Unemployment is an ugly thing. It not only injures people financially, but socially and emotionally. I was reading a fascinating article by Arthur Brooks entitled “I Love My Work.” He chronicles what happened to a small town in Austria in the 1920s when the local factory closed and most men were unemployed. Despite... [full article »]

Many contract recruiters wish they had taken that internal recruiting position offered to them two or three years ago. As in every recession, being an internal employee is viewed with envy. It seems only logical that as layoffs and cutbacks greatly reduce the number of contract recruiters, the interest in being a regular employee... [full article »]

What makes a good candidate different from a bad one? What defines a high quality candidate? I can’t count the conversations I have had with recruiters on these questions, and few have had answers. For as long as I can remember, recruiters have focused on cost as the primary measure of their effectiveness and... [full article »]

Subtle as it may seem, there is Grand Canyon of difference between a database of prospective candidates and a community of talented prospective candidates. Recruiters frequently tell me they have a talent community, when further investigation reveals that they have a huge database of people they do not know at all. These databases have been built... [full article »]

What does a modern recruiter need to be good at? Is it all about knowing how to leverage social media, or are the traditional skills of cold-calling, screening resumes, conducting interviews, and closing candidates more important? I have just been at the Australasian Talent Conference in Sydney, Australia, for the past week and what was... [full article »]

Mark is a hard-working, top-notch recruiter for a Fortune 1000 company. He is located in Silicon Valley, one of the hardest-hit areas in this recession, with unemployment approaching 11% — much of it among educated professionals. Over the past year, despite the recession and corporate layoffs, he has survived and has even hired a few people.... [full article »]

Technology in its broadest sense, along with discovery, is the driver of new work and jobs. Each new discovery, every new software tool or programming language, every new product creates new jobs and requires new skills. As people began to unearth bones as they plowed fields in England, the science of paleontology emerged. As computers... [full article »]

Over the past several years there have been a number of articles written about the role of a chief talent officer. Each of these articles has pointed out the need for someone to have responsibility for developing and implementing a comprehensive strategic approach to people. The current economic situation just underlines the need for organizations... [full article »]

I am always looking for trends, new ways of doing things, or emerging practices that are changing, or at least influencing, the way we attract, source, assess, and recruit talent. Some of them will most likely slip into history with little impact, but others will become the new way we do things. Twitter is a recent example... [full article »]

Past talent initiatives have generally not aimed at people, but at improving efficiency, managing work flows, and ensuring quality. Now, service, innovation, and relationships are seen as the enablers of increased profit as the spotlight moves away from manufacturing and production. HR has the opportunity to shine or be replaced by some other function as... [full article »]

Even when times are really tough, most organizations are still recruiting. And, given the times, the people they are recruiting are critical to product design, service delivery, and ultimately profitability. Keeping these people engaged from day one is the challenge. Other employees are not upbeat; many are feeling overworked and under-appreciated; and everyone has a... [full article »]

Tough times offer opportunities that cannot exist in good times. The brightness of good times means that shadows are deep and lots of creative ideas and innovations lie in the dark shade cast by the glow of success. But when clouds roll in, suddenly many things are revealed. We are now in such a... [full article »]

When times are tough, candidates are often treated with disrespect. Many recruiters see a surplus of candidates and start acting impersonally or begin ignoring them. At the same time, candidates, many of whom may be unemployed or very worried about their current positions, are super sensitive to how they are treated. I have heard from... [full article »]

Why is unemployment higher than it has been for decades and massive layoffs announced daily? Is something going on that is deeper than a recession? In past recessions the general reason for layoffs is twofold. The first reason is to use the recession as an excuse to remove the less-productive employees. Every organization has... [full article »]

Getting your company known to the right potential candidates is tough. This is especially the case when trying to attract the right graduating college students. Students at the big schools are flooded with information, career days, job fairs, emails, and posters. The information is often generic and broad — deliberately so and designed... [full article »]

Even though there are layoffs announced every day, organizations I am speaking with still need to keep the people who generate sales, create new products, or have the intellectual capital the organization needs to continue functioning. Good people know that even in these difficult economic times, they can find another position. They are... [full article »]

I’m not sure how you are feeling these days, but I am tired of the laments about how bad things are. Certainly, this past year has been one of stress for our profession, our economy, and our political systems. Somewhere a window opened and let out the comforts and habits of the 20th century.... [full article »]

Ah, another recession — maybe the mother of all recessions - is upon us. Predictions for recovery range from a few months to two years, but however long it is it will permanently change how we work and recruit. This recession is our real introduction to the 21st century. For the first eight years of this... [full article »]

Let’s face it: YouTube, Break, Hulu, and Veoh have changed the way we view movies and videos and, more important, they have changed the way we use the Internet. We rely more and more on pictures, graphics, and videos to display data, deliver the news, give us instructions, and keep us up-to-date with our families. ... [full article »]

Tom Snyder, the tough-nosed director of operations at Great Company, had a big decision to make. Like so many other executives faced with poor sales and a slow economy, Tom had to reduce staff or find some other way to reduce costs. The CEO was a traditional guy and assumed that the first cuts should come... [full article »]