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Although we’re still trying to wrap our head around the Philly blog tax (don’t miss Jen’s take on that!), we love our fair city located right here in the Keystone State of Pennsylvania. I for one have lived in a couple different regions of the state and although this clip pokes quite a bit of fun, I think many of you, like me, will come away with the warm and fuzzies (and more than a few laughs) for the state many of us know, love, live and work in.

I’m going way back here, but I can still remember when CVS first started their ExtraCare reward card program and initially feeling a little wary about signing up. Whoa, wait a minute; do I really want CVS to go all Big Brother on me by keeping a detailed record of how many times I purchased mouth wash for some lousy coupons? You betcha. Over the years I have put that card to work for plenty of “ExtraBucks” and coupons – the perks of the program simply won out.

Now that location based social networking platforms like Foursquare and Gowalla are starting to take off, I wonder if the allure of exclusive discounts (like the new Foursquare promotion Ann Taylor just kicked off) at some of my favorite retailers will make me cave?

Foursquare is really the leader of the pack right now, so for this blog I am going to focus on its offerings. For many of you who answered our poll the other week admitting that these sort of services are just not on your radar yet, here’s a good primer on how Foursquare works in a quick minute:

While the idea of exclusive rewards and discounts hold the most appeal to me, I can relate on some level to the other pluses. If I still lived in center city – and didn’t go to bed most nights by 10p.m.- I could see myself using this as a great way to hook up with friends who were also out and about on the town. Having another fun, go-to destination right at my iPhone’s fingertips to find a friend-reviewed restaurant on the fly seems like a nice option too.

So what’s my review? Am I reaping all sorts of rewards? Loving all my new finds via Foursquare? OK, well not yet people. I’m still a little wary. I don’t know if I want – or need – all that info out there just yet. For me, the perks of Foursquare still have not won out. However, that can all change tomorrow, or when Whole Foods starts offering more than a measly gelato - totally agree with this blog over at SocialWayne.com. Sometimes being an early adopter of the latest, most buzzed about technology is what it is all about, and then some things I’ve found are just worth the wait.

On the same page? Want to convince me that the wait is over and I am being ridiculous? Let me know!

Inspired by the trailer for the upcoming film about Facebook, The Social Network  (How’s this for a tag line: “You don’t get 500 million friends without making some enemies.”) this spoof offers up some good laughs. Although I am a huge fan of Twitter and can argue it’s many merits ad nauseum, the trailer for The Twit Network is pretty darn hilarious. I’d give it four stars.

Last week, I added a quick survey to the a-team blog that posed three questions on how you’re using social media these days. I only promoted the poll via social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, this blog) and an email blast to our regular readers, so it was no surprise that results showed that the majority are using, or are at least starting to use, this form of media in their overall employer branding strategy. I was also happy to see that I’m not the only one who hasn’t given Foursquare a fair shake yet. Although with this announcement I know I’m getting on the bandwagon this weekend.

For those of you who answered, “Huh? What you talking about Willis.” to that question on geolocation platforms, be sure to come back around to the blog next week where I’ll be giving a basic primer on what Foursquare is all about.

We’re curious over here at Alstin about how our blog readers – many of them our dear friends and partners in HR – are currently using social media.

We’re also fans of short surveys. This one is very short. There are three multiple choice questions after the jump about what you consider your level of expertise to be, how you plan to use social media in the future and what you think about of some of the newer things hitting the market.

Many of us here at Alstin can’t get enough of the stuff – some of us admit that we can’t keep pace and others have absolutely no interest in joining the social media bandwagon.

Where do you fall into that mix? Give us about 10 seconds and take Alstin’s quick survey on how you’re using social media today by clicking here. Next week we’ll publish the results, so y’all come back now – thanks!

Did you ever see the old Twilight Zone episode The Eye of the Beholder? It’s a classic. The episode is set in a hospital and is focused on a woman whose face is completely bandaged. The doctors and nurses talk in hushed voices about this being her 11th procedure to help her look “normal.” You never see their faces either until the dramatic climax. The bandages are removed revealing a very pretty woman, however the medical staff’s reaction is one of horror – and we are ultimately horrified when we get a load of them. The hospital staff is revealed and they all have crazy pig snout noses and very disfigured and disturbing faces.

The episode concludes with these words:

Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn’t make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A lesson to be learned— in The Twilight Zone.

