Reveille
TheLadders.com, the leading online job search destination for $100k+ candidates, today announced the addition of four new job search channels: OpsLadder, TechnologyLadder, HRLadder and LawLadder. This expansion doubles the Company's existing consumer offerings of FinanceLadder, SalesLadder, MktgLadder and UpLadder, and is an innovation for the online job search industry. For the first time, high-end professionals and executives in operations, technology, HR and law have the opportunity to access unique channels that comprehensively offer $100k+ positions in their distinct fields.

Yahoo Inc. is in talks to acquire a stake in Chinese electronic-commerce outfit Alibaba.com, a move that would expand the U.S. Internet company's exposure to the fast-growing China market and heighten its competition with eBay Inc.

AdminCareers.com, a niche job board serving Administrative Professionals, has now accumulated more than 1,000 resumes while registering 2,100 administrative job seekers.

LookSmart (Nasdaq:LOOK) , an online media and technology company specializing in vertical search, today unveiled its first LookSmart-branded vertical cluster of sites which allows advertisers to seamlessly place ads across a cohesive, vertical search channel. LookSmart has rolled its 10 educational sites, including five new sites, into a single cluster: "LookSmart Education." All LookSmart vertical sites now offer several choices for advertising with search Pay-Per-Click (PPC) products, as well as banners, rich media and other units.

Human Resource Management Center (HRMC) announced that all versions of HRMC Acclaim  will embed "next generation" web and phone synchronization to facilitate single-session screening and assessment. 

Deck Chairs
Angela Rosario has joined the HR.com team as the Regional Director of Client Engagement for the greater Tampa Bay area...Summit Partners appointed Oliver Thomas as a vice president of its London office to support the Boston-based firm's European investment focus....Titan Outdoor LLC, a leading provider of outdoor and transit advertising, announced today that Mary Bideaux has joined the company as Human Resources Manager...Jennifer L. Weber, a human resources professional with expertise in aligning employee development and compensation programs with organizational strategy, is joining The E. W.Scripps Company (SSP) as senior vice president of human resources...
 

Survey Sez
Employease announced the findings of a study entitled "Why HR/Benefits Should be Any Company's Top Priority." The findings indicate a common set of steps and a clear path for HR professionals to play a more strategic role and contribute at a higher level within their organizations.

In the study, which was conducted by TwentyTen Research, 336 respondents from companies with 1,000 to 10,000 employees identified strategic HR qualities and activities as well as barriers to playing a more strategic role.

Respondents were divided into two groups. HR departments who spend 50% or more of their time on administration were deemed transaction-oriented, and those that spent 50% or more of their time on strategic issues were labeled strategically-oriented.

Barriers to Strategic Contribution

The study examined the biggest barriers to strategic HR contributions. The top barriers for all HR professionals surveyed were:

1. The rising cost of healthcare

2. Not having time to address both administrative tasks and strategic issues 

3. Lack of involvement with setting corporate goals

4. Insufficient budget to address strategic issues

Transaction-oriented HR departments encountered these barriers more frequently than their strategically oriented counterparts. They were 42% more likely to be burdened by administrative tasks, 31% more likely to have limited involvement in setting corporate goals, and 22% more likely to reference a limited budget as a key barrier standing in the way of making more strategic contributions. Organizations who have invested in technology and outsourcing infrastructure to automate administration are spending more time on strategic issues.

Management's View of HR

A strategic approach to HR may also impact management's impression of HR. HR professionals were asked which activities would be viewed by management in their organizations as delivering strategic value. Top activities included:

1. Recruiting and hiring key employees

2. Collaborating with top management on achieving company goals 

3. Controlling healthcare costs

4. Crafting compensation plans aligned with corporate objectives

The study also found that transaction-oriented departments were much less likely to have frequent interaction with top management. In fact, 79% of strategic-oriented departments interacted with top management on a daily or weekly basis compared to only 45% of their transactional counterparts.

