Boston Hiring and HR Blog

By Gillian Seely

According to a Boston Globe article, the results of a recent Massachussetts Innovation & Technology Exchange hiring survey show that things are looking up in the digital, online, and technology spaces.

The Globe report details the survey’s optimism, saying on average, respondents will be looking to hire six new people per company, with one company (Boston-based CSN Stores) planning to hire 50 or more.  The most sought-after positions will be in the areas of Web development, creative & marketing, account services, design, and IT.

The survey results show that 95 percent of respondents will be hiring for jobs that require a BA or BS, while 81 percent are looking for advanced degrees.  77 percent will be hiring both.  Students and recent graduates will be happy to know that 81 percent of respondents will be offering college internships, and 76 percent of these will be paid.

(“Good news from the HR office: Digital media and marketing gigs may be more plentiful in 2010”, Scott Kirsner, Globe Staff / Dec 17, 2009)

Job Seekers Sound Off on Their Biggest Peeves of the Hiring Process

ABC NEWS COLUMN – By Michelle Goodman

It’s been a horrific year for U.S. job applicants.

The average length of unemployment in November was 28.5 weeks. At last count, there were six job seekers for every opening. More than nine million Americans now work part-time because it’s the only work they can find.

The grim statistics go on and on.

But stiff competition isn’t the only hurdle job hunters have had to clear this year.

In this employers’ market, companies have become pickier than a five-year-old at the holiday dinner table. Employment scams have spread faster than H1N1. And much like the budget surplus of the 1990s, hiring managers who respond to candidates in a timely manner have become an elusive, distant memory.

I asked some intrepid job seekers and employment advocates for their biggest peeves of the hiring process. Following are the top indignities they would like to see wane in the coming year.

Labyrinthine Job Application Systems

If there’s one thing I hear more job hunters harrumph about, it’s the maddening online application tools so many companies use. No one’s suggesting employers do away with online job applications altogether, just that they bring their systems up to twenty-first century computing standards.

“Not only do most of them have the job seeker input all of the information from their resume — redundantly at times — but half of them shut down, crash your computer or steer you into dead ends,” said Dick Barnes of The Freeland Group, a management consulting firm in Bellevue, Wash., that frequently helps employers with the hiring process.

“The really top people look elsewhere,” he added. “They become disgusted with a process that treats them as children.”

Another common complaint:

“No acknowledgment that your resume or cover letter went through,” said Robin, a marketing professional in Washington, D.C. who didn’t want her last name used. “I know they are getting hundreds of submissions, but this is easily automated.”

Overly Demanding Job Listings

Once upon a time, a person could apply for a job as a plumber, software programmer or public affairs officer. Now we have job listings calling for programmers with marketing experience, plumbers with a project management background and publicists who have a knack for accounting, mediating personnel issues and troubleshooting a leaky toilet.

Deirdre, an executive assistant in Los Angeles who didn’t want her real name used, said she has seen a rise in such demanding, kitchen-sink job listings during the 16 months she’s been looking for work.

“Two years ago, you could transfer skills to any job,” said Deirdre, who’s been in the workforce more than two decades. Not so much for today’s vacancies, which often require personal assistants to have a background in the employer’s industry, be it entertainment, real estate or banking, she said.

“Some have crazy requirements,” said Deirdre, who’s grown accustomed to seeing listings for executive assistants who can work on call 24/7, drive a limo and speak a foreign language — all for 30 percent of what she earned before the economy tanked.

Unscrupulous Recruiters

I don’t have anything against recruiters. Legions of them are stand-up individuals who excel at connecting job seekers with employers.

But like many vocations, recruiting has its bad seeds. They seem hell-bent on giving the profession a bad name. And when it comes to these bad seeds, job seekers don’t mince words.

“I’d love to see an end to the recruiter calls for positions that don’t exist,” said Paul Riddell from Dallas, a technical writer and Web designer who recently gave up the job hunt to open his own plant nursery.

“I’m talking about the situations where a recruiter calls up frantic over ‘a really exciting opportunity’ but can’t say anything about the position over the phone. It’s only after a face-to-face interview and two hours spent filling out applications that you realize that the recruiter is just trying to fill a contact database — and that the recruiter has as many actual positions available as he or she has brain cells.”

