When the economy took a turn for the worse in October, many recruiters began fearing for their own jobs. The good news is that some companies are still thriving. To predict a company’s financial health and penchant for hiring, look no further than its customer base. “This downturn is really a mosaic, not a uniform event,”... [full article »]

ESPN’s Bruce Feldman’s new book “Meat Market” chronicles the business of recruiting in big-time college football, with a focus on Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron. In his talk with ERE, you may get ideas (including when he discusses “negative recruiting”) that can work in the corporate America. [full article »]

A new technology platform, combining the functionality of Salesforce.com with Facebook, has opened the door for development of new referral and sourcing applications. The platform debuted at Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce.com user and developer conference held in San Francisco earlier this month. Jobs4MyFriends, a new Facebook application created by Appirio, is one of the first applications... [full article »]

Recruiters who don’t communicate with recruiting source representatives are passing up opportunities to drive efficiencies up, and cost of hire down. That’s because many sources will organize recruiting events, publicize them, and connect recruiters with candidates free of charge. Yet recruiting source representatives say they rarely hear from corporate recruiters, only receiving infrequent calls when a... [full article »]

ManTech International needs information technology workers with security clearances and Inova Health System needs registered nurses; both companies are partnering with the Army Reserve as part of a new program that gives private-sector employers access to nearly 250,000 reserve personnel and 785,000 reserve retirees. The Army Reserve Employer Partnership Program was launched in April, and 48... [full article »]

The aging population and people’s busy lifestyles have made it increasingly difficult to recruit poll workers in Orange County, California. With the presidential election just days away, the Orange County Registrar of Voters has received a helping hand from Wells Fargo Bank in filling 8,400 poll worker positions. Wells Fargo employees will be allowed to... [full article »]

The 2010 Census recruiting campaign launched this week with a new website and recruiting videos that target a diverse workforce, along with a toll-free jobs line (866-861-2010) that provides information to interested applicants in English and Spanish. Callers are automatically routed to the appropriate local office, where they speak with a recruiter. One hundred fifty... [full article »]

Highly paid corporate recruiters working in the financial-services industry and recruiters who spend the day mining job boards will face an uphill battle landing a new position. As the financial services industry goes through another round of crises and hiring slows throughout the country, recruiter job security is waning. Some suggestions: [full article »]

Is your company’s recruiting video boring? If you didn’t think so before, you might think it’s a yawner after you check out Liz Claiborne Inc.’s new recruiting video “Runway of Opportunity” (embedded at the end of this article). When Helene Richter, director of talent operations for Liz, set out to create a recruiting video that... [full article »]

In the quest for quality hires, talent acquisition leaders often spend considerable time extracting DNA from the company’s top performers in hopes of cloning the outstanding workers. After reviewing performance goals and synthesizing multiple data inputs, line managers and recruiters collaborate to craft tightly honed hiring profiles for each position. Next, it’s up to the... [full article »]

Retailers have a sale, manufacturers slow production, but what can recruiters do with all those excess candidates? A few talent acquisition leaders are fast becoming inventory-management gurus and they are pursuing innovative ways to deal with all those extra candidates. “We didn’t add any staff because responding to candidates didn’t add more work — we just... [full article »]

The victors in this year’s college recruiting wars may attract Gen Yers by throwing lots of green at them. Not signing bonuses and hefty salaries, but trees. Towers Perrin intends to appeal to new grads by demonstrating its commitment to the environment, so the professional services firm will donate 100 trees to American Forests’ Global... [full article »]

Despite the slowing economy, more employers are requesting proposals for recruitment process outsourcing services. The CEOs of Hudson Highland Group and Spherion commented that RFP activity and the new business pipeline for RPO deals remained strong during each company’s second quarter earnings conference call. Both CEOs also acknowledged that some existing RPO customers have ceased hiring... [full article »]

Talent acquisition leaders are used to working under pressure, but there’s little doubt that the guy in the hot seat is Joe Abbott, director of National Recruitment Human Resources Management for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In May 2006, President Bush committed that he would curtail illegal immigration and improve border security. A key part of... [full article »]

An automated e-mail response, which roughly translates to: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you,” is the only communication most applicants receive after they’ve spent 15 to 30 minutes online filling out applications, questionnaires, and experiencing the frustration of pasting their resumes into boxes, (only to find the plain text version looks like it’s been encoded... [full article »]

At mid-year, employers are choosing to dip their toes in the outsourcing pool, rather than jump in feet first. Attempts at wide-scale HR outsourcing haven’t been successful, mainly because vendors are underestimating the costs and companies won’t settle for cookie-cutter solutions. A more selective outsourcing approach allows vendors and employers to tackle each function independently, understand... [full article »]

Talent acquisition leaders from private-sector companies aren’t the only ones trying to recruit more people with finite resources. The U.S. Navy Recruiting Command has given management and technology consulting firm BearingPoint a contract to improve its recruiting efficiencies, in an effort to meet future hiring quotas for uniformed personnel and officers. With demand for military... [full article »]

Goodwill Group Inc. announced it would close an unprofitable day labor staffing unit on Wednesday, in an attempt to return the company to profitability, according to reports filed by Reuters and Daily Yomiuri Online. The move follows a series of scandals at the company including the arrest of three Goodwill employees earlier this... [full article »]

Workforce planning uses a blend of hard data, human intelligence, and management intuition to accurately forecast upcoming recruiting needs. While the process is vital, a challenge to forecasting efficacy is general economic trends that don’t always jive with the labor market trends. This can make projecting employee retirement or turnover rates and swings in the labor... [full article »]

Will flexible employers be the ultimate winners in the war for talent now that gas prices are in the stratosphere? Employers offering transportation subsidies, telecommuting options, and virtual office arrangements may be wooing the best and the brightest candidates right now, even without the highest salaries and biggest relocation budgets in the marketplace. “It isn’t unusual... [full article »]