My kids brought their most recent report cards home last week.

Altogether, a great showing. My daughter got straight A’s but was less than stellar in the “Learning Related/Self-Directed Learning” categories. This included, but was not limited to:

follows verbal directions; follows classroom routines; demonstrates organizational skills; maintains attention.

What was I saying? Oh, yes. The social skills side of school was where she fell a little short. But when you see great grades, it’s tough to take that other side of the student progress report too seriously. She scored well, and that’s what counts to schools, so what more do you need to know?

My son got three A’s and two B’s and shined in every learning category except maintains attention and contributes to classroom discussions. But what my husband and I loved was that this marking period, he barely even showed us his homework. Never told us — or wrote down — when he had a test. Hardly ever asked for help, unless some tougher math had him down (Dad is a CPA so, yes, I defer anything past 4^th-grade math to him). He did what he did on his own, without a whole lot of pressure or review on our part beyond the normal, “Hey bud, do your best work today.” And, “Take your time with stuff.”

Considering today’s version of the report card got me thinking about RFPs. Requests for Proposals are, at least from our agency’s viewpoint, never an envelope or email a recipient jumps for joy over. Sure, it can mean new business. An influx of potentially great projects. And (CHING CHING) more billings. But the thing about an RFP — defined as, “An invitation for providers of a product or service to bid on the right to supply that product or service to the individual or entity that issued the RFP.” — is that it never tells the whole story. Its answers have probably, at least in part, been recycled. And we’re all going to try our best to tell the “individual or entity” what they want to hear.

Two things I don’t like about this definition I just cited…

#1 – “invitation”, to me, brings to mind carefree times and, usually, alcohol. No RFP I’ve ever been part of has ever included either.

#2 – The phrase “to bid on the right to supply that product or service” is off-base because a.) bidding isn’t really bidding when you don’t know what others “invited” to the fun are bidding, and b.) supplying our service — creative thinking, strategic solutions, and service — isn’t really a right. It’s kind of an honor, but definitely not a right. It’s really more about our ability to meet the expectations of the inviter. (Is inviter a word? I don’t think so because I keep getting a red line whenever I type it. Sorry. Maintaining attention now.) If we don’t perform as expected, we really have no “rights” as a supplier — we’re shown the door, regardless of how well-written and substantiated our RFP response was.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe about the RFP: it’s a ton of work. Not that we mind work, but RFPs can be daunting in size and in scope, especially since many of them are not written by the people you’ll actually be reporting to. Typically, an RFP is put together by the Purchasing Department. And, pardon any unintended aspersions cast at the Purchasing industry, but they really don’t care too much about what we do. They just want 43 answers to the questions on their checklist. We’ve received some RFPs that looked as though they were intended for tire suppliers. For example, “Please define the total quantity of radial tires you would be able to provide in last minute/’rush’ situations.” But they cut “radial tires” and replace it with “innovative recruitment ideas”.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m not completely against RFPs. Alstin has won quite a few of them over the past few years — even against much larger, much more well-known firms. (Insert fist pump here.) They do allow the organization requesting information to do a sort of side by side comparison of breadth of services offered. They do work to level the playing field and, if you do an accurate job of representing yourself, help you win business you might not have otherwise had access to. They, at the very least, let the individual or entity make fun of people for making typos.

But the real problem is that what we’re able to offer in list format — even with excellent full color samples — isn’t even close to definitive when it comes to truly explaining the competitive differences that make our agency best suited to win the business.

My daughter’s report card listed that she’s Progressing (P) at “listening without interrupting”. But in the case of discussing alternatives and brainstorming creative ideas, listening WHILE interrupting is when some of the best work comes about. Do I really want her to get a “Demonstrates Consistently” (DC) in that area? Sure, she’ll probably replace that “P” with a “DC” by the end of the year, and on paper, that looks great — especially, eventually, on a college application. But what does it really mean? What does it really sacrifice?

RFPs are a valuable tool for beginning the process of getting to know a group of individuals you may choose to work with. But it’s just one of many, and maybe not the most telling. Give us a test project and compare our ideas to what our competitors come up with. Or, try our recommendations out for three months and compare your numbers to those from the three months prior. Talk to us face to face — because sometimes, gut feelings are the most accurate “report” you can get.

Oh, and if we do surprise you with a great RFP response, take us out for ice cream.

Because along with winning a million dollar account, nothing’s better than someone taking you out for ice cream. Even if you’re older than eight.

The online version of Black Friday – Cyber Monday – came and went this week.  For those Americans who decided to bring a bunch of coupon codes to their laptops vs. a can of pepper spray to their local Walmart, we can now say that it looks like another $1.2 billion in online sales got pumped back into the economy on Monday.

While this campaign for Target is just all kinds of awesome, I’m among the former group, not the latter – give me a coupon code, a laptop and I’m off!

I have to admit though, my online shopping experience this year was almost as frustrating as hitting the stores. This is what I ran into. One site that I wanted to shop at had crashed and was totally out of commission (boo!), another required me to call in my order because I got a wacky error message right after clicking checkout (ugh!), another site’s order didn’t reflect my gift card contribution which required (rats!), another phone call. Oh and Target? By the time I got to you Target.com, several of the items I wanted to snag were out of stock online – oh well.

All the annoyances aside, it was the best way for me to cross off my entire list and get some great deals. I bet next year many retailers will be better prepared too. I never had issues like this in the years prior.

I did my shopping in the usual position, from my comfy couch in my slippers that night , but it looks like almost half of us Cyber Monday shoppers logged on at work. Were you one of them?

For those who can’t resist an online bargain while on the clock, take note. CareerBuilder reported that 21 percent of employers surveyed have fired someone for using their computer for non-work related activities – five percent specifically indicated that they had fired individuals for holiday shopping.

While I am not advocating that y’all start using these tactics to secretly shop online at work, especially that missile launcher option, but here’s an infographic via DailyInfographic.com that offers up some telling stats and silly tips on all things Cyber Monday and the workplace. Happy shopping!

You may think all I do is dream about iced tea and carp about the darker side of today’s technology. However, I do know the secret to saving the economy and creating jobs:

The answer? You can’t.

Not really, anyway. There’s a great article in the New York Times Magazine by Adam Davidson titled Can Anyone Really Create Jobs? The answer, unfortunately, is no.

The fact is that creating [jobs] in a far-too-sluggish economy is practically impossible in our current capitalist democracy. No corporate leader is rewarded for hiring people who aren’t absolutely required. Most companies hire only when its workforce can no longer keep up with the demand for its products.

If you’re not familiar with Adam Davidson, I highly recommend checking out his Planet Money podcasts. He does a great job of explaining complicated financial issues and their ramifications in an unbiased way. I often turn to these podcasts when I want to learn about issues like toxic assets, the mortgage crisis, why we bailed out banks, etc.

Okay, so there’s two schools of thought on how we create jobs, and while you may favor one over the other depending on your political view, the truth is that neither one does much good.

Many on the Democrat side champion the Keynes’ view that the government can create jobs by spending a boatload of money. The problem with that, as Davidson states, is:

The stimulus…has to be borrowed, and it has to be really, truly huge — probably something like $1.5 or $2 trillion — to fill the gap between where the economy is and where it would be if everyone was spending at pre-recession levels. The goal is to goad consumers into spending again. And President Obama’s jettisoned $400 billion jobs package, hard-core Keynesians argue, is nowhere near what it would take to persuade them.”

The Republicans obviously champion a more fiscally conservative view that says that a Keynesian stimulus can’t grow jobs or fix the economy — only time can, and that any meddling we do only delays the recovery. Davidson points out the irony of this viewpoint:

It’s a puzzle of modern politics that Republicans have had electoral success with a policy that fundamentally asserts there is nothing the government can do to create jobs any time soon.

Of course, I wouldn’t expect Romney, Perry, Cain or any GOP candidate to shout, “Just sit tight, we’ll get through this!” In fact, many of the “jobs creation” ideas proposed by the Republicans like tax cuts and loosening of regulations are at odds with this wait-it-out philosophy.

So is there any hope? Davidson closes the piece with his opinion:

An economy is truly healthy only when its people know how to make and do things that others will pay them a decent amount for. Jobs, in other words, are not the cause of a healthy economy; they’re the byproduct. And that’s another thing most national politicians know but will never say. So perhaps instead of (or, at least, in addition to) arguing over plans that aren’t going to happen, we should focus on what almost certainly will come true. The economy that emerges from this recession is going to be different. Without the distortion of a credit bubble, it is clear that far too many Americans don’t know how to do anything that the world is willing to pay them a living wage for. No economic theory offers them easy salvation. We don’t need to become a nation of app designers. An economic downturn is a great time to learn things — carpentry, say, or aerospace engineering — that others will eventually pay for.

My post today is really less a blog post and more a call for help. I’d like to get our readers’ feedback on LinkedIn groups that focus on Human Resources or Recruiting. In many ways, these types of discussion groups are the whole point of social media, but (in my humble opinion) I often find that there isn’t a whole lot of value inside the different LinkedIn HR and Recruiting groups—at least the ones I’ve come across.

The problem could very well be my own lack of knowledge or involvement, and perhaps there are great groups out there I need to join to change my opinion. Of course, a big industry-wide problem is that many of these groups are populated either by recruiters who blindly throw their candidates or searches into conversations:

QUESTION: “Hello, I am a healthcare recruiter in North Carolina, and I’m wondering if you’re still blocking social media sites at your healthcare institution?” Amy Recruiter, NC Health System

REPLY:  “Accounting Professional with 7 years experience AND knowledge of defense industry. Contact me today!”

Or the discussion threads are started disingenuously by people using a group as a slimy way to promote their own business. We’ve all seen the online discussions on groups that follow this script:

“Does anyone know of a good background checking software that is price competitive and can make a recruiter’s life easier?” Joe Blow, recruiting industry veteran.

Hi Joe. Why yes, there is a wonderful solution out there. ABC Background Checking is the premier background checking…” Jane Doe, HR systems vendor

Dig a bit deeper, and you’ll never guess what company both Joe and Jane work for.

Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit, but even when the discussions are legitimate, I rarely find them compelling enough to make me want to comment or read more. In fact, I usually find that the articles I read from places like www.ere.net have “comment” sections below each article with discussions much more relevant and interesting for the recruiting industry.

Are other people feeling the same way? Or am I missing something?

An article posted on Inc.com titled, “Sheldon Yellen: Why I Went on Undercover Boss” follows Sheldon Yellen’s experience when he decided to go undercover to gain more insight on his employees and their everyday work. While many might consider the television show just another reality program aimed at entertaining the masses, Yellen explains in this interview how the adventure actually helped him relate better to his employees.

First the article discusses a little bit about this background, “Sheldon Yellen had an inkling that he was out of touch with his 6,400 employees. After all, as the CEO of Belfor Holdings (No. 4,753 on the 2009 Inc. 5000) a $1 billion diversified building services company based in Birmingham, Michigan, Yellen oversees Belfor Property Restoration, the largest property restoration company in the world with 195 offices in 27 countries.” The next few questions offer details of what Yellen’s new responsibilities became and what he did on the job.

“What job positions did you tackle as part of your undercover operation?

I first did demolition, and then I was extracting water and drying out a property. I was asked to crawl under the crawl space of that home to remove installation under the house. My third stop, I was hanging dry wall; and my fourth stop I did soot and smoke removal.

Were the jobs what you expected?

For 53-years-old, it was all difficult for me—physically and mentally, especially being around people that are in a distressed state of mind after a disaster happens—a flood or fire—and they’ve lost everything. The job task itself, people can do and get done. But doing it, while carrying around the burden of everyday life that everyone has and making sure your mindset is right to bring about order to somebody else’s life when your own life may be in chaos—that is a hard task.”

He also explains how this project helped him become more aware of what his employees do everyday, how they think and ultimately how he can be a better CEO because of it.

“How important is having a 360-view of your organization?

The closer the top management can be to the people who are doing the heavy lifting every day, the better the organization can be more sustainable. It gives you a real grounded sense of what’s important. And what’s important in an organization, to me, is people. That is your single greatest asset. Employee retention is very important. I think then it breeds a culture of growth from within. You want to see your people succeed and grow as individuals. Our people are promoted from within. We don’t go outside, hire people and put them in positions of authority. Our managers today started out as trade’s people and I think that’s a very healthy culture. And our productivity levels—as we’ve done 80 some acquisitions in this country alone and we’ve looked at the financial statements of over 150 competitors—are four times our competition because our people know that they are a part of something that’s real.

How do you ensure that your managers and executives move forward with your vision?

I spend my time traveling around and meeting with my management team all over the world. I spend an enormous amount of time on the phone. I don’t believe in e-mail. I believe in having a personal touch. I hand write 6,000 birthday cards a year. I probably write an equal number of thank you notes a year. So between my personal handwriting of 12,000 notes and my phone calls—I call my managers on their birthdays, call on anniversaries, I go to weddings, I show up unfortunately to funerals, I make hospital visits—that’s how I stay in touch and communicate with people.

What is the biggest mistake CEOs make in communicating to employees?

Sometimes a CEO will say something that hasn’t been thought through and then takes it upon himself to just renege on what it was that he or she said. And I think that is just a criminal offense. You’ve got to be very careful what you say and you have to know who your audience is, because if you say it, you have to live it.”

To read more about what Yellen got out of this process, click on the link above to see the whole article.

As a manager or anyone with a position that involves supervision, have you experienced what your employees do day-to-day? Do you feel that you can relate, or is there a disconnect? What have you tried to do to help close that gap?

As an employee, do you feel that your manager or supervisor really understands what your day-to-day job entails? Is there a big disconnect where you are employed and if so, have you noticed any efforts to close that gap?

The team over at LinkedIn (who are enjoying their second annual customer conference – Talent Connect – in Las Vegas this week) recently polled 17,000 professionals across the globe on office pet peeves. Around Alstin, it seems a dearth of assorted chocolate bars left in our candy jar (“Only Three Musketeers left again, boo!”) may rank somewhere in our office’s top five.

In the United States, the big peeve apparently is realizing a coworker decided that your packed lunch looked a little too tempting. (As we’ve learned first-hand in this office, some sleuthing around trash cans may be all you need to do to find out the culprit!) Capitalizing on this trend, here’s a product attempting to foil the lazy, broke and hungry office mates of the world: anti-theft lunch bags.  The seller touts, ”Anti-Theft Lunch Bags are zipper bags that have green splotches printed on both sides, making your freshly prepared lunch look spoiled. Don’t let a sticky-fingered coworker get away with lunch theft again!”

