TalentFusion Named Leading RPO Innovator

HRO Magazine’s recent yearly Baker’s Dozen report recognizes TalentFusion, a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) professional services firm, as a top Project/On Demand Leader. TalentFusion was one of seven firms recognized for their exceptional services in the Recruitment Process Outsourcing space. The firm has been a leading innovator in the recruitment process outsourcing space and has assisted many Fortune 500 companies with great success in acquiring talent through various verticals such as IT, Financial, Bio Tech, Pharmaceutical, Energy, Construction, Government Services, and Mass Media. Their on demand project methodologies encompass workforce planning, requirements definition and position profile development, on-site engagement management and recruitment, sourcing and candidate list development, candidate management, on boarding process management, ATS management, and reporting and metrics. “We are honored and pleased to be recognized again by HRO Magazine as a leader in our industry and it properly reflects that we are indeed a high powered boutique consulting firm that many companies are now using and will consider as a resource,” says CEO David Pollard.
Article courtesy of Kennedy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional

Retaining Millennials?

Learning how to recruit the best millennials is comparable to learning to drive a new car. At first, it can be kind of tricky. The brakes may be sensitive, the steering a bit stiff, and you’re not sure how it’ll handle a sharp turn. But once you break it in and find out what makes it tick, you’ll be amazed by its performance.
As baby boomers begin to retire, millennials, or people born between 1980 and 2000, offer a wealth of much-needed talent to fill the void. They’re brimming with potential; they just need a little guidance and the right management style, which involves meeting their innate needs in an environment that fosters growth.
The misunderstood generation
As with all employees, the key to recruiting the best, most engaged millennials is retaining the best. The millennials share a generational personality that is highly misunderstood by preceding generations, who often misinterpret their motivation as impatience and their enthusiasm as narcissism. Employers who manage millennials need to understand their generational footprint in order to keep this tech-savvy, plugged-in group of employees engaged in their work.
Millennials are confident and goal-oriented. They were brought up in a fast-paced, hectic environment, and their parents hustled them from soccer practice to dance class, so they’re used to finishing one project and moving directly on to the next. However, unlike their parents, they view life and work as two separate entities–and life comes before work. Millennials don’t view it as work/life balance, but rather life/work balance. They prefer to find a job that provides fulfillment, happiness, and a little extra cash for the weekends, rather than one that will help them save for retirement.
Retaining millenials (no question mark)
This means that to keep your millennial staffers passionate about their work, you’ll have to go out of your way to challenge, as well as guide them. Give them a mentor – someone they can connect with on a personal and professional platform who will provide them one-on-one attention that will help them gain experience and knowledge. In return, the younger employees can advise the middle-aged executives on the newest technologies. In another vein, peer groups push millennials to succeed and allow for more creativity.
Also, let millennials sample more challenging work so that they know they’ll have an opportunity to grow. Keep them excited about what’s to come. One way to do this is to make work fun. Millennials are extremely enthusiastic and optimistic, and they crave a work environment that fosters their outgoing attitude.
Above all, it’s important to show millennials respect and appreciation, just as you would with any group of employees. Millennials are smart and hardworking; they know it and they want to know that you know it. It doesn’t take much to show a little appreciation. A small gesture can go a long way.
The most important thing to remember about recruiting and managing millennials is that just like buying a new pair of jeans, the perfect fit is hard to find. But with a little time and wear and tear, they become comfortable, and eventually, irreplaceable. Always keep in mind that eventually, change leads to comfort.
Article by,Tom Gimbel http://www.recruitingtrends.com/advisory_board/tony_lee.html and courtesy of Kenndy Information Recruiting Trends providing leading edge insights and strategies for the recruiting professional

Social Recruiting | Candidate Expectations and Community Manager

Today’s candidates have high expectations for the experience that is offered by a company committed to attracting and retaining Talent. From the type of information that an interested candidate is able to find about working at your company, to how initial connections are made and a relationship established, to the experience on the Career Web Site. And it doesn’t stop there. Once a successful candidate becomes a hire, they also have high expectations for the on-boarding experience, the Intranet, and even after they leave in the form of the availability of Alumni networks.
This expectation isn’t set by the type of experience they are used to having on career or internal company sites, rather it is set by the type of online experience that are available on much of the rest of the web where they are using social networks, blogs and articles that allow comments, and discussion forums to connect and interact.
In order for corporations to successfully use social computing tools to connect and build relationships with talent in an authentic way that builds credibility and trust, an internal resource needs to be identified to foster this “candidate community”. While consultants and agencies can help provide knowledge and guidance, brand reputation monitoring and process research, technical support, web development work, and ROI metrics – the actual building, evangelizing, and cultivation of the community HAS to be done by the people at the company itself.
“But who is going to manage and moderate this?”

