Read the entire Electronic Recruiting News (ERN) article.
Reveille & Hyperbole
Jobzerk.com integrates social media into the job and resume search process through blogging, private messaging, and forums. The job search site was built entirely on an open source technology platform, from the operating system to the content management system, and will offer its services for free.
Owned and operated by Elki Media, the site supports listings in the United States and offers the ability to post company, job, and resume listings as well as find jobs through a keyword or directory search.
eQuest, a job posting and Internet recruitment management services, and PEG Consulting, provider of Oracle HCM solutions, have announced an exclusive arrangement to provide Oracle customers with free integration services linking Oracle's iRecruitment with eQuest's worldwide job posting gateway. The arrangement is the first ever to provide these types of integration services at no charge.
The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for the Web, recognized the Microsoft 'View My World' Microsite as an Official Honoree, a distinction that recognizes work exhibiting remarkable achievement. The work is produced by the Microsoft team at JWT INSIDE, one of the world's leading recruitment marketing and employee communications companies.
Trovix, Inc., a provider of employment products and services using intelligent search technologies, announced that
Salary.com has chosen Trovix Recruit to speed and automate their candidate search and recruiting efforts. As a primary provider of on-demand compensation and talent management solutions, Salary.com is using Trovix Recruit to help meet its growing staffing needs.
Engineers, machinists and skilled trade workers are among the nation's most challenging positions to fill, according to survey findings released by Manpower Inc.
"From our research it is clear that across the country employers are experiencing a mismatch between the talent their businesses need and the skills and abilities potential employees possess," said Jonas Prising, President of Manpower North America.
The 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill, as reported by U.S. employers for 2008, are:
1. Engineers
2. Machinists/Machine Operators (10)*
3. Skilled Trades
4. Technicians (4)
5. Sales Representatives (1)
6. Accounting & Finance Staff (8)
7. Mechanics (3)
8. Laborers (9)
9. IT Staff
10. Production Operators.
InDepth
BlackBerrys may spur overtime suits.
If you're handing out BlackBerrys like candy in the workplace, you better have a policy in place to ward off potential overtime lawsuits.
That's the advice many lawyers are shelling out to employers as the popularity of hand-held devices is booming in the workplace, allowing wired-up employees to work anywhere, anytime.
Management-side attorneys fear a new wave of wage-and-hour litigation is just around the corner, where employees will claim overtime for all the hours they've spent clicking away on their BlackBerrys or other digital communication devices.
"We'll see it; it's only a matter of time," said Jeremy Roth in the San Diego office of Littler Mendelson. Roth said he has cautioned several clients about the issue in the last year, advising them to get policies in place.
"Before there was at least an argument that no, the employee is not being truthful when they say, 'I did all this work after hours.' But now, that swearing contest is taken out of the mix," Roth said. "If the employee says, 'Lets take a look at my BlackBerry,' you now have a record. If it's a text message, or a Wi-Fi at Starbucks--if they're nonexempt and they're off the clock, that's a problem for employers."
Under federal labor laws, a "nonexempt employee" is someone who is eligible to receive overtime pay. An "exempt" employee, such as a manager or supervisor, is not entitled to overtime pay.
And it's a problem employers are well aware of, said April Boyer, an attorney in the Miami office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, a management-side law firm.
"Everyone is buzzing about the concern that [lawsuits] are coming," said Boyer, who has helped several clients add BlackBerry-use policies to their existing computer policies.
Boyer believes that complaints about unpaid BlackBerry time will likely emerge from discontented workers.
"Usually you don't hear about it until you have a disgruntled employee," Boyer said. "They can tally up an enormous list of alleged hours worked and the employer is in a difficult position trying to defend what the actual hours worked were."
Plaintiff trolling?
Some employers may want to require that employees get permission first before using their BlackBerrys after work hours, said Mitch Danzig, an attorney in the San Diego office of Boston-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo. Danzig advises his clients to give BlackBerrys only to exempt employees.
"Plaintiffs' firms are trolling for this," he said. "Now what you're seeing on [plaintiffs'] firms' Web sites are, 'Have you been assigned a BlackBerry or a phone? If so, give us a call.' "
Not quite, countered plaintiffs' lawyers, who believe that employer-side attorneys are overreacting.
"Plaintiffs' lawyers don't manipulate, manufacture or escalate claims,"said employee-rights attorney Lisa Curry of Deutsch Atkins in Hackensack, N.J. "We see how individuals are treated in the workplace. And if they're treated unfairly, we will work aggressively to enforce their rights."
As to BlackBerry time that is unpaid, she said employees may have some valid claims to raise. If workers are tied to their BlackBerrys, answering lengthy e-mails or making phone calls after work hours, they should be paid for their work, she said.
"Employees have been put upon to do errands outside of work hours and they usually don't get reimbursed. So I can see where it would become a bigger issue with the advent of BlackBerrys," she said. "If they can show they spent a great deal of time reviewing e-mails, then they may have something there."
Plaintiffs' attorney John R. Linkosky of John Linkosky & Associates in Pittsburgh, believes that employers should be worried about BlackBerry suits.
"Absolutely," Linkosky said. "It's becoming more and more a matter of concern. There's no question about that . . . .It is extremely difficult for an employer to avoid some liability due to the use of BlackBerrys."
Linkosky offered a simple rule for employers who remain confused about when to pay their employees who use BlackBerrys. "Anytime they're using their BlackBerry for the benefit of the employer is compensable time--period," he said. From the National Law Journal Online.
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