During the second phase, job applicants are asked to” bring an essay explaining how they feel about working with small businesses and how they envision their next job – plus an inanimate object that best describes them.” Objects brought by potential candidates in the past have included Silly Putty, soccer balls, hair gel, and pictures of family pets. Several other companies, including executive recruiters, are transitioning from a traditional approach to this new unorthodox method of screening applicants. At some firms, candidates are asked to play touch football or Yahtzee with other employees. The belief is that these activities can demonstrate an individual’s ability to work in a team setting and how they will get along with colleagues. Though this appears to be a new trend in the world of recruiting, some employment experts question the value of this new approach. They feel that companies may overlook the most highly skilled applicants in search of “people who are just fun.”Another trend in the high-tech business world is the scarcity of information technology employees. Recruiters are facing new challenges in filling open positions within both technology and non-technology firms alike. Typically, the high-tech firms, new start-ups with hopes of going public, are having an easier time filling their IT positions as they focus on higher wages, bonus compensation, and stock options. Conversely, non-technology companies with IT needs are finding it difficult to entice qualified candidates to fill their openings. They just can’t offer the perks that other technology companies are offering and are losing potential candidates as a result. Today’s generation is motivated more by instant gratification and high incomes than benefits packages including medical and dental insurance.In my experience as a manager, I have found it difficult at times to find the best candidates for positions for which I’m recruiting. Though there may be several applicants who possess the necessary technical and business knowledge to perform the tasks, there is a level of uncertainty regarding their ability to work within the culture of the organization. Formal interviews are beneficial in determining some behavioral tendencies, but it is still difficult to determine how individuals will work with others in the organization if hired. If we were to implement a new approach similar to the one depicted in the article, we might be better able to foresee how the candidates will work within their teams, with their co-workers, and with their managers. The interaction could also help uncover any negative tendencies that may be present that might not normally surface until the candidate has been hired into the organization.

I agree with the employment experts that organizations may wind up hiring “people who are just fun”, but that’s a risk that may be worth taking. Business and technical knowledge can be learned by most individuals that have a minimum set of skills, but personality and behavioral skills are much more difficult to alter. Personal skills are not typically learned through any coursework or training that individuals may attend but through life experiences, though these may include training of some kind. I would prefer hiring candidates who I felt reasonably confident would fit into the organization and could learn the required business and technical skills rather than hiring individuals who already had the business and technical knowledge but would not have the ability to fit in the organization.

In addition, I feel that companies should do more market research to determine what types of compensation the employees they are trying to recruit are wanting. If the company can only offer A, B, and C, and the employee only wants D, E, and F, then there isn’t a good match for either party. If employers are having a difficult time filling current positions, they should modify their benefit structure if at all possible or begin looking toward a different market segment that may be able to perform the same type of work.

CareerBuilder.com is an on-line recruitment service based out of Reston, Virginia. Their resume database contains of over 1.5 million resumes, utilizes over 250 search agents, and has over 48,000 jobs posted on the main site, as well as 243,000 on their network, which consists of over fifty participating sites and network job boards. CareerBuilder.com was rated by the February 2000 Forester Report as the most efficient on-line service, and claims to provide employers with the best access and exposure to top websites such as MSN and USA Today, along with various industry sites and localized new sites. CareerBuilder.com also provides interactive banner advertising on its home site, as well as all participating job sites and career centers on the internet, providing additional advertising exposure to their clients. Although the Job Search Agent only hunts through jobs posted on the Career Builder network, which limits the amount of information available to their clients, CareerBuilder.com was rated by The Standard.com as by far the best job megasite for employers… practically perfect in every way.

There are several advantages and disadvantages to using this particular vehicle to recruit potential employees. Using an internet recruitment service is more cost effective; a newspaper advertisement costs between 50 to 100, and is good for approximately ten days. An internet listing costs as little as 10, and lasts up to thirty days. Internet services also provide immediate results, where as newspaper ads can take as long as one week for the company to receive any responses. Lastly, utilizing the internet provides an employer access to a greater number and range of applicants . Disadvantages include a greater amount of responses to review, which can be very time consuming, many of which may not be qualified skill wise or geographically for the positions advertised Dessler, 2000 .