So what happens when the eye of the beholder is a recruiter? A beautiful resume doesn’t always land a candidate a job. We all have heard and experienced first hand – whether on a job hunt or in hiring mode – that that an engaging smile, firm handshake and tasteful clothing matter for that critical first impression. However, how much does beauty really matter when a candidate walks through the door?

NEWSWEEK recently surveyed hiring managers and job seekers about the role of beauty in the workplace. The results? Looks matter. Do you agree with these findings? Be sure to let us know.

54% of hiring managers advised spending as much time and money on looking good as perfecting a resume.

Two thirds of business managers said they believe some managers would hesitate before hiring a qualified job candidate who was significantly overweight.

64% of hiring managers said they believe companies should be allowed to hire people based on looks when the job requires an employee to be the “face” of a company at retail stores or in sales.

57% of hiring managers believe the unattractive have it harder at work; while 68% believe that looks impact the way managers rate job performance.

47% of all hiring managers said that they believe some women are penalized for being too good-looking in the office.

There are good and bad ways to stand out from the crowd.

Really bad.

Really, really bad.

When it comes to your resume, make it good. Sometimes standing out from the crowd in a good way can be as simple as having the only resume with no typos. This person’s resume made a list dubbed the 70+ Most Artistic and Creative Resumes of All Time. I picked it for my never ending love of vinyl and it’s overall good design, however the other 69 are pretty impressive and worth a diversion in your day too, so be sure to check them out.

In one of many promotions designed to hype the season premier of Mad Men, fans of the show can now find out if they’ve got what it takes to join the team over at the newly formed Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in this fun time killer mock interview. See if you make the cut and where you fit in by taking the interview here. Season 3 premiers Sunday, 7/25 at 10pm!

Social media has been a game changer. It’s made us rethink how we like our news delivered. How we prefer to communicate with each other. And how we portray ourselves to the world. Personal brands are no longer resigned to the famous.

For many of us our personal brands are connected to our professional identities. For example, my handle on Twitter is @AnnetteatAlstin. I use Twitter to share happenings at Alstin, links back to this blog, contests we’re running and all around interesting HR or social media news I come across. Sometimes though, that can be a little monotonous. I tweet more personal sidebars about my comings and goings at work too — a great restaurant I tried in Center City for lunch, a funny video, or being stuck on a late Septa train. It all needs to be pretty innocuous stuff because these tweets are not all about me, it’s all about me at Alstin.

Read this tweet from former CNN Senior Editor of Mideast Affaris, Octavia Nasr who was using this Twitter handle, @OctaviaNasrCNN:

Nasr, who invested 20 years of her career at CNN, was ultimately fired for her tweet about Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah who has been described by the AP as, “staunchly anti-American and linked to bombings that killed more than 260 Americans.”

After her firing Nasr posted an explanation, apology and remorse for her tweet saying:

It was an error of judgment for me to write such a simplistic comment and I’m sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah’s life’s work. That’s not the case at all. It’s something I deeply regret.

Her firing has been controversial. Stephen M. Walt, a professor of International Relations at Harvard Kennedy School, pointed out in an editorial, “plenty of American journalists and politicians have shown ‘respect’  for various world figures with hands far bloodier … but it didn’t cost them their jobs.”

Thinking back on my blog discussing  the ”Cisco Fatty” tweet and the importance social media policies (and common sense), my first question on all this was:  What are CNN’s social media guidelines for employees?

 So I Googled, found their policy and it reads:

Don’t list preferences regarding political parties or newsmakers that are the subject of CNN reporting. Unless given permission to comment publicly on the issues or people we report on as a CNN analyst or commentator, it is important that you and all other CNN employees be independent and objective regarding the news and people that we cover. If you publicly declare your preference for issues or candidates or one side or the other of the public policy issues CNN reports on, then your ability to be viewed as objective is compromised.

With the delicate balance of reporting in the Middle East, it seems that Nasr is correct in copping to making an error in judgment. Even with very clear social media policies, I don’t think we’ve seen the first or the last of these sort of firings in the forseable future. We are human after all. In the mean time though, please, whatever you do,  don’t follow any of these examples.

Here’s some good employment news for you: Gallup’s Job Creation Index has remained more positive in recent weeks than at any point since the fall of 2008. However, the American people still feel like they are on shaky ground. Check out these numbers:

The availability of jobs plays a key role in how we view the state of the economy and while jobless rates may have declined, so did payrolls in June. Rather than end on deflating news, Gallup further reported, “Even while the average American has become more negative when asked to assess the state of the economy, U.S. workers remain more likely to report that their employers are hiring rather than firing.”  How can we gain our confidence back? If we can hold steady on that trend, we’re on our way.