Endless Interview Loops

Some hiring teams have elevated finickiness to a new art form. Just ask Jonathan, a search engine optimization specialist in San Diego who’s waiting to hear if he successfully clinched a position for which he spent 10 weeks interviewing.

“This hiring process has been insane,” Jonathan said. “I’m used to meeting with multiple people during the interview process, but my average over the past 10 years has included one or two phone interviews followed by a final in-person interview.”

Instead, his bid for the position has taken six interviews: three one-hour phone calls and three half-day meetings at the employer’s office. All in all, he’s spent about 15 hours interviewing with 17 different people at the firm, including a presentation he was asked to give company executives on how he would improve their Web site.

“I’ve gone from being thoroughly enchanted by [the company] and the position to feeling annoyed and afraid that everything [there] is going to be bureaucratic, slow-paced, micro-managed and excessively time-consuming,” Jonathan said.

No Follow-Up with Finalists

Candidates know HR departments and hiring managers are beyond busy. Between their job hunt, volunteer work and the part-time cashier position they took to make ends meet, candidates are spread thin too. That’s why it drives them bonkers when a company they’ve interviewed with fails to tell them whether they got the job.

For candidates who’ve made it through a couple rounds of interviews and have been told that they’d need to start ASAP if hired, this radio silence is especially frustrating, said Jeffrey Deutsch, a Seattle-based life coach who works with job seekers.

“People deserve to know one way or the other whether or not they need to clear their calendars,” he said.

Julie Yoder, who teaches English as a second language in Washington, D.C., agrees.

“You call in an attempt to get some kind of information so you can decide where to put your energy, and they act like you have some nerve to be bothering them,” said Yoder, who grew so frustrated with the job hunt that she started her own business.

“Following up with applicants has gone the way of RSVP’ing for parties. No one does it anymore.”

This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.  For Full Article- http://abcnews.go.com/Business/top-worst-hiring-trends-year/story?id=9354641&page=1

Michelle Goodman is a freelance journalist and former cubicle dweller. She is the author of “My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire” and “The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube”. For more information, see Anti9to5Guide.com.

By Meg Toland

A few years ago if a new job board company were to request a meeting to discuss how their services would be of value to corporate and agency recruiters, they’d likely have a slim-to-none chance of being heard out.  A few years ago a good job board meant a huge following of candidates.  Today with the online recruiting space rapidly evolving, these startup job sites are exactly who we want to be talking to as their integrated technology comes with far more targeted intelligence than our industry is used to.  

Today’s Spotlight: New York – Based, JobThread
Based in New York, JobThread helps employers and recruiters reach highly qualified candidates – both active and passive job seekers – by delivering targeted job ads alongside appropriate content on its network of more than 50 Web sites. The JobThread Network generates 46 million monthly impressions and reaches 9.8 million unique monthly visitors. Recruiters select the desired applicant profile and set their budget for each job; JobThread then displays the ads to network visitors whose behavior, skills, interests and location match the profile. JobThread’s network includes: Wired, paidContent, Silicon Alley Insider, IDG’s online publications and TreeHugger.com. More information about JobThread may be found at www.jobthread.com.

By Gillian Seely

Last Thursday, I attended the Massachusetts Conference for Women in Boston. Aside from having a fantastic time networking with Boston’s finest, I was in complete awe that the organizers were able to gather 5,000 women in one massive venue and orchestrate a full day’s worth of events, talks, keynote speeches from an all-star lineup, meals, and career sessions with such ease. Sessions ran like clockwork, and the whole day was really a study in efficiency and energy.  It was a sight to behold. The conference was, by name, for the Massachusetts woman. Sessions dealt with everything from successfully funding startup businesses, to women’s health and sexuality. While the panels and sessions covered the full spectrum of woman-centric topics, the conference was undeniably geared towards female job-seekers. The afternoon featured career sessions where anyone could have their resume critiqued and network for good leads on new jobs…all very useful when looking for a job! The majority of people I chatted with were doing just that- trying to build their networks in the hopes of finding that dream job.

Finding the perfect job is like finding your soul mate. Why settle for less?

