Welcome to the May 30, 2007 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

What's Inside:

1. Recruiting Young Workers: Six Strategies for Success

Editor's Note: This week's column was written by Erica Metzger, our summer intern. Erica is a third year student at the University of Pittsburgh with special interests in business, leadership and ethics. In just her first week working with SPS, she wrote this timely white paper on innovative strategies to recruit young workers. I've included Strategy #1 below and created an easy sign-up for those of you who may want to receive the remaining five strategies.

Young adults these days are not just worried about getting a degree-related job post graduation; they are increasingly concerned with field-related summer and semester internships. Interestingly enough, many of these young adults are students currently enrolled at universities and colleges around the nation and are eager to apply their newly-acquired skill set to the “real world”.

For businesses, taking on summer interns can result in a fairly low-wage, educated, part-time labor force. And for young adults, taking a summer internship will yield substantial business knowledge, the application of school work, and importantly: resume development. It’s a win-win situation. So what types of ways are successful businesses attracting these potential employees?

1. Businesses are going directly to the source.
A good way to get in contact with students is by directly going to the universities and colleges. Many schools have several job fairs, which offer the opportunity for students to get associated with businesses in their field. With little to no work (other than a poster display, etc) businesses can have several resumes of potential candidates. It’s as easy as that. Getting involved with these job fairs isn’t too difficult either. One quick google of “job fair + (university name)” usually yields the numbers/emails required to sign-up. Otherwise, calling admissions directly and inquiring about job fairs works too. Also, advertise in collegiate newspapers, on collegiate radio stations, and in “beat” publications (i.e. not just mainstream papers.)

There are other ways to get involved with the schools as well. Some schools offer programs that set up interviews on campus. Students are able to sign up for these interviews online and the rest of the details (room, dates, and timing schedules) are handled by the program. All they need are the businesses. In addition, most schools have organizations on campus that are completely dedicated to professional development. Students love hearing first-hand testimonials about the professions they study. But be warned: these young adults will see through any façade you might present about your job being “great” and “flexible”, trust me when I say that they will be much more receptive toward honesty.

Some professors are very interested in guest lecturers and speakers within the field.
A) It offers something different to maintain interest and
B) It provides real life experience to the ‘stuff’ that’s being taught in class.

This can be a little more difficult, but if you have familiarity with the university or college, admissions can more than likely provide you with a name to discuss this. You could always emphasize to the professor that you are more than willing to take resumes at the end of class. Not only will this get the students to show up, but they will stay the entire time as well.

Click here to gain immediate access to more strategies for Recruiting Young Workers or call us at 717.291.4640 or 800.803.4303 to schedule time to discuss improving your organization's recruiting strategies.

2. Perfect Labor Storm Statistics and Trends - "Second Life"

Just when hiring managers and recruiters were trying to keep ahead of the competition in the race for new graduates and top talent, the newest venue for candidates opened up: the first virtual job fair of its kind was held in Second Life during the month of May 2007. Candidates, represented by avatars (an Internet user's virtual self) from all over the world participated as they met “avatar” recruiters from Sodhexo, eBay, HP, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Since virtually (no pun intended) few clients I meet with and few audiences I speak to raise their hands when I ask, " Have you ever heard of Second Life," I requested Erica, our summer intern and a representative of the young educated adults entering our workforce, to explain what Second Life is...and will be.

Click here to learn more about Second Life.

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is now available. The year 2007 will see an increase in skilled worker shortages and more competition. The result will be higher salaries, more training and career advancement opportunities, and more flexible work cultures.  How prepared is your company to find skilled and dependable workers?  

Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 is the newly updated and revised 2007 edition of best-selling book first published in 2005.  You can now download an advance copy of PLS 2.0. a $10 value with every purchase of the original Perfect Labor Storm, still a great value at $9.95. 

Don't miss day-to-day updates on Perfect Labor Storm.   Save the Perfect Labor Storm blog to your favorites.

3.  New! Upcoming Webinars, Workshops and Training Dates

Get Clues: Solving the mystery of hiring employees
Date: June 5, 2007
Time: 11:00 AM EDT
Place: On the web
Cost: FREE - limited to first 10 participants.

Looking for an easy to use, low cost tool to uncover employee clues that predict successful job performance? Then you don't want to miss this free webinar conducted by Marilyn Walker, Director of the SPS Assessment Center.

Click here to register!

ASSESS Expert System Certification
Date: June 12 and 13, 2007
Time: 8:30 - 5:00; 2nd day ends at 12:30PM
Place: Lancaster, PA
Tuition: $1500 per person; $1000 for 2nd person, same company

ASSESS Expert System User Certification has been rescheduled due to the inclement weather experienced in the Northeast from April 15-17. New dates will be June 12 and 13.

For the first time ever, Bigby Havis and Success Performance Solutions have partnered to sponsor a 2-day ASSESS User Certification in Central PA. (Bigby Havis is one of the top U.S. organizational psychology consulting firms with domestic and international clients.)

Participation is limited and over half the seats are already filled.
Don't wait. Call 800-803-4303 for information.

Hiring Tool Kit 101
During this webinar you will when it is appropriate to use pre-employment tests, how to compare different hiring tools for reliability, and how to differentiate between screening and selection tools. 
Date: June 14, 2007
Time: 2:00 PM EDT (11:00 AM PDT)
Place: On the Web
Cost:  FREE - limited to first 10 participants.
Register for Hiring Tool Kit 101

4. A Manager's Guide to Managing Twentysomethings

They're ambitious, they're demanding and they question everything. Managers everywhere complain they are chatty, tattoed, pierced and often annoying and definitely high maintenance. They are "tethered" to almost anything electronic. And when it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on the list. But treat them with respect and provide them with opportunity and feedback, and you won't find a more motivated, smart, and tech savvy group of employees.

Meet the newest entrants into the workforce: Generation Y

Click here to learn more about Managing Generation Y as well as other generations by visiting our Generational Diversity page.

5. New report pages added to CriteriaOne DISC

Two new pages have been added to all versions of CriteriaOne (with the exception of Interview Assistant). First we've added a page called "Intensity of Each DISC Behavior," which a graphic for each style, comparing how and additional will respond to problems, influencing people, pace, and procedures in both his/her natural as well as adapted state.

The second new page is a Personal Action Plan page. Each page includes open comment sections for an employee or manager to outline development goals, expected outcomes, who to involve and more.

These new pages have been added to all reports at no additional charge. If you prefer to receive your reports without these or customize the pages you or your employees receive, just contact us at 800.803.4303.

To view a sample of CriteriaOne DISC, click on:

Individual Report                                    Sales Report

6. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"[Generation Y] is the most high-maintenance workforce in the history of the world."
Bruce Tulgan, founder of RainmakerThinking

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2007 Ira S Wolfe." We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission