The Wall Street Journal (Marketwatch, January 1, 2012) suggests that job seekers need to be creative and flexible to land and keep a job.   There are a number of reasons given for this statement, and I thought they were worth reviewing. 

Employers are staying lean, and staff levels aren’t expected to increase much in the next months.  That means that the existing staff will have to respond to a wide variety of demands.  As workers shift around some of these positions may be available, but they may have changed significantly in breadth and skill requirements.  Employers also want workers who are able to adapt quickly to new responsibilities as companies try to stay competitive in a changing economy. 

Opportunities may be there in industries that the job seeker isn’t familiar with.  Economists do project growth in the health care market, professional services such as accounting and legal, retail sales and management and certain manufacturing jobs.  For each of these industries there are some special skill requirements or education.  Manufacturing may require some occupational training, but that can be accessed thru many community college programs.  The retail industry, sales in particular, requires interpersonal skills.

So, what is a job seeker to do?  Ideas presented in the article include highlighting the applicant’s creative skills to show their ability to adapt to new duties.  Technical literacy is really a basic must in most companies, including health care, where much of the business end of the industry is going automated.  If you are well versed in electronic data handling – they will want you! 

Project management and communications skills are abilities that are valued across many industries, and finding workers able to communicate clearly is getting harder to find among today’s applicants.  Job seekers need to work hard at honing their verbal and writing skills to differentiate themselves. 
Then, use marketing skills to get the point across.  Use social media (with taste and skill please) to reach prospective employers.  Understand in advance what the company values.  For example, a law practice will want to add skilled members that can bring in more business.  That asset is also valuable in other industries, so use your contact list appropriately.  Package your skills to show how you will add value to the organization – and be able to back it up with examples.  No “puffing”!
As always, good luck.

Tags: applications, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, job seeker, social network

Right now Congress is battling about how to resolve the budget deficit.  Some might argue that the most important issue to improve our economy is to get Americans back to work.  According to an article in the Society For Human Resource Management’s HR News, economists suggest that jobs should have been the focus of the Super Committee all along.

However, in areas of the country where there is job recovery, there seems to be another problem.  There is a significant gap between skills needed for these jobs and skilled workers ready to go to work. 

The SHRM article asked for responses concerning the skills deficits in job applicants for specific organizations.  A response from the Arlington, VA Workforce Investment Board said that in some cases job seekers just don’t know how to promote themselves.  When responding to the question “Why do you want this job” the applicant’s answer may be – “Because I want a job.”  Not a good way to highlight the skills a worker could bring to the company. 

Job seekers need to be aware that the current economic productivity is similar to levels reached prior to the 2007 -2009 recession, but there are millions more people out of work.  The good news is that 58% of companies that laid off workers during the recession are making direct replacement of those jobs. The bad news is that many of those jobs now require completely new skill sets.

The applicant needs to be able to separate him- or herself from the pack by highlighting the talents and skills they bring.  Recently there has been a change in the focus of the HR Recruiters from years of experience to actual skill sets available in the job seeker pool- reflecting the trend of changing skill requirements.

The really interesting issue highlighted by companies responding to the SHRM-posted question said that the most common skill deficiencies in applicants are 1) writing in English 2) math skills 3) reading comprehension and 4) speaking in English.  The cited language deficiencies could be easily addressed by applicants through local training organizations.  Students in secondary or post-secondary educational institutions need to be aware of these needs and be focused on heightening their skills going forward.

Hiring, or hunting for a job are stressful and difficult processes, and even with the right skills, or the right group of applicants the one thing we all need is persistence and a sense of humor.  Good hunting!

Tags: applications, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, job seeker attitudes, retraining

I believe that the hardest part of the recruiting process is doing the “checking up” on a candidate.  There have been a few times when I’ve been ready to make a job offer, and have had some issues come up on a reference check that gave me pause.

First let me say that a candidate that isn’t aware of issues that may come up in background checks, and not alerted the recruiters to the fact, are either not very astute or trying to hide something.  As an interviewee it is always good to check at least your credit history, and even background reports, as we deal with identity theft or just plain mistakes on reports.

The employer also needs to give this process some thought.  First, how much information do you need based on the job functions of the person you are hiring.  The more access the new employee has to vital company records (or to sensitive client information, as in the healthcare field) the more cautious one needs to be.  A company doesn’t want to make headlines because one of their delivery people was arrested for drunk driving!

There are also cost/benefit considerations for the company.  Some of the work can be done in-house by making phone calls to former employers and educational institutions.  The company can ask for a credit report if they obtain a release from the applicant.  There is a small fee involved.  Criminal records searches and motor vehicle records require more time and skill.  Obviously any outside screening service should be carefully selected, for accuracy and integrity.