Other than being bummed that there’s no more Twix or Almond Joys to be had, my work related peeve isn’t even one relegated to the office.  Slippery rail season and the usual 15 minute delays aside, I feel lucky to be able to commute to Alstin on a train. However, when it comes to my fellow passengers, the ones that clip their nails, dip themselves in perfume, talk openly and loudly about their doctor’s appointments and decide that my arm is their perfect armrest while reading the newspaper, I can get a wee bit peevish.

Here’s some of the highlights from LinkedIn’s findings. Can you relate to these or have some of your own you’d like to share? Post a comment and let us know!

While some enjoy the so-called perks of working from home, many employees never get this opportunity or option. At some point we all roll out of bed in the morning and wonder wouldn’t it just be easier to be able to turn on our computer and sit at our desk at home to get our work done? If many of us mostly work using the Internet and phone, why can’t we just stay home and wouldn’t it boost morale anyway? Well, for those of us who sometimes have this passing wistful hope, consider the article titled, “Teleworkers confess biggest at-home distractions” recently posted to Employee Benefits News.

According to the article, working from home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. While many of us assume it would be easier we forget just how easy it is to get distracted in a home office or alternate environment. It seems that when working from home, some actually have to inconvenience themselves to a degree to assure they work during the day instead of watch television, their children or surf the net. As the article reads, “I’m working from home today, and I won’t lie — it’s a tough day. I’m still exhausted from a long three days at Benefits Forum & Expo, and returned home to gray weather and scores of to-do items that had been piling up while I was gone. I’m tired and overwhelmed, and it would be easy and wonderful to chuck it all and go veg out on my couch. It would be too easy, in fact. So, instead of trying to work from the living room I’m fighting temptation by working from the island in my kitchen — lots of light, a high-backed chair and no remote control for as far as my eyes can see. So far, so good.”

So what else do people get distracted by at home while they’re supposed to be on the proverbial clock? “… According to a new CareerBuilder survey, some of my fellow teleworkers are giving in to their darker angels. The survey finds that teleworkers confessed to their top distractions when working from home:

• Household chores (31%). 
• TV (26%). 
• Pets (23%). 
• Errands (19%). 
• Internet (18%). 
• Children (15%).

In fact, some are so distracted (perhaps by all of the above), that 17% of Americans who telework at least part of the time spend one hour or less actually working.”

Aside from the obvious distractions, working from home doesn’t work for everyone by the simple fact that there is a sigh of relief when one can leave the office at the end of the day and step away from work. There’s something about bringing the workplace into the home that makes it harder to actually relax once you have completed all of your work if there’s no real separation from work and home. It can make working from home even more difficult for some than others and trying to unwind nearly impossible. The article does make a suggestion for those that do want to actually work from home sans distractions:

“‘To avoid situations where teleworkers aren’t putting in the necessary time, managers need to be clear about expectations and establish daily objectives,’ says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of HR at CareerBuilder. ‘The autonomy of working from home can be very rewarding so long as it doesn’t diminish productivity.’

Haefner recommended the following tips to help teleworkers work as efficiently as possible:

- Keep a normal routine.
- Find the best spot to work.
- Stay connected to colleagues.
- Plan breaks.
- Work at a coffee shop to maintain human contact.”

Of course for a number of employees, working from home is not only easier, but also necessary. Some have schedules that they must balance their personal lives with work and that is the only possible way for them to take on a job with other responsibilities. For example, there are people going back to school to get an advanced degree and must attend a class or two during normal work hours. There are also some that have children and would rather opt for an alternat
ive at home work schedule than spend the usual 9-5 in an office. Essentially, everyone is different when it comes to discipline when working at home.

As the article inquires, “What are your tricks for staying productive when working from home?”

According to a Wired Science article titled, “Twitter-Mining Captures Global Mood Patterns,” social scientists have discovered that individuals tend to display mood patterns throughout the day using tweets and other forms of social media, providing further evidence that moods positively and negatively cycle throughout the week, especially for anyone in the workplace.

Ever heard of the afternoon slump? When the clock rolls around two or three and you begin to feel tired and cranky? Can’t wait until Friday? Tweets reveal you’re not alone. The article explains, “An analysis of mood patterns distilled from half a billion tweets has produced a civilization-scale picture of how moods rise and fall in tandem, over time and across the world. The details seem intuitive: positive feelings peaking in the morning, dipping during work and rising at day’s end; negativity accumulated over the workweek dissipating late on Friday afternoon. But they’ve proved surprisingly tricky to measure.”

But do these results really mean that social scientists can count on something as simple as a tweet for this kind of analysis? “‘There’s a whole generation of lab work that’s been inconclusive,’ said sociologist Scott Golder of Cornell University, co-author of the tweet analysis published Sept. 29 in Science. ‘Every study would have something different to say about what they saw in their subjects’ affective rhythms.’ Many studies of how moods — or, more technically, positive and negative affect — change from minute to minute and day to day rely on self-reported surveys, which can be inconsistent if not misleading. The subjects of these studies also tend to be undergraduate students from western colleges, a group that’s not always representative of humanity at large. Twitter users, of course, don’t represent humanity either. But the culture- and globe-spanning size of the software platform’s community, and their constant generation of data that can be cross-referenced and correlated and otherwise computationally investigated, make them alluring to researchers. ‘Twitter and Facebook, market transactions on eBay and Amazon: This is the stuff of everyday life’ for much of the world, said Golder. ‘For a social scientist to have access to these records is a fantastic new opportunity.’”

So how can we understand what this means using a global approach and what does this mean to you and your employees? “Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, a text analysis program that quantifies the emotional content of statements, Golder and co-author Michael Macy analyzed a total of 509 million tweets generated over two years by 2.4 million people in 84 countries. The resulting trends — positive moods starting high in the morning and declining through the day, peaking overall on weekends — held steady around the world.” Essentially, everything that you might feel during the day and the week- your desire to take an afternoon nap or your excitement over the prospect of spending a weekend doing anything but work- most others around you are feeling as well. If you’re a manager or supervisor, understand that if some of those feelings start to creep up on you, chances are your employees are feeling the same way. As the article reiterates, “A systematic daily pattern of positive mood is a fundamental part of human existence.”

Right around mid-week your employees are tired, grumpy and just looking forward to clocking out on Friday and going home. It’s a pattern that you’ll see every day and every week; so if you’re wondering why your employees aren’t boasting a stellar performance at 2:30 in the afternoon, think back on the science of mood patterns. If this is the case, it also might not hurt to incorporate some unique ways to boost morale in the workplace, for not just your employees, but yourself as well. And if you can’t think of anything, refer back to a blog Alstin posted over the summer on “Keeping the creative juices flowing by getting creative.”

On Monday, I joined thousands of Americans to watch President Obama discuss his Jobs Plan during a LinkedIn sponsored town hall meeting. If you missed it you can watch the event in its entirety below, it’s just over an hour long. While the answer to many of the questions posed to the President was along the lines of “pass my jobs plan” he did offer words of encouragement to all.

With a goal of creating 1.9 million jobs and adding close to 2% to our GDP, Obama hopes that his plan will “have ripple effects and help the recovery take off.” To a gentleman who had recently experienced a layoff after more than 20 years in IT, Obama also emphasized, “You’ve got the skills, you’ve got experience, you’ve got a track record of success. Right now the challenge is not you, it’s the economy as a whole.”
A pick-me-up like that from the President has got to be way better than getting one of the new Hallmark cards intended for the recently unemployed. (Although some of them are pretty funny.) There’s one that reads, “Don’t think of it as losing your job. Think of it as a time out between stupid bosses.” But I digress!

Other highlights of the event included a member of the audience also unemployed, except this time by choice, who asked the President to increase his taxes (he’s a former Google exec), a woman who spoke on behalf of her 65 year old mother who can not find gainful employment and a veteran who questioned how the government will better help vets transition to civilian careers.

What are your thoughts on the Obama Jobs Plan? Looking at your organization as we head toward 2012, we’re also curious about your plans when it comes to jobs. Are you likely grow and add to staff, hold steady until there’s more signs of economic life, or plan to cut back?

Share with us your thoughts and watch those of our President here:

Video streaming by Ustream

While many companies are looking to retain their talent, sometimes a job just doesn’t fit. Whether it is because of a lack of recognition, lack of pay or the job just doesn’t feel right; there are many reasons why some people choose to “job hop.” It’s easy to label that term as something sinister. Most people are told that job hopping is considered to be a big no-no in the workforce that can leave gaps on resumes or make potential employers question your dedication to any on position or company, but the Huffington Post recently blogged an article about just the opposite. “Career Lessons From A Serial Job Hopper” explains why job hopping isn’t always a bad thing and can actually help you advance.

Elizabeth Lowman of the article admits, “Confession: I have been in the workforce for 10 years and have held nearly as many jobs. In my defense, I have never started a job with the intention of only staying a short time — my reasons for leaving range from realizing the position wasn’t a good fit to being laid off to even moving to another state for my husband’s job. But the reality is, the work experience section of my resume is lengthy and I fall firmly into the category of a ‘serial job hopper.’” Again, while this might sound outlandish to some, she has actually found success in her endeavors and offers readers a few tips on the subject. She continues, “Older generations, my father included, held the belief that staying in a job for less than a couple of years showed disloyalty or unreliability. But while I admit that job hopping isn’t an ideal scenario, I have no regrets about my career’s ‘creative path.’ I’ve learned a lot about myself, and even more about my goals. If you find yourself defending — or questioning yourself about — a short-term stay at a job, let me share a few of the lessons I’ve learned.”

Here are two out of the four lessons she proposes:

“1. No Job is Perfect, but You Don’t Have to be Miserable

It would be foolish to expect to love everything about a company or job, but I strongly believe in the right to have more good days than bad ones. Sure, in tough economic times when many consider themselves lucky to have a job at all, there’s less room to be picky, but there are always companies looking for talent.

So if you find yourself curled up in the fetal position on Sundays because you’re dreading work the next day — and this has been going on for months — it’s time to reassess your situation. It’s a good idea to start by trying to address the issue internally: ask your supervisor to adapt your position to better suit your interests, ask to pursue projects outside of your exact role, or even ask for a promotion.

But if things don’t improve, don’t be afraid of looking for a new job just because you haven’t ‘put enough time in’ at your current one yet. If you have desirable qualifications, hiring managers can be forgiving if you have a valid reason for moving on. I’m living proof.

2. You Can Learn with Every Step

There’s a lot you can learn from every ‘hop’ you make. Figure out what you like and what you don’t. And, even if moving on wasn’t fully your choice, you should look at the variety of responsibilities you’ve had as an advantage.

In my field of marketing communications, daily tasks can vary from PR to website maintenance to content development. In my job hopping, I’ve been able to dabble in a bit of everything — and I now know where my strengths lie as well as what tasks I most enjoy. I’m now better able to figure out how to find a good fit in my next job.”

To read more about what Lowman recommends, click on the link to see the whole article.

If you’re an employee or job seeker, have you found yourself job hopping, especially considering the more recent economic forecast? How has it helped or hurt you?

As a hiring manager, have you noticed employees job hopping more frequently? Does that deter you from making a hiring recommendation? How has your company combat “serial job hoppers” to retain talent?

I don’t want to brag, but I feel I should tell you that the CEO of Netflix and I are pals. In fact, he wrote to me this week and asked for my forgiveness. Yes, to me! The email he sent began like this:

Dear Tony,

I messed up. I owe you an explanation.

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we are doing.

Okay, so the email didn’t go out to just me, and the genesis of the email was in response to a very loud and very public uproar over the way Netflix handed down a significant price hike to its customers. I’ve heard estimates that they’ve lost close to a million subscribers, and their stock price has been nose-diving. The more cynical of us (and I sometimes find myself in that camp) will say that the apology was carefully planned by the suits at Netflix, and is part of a corporate strategy to try and remediate some of the damage done over the last few weeks. And I believe that’s 100% true.

Still, it’s an apology from a CEO, and these days even an insincere apology from the top counts for something (okay, maybe I am in that cynical camp).

“I’m sorry,” may be the two most undervalued (and underused) words in corporate America. A simple, straight apology can often completely diffuse a tense situation, as opposed to shifting blame or making excuses, which almost always just exacerbates the problem. I really liked the end of Netflix’s letter:

I want to acknowledge and thank our many members that stuck with us, and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly. Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.

To read the entire letter, click here. And here’s a little exercise. Think of something that happened over the last 6 months at your workplace that would warrant an apology from you. What would the apology letter you write sound like? How would it be received by your boss and co-workers? Would it have brought a cleaner, quicker end to the situation or caused more turmoil?

Social media in the workplace is still, unfortunately, not entirely accepted in all companies and organizations. Some don’t see the value, others don’t want to take the time to learn or train, so how can you increase your company’s social media when you have no budget or backing? ClickZ.com, a website dedicated to marketing news, is here to help.

An article titled, “Building the Case for a Bigger Social Media Budget” recognizes these questions and explains, “What is the value of our social communities and why should we invest more in social media advertising? Those are the two most often asked questions of marketing executives worldwide. For now, the value of one’s community is nearly always just an estimate, and advertising on social networks, despite impressive growth, can be still be seen mostly as experimental. Many marketers remain iffy, at best, toward the current social media ad offerings. In a recent study conducted at the May 2011 Pivot Conference, just 69 percent of respondents believed Facebook’s ad offerings are ‘excellent’ or ‘good.’ Facebook was followed by YouTube at 46 percent, Twitter at 36 percent, LinkedIn at 24 percent, and Foursquare at 22 percent. Much of this is due to the fact, that many marketers are still unable to connect dots and tie activity back to individual customers to prove ROI.”

While that might be the case, it’s important to help your company understand that social media is not only valuable, but in some cases, necessary. Let’s put it this way, a few years ago if you looked a company up on the Internet for more information and found that they had no website, what was your first thought? If you can’t even find the company, how can you use their services or buy their products? More importantly, how can you view that company as innovative, fresh, keeping up with the times and staying on top of their industry better than their competitors? Whether you’ve adopted social media for personal use or not, individuals seeking companies via social networks experience these same thoughts, negative feelings and sentiments towards companies who stubbornly don’t seem to want to embrace this technology. Not only is it important to customers and your image, but it also offers a new venue to possibly generate revenue from- whether that is through advertising or just having a presence so your customers can find you and get to know your company a bit better.

