ERE community

Although the recruitment process at a National CPA firm, would  appear more difficult than at a smaller firm, based on my professional work experience  and converstions I've had with HR professionals form a small to mid tiered firm, I have reached a conclusion that it is much more difficult to identify candidates at a smaller firm.

Some reasons as follow:

-Salaries (starting base)  are much higher than the smaller firms.

-Smaller firms as a a general rule dont have the clients that have more cache.

-Infrastructure and Suppport mechanisms are not nearly the same

-General (Intangible) perks.

Below are ...

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If Social Media is keeping you up at night, relax-- You've just been there before.

(As we approach ERE's SM summit for what I'm sure will be an valuable day of conversation, I thought this commentary from our November CareerXroads Update might be interesting.)

In 1996, just 13 years ago, the Internet was at a tipping point - not so new that we couldn't see its promise but also not so accepted that we couldn't imagine its dangers.

As the debate raged on, the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) and the Society of Human Resource Development ...

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by Steve Hazelton, Head of Products, Newton Software

“Please contact support.” Makes you cringe, doesn’t it? At Newton we encourage people to contact support—by email or phone. No, I’m not kidding.

We call it “Support Driven Design”. I’ll explain this concept in just a bit, but first I’d like to give you some background on how we came to believe that free technical support results in better recruiting software: it makes it easier to use, faster to deploy, and paradoxically, makes supporting your customers cost less (which in our case means we can sell our ...

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Go that way. Very fast. If something gets in your way.....TURN.

I'd be interested to know how many people can identify the genesis of that quote.

It's one that some of my colleagues and I fall back on whenever something goes inexplicably wrong, or if a humorous goof-up occurs  with no forewarning.

We all take a lot of chances in this field. Every call is a chance. The ideal chance is one where you uncover the perfect candidate or generate the next big lead. The flip side is a conversation that deviates from its intended purpose and ...

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Think this blog post is 100% wrong?
Tell me why on the "I totally disagree with Sarah" page.

Because I've worked in the recruiting industry for a while now, but am not actually a recruiter myself, scarcely a week goes by that I don't get an email from someone - a friend-of-a-friend, a spouse-of-a-friend, a child-of-a-friend - telling me that they're having unsatisfactory interactions with recruiters, and asking what they should do about it.

The fundamental problem, of course - outside of the current economy, which is making job hunting tougher for everyone - is simply that most job-seekers don't ...

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Hello everyone.  Its good to have a few minutes to read and share with you.  I have so much respect for hard working recruiters.  Our job is a tough one, but its an awesome job to do well.

Recruiting today requires a mix of phone-based dialogue with clients and candidates, plus an intelligent use of available digital media.

Nothing will take the place of warm human relationships and integrity.  That will always be the mainstay of our human-being-based business. 

Using technology can accelerate your processes, especially in compressing time.  You can use websites, linkedin, jigsaw and other mass marketing tools ...

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by Michael G. Brandt - COO BrightMove Recruiting Software

I have been in the HR software industry for about 14 years and have seen some of the best and worst in most any company and any company’s personnel. I myself have been in a few very bad situations with my job on the line and have handled things both very well and very badly, which is what this article is about. I guess it was about 8 years ago now that I almost ended my career with what we will call blame-a-nitus. I was a senior manager within a top ...

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Does anyone know if it is legal to say that you are looking for currently working candidates in your job description posts?

"Within the Toyota Production System, a lack of ability to do kaizen becomes a critical flaw. Does this mean that if you do kaizen that is the Toyota Production System? In fact the reverse is true."

Taiichi Ohno explains that it is the type of kaizen that you do when the survival of your company depends on doing kaizen that is the most important kaizen. As the term kaizen becomes more popular, Ohno observes that people do kaizen that don't really need to be done. He calls this "omoitsuki kaizen" (or in English, "kaizen by inspiration" or "hit upon ...

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After reading  Mark's great post and the others he references about the possible future of HR and it's ability to change (or not) - I wanted to elaborate on the thoughts about the challenges in the function especially related to the tactical nature of much of the foundation work.  An excerpt from Mark's post:

"There has been an incredible amount of chatter lately regarding HR's future/fate and it makes for a very good read. In the past few weeks alone HR was declared dead and then rose from the ashes. Maren Hogan wrote a nice post ...

