By day, I am a Creative Director. My team and I routinely complete multiple creative projects in minimal time. At this moment I have at least twenty active projects. The copywriters, designers, and art directors I work with are juggling at least three to five projects each. We are known for the high quality of our creative output. We work quickly and efficiently. Every day, multiple creative projects are completed. Missing a deadline is not an option.
In my free time, I am equally as passionate about my personal creative pursuits. I love photography, writing, and painting. The difference between my on- and off-the-job creative output? In stark contrast to my daytime productivity, I have not put pen to paper, lens to eye, or brush to canvas in a long, long time. Why am I effective, efficient, and inspired to produce at work and so creatively unproductive at home?
To answer this question, and more importantly, to move beyond this disparity, I am taking a hard look at what works at work. I’ve outlined five simple things to carry from work to home to amp up my personal creativity. They are:
1. Establish a Deadline
Work gets done at work because it has to get done. Every project has a deadline and missing deadlines is not an option. So many of our personal goals are less specific. We’ll work on those watercolors when we get a moment or we’ll experiment with black and white self-portraits when we have a free afternoon. That’s what we tell ourselves anyway. If work projects were structured so nebulously, they’d never get completed either. Without a hard and fast deadline, projects just won’t get done. Starting today, establish a deadline for your personal creative goals and make yourself accountable to meet your own deadlines. As with work deadlines, failure is not an option.
2. Prioritize Your Work
You can’t accomplish something if you are trying to do everything. Having too much on your creative to-do list will overwhelm you. Decide what your top five creative goals are and then rank them in order of importance. Establish your deadlines based on these priorities. I would never get those twenty work projects done if I didn’t know which one I had to tackle first.
3. Assemble a “Team”
One reason that work gets done at work is because there is typically a team of people working towards the same goal right there beside you. This one is a little less transferable to home, but there are ways. The simplest? Take a class. If completing a watercolor is your priority, take a watercolor class. You’ll get that watercolor done. If taking a class is not an option, enlist the help or support of a friend who shares your interest. Don’t know somebody? Join a group or club. There are lots of ways to assemble your creative “team” at home.
4. Create Your Own Inspiration
Don’t wait for creative inspiration to strike – strike out for your own inspiration. The idea that great creativity only results when inspiration strikes is a myth. We do great work in our agency because we have to and it’s due, not because we had a random brilliant idea. It’s the act of working on the project itself that often brings forth those all-important lightbulb moments – not the other way around. Get out the paints. The great ideas will follow.
5. Overcome Perfection Paralysis
Your painting doesn’t have to be a masterpiece; your writing doesn’t have to be the Great American Novel. This is not to say you shouldn’t establish lofty goals. You should. But if you are overcome with making sure what you create is absolutely perfect, you’re less likely to create anything. At work, projects get done because they are due. Great work often results. Just get started. Keep pushing. And embrace the messy, less-than-perfect, creativity that results.
That’s it. My new rules for increasing personal creativity. I know they work. They’ve been working for me – at work – for more than a decade. It’s just time to bring them home.
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.
I have to tell you, I’m very excited for the Social Media Success Summit 2010 (#SMSS10) to begin tonight, May 4, 2010 at 8PM EST. On tap for tonight’s presentation is Guy Kawasakiwho will be presenting the event’s keyonte: “How to Use Twitter As a Marketing Weapon”
Brief Overview of Guy’s topic:Are you using Twitter to promote your business? Are you looking to create a large and raving fan base? If you answered ‘yes,’ you need to listen carefully to Guy Kawasaki. Guy is an entrepreneur, the co-founder of Alltopand has 218,000 Twitter followers. In this session he’ll reveal how he uses Twitter as a marketing super weapon and disclose his tricks and tips. He’ll also give you a guided tour of how major brands use Twitter. You won’t want to miss this high-energy session.
On tap for tomorrow, Mari Smith’stips for Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Pages for Profit.
And, in case you’ve been living in a dark cave for the past 6 months, more info on the #SMSS10 event is below (Here’s a registration link– hurry there’s only a few hundred spots open!)
Social Media Success Summit 2010 is a live online conference that will empower you to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business. The world’s leading social media gurus will show you how. Join 24 experts, including Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook); experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare and Groupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino’s Pizza)–just to mention a few!
Here at Alstin, we know when May is coming with all it’s beautiful flowers simply by the high volume of requests by healthcare clients to design eye-catching, inspirational messages of gratitude and thanks to their nurses for a job well done. A small token of appreciation but one, I am told by nurses, that does make a difference – it’s nice to be appreciated and read all about it. National Nurses Week starts each year on May 6th, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, and ends May12th.
Which brings me to this wonderful articleI came across in our own Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper about a 105 year woman, Ada Mutch, who is preparing to be honored by her Alma Mater, the Baldwin School (Class of 1922!), a venerable Philadelphia college preparatory school for women that has been in existence since 1888. An incredible life Ada has led – from Baldwin alum to staff employee then finding her life’s passion in nursing after having her appendix removed, to enlisting in the Army Nurse Corp during WWII and leaving a lieutenant colonel, to coming home to be a Nursing Director at Lankenau Hospital then spending her last 30 years volunteering for ElderNet – and one that has left her looking back with no regrets. While Ada says none of her feats in life were ever planned, she credits confidence and curiousity as her catalysts for seizing opportunity.
“I feel sorry for people who can’t think of what they want to do”
You know what, I do too. Happy Nurses Week Ada Mutch and all the nursing professionals who have helped me and mine over the years. I’m gonna go live a little this weekend.
Over the last two years, perhaps the biggest challenge facing our nation has been the state of the American workforce. When President Obama hosted a discussion about job creation last December, he asked for input on opportunities and obstacles, and our friends at AfterCollege really stepped up to plate.
They hosted a forum in San Francisco on February 26th and the participants included experts in both the employment industry and academia. Roberto Angulo, CEO of AfterCollege, sat down with us to talk about entry level jobs, the recommendations that resulted from the forum, and more.
Tony Rosato:Thanks for joining us, Roberto. What was it specifically that that motivated you to host this forum?
Roberto Angulo: Well, we thought the forum hosted by the White House was a good idea, but we also saw the need to focus more on the needs of entry-level job seekers and recent grads who represent tomorrow’s talent. The majority of students who graduated last year are still unemployed and the prospects for this year’s graduates are not looking any better. As a result, we are seeing a lot of hopeful individuals whose talent and energy are going to waste. We are also seeing people go back to graduate school. Over-education is not the answer.
The youth unemployment problem is an economic one and it’s global, with many factors contributing to it. There are no silver bullets that will solve the issue, but at a minimum, we wanted to gather a good group of bright individuals who could have an open discussion and help generate recommendations that we could then give to policy makers. At the same time, we wanted to call attention to this demographic.
AfterCollege’s business consists of delivering relevant employment content to entry-level job seekers and to universities and at the same time, helping employers get access to talented pools of individuals. While our role is mainly to connect users and to deliver data from point A to point B, as a leader in our space, we felt compelled to go beyond our calling and to organize this initiative.
TR:The statistics you cite are pretty alarming: the unemployment rate for those under 25 is 19%, almost double the national rate of employment. Even with all the bad news we’ve heard about jobs in the last few years, I think that statistic would surprise most people. Any thoughts as to why we’re not talking about jobs for young people as much?
RA: Yes, a lot is going on that is overshadowing this problem. We have many unemployed people across all generations. While Gen Y is the most affected in terms of the numbers, we also have Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who have been laid off and as a result, they are losing their homes, spending less, and having more of a negative economic impact in the short term. There’s more of a sense of urgency in addressing the problem of general unemployment and helping people stay in their homes and maintain their purchasing power.
TR:How would you summarize the forum’s recommendations for entry level job growth?
RA: We covered a lot of topics and we were able to come away with four solid ideas that deserve further consideration. At a high level, our recommendations boiled down to:
1. Promoting skill-building across various disciplines and encouraging cultural competencies. One way to do this is through research grants that encourage collaboration among students from various majors.
2. Supporting funding for services that help students better present themselves to employers. These include career services at universities and tapping alumni as a resource for current students.
3. Encouraging paid internships so that economically disadvantaged individuals may participate. Internships increase the likelihood of full-time employment after graduation.
4. Supporting local training programs that help students maintain and sharpen their skills. Cities have problems to solve and local college students are more than capable of tackling these.
Tune in next week for Part II of my interview with Robert Angulo where we talk about some of the unexpected ideas that came out of the forum, obstacles to real entry level job growth and more!
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 argumentsthat 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 Newsoffers 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!
I knew there was something motivating Mark Zuckerberg to switch the “Fan” terminology to “Like.” And, I knew it wasn’t because “liking” something was ‘more lightweight’ than being a Fan of something (which is what Facebook’s announcement said last week as they rolled this change to users and page administrators). While I found the roll out/roll back/roll back out frustrating, to say least, as an administrator for a number of “Fan pages” (do we still call them ‘fan’ pages now?), I was convinced (and noted in a previous blog article) that this movement was toward a larger goal (one with big dollar signs). I was right (sort of). What I didn’t realize was the overtly ambitious role Facebook was going take as the NEXT step—which was announced at the f8 developers conference.
Now, you’re saying, “Why should I care if Facebook decides to change platforms?” “What’s the big deal of a bunch of ‘like boxes’ start proliferating the web?” Well, I clearly see the writing on the proverbial Wall—and it seems to me, Facebook is poised on the verge of making the entire web “social” – so get ready.
Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post states:
Today at our third f8, we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone. We have redesigned Facebook Platform to offer a simple set of tools that sites around the web can use to personalize experiences and build out the graph of connections people are making.
This next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web. It lets you shape your experiences online and make them more social. For example, if you like a band on Pandora, that information can become part of the graph so that later if you visit a concert site, the site can tell you when the band you like is coming to your area. The power of the open graph is that it helps to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken.
We think that the future of the web will be filled with personalized experiences. We’ve worked with three pre-selected partners—Microsoft Docs, Yelp and Pandora—to give you a glimpse of this future, which you can access without having to login again or click to connect. For example, now if you’re logged into Facebook and go to Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you’ve liked across the web. And as you’re playing music, it can show you friends who also like the same songs as you, and then you can click to see other music they like.”
So, from a recruiting and employment perspective, I want to call out two very important phrases in Mark’s speech:
“The next version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the web.” And, “…you can access [sites] without having to login again or click connect.”
So, you will soon be ways to target the millions and millions of Facebook users according to their ‘likes,’ their interactions with other FB users, their interactions with other web sites, etc. It’s a game-changing scenario that could feasibly enable companies (employers) to reach out (target) to people directly based upon very detailed user-relevant information. Imagine how this would alter your recruitment campaigns if you there was a ‘go to’ site that enabled you to tap into (basically) an unlimited talent pool? And this talent pool provided you the tools to siphon off very targeted sub-groups of people with similar ‘likes’ and skill sets and send them direct messages, emails, ads, etc. announcing your career opportunities all without asking these people to leave the comforts of their favored site. This my friends, is a game changing scenario (full blown advertising models, while still not rolled out yet, will be the next step…trust me).
