Watch it here!

Kaiser, a former recruiter who operates “one-stop” shops for the government; explains how employers can use the government to find everyone from military veterans to IT employees.

• Which recruiting-technology vendor is the “red-hot category killer”
• How the economy’s doing, when it comes to the recruiting field
• What ever happened to Vurv customers
• How to tell if your potential vendor is in bad shape
• Vendors such as SAP, Workday, Deploy, Taleo, Kenexa, iCIMS, nowHIRE, SilkRoad, HRsmart, and others
• What Kronos is doing right
• Buying a niche product vs. a talent-management suite of products

• Recruiting veterans
• Whether Sodexo has actually hired anyone who it connected with via social media
• What to do with fewer jobs and more time
• Personal lives and corporate lives on Twitter

Listen here

The wonder is that with so much attention paid to the subject, there are so many uninspired videos. You can find them everywhere. A college recruitment video from Appalachian State University, described as the worst recruiting video ever, is so bad it’s become a legend.

And then there are the “jobs” videos that newspaper websites still manage to sell to unsuspecting hiring managers and recruitment associates.

So why is Mike Nale jumping into employer video branding with a half-hour TV show?

“This is not some boring video clip of some company,” insists Nale, founder and managing partner of Honolulu based The Brand Management Group (profile; site). “This is really unusual stuff.”

We haven’t seen any of the actual employer videos, though there’s a show sampler online.
But Nale’s vision is convincing. “We’re doing a segment on a skydiving school,” he tells us. “We’re going to show you what a work day is like jumping out of a plane over an island in the Pacific Ocean.”

Another planned segment is on a seafood restaurant that is growing and needs 10 more people. “It’s a company profile, with real human interest,” Nale says. How’s that? “There’s always good people stories,” he says.

That 30 minute shows called “Help Wanted Hawaii” will have two or three magazine style employer pieces, a segment on employment and job trends, job hunting tips and career advice and possibly stories from career fairs or job hunter interviews and the like. Interspersed among the pieces will be the commercials, preferably employer branding videos.

Pulling off a show like this is not easy. We haven’t found anything on the mainland U.S. that fits Nale’s vision. Undaunted, Nale tells us his secret is producer Jeff DePonte. Owner of JDesign, also in Honolulu, DePonte has done work for Children’s Miracle Network, PBS-Hawaii and for local Hawaii stations and companies. If the “Help Wanted Hawaii” work is even half as good as DePonte’s demo video, the show might just last the planned 13 episodes.

The show is set to debut on Aug. 7th on a cable channel. It will also be posted online. Watch the blog for details.

The Expo is a chance to meet other recruiters face to face and learn from the best. This Thursday is the end of our $400 early bird discount. It’s your last chance to go to ERE Expo for this price, so sign up this week.

If you want to learn more, check out the agenda. Dr. John Sullivan and Kevin Wheeler will be there, and they will tackle new and timely topics. We’ll also have speakers who are making their first appearances at an ERE Expo including the Ritz Carlton’s Director of Talent Management Susan Strayer, Coca-Cola’s Director of Global Talent Acquistion Tom McGuire, and many others.

And that’s just the sessions. The Expo exhibit hall features the largest collection of technology vendors of any recruiting industry event, with the latest products and services for you to check out. See for yourself what the last one was like – Benny Hill style!

New I-9 Form Released…

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services just released its new version of the I-9 employment verification form, so make sure to update your records. (You can download it here; note that the new expiration date in the right-hand corner reflects 6/30/09.) You can move to an e-file for these forms, and perhaps you should: employeescreenIQ says its data shows that more than 85% of paper I-9 forms are filled out incorrectly. And electronically verifying this step is certainly a “greener” thing to do, and companies like Verified Person, Inc. agree. Its CEO, Jim Davis, says his Verified Person I-9 solution “affirms Verified Person’s belief in promoting an HR process that benefits the environment.”

From Resume Fluffing to Conviction Bluffing…

The folks at employeescreenIQ also say one of the hottest background-screening trends centers around the importance of thorough background checks in a shrinking job market. In fact, considering the state of the economy, “the job market is destined to become even more competitive, which in turn could lead some individuals to stretch the truth in order to secure employment,” according to the company’s new list of 10 background screening trends. Also, employeescreenIQ says conviction rates among job applicants are on the rise, and points to a 56% discrepancy rate between what is reported on a resume and what is found when conducting employment and education verifications.

TMI on MySpace?

Does the idea of lurking on someone’s MySpace page make you yell, “Too much information!” or do you view it as a (lurid) source of quality screening? What about reading someone’s biographical data on LinkedIn? Though stylistically very different (LinkedIn is more button-down; MySpace is more, er, unbuttoned?), these websites provide glimpses into the backgrounds of hopeful job candidates. Just remember two things if you decide to spend more time on these sites: failure-to-hire lawsuits can be a real headache, be it from MySpace, Google, or any other website, and avoid “friending” Natasha Kone on LinkedIn at all costs.

