83% of Employers Offer Merit Pay Increases to Improve Retention

As the job market slowly continues to open up, more employers are seeking ways to attract and retain the most valuable talent, and many are looking to rewards systems to facilitate this process.  The Compdata Surveys BenchmarkPro 2012 survey results found 82.8 percent of employers offer merit increases as one of the many systems used to reward employees. The average merit increase budget reported for 2012 was 2.7 percent, with 2.8 percent projected for 2013.

Bonuses are a popular reward option, as they are offered by 67.6 percent of employers surveyed. Nearly 40 percent of organizations use incentive pay, compared to spot incentives at 23.6 percent. Skill-based pay is utilized by 12.6 percent of survey respondents and key contributor rewards are used the least, 4.9 percent. Continue Reading

Video: How to Use a Job Board to Find Your Next Job

I was honored to be asked by Carlos Gil and Kevin Morris of JobsDirectUSA to participate in this year’s America Hires virtual job fair.

We kicked around a few ideas as to how I could best help the many, many people who are hunting for a new internship, entry-level job, or other career opportunity and we decided that I should record a short video in which I answer some of the most commonly asked questions about how to be use a job board. Kevin did a nice job of editing to drop in the questions before each of my answers.

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Top HR Experts to Follow on Twitter

For the past six months or so I’ve been fortunate enough to be named by Evan Carmichael as the top human resource expert to follow on Twitter. Each month Evan lists the top one hundred and shows where they ranked the previous month so you can get a good feeling for who is on the rise and who is on the decline. Here are the top 10 from this past month: Continue Reading

The 2012 CandEs: Launching this year’s Candidate Experience Awards

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads

Last year, 24 firms were acknowledged for their efforts to improve the treatment of their candidates at the HR Technology Conference (where the U.S. awards will be presented again this year). Kudos to these winning firms: Adidas Group, Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, The Bozzuto Group, Cliffs Natural Resources, Covenant Health, Crowe Horwath LLP, Deloitte, Deluxe Corporation, General Mills, Harris Interactive, Herman Miller, IncInfoReliance Corporation, Intuit Inc., Ontario Systems, LLC, PepsiCo, Principal Financial Group, Rex Healthcare, RMS Inc., Sage, State Farm, Insurance, SunTrust Banks, Inc., W. L. Gore & Associates, Whirlpool Corporation.

Subsequently we have seen dozens of articles about the awards and the winners in major publications including the Wall Street Journal and WSJ blogs (see this recent post, the High Cost of Treating Job Seekers like Cattle mentioning the 2012 award launch). Continue Reading

Video Interview in U.K. Immediately After Keynote About U.S. Job Market for College Grads

Last week I had the good fortune to fly over to Leeds, England to keynote their annual Graduate Employment Conference. CEO of Graduates Yorkshire and Gradcore Martin Edmondson asked me to deliver a presentation about the U.S. job market for college and university students and recent graduates. Many of the issues we’re facing are similar to those they’re facing. They’re experiencing some of them before we do and we’re experiencing some before they do.

One issue that I knew was important but didn’t realize just how important it would be to them was the high cost of attending just about any type of post-secondary school. The cost of attending a higher education institution is far higher in the U.S. than it is in almost any other country and FAR higher than it is to attend an equivalent school in the United Kingdom. But their recent implementation of austerity measures threatens to put their schools on a similar path to that which our schools have long been on. Without exception, every attendee and organizer with whom I spoke greatly appreciated my urging that they do not follow our lead as we are making higher education impossible for many and soon, I fear, for most. As bad as that would have been decades ago, it is even worse moving forward as we cannot and should not hope to compete against other nations to see which can manufacture goods at the lowest possible cost. Unless we want our citizenry to again have third world standards of living, we need to ensure they have first world standards of work. And that means that we need a workforce which uses the muscles between their ears more than the muscles on their backs. Continue Reading

Honor Student Has Baby, Loses Healthcare, Becomes Homeless, But Now Back in School

MoniKea Hatten of Glen Ellyn, Illinois had always been a good student and driven to succeed even though she grew up without much support or the means to accomplish many of her goals. She lost her job in 2007 and enrolled at the College of DuPage in an effort to upgrade her education and make herself more marketable to employers and a more productive member of society.

In 2010, MoniKea Hatten was an honor student but also pregnant. She was unable to finish a summer course scheduled to end July 27th because she delivered her baby on July 12th.  Because she didn’t complete the course, she lost her financial aid.

In 2011, MoniKea turned to WorkNet DuPage to see if they could help her find a way to continue school. Many barriers, however, stood in her way. She had no means of transportation and soon became homeless. Paying for childcare was out of the question. Roseanne Deane at WorkNet recommended a program called LEAP at People’s Resource Center. MoniKea called. “My life has never been the same,” she said. “LEAP gave me provisions for transportation and incentives to help pay for childcare. I didn’t have much money, and it was very difficult to travel 4 ½ hours every day using public transportation from a shelter in Villa Park, but I did it.”

PRC taught MoniKea how to network, and today she is working and continuing her education. She credits LEAP for both. Currently, she is looking for housing for her son and herself. “Everything’s a stepping stone to my destiny,” MoniKea said. “PRC is my home, and the people at PRC are my family. Any young person seeking change should check out PRC. They push you forth into your life. Seriously, they will work with you until you are on your way.” Continue Reading

Why Hiring a Veteran is Good for Your Organization as Well as the Country

There’s been a lot of media attention recently to the hundreds of thousands of bright, energetic, decisive, and honorable veterans who are transitioning out of the military and into the civilian world.

I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak with a number of leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs about their work in helping these veterans and we’re even more fortunate to be partnering with the VA to help with this most important initiative. The work the VA is doing should make us all proud. Many in the public and private sectors are doing tremendous work. The leaders in both sectors understand that hiring a veteran is good for the veteran but also makes good business sense. Continue Reading

Top 100 HR Professionals to Follow on Twitter

Each month, entrepreneurship expert Evan Carmichael publishes his list of the top 100 recommended human resources experts to follow on Twitter. I was pretty flattered to see that I’m number one for the third straight month.

Want to see Evan’s complete list? Go to his February 2012 Top 100 Human Resources Experts to Follow on Twitter page. Want to see his top ten HR professionals to follow on Twitter? Keep reading: Continue Reading

Glassdoor Reveals Top 50 Best Places To Work 2012

You may already feel the pressure of finding a full-time job after graduating, but how do you know which companies to apply to? And, how do you know which companies really are the best to work for?

Glassdoor, a jobs and career community, has issued the 50 Best Places to Work for 2012, which is based entirely on employee feedback. The top five companies on this annual list, all recipients of Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Award, include Facebook, Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, MITRE, and Google. It’s worth noting that companies like Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company have offices in several states and are known for recruiting talented college students. Continue Reading

Why CollegeRecruiter.com Stands With Craigslist to Oppose SOPA and PIPA

One of my favorite Internet pioneers is Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. He’s smart, self-effacing, motivated more by doing good than making money, and cool enough to get energy by working as a customer service representative for Craigslist rather than as its Chief Executive Officer. The guy really walks the walk rather than just talking the talk.

Thanks to my oldest kid and people like Craig, weeks ago I became aware of two bills working their way through the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate that are very, very dangerous to every Internet user and every Internet site except for the very small number of advocates who have tried without much success to portray themselves as sheep when in fact they’re acting as wolves. Here’s a short video from Craig that explains the situation: Continue Reading