Reveille and Hyperbole
The Microsoft® Alumni Network, an exclusive organization for Microsoft alumni, and VocationVacations®, the  company that offers people an opportunity to test-drive their dream jobs, announced that the companies have entered into a non-exclusive partnership agreement to help Microsoft Alumni Network members test the waters of a second or third career.

CareerJournal launches 2005 Women to Watch, a special report.

HireAbility(r) announces its partnership agreement with TalentHook(r), a resume search tool. This agreement enables HireAbility's international recruiter network of small and midsized staffing firms, and corporate and independent recruiters to access TalentHook's desktop-based resume search tool, which can search hundreds of Internet resume sources simultaneously to mine passive and active candidates with unprecedented speed and accuracy. HireAbility and TalentHook are also executing cross-promotional marketing activities and jointly publishing content for recruiting blogs and newsletters.

CareerXRoads Sources of Hire Report

According to recent government data, the U.S. economy and job market continue to expand, but the latest Spherion(R) Employment Report shows that U.S. adult workers have lingering concerns about the strength of the economy and job market following the recent hurricanes. The Spherion Employee Confidence Index, which measures workers' personal and macroeconomic confidence levels, declined 0.1 points to 54.1 in October, hitting its lowest level in the past year. Despite this continued doubt, more workers were preparing to find a new job. According to a recent survey of 2,685 employed adults in the U.S., 39 percent said they are likely to look for a new job in the next year. This is an increase of five percentage points from the prior month.

The nursing shortage, along with an aging population and mandated staff-to-patient ratios, have created significant staffing challenges for healthcare organizations throughout the country. The California Healthcare Foundation's September 2005 Report "Adopting Online Nurse Scheduling and Staffing Systems" focuses on how innovative hospitals are overcoming these challenges through adoption of new web-based nurse scheduling and staffing tools. These tools are allowing hospitals to optimize staff resources and satisfaction; provide greater levels of nurse retention; tighten control over staffing costs; as well as help organizations to better comply with regulatory requirements. The report coincided with a wave of media articles regarding the crisis in nurse staffing levels throughout the United States.

Aberdeen's new report, "Best Practices in Category Spend Management: Contract Labor - Success Strategies for Consistency, Compliance, and Cost Savings," outlines the approaches, technologies, and change management strategies helping companies establish consistency in the contingent labor procurement process, and delivering cost savings dividends as well.

• EA guns for student talent Tank Wars coming to a classroom near you as Electronic Arts competition keeps its brand visible in academia. Electronic Arts this week announced a student competition it hopes will elevate the awareness of artificial intelligence and the importance the field has for the computer game development community.  The invitation-only competition invites students to demonstrate their skill sets by writing an AI program "that pits one military tank against another in a battle for supremacy." EA is providing the code free of charge to students, and all entrants will retain ownership of their intellectual property.  The competition, dubbed Tank Wars, will accept submissions starting January 15, 2006, through January 31, 2006. Winners will be announced March 15, 2006. (GameWorld)
   
• Microsoft Wants India Workers To Go Home Other tech companies would love to see business-savvy Indian workers join their initiatives in India, but Microsoft drew the most interest at a Silicon Valley recruiting event. Plenty of engineering talent works in India, but the tech companies employing them would like to see a deeper pool of managerial talent available to oversee them. Much of that potential Indian talent resides in Silicon Valley, and getting managers to consider positions back home hasn't been a successful prospect. The Register reported on an event hosted in Silicon Valley that matched up the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo with candidates interested in working for those companies in India. (WebPro)
   
• Re-living the headhunter's legacy Dozens of centuries-old human skulls, believed to be remnants of the headhunting era, are now the focus of new interest among the small Kadazandusun community of Kampung Kiau, located at the foot of Southeast Asia's highest peak, Gunung Kinabalu. (Daily Express)
   
• Workforce Trends  Shifting benefit needs demand attention  Retirement isn't what it used to be. For the last few decades, working people have retired somewhere in their late fifties or early sixties. Their careers stopped abruptly, punctuated by the ubiquitous gold watch. Life after working consisted of relaxing, traveling, visiting the grandchildren, fishing, golfing, and similar "retirement" activities. Our society's organization of 3-4 decades of hard work followed by no work and then death has had people looking forward to those retirement years. "Finally, I'll be able to..." has become a mantra for dedicated employees. As life expectancy lengthened, more attention was devoted to higher quality, more meaningful retirement activities. Seniors were encouraged to engage in volunteer work, more extensive travel, and learning through elder hostels and similar programs. Most retirees enjoyed the income, sometimes modest but sufficient, from their employer's benefit programs.
  
  Now lifestyles have changed significantly. Most people will not retire in the same way they have in past decades. As workforce futurists, we forecast that the majority of people in the United States will continue to work - in some fashion-into their seventies, eighties, and nineties. There is evidence that this trend has already begun, extending careers far beyond their traditional close.  (Benefitnews)

• Recruitment agency for labourers proposed Construction companies which are highly dependent on labour, have proposed the setting up of a recruitment agency that will take full responsibility for the welfare of the workers, resolving their problems and protecting their rights. Such an agency should also ensure that skilled workers are recruited to execute big projects as the market is very competitive. (Khaleej Times)

• Giving the personal touch to Online Recruitment An online job board is embracing the personal touch by launching its first Career Fair 05 in November at the London Barbican. JobServe, who pioneered jobs-by-email back in 1993, believes that combining the benefits of online recruitment with the value of face to face interaction will provide the perfect recipe for a successful two-day event. (OnRec)
  