Genie on a Job Board…

In the June 26 issue of WEDDLE’s Newsletter, by industry analyst Peter Weddle, he advises that the key to using the Web for employers and job seekers is to manage your expectations.

“What’s out of whack is our perception of what the Internet can and cannot do,” he says. Though, “this technology is probably the single most effective means of connecting” employees and employers, it takes time to work. He advises job-seekers, in particular, that “The Internet is not some genie,” nor is it “a magic carpet that can carry you off to employment bliss the minute you hop on. No, the Web for all of its reach and technological power is bound by the pace of the humans who use it at the other end–the employers and recruiters who turn to the Web to find new talent.”

Government Security Clearance…

Weddle also reports that ClearanceJobs.com’s recently released snapshot of security clearance salaries finds that those who have a security clearance earn 25% more than those who do not. This is not without hurdles, because “you have to be able to pass the intensive screening that’s involved in applying for a clearance, plus be in a job where a clearance is required for job performance. Even then, it may take a long time to acquire this advantage, as the backlog of Federal background investigations is already huge and growing,” says Weddle.

]]> http://www.ere.net/2008/06/26/the-new-i-9-form-and-other-screening-trends/feed/ 1 http://www.ere.net/2008/06/24/shrm-day-2/ http://www.ere.net/2008/06/24/shrm-day-2/#comments Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:30:02 +0000 Todd Raphael http://www.ere.net/?p=3253 Peopleclick SVP Ginny Gomez says five clients are testing out the company’s new onboarding product, and it’ll more generally available in Q4. Also, she says, “we’re not really seeing the big downturn” — and that the company’s European business is going strong. …

Personified (the new CareerBuilder subsidiary) has about 110 employees and is charging roughly $120,000 to do employer brand consulting, roughly $50,000 to evaluate a company’s applicant-tracking needs, and roughly $3,000-$10,000 monthly for outsourcing work, such as hiring people to staff a small part of a company. Mary Delaney, the endearing president of Personified (shown), says there’s a “very thick wall” between Personified and CareerBuilder to reduce conflicts-of-interest when companies are looking for sourcing advice and Personified is in the position of recommending and not recommending CareerBuilder. …

From the booth-size battles: Ultimate Software’s booth and People-Trak’s booth are surprisingly similar in size given that the former is a company with somewhere around a billion-dollar market cap. … People-Trak’s Jim Witschger, a former USC baseballer, says “I thought we’d see a lot of the whole gloom and doom thing” at the SHRM conference, but instead he found the opposite — people doing demos at his booth 15 minutes after the close Monday. He said the vibe at the conference was “very encouraging.” …

Enough talk of gloom and doom — onto boom: Jobing (a company we mentioned yesterday) held a blowout party Monday night, complete with fireworks off a barge near Navy Pier. It was a scene right out of … 10 years ago. …

Over at HRworks (profile), president Kurt Ronn says that companies are “falling asleep at the wheel” right now. Instead of using the slower economy as a chance to grab newly available talent they’ll desperately need soon, they’re cutting. Ronn realizes there’s pressure to cut costs and improve short-term earnings, but, he says, “you might as well miss it [earnings] a little bit more and get the talent.” He’s also working on some pilot programs with companies interested in hiring disabled veterans. …

Newlyweds AIRS (profile) and The RightThing (profile) seem to be adjusting to life together quite well. During the SHRM conference, the company closed a 6,000-hires-a-year outsourcing deal, and recruiter training is up about 10% over last year. Says AIRS prez Chris Forman: “Life is good in Internet sourcing.”

If that turns out to be the case, it will be the first time in the current fiscal year that Workstream has posted anything less than a million dollar loss in EBITDA. In the last quarter, which ended Feb 29 (the company is on a June 1 to May 31 fiscal year), Workstream had an EBITDA of ($4.7 million).

In today’s announcement Workstream also reported it expected revenues of $6.9 million to $7 million, an increase of 11 to 13 percent over the previous quarter.

The announcement is unusual for a company of Workstream’s size. A search of the company’s press releases and financial filings turned up no similar financial guidance. When companies issue such reports, typically they are downplaying analyst expectations in an effort to blunt upcoming bad news. An early release of good numbers – in this case some five weeks before the official July 24th release – might be interpreted as an effort to support the stock price and offset the news of the failed merger.

In fact, investors reacted positively to the news at first moving the company’s stock price up as high as 35 cents before bidding it down to 31 cents, a loss of a penny on the day. The stock has been trading under a dollar for months, reflecting the financial ill health of the struggling talent management vendor. Even if the company winds up with an EBITDA at the high end of the estimate, its 12 month financials will show a net loss in excess of $24 million. The company has lost money every year since going public in late 1999.

