Other findings from the survey:

Pay - Fifty-seven percent of workers did not receive a raise last year, up sharply from 35 percent in 2008. Of those that did receive raises, 28 percent were given an increase of 3 percent or less. Seventy-one percent of workers did not receive a bonus.

To help make ends meet in 2009, 8 percent of workers took on a second job. Nearly one-in-five (19 percent) plan to find a second job in 2010 to supplement their main paycheck.

Career Advancement – Twenty-eight percent of workers are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the career advancement opportunities provided by their current employers. Ninety percent of workers did not receive a promotion in 2009, while nearly a quarter (23 percent) felt that they were overlooked.

Switching Industries - Twenty percent of workers said they plan to switch careers/fields in the next two years. The top reasons for switching careers include wanting to pursue a more interesting line of work (67 percent), higher pay (54 percent), more career advancement (41 percent) and increased stability (36 percent).

To learn new skills, 12 percent said they would head back to school to make themselves more marketable in the new year.

Work/Life Balance – Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of workers said they are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their work/life balance. This is up from 18 percent who said the same last year.

Training/Learning - Twenty-six percent of workers are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with training and learning opportunities provided by their current employers.

Leadership Ratings – Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of workers rate their corporate leaders as poor or very poor. Workers cited an inability to address employee morale (35 percent), not enough transparency (30 percent) and major changes are made without warning (28 percent) as their main concerns with senior leadership.

I find this to be very interesting.

It already seems that some companies are starting to hire again after a dismal 2009, so it makes sense that underpaid, overworked employees would look to greener pastures.  Especially since some jobs probably aren’t coming back.  That’s not necessarily new news, and there are obvious risks involved, but I find the Leadership Ratings percentages to be very telling.  Are that many people dealing with poor managers?

This all begs the question, what can employers do to retain talented workers, after having to make tough decisions, as many did last year?  In this economy, where we will be forced to do more with less, how can managers keep employees engaged and motivated?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

• Low hiring volume doesn’t justify an internal recruiter on permanent payroll
• You need to focus on your business’ core competencies
• You have a need for scalability, to only pay for what is needed, when you need it

Or:

• You can’t justify the investment on the technology/sourcing tools you need to find the best candidates
• Internal recruiters/HR are overloaded & hiring managers are frustrated and under pressure
• The cost of contingency fees (usually 20%+) warrants looking at other options

What is RPO?

To put it simply, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of Business Process Outsourcing, in which a company offloads all, or part, of its recruiting functions to an outside service provider.  Examples include an organization that finds its HR department short-staffed and needs assistance in a particular part of the hiring process, or perhaps finds itself in a growth spurt and must quickly ramp up with a certain number of employees quickly (i.e. a team of developers).  An outside firm can be brought in on a per-need basis to supplement the internal business unit.

Do you know the answers to these 10 questions?

• What is your average cost per hire over the past year?
• How much are you currently spending on candidate sourcing (i.e. job-board memberships, job fairs, employer branding, etc.)?
• What is your average rate of vacancy, per month, for open & budgeted positions?
• What did vacancies cost you last quarter in sales or profit/productivity?
• What are your most effective channels for producing solid candidates and effective hires?
• What is your average time to fill a position?
• How often are candidates withdrawing from the recruiting process after being interviewed
• What is your average turnover in the first 90 days of employment?
• Have you calculated the cost of recent mis-hires?
• What are the top three reasons why employees leave your company?

Adding an RPO service provider to your team can be an effective way of maximizing your hiring budget.  Knowing the answers to these questions will go a long way toward identifying potential weak spots, so that a solid partner can help you acquire, retain and promote an A-player staff.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/xjara69/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

In this economy, smart managers understand that great talent is available to them – if they know where to look (and how to attract it). Here are a few tips to help your company gain an edge over the competition:

1) Make Sourcing a Process, Not an Event

Knowing where the Rock Stars are starts right now, before you need them – not after you’ve exhausted all of the job board candidates and are pushed up against a tight deadline. You need to have processes in place that give you a consistent pipeline to great talent.

2) Spend Time on the Job Description & Qualifications

These must be clear, concise, & thorough with input from the team members involved. Most companies fall way short here with weak boilerplate descriptions dictated solely by HR, or with minimal input from the hiring managers & team. This will be your recipe for success now and should be used as a measuring tool down the road.

3) Look Inside

Your company, your clients, your networks. Ask around and offer serious rewards for referrals – the ROI of hiring an A-player justifies sweetening the pot for those close to you that can help. This is a great opportunity to be creative & reward your team for helping your company become better.

