The Recruiting Edge

Dealing With Difficult People

2008-07-25T08:31:00.002-05:00

"Doing nothing and hoping the problem will go away rarely works. Have you dealt with difficult people before? What did you do?"

Many interesting LinkedIn answers accumulating here.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount - that's $292.50 that will return fast dividends!

Staffing revolution?

2008-07-25T08:17:00.003-05:00

If someone told you that there is a staffing revolution going on now in the staffing industry but declined to tell you what is actually happening, what would your guess be?

Many interesting LinkedIn answers here.

The word "sourcing" is mentioned more than once!
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Need telephone names sourcing to fill your hard-to-fill positions? Call the experts at TechTrak 513 899 9628

Katie Couric: Sexism is more common than racism

2008-07-25T07:39:00.004-05:00

Katie Couric says she and Sen. Hillary Clinton are victims of sexism which, she contends, is tolerated more than racism.

Read more here.
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Attend the MagicMethod FREE one hour LIVE phone sourcing classroom chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon EST on the MagicMethod network here.

"She's not gonna lie or even stretch the truth..."

2008-07-25T06:17:00.003-05:00

Once again, it's not WHAT you say but HOW you say it!

Watch Penn and Teller manage to convince hundreds of leftists to sign a petition to ban water here.

Like what you just saw and heard? MagicMethod is brimming with information like this and will show you the inside tips and techniques of true telephone names sourcers! Subscribe today here.

Value in Training?

2008-07-25T06:05:00.000-05:00

How important is training for your job and how seriously does your organization take it? What do you perceive its value to be to your organization and your career?

Chosen statements will be included in an upcoming white paper that will be widely distributed and your name, title and a hyperlink to your profile will be included in it.

Post your responses here or you may send them directly to maureen at techtrak.com or to shally at jobmachine.net

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle
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Important LinkedIn answers here on this subject of Training.
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Attend the MagicMethod FREE one hour LIVE phone sourcing classroom chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon EST on the MagicMethod network here.

MagicMethod Phone Sourcing Classroom Chat Log TH, July 24, 2008

2008-07-25T05:23:00.002-05:00

Best Remark of the Day
“Maureen, I want a flying carpet. That would be a great tool.” ~ Recruiting Animal
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Maureen Sharib
Good Thursday morning MagicMethod network! Phone Sourcing Chat is today - we're going to be talking some more on the one thing you MUST have to be a phone sourcer - GUTS! "By "guts" I mean, grace under pressure.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Denyse Diem
Hello folks - that was quite a spirited converstion with Shally on Tuesday!

Maureen Sharib
It was a challenge to keep up with, wasn’t it? Is Animal here? Shally's shows are always well attended - he knows how to draw a crowd! Denyse - what did you like best about it? Did you read the Chat log?

Denyse Diem
Didnt' ready the chat log - was taking notes along the way. Honestly, it was too frenetic for me - and most of what was discussed was a big foreign -but I know I'm too new still to get it Do you use the strings and sites that were mentioned in the conversations as a Telephone sourcer???

Maureen Sharib
It's up over on the SourcersGuild - it's in the Blog Posts section (under the chat window) - look for the blue and orange chat bubbles.

Maureen Sharib
I use very little strings and hardly any sites these days. I use very simple boolean (a couple words - nothing fancy) then I use those results as a toehold when I call.

Maureen Sharib
What brought you into sourcing Denyse?

Denyse Diem
It really fits my natural talents of curiosity, wanting to offer something help others find jobs that are satistfying, and liking the challenge of getting past that gatekeeper - a test of wits so to sepak

Maureen Sharib
How did you become aware of it? I had never heard of it when I started. But when you think about it you realize the VALUE of what we bring forward.

Denyse Diem
Hmm..I wanted to return to the HR world but not a stuffy Financail corporate envirnoment as I had worked for previously.

Whole Chat Log here.
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Attend the MagicMethod FREE one hour LIVE phone sourcing classroom chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon EST on the MagicMethod network here.

Have a Problem? Ask Everyone (And Pay Someone)

2008-07-24T06:16:00.003-05:00

John Davis, a chemist in Bloomington, Ill., knows about concrete. For example, he knows that if you keep concrete vibrating it won’t set up before you can use it. It will still pour like a liquid.

Now he has applied that knowledge to a seemingly unrelated problem thousands of miles away. He figured out that devices that keep concrete vibrating can be adapted to keep oil in Alaskan storage tanks from freezing. The Oil Spill Recovery Institute of Cordova, Alaska, paid him $20,000 for his idea.

The chemist and the institute came together through InnoCentive, a company that links organizations (seekers) with problems (challenges) to people all over the world (solvers) who win cash prizes for resolving them. The company gets a posting fee and, if the problem is solved, a “finders fee” equal to about 40 percent of the prize.