Last night, after heading home from a day at Alstin on the R3 train I opened the door to my now oven-like car and saw on my dashboard a reading of 107 degrees outside. Man, it’s hot here in Philly! Another 100+ degree day is on tap this Wednesday. Besides staying in the AC and drinking lots of water, be glad that you are not this Philadelphia worker who has laid claim to having the hottest job in the county.

You’ve got to love Saheed Dillard’s deadpan delivery describing his typical work day spent atop a steam roller applying super hot asphalt, “You feel like you’re sitting on a grill and I am the hamburger or the hot dog.”  We hope Saheed doesn’t get too charred today and for the rest of us stuck in this heat wave, stay cool!

Alstin wishes everyone a happy and safe 4th of July and a Happy Friday! While we’re at it, here’s some silliness to kick off your weekend – if you’re on Facebook, you’ll enjoy this one.

“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”
- Gertrude Stein

I had a conversation that I (almost) can’t believe I am still having with a friend this weekend about Facebook and the workplace. My friend who is a “director” of a department shared with me a recent Facebook wall post by a person who reports directly to her. It read (and this is further edited to ensure their “privacy”) along these lines:

“I still have to endure working at COMPANY XXX.. Anyhoo, did you get the vibe that SO-AND-SO is waaaaaay too tense and uptight…like there was something missing from their life? A NOT SO NICE DESCRIPTION OF WHAT SO-AND-SO MAY BE MISSING IN THEIR LIFE WAS HERE. It’s a good thing I’m not friends with them on Facebook, or I’d be fired right about now.”

While comments like these may not exactly be grounds for firing, they do lay the groundwork for impressions of a person’s character. Remember that old adage, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all? Well, just apply that to your coworkers and what you’re saying about them on Facebook big time.

“Doesn’t she know that I can see this?!!” my friend asked. Umm, probably not, but they really should.

The clueless co-worker in all likelihood is really clueless about their privacy settings. Little do they know that allowing “Friends-of-Friends” to view their wall posts allowed their boss to view their rant about a fellow coworker. A rant that was a wall post to a mutual friend.

Many of us have been confused, annoyed, leery and/or still somewhat clueless about the recent changes Facebook made to their privacy settings. Their switcharoos have caused many to lose some trust in Facebook and question the ulterior ($$$) motives of the service.

An editorial on CNN.com by Danah Boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft and fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, points out many key issues when it comes to trust, informed consent and Facebook. It’s worth a read and she offers up a recommendation for those who aren’t so sure how to manage their Facebook privacy settings – check out ReclaimPrivacy.

By following a few simple steps, ReclaimPrivacy will perform a series of scans that inspect your current Facebook privacy settings and warn you about settings that might be unexpectedly public. Regular visits to their site will also keep you posted on the latest developments on Facebook’s policies when it comes to users privacy.

There’s no doubt that sharing information is what Facebook is all about – it’s essential to the site’s success and has contributed to the success of individuals and organizations by the very nature of its openness. Just check out how Bravo TV is using social media to cater their very successful TV shows to a very specific demographic – and I admit I am totally one of them, they’ve got me! On the flip side, wouldn’t you rather “opt-in” to sharing your Facebook profile content beyond your group of friends vs. the other way around? Get your settings squared away and then tell us what you think. Do you still give Facebook’s approach to your privacy the thumbs-up?

Need an extra jump start to get going most Mondays? Back away from that 2,000 calorie mochachino and join Alstin on Facebook. Every Monday one of our team shares a song that will help set a good groove for your work week. (Click here and check out what Creative Manager Christy Parker posted to our Wall today!) We love when you “like” us, but don’t worry, we aren’t going to check out your profile – our page is all for you to get an insider’s view of Alstin (exclusive photos!), HR news you can use and at the end of the week, we’ll also share cool happenings in Philly.

In 2009 93% of companies with more than 200 employees offered at least one wellness program within their health benefits. (That’s up more than 88% from 2008.) Out of those companies surveyed by The Kaiser Family Foundation, 63% thought that their wellness programs improved employee health and about half thought they reduced costs.

The American Heart Association also recently sent out a policy statement on workplace wellness  that claims, “Research shows that companies can save anywhere from $3 to $15 for every $1 spent on health and wellness within 12 to 18 months of implementing a workplace wellness program.”

