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• Where are the Hidden Costs in a New Hire?

  March 1, 2013

  When making a new hire, it’s always important to examine not only the benefits that an extra mind and pair of hands will bring, but also the costs: the bottom line. Many assume that this bottom line will merely consist of whatever salary the new employee is paid, but in reality, the cost of a new hire is almost always higher than this baseline. According to today’s source article from CNN Money, the total cost of adding another employee to the payroll is usually 18%-26% higher than cost of their salary. Mostly, this money goes into benefits such as medical and dental coverage. The other costs that bosses have to consider are a whole rainbow of taxes from Medicare to State Unemployment Insurance on top of Payroll Taxes and 401(k) contributions. What’s more, employees may need up to a half a year of their salary in training before they can begin producing at a company. The bottom line about the bottom line is that it isn’t where a lot of people expect it to be. To read more about how much a new hire will actually cost you, click the link below.

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• New progress in the fight for equal pay for women

  February 28, 2013

  An announcement by the US Department of Labor this week heralds major progress in the effort to combat pay discrimination against women. The Labor Department has officially rescinded two enforcement guidance documents from 2006 known as the “Compensation Standards” and “Voluntary Guidelines”. With these documents rescinded, effective today, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) will be able to better investigate federal contractor pay discrimination in compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

  A quote in the press release from OFCCP Director and member of the President’s National Equal Pay Task Force sums up the positive effects the decision: “Today, we are lifting arbitrary barriers that have prevented our investigators from finding and combating illegal pay discrimination. At the same time, we are providing clear guidance for contractors to facilitate their success when it comes to providing equal opportunity to all of their workers.”

  Anti-discrimination laws aren’t much use if they can’t be enforced — so we’re rather happy here at Accolo that it just got a lot harder for employers to discriminate against women. May our workplaces all resemble Mad Men a little bit less.

  See the US Department of Labor’s full press release here, and stay tuned for upcoming webinars explaining the changes here.

  

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• Spotting Problem Employees Before Problems Emerge

  February 27, 2013

  When making a hire, the interview is one of the most useful tools at your disposal for determining which candidates will be a good addition to your team. What complicates things is the nature of interviews being somewhat like a performance in that the candidate has prepared for this first encounter and is undoubtedly on their best behavior. This makes spotting cultural fits a bit more tricky than comparing candidates for credentials alone. Sure, they may seem well-dressed, responsible and sane, but as the adage goes: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

  According to today’s source article from CEO.com, there are some definitive early warning signs for problem employees that you can spot through specific questions that will reveal their true colors. Some of the best advice that I saw in this article had to do more so with the mindset of the boss than the inadequacy of the candidate. If you’re really hurting for some new employees to lighten the workload, don’t throw everything you’ve got at the first schmo to walk through the door. Always aim above the adequate because, as I’ve said before, a blatantly bad employee is easy to spot but a mediocre employee may be a drain on your staff for years without you fully knowing it. To read the full article from CEO.com and find out the signs of 5 bad candidates, click the link below.

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• Small Businesses Speak Out On Minimum Wage Increase

  February 26, 2013

  The debate over an increase in the minimum wage has seen a wealth of support from several prominent small business groups. While it may seem counter intuitive, most companies that qualify as a “small business” already pay above the federal minimum wage. This stands in stark contrast to the negative picture of the effect of the possible wage increase being sketched by the opposition. (Negative picture as in calamitous, not something gross.) Most of the arguments that I’ve heard against the wage increase at least mention the fundamental market forces riding against the boost to minimum wage workers, if not stress it. They say that in some industries, when it costs more to employ people, businesses will simply employ less people. Proponents of the wage increase believe that when minimum wage workers have more money to spend, it will have a positive effect on the economy as a whole. Prominent organizations in favor of the increase include: Main Street Alliance, the National Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade Association, and the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce. To read the source article from Bloomberg Businessweek, click the link below.

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• Fistful of Hackers: Demand for IT Security Grows Throughout the Nation

  February 22, 2013

  It’s starting to look like the Wild West in cyberspace. A nearly boundless frontier fraught with with data rustlers, confidence programs, and more recently, an ever growing number of outlaw hackers. Naturally, an increase of cyber attacks in the public and private sectors are making demand for IT Security Experts and so-called “Certified Ethical Hackers” skyrocket. They’re the desperado tech masters who’s job it is to look at your company’s defenses like someone who intended to make away with all you’ve got, then fix the weak spots in your barbed wire (don’t worry, I’m going to stretch this cowboys metaphor until the cows come home). So anyway, these guys are like the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly all in one package, and they’re the people that recruiters are having having the most trouble tracking down. According to WANTED Analytics, net security positions rated up to an 88 in difficulty (super high) in Washington DC and a 71 at the lowest difficulty(still pretty hard) in Indianapolis, Austin and Albuquerque. Not too surprisingly, the US Government is the body with the keenest interest in these cyber coachmen, with Scientific and Technical Services being some of the other top industries with a high demand for IT Secutrity. Well, I’ve got to mosey on cowpokes. Click the link below to get the specifics on where IT Security is in highest demand.