To learn more about the research  visit HR-research.com

You Should Know

Australia:

• The police union says a plan to find new recruits in Ireland and England is only a quick fix to the problem of attracting and retaining officers in Western Australia. (ABCNewsOnline)

California:

• Despite high-profile layoffs announced at leading local employers, 38 percent of Bay Area CEOs and top business executives surveyed by the Bay Area Council maintain that they will continue increasing their Bay Area workforce in the next six months. Another 51 percent will keep their current regional workforce stable and only eight percent plan layoffs. The hiring picture -- revealed in the most recent Bay Area Business Confidence Survey, conducted July 11-25, 2005 with 515 Bay Area CEOs and top business executives -- has held steady for two straight quarters. The trends discovered by the Survey may show that the layoffs at companies like Hewlett-Packard and the former PeopleSoft are aberrations, not a general marketplace phenomenon. (BayAreaCouncil)

Global:

• Why Yahoo Bought Konfabulator (Search Engine Watch)

• State of the Blogosphere (Sifry's Alerts)

• A new study suggests that the overlap between search engine results is less than it was even a few months ago, and that the voices of each engine are growing even more unique. (Search Engine Watch)

• Hating HR, the argument continues (Fast Company)

• Online advertising will continue steady growth over the next five years, eventually reaching $18.9 billion in 2010, compared to $9.3 billion at the end of 2004. Search engine advertising will generate more revenue than standard display advertising by 2010, the firm predicts. Classified advertising will grow at nearly 10%, reaching $4.1 billion in 2010. At the same time, advertisers will also take advantage of the growing number of broadband-connected households to deliver rich and streaming media advertisements: rich media spending will grow at a 25% compound annual growth rate (to $3.5 billion) and streaming media will grow at a 30% compound annual growth rate (to $943 million) by 2010. (Jupiter Research)

• Nearly 50 million Americans -- or about 30% of the total U.S. Internet population -- visited weblogs, or "blogs," during the first quarter. The number of visitors increased 45% from the previous year. (ComScore)

• Google will announce the acquisition of Meetroduction. (InternetNews.com)

• The Monster Employment Index Europe report for July is available online.

UK:

• Online job recruitment activity and related employment opportunities across the United Kingdom rose in July, continuing a general upward growth trend over the first half of the year, according to the Monster Employment Index United Kingdom (UK). The Index increased two points from 104 in June to 106 in July - its highest level since its inception in December 2004. (Monster Index)..
   

USA:

• Broadband over power lines is a viable alternative to DSL. In fact, power companies could be the biggest competitors to the incumbent phone companies if they decided to utilize their subscriber access to provide new services. (ePrairie)

• Mercy's recruiting efforts bringing doctors to town: After 28 years in practice as a primary care physician in Clermont County, Dr. George Miller found himself working alone after his partner left the practice. "That's when I realized that when you cut the number of doctors in half, it doesn't cut your overhead in half," Miller said. (MSNBC)

   

• The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation recently joined the battle to keep private airport security screeners free from compulsory unionism by filing an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Certain union lawyers are attempting to persuade the federal labor board into taking the controversial step of allowing the forced unionization of screeners. (USNewsWire)

Coming Soon

Webinar: The ROI of Email Relevance: Improving Campaign Results Through Targeting  August 17, 2005 2:00pm EDT, 11:00am PDT Free Register	Webinar: The CEO of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman "Recruiting and Social Networking". Wednesday, August 17, 2005 11:30am PDT (2:30pm EDT) Free Register
Blog Business Summit.  August 17th-19th. 2005 Palace Hotel San Francisco, CA $795 Register	The 8th Annual Recruiting & Staffing Summit September 19-21, 2005 Intercontinental Buckhead Atlanta GA $1,999 to $4,573 More Info Brochure
Staffing.org's Philadelphia Performance Summit September 21 - 23, 2005 Radisson Plaza - Warwick Hotel Philadelphia, PA $725 Register	Employers of Excellence Conference 2005 September 25-27 Pointe South Mountain Resort Phoenix, Ariz. More Info
Leadership Summit Network of Executive Women Success Strategies September 26-27 , 2005 Renaissance Concourse Hotel, Atlanta, GA. Contact Executive Director Joan Toth at (312) 373-5682 www.newonline.org	OnRec Online Recruitment Conference October 6, 2005 Brussels Marriott Brussels, Belgium £265.00 +VAT (370.00 Euros) More Info Register: +44 (1702) 382330, or email wendy@OnRec.com
Talent Management, Leadership Development & Succession Planning in the 21st Century October 5-7  2005   Phoenix Marriott Mesa, Phoenix, AZ, USA $2418 Learn More Register	International Association for Human Resource Information Management (IHRIM) Global Forum Oct. 6-7, 2005 Boston, MA $710 More Information Register
8th Annual HR Technology Conference & Exposition October 19 - 21, 2005 Chicago's McCormick Place Learn More Request Brochure	HRO World Europe November14-16, 2005 Conrad Hotel Brussels, Belgium EUR1,700 Register More Info

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