The American Heart Association went on to detail several of the most typically successful wellness programs including, but not limited to, these:

• Weight management
• Stress management/reduction
• Early detection/screening
• Work environment changes that encourage healthy behaviors and promote occupational health and safety

However, the Association also noted that 60% of employees said the economy has affected their ability to take care of their health, just adding one more reason to skip a trip to the dentist or cancel a gym membership.

So how do employers mobilize their employees to participate in these programs? USA Today reported  that IBM offers a $300 rebate for participation. IBM also had the Health Management Research Center at the University of Michigan analyze their wellness program efforts and impact. According to IBM’s Director of Well-being (how’s that for a title?), their wellness initiatives resulted in $80 million in reduced health claims.

A different approach, but a financial incentive nonetheless, PepsiCo introduced a $600 surcharge for smokers. That resulted in a tenfold increase in participation in their smoking-cessation program. (The quit rate was 34%.)

Wellness isn’t just about helping workers shed pounds or to finally kick their smoking habit to the curb. For large and small organizations, it is very important to remember that the way employees are managed affects their well-being. Offering flexibility to a great employee dealing with a difficult personal issue, or showing in small ways that you really care also falls under wellness (and being a decent human being).

I will leave you with an except from the book Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter. It provides plenty of food for thought and a perspective that, I for one, find hard to argue with:

“ … the most progressive leaders not only understand that they are in the business of boosting their employees’ wellbeing, but they also use this knowledge as a competitive advantage to recruit and retain employees. They know it will be easier to attract top talent if they can show a prospective employee how working for the organization will translate into better relationships, more financial security, improved physical health, and more involvement in the community.

Leaders can’t just tell employees that they care about their well-being. They have to take action if they want to see results. And this requires continual measurement and follow-up to help workers manage their wellbeing over time. Just as the most successful organizations have worked systemically to optimize their levels of employee engagement, they are now turning their attention to employee wellbeing as a way to gain an emotional, financial, and competitive advantage.”

Alstin is sending you on an expedition to win a chance for a $250 Target Gift Card! Go on our Scavenger Hunt for your chance to win. We’ve got it all mapped out for you, just click here to get started!

Say you are a recruiter. A real good one. A recruiter that uses a wide variety of tools to recruit candidates on behalf of your employer. You’ve built quite a network, particularly on LinkedIn. Hundreds of connections are now at your disposal thanks to this service and thanks to your efforts.

Your efforts don’t go unnoticed. You get offered another career opportunity in recruiting. It’s a great one. A no-brainer and you take it thinking: Wow, I’m all set. And just look at this virtual Rolodex I’ve created. All my LinkedIn contacts are not for nothing. What a great foundation for me to use in my next super-awesome recruiting job. Yippie!

Hold up. Your soon to be former employer might have something to say about how you go about using your LinkedIn network.

I’ve tackled this question quite a bit from clients and friends in the recruiting world and I’ve always answered it this way. Your profile is yours. Your connections are yours. However, have you signed a non-compete agreement? If you have, be sure to follow its protocol or you could land yourself in a lawsuit.

That’s just what seems to have happened to Brelyn Hammernik. She’s a technical recruiter who was sued by her former employer TEKsystems. Both Hammernik and her current employer (yikes!), Horizontal Integrations, are named in the lawsuit.

If you have signed a non-compete and move on to a competitor will you (should you?) remove those from your connections for ultimate compliance? What sort of LinkedIn correspondence actually is a solicitation vs. a status update? This suit is one of the first cases that will set these sort of precedents when it comes to social networking and non-competes.

It was correspondence like this that got Brelyn Hammernik into hot water:

“Tom – Hey! Let me know if you are still looking for opportunities! I would love to have you come visit my new office and hear about some of the stuff we are working on! Let me know your thoughts! Brelyn”

Tip #1 – When you sign a non-compete, don’t send messages like these to your former clients and co-workers.

Tip #2 – If you have signed a non-compete and are moving on to a competitor for a new position, dust that thing off before you go off into the sunset. Read it. And make sure you ask questions on terms and conditions that seem questionable.

Tip # 3 – Want more on the legalites? Be sure to check out Rob Radcliff’s blog SmoothTransitions. He’s a Dallas,TX attorney specializing in such cases and offers a wealth of advice and information for employers and employees alike.

I saw this TV commercial on one of my favorite blogs, AdFreak (forget the Super Bowl – this is where some of the funniest spots wind up and the write-ups are sometimes even funnier), and it only made me picture what it would be like if all of us here at Alstin heard what sounded like an ice cream truck in the office. Would I be running for cover, or running to be first in line?

