Social Networking as a recruiting tool

The MTSG
View

On business, the workplace
and employee relations

July, 2007

Family Leave and the
War

The federal Labor Department issued a report last month
on the Family and Medical Leave Act, which said that employees are happy with
the law but employers are less than thrilled In particular, corporations say
some employees take frequent unscheduled, sporadic leaves that cause problems in
managing operations The Family and Medical Leave Act law grants employees in
companies with 50 or more workers the right to take up to 12 unpaid weeks per
year to manage their personal health issues or those of loved ones

This is worth noting because the demands upon families
to help the medical issues of loved ones are increasing as thousands of veterans
return home from Iraq and Afghanistan In many cases the severe wounds suffered
by some soldiers are obvious, such as the loss of a limb, paralysis or traumatic
brain injury But for soldiers with post traumatic stress disorder, for example,
treatment is not simple The symptoms of PTSD can last for years, constantly
plaguing some veterans while recessing and returning erratically in others
Family members will have a hard time trying to schedule a work leave to coincide
with a sudden eruption of PTSD

The Veterans and Federal Affairs Committee in the
Massachusetts Legislature is looking in to this problem The committee recently
held a hearing on PTSD and traumatic brain injury and heard from parents and
siblings of many veterans who were killed or wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan and
others who returned home so changed they took their own lives State officials
report that more than 26,000 veterans have returned to Massachusetts from the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

In particular the committee is considering creating
what might be called a military family leave bill Members of the committee have
learned of family members of veterans who have lost their jobs because they
exceeded their allowable amount of leave time to care for their soldiers Like
the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Massachusetts version would for veterans
families would allow family members to leave without pay, but with the assurance
their job would be there upon return

Click here the read the report

Ning, Flickr, Facebook,
Phew!

The development of social networking is a phenomenon
that is playing an increasingly important role in the recruitment of new workers
by companies and research of prospective employers by employees But if you
think you're ahead of the game with an avatar in Second Life, a presence on
Facebook and a personal or company blog, think again You're just keeping up and
the pace is accelerating

The chatter among bloggers about the future of social
networking spaces is growing louder There's an expectation that something needs
to come along that will change the dynamics so that the media goes from
something that people can have to something they need Sort of like the
microwave in the kitchen In the employment field it's in important process to
follow Right now HR managers might include a tour of services such as LinkedIn,
Facebook or Ning as part of their due diligence when considering job applicants
And individuals pick and choose which service to join Some are meant to be more
about friends or interests than others But they're all about networking to some
degree and you can still learn about someone or have someone learn about you by
posting your travel pictures on Flickr along with your profile

Next phase speculation includes finding a way to
integrate external blogs, photo albums, chat boards, wiki, IM and other tools
directly into your social networking profile Another blogger looks to the day
when he'll have an online address that can be moved from one service to another
without changing the name, just as we can jump from one phone service to another
without losing our number And many wonder what Google's next step will be in to
social media

Personal networking, face-to-face meetings, supportive
references are all still crucial elements in assembling staffs and guiding
careers It could be that the social networking bubble ultimately bursts and is
remade in a way that is more useful than today But for now, keeping up with the
changes on line could make a difference when it comes to meeting a top performer
or finding that perfect job

Summer
Doldrums

The Help-Wanted Advertising Index of the Conference
Board fell two points nationally in May, the most recent month of the survey,
suggesting the job market was slowing heading into the summer months The good
news is that when viewed regionally, help-wanted advertising increased in New
England by 64 percent and in the Middle Atlantic region by 23 percent

Should we take this report as gospel any longer? The
Help Wanted Advertising Index is a measure of job offerings in major newspapers
across the country Yet classified ad sections of newspapers are being savaged
by online job boards and various social media that companies and job seekers are
using to connect The Conference Board tries to address this by also reporting
total on-line job ads by month In May there were 44 million jobs posted
on-line, an increase of 9,000 or 02 percent from April

But with all the disruptive technology in place,
measuring job availability is like counting stars Who knows what we're missing?
At our MTSG offices from New Hampshire to Miami we stay in close contact with
companies and clients in our regions and we're constantly screening job
applicants to fill openings we know exist

 

Go Team!

You've got your salaried senior management, yearly
bonus-types You have your sales commission-folks Then you have your hourly
workers How are you motivating them? Well-organized teams can provide a lot
more inspiration than the quote above the time clock and improve productivity
beyond that of a room full of individuals

Create a problem-solving culture Empower your
workers by giving them a voice in their work Create teams without titles, where
challenges are addressed by ability Then watch leaders emerge based upon
respect they earn through their ideas

Challenge leaders Some workers are more
skilled, more experienced or simply more on the ball than others Challenge
those top performers to lead by helping their less proficient teammates become
more expert

Pow-Wow Organize regular meetings among teams
from different departments How are their actions affecting each other's plans?
Cross communication can reveal new ways to improve overall operations

Talk it up Run regular features on your company
web site about different teams, profiles of their members and reports on their
successes Include items from outside the workplace as well as in the office

 

Show Me The Money

A survey of 223 employers by the Associated Industries
of Massachusetts reveals that workers in the Bay State can expect merit pay
raises of 3 percent to 45 percent this year Try these four steps to getting
your raise

• Make an appointment Set up a meeting with your boss to
  specifically talk about a raise This isn't a conversation you want to have on
  the fly Granted, it gives him time to think about why you shouldn't be paid
  more But if that's a big concern maybe your case isn't that strong
  
  
  
  


• Bring your numbers When you meet with the boss, have some stats
  to make your case What's the salary range for someone in your field or
  position, with your years of experience? That's your base Then you can talk
  about merit
  
  
  
  


• Point-counter point When you list all the reasons why you
  deserve a raise, your boss may have an answer to each Anticipate those points
  and have rebuttals of your own "I understand what you're saying, but "
  Make your value to the company fully understood
  
  
  
  


• Rehearse Have a friend or colleague play your boss as you
  practice your pitch She asks the tough questions, you handle them smoothly
  

 

Find It Here

One place you might begin to gather some comparative
salary information is at -Payscale (wwwpayscalecom), an online compensation
data firm based in Seattle The company has done some mining of salary
demographics and releases regular snapshots of statistics by state Its sampling
of median salaries in Georgia as of last month included senior software
engineers/developers earning $77,156 annually, construction project managers
earning $58,829, operations managers $54,107 and retail store managers earning
$39,350 You could also find median salaries categorized in 11 other ways
including by city, industry, age and employer name The median salaries at
Georgia Pacific Corp and IBM in Georgia, for example, are both $60,281
annually If you work for the City of Atlanta, its $45,211 See the full
snapshot at the PayScal site
here