As the web becomes more ‘social’ what are the ramifications for not only targeting but for hiring? What should the limits be regarding privacy? I signed up for Facebook to reconnect with old friends. And while the site has created the ability for people to ‘listen, watch, learn, comment and connect’ to the activities of others in their circle of friends and friends of friends, it’s quite another thing for this information to be tapped from a current or future employer. Where does my privacy begin and end with this new Open Graph platform? Are we opening up a Pandora’s box of employment law issues that we haven’t even thought of yet? Lots of possibilities and lots of unanswered questions.
Feel free to share with me your thoughts on the role of this new Facebook platform as it relates to your recruiting strategy moving forward! I’m sure there are questions or scenarios that I haven’t even thought of yet…
The Great Recession has seen a remarkable number of laid off workers reenter the work world in less prestigious positions. We know the reasons why they are willing to accept a lower paying step down: with personal and household wealth taking a hit in the past year, almost any job (with benefits) is better than the uncertainty of continued unemployment. But is hiring the overqualified a smart recruiting strategy?
Obviously, as every company’s situation and definition of “overqualified” are different, there is no clear cut answer. But several recent studies, as reported in the International Journal of Human Resource Management, have shown that, however defined, an overqualified employee is more apt to perform at a higher level. The problem, as you HR pros know, is that an overqualified employee is more likely to be dissatisfied with his/her job and leave the company more quickly when a better opportunity arises.
The Journal of Applied Psychology concludes that some of these negative effects can be mitigated based upon the way workers are treated. A sense of autonomy and respect from supervisors and co-workers can have a big impact on lessening job dissatisfaction, causing a win-win situation for the company (high performance for a longer time) and the employee (a feeling of accomplishment and value even in a lower level position).
It seems that with the right supervisors in place, hiring the overqualified can be a smart strategy that can move a company forward.
It doesn’t take sophisticated surveillance equipment to find out that Alstin is giving one lucky blog visitor a chance to win a $50 gift card to Amazon.com with this month’s “Picture This” contest.
Use you ingenuity to come up with a clever caption/headline for this photo – as always, bonus points if it’s recruitment/HR related! The winner will be announced next Tuesday, April 27, 2010.
Update: Congrats to Michele Meehan – this month’s winner!
At the first of the year, there was a great piece written by David Carr in The New York Timesthat’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.
There’s been a lot of speculation on how Twitter would start generating revenue. Last week, speculation has become reality with the announcement of Promoted Tweets. There’s a lot of ‘buzz’ in the industry about how these promoted tweets will alter how twitterers will interact with each other and the ramifications for using Twitter for marketing.
Twitter’s Monetization Model (And my 2 cents—for what it’s worth.)
Promoted Tweets are still tweets – not ads. (If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.…Sorry, to me, these are ads – and that’s ok, everyone’s entitled to make a profit off a good idea.)
The success of a promoted tweet will still rely on creative license, analytics, and interaction. (Agreed!)
PromotedTweetsstart with search so that the company can test it to best serve users. (Great idea – supports the whole notion of “Resonance” and “real time”)
Resonance: “Measures multiple axes of engagement with a tweet.” For instance – the system will measure all the different ways people engage with tweets: measures reuse of hashtags, clicks on avatar, clicks on shortened links, retweets, favorites, influence of retweeters, etc. While they won’t publish the algorithms, they will provide advertisers with scores to fine-tune PTs. (Sounds fair. Like all social media, it’s a work in progress.)
After Twitter feels like it has a sense of how this works, it will roll it out beyond search. (No surprise here. Geo-location will probably be huge for advertisers.)
Revenue share: 50/50 between developers and Twitter, after costs are deducted. (A nice win-win for developers.)
I’m eager to keep an eye out for the successes of Starbucks (and others) and will begin mapping out my own ‘PT Strategy.’
On another Twitter note I found interesting was the revelation at the Chrip conference about ‘Twitter published stats’ from Biz Stone:
Twitter maintains a user base of over 105 million.
Twitter.com receives over 180 million monthly unique visitors with 75% of Twitter traffic sourcing from outside applications.
Currently, Twitter is adding 300,000 new users daily, experiencing 1,500% growth over last year.
While still far behind Google and even YouTube, Twitter is fielding over 600 million search queries with 3 billion calls to its application program interface (API) per day.
Pretty impressive.
While I haven’t been able to read all of the blog articles about the Chirp Developer Conference Announcements, I found one very eloquent paragraph written by Brian Solis in his article “The State and Future of Twitter 2010” that really made me pause to reflect on the significance of Twitter and it’s constant re-evolution of the way we communicate and share :
“The Twitterverse represents much more than a social network. It personified our aspirations, giving millions of people a stage for which to earn untapped recognition. Whereas YouTube inspired so many individuals willing to brave the lens of a Web cam and the resulting activities that ensured from friends and strangers online and in the real world, Twitter gifted a microphone, a stage, and a captive audience to those who could enchant our heats, minds, and attention in 140 character proclamations.”
The power of Twitter lies within me and you. What are your thoughts on Promoted Tweets? How are you going to map out your Promoted Tweet strategy? Please post your comments and share!
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
Eighty degree weather. Birds singing. Our beloved Phillies back in action. What could be better? How about this: the nice weather seems to coincide with more (cautious, of course) optimism about the recovery of jobs. I’ve been a busy fella–lots of time over the last few weeks on the road, and home time has been almost entirely devoted to softball. I coach my daughter’s team–it’s funny how even at 9 years old, women have an innate biological predisposition not to listen to me. Oh well, let’s roll with it and get back on the road!
Conshohocken, PA – Great meeting of the Philadelphia Area Association of Healthcare Recruiters (PAAHCR) at the Philadelphia Inquirer plant in Conshy. Speaker was Doug Hardy of monster.com. Very informative presentation from Doug and he hammered home a point I agree with–despite the woes of the job market recently (especially for new nursing grads) the numbers simply don’t add up, and we will be facing a serious shortage of healthcare workers in a few years. The average age of a nurse is 46, but a bigger, less talked about problem is that the average age of a Nurse Educator (those that teach Nurses) is 54.
Delaware, Delaware, Delaware! – I’ve happily been spending a lot of time in the First State as two separate, complex branding projects are coming to fruition. Great seeing these very targeted initial ideas being developed and refined into working concepts, thanks to our top-notch creative team and great input and feedback from our client.
Elk Ridge, MD – If you read my blog regularly you know how welcome the folks at MAHCR–Maryland Association for Healthcare Recruitment–have made me feel. This month was Institutional Member Day, and it was a chance for those that support MAHCR to talk a little bit about ourselves. I want to thank all the MAHCR members who attended that day and who continue to support us.
New York, NY – In the Big Apple with our Senior VP for the 8th annual HR Week Conference at the Hilton. Mike T. and I were able to make the rounds and see some of our most trusted allies in recruiting. Plus, we were just a five minute walk to Norma’s at Le Parker Meridien. Norma’s often wins best breakfast kudos from Zagat. Lunch is delicious too! Get hungry and check out the menu here.
When The Economist asserts that the “economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years” they aren’t kidding. This article highlights the social aspect of this dramatic change: “…millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their economic fates” and cites the remarkable nature of this change that has produced little friction “change that affects the most intimate aspects of people’s identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women.”
Reasons for the change include politics via feminism and governments passing equal rights acts, the decrease in the “rich nation’s” demand for physically demanding labor (much has been outsourced to emerging economies), decline in manufacturing jobs traditionally held by men, and the expansion of higher education for women (women earn nearly 60% of university degrees in America and Europe) just to name a few.
Unfortunately, both articles touch on the pay gap inequality. “The average full time female worker in Britain or the U.S. earns 80 percent as much as her male equivalents.” Great articles if you have the time to read but make no mistake, women are changing the workforce of the future. Now, Tedesco, go get me a coffee!
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…
Peter Weddle is one of the true “gurus” in the recruitment industry. In addition to his hugely popular newsletter, WEDDLE’s, he is the author of over two dozen books and has been a columnist for both the Wall Street Journal and CNN.com.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about how many feel that HR is losing the battle of delivering a positive candidate experience. When I read in Peter’s newsletter his thoughts on candidate-centered recruiting just a few days later…well, that was too much of a coincidence for me, so I contacted Peter to learn more. Mr. Weddle was kind enough to give us some time and share his thoughts.
Tony Rosato:Okay, Peter: So here we are in 2010. Over the last 10 years there have been huge technological advances in recruiting, including a whole slate of automated CRM tools, ATS’s, social networking and so many other ways to engage and interact with candidates–not to mention a much more methodical approach to recruiting strategies, best practices,processes and efficiency. And yet, many say the candidate experience is as bad as it’s ever been. In your opinion, what’s the real problem?
Peter Weddle: The real problem is what’s between the ears of today’s senior corporate executives. Most of them are still living in the 1950’s when there was a surplus of skilled (for the times) workers. And the recession has only exacerbated that view. CEOs and CFOs watch the evening news each night, hear about all those people in transition and assume they can “do more with less” in recruiting. It’s like fishing in a barrel, right?
Well, I’ve got news for them. We haven’t entered an era of surplus talent—it’s harder than ever to find skilled (for today’s times) and motivated workers. And you can’t recruit top talent with technology. The solution isn’t automated recruiting; it’s technology-assisted recruiting. The key to success in that paradigm is a well trained and dedicated recruiter. There’s more than enough of them to go around, but companies aren’t hiring (or retaining) them.
TR:What would you recommend to a Recruiting Department as the first step to improving the candidate experience?
PW: Invite the CEO to secret shop the recruiting process. Set up your own version of that new TV show Undercover Boss. And when he or she comes back sputtering about how bad the process is, remind them that there’s no free lunch. In other words, the first step in improving the candidate experience is to get buy-in and commitment to do so at the top of the corporate heap.
TR:You wrote in your article that for a positive candidate experience to take place, there really needs to be a shift in philosophy from just filling a job req to an organizational commitment to the individual working person. A recruiter reading this might say, “That all sounds great, but I have aDirector of Recruiting and seven hiring managers on my back all day, and all they care about are the 12 open job reqs.” How can an overloaded recruiting department deliver on quality hires while ensuring a better candidateexperience?
PW: See answers 1 and 2 above. You cannot recruit more talent with less recruiting resources. It defies the laws of human nature. If you want to hire talent, you have to use the talent of the recruiting team, and that means giving them the time and support they need to do their best work.
