isn’t even a turntable in my parent’s house anymore. But I get it.

I had to squirrel away my turntable this past year from a pair of very grabby toddler hands. Now that the grabby phase seems to be fading alway, I was beyond happy to bring it back into the living room full time this past weekend as we decked the halls. In our house, setting up the Christmas tree just isn’t the same without a rendition of Jingle Bells by Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.

For the first album of the day however, I gave the honors over to my little guy. After flip, flip, flipping through a row of albums, he recognized the cover art from a corresponding CD he knows and loves and made his request: The Best of Leonard Cohen. It was a proud-shared moment for us parents – our kid likes good music!! And you know what, Leonard’s voice and his music really did sound warmer than our CD.

The last thing I wanted to do this morning was board a train. Last night’s journey home from the Social Recruiting Summit in NYC via Amtrak, a trip that’s normally just shy of an hour – and I might add a trip that’s even shorter than my daily SEPTA commute into Philly, was four very long hours looooonnng.

The Amtrak crew kept the peace by announcing every 15 minutes or so that we’d be on our way “momentarily” = code any commuter knows is for “we have no idea, this may be a while folks.” It was, but I had a nice seat mate and a new iPhone to keep me busy.

What a great conference. Before it even started, I noted to those sitting around me that in all honesty, this was the first conference I actually begged asked to go to.

As one of Alstin’s professed social media evangelists, I wanted to take away insights, experiences and tips, plus meet some great people. I learned a lot. I did meet some very cool people and I’m so glad I went.

I attended alongside Jen Hitchens-Greenfield, Alstin’s Director of Interactive Services. We came into the city on Sunday. Had a fabulous dinner at Suenos. If you are a foodie go and try their “shrimp stack” appetizer and if you enjoy a cocktail, or two or three order the La Paloma – a margarita made with a grapefruit soda. It’s killer.

After that it was off to the Monster Social Tweetup event where quite possibly the worst picture ever taken of me is now online for all to see. This my friends redefines turtleneck. (At least this one is redeeming. That’s Jen there too getting her Monster fleece.) I ate chocolate covered bacon (not so killer) and can tell you that a great time was had by all at this event.

I walked into the Social Recruiting Summit yesterday morning and spied a large group of people milling about the entrance and what looked like a packed house inside. Nervous that it was SRO, I was happy to have one of the staff find seats for all of us – even though my seat was a barstool. Not the greatest for those who tower at a whopping five feet like me. But once the presentations started, I forgot that my feet were dangling (I’m kinda used to that anyway) and enjoyed the show.

If you attended and want to add your two cents, please do! If you didn’t and want to chat some more, I’m game. But be prepared, this post goes by way of my train ride – it is long.

My Favorite Take Aways From the Social Recruiting Summit

OK. First up: Keynote Speaker – Fred Wilson, Partner, Union Square Ventures:

• I learned that he has put venture capital behind many websites he’d like us all to take notice of.
• That he posts presentations prior to delivering them online and leaves them open for comment – love this idea for my own/Alstin’s purposes that is for sure.
• Targeted FaceBook ads aren’t just for the recruiters – job seekers are using them too and to their advantage.
• This is a really great recommendation that I will be passing on to many: Pick three things you used to do and stop doing them. Try three new things.
• It’s not as company-centric as it used to be, it’s a people-centric world.

Quick Hit - Carmen Hudson, TweetaJob

• When this woman’s name is spoken, I have a feeling there’s a chorus of, “She’s so great, isn’t she?”
• Create. Share. Ask. Answer. (promote)
• Keep it real, keep it interesting, keep it funny.
• I am now a Shark.
• I almost wish I attended her break out session – if you did, please share how great it was.

Social Recruiting Panel – Heather Tinguely, Microsoft; Kerry Noone, Sodexo and Ben Gotkin, RSM McGladrey

I’ve got a lot of notes from this session, but here are some key take-aways:

• We all think of FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn right off the bat, but Blogs just may be “where it’s at.”
• People learn in different ways so engage with them in different ways.
• If you are afraid of the negatives that may come with social media, stop being afraid. The negative comments you so fear are already out there.
• I will be checking out radian6.

Quick Hit – John Sumser, CEO & Founder, Two Color Hat

• Another break out session from another compelling speaker that I didn’t branch off to learn more from. Anyone have more to share? (I did think Prezi looked like pretty cool/fun presentation software. Will also be checking that one out. )

Social Recruiting from 30,000 Feet – Master Burnett, Managing Director, Dr. John Sullivan & Associates

• This was my personal favorite when it came to great tips. (I also hope Master is feeling better, what a trooper.)
• Encourage those in a senior manager role or greater to be responsible for establishing 10 new relationships per year (this includes a personal visit to that new contact) that result in at least two hires.
• Comcast has a “what not to do” example of a FaceBook Fan Page – don’t jumpstart a FB Fan Page with a message from Legal! Seems obvious, but they did just that.
• Play where the fish are – be highly targeted.
• In growing numbers, blue collar professionals are using their mobile devices vs. a computer for Internet access – don’t forget to make your career site mobile-ready.
• I will be checking out Technorati, BackType and BoardTracker.
• Really? You just add a plus sign to the end of a bit.ly URL for stats? I felt like a dork not knowing that one.

Building a Sustainable Approach to Recruiting – Susan Burns, Chief Talent Strategist, Talent Synchronicity

• This was an interactive/problem solving session. Here is an insider’s view of what went down.

Susan kicked off her interactive session by showcasing Innocentive. Yep, another great site to check out with an interesting factoid: 50% of the problems solved on the site are by those outside of the sphere of the business posing the challenge.

Quick Hit – Gerry Crispin, Chief Navigator, CareerXroads

• I know, this is getting redundant. I did not break out for Gerry’s talk. I stayed put (feet dangling) to hear Jessica Lee.
• I did find his pre-break out comments jam-packed with great stats including this one: 75% of those dipping their feet into social media have started a FaceBook Fan Page. All well and good, but as many presenters noted – please remember recruiters, FaceBook is not the be all, end all. People engage in different ways.

Social Media as Recruiting Equalizer – Jessica Lee, Employment Manager, APCO Worldwide

• If you are a recruiter feeling resistance, go rogue. (Can we all maybe find another buzz word for this? One not associated with a nitwit? Was that too political of me?)
• Start working social media and show the results to the decision makers – but be cautious and try not to step on too many toes.
• It didn’t surprise me, but it was comforting that her personal Twitter account had more followers than APCO Worldwide’s. (I see the same thing with my Twitter account and with Alstin’s.)

