August 26, 2004

Track how candidates perceive your hiring experience
Posted by jr@jrothman.com">Johanna Rothman at 10:37 AM - 0 comments

If you haven't tracked how candidates perceive your hiring experience, take a look at Job Candidate Satisfaction Surveys. They recommend three separate surveys:

First, a survey to send to candidates who where interviewed, but not selected for jobs at your company.

Next, a survey to send to candidates who were interviewed, offered a position and are now employed at your company.

Third, a survey to send to candidates who were interviewed and offered a position, but declined the offer to work for your company.

For responding to each survey, respondents enter into a prize drawing. I'm not sure if that helps or not. But trying to track how your candidates perceive your hiring experience is a Good Thing.

...

 

August 23, 2004

Not everyone looks good in the new federal overtime laws
Posted by tzannos@bostonworks.com">Svetlana Husseini at 1:13 PM - 0 comments

Its August and all the fashion magazines are promoting the fall styles. Cities famous for the fashion houses are New York, Paris, Milan and D.C. D.C? Yep, the Feds have designed the federal overtime laws and not everyone likes the new look or can afford it.

For the first time in over 50 years, the federal overtime laws have been reworked. There have been many attempts but never any consenus until now. Let me rephrase, nothing was passed until recently. There still is no concensus on the changes. Actually, there is a demonstration scheduled for Capitol Hill to protest the changes that apparently help a few and hurt more than that.

Do you know how much this is going to cost your company? Are you compliant yet? Take a look at this CNN article. It frames the arguements well. There are also links that can help you figure out how much in the end it may cost or save your company.

...

Use pre-interview tools
Posted by jr@jrothman.com">Johanna Rothman at 11:51 AM - 0 comments

In Using a Pre-Interview Questionnaire to Improve Your Screening Process, John Sullivan suggests using a pre-interview set of questions that helps the hiring manager (and HR) weed through resumes.

Here are two techniques I use for pre-interview screening: 1) the dirt-bag phone screen, and 2) a technical test. Sometimes you need a crystal ball to determine what the candidate is really saying on a resume. Using a technical test (or some other audition technique) even before a phone screen can help you evaluate canidates early. Make sure you test the test on some of your current employees, to make sure the test is useful.

...

More tales from the "boom boom" room
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 9:50 AM - 0 comments

Sunday's New York Times reported on the latest chapter of men behaving badly on Wall Street. Mom and daughter brokerage team of Valary and Janine Craane filed complaints last week against Merrill Lynch. Look for more stories to unfold this fall about lewd behavior and missed opportunities.

The Craanes are among about 30 holdouts in a group of more than 900 women who filed discrimination and harassment claims against Merrill in 1999. The firm has already paid more than $100 million to settle those claims, but the cases coming to a head this year could be the costliest.

Valery Craane's claim states that she "lost tens of millions of dollars in compensation as a result of her treatment at Merrill Lynch" and that the team of brokers and assistants she leads, known as the Craane Group, "lost hundreds of millions of dollars in client assets, and therefore will continue to lose income."

...

 

August 20, 2004

More power to her
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 2:11 PM - 0 comments

Forbes just released their list of the 100 most powerful women in the world. Here's the top 10:

1. Condoleeza Rice
2. Wu Yi
3. Sonia Gandhi
4. Laura Bush
5. Hillary Rodham Clinton
6. Sandra Day O'Connor
7. Ruth Bader Ginsburgh
8. Megawati Sukarnoputri
9. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
10. Carleton "Carly" S. Fiorina

...

 

August 18, 2004

The next best thing to being there
Posted by skenney@keystonepartners.com">Sean Kenney at 12:27 PM - 0 comments

"Computers, of course, have long helped people work together. But previous versions of collaboration software have tended to assume that all users were in a single location and generally required all the information to be stored on a central server. These latest products distribute data across the Web, allowing colleagues thousands of miles apart to work together on projects as if they were in the same room."

Smaller companies or those that do not have a significant IT infrastructure may find this new breed of collaborative software to be a cost-effective approach to making geography less of an issue in getting things done.

...

