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Schools are facing a crisis nationwide to recruit and retain qualified teachers, and the ripple effect is also being felt in a lack of substitute teachers to provide necessary back-up support and minimize disruptions in education.

For example, during the first week of December in Toledo, Ohio, the district had 182 substitutes, compared to 236 for the same period last year, the teachers’ union told the district’s Board of Education. As of mid-October, the district had 241 substitutes, compared to 393 for the same period last year.

Though the district recruits for substitute teachers and holds orientation programs, it has to contend with the fact that it can only offer substitute wages (currently between $79.09 and $90.49 a day, depending on experience) versus other school systems offering a regular teaching contract.

Staffing Agencies Fills the Gap

Recently, Eudora Public Schools in Eudora, Kansas, signed a staffing agreement with Morgan Hunter Companies, a Kansas City-based staffing agency.

If a faculty member is sick or needs an unexpected day off, the staffing agency will offer a replacement starting on a trial basis in February, running through May.

The contract marks the first time a Kansas school district has relied on a temp agency for substitute teaching services, though school districts in 48 other states have used similar programs, according to The Eudora News.

Substitute Teachers of the Semester

To combat current shortages and provide a means to preventing future gaps, Kelly Educational Staffing has started recognizing employees who have “demonstrated outstanding performance and service, and have made valuable contributions as substitute teachers.”

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Foremost Farms USA, a dairy cooperative in Baraboo, Wisconsin, said this week in a state filing that its planned layoff at a cheese plant in Buffalo County will last more than four months.

The company announced December 14 that it is temporarily ceasing cheese production at a plant in the town of Waumandee, Wisconsin because of “shifting cheese production and market trends.”

The layoffs are expected to occur around February 16, affecting 39 of the plant’s 49 employees.

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Jobster may announce next week its plans to layoff up to half of its 145 employees, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

However, chief executive officer and founder Jason Goldberg posted on his blog last week that, “Truth is that jobster.com is taking off and we’re about to launch some truly big-bang stuff there in January and beyond.”

A Jobster spokesperson says the company is in the midst of a business planning meeting for 2007, “And part of the drive is to get Jobster profitable. There are no specific plans to lay off people,” he says.

Expect a clearer view on the company’s specifics early next week, once the company releases the outcome of its annual review of what is working and what is not working, according to the spokesperson.

“That process is going on now and the news will be shared on January 2,” the spokesperson says.

He adds that, “At this point, any blog [rumors] are basically speculation.”

Seattle-based Jobster currently stands as a $48 million-backed consumer Internet startup. In July, Jobster added an additional $18 million in venture capital, led by Reed Elsevier, Harcourt Education, and other businesses. This was less than a year after it closed a $19 million financing round backed by U.S. venture capital firms.

“Well, $48 million is an investment in the company and does not accrue to profitability numbers. They are working toward profitability; they just want to make sure they are able to do that. That is separate from venture capital; think of it as a savings account and a checking account,” the spokesperson says.

Too Big, Too Soon?

One analyst notes that Jobster might be ahead of its time.

Ernest Feiteira, regional manager, Human Capital Specialist at NAS Recruitment Communications, says the jewel of Jobster is “its concept, and one that should be used more frequently by HR; sometimes they are laggards and it’s hard to persuade them to embrace technology,” he says.

“Their candidate relationship marketing to me is a competitive tool for companies that embrace it. With the job market getting tighter, being able to reach candidates, the passive especially, is going to be critical,” he says.

“Sometimes companies are so focused on today and don’t plan ahead enough, or do enough upfront to determine the return on investment, and are too focused on the price tag of an item versus what that investment will result in.”

Feiteira says he can see substantial barriers of entry for this type of service, an indicator that employers are slow to adopt the technology.

“Jobster is looking to use new sourcing tools that go beyond the job board, but there are 40,000-plus job boards, between niche sites and general sites. On those, all you do is post the job and wait for the candidate to find it, or search a resume database. Jobster is taking it to a new level, integrating referral products and tracking it, which is one of the most important things,” he says.

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The Mass Layoff Statistics program, a division of the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, says data among the four census regions shows that the highest number of initial unemployment insurance claims in November 2006 due to mass layoffs was in the Midwest (49,067).