More here.
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Need telephone names sourcing to fill your hard-to-fill positions? Call the experts at TechTrak 513 899 9628

Zimbra Desktop puts all your e-mail in order

2008-07-24T05:06:00.003-05:00

Yahoo is expanding its popular e-mail service to the desktop in a bid to help consumers manage their e-mail accounts when they aren't online. At a conference for developers in Portland, Ore., Zimbra, a Yahoo (YHOO) company, is set to release a beta version of Yahoo Zimbra Desktop, an e-mail program that organizes Yahoo Mail, AOL, Google's Gmail and work and business e-mail accounts in one place — and lets you read, compose and organize messages off-line.

Read more here.
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Need telephone names sourcing to fill your hard-to-fill positions? Call the experts at TechTrak 513 899 9628

Secret Salaries

2008-07-24T04:45:00.002-05:00

Do you know the salary of every employee at your company? I think you should.

I mean, who is being protected by secret salaries? Certainly not the employee—the more transparent salaries are, the more accurately an employee can assess his or her value to a company.

Fortunately a bunch of companies have arrived with tricked-out tools for figuring out what you should be getting paid. And what your co-workers should earn as well. Here’s a sampling of the top tier of those companies:

Payscale.com
Salary.com
Glassdoor

Whole Penelope Trunk post here.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount - that's $292.50 that will return dividends!!

Minimum wage going up

2008-07-23T17:13:00.002-05:00

Little help as costs soar
About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.

The increase, from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour, is the second of three annual increases required by a 2007 law. Next year's boost will bring the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour. More here.
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Need telephone names sourcing to fill your hard-to-fill positions? Call the experts at TechTrak 513 899 9628

Googlepedia?

2008-07-23T16:54:00.002-05:00

Google unveils reference tool after 7-month test

Google Inc. (GOOG) is taking the wraps off an Internet encyclopedia designed to give people a chance to show off - and profit from - their expertise on any topic.

The service, dubbed "knol" in reference to a unit of knowledge, had been limited to an invitation-only audience of contributors and readers for the past seven months.

Now anyone with a Google login will be able to submit an article and, if they choose, have ads displayed through the Internet search leader's marketing system. The contributing author and Google will share any revenue generated from the ads, which are supposed to be related to the topic covered in the knol.

The advertising option could encourage people to write more entries about commercial subjects than the more academic topics covered in traditional encyclopedias.

Whole story here.
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Attend the MagicMethod FREE one hour LIVE phone sourcing classroom chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon EST on the MagicMethod network here.

It's Raining (Phone) Sourcers!

2008-07-23T15:25:00.005-05:00

There is terrific content about telephone names sourcing contained on the MagicMethod network. If you have an interest in learning what telephone names sourcing is (and what it isn’t) and how it’s accomplished some really great names sourcers have contributed their thoughts, tips and techniques in the many different FREE MagicMethod Phone Sourcing Classroom Chats that began mid-April of this year.

Yes, it’s true – names sourcers from ALL OVER THE WORLD attend these lesson chats and bring their unique perspectives to the discussions. You’ll read a variety of technique, a plethora of experience and an exciting chat log on each and every classroom event. You’ll also meet some very interesting characters.

I guarantee it.

Join the network (it's FREE!) and look for the "Blog Posts" section in the middle column on the Main page (it's under the Chat Box). The MagicMethod Phone Sourcing Classroom Chats are listed by date, each with a yellow bubble that says "MagicTalk".

We do this every Tuesday and Thursday at noon (EST). Don’t be late for class!

;)

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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount - that's $292.50 that will return dividends!

What is Boolean Logic?

2008-07-23T08:32:00.006-05:00

Boolean – the lost language

Search engines are an important resource when looking for resumes, whether you’re searching on general search engines like Yahoo or Google or on resume specific job boards like HotJobs or Monster. To really make your search effective you need to remember Boolean Language. Boolean tools will help you create more effective and focused searches, producing resumes that more closely meet your requirements and also reducing the number of resumes you need to search through that miss the mark.

What is Boolean Logic?
Luigi Lupo tells us what Booean - the lost language - is here.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount!

Not All Reqs Are Created Equal

2008-07-23T08:11:00.006-05:00

Seven Days Without Sourcing Makes One Weak
by Shally Steckerl ERE post Jul 23, 2008
Borrowing from comedian Monty Walker of Beatle Bailey fame, the title reflects a bit of light humor in what is often a spirited debate surrounding the question of “How much is enough sourcing?”

This is perhaps the most commonly asked question I get when presenting workshops, seminars, and keynote addresses. Allow, via this humble blog post, my attempt to answer this question for recruiters by and large. Please note that I am writing this not with full-time, dedicated sourcers in mind, but for you, the full-desk recruiters who struggle to create time enough for completing your required tasks, much less for filling a pipeline with so-called passive candidates.
Read more here.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount!

