CareerBuilder (profile; site) has just bumped up its coolness factor and raised the stakes in the competition to be the No. 1 job board in the U.S.

Soon, jobseekers with an Apple iPhone (the epitome of techno-cool) can search for a job on their phone as easily as on their MacBook. And actually, it might even be easier, since CareerBuilder uses the iPhone's geolocation to identify your city. All you do is enter the relevant keywords and up pops a list of jobs. Scroll the list, jump back and forth, narrow the list with more keywords or change location, should you decide Las Vegas would be more fun than Topeka.

Once you find a job that interests you, select it and CareerBuilder emails you the link so you apply when you get home. More than one job of interest? Add it to your favorites and you get sent the whole list.

Check out the online demo to see for yourself how it works. 

CareerBuilder's Jennifer Grasz tells us the service will launch any day now and when it does, all jobs on CareerBuilder.com will be accessible. Employers don't pay extra and jobseekers pay only for the data transfer, according to their ATT contract.

Although iPhone users represent a small percentage of mobile users in the U.S. (in part because of Apple's deal with only one carrier, ATT), they are among the heaviest consumers of mobile content. How extensively they will use the new service is anyone's guess. "We are getting in the door early to tap into the potential of a user base that is expected to grow at a substantial rate," Grasz says.

Mobile job searching and even applying is more common in other parts of the world, especially in Asia where cell phones are more common than landlines and personal computers.

HireRight and USIS merging.

HIRE stock is booming.

Only one year ago, it went public .  

American companies are reluctant to hire, and the proof is in the Bureau of Labor Statistics new report, released early Friday morning. Here are some glimpses from the economic report, broken down into digestible nuggets:

Recession is real. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, says there is "no debate that the economy is in a recession." Among other worries for the average American, beyond a lower net worth and smaller purchasing power, Zandi says it is tough to find a job, and "if you lose a job, it is tough to get back in."

Jobless jump. The new BLS report shows that May's jobless rate jumped to 5.5% from 5%, a sounding bell that U.S. growth is stalling.

Job losses. Since the beginning of 2008, job losses have totaled 324,000.              

Optimistic pessimism. The 49,000 loss is actually smaller than initially forecast, after a 28,000 drop in April that was more than initially reported.

Who is hit. So who represents that 5.5%? The pain is sparing no one, with adult men, adult women, teens, whites, and blacks equally affected. Of note, among the 8.5 million unemployed Americans, the largest segment is among 16- to 24-year-olds. 

The ADP report. According to a report from ADP Employer Services, U.S. companies unexpectedly added 40,000 jobs in May, the most since January. The ADP report doesn't include government jobs, and the report tends to over-inflate private employment data.

Healthcare still hot. In the healthcare sector, 34,000 new jobs were added in May.

Construction not hot. Employment in construction, meanwhile, declined by 34,000. The BLS says that, since its peak in September 2006, construction employment has fallen by 475,000; two-thirds of that decrease, or 320,000, has occurred in just the past seven months.

A maybe on manufacturing. Among manufacturing jobs, employment declined in May by 26,000 jobs. Declines continued in two construction-related manufacturing industries -- wood products and nonmetallic mineral products.

Retail cuts. Retail trade employment in department stores and similar declined by 27,000 in May. Since peaking in March 2007, the industry has lost 184,000 jobs, says the BLS.  

Temp help. Temporary help services shed 30,000 jobs in May, with a total of 110,000 job losses over the past four months.  

With the Clinton-Obama fight over, Softscape and SuccessFactors (profile; site) have stepped up to fill the void with the two HR software companies in court for the second time this year. This time the allegations include claims of corporate espionage, unfair competition and interference with contract.

The latest volley was fired today by Softscape, which claims in court papers filed in Massachusetts, where it is headquartered, that SuccessFactors hired its employees in order to learn company secrets, then used that information in the design of the latest release of its Performance and Talent Management Suite, ULTRA.

SuccessFactors, in an emailed comment to ERE, said, "Softscape's recent complaint is a transparent and groundless attempt to muddy the waters to divert attention from their own well-documented illegal and reprehensible conduct. Their claims are vague and unsupported by facts, which suggest to us they have no legitimate basis."

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The Employment Guide has launched www.WiserWorker.com, an employment website dedicated to job seekers age 40 and older.

