OPP - Other People's Posts

Jessica Lee - SHRM09 Wrap Up... The SHRM's Recovery + Rebuild - Yes We Can?

Michael VanDervort - Getting Strategic with the HR Bartender

Laurie Ruettimann - SHRM Explainer: What is a HR Tweet Up?

Kris Dunn and China Gorman -

KD + China Gorman from Fistful of Talent on Vimeo.

For Three Strange Days...at SHRM

Okay, so really it was 4 days that I spent in New Orleans for the 2009 Annual SHRM Conference. I'll say right up front that I feel honored and privileged to have been able to go. Thanks again to SHRM for having me as a member of the "press." Also, briefly, I want to thank all of the wonderful HR bloggers and other attendees for making it another good conference experience. You guys are GREAT!

Like I've said before, and I'm quite sure that I'll continue to share that I love Twitter and its power to connect like minded people. I'd list all of the folks I met but it would take a long time. Just check out my twitter account to see who I follow and / or search by the hash tag #shrm09 and you'll see all the cool folks out there. This is the future of connecting. I read a comment on Laurie's blog from a guy who complained about people who use their BlackBerry / PDAs in the bathroom and maybe the possibility that as a group we've gone too far. For posterity sake, since I'm a child of the Ferris Bueller generation, "you can never go too far." I will agree that I too am against any phone being used in the bathroom because it's just plain disgusting, disrespectful and gross. But, at this point, you'd have to rip the phone or computer out of my hands before I would stop tweeting.

I intend on doing other posts about my opinions and summaries from certain sessions, but here are a few highlights from SHRM in New Orleans now that it's all over.

• The community of bloggers and twitters is strong and vibrant. I am happy to be counted amongst this talented and non-risk adverse group. Read these folks' words. You might just learn something, and also, the next time you attend an annual conference or otherwise, you might just have some new friends to meet.
• Lee Woodruff is an honest, compassionate and capable woman and I'm so glad to have her heard her story of love and learning regarding her husband, Bob Woodruff of ABC News. I'll eventually pick up Lee's book Perfectly Imperfect. What a gal. And, for that matter, what a guy.
• Generational differences are nothing but different lenses for viewing the world. Each of us has more in common than is different. There simply isn't any good reason to pick on any generation for their so-called faults. Each generation was shaped and molded by the generations before. In other words, we created what we got. Stop blaming and just learn to work together.
• Hurricanes are strong and the French Quarter is a whole other world.
• Voodoo doctors exist.
• Hurricane Katrina presented the city of New Orleans an opportunity to reinvent itself and show just how resilient its residents are.
• Sheryl Crow ROCKS!
• The Morial Convention Center is LONG.
• Humidity is not something I enjoy for extended periods.
• SHRM is running as fast as it can as a giant, traditional organization to catch up with the changes happening around it. There are some leaders including China Miner Gorman and Amy Thompson leading the charge for change, and I think in future years, there will be a better connection between the HR office, the blogosphere and social media. As Gerry Crispin says, if you want change within SHRM, you have to get involved and be that change on the inside. Or was that Gandhi? ; )
• Most of the food in New Orleans is fried, but there are glimmering rays of sunshine and non-fried options at yummy places like Cochon. Long live pork heaven!
• My friend, Erin, who runs her own HR consulting company is great. I'm glad we got to experience another SHRM conference together. It's nice to have a deep and meaningful conversation about what is really important in life.
• Whoever believes that you can't create meaningful friendships with people you met on the Internet has his or her head in the sand.
• I already miss Cheezhead, PunkRockHR, TheRedRecruiter and Stelzner.
• Beignets are tasty.
• Mobile is everywhere, but you know what? I didn't hear it mentioned ONCE at the SHRM conference.

I guess that's it for now.

Photos from the conference can be found on my Flickr page - Kari Quaas' photos.

Tweets from the sessions I attended and general impressions can be found on my Twitter page if you didn't catch them along the way.