Now that you know you might be in for an uphill battle, the article offers a few suggestions on how to make your case with others:

 “1. Track results and report incremental lift. Work with your marketing counterparts to coordinate how social media can support their existing promotions and marketing activities. Coordinate posts and tweets and track everything. Use unique URL shorteners to track program link clicks and encourage the marketing department to include tags for social efforts in order to understand the overall contribution to the program. A large CPG company I work with was able to show coordinated Facebook and Twitter posts accounted for almost a quarter of rebate requests. In addition, Facebook was second to only email in redemptions. Social community efforts are now a staple of the communication and roll-out plan for all major marketing programs.

2. Build analogies and bridges. Let’s face it, social media is still scary to many traditional marketers. Many still don’t understand it or, more likely, are threatened by it – fearful that this new medium they know little about might just put their job at risk. This requires marketers tasked with social media responsibilities to over communicate and partner with traditional marketers to demonstrate it’s not either/or, but both. Draw parallels to the traditional world whenever possible and emphasize that in any emerging medium there are no experts, just students.

In a recent client quarterly review with the marketing department, I watched the head of digital marketing compare the number of Facebook post impressions to the impressions and costs of the brand’s :30 Sunday Night Football TV ad. He then reviewed the clicks, ‘likes,’ and comments generated from all Facebook posts and simply said, ‘Now let’s grow both and be sure to tag our TV ad so we can continue the conversation with football fans on Facebook.’ The digital head went on to present the cost of acquiring new football fans across all digital channels. The question he left the room with was not should we invest in our Facebook community, but how do we work together to efficiently acquire and then communicate with football fans throughout the customer life-cycle? Not surprisingly the investment in building the Facebook community is expected to grow dramatically this year. For me, this was a powerful example of how packaging and presenting your success by building analogies with what is familiar can be a powerful motivator for change.”

If that isn’t enough, click the article title to read the final tip and conclusion the author offers. In the meantime, simple tips such as writing down all of your talking points before presenting your suggestions always helps, along with preliminarily building up answers for questions anyone might have. Don’t forget to explain that social media is not always a big cost, but is always effective when use correctly. Good luck!

Has your company embraced social media? Do you find that some just don’t understand it, aren’t interested or don’t see the value? What have you done to overcome this challenge in your company, and what advice can you offer others facing the same issue?

Stressed at your job? Taking on too much than you can handle? Tired of the office politics that seem inescapable and detrimental? An article recently posted to the Atlanta Business News titled, “Managing the strain of your job” offers a few solutions on how to combat these feelings and what to do. While hiring is picking up in some industries, the article starts off by recognizing, “Everyone knows how stressful it is to be out of work these days, so it’s easy to forget: Having a job isn’t a walk in the park either. For many workers, the ‘do more with less’ and lean workplace trends have trickled down to roost. If that strikes you as too many economic and business clichés in one sentence, consider it representative of today’s mangled management philosophies. Here’s the simpler version: Companies are making more money off the backs of fewer, more stressed workers. This is good news for shareholders and therapists, and terrible news for the workers.”

Feeling a little helpless and lost? “One of the most common phrases I hear from my working clients these days is, ‘I know I should be grateful to have a job, but … .’ What follows is typically a tale of no wage increases, or even wage givebacks over several years, and of working in departments that have lost head count and budget while still managing to increase productivity. It doesn’t matter if the employee wears a white collar or blue, or works in a for-profit, nonprofit or government office. This scenario transcends all the traditional workplace barriers.” The article also points out that as fears of the recession start to settle down, some employees “are already leaving for greener pastures,” meaning that you’re certainly not alone.

And what exactly can you do about it? Take any weekend or free time off to consider your options. Here are three out of five of the suggestions the author gives on what to think about:

 “1. Count the hours you’re working and decide: Is this the right number? Some workers are vastly under-scheduled right now, while others are inadvertently working dozens of overtime hours each month, often by virtue of email business conducted from home after the workday ends. Whether you need more hours or fewer to better balance your work life, the solution starts with knowing the facts.

Once you’ve calculated the actual hours you work, divide this number into your gross weekly pay to get your hourly rate. For many of my clients, this number is substantially lower than anticipated, which helps confirm a decision to improve a work situation.

2. Review your workday to find its stress points. Does a particular meeting set your teeth on edge, or a routine task, or perhaps a co-worker whose personality clashes with yours? Ask yourself: If you could change just one thing at work, what would it be? While this exercise sometimes collapses from the weight of too many stressors — a good indication that it’s time to change jobs, by the way — it often casts a spotlight on a correctable situation.

3. Stop a minute to dream. Imagine yourself in a better work situation in five years, or even just one or two years from now: What does that look like? Where do you work, and what are you doing? What level have you achieved? Do you have a different career altogether? What makes you happy in this scenario and why?

Now write down your answers and look for ideas. If you were to make this dream happen, what would you have to do right now?”

To see more on what the author recommends, click the link to read the whole article.

As an employee, have you recently started thinking about moving on from your current position, or does the looming economic volatility scare you into staying where you are regardless of the situation?

As a hiring manager, has there recently been a greater demand to hire? Is it because your company now has a need to replace workers that have left or are you just starting to get busier? How does your company plan on combating the proverbial “revolving door” as some employees may decide to move on?

Upon hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal, Mark Twain famously said, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

I’ve been thinking about his quote a lot recently, as it seems more and more articles I read are loudly proclaiming the death of something in our industry. In the last few months I’ve read industry articles with these titles:

LinkedIn is dead

Job boards are dead

Newspapers are dead

Twitter is dead

Web banner advertising is dead

Corporate recruiting is dead

Agency recruiting is dead

Advertising is dead

Sourcing is dead

Human Resources is dead

Before we start holding mass funerals, I think we should all take a breath. I realize that many of these articles use the “____ is dead,” proclamation to get attention, and I guess the outlandish, over-hyped statements that pervades politics and our media was doomed to trickle down to the recruitment industry.  Still, the hyperbole—even when the facts state otherwise—annoys me. For example, of all the ones listed above, I imagine “Newspapers are dead,” is the most widely-accepted, but consider a 2009 Scarborough report that found that 171 million people (74% of the population) have read a newspaper during the last week. That’s a pretty powerful stat for something that’s passed on to the next world.

Maybe we can all use this Labor Day weekend as a way to get our batteries recharged, and get some perspective. But beware! Someone, somewhere will surely be telling you soon that 3-day weekends are dead.

Is the grass greener on the other side of the cubicle?

Sure, it’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché that can be so intoxicating! If you work in an office environment, you dream of ditching it all and working construction (fresh air!), opening a sports bar with your buddies (work with people I like!), creating your own line of handcrafted jewelry (make my own hours!), running a cozy bed-and-breakfast (be my own boss!), and on and on.

Of course, on the other side of the fence are the people actually doing those jobs, and they dream about our fat-cat, cushy office jobs, waking up without back pain, working normal hours, having heat and air-conditioning, and the “easy” life.

All of these stereotypes are put to the test in an article in Sunday’s New York Times entitled, “Maybe It’s Time for Plan C.” As the article states:

“Plan B, it turns out, is a lot harder than it seems. But that hasn’t stopped cubicle captives from fantasizing. In recent years, a wave of white-collar professionals has seized on a moribund job market, a swelling enthusiasm for all things artisanal and the growing sense that work should have meaning to cut ties with the corporate grind and chase second careers as chocolatiers, bed-and-breakfast proprietors and organic farmers.”

The article profiles several people that have left their office jobs, only to discover grueling hours, low (if any) profits, and new trials and headaches that had never occurred to them:

“The lures are obvious: freedom, fulfillment. The highs can be high. But career switchers have found that going solo comes with its own pitfalls: a steep learning curve, no security, physical exhaustion and emotional meltdowns. The dream job is a “job” as much as it is a “dream.” Even when business is steady, the sacrifices are never far from mind. Is being your own boss worth the trade-off in medical benefits, gas allowances and paid vacations?”

One thing that I found encouraging in the article is that while many of the people interviewed candidly admit they never expected the amount of work and struggle that went into their new career, nearly all of them said the change was worth it, and wouldn’t go back.

How about you? What’s that “other” career you’ve been daydreaming about?

SHRM.org recently posted an article titled, “Benefits, Advancement Key to Worker Happiness, Report Says” revealing results from a study on employee satisfaction. While this might come as a surprise to some, employees seek a variety of benefits, not just monetary, to stay enthused about their positions and continue to work effectively. Unfortunately, while this information isn’t new, it seems that many companies still focus on what they believe is “the bottom line” or salary, taking little else into consideration. Still thinking that’s all employees care about? The article reports, “An analysis of employee reviews for more than 250,000 large U.S. organizations reveals that a comprehensive benefit mix, opportunities for career advancement and work/life accommodation are top factors in workers’ happiness, outpacing even salary. The 2011 analysis was conducted by CareerBliss, a career development website and online community.”

But what factors was the study comprised of? “The analysis evaluated key factors that impact worker happiness, including benefits and incentives, growth opportunities, work/life balance, compensation, employees’ relationships with their boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks and control over work done on a daily basis. The data accounted for how employees valued each factor and how important that factor was to the employee’s overall happiness. At least 50 employee reviews per employer were required.”

And what did the study expose? Which company scored high marks in the employee satisfaction department? Drum roll, please.

“Cable TV provider Comcast, which scored among the top companies for employee happiness, offers its workers a competitive benefit package that includes above-average health insurance coverage, a dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match, free financial planning services, life and disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, commuter benefits, legal benefits, adoption benefits, long-term care insurance and pet insurance. In addition, it offers free cable TV and Internet and discounted phone service for employees living in a Comcast service area. ‘We take great pride in caring for our employees, our customers and our communities,’ said William Strahan, Comcast senior vice president of HR, in a statement released by CareerBliss. ‘We believe it’s essential to invest in proper training, communication, competitive pay and benefits, and professional growth opportunities to create a supportive and motivating work environment where diverse employees thrive.’”

The article describes Comcast’s effort as a “Rich Benefits Mix” and they aren’t kidding. While Comcast offers some incredible benefits to employees, what if your company isn’t able to match that? What if your company can’t possibly be on par? Take a deep breath. That’s okay too. Instead, try to weigh some of your options to determine how you can make the most out of what you can offer your employees. There are benefits that don’t necessarily have to directly cost the company, but are looked highly upon by employees. The article offers a few options and this is a big one.

“Work/life balance has been a significant influence on employee satisfaction levels year over year, according to the analysis. ‘Our data continue to show that even more important than salary is a company’s commitment to providing a balanced work environment that allows employees to enjoy ample time with their families and friends outside of work,’ said Matt Miller, chief technology officer and co-founder of CareerBliss.” That doesn’t have to mean that employees are constantly working from home or taking month long vacations. It could mean becoming more lax about what freedoms employees can or cannot indulge in. For example, is an employee scolded like a 5-year-old if they need to take a personal call or e-mail? Perhaps recognizing that a work/life balance is so highly valued by employees can make it easier to determine what employees should and shouldn’t be allowed to do on the clock as well.

The Los Angeles Times recently posted an article to their Business section titled, “Best study ever: Wasting time online boosts worker productivity.” This article reveals, “Spending time online updating your Facebook page, clicking through I Can Has Cheezburger and ogling Robert Pattinson may rot your brain, but new research suggest that it could also make you more productive at work. ‘Browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function,’ according to a report from the National University of Singapore. So-called cyberloafing can refresh workers mentally after long periods of work, researchers said at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in San Antonio this week. Surfing the Web is even better for productivity than talking or texting with friends or sending personal emails, the study found. And smart bosses would stop snooping, researchers said: Excessive Internet monitoring and surveillance only makes employees do it more, they said.” Sometimes just giving your employees the freedom to have a personal life boosts morale and productivity.

So why spend so much effort to make employees happy? There is the most obvious response- No one wants to be miserable at his or her job. If employees are that unenthused, most likely they’re not willing to go the extra mile for their company in terms of creatively, productivity or loyalty. But more importantly, as cliché as it might sound, a happy employee makes happy customers. Don’t believe us? Think of personal experience. There are literally millions of examples. Have you ever needed customer service or help and engaged in a phone call with a snappy, lackluster employee that seemed desperate to get off the line? Or gone to a restaurant only to encounter a waitress or waiter who ignored you and other patrons repeatedly? It translates to the customer as poor quality all the way around. Why stick with a company providing less than satisfactory anything? Why purchase their product or use that company’s service? Again, unhappy employees easily equate to unhappy customers. To read more about what other companies offer employees, click on the article and check out what options your company could adopt.

Are you feeling irritated at work lately? Easily annoyed, perhaps? Maybe a little bit too anxious, or even like you’re drowning with a never-ending stream of tasks? While this might sound like the beginning of a therapy session, many people in the workplace have found themselves feeling similar emotions for years. If you’ve been feeling a bit down at work, don’t worry you’re the only one. There are thousands of overly stressed employees still trying to cope with some of the issues they face daily, as soon as they sit at their desks in the morning all the way up until they shut down their computers and clock out at night. The solution? Come to the Alstin couch and we’ll talk.

A blog post from Alexandria Levit titled, “Why So Much Frustration at Work?” reveals some common emotions that employees face and might shed some light on how to help ease your pain. She starts off by explaining that the feeling of control is essential to staying on top of work both mentally and emotionally, and more importantly, it’s essential to your mental health in general, going beyond the workplace.

“A key ingredient is the lack of control that a person perceives for the outcome of their work. In psychology, this is called locus of control, a concept that was originally developed by Julian Rotter in the mid-twentieth century. One has an internal locus of control if he believes that he controls his own destiny, and he has an external locus of control if he believes that his destiny is controlled by other forces like authority figures, fate, or God. Over the last half century, psychological research has determined that males tend to be more internal than females, older people are more internal than younger people, and people at higher levels in the organization are more internal than junior-level staffers. In general, having an internal locus of control is viewed as more desirable, since these individuals tend to be more achievement oriented. They are more persistent and work longer and harder to get what they need or want. It’s better from a mental health perspective too, because when you feel that you can affect the outcome of your work, you are more satisfied and have a greater sense of accomplishment.”

Now that that’s established, what can you do to feel in control at work when you’re sensing that out of control spiral that makes you want to pull your hair out? Breathe deeply and relax. Levit’s got a few tips for that too.