It says its mission is to connect older workers with appropriate jobs, but since when did 40 become old?  

If by old they mean "experienced," or perhaps simply, "wiser," then time will tell whether baby boomers and fringe Gen Xers find the site worthwhile.   

Jeff Littlejohn, vice president and general manager of The Employment Guide, says younger job seekers have better resources through college campus job fairs and other career helpers.

For recruiters interested in the life skills and experience that older workers bring, WiserWorker.com bridges this communication gap, explains Littlejohn.

The home page offers a bright "Font +/-" button that can make the font size really, really big or really, really tiny, depending on your vantage point and bifocal strength. Certainly a nice touch for those "wiser" workers, indeed.

The site has launched with more than 53,000 job listings, but a few search strings for random keywords (i.e., director, writer, editor) brought back an overwhelming number of postings from the same company, Talent6 Casting Network. This employer is of the "Actors, Extras, Models, Dancers (full and part time)" posting variety, so we're not sure that 53,000 is entirely brag-worthy.

Still, searches for other keywords (i.e., business, marketing, nursing, IT, engineering) brought back a variety of postings from scores of employers and staffing agencies.

The site certainly has a lot of potential, but it could be improved with more content (i.e., more blog postings, links to actual job fairs under the Job Fairs button), and more interactivity overall.

And in this day and age of $4/gallon gas and more and more smart employers embracing the power of telecommuting, there is a noticeably absent option to search for "telecommute only" jobs. Not a necessity for job boards, but certainly a nice green touch.

Employers worldwide can now incorporate video into their Monster (profile; site) job postings, a move that extends the U.S. born trend to a global market. Monster announced the rollout of Monster Video Profile this morning.

"Video allows employers to more effectively convey their culture, values and brand, which, in turn, helps job seekers better select the opportunities they apply to - and we fully expect that employers and job seekers around the world will benefit from this tool," said Monster's global CIO and head of product Darko Dejanovic.

The company first began offering video integration in the U.S. in September 2007. Companies could integrate their existing videos into their job offerings or, if they chose, have custom videos produced by MadDash E-Media, Inc. (profile; site) with which Monster partnered. Interestingly, Monster first rolled out its Video Profile product in India almost three months earlier.

CareerBuilder (profile; site) began quietly offering employer videos late in 2006, but waited until April 2007 to announce its Video BrandBuilder program. At that time it also said it planned to rollout video resumes for jobseekers, which it did over the summer of 2007. Monster introduced video resumes in India in May 2007 but has yet to roll them out in the U.S. or elsewhere.

Today's Monster announcement extends the video integration capability to Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

No mention is made of a video production partner, although the announcement does suggest that Monster is offering some production service when it says, "Video Profile offers a host of services including concept creation and consultation along with complete video production and editing."

There was also no mention of price for production or inclusion.

Battered by losses running into the millions, talent software provider Workstream (profile; site) is asking vendors to renegotiate bills as it struggles to lift its stock price above $1 a share.

A publicly traded company headquartered in Ottawa, Workstream sells a suite of over-the-web talent management products and also owns 6FigureJobs.com and Allen and Associates , a candidate focused career management firm. In fiscal year 2007, which ended May 31, 2007 Workstream had an operating loss of $11.1 million on revenues of $29.3 million. This year through the company's 3^rd quarter, which ended Feb. 29^th it had lost $15.5 million on revenues of $20.6 million.

In November the company was notified by NASDAQ, where its stock trades, that it was in danger of being delisted by the exchange because the per share price had fallen below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. On May 20^th, with its stock closing at 50 cents a share, Workstream got a six month extension from NASDAQ. It now has until Nov. 17^th to lift its per share price above $1 for 10 consecutive trading days in order to remain a listed stock.

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The Money Niche…

Some shoot for 100K+ jobs, other shoot for just half of that. And it's this market, those seeking a starting salary between $50,000 to $100,000, being tapped on the new 50kandup.com niche board. The company says this job board can help you filter out individuals who are under-qualified or over-qualified. The site is helpful, though not signficantly full of drastically different features that separate this niche board from its competitors. 

Still, the full-service site has been up and running for a month now and is gaining steam. John Ruppel, president of 50kandup.com, says he had no doubt this was a critical demographic "but there was just no predicting the amount of attention we would receive from human resource managers and recruiters around the country who wanted to find candidates within this salary range."