A big shout out to Laurie Ruettimann, Founder of PunkRockHR, for being a great Chairwoman and host of the event. Thanks to all the sponsors too. Now, it’s back to work!

Driving up the Northeast Extension for a get-away weekend with my husband and three year old in tow, I spied a billboard for PenTeleData’s Computer Patrol with this tagline:

Our geeks are smarter than their geeks.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, “That’s also a great employer brand!”

My husband’s reply: “No work talk please.” Agreed. No work talk, this is a get-away weekend afterall. I’ll save it for the blog. 

So what did I like about this tagline?  If you happen to work for Computer Patrol – or want to invest your talent with a “smart” team – that’s a real compelling, feel good (feel confident) message being broadcast to the general public about the people behind the company.

There’s another great series of ads you may have already spied that’s in the same vein and I’ll go ahead and call it like I see it – awesome. I’m not alone with this train of thought on Intel’s current campaign that’s using this tagline:

Sponsors of Tomorrow.

If you want to attract the kind of tech talent that’s going to deliver the next “what’s next”, this message really speaks to them. And quite frankly it appeals to anyone who wants to work for a company that makes a big impact – particularly a company that “sponsors tomorrow.”

There are several ads in the series, but this one (Our rock stars aren’t like your rock stars.) is my particular favorite – if only for the t-shirt and notebook doodles. I love, love, love it.

Have you spied campaigns that you enjoy for the double-duty performance of marketing brand + employer brand? Please share and I will continue to do the same.

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

That’s right. I’m quoting Walt Disney to get this blog started. And although it may be a bit corn-ball and one of the most over-used expressions by career-planners and advice givers out there, I’m still a believer in that philosophy.

Inspiration is everywhere. Seek it out. Take hold and make things happen.

Don’t get nervous. I’m not about to break into a rendition of Kum By Ya or turn this post into an empty self-help read. Instead, I figured I’d share some items I came across this week that pretty much support the whole dream it, do it philosophy.

First up, a blog post titled How I Landed My Dream Job. A recruiter with a 10 year track record in the biz describes how they turned their passion for networking and connecting with people into a brand new, coveted role – leading their company’s social media recruitment strategy. Here’s a bit from the post to give you the gist of it:

Over time, my company investigated social media for our messaging, our ongoing branding, recruitment activity, and as a new channel for us to grow as a company. As this direction was being considered and decided upon, I was approached to help lead our global recruitment social media strategy, implementation, and execution. This truly was a dream job opportunity for me and it is something so new that I am finding myself directly impacting my company’s message into the market. Yes, I did say dream job even though this position did not exist just a few months ago.

Whenever you meet someone – or maybe you are one of them – who truly enjoys what they do to make a living in this world it always comes down to one thing. Passion. And if you are inspired by that passion for something you truly enjoy, with some energy and smarts behind it, you’re on your way.

I was moved by the second item I am about to share and don’t think it needs much commentary. Just a view. (OK all you cynics out there, yes, I know this is an ad. Move past it!) If this blind artist’s artistry doesn’t exemplify “If you can dream it, you can do it,” I don’t know what does. Take a breather and be inspired.

We were all expecting to have the World Series wrapped up by now. This full page ad running in our fair city’s newspapers today shows us that the folks over at Macy’s did too.

Through the magic of Macy’s, let’s win Game 5 … and 6 and 7. Go Phils!

(Update: Although Game 5 was quite magical, Game 6 was a different story. Thanks for a great season Phillies!)

While today’s news must be taken with a grain of salt, or these days it seems a salt shaker (Hello! Balloon boy?!!), this job posting for a Personal Assistant by a Georgetown University sophomore has created quite the buzz.

Yep. Charley Cooper, age 19, Georgetown sophomore, needs some personal assistance with getting his laundry done, filling up his gas tank and “other random tasks.”

When asked if this was really all just a publicity stunt, the Washington Post reported that Cooper via Facebook (I can already hear the groans.) said that he was completely serious and hopes to start interviews in a few days “after the craziness of midterms has passed.”

Last Friday, the Georgetown Voice blasted him in a post on their blog, noting that Cooper “takes premature self-importance” to a whole new level.

So by now, you must want to take a look at the job posting Cooper’s peers have dubbed “easily the most absurd job posting ever”, right? Here you go:

I am a Georgetown undergrad student and part time employee in the financial services industry. I am looking for someone to take care some of my everyday tasks for 1 hr a day, 5 hrs/ week, $12/hr. I live on campus which would make things very easy convenient for a Georgetown student. The normal pay per week will be $60 ($300/month), even though on occasion it will be possible to work additional hours and/or receive bonuses at my discretion.

The schedule is completely flexible because I do not need to be around when you do the work. You can even spread it out over the course of the day. As my PA you will receive an email once a day by 9:00 am with a task list for that day and a time estimate for each task. Important tasks will be bolded on the list and must be done that day (even though everything on the list should theoretically be finished on a daily basis). At the end of the day you will send me an email telling me what tasks are incomplete or that all tasks have been completed.

Tasks such as doing laundry that involve a lot of waiting around (time when you could be doing other tasks or doing your own stuff) will be counted for the approximate amount of time it would take to do the labor involved. For instance, laundry will be counted for half an hour even though a laundry cycle takes 1.5 hrs to complete.

Job Requirements:

PA example tasks -Organize closet -make bed -Drop off / pick up dry cleaning -Drop me off / pick me up from work -Do laundry -Fill up gas tank -bring car for servicing -schedule appointment for haircut -Pay parking tickets -manage electronic accounts -shopping and running errands -other random tasks.

Preference will be given to applicants who are comfortable with city driving (car will be provided) and who are available when I need to be picked up and dropped off for work. Preference will also be given to Georgetown undergrads for convenience.

If this was Cooper’s attempt for his 15 minutes of fame, in this economy, his job posting just might do more harm than good to his personal brand. Others see no harm, including Corey Sherman, a Georgetown junior, who was quoted in the aforementioned Washington Post article as saying, “Listen, I think if there’s a market for it, and someone wants to do it, all the more power to him.”

So is this job posting a Little Lord Fauntleroy-ish for your taste? The case of another media opportunist striking again? Or are we all picking on a kid who simply should have known better?

