Posts Tagged ‘ERE’
Cameras were rolling as the live stream blasted viral over the web. Key boards were burning from the finger tips of people tweeting rapidly, both at the conference, and inside offices around the world. If you haven’t been paying attention to the feed at EREexpo-it’s not too late. Hurry. You have one more day to reel in the information that’s flowing at lightening speed. Trends were unveiled. Raw data that hasn’t yet seen the light of day was secretly divulged to an exclusive group in a select break out session. A famous football coach (from OSU) gave an inspirational speech that made every recruiter in the room open their minds and take notice. The sponsors stole the show with eye popping exhibits, and open arms. Four words come to mind to describe my first impressions; inclusiveness, encouragement, and intellectual empowerment.
The highlight of the conference for me on both a personal, and professional level, was getting face time with my mentor, Don Ramer, CEO of Arbita. I was thrilled to see Shannon Myers of Walton Research. Elaine Orler stole the show with her information about “The Candidate Experience.” There are no words to describe just how much I liked each of the sessions. This year, I had a different strategy than the previous year. I made a decision to spend time meeting the exhibitors at the Expo, and to interact with the sponsors, and vendor partners. Far too often people go to conferences to only attend the sessions. I found equal value in the time I invested speaking with the people who were bringing the new technology to organizations. That’s where the value is. That’s where the real knowledge is exchanged. It’s the one to one interaction that made the whole experience come to life.
Whether you were new to the occupation, returning to the occupation, a trench practitioner, or an old pro-everyone had a place, everyone learned, everyone grew, and most importantly everyone had an impact. Each person brought something interesting to the conference, be it a fresh perspective, a point of view, a tip, top technical tool, or a new way to solve a problem. What stands out in my mind as memorable is how each presenter brought their own panache, clarity, passion, knowledge, and incisive wisdom.
Old friends embraced, new friends met enthusiastically, and people were gathered in twos, and threes exchanging valuable information. This is what I call a successful conference. ERE Expo would not be complete if it wasn’t for it’s charity poker game. Sure, poker is being played, people are having fun, but did you know that the proceeds of the game go directly to charities that support educational initiatives? This year (and the count isn’t final) $8,000 was raised.
Tomorrow, I’m going to discuss in great detail what I took away from each session. I will then share information about the people I met, and interviewed for this blog. Tonight, I will leave you with this message from Mr. Todd Raphael from ERE.
Your roving reporter,
@HRMargo
Social Media Recruiter
Founder of HireFriday and HFChat
The US Unemployment Outlook: What Does This Mean To You?
Happy Labor Day: Or Is It?
Do you find yourself scratching your head with curiosity after reading a report about the unemployment rate in The United States? Don’t feel bad, you’re not alone. Today, on about.com one of my favorite writers, Alison Doyle discussed the state of employment in our Nation. Unemployment hovers around 9.1%, but is that a true picture? Why should you care? I’m going to address these points in today’s post. First, I’m going to share some industry data, then I’m going to share my view point.
Hilda Solis, The US Department of Labor Secretary released interesting information. She said that in the past four years 2.2 million jobs have been added. However Solis, and Doyle point out that in order for our economy to grow, The US would have to add 250,000 jobs per month in order for our economy to grow, and to cut unemployment. The study released from Manpower, The Talent Shortage survey shows that the top ten toughest to fill jobs are:
1. Technicians
2. Sales
3. Skilled Laborers
4. Engineers
5. Laborers
6. Management Executives
7. Accounting and Finance Staff
8. IT Staff
9. Production Operators
10. Administrative Staff
You ought to also read SHRM’S LINE Report (Leading indicators of National Employment). I have perspective about this, but I’ll save that for another post. You might be wondering if you are unemployed, “well if there’s a talent shortage, why is it taking me so long to find a good job?” It seems ironic that we have a bleak employment situation, and so many good people are out of work. It also seems strange that we still have a labor shortage in some sectors.
I’m a recruiter (again) as many of you know. I started my career as a recruiter, and then got away from it to go into corporate leadership training. I was hired to find people for the toughest to fill positions, the positions no one else in the organization can fill. So, when I read these studies, I analyze it from both a recruiter’s standpoint, and a job seekers standpoint (because I’ve been both). You might be thinking, well when’s it gonna be my turn to find a job?
I wish I had an easy answer to that question. That’s something you should write about in a journal, and share with a colleague, a friend, or a career professional that you trust. I can say that this is the worst recession in our Country’s history since The Great Depression. I can also say that our candidate community, and community of professionals are here to help you. Please take part in #HFChat on Fridays at Noon ET, 11 Central. We tackle some really tough problems, and if you read our transcripts you’ll get some really great ideas.
We can put you in touch with some really great recruiters, career professionals, and leading job boards that can and will help you. We are answering these tough questions, and addressing these tough issues. We are here for you. We are a grassroots group of volunteers who donate their time to be of service. Some of our professional community members do charge for their work, but the ones of our preferred list of service providers give community members a discount on their services.
There’s a lot of great information out there for free. Join our LinkedIn group, we are always swapping tips, and free tools. Check out our Facebook page, we hope you’ll “like” it. Most importantly, we are here to support you and be helpful. I hope you will comment here, become active here, write blog posts for us, send us your resume so we can keep it on hand in case we hear anything. My personal goal was to grow HireFriday to 1 million strong by the end of 2011.
Only you can make that happen. We can only help you if you let us. We are always looking for volunteers with great ideas, and fresh perspectives. Join us, and remember regardless of the economic status of our economy, you are never alone. We are a community. We help each other. That’s what we do. On Monday, if you have a job, remember those who don’t. Jessica Miller Merrell is helping grow The Zero Unemployment movement. Her message is simply this: take 15 minutes on Monday, and help an unemployed person find work. That’s an easy time commitment to make. Let’s help them out. Let’s do something to make a difference. Each of you can. Let’s change this economy. Each of us can do our part.
