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It has taken many years to get to this point, but almost everyone in recruiting has come to understand the necessity of metrics. Unfortunately however, the vast majority of metrics in use today have little impact because they were not designed to effectively “get the attention” of executives.

The issue isn’t metrics in general; at firms like Microsoft and Google, executive team meetings are often referred to as the equivalent of “math camp.” While other firms may not be as “geeky,” metrics rule the boardroom. The lack of interest in HR metrics also cannot be attributed to HR being an overhead function, as that state is true for both finance and supply chain management, neither of which fail to garner attention.

The real issue few pay attention to HR metrics is a simple one: most simply are not compelling. Let’s face it: HR is rarely a strategic priority, and due to years of bureaucracy and failure to meet expectations, it is something that most managers and executives would rather deal with less rather than more unless it is immediately relevant to their business. keep reading…

The unemployment rate rose for the first time in four months in August, while private sector employers added 67,000 jobs. Overall, the U.S. economy lost 54,000 non-farm jobs during the month, almost all of it attributable to the continuing layoff of temporary census workers.

The numbers released by the U.S. Labor Department this morning continue a pattern seen for months. The unemployment rate has moved in a range from 9.7 percent in January to the 9.5 percent it has been at since June. The private sector, meanwhile, has been steadily, if slowly adding jobs.  Government, is cutting workers.

So while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report is essentially more of the same, Wall Street is reacting positively. Stocks opened strong with the Dow zooming 100 points in the early trading. Investors appear to be looking at the half-full side of the glass.

Economists were expecting a gloomier report. Estimates varied, as they do each month, depending on what analysts and economists are surveyed; however, the job loss was anticipated to be north of 100,000.

One particularly positive sign is that the private sector number was about twice what was forecast. Following Thursday’s report of fewer new claims for unemployment benefits, the second consecutive drop after weeks of gains, the improvement is at least that, an improvement. keep reading…

The company behind recruiter blogging site RecruitingBlogs.com has joined forces with the owner of Recruiter.com to launch a new company and eventually turn the long-dormant site into a multi-featured portal.

The announcement was made today via press release and — appropriately — blog posts.

Jason Davis, the founder of RecruitingBlogs, has also relinquished his CEO title, promoting Miles Jennings to the job, while taking the job of EVP of Strategic Development. Ashley Saddul, a domain name trader who owned the Recruiter.com name, joins the new company as CTO.

“This is a big move,” Davis told me in a conversation this afternoon. “We’re going to be building out a network. Everything is going to be tied together under Recruiter.com.” keep reading…

It’s not a new phenomenon, but watch for the use of the cloud, and also the crowd, to grow in the coming months as more vendors vie for your cloud/crowd-recruiting business.

Hajo Engelke is trying it out. Engelke has started up an unusual company in Durham, North Carolina. It’s a website where you build your own cereal, clicking on cranberries, dried apples, pears, pineapples, and so on, add them to either granola or corn flakes, and voila, place your order.

A novel idea for a company, originating out of UNC’s business school, but you haven’t heard of it until now. So Engelke’s looking for someone to market it using a viral campaign. This weekend he plans on posting the project on a website called 31Projects. With that site, top, pre-screened students will have about three to five weeks to submit their suggestions for the build-your-own-cereal campaign, and Engelke will pick a winner. He’ll pay the winner in the neighborhood of $25/hour for implementing the campaign, and if all goes well, may end up hiring them.

Engelke heard about 31Projects through the Triangle area of North Carolina, where he says “everybody knows everybody through one or two connections.” 31Projects will launch next week. It has several hundred MBA and grad students signed up in its network, and has tested it with employers, including a non-profit research institute. Later, it hopes to expand, using undergraduate students as well. keep reading…

In the next Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership, I take a four-part look at credit checks in the employment process. I outline the current federal limitations on an employers’ ability to obtain and use information regarding an applicant’s or employee’s credit history. I delineate the current proposed amendments to federal statutes. I look at recently enacted state legislation bearing on an employer’s use of credit reports. Finally, I suggest possible options for employers in dealing with this fast-changing legal landscape.

For these purposes online, I’m just going to tackle the fourth part — your options for handling federal and state legislation in flux. keep reading…

The U.S. lost 10,000 private sector jobs in August, according to the ADP National Employment Report.

Released this morning, the report says the loss came from small and medium sized employers (those with up to 499 employees). Large employers added 1,000 workers.

Adding to the bad news, the report also adjusted the July numbers down. ADP now says the private sector added 37,000 jobs in July, 5,000 less than the preliminary number released early last month.

However, Wall Street much preferred the report from the Institute for Supply Management, which showed a sharp and unexpected rise in manufacturing production.  The purchasing managers’ index rose to 56.3 in August, from 55.5 in July. Economists had expected it to fall to 52.5. keep reading…

Kenexa CEO Rudy Karsan

HR software maker Kenexa will have a lot to talk about at its annual Kenexa World Conference later this month in Philadelphia.

That’s because Kenexa announced today that it has agreed to acquire compensation specialist Salary.com in an all cash offer for $80 million, or $4.07 per share.

According to a press release from Kenexa, “The agreement has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both companies, and Salary.com’s board intends to recommend that the Salary.com stockholders tender their shares in the offer.”

Salary.com, based in Massachusetts, makes software that helps businesses and individuals manage pay and performance, and, is very well-known in the HR space. Kenexa says that it expects to close the transaction for Salary.com in the fourth quarter of 2010. keep reading…

With the acquisition of HotJobs by Monster, Beyond.com now becomes the U.S. affiliate of The Network, a worldwide group of job boards that distributes employer ads globally.

Beyond, itself a network of some 15,000 employment sites, replaces HotJobs. The former Yahoo job board joined The Network in 2004 as the affiliate for the US and Canada.

The Network itself was founded in 2002 by two United Kingdom job boards — StepStone and TotalJobs. They brought in the Swiss board, Jobs.ch, and Irishjobs. Today, The Network claims a presence in 121 countries. It has 36 members, with multiple local job boards, and an especially strong presence in Europe.

Recruiters work through the local affiliates to post individual jobs to the network. With increased volume, direct access is provided.

Beyond.com, based in Pennsylvania, operates niche and regional job boards under a variety of names. Its national site is Beyond.com.