Recruiting Bloggers.com

Measuring Performance Is The Key

To Good Recruiting.

If you want to plan the human resources needed to execute a project, you have to know what people can normally do. How do you find out? By measuring performance.

First you decide what you are going to measure (speed, quality, customer satisfaction). Then, by comparing the records of various workers, you figure out what experience and personalities the good workers have.

Then you create a list (a taxonomy) of the required experience and personal qualities and use it to guide your recruiting and selection.

Also, once you know what kind of performance is reasonable to expect, you can record your ongoing performance measurements on software that automatically lets you know when it drops below that expected level.

Source: Kevin Wheeler, ERE. See also: What Is A Talent Supply Chain

Unemployment benefits not reflecting today's reality

Posted by Maureen Sharib
Too many out-of-work Americans are being left out of the unemployment insurance program, the government's safey net which replaces a portion of a worker's lost earnings, and critics say the program needs a comprehensive overhaul to meet contemporary workforce needs.

A myriad of problems are showing up in the government program: Low-wage earners - for a variety of reasons - are collecting unemployment benefits much less frequently than higher earning workers. Those who leave work to take care of sick loved ones often don't qualify for benefits. Part-time working mothers frequently find themselves ineligible for the program. And unemployed workers are having a harder time getting rehired and are exhausting their benefits. Whole story here.

Dangerous Cracks Appearing in Job Market

Posted by Maureen Sharib
Dangerous cracks in the nation's job market are deepening. Employers slashed jobs by the largest amount in five years and hundreds of thousands of people dropped out of the labor force - ominous signs that the country is falling toward a recession or has already toppled into one.

For the second straight month, nervous employers got rid of jobs nationwide. In February, they sliced payrolls by 63,000, even deeper than the 22,000 cut in January, the Labor Department reported Friday.

8 Hiring Trends in 2008

Posted by Maureen Sharib

EIGHT MAJOR TRENDS FOR 2008
#1 Bigger Paychecks
#2 More Flexible Work Arrangements
#3 Screening Candidates via the Internet
#4 Rehiring Retirees
#5 Diversity Recruitment
#6 Freelance or Contract Hiring
#7 More Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits and Special Perks
#8 Career Advancement
All CareerBuilder survey results here.
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Hire Great People: 10 Simple Rules

Posted by Maureen Sharib

1. Don't ever, ever hire somebody just like yourself.
2. Hire for Attitude Rather than Skill
3. Look for Renegades
4. Hold out for Results
5. Go for a Sense of Humor
6. Fill in the Blanks
7. Test Drive
8. Stock the Bullpen
9. Push Harder for Diversity
10. Listen
Read all the logic here.
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Hiring is Art & Science

Posted by Maureen Sharib

"At the end of the day, it does come down to your gut."

Hiring a good employee is "both an art and a science," says Allan MacKenzie, the director of client fulfilment at Mpower Business Guides, a Guelph consulting firm.

The key is to come up with a good system, but to add a touch of intuition, says MacKenzie, who spoke recently on hiring at a workshop presented by the Waterloo-based Centre for Family Business.

And, he notes, there are plenty of potential pitfalls for employers: candidates who dazzle at interviews but fizzle out on the job, applicants who come highly recommended but don't work out in the long run.

Business travel costs expected to rise 6% in 2008

Posted by Maureen Sharib

Business travel costs will rise next year. According to the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast, the average cost of a domestic business trip — including airfare, lodging and car rental costs — will rise 6% in 2008 to $1,110. The average cost of an international business trip will rise nearly 7% to $3,171. An American Express report projects that domestic ticket prices will rise by up to 5%. The projected increases in travel costs are likely to far outpace general inflation, which the National Association for Business Economics forecasts will be about 2.3% next year. But there's some good news behind the AmEx numbers: 2008 is expected to see the smallest travel cost increases in at least four years. Whole story here.

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23% of Americans Are 'Working from Anywhere' - 62% Wish They Could

Posted by Maureen Sharib

For a growing number of American workers, the traditional office is becoming more of a touchpad than a daily destination, says a new study, “Web Commuting & the American Workforce,” unveiled by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc.

More people are performing at least part of their jobs from virtually anywhere, at any hour of the day, thanks to technology that allows them to “take their office with them” wherever they go. These remote workers, called “telecommuters” in the 1980s and 90s, are today more aptly dubbed “Web commuters” for their growing reliance on the Internet.

U.S. Employers: Stop Stressing The Team

By Richard Becker

Watson Wyatt, an international association of human resource professionals, released a study today that may send shivers down the spines of management: a large majority of companies in the United States and around the world are struggling to attract and retain top-performing and critical-skill workers.

The study, which included 946 companies and a complementary survey of 13,000 employees, found that the United States has the highest median voluntary turnover rate, at 11 percent, while Latin America has the lowest, at 5 percent. In addition, more than half of the companies report difficulty retaining top-performing (52 percent) and critical-skill (56 percent) workers. But that is not the most significant finding.

China Censors Ratchet Up Web Monitoring

China has 1Billion 300Million People and a little more than 10% of them are on the Web:

For China's 162 million Web users, surfing the Internet can be like running an obstacle course with blocked Web sites, partial search results, and posts disappearing at every turn.

Blog entries like Liu's, which mused on sensitive topics such as the death penalty, corruption and legal reform, are often automatically rejected if they trigger a keyword filter. Sometimes, they're deleted by human censors employed by Internet companies. Whole story.