“Acknowledge your own choices

Just being alive means that you make thousands of small choices every day, and those small choices add up to make a major impact on your life. As for the bigger choices, usually you do have the power to take control of the ones that are really important.

Set achievable goals every day

Being able to check even minor things off a list each afternoon will improve your self-esteem and increase your internal locus of control.

Practice making decisions

Work on the skill of listing and evaluating the pros and cons of each option and coming to a conclusion on your own rather than relying on the opinions of others.”

To read all of Levit’s tips, see her blog post, and just as she asks- “Have you successfully overcome frustration at work? What strategies can you share?” Don’t forget to check out her other posts that can be just as helpful and relevant. Have you recently hired someone that could be experiencing the problems mentioned in her frustration post? Last week’s- “Make Sure Your New Person Doesn’t Quit.”

So that crazy picture from the 4th of July BBQ was definitely Facebook worthy…or not.

I remember the days (actually, not that long ago) when we were warned about the consequences of being caught in an unflattering photo that could possibly reach the Internet. There were commercials broadcasting the dangers of pictures placed online becoming a permanent fixture in the public eye. But forward to present day, and we’ve all embraced a norm of posting any and everything that catches our attention. It seems we’ve become less inhibited where the Internet is concerned and despite the many warnings, and multiple stories of people losing their jobs/marriages, etc. over comments and tweets, there are still a variety of offenders still posting risqué photos and lewd, crude, and downright rude remarks, jokes, quotes, and lyrics. Of course, this is usually done in fun, and what people believe to be somewhat “private” and exclusive to only their group of selected “friends”.

Lest we warn again… there is a new reason to rethink what you intend to put online for all to see. You’ve probably heard that employers have been Googling you to see who they’re REALLY interviewing. Well now the background check has been given additional steps to include an even more thorough search which findings will be kept on file for a period of 7 years. Social Intelligence Corp., a background check company, was found to be in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act by the Federal Trade Commission. They have now been granted a license to screen job applicants based on their Internet photos and postings.

What does this mean for you? You no longer have to be a celebrity like Kim Kardashian to feel the backlash of your statements/opinions on Facebook or Twitter.

When you’re applying for a job, the new standard part of background checks will include a search of all that you’ve posted to the Internet, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Craigslist, Flickr, and the like.

In case you were not aware of this already, employers must inform you, the job applicant, if they took adverse action based on something found on the Internet. This will at least notify you to change your privacy settings accordingly and make you aware of what you need to delete. However, with this new turn of events, these actions are no saving grace. In the instance that a search on you returns something job-threatening on the social media sites, and there it will be entered into your file, where it will stay for the next seven years.

You should know though that, although Social Intelligence will keep the negative findings on file, these results will not be reused. It is a one time disclosure and with each request from a new employer, a new search is conducted. The filed away results will serve as background information if ever needed for legal reasons.

 “We store records for up to 7 years as long as those records haven’t been disputed. If a record is disputed and changed then we delete the disputed record and store the new record when appropriate.”

- Geoffrey Andrews, Social Intelligence COO

The searches are limited to what’s already publicly accessible, meaning what they can find on the social and professional networking sites you may be on. And like a credit background check, the job applicant must give their permission for the screening of social media to be used. Keep in mind that not only will your photos, updates, comments and tweets be scrutinized, but that also includes what fan pages and groups you’re joining, among other things – For example, if you’ve decided to join the “I hate _ people” group and are a fan of a few weapons pages and/or posting your whereabouts each week at naughty venues, these are most likely frowned upon.

Social networking sites contain information that employers are not supposed to rely upon to make hiring decisions, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. While employers are researching applicants, they must be aware that all the same protections due job seekers in the traditional world, still apply online. Since many sites include photos, employers are not allowed to preclude a job applicant based on categories they may fall into (race, disability, gender, age, etc.). Any hiring decision made should be documented and include valid information on why one candidate was hired over another.

Employers should not ask to be accepted into a social network under a false alias to check out potential candidates. In such cases where this has occurred, the job seeker may have an actionable cause.

- “Social Media Concerns for Employers and Employees,”

- VETS NET

A research study commissioned by CareerBuilder showed that out of the 2,667 HR professionals surveyed, 45% of them admitted to already using social networking sites to investigate job candidates, another 11% have decided to incorporate social media screening into their exploring methods in the near future, and 35% of employers claimed to have not hired candidates based on undesirable findings on social networking sites.

So again, the old warnings still apply. Though we’ve become such a tech-savvy, social media loving society, you should remain cautious in determining what’s appropriate for the eyes of the “world-wide web”, remembering that once something’s out there it is hard to be erased.

While some businesses are starting to get busy and struggling to keep up with old clients providing new work, it’s important to remember that not every customer is a good fit for your company. Keep in mind that during the recession many companies were forced to downsize to stay afloat, but if you’re experiencing a sudden flood of projects it might be time to trim the fat in a different kind of way.

It is tempting for all businesses (old or new) to take on as many clients or customers as possible, especially right after a slow economic period where some saw so little willing to spend money, but if things are starting to pick up again and your company has not taken hiring into consideration take the time to review the customers you already have that might be more trouble than they are worth. Sometimes it’s not possible to dedicate all of your company’s efforts to one single customer’s every impulse.

In an online post titled, “Not Everyone is the Right Customer” the author gives an example of how they are opting out from using a particular project management software. The post reads, “Everyone wants something different. So you do what you can to thread the needle and make as many of the right customers as happy as possible. Not everyone is the right customer… it’s OK to lose a customer if we just aren’t the right fit anymore. People move on from all sorts of things. Clothes, houses, cars, jobs, relationships… Why not software? As circumstances change, one product may not fit someone forever. That’s OK as long as it fits plenty of other people at the same time.”

He continues on to explain, “Some customers stick with you forever. Others come and go. Many who go come back after trying other tools that promise them more but that no one actually used. In the end, the tool that actually gets used is the one that’s the right fit for someone. It’s really really hard to get people to actually use things.

We’ve found that the simplest stuff is what actually gets used. It’s why email is still the world’s most popular project management tool. The temptation to accept any and all business, especially when a company is young, can be blinding. Many young companies have failed because they tried too hard to cater to the whims of a few customers.”

Feel free to read the entire article to get a better understanding of the choice they made and why they made it. As the article also questions, do you agree? Do you believe that not every customer is right for your company? Is it time to downsize in a different way, or at least attempt a different solution? Is your company starting to hire again for more demanding clients, or for returning clients with new projects?

While traveling last week on business, I grabbed a New York Times. On the back page of the Arts Section was a full page (don’t see those much anymore!) “letter of apology” from the Economy—courtesy of nytimes.com and monster.

You can read a copy of the letter here.  In the letter, the economy takes full responsibility for the job market over the last few years but adds, “But now the ball is in your court. You have permission to move on with your life. It’s time to move forward, find a job you love and get back to work.”

Hmm. I’m not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I’m an advertising person, and nytimes/monster was simply trying (as we all are) to create a unique way of getting their message out—and maybe even inspire some people who have given up to renew their job search.

On the other hand, the job recession was so brutal and hurt so many people, people who did everything they could to try and find a job, that I can’t help but wonder if this letter is a bit too glib. I’m not sure those who lost their jobs during the recession would appreciate their situation being used as a way to drive traffic to a job board. Also, while the ad is certainly clever, I don’t think those who are still unemployed are in the mood for clever.

Following the responses to the “letter” in various blogs this week, I’ve seen everything from ”ingenious” to the “dumbest ad I’ve ever seen.” What do you think?

Let’s face it: a hiring manager’s job is tough. It’s not easy to find someone out there in a pool of thousands of applicants who “fits.” And we don’t just mean fits the job description or has a skill set that fits the position. It’s also important to find someone who fits in terms of the actual office environment and someone that might actually have more talent than the person who is hiring. In essence, a hiring manager has to find someone that is better than him or her; someone who can do things they can’t and, at times, that can be a bit hard to swallow. How do you find someone who is better than you after admitting that that’s what you’re looking for?

Jason Seiden’s new blog post, “How to Surround Yourself with People Better than Yourself” might be able to help. Seiden’s article offers a few how-to tips on making the right (and tough) decision. Here are a few suggestions:

• Let go of judgment. The first step in recognizing talent is recognizing talent! You can only do this if you are able to put aside your own issues and prejudices and see others for who they are. ie, if you’re starving, any chef is a 4 star chef. You’ve got to be able to compensate for your own “schtick” when assessing others.
• Let go of jealousy. If you’re jealous of what they’ve got, you’ll feel it, they’ll feel it, and badness will be inevitable.
• Let go of labels. Strong people don’t need anyone to define a relationship with labels because they’re able to figure it out on their own. Trying to label a relationship can scare a strong person off. (Not comfortable with ambiguity? Keep that to yourself.)
• Let go of doubt. Great people want people around them who are even better then themselves. If you don’t believe you belong, you don’t belong.
• Let go of control. Great people will do things you don’t understand and can’t explain. Insisting on living in a world you fully understand will keep you from experiencing people who can open you up to new and bigger ideas. Great people approach their worlds with innocence, wonder, and curiosity.
• Let go of you. Help the people around you shine brighter. The strong ones’ll keep you around and start feeding your gift back to you. (The weak ones will show their true colors by trying to take advantage or assuming mal-intent on your part—easy to deal with once you’re prepared for it.)
• Let go of self-esteem. The thing about surrounding yourself with awesome is, you are always being challenged. It’s with love and support, but they’re challenges nonetheless, and you must win, without help, without cheating, without rationalizing. And when you don’t win, you must bounce back quickly and confidently because you don’t want to fail twice in a row.
• Let go of safe. Surrounding yourself with extraordinary people guarantees one thing: change. Scary, risky, life-altering change. No-more-comfort-zone change. For instance, if I were the worlds’ best matchmaker and we were hanging out, I could find you your true love. When I did, would you be ready? Great people requires us to abandon the safe harbor of our routines.

Seiden concludes with, “Did you get it yet? Greatness happens when you let go. It’s the ultimate ‘stone soup;’ you bring only your true self and all the other ingredients you think you need actually are provided by others when the time comes. It takes an incredible amount of self-confidence and faith to play this game—but I never did say it was easy. That’s my recipe. I hope you can make it work for you!” To read all of Seiden’s tips, see his blog for even more helpful information.

Have you experienced a tough time finding the talent that you need? Have you ever been afraid to hire anyone because his or her methods weren’t exactly in your “comfort zone?”

Have you ever experienced the opposite- gone out on a limb to hire someone even though you weren’t sure and had wonderful or terrible results? Share with us.

Whether you’re an experienced vet in the workplace or a recent grad looking to make a name for yourself, there is one issue that employees likely experience at least once in their regardless of their career level. You’ve been working with your company for any where from a year to ten and you’re starting to question whether or not it’s time to move on. What might trigger this? There are a number of problems you might have with your current job. You’re not a fan of the office environment. You feel that your company takes you for granted or that you’re not compensated fairly. You feel as though you’ve hit the glass ceiling- there’s nothing more this company can offer you and there’s no way you can excel anymore. You’re bored because you no longer find your position challenging enough. No matter the reason, how can you tell for sure whether or not it’s time to make a change?

An article posted to The Wall Street Journal titled, “Should I Quit My Job?” can help answer that question. In this particular case, the employee does feel as though they have no room to progress and are unsatisfied with the idea of hitting that slump. The answer is both enlightening and valuable.

“Q: I’m not very happy in my current job, and it doesn’t seem like there is much opportunity for movement or advancement at the company where I work. What should consider when evaluating if this is the right time to make a move?

A: Don’t start packing up your desk just yet – at least not before you’ve fully evaluated your current situation.

You’ll want to determine if the problem is really with the job and the company or whether there’s something else at play such as your energy level or dissatisfaction with other areas of your life.

Judah Kurtz, a Chicago-based career coach and management consultant explains: ‘Changing companies or roles may not be enough to make you happy. Do the deep work to explore [your situation],’ he says. You’ll want to have clarity before you pull the plug.

There are a number of important questions you’ll want to ask yourself, advises Mr. Kurtz. For example: Have you explored all of your options at the company? Have you taken the time to fully evaluate your development and career track with your manager? Could there be other non-work areas affecting your level of engagement and fulfillment? What do you like and not like about your current situation? What do you want in your career moving forward?

Even if you already know the answers to these questions and still feel like you’re ready for a move, there’s no need to rush, says Mr. Kurtz. ‘Reach out to your network to explore what opportunities exist and consider making a strategic move,’ he says. ‘If you want to explore another kind of work, it may be wise to stay put for a time while you evaluate [your] next steps.’”

In other words, even if you’re looking to move on, don’t jump ship without a paddle. You should take your time to look for a new opportunity without sacrificing your current job. Don’t forget, gaps in your resume aren’t usually looked well upon and in this still recovering job market, there is no telling how long it will take to find something. Who knows? In the meantime, you might start to realize that what you have isn’t all that bad compared to the other options you find.

The article continues, “Also important is evaluating what you can offer a new company. To do this, you’ll want to take a hard look at your brand, professional reputation and any other qualities and skills you bring to the job.

Forget for a moment that you are a company employee and instead picture yourself as a ‘business-of-one,’ says J.T. O’Donnell, CEO of CareerHMO.com. ‘Businesses who decide to ‘fire’ a client that gives them the majority of their income must make sure they have a strong brand or reputation they can market, know their ideal target audience and the best way to reach them, and be certain there is enough of a demand for their services,’ she says.

Next, you’ll want to get clear on what it is you want and make sure that your career materials reflect that, says Ms. O’Donnell.

Finally, identify at least 25 companies where you would want to work and ensure that they have people with your types of skills on staff. ‘From there, I would try to network with individuals who were recently hired at these companies to see if they can shed some light on what is valued by the organization and the best way to get considered for a position,’ says Ms. O’Donnell. ‘This kind of networking can often lead to learning about ‘unpublished’ jobs and a recommendation on behalf of the person you connect with.’

If you are starting to feel as though you are stuck in a rut at your current position, don’t forget to ask yourself these questions and take it slow. Got any more advise? When or how did you know that it was time for you to move on? What steps did you take?

You hand them out at interviews, lunches, meetings, trade shows and networking events, but considering the technology available today are business cards becoming a way of the past? In a New York Times article titled, “Business Cards Go Paperless, or Almost,” the author takes a closer look at how we use or don’t use business cards.