As I followed our CEO Kip Hollister to her various sessions, and listened to her speak about founding a staffing firm at the age of 26 that would go on to connect some unbelievable talent with some of Massachusetts’ best organizations, and as I witnessed thousands of people networking, something dawned on me.  Finding the perfect job is extremely difficult, especially as job seekers’ demands heighten.  Times have changed.  We are no longer happy to stay in a job that pays well simply because it pays well. We want to work for companies with values, that allow us to find balance in our busy lives, and we want to work for organizations that we love, doing jobs that fulfill us.  In this moment of clarity among these thousands of women, I likened the job-search to the quest for the perfect ‘marriage’.  Let’s face it- we are all after the perfect relationship, so why shouldn’t we be after the same perfect match in our professional lives?

Don’t give up on your dream job…even if you’re not sure what it is yet

Advocating a search for the perfect job might seem a little idealistic, particularly when thinking about the current financial upsets and crises millions of Americans are facing. Still, as I dwelled on this, I couldn’t help but think about my own career changes over the last few years, and how each time I left a position I felt something like a sense of relief, in spite of how badly it was going to impact my finances. Even something as drastic as being laid off can really be a freeing moment when you realize that you actually worked for the world’s most inefficient boss, didn’t agree with the culture of the company (or perhaps it didn’t even have one?), and weren’t given the autonomy to be yourself professionally (of course, none of these things have ever applied to my past jobs!). I was relieved after each job-change because I knew these had not been jobs that I wanted to invest my energy in long-term, and because I heard a little voice telling me to “Keep looking! It’s out there!”

You have the right to be picky

So as you continue your quest for the perfect job, I urge you to be picky with your long-term goals, even if it means taking a temporary job that you’re not crazy about in the interim.  It’s SO important to follow your heart. Doing what you’re passionate about might not always pay off in the short-term, and sometimes it’s necessary to tough it out while looking for the perfect job, but following your heart is the only way you’re ever really going to shine, and it’s a sure-fire way to propel yourself to the top of whatever profession you go for.  Don’t get stuck in an arranged ‘marriage’ that will only lead to misery and /or ‘divorce’. You can rest assured that your soul mate is out there somewhere…waiting for you!

By: Shawna Wright

Next to a competitive salary, health insurance is often considered the most important thing a company can offer its employees. A 2008 Towers Perrin Health Care Cost survey reported that companies routinely pay an annual average of $9,000 per employee for health care. However, an increasing number of companies are asking employees to shoulder more and more of the costs, or are even altering their health insurance policies in an effort to cut company overhead. 

On the other hand, a growing minority is incorporating wellness programs into their company culture, attempting to minimize common health concerns that plague employees including; stress, weight-related heath issues and smoking. Wellness programs are preventative measures. If a company can help to improve the health of their employees in the office, then out-of-office health expenses decrease, and employee productivity and morale increases.

Employers are offering Weight Watcher classes, subsidized gym memberships, on-site vaccinations and more, often on company time Another study by insurer giant MetLife found that 94% of companies with wellness programs actually reduced their medical costs. For instance, more active employees tend to have lower blood pressure and cholesterol, two health issues with medications that cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars per employee. 

Starting a wellness program at your company involves time and effort, but the best part is that they are completely customizable to the health concerns and wants of your employees, as well as your budget. They are also a great way to entice job seekers and give current employees another reason to get excited about coming to work. 

By: Smith Granade

As the holiday season kicks into high gear, companies are slimming down their party plans. The uncertain economic times call for stricter party budgets. Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are among the firms vowing not to host parties this year. While cost-cutting is the primary reason for most of the downsizing this season, public scrutiny is also keeping corporate parties to a minimum.

According to a nationwide Challenger, Gray & Christmas poll of 100 HR executives, only 62 % of companies are throwing parties, down from 77 % last year and 90 % in 2007. Moreover, almost half of the 100 companies polled by Battalia Winston International will hold luncheons and one-third will celebrate on site this year. Sixty percent have eliminated employee gift-giving.

Here are some options to keep holiday party costs to a minimum this year

1. Instead of hiring caterers, host a pot-luck dinner, where employees bring their own food to share, or have a cocktail party.

