ANNOUNCEMENT: The Recruiters Lounge is on hiatus
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Dear Subscribers, Friends and Visitors,
I hereby notify you all that the award-winning blog – The Recruiters Lounge is now on hiatus so that I may direct more attention to The Searchologist.
Say what?! What is The Searchologist?
The Searchologist is a blog of lead generation strategies for Recruiters. Each week it is updated with actionable information that can be immediately applied towards your open requisitions. The most recent content is available for free, but is archived after a week. A paid subscription is required to access the archives.
- Click here to see the archives of The Searchologist
- Click here to see the latest tutorial from The Searchologist
How long until The Recruiters Lounge returns?
I do not have a definitive date, but just so I can be as vague as possible, some time in 2010. And to be clear, it is not on hiatus due to lack of popularity (in all modesty). Over the last 3 months, The Recruiters Lounge averaged 36,317 pageviews and 22,796 uniques a month and the traffic trend was steadily climbing. But hey, there was only so much a guy can do in his spare time and with all that I do (and that is quite a bit) something had to give.
Is this a trick? Are you selling your blog?
Not a trick. Not selling my blog, but if anyone wants to talk about it… (shrugging my shoulders). Have your people call my people, which is me (for the most part).
- Click here to contact me.
What about your podcast?
The Recruiters Lounge Podcast will also continue in 2010 (ummm… maybe sooner?). You will be able to access the new podcasts on HireCentrix which a website my friend – Karen Mattonen will soon be (officially) launching soon.
- Click here to check out HireCentrix
- Click here to visit the archives of The Recruiters Lounge Podcast
Will you let me know when The Recruiters Lounge is back online?
Sure, not a problem! Click here to subscribe to my mailing list
Wow Jim, what can I say? I am going to miss you.
Umm… don’t! Just hop over to The Searchologist and comment on my blog posts over there. (Lots of goodness is on the way over there. I promise you.) You can also follow me other places where I am still quite active.
- Click here to go to The Searchologist
- Click here to follow me on Twitter
- Click here to join my Searchologist fan page on Facebook
- Click here to umm… no wait. That’s all I got.
Okay… I told myself I would not cry, so I better go right now. (sniff-sniff)
E’ ya’ later!
-Jim Stroud
Weathering the Recession – Tips For Keeping Employees Happy and Productive
Click here to follow @jimstroud on Twitter.
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The current economic downturn has had a negative effect on businesses and employees alike. During these hard times, management instinctively focuses on finding ways to cut costs quickly and significantly to bring companies back to a profitable level. And that usually means layoffs. Unfortunately, though, companies often neglect the employees who remain behind and little time and attention is paid to employee satisfaction and retention. Companies may fall into the trap of assuming workers who remain should be glad to have a job and with current economic conditions there isn’t reason to worry about them leaving any time soon.
However, as the economy turns around, employees will begin to job hunt for new and more promising opportunities with companies they perceive to be more interested in their welfare. Smart employers won’t wait to find out how many employees they’re going to lose, they’ll start concentrating on their employees now to uncover any issues that could cause them to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
For whatever reason, managers don’t think that they can discuss employee satisfaction with their employees; however, open communication is a great way to improve retention and promote employee satisfaction. Granted, if you don’t have a good relationship with your employees to begin with it is highly unlikely that they will open up and tell you they’re unhappy, but there are other, just as effective, ways to get some answers:
Employee surveys – this can be done inexpensively with on-line survey sites. You can design a simple survey to find out the overall satisfaction level of your workforce. This is a great way to get information if you think that employees won’t be honest in a one-on-one setting. Of course this is only Step One – once you get the information you need to be able to do something about it. (see What to do with Negative Survey Results)
Focus meetings – if you have a Human Resource department, have it conduct some focus groups to discuss the overall satisfaction of the workforce. As with employee surveys, you can ask some specific questions that will provide insight regarding possible retention issues down the road. If you don’t have an HR department, have your managers conduct the focus groups, but have them work with employees who don’t report to them.
One-on-one employee conversations – this, of course, is appropriate for those managers who have good relationships with their employees or those who want to build good relationships. It’s the most effective way to not only find out what employees are thinking, but to start working on any issues immediately. You don’t need to come out and ask “Hey, are thinking of leaving the company?”, you just need to ask about general issues and concerns, workload issues, and career aspirations. These areas will give you tremendous insight into how employees feel about the company and their jobs.
Whatever method you chose, you will be taking the first step toward showing employees you care about them and their satisfaction. Be warned, if you don’t have any intention of following though on the information that is uncovered, don’t even start. You will do more damage than good. However, if you are sincere about wanting to make sure your company does not suffer a mass exodus once the economy turns around then pick a method, ask the questions, and do something about the issues you uncover.
What do I do with negative survey results?
So what happens if you do an employee survey and the results come back negative? First and foremost, share the information and tell employees what you are going to do about it. This does not mean you will solve all problems or that you should even try, but you should commit to gathering details, finding areas you can improve and keeping lines of communication open. Once you have these results you have the “in” you need to start talking about what’s going on. One effective method is getting employees together in small groups (15 to 20) to discuss the survey results, get clarification, and come up with possible solutions. Set the room up with round tables that seat 5 or 6 people and let them work in groups to come up with possible solutions for the areas that need improvement. Making them part of the solution helps achieve buy-in from the employees.