Lastly, be on the lookout for more posts about SHRM as my mind processes all that I heard, saw and experienced. Thanks again to SHRM and for reading!

First Day in New Orleans for SHRM

Greetings from the Big Easy. This will be short and sweet since I got up WAY too early for my taste and only was home for 36 hours between the Cool Works Yellowstone / Teton adventure and taking off for NOLA. One could say my life has been a bit of a whirlwind. Also, in the midst of the 36 hours at home, I learned that all three of my photography entries made it into the juried photography show at the Shoreline Arts Festival. Yay me. I also did a lot of laundry.

Back to New Orleans. First, I'm happy to be here and to be sharing with other HR folks who could not make it to the 2009 conference. Merci beaucoup to the SHRM folks for giving me this opportunity. I am also thrilled to meet some of my long time twitter friends and other HR / recruiting bloggers whom I have admired for some time. Also, it's great to see "old" friends from previous conferences. No doubt, the virtual world is fantastic, but it sure is wonderful to have face to face conversations. I look forward to many more over the next few days.

I think the biggest take away I got today from SHRM directly was their influence in creating a standardized curriculum for HR students. They've created a template that has been implemented at over 100 schools across the U.S. This is a wonderful start. Certainly, when I was in college and already had an inkling that HR was something I wanted to do, the classes weren't there. I took one HRM class as a part of my business minor, but that's it. I'm glad to know that they're moving forward with this idea. Having a basis of knowledge in addition to what is tested on via the HRCI certification exams is good.

And, if you follow me at all, you knew that there would be photographs. They're not fancy, but you get the idea.

For real time updates, please follow me on twitter, or get the daily summary from here in New Orleans at the end of each day on this blog. Thanks for reading.

Happy Hour Tweetup at SHRM

@Frannyo is leading the charge for an HR Blogger tweetup on Tuesday, June 30 at the SHRM conference in New Orleans. Here's her exact tweet.

Organizing a #tweetup happy hour Tuesday at #SHRM09!! Lots of HR blogstars will be there. Location/time TBA. Sponsor opportunity! DM me.

As we get closer and more details are secured, I'll be sure to post them here. You got to love twitter. Happy Friday, folks!

Follow me on Twitter Follow Cool Works on Twitter

Evolution of (Social) Recruiting

Just this week a unique conference was held at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California. The Social Recruiting Summit brought together voices from the recruiting industry who pay particular attention to the social aspect of it. The speakers included many of the thought leaders of the industry.

• Reid Hoffman - LinkedIn
• Susan Burns - Talent Synchronicity
• Sacha Chua - Living An Awesome Life
• Shannon Seery Gude - EXCELER8ion
• Chris Hoyt - The Recruiter Guy
• Joshua Kahn - Find-Attract
• Michael Marlatt - Hewitt Associates
• Laurie Ruettimann - Punk Rock HR
• Shally Steckerl - JobMachine
• William Uranga - TiVo

And just because you were not a speaker, doesn't mean that you didn't contribute. Community is what social media is all about. Learning from each other and collaborating for a better future. Isn't that great?

Here is the video that opened the conference and it illustrates where recruiting has come from, where it is now, but poses the big question of what the future holds.

Lastly, you can find video streams from the conference to see what you missed by visiting the main social recruiting summit website. It's worth your time to listen to the voices of today's recruiting industry. You never know what you might learn.

A How-To Guide to Corporate HR Blogging

Kudos and HUGE props to Ben Yoskovitz of Standout Jobs and Susan Burns of Talent Synchronicity for putting together this guide about blogging from a corporate HR department, or a one-(wo)man department as it may be for many of Cool Works' clients, called A Definitive Guide to Corporate HR Blogging. I highly recommend requesting this free guide from their website and reading it cover to cover. It's worth your time and energy and for those of you who have heard me speak at SHRA conferences about dabbling in social networking or blogs, here is the document you can share with your boss(es) to prove I'm right their value.

To Do List (hearkening back to Mark's legal presentations at SHRA) -

• Get the Free Guide!

