By Mary Lorenz on Aug 27, 2008 in Employee Retention | 0 Comments
Today, CareerBuilder.com announced the launch of CBInstitute.com, a site designed to help workers improve their skill sets and make themselves more marketable through online courses.
The courses are designed and created by leading industry specialists and content is gathered from years of research in areas such as: computer, business, and management and leadership skills, sales and language training, licensing and certifications, and various assessments.
Read the rest
Loading ...
By Amy Chulik on Aug 26, 2008 in Economy, Employee Engagement, Employer Advice, Social Media | 1 Comment
How much election coverage should your co-workers really be covering?
The next couple of weeks are bound to get interesting, with Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination for President on Thursday night, and John McCain set to make his VP choice announcement sometime in the next week.
As I watched the opening speeches of the DNC last night, I began thinking more about the effect of the upcoming election on our workplace conversations. What makes for stimulating conversation by the water cooler - and what makes co-workers want to throw said water cooler at you?
Read the rest
Loading ...
By Mary Lorenz on Aug 25, 2008 in Branding, Employee Engagement, Going Green | 0 Comments
If your company is making a conscious decision to “go green” - and not just for appearance’s sake - I genuinely applaud you. Just don’t make the same mistake that Texas-based canning company WHH Ranch did, using shredded checks from a nearby bank to package their shipped goods to customers.
As good as their intentions might’ve been, they probably could’ve made a wiser decision about which paper products they chose to recycle…perhaps something a little less identity-thefty, no? (And, as Consumerist.com points out, “It’s great that WHH Ranch agreed to stop packing goods in shredded checks, but what sort of insanely reckless bank was handing them out to begin with?!”)
Read the rest
Loading ...
By Michael DeHaven on Aug 25, 2008 in Employee Attraction, Interviewing | 9 Comments
I gave a pretty interesting interview last week. In this interview, I tried a new technique that could be called 3-dimensional interviewing. You should know up front that I made a big interviewing mistake a few years ago and suffered tried to make it work for about eight months before finally concluding that I had to let an employee go. As a result of this experience, I’ve spent a lot of time researching and trying different interviewing techniques to hopefully avoid such a mistake in the future. Obviously, it’s impossible to be a perfect interviewer, but there are ways we can all be better. I’m interested to know what you think about this one…
The individual (Mr. X) who came into our office to interview was set up for success. He interviewed well with someone else who was responsible for evaluating his soft business skills. My task this time was to verify the soft skills and to validate his technical skill claims. When someone says that they are proficient in certain technical skills, it’s often hard to get a good feel for their level of proficiency without having them do some work, right?
Read the rest
Loading ...
By Amy Chulik on Aug 21, 2008 in Survey Results | 12 Comments
It’s Wednesday, and it’s been a hellish week already. You’re sitting at a swank bar in town (read: cheesy chain establishment that’s conveniently located across the street from your office) with the usual happy hour crew, and the waitress is giving you looks while desperately trying to swipe your second - or is it your fifth? - vodka tonic from your hands. But what you lack in size you make up for in strength, and you win the Absolut battle. She glares and shuffles off.
After the usual diatribes from Bob and Katie about everything from the boss’s poor tie choices to proper water cooler etiquette to the last-minute project no one was given advance notice of, Judy takes a sip of her beer and leans in. She then utters two words that make the entire table of co-workers shudder.
Read the rest
Loading ...
By Mary Lorenz on Aug 20, 2008 in Survey Results | 0 Comments
Today, CareerBuilder.com and the Inavero Institute announced the upcoming release of a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive staffing industry guide. The guide is based on a nationwide three-year study among more than 1,500 staffing industry clients and 8,800 job candidates.
The study, scheduled to be published in full on September 26, 2008, identifies key opportunities and insights for staffing firms related to topics such as improving brand awareness, communication and the overall user experience.
Read the rest
Loading ...
Loading ...