Employment Blog: Jobing.com - Milwaukee

November is National Flu Awareness Month.  At the work site, you can help keep your employees on the alert to minimize risk of illness. To reduce the potential spread of the flu this season: post notices as reminders that proper hygienic practices are especially important during flu season; keep face-to-face meetings to a minimum during peak periods of flu outbreaks; communicate the importance of washing hands in bathrooms, break rooms and food areas; make disinfectants available for those who have to share equipment or tools and for telephones, computers or other accessories and in common work areas; make sure facial tissues are available in your common areas and conference rooms; and, if you have an infectious disease control policy, plan to re-communicate it to everyone.

Human Resources Professional's Day
October 15, 2009
    The State of Wisconsin Office of Governor Jim Doyle has issued a proclamation declaring Thursday October 15, 2009 as Human Resources Professional's Day.  

• The State of Wisconsin recognizes the importance of the Human Resources profession in the recruitment, development and retention of a qualified workforce for Wisconsin’s employers; and
   
• Wisconsin’s Human Resources Professionals are trained and responsible for the strategic planning to put the right people, in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude to meet the needs of Wisconsin’s Consumers of goods and services; and
   
• The Human Resources Professional has become a vitally important part of every organization in this country accepting ethical responsibility for promoting and fostering fairness and justice for all employees.

The 23rd Annual Wisconsin SHRM State Conference will take place at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells on October 14 – 16, 2009.   Due to teachers' conventions during the same week, you are encouraged to book your hotel stay as soon as possible.  

Each year the conference invites top talent leaders from across the country to share their expertise and knowledge in all areas of Human Resources.   The conference offers a wide range of programming from entry level to senior leadership, in benefits, compensation, recruitment, selection, retention, safety, leadership, organizational development, training, and talent management too name a few.   Offering an exceptional education and networking experience for the HR professional, in addition to exhibit and sponsorship opportunities. This conference is one you will not want to miss.  

Employment Branding products offer the perfect solution for companies with hard to fill positions, or who are adding key members to their team. They are also perfect for driving additional traffic to your profile, where job seekers can learn more about your company, open positions and what it is like to work for your company through the use of your company profile and even video! Learn more about the various Employment Branding opportunities available to you on Jobing.com today. Click Here.

If you’ve decided to go back to school, congratulations!  If you’re thinking about it, now is a great time.  Either way, here are a few tips that will help you make the transition easier. 

1.  Apply for Financial Aid – There are many programs out there to support adults going back to school.   You could receive grants, scholarships and low cost loans.  The registration office at your school of choice will point you in the right direction but do some research on your own as well. Financial aid can be applied for through the federal government at the education site Free Application for Financial Aid. (http://www.fafsa.ed.gov). (SCAM ALERT!! IT NEVER COSTS MONEY TO APPLY FOR FEDERAL AID)

2.  Consider Starting Slow – You’re already working full time.  You might have young children.  You probably have activities you enjoy and are committed to attending.  Consider taking just a few classes to see how things go.  Easing yourself back into school instead of taking a full load right away might increase your chances of success. 

3.  Prepare Yourself Technically – Things are definitely different now.  Teachers communicate frequently via email.  Group papers are completed using shared documents online.  Some tests are even done online.  Make sure you understand how things these things work before waiting until the last minute. 

4.  Time Management – You must learn how to manage your time.  Only you will know what’s best for you.  A friend of mine went to work an hour early every day and stayed an hour late.  That gave him ten hours a week that he could dedicate to school work without the distractions at home.  As an added bonus, by altering his daily drive time, he spent three less hours each week driving!

5.  Hang in There! – As tempting as it is to hang it up keep pushing.  Don’t think about the excess work load…think about your goals and why you’re going back to school.  That term paper will be over with shortly.  The promotion, or better job you’ll get, will last a long time!

6. Find the right program for you – There are many research options available to you to find the right degree program.

We recommend the following:
JobingEducation – Local and Online private education programs
Princeton Review – College ratings website

JobingEducation Highlighted Schools include:

Grand Canyon University – Online Graduate Degrees
University of Phoenix – Online Undergraduate Degree

Good luck with your continued studies.  You’ll look great in that cap and gown!

The Internet and adult education
Education has changed drastically in the last 10 years. Private education institutes, flexible schedules and the insurgence of the internet in education has changed people’s access to education as well as their desire to advance their education.

Adults have long been the forgotten student when it comes to public education. If there was not the flexibility of attending an in-person class, during the day, your education options were very limited. That is no longer the case.

The internet has changed education, epically for adults. Below are excerpts from “The Internet as a Path to Adult Learning”  by Lori Pendley Kupczynski, Ed.D. and Buddy Hooper, Ed.D., we can explore how online education is different and how adults learn differently.