There are pros and cons of incorporating the use of the internet in the pursuit of qualified applicants. Millions of resumes and various data is posted on the web for other reasons than the search for employment. It is possible to search the internet for resumes of employees in any company, and according to Peter Capelli at the Wharton Shchool, a division of the University of Pennsylvania 2000 anyone can flip the URL … and follow links back through websites and get into a companies intranet to get lists of employees. this isn t considered hacking into the sites. These sites are legally accessible, but were never intended for outsiders to see. These are called passive applicants, prospective employees that are not currently looking for a change of employment, but are able to be enticed if approached,. According the University of Pennsylvania, 36 of employees are happy with their jobs, but would move if something better came along 2001 . This opens up a whole new market for those companies looking for new people, as they are not limited to only those actively searching for employment. This also brings up the issue of privacy and the internet, aand according to Capelli 2001 that s the essense of the internet…information is freely available and cheap.

On the other hand, employee loyalty is at an all time low due to layoffs and mergers, and the time where employees received job security and a defined career track for loyalty and good work is gone. According to Capelli, 2001 the playing field between employee and employer has been leveled, the introduction of the internet has change d the notion of equity…issues of fairness, with respect to things like compensation, opportunities etc. that used to be all based on internal criteria. Now, increasingly, they are based on external criteria… The rate of pay we decided was based on how long you ve been with the company, your job title, and position within the hierarchy of the company. Now it s increasingly based on the rate for similar jobs elsewhere… this makes the balance of power much more based on a market relationship rather than a kind of inside political relationship.

Once an organization decides to employ an online employment service, several factors should be considered. Price is a factor, as well as the overal user friendly quality of the service. It must be quick, vast, and easily searchable. The organization s ranking in the search lists, in proportion to the size of that list, is an important factor, as is the clarity, variety, and ease of use of the search.

In summary, the introduction of the internet has completely altered the way employers hire, how individuals seek out work, how employees feel about their current employer, and how companies manage human resources. The utilization of an on-line recruitment service has become a necessary, as well as very effective way, to organize and manipulate the information available to both employers and employees adequately in today s job market.

• Interview-appropriate clothing (27%)
• Travel and lodging (24%)
• Research (19%)

Be prepared to spend time and money. That is the message that Experience.com survey is sending out to job seekers. However, this really only works for the passive job seeker. Active job seekers don’t have the luxury of time and money since they are actively looking for a job. Most active job seekers are only in the position to take the first job offer that comes along. Whereas passive job seekers can take their time, use the networking tools, such as Itzbig, the dynamic network for quality career connections, to find their next career opportunity. The passive job seeker has more time and money to research their prospective companies that are on their list which will result in a much more productive interview.

Welcome to the November 16, 2007 edition of carnival of internet recruiting.

Phil B. presents The Problems with IT Firefighting « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity, saying, “People have to be punished for causing system malfunctions that they look to IT to fix for them. Due to the lack of planning or foresight of others, IT tech support is constantly in the position of resolving emergencies or putting out fires that they did not start.”

Sidhusaaheb presents Of Human Bondage posted at I, Me, Myself. That concludes this edition.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of internet recruiting using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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A few questions that I have to ask:
1. How old are you?
2. Do you look like a normal person and/or presentable to take on interviews with me?
3. Are you male?
4. Do you smoke?

What is acceptable is asking for the date of birth on an employment application. You cannot explicitly ask how old someone per the age discrimination act. You cannot ask if someone smokes or not, but you can say during orientation that you have a smoke free workplace and that you give two ten minutes breaks to take care of personal reasons which can include smoking. You cannot ask if someone is male or female for fears of sex discrimination. Too many gold digging women out there using this as their defense. Just because you cannot ask these questions, there are ways around it so that you, the business owner, can hire the person that is the most qualified but is the one that you want.

The problem with using the Internet for recruiting is that you will get swamped with resumes, and the majority of them being unqualified. Are you tired of receiving thousands of resumes for a single open position? The answer is NOT to post jobs online. In this article, I’ll use an example of how I recruit for employees for one of my account executive positions.

