Before:

Research – know the employers attending the fair, familiarize yourself with their business, and have questions ready to ask your top three employers (questions that focus on their industry, their operations and their hiring needs). Resume – proofread, get feedback from at least three people about your resume (pick the best editors you know), and bring plenty of copies (more than you plan on distributing). Ready? – have everything ready to go the night before so that you are not hurried the day of the event. Make a checklist (similar to this) and review the day before:

1. ____professional outfit pressed
2. ____resumes reviewed and printed
3. ____research completed
4. ____top 3 employers identified
5. ____map to job fair location printed
6. ____supplies ready (pens, portfolio, business cards)

Rest – get a good night’s sleep so you can be fresh, enthusiastic, and energetic the day of the job fair

Day of the job fair:

Relax – once you show up to the event, slow down, look over the event program and locate your most desirable employers – (make sure you get to those employers first, but still make time to talk to as many employers as possible, you never know who may have the best opportunity for you) and then go out there and be your outstanding professional self.

After the job fair:

Review – look over any notes you took at the job fair, any contact information you collected, and reflect on your performance during conversations with employers (always room for improvement) – do this as soon as you can after the event, so that your memory is fresh and you can move forward with your next steps. Re-connect – if any employer has asked you to follow-up, or if you have any lingering curiosity about a company or a position, take advantage of your new found contact information and re-connect with them. Building a strong network is key and a quick follow-up time is a good way to start new professional relationships.

Is My Job ‘Offshorable’? You Might be Surprised

By Sean Silverthorne

July 22nd, 2008 @ 7:40 am

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Categories: Managing Globally, Research

Tags: Job, Offshoring, Blinder, Recruitment & Selection, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Sean Silverthorne

In a much debated research paper last year, Princeton economist Alan S. Blinder concluded that up to 38 million jobs, or 29 percent, of US jobs are potentially offshorable within the next couple of decades — that is, capable of being outsourced to workers in other countries.

Blinder’s analysis helped shatter the myth that only low-paying, low-skill jobs — “the jobs US workers don’t want anyway” — are ripe for plucking by other countries. In fact, a case can be made that medium-wage workers, i.e., the American middle class, are most at risk. And many high-paying, high-skill careers such as microbiologist and financial analyst make Blinder’s most vulnerable list.

(One takeaway: If you want to keep your job, become engaged in personally-delivered services, jobs that require your physical presence. Think janitors, surgeons, and wedding photographers.)

Study Contested
The report ignited a political and academic firestorm. It seemed to contradict the argument by many that free trade, while costing some workers their livelihoods, ultimately benefits the US economy. But could the country lose almost third of its jobs without suffering severe economic impact? Critics countered that Blinder’s one-person ranking of offshorable jobs was too subjective to be taken seriously.

Enter Harvard Business School, where research associate Troy Smith and professor Jan Rivkin attempted to recreate and verify (or not) Blinder’s study using a team of 900 MBA students. Would the students agree with Blinder’s ranking and number of most vulnerable jobs?

The results are now in, and at a high level confirm Blinder’s work, report Smith and Rivkin. In so doing, they underscore that offshoring is a significant issue worthy of attention from government policy makers and academics.

(BTW, Blinder is not what you would call a rabid protectionist. A Democrat, he is a former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman who has advised  a number of presidential candidates. He thinks free trade is mostly beneficial to the US, but argues that lawmakers are underestimating the potential magnitude of the offshoring trend and that they should encourage creation of jobs and skills that are harder to perform overseas.)

In this election year, the topic is likely to become a hot-button issue as the fall approaches. Where do you come out on all this? Should government take a more protectionist stance? Are current retraining efforts enough?

The Business Perspective

Aside from political ramifications, Smith and Rivkin recognize that offshoring provides many competitive benefits to companies seeking to allocate their resources in the most cost effective and productive ways. But perhaps we are thinking of jobs and offshoring too narrowly, they suggest; that even more efficiences can be gained by deconstructing job tasks into component parts that can outsourced piecemeal to various geographies.