Prior to the sessions, analyze the survey results; come up with the comments that need clarification, and identify areas that could use some improvement suggestions. Ask each group to discuss among themselves the questions you have come up with and then share their combined responses with the group. After you have met with all employees, publish the solutions, implement the quick fix solutions, and create plans to work on the longer-term ones. As I mentioned before, following through is the key -make sure you continue to communicate and work through as many problems as you can and then re-survey in 6 months to 1 year to see if there has been improvements.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Debra Breski is a human resources professional with over 20 years of corporate HR management. She has extensive global human resources experience in manufacturing, service and technical industries in both union and non-union environments She has worked as a Director of Human Resources as well as in Divisional and Regional HR positions . She can be reached at bbreski@cox.net
Recruitment Juice LTD Proud To Announce The First Ever ‘JUICE LIVE’ Event “Boost Your New Business Drive” Seminar
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Recruitment Juice Ltd, leading supplier of innovative DVD training programs to the recruitment industry, is building on their success with the addition to their product portfolio of their first live seminar event.
The event, which will take place on Tuesday 12th January 2010 in central London, will be presented by Roy Ripper, host of their DVD programs and will focus purely on transforming the way recruiters approach new clients and generate more business – a topic close to many recruiters’ hearts working in today’s market.
“We hope the event will offer a great opportunity for recruiters to network, learn new strategies and techniques and get a massive motivational boost for their new business drive in the New Year. The seminar will be really high-impact and full of energy as we want the delegates rushing back to their desks desperate to use their newly learned skills and get started on new business!” said Roy.
Presenting alongside Roy, will be author and sales motivational speaker Gavin Ingham, who has been well known for over ten years for his inspirational and compelling approach to sales training.
Matt Trott, Director of Recruitment Juice commented, “We are extremely excited to have secured Gavin’s involvement in this event as we know he will bring something truly unique to the program. We are also very proud to have Dan McGuire, Managing Director of Broadbean Technology, hosting the welcome address and delivering some of his entrepreneurial flair to the delegates as he did when he appeared as an ‘expert’ in our second DVD series.”
For full agenda details and further information on the event visit http://www.recruitmentjuice.com/juice_live.htm or call 08700 677 567.
The event is proudly sponsored by JobShop HQ – www.jobshophq.com & Broadbean Technology – www.broadbean.com. Media Partner – UK Recruiter, www.ukrecruiter.co.uk.
Social Media Recruiting with Twitter
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Jim Stroud is bummed that he could not attend The Recruiting UnConference in London this year. In this video, he sends a shout-out to those who could attend and gives a few lead generation tips for Recruiters across the pond. Plus, what is behind the secret URL?
UPDATE: I made an error with my very first example. (Ugh!) You can use Twellowhood to find people in Australia, but you cannot refine your results to Programmers in Australia. (Unfortunately) Sorry about that one folks! Hat tip to John Burzynski for bringing that to my attention.
Twitter Treats for TRU London from Jim Stroud on Vimeo.
RESUME FORENSICS: Strategies and Tactics for finding millions of resumes and passive candidates on the world wide web for free
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Recruiters! Ask your manager to approve your request for this report. Download and share this document with them.
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Resume Forensics by Jim Stroud
RESUME FORENSICS: Strategies and Tactics for finding millions of resumes and passive candidates on the world wide web for free.
As the end of the year looms, have you considered your budget for the following year? Are you realizing that as you make your workforce decisions, you may very soon need to scale your recruiting efforts accordingly? In this recession, are you equipped to do more with less? If you are not planning for the future, the best time to do so is now. Now you can get the results of 100 hours of online research to learn where to find the resources you need for quickly building a pipeline of talent in various niche industries.
In his 45-page report, “Resume Forensics,” Searchologist Jim Stroud shares the following:
- Where in the world can I find the most online resumes for free?
- Where in the world can I find the most online CVs for free?
- Which search engine has the most resumes indexed?
- Which search engine had the most industry-specific resumes indexed?
- Which search engine delivered the most relevant search results when seeking out resumes?
- How many free resumes were collectively indexed on Google, Yahoo and Bing?
- Which resume searches worked the best on Google, Yahoo and Bing?
- How many passive candidates skilled in Computer Science are online?
- Where is the best place to find passive candidates skilled in the most popular computer languages?
Plus get easy to follow instructions on how to perform the following:
- How to source passive candidates from popular and obscure Social Networks and online forums.
- How to find free resumes on Google
- How to find free resumes on Yahoo
- How to find free resumes on Bing
- How to find free resumes online that most Recruiters overlook
NOTE: The tutorials have been simplified even further with the addition of several TinyUrls. In other words, after explaining the process of sourcing a particular skillset, a Tinyurl is given so you can view the exact method used to find that results. For example, go to your browser and type in this web address: http://tinyurl.com/example229 You will be taken to an example of how to find CTOs on Google.
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Click here for more details about Resume Forensics and a REALLY great deal I am offering for a limited time.
(In all modesty, this is a great use of a Training budget!)
