December 29, 2007

On line reputation management in 2008
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 2:36 PM

Onrec.com has a good article on the forecast for excecutive job opportunities for '08. Their data is taken from ExecuNet. Five trends:

Strong executive demand to offset slower ecconomic growth

Job prospects brightest for corporate 'rainmakers'

Executive turnover will rise

Succession planning will be in the spotlight

On line reputation management will make or brake more job searches

Of these trends, I'm most interested in the last. The article goes on to say

In February 2005, groundbreaking research conducted by ExecuNet revealed that Internet search engines were helping to shape hiring decisions long before the interview process began. In an update to this landmark study, a 2007 survey of 131 executive and corporate recruiters conducted by ExecuNet found that 83% are using search engines to learn more about candidates and 43% have eliminated a candidate based on information found online – up from 26% in 2005.

Eventually this practice ('digging up dirt') is going to be challenged in the courts. Many recruiters and even more hiring manager are looking on line for information they can't/wouldn't/shouldn't (?) know about the candidate from other means. As a rule, we do not permit this 'research' to go on in our company. Until a hiring manager is able to tell me how his research is related to the BFOQs of the job, there's just no place for this kind activity. That's why we retain background-checking companies. However, with this trend of cyber-snooping becoming more and more popular, will background-checking companies be pressured to provide this kind of data? If so, how will we use it in a way that is fair, consistent and employment-related? I'm not convinced that this data can be used in an ethical and equitable way.

My prediction for 2008:t we will see the first major public legal battle regarding a non-hire for reasons related to a candidate's on line reputation.

...

 

December 27, 2007

Customize your year-end goals
Posted by Diane Danielson at 8:48 AM

From the Shifting Careers blog at the NYTimes - an end of the year exercise for making sure your goals for 2008 fit your actual needs and not a cookie-cutter formula.

Research shows that people who write out specific goals tend to be more successful in accomplishing things, whatever the nature of their objectives. But goals sometimes have a straight-from-central-casting quality: lose weight, exercise more, save more money, etc. They’re nice goals, but are they really the most important ones for you?

Click here to find out how to make your goals personal to your needs.

...

 

December 20, 2007

Christmas party festive
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 3:21 PM

Many of my regular readers have asked me to talk about work fashion, and that's a great topic for the new year. Right now, however, we are in a season even more fraught with peril: the holiday party season.

Slice, a Canadian style site, has a great article on how to determine what to wear to your office festivities. By finding your office environment in the list (Every Day is Casual Friday; Style Central; Totally Buttoned Up) and matching it to your holiday party type, no one can possibly go wrong.

Advice for the Totally Buttoned Up dinner and drinks party:

The bosses will stay at the office until party time and will show up in their regular boring stuff. The minions, however, might rush home to change into something more festive. A knee-length shift dress, perhaps? This all sounds very boring but, rest assured, the Totally Buttoned Up holiday party is the best of all because once those super-professional drones have dipped into their drink ticket supply, all hell will break loose. Don’t worry so much about what to wear as who to avoid. You don’t want to get stuck in the corner with that creepy guy from Accounting who broke the rules and wore his mistletoe crown.

Fabulous advice. Now, if we can all just bring an end to the holiday sweaters and headbands in the office...

Got some free time? Check in on the holiday sweater debate on BlogHer and YouLookFab.

...

 

December 19, 2007

Some good economic news for the holidays
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 5:19 PM

Just recently a local economic report gave us some not so good news about job creation in Massachusetts and New England.

Now comes this word that maybe we've got something good going on here after all:

Massachusetts ranks as one of the most economically competitive states in the nation, buoyed by innovation, entrepreneurship, and an educated and skilled workforce, a new study concludes.

The study, released today by the Beacon Hill Institute, a think tank at Suffolk University, ranks Massachusetts second only to Utah in the attributes that create and sustain high levels of income for residents. It follows another study, by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank, that measures states' abilities to compete in a dynamic, innovation-driven global economy and ranks Massachusetts first.

Read the full article from today's Globe.

You can also check out this graphic that compares the three studies' findings and Massachusetts' rank in each.

See what some Massachusetts workers think about what it's like to find a job and live and work in the Commonwealth.

...

 

December 17, 2007

E-verify rolling out in Arizona
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 3:50 PM

Are you doing business in Arizona? If so, are you prepared to be verifying all of your hires through the Department of Homeland Security's e-verify system? You should be, because as of January 1, 2008 a new law in Arizona requires you not only to be ready but to be verifying.

You can read everything you need to know about this law here in the Governor's press release.

NPR did a great story on this issue on November 29, 2007. Here's the crux of the argument counter to the legislation:

"We have 140,000 businesses in Arizona. Every time they hire someone, they have to go through this procedure, and it was never meant to be mandatory," said Julie Pace, a Phoenix attorney who represents 12 major business groups opposing the law - contractors, farmers, hotel owners and state and local chambers of commerce.

The groups sued to stop the law from taking effect, arguing that it is unconstitutional because only the federal government can make immigration law. And they say the law's economic consequences are being felt even though it hasn't taken effect.

Click here to read/listen to the full article.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is holding free webinars on what the new legislation means and how to comply with the law. For information on the webinars, click here

...

 

December 11, 2007

Where are you, Boston employers?
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:49 PM

. . .on Business Week magazine's 50 Best Internships list, that is.

The leading business magazine just published its first-ever list of top internship programs, rated across several criteria, such as percentage of interns converted to full-time hire.

