These days, it seems everyone from your 12-year-old niece to your Great Aunt Jayne has a Facebook page chock-full of information you may (or may not) want to know—everyone, including all those candidates who sent you a résumé for your latest job posting.

With so much personal information readily available on social networking sites, it’s tempting for you, the recruiter, to use these sites as tools to screen applicants.  In fact, Microsoft recently commissioned research that shows 79 percent of you already look at applicants’ online information.  Screening candidates’ Facebook pages can help you learn more about how those candidates operate, professionally and personally. Screening can also provide answers to questions that would be illegal to ask in an interview.

It’s true online information can help you learn more about a candidate’s personal life, but it can also present an ethical dilemma.  What if a candidate’s Facebook page showed photos from a wild party or pictures of an emerging baby belly?  Would this knowledge prevent a job offer, even if that decision were based on a candidate’s typically off-limits personal life?  According to Microsoft’s study, 84 percent of recruiters think it’s appropriate to consider personal information posted online, while only 40 percent of job seekers think it’s at least somewhat appropriate to review candidates’ online photos and videos.

Appropriate or not, the truth is, once a candidate’s personal information makes its way into a recruiter’s head, it doesn’t find its way out.  Microsoft’s research shows 79 percent of recruiters have used online personal information to reject a candidate—a sharp contrast to the 7 percent of candidates who believe their online information impacted their job search.  Realistically, if a recruiter is shown two identical candidates, the candidate without the damning Facebook evidence will earn the job offer.

However, recruiters must be careful to avoid discrimination lawsuits when using Facebook to screen candidates.  Just as interview questions must focus on a candidate’s ability to perform relevant job duties, Facebook screening should focus on the same.  Unfortunately, there is no way to ensure information learned from a candidate’s Facebook page will be relevant to the position.  Should a rejected candidate choose to file a discrimination lawsuit, it’s important to be able to prove the candidate was objectively rejected for job-related reasons other than the personal information posted on Facebook.

The bottom line: When reviewing social networking sites, use common sense and defensible decision-making to accept or reject applicants.

Good news, job seekers: October marked the tenth consecutive month of increased hiring in the private sector.  October’s addition of 159,000 net new private sector jobs indicated the highest increase of any month since April.  Could this mean businesses are moving past the hiring slump?

Only a few employment sectors benefited from October’s new jobs. Education and health led the pack with 53,000 new positions, followed by temporary agencies with 34,900, retailers with 27,900, and bars and restaurants, which hired 24,400 new workers.  Construction businesses also added a small number of jobs.  On the other hand, the manufacturing industry cut 7,000 positions.  The public sector also continued to cut jobs in October, by 8,000 workers.

On the brighter side, workers in every employment sector enjoyed small but important gains.  The number of hours in the work week enjoyed a modest increase to 34.3 hours, and average paychecks gained a few percentage points to settle at $780 per week.

Despite all the positive additions, the unemployment rate for October remained steady at 9.6 percent.  Of the 14.8 million unemployed Americans, 6.2 million have been out of work for six months or more.  Nearly two million new jobs have been added in 2010, but that recovery represents only a fraction of the eight million jobs lost in 2008 and 2009.  To merely sustain population growth, up to 150,000 net new jobs must be added each month.

Although October’s job gains are modest, they’re a good sign that the economy is slowly improving.  Every extra dollar in people’s pockets means more money to infuse into and revitalize the economy. That’s news every American can appreciate!

Via Yahoo! News

It’s usually very clear why a company would invest in hiring an excellent law or accounting firm to represent their interests.  These two industries offer services that save their clients countless amounts of money annually. Business owners easily see the intrinsic value of investing in these firms, yet often have a hard time seeing the benefits of investing in their company’s human resources.

Recruitment Services: Attract Better Talent

It is necessary for a firm to identify the skill set that they are seeking in a potential employee in order to target their search appropriately.  An empowered Human Resources team is able to clearly identify their firm’s hiring needs and is less limited in the tools available when seeking out the best ways to fill those positions.  In the long run, better hiring practices will bring better employees.

Employee/Labor Relations: Minimize Employee Turnover

Maintaining high levels of job satisfaction amongst staff is the key to keeping long-term employees, especially in this tumultuous economy.  By investing in Human Resources, companies are able to stay on the leading edge of benefits; employees can trust that their employer cares about their health and happiness, adding to their overall opinion of their workplace.

Human Resources Management: Increase Productivity

By identifying and targeting productivity goals, firms are able to set realistic expectations for growth and monitor progress over time.  Additionally, maintaining long-term staff allows for growth and development within a position, allowing employees to bring more beneficial skill sets to the table and positively impact their work environment.

By putting these ideas into practice with Human Resources Outsourcing, companies are able to focus directly on the task at hand and become more productive and thus, more profitable. What would your company be capable of accomplishing if you streamlined your operations through HR Outsourcing?

Companies invest a lot of time, money and energy sending recruiters to job fairs conducted all over the world. However many employers are finding they are leaving empty handed, frustrated and without the qualified employees they were seeking.

Although job fairs are not completely unsuccessful, many companies realize that the resumes they collect at such events are far below the standards they were originally searching for. The fact remains that most employers are just not willing to settle, especially in an economy ripe with individuals seeking employment.