Were you one of the lucky 100,000 to receive an exclusive invite to try out Google Wave the other week? Nah, me either.

Invites are available for the bidding over on eBay, but I went ahead and requested an invite through Google Wave’s sign-up form and you can too.

So what’s all the hype? Its highly likely that Google Wave will be the new email, IM, social networking, blah, blah, blah, all in one tool that will set the standard for how we communicate in the future – “set the standard” being the key words. It’s revolutionary and from what I’ve gathered, the possibilities look pretty darn cool.

Rather than rambling on and on with an endless list of bullet points offering up hilights on Google Wave’s pretty darn cool key features, check out this little video:

In addition to being excited by the possibilities, I also find equally fascinating the back-story of the Austrailian-based Google team – lead by two brothers, Jens and Lars Rasmussen and lead project manager Stephanie Hannon – who together pondered “What would email look like if it were invented today?”

In a blog post titled Went Walkabout. Brought Back Google Wave, Lars wrote:

We started with a set of tough questions:

• Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents?
• Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it?
• What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers’ current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms?

From available previews and articles, it looks like the team answered and addressed those questions quite well. Before we’re all in with the in-crowd and get an invite (or cave and bid a buck or two for one on eBay) this post, Google Wave: A Complete Guide via Mashable,  offers up a great overview. So get ready – pretty soon it will be surfs up for everyone on Google Wave.

Update: I eventually did get my invite, yay! I’ll be sure to send up a first hand account/review on the Google Wave expereince in a future post.

Last week the Dow closed above 10,000. Google delivered a better than expected earnings report. And last night, the Phillies beat L.A. 11 to zip.

It is nice to start off this work week with some good news. Here’s some more for you. A brand new survey on recruiting in today’s recovering economy by talentRISE found that recovery-related recruiting began in 3Q 2009 and will peak in the first half of 2010. Get the full download here.

Are you ready for the recruiting rebound? Here’s some solid advice from business leaders attending the World Business Forum in New York City:

Are we sometimes forgetting that there are real people behind the resumes?

When I came across this article a while back titled Be Nice to Job Seekers. (They’re Shoppers, Too.) I shared, tweeted and added it to a blog post right away. It’s core message: How an organization treats people “well before any of them become employees, says a lot about it, its brand and its values.”

True dat!

I’ve been mulling over this issue yet again after reading a couple of back-to-back blog posts in recent weeks. The first was titled We Should Be Ashamed (ouch) by Kevin Wheeler. He touched upon some of the real frustrations those in his circle are encountering while on a job hunt:

· Poor quality (and that’s putting it nicely) career sites

· The all too often “tedious process” involved in uploading a resume into an ATS

· A total lack of response – even when the applicant had been referred by an employee (This one makes me sad. So not good!)

Mr. Wheeler is not alone. I am hearing much of the same from my circle and some of this, let’s admit, is not new news.

I’ve had people ask me more than once something along the lines of, “Is it really worth it for me to submit my resume through a company’s career page? Every time I fill out one of those online forms, I get a standard ‘thank you for submitting your resume’ message and that’s about it.”

This post on Laurie Ruettimann’s always entertaining Punk Rock HR blog posed that same question from a reader:

I have had a feeling that all my responses to internal job boards are being sucked into a vast black hole of effort and time. Over the years I can honestly say I have only been contacted by a single company and I have responded to probably more than 100 postings … how else is a candidate supposed to get in touch with the right people?

Even before the advent of today’s social networking websites, HR has benefited tremendously from the network created via employee referrals. Employee Referral Programs, particularly those that are well thought out and executed, continue to be the most productive pipeline for good candidates. My advice to the weary job seeker usually starts with: Let’s take a look at who you know.

Now, let’s consider another question often floated about by job seekers – whether active or passive – to their friends, family and acquaintances: “What do you know about COMPANY X?”

What’s the word on the street about your HR Department? If it’s overwhelmingly negative (“Don’t bother with ‘em, that company’s HR Department is just a black hole!”) you’ve got a real problem.

Take a look at how your organization is managing its flux of resumes (and the people behind them) these days. Be sure that you are implementing the processes that demonstrate courtesy and respect for their time and interest. There are lots more people checking out your job openings and ultimately talking about their experiences.

Ugh. There he was. The most well-known former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, telling the world that the jobless rate is likely “to penetrate the 10% barrier and stay there for a while,” during ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday.

He went on to say that unless there is an “increase of more than 100,000 a month, you’ve still got the unemployment rate continuing to rise.”

Couple that with the slower trend for recovery on the job front in recent years, as evidenced by the chart below, what does that mean for all of us engaged in recruitment?

No one is committing to a trend in recruiting yet. Even the article that accompanied this chart in the NY Times noted:

The sharpness of the decline in employment this time could indicate that employers will have to step up hiring more rapidly when the economy does rebound in order to meet rising demand from customers. Otherwise, it could be years before the United States has as many jobs as it did at the end of 2007.

Take our poll – at the top right of this page – and let us know: Is your organization gearing up for increased recruitment in 2010?

I confess, the first time I was retweeted it was tiny thrill. A little Sally Field moment – You like me, you really like me! – in the Twittersphere. OK, so maybe it wasn’t quite that over the top, but it still was (and still is) very cool.

When I was a n00b to Twitter, the retweet was part of every primer I read – share and share alike all the good stuff you come across. Once you start up an account, you will soon realize that the good stuff often comes from others that you are following.

So for other n00bs and nay sayers out there who cover their ears and chant “la-la-la” every time someone tries to convince them to get on Twitter already, let me share the good stuff so to speak about retweeting.

If you are relatively new to Twitter, or are starting to think it’s time to give it a twirl, first be sure to check out this essential Twitter 101 guide.  Put together by the very smart people behind the site, you won’t find reams of leaden copy that only encourages to discourage. What you will get is a bunch of great information that’s very easy to plow through. The guide defines the retweet this way:

To help share cool ideas via Twitter and to give a shout-out to people you respect, you can repost their messages and give them credit. People call that retweeting (or RT), and it usually looks something like this: “RT @Username: Original message, often with a link.” Retweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful way to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly. So when you do it, you’re engaging in a way people recognize and usually like—making it a good way to connect.

Yes, yes and yes to all that. Although a part of you might at first question: Aren’t I supposed to be sharing all my pearls of wisdom, links I found to helpful posts and snappy 140-character comments that help brand either myself, or my company and its new job opportunities? Why am I making the “other guy” come across as the expert?

