I love blogging but I wish blogger & some of the other popular blog software would improve the functionality. As I write my last post for the labor day weekend before heading into New Hampshire I thought I would post my wishes for better blogging tools. (Not that the blog providers are listening)

1. Allow future scheduling of blog posts. It would have been nice if I could write several posts in advance and schedule them to go out on a set date. You can do this when sending an email newsletter, why not blogs?

2. More templates to choose from. I'm really tired of the blogger templates I have to choose from. I did a search for some other designs and found a few, but none of them impressed me enough. Anyone know a blogger template designer?

3. More integration of outside web services. I know wordpress has incorporated those Digg and Del.icio.us buttons. Hey blogger, what about you guys? And for that matter, how about "printer friendly" versions of posts. And the ability to save a blog's archive as a PDF would be fantastic.

Do you have a suggestion to improve blogging platforms?

Let me know.

And the enjoy the long weekend.

Labels: Industry News

Now you can give your readers access to search the "recruiting blogosphere". Just cut and paste the RecruitingFly search box onto your site. Grab the code on our spread the fly page.

Labels: Industry News

A Connecticut owner of a staffing firm, Kathryn Clark Melanson, is in a heap of trouble with the state after she stole more than $95,000 from her own father.

Melanson, who also wrote an employment column for the Journal Inquirer, has had her column pulled by the newspaper.

Looks like she'll be needing some good advice - from a lawyer!

Employment columnist may avoid theft conviction

By Alex Wood , Journal Inquirer

The employment agency head, Kathryn Clark Melanson, 48, of Old Saybrook, was admitted to the state's "accelerated rehabilitation" program in late July in New Britain Superior Court. If she successfully completes two years' probation, the larceny charges she is facing will be dismissed.

Under the name Kathryn Clark, she writes a newspaper advice column known as "Employment Today." The Journal Inquirer published the column weekly until she pleaded guilty to a federal tax crime in April.

Melanson also is chief operating officer of New England Personnel of Hartford LLC, a Rocky Hill-based employment agency.

Full story >>

Labels: Industry News

The flies are buzzing around RecruitingFly.com. We've been busy little pests and would like to announce that our directory of blogs is now available as an RSS feed.

We've taken the liberty of already burning this feed and making it available in a nice tidy list of links. Perfect for your recruiting blogrolls! Grab the javascript code here.

Why do the work of adding to your blogroll when the Fly will do it for you?

Labels: Industry News

A new social service based around topics has launched. It's called Fanpop and the early reviews have been very good. As described on their site, "It's a one-stop destination for fans of anything and everything and the place to find fellow devoted fans."








Each topic or "spot" as they call it, is a gateway to content around a specific area of interest. The network of spots is powered by communities of people who are passionate and knowledgeable about those interests rather than by computers or algorithms that can be gamed.

I've joined Fanpop since it offers great link building opportunities whether you want to share a website, blog, article, link or other online content. Just join and submit your item. They have a Business & Money section and a Finding a Job section. I added my Secrets of the Job Hunt blog, my CHIMBY site and a few other related sites. When you add an item you also can tag it with keywords. The site also allows other users to "rate" your submission. To me, Fanpop is a more diverse version of Digg since it allows you to share anything, not just news. It's also super easy to use and post things. So why not become a fan of Fanpop.

Labels: Industry News, SEO tips

This little item caught my eye as I was poking around courant.com this evening;

Newspaper publisher Journal Register Co. said today that it is exploring the sale of 26 Massachusetts and Rhode Island publications because of slower growth and because it wants to focus on its more profitable online ventures.

The Yardley, Pa.-based company, which owns 393 papers, including the New Haven Register and several others in Connecticut, called the newspaper market "extremely challenging" and said its online operations generate a higher return on capital, profits and cash flow.

The Journal Register last year bought JobsInTheUS.com, a job board company based in Maine, so it appears they now realize that online classifieds is where the future lies. Problem is, their online ops are just a drop in the bucket compared to overall sales. It remains to be seen if newspapers can make a successful transition from print to web. Other than the NYTimes, no one else does it very well in my opinion. From this report, it's clear that all their hope rests online.

The job boards are winning the classifeds war. (some would say they've already won)


BTW...with all these newspapers up for sale these days, who the heck would want to buy them?

Labels: Industry News

Please welcome the following new blogs to the recruitosphere:

-Recruiter: People Management
-Other: Super Sourcer (recruiter stories)
-Recruiter: The Recruiter (Yoh Staffing)
-Recruiter: THE Legal Recruiter
-Recruiter: Healthcare Recruiter
-Recruiter: Adventures of a Detailed Recruiter (military)

RecruitingFly is now up to 120 recruiting blogs.

Know of more recruiting blogs? Then tell us by submitting yours to info at recruitingfly.com

Labels: Recruiter Blogs

Yesterday I had the chance to interview Paul Forster of Indeed.com. The bulk of my talk with him will be out monday over on the secrets blog. But today I wanted to help answer a few questions posed recently by some fellow bloggers.