TR:When you can read articles and blogs by job seekers you can really feel the frustration they have with the automated parts of the recruiting process, particularly Applicant Tracking Systems. They’ll tell you they spend 15-20 minutes creating an account, filling in all the fields, attaching theirresume…then they hit “submit,” and their resume seems to travel into a black hole. Ironically, on the recruiter’s side we often hear that their ATS is unwieldy, can’t nail down the source of hire and doesn’t really deliver on reports. Is this another part of the negative candidate experience and how can we fix it?
PW: Frankly, I don’t get it. Companies spend hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars on their ATS and then let the vendor off the hook. Not only are the vast majority of these systems abusive to candidates, they’re abusive to recruiters, as well. In addition, they’re costing employers a fortune by giving them inaccurate data on the source of candidates (causing them to misspend both their recruitment advertising dollars and the time of their recruiters). These vendors need recruiting departments a lot more than those departments need any one vendor. If an organization’s ATS doesn’t measure up, give the vendor one chance and one chance only to fix it, and then if they don’t, outplace them.
TR:On a more general note, what are your predictions on the job market for 2010?
PW: I think this job market will be unlike any other in the history of the country. After the 1991 and 2001 recessions, we had “jobless” recoveries. After this Great Recession, we will have the first ever “less jobs” recovery. The economy will expand, but companies will continue to shed employees. (Announced layoffs for 2010 already exceed 200,000 workers.) These aren’t your grandmother’s layoffs, however. They are permanent reductions in structure. And that reality will cramp the job market for the next five years or more.
TR:Finally, what area(s) of focus do you believe are the most critical for recruiters looking to build their skills and maximize their value and contribution to an organization?
PW: I spend a lot of time on this topic in my book, Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System. Basically, I think recruiters (and all professionals, for that matter) have to focus on two areas: maintaining their core expertise and developing ancillary skills. The latter enable a person to expand the range of situations in which they can contribute value to the organization. What are some of the most important? Fluency in a second language (think Spanish or Chinese), competency in the latest technology and leadership.
TR: Thank you Peter!
Click here for more information on Work Strong and other titles in the Weddle catalog.
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!
Facebook is getting ready to change the way users can interact with Fan Pages. Rather than click on the button “Become a Fan” of a Facebook Fan Page, you will soon be able to “like” the Fan Page. Sure, you can “like” comments, pictures, videos, status updates, etc. so why change the differentiating component behind the “Become a Fan” option?
Facebook states users click “like” almost twice as much as they click “become a fan.” Facebook says changing the button will make users more comfortable with linking up with a brand and will streamline the site.
Business and employers use Facebook Fan Pages to connect with their customers and/or job seekers and often build PPC or CPM advertising campaigns to drive new traffic to their fan pages and generate new fans. The average user becomes a Fan of four pages each month, according to Facebook.
So, was this idea to change “Fan” to “Like” based on the notion that if you give someone less of a commitment to something, they are more likely to engage? Really? Is that what social media networking is all about? Personally, I’d rather announce I’m a “Fan” of Whole Foods or Social Media Examiner than just say I “Like” them. By becoming a Fan, I’m endorsing and engaging the company/organization/employer and other Fans.
I “Like” lots of things my network of friends, family and co-workers post…this doesn’t mean I endorse every action they do or take. And, yeah…it has always irked me that with all the privacy settings Facebook has developed/changed, there is still no way to “hide” the Fan Pages that I’m a Fan. This singular fact makes my decision to “Become a Fan” all the more important to me—anyone on Facebook can see it!
So, if I decide to “Like” a Fan Page, how am I ‘involved’ with this organization? Will I receive all the same updates and interconnectivity I enjoy as a “Fan?” The short answer is “Yes.” The long answer according to a Facebook spokesperson is basically only the language is changing, “The core functionality of Pages will remain unchanged. Pages will still have distribution into News Feed, and the administrators of those Pages will still be able to call the people connected to their Page, ‘fans’.”
So as Sarah Joacobsson of PCWorld so eloquently stated, “What that means for you, Facebook user, is that nothing will change except the words.”
What I’m sensing, with this “Like” vs “Fan” word change, is the overall impact it will have with the advertising and targeting capabilities on Facebook. I am doubting the true purpose of the ‘like’ status to make Facebook users to feel ‘more comfortable’ connecting with brands. I know some people who are commitment-phobic but changing the word from “Fan” vs “Like” is just semantics. I envision Facebook providing advertisers increased capabilities to target “Likers” vs “Fans” in ad campaigns. As Joe Ciarallo from PRNewser points out, the change to “Like” will undoubtedly increase the number of fans, “brands will increasingly need to look beyond “number of fans” and into deeper metrics around engagement and e-commerce.” Couldn’t agree more Joe.
The ongoing growth of social media incited a desire for interested parties to take the online off-screen and bring people together in conversation, prompting the onset of Social Media Clubs – where people can voice themselves in focused conversation “promoting media literacy, sharing best practices, and ensuring that ethics are not lost as social media becomes serious business.”
Social Media Clubs have spread like wildfire, with new chapters being started in cities each week with the idea to get people talking. Social Media Clubs hold meetings and after work gatherings that provide the opportunity to associate with those that “get it”, and learn from them, share information, and collaborate with other professionals from different backgrounds to enhance your personal and professional interests.
There are various types of social media clubs that the web has brought together. Some clubs diversify focus to cover a range of topics, giving like minds a chance to share and educate themselves in-person and build contacts with attendees both online and offline.
A coworker and I recently attended an event given by Philly NetSquared – a local social media club that gathers together nonprofits and activists, tech leaders and funders, and everyone who’s interested in using technology for social change. Hosting free Net Tuesday events the first week of every month, Philly NetSquared attracts a crowd of professionals in different positions to come out to understand the best way to leverage the social web for social good. I chose to go to this event because social media is always changing and there is always something new to learn about how it can be used. A great way to hear about other ideas for utilizing social networking tools is to check out one of these types of events. No matter the topic at hand, you can be sure that a number of interesting and driven people will attend. At our Net Tuesday were IT professionals for local colleges and universities, urban planners, non-profit planners, an IT health site organizer, professionals for diversity issues, a volunteer firefighter and safety coordinators. Many came out for the presentation and discussion on “The Role of Social Media in Crisis Response”. I listened as the panel cited and explained the mapping applications and geographic information systems, digitized image sharing tools, and PeopleFinder technology that were a tremendous help in the recent crisis in Haiti, and how Twitter aided in the swift delivery of information on the assailant responsible for the slaying of the 4 police officers in a Lakewood coffee shop in Parkland, Washington. Our panelists gave interesting information on how various web tools were used and the new ideas and enhancements in the development stages to provide even greater assistance in the future. I was enthralled by the amount of versatile social media instruments mentioned at this discussion.
I would recommend to anyone interested in furthering their understanding of social media and its use in any discipline, take advantage of these social and educational events in your area. You will be privy to valuable information and innovative ideas while networking with other area professionals in a variety of fields. You just may find your next new experienced hire.
Here’s a little video I found interesting, not just because it questions our stereotypes about marketing, but–more importantly–because it challenges the way we tend to generalize certain demographics and sell them short. To get the message, don’t click away — you need to watch the video all the way through!
Stepping down from the podium and into yet another snow-drift has me attempting a course redirection with these posts, perhaps a little more observational than instructional (but hopefully with some interesting facts infused).
That brings me to the color white. Technically, it’s either the absence of color or the combination of all colors, depending on if you’re working with pigment or light, but the main gist is that white is white.
Tell that to my ceiling.
Only in a world where you have products such as Icy Hot®, are you going to have three dozen colors of “white” at the local hardware store (and that doesn’t even begin to cover finishes). I’m not even talking about “off-white” of which there are probably hundreds, but just WHITE!
After a hurried roller-job left green marks on my rear-room’s ceiling and the basement cabinet full of previous owner hand-me-downs left me with no matches, it was off to the paint store. Explaining my needs, I was soon pointed towards a straightforwardly named “white ceiling paint”. Bingo! My Spidey-sense told me to just buy a pint, which turned out to be a good thing as my new white ceiling paint was significantly darker than my current white ceiling paint.
Back to the store…
The paint guy was trying to be helpful, but he couldn’t tell me with confidence if “Brilliant White” was whiter than “Ultra White”, or where “Premium White” and “Super White” fell in the lineup. I can’t recall which one I ended up with, regardless of the catchy and descriptive name, but it wasn’t a match either. No surprise there.
Nonetheless, it was close enough that if I feathered the edge, I was able to get away with it. At least that’s what I told myself, and that’s all white with me. - j
In recent months social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, have gotten quite a bit of negative attention due to the recent Flash Mob incidents, which occurred in Philadelphia. I would like to balance this local negative attention with a global positive use of Social Media, especially Twitter.
On Thursday March 25, 2010 a Twestival (Twitter Festival – an event that brings people together offline for one day or night to raise money for one cause) was held in 175 cities all over the world to raise money for education in developing countries and 100% of the profits went to educational projects around the world.
The PhlTwestival – Philadelphia’s Twestival – “Search for Concern” consisted of a scavenger hunt/pub-crawl thoroughout Old City. Participants started at a bar in Old City, put themselves into teams and got clues for an Old City scavenger hunt combined with pub crawl. Over the course of the evening, participants competed against each other to earn points by taking pictures and answering clues via Twitter while traveling to several area bars. Ticket sales to participate in the event and donations via sale of raffle tickets went to Concern Worldwide. Raffle prizes were donated from local companies such as Lucky Strikes Lanes, Four Seasons Hotel and the Arden Theatre. Last year’s PhlTwestival event was held on South Street and was called ‘Tweet.Meet.Give’.
This is only the second time this event was held, the first Twestival Global happened just a year ago on Feb 12, 2009 with over 1,000 volunteers and 10,000 donors in 202 cities around the world. They raised more than $250,000 for clean water projects in developing nations.
Here are two examples of how a group of people used social media to make an impact on society, one negative, Philadelphia Flash Mobbing incidents and one positive Twestival Global. Which got the most media attention?
Beautiful spring weather has hit the Philadelphia area–finally! Hopefully, the warm weather will also coincide with a thawing of frozen recruiting budgets, icy austerity programs and the glacial pace of economic recovery.
With the start of the new season, it might be time to look at how you communicate with candidates and employees–and do some tidying up. Here’s a few places that might need a good cleaning:
Career Pages of your Website
Most organizations spend so much time, energy and money driving people to the career part of their website. So what happens when they get there? Is there engaging content that reinforces your employment brand? Can they easily find the information they need? Do you have videos and podcasts? ‘Day in the life” pages for key positions? How’s that application process? Little improvements to your website can net big returns in visits and applications.
Employee Referral Program
Readers of our blog know what a huge believer I am in ERPs – see my previous articles on ERPs here: Part One and Part Two. Nearly every recruiting study will tell you that ERPs are simply the best way to get the highest quality candidate. But be careful: the manner in which your ERP is promoted, administered, rewarded and communicated says volumes about your recruiting department and your entire organization.
