Your News Delivered To Your Doorstep: Using RSS Readers

It’s a nice feeling waking up in the morning, walking out the front door and knowing your newspaper will be right there waiting for you. If you’re like most people, you’ll sit down and skim through one or two parts of it for the latest sports scores, business headlines, or local news. Your paper isn’t written just for you, so it doesn’t have all of the news and information you want to read about. However you can get a customized news report each day using an RSS reader.

Also called feed readers or aggregators, RSS readers allow you to subscribe to the news sources, blogs, and podcasts you want to receive updates from and collect them all in one place. Imagine a newspaper with all of the sections written just for you! No more e-mails coming to you every 10 minutes, no more hunting for the news you want.

Which RSS Reader Should You Use?

There are a lot of RSS readers that you can use, however some of the more popular ones include Google Reader, My Yahoo, Bloglines, NewsGator, and Technorati. Each of these web-based services allow you to sign up for a free account and subscribe to the feeds you want.

How Do You Subscribe To “Feeds”?

Most websites or blogs will have a subscribe button, an RSS button, or something that lets you know you can subscribe to the content. Let’s take an easy example - the Where Great Workplaces Start blog. If you wish to subscribe to the content on this blog, simply click the “Subscribe” button on the left and select your RSS reader.

Other examples of RSS subscribe buttons:

Now that you know how to get your news the way you want it, go sign up now! It’s easy - sign up for a free RSS Reader account, find the news that you want to subscribe to, and you’re all set! And don’t forget to subscribe to the Where Great Workplaces Start RSS feed.

Northeast Ohio “In The Green”

Cleveland Business Connects magazine introduced a new section this month called “In The Green” with local information about businesses that are ”making it look easy to be green”. According to Cleveland Business Connects’ website, In The Green is a “new department on sustainable business practices.” Here are the highlights from this month’s In The Green section:

(Wind) Power to the People

 A two-year study of winds off downtown Cleveland’s shoreline found that Lake Erie winds are the strongest recorded anywhere in Ohio - good news for city leaders exploring whether Cleveland could be an international hub for offshore windpower. For more information, visit Green Energy Ohio (GEO).

Keeping Our True Colors

“The Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Center for Regional Sustainability has been officially named the GreenCityBlueLake Institute. Under the direction of David Beach, the Institute has launched a climate project to create a more sustainable future for Northeast Ohio.” For more information, visit GreenCityBlueLake.

The Tribe Makes It Easy To Be Green

“The Cleveland Indians continue to be among the leaders in taking a proactive approach to supporting various environmental initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint at Progressive Field.” In June of 2007, the team installed 42 General Electric solar panels in the upper deck of the ballpark. They recently introduced new vending cups that are made of corn starch and decompose in only 30 days. For more information, visit the Cleveland Indians website.

 Sustaining Sports Facilities

“HOK Sport, the architectural designer of Cleveland Browns Stadium and Progressive Field, has long been known for its tradition of innovation, and nowhere is that more apparent than its industry-leading role in sustainable design of sports facilities…Not only are HOK Sport stadiums respectful to the environment, they also are buildings that sustain the test of time.” For more information visit HOK Sport online.

Source: Cleveland Business Connects, May 2008, “In The Green”

2-month Statistics: Top Posts, Searches, and Referrers

Where Great Workplaces Start has been going strong for the past two months, and now is a great time to share the most popular posts and searches so far. Thank you to all of our readers, supporters, and referrers! If you’d like to receive current HR updates, make sure you subscribe for RSS updates or e-mail updates.

Top Posts

1. How to Brand Your Organization as a Great Workplace
2. Internship Program 201: How to Recruit Tomorrow’s Top Talent
3. 5 Tips for a Green Workplace
4. Internship Program 101: Building an Effective Internship Program
5. Talking Politics…at Work?