Smart MBAs Look for Perks…

Then there are those definitely seeking more than $50,000.

Take MBAs, for instance, who are still quite hot for Google. (The Mountain View, California-based company says it gets 1,300 resumes a day, but some top management has recently jumped ship for Facebook. Decide for yourself here whether the company is still hot or not.)

This is the second year in a row Google has won the top honor in the IDEAL Employer survey of 5,769 students from the nation's top 52 MBA programs. Following Google, which won 24% of the votes, was McKinsey & Company (16%); Goldman Sachs (15%); Apple (14%); and The Boston Consulting Group (12%).

As for career goals, it's a tie at 58% for "being competitively or intellectually challenged" and "having a work-life balance," followed at 55% by "being a leader or manager of people." Another 37% aspire toward "being entrepreneurial or creative/innovative" and 28% strive for "being dedicated to a cause or to feel that they are serving the greater good."

This talent doesn't come cheap, either, with most MBAs expecting $90,232 after the first year and $180,030 after five years.

Job Corps Changes Ahead…

Expect some changes to the nation's 44-year-old federally funded Job Corps program.

U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao released a new report from a blue ribbon Advisory Committee on Job Corps that recommends enhancements to education and training policies and management.

The Labor Department notes these changes will help make Job Corps more successful in "preparing students for real-world jobs in the 21st century worldwide economy." 

Along with recommendations for better "real-world" career and technical education and training curricula, the report also urges more postsecondary education for students.

Another recommendation is to build better partnerships with educational institutions, and especially high-growth industries, to showcase Job Corps youth as highly sought after students and employees.

Job Corps trains approximately 62,000 young people between ages 16 through 24.

Dice.com (profile; site) has signed on as "brand integration partner" with the National Lampoon, Inc. comedy franchise. Why would a niche IT job board partner with a company best known for Animal House?

Dice.com, which is sponsoring maniaTV's new sketch comedy show, National Lampoon's The Lemmings, gets some pretty unique branding out of the deal and a new way to talk directly to engineering and IT professionals.

And Dice will definitely attract more of these professionals online, as maniaTV, a new trend in online viewing, has nearly 4.1 million unique visitors a month, according to ComScore.

As part of the branded entertainment sponsorship package, show producers have created a recurring character called Dice Man, a super-hero who saves people from taking jobs for which they are over-qualified, helps people find fulfilling employment, and assists companies in search of valuable talent.

Dice Man also fights against the evil antagonist, Doctor Drudgery, and his henchmen Pink Slip and Dead End.

Amber Lawson, maniaTV head of comedy, says producers are excited to integrate Dice Man and the antagonists into the plot lines. Lawson notes that "it is fantastic working with a brand that gets the power of integration because it has empowered us to develop a set of characters that will maintain comedic integrity and achieve the goal of creating a lasting impression."

Others find it, well, rather lame. One poster on the Dice.com message boards sums up his feelings by stating that "National Lampoon is great, but it looks like they whored out a spot in order to make a couple of dollars, not their fault, money is money."

Dice Man (played by actor Andy Goldenberg), made his debut on the May 26 episode.

You probably know of Working Mother magazine for its annual list of "100 best companies" that actively recruit and retain those multitasking wonder women known as working moms.

But the magazine for career-committed mothers, which reaches two million readers, also has an annual award to honor companies committed to diversity.

The magazine's new list honors 20 companies that require manager training on diversity issues and rate manager performance partly on diversity results, such as how many multicultural women advance.

Let's face it. A lot of companies say they have diversity programs, but not a lot can show metrics as impressive as the companies awarded on this year's 20 best companies for multicultural women. 

The magazine says these businesses recognize that it's not just about recruitment. Many use "real" inclusion programs to actively develop, retain, and promote their multicultural employees.

In fact, this year the magazine says it noticed a dramatic increase in the number of women of color who are senior managers. Also, women of color represented 13% of all new hires last year, 14% of all employees, and 7% of top 20% earners at the winning firms.