You aren’t doing that, trust me.

My top three tips on retweeting break down like this:

Use the Retweet to Gain Followers: A retweet is often reciprocal. Remember that tiny thrill I mentioned above? People do take note of who retweets their posts and are more apt to return the favor. A simple retweet could lead to lots of new followers who liked what you had to say. Remember, when you get retweeted, their audience becomes your audience.

Keep it Real: In that same vein, reweet items that genuinely hold real value. Only retweet something you found helpful or interesting. Don’t start retweeting with one goal in mind: the goal of getting yourself retweeted. By keeping it real, your Twitter feed will consist of interesting content that shows people you are worth a follow.

Get to Know Others in the Know: When it comes to networking, many of us are already using and are quite comfortable with LinkedIn. Twitter offers a highly personalized way to get to know others out there that you want to connect with. The conversational style and topical nature of tweets opens the door to friendly dialogue with industry leaders you may have admired from afar, a potential applicant, or others who share your common interests.

You’ll soon find, or maybe already have, that you will gain just as much (information, connections and fun) out of it as you put in.

I’m setting this blog post up within the familiar confines of my office at 1401 Walnut. Taking a quick glance over my shoulder and out the window, I have a nice view across Broad Street of my new destination come Monday morning: 121 South Broad Street.

You may have read Mike Tedesco’s post a few weeks ago about our big move, or maybe checked out Mike’s ecard announcement, but if you are reading this – it’s official. We’ve moved.

On Monday, I’ll be loading this post to the blog before I head for my train into Philly and although I don’t know what this day will hold – please, please let us have access to our email – I do know one thing. We’re all really excited to start another chapter in Alstin’s history with our new space (and hope we don’t walk up to the old building while on auto-pilot too much in the beginning.)

Keep reading for the latest from our new home. We’ll be bringing you photos and tales of moving day in posts to come.

There’s been a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. My advice? Shift into gear.

Mind-blowing stats on usage are one thing – as this great video (gimme a mintue, this one is definitely worth a watch) demonstrates. Another thing alltogether is tapping into social media’s potential and getting mind-blowing results.

For some of us the fun of social media is in validating via Facebook that you were right all along -  the home coming king really was a frog -  or reading the tweets of a favorite celeb. However, we’ve seen of late how Twitter can be a view into the world’s collective brain. We’ve made it that way by turning it into not just a site about mundane musings, but a community for sharing perspectives, information and hey, guess what – even jobs!

Connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter and I encourage you to keep reading Alstin’s beloved blog. And to my new tweeps, I will be looking for your tweets.

Lee Jeans has raised more than $75 million for breast cancer research through their Lee National Denim Day program. The program encourages employers to allow their employees to wear jeans to work in exchange for a $5 donation. Nearly one million supporters are united each year under the program’s simple philosophy: one day, one cause, one cure.

Many of us share a common thread with this disease. On Friday, October 2nd consider asking your coworkers to get casual for the cause.

Michael H. Campbell is the Executive VP, Human Resources and Labor Relations for Delta Air Lines Inc. – a company with 84,306 employees. For that he earns a total compensation of more than $5 million.

Workforce Management compiled a list of the 30 highest-paid HR Leaders among publicly traded U.S. companies. Although the average compensation for executives on the list has dropped 20 percent since 2007, one of the most notable trends on this year’s list is that many hold multiple roles at their companies. Half the executives on the list hold at least one other title outside of HR.

When I describe SlideShare, I usually boil it down to, “It’s like YouTube for presentations.”

I first stumbled upon the site when I set up my LinkedIn profile. Perusing the apps to make my profile stand out a little more and market Alstin in the process, I found SlideShare to be a pretty exciting site. Taking advantage of it seemed like a no-brainer. Why?

For starters, let’s admit the words “exciting” and “PowerPoint presentation” usually don’t go hand in hand. However, on SlideShare, you are bound to come across some great stuff (really!), and keep coming back for more.

In addition to a Top Presentation of the Day, you can search their ever-growing database by category or keyword. Particularly helpful if you are about to start work on a presentation of your own. From finding inspiration, to gathering helpful stats or connecting with experts on the subject you are tasked with, you are likely to be surprised by how much useful content you can discover.

Plus, the site is incredibly easy to sort through. Do a search, click on a presentation to view it in its entirety (and download it if the user allows) and you’ll also be provided with a series of related presentations. Happen to like what you see? You will also get to view a listing of  additional presentations created by that particular user.

It’s grown to become the largest community for sharing presentations on the web and it is social. Once you upload a presentation, viewers have the added ability to post comments. A simple, well-done presentation can easily turn into a dialogue with potential leads.

As a marketer, I see limitless possibilities here including using this tool to promote your employer brand, an employee referral program, the team culture for hard to fill positions you’re recruiting for and so much more.

People who aren’t aware of SlideShare or tapping into your LinkedIn profile will still be able to find your content. The transcripts of your presentation are automatically indexed by Internet search engines and will show up in search results.

And it’s not just a SlideShare/LinkedIn thing. You can embed a SlideShare presentation onto a blog or website too: 

If I were to find a con, it’s that the presentations are limited to “slides” – not so great if you have cool slide transitions or animations. However, you can now embed a YouTube video into a SlideShare presentation.

The site is also free. Need I say anymore?

In addition to viewing what Alstin is up to on SlideShare check out some of the other great presentations on the site. They likely won’t be like many of the snooze-fests PowerPoints you’ve sat through.

Interested in taking advantage of all that SlideShare has to offer with a sophisticated, branded presentation that’s not only memorable but designed to deliver cost-effective results? Drop me a line at blog@alstin.com.

If you are on Facebook, there’s a good chance that you’ve logged on to your account while you were on the clock. About 15 minutes per day seems to be the average according to a recent study by Nucleus Research. 

Although we have all read endless diatribes about lost productivity and the need to block social networking sites – even this survey equates time spent on Facebook to about 1.5% of total lost productivity – Rachel King of BusinessWeek offers up a unique perspective on all this. 

King asks us to consider “a correlation between employee use of social networking sites and the ever-shrinking lunch break.” 

99.9% of the time, you will find me at my desk during my lunch “break” and yes, I admit, if I have a yogurt in my hands, I just might stray to a quick diversion or two on the web while I quickly recharge. 