Top Reasons Why Job Fairs Fail to Find Talent:

• Low Caliber of Attendees
• Poor Turnout
• Disorganization
• Lack of Strong Candidates
• Insufficient Promotional Efforts

The failure of companies to effectively find strong candidates at job fairs is one of the major reasons they are turning to professional employment organizations as an alternative. By utilizing the staffing and recruiting services of human resourcing outsourcing specialists companies are finding talented employees when they need them. A PEO will provide the expertise to handle recruiting, pre-screening, position placement, training and even HR management.

Top Reasons Why Human Resources Outsourcing Works To Find Talent:

• Large Inventory of Candidates
• Thorough Pre-Screening Procedures
• Highly Skilled
• Invaluable Referrals
• Flexibility

By choosing human resources outsourcing over a job fair for finding talented employees companies can rely on the expert recruitment services of a professional team of HR specialists to assess each candidate ensuring the right fit for employers while saving them both time and money.

Many businesses are finding they need a work force with specific skills but do not want to take on the expense of hiring full time employees. Human resource outsourcing provides an alternative solution for businesses looking to control costs while  avoiding the added burdens of paying out employee benefits packages and managing the additional personnel.

When a company hires a Professional Employment Organization (PEO) they can rely on their expertise in recruiting highly qualified applicants and effectively managing them once they are hired.

More and more businesses are benefiting by hiring a PEO to handle their human resources. Not only are they better able to spend more of their valuable time and energy on their core business, but it also allows them to expand and elevate productivity without the additional responsibilities of payroll, workers compensation, tax deposits and government compliance.

The most commonly outsourced jobs include the following:

• Call Centers
• Accounting
• IT Consultant
• Product Design
• Financial Research
• Website Development
• Software Sector
• Medical Transcription

A Professional Employment Organization will also manage the following:

• Employee/Labor Relations
• Employee Leasing
• HR Audits
• Recruitment Services
• Safety and Worker’s Compensation
• Other Related Personnel Issues

HR outsourcing provides businesses with employees who have the specific skill sets they need along with an experienced management team to carry out the many HR functions required to sustain an employee.

Global Human Resources Outsourcing understands that every company deserves the opportunity to have well qualified personnel working for them and they provide the perfect solution to bring businesses together with experienced employees while reducing the costs of managing them.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has created a new webpage to assist employers with questions on the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, recently enacted legislation that provides tax breaks to employers that hire and retain new employees in 2010.The “HIRE Act: Questions and Answers for Employers” page provides frequently asked questions and answers broken down by two major categories: the payroll tax exemption for hiring qualified workers and the business credit for retention of certain newly hired individuals in 2010. Sub-categories on the payroll tax exemption include FAQs about the payroll tax exemption and qualified employers; qualified employees; and claiming the payroll exemption. A menu of the questions and answers is available on the IRS website.

Also see BLR’s previous coverage of the HIRE Act.

Publication: Business Wire

IRVINE, Calif. — GHRO Total Solutions, a Human Resources Outsourcing firm and PEO, announced this week the appointment of Brandon Carl as our new Business Development Manager. Brandon has been involved in the sales and development of PEO’s for the past five years and GHRO is very pleased to have Brandon join our company. Brandon’s unique knowledge of the PEO field makes him uniquely suited to lead our Business Development effort.

Before joining GHRO Total Solutions Brandon achieved great success in the PEO market by exceeding sales goals and expectations from his years with Administaff and Paychex. In his sales roles at these two fierce competitors, Brandon was able to outsell and outperform even the most seasoned and experienced sales professionals. Brandon is truly a wonderful addition to the GHRO team.

Mr. Carl received his B.A. degree in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. Prior to UCI, Brandon also attended Santiago Canyon College where he held the role of Student Senator for two semesters. Brandon also greatly contributed to raising more than $300 million dollars for school expansion while attending SCC. Brandon believes in philanthropy and as such volunteers with the Big Brothers Big Sisters Orange County chapter as a Board of Directors Planning Committee; he donates his time to the Discovery Science Center, the Orange County Rehab Center, and the Isaak Walton League of America and attends the Crystal Cathedral Church. Networking is important to Brandon as he serves on the Board of Directors for Southern California Venture Network and is a part of their planning. Brandon has been married for only one year and is happily planning his future family with his wife, Lisa, in Irvine, Calif.

About GHRO Total Solutions

Human Resources can be complex. See how easy it can be with GHRO. Your Trusted PEO.

As a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) GHRO Total Solutions provides integrated services designed to streamline the cost and complexities of HR management, employee benefits, payroll, Workers’ Compensation and more. We offer this through a unique and seamless co-employment model that provides the benefits of a highly staffed HR team, without the overhead costs. Call GHRO at (888) 308-0338 or (949) 797-2001 or check out our website at http://www.ghrogroup.com.

This is the last in a seven part series which examines how human resources

can improve business owner wealth accumulation and shareholder value. In

the previous articles I asked the question:

To read the rest of this article click here: why-human-resources-anyway-part-7

This is the sixth in a seven part series which examines how human resources

can improve business owner wealth accumulation and shareholder value. In

the previous articles I asked the question:

To read the rest of this article click here: why-human-resources-anyway-part-6

This is the fifth in a seven part series which examines how human resources

can improve business owner wealth accumulation and shareholder value. In

the previous articles I asked the question:

To read the rest of the article click here: why-human-resources-anyway-part-5