Here is a snapshot into what makes some of these super-star companies so great:

• Citi. Thanks to recruiting efforts at schools such as Howard University and partnerships with groups like the National Society of Hispanic MBAs , 28% of new hires last year were women of color, up from 25% in 2006. Even better, 16% of newly hired managers were multicultural women, up from 12%.
• MetLife. On the list for the third year in a row, one cool feature is its social Global Women's Leadership Forum that was launched in 2007. In this networking forum, MetLife's senior women officers and diversity leaders tackle diversity, inclusion, and women's advancement, and also host webinars and regional meetings.   
• Deloitte. Among leading U.S. accounting firms, it boasts the highest percentage of women partners, principals, and directors. Currently, 84 women of color hold corporate executive positions. The firm offered more than 400 networking, mentoring, and professional development events for women in 2007.
• IBM. One cool best practice is its "Basic Blue" week-long class that all new managers attend. It includes a three-hour diversity workshop addressing what is expected of managers in today's global environment. In its "Shades of Blue" class, the company teaches managers about different cultures and values.
• Pepsico. So many things to note about the beverage giant, run by Indra Nooyi, one of the most powerful women in business. In 2007, PepsiCo's revenue grew 12%, to $39.5 billion. For the past six years, PepsiCo has focuses on multicultural hiring and retention through its Women of Color Multicultural Alliance. In addition, the company's "Power Pairs" mentoring program creates relationships between employees and their managers; the turnover rate for women who participate in Power Pairs is half the rate of those who do not.

This is a new take on old-fashioned summer jobs.

Hundreds of teens from across the five boroughs in New York City, who are part of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, are looking to "make a job, not take a job."

These students certainly have the entrepreneurial spirit.

Take Amanda Loyola, a 15-year-old 10th-grader at Horace Mann in Manhattan. Her eco-friendly pet business, EcoDog Treats, produces inexpensive, vegetarian dog treats.

Or look at Jelani Anglin, a 16-year-old junior at Elmont Memorial High School in Queens. His company, No Bones, provides exclusive electronic equipment priced at least 10% below its competitors.

Loyola and Anglin are just two students competing for venture funding of as much as $1,200 to help them launch their start-ups. This is all part of the annual New York Regional Business Plan Competition, slated for June 10.

Spoken like a true entrepreneur, Loyola says her eco-pet business "is way better than a summer job, because with a summer job it's just the summer."

As part of this competition, Loyola and others will learn business concepts such as developing income statements; conducting market research; and completing and presenting business plans.

"When you have your own business it could be a stable thing throughout the whole year as your income," she says.  

Still, don't rule these ambitious students out as future workers at your company. Barbara Reuter, metro executive director of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, says "many of our NFTE students may return to traditional employment, yet they've learned how the economy operates, which makes them much better business people."

In addition, Reuter points to research from Harvard and Brandeis universities that the NFTE students tend to set their sights on higher academic goals such as attending and completing college.

Teen summer employment is expected to fall to the lowest rate in the 60-year history of government jobs data. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University says working teens ages 16 to 19 will slide to 34%, down from 45% in 2000 and a high of 48.5% in 1989. A lot of this increased competition can be attributed to adults competing for the same low-skilled, hourly jobs in the service and retail industries.

Three new recruiting campaigns I thought I'd mention today ... Microsoft, which we recently said is kicking off a campaign to showcase (and increase) its diversity, has launched a new site at youatmicrosoft.com. Despite the lame cliches and generalities ("diversity is critical," "the best thing about Microsoft is the people," etc.), the design is great, and who doesn't love baby pictures? ... Speaking of new sites, Spirit's new careers page features the tagline "Dream Big, Make it Fly" -- check it out with your sound on for full "whooshing-sound" effect. Spirit's being helped out by its new RPO vendor The RightThing ... Lastly, General Dynamics is touting its "Jobs That Rock" and is hiring engineers, particularly because of a big contract it got from the military to work on the Warfighter's Information Network.

If you need parallels between our softening economic conditions and the job market as a whole, consider this depressing fact: after hitting all-time highs in 2007, hourly wages for highly skilled technology professionals dropped year-over-year during the first quarter of 2008.

Yep, tech professionals. There is no denying the market’s sluggishness after you skim the Yoh Index of Technology Wages. Tech professionals' salaries are falling, with wages dropping 2.7% in the first-quarter, when compared to the same period in 2007.

Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for Yoh, points out that "this drop in wages this quarter, coupled with April's negative Bureau of Labor Statistics report on employment, paints a very lackluster picture of the economy."

