Showing posts with label Human resources. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Being Laid Off? Know Your Rights As An Employee | CAREEREALISM

Being Laid Off? Know Your Rights As An Employee

During the recent financial crisis, many companies ran into difficult times. Businesses struggled to stay afloat and employees were laid off. In the post-recession period, many companies are downsizing when their business does not meet set expectations. Today, employees are also familiar with the idea of pink slips, and they know that their individual performance and company’s financial health must be right to prevent any shocks.

Being Laid Off? Know Your Rights

While layoffs have become quite common in all industries today, many employees do not know that the law safeguards their interests and welfare. Here are some laws and policies that every employee should be aware of when he/she is asked to leave: Read more...

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The Right Resume Format to Get You Noticed | CAREEREALISM

The Right Resume Format to Get You Noticed | CAREEREALISM

By Robin Schlinger

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview.

These days, companies screen candidates and resumes in two ways. The first is through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

All resumes (including those directly emailed to companies) are loaded into the computer, parsed and automatically searched for a match with keywords from job announcements (or keywords entered into the system by the recruiter/hiring manager). Only those resumes that have a good keyword match are selected for further review by the hiring manager. If a resume cannot be read by the Applicant Tracking Systems, it is rejected.

The second method recruiters and hiring managers use to find candidates is “sourcing” candidates by searching online resumes for possible matches using keywords. Again, if a resume cannot be read by search engines, it will not be selected.

Therefore, you should avoid using JPG and PDF files. Many Applicant Tracking Systems can reliably read only text or Word files without tables. Applicant Tracking Systems cannot read JPG files at all. If a resume is in JPG format, it will not even be seen by the hiring manager. In addition, many older Applicant Tracking Systems also cannot read PDF files, and if an applicant submits a PDF that is not readable, it will also be rejected.

You may be the most qualified candidate, but that you will not be chosen for an interview unless the Applicant Tracking System can read your resume. Read more...

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Why Trying To Manipulate Employee Motivation Always Backfires | Fast Company

Why Trying To Manipulate Employee Motivation Always Backfires

By Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard

October 25, 2012

[Image: Flickr user Andrew Miller]

CEOs have two levers they pull on a regular basis to influence their organizations. The first lever adds to, or takes away from, strategic intentions. The second one controls the hiring of key talent to ensure that the right people are in the right seats.

Levers work well for many of the factors that impact business success; but one area--employee engagement--resists “leveraging.” Even after a decade of trying, organizations as a whole have made little progress on improving employee engagement. Disengagement still stands at about 70 percent, the same as when Gallup first started publishing data on the topic in the late '90s.

Why the struggle with improving this particular area? In short, it’s because you can’t control motivation. While traditional carrot-and-stick levers can influence behavior in the short term, they do not create the intentions to apply discretionary effort and work collaboratively that are required in today’s more sophisticated work environments.

It’s time for a change [Read the whole article...]

Friday, August 31, 2012

Why Companies Can't Find the Employees They Need - WSJ.com

By PETER CAPPELLI

Andrea Levy

Everybody's heard the complaints about recruiting lately.

Author Peter Cappelli Follows Up

More in Leadership: Human Resources

Benefits That Benefit the Bottom Line
How a Few Bad Apples Ruin Everything
The Importance of Office Politics
Five Ways Companies Can Build Trust
Read the complete report .

Even with unemployment hovering around 9%, companies are grousing that they can't find skilled workers, and filling a job can take months of hunting.

Employers are quick to lay blame. Schools aren't giving kids the right kind of training. The government isn't letting in enough high-skill immigrants. The list goes on and on.

But I believe that the real culprits are the employers themselves.

With an abundance of workers to choose from, employers are demanding more of job candidates than ever before. They want prospective workers to be able to fill a role right away, without any training or ramp-up time.

Bad for Companies, Bad for Economy Read more....

Monday, August 6, 2012

Hiring: The Importance of Workplace Culture and Fit - 08-06-2012 : METRO article contact: Davis Erin Anderson articles for METRO in New York, NY US METRO

Hiring: The Importance of Workplace Culture and Fit - 08-06-2012 :

by Ellen Mehling

Creative Commons-licensed image via myprofe on Flickr

Hiring is risky. It's risky for the employer: if it doesn't work out, there is the unpleasantness of firing someone, work that's not getting done, possibly lowered morale for other employees, and then the hiring process to go through all over again. It is also risky for the applicant. Many hours are spent at work for a full-time job and if it is not working out, it can have an impact on other areas of the employee's life. The hours you are suffering at the office will deplete you and leave little time and energy for job hunting in order to get out of that bad situation.

Beyond what is stated in the job description, and certain traits (such as honesty) and "soft skills" (such as diplomacy and conflict resolution), employers want to know that the new employee will work well within the culture at that particular workplace. This requirement is harder to define or describe in a job description. It's more of an "I know it when I see it" subjective evaluation, and this is why the interview is part of the hiring process; it is very hard to gauge an applicant's potential to fit in at that workplace without sitting down and talking.

Read more....

[METRO article contact: Davis Erin Anderson articles for METRO in New York, NY US METRO]

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