That is all.

Follow Friday for #SHRM09

The purpose of this post is to collect twitter call signs of those folks I know and those I hope to meet at the SHRM conference in New Orleans.

The easiest way to see them all and get the daily buzz about SHRM 2009 is by searching twitter by the hashtag #shrm09. For those that are not familiar with hashtags, they are simply a way to organize thoughts or people on twitter. You can hashtag anything - #jobs #coolworks #obama. Another cool feature of twitter is the ability to save searches on the right navigation bar so you can easily find what you're looking for again.

• @lruettimann
• @CincyRecruiter
• @sharlyn_lauby
• @SHRMcoo
• @Frannyo
• @benmadden
• @AustinLavin
• @MikeVanDervort
• @thelance (Your HR Guy)

As I learn of more people going, I'll add them to this list for your benefit and mine. Also, check out LinkedIn for a list of conference attendees. Happy Friday!

Blogging from SHRM in New Orleans

Just thought I would officially share that I'll be blogging from the annual SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) conference in New Orleans later this month. I am looking forward to being surrounded by talented HR folks out there getting the job done every day. Plus, I get to hang out with many of my good HR and Recruiting friends, and other personalities, who I follow via social media like Laurie from PunkRockHR, Joel from Cheezhead, Erin from ADEPT HRM Solutions, Austin from MyFirstPaycheck, Sharlyn from HR Bartender, and many more.

I'm especially looking forward to seeing the HR Bloggers present on Wednesday, July 1st at 11:30am hosted by China Gorman and Sheryl Crow on Tuesday night. Woo Hoo!

Someone recently asked me what "former HR person" meant to me in my Twitter bio and jokingly asked if that meant I was a "recovering HR person." After a mini-conversation, which is easy to accomplish in 140 characters, I explained that I pay attention to HR, but it's not my day job anymore. So, I've updated my bio to reflect that I'm an "HR Spectator," as suggested by another tweeter, and I suspect that I'll always be one of those. HR is an incredibly fun and challenging career, and although I don't do it day-to-day anymore, I still admire those who do, and I do my best to keep my skills sharp to honor their efforts.

Give me a shout if you'll be at the SHRM conference or follow this blog or follow me on twitter throughout the conference to hear the latest and the greatest from the HR world.

Hope to see you in New Orleans!

Talent Anarchist's Manifesto

I love this. Way to go, Joe Gerstandt and Jason Lauritsen of Talent Anarchy. Brilliant. Watch this and think about leadership at your organization. The times they are a changin'.

Talent Anarchist's Manifesto

View more PDF documents from TalentAnarchy.

"We Become What We Think About"

I just found this quote on a blog by Amanda Linehan that I follow.

"The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment." - Earl Nightingale

The article explains her style of goal setting and is worthy of a read.

This quote in particular struck me because it reinforces the idea that we are doing exactly where our minds, dreams, and wishes from five to ten years ago took us. I am sure that there are those out there who do make this a conscious process, but I fear for many that it is more of a stumbling process, or subconscious as Earl Nightingale says. Click here to read more about Earl's fascinating life.

I feel like I am where I am supposed to be and perhaps my earlier statement of five to ten years may be off. Perhaps, that time period can go back all the way back to when I was a child.

My dream job when I was a kid, of all things, was to be a bus driver. I rode the city transit everywhere as a kid / pre-teen / teen. Back then there wasn't the fear, or at least as crippling, of allowing all of us kids to be on our own and take the bus to the Everett Mall way in the south of town or anywhere that the Everett Transit would go. I can't think of anything bad ever happening on these adventures and it sure helped all of us gain our independence. But I digress...back to being a bus driver. The bus drivers I knew always seemed to be happy, they knew many of their passengers by name, and they got out and about all day long. And guess what? I became a bus driver. I prefer the terms driver/guide or motorcoach commander, but I did it and I was good at it. I smiled at people. I got to see the sights as it were and it was great job. However, I always knew that I wanted to do more and human resources was always on my radar.

