(5) Tips for Staying Competitive in the Job Market

With 2011 coming to a close, it’s time to reflect on the past year. Whether you are employed, unemployed or underemployed, it has been a tough year navigating in a sluggish job market and a tumultuous economy.

There’s not much you can do, but let our world economy sort itself out. It will take time for the housing market to come back, our government to unite to provide better leadership and for businesses to hire more aggressively. So what do you do in the meantime? And, what does it take to make you marketable on a long term basis?

Here are some useful tips for staying competitive in the job market:

Stay abreast on happenings in your industry. This it essential to create value for yourself. Knowledge is power and will make you a stand-out in your field.
Create a “hit-list” of those that are major players in your industry. Create a plan to meet a few key players in 2012. Surround yourself with the leaders in your industry.
Learn how to use social media effectively to get the most out Linked In and Facebook. Spend more time on building your brand and becoming a resource to your followers than talking about your latest dinner. People are addicted to Facebook, so make sure you have interesting information for them.
Join organizations that are pertinent to your industry. Get involved with these groups. This includes LinkedIn groups which are easy access to meet people in your industry, with no cost.
Spend time creating and perfecting your personal image. Take a look in the mirror. Is the image you see what you want a potential employer to see? Would you hire you? If not, spend some time on creating a new look for yourself. Image is essential.

These tips are something you will need to continually do throughout your career! Competition for well paying, enjoyable jobs is increasing as we become a world economy. You will be competing with those that try a little harder at perfecting their skills and image. Don’t miss opportunities as 2012 begins to offer more chances for employment.

Source:http://www.chicagonow.com/get-employed/2011/12/5-tips-for-staying-competitive-in-the-job-market/

7 tips for how to keep your staff, and keep them happy

Are your staff happy? Many retail stores across Australia need to do more to retain good staff, according to recent data from Mercer showing that retailers are failing to make the most of their workforce. This is particularly pertinent as the embattled retail sector faces trading through the busiest shopping period, Christmas and Boxing Day sales.

Mercer’s What’s Working survey conducted in early 2011 found that only 41.9 percent of respondents from the retail sector felt their organisation did a good job of retaining its most talented people, and for the 70.9 percent of respondents who held a non-management position, less than half felt their manager played an active role in their personal career development.

Mercer’s Human Capital Business Leader for Australia and New Zealand, Rob Bebbington, said retailers fighting to maintain growth and competing within tough price wars are failing to appreciate their key selling point, customer service.

With falling consumer confidence and increased competition from online retailing and overseas brands, staff engagement is more critical than ever to ensure businesses offer above-average service to savvy shoppers.

“Happy staff means happy customers. Without properly engaging with current workers and providing employees with adequate career opportunities, any hope for growth will be thwarted by disengagement and apathy and will ultimately impact retailer’s bottom line," said Bebbington.

In detail

Fewer than half the respondents have been part of a formal review in the past 12 months
52 percent don’t feel senior management are doing a good job of confronting issues before they become major problems
49.8 percent don’t trust management to communicate honestly
84.1 percent of employees are unhappy with childcare support
83.3 percent are dissatisfied with employee assistance plans

A notable result is the dissatisfaction of women retail staff, who make up a significant portion of the sector.

“A lack of support and career development opportunities for female workers in this sector poses significant challenges for those looking for the next generation of female leaders in coming years,” said Bebbington.

7 tips to keep staff happy

Understand what motivates your workforce
Be innovative with ways to improve engagement, performance and productivity
Ask employees to comment anonymously through a suggestion box and implement affordable, good ideas
Cross-train: develop the skills of all employees and raise engagement. Workers may feel more enthusiastic towards their role or decide to utilise these new skills for an alternative position within the organisation, increasing staff retention
Find ways to reward employees – an extra day off, a gift certificate or an inexpensive gift
Present company challenges publicly when possible; this improves communication and allows staff to suggest possible solutions
Provide all employees with regular feedback; include job performance and an opportunity to self critique areas for improvement

Source:http://www.franchise.net.au/Article/How-to-keep-your-staff-and-keep-them-happy-7-top-tips/532964.aspx

What's the right career for your children?

If you ask kids in elementary school what they want to be when they grow up, you'll likely hear singer, ballerina, athlete or movie star. As students move into middle school and high school, they think more seriously about career possibilities. All parents want their children to be successful, so what careers should they expose them to in order to help them make a good decision?

This is a tough question for parents living in current economic times, where once successful career paths now suffer from fierce competition and high unemployment rates. There is a career, however, that continues to thrive through the down economy, and it offers a variety of flavors that can fit just about any child's interests and personality: engineering.

Did you know employment in engineering is more than 4 percentage points lower than the national unemployment rate? Engineering majors make an average yearly income of $75,000, higher than the yearly income of graduates in any other field. These facts alone may inspire more parents to think of suggesting engineering as a career option to their children.