“Most people know the scenario: It’s been days, maybe weeks, since the big convention, and you are finally sifting through the hodgepodge of business cards you’ve stuffed in a bag, jacket or desk drawer. A few cards conjure faces. As for the rest, who are all these people?

Since the advent of the digital address book, the pitfalls of the traditional business card have cluttered the path from handshake to hard drive. Several Web sites and smartphone applications try to solve that problem by replacing the card; in some circles, it is already becoming a relic.”

With options such as LinkedIn, Facebook and other profile-based social networking sites, business cards seem more and more like a waste of company resources, money, time and, of course, paper. The article continues to explain:

“Gina Trapani, founder of the influential blog Lifehacker, said the business card is already close to extinct in places like tech conventions. ‘I see people exchange Twitter handles, I see people scan each other’s badges,’ and send one another quick e-mails from their phones, she said. ‘But I definitely don’t see people handing out cards anymore.’An app for the business networking site LinkedIn.com makes it easier to share contacts in person using Bluetooth. Newer sites like Hashable.com, Contxts.com and About.me allow users to create and share virtual business cards.”

So is this the end for business cards? Has the old age method of getting your contact information across really drawn it’s last breath? Not so fast, tradition diehards.

“Not everyone has given up tradition. FedEx Office, the office services chain, still sees a ‘steady growth’ in business card sales, a spokeswoman said. One explanation could be the status attached to the company card. ‘I think, culturally, you’re real and you have a real job if you have a business card,’ Ms. Trapani said. ‘There’s something about that card that means you’re kind of official.’

While the article does confirm that business cards are, in many companies and organizations, being phased out to make way for greener (literally) pastures, the business card won’t disappear quite as quickly as the typewriter in modern offices if it can evolve and adapt with changing technology.

“Image notwithstanding, the business card has a logistical advantage: universal ease of exchange. Swapping information mid-conversation or in a noisy crowd can be more cumbersome than pressing paper to palm. And not everyone owns a smartphone, or has the same applications for sharing. The paper business card is evolving to bridge those gaps. The modern card may contain only a name with a Twitter handle; so-called smart cards are emblazoned with quick response (or QR) codes that can be scanned with a smartphone using applications like CardMunch. The Hashable site integrates social networking functions similar to some of those on Facebook and Twitter along with digital calendars and more versatile features for easier face-to-face sharing. Users can scan QR codes into the Hashable network or, with some phones, exchange contacts by holding phones together (much like the traditional handoff). It may prove the closest thing to a business-card killer yet. Erick Schonfeld, an editor of TechCrunch, a popular blog, said the ideas behind Hashable seem to be resonating with its users, and that he had stopped using business cards. ‘I have a drawer full of business cards, and I can never find the one I need when I need it,’ he said. ‘They’re useless.’”

Do you still use business cards at your company or organization? Do you believe they are a waste, or are they helpful? Have you considered switching our traditional cards for something more tech savvy utilizing QR codes or Twitter tags?

In light of the recent recession that much of the country is still recuperating from it’s a fact that many companies cut back in order to stay afloat and weather the economic storm. Now that there are clear signs that we are on the road to recovery it’s important to observe key factors that might indicate that your company is short-staffed and that it is time to look into starting to hire again.

An article on Bnet titled, “Wanna Become the Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company? Start Hiring Now” offers some crucial tips on how to tell whether or not you are short-staffed:

“If your customers complain. Long call center wait times can be measured, both internally and externally. If your customers are fuming about having to spend half an hour on “hold” then your call center might be understaffed. Similarly, if your employees are sending out a high volume of form letters that don’t address the actual problem — and generating complaints because of it — it could be a sign of trouble.

If your customer-service department is overtasked. If your customer-service jobs are burnout positions — places where attrition rates are far higher than in the rest of the company, then that could also be a sign that it’s not adequately staffed. If the folks in the service department complain about low morale and long hours, there may just be too few of them.

If your service scores are slipping. Falling scores from your customers can also be a sign that your service department isn’t pulling its weight. If your company’s marks have fallen off the charts recently, check the staffing levels in the service department. Have you recently downsized there, too? If so, that could be your problem.”

The article makes a point to conclude that there is usually never one simple solution. Trying to improve your company by adding more staff that will actually have meaningful jobs tending to clients’ needs rarely ever looks bad. New hires might be the start of something greater that can help the company’s image regardless.

“Bringing in new employees may not solve your customer service woes, but it could address them in a meaningful way. And who knows, you might someday refer to your company as ‘the Earth’s most customer centric.’ Your customers would like that.” We here at Alstin agree.

What employees say about the organization they work for holds plenty of weight. From being ”brand ambassadors” through their (good or bad) word of mouth advertising, to seeking out employee referrals or to help their employer win a coveted  ”Best Places to Work” designation and more, it matters big time.

There’s a great interactive infographic put together by Fortune magazine on their 2011 Best Places to Work awards that you might want to play around with (you can click here to check it out) to see what the buzz is these days on top ranked companies from their own people.

You’ll be able to sort through the most popular words workers used when citing their companies:

However, what makes this infographic a bit more interesting and fun to navigate is that you can also sort through comments specific to the companies that made the list:

It’s no surprise to me that words like People and Team and Family rank high. How would your company rank? I know “people” and “culture” are top factors for me, what about you – let us know what are your top reasons for valuing where you work?

An article recently posted to the Harvard Business Review blog titled, “Small Wins and Feeling Good” establishes one of the best ways to help tackle obstacles by dissecting them into more manageable tasks. This philosophy can be used not only in the workplace or business environment, but also in your personal life and is a good practice to get into.

The article explains, “When you have a daunting mountain to climb, it is often best to break it into molehills. In his classic paper, ‘Small Wins,’ University of Michigan psychologist Karl Weick argued that large social problems are best broken down into smaller ones with concrete achievable goals. Social problems as enormous as, say, unemployment, can be so overwhelming that solutions seem unattainable; therefore, people often avoid tackling them or come up with single, grand programs that fail. Breaking such problems down into a series of more modest steps, all on the path to the ultimate goal, reduces fear, clarifies direction, and increases the probability of early successful outcomes – boosting support for further action.”

According to Weick, not only does breaking down problems seem to aid in finishing them more quickly and efficiently, but can also help “boost” morale. By getting seemingly impossible projects done, you’re more inclined to gain a feeling of satisfaction by crossing on task of your list and being able to start new ones. The article continues, “The power of small wins applies just as well to problems in business. Our recent research discovered how critical it is for teams and individuals working on complex problems to achieve small wins regularly. Because setbacks are so common in truly important problems, people become disheartened unless they can point to some meaningful advance most days, even if that advance is seemingly minor, and even if it involves nothing more than extracting insights from the day’s failures. This strategy propels long-term goal achievement. In his terrific book, Good Boss, Bad Boss (also here), Stanford University professor Bob Sutton argues that ‘big, hairy, audacious, goals’ are not only daunting, but they are usually too obvious and too broad to provide useful guidance for day-to-day work. Similarly, author Peter Sims emphasizes the importance of incremental goal-setting in Little Bets.”

Why does this matter in the workplace and how does it apply to your every day (and particularly, your occasional apathetic Monday)? The article pushes the idea that breaking down projects into small tasks and goals can be absolutely essential when considering our mental well-being. “A surprising angle on all this: To maintain emotional health, each of us needs small wins in our personal lives, too. In his book Feeling Good, Dr. David Burns discusses how important it is to keep track of, reflect on, and celebrate not just our major achievements, but also our seemingly minor ones. In the extreme, attention to small wins can help people lift themselves out of depression; this is one of the tenets of cognitive behavioral therapy. An example: People suffering from depression can find it difficult to maintain an exercise program, even though any kind of physical activity can reduce depressive symptoms. So, a goal like working out at the gym for an hour each day can seem unthinkable, and that work-out never happens. As Burns writes ‘You may assume you must do everything at once instead of breaking each job down into small, discrete, manageable units which you can complete one step at a time.’ This means that it’s much more effective to start with a modest goal like simply taking a walk around the block. By keeping track of success in meeting such a goal, and celebrating it, depressed people can begin to build their goals and start enjoying more, larger, successes.”

One of the most important things to take away from this blog is that “Small wins in personal life can keep all of us feeling good,” but again, remember that small wins in our professional life keep us feeling just as good and in control. Click the link to read more on what the article says about managing the illusion of huge dilemmas.

During the recession several companies, in an effort to stay afloat, went through the unfortunate and painful process of lay-offs, which isn’t easy for the employer or employees. That being said, the employees that remained at any given company after those cuts naturally took on more responsibility to compensate for the fact that there was less staff to do the work, most for little or no extra compensation. Sound familiar? If so, an article on The Wall Street Journal’s website titled, “How to Ease Your Workload” might help.

The article begins, “Given all of the work that has been piled on employees at leanly staffed companies during the weak economy, it’s understandable that some workers want to scale back.

Almost four in 10 workers say one of the most important attributes they will look for in a new employer is a less-stressful work environment, besides competitive pay and benefits, according to a survey of more than 5,000 workers and 2,000 employers conducted in February and March by jobs website CareerBuilder.com.

But with unemployment still high, employees may be wary about talking to their boss about working less…. To some extent, employers know there’s an issue. In December, CareerBuilder.com asked more than 2,000 employers if productivity levels could last this year, and 16% said: ‘No, workers are already burned out.’”

So if working less isn’t an option and your work environment will most likely remain just as stressful for some time, what can you do? Fear not. There’s help for that too.

“Ideally, workers should talk with their bosses before problems erupt. And calmness is key, experts say. ‘Do it at a time when you are not highly emotional,’ Ms. Kay says. ‘Don’t go into the boss’s office and scream or yell.’ Do go in with suggestions for how you can scale back yet still get your work accomplished, she says.

You want to offer solutions to your dilemma that will benefit your employer as well as you. You don’t want to come across as creating a bigger burden.

If your employer’s finances have rebounded somewhat, use that fact to strengthen your argument. Read the company’s press releases and financial statements and talk to co-workers, Mr. Myers says.

When discussing ways to reduce your workload, be upfront and make it clear that you don’t want to perform the job of more than one worker on a long-term basis, says Joel Garfinkle, an Oakland, Calif.-based executive coach.”

And if that’s still not enough- if lessening the workload isn’t possible, ask to be compensated for the extra work.

“Your company may not be able to lighten your workload. If that’s the case, you should ask to be properly compensated, says Jason Levin, district manager for career website Vault.com. Present all of your recent accomplishments and detail all of the extra work you’ve taken on.

‘Be very clear that you are willing to take on extra responsibility, but that if there is a merit increase or a performance bonus you want to be considered for those’ in return, Mr. Levin says. ‘That has to be clear from the very beginning. You are in charge of communicating your own expectations.’

But tact is important, he says. Workers should show that they understand the tough economic situation facing the company.”

Of course there is no guarantee that your request will be warmly received, the article stresses to not forget- “‘Put yourself in the shoes of your boss, who is probably also under a lot of pressure and stress,’ Mr. Levin says. ‘Reiterate your commitment to the organization’s success.’”

A few months ago we posted a blog about Honestly.com, a website that allows employers to rate employees and potentially rate them poorly on a public forum. But let’s be fair here as employees aren’t the only individuals in the workforce that are challenged, questioned or even attacked on the internet. On the other side of the coin rests GlassDoor.com, a website that touts itself as “as inside look at job and companies” that allows employees to anonymously rate their employment at companies, give details on their salaries, write about the office environment, the interview process and just about anything else they want. Previously, we questioned the ethics of posting on Honestly.com about employees and their performance. After all, there are so many factors to consider – whether or not the person rating is actually being honest or holds a strange vendetta against the employees, whether or not the performance at an old job that might have completely different requirements and a completely different environment is even relevant to a new job, and the list went on.

How do they define themselves?

“What is Glassdoor?

Glassdoor is a free career community where anyone can find and anonymously share an inside look at jobs and companies. What sets us apart is that all our information comes from current and former employees, interview candidates, and even the companies themselves. Now with more than a million salaries, company reviews, interview questions, office photos, and more, you have all the information you’ll need to manage your career and make more informed career decisions.

Plus, with Glassdoor’s proprietary JobScope™ technology job seekers have a new way to browse job listings and get instant, in-depth details about thousands of companies, including reviews from employees, salary information, recent news coverage, and more.

No other career or jobs site offers such detailed information about specific jobs at specific companies – all for free.”

But taking a closer look at GlassDoor.com prompts us to ponder the same questions. Is it possible that an employee just never got along with his or her superiors and is now writing to give the company a bad rep? Is it possible that their job requirements did not merit the salary they were expecting; giving them an excuse to post that the company employees pays poorly? GlassDoor.com, just like Honestly.com, allows people to give companies (instead of employees) a numeric rating based on whatever factors the person posting comes up with, as well as a list of pros and cons about the company. While for the most part, it seems as though people writing the ratings include valid pros such as benefits for full time employees, and cons such as work/life balance is tough, because people rating are allowed to basically write whatever comes to mind, this gives room for the same type of personal attack as Honestly.com does. Of course, just like Honestly.com, there are watchdog measures put into place to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen frequently, but it only really needs to happen once to damage an individual’s or a company’s reputation. Aside from that, just because GlassDoor.com sees the post and erases it, doesn’t mean that no one else saw it and maybe posted it to their site, blog, etc.

The one ethical advantage GlassDoor has over Honestly is that GlassDoor does allow employers to fight back in way, using their own Public Relations. The site contains a “For Employers” section where, for a fee, employers can create a profile or job postings on GlassDoor that can “Tell your company’s story with an Enhanced Employer Profile. Highlight your employment brand, promote your latest job listings, and get access to advanced analytics and competitive benchmarking.”

As a professional, do you believe that the one redeeming factor on GlassDoor.com is enough? Does GlassDoor cross the same ethical lines as Honestly.com, or are they different? Is one more or less ethical than the other?

As a company, are you concerned about your reputation on the internet considering there are sites like GlassDoor that allow potentially disgruntled employees to post poor ratings?

As an employee, have you ever posted anonymously to GlassDoor or used it to research a company before applying or interviewing? Have you ever used GlassDoor.com to specifically look up salaries that a company might pay?