So, I moved up the chain, and early on, I think it was even the first time I ever met the Human Resources Manager who oversaw our region, I asked her how she got her job. Back in those days, early 1990s, she had started as an Administrative Assistant and her role grew as the need for personnel management grew. I always kept her in mind throughout my career and eventually applied for that job after she left. I didn't get it, but at least I tried.

At the time I applied for that HR Manager job, I was working in a safety department where I was responsible for DOT compliance, recruiting, safety and training. In other words, I was doing HR type work, but not in an HR department. Before I left that company, I wrote the Director of HR a letter which said a bunch of things, but most importantly, I said that I wanted to be a human resources contact for the seasonal employees, about 1500 of them, who worked for the company in Alaska. Simply put, I wanted to be their liaison, because they needed a voice representing their interests in the corporate office, which was located 1500 miles, on average, away from where they were working. In reality, that's what I was, but it certainly wasn't official. Back then, corporate HR was really corporate HR and those of us responsible for finding and training staff were on our own. The reality of that situation is a major reason for my long standing relationship with Cool Works. We needed a way to electronically advertise our job openings, and Cool Works could not only create a branded website for us, mind you that this was 1999, but they could also advertise those summer jobs. It was a dream come true.

So why am I rambling on tonight? Well, I guess I just wanted to share that looking back on those goals / dreams, I can honestly say that I not only achieved working in an HR department, I did so for 5 years, but I also I feel like I've been and continue to be an HR representative for job seekers on our social network, My CoolWorks. I am glad that I am able to utilize those skills and I am really looking forward to my second SHRM conference next month in New Orleans. I'll be blogging from there so I hope to share some gold nuggets from that conference here on our Seasonal Human Resources Blog. Be sure to check back in June.

Finally, I believe that every person has something to give, something to achieve, something to contribute to their fellow man, their family, their friends, this world. Dig deep within yourself and I bet if you really think about it, what you are doing today is directly related to what you thought about doing a while back. And, if you're not doing what you wanted to do, why not? There is no time like the present as they say.

TMI

I think everyone in the world probably knows what TMI is, but for those not fluent in the short message acronyms, TMI is "Too Much Information." Essentially, it is about certain individuals' propensity to share too much information about themselves or any topic under the sun. Typically, when one hears too much information the reaction is to cringe and/or experience general malaise at why so much was shared. TMI happens too much.

Why is this on my brain today? Well, often and particularly now that the summer working season is about to begin, the number of times that members of our social network bring up drug testing and smoking weed increases. For the record, I'm no fool, I know that lots of people in the seasonal world imbibe, BUT, my work experience is in HR and safety management and I've got a low level, if not zero level, of tolerance for idiots those who violate health, safety and DOT policies. I've administered drug and alcohol testing programs for the DOT (bus drivers) and I've heard every excuse in the book for why someone failed a drug test. "I swear, I wasn't smoking. I was at a party and everyone else was smoking. Not me." "Dude, I use hemp oil in my cooking." Well, I have not heard all of them, but enough to know that generally people will lie about their use because they just are mad that they got caught. I've also been involved in performance / discipline events with employees who simply made bad choices. There are good reasons the rules exist and certainly if I am in a role to enforce them, then that's what I do.

The social network is a whole other ball of wax. I'm not their employer. I'm not their manager. I can't discipline them or nor do I care to. I'm just a simple network administrator who tries to keep relative peace when things get heated. I am frankly amazed at how much people will share and how they are so cavalier and public about something that not only violates most employers' policies, but is against the law. But whatever. It just means more jobs for me in the future, right?

Now as HR professionals, we know that unless something affects one's performance on the job, it should not matter or be considered when weighing someone's potential employment or continued employment. The fact that individuals post this stuff on the Internet really has nothing to do with how they will do their jobs. Nothing.

So what can you do about it?