Social Media
Perhaps you’re getting tired of all the buzz about social media for recruiting–or maybe you’re apprehensive because there’s so much to learn, and you’re not sure what’s hype and what’s real. Whatever your feelings, there are undeniable benefits–and undeniable pitfalls–to recruiting using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media tools.
Metrics metrics metrics
Maybe the arrival of spring is happening at the same time your organization is ramping up its recruiting efforts. One thing is for sure: you’re going to be held accountable for every dollar you spend, so make sure that your recruiting initiatives come with detailed tracking of results.
Employer Branding
The big question: what is the value proposition you are offering candidates, and how are you communicating that offer? In 2009 I think too many companies put branding and employee communication on hold when hiring needs slowed down. If the previous sentence describes your organization, the time to get back on track is now, not when you have 50 open positions and hiring managers breathing down your back. The recruiting landscape has changed dramatically since 2008. What do you want candidates to think about when they hear your organization’s name?
Spring is here, and it’s time to clean up the cobwebs and get moving! If you need more information on any of the above topics or if I can answer any questions, just drop me a line at trosato@alstin.com
Are you a natural problem solver? A wellspring of ideas? Wish you had been the first person to turn a robe worn backwardsinto 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 Nationto 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.
Philadelphia has recently seen an increase recently in ‘flash mobs’ that are organized and communicated via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. There have been three events recently (Feb 16th, March 3rd and most recently March 20th). The most recent event on March 20thteens congregated in the thousands on South Street around 9pm and parents alerted police about something going down after “seeing messages on their childrens’ mobile devices telling them to come to South Street.” Well, at least those parents were on the ball and realized the potential implications a mass ‘tweet’ to ‘come down to #SouthStreet’ implies.
What I found most interesting in reading up on the recent increase in organized riots (which face it, that’s what they are) is the role social media is playing and how it’s become a scapegoat in some opinions.
A letter written by council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney stated, “It is disheartening; to say the least, that these youth so casually disrespected our residents, businesses, customers, visitors, and our police department,” the letter dated Wednesday explained of the mayhem, which was reportedly organized via text messages and other mass communication, possibly Facebook, and resulted in a rampage through the Macy’s department store at the Market East mall and a massive snowball fight. No one was injured, but at least 150 teenagers were involved and 16 arrests were made, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“While they certainly owe this city an apology and deserve to be punished under the fullest extent of the law, we believe that social media outlets should also bear some of the blame.” Council members Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney, explain that this is the second such time a band of mischievous teens has formed via social media and went on to destroy property. “We believe that the lack of monitoring of these sites allows for mass, organized riots to occur.”
Hmmm…not sure I agree with the last sentence. Who is going to monitor Twitter for “flash mob tweets?” The police?? Twitter?? A new Social Media Consortium on Prevention of Organized Rioting? I realize technology is changing, but the game still remains the same—kids, when the get together in mass quantities, can end up getting into trouble—a lot of trouble. Even if only 1% of the group are the actual ‘trouble makers.” I’m sure all of us can recall moments in our teenage-angst years where we all congregated at a party, corner, park, etc. and a few bad decisions resulted in some not-so-great results. Take that memory add about 2,000 more kids to it and you’ll see the problem Philadelphia is facing.
So, what’s a city to do? What should the parents to do? Well, I don’t have all the answers. But, perhaps monitoring your child’s activity on Twitter isn’t such a bad idea? I’m not saying stalk them—but just keep an eye out for increased activity—I think we all know what that looks like (head down, type, type, type, type, laugh, type, type, type, type and then “I’m going out.”). And, obviously a few parents who were looking for warning signs, recognized them, and did something about it—this is something we as parents do on a daily basis. Curfews might help in the interim but I’m not 100% convinced this is a solution. Giving these kids positive outlets for all their pent up emotions during those confusing tween- and teen-years is the best long-term solution in my mind. But, in a city that’s going to be taxing soda to pay the bills, who is going to foot the bill for expanded after-school programs? Perhaps the courts will shine some wisdom in today’s ruling.
If you work in the recruitment industry, watch the news, or live on Planet Earth, you know that for quite a while the job market was as ugly as many of us can ever remember. For us old(er) dogs, one economic indicator we’ve been watching closely over the last few months is temporary job hiring.
Traditionally a rise in temporary workers is a very positive indicator of an improving economy. Here’s the idea: An increase in temp hiring means businesses are recovering, but, for obvious reasons, they are gun-shy about hiring permanent staff, especially if they recently had layoffs. So instead they add temporary staff, and if things continue to improve, these employers become even more confident and begin to add permanent workers. In early March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment in temporary help services continued to increase in February–and an AP report states that this report is “a sign that the economy is soon likely to generate consistent job gains” and that this is “evidence that employers are slowly ramping up hiring as the economy improves.”
Of course, as with everything related to this dismal economy, there’s a less sunny view as well. There are those who believe an increase in part time hires is no longer an indication of future employment growth. “I think temporary hiring is less useful a signal than it used to be,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo in an AP report. “Companies aren’t testing the waters by turning to temporary firms. They just want part-time workers.” The reason for this new thinking? I’ve heard that some attribute it to companies’ fear of the rising healthcare costs associated with full time employees, but the overall consensus seems to be that employers just aren’t sure that the recovery we’ve seen so far has real staying power.
Whatever side you’re on, there’s little doubt that a jobs recovery will be predicated not on statistics, trends, or even revenue and profits, but on employer confidence. In many ways, it’s a high-stakes, self-fulfilling prophecy.
My thought? Certainly, this recession cut so deep and affected so many, employers are going to have long memories when it comes to adding staff. But businesses are recovering, and they could do even better if they had top-notch workers. My hope is that the poet Alexander Pope is right, hope will spring eternal and we’ll see sustained job growth for the majority of 2010.
If you’re in healthcare, you already know about The Joint Commission, formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Chances are pretty good that an impending visit has even caused you to break out in a sweat. Well, get out your ShamWow, because The Joint Commission is proposing new standards that, if rolled out in 2011 as predicted, will have administrators in healthcare settings hopping.
The Joint Commission will be enacting new standards to evaluate employers’ “cultural competence.” This is about more than hiring a diverse workforce. The Joint Commission defines cultural competence as “the ability of health care providers and organizations to understand and respond effectively to the cultural and language needs brought by the patient to the health care encounter.” With 17 standards/points to meet, the addition of cultural competence to the audits will require more objective reviews of your organization’s policies and practices, more strategic planning, more employee training and education, more documentation, and quite possibly, more hires.
From the head honcho charged with evaluating (or possibly creating?) your organization’s cultural competence policy — preferably a highly experienced HR or healthcare professional with a specific, successful background in diversity and inclusion — to the interpreters you’ll need to communicate with patients and their families (I really wish I had taken more than two years of Spanish in high school…), cultural competence is the buzz phrase that is sure to have you busting your butt to ensure coveted accreditation by The Joint Commission.
Here’s a sneak peek at just a handful of the Proposed Requirements (the bolded areas are mine…):
(Leadership Chapter) Standard LD.04.03.01 The hospital provides services that meet patient needs. EP 4. Thehospital uses available population-level data to help determine the needs of the population(s) served. Note 1: Population-level data sources may include for example, census figures, voter registration data, and school enrollment profiles. Note 2: The needs of the population(s) served may be based on the following demographic characteristics: -Age -Sex -Disability -Language(s) -Race/ethnicity -Religion(s) -Socioeconomic status -Education level -Sexual orientation -Gender identity or expression. EP 5. The hospital uses aggregated patient-level data to help determine the needs of the population(s) served.
(Provision of Care, Treatment, and Services Chapter) Standard PC.0X.0X.0X. The hospital effectively communicates with patients when providing care, treatment and services. EP 1. The hospital identifies the method by which patients want to receive and provide information. Note: Methods may include the use of a preferred language, auxiliary aids, and plain language materials. EP 2. The patient’s preferred method of receiving and providing information is communicated across the care continuum to individuals who are involved in the patient’s care. EP 3. The hospital provides language access services and auxiliary aids to facilitate communicate with patients when providing care, treatment and services. Note: Language access service options include bilingual staff, interpreters, and contract interpreter services. Auxiliary aid options include communication boards, hearing aids, and speech output devices. EP 4. The hospital assesses the patient’s understanding of the information provided. Note: Understanding may be assessed by asking open-ended questions, using “teach back” methods, or return demonstrations.
(Rights and Responsibilities of the Individual Chapter) Standard RI.01.01.01. The hospital respects patient rights. EP 6. The hospital accommodates the patient’s cultural and personal values, beliefs, and preferences. Note: The cultural and personal values, beliefs and preferences of individuals served are varied and may require special considerations. The hospital will accommodate these values, beliefs, and preferences, unless they infringe on others’ rights, safety, or are medically or therapeutically contraindicated. EP 9. The hospital accommodates the patient’s right to religious and other spiritual practices. The spiritual practices of individuals served are varied and may require special considerations regarding scheduling, space, or other accommodations. The hospital will accommodate these practices unless they infringe on others’ rights, safety, or are medically or therapeutically contraindicated.
Obviously, the aim of the new standards isn’t to create more work for hospitals (or more opportunities for lawyers). It’s to ensure better care for all patients. The majority of studies find that racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare remain even after adjustment for socioeconomic differences and other healthcare-access related factors. With approximately 80% of the nation’s hospitals currently accredited by The Joint Commission, the potential for the new standards to make a true impact on patient care (and on your to-do list) is great.
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.
I read an article in the front section of the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday (yes, I still get a weekly printed newspaper—I’m old school sometimes…plus I like the coupons). The article, “Obama mouthpieces are men of few words.” Written by Phillip Elliott highlighted @PressSec as the behind-the-scenes ‘Twitterview’ into the White House through the eyes of Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. What I found interesting in the article was Gibbs has been tweeting under this Twitter channel since February 13, 2010 and already has over 38,000 followers. What I also found interesting (other than the nickname for the president is POTUS) is the wide variety and ‘personality’ that shines through Gibbs’ tweets. They are real. They are informative. They combat rumors and provide resources to articles about health care reform, insurance stats, tsunami updates and much more. Not bad for only 67 tweets!
In his most recent tweet, (as of Monday at 9:30 EST) Gibbs provides details on his purple bracelet and why he’s wearing it (vs. the press just speculating about it and his matching purple tie). This is the type of connection that I like to see from a Press Secretary and the type of ‘open communication’ from the White House that the American public deserves.
Social media played an integral role within Obama’s campaign and continues to be utilized within his administration. U.N. Ambassador Susan Price, Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke all tweet about relevant topics within the scope of their responsibilities and I find that refreshing.