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Newton Software, a startup building innovative, easy-to-use, applicant tracking software, presented to a packed house last night at DLA Piper’s Silicon Valley headquarters. The event, a monthly showcase of new technology startups, drew a diverse crowd of Silicon Valley engineers, business people, vendors, lawyers and venture capitalists. Newton was among the 4 lucky startup companies selected to demo their applications this month. As the co-founders of Newton led the audience through a short demo of their product, it became evident that design and usability are indeed the knockout features of their system. Newton is designed to help you organize ...

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Every day, we are confronted with situations that require us to make decisions.  Some decisions are easy.  Some are not.  Yet, each day we face the world not knowing what we’ll have to decide. 

It’s a challenge that I suspect doesn’t get much thought.  We tend to develop “I’ll take it as it comes” attitudes.  Some folks hide under the guise of an “I can handle anything” mentality.  Others are a bit more prepared, and work to develop strategies to provide themselves with the greatest chance to excel.  Once again, preparation and anticipation are key characteristics ...

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Over the last few weeks, I have had the opportunity to participate in numerous industry events allowing me to talk "shop" with many talented staffing professionals.

As always, these events allow me to learn from others and provide me time to incubate thoughts/ideas that often turn into future strategies.

Some interesting thoughts/ideas from my travels:

• Ideally, I think most would agree that hiring people based on competencies (versus skills) will drive better hiring decisions. Unfortunately, because it is not easy to assess someone's competencies, we most often hire based on skills. With internal candidates, we should have ...

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Are You Ready?  What is that question all about?

If you are a contract (or some say temporary) employee engaged through an agency or a business who uses contract (or temporary) people in Ontario, then the questions apply to you.

Effective this Friday, November 6th 2009, Bill 139 comes into effect that further enhances the Employment Standards Act and lays out very specific rules and conditions to align contract (or temporary) people with those engaged full-time/permanent by companies.  

Questions all should ask, of the company or agency is:  What have you done to ensure compliance with Bill 139? and ...

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As a full fledged football widow, I hear those words screamed by Hank Williams Jr and my husband every Monday night during the season.  Married to a dedicated Buffalo Bills fan, football is religion and our weekend activities are planned around what games are on TV.  It's a phenomenon that I do not really appreciate, and count down the weeks to our freedom.  What I do appreciate is the amount of time and energy coaches and the players put forth in preparation for a game from week to week.

If you look at their model it is one we ...

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In our new podcast at TheUniversitySpace.com I talk with syndicated workplace columnist and Gen-Y authority Alexandra Levit and veteran university recruiting leader Nancy Dilthey about attracting and engaging the best talent from among the exploding population of young Chinese professionals.

Listen to this new podcast now at http://bit.ly/2YNM7p. Then add your comments and insights to our blog page at TheUniversitySpace.com.

The LinkedIn profile organizer is a neat little feature that LinkedIn has added into the free features of their service. In my opinion it’s to entice the recruiter to trial and ultimately purchase a license to their corporate accounts. Though the feature is handy and certainly serves a purpose, it’s free version is limited.

I’ve had the opportunity to use multiple variations of LinkedIn recruiter and though I understand the benefits of the intended features, I am not sure I am sold just yet. I won’t encourage you one way or the other to purchase, but ...

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Often times companies don't understand the true leverage you can give a professional recruiter by retaining them. Forget about the fact that your search goes straight to the top of the priority list and everyone else gets pushed down the ladder. It's not even about the fact that retained clients get the top candidates first. Just the sheer power of being able to market your opportunity as one that is retained says a thousand words. Let me tell you why.

This year more candidates have asked ME if I am retained or if I am working on a ...

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After ten years of managing and training new recruiters and building a recruiting business, I have gone back to the desk.

As much as the business has changed, it has remained the same.

The most glaring difference is the third party recruiter's relationship with the Human Resources dept.

In 1979, when I started recruiting, we didn't need a contract signed by our clients. All we needed was a verbal agreement. We charged a fee of 30%, (1% per thousand). I would simply call a hiring manager with a candidate and obtain a verbal commitment that if the candidate ...

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Dr. John Sullivan’s article in yesterday’s ere.net really struck a chord with me. “The Many Benefits of Social Network Recruiting: Making a Compelling Business Case”

Too often when discussing social media (Twitter, facebook, blogging) with clients and friends I hear the standard “obstacles” about how/why these type of “social” media outlets are just “time wasters” or “unproductive.” (Or, the real straight-shooters just say, “I don’t get it and I don’t want to get it.”). OK…sure, bury your head in the sand – I’ve always found a lot of success doing that—duh.

I ...

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