I watched this video last week and said aloud to the computer monitor in front of me, “That is awesome.” Admit it, from time to time you Google yourself. Alex Brownstein, who is in the habit of Googling himself “embarassingly frequently,” figured the top five creative directors he wanted to work for probably did too.

For $6, just 15 cents per click, his message got top billing whenever one of the five did a Google search on their name. I already know the power of Google AdWords. A little budget can go a long way toward targeting and connecting my clients jobs to talent. It sure went a long way toward getting this guy his dream job. Way to go!

Five years ago with the invitation to “broadcast yourself,” YouTube launched on the web. Google (which owns YouTube by the way) in celebration of YouTube turning five this month announced that the site gets 2 billion views a day. A day!!!

Viral videos on the site have made people rich, famous, certainly laugh and even learn through countless how-to videos.

Here are some facts:

• It’s the third most visited website in the world (Alexa)
• There are local versions in 23 countries and in 24 different languages
• It gets 24 hours of uploaded video every minute
• You would need to have about 1,700 years on your hands to watch every single one of its hundreds of millions of video clips now on the site
• Lady Gaga “Bad Romance” is YouTube’s most viewed video of all time, with (at this writing) 206,604,999 views (That one really reminded me that I am fast approaching my fourth decade on the planet.)

Some stories are best done visually, so it is no surprise that YouTube is now part of our daily vocabulary and part of how we communicate with each other. So, as a recruiter, think about how you are currently communicating to people about what it’s like to work for your organization? Or for that matter, what it actually means to be an employee where you work? I know that there’s some pretty compelling stuff that can come out of answering those two questions. Compelling stuff that can be made into a video that you can load onto YouTube, embed on your career web page or recruiting blog, job postings, you name it. (Remember, YouTube is the second largest search engine - people are also looking up “your company story” here too.) The link to that video can also be included in every email you send to candidates and prospects. You can even embed a YouTube video on a SlideShare and add it to your LinkedIn profile. View my full LinkedIn profile (and connect with me while you’re at it!) to see what I mean.

A video much in the style of this one, that doesn’t technically involve any video being shot I want to add, can be developed to communicate your employer brand. This one we developed to showcase some branding work we’ve done is now playing on Alstin’s YouTube channel. Think of how valuable a cost-effective tool like this could be for you. Want to learn more or discuss a bit further? Watch the clip and be sure to drop me a line here, or email me at blog@alstin.com.

The office copy machine: A wonder of efficiency that we all pretty much take for granted. A pit stop for office gossip. A real threat to your personal identity.

Wait a minute, what was that last one again?

Did you know that any copier manufactured since 2002 comes fully equipped with a hard drive? A hard drive just like your computer that can hold a copy of all the images ever copied on that machine. Machines that companies often lease and just as often swap out for new ones. Machines that wind up in warehouses to be resold to anyone, anywhere.

Copy machine hard drives can typically take a handy person about 30 minutes to retrieve. Using forensic software that’s available for (you guess it!) free on the web, within a matter of hours complete images of documents copied can be extracted, viewed and reprinted.

Just when you thought it was only your privacy settings on Facebook that you needed to worry about, this piece from CBS News on the subject is a real eye-opener. The good news, hard drives can be scrubbed – most cases they are not – and security features can come pre-loaded into copy machines – ditto. So think before you copy and before that copier heads out the door, check to see if all the information on its hard drive isn’t about to go with it.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Watch any episode of Mad Men – please tell me you are watching, Season 4 starts on July 25th!!! – and you’ll get the gist of what gender bias in the workplace may have been like back in the day. In 1963, women who were working full time earned just 59 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. That same year, in an effort to remedy the disparity, the Equal Pay Act, designed to “prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers,” was passed.

While it may seem like a snail’s pace – less than half a percent per year since the Act went into effect – the gap is closing. Women now earn 76 cents for every dollar a man earns in today’s market. OK, so I’m not exactly cheering “You’ve come a long way, baby!” with that statistic, but admittedly, we’re headed in the right direction.

Go ahead, make your arguments that the continued disparity is all because of women’s typical career choices, an under representation in the math and science fields, career pathways that allow for flexibility and a possible reluctance of women as a whole to go the entrepreneurial route. There may very well be some truth to all of them.