• Have strongly worded policies about drug and alcohol use on the job.
• Enforce those policies.
• Do not take hearsay into consideration, but do your own investigation to get to the truth of the matter.
• You can Google your employees. In fact, a lawyer told me it was perfectly fine to do so at a SHRA conference, BUT, if you do that for ONE person, be prepared to do so for ALL of your employees and prospective employees, AND, don't take things into consideration that may violate the EEO. Read more about what the lawyer said here.
• Lastly, know that they're headed your way and be prepared to handle the inevitable policy violations.

Hopefully, this post did not make you cringe, but this is what I am seeing right now on our social network. Mind you, the offenders are few and far between, but they are out there, and they are headed to a summer job near you.

Introducing CoolWorks.com Mobile

Change has come to CoolWorks.com and we're pretty excited about it. We've been fans of the recruiting news website Cheezhead for some time, and when the chance to better serve both our employer clients and job seekers through mobile was offered, we jumped at the opportunity. With iPhones taking the world by (Blackberry) storm, we didn't want to fall behind. According to the mJob website, a Cheezhead affiliated company, "With more than 4 billion handsets in the world, mobile is rapidly becoming the media of choice for savvy recruiters across the globe." We definitely wanted to make sure that CoolWorks.com is a part of this mobile revolution.

What does this mean for our job seekers? Job seekers can now check out the open job opportunities via their cell phones anytime, anywhere by visiting the following link.

http://m.coolworks.com

They can then email leads to themselves to follow up on later.

We're hoping that this becomes a simple way for them to keep up with the latest and greatest on CoolWorks.com in addition to the current job notification emails and RSS feeds we already provide.

What does this mean for our employers?

It's just another way for job postings on CoolWorks.com to reach even more people. As access to mobile continues to grow exponentially, the number of job seekers who utilize m.CoolWorks.com to find their summer jobs will only increase. It means better odds for employers to find the qualified job candidates needed to fill their seasonal job opportunities.

It's a win-win situation for everyone.

So, a BIG thanks to Joel and his team at mJob.com for taking us into the next realm of recruiting possibilities. Be sure to check out http://m.coolworks.com and let us know what you think.

Now Arriving - Your New Summer Staff

It's that time of the year where the big kids head out to their summer jobs. I clearly remember being the Mom Cat as it were when my first round of seasonal employees / driver guides headed to Alaska in the spring of 1999. We all loaded up their stuff into the Gray Line of Seattle motorcoach and shuttled them to SeaTac. As they were saying their goodbyes in their Gray Line of Alaska red coats, I felt like a mom sending her kids off to camp. I hoped that each one would find what they were looking for in Alaska and that nothing bad would happen to them.

The enthusiasm right now on our social network is bubbling over. The countdown timers are mentioned daily. "Two more days left!" "15 days left!" "No fair, I still have month to go." They cannot wait to get to their new jobs and their homes in the parks and other great places.

So, my encouragement to you today is simple. Help them have the best summer job ever! The rewards to them will be great, but the rewards to you for being an employer of choice are greater. So here's a quick checklist of ways to start off on the right foot.

Make a great first impression!

• Smile, smile, smile!
• Know their names and be expecting them just like guests at your resort/ranch, etc.
• Be sure that employee housing is clean and ready for use.
• Hang welcome signs.
• Provide maps so they know where they're going.

Build Your Team

• Have a BBQ so that your new employees get to know their co-workers.
• Provide mentors to those employees who are new to your operation.
• Team them up during orientation.
• Find out what the one thing they want to do is this summer and help them do it.

Help your employees succeed.

• Keep your HR office door open for questions and concerns.
• Help them learn their jobs quickly.
• Buddy check with your employees to see how things are going early on.
• Let them know when they're doing a great job!
• Feedback is important. Encourage it.
• It's normal for people to be nervous when they reach a new place. Help them to feel comfortable by answering their questions and taking care of their needs.

That's enough for now since I know that you have plenty of items on your to-do lists. Treat your new employees well and they'll be champions for your organization in no time. I hear the train whistle now....