The standard background check usually includes the following (Courtesy of Society for Human Resources):

 - Verification of Social Security Number

 - Credit report

 - Motor vehicle record check

 - County and state criminal records search (past 7 years)

 - National criminal records search, including sex offender records

 - Verification of the past 2 employers

 - Verification of educational background

Each of these factors requires time and skill to sort out and interpret properly.  The company needs to understand how to read the reports, and in the case of court records, have some understanding of the legal terminology.  In addition, the company needs to make certain that these records are kept confidential, with only the HR people directly involved in the process having access.  They should be stored securely once the process is complete.

It is becoming more and more important to do the due diligence before hiring.  A wrong decision can have a major impact on the company’s reputation, as well as the morale of current staff.  Better to be safe than sorry!

Tags: applications, employment issues, hiring process, job application

Most large or well-recognized companies that are hiring are being inundated with resumes, and are trying to find ways to sort through the pile. The Internet has created a whole new market for job postings, and has resulted in a much larger audience.  To deal with the volume, increasingly applicants are being asked to take a personality test before they ever have any contact with the company. 
There are pros and cons to this practice, and in some cases complaints have been filed with the local commission for human rights that the tests are discriminatory.  One case was cited in an article by Eve Tahminciogle on the MSNBC Careers site.  In this Rhode Island case, CVS Caremark included questions that sent up legal red flags for the local ACLU.  The test asked applicants to agree or disagree with statements such as “People do a lot of things that make you angry”, “There’s no use having close friends; they always let you down”, “Many people cannot be trusted”, and “You are unsure of what to say when you meet someone”.   Several applicants had complained, and the local Commission found “probably cause” that the test was in fact discriminatory.  The company agreed to remove the problematic questions.

This could be the tip of an iceberg, as the growing use of these tests early in the hiring process is a relatively new area.  The perception is that some of these questions could hurt people with mental disorders, and is likened to a “medical exam”. 

Apparently the employment assessment market overall is worth $2 billion and growing.  It was estimated by one research firm that  one-third of employers are using testing for hiring and promotions.

There is strong disagreement between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the ACLU on the use of these tests.  Jeanne Goldberg, advisor for the EEOC had no problem with applicants answering non-job related questions to see if the person’s personality will do well in a particular job. 

The article on MSNBC quoted some sample questions from a McDonald’s survey.  They included “I am sometimes unkind to others”, “I often lose my patience with other”, and “I dislike having several things to do on the same day”.  Ms Goldberg from the EEOC saw no issue with this survey.

The ACLU on the other had said that a lot of these standardized tests are weeding devices, and ones without real meaning.  The spokesperson said that employers were always looking for the magic test, but they didn’t accomplish much.  The applicant’s recourse was to decide not to work for the organization.

The question remains, how do you find the best candidates for your company – not only with appropriate skills, but with a work ethic that fits with the organization?  It doesn’t seem we’ve found the perfect tool just yet.  Good luck!

Tags: applications, Employment Testing, hiring process, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, recruiting

Ok, on the one hand social media is creating havoc in the workplace.  On the other hand, it is the latest job recruiting tool for professional recruiters.  An article in the Wall Street Journal talks about recruiters and the sites they turn to when “trolling” for candidates. 

In recent history Monster.com was a major player.  There was a fee for employers to post their jobs online.  Then things started changing.  Craig’s List was one place where jobs started appearing.  Then companies developed their own accounts on LinkedIn, touted  as a professional site for networking.  There they posted jobs and participated in discussion groups related to their businesses.  LinkedIn developed a hiring solutions segment with tools to help recruiters in their search.   The site has a reputation for having a comprehensive resume database, and is a go-to site for executive talent.

Now..we have Facebook entering the market.  Companies have also developed accounts on these sites, and post jobs and videos of current employees on the site.  There is much discussion among the various website companies as well as recruiting professionals about using this tool.  On the one hand, LinkedIn execs said that users regarded LinkedIn as their professional life, and Facebook as personal.  In their focus groups, job candidates were sharply averse to being contacted through Facebook for jobs.  On the other hand, Monster.com execs acknowledged that the Facebook recruiting platform is growing rapidly.  Their company has launched their own Facebook append it has grown to 800,000 users in a couple of months.

Right now all the players are seeing an increase in activity and revenues.  The future, however, seems to be in the social networking arena, with more and more companies adding those skills to their recruiting departments.  As individuals spend more time on the social networks, the recruiting power of these sites can only grow.  One reason Facebook is a target for the recruiters is that individuals spend a lot more time on the site, and one company found that candidates are 50% more likely to apply for positions found through Facebook than other means.

The result of all this discussion seems to be that both companies and job seekers are going to have to spend some time developing their skills in using the social network sites.  Just what we all need – more lessons to learn!  Good hunting, all of you.

Tags: applications, Facebook, hiring talent, Hiring Trends, job application, job seeker, recruiters, social network