With downsizing and increased workloads, the fact that the average lunch break is now seven minutes less than last reported five years ago is no surprise. Are we seeing a transfer from physical lunch breaks to virtual ones? But more importantly, is this really having an impact on productivity? 

Since 2000 the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has conducted a survey on changes in work performance and productivity due to work Internet access.  eMarketer offered up this table to demonstrate trends in the seven-year span:

The numbers are pretty consistent with the majority believing that productivity has improved “a lot” or “somewhat.” 

Enabling employees to be productive is key to success. So is keeping a team engaged. 

The School notes, “Internet use is growing and evolving as an instrument for personal engagement.” Completely blocking social networking sites, as many organizations feel they must do to remain productive, may not be the way to go. Taking advantage of the wide ranging ways that these sites can keep your employees engaged with your organization – and their world – can work to your organization’s advantage now more than ever.

This silly site under the guise of the Social Media Addicts Association  challenges, “Are you freaked-out by Facebook? Is Twitter twisting your mind? We’re here to help you!”

Their 5 Steps to Kicking the Habit include:

1 – Admit you have a problem but don’t tweet about it.

2 – Accept that you don’t need upvotes to feel validated.

3 – Understand the risks of poking strangers.

4 – Repeat after me: “Twitter and alcohol don’t mix”.

5 – Don’t go cold turkey! Just delete one friend a day.

Want to tell the world you are in “recovery”, or just weary of all things social on the web? There are also a few inspired t-shirts available that could be the perfect fit for you.

On May 4, 2009, Frankford Hospitals, a name synonymous with premier healthcare in our region for more than 100 years, became Aria Health. The name change was backed by a powerful media/PR and advertising campaign which has quickly familiarized anyone in the area with the new brand and vision for the health system.

However, on May 13, 2009, just nine days after the big announcement, the HR team was set to host a job fair for Physical and Occupational Therapists. We quickly had to get the word out to the right people that Aria Health (Who?) was hiring.

Working within a short window and a set budget, the usual media suspects – email blasts, banner ads, postings and yes, even our old friend print – were planned. Our plan took advantage of once unheard of packages with the media (be sure to read my previous post on that subject) that guaranteed plenty of exposure. In addition, I also suggested to Aria Health, what better way to capitalize on the tools of the trade – and build their new brand – than to add a landing page to the mix.

Landing Page: A page intended to identify the beginning of the user experience resulting from a defined marketing effort.

It’s not a website, it’s a single page on the web that delivers relevant information to the people you want to connect with. In this case the relevant information was focused on three things – the new name, a brand new unit (that created the openings) and the recruiting event.

I asked Judy Mazess of Aria Health HR why she made the decision to green light my recommendation and she replied, “I needed a quick way to announce a larger amount of information – our name change, a new service coming online, and an open house for interested applicants. Combining the landing page with an email blast, banner ads on targeted sites and print ads gave us a powerful tool in a short amount of time.”

A great feature to their page: The added ability to capture the email address of interested candidates. While not quite transactional – we didn’t require the visitor to provide their email address before they could view any content – adding this simple feature gave Aria Health the ability to connect directly with candidates that are particularly interested in these openings. By capturing the lead, the email addresses are now part of a growing database that allows for continued communication. Candidate relationship management tools are important and often forgotten! I couldn’t agree more with this point of view – read on here.

A second landing page for nursing soon followed with Judy commenting, “We experienced success with our first effort. We filled several therapy positions in a short period of time.” Not only that, the URL is theirs to update at any time to adjust to changing needs and campaigns. And when you bring SEO into the mix (more on that here and in future posts) combined with the expense – the landing page was less than any of the individual media buys we made – a landing page or two or three … should be part of your next targeted effort.

“I don’t wanna work. I want to bang on the drum all day. ”

It’s been many moons since I’ve hummed the bars to this Todd Rundgren song from the 80’s on my way into work. We’ve all had those kind of Monday mornings, haven’t we? But today, like many employed Americans, I’m singing another tune. And it has a lot to do with being grateful. 

The latest stats on employment in the U.S. were promising – the unemployment rate fell to 9.4% in July from 9.5% in June. This is the first time we’ve seen a decrease in 15 very long months. However, there’s one stat that I continue to follow more closely and with great interest and it’s the one about the average work week. 

In addition to the staggering numbers of those laid off, the numbers of those now working part time for economic reasons has more than doubled. Many of the new part-timers are people who are picking up a second job due to a reduction in hours by their full time employer. 

This article from The Boston Globe covering the troubling trend a bit more starts off with, “They still have their jobs, but the recession has not spared them.” Although one person in the report notes a “silver lining” to her reduced schedule – she’s able to spend more time with grandchildren – many workers don’t want to bang on the drum all day. They just want to get back to work. 

I was happy to see that July’s numbers showed that the average work week rose to 33.1 hours, after having fallen to 33 hours in June, the lowest average on record dating back to 1964. 

They only way is up for this stat before we start to see an increase in hiring. Companies are likely to increase their current employee’s work week before that happens. Considering how rough going it’s been, this increase, however slight, may be our first peek around the corner to recovery.

I heart this resume. There’s intelligence, a strong design aesthetic and originality all right there plain to see – and it’s even on one page.

There’s one problem though. You can’t enter a resume like this into an applicant tracking system now can you?

The other week I wrote about the concept of a personal brand someday replacing the resume as we know it. “No way!” was pretty much the consensus. Not yet might be more like it.

We’re certainly evolving technology simply by the way we use it – Twitter is the prime example. And there are a lot of us out there (not just the creatives or the marketers) who feel limited by the Word doc approach to a resume. Or want to create an online “portfolio” of our work at the low, low cost we’ve all started to become accustom to online – free.

I was sent more than one invite recently to check out VisualCV. It’s worth your time and a site to watch. It took me all of two minutes to set up an account and that included pulling content from my LinkedIn profile with one click.

Big deal, right? There’s more to it than that. Visual CV also provides the ability to add content – a video, a document, an audio clip, your best presentation via SlideShare – to your profile. Expertise and accomplishments can be more clearly demonstrated and it helps paint a better picture of an individual’s abilities for a recruiter.

What’s also valuable to a professional is that the virtual resume created resides on a URL that can be left open to the public, discriminately shared, or hidden until the person wants it out there.