Recent History

There has been tremendous growth in the last 15 years regarding Internet-based learning. As Morabito (1999) notes, "By the 1990s, real-time computer-based teleconferencing was readily available to the public, both through commercial online networks and by the mid-1990s through the Internet" (p. 35). This accessibility, along with software programs such as WebCT and Blackboard and course-ready content for instructors, has allowed this form of instruction to truly expand and take over the realm of distance education. It is no longer too expensive to use the Internet for study, and the courses can provide excellent online tools, such as e-mail, course shells, message boards, and libraries "all at the same basic cost to the end user as the regular monthly Internet account" (Morabito, 1999, p. 35). Thus, the move to this type of teaching and learning, while continually evolving, is definitely a significant source of education now in the new millennium.

Current Trends in Learning

When focusing on Internet-based courses, it is crucial to understand two substantial theories in learning. These two theories are Andragogy and Learner-Centered teaching, Each is prevalent to the formulation of research in the current study as the study uses as its subjects adult learners and focuses on student perceptions of instructor behaviors and chosen teaching methodologies that lead to retention and success for them.

Five Assumptions of the Adult Learner

1. As a person matures, his or her self-concept moves from that of a dependent personality toward one of a self-directing human being.
2. An adult accumulates a growing reservoir of experience, which is a rich resource for learning.
3. The readiness of an adult to learn is closely related to the developmental tasks of his or her social role.
4. There is a change in time perspective as people mature—from future application of knowledge to immediacy of application. Thus an adult is more problem centered than subject centered in learning.
5. Adults are motivated to learn by internal factors rather than external ones. (Merriam & Caffarella, 1999, p. 272)

From these five assumptions, Knowles redirected the learning process in the classroom, creating a more self-directed and learner-centered atmosphere.

Adults have a lot more options when it comes to education, now. Research your educational opportunities at JobingEducation. Grand Canyon University provides online Master’s Degrees. University of Phoenix offers online undergraduate degrees and Pinnacle Online High School can support your need for a high school diploma. Furthering your education is at your fingertips – literally.

Information source: http://www.newhorizons.org
Article link: http://www.newhorizons.org/lifelong/higher_ed/hooper_kupczynski.htm

Letting an employee go is never easy regardless of the reason. In fact it can be as hard for the employer as the employees involved.  Choosing to use outplacment services can make this process easier.  With these types of services, a company can offer career transition benefits to employees that are being displaced. 

Outplacement services can range from employee counseling and career guidance to resume writing, job placement help, job fair events and more. Programs like these are designed to help make the career transition easier for employees as well as help the employer to do the right thing for their displaced employees.

Organizations specializing in Outplacing, offer some great benefits of services for both the employer and employee.  These services help people get back to work faster, which help lower unemployment costs and help increase employee satisfaction for both the displaced employee and those still with the organization.  Using outplacment services can turn a difficult situation into a smoother and easier process. They are wonderful services for organizations that want to take care of their employees, even during layoffs.

Check out this list to learn more about the benefits of using outplacing services.

Badger Bash - at 2009 SHRM Annual Conference We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to participate in an event for the attendees to the SHRM Annual conference in New Orleans in June. The WI State Council has created a special networking event for those attendees from Wisconsin called "The Badger Bash", which will take place Monday, June 29, 2009 from 6pm – 8pm. This gathering will take place at Pat O’s on the River. Come and join us for some snacks and network with your Wisconsin conference attendees!  Please RSVP via email to Julie Geyer, PHR (julie.geyer@spx.com) with your name, Chapter, email, and mobile numbers.
Click Here for a map

Last week, our Social Media Manager,  had the privilege of attending the 2009 Social Recruiting Summit held at Google HQ in Mountain View .  Really cool stuff.  Here are his notes and recap of the day. 

Intro 

Laszlo Bock, VP of HR at Google starts out the conference by saying that he has been responsible for growing Google from a 3,000 employee operation to a 20,000 employee operation.  He goes on to say that social networking as we know it officially died for him at 5:05 Thursday evening, when his mother in law added him as a friend on Facebook.  Good incentive to take the bachelor party photos off the ol’ Facebook page.

Linkedin CEO Reid Hoffman 

Linkedin CEO Reid Hoffman takes the stage by asking for a show of hands of anyone who is not on Linkedin.  This is while an Linkedin application rapidly displays the latest person who has signed up for Linkedin across the globe…no one raises their hand.  Everyone is on Linkedin.

Most of the speech is surface level CEO jargon that’s a poorly hidden sales pitch…but here’s the points I found interesting:

·    Everyone is their own small business.  Time to be an entrepreneur.

·    1 million people sign up for Linkedin every 17 days.

·    Linkedin profiles are better than resumes…the reason?  Because people don’t lie in public as much. 