"TalkSourcing" - Shally's July 22 Cybersleuthing Sourcing Classroom Chat

2008-07-22T17:23:00.000-05:00

Best Remark of the Day
“Tools do not a sourcer make.” ~ Shally Steckerl

Maureen Sharib
Thank you for attending today’s SourcersGuild Cybersleuthing Sourcing Classroom Chat featuring Sensational Sourcing Strategist, Shally Steckerl! Shally is most gracious to spend some time with us today and I am sure you will join me in thanking him for affording us this learning opportunity. Who wants to start?

Recruiting Animal
Shally there are so many recruiters in Atlanta and you're such a big star. When you walk down the street do people stop you and bug you?

Maureen Sharib
Shally, what's the latest and greatest tool these days?

Peter Cabaniss
Yes, what is the best use of automatic directories?

Steve Delaney
Sourcing vs. recruiting...please describe

Julie Faska
Background, weaknesses, strengths, industry strength, employee compensation etc.

Srinivas
Shally - How do you get to candidates who cannot be found on internet or even by phone?

Read the whole hour long chat here.

Shally on SourcersGuild TODAY - FREE event!

2008-07-22T10:09:00.001-05:00

Chief JobMachine CyberSleuth and founder Shally Steckerl will be on the SourcersGuild network to do a full hour of Classroom Chat on Internet Sourcing at noon EST on Tuesday, July 22 – don’t miss this FREE event!

Shally will be in the Live Chat window to answer your sourcing questions and to explain any questions you might have regarding any of his excellent sourcing products available here. For a taste of what’s to come, visit Shally’s May 22 chat on the MagicMethod network here.
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"Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself." ~ Chinese Proverb

MagicMethod Phone Sourcing Seminar Miami, FL Sept 4

2008-07-22T08:56:00.001-05:00

Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628.

Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount - that's $292.50 to learn something that will return huge dividends!
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Attend the MagicMethod FREE one hour LIVE phone sourcing classroom chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the MagicMethod network here.

Legal Implications of Internet Search

2008-07-22T08:45:00.005-05:00

Interesting Kennedy Thought Leadership series...
Caution! – Using Search Engines, MySpace or Facebook for Hiring Decisions May Be Hazardous to Your Business - Part Three by Lester Rosen
What’s REAL on the Internet?
In addition, how do you know what is “real” on the internet? How do you know that the “name” you found is your applicant? You don’t. With more than 300 million Americans today, most of us have “computer twins” (i.e. people with our names and even a similar date of birth). There is also the question of how does a recruiter even know for sure the applicant actually wrote the item or authorized its posting?

What are the lessons for employers and recruiters?
1. Using the Internet to screen candidates is not risk-free, especially when it comes to social networking sites.
2. There are no legal cases yet, but news travels fast on the web, and employers who rely overly much upon social networking sites may find that job applicants are not as eager to look at their firm.
3. If an employer or recruiter uses the internet, they should first consult their attorney in order to develop a written policy and a fair and non-discriminatory procedures.
4. For legal protection, employers should considering obtaining consent so that applicants are on notice that their web persona is fair game. Employers should not use any fake identities or engage in “pretexting” to gain access to information.
5. The most conservative approach is to perform an internet search AFTER there is consent and a job offer is made contingent upon completion of a background check that is satisfactory to the employer.

For job applicants, the advice is simple: Don’t be the last to know what a web search about you would reveal.

More here.
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Need telephone names sourcing to fill your hard-to-fill positions? Call the experts at TechTrak 513 899 9628

Energy Bills Are Yet Another Dealkiller/maker

2008-07-22T07:42:00.002-05:00

Thank goodness oil prices pulled back this week, falling as much as $9 a barrel over two days. Consumers needed a break, but that doesn't mean concern about energy prices is going away. Prices are still double what they were last year, and that means homebuyers are not only looking at their commute times, they're also looking closely at energy efficiency in the homes they buy.
Full Story.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount!

Dream Cities

2008-07-22T07:01:00.002-05:00

CNNMoney has released their annual report entitled, "Best Places to Live." Looking to move? Maybe you can find your dream city on the list.

Towns To Get Up And Go For
Outside magazine's spin on the best towns is a rundown of places for great alfresco living. DeadlineNews.Com put the list to the home value test and found healthy real estate markets in many of the towns.
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Attend Shally Steckerl’s FREE one hour LIVE sourcing chat TODAY - don’t miss Shally on the SourcersGuild network Tuesday, July 22 at noon EST answering your Internet sourcing questions here!

Signs You Don't Care about Workers

2008-07-21T09:07:00.005-05:00

How to gauge whether your company's happy talk about employees being its best asset has any basis in reality.