This brings me to the irony of another article I read in the same front section, “Using Social Media for Antisocial Purposes” by Thomas Watkins. Watkins’ article discussed how gang members were using Twitter to send out threats, boast about crimes, share intelligence on rivals, and network with people across the country. Who knew gangsters were so tech-savvy!? Law enforcement is using the same ‘Twitter-tools’ to capture and put criminals behind bars. In the San Francisco Bay Area, law enforcement closely follows gang activity to build cases, monitor relationships and make arrests. And, apparently MySpace is still a favorite of the Crips, Bloods, Florenceia 13, MS-13 and other gangs—members have posted incriminating photos and videos of people holding guns and making hang gestures. Watkins states, “Tapping into tweets and status updates can be easy. Agents pose as pretty girls and send flirtatious friend requests. Confidential informants sometimes let police peer into their accounts.” Takes detective work to a whole new cyber-level in my mind…
Just goes to show, that a new technology—such as Twitter—can be embraced by very disparate audiences and incorporated into daily life in contrasting methods. Who knew what Twitter was capable of two years ago? Where will we go from here? Guess it quite literally can be up to you and me!
Remember the phone book? That heavy thing that sat in your kitchen drawer and that you would try to throw at your sister? For our younger readers, when men weren’t trying to rip it in half as proof of their strength, this was where you could find all the listed numbers for residences in your area, public information like community services, municipality listings and, of course, the Yellow Pages.
The Yellow Pages used to be THE place to advertise your message in a local area. If you wanted your driveway resealed, an exterminator, your fence repaired, a new roof (yes, these are all things I need to do this spring), you flipped to that section in the Yellow Pages and could find several companies vying for your business.
Of course, the way we communicate and advertise has changed so much–and it looks like it might change some more. Google is now beta-testing a Yellow Pages like product in Texas and northern California . The rumored price is $300/year for “display-like advertising.” If that’s true, it would represent a huge savings over what people are paying now for Yellow Page advertising in some markets.
Of course, Yellow Pages has a very robust Internet site – they’re touting that they get 125 million searches each month. Also, yp is very easy to use and offers mobile apps, toolbar add-ons and more. This will be a very interesting battle to watch over the next year or so.
Listen to what Clark Howard of the HLN network has to say about all of this:
Readers, let us know what you think? Do you still use your phone book? Do you visit the Yellow Pages website? Please comment below!
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.
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.
Chris Baggott and Jay Baer’s webinar “Should Blogging be the Hub of Your Social Media Strategy?” had so many great facts, tips, pointers and humorous analogies I ended up writing up 5 pages worth of notes! I’m now 100% convinced that blogging is THE best way to engage people for a variety of different business reasons or purposes (solve a problem, answer a question, provide service, convert to a subscriber, convert to a sale, etc.). I also wanted to send a special ‘shout out” to Debbie Weill who’s original blog post/e-book started the idea for this webinar and she has the timely upcoming launch of the Kindle edition of her book “The Corporate Blogging Book” which I’ll certainly be downloading. (This last sentence would have been complete gibberish four years ago—if anyone watches “Community” on NBC, you’ll know I grabbed that line from Chevy Chase’s character…but I digress).
I enjoyed Jay’s “Social Media Scattershot” term that helps define what many companies and organizations are doing right now…utilizing ALL of the social tools without real thought into strategy and goals, not to mention the ability of measuring results. I’d agree that social media can be a very inefficient use of time and if you’re not asking the integral and ‘up front’ questions about implementing social media (such as “Why are we doing this?” or “What is the business-level outcome?”) you’re doomed from the outset.
So, I’m asking myself, “Why do people want to engage with Alstin? Or, with any organization for that matter?” And, once you answer that question you’ll know how to build your strategy. (For Alstin it would be multi-pronged effort: engage current clients to participate in new services, engage prospective clients to become new clients, and help brand the “Alstin” name as the premier employer marketing communications agency—easy to do right?).
I believe that the notion of a blog as a central spot or “hub” is an excellent analogy with a variety of social media “spokes” driving visitors, traffic, etc. to the hub (ie. Facebook Fan Page, Twitter channel, YouTube, etc.). And, I really enjoyed the analysis of why a blog is superior in the social media space because it passes all of these four questions:
Four Characteristics of a Good Social Media Hub:
Is it Controllable?
Is it Measurable?
Is it Sociable?
Is it Searchable?
My other take aways from the webinar include:
“Search and Sociability are tied together like peanut butter and jelly.”I love this analogy!!! So much of Alstin’s blog traffic comes from Google and a large percentage is 1st time visitors and we’re constantly seeking new ways to make our blog more ‘search friendly.’ And, we’ve had a number of new prospects contact us as a direct result of a blog post.
It’s not about volume (ie. Number of Facebook Fans, Twitter followers, etc.) engagement is about depth.
Be sure to evaluate your business-level outcome…and be careful how deep you jump in the pool.
Compendium offers some great tools (which I’ll be investigating more) that would assist in the ‘multi-author’ blog process with a ‘gentle’ approval process and ‘SEO keyword strength-meter.’ These type of tools are an absolute must if you’re overseeing a blog(s) that have multiple authors, etc. It’s the humanization of social media that makes or breaks its success. So, having ‘real people’ who are the experts in doing/solving/selling what your goals are makes a huge difference in the voice you’re sending out there.
Companies that blog have 55% more traffic to their web site than those who don’t.
Blog Measurability: pick the right metrics! If you are focusing on building a community with repeat visitors and comments, use those areas to analyze. If you’re blogging for business—to create an awareness of your company, look at total visits, % of new visits, visits from search. If you’re blogging for e-Commerce, look at average length of stay, pages per visit, referrals to other sites (like your corporate site).
“Blog Measurability” brings me to my final thought for today…Alstin (@AnnetteAtAlstin) recently published our first “contest” blog post to engage new and returning blog visitors. Some stats that we’re all proud of (big kudos goes to Annette!!):
28 comments to the ‘photo pix’
Traffic doubled on March 4th and March 5th
76% of blog visitors entering the blog on our contest page
90% of the visitors to the contest page went on to view other pages of our blog
Cost: Zilch. (Well, ok a $50 Starbucks card)
But it goes to show you, engagement, interaction and the humanization business in today’s online world is only going to continue to increase—so thanks Jay, Chris and Debbie for all of your valuable insights!
With record numbers of unemployed workers banging on your door you might think it’s ok to handle applications with an automated response telling them their application will be reviewed and they’ll be contacted if a match exists. With the ease of application realized through the internet it’s easy to view candidates as a necessary evil. But, recent surveys and signs show that hiring may soon be on the uptick-and you’ll lose the best prospects if your recruiting strategy doesn’t adapt.
In February US companies cut the fewest jobs in two years according to a private report from ADP and a positive Labor Department report. Jobless claims are falling and productivity is surging, and The Conference Board, which monitors online advertised job openings, reports a “positive sign of a turnaround in employer labor demand.” All of which point to a coming time when job seekers will have their choice of jobs-and companies–they want to work for. So it’s imperative to begin (or enhance) your dialogue with applicants in order to cultivate a relationship that lands you “A” talent.
No longer are applicants content with the bare minimum of an employment site. They demand a user experience that is interesting, informative and easy to navigate. The first order of business is to act like a candidate and take a good, hard look at what your site is delivering. Does it engage applicants in a visually appealing manner or does it just have a link to a mission statement, a list of benefits, and job openings? Consider a dynamic video that positions your company as a vibrant employer that values its workers. Deliver job-specific mini-sites or videos that take an applicant through a “day in the life” of a current employee, spotlighting a department, its achievements, staff and technology, and showing typical career progression. Consider FAQs, message boards, chats, blogs and other means of communication. Beef up your social media presence and make sure you have functioning backward and forward links. And don’t forget about that initial email: make it interesting, visually appealing and offer the opportunity for two-way communication. Also consider re-targeting those who visit your site (retargeting is the act of delivering specific advertising to those who have landed on your site and are now surfing the web somewhere else, either right away or maybe even weeks and months down the road.)
The time has come to cultivate applicants with relationship-based recruiting. You don’t have to fear the numbers–technology can help. Top talent will love it and you’ll be positioned as an innovative employer everyone will be clamoring to join.
Debating an email marketing campaign vs. the old familiar direct (snail) mail approach? Let me give you a few good reasons why an eblast may be the way to go.
First, let’s get the big question out of the way: Isn’t this approach just creating more spam? We’re an information and technology driven society. People opt-in (and have the ability to opt-out) to receive these messages – messages that are proven highly effective.
Effectiveness: An Ad Effectiveness Survey commissioned by Forbes Media in 2009 revealed that email and e-newsletter marketing are considered the second-most effective tool for generating conversions, just behind SEO.
Reduced Cost: We are always looking for ways to reduce costs, aren’t we? Most email blasts are considerably less expensive than direct mail – no postage, no printing. (Plus, it’s Green!: No postage, no printing = a paperless solution.) According to the Direct Marketing Association, advertisers are likely to spend $700 million on email marketing campaigns in 2010. That number jumps to a projected $45.5 billion for traditional direct mail efforts in 2010. (Makes you wonder, is there more “spam” in your mail box, or your in-box?)
Ability to Measure: When building a strategy on budget the ability to measure ROI becomes essential. Stats on open rates, click thrus and applies are made relatively easy with an electronic approach. This is valuable data that can be further used to refine your message and approach.
Highly Targeted & Personalized: Email blasts are an excellent way to target both active and passive job seekers in very specific skill sets and geographies. Plus, there may be an opportunity to personalize the message with the subscriber’s name – you can increase click-thru rates tremendously this way!
I know from experience that email marketing works. Want to learn more about how an eblast may be thie right solution to fill your next “hard-to-fill”? Drop me a line here, or send an email to: blog@alstin.com.
“Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter) according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis”
Wow, awesome, super, start hiring people, recovery is here! Errrrt! Not so fast. While this should be taken as positive economic news on it’s face, I am afraid to be a Debbie Downer, but reality checks are my speciality. Inside the numbers, the revised estimate from 5.7% to 5.9% comes from gross private domestic investment which indicates that businesses are leading the recovery and the change in private inventories which showed the biggest upward revision to make up for 3.9% of the 5.9% GDP growth. Nerdy economists (the original Debbie Downers) however are not impressed with this revision as a sign of economic health rather a belief that recovery is sure to come…but not here yet. So, I guess that is the good news. The bummer of the 4Q GDP is that personal consumption is weak which, given the high unemployment and underemployment rate, is understandable as people are just unable to spend money – both paper and plastic.
Consumer spending accounts for a large part of GDP – almost 70% – so we need that to rise or else growth in the next couple quarters will go down. However, we cannot go into additional debt for consumption sake. Cases in point: Consumer debt: $13.5 trilly, Non-financial business sector debt: $11 trilly, Financial sector business debt : $16 trilly, State & gov’t local debt: $2.3 trilly, federal debt – not including future entitlements: $7.5 trilly (“Trilly” is my cute word for “trillion” as in trillions of dollars, eases the pain. ) Net exports increased from 1.9% to 2.3% – Hooray! But imports were revised up from 1.4% to 2% – Boooo! While I am happy to see the GDP revised upward we have a long way to go. Baby steps people.
