Dear Friends,
Happy February! Before I go on, we're going to have a discount to the HR Symposium and that will soon be posted on our Discounts page. Be sure to check out the other discounts listed.
Have you been busy? If you're working, are you seeing an increase in activity? I'm looking for my next job (contract/contract-to-hire corporate recruiter) and am seeing a lot more activity. It's very encouraging yet I'm in competition with a lot of great candidates. If you have job openings at your company in any field, any level, will you share them on our forum?
I've added a page to our site and this one is for advertising. I have links to Amazon products at present and may add other affiliates. You'll notice our site also has Google ads, and you're welcome to click on relevant links.
Because I am a job seeker, I'd like to make some observations and suggestions. Most of my clients have been small companies, but I've always set up an auto-responder so candidates know I have received their resumes. It's a very simple thing to do. I'm seeing more companies using an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) for resume intake, and that's useful for the company and should be smooth for the candidate. The problem is that they seem to be getting more burdesome for candidates, and companies are missing out on some great people. I wrote about this on my other blog and recently attended a webinar where the presenter was relaying the same information. Each click you demand of a candidate makes more people fall by the wayside.
I recently saw a post for a contract recruiter, and the post led to the company's ATS. I had to create a user name, password, upload a resume - so far, not too bad - but the next page basically had me insert my resume line-by-line. When you've done a lot of contracting and have in-house roles mixed in, it's just not possible to use one of those forms! So guess what? I did not apply for a job that was a match for my skills.
I strongly believe that HR as a function needs strong customer service skills. We have internal and external customers and need to be mindful of everyone's experiences. Poor experiences means you lose out on candidates, information, and with social media gossiping, your company could lose out for a long time to come.
An HR Manager I know is working at a company and is very happy about their HR Intranet, referring all employees with questions to that website before they see her. I know several people at that company and have heard many complaints about it. It's way too complicated, hard to maneuver, hard to find information. And sometimes people just need to talk to you.
My recommendation is to have a user study for internal and external sites. If you implemented software, you've been through training, you may have set it up, you've spent hours on it so you may not be aware of other people's difficulties in using the site. Look for 5 people and watch them maneuver, see if they can find what they need to find and where the stumbling blocks are. This groundwork will really pay off for you and your customers.
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Because of this volunteer work, family, friends and paid work, unfortunately, I can’t mentor you, and please don’t send me unsolicited resumes. I wish I had the time to individually mentor you, but I don’t. With the time I take for this group, my work and my books, I don’t have time left over. Come to an event and meet someone who can help. I receive a lot of unsolicited resumes (from our group and strangers) and if I’m recruiting for a position or I’m paid to work on the resume, that’s one thing, but other than that, I’ve got other things on my plate. I refer people to the forum at www.ourhrsite.com/forum. See the blog post for more
thoughts. http://marciastein.blogspot.com/2009/02/setting-boundaries-and-professionalism.html
I led the presentation last month about leadership and listening, and my edited slides on on the previous speakers' page.
1. HR Women and Friends Community Event: Thursday, February 16, 2012 6:30-9:00 p.m. Jenny Kahn presents "Connecting to a Successful Career - How to use LinkedIn for your career development and job success"
2. Discounts
3. Using our Bulletin Board (Forum)
4. Spam Filter Alert
5. To change you email address
6. Unsubscribe
7. Potential Speakers/Topics
8. Notifying us of upcoming events and discounts.
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1. HR Women and Friends Community Event: Thursday, February 16, 2012 6:30-9:00 p.m. Jenny Kahn presents "Connecting to a Successful Career - How to use LinkedIn for your career development and job success" Jenny Vonderwerth has planned this event. Jenny Kahn is a popular presenter with a great way of explaining how to best use LinkedIn. Click here for event details and RSVP form
2. Discounts and Offers – view them online. Discounts for health related products or services are solely used at your own discretion. The group and I have no responsibility for these services or products. Thanks for extending the discounts to our group!
3. Using our Bulletin Board (Forum) When you contact me regarding jobs, events, and other issues, I refer to our Forum at www.ourhrsite.com/forum. You can view all messages without registering, but you must register to reply or post a message. You are not automatically registered because you receive this email – it is separate software. Please review the Terms and Conditions available under any topic on the forum. It’s your responsibility to keep track of your user name and password, and if you change email addresses, please log in and update your profile. If privacy is an issue, please be careful when you post anything: use a separate email if necessary and you can skip your street address if you’d like.
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7. Potential Speakers/Topics
Please see http://ourhrsite.blogspot.com/p/potential-speakers.html for details and a form to submit your information.
8. Notifying us of upcoming events and discounts.
If you email me right after I’ve sent a mailing, I can update the website, but I can’t send a separate mailing to the group. It will be in the next mailing. Please keep this in mind and plan ahead.
I hope to see you soon.
All the best,
Marcia
Marcia Stein, PHR - www.linkedin.com/in/marciastein
Author: Strained Relations: Help for Struggling Parents of Troubled Teens
Blog: http://strainedrelations.wordpress.com
Recruiters on Recruiting
www.tellmeaboutyourself.info
www.scribd.com/Marcia_Stein
Silicon Valley Women in Human Resources...and Friends
www.ourhrsite.com
Stein Consulting
www.stein-consulting.com
