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Reference checking of candidates is conducted by nearly every firm in the Untied States. Some firms conduct them internally, while others outsource the process. Unfortunately, both approaches are often executed with little concern for accuracy or effectiveness.

In fact, it is not uncommon for reference checks to be completed by recruiting coordinators with little subject-matter expertise, using a generic set of questions that offer little in the form of insight into a candidate’s actual past job-related performance.

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Managers looking for new ways to make critical business decisions on salary and bonuses might find the results of a new Hewitt Associates study useful.

The research firm, which analyzed the HR data of more than 1,000 large companies and 20 million employees, says there is a direct link between the attraction and retention of pivotal employees and increasing shareholder value.

Hewitt suggests organizations prioritize human capital investments (i.e., compensation, training, benefits) to model shareholders’ return on investment, rather than use historic decision-making process based on competitive practices and benchmark surveys.

To quantify the financial impact that pivotal employees make on an organization’s business results, Hewitt uses what it calls Talent Quotient.

According to Hewitt’s research, a 10-point increase in TQ could add approximately $70 million to $160 million to the bottom line of the average Fortune 500 company over the next few years.

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Jason Warner, most recently the director of North America Recruiting at Starbucks, is about to start a new professional chapter as the head of staffing for Google’s Global Online Sales and Operations Group.

What is your new title at Google? Explain your day-to-day responsibilities.

JW: My new title is Sr. Recruiting Manager for Global Online Sales and Operations. It’s a little difficult to explain my day-to-day responsibilities because I haven’t yet started at Google, but my primary marching orders are to keep the Online Sales and Operations Group stocked with top talent and to do so ahead of Google’s well-documented growth curve.

Now, if you had to explain it at a cocktail party: what are you doing and how does it benefit the average Googler?

JW: Google is known for having challenging work and great people. My job is to make sure we have the great people to do the challenging work. By the way, generally I don’t like to talk about work at cocktail parties. Motorcycles, sports, technology, sure. Work, not so much.

How will this differ from your role at Starbucks?

JW: How about I answer that question in about six months? Google is in a completely different industry, has a completely different business model, but the talent needs between the two organizations appear to be at least somewhat similar: both Starbucks and Google have huge challenges with regards to scaling the organization and hiring a lot of people. Realistically, most of a company’s growth is what I call “growth through people” — hence recruiting plays a significant role in enabling that for the business. Businesses can grow and gain leverage through a lot of mechanisms: economies of scale, innovation, acquisition, leveraging technology, etcetera, but most growth happens through the traditional mechanism of hiring more people to do more of the work that drives company success and additional value.

Why did you leave Starbucks?

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I have an old college friend that I get to see about once a year. Back in school, “Joe” was a happy-go-lucky guy with above-average looks. He’s in excellent physical shape, and he always applied the appropriate amount of attention to his wardrobe. His personal hygiene is impeccable.

However, he had one problem. He could never get a date, nor could he approach women in public settings. We used to marvel at how a guy who appeared to have all the necessary attributes would strike out every time he stepped up to the plate.

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Everyone talks about work-life balance. It drips from the lips of recruiters and HR folks and jumps off the pages of recruiting web sites. Articles touting the “Best Companies to Work For” include it as one of their criteria.

Yet, deep inside, we all know that almost no one ever achieves any balance. We either choose to mostly work or to mostly stay home, raise the kids, and dabble with a career.

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The AARP National Employer Team, which helps connect individuals aged 50 and over with job opportunities, has selected six new national staffing agencies to participate in its program.

APAC Customer Services, Inc., Client Logic, Robert Half International, Spherion, Staples, and Toys R Us/Babies R Us will join nearly 30 other companies that “are committed to an aggressive program of recruiting, hiring, and retaining mature workers,” according to a release.

According to the nonprofit membership association, the members are companies that understand the changing demographics in the workforce, have demonstrated a sincere interest in recruiting and retaining older workers, and have gone through an extensive AARP application process.

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A new staffing industry report shows that temporary legal staffing is the most consistently fast-growing segment of the contingent workforce in the United States, largely driven by merger and acquisition activity and litigation-related work.

In fact, Staffing Industry Analysts says its survey suggests that temporary legal staffing is expected to increase substantially faster than temporary help as a whole over the next decade.

The demand will grow annually by 6% for paralegals and legal assistants, 5% for lawyers, and 4.6% for legal secretaries. Lawyers, paralegals, and legal secretaries make up roughly 85% of the temporary legal workforce. Of these, the fastest-growing occupation is paralegals, according to the survey results.

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Being a selection wonk, I continually look for disconnects between company policy and employment practices. Glaring examples tend to occur when I have a problem and need assistance from an employee who was supposed to be hired for his or her customer-service skills.

A Promise Made

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Philadelphia Media Holdings has struck again.

After last week’s layoff of 71 newsroom employees at The Philadelphia Inquirer (17% of the editorial staff) in an attempt to save money and restructure the editorial focus, the company has now reduced the size of its advertising team.