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There Are Few Secrets To Business Success

I recently came across an amusing and quite insightful story in a book I’m reading at the moment. When B. Dalton was buying other booksellers around the country back in the 60′s and 70′s, a B. Dalton executive traveled to L.A. to talk with Louis Epstein, the founder of Pickwick Book Shops. Towards the end of the conversation, the B. Dalton executive asked Epstein what his secret was to his success in selling so many books. Epstein replied, “I figure that if we put a hell of a lot of books in front of a hell of a lot of people, we’re going to sell a hell of a lot of books.”
It constantly amuses me when I hear founders, entrepreneurs, and executives describe their business in a way that implies they possess some magical secret(s) or have mastered some phenomenal complexity. Even more pathetic are the business people who are in constant pursuit of this perpetually elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that will bring them instant fame, fortune, riches, and marketplace dominance.
While there certainly are a small percentage of businesses that depend heavily on real trade secrets, intellectual property, and/or incredible complexity, the vast majority of businesses do not. Typically, the factors or ingredients for business success are, or at least should be, really simple. Deliver a great product or service that meets a real need in the market. Hire smart people and let them do their job. Out-service the competition. Delight your customers, etc. And while the plethora of business adages might seem trivial, overly simplistic, and trite, they always have and always will remain true. The formula or strategy for business success is usually quite simple to understand. It’s the execution that creates so many challenges.
Article by Toby Dayton and courtesy of Diggings, a blog about recruitment advertising, media, publishing, HR, work, & technology, among other things.

Accounting – For Your Entry Level Resume Objective

Most college students and graduates understand how important their resume objective is. It tells an employer what prospective entry level job candidates have to offer their organization. However, sometimes we may forget that point and talk too much about our wants, causing an employer to lose interest in our resume. Remember, the goal of your resume objective is to capture the employer’s attention immediately.

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Career Tip: YOU, online.

There has been article after article warning you how recruiters use online sites like Facebook to determine whether they want to hire you. And yes, some do. But they are more likely to use the sites to find you. The best recruiters are really good at online searching. They know which tools to use and how to use Google search strings to find job candidates who didn’t even know they were candidates. Meaning, individuals with a certain type of experience who aren’t job searching, but who they might reach out to and share a job opening.
Wondering what recruiters or hiring managers can find out about you online? Check out CVGadget. This new search engine which culls your online presence into one friendly location allowing you to see where you need better self-promotion and where you need to change your privacy settings. CV (which stands for curriculum vitae) is what many countries use in place of the term “resume,” and demonstrates the site can serve as a partner to your CV or resume for any recruiter or hiring manager.

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Obsession with GenY

It seems like everyone is targeting Gen Y these days. They’ve boarded the YouTube train, watched High School Musical along the way and helicoptered their parents in to help them navigate.
I get it, really I do. There’s lots of money to be made and even more marketing to get a piece of that pie. But I am starting to feel like we’re only focusing on that pie. And that’s scary. From a moey perspective, there are plenty of other places to make money these days (has anyone forgot the burgeoning baby boomer population?)
It isn’t the marketing or consumption that bothers me–it’s the attention to this generation and how that will affect them later. I’m imagining a tight job market down the road and a generation that is suddenly surprised that finding a job is so hard. A seriously major temper tantrum on a seriously major scale.
It isn’t that GenYers don’t want to work hard, they do. But many of them are getting used to undivided attention and coddling. And when that’s expected in the workplace, or even worse, in a job search, it often leads to bitter disappointment.
Now, you may expect me to start blaming these millenials, but the reality is it’s our fault. It’s all we can talk about, all we can write about. We’re not asking them to speak p, we’re shoving a microphone in their faces. I think it’s time to take a step back and see how they handle themselves in the workplace. Let’s give them some rope and see if we get a birdge or a noose.

