Recruitment

Organisations are being deluged with applications for each and every vacancy. But that doesn't make it any easier to hire the right person. In fact it often makes it harder.

A new recruit can seem like a breath of fresh air but, if you're not careful, they can also bring all their previous bad habits and quirks into your workplace.

Most managers would prefer to stick with someone they know, even if they are a pain to manage or not pulling their weight, rather than start over and hire a new face.

With managers admitting that half their hiring decisions are a mistake, perhaps it's no wonder that so many jobs go downhill so quickly.

Identifying big company executives who can achieve success with a start-up can be tough. Many star players at big companies wilt in a small company where they have finite resources and little or no supporting infrastructure.

A job interview can be an intimidating experience from beginning to end. While most of the questions you're likely to be asked are relatively straightforward, one that seems deceptively simple can be the hardest to answer. That question is "Why should I hire you?".

In the global business world it makes sense to recruit internationally-focused executives and leaders. So why do only a fifth of British employers agree?

Even for senior managers, a company's reputation is almost as important as the amount of money they are offering when it comes to deciding whether or not to accept a job.

Shoe manufacturer Zappos has a reputation for treating their employees well. They also have a unique policy for new hires. They pay them to quit.

With the employment market looking tougher by the day, nearly half of American students graduating from college this summer expect to have to fight tooth and nail to land a job.

Three quarters of execs looking for jobs in America are reporting a slowdown in the number of interviews coming their way - a clear sign the downturn is reaching right to the top.

Fewer than a fifth of American chief financial officers are optimistic the U.S will escape a recession, and the deepening downturn is prompting them to cut back on spending and hiring and start laying workers off.

Traditionally, experience and expertise have tended to trump talent. But in today's work environment, aptitude for a particular type of work may be more important. But how do you decide the balance between the two?

If you're serious about getting to the top of the corporate ladder, the chances are that somewhere along the way you're going to need the services of a head-hunter.

Just because the pessimists are predicting the U.S. economy is all set to hit the buffers doesn't mean that senior level executive jobs are drying up. Far from it, in fact.

It is not only the dark clouds of global recession keeping senior managers awake at night. The chronic lack of talent coming through at the top is becoming an ever more pressing concern.

Accurate job descriptions are like stealth secret weapons for hiring, training, and retaining great employees. I guarantee whatever effort you put forth will save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.

It's not rocket science. When employees are deciding whether or not to take a new job, being able to work flexibly or remotely will often swing the balance. But try telling that to HR.

The credit crunch is beginning to cast its shadow over the jobs market, with the number of Britons placed in permanent jobs growing at its slowest rate for more than a year.

As with most of life, there are two perspectives around employers tapping into social networking sites to check out current or potential employees.

Firms that tap into Facebook to check out employees risk a backlash if they are found out, with nearly half of workers saying they would be outraged if they found they were being "cyber vetted".

It's not only Northern Rock investors in the UK who should be worried about the global crunch on credit. Defaulting on a loan, mortgage or credit card can also seriously harm your chances of landing a new job.

The granting of stock remains one of corporate America's most powerful financial thank-yous, with some executive teams now owning as much as eight per cent of the company.

A new method of predicting who is likely to succeed in a managerial role and who is likely to fail could herald a revolution in the way that organizations recruit and groom the managers of the future.

Employers around the world are facing a talent crisis in their finance departments, yet many chief finance officers are too busy studying their spreadsheets to have worked out what to do about it.

The days of being grateful for what you are offered by an employer are long gone. Today, talented workers are prepared to ask for big bucks to take up a job offer.

Many organizations are fatally undermining their recruitment and retention efforts because inept or downright rude interviewers are making a negative first impression with job seekers.

British firms are throwing more money than ever into recruitment as the struggle to find, recruit and retain talented workers gets tougher by the month.

With the number of people in employment in the U.S. surging after big declines earlier this year, new figures suggest that the top end of the jobs market is also booming.

Recruitment, rather than business strategy or management, is now the number one problem for half of UK companies.

As efforts to find and hang on to suitable employees become increasingly desperate, a third of British businesses now offer "golden hellos" to new managers, double the number of 12 months ago.

