We have previously discussed the phenomena of employers searching social network sites for information on job candidates. The September issue of IPMA HR News report on a CareerBuilder Survey that finds 45% of employers use social network sites to research job candidates, up from 22%.

Of those:

1. 29% use FaceBook
2. 26% LinkedIn
3. 21% MySpace
4. 11% Blogs
5. 7% Twitter

My question would be what exactly people are searching for on Twitter? Are they following job candidates for a number of days? Again, the lesson, be careful of what you post online.

Originally, I was going to post job openings that I received here in the blog itself. However, I found it easier to create a separate FaceBook page. So, if you are interested in both local and national job openings in HR, you can join my FaceBook group at DDoverspike Job Listing Home page.

From Bryan Baldwin and the excellent blog at HR Tests.

Case in point: the state of Washington recently decided to abandon their efforts to implement SAP E-Recruiting after nearly three years and millions of dollars. The state will now go with a hosted solution which is estimated to be $700-800,000 a year cheaper (and hopefully much easier) to maintain.

Having been ringside for some of this, I can tell you the problem was not with motivation or energy, or even IT knowledge. I suspect that a lion’s share of the problem was related to the complexity of the program. This would match reports I’ve read that a significant number of organizations are moving away from single-vendor HR solutions and going with simpler, targeted products. Having heard about this program for a number of years, I have two thoughts:

1. As I commented the other day on another site, a problem in HR today is letting technology be the driver rather than scientifically sound HR practices. That is not to say that the State of Washington’s program was not based on sound practices, but a more general observation about issues with technology today in HR.
2. Again not specifically aimed at the State of Washington program, but a general observation, it is simply interesting how many times you see programs that receive a great number of accolades and attention, only to quickly slide into oblivion or be quickly replaced with the next hot program.

Driving is one of the more complicated information processing tasks that any of us are asked to complete in our lifetime. It places a tremendous strain on our attentional resources and ability to respond quickly.

Camille Noe Pagan has written an interesting article on driving for women for Forbes magazine. You can check it out here. According to Pagan, “Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death in women under the age of 35, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and are also a major cause of traumatic brain injury and fatality in women of all ages.”

Of course, what makes the article most interesting is that she cites me and some recent research. We are currently looking at whether defining yourself as a good driver actually increases the risk that you will respond with aggressive driving. Will update you with the final results of that study, when it is finished.

Last week I mentioned the concentration of human resource consulting firms in the Northeast Ohio area. I think this wealth of knowledge and experience is a strength that should be built upon in bringing about a renaissance in the NEO area. Therefore, I would like to mention another firm, again headed up by a University of Akron alumni, and that is Linda Brown LLC, in Chardon, OH. Linda has a rich background in human resources and aims to help organizations achieve their strategic goals through the best use of their people at all levels of the organization. She works in the areas of leadership coaching and development, career coaching, performance management, team development, employee opinion surveys, and organizational strategy development. In addition to a website, Linda offers a very informative newsletter. In her most recent newsletter, she covers the ROI of inveseting in people.

A side note for those looking for employment in human resources. Rather than posting jobs in the blog, I have decided to set up and publish them in a special Facebook page. So if you look for me on Facebook, I will add you and then you can join the job group.

The Northeast Ohio area has many strengths. Unfortunately, all too often, we fail to emphasize our strengths. Even more tragically, many people inside of Northeast Ohio are unware of the tremendous talent pool the region has to offer.

This is especially true in the area of human resource consulting, especially as it relates to employment testing and development. The Northeast Ohio area has many top companies that enjoy a favorable world wide reputation. Of course, I would like to think that in large part that is due to the many impressive alumni turned out by the University of Akron, and also Bowling Green State University and Case Western. (If we expand our reach eastward a couple of hours to include Pittsburgh, then the concentration of companies is even more impressive). We really do have a tremendous resource – which can be even more impressive if we find ways to work together and share ideas.

I hope to highlight various firms doing great work in the Northeast Ohio area, many of them staffed in part by our alumni from University of Akron. In this blog I would like to mention O.E. Strategies. They offer a number of excellent services including assessment and coaching. They have put together a short white paper that makes for an easy read on employment testing. This white paper emphasizes two important points 1) the need for validity evidence and 2) the importance of expert advice when implementing a testing program. The white paper can be found here.

Most of the blogs I tend to read on human resources are US based blogs. I guess that is because HR is so dependent on the law and legal issues, and my own research interests so assessment focused, that I tend to concentrate on US issues.

However, I have been recently reading Colin Talbot’s Whitehall Watch blog and I would like to recommend it to others. It is an excellent blog in terms of covering UK, internaional and public administration issues. If we ever tend to forget, his blog reminds us that there are common global challenges and also a great deal to be learned from the approaches taken in other countries.

Are you currently undergoing a career transition? You are not alone.

A few years ago, a good friend of mine, Diane Wilson, wrote a book on career transitions. It was an excellent book that sold well, but today, the advice in the book is even more appropriate. Diane also has started blogging again and you can find her blog through the “People Getting Back in Control” Facebook group or http://emotionalunemployment.blogspot.com/

Diane’s goal is to make her blog an excellent resource for people in career transtion attempting to manage the psychological aspects of change. Peak performance training for the job world!

Google provides an excellent source for citation counts. There is a program available that simplifies the counting of citations. This program is available from Harzing. It seems to be quite popular. If interested, you can find it here. You do need to download it and also have some understanding of citations counts.

Welcome to the New Year. I wanted to start with an apology. A couple of blog contributors and participants notified me that their comments were not getting through and were being marked as SPAM. I assumed I got to review all comments marked as SPAM and allow legitimate comments through, which I have been doing, but apparently there were two levels of SPAM. There seems to be an automatic SPAM deleter where I do not receive those messages or comments, but have to go through and review all the messages that have been screened and allow them through as well, this seems to be separate from other messages that are marked as spam. Once I figured that out, I found there were quite a few legitimate comments being screened out. Unfortunately, I can only go back 15 days.

I do not have any control over the SPAM filter. I believe that is an automatic program put in place by WordPress. However, I will let the administrator know about the problem. I will be more vigilant in making sure comments get through.

I really want to apologize if you took the time to write a comment and it was screened out. I have no explanation as to why it was screened out, but will try to make sure I allow all legitimate comments to be posted.