• U.S failing to monitor millions spent on contract labour U.S employers spend millions of dollars each year on contract labour, but rarely monitor whether it is money well spent or even how much it is costing them, a report has suggested.  Talent management company Taleo looked at how a cross-section of Fortune 500 companies were recruiting and managing their contract workforce.  It found that contractual workforce management is an increasingly complex and unmonitored area of expense throughout large organisations.  Many organisations could not answer critical questions about the use and impact of contractual labour on their organisations.  For instance, just under a quarter (21 per cent) could not estimate their company's current annual spending on contractual labour, while 18 per cent could not estimate the number of suppliers currently providing contractual labour. (Management Issues)
  
  
  

Survey Sez:
JobsInRI.com's State Employment Index: Manufacturing and Sales Show Job Growth During September
JobsInRI.com is one of the largest Internet job sites in the state. With more than 800 jobs being posted and just under 100,000 unique visits each month, we are in an advantageous position to monitor and report on the employment trends within the state. The JobsInRI.com Jobs Index is a monthly statistical summary of the data compiled.

The Index identifies key trends based on job openings posted, searches performed by job seekers and key metrics from the web site. Taken together, they offer a unique perspective into the key trends for employment in Rhode Island.

Job Trends:
The following are the significant trends for the month of September 2005:
- The number of job openings during this month is 555.
- A majority of the new job openings posted during September were in the counties of Providence (45% of all job openings), Washington (13%), Newport (11%) and Kent (8%).
- Job openings activity covered a number of job types:
- Health Care (15.4% of all job openings, down from 25% in August)
- Social Services (8.1%)
- Sales (8.0%)
- Non-Profit (7.6%)
- Manufacturing (6.1%)
- Clerical (5.7%)
- Customer Support (4.7%)
- Fifty-nine percent of the job openings were from companies with fewer than 50 employees
- Companies with >500 employees accounted for 8% of the total
- Seventy-five percent of the job openings during September were for full-time positions, up nearly 5% from August.
- 21% were part-time
- 4% were contract or per diem

Job Search Trends:
The following are the significant trends for the month of September 2005:
- The number of qualified searches (job seeker used specific parameters to search for a position) was 31,713 – up 5% from August.
- The top job categories searched by job seekers were:
- Clerical (9.9% of all qualified searches)
- Health Care (9.7%--up 7% from July)
- Customer Support (5.5%)
- Accounting (4.7%)
- Hotel/Restaurant (4.2%)
- Arts (4.2%)
- Advertising/Marketing (4.1%)
- Banking/Finance (4.0%)
- IT (3.8%)
- Thirty-three percent of the qualified searches also contained a geographic preference:
- Providence County (53% of qualified searches)
- Kent County (17%)
- Washington & Bristol counties (11%)
- A majority of the job seekers prefer to look for positions within close proximity to their homes. The commuting preference for job seekers was:
- 1-30 miles - 63%
- 31-40 miles - 18%
- > 40 miles - 19%

H3 takes a load off the overworked HR director's hands by mobilizing employees, and trusted personal contacts outside of the company in the search for the perfect job candidate.

You and your hiring manager outline the job specs. Then send them off to people whose judgment you value, along with a reward voucher-an incentive, and a way of saying thank you to those people who were willing to lend their time and energy thinking about who, among their contacts, would be right for your company.

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For more information about H3, or to launch a risk-free search now, visit H3.com

Coming Soon

HR Metrics: Measuring-and Maximizing-the ROI of Your Workforce Audio Conference - Nov. 10 $179	VirtualEdge sponsors: CareerXroads Seminar: Job Seeker Experience-Why Care November 10, 2005 :: 4:30pm - 7:00pm CST Hyatt Regency, Chicago, IL Register
Conference Call Lou Adler: Make Hiring Top Talent More Systematic Thu, Nov. 10, 2005 10:00am (PST) 1:00pm (EST) Free Register	HRO World Europe November14-16, 2005 Conrad Hotel Brussels, Belgium EUR1,700 Register More Info
Executive Diversity Career Fair Nov. 15 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Embassy Suites Hotel, 1900 Diagonal Rd. Alexandria, VA Learn More	Webcast Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management – Strategic Financial Planning Tue, Nov 15, 2005 2:00 P.M. ET Free Register
Better Hires Stay Longer: Pre-employment Assessment - Drivers, Findings, and Next Steps November 15, 2005 12 p.m. EDT / 11 a.m. CDT Free Register	Webinar: Creating a World Class Onboarding and Employee Engagement Experience November 15, 2005 2:00PM CST / 3:00PM EST Free More Info Register
Recruiting Strategies with Plantronics: Finding, Recruiting and Retaining the Talent You Need Wed, November 16, 2005 11:00 AM Pacific  2:00 PM Eastern Free Learn More Register	Managing Contingent Workforce Suppliers/Solutions Nov. 16-17 Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Early Bird Fee: $795 More Info Register Request an expanded brochure
Webinar: Guy Kawasaki  and Teresa Shappell Creating a Portfolio of Leaders to Drive Successful Exits" November 30, 2005 10:30 a.m. PST / 1:30 p.m. EST Free Register	Strategic Research Institute's Beyond Blogs & Social Networks conference, December 1-2, 2005 Jersey City, NJ $1,495 Register
Human Capital Summit Conference April 5-7, 2006, Chicago Marriott Downtown Hotel Register $1195	2006 EREC 21-22 June 2006 ExCel London, UK Register

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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