“It is this opportunity to rethink the fundamental grouping of tasks, not just to adjust the geographic array of historical bundles, that makes offshoring so powerful from the perspective of a business leader,” write Smith and Rivkin. “The possibility of grouping tasks in novel ways gives businesspeople a breathtakingly broad menu of new options for taking advantage of differences across borders.”

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As an business owner, I value JA's programs because they embrace the true meaning of entrepreneurship and giving back to the community.

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Staffing Models Can Make or Break a Company

The number of people working at a company, their skill sets, their cumulative cost to
the company, and their ambition and motivation all combine to create the single most
important variable in the success or failure of any enterprise: the staff.
A company that can get the right people in the right positions at the right time and at
the right price has a tremendous advantage over less astute competitors.

As the world economy evolves and agility becomes absolutely essential for success in
the global marketplace, the smartest companies are taking bold approaches to staffing.
Increasingly, they are eschewing the traditional hiring model. They are moving away
from hiring processes that can take weeks or months to recruit, interview, screen, and
negotiate with candidates to fill a single opening. They no longer see the wisdom in
filling every position with a permanent employee whose real cost to a company only
begins with a salary and extends to benefits, payroll taxes, vacation time, holiday pay,
and a host of other expenses.

This recognition of the need for fundamental changes to key business practices has led
thousands of companies to rely more heavily on temporary and contract employees. In
fact, nearly three million people in the U.S. go to work each business day as temporary
or contract employees. This includes an ever-increasing number of skilled and highly
educated workers, including accountants, attorneys, chief executives, doctors, engineers,
graphic designers, information technology professionals, medical technicians, operating
room nurses, pilots, and software developers. Virtually any job can be filled by a qualified
staffing employee.

Staffing Employees: Motivated, Satisfied, Educated

While some hiring managers cling to outdated stereotypes of “temp workers” who help
out for a few busy days in the mailroom or fill in for a vacationing receptionist, today’s
reality is much different. Many employees with highly sought-after expertise prefer to
work through staffing firms—they thrive on the stimulation and challenge of diverse
assignments. Others view temporary or contract work as a way to evaluate prospective
employers or as a quicker way to get a permanent job.

Staffing employees are motivated people who want to work. In a survey conducted by
the American Staffing Association, 77% of staffing employees said they decided to work
through staffing firms to find permanent jobs. Eight in 10 worked full time, the same
as the traditional work force. Nine out of 10 were satisfied with their jobs (compared
with only about 60% of workers in traditional employment arrangements) and would
recommend temporary or contract work to a friend or relative.

Staffing employees are better educated than the overall work force: 74% have had at
least some college education, compared with only 62% of the traditional work force (in
both cases, one in three of those with some college earned at least a bachelor’s degree).
Staffing employees who prefer temporary and contract work are more likely to hold a
bachelor’s degree and earn higher wages.

Staffing clients have noticed the high caliber of today’s staffing employee. In an
American Staffing Association survey of 500 staffing clients, 72% said the quality of
temporary and contract employees provided by staffing firms is equal to or better than
their own regular employees. And eight out of 10 said that staffing companies offer a
good way to find people who can become permanent employees.

Staffing Employees and Staffing Clients:
Making a Permanent Connection

Everyone knows that there’s no such thing as a truly permanent job. But most staffing
employees and most staffing clients want something staffing firms have to offer: a bridge
to permanent employment. Most staffing employees who want a permanent job get one
eventually—43% get hired by the staffing client. Nearly one-quarter of those who got a
permanent job say they got it faster because of their temporary or contract work. And,
particularly important for staffing clients engaged in the war for talent, less than half of
staffing employees are actively seeking permanent employment elsewhere while working
for a staffing firm—the majority are either using their temporary or contract job as their
sole means for finding a permanent job, or they simply prefer temporary or contract
work. In other words, staffing firms provide the only way to access some of the best
talent America has to offer.