While there are signs that the economy is improving and that companies are beginning to hire again, if you happened to be one of the lucky ones able to hold onto a job throughout the recession, you might be experiencing a different unpleasantly that could take a little longer to recover. Thousands of companies unfortunately made major cuts during the last two or more years, forcing the individual employee to pick up the slack and perform the same tasks alone that three or four people once performed. But fret not! There is help. An article titled, “It’s Not Mount Everest. It’s My Workload” recently posted on the New York Times website poses a few questions to those going through the same plight along with a few tips on how to make life a little easier in the workplace. Consider some of these:

“Q. Over the last couple of years your company has eliminated jobs, and you now have more work than you can handle. How do you ask for help in a way that doesn’t make you look inadequate or incompetent?

A. First, realize that you are far from alone. Many people working today feel overloaded, says Susan Zeidman a portfolio manager at the American Management Association who specializes in interpersonal communication skills and management. ‘People feel as if they have two or three jobs, not just one. It’s the No. 1 complaint from the recession among people we survey,’ she says.

One way to approach the topic is to acknowledge that you have acquired more responsibility in the last year and want to rise to the challenge, but could use some help in judging what tasks need to be done first and which ones can wait, says Ann Latham, president of the management consulting firm Uncommon Clarity in Easthampton, Mass.

‘Your attitude should be that you want to prevent yourself from having to cut corners or having the wrong things fall through the cracks,’ she says, ‘because that’s in the best interests of the company.’

Before talking to your boss, carefully analyze the components of your workload to gain an objective picture of the situation, says Allan R. Cohen, a professor of global leadership at Babson College in Babson Park, Mass., and co-author of “Managing for Excellence.” Find out who receives the reports, memos and other work projects you do — and whether they actually use them.

‘That’s how you determine what activities are critical, what can be dropped and whether some pieces can be delegated,’ he says. ‘It will also help you decide if there are any activities you are doing more for your own satisfaction than for meeting organizational needs. People often produce reports no one looks at.’

When you meet with your manager, have some options ready for dealing with your workload and frame the discussion in terms of how you can do a better job, Mr. Cohen says.

Q. Is it possible you could damage your career by asking for help?

A. You risk negative fallout only if you complain to your boss that you can’t handle your job. ‘Don’t go in there saying, ‘I have too much work’ because your boss has too much work, too,’ says Joanna Broussard, president of the BizMark Group, a business development consulting firm in Chicago. ‘It’s much more politically astute to offer some solutions and ask for support.’

And, as Ms. Zeidman says, ‘If you cannot complete your work and meet deadlines, you’re much more likely to suffer consequences.’

Q. Is there anything you can do to lighten the load on your own, like delegating some work to colleagues?

A. If you have a collaborative relationship with co-workers who do similar work, you can ask if they can help you with certain tasks, but generally it’s better to go through the chain of command, Ms. Latham says.

Let your supervisor decide whether work should be delegated and to whom, because it’s possible co-workers may be busier than they seem. ‘You can always suggest someone else on your team that might be able to handle some of the work, but I wouldn’t directly delegate to others unless you’re specifically given that authority,’ Ms. Broussard says.”

Although the article might not address every single issue you might be experiencing, (after all there is not magical one word answer that can solve everything) read the article further to see more questions and answers and you might just find what you’re looking for.

A New York Times article titled, “Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss” by Adam Bryant explains how Google decided to try to analyze “performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards. They correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints.” Sound crazy? While some of the results of what Google titled “Project Oxygen” might seem a bit obvious, Google managed to effectively build what they call “people analytics” and “produced what might be called the Eight Habits of Highly Effective Google Managers.”

So what were some of the habits on the list?

· “Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.”
· “Help your employees with career development.”
· “Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented.”

The article jests, “The list goes on, reading like a whiteboard gag from an episode of ‘The Office,’” but Google took a look at the list and put it into perspective on how they operate. “For much of its 13-year history, particularly the early years, Google has taken a pretty simple approach to management: Leave people alone. Let the engineers do their stuff. If they become stuck, they’ll ask their bosses, whose deep technical expertise propelled them into management in the first place. But Mr. Bock’s [Laszlo Bock, Google’s vice president for “people operations”] group found that technical expertise — the ability, say, to write computer code in your sleep — ranked dead last among Google’s big eight. What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”

Amazed by this discovery, Mr. Bock remarked on what that meant to Google. “‘In the Google context, we’d always believed that to be a manager, particularly on the engineering side, you need to be as deep or deeper a technical expert than the people who work for you,’ Mr. Bock says. ‘It turns out that that’s absolutely the least important thing. It’s important, but pales in comparison. Much more important is just making that connection and being accessible.’”

Essentially, Google performed what began as an external experiment on finding the perfect boss and later found that when comparing the results to how they operated, Google didn’t have a clue on how to “build a better boss.” To read the process that Google went through to analyze the results, check out the original article.

But what does that mean to the rest of us? Has your company truly looked into “people analytics?” As an HR manager, have you, or have you considered, surveying your employees?

As a professional, have you ever worked for a company that offered a survey for you to fill out about how you feel about topics in your workplace?

After reading Google’s results, you might want to give it a try to see if your company can make a similar discovery.

In case you missed it- early this month a Pennsylvania high school English teacher became so frustrated with issues she was experiencing with her students, that she decided to publicly blog about the problems, not only explaining the concerns she has for the future of education, but throwing in a few snippy remarks that successfully managed to insult and offend a number of parents, teachers and students around the country. 

Not only was she suspended after this online rant, but according to an article from Time.com, she effectively started a “viral classroom debate.” If you’ve been keeping up on the Alstin blog, you might remember a similar topic that I wrote about at the end of January on why controversy in your social media can be a positive, but as the Time article reveals, teacher Natalie Munroe took controversy to a whole new level, “In one post, she advises students to go get jobs with the trash company. In another, she calls them ‘rude, disengaged, lazy whiners.’ In yet another she doesn’t mince words, proclaiming, ‘There’s no other way to say this: I hate your kid.’”

Is this taking controversy a bit far? To most, yes. But in an interesting turn of events, is what Munroe did technically illegal? Not according to her attorney, “Steve Rovner, [who says] legally she did nothing wrong to warrant suspension. Rovner says his client’s school district does not have a policy in place that dictates what teachers can and cannot do online and Munroe did not name the school, nor her students, in her blog posts.” And though this might hold up in court, the article continues, “Still, while Munroe maintains what she wrote was meant only to serve as amusement for herself, her husband and seven of her friends who read the site, in publishing the rants to a blog — rather than, say, via a mass e-mail to friends and family — she opened herself up to the chance that anyone outside her circle could find the posts.”

To read the entire update on Munroe’s current media firestorm, see the Time.com article. But what can we learn from Munroe’s plight? Here are a few tips that we should all embrace when using social media about not just the workplace, but anything:

1. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Remember that anything you post online about your work, company, co-workers, etc. is public. Anyone can find it. Even if you have the post viewable to only certain friends, there is still a chance that one of those “friends” could read and re-post somewhere in a public forum.

2. Before you decide to rant online about your employees that might lack initiative, or the company policies that you don’t agree with, or your micro-managing boss that chooses which color your mouse pad is allowed to be, or any personal issues, take a few deep breaths and talk to your friends or family over the phone or in person about it first, instead of the gut reaction to get instant gratification by posting online. As the article reports, “her husband and seven of her friends” knew that Munroe could offend quite a few by writing what she wrote. Chances are if your family and friends don’t think it’s a good idea to publicly rant about something online, you probably shouldn’t.

3. If you feel that the issues you are experiencing at work really are affecting your own performance or you’re just not comfortable with certain practices, or a particular co-worker, calmly address the problem with that individual or the department responsible for employee grievances. Remember, this is for every employee regardless of whether you are a janitor or a manager.

While blogging about controversial issues can help bump your readership, get your audience involved and possibly help you find issues to your problems, let’s not push it. Throwing around what could be perceived as insults towards managers, employees, co-workers, policies or any other workplace issue is running into dangerous territory. No one wants to be viewed as a social media bully, so again, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

A little over four years ago, the big work/life issue facing me was my looming maternity leave. Did I save up enough money? How long could I reasonably take off from work? Why don’t I live in Sweden?!!! (Did you know that in Sweden all working parents are given 16 months of paid leave per child? 16 months! Paid! Per kid!)

In the end, I was able to take advantage of four months of unpaid leave. So how does Sweden do it? The cost for parental leave is ultimately shared between the employer and the state.

In the US we have the Family Medical Leave Act.  However, FMLA only requires companies with 50+ employees within 75 miles of the company’s work site to provide FMLA leave (unpaid – pay is optional) to their employees. That means about 40% of the country’s workforce doesn’t even fall under FMLA protection.

Many employers, especially smaller businesses, make the case for “financial strain” or that they are concerned about paying out generous benefits only to have the working parent not return at the end of their leave.

The Society for Human Resource Management has a recent survey that details just 12% of U.S. employers with fewer than 100 workers offer paid maternity leave. The report, which ultimately surveyed 500+ employers, further noted that 7% plan to reduce or eliminate the benefit within the next 12 months. I don’t particularly like that trend.

A recent blog from the Harvard Business Review on how Paid Family Leave Pays Off in California is worth a read – and I only hope this leads to more dialogue on the subject of parental leave between working parents and our state reps.

Back in 2004, California implemented a program that enabled most employees to receive up to 6 weeks of partially paid leave. The number was caped at 55% of their weekly pay with a maximum benefit of $987. This time could be used for the introduction of a new family member or to take care of a sick relative. Last year the program went through a comprehensive evaluation. The findings? Here are a few key points:

• 87% of employers reported no cost increases associated with the program with 9% reporting a cost savings due to reduced turnover or benefit costs
• 91% reported no abuse of the program – use of the program actually increased the likelihood that workers in lower paying jobs returned to work
• Workers who participated in the program were more likely to be satisfied with the length of their leave
• In the six years since the program started, more men are now taking advantage of paternity leave – up from 17% to 26%

A similar program can be found in one other state that happens to be right across the river from where I live and work – New Jersey. I have had friends who were able to take advantage of paid leave in NJ rub it in a little on this one whenever the subject comes up.

You’ll always find paid parental leave offered by top working parent-friendly organizations. And you’ll always find working parents feeling valued by such a benefit. So when is this model coming to Pennsylvania, or the rest of the country for that matter?  While stacking up to Sweden may seem unrealistic, 6 weeks of partially paid leave connected to a state run program may be an ideal approach.

What are your thoughts as an employer? As an employee? Would such a benefit help in your recruitment/retention efforts? Any personal experiences that can back up some of these stats?

Thinking about your sweetheart all day? Anticipating that special, romantic candlelit dinner after work? Ah, yes- it’s February 14^th, which means for many that love is in the air and we can take time to celebrate the relationships in our lives that we cherish most. But in honor of Valentine’s Day, let’s examine a different kind of relationship that most of us work at improving and maintaining every day. No, it’s not your never-ending battle with your spouse to put the dirty laundry in the hamper. This is your relationship with your employees or, on the other hand, with your employer, and it is vital to keep a good one.

Most of us spend more waking hours at work then we do at home (unless, of course, you are nocturnal), so what can we do to maintain a good relationship with those we work with constantly? There have been literally thousands of articles written on how to maintain and improve workplace relationships, as well as several state and federal laws on the subject, so let’s narrow it down to something we can all understand. An article on eHow gives a few tips on preserving this essential connection.

The article starts off by emphasizing the significance of this kind of relationship, “The relationship between an employer and its employees is an important factor in the company’s success. Employers will treat their employees with respect and visa versa if they all want to succeed and achieve goals. Some companies forget to focus on employee retention and appreciation, and then they lose productivity.” The article then summarizes some guidelines to keep in mind in the workplace:

Motivate employees by giving them incentives within the workplace. Treat all of your employees equally and give them all the chance to win a free trip, a free dinner or tickets to the next theatre production. Reward your employees for their improved hard work.

Spend time with your employees. Many bosses and owners forget the ‘little people’ that make it all happen. Sit down and talk with each one of your employees when you have time and ask if they are happy with their jobs and what improvements they think the company should make. 

Plan a team building event and ask all your employees to attend including upper, middle and lower management. Get everyone together as a team and allow them to undergo various team building and trust creating activities. 

Invite all of your staff and managers to an event or a BBQ in your back yard. If you are an owner or the CEO of the company, then what better way to warm up to your employees then homemade BBQ chicken! 

Ask your managers to work closely with their teams and to support any issues that come up, or mistakes that might occur. Get everyone working together on finding a solution that everyone agrees on. If you have to, create a problem and ask everyone to work on it to find the answer.

Now while some of the article might not apply to everyone, keep in mind that this article was written by an eHow contributor that took the time to come up with a few of their own suggestions based off of their life experience. Therefore, this article might offer some of the best ideas, as these come from someone who has experienced employer-employee relationships in the workplace. Alternatively, some of these guidelines are slightly more sterile or cut and dry than the psychology that should go into keeping up good relations in the workplace. Remember, that just like any other relationship, there are no simple, one word answers, but there is always a plethora of advice online that help to make these relationships successful.

Have you found that any particular methods have been successful for your relationships in the workplace? What problems have you had and how have you worked to solve them?

As communication in the workplace is essential in all industries, FastCompany.com posted an article last week about a solution to workplace miscommunication titled, “Too Much Miscommunication at Work? A Simple Fix.”

The article begins by revealing the problem with workplace miscommunication- “The most common source of miscommunication in any workplace is a very simple one: people routinely fail to realize how little they are actually communicating. In other words, we think we’ve said a lot more than we actually have.

Psychologists call this the signal amplification bias (because we can’t resist slapping esoteric names on things–calling it the ‘I’m Sure It Was Obvious’ Effect would be much more to the point.) Studies show that the vast majority of us tend to believe that our behavior is much more expressive than it actually is, and this occurs across a wide variety of situations.”

The article continues by establishing an example of some of some miscommunication that people might experience in every day life. “For instance, we often think people know when we’re lying–that our discomfort with deception is obvious – when they rarely have any idea. We also assume that others understand our goals and what we’re trying to accomplish, when in fact they don’t have the first clue. Most of what we say and do every day is open to multiple interpretations, and when other people try to figure out what we really mean, they are apt to guess wrong.”

Then narrows it down to the miscommunication we encounter in the workplace and offers a simple, but honest reason why we experience this issue. “We are particularly likely to be ‘sure it was obvious’ with people we know well or who we’ve worked with for a long time–we assume our thoughts and behaviors are transparent, when they are far from it. So, ironically, the risk of miscommunication is greater with a close colleague than a brand-new coworker.