·    Reid’s vision is for everyone to have a professional profile.

·    Reid is an angel investor…he won’t see you unless you have a referral…he never seeks out opportunity because his strong brand delivers enough opportunity to his doorstep.  Time to care about your own brand.

The coolest part of the presentation is when Reid brings in one of his product engineers to explain a product called Linkedin Recruiter.  Before they demonstrate how the product works, they play a commercial about social networking.  The recruiter is looking for an international finance expert who knows merger arbitrage with experience in speaking Cantonese that is also ready to hit the ground running by Monday.  The engineer narrows down each step, showing the audience the search results.  249,000.  120,000.  249.  108.  5.  5 international finance experts who know merger arbitrage and Cantonese who are ready to hit the ground running on Monday.  Impressive.  Probably wouldn’t work to find a telemarketer though.

Next up…Laurie Ruettimann.  Punk Rock HR. 

First time I’ve seen the conference hashtag this whole conference…#srs09.  Why didn’t they start a social media conference with a hashtag?

Alright…main points from the Punk Rock HR…

·    Small but strong in the social media space.  Kind of like Laurie. It’s more important to be on 3 social networks and be active than being in many places and not actively engaging.

·    Four things to place importance on when diving into social media: community, tools, conversations, and most of all, an authentic voice.

·    Oh, and Laurie has a bacon chocolate fudge recipe.  Get at her if you’d like a copy. http://twitter.com/lruettimann

Tour of Google… 

·    There is a projection screen that updates every second with a Google search term in the lobby.  This screen seemingly serves as a reminder for why the 10,000 employees on campus go to work every day.

·    Everything is free…everything.  The ride to work, the food, the drinks, the Its Its…amazing place.

On to Sasha Chua, who used blogs and social media to secure a job with IBM.  

·    Company policy on social media should be limited to three points: Be nice, don’t trash talk, and don’t give away company secrets.

·    Her thesis in college was about how big companies should internally use social media to determine which projects employees get assigned to.  The reason is that social media (what they tweet, what they subscribe to, how many facebook friends they have) is a lot more current and accurate than an outdated title in the company rolodex.  Interesting point…wish she wouldn’t have waited 55 minutes to share it.

An ‘unconference’ session with the co-founders of Aftercollege.com.  The topic: are job boards dead due to social media. 

·    Aftercollege did a survey with 700 respondents.  70% of them preferred to find a job board, while 11% preferred using social media (obviously a little biased because the survey was done by a job board, as their CEO noted).  But why, if social media is so popular, do so few people find a job through them?

·    Job boards need to use social networks as a supplemental layer to what they’ve already got going. 

·    The reason why no one finds a job on Facebook is due to confidentiality.  A Microsoft employee who is passively looking for a job at Google can’t join Google’s fan page because it’s broadcasted out to the network, lives permanently on the employees page, and the employee will appear in search terms.  Once Facebook figures out the privacy issues, there should be a lot more job seeking in social media.

·    Employee referral program for putting jobs on their facebook profile?  Interesting…

·    Social media is almost like the beginning of the internet.  It’s the Wild, Wild, West.  Everyone is throwing money at it and it’s only the experimentation phase.  See you in six months.

·    Bottom line: Job boards aren’t going away.  People need a place to go to find a job.  Just like a car lot.

Save the best for last…@seerysm, VP at Bernard Hodes. 

·  7 Steps of Social Media (in this order): Unaware, Listening, Goal Setting, Participating, Monitoring, Engaging, Community.

·  You cannot create a community.  You have to find your community.  You can only find your community by engaging.

·  Two phases of implementing a social media plan.  Phase 1: Assess, Resources, Goals & Strategy.  Phase 2: Implementation, Analytics.

·  Best way to measure social media’s effectiveness is through SEO and Google results.  Also rans: ratings & reviews (indeed.com forums), search (twitter), Networks (Facebook), multi-media (Youtube)

·    Database of emails is not a community.

·    Social media can only be effective when you make it part of your objectives.

·    Lots of talk about who these social media responsibilities fall on to.  @seerysm suggests that there will eventually be career community managers in HR.  Someone from audience says that the Army’s social media saying is “All That You Can Do.”

·    Southwest rep speaks up about the line between personal and professional in social media.  The solution between the blurry line is to hire people who are consistent with your brand up front so you don’t have to worry about this line.

·    Your social media strategy should be: (Strengths + Value + Visibility) x Engagement.

Sites I’ve never heard of before but plan on checking them all out:

Knowem.com, http://www.nursinglink.com/, http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm, Radian 6, Yahoo Pipes. Smashfly.com.  

Brett Farmiloe is the Social Media Manager for Jobing.com.  He twitters under @thatpassionguy, and you can find his new Facebook vanity url under facebook.com/brettfarmiloe.