2. Lessen expenses by forgoing the open bar in exchange for a cash bar.

3. Consider cutting out altogether or at least paring back on employee gift-giving.

4. If you normally have a band, consider hiring a DJ instead.

5. If you book your event at a private venue, book on a lower-demand day such as a Thursday or a Sunday.

6. To further shave costs, restrict the guest list to employees and/or clients only.

The following are links to articles on conserving holiday party costs:

www.evliving.com/business/groove-heads-entertainmentllc/article-4.html

www.sandiego.org/article/Visitors/1211

holidayentertaining.suite101.com/article.cfm/inexpensive_corporate_holiday_parties

By: Shawna Wright

Employee morale is a critical factor in maintaining a dynamic work environment. Negativity can be one of the most damaging factors to an organization because it is oppressive, robbing your employees and company of drive, determination and productivity. As a HR representative, you are closely in touch with the employees of your company. They come to you with complaints, concerns and questions. It is your responsibility to sort through these and uncover the cause of the dark cloud hanging over the office.

According to a study conducted by Towers Perrin, the five most common causes of employee negativity are:

1. An excessive workload

2. Questioning managements’ leadership

3. Anxiety about their future within the company

4. Lack of challenging or interesting projects

5. Insufficient recognition

As the sports metaphor goes, “The best defense is a good offense.” Recognizing where employee negativity starts will help you head it off before it begins to adversely affect your business.

By: Gillian Seely

Joe Sharron, Dave Kimmelman, Jeff Taylor, Meg Toland, Michael Clarkson

While all agreed that social media is indeed the new frontier for recruiting, the panelists’ social media perspectives varied in some areas. Joe Sharron, for example, spotlighted Hubspot’s progressive policy of letting employees take the reigns of social media with little oversight and blog at will.  This type of policy would not work so well at Hollister, however, where Meg Toland strives to keep all outbound messaging in line with the company’s corporate message.  Takeaway? Social media should be tailored to the requirements of propriety for a particular organization’s persona and function. There is no cookie-cutter social media mold that every company should use.

A recurring matter raised by the audience was that of keeping personal and professional spaces separate online. The panelists concurred that any space once considered “private” is quickly diminishing.  They advised people to be very aware that whatever they post o

nline can and probably will be read by unintended audiences, even outside of the “9-5” day…which, by the way, is diminishing too thanks to social media and technology.

Another issue raised was how companies and agencies can deal with negative press or reviews in the online space, where word-of-mouth (perhaps “word-of-hands” is more appropriate?) spreads rapidly. Given that the quantity of information online is so vast, and to respond to each negative comment with an apologetic, proactive letter would be nearly impossible, the

new mindset seems to be “take the good with the bad”.  Recruiters can use negative feedback posted online to enhance their services and improve the recruiting experience for clients.  Posting a pro-active, sympathetic, blanket-apology in forums where negative comments appear is one example of a crisis-PR strategy that could go a long way, and is more effective than individual responses. The bottom line for recruiters in the online space, as Jeff Taylor put it, is “if you can’t do it 1,000 times over, don’t do it at all!”

So, how do you “do” social media effectively? If you can’t do something 1,000 times over, don’t do it at all. And let’s face it; no one has time to send individual Facebook messages to 1,000 candidates in a day. That means recruiters really need an efficient way to manage their Tweets, such as HootSuite, a tool recommended by Meg Toland. They also need to determine which tools and applications offer them the best value for their time.  While Twitter is a great place for agencies to post snippets of job postings for large numbers of job-seeker followers, it isn’t necessarily right for an in-house corporate HR department.

Panelist and lawyer Michael Clarkson, who might have been expected to play devil’s advocate, agreed that social media is more than just a trend for recruiters.  He spoke to the value of sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and provided fascinating insight into the legal problems caused by using social media for recruitment. While the benefits of using social networking sites to recruit employees and enhance diversity initiatives are obvious, he emphasized that the line between proactive hiring and discrimination can easily be blurred. This is particularly true when recruiters contact candidates via sites that allow users to post photographs and personal data that would not be found in a traditional resume. He advised all companies to have a clear electronic information policy that includes guidelines for social networking as well as blogging.

There was an undeniable consensus in the room: social media is the new frontier for recruiting. In the last several years, people have watched Facebook and Twitter move from personal forums meant purely for socializing, to applications that are often required tools in the workplace. Those who choose not to embrace it just might find themselves “unfriended”, LinkedOut, and incapable of finding and hiring the best candidates for their organization.

By: Shawna Wright

As the first decade of the new millennium comes to a close, another wave of Baby Boomers are set to retire and a flurry of Generation Y job seekers—those of us born after 1980—are next in line to enter the job force. As a member of Gen Y, I would like to offer some insight into our needs and priorities in the workplace.