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
For much of the Mid-Atlantic, this has been a historic winter. We’ve already crushed the snowfall record for one year and we still have a bit more of February and all of March to go. While I am definitely a warm weather person, (I promise I will never again complain about the heat) I actually do like snow days: the kids off from school, sledding, a roaring fire all day, meals in the crockpot, etc. But enough already with this winter! That one two punch in early February (in my area we got 27″ one day and 17″ just a few days later) really knocked the wind out of my sails. My snow shovel is still leaning against my front door and I give it a dirty look each time I pass by.
Of course, this has led to many wisely postponed meetings (I think I’m up to 6 that have been delayed or canceled) so this edition will be a bit shorter!
Mt. Holly, NJ: At the February meeting of Tri-State HRMA, the speaker was none other than Gerry Crispin, one of the most respected names in the recruitment industry. Gerry’s topic? “Engage Them or Enrage Them: You Have A Choice: Designing Corporate Staffing Pages to Enhance Your Candidates’ Experience…or Not.” So great to see that our agency’s philosophy matched so well with Gerry’s. As recruiters, we spend so much time, money and energy driving people to the career portion of our website, but what happens once they get there? Can they find the information they need? Are they engaged? Are you selling yourself positively as an employer? How is the application process? At Alstin, we have designed several services around optimizing and measuring the candidate experience on your career site, including one of our most popular and affordable products, webglass.
Elk Ridge, MD: A potential heavy snowfall held off so the monthly MAHCR (Maryland Area Healthcare Recruiters) could go on. As I’ve said before, this is a really great group and this meeting featured a wonderful presentation by past president Nick Piazza on certain portions of the recruiter’s handbook. I certainly learned a lot, and I think even seasoned recruiters received a lot of great info from Nick’s presentation.
Philadelphia, PA: Back after a winter break with PAAHCR, the Philadelphia Area Association of Healthcare Recruiters. We met in the beautiful JeffStat training room at Jefferson University Hospital. Our speaker was Joe Stubblebine, founder of JobCircle and longtime friend of Alstin. Joe spoke on Social Networking for healthcare recruiting, and his presentation was full of good information and tips for using social media to recruit healthcare workers. Of special interest was the surveys that JobCircle had done on how (and if) recruiters are using social media to recruit.
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.
After completing the metrics reports for two Social Media Recruitment Strategies that were launched in January and ‘completed’ just last week (well, actually ‘paused’ by the client), I started to think about how I wanted to present and promote my data and samples. These (very successful, might I add) two campaigns had lots of great metrics, graphs and creative that were developed. After compiling the PDF reports and laying out all the visual examples for each of these campaigns, I really wanted to display the information I was reporting within an interesting and visually stimulating format. The campaigns themselves were very fluid and utilized the ever-changing vehicle of social media and I felt my PDF format was falling flat. So, I thought of Prezi.
Techcrunch described Prezi as “just plain awesome. It’s entirely Flash-based app that lets you break away from the slide-by-slide approach of most presentations. Instead, it allows you to create non-linear presentations where you can zoom in and out of a visual map containing words, links, images, videos, etc.” (If you want to read the rest of the review, click here.)
So, I’ll be building my two Prezi’s today, you’ll see the results in my next week’s blog post – I’m using their canvas, zoom, zebra, frames, rotation and storyline tools. Prezi’s can be viewed in a web browser, freestanding or embedded within a blog for presentation/sharing purposes. Stay tuned for my next Tuesday blog with my two Prezi’s!! I can’t wait! I love learning new tools! Seriously. I do.
If you’ve had experience or have developed Prezi’s for your own needs, feel free to share them! Comment and post your links.
Now more than ever, companies are implementing “new and improved” approaches to gather quantitative metrics of their recruitment processes. Often times, numbers are the best way for HR to convey to senior management what’s working and what’s not. With the right tools in place, proper metrics can be determined, giving your organization a clear picture of the validity of your recruiting strategy and the ability to make the recruitment process more efficient.
When it comes to the use of metrics in tracking recruiting effectiveness, I’ve found that there’s a key to success – use your tools and use them consistently! Many companies are putting forth efforts and resources to capture data, but if these tools are being utilized only part of the time, accurate measurements are not possible, and will undermine the results. Incredibly valuable information to encourage improvements, metrics are worthless unless the results have the real potential to incite positive changes in recruiting and sourcing habits.
If you decide to implement a means to measure the response of your print ads, web ads, email blasts, landing pages, SEO tools, etc., it is imperative that this tool be utilized in every application.
In reality, I know that as recruiters this approach may not always seem ideal. I have seen recruiters change the contact mechanism for response in a recruiting ad or posting for a select position based on the urgency to fill the opening, the type of candidates they are targeting, or the ease of response retrieval. But the truth of it is, what used to work years ago, doesn’t cut it anymore especially when your overall investment and goal is to gather good metrics!
The purpose of the development of the many approaches to building metrics, is to answer the demands of organizations for proof of the overall success of HR’s recruiting efforts and what can be done better – more quickly, more efficiently, more cost effectively. However, if tracking methods are only used once in a while, when the head honchos ask for recommendations during budget evaluation time – how will you be able to truly identify what you can capitalize on, and what you need to do different?
In the current state of our economy, there is no doubt in my mind that organizations cannot afford spending to track costs for skewed evidence and base their budgets on ambivalent reporting. Take my word for it, if you heed this advice to properly make use of these valuable tracking tools, the metrics will help you determine:
What was the success of your recruitment sources?
Which sources provided the most candidates?
Where did the more qualified candidates come from?
Which sources provided the least qualified candidates?
I think we can all agree that conducting an evaluation of your recruiting costs with solid metrics can provide you with the information needed to support change and improvements for sourcing and hiring processes and for reducing costs. The bottom line: Don’t sabotage your efforts. Maintain consistent use of your measurement tools and you will have the most accurate metrics at your disposal.
Having trouble figuring out the best solution for gathering metrics for your organization? Need an assessment of your applicant tracking systems’s capabilities? Send me an email – blog@alstin.com - I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with you!
One of the biggest and most exciting topics surrounding the new Apple iPad is the effect it may have on newspapers. Apple is obviously aware of this–in fact, as I write this blog the apple.com homepage shows an iPad with the New York Times featured prominently on its screen.
Is this the breakthrough newspapers have been waiting for? Are we about to usher in a new phase of digital journalism? Remarkably, the answer to both questions might be yes!
I’ve always thought that the survival of newspapers would come not from new technology, but from an industry-wide movement toward charging for content. My premise is that newspapers offer undeniable value, value that (before 10 years ago) we never thought twice about paying for.
Well, it looks like technology in the form of the iPad might usher in that switch to charging for online content. Because of its design, the iPad may revive the type of reading we know from print–multiple articles on one “page,” a better ability to “skim” the newspaper, different size fonts, layouts, etc. Of course, we’ll have to see wait and see what The New York Times and other newspapers’ apps look like and how they function, but the buzz is definitely there.
Of course, that potential change from charging for content, not charging and then asking readers to go back and pay again won’t be easy. The newspapers will have to weigh the possibility of losing readers and advertisers vs. the potential increased revenue. The stakes for this one are high, and I’ll certainly be watching to see what the introduction of the iPad means to the newspaper industry.
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.
I last blogged about the US Department of Labor’s “Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge”. In an effort to learn more about — and then publicize — the best FREE online tools for a variety of job-search related research, the government called on the public to check out more than 600 sites and then vote on them. Vote they* did! Nearly 16,000 registered to rank the submitted sites over a two week period in January. Said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis, “My thanks go out to the businesses and organizations that submitted their tools for evaluation, and to the members of the public who offered their input. We called on the public to let us know what they want out of online job tools, and they have responded in great numbers. In the process, we also created a great resource for job seekers.” The votes have been tallied and the top-ranking tools are now posted.
* Eyeing up your boss’ office? Human Capital Institute offers those interested in the Talent Management arena a “think tank” of free webcasts and alternative educational programs and certifications to upgrade HR skill sets in the Talent Acquisition, Management and Leadership competencies.
* An out-of-office escort is a lousy way to end a relationship. Monster Evolutions offers outplacement services for Employers and Employees with one goal: getting former workers rehired into prosperous new positions or new careers.
* What the military lacks in website naming creativity, it makes up for in preparedness. Current members of the armed forces and veterans can check out www.military.com to get connected to all the benefits of services, great stories of military life or missions, and career and educational opportunities.
* Giddyup! Job seekers nationwide may want to look beyond the usual sites to www.careerstallion.com
* And, last but not least, for the ex-offender nearest and dearest to your heart, there are three (!) sites recommended by the DOL. One, The Next Step/WOTC Solutions is a program that provides services to both offenders and businesses by preparing offenders for the workplace while assisting businesses with a $2,400 tax credit to help hire ex-offenders.
Those are just a few parts of the Challenge that caught my eye (along with the slightly incongruous photo of three co-workers huddled together at work while surfing for new jobs). Dig in and reap the rewards of a government project that was much more worthwhile than the one that studied cow emissions. From resume writing sites to those that help students looking for grant money and retirees who want back in the game, there’s something for just about everyone at www.careeronestop.org (click on Job Seeker Tools at the top of the page).
* Gary Zukowski, founder of TweetMyJOBS noted one alarming problem with the Challenge: “First, there’s no validation of the votes. A person or company can cast unlimited votes with ficticious names and email addresses and dramatically skew the results,” says Zukowski. “For example, we were able to vote using a non-working email with the name ‘Barack Obama.’ Five days later the name ‘Barack Obama’ was still listed under ‘user activity’—a fact that should raise red flags. In addition to no validation on the votes, there is nothing preventing people in other countries from participating. The outcome could be determined by people who are not even citizens of the United States.”
Ah well, you can’t blame a government agency for trying!
Being a social media enthusiast, I’ve been curious about all of the ‘buzz’ surrounding Google’s Buzz launch on February 9th. I finally witnessed the ‘Buzz’ yesterday (it was rolled out in waves—pun intended) when logging in my iGoogle (here in Philly we’ve been battling ‘Snowmageddon 2010’ since last Wednesday so, I’ve been a little busy shoveling out). Apparently, I missed a lot over the weekend!
Turns out there was a lot of ‘buzz’ over the weekend with the ‘auto-follow’ feature which is now disabled (when originally launched, Buzz automatically would have ‘followed’ my most frequently emailed or chatted contacts in Gmail – something I definitely wouldn’t want made public!!)
As I was looking at it yesterday, I was thinking, “What’s the big deal?” Yeah, sure, I use Google Reader daily (hourly, more like it) to stay on top of all the news that interests me (or stuff I find funny – btw I’ve been following *%$# My Dad Says waaaaayyy before he got that sitcom deal – he’s still funny as *%$#). And, sure I’ve use Google Docs to share work projects, I literally can’t live without Google Maps and I’ve had my Gmail account for a while now…but, what’s all the Buzz?