Intel recently commissioned a study of 1,000 American teens aged 13 to 18, to better understand how to get more of them interested in engineering as a career. The results suggest that exposure to any facts about engineering may inspire nearly half of teens to consider engineering as a career.

A conversation with your teen about what engineers do and specifically how much money they earn might be all that lies between your child and his or her future as a successful engineer. Here are six proactive tips for parents and teachers to help students consider a career in engineering:

1. Help kids understand what engineering is all about.
Providing your children with a better understanding of what engineers actually do can increase consideration of a career in the field. So talk about how rewarding it is to be an engineer. Explain the different types of engineers that exist, such as chemical, agricultural, sound or computer, and what exactly they do.

2. Make engineering more personal.
Children who know an engineer are more likely to consider the field. Do you have a friend or colleague they could meet and ask questions, or job shadow? Giving a face to engineers can help create a sense that "if they can do it, I can do it."

3. Emphasize how engineers can play a role in making the world a better place.
Play up the impact engineers have on the world. For example, explain that engineers were responsible for saving the trapped Chilean miners last year. Or how a biomedical engineer might work on a new medical device that can help save thousands of lives and environmental engineers help endangered plants and animals survive.

4. Reframe the difficulty of engineering as a positive challenge, a badge of honor.
Most adults know that succeeding at something you thought was hard is one of the best feelings in the world. Parents should explain their own experiences with overcoming difficulty and motivate their kids to take on new challenges, despite how daunting they may seem. The rewards could be impressive. In fact, engineering is the most common college major amongst S&P 500 CEOs.

5. Talk dollars and cents.
Explain the earning power of those who work in the engineering field. Half of the top 20 best-paying college degrees are in an engineering field. Roughly 60 percent of teens surveyed are more likely to consider engineering after learning about the career's earning power.

6. Explain that engineers help our country.
From 1990 to 2010, overall college graduation levels in the United States have grown about 50 percent, but during that same period the number of engineering graduates has stagnated at around 120,000. By contrast, roughly 1 million engineers a year graduate from universities in India and China. This gap hinders global competitiveness and threatens our ability to both retain and create high-tech, good-paying jobs here in the United States. More children becoming engineers will help America remain the world's leading innovator.

Source:http://www.jsonline.com/sponsoredarticles/education/135099073.html

3 Tips to Build and Improve a Talent Community

In the HR world, talent communities are heating up. And, why not? Employers want to find and connect with the best talent and talented candidates want the best job. A well-written resume isn’t always going to lead to a talented employee, and not every job description will be seen by top talent?

Talent communities facilitate engagement between employers and candidates and among candidates who share common interests and experience. From this purposeful interaction arises another dimension of talent screening: passive screening. You get to participate in conversations and spectate while talent interacts over various subjects related to their profession, the industry, job functions, political and economic factors that impact their field(s), etc. These conversations can help discover the very best candidates that a simple keyword search of a resume database cannot. In these communities, job seekers and employers can connect on a much higher level than an application or resume allows.

Check out: Talent Communities 101: How to Use Your Talent Community in Your Job Search

I’ve spelled out the three most important tips to keep in mind when building and improving your very own talent community:

Make it accessible

If you want job candidates to find your talent community on their own, you need to make it as accessible as possible. Don’t bury your talent community under page after page on your company’s career’s site.

Provide links in recruiting emails, on the main page, and in conversation. Use SEO basics to make your talent community soar to the top of relevant Google searches as well.

If you’re unsure as to where your talent community should live, consider social media platforms and apps like LinkedIn and Cachinko. These sites help bridge the gap between job seekers and your company.

Actively recruit

The truth about job seekers is that they are temporary. Very temporary. The typical ​active job seeker in your talent community is diligently working toward getting their next job, and the most talented will be hired quickly. ​That means you must always be adding new candidates to your talent community. Aim to retain connections with all talent that connects with you by providing valuable content other than just jobs. Encourage sharing your content and employer brand with their extended networks.

Create a presence for yourself and your company online, in social media networking platforms, and in industrial organizations in your area. Instead of passively posting jobs and letting job seekers come to you, be an active recruiter and engage top talent where they exist to attract them to your talent community and to introduce you to their professional connections.

Participate!

The key to a successful talent community is to keep the conversation going. As more discussions spark, candidates will feel the need to visit and comment every day.

As an employer, the best thing you can do to keep the conversation going is to talk. Start new discussions, ask questions, add your input, and always respond. These candidates are here for you, so let yourself be heard and demonstrate that you are listening to them!

To reel candidates back into the community, share community updates, company news and events, or send regular newsletters with featured articles. Offering downloadable white papers is another great way to encourage sharing your brand and to catalyze a conversation about important topics that will help keep top talent active in your talent community.

Source: https://www.publish2.com/organizations/4413/newswires/571/stories/5014150#ixzz1foUvIxae