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• Out of Work Professionals Utilize Mass Community Networking

  February 20, 2013

  What if I told you that qualified, experienced candidates from around the country were forming intricate professional networks for the explicit purpose of getting noticed and tracking down job leads? That’s right, one of the largest demographics of long-term-unemployed workers (ages 55 and older) is also one of the most active groups of unemployed people. Frustrated by months of coming out empty handed, these dogged people decided to pool their collective resources in hopes of achieving together what they failed to achieve on their own. From a recruiting standpoint, the organic emergence of these networks in the over 55 demographic that has over 4.7 million unemployed is a major windfall. Not only are they out there, looking but also organizing themselves as to be more readily reached and re-introduced into the workforce. Through a growing movement of community professional networking, these out-of-work professionals are finally getting a foothold in this economy. To learn more about specific professional networks that could be a gold mine of qualified candidates, click the link below.

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• The Critical Importance of Talent Branding

  February 20, 2013

  Brand perception in regards to recruiting is quickly becoming one of the largest factors in the success of talent acquisition companies. Now, and into the future, the type of talent that companies are able to get a hold of has as much to do with the perception of the agency as it does with the job market itself. In a recent article from ERE.net it was revealed that 83% of talent acquisition executives believe employment brand to be a key factor in being able to get the interest of top-of-the-line employees. These days, perception is everything, and is both easier and more challenging to control. Every interaction that your company has with a client or candidate, online or in person, on Facebook or through email, contributes to the overall branding of your company. According to the article, the very best strategy for getting cohesive and positive talent branding is to start from the top down by getting executives on board. Selling them on the importance of talent branding is the first step towards a strong employment identity which can, according to ERE, can cut the cost of hires by half and reduce turnover by 25%. To read about the 3 most important factors in a strong talent brand, click the link below.

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• Enriching Your Career As Enriching Your Life

  February 19, 2013

  People want it all. The house with a spiral staircase, the blacker-than-black flat screen on the mantle, biannual trips to the Costa Rican Sea Turtle Preserve and (of course) a job that both pays handsomely and gives you plenty of time for re-runs and mojitos. (And, you know, friends and family and all that.) Unfortunately, nice things cost nice amounts of cash and the more cash your job pays, the more you’ll likely be expected to do at said job. This is where the classic dilemma of “work vs. life” balance stems from. By working a job that feels like pointless drudgery just to get the things that you want, you’re essentially removing “work” from the equation entirely, giving over most of your time so you can ostensibly be at bliss once off the clock. Today’s source article from The Harvard Business Review Blog Network says that the question of “life vs. work” balance only exists because of a phenomenon of valuing leisure and pleasure over the satisfaction attained through hard work. Much like many of the opinion pieces on this subject, the author suggests that the “right” job is the right answer, or a job in which the work doesn’t feel like work. Rather than attempting to balance our personal and professional lives, the article suggests that through hard work to enrich our working lives, personal happiness will follow. To read the full article, click the link below.

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• Employment Trends and Statistics for January

  February 14, 2013

  With it being Valentines Day and all, I thought that today’s post could be on the sumptuous subject of January’s employment statistics. If employment stats are the fastest way to a woman’s heart, January’s job statistics would be like taking a blind date to Hansel and Grettle: Witch Hunters 3D. Unemployment rose to 12.3 million or 7.9 percent, with the largest losses taking place in Government and Transportation/Warehousing. 57,000 jobs were added in January, the majority of which were in Retail and Construction followed closely behind by educational, professional and medical services. In Business services, the hottest hiring companies were in Computer System Design and Management/Technical Consulting. With the USPS in a weakened state, these statistics support the unfortunate downward slide of our post office. Some good news is that the number of discouraged workers, people who have given up hope and the search for employment, dropped by 225,000 to 804,000. To read the official Bureau of Labor Statistics report, click the link below. Read the Full Article

  

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• The Next Step in Precision Recruitment Marketing

  February 13, 2013

  Marketing and recruiting are about as inseparable as wheels and a car, both functions working together to propel the vehicle forward to its destination. If we’re to keep with the car metaphor, the destination in question is a hire — or a whole bunch of hires. At the moment, the marketing function of most recruiters operates either on a broadcast model (mass promotions and email) or a one on one specialized model using data or personal information to try and take a more carefully aimed shot at getting the right person in the right position. According to today’s article from ERE.net, the future of recruitment marketing lies in a sort of hybrid between the personal approach and the mass media strategy. Instead of one:many or one:one marketing for recruiters, Tracey Parsons believes that the next step will be called one:me marketing. By utilizing the ever-growing wealth of information on candidates in the cloud, Parsons believes that recruiters will not only be able to send the right message to the right person, but also at the right time. Big data and predictive behavioral technology based on this data might just be the key to both picking up exemplary job seekers and detecting when a star player at another company is looking for better options. To read more about the possibilities of one:me marketing for recruiters, click the link below.

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