We all know the rising significance, both to college students building careers and employers building their pipeline of entry-level employees, of internship programs. Yet nowhere on the list is there a Boston or Massachusetts company.

Check out the list here. It's easy to sort by company, industry, location, etc. For the visually inclined, you can click through a 50-plus slide photo gallery of the listed firms. You can also read the associated article.

After that, maybe you better start thinking about your place on the list next year. Got those summer program plans underway yet?

...

Holiday hiring lull? Not where my stockings are hanging!
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 10:09 AM

Everywhere on the internet, you see candidates talking among themselves about a hiring lull and yet no recruiter I know slows down between turkey day and latkes/fruitcake fest. In fact, thinking about it logically, this is a great time to be a candidate and to some extent to be a recruiter. Here's a great blog entry from the Microsoft Job Blog, and advice I wish I could give to all my candidates:

Everyone wants to know what happens to the job market during the holiday season. I thought I would give you a little insight:

Things are a bit quieter now at Microsoft. Many employees are taking the last of their unused vacation time and catching up on holiday shopping, so it is easy to assume that this is not the best time of year to get a job. In fact, if I had written this post a few years ago, I would have likely advised you to wait until the New Year.

However, my opinion changed a few years ago when I worked in Executive Recruiting here at Microsoft and learned that December is one of the busiest times of the year. Surprising? Kind of ... but if you want to take some clues from the highly paid executives, you might consider interviewing now. While things do slow down at the holiday season, a few successful people have learned how to use that lull to their advantage.

Candidates I can get on the phone who are willing to forgo a day of Christmas shopping to interview instead are much more likely to get hired. Why? Because so few of them are willing to come and interview during the holidays.

My hiring managers want their jobs filled. I'd imagine that many companies are the same. Hiring managers aren't interested in waiting until the new year, particularly if their fiscal year mirrors the calendar year. So what say you fellow recruiters....is the holiday hiring lull a myth or is it just me?

...

 

December 6, 2007

Relo no - executives staying put
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 3:48 PM

Human Resource Executive Online reports on a recruitment trend - more executives are choosing to stay put rather than relocate:

Increasingly, executives would rather spend three hours a day getting to and from work in trains, planes and automobiles than uproot their families and move them closer to the office.

And some employers are responding by instituting policies and practices that make "extreme commuting" a viable alternative to relocation.

Read the full piece.

...

Job-growth study: Mass. next to last
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 1:48 PM

The Globe recently carried a story on the Massachusetts economy and its recent track record in regards to job creation. While there are some bright spots, the overall picture is not that rosy:

Massachusetts' job growth has lagged all but one state's in recent years, according to a new study, raising the possibility that the state won't regain the jobs lost in the last recession before the next one begins.

The study, released today by the Massachusetts Institute for a New Economy, or MassINC, finds Massachusetts is still far from recovering the jobs lost in the recession that began in 2001. Six years later, the state still has 100,000 jobs to go.

The MassINC site has more:

The Massachusetts economy is the envy of many other states. It consistently ranks among the top in measures of New Economy success. We rank near the top of the nation in our level of labor productivity and have outpaced the nation in recent years in the rate of growth (11.5% versus 10.6%). We have the most educated workforce in the nation and we score near the top in terms of knowledge jobs and innovation capacity.

Yet, Massachusetts faces a number of challenges. We are still down about 100,000 jobs from the peak of the business cycle in 2001 and ranked next to last in job creation between 2001 and 2006, besting only Michigan. Given that Massachusetts is an older state that is already highly developed, it makes sense that Massachusetts is not a leader in job creation. However, the fact that Massachusetts trailed its 10 economic competitor states and each of the New England states in job creation in recent years requires much more debate and discussion. This research documents how the job losses have contributed to large numbers of residents moving out of our state, seeking better opportunities elsewhere.

The full report, entitled Mass Jobs: Meeting the Challenges of a Shifting Economy, is available online. It's worth spending some time with it, even if you don't get too far past the Executive Summary and Key Findings. To read it, visit this page on the MassINC site, then scroll down and click on the link for "Full Report."

...

 

December 3, 2007

A rose by any other name is....disrespectful
Posted by Maureen Crawford Hentz at 9:29 AM

There's a great article in Working Mother magazine this month that addresses multicultural communication issues in the workplace. One of the best (or worst) anecdotes in the article is this:

"People often ask if they can call me by a different name because they're uncomfortable saying mine," says Shilpa Gadkari, an Indian American and the director of forecasting for a major cosmetics company. She'll never forget the first time one of her colleagues brought up her name: "A coworker said, 'Your name is too tough to say. How about we call you Shelby?'" Shilpa good-naturedly asked if she could start calling him Jim. "He said, 'You can't do that. My name is John,'" she recalls. "So I replied nicely, 'Right. And my name is Shilpa. You can learn to say it. I'm very patient.'"

These days when she gets the name-change request, her response is always the same: "I smile and say, 'My name is Shilpa. It's easy once you get used to it.'"

The issue of names is one that comes up often in recruiting. Recruiters may be reluctant to call candidates by name and risk offending them by mispronoucing the name. Isn't it more offensive to refuse to try? The best advice for developing rapport is something simple: just ask 'how should I pronounce your name'. If you can't quite bring yourself to ask for a lesson, know that there are many other recruiters who will and who will be landing the Mitsukos, Xiomaras, Kamalavatis and Adhiambos.

...