"However, this continues to be a skill-driven market and we’re still seeing pockets of strength in the tech sector, such as SAP, Oracle, security, and product development, and software and hardware engineers," says Lanzalotto.

If the strength found in these sectors permeates the weaker sectors of the market, there is a chance that it could ultimately produce stronger wage growth for the second half of 2008.

The Yoh quarterly report also identifies the top job titles in highest demand. Based on conversations with more than 9,000 hiring managers in over 15 major metropolitan areas, Yoh says the following roles have appeared most frequently nationwide: 

• Biostatistician
• Civil Engineer
• Clinical Research Associate
• Firmware/Embedded Engineer
• Java Developer
• Mechanical Engineer
• .Net Developer
• Oracle DBA
• Project Manager
• SAP® Consultant (Functional/Technical)

They call it My Perfect Gig (profile; site ), but you may be tempted to think of it as My Best Gettable Candidate. You'll be forgiven if you do because after you strip away all the hype from all the matching sites that are sprouting like rainy season mushrooms, the matches they come up with and the candidates who get hired only occasionally fit every job spec to a T.

"We're creating a common language," explains Chris Hill. "It helps makes sense of job reqs and makes it possible for recruiters to have a dialog with hiring managers."

Hill is My Perfect Gig's SVP of marketing and product management. The site is MyPerfectGig.com, launched in October 2007 by founders Mark Dane and Charlie Jutkiewicz, both founders of BrassRing now owned by Kenexa (profile; site).

Last week, in advance of today's official unveiling ofMyPerfectGig.com after months in public beta, Hill gave us a tour of the company's capabilities. To call it a job matching site is technically correct, but too limiting. What impressed us most wasn't the fact the system can take the requirements in a job req and find candidates with matching skills. Instead, it's the intelligence and market data that the SourceView product makes available.

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Fries with My Software...

Kronos has launched Kronos for Dining, a software platform designed to help restaurants recruit and retain the best people, forecast and schedule to meet customer demand, track time and attendance, and manage absences.

Beyond the recruitment and scheduling features, it offers a way to automate compliance tasks, which can help to reduce liability and let managers focus more time on taking care of hungry guests. 

Beaker's New Science 'Hood…

We first chatted about this new online community back at the ERE Expo Spring 2008, and now Beaker.com has launched its community for professionals in the life sciences industries.  

The site merges social networking, career advice, multimedia education, and online recruitment catering specifically to the life sciences industry.

The Beaker management team includes CEO Jeffrey Clark (former president/COO for Ken Clark International); VP of Sales Josh Akers (formerly with Monster.com and Direct Employers Association); and Chief Information Officer David Evans (formerly with America Online, CareerTours, Jobing, and Cendant).

Changing Face of Microsoft…

Watch for Microsoft to soon launch a campaign to showcase the diversity in its employee ranks, and ultimately attract more women and minorities to the company. (Todd Raphael has a more in-depth look at diversity coming up in the July Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership.)

In partnership with ad agency Worktank, Microsoft conducted focus groups of both internal and external employees to understand what was important particularly to Native Americans, females, Hispanics, and African-Americans. It learned to put authenticity first, and to ditch the corporate speak.  

In search of authenticity, the campaign is featuring rank-and-file employees, rather than Microsoft execs or an emphasis on Microsoft HR people. Among the employees featured prominently: one of the top-20 females in gaming in the country, as well as an African-American general manager who handles a 79-country region in the Middle East and Africa.

Microsoft will kick it off with a May 29 webinar.

TheLadders.com Says Bye to Bios…

TheLadders.com has unveiled new resume functionality, saying good-bye to "bios" and hello to the old-fashioned term resumes.

It's essentially a matter of semantics, of course, but the change now gives candidates a chance to upload or create a resume in one step before letting recruiters skim through the latest postings. Candidates will still have the option to keep their personal and contact information confidential.

However, the company is making a plea with candidates on behalf of recruiters. In a letter to job-seekers about these new changes, it says "we have heard loud and clear from recruiters that they much prefer to know your name and current company. If you must, please use this confidentiality feature; but please do realize that it comes at the cost of making your resume a bit less transparent to those who are looking for you."

Most recruiters know that a developer who is amazing is worth 10 times as much as an average developer. But do you know how to get great developers excited to work at your firm?