The interface seems pretty basic and right now I have two followers (one I don’t even know??) and I searched and am following four people (a.ka. random friends). Buzz didn’t recommend anyone to follow like Google stated it would, but I don’t really keep my Gmail contacts up-to-date. So far…little activity…little “buzz” on my end, but it’s only been about twelve hours since I started poking around, so I’m not bashing the Buzz. Just trying to figure out (like many of you) another tool in my social media arsenal. What I’ve researched and learned is boiled down to:
Buzz links all the people who use Gmail (which is at 176 millions users according to comScore‑so there’s a built-in audience already)
Google stated there has been over 9 million posts and comments in its first 56 hours of launching
There have been over 200 mobile check-ins per minute (that’s nearly 300,000 mobile check-ins per day).
Speaking of mobile…so Buzz is available on the iPhone and Droid 2.0 (rolling out to other Mdevices shortly) – and what can you do with that?
You can look up who is buzzing ‘nearby’ and share info about where you are/what you’re doing (ie. “I’m at Philly Cupcake!!!” My friend’s ‘buzz’ to me: “Oh grab me a strawberry shortcake one!!” (Ed Note: If you’re in Philly and haven’t had the deliciousness of Philly Cupcake, you’re seriously missing out on one of life’s great pleasures…but, I digress.)
You can post Buzz tagged items with your location so that people know where you frequent and why.
Keep up with who you’re following (and who is following you) through the mobile Buzz interface.
Comment or ‘like’ other people’s Buzz.
There’s a Buzz layer on Google Maps so you can view what’s going on in a glance.
Read Buzz about places you’re interested in.
Click the Buzz icon on the top of the Google navigation bar to open up the posting box.
Say ‘post buzz’ to your iPhone (still not sure what this accomplishes).
Areas I see that are of concern to me (and lots of others):
Privacy (big concept within all the social media sharing technology) – of course Google is already responding to many concerns and is making ‘private’ and ‘public’ features already. Time will tell (and I’m talking social media time = minutes vs. days) with this area. See BusinessWeek article.
Getting people to use another social media tool. (Although I tend to agree that since it’s interwoven with Gmail, people are going to test it out, especially us technerds…early adopters.)
Areas I see as huge potential for advertising initiatives:
Gmail advertising is already so prevalent it only makes sense that “buzz” advertising would take off.
Since it’s an open platform, I’m expecting a tidal wave of new apps being developed.
I really like Ben Parr’s idea of an ad revenue share for Buzz apps and its own app store to monetize this platform would be a win-win.
Only two things I’m wondering right now…is it “buzz” or “Buzz?” And is Todd Jackson getting any sleep? Poor guy. I don’t think this past weekends’ buzz was what he’d anticipated. Stay positive, Todd! Everything new always needs tweaking!
I went to see the movie “The Hangover” before all of the hubbub. Before it became the highest grossing comedy of all time. Before people said it was the funniest movie ever. My expectations weren’t high, in fact, they weren’t even established. I hadn’t heard much about it. During the movie I remember laughing out loud in the theater – something I rarely do. I left thinking that it was one of the funniest movies I had ever seen. A very pleasant surprise. My friend, on the other hand, didn’t get to see the movie early on. She saw it several months into its run – after all of the buzz, kudos, and word-of-mouth. She liked it well enough. She just didn’t get what all of the fuss was about. The difference? Expectations.
We’ve all had similar experiences. While personal tastes largely determine our likes and dislikes, expectations can also play a tremendous role in our reactions and responses. The implications for branding, and especially for employment branding, are far-reaching. The disappointment of a brand underperforming is likely to result in a more negative response than a brand fulfilling even low expectations. The trick with branding is promising something that you can actually deliver.
As Walter Landor, the oft-quoted father of branding, said “Simply put, a brand is a promise . . . ” If your brand doesn’t match what you deliver, you’re breaking that implied promise.
When we work with a client to help shape their employment brand, we’re looking to discover their UVP – or Unique Value Proposition. What makes them special? What can they offer that no one else can? If we are successful, the employment brand we develop will accurately reflect the environment, culture, and opportunities that they offer. This doesn’t just result in more appealing and effective ads – although that’s a nice byproduct. More importantly, it results in better suited hires. The candidates that they attract are the individuals who are actually looking for what they have to offer. It’s a win win. An employment brand isn’t about inflating who you are as an employer, it’s about accurately reflecting it. And that’s a promise you can keep.
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.
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.
Sunday’s Super Bowl was prime time for advertisers looking to launch new campaigns and get their products noticed. In the fragmented demographics of today’s TV viewership, it’s also an increasingly rare opportunity to have your message seen by the majority of the country. Combine that with a hefty price tag (estimated cost this year for a 30 second spot was $2.6 million) and you can see that the stakes are very high.
Of course, two of the biggest players in our industry are Monster and CareerBuilder, and both ran new spots during the Super Bowl.
The ads are below. Judge for yourself who you think took home the trophy. Or better yet, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Were they worth the money? Which one did you find funnier? More memorable? Does either ad change your opinion about the advertiser?
Penny’s get pinched when the economy is tight, by individuals and companies alike. Why pay a designer to put together a new ad campaign or design your logo when you already have an employee who likes using different fonts in Word and has access to a large library of clip art? The utility of the job will get through and you’ll save money. Besides, who cares if it’s clever or looks good? Nobody has time to pay attention to that kind of stuff anyways!
Your iPod begs to differ.
From cell-phones to cars, disposable razors to televisions, cameras to coffee-grinders, good design is making its mark. It’s not that your music sounds better coming from an iPod instead of an iRiver or SanDisk, but that an aesthetic and tactile experience ends up making the usage of the device all that more pleasurable. People like that, and if Apple’s stock is any indication, people are willing to pay for that.
Graphic design works the same way. When you have an idea or design that brings it all together, creating something both clever and memorable, the attitude towards the design is transferred to the client. You make that jump from “Hey, that Volkswagen ad was great” to “Volkswagen’s pretty cool for making such a clever ad”. Sure, Volkswagen’s still got to make the sale with the car, but they got you in the door. That’s half (and a necessary half) of the battle right there.
The choice is yours to make. Put the time and money into crafting an image that will attract the best of people, people that actually want to be with you, or toss a worm on your line and see what bites.
I’m always on the quest for discovering (and downloading) new and useful apps for my iPhone. News apps, career apps, social media apps, cooking tips apps, music apps, stopwatch apps for timing my mile pace, etc. I swear I even downloaded that level app and actually used it—seriously! I don’t think my weekends would be complete without checking Yelp or letting Google Maps navigate me through road trips.
And, as Alstin is developing an app of our own (coming soon to the App Store!), I started to wonder—there must be a huge demand for developers to create customized apps? I’ve talked with vendors and web sites about rolling out apps of their own in addition to providing customized app creation services for clients. And I was curious about the market, statistics and the potential revenue stream I could create for this type of product.
And, I discovered, I’m not alone. App stores have had more than $4.2 billion in revenue last year, according to Gartner Inc., which tracks information technology worldwide. Analysts expect that to increase to $29.5 billion by 2013. (And, no there aren’t any typos in that sentence—$29.5 billion!).
As mobile technology continues to advance (and become more accessible and less expensive) and innovations like the Apple iPad (a 10-in touch screen computer sized somewhere between a laptop and an iPhone) are created, you can be sure that this will help generate the demand and interest for more apps. From a Feb 1st, 2010 Philadelphia Inquirer article, “A bonanza for app developers.” (written by Carolyn Davis) she quotes Lisa Allen, a board director for Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, the local chapter of a global group that aims to foster education and networking among the mobile-development crowd. “Today’s mobile phones are as powerful as many desktop PCs—more so, if you consider that they’re also location-aware and have a built-in billing and payment system…We’re seeing people run their entire lives, even their entire businesses, from their mobile phone.”
Apple announced in January that billion apps had been downloaded from its App Store from among more than 100,000 titles in categories such as games, business, new, sports and health. Blackberry App World has 4,000 titles and Google’s Android Market has 20,000.
From a recruiting, hiring, retention and online application perspective apps really have unlimited potential for opening up the communication process. Making it more direct, more efficient, more targeted, more everything. (Can you tell I’m really liking mobile technology??) Create an app so potential applicants can download employment-focused videos or podcasts interviewing a Hiring Manager. Or, create your app with the functionality to enable job seekers viewing your jobs (through your own app or through a job board/job aggregator site app) to easily download their resume and apply right from their mobile device. Or, develop an app function to stay in touch with prior applicants, send out newsfeeds about your company, update them on the hiring process—the ideas really are limitless. Does your company have multiple retail locations? Imagine being able to identify a smart phone user with your app and send them targeted career opportunities based upon where they are standing! Develop app for internal purposes and marketing…perhaps an “HR Welcome App” to stay in touch with recently on-boarded candidates (remind them to fill out specific forms, reiterate the rewards for your existing employee referral program) or create a retention-focused app to update employees of awards earned, milestone achievements or other positive news. And, one thing I love about apps is the metrics and measurability they provide—love my numbers!
So, when someone asks you, “Do you have an app for that?” You can say, “Yes! There’s an app for that!”
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
So we’ve said goodbye to 2009–actually most of us have said, “Good riddance!” While exciting tools and technology continued to emerge and we did some of our best work ever, 2009 was, for the most part, a lousy year for recruitment departments as well as those that serve the human resources industry. Many great workers lost their jobs, highly qualified and motivated people couldn’t find jobs, economic uncertainty hovered like a black cloud–things were tough all over. I for one was happy to turn the calendar over, and while I don’t think anyone is calling for a return to a robust job market anytime soon, we really are starting to see some signs of life–and growth. In the meantime, hang in there and please let me know if there’s any way the Alstin team can help you with your recruitment communications challenges in 2010.
Ok, back on the road!
Princeton, NJ: As always, so many good friends and clients at the New Jersey Association of HealthCare Recruiters. Jessica Cohen from the New Jersey Hospital Association was the speaker and the topic couldn’t have been more relevant: healthcare reform. Jessica really helped me make sense of some of the more complex (and contentious) issues; her handout included several key policy points, and then for each point she included the House Reform Bill position, the Senate Reform Bill position and finally, the position of the American Hospital Association.
West Chester, PA: Visiting a wonderful, long-time client to update them on all things Alstin. Certainly one of the most important services we provide is educating clients on trends, new tools and the best practices happening in recruiting today. Still, the best moments for me in client and prospects meetings happen when I’m simply listening and learning about an organization’s goals and challenges, and how I can help. All in all, great client, great meeting and hopefully more great work to come.
