Tag Archives: hiring

Sign of the Times: Man With 20 Years of Experience Hopes Sign Will Get Notice

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Bob Gross of Westfield has been without a steady job since 2009, when he was let go from his position as a system analyst. Far from a greenhorn, Gross had cultivated 20 years of experience in his field. Now he brandishes a sign and a smile in downtown Indy in an effort to hopefully get some exposure. WRTV6 News has his story — with a link to his resume (so give him a call if you’re hiring):

A central Indiana man who has been unemployed since 2009 is undertaking some rather unconventional methods to try to land a professional job.

Bob Gross, of Westfield, has been carrying a sign in highly trafficked areas of Indianapolis for about two weeks, hoping to get a job in the finance and accounting field, 6News’ Ebone Monet reported.

On Thursday, Gross was hanging out with a large sign at Illinois and Market streets in hopes that someone passing by would be willing to give him a chance.

Gross, a father of two girls, was laid off from Delphi Corp., where he was a system analyst, in 2009. Aside from a brief contracting stint in January 2010, he’s been without a job ever since.

"My heart sunk. When my boss came up to me and said he needed to see me, I knew at that time that I was gone," Gross said. "You’re in a state of shock. You can’t believe it’s happening to you."

Gross has a business administration and management degree from Indiana University and had worked for Delphi/Delco Electronics for 20 years.

He said he has applied for up to 1,500 positions at numerous companies all over the Midwest and the East Coast, but that conventional means just weren’t working for him.

"I’ve interviewed several times, but I haven’t been offered a position," he said. "I had to do something. The Internet way wasn’t working for me. So, I thought I’d do something creative. I’m a little bold and gutsy."

The job hunt became more urgent for Gross when his wife was laid off two months ago, leaving the family without insurance coverage. He is set to run out of employment benefits at the end of the year.

Optimism From the Job Cut King

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Forgive the poor E.F. Hutton pun, but when John Challenger talks, people generally pay attention. The Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas firm is viewed as the guru of job market reports and trends — and John Challenger is its leader.

Usually quick to report on employment cuts and leadership exits, Challenger is out with an analysis that says the economic recovery is no longer "jobless." Here’s some of what he offered:

“The pessimism about the job market is evidenced in latest readings on consumer confidence by the Conference Board and the University of Michigan, both of which declined in March. However, while some might perceive that the job market is standing still, it has actually made significant strides since the end of the recession in several areas, including planned layoffs, private-sector payrolls, unemployment and hiring,” noted Challenger.

In the Challenger analysis of government data it found that, much like the previous two recessions, private-sector payrolls continued to contract following the declared end of the recession. From July 2009 through February 2010, private payrolls experienced a net decline of nearly 1.2 million jobs, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ survey of employers. Since February 2010, however, private sector employment has seen net job gains for 13 consecutive months, adding a total of 1.8 million jobs. As of March, there were approximately 108.6 million Americans on private sector payrolls, which is about 93 percent of the pre-recession high of 115.6 million.

Employment is also growing in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey, which is used to establish the unemployment rate.  Similar to private payrolls, overall employment continued to decline during the six-month period following the end of the recession. However, over the past 15 months, there have been 10 months of gains for a net increase of 1.9 million newly employed Americans.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, which initially continued to rise for four months following the June 2009 end of the recession to a high of 10.1 percent in October 2009, fell to a 24-month low of 8.8 percent in March.  By contrast, unemployment peaked 19 months after the end of the 2001 recession and, following the recession that ended in March 1991, unemployment continued to rise for 15 months.

“There is no reason to think that these positive trends will not continue, even with the threat of higher fuel costs. Based on our tracking of planned job-cut announcements, which tend to be a forward-looking indicator of how employers see future business conditions, there are no signs of sudden reversal of fortune,” said Challenger.

Monthly job-cut announcements are at their lowest levels since the late 1990s.  In fact, the 130,749 job cuts announced between January and March represents the lowest first-quarter total since 1995.

At the same time, planned hiring announced in the first quarter totaled 112,942, which is more than double the 53,675 planned hires announced during the same period a year ago. 