Top Searches

1. “great workplace”
2. “attitude at the workplace”
3. “hr department trends”
4. “workplace incentive ideas”
5. “green workplaces”

Top Referrers

1. Alltop Career
2. Bloggy Award
3. ERE Recruiting Blogosphere
4. Cool Cleveland
5. The People Group

Internship Program 201: How to Recruit Tomorrow’s Top Talent

Employers offer full-time jobs to nearly two out of three interns, and 70% of these interns accept the positions according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). What does this mean? For a lot of companies, an internship program is one of the primary means of recruiting. Here are a few ways to maximize your recruiting efforts for your internship program:

Students, Meet the Boss

According to Steve Rothberg, the President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, one way to ensure that you recruit and retain more than your fair share of “intern stars” is to “bring them into contact with your senior executives.” He suggests having your CEO call job candidates to encourage them to accept the offer, or invite candidates to join a meeting at which senior executives will be present. According to Human Resource Executive, some companies involve senior level managers in the hiring process regardless of the position - and that includes interns.

Location, Location, Location

Another important factor in successfully recruiting top interns is where you’re recruiting. Many companies will just post their internship or internships on a local or national job board and let them sit. This might be a semi-effective way to do it, but it probably isn’t the most efficient. There are numerous other ways to recruit for interns.

Many cities will have a local internship job board online - for example, interns in northeast Ohio can go to ClevelandIntern.net. These sites draw candidates in by providing great career tips, and the listing fees are often cheaper than national job boards. For manufacturers, check out the Dream It Do It Campaign, or JobMagnet.org.

Also, make sure you’re posting all of your internships on your website, preferably in your Career Center.

College campuses are also a great place to recruit for interns. Most campuses will have a career fair or even an internship fair annually or bi-annually. For northeast Ohio based companies, ClevelandIntern.net has a great Upcoming Events page. Also, almost every college has a Career Services department these days - they’d love to hear from you and would be glad to post your internship on their career portal.

Remember, summer is just around the corner, and now is the perfect time to build an effective internship program. Stay tuned to Where Great Workplaces Start to read the last post in this series, Internship Program 301: From Intern to Employee and Beyond - for automatic e-mails, subscribe below!

Sources: “Intern-al Affairs”, Human Resource Executive; CollegeRecruiter.com

Job Interview Etiquette in Need of Performance Review

While many job seekers say they’re on time for interviews and well-prepared, hiring managers are painting a different picture. In Vault’s just-released Interview Etiquette Survey, 59% of hiring managers say that job candidates’ manners have deteriorated in recent years.

Vault’s Interview Etiquette Survey of 105 hiring managers and 1647 employees across the country took place in March of this year.

Hiring managers have had to deal with a plethora of bad behavior in interviews, from the 43% who say a candidate has used profanity, to the 19% who say an applicant has brought a child to an interview. Emergency babysitting services are obviously crucial when job hunting.

Some hiring managers (26%) have even seen a job candidate pick up a cell phone call right in the middle of an interview; 68% would disqualify the person immediately for such behavior. The offense most often seen, however, is badly chosen attire; 87% of hiring managers say that interviewees have dressed inappropriately for the occasion.

Other examples of poor interview etiquette employers have seen: bringing lunch and eating it during the conversation, crying, picking one’s nose and showing up drunk.

While job seekers may need to adjust their interview behavior, hiring managers should become aware of their own etiquette shortcomings as well. Many employees (56%) say interviewers have interrupted proceedings to take calls, and 71% say they’ve been rejected for jobs by not ever hearing from the employer after the interview; 11% of hiring managers admit to blowing off candidates rather than sending rejection letters.

To check out Vault’s Job Talk video on the subject, click here.

Source: Vault.com: “Job Interview Etiquette in Need of Performance Review”, April 22, 2008

Where Great Links Start #4

It’s time once again for another week of Where Great Links Start. As always, if you have a blog or news article that you think belongs on this list, please let us know!

Gen Y / “Millenials”

This topic is hotter than ever, and there have been some great discussions on this topic:

“Gen Y Work Demands Can Help You Retain Boomers on the Verge of Retirement” on Lisa’s Generation Relations Blog. This is a great post that shows employers how to accomodate all employees based on today’s needs. Her blog is filled with great generational information, but this one is especially great!