According to the BLS, transportation equipment manufacturing and administrative and support services accounted for 33% of all mass layoff initial claims in that region.

Meanwhile, the West had the second-largest number of initial claims (38,860), followed by the South (27,536), and the Northeast (20,723).

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For recruiters who deal with employment planning in the United Kingdom, organizational development and training got a whole lot tougher when the country imposed new age-discrimination regulations earlier this year.

Though resources abound (consultants, books, etc.) to help employers deal with issues such as working with disillusioned staff who might need help with finding their focus at work and motivating older employees, there is one employer who certainly won’t need any help managing its older worker.

As of last week, the New Inn pub in Dorset, England, now employs the U.K.’s oldest worker.

The New Inn’s gardener just celebrated his 104th birthday, says he has no plans to retire soon, and relies on “a drop of whisky” to cure any ailments that might prevent him from working up to five hours a day.

Jim Webber has worked part time for the past 20 years at the New Inn, and he earns a self-imposed wage of £3 per hour (about $5.87, more than the U.S. federal minimum wage).

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Monster and Times Publishing Co. have announced their plans to create a print and online recruitment service in Tampa, Florida, beginning in January.

Monster will work with the Times Publishing Co.’s St. Petersburg Times, TampaBay.com and tbt (a free daily newspaper) to create the service, which focuses on a co-branded Web site.

Monster’s move into Florida follows its recent efforts at establishing a greater presence in local markets. The company now has relationships with seven media companies that represent 45 daily newspapers and eight television properties, as well as enhanced telesales efforts and e-commerce channels, around the country.

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It is yet again the time of year where everything seems to slow right down or even stop entirely. The temptation is to stop any activity and wait for next year to arrive.

But before you resign yourself to a week of inactivity, consider this: Daley Thompson dominated the world of decathlon between 1978 and 1987, setting four world and 10 U.K. and Commonwealth records.

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The results of two surveys released this week indicate that workers are optimistic about job prospects in 2007 — a confidence that may translate to more and more of your hard workers heading to the nearest competitor.

When the Society for Human Resource Management and CareerJournal.com conducted a poll to determine opinions about the effectiveness of retention strategies from the perspective of both HR professionals and employees, the results showed that more than 75% of employees are looking for new jobs.

Another poll this week — this time from Hudson quizzing U.S. workers — found that 78% expect their job prospects to be as good as, if not better than, this year.

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As we begin to reflect on what will happen in 2007, I thought a few ideas on how to maximize your success might be welcome. I have linked to articles I have written so that you can dig a bit deeper in the areas that most interest you.

Have a Clear Strategy

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If you are looking for a few good books this holiday season for yourself or others, ERE has assembled a collection of recommended business books to sharpen your skills in recruiting, leadership, and management. The list is in no particular order, and includes both newly published books and older gems:

• Growing big in the New Year? Lucky or Smart? is a first-person narrative written for the leaders and entrepreneurs among us. Likewise, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big is a collection of 14 small companies that focused on their passion, not the bottom line, to grow into profitable companies.

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The majority of the 1,000 largest law firms and corporations in the United States and Canada are not prepared for the eventual departure of partners or senior attorneys, according to a recent Robert Half Legal survey that casts light on the lack of formal succession plans.

When 300 experienced lawyers were asked whether their law firm/corporate legal department currently has a formal succession plan in place for key leaders, 53% said no, 41% said yes, and 6% did not know.

This survey echoes an earlier report from Altman Weil, a legal management consultancy, which said that since 1977 the number of bar admissions has been dwindling each year. As current lawyers reach retirement age between 2010 and 2015, the lawyer labor market will suffer.

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During a break in the action in one of my weekly racquetball games, a fellow racquetball player mentioned that the new guy on the court was the highest-producing stockbroker in the entire state of Florida, but no one would ever know because he never talked about it.

Suspiciously, I congratulated the new guy on his success and commented that I didn’t think stockbrokers existed today, as the Internet has replaced most stockbrokers with the online trading concept.