Read the full article here!

This hits home for me since I use to work in a non-union grocery store in Florida, where I worked my way up to Assistant Grocery Manager. I eventually left when I realized that I have two Master’s degrees and I did not want work in grocery store this level of education. It was beneath me. Is this what I really want to do? Sure the money was great. I was making $60,000 per year plus bonuses. At one time, I was setting my sights at reaching the store manager position which makes $80,000 plus bonuses, which can put the salary for that position at over $100,000. Not bad for a grocery store.

Then I realized that it is not all about money. You have to be happy too. Where does your passion lie? I found my passion to be in human resources and rediscovered that passion. I decided to leave that job, take my degree in human resources and start up my own human resources consulting firm. What is better than working for yourself and not having to answer to anyone?

With that said, how would you go about recruiting quality applicants for store level positions in a retail grocery store?

One thought that occurs to me is that the problem may not be in the recruiting area. It may be in other human resource areas, or in other areas of the company. All of these may be significantly more involved in diagnosing and take longer to implement than finding a recruiter. Also, most if not all of what you will want to implement, will involve union negotiations since this particular company is unionized.

For the sake of discussion, what can you do in this case? For example, can you change the nature of the work?

From a compensation standpoint, perhaps the pay is too low for a more affluent area. Maybe some creative incentive pay system could help. From a benefits standpoint, perhaps college scholarships might be useful. In my area, Publix Super Markets is a top grocery employer that has made nationwide lists of one of the top employers to work for namely for their better than average wages and promotion from within system. Many store managers who make $80,000 per year have worked their way up the ranks from being a bagger. There was even a former store manager for Winn Dixie who started his career with Publix Super Markets as bagger, and worked his way up rather quickly to store manager. He points to knowing the opportunities that are available, such as when he would become eligible to submit a registration of interest, to his success.

Other contributing factors include:

• The store might not be offering flex scheduling that might be attractive to prospective employees.
• The store may not be physically appealing.

It is hard to say exactly why this person is having a hard time recruiting, but my point is that the issues may be in areas other than “recruiting” per se. Both the job and the employer itself need to be made more attractive, perhaps. What is the image of the company in the community?

Publix Super Markets is known for its employees for being the most generous. Every year they have a fundraising campaign for the United Way, and every year they consistently beat the previous years goals in money donated.

The company is also known for its flexible scheduling. They offer this and it has really become a huge benefit since the employees really appreciate this. It is one of the main reasons why they are successful in recruiting and hiring a lot of college and high school students as well as senior citizens and disabled individuals that work out really well. The hiring of disabled individuals really helps to improve the company image in the community. The employees even refer their friends to work the company.

So it is a matter of perception of your business. Publix Super Markets has a very good reputation of being a great supermarket with superior customer service as well as being an employer of choice that treats and pays their employees well. As in the case of this recruiter for a unionized grocery chain, they may need to focus on this before they can be successful in recruiting.

At Publix Super Markets, they take time to listen to what customers and employees are saying about their business and what employees say about working conditions and issues they have. This is how they have stayed union free to date, although the unions continue to fight a losing battle. They act on problems and don’t just brush them under the rug.

In the case of the unionized grocery chain in California, does this company conduct any exit interviews? Do they have meetings with their employees to get their feedback on operations and other issues? You have to realize that your employees are your greatest asset and treat them likewise. Your employees can make or break the daily operations as far as stocking, store appearance, and most importantly customer service. Customer service is an attitude, and if you treat your employees like dirt, they will treat your customers like dirt. Why do you think Winn Dixie has struggled in the areas of store appearance and customer service, whereas Publix Super Markets is known for its super clean stores and friendly associates?

They also make it fun by doing little things. Stock clerks clean the backroom together, they gang stock an aisle when an associate calls in sick. They decorate the break room, let them wear costumes for big sales events, wear their favorite costumes for Halloween, and let them wear local team sporting wear when they are in season playing. There is nothing to stop a committed team in an atmosphere that is friendly and conducive to learning and development. The atmosphere you create can make all the difference in the world in the success or failure of any business, not just in the retail grocery business. It is the little things that can make big differences.