“Professional and Personal Communication Across Generations” on the Personal Branding Blog. How many baby boomers are using social networking? How many millenials still prefer face-to-face communication? The results are quite interesting. Find out here…

“Why Y? Working with Gen Y and Surviving” on Where Great Workplaces Start. Shameless plug of the week, but nonetheless, a great article written by ERC training consultant Tony Tomanek.

Just Plain Interesting…

“The World As 100 People” on the CEO blog. Some of you may have seen this before, but for those who haven’t, it’s a very interesting look at the world.

“Social Media Can Drive Employee Engagement” on The Employee Factor. Interesting look from an HR perspective at social media and how employers can use it to keep employees engaged.

And as always, don’t forget to visit some of our “faves”: Alltop, David Zinger’s Employee Engagement, and download Michael Lee Stallard’s free e-book “The Connection Culture”.

Why Y? Working with Gen Y and Surviving

As generational research steams ahead and more and more gigabytes are collected, we are fast looking for answers to an age-old question. “Why are these young people so weird?” Wait! Did I say that? My father used to say that. Yes, but just so you know, there are young people among us that have tattoos, pierced lips and tongues that are bright, multi-talented —and they don’t wear button down shirts!

Working productively with the Millennial’s, the Nintendo Generation, the Echo Boomers or whichever label we put on these 12-25 year olds is critically important today, since there are 60 million in the United States that are entering the job market. Let me give those of you that struggle some ideas, three to be exact, to working in harmony with the young men and women with iPods in their ears and cell phones strapped to their back-packs.

Tip Number One. Keep them engaged and challenged.

This generation has been multi-tasking since they were born; talking on a cell phone while playing Nintendo is common for these bright young people. Their parents have involved them in soccer, gymnastics and playgroups, and by doing so have built a generation that is comfortable doing something different all of the time. Having meaningful work was less important to their Grandparents because they were happy to be working. The expectations of the Gen-Y’ers are much different. They’ve been busy most of their lives doing many different activities and flourish in that environment. Give them something important to do and get out of the way, they will astound you!

Tip Number Two. Keep your technology current.

Any investment in your technology is perceived as an investment in them. When I was growing up in the 1950’s and 60’s I remember our first color television. It was a big deal. Today the Y Generation sees a better picture on their iPod. They can download a half hour sitcom for a couple of bucks and watch it at their leisure. The Gen-Y’er expectation is clearly, “How can I do my job with the equipment we have here?” Their Baby Boomer manager doesn’t get it. “Hey, we only had three channels on our television,” is not an acceptable response.

Tip Number Three. Don’t expect respect simply because you are more senior.

Not that these super-high achievers are disrespectful. They are not! Authority just doesn’t intimidate them. That’s a good thing! Most of the executives I’ve worked with over the last 20 years have asked for honest feedback (not that they’ve always done anything with it) from their staff and associates. These young professionals will certainly give us feedback. We need to be careful how we respond to it. A much more open and accepting leadership style is critical. These young people respect success and want to be part of it. They don’t really get excited about more conventional forms of recognition such as preferential parking. What gets them fired up is working on something meaningful and being part of a winning effort.

Things change, and as quickly as we adapt to one, the next is upon us. Each generation has lamented about the next and worried that they won’t be able to take the hand-off. Me, being the eternal optimist, I tend to see the glass half-full. This is generation could be the greatest of all time.

One more thing, just when you get this group figured out, then comes Generation Z! Egad!

Tony Tomanek is a training consultant with ERC where he specializes in a full range of customized course offerings, instructional systems design, customized design and development and training and facilitation services. Tony has spent over 25 years working with service, healthcare, manufacturing, and government agencies as a trainer and facilitator.

Study Shows Small Employers Net Higher Profits-Per-Employee

According to the 2008 National HR Metrics Survey, recently released by ERC (Employers Resource Council), small employers net the highest average profit-per-employee, a measure of organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Over 640 U.S. employers were surveyed for this report.