Three quarters of British firms are unable to fill key positions because there simply are not enough people with the right skills to go around, with employers in London feeling the squeeze the hardest.

Image and presentation are such important factors in business these days that it's becoming increasingly difficult to rationalise the trade off between the Butt-Ugly but Brilliant manger and those who are just Self-Absorbed Dimwits.

Employers could save themselves a fortune in recruitment costs if they did more to encourage and reward their existing employees to exploit their social networks and refer people they know for jobs.

Four out of 10 employers across the world are finding it more difficult to fill job vacancies this year, with sales people, skilled manual trades and technicians in particularly short supply.

The war for talent around the world is getting worse, with managers forced to "sell" jobs to scarce candidates to get them on board, only to find that nearly a third will leave for a better offer within six months.

Despite the importance of an effective sales team to the bottom line, many companies in the U.S. are not adequately investing in the recruiting, hiring or training of this most vital of assets.

British bosses are pouring money into recruiting new talent but have little idea whether the cash is being well spent, and when things go wrong their answer is simply to throw yet more money at the problem.

It's quite simple: American workers want their company benefits programme to look after them when they fall ill and when they retire. But more often they not, they feel let down and frustrated at how little help and support their company is offering.

For all the talk about the importance of employer brands and the difficulty in attracting talented staff, the depressing reality is that a quarter of job seekers believe that they have been badly treated by a prospective employer.

Ignoring new recruits is dumb. It sounds obvious, but a new study has found real failings in how companies hire, orientate and integrate their new employees.

Skilled IT managers are now in such short supply in the U.S that employers are finding it can often take up three months to fill a vacant position.

European organisations are going to find recruiting the right staff a struggle in 2007, with the situation being made worse by a major gulf between the expectations of employers and those of job seekers.

U.S workers feel over-worked, unappreciated and underpaid, but for those thinking of looking for pastures new as a result, be prepared to be up against at least 50 other workers.

With U.S. employers hiring more than 150,000 additional staff in December, all the signs are that strong overall employment growth is having a significant impact on higher-end jobs paying in excess of $100,000.

January is traditionally one of the most popular times to move jobs, and this year looks like it will be no exception, with nearly half of British employers saying they plan to hire new workers in the coming months

Hiring someone simply because they are "family" has traditionally been considered bad business sense, but may actually have its benefits, particularly for smaller businesses.

With retention problems growing and four out of 10 U.S. hiring managers expecting to increase their headcounts, the new year looks like bringing with it bigger paychecks, more opportunities for promotion and a greater sensitivity to work-life balance issues.

India's booming economy means that the rampant war for talent has become so fierce that some companies are now offering new recruits stock options from day one.

The past decade has seen a huge growth in the number of people, particularly women, being appointed into relatively well-paid, managerial or semi-professional jobs.

A deep-seated lack of commitment from senior managers to developing and nurturing talent is potentially costing British businesses millions of pounds a year.

Better use of work placements could save millions of us from ending up in the wrong jobs, improving productivity and slashing the annual bill for hiring and firing.

Half the recruiters who use the web to research job candidates have changed their minds about a hiring somebody based on what they have found out about them online.

Talent shortages among skilled professional workers are spreading across the world, leaving gaps in many organisations and forcing employers to pay higher salaries, a new global survey has revealed.

Such is the demand for top staff in the City of London that investment banks are prepared to buy out the huge annual bonuses of top performers they want to poach from rivals.

More than half of American hiring managers say they have caught out someone lying on their resume, with the vast majority marching that employee swiftly to the exit.

International recruitment outfit, Robert Walters, has issued a blanket ban on using a whole raft of words and phrases in any of its recruitment ads for fear of falling foul of the UK's increasingly foolish-looking new legislation designed to combat age discrimination.

City financial firms are increasingly looking abroad to hire new recruits because foreign university graduates are felt to be more mature than their British counterparts.

Short-sighted hiring practices are meaning that U.S companies are shooting themselves in the feet when it comes to attracting talented staff.

Just in time for back-to-school, the number of interns being hired by U.S companies is rising sharply, according to a new poll, with nearly half of firms expecting to be on the look-out for student talent this year.