The site’s name may lead you to believe that its only about CVs, but employers are also able to add Company Profiles. In addition to building your brand on a growing site – currently there are hundreds of employers and tens of thousands of resumes – you will have another opportunity to get more bang for your buck. Your efforts don’t end with the end of an email blast or print ad run so use those materials to their full advantage and populate a Company Profile with them (and a podcast, your video, etc.) on this site, on Facebook, on a potential landing page, microsite … you get the picture.

The resumes on the site may have the same problem that plagues Mike Anderson’s above, they can’t be dumped into an ATS. Considering all the technical issues that surround integration, that “upgrade” may be slow to come. But, as more people embrace this sort of option the evolution of how we sell ourselves and connect with the organization that ultimately employs us will continue change.

Want more of an overview of VisualCV? Here’s one in “plain English”:

It’s no surprise that even during such difficult economic times Americans remain as enterprising as ever.

The product description for these buttons reads: Got laid off? Not a problem! Who wants to spend days pouring over job listings? It’s time to have fun. This collection of round pins would make great gifts for people that still have sense of humor about the situation.

Place your orders  here.

Before I settled into my own digs after graduating from college, I lived in 12 different residences with my family across three states. (Not an army brat, a corporate one.) I understood all the abbreviations within the MLS by the time I was 10 and to this day save the Real Estate section in my Sunday New York Times for last.

Within another section of the paper, the Business section, there’s another favorite. A column called Corner Office. It “offers highlights from conversations about leadership and management.”

Although many of you reading this blog know me as your trusty account executive, among many duties here at Alstin I’m responsible for hiring on the account services side. I’ve been able to not only help my clients make the most of their employer marketing campaigns, but also swap stories about our approaches to recruitment and retention. This column, presented in a straightforward Q&A style, reminds me of many of those conversations. I always come away learning something. For example, here are a couple of points of view from previous columns that I relate to:

Do you have favorite interview questions? “Well, my first question is always, ‘Tell me what you think this job is all about.’ And I think just allowing them to speak about what they want to do, and what they think the job is about, is actually very useful, because it sheds light on what they think they want to do in the company.” – Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive of Adobe Systems

My first question? Tell me what you know about Alstin Communications. It’s very open ended and I know within half a second whether the person has researched our company – by the look of terror in their eyes or the beginnings of a well thought out answer. Knowing as much as you can about a client, even before the business relationship begins, is key to the job here at Alstin, so this works well for me. Then I follow up with the same question Mr. Narayen asks for the reason he notes above.

How do you hire? “I really look for a kind of a passionate curiosity. I think that is indispensable, no matter what the job is. You want somebody who is just alert and very awake and engaged with the world and wanting to know more … I also look for a sense of humor, because that’s really the best indicator of some kind of perspective about the world. And ultimately I won’t hire anybody who can’t write.” – Nell Minow, co-founder of the Corporate Library

Ditto.

So when I saw this week’s column titled No Doubts: Women are Better Managers, I admit, I wrinkled up my nose even before diving in. The interview was with Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer for the media company, the Elle Group.

She says, “Hands down women are better. No contest. In my experience, female bosses tend to be better managers, better advisers, mentors, rational thinkers. Men love to hear themselves talk. I’m so generalizing. I know I am. But in a couple of places I’ve worked, I would often say, ‘Call me 15 minutes after the meeting starts and then I’ll come,’ because I will have missed all the football. I will have missed all the ‘what I did on the golf course.’ I will miss the four jokes, and I can get into the meeting when it’s starting.”

I can think of many common traits of good managers and looking at my list, I’m just not seeing gender anywhere in the mix. Creating a sense of camaraderie certainly is though.

In the end, although I totally disagree with her ridiculous generalization assessment, looking at the hundreds of comments posted online, it seems this interview also had others thinking along the same lines as me – gender generalizations do not belong in the corner office.

Tony Rosato’s confessional about his undying passion for Honest Tea caught a lot of eyeballs the other week, including those of the company’s founders. They not only left Tony a very nice comment, but tweeted about it and added a link on their Facebook Fan Page. It’s one of our most viewed posts of all time.

This little anecdote reaffirms the concept of six degrees of separation – we are now more than ever so closely interconnected. Anecdotes like these also abound for those of us who are using social media.

Using social media effectively can garner a lot of immediate attention and when you are looking for a job in today’s market, you want that immediacy and you really need to stand out.

The economy and our friends LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have created not only the desire, but the ability to establish and build a personal, virtual brand. It’s not surprising to me that people are using the principles I apply when creating employer brands to market themselves. And its even spawned a new niche – the personal branding expert.

There’s a particular book with the clever title Me 2.0 that’s getting a lot of attention. It’s written by Dan Schawbel – a “personal branding force of nature” (according to Fast Company). In the book Schawbel offers up a 4-step process to build a powerful brand (discover, create, communicate, maintain). He founded an excellent, award-winning blog on the subject and created an award for, you guessed it, the best personal brands. The awards are given to those “who express what it means to create and execute on their brand value to achieve their dreams.”

I came across this post titled The Brand Called You  and while it may be a wee bit dated, the rationale behind and advice on how to start building your personal brand is timeless:

• What makes you different?

• What did I do that I am most proud of?

• What do I want to be famous for?

The author states: “You are a brand. You are in charge of your brand. There is no single path to success. And there is no right way to create the brand called You. Except this: Start today. Or else.”

Hmmm, really? Or else?

Will using social media become the new job requirement and a personal brand the new resume? I blogged about this particular job that cropped up that clearly said “yes”, but what about the rest of us say in accounting? There’s much to debate and think about – time will certainly tell.

Social media is entering the work place in more ways than one, including certain job requirements. A recent posting for a Senior Manager, Emerging Media for Best Buy listed among its preferred qualifications at least 250+ followers on Twitter.

This particular job opening was announced on Twitter and became the tweet heard round the recruiting world – primarily because of that one bullet point.

At least 250+ followers? Although I can’t boast a stat like that (yet!), I also don’t approve everyone that wants to follow my tweets. It’s relatively easy to generate quite a “following”, but not so easy to have a following that’s truly engaged in what you have to say.

The resulting buzz generated quite a novel response by Best Buy’s CMO, Barry Judge. On his blog, Judge acknowledged the resulting commentary and revealed, “It seemed to us to be a natural progression to get the community involved in crafting the job description and qualifications. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

They turned the table, or the keyboard, over to all of us out there who had a thing or two to say about their job posting to help craft a better job description. Judge continues, “This role is a new one for us as it likely is for other companies. So instead of thinking we know it all, we’d like to increase our chances of getting it right by surveying the wisdom of the industry.”