When we assume that other people know what we’re thinking, and what we are expecting of them, we do them a real disservice. Assuming that we’ve been clear about what we wanted, we blame them when things don’t go as planned.”

The author offers a perfect example of one of the biggest dilemmas with communication at work- we speak to co-workers almost every single day and are often surprised or tend to blame the other party when co-workers don’t entirely understand or acknowledge a question, a phone call or even more importantly, but seemingly omitted from this article, an e-mail, simply because we are not expressing our message clearly. Thankfully, we are left with a solution to this age-old problem that occurs in all different workplaces all over the world:

“The next time you catch yourself thinking ‘I didn’t expressly say that to Bob, but it should be obvious …’ STOP. Nothing is ever obvious unless you made it obvious by spelling it out.

Remove the phrase ‘It goes without saying’ from your mental lexicon, because it is total rubbish. If something is important, then it goes WITH saying. Make a point of saying exactly what you mean, and asking for exactly what you want, and you will be pleasantly surprised by often you get it.”

While the article certainly correctly identifies a part of the problem and even goes so far as to research the psychological term for this concern, this is just a small piece of workplace miscommunication that we unfortunately and frequently experience. The author appears to be missing a key problem. Though e-mailing has been addressed in article after article, it is important to include it when discussing any form of workplace miscommunication, as these generally short and vague messages tend to breed this problem. Also, the article makes no mention of how different companies and corporations deal with their miscommunication on a higher level. What about Human Resources policies on e-mails, phone calls and memos?

As a professional, do you believe that the article’s solution to the miscommunication problem is valid, or is it a lecture that you’ve heard over and over again, but is more difficult to put into practice than the article makes it seem? Do you believe that the article covers all of its bases, or would be more helpful if it were broken down into helpful tips based on the form of communication (i.e. phone, e-mail, memo)?

Around the office, we always have a laugh poking fun at clichéd corporate-speak. Utter the phrases “new paradigm,” “think outside the box,” “value added” or “synergy” around here and you’ll get either a rolling of the eyes or a stapler thrown at you.

I don’t know if “Blue Ocean Strategy” is really going to catch on in the corporate world or if it will just become one of those overused phrases that people say glibly in sales pitches and seminars, but at the risk of office supplies being hurled at me, I do think the concept makes a lot of sense and has great possibilities, especially in recruiting.

The concept of Blue Ocean Strategy (or BOS) was developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, and is a result of a decade-long study spanning more than 30 industries over 100 years (1880-2000). Here’s the idea: most organizations battle competitors in a bloody “Red Ocean.” In that Red Ocean, we occupy the same space and vigorously compete on things like price, service, image—all while trying to differentiate ourselves from our competitors—when it reality we’re very similar (think of McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s).

What Kim and Mauborge claim is that the way to succeed is not through the wasteful, exhausting fighting of our competitors but by “creating Blue Oceans of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Such strategic moves—termed “value innovation”—create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, rendering rivals obsolete and unleashing new demand.”

The headline on their website is, “Don’t compete with rivals, make them irrelevant.”  Apple and Google would be obvious examples of BOS organizations, and this graphic does a good job of showing the difference between Red Oceans and Blue Oceans:

Does this have implications for recruiting? Absolutely. I encourage you to read Jason Warner’s ERE article on ways HR Departments can make 2011 the year of Blue Ocean recruiting. One of the things Jason recommends is something Alstin has been helping clients with for decades: finding and attracting candidates using nontraditional methods. To quote his example:

XOX Software is competing for software developers, just like every other technology company. Traditional strategy would suggest that it go head to head with Google and Amazon and Microsoft and all of the others, posting jobs on Dice.com and showing Facebook ads to people who work at those places, trying to entice them away. In other words, traditional recruitment competes in the same spaces for the same talent, applying traditional recruitment practices but trying to do them faster, more effectively, more broadly in order to get the talent that it needs.

Obviously, that’s the Red Ocean strategy. The Blue Ocean way would be to generate and reach those candidates in a nontraditional way. But BOS goes further than that. It demands that you look at all the parts of your recruiting system (while recognizing that they are probably very similar to your competitors), and analyze the benefits and costs of each. In this case, XOX Software realized that one that area that needed to be improved well beyond the industry standard was recruitment cycle time. Once achieved, XOX found it wasn’t even competing anymore because it was closing on the candidates it wanted before the competition could even decide they wanted to pursue the candidate.

Again, I imagine some people will start throwing the term Blue Ocean Strategy about as corporate-speak, but I think there’s lots of benefits, and I recommend visiting the Blue Ocean Strategy website and learning more.

I’d love to hear from anyone else who is trying BOS at their organization who wants to share their story.

We all know that anything posted online stays there virtually forever. All of those colorful Facebook comments, MySpace photos and inappropriate Tweets left by you or your friends can come back to haunt you eternally- destroying your reputation, forcing you to lose your job and serving as an online home wrecker.

 Or not.

What if there was a way to erase that politically incorrect wall post? What if your co-workers, friends, family and even customers never had to see that dreadful photo from happy hour that ended up on the wrong website? What if there was someone that could help you rebuild your damaged online and social media reputation?

According to a recent article featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Scrub-a-dub-Web,” there is- many as a matter of fact. Companies such as ReputationDefender are popping up all over, determined to be your “online reputation-management” and promise to “wash away all that Google-able embarrassment and negativity from your profile” for a fee.

The article defines this as “high-tech PR” and tells the tale of a psychotherapist based in Center City who lost business from a prevalent blog that “questioned his credentials” rated him as a “quack.” After contacting ReputationDefender and spending a “few hundred dollars,” his online slate was wiped clean and the only results that appeared after searching his name were sites that presented official information including his biography that detailed his education.

The article continues, “In an age of tell-all status updates, real-time video feeds, and Everyman bloggers with caustic opinions, the cyber-reputations of individuals and businesses – really the only image that counts these days – are constantly in danger of attack, according to Internet profile experts. As a result, in the last three years, the business of online reputation management has flourished. Even parents of college applicants are eager to dispose of those Facebook pictures before admissions officers discover them.”

What does this mean to HR? This reads as a twofold benefit. First of all, this gives the opportunity for job seekers that may have posted photos that can be interpreted poorly, or made any number of mistakes online, to clean up their social media sites in preparation for sending out resumes. Remember, not everything is always as it appears. Take Laurie Ruettimann’s story on the HR conference she attended. This woman worked hard at a conference from start to finish and one photo of her exhaustedly falling asleep with a wine glass in her hand can be taken entirely out of context as she explains in her story. One might ask, was she too drunk to stand? Was she drinking throughout the entire conference? Of course not! But the time old proverb states, a photo is worth a thousand words.

Second, this gives an opportunity for businesses as well, though it might not solve all problems. As the article clarifies, “John Bialous, chief operating officer at Miles Technologies, said his company gives small- to mid-sized businesses a fighting chance. Disgruntled customers can blast information to the online masses. ‘Positive information can get out to the masses too,’ he said. But, he allowed, ‘if a company is bad, reputation management is not going to change that.’” Let’s imagine how much this could help companies that have received misinformed or poor reviews and ratings online if the response was quick enough. How about if a previous employee decided to take his or her frustrations out in their blog, writing a scathing entry and warning to anyone considering applying for a position? Perhaps they were having a bad day and thought the world should know about how much they can’t stand so-and-so, their supervisor at the company they currently or recently worked for. This entry might detail every problem they have ever had with their co-workers and bosses, with company policies and procedures they don’t agree with, or how they might feel that HR is a useless department that never looks out for the employee. This could not only damage a company’s corporate image, but who would want to work for a company that has been smeared so severely online?

If you don’t believe this could ever happen to your company, don’t be naïve. Websites such as my3cents.com appear just as often as online reputation management sites and frequently reveal complaints from past employees who are still bitter about their work experience, whether they deserved it or not. Browse through a few and you’ll read entries that nearly mimic my example with headlines like, “‘The Company that Cares’ Does NOT Care About Their Employees! – human resources”

Lastly, while the article does offer options to job seekers and companies alike, one of the best pieces of advice comes from Katie Koestner, executive director of Wayne-based Campus Outreach Services, a not-for-profit that provides educational outreach on student wellness and risks. Koestner has also witnessed social media give access to students to write whatever they want about whoever they want, and engage in risky online behavior, but her message applies to anyone participating in social media. She stresses, “‘When you’ve had a bad day, pull out the old-fashioned diary and write about it. Take a walk. Call the person and talk to them, but not through Skype.’”

Are you considering researching a reputation management service for yourself? For your company? Have you ever experienced a loss in business or missed a job opportunity because of an online mishap? If so, feel free to share.

Finally. A good jobs report came through last Friday. Businesses added a better-than-expected 151,000 jobs to their payrolls last month and the U.S. has now demonstrated four months of private sector job growth. Many Americans won’t be saying “finally” though until they have finally landed a job. President Obama addressed the American people on that very fact after the numbers were released:

We’ve now seen four months of private sector job growth above 100,000, which is the first time we’ve seen this kind of increase in over four years. Now, that’s not good enough … because the fact is, an encouraging jobs report doesn’t make a difference if you’re still one of the millions of people who are looking for work. And I won’t be satisfied until everybody who is looking for a job can find one … just as we passed a small business jobs bill based on ideas of both parties and the private sector, I am open to any idea, any proposal, any way we can get the economy growing faster so the people who need work can find it faster.

If you had a forum to address the President on the issues surrounding the current state of jobs in the U.S., what would you say? What would you like to vent to him about? What ideas do you think need to get off the table and into immediate action?

Starting this week through Sunday, November 14, Monster.com has such a forum on their Facebook page with this invitation to us all: “Post your questions on our Facebook page and those that spark the most engaging conversation and are “liked” the most by other members of our Facebook community will be delivered to the White House for response. Here is your chance to find out exactly what the federal government is doing to create jobs and spur growth. Don’t miss this opportunity – post your questions now!”

Spend a few minutes reading the increasing commentary on Monster’s “Keep America Working” Facebook Page and you’ll get a feel for the diversity and complexity of the real issues Americans are facing these days. It is pretty overwhelming.

Post your own comment, or “like” the ones that resonate – the White House is listening – and I will be back with a follow-up when all is said and done.

I’ve been hearing and reading a lot lately about jobless discrimination, a disturbing new trend in recruiting where employers are reluctant to hire unemployed workers thinking the best candidates are the ones already working. I have heard a few unconfirmable stories about employers thinking the unemployed are more likely to steal even including a credit check of an applicant as part of the screening process. The idea being “If you’re in debt, we don’t want a desperate employee”. To what extent this practice goes on I do not know, but this article highlights some crazy examples of actual job ads/solicitations specifically requiring candidates to be currently employed in order to qualify for the opening. The author cites some examples of this practice by surfing for jobs that use the “must be currently employed” language and found several on Monster.com and Craigslist:

A staffing agency representing a “world leader in the medical industry” is advertising for a San José-based product salesman on Monster.com, but the person “must be currently employed.”

A “Big Box” retail giant in New York City posted a Craigslist ad for an overnight freight flow manager who “must be currently employed for consideration,”

..a manufacturing company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina specified on Monster.com that it will not consider any unemployed applicants for a Senior Pricing Analyst position.

And a CPA firm in New Jersey said “DO NOT APPLY IF YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY EMPLOYED IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING” in its ad on Craigslist.

Is this even legal? The short answer is yes. We have laws in this country to prevent hiring discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, pregnancy and age. But joblessness? Uh, completely legal.

It’s sad to think many of the nation’s 15 million unemployed are facing this kind of challenge in seeking employment. The economy drops out with plenty of blame to go around but the average wannabe American worker may be getting the real short end of the stick.

According to a recent article posted by ABC News, Honestly.com is a new website that allows users to connect and sign up via Facebook to rate their co-workers. The article explains that the website was “Originally launched in March as Unvarnished.com” and is now “not only changing its name, but opening itself up to a broader online community.” As the article reveals, “When it debuted earlier this year, some tech blogs were merciless with their criticism, calling it everything from a “clean, well-lighted place for defamation” to a “public bathroom wall for everyone on the planet” to “a completely evil social network.” But according to Honestly.com’s “About” section, the website defines itself as “an online resource for building, managing, and researching professional reputation, using community-contributed, professional reviews.”

While that doesn’t sound too bad at first glance, continuing on to the second sentence makes me think twice. Again, from the “About” section, “Honestly.com reviews help you get the inside scoop on other business professionals, providing candid assessments of coworkers, potential hires, business partners, and more.” The idea of getting “the inside scoop” on potential employees starts to sound a little unprofessional, potentially harmful and downright unnecessary. The use of the phrase “getting the inside scoop” makes it sound like employers and co-workers are purposely looking for dirt. While Linkedin.com has a similar feature, the “Recommendations” section on Linkedin seems relatively harmless as these are comments that individuals request from people they know, while Honestly.com welcomes anyone to comment anonymously on your skill level, relationships, productivity and integrity by “obscuring identity of review authors” as long as your have an account. According to the website, “This lets reviewers share their true, nuanced opinions without fear of repercussions.”

But this opens up a series of serious questions:

To start, how can you protect yourself from what could be essentially considered as online libel? If the Honestly.com website established a need to “let reviewers share their true, nuanced opinions without fear of repercussions,” then they must have acknowledged the fact that anyone can sign up, log on and defame other users online. There is a need for anonymity only because users can log on with the intent to harm others.

If you sign up and rate someone positively (and they later lose their good reputation), or, alternatively, if you rate someone poorly, will it reflect badly on you? Can these ratings come back to haunt you?

If someone is writing things that are not true, what are the consequences? What rights do you have as a user, if any? How can you prevent office politics from seeping into a rating system? For example, if you previously had a co-worker that just didn’t get along with you, how can you be sure they will be honest and unbiased about your work performance?

Will potential employers use this as a tool regardless of its wavering credibility?

What about companies and organizations that only give out professional, and not personal references, typically from the Human Resources Department? Those who only tell the dates worked and the title? How does Honestly.com not automatically break that gentleman’s code?

Unsurprisingly, a few people have already commented on the article and voiced their opinions on the site. When searching for reviews on Honestly.com, some seem to believe that it has as much credibility as Wikipedia. Sure, there could be several people signing on to rate you well and justly, but all it takes is one or two people to smear your profile and permanently damage your professional reputation. As if it’s not enough knowing that people can and do go after your professional reputation in the office, now you might have to worry about them logging on and doing it online.