Don't be naive and think that you can just find someone by asking all the people you know. One of the participants at the NextNY event on tricks and tips for hiring great developers claims, "You really don't know as many people as you think you know!"

Don't be desperate to hire anyone who knows basic code. With the right planning, you can recruit and retain a super programmer, and here's how:

To the pantheon of teams like Martin and Lewis, Ben and Jerry and (Ted) Kennedy and (John) McCain, add Ramer and Steckerl. Today the two announced the merger of Arbita (profile; site) and JobMachine , their respective companies.

Shally Steckerl, perhaps the best known sourcer in the world, built JobMachine into a leading consultancy for the training and development of recruiters. Don Ramer, a 35 year recruiting veteran, founded RecruitUSA, possibly the first online posting service company, which has since become Arbita.

Now the two companies will join forces, offering their clients products that span what Ramer calls "two magnetic poles." "We're combining the two poles of thought."

Arbita provides job posting distribution services, enabling companies to select the most productive places to post job openings from among thousands of different job boards around the world. The 30-person company tracks the results, providing recruiters data to help them maximize the ROI of their ad spending.

Job Machine works at the other end of the pole, teaching recruiters how to find and qualify candidates who might not even consider looking at a job board, let alone search for another job. Steckerl's five-person firm also consults with companies that want to develop a stronger sourcing component to their overall recruitment strategy.

Though Steckerl - and Ramer - disdain the "passive / active" terminology ("I don't believe in the term," Steckerl tells us.), it's a good way to distinguish the two companies. Arbita focuses on active candidates; Job Machine on passives.

So what brought the two companies together in a deal both insist is not a sale?

""We're brothers of a different mother," says Steckerl, explaining that a strategic recruiting program needs to encompass both passive and active candidates. "When Don and I started talking I knew I was talking to a brother. Both of us know a good talent pipeline gets fed from different places."

Combining the two companies means their clients can tap into broad expertise with the assurance that the solutions are the best fit. As Ramer explains the synergy, "It's really possible to serve the customers by offering a spectrum of solutions."

It was Steckerl who went shopping for a partner, after doing some soul-searching about the future of JobMachine. His choices boiled down to "grow the company organically, or join forces with an organization or not grow at all," Steckerl told us.

To grow, he needed help with the administrative and sales functions. Not growing would be to stagnate, he says. However, he didn't want to sell the company or take in investors who could end up running things.

"I won't be told what to do," he told us as he jokingly said he wanted to "continue to be the rogue mercenary."

Arbita's business emphasis meant the two companies didn't compete and each would benefit from the knowledge of the other, Steckerl says. Plus, he adds, "Don's the only one who didn't want to buy me out."

Even before the merger is complete, which is expected early in the summer, the two companies have begun to work together. Eventually, Arbita will handle JobMachine's accounting and related administrative details. Both companies will offer the other's services and products. The name JobMachine will continue and Steckerl will continue to run it as a separate unit.

Got stress?

Just before we head out for the long Memorial Day weekend, let's review how stress can be the silent killer of retention in your recruiting department.

Think "silent killer" is being a bit dramatic?

Recruitment analyst Peter Weddle doesn't think so, coining stress "the silent killer" because he thinks no one is paying much attention to how stress breaks down an otherwise healthy staff.

In Watson Wyatt's 2007/2008 Global Strategic Rewards report, 40% of employees cited stress as the number-one reason for leaving their last employer. But when asked why their employees jumped ship, the bosses ranked stress at number five.

Be Resilient

Weddle encourages adopting a slower pace to embark on a recruiter's stress reduction program:

• Step 1: Conduct a test among your recruiting team. This blind survey can pinpoint what's currently causing any pressure or anxiety, and nothing should be off limits. Weddle says the goal is to identify the fixable sources of stress within your organization. Weddle acknowledges that the team will likely complain about leadership, culture, or compensation policies, but you should really determine the growing irritants that collectively shadow a recruiter's perceived ability to succeed on-the-job. Some worries, for example, are unrealistic workloads, insufficient training, unpleasant work environment, or unrealistic schedules.
• Step: 2: Identify any "stress-reduction resources" you could use. For example, a nonconventional resource might be found within your own staffing group. During a budget crunch, it might leave some open time on someone else's schedule. Voila! That's recruiter talent that's normally committed elsewhere. Also look for things outside of the staffing group. For example, Weddle suggests that a reduction in workload in the finance department may enable someone on that staff to invest some time in tutoring recruiters on building the business case for corporate investments.
• Step 3: Allocate the resources you have to address the sources of stress that you've identified. After you've determined what stresses you out and what resources, if any, could help, build and prioritize a list of specific stress-reduction actions. Then brief the entire recruiting team on your plan, and finally, execute the steps to help lower stress for you and your team.

