A high percentage of unemployed professionals means recruiters are inundated with the requests of job seekers who span a broad spectrum of capabilities (e.g. from the highly qualified, to the not-so-qualified) whenever a job posting goes online. Sifting through all that information, even with technology, can be a challenge.
A well presented employment brand is an effective tool to attract and even retain the right people, but as with all things recruiting it has to be real; the brand, the message, the images. Your potential candidate is smart and will use his or her social media network and tools to insure your message undeniably represents the real brand.
New data suggest that the economy’s long-term slide may finally be showing signs of coming to a halt. Specifically, the pace of layoffs tapered considerably in September. The latest report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. on downsizing activity reveals that planned job cuts announced by employers last month fell to 34,768, the lowest monthly total in over a decade and a 17 percent decrease from the 41,676 cuts announced in July. August’s number, in fact, broke a three-month-long spate of increases in layoffs.
Quality of hire is a topic of keen interest to recruiters and talent acquisition professionals and in June of 2010, APQC interviewed Yves Lermusi, CEO of Checkster, to ask him how he, and some of the organizations he works with, define and measure quality of hire. These days Yves spends most of his time consulting and analyzing the cost and effect of quality of hire.
Sourcing talent these days is a monumental task. According to the U.S. Labor Department’s latest monthly job openings and turnover survey, for every open position there are 5 potential applicants – a small improvement from the previous month’s survey. However; surely this number doesn’t include the pool of currently employed (and underemployed) adults who are so stressed by the possible loss of their job due to economic conditions they can’t imagine tempting fate by applying for an open and potentially better position, with a new employer.
“Women and the Economy 2010: 25 Years of Progress But Challenges Remain,” a new report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC), looks at how women’s economic conditions have improved over the past 25 years, and the findings are encouraging. Women now comprise nearly half of the labor force, the reveals the report, which goes on to note that slightly more of them than men now graduate from four-year high schools.
There are three simple reasons interviews suck, and it doesn’t matter if you are the recruiter, the recruitee, or someone else who’s been sucked into the process.
Although there’s a lot of talk about transferable skills, identifying and articulating skills that are transferable beyond a position or industry can be challenging.
More than 48 percent of industries experienced a quarterly percentage gain in online jobs posted, according to Beyond.com, Inc.’s Second Quarter 2010 Career Trend Analysis Report, released earlier this week. This reconciles with findings fromMonster Employment Index, which has shown a year-over-year increase in online job postings for the past six months. More than 73 percent of employers were looking for full-time employees, according to Beyond’s findings, an increase of 12 percent from the previous quarter. Healthcare and Medical represented the largest percentage gain in overall jobs posted (5.57 percent), followed by 2.24 percent for Sales and Sales Management.
There’s just too much work and stress in recruitment. Without a wholehearted appreciation for the human aspect of what we do, one will find it difficult (sooner or later) to survive, let alone thrive, so ask yourself “…do you really want to get into recruitment?”