Philadelphia Media Holdings, which owns both The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, will eliminate at least 34 advertising positions — including 16 part-time positions, at both newspapers.

The company said the editorial cutbacks alone would save about $6.8 million a year in salaries and benefits. The editorial and advertising layoffs take effect at the end of this month.

Knight Ridder sold both papers to The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News in March to McClatchy Co., who sold the papers three months later for $562 million to Philadelphia Media Holdings.

This investment group, led by Brian Tierney, has since claimed declining national advertising and slumping circulation, according to the Associated Press. (In October, Monster merged its career sections with Philadelphia Media Holdings.)

Feeling Shell-Shocked

Joe Grimm, recruiting and development editor at the Detroit Free Press, knows a few of the affected reporters and says they are having a rough time accepting the news. He says the Inquirer is a very solid newspaper, so it left the reporters feeling shell-shocked that a layoff could affect them.

Still, Grimm contends that the layoff is not a complete surprise. “We saw over the years the Inquirer become the largest staff in Knight Ridder — they had a much larger staff than compared to the [Detroit] Free Press,” he says.

“So, it had been built up beyond the norm for its circulation size. They had been reducing staff, and with its transfer to McClatchy, the question was whether this would save newspapers or result in something else. We aren’t seeing yet they have a remarkably different answer than anyone else,” says Grimm.

Grimm, who also writes the recruiting column for the Poynter Institute, says the reporters are left grappling with the idea of whether to remain in newspapers or head off in a different direction, such as teaching, corporate communications, public relations, or think-tanks.

“These are people who are adept at gathering a lot of information, synthesizing that material, and know how to write. The question is, do they want to work in another field? Because of journalism’s involvement with the First Amendment, it makes many think they are doing something noble, and now they are faced with working with places they used to deride,” he says.

Grimm, who will serve as a panelist at ERE Expo 2007 in San Diego, recommends that recruiters who reach out to the editorial staff “focus on candidate skills: you’re a good writer and understand the industry; you have the contacts to find out the landscape with our industry. I wouldn’t do a hard sell; that is too defensive. I would say, ‘You have the skills we need, and we have positions available. Do you want to come in and talk to us?’ “

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Companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to recruit talent at diversity recruiting conferences, but the results can be minimal. We need to address this problem if we are to be seen as business-problem solvers, and not just recruiters.

As many of you know, there are quite a multitude of diverse organizations that put on annual conferences, such as the National Black MBA Association, National Society of Hispanic MBAs, and the National Society of Black Engineers.

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There’s no doubt about it: Google is one of the most innovative recruiting organizations on the planet. I’ve written in the past about some of their world-class practices, but in light of recent innovations and global news interest, an update is in order.

In less than nine years, Google has grown from a tiny dorm-room entity that couldn’t attract anyone interested in buying the technology to a global organization whose growth is supported by a massive recruiting organization. While critics question the efficiency of Google recruiting practices, few question the effectiveness.

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Matt Martone, in recruitment media sales at Yahoo! HotJobs, says he steered clear of much of the Jobster news earlier this week because he disliked the anonymous posting aspect that seemed to care more about the missteps of executive management than focusing on a productive conversation of how to help the 60 affected employees.

So to help the ex-Jobster employees, he posted an invitation on his blog for the workers to connect through LinkedIn and share his network. He also made a plea to his colleagues to extend the same invitation to the affected workers.

Martone also directed the workers to upload their resume to Yahoo! Hotjobs, with a promise to forward relevant information to other recruiters.

“It seemed like there wasn’t much of a discussion on the people on the market, and everyone was ignoring the fact that there are people out there not working,” he says.

“We’re in the recruiting industry; couldn’t we get together and be more productive instead of focusing on the negative? Everything on the blogs was anonymous, so I said, ‘let’s grow up,’ ” Martone says.

(Martone also connected with Dave Lefkow, vice president of professional services for Jobster, to discuss additional ways to reach out to the workers.)

Social Networking Trends

New York-based Martone says his attempts at helping laid-off workers around the country is another sign that people are more connected than ever before.

In addition to the few who have commented on his blog, he says more have emailed him privately or connected with him via LinkedIn.

“When things like this play out online, good things can happen through social networking. From what I have seen so far, the ex-Jobster employees are very qualified and appreciate the support,” he adds.

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Dave Lefkow, vice president of professional services for Jobster, talks about his efforts to find new opportunities for the 60 skilled workers, overall office morale, and the “silver lining” in the recent layoff.

What are some of your efforts at helping these people get jobs?

DL: “I personally have a good network of contacts. A lot of people at Jobster have been doing the same things. I have had over a dozen recruiters or managers call me to say they are looking for people. Over the last couple of days, I have arranged at least 15 or 20 interviews [covering about 20 employees]. I would say this is happening in a lot of areas [throughout the company], with both individual efforts and combined efforts in the form of career counseling. The bottom line is that this is a business decision. We laid off good people who are typically very hard to find. I told recruiters they might want to act fast. It’s true.”

