Archives: May 2008

You may be surprised to hear that many minority employees leave workplaces that have an established diversity program for staff members. The New York Times interviewed Natalie Holder-Winfield, a diversity consultant and author of “Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce” and her book reveals surprising reflections from minority employees who felt the company’s diversity programs weren’t necessarily providing the type of services that it claims. A good tip for minority job seekers was to check blog posts from employees who work in a company that provide these diversity policies. You’ll find candid posts that may reveal information about a prospective company that you were interested in. And although Winfield left a traditional firm to start her own company with eight other women of color, she still has hope that minorities will have opportunity to excel in traditional institutions. Companies are hiring diversity managers in order to implement an actual program that caters to minorities, this may improve recent results that revealed that no changes were actually taking place in organizations that had these programs.
*Image courtesy of Jupiterimages

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion's Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook's Morin Oluwole, and bitly's Tim Devane. Register now.

If you’re in the HR profession, you’ve probably heard or experienced interviews with candidates who made mistakes that were so over the top that it made you wonder, “what were they thinking?” Careerbuilder listed the top 10 blunders from candidates, a list which was compiled from 3,000 hiring managers nationwide. Although some of the mistakes may seem humorous, it’s important to see how detrimental it can be when one does not take the interview process seriously. The results of improper behavior can ultimately take you off the list for a great position. What stuck out more to me in the article was mention of mistakes that hiring managers make themselves when interviewing prospective candidates. Passive job seekers are not necessarily looking for any job that is offered to them. It’s just as important for HR professionals to be equipped with all the answers to questions that are asked in the interview or else they may be the ones to lose a qualified person for the company.
*Image courtesy of Jupiterimages

If you work in a company where employees have various responsibilities aside from his/her usual role, i.e., a marketing assistant also trains new hires, then it may be difficult to determine the amount of compensation for that employee. A recent article from The New York Enterprise Report tackles the troubles that some smaller businesses may be confronted with when providing salary to employees. The article states that salary.com provides a tool in which small business owners can create “hybrid” job titles based on specific responsibilities, allowing an employer to plug in different components of a particular job. This is especially useful for those who wear many hats within a company, and now can be fairly compensated for their efforts. What if you are part of a larger corporation? vault.com offers a detailed look behind bigger companies as well as useful tips on corporate policies and interview questionnaires.
*Image courtesy of Jupiterimages