However, this piece by CBS News offers more insight into what working women have in store as time marches on:

• Within 22% of dual income male/female households, the women are the breadwinners
• It’s projected that women will start to earn 60% of Bachelor’s degrees – women currently make up 58% of all college students
• Women will soon hold more full time jobs than men
• Equal Ambition – high achieving, female millenials who are entering the marketplace are keenly aware of the wage gap and will settle for nothing less than equal pay

But it is not just the millenials who will never settle. There is currently a landmark law suit now set to go to trial that was filed by six female Walmart employees alleging “systemic sexism” by their former employer.

Walmart argues that they “foster female leadership among their associates and in the larger business world.” Those filing suit claim that they’re paid less than men in the same or comparable role, receive fewer promotions and wait longer for promotions. If you want more in-depth details, check out this report from ABC News.

As one of the nation’s largest private employers, this case could potentially be the largest class action lawsuit in American history – many also predict that this one will ultimately land in the Supreme Court. No company should be considered “too big to be held responsible” when it comes to discriminatory practices, but playing devil’s advocate: does the experience of six women who worked in 13 stores truly reflect the corporate culture of an organization that has 2.1 million workers in 8,000 stores worldwide? The courts will decide and the impact of this case will truly be far reaching.  Stay tuned – and tune into Mad Men while you’re at it!

At the first of the year, there was a great piece written by David Carr in The New York Times that’s seriously word up on Twitter. This man tells it like it is on why Twitter has – and more importantly will continue to have – relevance.

I agree that “beyond the dippy lingo” there’s lots of substance to “listening to a wired collective voice.” No matter the time of day, I can give Twitter a minute – sometimes that’s all I have – and it gives me the world. The ability to learn, (I’ve often equated the value of tweets to continuing education units) connect, and have fun is right there whenever you want it.

My overriding advice to non-believers and new comers to the service: Twitter is all about what you make of it – or want to make of it. Enough with the love fest already! Yes, there are occasional irksome moments I have with the service. There certainly are personality types that crop up and behaviors that tend to bug. So what are my pet peeves? These are my biggies:

The Know It All: Is there really a “know it all” when it comes to social media? Well, here and there I have found some folks who do put out that vibe, calling themselves experts while tweeting out advice such as this to the masses: “You need to tweet 10 times a day.” I tend go right into my sarcastic mode when I see stuff like that: Oh no, I only tweeted eight times today – all is lost, including my followers!!! OK, so while I agree that if you want the full Twitter experience, sending tweets is an essential part of the package. Just not so sure that there are a quantifiable number of tweets you must send on a daily basis.

The Elitist: Then there’s the type who likes to share their “worldly” opinions on the use of Twitter: “I stop following anyone who doesn’t tweet every day.” Ug. When I read stuff like that, I immediately think of Lucy in A Charlie Brown Christmas when all the kids are trying to eat the falling snowflakes: It’s too early. I never eat December snowflakes. I always wait until January. Puh-leese, I personally don’t lock and load scheduled tweets round the clock (not that there’s anything wrong with that), and you’re just not going to find me on Twitter over the weekend, so I guess it’s see ya later Mr. Twitter Elitist!

The Overachiever: Remember that line above about 10 tweets a day being a must? Well, there are also some folks that like to send out 10 tweets all in a row, intermittently throughout the day. I can’t relate to the spam-o-nater approach to tweets. I also don’t enjoy it. It just junks up my Twitter feed and typically results in an unfollow sooner than later.

The Direct Message auto-responder: I love getting DMs from people. The ability to connect with someone in all likelihood that I wouldn’t have connected with otherwise and “talk shop” is really just the best. So when I see a DM that’s actually an auto-responder to a follow: “Thanks for the follow and be sure to read my blog…yada, yada, yada” it’s a little deflating. I know what you are trying to do. “A” for effort and all that, but when authenticity is really what makes social media rock, a canned response seems a little saccharine. (It also reminds me of lame auto-responders sent via Applicant Tracking Systems.)

No Thanks: When I retweet – more on my joy of the retweet here – I don’t necessarily expect a thank you, but it is nice to get one. Twitter can also be a good spot to crowd source an answer to a burning question. I have fun answering those posed in my Twitter feed. By responding, I’m also open to and welcoming of continued dialogue with that person. While that doesn’t always happen either, when it does it’s (here comes that word again) nice. Low expectations do nothing for me, it’s the engagement with others on Twitter that does.

So there you have it, my pet peeves. Far outweighing those is the essence of why I will continue to tweet and retweet, DM and thank those who have tweeted before me – Twitter has relevance. And no matter the time of day, or place, I’m instantly able to listen in on one of the most fascinating conversations happening at that moment.