Moreover, staffing firms develop talent. Nearly 90% of staffing employees say their
temporary or contract work experience made them more employable, mostly by
developing new or improved skills and receiving on-the-job experience; 20% attributed
their enhanced skill levels to specific training provided by their staffing firm. A majority
said the work strengthened their resumes, and four in 10 said the experience helped
them gain self-confidence and improve their work habits.

Staffing Strategically With Highly Qualified Employees

Every company goes through cycles. A big project or a new client may create an
immediate need to staff up. A revenue decline may force a company to reduce its
headcount. Some of these cycles are seasonal. Some are completely unpredictable.
This makes it essential for HR professionals and hiring managers to develop work force
strategies that can support their companies’ ever-changing business requirements.

A report from the U.S. Department of Labor supports this notion: “Employers that
have flexibility in adjusting labor requirements to meet product and service demands
have a competitive edge over those with less flexible human resources policies.”

For HR professionals, staffing is a perennial challenge. A staffing firm can make it
more manageable and efficient. Staffing firms can give companies access to the skilled
people needed to compete and win, without the encumbrances that can slow down
recruiting or make it difficult to undo bad hiring decisions.

With the world getting smaller and the global economy getting more competitive,
strategic staffing is more important than ever. It is imperative for companies to hire
talented and motivated people and get them in the door fast. The growing legions of
increasingly skilled, educated, and talented people who have chosen to work through
staffing firms provide the ideal solution to this human resource challenge.

By Steven P. Berchem, CSP, Vice President
American Staffing Association

This blog contains original material plus a quote from Jay Goldberg’s book, HOW TO GET, KEEP AND BE WELL PAID IN A JOB (click here to go to the book’s web site), a book that just received a 5 star (out of 5 stars) review from the Midwest Book Review.

Employee handbooks are important business documents.  Unfortunately, many small businesses do not have them, and many large businesses have them, but they are not as effective as they should be.

Traditional employee handbooks contain workplace and personnel policies ranging from policies on sexual harassment, discrimination, and conflict resolution, to employee benefits, compensation and workplace safety.

One of the reasons for having an employee handbook is to protect the company against law suits.  Employees acting inappropriately can lead to legal disputes.  So can employees who are confused regarding company policies, particularly as it applies to raises, promotions, compensation and benefits.  Having a clearly written and well thought out employee handbook can protect the company.  In legal conflicts, employee handbooks are often viewed as contractual obligations.  And if you are familiar with any of the daytime courtroom shows you’ll know that written contracts are much better than oral contracts, which is what you basically have if you do not have a formal employee handbook. 

Obviously, the employee handbook is a major communication tool between the company and its employees.  With more and more business owners and managers complaining about the lack of work readiness skills in their employees in focus groups throughout the country, the “new” employee handbook becomes the ideal vehicle for a company to define its work readiness workplace expectations (which also makes it part of the “contract”).

The most effective way to teach work readiness is to not just state expected behaviors and skills, but to explain why those behaviors and skills are important in the workplace, and to clearly define what they are.  This means that traditional Dragnet (“just the facts, ma’am”) employee handbooks need to evolve into more of a document that will not only state the facts, but change attitudes and educate employees (and be even clearer to judges during legal disputes).

For example, instead of just stating the number of sick days employees are entitled too, an explanation of what sick days are is needed.  Below is a quote from my book:

“Please be aware that in trying to be fair to employees many companies allow a generous amount of sick days.  Often the longer you work for a company, the more sick days you earn.

Sick days are not vacation days or even personal days.  They are an insurance policy the company provides to its employees.  They are to be used only when an employee is sick.   Since sick days are an unplanned absence, when used there is a negative impact on the workplace.  If all employees used all their sick days a company would have no choice but to reduce sick days for everyone.  Think how high your car insurance would be if every driver except you had two accidents a year.  Insurance companies cannot pay out money it does not have.  They cannot survive if they pay out more money than they take in.  No business could.  In this case everyone’s car insurance rates would go up (including yours) to an amount where the insurance company was taking in more money than it was paying out.”