Employers with fewer than 500 employees reported an average profit-per-employee of more than $120,000, which was higher than those organizations with over 500 employees. The smallest employers in the study, those with fewer than 100 employees, reported over $40,000 more in profit-per-employee than those with an excess of 1000 employees and over $80,000 more in profit-per-employee than those organizations with between 501 and 1000 employees.

Source: 2008 National HR Metrics Survey

50 Great Workplace Ideas: NorthCoast 99 Application Deadline Special

For those of you that missed it, in March we had a 5-week series featuring 10 Great Workplace ideas each week - 50 Great Workplace ideas in all! In honor of the 2008 NorthCoast 99 application deadline this week (May 2nd), we are giving you the whole big list! Don’t forget, if you haven’t applied or completed your application yet, this Friday is the deadline! And now the list:

1. Treat interns like all other employees.
2. Provide job candidates with an employee handbook, performance expectations and a job description.
3. Develop a succession plan.
4. Post job openings to all employees.
5. Make sure your time-to-hire is as short as possible. Top performers don’t wait!
6. Identify your organization’s top performers and their positive traits.
7. Be prepared for an employee’s first day.
8. Hold all managers accountable for retaining your organization’s top performers.
9. Track turnover of top performers only.
10. Annually assess your employees’ training needs.
11. Include all employees in training and development.
12. Update job descriptions annually.
13. Take a look at your performance management system - is it designed to support top performance?
14. Make bereavement leave open-ended; paid leave for the loss of any loved one.
15. Coordinate an employee health fair every year. You might save a life.
16. Provide access to an Employee Assistance Program (a counseling service for employees and their eligible dependents who may be experiencing personal or workplace problems) for all employees.
17. Develop and communicate a Disaster Recovery and Response Program.
18. Provide safety training.
19. Provide flexible work arrangements for your top performers
20. Provide annual, written employee benefit statements to all your employees.
21. Use e-mail and fax signatures to promote your great workplace.
22. Develop and maintain a professional Online Career Center.
23. Employ at least one intern each year.
24. Promote your region as a great place to work and live.
25. Develop a lucrative employee referral program to support your recruitment efforts.
26. Communicate a written diversity policy/vision to your entire staff.
27. Over-communicate financial information, business strategy, marketing, and HR initiatives.
28. Recognize employees for outstanding community service and achievements.
29. Develop a written organizational compensation philosophy and share it with all employees.
30. Decide that your organization will only hire and retain top performers.
31. Pay top talent top pay
32. Survey top performers on why they came to work for you and why they stay.
33. Communicate with employees’ significant others about what’s going on at your workplace.
34. Provide employees with a healthy, safe, clean, and invigorating workplace.
35. Hire employees that you would trust with your children.
36. Consider having HR report directly to the CEO.
37. Share your passion for a great workplace and its benefits with your Board of Trustees.
38. Annually review your compensation structure for internal equity and external competitiveness.
39. Have policies for alcohol and drugs, discrimination, harassment, and workplace violence.
40. Recognize employees who provide “wow” performance.
41. Eliminate your Probationary Period Policy if you have one.
42. Making winning the NorthCoast 99 Award an annual corporate goal.
43. Share your mission statement and vision with all employees.
44. Ensure that even your top executives receive some sort of training annually.
45. Brand your organization as a great workplace.
46. Remember leadership is contagious, so infect someone today!
47. Recognize and reward employee risk taking.
48. Have employment policies that support the attraction and retention of top performers.
49. Don’t forget to celebrate success!
50. Know what you’re doing. Believe in what you’re doing. Love what you’re doing!

Where Great Links Start #3

Each week on Where Great Workplaces Start we’ll explore posts from other blogs that have current, useful information. If you have a blog to share or would like to recommend a news story that our readers should be seeing, please let us know. This week is a special NorthCoast 99 edition featuring links about building great workplaces. Here are this week’s links:

• What is a Great Workplace and why are top performers important?
• “Having Engaged Employees Pays Huge Dividends” on the Employee Factor
• “Green Habits at the Workplace” on Satisfying Career - Happier Life

And once again, don’t forget to apply for the 2008 NorthCoast 99 Award!