The Daily Recruiter

Just reading a new report from Littler on the contingent workforce.

I’ve pasted one of the interesting sections below.

“Littler predicts that, assuming the recession is ending or has ended, 50% of the workforce added in 2010 will be made up of one form or another of contingent workers. As a result, approximately 25% to as high as 35% of the workforce will be made up of temporary workers, contractors, or other project-based labor. The numbers of professionals working in temporary or alternative work arrangements will continue to rise. Flexible work schedules and telecommuting will increase as companies turn towards practical solutions to efficiently complete tasks while retaining talented individuals.

The workplace of tomorrow will feature small, core management teams for key corporate functions such as management and strategic direction. The rest of the workplace will be radically different than what we have seen and experienced since the 1960s and the rise of big corporations that do most everything in-house. The emphasis and management direction will be to outsource all that can be accessed reliably and cost effectively on the outside. Like Nike athletic shoes (which are only designed and marketed in-house), business models will be based on and supported by a huge network of national and international suppliers for everything from human capital to logistics to manufacturing. Indeed, with workers moving in and out of a company’s doors on a just-in-time, project-by-project basis, it will be difficult to determine how many people are working for or supporting a company at any given time. Yet, this model will give corporations the flexibility to be nimble and selective when staffing and supporting business functions and be strategic and precise in long-term project planning. The ability to staff up or down quickly will be of paramount importance in this new model, which in turn, creates new hurdles and headaches in dealing with rather archaic employment and labor laws designed for decades ago. Companies need to plan for the new future — now.”

By Todd Raphael, ERE’s Editor in Chief

In a down economy organizations sometimes forget that retaining employees is an important issue. When organizations go through the difficult process of downsizing it’s natural to overlook the need to develop retention programs meant to keep the remaining people happy and productive.

Shouldn’t the employees who survived a downsizing be thankful their jobs were saved? Perhaps, but employees who see their friends and colleagues let go will be fearful and disconcerted. They will wonder if the company is still the best place for them to pursue their careers. Given a chance to go someplace they think is more secure, employees may begin to be disengaged and jump ship.

As always, the employees most likely to have the opportunity to get a job elsewhere are precisely the ones you least want to see go. Working to improve employee retention after downsizing is a wise tactical move. In this article we’ll show how it’s done.

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In September 2008 Careerbuilder.com released their survey‚ “One in Five Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Research Candidates.” Below were the top concerns hiring managers responded they had when checking candidate’s pages.

41 percent: References to alcohol or drug use

40 percent: Inappropriate photos or information posted on their page

29 percent: Poor communication skills

28 percent: Bad mouthing of former or fellow employees

27 percent: Inaccurate qualifications

22 percent: Unprofessional screen names

21 percent: Notes showing links to criminal behavior

19 percent: Divulging confidential information about past employers

On the flip side; 24% of hiring managers in the study found content on social networks that

helped convince them to hire a candidate.

(source: Mobility Magazine‚ February 2009)

by Mickey Matteson, Recruiter Relocation

A recent CareerBuilder survey of over 1,800 unemployed Americans found that an astonishing 89% of the respondents are ignoring the health of their careers. They seem blissfully unconcerned that today’s job market is the worst in almost a century and is likely to stay that way for years to come.

What are they doing?

•22 percent are spending more time with family and friends

•15 percent are fixing up their homes

•14 percent are exercising more

•11 percent are finally taking time to relax

•8 percent are volunteering

•7 percent are going back to school

•6 percent are becoming more involved in their church community

•4 percent are starting their own business

•4 percent are taking up new hobbies

•3 percent are traveling.

Most of these activities are clearly enjoyable. Who can complain about finally having a little time to relax, for example? For your career, however, these pursuits are enjoyable just like cream cheese and beefsteak. They’re great going down, but then wreck havoc on your occupational health. In fact, there’s a very real chance they will lead to career cardiac arrest or what most of us call terminal unemployment.

What’s the alternative?

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On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. As always, this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country.

Some “Fun Facts” about the 4th of July:

2.5 million
In July 1776, the estimated number of people living in the newly independent nation.
Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html

307 million
The nation’s population on this July Fourth.
Source: Population clock http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

About 4 in 10
The odds that your side dish of baked beans originated from North Dakota, which produced 39 percent of the nation’s dry, edible beans in 2008. Another popular Fourth of July side dish is corn on the cob. Florida, California, Georgia and New York together accounted for 61 percent of the sweet corn produced nationally in 2008.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service http://www.nass.usda.gov

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Dear Joan:

I’ve been through two downsizings. In the first one, my boss knew six months in advance that one fifth of the staff would have to go. He told us all about it on day one. He then told us that he would rather we left for new jobs rather than him having to make a difficult choice about who to keep, since we all had essentially the same skills and seniority.