A truncated and modified version of the sentiment in this quote needs to appear in the employee handbook in the section dealing with sick days.  In addition to educating employees on the real purpose of sick days, it would also help the company if it needed to fire an employee who abused his/her sick days.

I strongly believe the “new” employee handbook needs to be a combination of the traditional employee handbook and work readiness topics like the ones contained in my book.

If you would like me to review, append, modify or create an employee handbook for your company, my contact information is available at my web site, www.DTRConsulting.BIZ.

Catch you in my next blog.

To spell it out most succinctly, preserving job mobility, whether you're merely maintaining your professional value or actively seeking your next leadership role, is core to stayed employed in one form or another. And, as you'll find, the robust qualities and rapidly growing population of leading online networking sites make them a gold mine of opportunities for doing precisely that.

Most executives who have accessed these sites simply log in, create a profile, wander around a bit, and place a few connections. This, according to many social networking experts, means you may be missing out on the true value.

In my special report "When Employers Google You, What Will They Find? 5 Effective Techniques for Managing Your Digital Dirt," I've pointed out that maintaining an online social networking profile is crucial to a job search at the upper echelon.

After all, executive recruiters WILL be looking for information about you on the Web. Maintaining a fresh, well-connected profile ensures that YOU will be in charge of what the world reads about your background.

Here are 5 tips that will bring your online networking knowledge up to speed and allow you to maximize your efforts during a career transition:

1 - Build your profile information carefully.
After creating a profile, typically a simple process that allows you to edit key pieces of information, you'll notice that most sites allow you to add a professional summary. This is where I'd advise against simply using the classic summary information on your executive resume.

Instead, create a bullet-point list of career highlights that includes some of your skills, your leadership expertise in particular areas, and your top achievements.

Remember that what you add is searchable by others who might be looking for you. This means that executive recruiters can search for you by occupation and location, so be sure to add a title such as "Chief Technology Officer" or "Operations Director" to generate hits on your profile.

My recommendation? Log in, and take a look around at others' profiles to gain some ideas.

2 - Maintain visibility.
When you first sign up, most networking sites will remind you to add connections through email addresses. Don't limit this activity to your first sign-in! Keep on adding connections, rather than merely dumping the contents of your email address book in once and then forgetting about it.

Frequently finding others with which to connect serves two purposes:  it keeps your profile on top of Web searches for your name (since search engines love fresh content), and it maintains a business presence for those who read your profile.

3 - Use the site search functions to aid your job hunt.
One of the best-kept strategies for approaching contacts is this:  after identifying a target company where you want to work, analyze a networking site to find company insiders, especially HR resources or, better yet, C-suite executives interested in your leadership skills.

Send your resume by the method requested on the company's website, and then send an additional note to the contacts you find. Be sure to indicate that you have already sent a resume, and wanted to use the networking site to forward another letter of interest to them.

4 - Avail yourself of the extra functions.
Some sites, such as LinkedIn, contain engines that allow you to have additional job search capability at your fingertips through access to major job boards.

In addition, LinkedIn and other sites contain forums where you can view and participate in question-and-answer activity with other members-further establishing your reputation as an expert and thought leader in your field.

5 - Regularly educate yourself on the optimum usage of each site.
There are numerous ways to promote yourself as a leadership candidate using social networking sites-and someone is constantly coming up with more methods.

You can easily access training curriculums, blogs, and other resources that will bring you up to speed. In fact, enhancing your online presence has never been easier!

For example, Jason Alba's book, "I'm On LinkedIn, Now What???", offers an in-depth look at the power of this popular site for professionals and executives in career transition.

In short, it pays to be aware of the impact your online presence can have on your job search. Accelerate your efforts by maintaining a profile that may prove to be instrumental to your success.

Laura Smith-Proulx, Certified Career Management Coach, Certified Professional Resume Writer, and Certified Interview Coach, is the Executive Director of An Expert Resume, a career services firm that caters to organizational leaders. Published in six career bestsellers, she is a former corporate recruiter who works with executives and IT leaders to present a powerful and compelling leadership brand.