Those who wanted to take a shot at the rewrite were directed to submit a draft through their Best Buy IdeaX site – a website dedicated to ideas on making the company better. All submissions have been entered and are now ready for voters to select what they think is the best entry. (Click on the job description tag on the site to view and vote.)

What a smart move. As I noted above, my opinion is that engagement is a key component to successfully using social media – particularly as a marketing tool, and that goes for marketing a product or a position. There’s no question that’s what Best Buy is doing here. Strong marketers in emerging media now have this job on their radar and I’m excited to see the results.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics recently reported, “Employers took 2,933 mass layoff actions in May that resulted in the separation of 312,880 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month.” *

Separation of workers – the words sound so cold. So impersonal. I know, I know – it’s a government reporting agency. They aren’t going to soften the blow.

But I am pretty sure that you are like me. You know someone who has been laid off, and if you are in HR, you may have had to be on the other side of the table – delivering the difficult news to a coworker that this would be their last day.

This video by the Cleveland Plain Dealer does just the opposite of the BLS Report. It puts a face – several faces – to the numbers.

Finding the right words to say to someone – whether that be a coworker, friend or family member – who was recently laid off can be awkward. I liked this line in a recent Philadelphia Inquirer post – “unemployment isn’t the measles” – so forget worrying about being awkward. If you’re concerned for your friend as well as about potentially putting your foot in your mouth, these tips from the aforementioned article are worth checking out.

* Mass layoff stats for June will be available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics on Thursday, July 23, 2009.

Profile Completeness. Even after posting a picture, detailing my work history, entering regular status updates and posts from this blog, mine was only 85% there. That number kept staring at me every time I logged onto my LinkedIn profile.

The site also kept reminding me that “users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities.” So where was I lacking? Recommendations.

LinkedIn suggests gathering at least three recommendations and last week I decided I was going to once and for all get them. But who to target and what was I really looking for in these? Here’s the rationale behind my approach.

My first target – my boss. Credibility is a big component to what I think makes for a good recommendation. What’s more credible than a positive review of your work performance from the person who has the role of managing and mentoring you as a professional? And we all have seen them – and can see through them – the glowing performance review by a former classmate, or friend in the same profession on a profile or two. Not so credible and not the way to go.

My second target – a former client I really enjoyed working with. One of my favorite LinkedIn attributes is the ability to stay connected with ease. Asking for an endorsement from a person I once had a great working relationship with also helps keep the door of communication open. I encourage anyone who has a long-lost contact to use this site to its full advantage.

My third target – a current, long-standing client. If I am going to keep it credible, I felt that I had to have a recommendation on my profile that’s got real conviction and that can only come from a client that’s known my account management style coupled with the agency’s business philosophy (my entire career has been with Alstin) for the long-term.

I’m happy to say I met my goal and even went ahead and reached out to a few others that fit the profile to see what I get back – whether that be more recommendations or more business opportunities. Either or – mission complete.

While Will Ferrel may have “lost” his edge with Land of the Lost this summer, the clip you are about to see (admittedly from another easily forgotten comedy) is for those of us out there who interview candidates on a regular basis.

By the looks of this blog, you might think we over here at Alstin eat, breathe and sleep all that is recruitment and retention. Every so often we’ll stray from the HR talk and bring you more on some of our favorite things, places and activities that also populate our daily lives.

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
- Benjamin Franklin

Winery of the Year.
45 acres of estate vineyards.
All told, more than 200 awards and medals.

Sonoma County? Napa? Nah! New Jersey. Yea, that’s right Jersey.

Just off the Delaware River in Musconetcong Valley (Huh, Musconetcong Valley? Click here for directions.) rests Alba Vineyard. A place I’ve returned to again and again after discovering their wines about three years ago. This day trip just north of Philly offers worthy pit stops along the Delaware – New Hope, Lambertville and Frenchtown for sure – to a beautiful hillside setting (where I saw my first Orchard Oriel -I’m such a nerd a bird watcher) and 1805 barn turned tasting room. The journey in and of itself is great, but it’s the wines that will keep bringing you back.

2009 marks the third time in five years that Alba’s been honored as “New Jersey’s Winery of the Year” by the NJ State Wine Competition. In addition to scooping up 15 more medals, the winery also took home the “Best State Vinifera” for their 2007 Estate Reserve Chardonnay – my favorite Chardonnay of the moment. Really, it’s that good. So happy trails to you wine-lovers out there in the Delaware Valley – get on the road to Alba Vineyard, you will be glad you did.

Need to find something online? Step one – Google it. But if I were to ask you what the number two search engine is, you would probably guess Yahoo, right?

Video searches on YouTube now account for a quarter of all Google search queries in the U.S. More searches are done directly on YouTube – the number two search engine – than Yahoo. There’s a video answer to pretty much anything these days.

I go to YouTube every week to find some silliness to lighten up our blog. And in my Google searches, I’m starting to pay more attention to the fact that many of my search results come back with a link to a related video just a click away on YouTube.

Our online sources for news and information are also becoming more social. I just tweeted about an article I read this past Sunday that examined the difficult task Google has keeping pace with the flow of information on Twitter – Google is constantly checking the news feeds on Twitter, but is unable to search tweets in real time … yet.

New search engines specific to Twitter and all that is social on the web are cropping up and we’ve just been introduced to Bing. The verdict is out on whether Microsoft’s update to Live Search is up to snuff. But the $80 million in marketing will bring on visitors, searches and the reviews. (By the way, I really like this ad, the search engine – eh.)

According to stats from Google offered up in recent months, the search term “jobs” ranked sixth in the top ten search terms, above cars, games and some of the ever-popular naughty stuff. On average, more than 151 million searches are conducted each month that incorporate the key word “jobs.”

I now ask you to consider the job seeker experience as it relates to your career site(s) or jobs that you’ve strategically posted on a job board, a Twitter feed, your company’s FaceBook Fan Page, etc…  Are they turning up in search results? Google some key words and see. Wouldn’t it be great to get a search result that included your jobs, or better yet a well-done recruitment video right at the top?