Ponderous, man, really ponderous

My quick question and thought for the day is how are you handling all of your extra applicants? I keep reading about and seeing on the news how the dismal state of our economy has created many more applicants per job than in recent history. Normally this is an ideal situation for an employer. It's nice to be wanted. However, are you contacting all of these applicants? Are you at least acknowledging their efforts?

From the job seeker side, I hear that there is a long delay from the time an application is submitted to when they hear back from the employer. Now this isn't across the board and I want to praise employers who contact everyone and quickly, for that matter. That's great! But for the ones that don't get to their job candidates right away, what ends up happening, is that by the time they hear from what may have been their employer of choice, they have already made a commitment to another company. The savvy and respectful job seekers will stick with their commitment, which is the right thing to do for them, and certainly a great thing for the employer counting on their arrival. But perhaps, had you have contacted them sooner, they may be working for you this summer. So, did you miss out on a great candidate because it took too long to get back to them?

I don't want this to be a scolding post. I totally understand being busy and inundated with job applicants, and not feeling like you have the time to contact them all. I get it. But, if I was the applicant and I spent the time applying, and I had been out of work for an extended period of time, I would want to hear something, anything. I would even take a system generated "Hi" to at least know my application was successfully submitted. But nothing, no acknowledgment, that's tough to bear.

National unemployment reached 8.1% in February and I'm sure the March number will be even less savory. People are struggling. HR / Recruiting professionals are trying to help. Check out Job Angels if you haven't already done so. Now is the time to be kind to one's neighbor and lend a hand where you can. I'm not saying hire everyone. I realize that this economy is also very much touching the travel and tourism industry and the number of employees needed is down, but something human resource managers and hiring managers can do is treat their applicants with respect. And to me, respect means at least doing the applicant the honor of thanking them for applying.

Someday, I don't honestly know when, this market will recover and when it does, it will be harder to find candidates again. We've all been there before. We've desperately sought a good candidate to fill our open job. How you treat the plethora of applicants you have now, will most certainly affect how many of them will return to you when the market gets tight once again. Treat them well, and they'll come back. Treat them poorly, and they'll not only not come back, they'll tell all of their friends to not apply either.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Marc Andreesen on the Media and Why You Should Care

Marc Andreesen, co-founder of Netscape, in conversation with Charlie Rose, acclaimed interviewer and broadcaster, talking about the eventual fall of newspapers, the rise of social networks and the use of mobile. It is about an hour, but well worth your time to take a peek at our collective future on the Internet.



You can view the whole transcript here on TechCrunch.

Cool Works' tie to Marc Andreesen is a result of his co-founding, Ning, with Gina Bianchini. Our social network, My CoolWorks, exists because of their platform. You can learn more about them and their reason for creating Ning here.

Thank goodness for the innovators!

A Wee Bit of Compliance

Just a few reminders and things you should be thinking about and doing right now.

1. Your OSHA Form 300A, i.e. the summary form, should be posted on a wall in a visible place where employees would look for employment forms or other compliance items from now, actually February 1, through April 30. More details here on HR.BLR.com. Forms can be obtained here from OSHA.
2. A revision to the documents that will be acceptable for Employment Eligibility (Form I-9) have been delayed by the USCIS for 60 days until April 30, 2009. Public comments can be submitted through March 4, 2009. More information can be found on the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services website. Until then, you should still be verifying your employees eligibility to work with the most current I-9 form. Also, keep this link handy for when they roll out the new form.

Carnevale delle Risorse Umane: 18 February 2009 ~ Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM (Human Capital Management) Blog

Carnevale delle Risorse Umane: 18 February 2009 ~ Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM (Human Capital Management) Blog

A Festive Season? It Depends On Your Perspective

Each month, an HR Carnival is hosted by a blogger / thought leader in the Human Resources / Talent Management / Employment field. Each HR Carnival highlights some of the great minds in this industry and captures the trends at this particular moment in time. Guess what the focus of this one was? You got it - The Recession. All of us had different takes and pieces to the puzzle and I am happy that my post called "Your Employees Are Talking About You" was included.