 

August 17, 2004

Hiring isn't over until the new employee starts
Posted by jr@jrothman.com">Johanna Rothman at 3:50 PM - 0 comments

Take a look at Fallout Shelter to see how one organization extends the hiring process until the candidate walks in the door as an employee. Here's an observation about the "silent period" -- the time between the offer is accepted and day one:

To the new employee, though, this "silent" period is the ideal petri dish for worry, anxiety and doubt.

Even if you don't offer trinkets, keeping in touch with new hires between the acceptance date and the start date is a good idea. Plan for the first day -- and let them know you've planned. That way you'll reduce the number of no-starts and counter-offer acceptance.

...

Good news for women who work
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 9:48 AM - 0 comments

Having been following the women's work beat on the Job Blog, I've felt much like a doomsayer all summer reporting on depressing statistics from around the world. But, for my first post on the HR Blog, I'm pleased to report on a study that says something good about women in the workplace. Check out Healthcenter.com which reports on a new study that shows women who work are healthier than women who don't work.

Women who work are healthier than women who don't have jobs, suggests a study presented Aug. 16 at the American Sociological Association annual meeting in San Francisco.

The University of Pennsylvania study concluded the health benefits that women derive from working aren't diminished by longer work hours or combining longer work hours with those of a spouse.

"Women who are employed, regardless of the number of hours they work or how they combine work with family obligations, report better health than do those who are unemployed," researcher and sociologist Jason Schnittker said in a prepared statement.

Of course, the article later points out that women's health could be even better save for the gender gap in pay which also influences gender health differences.

...

 

August 15, 2004

Not clear what will happen when boomers retire
Posted by jr@jrothman.com">Johanna Rothman at 4:28 PM - 0 comments

If you don't like the article about when boomers retire, take a look at a more optimistic article. I've never been good at predicting the future, so I'll ask the same question as in the article:

How are things in your backyard? Do you already feel the competition for talent increasing?

The only thing I can predicit about jobs and hiring is companies will be hiring people who are less like commodities and can show how they can increase value.

...

 

August 12, 2004

Retiring boomers: will it be what we think?
Posted by skenney@keystonepartners.com">Sean Kenney at 1:48 PM - 0 comments

"By the year 2030, avers a GAO report entitled "Older Workers," "the United States could experience a labor shortage of 35 million workers." Says David T. Ellwood, a respected Harvard professor of government: "CEOs, labor leaders, community leaders, all came to the unanimous conclusion that we will have a worker gap that is a very serious one."

But that argument rests on several logical flaws."

We have been hearing a good deal about the coming labor shortage. Here's an article that takes issue with that conclusion.

...

 

August 11, 2004

Report: Low pay derailing recovery
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 6:27 PM - 0 comments

Another update after the weak jobs creation figure in July:

Not only has the rate of new job growth stumbled badly, as shown by [yesterday's] payroll report, but the jobs that are being created do not pay enough to sustain the country's fragile economic recovery, according to economists.

The preponderance of low-paying jobs coupled with high gas prices are undermining consumer spending, the economy's sole engine of growth as the stimulative impact of tax cuts and rising defense spending exhaust themselves. Consumption in June fell to its lowest level since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

...

Healthcare stays hot
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 5:22 PM - 0 comments

Maybe all the stories in BostonWorks have had an impact. The allure of a career in healthcare is now so strong that many are dropping out of their current career tracks and going back to school for a chance to break into a field with real demand for workers and the promise of a sustainable future:

Welcome to nursing, one very popular profession.

Nursing schools in Massachusetts and around the country are flooded with applicants, many of them refugees from other fields. In a weak job market, where job security is hard to come by, nursing has come to be seen as a stable, reasonably well-paying profession with a bright future.

...

 

August 9, 2004

Fall in job growth clouds economy
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 1:46 PM - 0 comments

Not so good news for the economy was released at the end of last week by the Labor Department, sending the two presidential candidates and their respective campaign staffs scrambling to outspin each other:

Job growth in the nation fell sharply for the second consecutive month in July, igniting fears that the economic recovery is stalling and creating worries for President Bush's reelection campaign.

Employers boosted payrolls by 32,000 jobs in July, the smallest monthly gain of the year and a startling down-shift from the spring when the economy averaged about 300,000 new jobs a month.

...