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Attention you would-be tweeps and tweeple. You talk a good game, but you don’t tweet one. In fact, you don’t tweet at all.

Half of all those registered on Twitter have not tweeted once. Half of those registered have no followers. Half follow no one. Nine percent of Twitter’s estimated 5-6 million registered users (the company doesn’t provide numbers) are considered inactive, having fewer then 10 followers, friends and updates.

If that’s the case — and a new report from Hubspot on the State of the Twittersphere says it is — then who’s doing all the tweeting? keep reading…

Monster stock is taking a beating today, following the company’s acknowledgment it will be laying off workers in its product and technology group.

Joel Cheesman reported Monday that he received a tip from a Monster worker who claims to have seen a multi-page list of about 200 names, including the tipster’s own.

In response, Monster issued a statement that was short on details, but said, in part, “we continue to restructure, reorganize. This means that roles and skill areas that are no longer needed to support the business are restructured,” says the statement from Kathy O’Reilly, senior manager of media relations at the notoriously tight-lipped company.

The announcement contains no direct confirmation of an impending layoff, nor does it provide any numbers or other specifics. It also has not, so far, been distributed on any of the financial or business services that companies typically use for announcements of this sort. Nevertheless, at lunchtime today the company’s stock was trading just under $10 a share, down almost 7 percent from Monday’s close of $10.68. Meanwhile the market as a whole was down much less, with the Dow off 1.2 percent and the NASDAQ off 1.4 percent.

O’Reilly said she doubted the company would have more to say than what was in the emailed announcement, though she agreed to try to obtain clarification on the reference to the restructuring being in support of “the changing needs of our customers.” We asked what those changing needs are and what the company’s strategic direction is now.

In the first quarter of this year, Monster posted a $10.3 million loss on revenue of $132 million compared to a profit for the same quarter the year before of $22.6 million on revenue of $228.7 million.

Imagine being able to unleash the hidden talents and untapped skills of every single one of your employees?

Imagine if every single one of your employees, from front-line staff to senior management, was 100% engaged, doing the work they were cut out for, contributing to the success of your organization by focusing on their core competencies.

Can you envision the collective power you would unleash? No laggards … just a company filled with rising stars. Absenteeism would drop instantly, worker defections to your competitors would cease entirely. Entire departments would start exceeding quotas.

You would become a preferred employer, and employee recruitment would be an exercise in picking the talent you wanted. Better yet, what if I told you this can be achieved and without the tremendous cost and resource drain of investing in hard-to-measure training programs? That long-sought-after seat at the management table would suddenly materialize for you.

Does this sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not. There is a beautifully simple tool called a “human capital development audit” that you can implement immediately to achieve these results.

Here’s how it works: keep reading…

Recently at an industry conference, the Executive VP of HR at a national restaurant chain was asked to list her #1 priority right now.

“Guest count, recurring revenue, profit, in that order,” she replied.

It’s not surprising that today’s talent priorities center on gaining market share and maximizing profit margins. After all, it’s the worst climate ever for most of America’s business community. Customers and customer preference are the name of the game.

It’s also not surprising that most business consultancies, HR specialists, and employers are thinking about engagement as the critical component connecting talent strategy to business outcomes in 2009.

Engagement is a huge focus because it is the best way to overcome the shortfalls in talent caused by contraction and layoffs. At the same time, it’s the one aspect of your business that is most threatened by those same economic realities.

Engagement is about thriving in this economy, not merely surviving. But the relationship with employees is now at risk due to new forces — forces ranging from simple “bad news fatigue” to EFCA discussions, social networking challenges, and other external pressures on how employees come to understand your management, purpose, and mission.

To this end, dozens of companies have completed research that documents employee engagement levels and the connection between those levels and corporate performance. The business case has emerged and it is clearly pointing the way to significant ROI. keep reading…

Last week I introduced this series on the use of “live” video interviews by briefly discussing the business case and primary advantages for organizations adopting the emerging best practice. This second and final installment, built on the list of advantages introduced last week, introduces some problems you should anticipate and proposes some approaches to improve the scheduling of any in-person interviews that you hold.

Recording “Live” Video Interviews Provide Several Additional Benefits
Not all firms choose to record and keep their live video interviews, primarily due to technology limitations, cost, or privacy concerns (no candidate wants to find an embarrassing interview posted on YouTube). However, if you do record your interviews, there are several benefits that can accrue to your firm, including: keep reading…

Competency-based selection (also known as behavioral selection) is a well-known selection method about which many books have been written, and many training courses delivered. Despite this, in my conversations with other in-house recruitment teams, it has surprised me how few companies apply the technique as part of their recruitment methodology.

I therefore thought that it might be helpful if I provided an overview of the concepts and logic behind this system. Whether or not you choose to actually apply the process, I certainly think it should be given consideration first. keep reading…

More workers than there are people in all of Miami were put out of work in June, a development that surprised economists and sent U.S. financial markets into a tailspin. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 467,000 jobs were lost last month, pushing the unemployment rate to 9.5 percent, a 26-year high.

A Bloomberg survey before the numbers were released this morning said economists were expecting a decline of about 367,000 jobs. Other surveys suggested an even lower number. Either way, the report was bad news and investors reacted by selling stocks, pushing prices lower the day before U.S. markets close in observance of Independence Day.

Monster Worldwide, which makes its money when companies are hiring, lost $1 on the earnings report. It was trading at $10.92 a share at midday in New York.

The job loss barely nudged the unemployment rate, which rose only one-tenth of a point from May. That suggests discouraged and long-time unemployed workers are taking themselves out of the labor market.

The BLS report says: “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4.4 million. In June, 3 in 10 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.” These are still included in the unemployment rate. However, the report notes that about 2.2 million more Americans are out of work, want to work, but have grown so discouraged that they have largely given up. These workers are not included in the unemployment figures.

When discouraged workers are included in the calculations, the unemployment rate is actually 10 percent nationally. keep reading…

Years ago, John Sullivan was doing some consulting work for W.L. Gore, the makers of Gore-Tex. “You guys are the best story never told,” he said to them.

Not any more. Gore will be telling scientists, engineers, and other prospective employees its story by launching a new global branding campaign from Arizona to China with a modest little theme: Join Gore & Change Your Life. keep reading…

Alan Strauss, who’s doing a talent-acquisition project for Lockheed Martin and is well-connected in the D.C.-area corporate recruiting community, talks below about bringing in “A-players” to corporations; what the best recruiters are doing to keep their jobs; and what sorts of questions recruiters should be asking their customers. keep reading…