It has become a sad cliché: "Our People are our Greatest Asset." That hackneyed phrase doesn't mean anything in particular, so it's an easy bit of boilerplate to stamp on hallway posters and marketing brochures. When certain employers do elevate their talent-retention and team-welfare initiatives to the level of strategic priority, it's obvious.
Here are a Top Six not-walking-the-walk red flags:
1. The talent chief is a half-chief.
2. HR is a finance function.
3. Recruitment is a black hole.
4. HR is a cost-reduction unit.
5. You've outsourced the most critical people functions.
6. Org development and HR aren't one.
Read more here.
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Attend Shally Steckerl’s FREE one hour LIVE sourcing chat - don’t miss Shally on the SourcersGuild network Tuesday, July 22 answering your Internet sourcing questions here!

High-tech windshields aid vision

2008-07-19T06:28:00.003-05:00

"I need to see the world," Seder said. "I'm enhancing the world. I'll take a feature that should be important to you, like the edge of the road, and paint a line over the real edge."

Isn't this what sourcers do?

;)

Whole story here.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount!

Lifetime Promises and the GM Retiree Benefits Issue

2008-07-18T11:13:00.003-05:00

Effective Jan. 1, GM will end health benefits for 97,400 salaried retirees 65 or older, their spouses and dependents. Retirees will receive an extra $300 a month in their pension checks that could be used to buy health care.

"They want us to retire and then drop dead," said her husband, John Tessmar, 72, a former security supervisor who worked 28 years for GM.

Just what is in a "lifetime promise" and are they legally binding? It will be interesting, very interesting to watch these things play out.

Across the country in contract disputes and bankruptcy filings, federal courts have been pulled into the wrangling over how promises of lifetime benefits can be broken, or whether they existed at all. And the courts have not been uniform in their answers. Some predict that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually have to step in to smooth out the wrinkles.

Read more here.
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Attend Shally Steckerl’s FREE one hour LIVE sourcing chat - don’t miss Shally on the SourcersGuild network Tuesday, July 22 answering your Internet sourcing questions here!

"It's me. Can you hear me?" The VoIP argument.

2008-07-18T05:54:00.001-05:00

Re: For those using VoIP for your home and/or office lines: are you having issues lately?

This is a really interesting subject to me. I hear the argument all the time from would-be telephone sourcers who want to use VoIP.

"Go ahead," I say.

"But it works just fine!" they insist.

"No it doesn't," I reply.

"Yes it does!"

"No, it doesn't!"

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's chopping off your first couple syllables/words," I answer.

"No, it isn't!"

"Yes, it is!"

"NO, it isn't!"

"Why ask?" I ask.

"Uhhh...well, it's FREE."

"Is that the reason you want to use it?"

"Uhhh....yeah, I guess."

"Then use it at your great disadvantage."
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Here's another one:

"How do I sound?"

"Like you're in a foreign country."

"No!"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Really."

"But it's FREE."

"Then use it at your great disadvantage."
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And another:

"Hey, it's me. How do I sound?"

"Hello, hello!" I struggle to hear.

It's ME. How do I sound?"

"I can barely hear you - speak up!"

"IT'S ME, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?"

"Barely, who is this?"

"ME, MOM, IT'S ME!"

"Who's ME?"
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Gettin' the picture?

;)
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Attend Shally Steckerl’s FREE one hour LIVE sourcing chat - don’t miss Shally on Tuesday, July 22 answering your Internet sourcing questions here!

"Most people are terrible at cold calling..."

2008-07-17T09:29:00.003-05:00

Flyn Penoyer, The Inside Sales Guru asks, over on LinkedIn:
I contend that cold calling works just about as well, maybe better than extensive research. Obviously looking up the company and finding names will always be useful and beneficial -- but beyond that; what can you really get from research that makes a true difference. And how does any of it solve the biggest problem of developing new business -- that of getting to the decision maker in the first place?

I am going to challenge your answers and make you defend your position -- if you wish to be challenged, please let me know in your answer rather than getting mad when I do so. You can use the private message to let me know your feelings on this.

One other key point -- most people are terrible at cold calling and I believe much of the flap about "never cold call" is because of this very problem. I don't consider this a valid excuse to "waste time" doing research -- it is still a cold call unless the referral is direct and from someone who has done business with you before or there is little additional credibility.

Read the entire question and interesting answers here.
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Attend the MagicMethod Phone Sourcing All Day Seminar in Miami, FL on September 4 at the Shane Center sponsored by Confisa International Group. Email bob@techtrak.com for registration form or call him at 513 899 9628. Seats are $325 and INCLUDE lunch AND a three month subscription to the seminal "Magic in the Method" telephone names sourcing course. Register early for a 10% discount!