About a month ago JGo chided Indeed and SimplyHired for not blogging more. When I quoted Goldberg's comments to him he said that "everybody has a different approach to blogging", inferrring that he's just not interested in using Indeed's blog the same way Jobster uses theirs.

Then there's Job Search Engine Guy who dug into the quality of craigslist. In it, he asks all the major job vertical why they should bother to index craigs job since most of them are crap. Paul responds with this comment:

"Don't throw out the wheat with the chaff! If there are spam or duplicate job postings on a job board, the ideal solution for vertical search engines is not to exclude the job board entirely, but to exclude the spam postings and duplicates. Indeed.com does precisely this with advanced spam and de-duplication filters."

Paul also indicated to me that they are constantly tweaking the filters on Indeed to look for "bad jobs" such as work at home scams, pay money to work, company names which might not be reputable, those that ask for social security numbers, etc.

Finally on Joel's take that flipdog is going vertical, Forster was skeptical, saying "it remains to be seen" what Monster will do with it.

Labels: Industry News, Job boards

WSJ has a story in today's paper about how the Freight Industry is turning to aging baby boomers to drive trucks. Interesting look at the recruiting of "mature workers".

Faced with a worsening shortage of long-haul truck drivers, freight carriers are turning to the RV generation, aggressively recruiting older couples like the Fords to climb behind the wheel. Schneider National Inc., the Green Bay, Wis., company that hired the Fords and put them through driving school, fishes for applicants through AARP, the advocacy group for people 50 and older, and has a Web page for "mature workers." This fall, the American Trucking Association plans a billboard and television ad blitz to lure older drivers.

Read the full story

Labels: Industry News

The results of the Staffing.org Second Quarter Staffing Index Survey are in, and at least from the perspective of job seekers and employees, things are not going well. The word from job seekers is clear: the cutting edge for recruiters and HR is without a doubt better candidate care.

More than 80 percent of respondents were unhappy with their interview experiences. Two-thirds were dissatisfied with ongoing and follow-up communications, and again, two-thirds were dissatisfied with the recruiting function of hiring organizations.

Willow Grove, PA (PRWEB via HRMarketer) August 23, 2006 -- The key to success in the recruiting industry is simple, according to Staffing.org founder, Nick Burkholder, "Just treat candidates like human beings."

"Just treat candidates like human beings."

The results of the Staffing.org Second Quarter Staffing Index Survey are in, and at least from the perspective of job seekers and employees, things are not going well. The word from job seekers is clear: the cutting edge for recruiters and HR is without a doubt better candidate care. More than 80 percent of respondents were unhappy with their interview experiences.

Two-thirds were dissatisfied with ongoing and follow-up communications, and again, two-thirds were dissatisfied with the recruiting function of hiring organizations."It’s hard work," Burkholder said.

"Too many recruiters get caught up in ‘feeding the machine’ and become ineffectual in their core job, which is building relationships that create a good pipeline of candidates of choice for open positions."Although more than two-thirds of employees are pleased with their work, roughly the same number are unhappy with their current management. And while more than two-thirds of employees are satisfied or very satisfied with their compensation and benefits, nearly the same numbers are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the rewards offered by their employer and available professional development opportunities. As a result, more than 60 percent of those currently employed are actively looking for positions elsewhere.

The results of the employer side of the Quarterly Staffing Index Survey are not much more promising. Although nearly 70 percent of Hiring Managers are satisfied with the quality of new hires, this is a nearly 2.5 percent drop over the same number last quarter.

Recruiting Efficiency dropped by more than two percent, and the correlating Recruiting Cost Ratio increased by two points. When expenses rise and efficiency decreases, the bottom line of any organization is bound to feel the effect.One of the most surprising results in this round of survey results for employers, is the revelation that some 31 percent of respondents are measuring recruitment activity after it has happened. Measuring post-activity is an unfair means of judging the performance of both recruiters and HR."I guess it’s good they’re doing something – but it’s close to counter productive," Burkholder said.

"It’s like taking a test before you know the questions. Challenges and priorities are all over the place. But all of this shows opportunity for growth. There is no lack of ability to improve performance across all of the industries, but there may be a lack of will.

"What we should all be most interested in is that we can, through these survey results, see trends. Some of the trends are going the right way. Others are not. From quarter to quarter there will inevitably be fluctuation, but making use of the metrics will lead to better performance, better efficiency, and a better bottom line for the organization.

"Staffing.org is the leading source of information, metrics, and resources to measurably optimize the performance of people and work. Staffing.org is about what the performance of people and organizations can be.

Contact: Christy Risser-Milne, Managing Editor Staffing.org

215.659.0480 http://www.staffing.org/ Note: Available immediately are summaries of both the Employer Survey and the Job Seeker and Employee Survey.Go to: http://www.staffing.org/ to download the summaries. The full report will be released Wednesday, August 23, 2006. Advance copies are available by contacting Christy Risser-Milne.

Labels: Industry News

Temporary staffing agency and employment permanent placement firm in Dallas Fort Worth Texas. Blog offers job postings and job search advcie.