We’ve already witnessed the first sign of the Apocalypse with the Doughnut Bacon Cheeseburger.

The second sign is now upon us: The Double Down.

Two pieces of cheese.
Two pieces of bacon.
Two pieces of chicken.

There’s no bun. Just two pieces of chicken instead of slices of doughnut bread. Bear witness:

What does Gallup have to say about the latest numbers on job creation?

During the next several months, the jobs data will continue to be distorted by the largest peacetime mobilization of workers in history as the government continues to hire temporary census takers. At the same time, many companies may add part-time help instead of full-time workers, hedging against both economic and political uncertainties. In order to pierce this cloud of distortion, it will be important to monitor the underemployment rate — which together with the Job Creation Index are the best indicators of current real U.S. job conditions.

Gallup reported in March 2010 that 20.3% of the employable population is underemployed. (Translation: unemployed or working part-time but wanting full-time work.) 

All doom and gloom aside, even after taking a look at Gallup’s numbers and excluding the surge in job creation from the US Census, private employers added tens of thousands to their ranks last month. What will April, and the rest of 2010 for that matter, bring? Stay tuned… 

They call. They email. Sometimes they even show up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed with resume in hand. Unannounced and with no appointment. (Fill in screechy Psycho music here.)

If you’re in recruiting, you know what I am talking about: the over-eager candidate bordering on the job stalker. These are people that have more perseverance than Dorothy ever had to discover just who it is behind the curtain of an Applicant Tracking System.

Frustrated by thanks (but no thanks) style auto-responders, desperate for work after extended unemployment, or OK, just a little weird, the over-eager candidate/job stalker may be nothing new to the world of recruiting. What is new is that the curtain has been pushed aside just a bit thanks to social media and particularly thanks to LinkedIn.

So when does a person who shows some gumption turn into something less appealing? On the flip side, is there too much of a dismissive attitude coming from HR that’s fueling some of these tactics?

When it comes down to it, whether you’re debating going all-stalker on a company for a job, or you’re dealing with the overwhelming flow of resumes and a ton of people wanting an answer, the whole process is really a two-way street, isn’t it?

First to the job seeker, rule number one: Don’t go all-stalker on a company. You’ll make people uncomfortable to say the least. “But isn’t that going to help me stand out from the crowd of resumes and get some attention? I’m awesome!” Oh yea you will get some attention, just not for the right reason.

What’s reasonable is to find someone you know that works for your target company. LinkedIn really makes this so easy for candidates and recruiters alike. This is typically one of the best ways to get to the top of the pile, plus by reaching out to someone you know at the company it may even turn into an employee referral bonus for them.

What’s not so reasonable is to try to use LinkedIn to reach everyone who works for the company to sing your praises and hope that one of them accepts your invite so you can then inundate them with inquiries about the job.

Respect and professionalism should always be your guiding forces. This is where we start driving down that two way street. There’s no doubt that we as human beings crave closure. If you are a job seeker, remember that the job opening you applied to likely resulted in hundreds of applications. Feedback and updates on a submission to a job may not always be possible. However, an inquiry (note I said “an inquiry” not a dozen) deserves a response, doesn’t it?

An automated one may not fulfill the job seekers’ craving, but please consider the alternative. Many people are already convinced their resume is going into a black hole. A quick response to someone who has applied or reached out to you directly only instills goodwill – that’s positive, low cost employer brand building at its most basic level.

What have your experiences been with the more “proactive” candidates out there? When are you impressed by gumption? When does it seem that a line has been crossed into Stalkerville? Let us know!

Are you a natural problem solver? A wellspring of ideas? Wish you had been the first person to turn a robe worn backwards into big bucks?

Innocentive, a website that “believes in the power of innovation” to solve some of the world’s “most important problems” – while providing problem-solvers with the opportunity to win the aforementioned big bucks – might be worth a click for you. Prizes go all the way up to a cool million for challenges a little, OK a whole lot more, high brow than things like The Snuggie.

The majority of the site’s challenges are geared toward the scientifically inclined. Ever ponder the alternative route to a pyridinone? (Say what?!) Didn’t think so. However along with NASA, which has their own Innocentive Innovation Pavilion, many commercial, governmental and humanitarian organizations are using this site to effectively crowdsource solutions.