Interview Stories (a Farce)

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In the course of interviewing job applicants, have you ever received a bizarre answer to one of your probing questions? Well, you’re not alone. Aol.com brings us 37 examples of the most awe-inspiring interview performances you’ll find. Here are just a few samples:

20. "I had a candidate come into my office with her child and proceed to breastfeed her baby boy during the interview. There was no acknowledgment or mention from the woman I was interviewing about the baby or him eating." — Miller-Merrell

21. "While interviewing a young lady who was wearing a revealing top, at the end of the interview, she leaned forward and said in a sultry voice, ‘I’ll do anything to get this job.’ She got people’s attention, but eliminated herself from getting hired." — Ronald Kaufman, consultant and author of "Anatomy of Success"

34. "When I interview candidates, I always ask the following questions in this order: What are you most proud of? What do you enjoy doing? Why did you leave your previous jobs? Here are the answers I received from one candidate: ‘I am most proud of my wife and children.’ ‘The thing I enjoy most is spending time with my family.’ ‘I decided to quit. I had an affair with a co-worker and when we broke up there was too much tension in the office.’ And he said it without batting an eye." — Bruce, executive recruiter and career counselor, Hurwitz Strategic Staffing Ltd.

35. "One time during an interview, a candidate removed his flip-flops and literally stuck his foot in my face. Another time, I was interviewing a candidate who asked me out on a date three times in five minutes. I had to remind him that he was on an interview — not speed dating." — Heather Araneo, branch manager, Snelling Staffing – The Wyckoff Group

Recruiting: You Could Learn a Thing or Two from Twitter

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Is your business finally in a position to recruit new talent? Sure, you could just place a job announcement online and watch the myriad resumes pour in like … sorry, I have no appropriate simile prepared; typed myself into a corner there.

But if you want to attract the best and brightest, it wouldn’t hurt if your message was original. Check out Twitter’s simple, yet creative recruitment video recently launched on YouTube:

References Remain Critical in Hiring Practices

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OfficeTeam released a statement touting the results of an employer survey that illustrates how references impact the hiring of candidates. See if this coincides with your own company’s practices. (Sometimes, as a joke, when my colleagues and friends use me for a reference, when their potential employers call, I like to answer with, "How did you get this number?," in a really accusatory and put-off tone. Screaming "Who dis is?!?!?" is also a lot of fun.)

A strong resume and interview may place job seekers in the running for a position, but a new survey from OfficeTeam finds the results of a reference check can be the real deal maker — or breaker. Managers interviewed said they remove more than one in five (21 percent) candidates from consideration after speaking to their professional contacts. When it comes to what hiring managers are looking for when speaking to references, more than a third (36 percent) said they are most interested in getting input on an applicant’s past job duties and experience. Learning about the individual’s strengths and weaknesses came in second, with 31 percent of the response.

The survey was developed by OfficeTeam, a leading staffing service specializing in the placement of highly skilled administrative professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with more than 1,000 senior managers at companies with 20 or more employees. 

Managers were asked, “Approximately what percentage of job candidates do you remove from consideration for a position with your company after checking their references?” The average response was 21 percent. 

Managers also were asked, “When speaking to an applicant’s job references, what is the most important information you hope to receive?” Their responses:

  • Description of past job duties and experience – 36%
  • A view into the applicant’s strengths and weaknesses – 31%
  • Confirmation of job title and dates of employment – 11%
  • Description of workplace accomplishments – 8%
  • A sense of the applicant’s preferred work culture – 7%
  • Other/don’t know – 7%

“When hiring managers narrow the field to a few potential candidates, the reference check often becomes the deciding factor,” said OfficeTeam executive director Robert Hosking. “To distinguish themselves from the competition, job seekers should assemble a solid list of contacts who can persuasively communicate their qualifications and professional attributes.”

New to the Business World? Some Tips on Getting Hired

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Ford R. Myers, president of Career Potential, LLC and author of Get the Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring, provides some useful advice to our future leaders of commerce:

Myers suggests the following five job-seeking tips parents can impart to their new college graduate:

1. The Most Qualified Job Candidate Does Not Necessarily Get the Job Offer. In today’s difficult job market, strong qualifications and accomplishments are necessary. However, the candidate who will get the job is the one who self-markets and demonstrates to the employer that she is the best fit for the company’s needs, problems and challenges.

2. Research Your Way to Success. Pay attention to local, regional and national sources of business intelligence. Study everything you can about the companies you’re most interested in. Learn to frame your ideas and value in terms that are relevant to the current business and economic landscape.

3. Networking is More Important Than You Think. The best jobs are not obtained through Web sites or help wanted ads. They are acquired through networking. Adopt the discipline of blocking-out time on your calendar for networking activities — now and for the duration of your career.

4. An Employer’s Offer is Never Its Best Offer. You might be tempted to take any job offer in a tight economy. Yet employers expect that you’ve done your salary research, and they anticipate having dynamic negotiations with you. In fact, if you don’t negotiate, the employer will likely be disappointed in you as a candidate.