- Labor Day is coming, foster the spirit of compassion.
Margo Rose, Social Networker Of The Year
Ok, let’s face it, we all love it when we win awards. Moments ago, I just won an Ammy awarded to me by my peer, the Recruiting Animal on his BlogTalkRadio show. This meant the world to me because last year I won an award by this man that was nice, but it didn’t make me beam with pride. This award however, it really boosted my spirit. It was such an honor. In fact, I had a ”Sally Fields Academy Award Moment.” Do you remember when she received the Academy Award? Filled with an ebullient spirit, she trembled at the podium, and with a poignant tear running down her cheek, she exclaimed, “You like me, you really like me.”
That is how I felt, liked. That felt, really good. The second level of Abraham Maslow’s heirarchy of needs suggests that a sense of belonging is critical to our psyche. Feeling a “sense of place,” in our professional community is equally important to our emotional well-being. The world of blogtalkradio is very niche’ and segmented according to one’s interest. If you are good at what you do in your industry, and you have a compelling voice, you will garner quite a following. My colleagues in the recruiting community are perhaps the most important of all. The are my people, and I welcomed among them.
Even though I am not a recruiter, they have welcomed me among them as a job search candidate advocate. They also acknowledge my savvy networking skills, and ability to identify partners, and bring the right people around the table for a project. When ERE and SourceCon gave me a blogging pass last year, I was able to learn, and renew my skills in recruiting, and sourcing. It had been more years than I could count since I swam in that pond. My knowledge base was rusty.
With that said, whenever I put myself to task to renew my knowledge, or learn something new I forge ahead with such a fire in my belly that I do not stop until I have mastered the information, and position myself in that arena as a thought leader. I am a masterful social networker. In all fairness, I’ve been networking my entire life. I was born and bred to do so. It runs in the family.
The reason why this award meant something to me is that it was an acknowledgement of my greatest skill-set. When your boss praises you for a job well done, and you know in your heart that indeed you did do that job well, it just feels right, and in encourages peak performance. That is how I feel today. Now, The #Ammys are a joke on Twitter, and BlogTalkRadio. Anyone can nominate themselves for an award given by the recruiting animal. However, I did not nominate myself for this one. Nor, did I nominate myself for The Twitterbug of The Year Award in 2009. Ironically, the award I submitted myself for was for the compassionate human resources award, which I did not receive. Looking back, the recruiting animal knows better than me. He always has, and his advice to me professionally has been spot on accurate.
Are you following @Animal? Do you listen to his Blogtalkradio show? Number 1, add him as a contact. Number 2, go to the website on his twitter page. Number 3, follow his blogtalkradioshow. It’s on every Wednesday at Noon eastern standard time. That is my call to action. Be a call to action person.
I am a community driven activist. I believe not just in social networking, I believe in social action, hence my launch of The #HireFriday movement. It was, and continues to be my passion piece. Will I ever actually monetize it? That remains to be seen. My hands are so busy with my work in Social Media Community Management that it is hard to see the forest from the trees. I love my work, both volunteer, and professional. I love my social network community. I love the people in my life whom I hold dear. You know who you are. It is in the spirit of love that I end this post. I am grateful for your presence in my professional and personal life.
Sincerely,
Margo Rose, M.Ed., Human Resource Development
Founder of #HireFriday
Social Media Community Manager for ICUC Moderation Services, and AMC Theatres
Today, I spoke with the brilliant, Recruiting/Social Media Consultant, Eric Jacquith. My next post will feature my review of his session at Sourcecon, and a few professional insights as well.
Later, I will review Glen Cathey‘s session about Sematic Search and Artificial Intelligence.
In addition, I will write an informational post about my guests on Monday 4/5 Compassionate HR blogtalkradio program. The “Monster” show promises to be quite the eye opening experience. The show will be expanded from the 30 minutes to 1 hour to accommodate the extraordinary information that my guests will share about corporate philanthropy, and the joy of volunteer work in the community. My guests include Lew Karabatsos the Vice President, Corporate Philanthropy and Workplace Communications for Monster Worldwide; John Kofi Sanful is the Executive Director of Career Gear, and Suzanne Elliot, Executive Vice President of Resource Development and Strategic Marketing at Dress for Success.
I have so many exciting things in the works and I look forward to sharing all of them with you, so stay tuned.
Here is an outline for what I’ll be writing about this month:
1. Report from #TruLondon: Sponsors that support #TruCharity.
I will discuss what I’m learning from this side of the pond from the Track Leaders.
2. The talented people from Monster.Com-roll up their sleeves, and get involved in their communities. Steward leadership at work.
I will report the latest services, and trends from Job Boards, what they offer, and how to get the most out of the services they provide.
3. ERE Foundation, what it does, who it helps and more…
I will research, and discuss that will be offered, and how to plan in advance how to get the most out of the conferences you attend.
In addition, I’ve been invited to write a guest post for The HR Ringleader about the benefits of HREvolution, and a review of what I learned from the last unconference, and how I’ve applied those lessons to help my career.
You know me, in between I’ll be commenting and reporting on the latest trends in human resources, and my analysis of the latest research. I have some exciting interviews planned with your favorite experts in the human resource, and recruiting community. So stay tuned, and I’ll keep you informed about the breaking news from twitter, facebook and linkedin. I’ll be your roving reporter, and I’ll be doing my homework so you won’t have to-be sure to join me for a fun, informative take on the latest trends, tips and news you can use.
Your twitter pal,
HRMargo HRMargoRocks@gmail.com
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