Labels: Recruiter Blogs

Got a "business" blog? Then the Washington Post just may want to talk to you.

The washingtonpost.com Sponsored Blogroll is a product of the Advertising Team at WPNI. What is the Sponsored Blogroll? The Sponsored Blogroll is an index on the washingtonpost.com homepage that promotes bloggers who are participating in a partnership with the advertising team of WPNI. If you are a blogger or blog network looking to expand your readership and advertising, our Sponsored Blogroll program can be the boost you've been looking for.

Labels: Industry News

Want to get your biz some exposure? Check out the following press release web sites;

prweb.com

internet.com

businesswire.com

prnewswire.com

bacons.com

e-releases.com

prfree.com

pr.com

webwire.com

marketwire.com

24-7pressrelease.com

pressreleasenetwork.com

i-newswire.com

Labels: SEO tips

The Fly is taking on an international flair with some new blogs from India and Down Under.

Please welcome the following new blogs to the recruiting blogosphere;

INDIA
Recruiter: The Job Spot - recruiting jobs in India
HR: HR FUNDA - News ,Views and thoughts from the world of Human Resource,IT,Innovation,Strategy,Learning,High Performaning Organisations.

AUSTRALIA
Job Board: NowHiring.com.au Blog - "Australia’s next generation online employment solution."
Job Board: Gurus.com.au Blog

Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB via HRMarketer) August 10, 2006 -- First Advantage's Recruiting Solutions Division, formerly TruStar Solutions, announced today the release of a recruitment whitepaper detailing new best practices in targeting and recruiting college and recent-graduate level talent. The whitepaper is non-promotional, and is available for free download at: www.fadvrecruiting.com.

What we discovered is a wealth of information supporting the need for companies to re-examine their college-level recruiting strategies.
The whitepaper, which is entitled Recruiting the Connected Generation: College Recruitment in 2006, is designed to give recruiting strategists valuable insight into the changing communication habits of college students. The study combines comprehensive research with practical recommendations for taking a proactive stance in recruiting the best college talent.

"We studied how current market forces are influencing hiring trends as they relate to the college talent market," said the author of the whitepaper, Lindsay Kaufman of First Advantage's Recruiting Solutions Division. "What we discovered is a wealth of information supporting the need for companies to re-examine their college-level recruiting strategies."

Excerpts
'The incredible growth of social networking sites, such as MySpace.com and FaceBook.com, illustrate the intensity of the college student demographics' Internet usage. According to the sites traffic reports, they have 75 and 8 million users respectively, with traffic numbers and member profiles growing on a daily basis...'

'Pique student interest through engaging online experiences. Instead of describing the opportunities available - incorporate the technology students are comfortable using. Why not have a virtual Q&A session with one of your recruiters? Feature a blog written by a first year marketing or finance department associate...'

To download your free copy of this informative whitepaper, visit First Advantage's Recruiting Solutions website at www.fadvrecruiting.com.

Labels: Industry News

Interested in blogging strategy? SCOUT is a corporate blogging consultancy. Their blog offers some good information.

Labels: SEO tips

AIRS, a global leader in the development of candidate sourcing technology, has launched TotalView Resume Engine, new resume search engine technology that simultaneously searches internal, external, active, and passive resume databases. TotalView Resume Engine is just one of seven cutting-edge modules in AIRS new SourcePoint CE enterprise sourcing system.

New Resume Search Engine Technology from AIRS

Labels: Industry News

Authored by Four Groups, Linking Behaviour to Bottom Line Performance

We are a research based consultancy whose focus is on helping clients improve their people management and to create tangible, demonstrable business cases. We’ve developed advanced techniques and methods which allow the costs and implications of behaviour to be modelled and forecast.

Labels: Recruiter Blogs

Recruiters cast their job-hunting net far and wide at MySpace
The Australian - Sydney,Australia

... It also allows businesses to reach out to people who would not necessarily be looking for a job or who may be unable to use traditional internet recruitment ...

Labels: Industry News

Authored by Glenn Gutmacher, Recruiting Research Consultant. Provides info on Internet sourcing methods and other recruiting insights.

Labels: Recruiter Blogs

Someone alerted me that the PDF download was not working. I have fixed the link the ebook is available for download again.

Labels: Recruiter Blogs

Just launched a new interface for RecruitingFly.com. We've also added the ability to browse the list from Z-A to give blogs on the bottom some light. You can also print the entire list of blogs from the bottom of the page.

People are talking...

http://www.interbiznet.com/ern/archives/060803.html

Searching the recruiting blogs

The Great C.M. Russell

Recruiting is super fly

The Investigative Recruiter: Great Talent for Great Companies

Krista Bradford is a three-time Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist and is advisor for NewTrust.net, a not-for-profit effort to enable citizens to review and rate the news they consume. She heads Bradford Executive Research, LLC in Westport, CT, a competitive intelligence firm that specializes in human capital research for Fortune 100 clients and companies backed by top-tier venture capital firms.

Labels: Recruiter Blogs