My Desk, Philadelphia, PA: While I love getting on the road and meeting people, there are times when the distance is too great or the time frame too short. Talking with a prospect based in New York via conference call, I was joined by Mike Tedesco and Jen Hitchens-Greenfield, and we had a great opportunity to get more information on the project so we could deliver a strong proposal.
Newark, Delaware: Into the great state of Delaware for an exciting strategy meeting with one of our most forward-thinking clients. Such a pleasure to work with such an intelligent group that’s so passionate and enthusiastic about trying to provide the best experience for their employees. We have a lot of work to do, but this type of employment branding and client collaboration will be a labor of love.
You never know what’s on someone’s mind… We’d like to know what YOU think would make a catchy, memorable headline if this photo were a recruitment ad. Think outside the bubble!
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.
Go to a free media monitoring site of your choosing.
Enter your search terms.
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.
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.
Meet the recruitment advertising agency team that can help you get it done! Alstin Communications is an employer branding firm with an impressive array of CEA, NAA and Philly Gold awards. More than 300 local and national clients turn to us for strategies, communications and results. […]
Alstin Communications’ portfolio of creative work, including employer branding, ERPs, ecards, direct mail, social networking, SEM campaigns and more. Our interactive and print-based communications get companies in front of the candidates they seek. Recruitment advertising with “the power of done.” […]
Recruitment advertising meets employer branding. Alstin is an award-winning full service recruitment advertising and employer marketing agency with more than 300 local and national clients in all industries. See some of them here! […]
Employer branding is about being the first choice. Differentiating your organization is what will make you memorable, create positive perceptions, and sustain favorable familiarity. With Alstin Communications, the award-winning recruitment advertising agency, recruitment advertising means empowered hiring. […]
Alstin Communications is a recruitment advertising agency focusing on employer branding located in Philadelphia, PA. Need smaHRter recruitment advertising? Alstin serves more than 300 local and national clients. Contact us today at 215.568.3200 or email us at powerofdone@alstin.com […]
By day, I am a Creative Director. My team and I routinely complete multiple creative projects in minimal time. At this moment I have at least twenty active projects. The copywriters, designers, and art directors I work with are juggling at least three to five projects each. We are known for the high quality of our creative output. We work quickly and efficiently. Every day, multiple creative projects are completed. Missing a deadline is not an option.
I have to tell you, I’m very excited for the Social Media Success Summit 2010 (#SM
Here at Alstin, we know when May is coming with all it’s beautiful flowers simply by the high volume of requests by healthcare clients to design eye-catching, inspirational messages of gratitude and thanks to their nurses for a job well done. A small token of appreciation but one, I am told by nurses, that does make a difference – it’s nice to be appreciated and read all about it. 
Over the last two years, perhaps the biggest challenge facing our nation has been the state of the American workforce. When President Obama hosted a discussion about job creation last December, he asked for input on opportunities and obstacles, and our friends at 
They hosted a forum in San Francisco on February 26th and the participants included experts in both the employment industry and academia. Roberto Angulo, CEO of AfterCollege, sat down with us to talk about entry level jobs, the recommendations that resulted from the forum, and more.
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.
I knew there was something motivating Mark Zuckerberg to switch the “Fan” terminology to “Like.” And, I knew it wasn’t because “liking” something was ‘more lightweight’ than being a Fan of something (which is what Facebook’s announcement said last week as they rolled this change to users and page administrators). While I found the roll out/roll back/roll back out frustrating, to say least, as an administrator for a number of “Fan pages” (do we still call them ‘fan’ pages now?), I was convinced (
So, you will soon be ways to target the millions and millions of Facebook users according to their ‘likes,’ their interactions with other FB users, their interactions with other web sites, etc. It’s a game-changing scenario that could feasibly enable companies (employers) to reach out (target) to people directly based upon very detailed user-relevant information. Imagine how this would alter your recruitment campaigns if you there was a ‘go to’ site that enabled you to tap into (basically) an unlimited talent pool? And this talent pool provided you the tools to siphon off very targeted sub-groups of people with similar ‘likes’ and skill sets and send them direct messages, emails, ads, etc. announcing your career opportunities all without asking these people to leave the comforts of their favored site. This my friends, is a game changing scenario (full blown advertising models, while still not rolled out yet, will be the next step…trust me).
The Great Recession has seen a remarkable number of laid off workers reenter the work world in less prestigious positions. We know the reasons why they are willing to accept a lower paying step down: with personal and household wealth taking a hit in the past year, almost any job (with benefits) is better than the uncertainty of continued unemployment. But is hiring the overqualified a smart recruiting strategy?
At the first of the year, there was a great piece written by 
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!
There’s been a lot of speculation on how Twitter would start generating revenue. Last week, speculation has become reality with the announcement of Promoted Tweets. There’s a lot of ‘buzz’ in the industry about how these promoted tweets will alter how twitterers will interact with each other and the ramifications for using Twitter for marketing.
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
When The Economist asserts that the “economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years” they aren’t kidding. This article highlights the social aspect of this dramatic change: “…millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their economic fates” and cites the remarkable nature of this change that has produced little friction “change that affects the most intimate aspects of people’s identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women.”
Peter Weddle is one of the true “gurus” in the recruitment industry. In addition to his hugely popular newsletter, 
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.)
The ongoing growth of social media incited a desire for interested parties to take the online off-screen and bring people together in conversation, prompting the onset of Social Media Clubs – where people can voice themselves in focused conversation “promoting media literacy, sharing best practices, and ensuring that ethics are not lost as social media becomes serious business.”
Stepping down from the podium and into yet another snow-drift has me attempting a course redirection with these posts, perhaps a little more observational than instructional (but hopefully with some interesting facts infused).
After a hurried roller-job left green marks on my rear-room’s ceiling and the basement cabinet full of previous owner hand-me-downs left me with no matches, it was off to the paint store. Explaining my needs, I was soon pointed towards a straightforwardly named “white ceiling paint”. Bingo! My Spidey-sense told me to just buy a pint, which turned out to be a good thing as my new white ceiling paint was significantly darker than my current white ceiling paint.
In recent months social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, have gotten quite a bit of negative attention due to the recent Flash Mob incidents, which occurred in Philadelphia. I would like to balance this local negative attention with a global positive use of Social Media, especially Twitter.
Beautiful spring weather has hit the Philadelphia area–finally! Hopefully, the warm weather will also coincide with a thawing of frozen recruiting budgets, icy austerity programs and the glacial pace of economic recovery.
Are you a natural problem solver? A wellspring of ideas? Wish you had been the first person to turn 
Traditionally a rise in temporary workers is a very positive indicator of an improving economy. Here’s the idea: An increase in temp hiring means businesses are recovering, but, for obvious reasons, they are gun-shy about hiring permanent staff, especially if they recently had layoffs. So instead they add temporary staff, and if things continue to improve, these employers become even more confident and begin to add permanent workers. In early March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment in temporary help services continued to increase in February–and an AP report states that this report is “a sign that the economy is soon likely to generate consistent job gains” and that this is “evidence that employers are slowly ramping up hiring as the economy improves.”
If you’re in healthcare, you already know about 
Obviously, the aim of the new standards isn’t to create more work for hospitals (or more opportunities for lawyers). It’s to ensure better care for all patients. The majority of studies find that racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare remain even after adjustment for socioeconomic differences and other healthcare-access related factors. With approximately 80% of the nation’s hospitals currently accredited by The Joint Commission, the potential for the new standards to make a true impact on patient care (and on your to-do list) is great.
Seriously, how awful were Huey Lewis and the News?
I read an article in the front section of the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday (yes, I still get a weekly printed newspaper—I’m old school sometimes…plus I like the coupons). The article, 
This brings me to the irony of another article I read in the same front section, 
For me the answer to the 
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 
Chris Baggott and Jay Baer’s webinar 
With record numbers of unemployed workers banging on your door you might think it’s ok to handle applications with an automated response telling them their application will be reviewed and they’ll be contacted if a match exists. With the ease of application realized through the internet it’s easy to view candidates as a necessary evil. But, recent surveys and signs show that hiring may soon be on the uptick-and you’ll lose the best prospects if your recruiting strategy doesn’t adapt.
First, let’s get the big question out of the way: Isn’t this approach just creating more spam? We’re an information and technology driven society. People opt-in (and have the ability to opt-out) to receive these messages – messages that are proven highly effective.
Wow, awesome, super, start hiring people, recovery is here! Errrrt! Not so fast. While this should be taken as positive economic news on it’s face, I am afraid to be a 
For much of the Mid-Atlantic, this has been a historic winter. We’ve already crushed the snowfall record for one year and we still have a bit more of February and all of March to go. While I am definitely a warm weather person, (I promise I will never again complain about the heat) I actually do like snow days: the kids off from school, sledding, a roaring fire all day, meals in the crockpot, etc. But enough already with this winter! That one two punch in early February (in my area we got 27″ one day and 17″ just a few days later) really knocked the wind out of my sails. My snow shovel is still leaning against my front door and I give it a dirty look each time I pass by.
Now more than ever, companies are implementing “new and improved” approaches to gather quantitative metrics of their recruitment processes. Often times, numbers are the best way for HR to convey to senior management what’s working and what’s not. With the right tools in place, proper metrics can be determined, giving your organization a clear picture of the validity of your recruiting strategy and the ability to make the recruitment process more efficient.
One of the biggest and most exciting topics surrounding the new 
This month I thought it was about time that I added to the flock of 5 million plus users who find 
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.
I last blogged about the
Being a social media enthusiast, I’ve been curious about all of the ‘buzz’ surrounding 
I went to see the movie “The Hangover” before all of the hubbub. Before it became the highest grossing comedy of all time. Before people said it was the funniest movie ever. My expectations weren’t high, in fact, they weren’t even established. I hadn’t heard much about it. During the movie I remember laughing out loud in the theater – something I rarely do. I left thinking that it was one of the funniest movies I had ever seen. A very pleasant surprise. My friend, on the other hand, didn’t get to see the movie early on. She saw it several months into its run – after all of the buzz, kudos, and word-of-mouth. She liked it well enough. She just didn’t get what all of the fuss was about. The difference? Expectations.
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 – 
Penny’s get pinched when the economy is tight, by individuals and companies alike. Why pay a designer to put together a new ad campaign or design your logo when you already have an employee who likes using different fonts in Word and has access to a large library of clip art? The utility of the job will get through and you’ll save money. Besides, who cares if it’s clever or looks good? Nobody has time to pay attention to that kind of stuff anyways!
I’m always on the quest for discovering (and downloading) new and useful apps for my iPhone. News apps, career apps, social media apps, cooking tips apps, music apps, stopwatch apps for timing my mile pace, etc. I swear I even downloaded that level app and actually used it—seriously! I don’t think my weekends would be complete without checking Yelp or letting Google Maps navigate me through road trips.
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.–and I attend numerous industry functions each month. On Alstin’s blog, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting.
Ever check out 
That’s it. Once you click that RSS button your search agent is set.
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