Karen Litchfield and Kristen Nevils, two recruiters from Florida, talk about recruiting trends, their favorite recruiting websites, and whether recruiters are becoming more or less cooperative with one another.

I saw this today from an organization called Poynter that I get emails from, and thought it was nice.

These are three things employees never forget, from Poynter's Jill Geisler.

1. How their boss apologizes when the boss was wrong
2. How their boss handles a mistake when the employee makes a big one
3. How their boss responses to a personal joy or personal tragedy

I thought this post about Stryker was unusually candid, which isn't such a bad thing.

I'm wondering how frequently recruiters look at a company name on a resume and consider that candidate "ruined," to use the word that the blogger used. Of course, some companies (like Enron) have such negative connotations that candidates have taken to leaving their past-employers' names off of their resumes.

And I've heard or overheard recruiters say similar things about colleges, such as one recruiter who said something to the effect of graduates of elite colleges being more spoiled, and how they preferred ...

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I'm still thinking about what Reid Hoffman said recently: that the "really good" employees don't generate resumes.

On one hand, he's right. They a) don't have time to make resumes; b) don't need to, because people come to them; c) are publicly known, at least in their fields, and don't need to describe who they are; d) have networks of important people already who can hire them or know someone can; and e) are people who are hard to describe on a piece of paper, or a short Word document.

That said, the end ...

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New numbers from a TalentSpring survey of 208 organizations in the U.S. and Canada (50 large companies, 39 medium-size, 205 small, and 114 agencies).

• 72% of agencies see signs of economic growth. 67% of mid-size organizations do, and 45% of small companies.
• The average recruiter spends 4.6 hours a day on sourcing.
• The average recruiter spends 6 minutes reading a resume.
• It takes an average of 38 days to fill a position.

'Tis the season -- well, the week, because of the SHRM conference -- for human resources vendors to issue press releases. Peopleclick, for example, is talking about its social media capablities; Personified is too. For Kenexa, it's issuing PRs about interview questions. And Monster's talking up its "customizable talent management suite."

CareerBuilder, meanwhile, is talking about its "Applicant Explorer" so that recruiters looking through the resume database can get easy access to information about the candidate on social media sites, blogs, news sites, and discussion groups.

Explorer isn't all new. CareerBuilder has had it in beta since February. But ...

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Kennedy and Onrec are apparently combining forces and merging their Fall events in one form or another. No word yet on whether it's part of a larger or more ongoing partnership.

I'd love to hear how you feel about healthcare reform.

• Should we preserve employer-based health insurance? Does this model still work with the rise in free agency, contractors, and job-hopping?
• Should all Americans be required to buy health insurance, similar to the requirement in most states that drivers have car insurance?
• America's premium system is expensive -- but arguably the world's best if you compare apples to apples. Should costs be controlled, so employers don't have frequent double-digit cost increases? If so, how? Would this hurt the quality of care, or mean rationing?

I'm at a one-day workshop, put on by the Canadian company Brainstorm, on college recruiting. It's at the Marriott Manhattan Beach (apparently home of a painfully slow Internet connection).

Sabine Gillert, senior brand consultant for TMP, offered up four questions to ask yourself about your company and how it's perceived. I thought I'd share:

1. What most distinguishes you from others?
2. What will attract the people you most want to attract?
3. What will most engage and resonate with current employees?
4. What will people recognize as "true to the core" -- an honest view of what's best about ...

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Some info on the new Supreme Court nominee:

Manpower Employment Blawg's quick notes

Why she's a good pick

Her "firefighters" employee-assessment decision was "terrible"

Smart, sharp, but a mystery

Sides with employees more than employers, but "balanced overall"

On workplace disabilities discrimination and other issues

A May 16 receipt, from Pier 1 Imports:

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I recently did a little interview with Continental Airlines for the June issue of the Journal of Corporate Recruting Leadership. Continental says it'd like to improve the candidate experience, becoming a bit more like Starbucks (and its giving of coffee gift cards to candidates).

Perhaps, after some designated point in the hiring process (such as after the first interview), Continental could email each ...

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I thought the video resume pasted below hit many of Mike's top 10 qualities of a good video resume.

Dave Schmidt (who I don't know ... he just happened to email his video resume to me) wrote the script first, and then gathered images to support what he wrote. He recommends that others build their resumes in this same order. "Don't include much of anything that can't be visualized," such as a job title, he says.

Scriptwriting and recording/editing took about seven hours. Well -- another two hours following the feedback he received from colleagues.

Image-gathering took ...

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"I got the dev life in my bloodstream," this song says. 

Actually, I think this song is in my bloodstream. Play it a couple of times and it'll be stuck in your head too.

Kudos to CareerXroads and Rob Dromgoole for pointing it out.

Cute ad, top right of the newsletter.

Just reading a new report from Littler on the contingent workforce.

I've pasted one of the interesting sections below.

"Littler predicts that, assuming the recession is ending or has ended, 50% of the workforce added in 2010 will be made up of one form or another of contingent workers. As a result, approximately 25% to as high as 35% of the workforce will be made up of temporary workers, contractors, or other project-based labor. The numbers of professionals working in temporary or alternative work arrangements will continue to rise. Flexible work schedules and telecommuting will increase as companies turn ...

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We've mentioned before that despite the recession, there are still jobs open.

I saw a segment on CNBC this morning that also was interesting, about job openings, relocation, training, and related issues. I'll paste it below.

"The end of the recession is now in sight," according to a CNBC guest. He says there's always a "giant error of pessimism" at or near the end of recessions, and that things should improve this summer.

I like the quiz. It's short, it's simple, and it's clear in differentiating the firm.

Monster, VisualCV, TES Connect, TheLadders, and the NYPD are nominees of the Webby award, in the employment category, announced today.

CareerBuilder has been nominated for the best use of GPS or location technology.

TheLadders also got a nomination in the b2b rich media category.

"Honorees" include Zumeo, naturejobs.com, AfterCollege, EY, Jet Blue, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, CareerBuilder, and others.

Apple may be vulnerable to direct sourcing, the Journal says.

Funny where it says "despite his reputation as a tyrant."