Whether you are a vendor or attendee, a regional or national conference in the niche you are working in is a great opportunity to meet face to face with others in your industry. Many people do not make the most of this opportunity simply because they choose not to prepare properly and make the most of their time. Since both Crimcheck and I are going to be at the SHRM annual conference, I thought I would highlight some things I have done to prepare for the conference:

Read more…

So you’ve graduated and you’ve got job offers lined up. Optimistic in this economy, right?

Okay, so eventually you’ll get a job that you’ll actually need a degree to be qualified for and they’ll check with your school to make sure you passed all of your classes. Or maybe not. Many of the companies I’ve worked with don’t verify educational requirements at all. And this trend has led to a dirty little secret: resume fraud.

Read more…

I went to Las Vegas last week and had a great time.

No, no, not that type of great time. More like we went to shows, we gambled, we ate a lot, drank some and hung around the pool with people who are much prettier than I am. And no, I didn’t get tan at all. What a waste.

Anyway, Las Vegas sort of embraced its seediness with an ad campaign developed several years ago that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Read more…

I’ve given a talk to several hiring managers at the importance of mistake free hiring. Not once has anyone taken this seriously. They say it is impossible. They say the study of human behavior is an imperfect science. They say there will always be mistakes.

I say that is nonsense! Of course mistake free hiring is possible and it happens every day. The question is, how do you define a mistake in a hiring process?

Read more…

One of the worst parts of being in HR is laying people off. People always ask me what the worst part of HR is if it isn’t laying people off. Informing someone of a death is much worse in my opinion. You haven’t lived HR until you have to do that. Believe me.

Read more…

If you are an HR person or a hiring manager, do you owe it to your company to Google candidates and get as much information as possible about them? The question may not be as easy as you think as Kris Dunn explores on Fistful of Talent. He gives you three reasons why you should:

1.  You are an agent of your company - it’s your job to get the inside scoop on candidates.  The world’s not always a happy place.  Put your helmet on and get in the game.

Read more…

Human Resource professionals love talking about turnover. I know this because I’ve talked about it so frequently, I’ve wanted to die of boredom. It is one of the only numbers HR people can share and (generally) understand some of the challenges you as a professional face. You sit around and say you have 5% turnover? You’re so lucky! 100% turnover? Oh wow, what a challenge. We can draw conclusions and judge based on this one silly number.

Read more…

Texas lawmakers worried about identity theft are trying to remove state employees’ birth dates from public records — a move journalists and open records advocates say is unnecessary and will hamper government oversight. Read more…

Tell me if this has ever happened to you:

You go into an interview and the hiring managers are raving about how great of a place XYZ Corporation is and how many people really want to work for them. You hear about the job duties, some of the challenges (which are really small) and all of the great opportunities that abound at XYZ. They tell you they are on solid financial footing and that you don’t need to worry about it. You are excited as you leave the interview hoping for the job.

Read more…

The title of this post was almost “Screening Job Applicants In The Recession.” I’m done saying recession though so from now on, we are just dealing with a new economy. A new economy that is new all of the time. But that’s really beside the point.

If you’ve been lucky enough to do any hiring during the last six months, you know that applicant flow has been crazy. I’ve talked to colleagues who have seen almost 1,000 resumes for a single position and often times only advertising in a couple of sources. They found the task daunting because these companies are often smaller companies that don’t necessarily have an applicant tracking system (ATS).

Read more…