The ABC News article establishes that the site’s founder Peter Kazanjy assures users that “his site employs several safeguards that have already proven effective in keeping nasty comments to a minimum.” This is allegedly supposed to protect individuals from having their names drug through the mud, but still, with a star rating of one to five this can hurt reputations without the additional inappropriate remarks. Also, theses safeguards are there to monitor and to keep remarks at a “minimum,” but will still be posted.

The article concludes, “‘At the end of the day, we think that people are good,’ he said. ‘We have seen [that] if you give them a platform where they can share their professional opinion, but they know there are incentives for good behavior and disincentives for bad behavior, then they don’t engage in bad behavior and they engage in good behavior. And I think we anticipate seeing that pattern continue.’”

What do you think as a hiring manager? As a job seeker? As a professional? Is this the new version of a Burn Book in the workplace or a useful tool for companies and organizations?

A while back I used this blog to spotlight a recent lawsuit related to the wage gap that’s still a fact of “work life” for women across America. I concluded that while the pace to close that gap has been painfully slow, stats like these lead me to believe that the pace will eventually pick-up:

• 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
• 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

I was very curious to read the latest data from the Census on U.S. states and territories that currently offer the highest pay for women. Drumroll please. Here they are:

1 – District of Columbia – $54,698
2 – Massachusetts – $45,062
3 – Maryland – $44,937
4 – New Jersey – $44,166
5 – Connecticut – $43,900
6 – New York – $40,584
7 – California – $40,019
8 – Virginia – $39,354
9 – Rhode Island – $39,248
10 – Alaska – $39,017

In that group, there was only one place where women brought home more than the average median salary for U.S. men ($45,485) – the District of Columbia. However, the women of D.C. still trail their male counterparts by about $7,000 and overall women remain in the #2 spot in all 50 states.

Puerto Rico is the only U.S. territory where women earn more than men – about 103 percent of what men earn. The median salary in Puerto Rico? $20,563. 

So while these numbers aren’t necessarily the greatest, I did see one stat that leads me to believe that my hunch is right. We’re on to something here when it comes to education. Virtually all of the locations (Rhode Island was the exception) reported that more women age 25+ have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree than men. Will women someday out pace what men earn – who knows? Will there eventually be paycheck equity – who could say no?

On this historic day, the Supreme Court began their new term with three women on the bench. I think Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s words were pretty inspirational and on target about where we are and where we are going as a country and I’ll leave it at that:

“When the schoolchildren file in and out of the court and they look up and they see three women, then that will seem natural and proper – just how it is.”

Spend just a bit of time on HR industry sites like ERE.net, SHRM.org, Staffing.org and you’ll see that the “candidate experience” is a red-hot topic these days. Here’s just some of the titles of articles I’ve read in the last few months: “Treat Your Candidates like Your Board of Directors,” “Improving the Candidate Experience,” “Why You Must Optimize the Candidate Experience,” and there are so many more.

I think it’s interesting to follow a certain issue as it gains traction in our industry. Sometimes the reason is obvious, and in the case of candidate experience, I don’t think it takes great genius to see that one of the reasons it’s talked about so much is because (if we’re all being honest) in most cases the candidate experience HR delivers isn’t very good—and that somehow, even with all the advances in technology over the last few years, it’s managed, if anything, to get worse. And if you ask the actual candidates about their experience? Better cover your ears, but in between the bursts of profanity they’ll tell you the experience is nothing short of awful.

It’s easy to slam HR for this, and unfortunately many articles and blogs do–especially those written by frustrated job seekers–but I’ve worked in this industry too long with too many HR people, and the overwhelming majority are smart and very dedicated to their profession. As good recruiters (and good people), they know how critical the candidate experience is to the success of their organization.

This is normally where you’d expect to hear that this is a complicated issue with no easy answers, but actually the answer IS easy, it’s just not very feasible. As someone on a HR message board said, “If companies really cared about the candidate experience, they would dedicate a person or team to that candidate experience.” Of course, that sounds great, but in this age of lean HR departments and a stripped down, “cut costs at all costs” mentality, it’s hard to picture the solution as practical—almost like saying that if a city was really serious about stopping crime there would be a cop on every corner 24 hours a day.

In my opinion, it’s a simple numbers game, and one that HR has been on the wrong side of for so long that the cracks are really starting to show. Recruiters are simply outnumbered, outmanned and outgunned. Many mid-sized companies today have lean-to-the-bone HR departments with a handful of recruiters, most of which have other responsibilities—and yet they can receive more than 10,000 applications a month. Look at it any way you like, there is simply no way to deliver a positive candidate experience without the necessary resources.

Another big problem is the flooding of websites with unqualified applicants. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against someone who is unemployed doing everything they can to rejoin the workforce. But again, it’s a numbers game: out of those 10,000 applicants; for every great, qualified person there are at least 10 applying to a job they’re totally unqualified for (every HR person has stories that will make your head spin–my favorite is about the candidate who applied to be a Cardiothoracic Surgeon–he had no medical degree and no experience, but told the recruiter he was “really good with his hands”).

The image problem for HR is compounded by an illusion that technology has made it easier for recruiters. In my interview with recruiting guru Peter Weddle, he said, “Companies spend hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars on systems…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.”

On the other hand, I believe if a CEO could see what a poor candidate experience “costs,” in terms of losing good people, bad reputation, missed revenue opportunities, etc.—well, we might just have something.

So what do we do? I suppose one of three things will happen: certain key people (CEOs and Presidents, we’re looking at you) will realize that a bad candidate experience is a killer to their organization, and will dedicate true resources to making it better; technology will do a much better job in helping recruiters communicate with candidates (and that will have to mean a lot more than form letters that start out “We received your resume…); or sadly, the idea of a great candidate experience will just be an HR buzzword that came and went.

With social media and other forms of Internet usage being integral to our daily recruiting and sourcing work lives, it got me to thinking about workers’ personal use of the Internet in the workplace in 2010. While an issue for over 15 years, it seems that Internet abuse on company time has reached epidemic proportions, yet employee productivity has gone through the roof. It’s increasingly harder to make sense of Internet access at work and getting the most from your employees. 

Consider a trio of recent studies done by a web-monitoring firm, an anti-virus company and the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Cyclope-Series, which produces computer monitoring software, found that 24% of employees spend more than one hour on social networks during working hours and are checking personal email up to 5 times per day. Interestingly, you’d think that the study would be biased since the company is selling productivity software to employers but the employees in the study knew they’d be monitored and even signed agreements permitting the recorded activity.

Trend-Micro, makers of anti-virus software conducted a similar study and found that 66% of employees checked personal email, 51% browsed websites not directly related to their jobs, 39% did personal online banking, and 31% made a non-business related online purchase.

Certainly if you’re looking at all this activity from an employer’s perspective it seems like the majority of workers are slackers. But how to explain record worker productivity? Enter the University of Melbourne. Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, researchers there have amazingly found that employees who use the Internet at work for personal reasons are 9% more productive than employees who don’t. They reason that perhaps surfing the Internet for pleasure or personal reasons increases worker’s concentration levels or eases anxiety about other parts of their lives, enabling them to concentrate more on their work. “People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” said Dr. Brent Coker from the University of Melbourne’s Department of Management and Marketing. “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.” Of course, even the researchers admit there are limits. Workers spending 20% or more of their time at the office watching YouTube or bidding on eBay auctions aren’t likely to be improving their productivity.

As with everything in life the whole issue comes down to one of moderation. Short personal breaks on the Internet seem to be okay but overuse cuts into meaningful work. The solution, as it’s always been, is strong management and personal oversight. However, in today’s technologically connected world perhaps companies feel their management has become overtaxed and are fighting technology with technology. Cyclope-Series has found that in 2009 54% of US companies have decided to block social networks at work.

In the “that-happened-yesterday-who-cares-about-it-now” age we live in, I was really glad this article caught my eye. I’m referring to a detailed, even-handed and informed criticism of ESPN’s handling of the LeBron James trade saga, also known as “The Decision.” What made this article special was that it was written by one of their own: Don Ohlmeyer, who is ESPN’s official “Ombudsman.” The link is here, and I strongly encourage you to read it. You’ll find that Ohlmeyer is very critical (as I think he was right to be) about ESPN’s handling of The Decision and pulls no punches when it comes to the network’s numerous mistakes and serious journalistic integrity lapses leading up to, and during, the over-hyped event.

What makes for a good ombudsman like Ohlmeyer? The definition of an ombudsman is one “who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements,” but I think it of more as a “tell it like it is person,” someone who is immune from—or above—any influence or corruption from the organization he comments on. No killing the messenger here, this person is expected to speak the truth without corporate-speak, prejudice or fear of retribution. When it works, when the person is truly impartial, and truly free to say what he or she wants, it’s great. I actually think more highly of ESPN as an organization for having someone like Ohlmeyer as an ombudsman—though do I think his piece deserved more prominent placement on the ESPN website.

How about in the corporate world? In my opinion, a good ombudsman is something a CEO would covet, as a strong leader wants honest feedback but very often doesn’t receive it, hearing mostly from yes-men or having to work with watered-down, distorted information. A report in SHRM states that a corporate ombudsman is still a rather rare commodity. I think that’s unfortunate, especially with large corporations, as a good ombudsman can give voice to employees or a community that wouldn’t normally have access to top management. Some companies set up an ombudsman program as a result of a legal ruling but SHRM claims most organizations create them voluntarily. If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, the answer if yes, BP does have an ombudsman.

The danger of a corporate ombudsman program? If the person in that role is simply there for show, serves as a mouthpiece for top management, can’t speak freely or faces retribution, that’s worse than having no program at all. Many media and news outlets have had an ombudsman for decades, and it’s always been considered a very important position in a one-newspaper city, or a place where a single media outlet dominates the news dissemination for a region.

Does your company have an ombudsman, be it official or unofficial? Do your employees know about this person and how are his/her comments communicated? What would you say to your CEO if you were appointed the role of ombudsman?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 So I Googled, found their policy and it reads:

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

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

Employment-at-will, the HR law of the land in most states, is often cited as follows: “The employer is free to discharge individuals for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work.”

There are a lot of other definitions and summaries, but the one that always stuck in my head is, “You can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason or no reason, just not an illegal reason.”

I remember when I first started working in the industry—I thought: Really? The law says it’s okay to be fired for a bad reason? Even NO reason? Like after 50 years of employment I could be fired because I have on a yellow shirt that day and my boss hates yellow? I could be fired because they can’t stand the sound of my voice anymore? Because if they have to look at my face one more time they’ll go crazy? I could be fired because…well, just because? What is this, a marriage? (just kidding, honey).

Of course, being fired for a shirt color or other ridiculous reason is rare, and often in these scenarios the employee will contend that these “at-will” reasons are used as a cover for an illegal dismissal. It’s not the fact that Joe has on a yellow shirt but because Joe is older and due a pension. Not because we hate the sound of Sally’s voice, but because Sally is pregnant.

Of course, under employment-at-will, the employee has the same rights. A worker is equally free to leave his job at any time, for a good reason, bad reason or no reason. In most cases, an employee can get up from his/her desk and walk out the door with no repercussions.

Obviously, so many people lost their jobs over the last few years—and yes, some because they were low performers, but I think in most cases business conditions were so awful their companies simply couldn’t afford to keep them any longer.

Now here’s a new wrinkle that’s a product of that lousy economy: I’ve read a few disturbing articles stating that because most companies are so desperate to show their customers, shareholders and vendors that their business is rebounding, some are using “creative” firings and terminations–since a round of layoffs would signal weakness when they need to project strength. If these people are not in a protected class or are not being dismissed for discriminatory/illegal reasons, they have little recourse.

My perspective? I think overall, employment-at-will makes a lot of sense, and is fair and just for both sides–but like everything involving laws or policies there are always a few groups that try to abuse the law—and we need to keep an eye on them. For now, just don’t wear your yellow shirt to work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For those that don’t remember, Primetime Glick was a short-lived comedy show featuring Martin Short as the rude, clueless Hollywood reporter, Jiminy Glick (if you don’t recognize Martin, don’t worry, he was in a body suit and under tons of makeup). I came across an old clip on YouTube recently, and I was struck by the way Jiminy’s style represented the very worst in HR interviewing. Specifically:

• Being ill-prepared for the interview

• Having your facts completely wrong

• Going off on wild tangents

• Asking questions but not listening to the answers

• Making snap judgments about one’s abilities and qualifications

• Being dismissive

• Letting your emotions get the best of you

• Asking inappropriate questions

• Talking more about yourself than listening to the candidate

To see an example of bad interviewing in action, watch Jiminy’s interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus here:

You can also watch Jiminy as he takes over CNN and makes many of the same interviewing mistakes with Anderson Cooper:

Unfortunately, I bet many people reading this blog have worked with people who are almost as bad at interviewing as Jiminy.  Let’s join together, think about the above bullets, and resolve to never let it happen to us! Have a great weekend everyone!

Laptops. Netbooks. iPhones. Blackberrys. Smart Phones. Mobile Devices. WiFi. Broadband. 3G. 4G. Mobile Broadband. The list of technological advances of the past 10 years is mind-boggling. It also means most office workers are connected to their jobs 24/7. The efficiencies we’ve gained IN the office mean we have more work to do OUT of the office. It may be one of the hidden reasons why worker productivity continues to rise while employee counts drop. 

As more and more of us work from home on our days “off” and telecommuting becomes more popular, it’s interesting to note that not being seen in the office can have a detrimental effect on your career. 

According to a recent article in the Sacramento Business Journal, the University of California Davis conducted the first-ever academic study of “passive” face time – when workers are seen in the office without any interaction. They found that bosses think more favorably of employees who are present. 

“Merely being seen – often from a distance and without any interaction or real understanding of what a person is doing – that in itself has value,” Professor Kimberly Elsbach says. “People notice.”

Workers who telecommute or have flexible hours often focus on quick and constant communication via phone or text messages. Others send e-mail late at night to show their dedication. But if you’re a telecommuter it pays to periodically come into the office–to see and to be seen because researchers have also found that face time has a direct, and sometimes unconscious, effect on how managers view employees. 

Career mobility still hinges on working hard, working smart and reviewing accomplishments with superiors. But even with all new technologies swirling around us, it seems that in 2010 good old face time still carries much weight when being evaluated in the workplace.

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.

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