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Fresh from its acquisition of U.S.-based Computerjobs.com, U.K.-based JobServe announced it will acquire JobShark, a nine-year-old Canadian firm with 10 employees.

This is JobServe’s fourth acquisition in North America this year, and the first recent acquisition of a major Canadian online recruiter by a foreign buyer. Financial terms were not disclosed. In May 2006, JobServe purchased CareerBoard.com and Computerwork.com.

“I am never satisfied with the status quo, and our acquisition of ComputerJobs.com along with our previous purchase of ComputerWork.com and CareerBoard.com provides us with the ideal platform and user base for our expansion into the U.S.,” JobServe founder Robbie Cowling stated in a news release.

JobServe, formed in 1993, is the second-largest IT job site in Australia and is quickly expanding into the U.S. market.

Meanwhile, the Carlisle Group has acquired Chadwick Nott, a U.K.-based legal recruitment specialist, for an estimated £2 million comprising cash and loan notes.

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As a staffing professional, how many resumes have you reviewed in your career? Hundreds? Thousands? Do you ever find yourself pausing over something in a resume just because it seems strange? I recently found myself doing just that, and it ended up taking me down a very interesting path.

The resume in question was that of an IT professional who was under consideration for a full-time position. I was reviewing the resume when I noticed that, under the Education section, the job-seeker had indicated that he had “matriculated” at a school in Europe, had obtained an IT certification, and had received a B.S. degree in Computer Science.

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Monster has recently added six companies to its roster of HR Alliance Program members and expanded the program’s scope to include two new categories, job wrapping and consultant services.

New premier members include:

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Is your firm experiencing an increasing turnover rate because recruiters from other firms are raiding you?

The first four parts of this column covered all of the elements of a world-class blocking strategy. In this fifth and final installment, we wrap up with miscellaneous blocking tips, as well as a listing of the possible blocking strategy categories.

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To compare how easy it is for applicants to apply for jobs through companies’ online job boards, one company decided to put a new online spin on “mystery shopping.”

Bernard Hodes Group, a talent-solutions provider, chose two major companies within five major industries (retail, banking, high tech, restaurants, and hotels) to track over the course of 10 working days.

On the first day, each applicant submitted a resume to one of the 10 companies.

The resumes were developed “to ensure our paper candidates would look like the Michael Jordans of their industries,” says Karen Hart, senior vice president of Bernard Hodes’ healthcare division.

Next, the company had the applicants follow up with a phone call to each company. Finally, the company audited the online candidate experience for ease of use and click ability from the perspective of a job seeker.

Although some of these encounters were positive, the overall results suggest the intent is to keep human contact to a minimum.

“While technological savvy is almost a prerequisite to life in the 21st century, one would hope that one of the most important goals of a company — the sourcing, recruitment and hiring of the employees, on whom its future depends, would be more human,” says Hart.

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Most hiring managers are disappointed with the candidates presented by their recruiters, whether they’re internal or external corporate recruiters.

Right or wrong, here are the typically cited reasons:

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A comprehensive six-year study from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, which analyzed 10,000 high-ranking executives at Fortune 1000 companies, paints a much clearer picture about why there are so few female CEOs in major companies.

The study revealed that nearly 50% of the largest U.S. firms lack female top executives, 7.2% had more than two women in the top ranks, and a mere 2.6% had more than three.

As judged by the number of female CFOs and other female executives with direct profit-and-loss responsibility, the authors estimate that the proportion of female CEOs will increase from the current level of about 1.7% to about 4.9% in 2010 and 6.2% in 2016.

“Even though 6.2% is more than triple the current percentage, it doesn’t seem very impressive when one considers that by 2016 it will have been about 40 years since women entered corporate management in force,” the study’s authors wrote in the report.

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A new survey from HR services company Hewitt Associates shows that 66% of companies will not award holiday bonuses this year, instead favoring performance-based bonuses.

Nearly 80% of organizations currently offer this type of variable pay program, according to Hewitt’s 2006 holiday study of more than 300 organizations

The survey suggests that there is a definite “variable payoff” since variable pay can help make up where base salary increases and holiday bonuses fall short, and for those employees who meet or exceed goals, the bonus payout could be more than a traditional holiday bonus.

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