In case you have missed it - we have an events page located in the tool bar on our home page listing upcoming events. This is a great place to find out where to go to network with other HR Professionals, Associations and Professional groups. And, if you have an event you would like to see listed there, don't hesitate to send us an email. Just send it to brian.weis@jobing.com and we'll get it right up for you! To check out the events just click here: Events Page. Oh, and the most important part? Its FREE to post an event so let us hear from you!

Congratulations! 15 of Wisconsin's 17 Chapters were recipients of a Merit or Superior Merit award this year.

Metro Milwaukee Superior Merit Greater Madison Area SHRM Superior Merit Blackhawk HRA Superior Merit Fox Valley 
Chapter SHRM Superior Merit Central Wisconsin SHRM Superior Merit Chippewa Valley SHRM Superior Merit La Crosse Area SHRM Superior Merit Fond du Lac Area HR Assn Superior Merit Green Bay Area Chapter SHRM Superior Merit Lakeshore Area HRA Superior Merit Jefferson County HRMA Superior Merit Sauk County Personnel Assn. Superior Merit Sheboygan Area Chapter SHRM Merit Stevens Point Area HRA Merit St. Croix Valley Employers Association Merit SHRM Dodge County Honorable Mention

Many companies put a great deal of effort and financial resources into recruitment advertising, and yet spend very little time building a CareerCenter on their own company website. The Jobing.com CareerCenter allows you to take the resources you use on Jobing.com and plug them directly into your company website. Turn a static list of job postings or worse yet, a non-existent page, into a CareerCenter that will become one of your best recruitment resources.

If you've been looking for a cost effective way to turn your corporate website into a powerful recruiting tool with functional applicant tracking, the Jobing.com CareerCenter is your answer.

Even if you have already answered this question years ago with a resounding "no" (after all, college takes a time commitment) it may be time to reconsider.  If you have had a significant change in your life, such as the desire to change careers, a recent lay-off, or a child move out of the house - then you may have just the right amount of time or motivation to succeed in school.  With all of the options available to today's career seeker, you may not have to wait for a life-change to make college possible.  Increasingly, schools of all types offer off-campus or online coursework for the student that needs a little more flexibility.  Chances are, no matter what your schedule and needs are, there is a program that matches your needs and provides the type of education you need to accomplish your goals.  It may mean taking one or two classes at a time, but it can be done. 

Still not convinced that there is enough time? 

Let’s take a minute out of the 10,080 minutes in a week to look at how the average American spends that time.

1680 minutes - Spent watching television (4 hours/day)

2400 minutes - Spent at work (40 hour work week)

3360 minutes - Spent sleeping (8 hours a night)

If you complied exactly to those numbers it would leave you exactly 2,640 minutes a week (44 hours) to do whatever you choose (cleaning, hobbies, exercise, social activities, child-rearing, etc.).  Some schools advocate that for every hour of class you take, you need to plan for 2 hours of study.  With this strategy it would mean devoting 36 hours to school if you took 12 hours of courses.  If that sounds excessive, then maybe it would make more sense for you to take two classes (maybe around 6 credit hours = 18 total hours spent on school work).  18 hours of time spent on college would require the average American above to eliminate television viewing 4 1/2 days a week in order to be successful in school without altering the rest of their free time (the 44 hours a week of "free time" we all have). 

If you are ready – there is time! Research your educational opportunities either at JobingEducation , The Princeton Review or one of our sponsored schools, Grand Canyon University (on-line masters degree programs). Now just might be the right time for you to take that leap of faith.

Speak your mind on the latest issues affecting how you get paid! Take the 2009 Getting Paid In America survey for a chance to win a free paycheck and a trip for two to Las Vegas.

Take the Getting Paid In America survey.

Share your opinions on topics like the economy's impact on your 401(k), identity theft, the economic stimulus tax credit and more. The American Payroll Association uses the survey results to gauge worker's opinions of current payment methods and to promote payroll to big media outlets like USA Today, CNN and Yahoo!

Take the survey at www.NationalPayrollWeek.com.

Don't forget to pass the survey along to your friends and family so they can weigh in on their paycheck. The survey only takes five minutes and all participants will be entered to win a free paycheck and a trip to Las Vegas!

Are you heading to Long Beach, Calif. for the 27th Annual Congress? Take the NPW survey at Congress in the Cyber Pavilion!

Exhibitor Registration is now open for the 2009 Wisconsin SHRM State Conference, we would like to extend you an opportunity to showcase your products or services and take part in the Midwest’s largest HR professional conference. This years’ conference theme is “Your HR Oasis” and will take place from October 14 – 16, 2009 at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells, WI.  We encourage your organization to register early to ensure a spot in our conference.  Exhibitor booth space sold out fast last year and is taken on a first-come basis.