4) Look Outside

Rock Stars openly share their knowledge and are easy to spot. Check LinkedIn profiles, Twitter, blogs and websites to see who is writing about what they do. Interact with networking groups and find the players that are offering innovative solutions to their colleagues. Check with your trusted recruiters, as they should be able to put you in contact with these Rock Stars ASAP.

5) Create a Target List

Chances are you know which companies have trained the specific skill-sets you are looking for, whether they are in your industry, or even a direct competitor. Make a list of these companies and then tap your network for connections to get you to the right people. If the search is confidential, have your recruiter do it for you.

6) Reference Checks

Make all candidates aware early on that references will be checked and have them provided up front. Rock Stars have great references on-hand and are happy to share them. Emphasis on this step alone will weed out many of the weaker candidates that waste valuable time.

7) A Clearly-Defined Hiring Process

Let the candidates know up front what’s in store for them. Rock Stars entertain multiple opportunities and nothing turns them away faster than a disjointed, drawn-out process. I’ve seen more companies lose out on great candidates because of poor hiring processes than anything else.

The fact is, most companies spend very little time and effort up front and end up interviewing what they believe to be the “best of what’s available.” To gain a serious advantage, make consistently hiring Rock Star a top-priority and hold the people involved responsible. Mis-hires are extremely expensive so do the work up-front and you’ll soon reap the rewards of a Rock Star team.

*Extra Info: Mike Michalowicz has a great post on his website about the new rules of hiring in this economy.

That is the easy part. Then comes the nervous worry about how to answer those age-old, awful, and awkward interview questions that everyone hates (interviewers included!).

I recently came across this great article, originally printed in 1983(!), that lists 25 of these questions along with a brief explanation of why they are asked and how they should be answered.

26 years later, there is no doubt that a few of these will pop up somewhere in the interview process.

Taking some time during your interview prep to formulate a solid response to these questions will ease the worry and go a long way to building up that all-important confidence necessary to knock it out of the park.

Enjoy: The 25 Most Difficult Questions

P.S. Check out our online bookmarks for additional interview tips.

That said, the folks at LinkedIn have created an excellent tool for marketing yourself to potential employers. Here are a few tips to get the most out of the service:

1. Treat your profile like an online version of your resume – i.e., understand that while a great one won’t necessarily get you the job, a bad one can definitely hurt. HR, recruiters and hiring managers are all over LI, so definitely take the time to fill out your profile accordingly.

2. Link to your blog/website/twitter/etc. The goal here is to create an online brand that allows you to effectively showcase your talents and knowledge across multiple outlets. This strictly refers to professional sites – keep the party pics on Facebook private.

3. Get great recommendations. This is huge. Ask people in your network to say some kind words about you and offer to do the same in return (only if they deserve it, of course!). *Bonus Tip: Put those recommendations on a separate page on your resume – As a recruiter I can tell you that when I look through a stack of very similar resumes, the ones that come with recommendations definitely go to the top and get my first phone call.

4. Join the right groups - Joining groups that are relevant to your experience & interests allows you to directly connect and interact with people in those groups, which leads to the next tip:

5. Participate - Be an active participant in your groups by asking and answering questions and interacting with group members. This is where you get to show off your particular expertise and set yourself apart from the herd.

6. Use the job search – This one is somewhat obvious but use the job search tool to find out who is hiring in your area and who you know that can connect you to the hiring manager. Then ask for an introduction. Don’t be overly salesy, but write a short paragraph about what you bring to the table, your contact info, and add a link to your profile. Boom! There’s your electronic cover letter & resume right in the hiring manager’s inbox.

7. Connect to people with lots of contacts in the area that you are interested. People have different and passionate opinions about this but bottom line: the more people you connect with, the more people that can find you. You are searching for a job right?

8. Applications - If you have a blog, use the apps feature to link with your blog & highlight your expertise, right on your profile page

9. Update your status to reflect your job search & qualifications – like the objective section on a resume. You can use Ping.fm for updating across multiple sites at once (twitter, facebook, etc.)

10. Personalize – Feel free to add a little bit extra that you don’t put on your resume. Your interests, hobbies, etc. really don’t belong on a professional resume these days, but its okay to get somewhat creative with your profile. That said, please make it interesting & not annoying.

If you are just starting out, LinkedIn can definitely be overwhelming. That said, I strongly believe that logging on for just 5-10 minutes a day will quickly get you up to speed and that taking the above advice will give you a great tool for your proactive job search.

What about you, are you currently using LinkedIn as a resource? Had success? Frustrations?

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