If you’re not there yet, there’s an interactive recruiting solution for that – we call it applicantarrow. A little search engine optimization goes a long way and when you bring in analytics and our Interactive Services team into the mix, applicantarrow gets your career website and job postings performing at their optimum level.  Results count, so stop counting them the old-fashined way – you will discover ways to decrease your overall spend and increase the pipeline of talent.

While some of us here at Alstin really want to take Anne Hillman to the Twittersphere, we admit this clip is pretty hilarious.

Last week the nation’s unemployment rate shot up to its highest level in more than 25 years – 9.4%. Paired with this news was the latest figure on job cuts for May. That number was 345,000 – the lowest we’ve seen since September. There’s good, bad and certainly ugly in those numbers, but when you get down to it, does the slower pace of job cuts offer us a glimmer of hope? Are we starting to see the first signs of recovery?

The free fall of the job market may very well be over.  A recent survey of HR execs by Watson Wyatt noted that many companies “have done what they can in terms of using layoffs, hiring freezes and salary freezes to combat the recession.”

While more than half of the companies surveyed are not planning layoffs in the next 12 months, significant cuts on hours and pay to those who remain employed are still having a negative impact on the overall economy. The average workweek in May fell to 33.1 hours, the lowest on record since 1964, and when it comes to wages there’s only one word to describe them – stagnant.

The increase we saw in the number of unemployed may also very well be a direct result of new college grads hitting the market. Nearly 2.27 million young workers (age 20-24) couldn’t find work last month. That’s 15% of them.

There’s a lot to digest and the National Association for Business Economics  created a panel of 45 economists to analyze just what these stats mean. While the group predicts a decline in second-quarter economic activity, NABE president Chris Varcares concluded in a written statement, “The good news is that the NABE panel expects economic growth to turn positive in the second half of this year, with the pace of job losses narrowing sharply over the remainder of this year and employment turning up in early 2010.”

Although no one can predict the future, that’s good news. I for one am a believer in using a positive outlook to help create a positive outcome. Let’s keep that glimmer of hope glimmering for better days to come.

Finding time for a webcast in the middle of a typical work day – one that’s always full of curve balls –  isn’t always easy. On June 15th though I plan to head on over to this site dedicated to the Social Recruiting Summit 2009.

Hosted by ERE from Google’s headquarters in San Diego, this conference is bringing together the people in Talent Acquision who are most active in Social Media. The team behind the summit also note that, “The focus is on REAL tactics and strategies that are already in the field and working, not pie-in-the-sky ideas.”

That’s my kind of conference and plenty of people agreed – the event is sold out. Thanks to a live stream and real-time chat on the aforementioned site we’ll all be able to participate.

Although we’ll bring you a recap and review post-event, be sure to mark your calendar for this one, it’s worth checking out.

We recently talked to you about innerviews - a great, cost effective way to bring life to your website, postings and more with audio and video. Gathering testimonials and all sorts of content during a video shoot of your fellow team members can be a fun time for all. This particular example may not be exactly what you have in mind for your next day in the life/recruiting video, but it’s definitely entertaining.

The world’s largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components, Spirit AeroSystems, was on a mission to go to as many college campuses that offer degrees in aerospace engineering as possible. The schools were identified, the events planned and the schedule set. That my friends, was the easy part. The hard part – deciding on whether to have a give-away item on hand.

Whether it’s a pen, a lint brush, a pack of mints, a magnet, you name it, these items emblazoned with your company’s logo and website can be seen by recruiters as:
A.) A great way to connect with talent and for them to reconnect with you
B.) More junk for me to lug to a job fair
C.) An opportunity to make a memorable experience – first impressions count!

This particular company may have had a mission, but after travel expenses were factored in what they didn’t have was much of a budget. A recent company name change left their supply closet full of dated materials – nothing was handy. So what to do?

The last thing I was going to do was click onto an online catalog, sort by price and give the client back a list of chochkey items that fit the bill for price and quantity. Even with a low to no-budget challenge, I’ve got to make sure that the end result is an A or C solution – we all know junk when we see it and that’s not the impression you want to give.

Reviewing the data we collected on aerospace engineering students we learned a couple of very helpful things about their common personality traits – including that many grew up making lots of model aircraft and rocketry and that they enjoy problem-solving.

Alstin’s solution exemplified the beauty of simplicity. We gave this aerospace company – a company behind some of the coolest stuff in the industry – a paper airplane.

With one 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper we told the story behind the name change, hilighted their key accomplishments and shone more light on the career paths they offered. Along the margins we  printed fun instructions on how to fold the sheet into a paper airplane.

The students got a kick out of them, the recruiters had a great (lightweight) tool to bring along to break the ice and in the end the increase in traffic to their website and applications by the soon to graduate beat any effort in the past – all for pennies on the dollar.

Is there such a thing as overuse of social networking tools? Opinions vary that is for sure – click here for some more on the debate.

A couple of months ago while heading to the office, I ran into one of my coworkers at the elevator. As I proceeded to turn off my iPod to say “Hi”, her twenty-something eyes took notice. She then said to me with some surprise, “You have an iPod?!!”

Honestly, I admit that the rock snob in me questioned the comment first – why wouldn’t I have one?  But then it set in a bit – does she think I’m too old for an iPod? What gives? And no – that’s not a picture of me to the right there. I’m 37.

While I know that the remark didn’t mean much of anything, I was reminded of a blog post I stumbled upon several months ago about Brian Ried, an accomplished computer engineer in his 50’s who was told he wasn’t a “cultural fit” (in addition to being called an “old fuddy duddy” and “lethargic” among some other not so-nice things) for the youthful atmosphere of Google. He was ultimately terminated.

I was reminded of this particular post because the average age of a person working in advertising is well … let’s just say it’s under 37. And I was really feeling my age for a moment there.

In addition to highlighting the case, the author also believed that copy in Google’s current job postings was questionable – questionable because Google is in the midst of a major age discrimination case brought on by Ried that’s now headed to the California Supreme Court.

The copy in Google’s job postings reads “We have a preference for those who like to work and play hard.” Is this copy really “code” for: only those of the younger-set need apply? After looking at the inner workings of the case the author felt so.

What do I think? Cultural fit should never be a cover for discriminatory practices whether that’s in the workplace or in messaging used to recruit talent. Not so sure that Google is crossing the line with their job posting copy though – that seems to be a bit of a stretch.

The economic downturn has led to many layoffs and we’re seeing age discrimination cases at record levels. This timely report from the Wall Street Journal has some more to say on the overall subject, what’s your take?