What was the typical age of the workers who were laid off? Nobody wants to be unemployed, but did you sense an added pressure to seek reemployment from certain workers? Perhaps from workers with young families to support?

DL: “It was a cross-spectrum of age ranges: 20s to 40s and up. I don’t think people were upset. The general consensus is that it was a business decision. It wasn’t a personal decision…I don’t think they were disgruntled or upset. [Despite some online accounts.] It’s understandable you want to provide for your family, but I haven’t see a difference between people with families or those without. These are very qualified people. The silver lining is that it is a good job market right now. I encourage any employer to talk to us as quickly as they can [about these workers].”

If I walked into Jobster’s office today, what kind of a vibe would I sense? How is morale overall?

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In 2007, companies will continue to address new regulations and focus on controlling costs, as employees will pick up more responsibility for choosing and financing their benefits, according to a Watson Wyatt Worldwide survey.

Healthcare Trends

The study presents trends on the immediate future of healthcare, including more emphasis on consumer-driven care:

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While completing the research for the third edition of my book, Hire With Your Head (Wiley & Sons, June, 2007), I found out a lot has changed. The thing that stands out most is the profound increase in workforce mobility in the U.S. labor market.

Company loyalty has declined. Changing jobs for short-term and superficial reasons is on the rise. Turnover is on the increase. Accepting counteroffers is now acceptable and expected.

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Yahoo! HotJobs released a new survey among 5,331 U.S. workers, suggesting that nearly half have plans to attain higher salaries, better benefits, and more job growth in 2007.

Those numbers represent only employees who will actively look for new opportunities.

Another two-thirds of currently employed respondents said that while they won’t actively seek new jobs, they are open to one if the right opportunity came along.

“The notion of employees jumping ship is a critical risk factor for many of today’s leading businesses,” said Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing at Yahoo! HotJobs, in a release.

“Organizations need to take this very seriously and build the pipeline by going after those who would be open to new opportunities in addition to those who are actively searching,” she said.

Why Workers Are Leaving

According to Yahoo!, more than 50% mentioned they have to work on their days off at least once per month; 27% said they believe can get better salaries elsewhere; 19% want a better benefits package; and another 19% are not optimistic about career growth.

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I am sure that the average recruiting manager or director would be shocked if he or she took the time to list the various tools or technology services they had purchased or used over the past five years.

The list might go from more than a dozen job boards to the personal contact managers some recruiters still use out of frustration with most applicant tracking systems. It would also include the hastily thrown-together Excel spreadsheets used to track candidate interviews and start-date schedules and internally developed employee referral system.

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It’s official: Jobster has given 60 employees their walking papers.

As of Wednesday morning, “88 employees remain, with 400 customers, and plenty of money in the bank,” says Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg.

Following a holiday break, Jobster employees returned to their Seattle offices to discover that the online recruiting and job search service plans to slash the entire field sales department, including the marketing services that relate to field sales.

As part of a “strategic move to center 2007 strategy around online services,” Jobster is reorganizing, though customers should expect minimal impact, according to Goldberg.

Goldberg points to the successes and challenges in 2006, alluding to a year filled with both growth and learning.

“On the positive side, we signed up more than 500 customers for our paid recruiting services, grew our revenues by 482%, and grew traffic to the Jobster.com site by more than 260% after re-launching it as a Web 2.0 careers site in July. We also raised $18 million in additional financing in 2006.”

On the other hand, he cites slower-than-anticipated adoption among certain types of customers. The company says it was not pleased with the cost to serve via in-person support.

Goldberg says field sales has proven expensive, so the company is choosing “to further our focus in 2007 on helping employees find hard-to-find employees, while decreasing in-person sales and support.”

For current clients, this means an end to in-person support as they had known it. However, the in-person support will still be an option for those who request it, just not a standard part of existing client services.

“We will be publishing the entire pricing schedule on the Web, with support packages, training modules online; phone-based [support]; webinars; and in-person packages,” he says.

A Painful Decision

Goldberg says the layoffs are a painful decision, because it means “saying goodbye to people who helped build this company from the ground up.”

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As the market tightens and candidates move through the marketplace faster than ever before, it is essential that recruiters tighten up their procedures. One point in the recruiting process that is often overlooked is preparing candidates for the second interview.

Recruiters can take a few actions between the first and second interviews to maximize the effectiveness of their final candidates and ensure that the organization gets a top hire. The most important first step in getting the most out of the second interview is simply to stop and think about its purpose.

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There have been numerous unconfirmed reports swirling around in the past two weeks over Jobster’s potential round of layoffs. The company says it expects to release the official news this week.

Jobster claims it is “committed to building a profitable company in 2007 and sustaining those positive earnings for the long run,” according to official internal Jobster communications. Further, it told staff in the memo that employees may face “potentially tough changes but good changes for the long-term health of our company.”

“I think Jobster is a category buster in some respects. It’s not your traditional employer website, but rather they try to use the Web to enhance the most important part of any company’s strategy, which is employee referrals,” says Peter Weddle, CEO of Weddle’s, a publisher of print guides to job boards and career portals.

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