Stress is a state of mind, sure, but these tips can help you keep the right frame of mind all year long. At the very least, maybe these tips will help you rest better this long holiday weekend and return to work on Tuesday significantly refreshed!

Jobfox (profile; site) has been named to Red Herring's Top 100 in North America list of tech startups.

Hundreds of companies vie for the distinction of making one of the tech business magazine's lists, both for the prestige value and the very real notice they get from investors and tech industry insiders. Companies nominate themselves, or, in some cases are nominated by others. For this list year's list, 800 companies were reviewed, according to Jobfox, with the top 100 chosen on the basis of financials, subjective criteria, quality of management, execution of strategy and dedication to research and development.

"Jobfox is changing the way professionals and employers connect with each other," said Rob McGovern , CEO of Jobfox. "Millions of job candidates visit Jobfox as a smarter way to advance their careers. Thousands of corporate recruiters now subscribe to Jobfox as a more efficient and cost-effective way to hire quality professionals."

Launched in July 2005 as Mkt10, the job matching site later changed its name to JobFox as it began to expand beyond the Washington, D.C. market where it first tested its approach to recruitment. It works by matching candidates, who complete a series of qustions about their interests, skills, background and expectations, to jobs and companies, which also complete a corporate profile.

"Jobfox puts the spotlight on top professionals instead of job listings," said McGovern, who founded Jobfox after selling CareerBuilder (profile; site), which he also founded and lead, in 2002.

Earlier this year, Jobfox was recognized as an Official Honoree for the 12th Annual Webby Awards. Jobfox was also named a 2008 most promising startup by American Venture Magazine.

Just when it seems that recruiters are shunning the power of Web 2.0, along comes perennial hot employer Southwest Airlines.

The company is chatting with you, your neighbor, and your potential next star candidate about lots of Southwest-related things in a new blog, aptly titled "Nuts About Southwest."

On the blog, the company notes that "we want to build a personal relationship between our team and you, and we need your participation. Everyone is encouraged to join in, and you don’t need to register to read, watch, or comment. However, if you would like to share photos or videos or rate a post, among other things, you will need to complete a profile."

The JobsinPods.com team calls it "probably the best employment branding site we’ve ever seen," noting its use of a blog; photos via Flickr; YouTube-hosted videos; polls; RSS feeds; and podcasts.

So if you're contemplating a career in the airline industry, let's compare Southwest to how other airlines are communicating with an audience full of potential applicants: Delta Airlines has a few creative things but is mostly ignoring any use of interactivity anywhere on its site. The same goes for the websites for American Airlines and Continental Airlines, both drastically devoid of any human-esque interaction, though they tie for having the most boring and static career sites. Even JetBlue Airlines, considered one of the more "inspiring" airlines, has a rather flat, "log-in required" website that isn't much higher of the cool scale.  

What About Me?

Well, if you're like most other companies, you're not as cool as Southwest. (But you might not be as bad as some of Southwest's competitors though.)

ERE's recent webinar pointed out that social networking tools allows personalization and control; is fun and engaging; has global reach; and provides for in-depth customization.

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Also, a study conducted recently in the United Kingdom shows that only 10% of recruiters use social networking sites and only a small minority use blogs, videos, or other Web 2.0 technology for recruitment. The research suggests that one of the reasons why social networks have been slow to take off as a recruitment tool is because recruiters do not consider them a credible way to communicate, despite large numbers of their target labor market using them regularly.

"Recruiters may be missing a trick by not adopting Web 2.0 technology. They need to engage with job seekers to encourage them to apply for jobs. Text-heavy recruitment pages with no interactivity will not win the hearts and minds of the Web 2.0 generation," said Cranfield University research fellow Emma Parry, in the study.

What to Do

You can do it yourself, finally tapping into the power of MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., or you can pay someone for help.