You can read and get the full Carnevale experience here on Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog.



More so, I'm quite happy that I had the opportunity to meet Jon in person at the Kennedy Recruiting Conference last fall.

I hope you enjoy the Carnival and thanks again to Jon!

Your Employees Are Talking About You

It's true. For good or ill, they talk about you all of the time. And you know what? As much as you might like to believe that all of it is good, you would be wrong a good portion of the time. You may also believe that your marketing message will keep you in their good graces, but it won't. Actions speak louder than words.

If you haven't noticed, people seem to share their opinions with whomever will listen and the Internet along with the 24-hour news cycle keeps all of us informed about everything. Strong voices may sway a fine person from working for you or being a guest at your property. Quiet voices do also get their share of attention. In our experience, savvy job seekers will weigh all of the words before they decide for themselves. But what about the ones that just see one bad review and decide to never check you out? What about those that have a negative experience that stays with them for years that they just can't shake? Is it worth losing a potential employee or guest because you did not think about how you treat / treated your employees or applicants? I hope that the answer to that last question is no.

We at Cool Works pay attention to what these job seekers and employees have to say and we do so for several reasons.

1. We cannot be everywhere so we listen to what is being said about previous, current or future clients. We want to make sure that the employers we highlight pass muster. As best as we can, we do a gut check to make sure that the employers we feature not only fit our niche of jobs in great places (tm), but also pass the "niece test." Would we send a loved one to work at this place?
2. We've been at this a while - 13 years - and we have (almost) heard it all. We generally can tell the difference between one person's bad experience and everyone's bad experience. Four out of five of us at Cool Works started our careers in seasonal jobs and our lives are the richer for those experiences. We believe that seasonal and summer jobs change lives and we want everyone to have a good experience.
3. Lastly, and perhaps the most important, is that our reputation is directly tied to those employers who advertise on our website. If you treat an employee well, we feel great about working with you. If you treat an employee or job seeker poorly, it reflects negatively on us. We're very sensitive about that and very protective of our tribe. The bottom line is that if an employer no longer passes the "niece" test, we'll pull them from our site. We don't like to do it and it's generally messy, but for us, it's not worth sending someone to a place that will only dash their dreams. Please pass our test.

Just so you don't think that it isn't all negative, we so often hear glowing reviews of our employers and awesome stories about how their summer job changed their lives, or that they've made friends that they'll have forever, or that the folks that they worked for were amazing. We LOVE to hear those stories. They truly make our days and keep us motivated to serve our job seekers and help you as our employers find great people. Keep 'em coming.

So how can you get the glowing review by your employees and job seekers?

• For starters, treat them well.
• Respond quickly.
• Respect their time and effort.
• Remember the Golden Rule.
• Pay them fairly for work done.
• Give them a safe place to work and make sure to return them safely to their loved ones at the end of the day.
• Listen to them.
• Heed their suggestions.
• Provide secure and safe housing.
• Give them an opportunity to speak to you before they share their experience with all of their "friends" on the Internet.
• Be a GREAT employer!

By treating your people well, you'll have fans galore. You may even have future guests to your resort or ranch or camp or whatever. You never know who someone is or who they know until you spend a little time getting to know them. Be worthy of their good words, because like I said, your employees are talking about you.

Sometimes the Best Sell is the Softest Sell

One of the big mistakes that a lot of salespeople make is not understanding that most people don't like to be sold to. When you're selling to a salesperson, they generally like to be sold to as they understand and appreciate what you're doing, but most people get turned off by the hard sell.

Whirlpool understands that most candidates are not salespeople and will be turned off by a recruitment pitch that is hard sell. So one of the strategies that they employed is a soft sell recruitment video narrated by Reba McEntire in which she describes the partnership that Whirlpool has forged with Habitat for Humanity.

There's no hard sell in the video. There's almost no way of watching the video without getting misty eyed. And there's probably no better recruitment video out there and may never be one.



Article by, Steven Rothberg and courtesy of CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.