Article by Career Coach and HR Executive, Susan D. Strayer, and courtesy of KaleidoBlog, career advice for a new generation.

Your Children Are Watching You … Work?

We know parents are models for language, play, and relationships, but what about work? A Toronto newspaper featured this article about the effect parents’ work habits have on what their children choose to do and how they do it. We know how much flack the illusive BlackBerry gets for its intrusion in home and personal life. I’ll admit it, I’ve learned how to email and drive at the same time.
Not that you want your kids to think you don’t work. That in itself teaches kids the importance of hard work and the fruits of your labor. But kids also don’t want their parents to work all the time–at least Hollywood tells us so. If there’s one more Law and Order episode about a kid committing a crime because his overworked parents were too busy to pay attention to him, I’ll go crazy. But there’s some truth in that, for sure.
Thinking back to my own childhood, the simple fact that my parents made this equation work makes me wonder if it’s possible or I was dreaming. My dad worked in Coporate America but even with a long commute was home by 7 every night. And while I don’t remember him working weekends, maybe he did, just out of my eyesight. After all, in 1985, he couldn’t bring his DOS computer to my ballet practices or softball games. My mom still works two jobs, but finds a way to pay attention to everyone in her life to the “nth” degree.

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U.S. Airways Really Knows How to Tick Off a Frequent Flyer

Those who know me know that one of my pet peeves is the atrocious customer service that most airlines seem to serve up most of the time even though similarly qualified and compensated customer service people who work for hotels seem to serve up great customer service most of the time. Why the airlines can’t or won’t figure out how to deliver customer service while their travel industry siblings did long ago is beyond me.
Want some examples? Well, too bad. Here they are:

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Three Common Resume Questions Answered

How many times have you found yourself in the midst of writing your resume when you realized that there were some questions you simply had to have answered before you could move forward? Everyone has probably been in this predicament at least once during a resume-writing experience.
Of course, there are some questions that are more frequently asked than others. So before you put your fingers back on the keyboard, let’s take a moment to explore some of the more commonly asked questions regarding resumes.

How Do I Write a Great Objective?
For many, the objective is the most abstract and challenging portion of the resume to write. You may find yourself asking questions like “what does the employer want to know?” and “how can I describe myself in just one sentence?” during the process. But don’t let these issues deter you from continuing on, because in actuality, it is not hard to create a succinct objective that will entice the employer to read on.
First, take note that objectives can be more than one sentence long. Depending on your level of experience, you may want to include up to three sentences describing who you are and what career plans you have that fall neatly in line with the employer’s goals. Within the 1-3 sentences, you want to express your strengths, abilities and qualifications in your field, and how they match the specific employer’s goals. However, try to avoid using the word “I” in this section as it creates a self-centered image, something that can quickly result in your resume hitting the bottom of the stack.
What if I Haven’t Worked in a While?
If you haven’t worked for several years, or even several months, you may feel a little bit nervous about explaining your employment gap. But don’t worry; if you truly feel you’re qualified for the job, you can express this in a number of ways.
One is by using a functional resume style (as opposed to chronological) that focuses less on timelines and more on skills. Also, you can roll up all of your non-work experience, including volunteering, community involvement, consulting, or even your continuing education, to highlight the skills you’ve acquired over the years. If your gaps are a little smaller, you can make them less obvious by not noting months on your resume. In the end, you want to showcase your knowledge of industry trends, so be creative in explaining how this knowledge can enhance the position you’re applying for.
Should I Include References?
Typically, the rule for references is this: if they don’t ask for them, don’t provide them. However, if they do it’s a good idea to create a separate sheet just for them. On that sheet, you can include the references’ names, phone numbers, and their locations, as well as your personal/professional relationships. But before you add references be sure to contact them so they are prepared to offer information about you.
Writing a resume can be an exciting process if you remember that your hard work can result in a great job. So take the time to ask more questions about the writing process. You’ll find that the more you ask, the more likely you are to create a standout resume that may just secure the job you want.
Heather Eagar is a former professional resume writer and owner of http://www.ResumeLines.com who is now dedicated to providing job seekers with resources and products that promote job search success from beginning to end.