SuccessFactors, for one, has a new "Web 2.0-based collaborative network," a solution that helps you learn about tagging, social networking, and other tools.

Kevin Wheeler wrote a whole column about this, said it's here to stay, and shared tips on how to gain a competitive edge.

In reality, Web 2.0 is so here to stay it's practically over. So what is your company waiting for?

You can only hope that the best A-level candidates in Sarasota, Florida, are two-pack-a-day smokers and get turned down for employment with the county and ultimately end up working at your company.

While everyone can agree that smoking is unhealthy, should it be the primary reason to close the door on prospective new applicants? Especially prospective "star" candidates?

Well, Sarasota county government seems to think so. On Monday, it implemented a tobacco-free hiring policy for all new job applicants.

On the one hand, everyone should applaud this healthy step forward. On the other, what's next? Testing for the presence of excessive levels of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey or a few too many Twinkies?  

But Sarasota is serious about this new policy, stating that all applicants for jobs with Sarasota County will be required to acknowledge during the application process that they have not used tobacco products for the preceding 12 months.

Applicants who refuse to verify that they do not use tobacco products will be deemed ineligible for employment. In addition, applicants will be screened for tobacco use during the new-hire physical exam process. If the screening indicates the presence of nicotine above a specified amount, the applicant will be considered ineligible for employment.

Why Change Now?

The county says its revised policy is based on years of research regarding the negative effects of tobacco use on the personal health of individuals and employer organizations.

For example, from 1997 to 2001, cigarette smoking was estimated to be responsible for $167 billion in annual health-related economic losses in the United States.

Sarasota County says its decision to adopt this tobacco-free policy will promote a healthier workforce and benefit taxpayers' dollars.

Of course, Sarasota is not alone. Due to higher insurance costs and the drain on productivity, employers around the country have considered such measures.

(We checked its online jobs board, but R.J. Reynolds is not one of these more progressive employers.)

If your company is thinking of such a policy, make sure to learn from other companies that have faced lawsuits from employees. For example, a Miracle-Gro employee challenged the policy last year.

CollegeRecruiter.com has become one of the first if not the first commercial job board to stop selling access to its resume database. The redesigned site which launched over the weekend still collects resumes from jobseekers who want to submit one, but it no longer allows employers to search through them.

With the security of resume databases increasingly being threatened, Steve Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, told us there was no cost-effective way for his site to protect jobseekers.

"Resume searching was profitable, but not profitable enough to spend the money to make it secure," he explained to us, adding, "This isn't about ID theft." The security threats he and other job board operators worry about most come from legitimate companies who farm resumes for marketing purposes. They aren't looking to hire candidates, but to sell to them. Resumes have also been collected in order to be resold in bulk to other job boards.

Even though Rothberg says it's not a significant loss of revenue, it does represent 5 percent of total revenue, an amount in the tens of thousands of dollars. Sites such as Monster make upwards of 30 percent of their revenue from selling resume access. It's one of the few areas where user generated content has been successfully and significantly monetized on the Internet, so it's unlikely many job boards will follow CollegeRecruiter's lead

Candidates will still be encouraged to post their resume in order to receive job alerts and targeted emails. And employers will still be able to solicit candidates by going through CollegeRecruiter. These targeted emails are sent by CollegeRecruiter to opt-in jobseekers whose resumes match the employer's need. The employers don't know who gets the emails unless the candidates actually apply.

Ending resume searching may be the most dramatic change in the relaunched CollegeRecruiter site, but the most visible is the home page, which reflects what Rothberg described to us as a "minimalist" approach to job searching.

Although the current trend is for job boards to be more of a career center, Rothberg says, "I don't buy it." Jobseekers, he says, "Go to our site to connect with employers."

So the homepage now features Google-like search and a handful of text links to other content. More content, in fact several thousand pages of content including articles, resources and topical blogs, are still available on the site. As Rothberg explains, "Those who want it can find it easily."

Another key change, also reflecting the minimalist approach, is in how candidates apply for jobs. They provide their name, email address, location and resume and in some cases they don't even need to list their location. The streamlined process leverages the ability of most ATS systems to parse out relevant details from a resume, obviating the need for the usual fill-in-the-blanks application.

The changes, says Rothberg, were made to "Maximize the number of candidates to use our site for the reason they use a job board - to look for a job."