He let us have time off - with pay - to go to job interviews, phone and online access to job hunt, provided references for us (including talking to prospective employers both in person and on the phone for us), and helped us hunt for new work using his own contacts in the field.

We all helped each other job search and the staff numbers were what he needed after two months. Not only that, but those of us left behind felt no grief since we knew that those leaving were going on a good footing with no hard feelings. We knew that our boss and the company cared enough to be proactive in helping us, not reactive.

In the second downsizing, my boss hid her head in the sand and wanted to wait until the last minute to make the staff cuts. I found out about it well in advance through other contacts, but kept my mouth shut while I waited for her to let us know. I also found out that my position was being cut in the first wave, which was to be about three months later.

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One unintended consequence of the current economic situation is the failure of many organizations to effectively manage employee performance. How so, you ask? There are at least three ways this is happening.

First, the obvious one. When times are tough, organizations, and by extension, their leaders, who want to support, encourage, and reward good performance have fewer resources with which to say thank you. Raises, bonuses, perks, trips, and other incentives become scarce. This shouldn’t stop us from saying thank you, but, as we all know, it often does. Leaders whose imaginations are constrained by equating appreciation with stuff that costs money are at a real loss here. What they lose, in the short term, is the engagement, the willing and enthusiastic Discretionary Effort (we call it Oomph!) of those who are inclined to go the extra mile. What they’ll lose when the economy recovers is the people themselves, who, aided by a healthier employment picture will vote with their feet, taking their act elsewhere for a better deal.

A second problem is that well-intentioned leaders, who know that coaching and regular performance feedback are essential to developing good performers, stop doing it. They’re now performing the jobs of two (or more) people as it is, and they simply find it too hard to make time for formal performance evaluations, let alone real-time coaching.

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Are you your resume? I don’t think so.

A resume is a brief snapshot of our work history. If the candidate lacks a certain requirement, the recruiter should ask if the candidate has experience in that area. It might have just been left out intentionally. For example, “The candidate has never worked in a Distribution Center” might be that the candidate never specified the difference in a distribution center or a warehouse and didn’t include it in the resume. “The candidate has never implemented a Warehouse Management System before!” The candidate elected not to put that on the resume. We are taught to “be direct and get to the point” and a resume should be a light overview of the work history and basic contact information.

Does a piece of paper accurately predict what results a new employee? Not without personal contact to “peel the onion open” to see what’s driving the candidate, how results are created, what the motivation is, etc. The better recruiters will explore the best fit that is essential to placing the top candidate for your company in a critical position. If your recruiter is “worth his or her salt” they will explore the candidate’s background in detail and identify the requirements needed to fill the position. Recruiters don’t want to waste time with the wrong candidate.

Start a search with clearly defined requirements and then pass them along to the recruiter. We hear clients ask for overseas negotiation experience, but then state later we want someone who has actually flown overseas and knows the proper vendors to deal with in the Orient. A far cry from “overseas negotiations.” Identify those requirements and work accordingly. Recruiters want to get the right candidate and make the placement. More then likely if they have spent time with the candidate and submitted them, it’s because the candidate matched the given requirements.

Choosing a career is one of the most important things that you can do. You are going to spend a large portion of your waking hours engaged in the pursuit of an income, so you may as well choose a career that you love.

I learned a lot about life and work from my father, from whom I inherited my work-a-holic tendencies. He was a great man who was devoted to his work and to his family, and had very solid beliefs about the role that career plays in life.

Among the many wise bits of advice he gave me in during his life is the following: “there is nothing worse than being in a job that you hate or being married to someone you can’t stand”. He managed to avoid both, and so far so have I.

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Although statistics vary widely, there is widespread agreement that a substantial number of resumes belong in the “fiction” section of the bookstore. The rate of fraud can be as high as 40% and higher according to different sources. Applicants certainly have the right to put their best foot forward, and puffing their qualifications is an American tradition. But when puffing crosses the line into fabrication, an employer needs to be concerned. When you hire an applicant who uses lies and fabrication to get hired, the issue is that the same type of dishonesty will continue once they have the job.

What are the six most common fabrications from job applicants? According to a nationally recognized background checking firm, Employment Screening Resources (ESRcheck.com), they are:

Claiming a degree not earned: Yes, believe it or not, applicants will make up a degree. Sometimes, they actually went to the school but never graduated. Some applicants may have had just a few credits to go, and decided to award themselves the degree anyway. On some occasions, an applicant will claim a degree from a school they did

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