5. Graduating from School is the Beginning of Your Education, Not the End. No company wants to hire someone whose base of knowledge is not current. As a professional, you should continuously build your credentials that will make you more attractive and marketable as a candidate.

Effective Hiring Critical in Reducing Turnover

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Anthony Casablanca, VP of Operations for the Batesville Casket Company and Hillenbrand, Inc., recently penned an incredibly useful column for BizVoice regarding his approach to filling positions. (Casablanca was named as the 2009 Ogletree Deakins/HR Dimensions HR Professional of the Year):

The candidate has been selected to come in for a face-to-face interview. Depending on the role, this is a one- to two-day process that includes a plant tour, customer business center tour, between two to six hours of interview time with both the hiring manager and the HR department lead, as well as several one-hour sessions with other members of the interview team (normally people who will interact with the person in this position).

During this phase, everyone has an assignment. The people conducting the tours are “soft selling” the company and helping us gauge how the candidate conducts himself or herself in a non-interview setting. You would be amazed at some of the feedback we get. The six-hour interview with the hiring manager and HR lead is conducted in a very structured way, although it is very conversational. We are looking for behavioral patterns, starting with high school and progressing through the candidate’s most recent roles.

This culminates in a detailed interview report (generally between four to eight pages long). The report is written by the hiring manager, who is expected to provide a summary of the candidate’s personal life and work history, and describes the candidate’s behavioral patterns – both strengths and weaknesses. They are also required to make a call on the candidate’s talent level, fit for the role and potential next roles. If we cannot see candidates moving to that next role, we will more often than not pass on hiring them.

How do we know this works? Our human resources team has developed metrics around our success rate of hiring “A” level talent. The HR team goes back to the hiring manager after six months and asks if the new hire is performing well, and if he or she is still considered an “A” talent. This is repeated at one year. Currently we get it right about 70% of the time.

For more on this topic, you can consult our ePub, The Interviewing Guide – 2nd Edition. Authored by attorneys from Ogletree Deakins, this online guide is now available for just $49. The book is also available in our Hiring & Firing/Leave Issues Package.

Good News on the Hiring Front?

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The results of a newly released survey from Careerbuilder.com seem pretty encouraging, at least in terms of the worst of the recession being over for the business sector. Workforce.com explains:

Fifty-three percent of employers plan to hire full-time employees in the next 12 months, and 40 percent plan to hire contract, temporary or project professionals, according to a survey released Tuesday, August 25, by job board CareerBuilder.com and Robert Half International Inc.
 
The survey also found that 47 percent of hiring managers cited underqualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge.

The annual Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations Report provides an overview of the current employment situation, as well as a glimpse of the future hiring landscape. The report offers information on what types of professionals employers will be looking for when economic conditions improve.

The survey questioned more than 500 hiring managers and 500 workers.

“Companies already are identifying the key skill sets they will need in new hires to take advantage of the opportunities presented by improving economic conditions,” said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. “Firms that cut staffing levels too deeply may need to do significant rebuilding once the recovery takes hold.”

How Employers are Using Facebook to Research Potential Hires

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We’ve all heard how employers are looking at social media sites to research potential employees during the hiring process. But is the discovered information indicative of future performance? Thanks to a study from professors at the University of Evansville and Louisiana State University, there’s a little social science to answer this question. (Speaking of LSU, one might question if the sometimes volatile and outspoken Shaq would have gotten through admissions had Facebook been around when he attended the school. Then, without hesitation, one should probably answer "yes.")

This article from Inside Indiana Business by UE Asst. Professor Peter Rosen explains the study:

Louisiana State University Professor Don Kluemper and I both thought this was an interesting question, and one worth exploring. So last year, we began a study entitled “Future Employment Selection Methods: Evaluating Social Networking Web Sites.” The goal was to learn whether or not the information found on a person’s Facebook page could serve as an accurate barometer of that person’s personality, IQ and academic performance, which are many of the same things that predict job performance.

The answer, we found, was a resounding “Yes!” Working with 63 LSU students, all of whom had undergone training in what potential employers look for on Facebook, we were able to determine that much of what employers look for can, indeed, create an accurate impression of several personality traits, including:

• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional Stability
• Openness to Experience

To do this, we randomly selected six sample Facebook pages from a group of students that had agreed to join our research study. Each of the 63 trained student raters was asked to individually review the six sample pages. Using only what they saw on the site, the students were then asked to rate each Facebook user based on their perception of the person’s personality, intelligence, and academic performance – our proxy for job performance. Continue reading →