Website’s designed to harness collective brainpower are nothing new to the web. Dell’s been successfully crowdsourcing product ideas on its site, IdeaStorm, since 2007. IdeaStorm’s ultimate goal is “to hear what new products or services you’d like to see Dell develop.” With 13,742 ideas submitted and 410 fully implemented, that’s quite a win-win scenario for Dell and consumers.

Companies are also engaging their employees in much the same way. From Best Buy’s Blue Shirt Nation to Motorola’s Think Tank Idea Exchange, providing a collaborative forum on a company’s intranet – a destination for employees to connect, share and innovate – is also very win-win.

Whether you work for a company that has a small number of employees, or a company with thousands in far flung locations, encouraging and managing the potential flow of ideas is no small task. In a recent profile of Bayer’s Triple-I program in Forbes, their CEO, Greg Babe, gets it right: “If we can create an environment where every idea is valued as potentially great, we can eliminate the fear of failure. That puts innovation on fast-forward.”

In today’s economy, many workers are likely to have not so unreasonable fears about sticking their neck out on an idea. Participation from the top down is a must, plus this also helps flatten the organization a bit in the process. Genuine support, encouragement and engagement from front line middle managers is also essential to success and that may involve some training.

Another way to fast-forward implementation is to develop a strait forward approach to plow through the weeds. Motorola puts the weeding of idea submissions back on their employees through a voting system. Bayer has a dedicated team of innovation experts that apply these five basic questions to each submission:

Is the idea feasible?
Is it really a new idea?
Is there a need in the market?
What is the benefit for the consumer?
Does the idea fit with the company’s focus, mission and portfolio?

Keep things interesting, collaborative and engaging in the workplace and you’ll see employees who feel stronger connections to their employer. This pearl of wisdom from Buddah further affirms why employee communication initiatives such as these are worth it, “An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”

By allowing each and every team member the opportunity to invest in and better understand business decisions, provide ideas both large and small for the greater good of the company and celebrate each other, I’ll bet you that innovations and improvements on many levels will be the winning result.

Seriously, how awful were Huey Lewis and the News?

Gotta get back in time
Gotta get back in time
Get back, get back
Get back Marty
Gotta get back in time
Gotta get back in time
Get back, get back

Ugh. That song, those lyrics! I apologize if I just made this your internal sound track for the day (or if you were a major Huey fan in the 80′s), but I’m gonna take you Back to the Future a little bit with today’s blog.

We’re going back to 1998. A time when Massage Mondays, Bagel Fridays, ping pong tables, free sodas and bring your dog to work days seemed to be de rigueur for attracting talent. That year McKinsey came out with a report titled “The War for Talent” and its conclusion: the most important corporate resource over the next 20 years will be (drum roll please) talent.

Fast Company interviewed Ed Michaels, a McKinsey director and manager of the study, who was then quoted as saying:

In the new economy, competition is global, capital is abundant, ideas are developed quickly and cheaply, and people are willing to change jobs often. In that kind of environment all that matters is talent. Talent wins.

We’re 12 years into that 20-year projection and even with masive layoffs, underemployment and a limited job market, I still say talent wins. “The Great Recession” has just created a different battlefield that requires all of us who are in recruiting to rethink our previous strategies.

This week, Towers Watson released their Global Workforce Study (GWS), a biennial survey of employee attitudes and workplace trends. One of its key findings – people are no longer “willing to change jobs often.” Eight out of 10 GWS respondents want to settle into a job, with close to half of those wanting to work for a single company their entire career. The other half overwhelmingly hope to build a work history that doesn’t exceed two or three employers. Wow.

The study also noted that these are the sorts of character traits people today are looking for in senior leaders:

• Is trustworthy: 79%
• Cares about the well being of others: 67%
• Encourages the development of talent in the organization: 56%
• Is highly visible to employees: 42%
• Manages financial performance successfully: 42%

In this era marked by instability it’s becoming very clear that a stable organization led by managers who demonstrate that they can engage, challenge, connect with and develop their teams will win the war on talent. It isn’t a seemingly endless supply of bagels.

Office perks are nice when times are flush. I can certainly attest to that. You’ll still see my hand in Alstin’s endless candy jar at least once a day, but it’s always been the work, the potential for growth and the people you interact with that matter. Now that this new era has required – or soon will require  – a magnifying glass on the core essentials that truly matter, talent will only continue to win.

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. Try to remember to maintain regular eye contact with your webcam and for sure, keep smiling.

Choose your Colors Wisely – What Not to Wear: The team at Skype advises to 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.