Work/Life Balance

Let’s get it out of the way – yes, we value of social lives. According to a Business Week survey of 60,000 Gen Y workers, a work-life balance is our top priority. Often, our desire to keep an equilibrium between work and play strikes our elders as laziness, but this is not always the case. We grew up watching our parents put in 40, 50, 60 hours a week at a job that left little time for anything else. While we respect our parents and admire their dedication, we also learned that this is not how we want to live our adult lives. We are looking for job where we can grow our skill-set without sacrificing every other aspect of our life. It is no secret that we value our social lives, but it is not because we devalue our professional life. We believe that the best way to live is to keep a balance between the two. It’s important to note that mobile communication is something we all grew up with, making it hard for us to see the value of putting in traditional office hours. Most of us are beyond capable and extremely willing to stay connected with the office, even when we aren’t there.

Skills Path

When Baby Boomers entered the workplace, for the most part, they stood before a clearly delineated corporate ladder where hard work lead to a logical procession of promotions. Predetermined opportunities existed as benchmarks to success within a company. The changing times (economically, technologically, sociologically) mean we Gen Yers don’t have the luxury of a set corporate ladder. We don’t expect to spend our entire professional career with one company, so we are looking for places that will help us grow along the way. We do want to be leaders of our industries, but we value the things we learn along the way more than we value reaching the top.

Manager as Yoda

Typically, Baby Boomers expect a clear demarcation between managers and employees. As we Gen Yers enter the workplace, we are expecting a different kind of relationship with our bosses. We are looking for a manager who can also be a mentor. We are well aware we don’t know everything, but we are looking to learn as quickly as we can. We want someone we respect and admire, someone who can guide us through the early stages of our career.

By: Shawna Wright

Historically, there has been a relatively clear distinction between the Creative and the Technology spaces. Creative teams have traditionally been charged with creating concepts, writing copy and designing, while Tech teams focused on integrating back-end coding. The right brain handed off to the left brain, and visions came alive.

Today, however, as technology becomes ever more complex and grows more vital to the success of integrated marketing and advertising campaigns, the line between Creative and Technology has become noticeably blurred, breeding the demand for employees with mastery of both areas.

The convergence of Creative and Technology isn’t new. Throughout the past 10 years, the Internet has become the prevailing marketing and advertising tool, meaning creative teams have had lots of catching up to do. Copywriters now work alongside SEO specialists, filling Web page and blog copy with key words and phrases to make the sites search-friendly. Similarly, coding is no longer strictly a web developer’s area.

Through his experience, Jesse Morano, Senior User Experience Designer, has found that traditional micro-niches no longer work.

“When everyone understands at least some of the skill sets adjacent to their own primary strengths, communication is easier, the work moves more quickly, and the quality goes up without a corresponding increase in cost,” Explains Morano. “The best creative and technology professionals understand this, and actively learn from their colleagues in other aspects of the project.”

“But there is a limit that companies need to understand,” he continues. “You simply will not find a brilliant visual designer who is equally brilliant at Objective-C programming or vice-versa, for example. The trick is to figure out the exact ratio of skills you need and find a person whose skill set matches that ratio.”

Today, with everything from marketing to entertainment going interactive and increasingly moving into the mobile space, the demand has risen for hybrid professionals who are creative, strategy-driven, and technologically savvy. This defines the user-experience designer.

Sometimes referred to as the user-interface designer, this employee is responsible for overseeing both the technical and the creative elements that make the user’s experience as simple, efficient, and enjoyable as possible. This person is responsible for understanding the human factor of a Web site—the ways in which visual design, information architecture and new technologies affect how people respond to a Web page, as well as how the user moves through the site. The user-experience designer is ultimately responsible for marrying what the Web can do with what the user wants and how they expect it to be presented, blending the roles of IA, UI, SEO, copywriter, front end developer, and visual designer as best meets the nuances of the project and the needs of the client.

According to Kim Wachter, Senior Creative and Marketing Recruiter for Hollister, Inc., a Boston Staffing Agency, “The worlds of Creative and Technology are most definitely blending, particularly in the mobile application space. Our clients are looking for candidates that keep up with the emerging trends; professionals who can lead their company through these transitions.”