Is It Too Late to Hire College Grads for Entry Level Jobs?

An corporate recruiter recently posted a question to discussion list in which he expressed concern that it may be too late in the school year for him to recruit college seniors who are completing their civil engineering program. Is it?

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Rejection Communications

Should a rejection be communicated via telephone voice mail? Well, if you want the equivalent of, “I just called to tell you that your mother [or insert title of any other significant in your life] died,” then go ahead and leave that type of voice message. However, an employer of any quality would not do so.

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Rejection Communications

Great discussion in the College Recruiter group at the Electronic Recruiting Exchange regarding whether employers should communicate rejections to candidates via phone, email, or some other method. If by phone, how many times should the employer call before leaving a message with their regrets. Is or should there be a difference in the communication method between candidates based upon their education or experience level?

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Job Postings Easy Accessible

Question from Employer:
With so many people using search engines such as Google to find all types of information, how important is it for candidates to be able to find our postings by running a Google search using a job title and location but not our company name?
Answer:
Job seekers frequently use search engines such as Google to locate job openings for specific job positions. In fact, it is likely to be one of the first places a savvy job hunter will try. This best practice is to ensure candidates can easily find your job postings using search engines even if they do not enter your company name in their search string.
A major consideration for your site design team is based on typical search terms for job postings. Once the postings requested by the job candidate are displayed, your company’s postings must appear on the first page or two. Why? Only the most persistent of candidates will venture past this point because, quite frankly, it’s not worth the effort.
Search terms or keywords must be integrated throughout the posting and key pages on your employment site. If this is done haphazardly or not at all, your posting will not be ranked high enough to appear on the first couple of pages displayed by large search engines. Your critical posting may never be seen by the most qualified candidate!
Keyword coding for your employment web site should be performed by search engine optimization experts. They understand how search engines rank web pages and will translate this knowledge into top rankings for your site.
Take the example of a highly qualified candidate looking for an illustrator’s position. This candidate knows from experience that the search term “illustrator” is much too general. So, based on his knowledge of the different types of illustrators in the current work environment, the candidate adds the adjective “multimedia.” The motivation is to get specific job postings using the search term “multimedia illustrator.”
Once this term is entered into Google, the site ranked first in the results for job postings is the U.S. Army’s employment site. There may be hundreds of companies worldwide searching for the ideal candidate, but the Army beat them all to the top of the list.
Here’s an example of a less desirable Google ranking from the company’s perspective. In this case, a pharmaceutical firm is currently looking for specific expertise to ensure systems are in compliance with FDA regulations. This position, “computer validation specialist,” requires specialized skills most computer specialists normally do not possess.
Unfortunately for both potential job candidates and the company, this posting can’t be located on the first five pages of Google results when the logical search term “computer validation specialist” is used. Since the company’s employment site’s search engine rankings are not optimized, eligible job candidates may not get the opportunity to view this posting using the Google search engine. A major avenue to eligible job candidates is unavailable to the company.

Importance of Linking to Jobs Page from Home Page

Question:
Upper management does not want to include a link on our home page to our jobs page. How do I convince them that we need to add that link?
Answer:
A prominent link to “jobs” or “employment” — or better still, “careers” — should appear on the home page of all organizations. The link should lead directly to the main page of your site’s employment section.
If you put this link on the “About Us” or some other interior page, you will frustrate job candidates. There is solid evidence via web usability studies that frustrating website visitors increases the chance that they will leave your site without completing their objective — finding the right job for them. And it does not help you achieve your own objective — finding, screening, and hiring qualified candidates.
Using the word “careers” as your link name implies that you view employees as valuable assets and expect them to grow within the workplace. Simply put, a “career” is much more appealing to a job candidate than a “job.”
The best way to demonstrate the effectiveness of this best practice is by example. Pfizer’s corporate website contains a “Careers” link clearly marked on the employer’s home page. Not only is this link prominent on the initial site page, it appears in an area where the visitor’s eye naturally goes first — the top left section of the page.
If you navigate to this site and click the “Careers” link, you’ll see a menu for the “Careers” section of the site in that same familiar position on the page. Site designers use this positioning to “train” the visitor to view the most important links first.
Another example is the home page for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Instead of a set of vertical links, you’ll see links listed horizontally. This arrangement caters to the reader’s instinct to read from left to right. On this site, the “Careers” link is the second link from the left. In this case, the job seeker is very likely to see this link as soon as the page displays.
In case you’re looking for an example of a site where the link is difficult to find, check out General Electric’s. The employment link is buried in the lower-left corner, which is the least visible location on a page. If you were seeking a career with General Electric, what would you infer from the placement of that link? Think about the message this employer may be sending to job seekers!

Inappropriate Behavior From Boss or Just Kindness?

Question from Employer:
I have a friend (we’ll call her Sherry) that told me this story yesterday. I am completely flustered about this and want to make sure that I am not being unreasonable in thinking that this is the most disrespectful, inappropriate behavior by a boss.
Sherry has become close with her boss David. She has worked for him for approximately 9 months. David is a very religious man and is married with 2 kids. While working together in a small office, they have begun to talk about their personal lives. Sherry’s husband is not very supportive. He has a bad temper is very close-minded. Over the months, Sherry has confided in David and he is very aware of the situation that Sherry is in. Sherry, to the best of my knowledge, has accepted her husband’s behavior and has no plans for divorce. David, her boss, has told her that he wants to become more than her boss-he’d like to become her friend. He’d like to become the type of friend that shows her how she deserves to be treated. In a purely platonic way of course.
Yesterday, Sherry and David went to a business meeting off-site. After the meeting, David told her that he had planned the day for her. He told her that he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable, that she should just trust him and that he would NEVER do anything to hurt her. He drove her to a hotel where he already had a room. Took her up to the room that was filled with candles and had a jacuzzi. He lit the candles and said the room was hers to enjoy and that he’d be back in an hour. She enjoyed a bubble bath while he was gone. He returned and they shared lunch in the room with nothing happening. Sherry felt fine with all of that.
They had to leave b/c he had made a reservation for her to have a massage. He dropped her off at a spa where he bought her a Swedish massage. Again, he picked her up afterward. In total, David paid approximately $250 showing Sherry how she ‘deserved’ to be treated.
It was made clear that this day would stay between the two of them and noone else should know.
In Sherry’s mind, b/c David did not try anything, he was just being ‘nice’. In my opinion, as her boss, this behavior is unacceptable, inappropriate, and completely disrespectful. I think Sherry needs to inform David that she can never again receive gifts of this sort from him. Ideally, I believe she needs to look for a new job. Please, tell me your opinion.