Its stock price could end up costing the company its public listing on the NASDAQ exchange. The company has until November to get its stock price consistently above $1 or face delisting.

Despite Monday’s positive financial guidance the revenue estimates are significantly below the $7.6 million Wall Street analysts were expecting for the company, according to Yahoo Finance. Even at the top end of the estimate, the company’s annual revenue would still be more than $1 million (4 percent) below Wall Street’s expected $28.7 million.

The company is in such desperate shape that Jason Corsello writing in his blog The Human Capitalist said last week “..the odds of Workstream’s survival seem like a long shot at this point.”

Not to pile on, but the company took a hit this month from Gartner, which placed near the bottom of its “Magic Quadrant for E-Recuitment Software.” Workstream ranked low on ability to execute and in the niche player group.

Friday’s announcement of the merger cancellation gave no reason. It said only that Workstream had terminated the deal and that it was seeking a $5,000,000 termination fee from Empagio, a payroll processor and HR outsourcing services.

Workstream executives could not be reached for comment. Empagio told us only that, “We are currently evaluating our options.”

Tony Santiago, who recently launched the niche site TaxDiversity.com, says he started this site to change the perception of an industry dominated by white males.

“As a recruiting firm and industry resource, we saw a lack of diversity particularly among minorities in the tax profession, as well as a lack of women in senior leadership roles,” says Santiago.

“While individual companies have developed certain initiatives, no one has stepped up to create a comprehensive plan encompassing the entire tax profession,” he says.

The site has job openings, forums, case studies, and video commentary from successful minority tax professionals.

Santiago says he has hopes of setting up scholarships and providing mentors to those who are interested in the profession.

Microsoft must have heard Santiago’s pleas, because just last week the company pledged $1 million to the National Association of Black Accountants.

Microsoft says this gift — a mix of cash and software over the next three years — can help to build a pipeline of African-American talent in the accounting and finance professions.

Microsoft is already getting started in its own backyard, sponsoring a portion of the Seattle-area NABA chapter’s scholarship fund and general fund, and its accounting career awareness program designed to entice high school students to enter the profession.

This couldn’t come at a better time. Santiago says he recently surveyed U.S. tax professionals, and 68% think racial diversity at the senior executive level is below average or poor. Nearly half say the availability of support systems to promote diversity among tax professionals is below average or poor.

Real Tips for Real Diversity

Employment attorney Natalie Holder-Winfield recently wrote Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, and in an interview with the New York Times, she questions the steps companies are taking to actively fill jobs with diverse workers.

She suggests finding better ways, “for example, interviewing at historically black colleges and universities, tapping into women’s networks at the colleges where you are trying to interview, or connecting with professional and trade organizations that represented the underrepresented. Then I’d ask if you’re aware of your company’s reputation when it comes to hiring and promoting and people of different backgrounds — maybe you should be looking at blog posts by disgruntled employees or company rankings within publications that cater to diverse audiences.”

Where the CPAs Are 2008

Another study, this one by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and titled “2008 Trends in the Survey of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits,” shows African-Americans account for 8% of all newly hired CPAs.

The survey also asked, “Is the number of experienced recruits hired by your firm likely to be higher, lower or the same as the previous year?” and here are the results:

• Lawsuit filed after a 58-year-old job applicant was allegedly told the employer was looking for someone “not quite so old and with as much experience.”
• Transsexual allegedly told she would not be a “good fit.”
• Restaurant allegedly refuses to accommodate an Islamic headdress.

The lawsuit against Altria Group and Philip Morris International alleges that at career development meetings, the company’s HR department presented PowerPoint slides listing individual employees’ birthdates and depicting the average age of the Brand Integrity department workforce versus the average age of other employees.

Further, the complaint alleges that senior management referred to older employees as “blockers.”

The employment law firm Broach & Stulberg has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the company.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of D’Arcy Quinn, 52, the former Philip Morris Brand Integrity Director for Central and Eastern Europe. Quinn served as in-house counsel for international anti-counterfeiting and anti-smuggling matters concerning Marlboro and L&M cigarettes.

“Despite his excellent job performance, Mr. Quinn’s career was undermined by virulent age discrimination, evidenced by explicit personnel policies, corporate practices, and statements of high-level executives,” says Robert B. Stulberg, a partner at Broach & Stulberg.

“Blatant age discrimination has been standard operating procedure at these companies. Mr. Quinn was discharged when he opposed these illegal acts,” says Stulberg.

However, Altria Group remains tight-lipped on the alleged age discrimination.

“We are not going to have any comment on that case,” says John Sorrells, an external communications spokesman for Altria Corporate Services.