After submitting my resumé online, I received an email invitation to an open house, so I RSVP’ed to the event and prepared myself the best I could. I put on my ‘first date’ attire, grabbed a copy of my resumé and headed down to the I Love Rewards offices. Once I arrived at their swanky loft-style offices, I registered with staff at the front desk and was handed a time card based on the position that I had applied for. I was then offered a closet to hang my coat and ushered through to the main area where I would wait my turn to be ‘speed interviewed.’

The whole process was a great experience and more companies should adopt the open house recruiting concept; it is a win/win situation for both the hiring company and the candidate. As I Love Rewards founder and CEO Razor Suleman said in conversation with me, “We receive so many resumés that we can’t possibly go through them all, but by having an open house we eliminate the first round of applicants; if you can be bothered to get dressed and come out then that says something about you.”

On top of eliminating the first round of applicants, the process also allows many more benefits to both the company and candidate. Not only is the process seemingly cost-effective for the company, but it also allows for a second round of applicant elimination. By meeting candidates face-to-face it allows the company to weed out the overly fluffed resumés and potentially pick up on candidates that would otherwise have been put in the recycling bin.

For the candidate, benefits include: the ability to learn hands on about the company’s product or services, a feel for the company culture and the chance to interact with current employees.

Although standing in a room full of people competing for the same position can be somewhat intimidating, it can actually be quite beneficial. In speaking with other hopefuls, I was able not only to get a sense of where I thought I stood by comparison, but also gain insight into areas in which I could improve to surpass the competition and up my chances of getting hired.

There is also something strangely satisfying about attending an open house. As a job seeker, it can get very frustrating sending your resumé into what begins to feel like a vortex of nothingness. An open house can serve not only as recognition that someone has noticed you (something I Love Rewards knows all about), but can also give you the will to continue on in the job search once you hit the wall of frustration. It makes you realise that you’re not necessarily unqualified or being ignored, but that companies really do receive an awful lot of resumés.

While, ultimately, Leona’s audience is made up of her peers, she provided some valuable feedback from employers as well. Here are a few selections which on-campus recruiters might find valuable as they plan their next round of information sessions:

Last month, I went to an info session for a beverage company. I had already made plans to apply to the company and even scheduled two hours of my Saturday to write a cover letter and tailor my resumé.But once I got there, I realized the company’s session was not what I expected. The company emphasized its long hours and other negative aspects, which I don’t find attractive in a place of work.

Needless to say, I was thrown off. The friend who went with me was confused about the approach the company took because when she went to a competitor’s info session, she came out feeling very inspired.

At the end of this information session, we felt the opposite. This was one of the few times I bolted out of the session as fast as I could, not even bothering to stop and grab some of their free food for dinner.

That experience really highlighted the value of info sessions to me. It saved two hours of my Saturday, letting me catch up on watching Glee and finish my accounting homework.

To read the entire column, please see Confessions of a job hunter: My adventures in info sessions.

A large majority are also using direct application through employer websites (71.3%) and networking with friends, family and alumni connections (67.5%) to aid in their job hunt.

Of those who were employed within a month or so of graduating, however, the methods least used were job advertisements in print publications (9.2%) and employment agencies (3.2%).

These are just some of the findings published in the Dalhousie University Career Services Centre Destination Survey, Spring 2009. The survey went out for the first time to a mass number of graduates from May 14 to June 25, 2009.

Of those graduates were employed at the time of the survey, the largest number – about half (50.4%) – found their jobs by directly applying through an employer website. This number isn’t surprising, however, since most large employers require applicants to apply for openings by completing an application and/or uploading a resumé to the company’s applicant tracking system (ATS).

Many employed graduates also used job search websites (27.8%) and networking (33.8%) to ultimately find their first job.

As for when they made their career decisions, the findings of the survey showed no dominant time period.

An effective performance appraisal system is a cornerstone of successful business development. It is one of the best human resource solutions, which will help to align your team members’ activities with overall business goals and objectives. A formal performance appraisal system consisting of a position description listing key result areas and expected behaviour (critical competencies) will help managers to develop and get the best from team members.

A performance appraisal, which measures the same criteria mentioned in the position description, will help to provide a fair and equitable measurement method. The performance appraisal should include a self-appraisal, action plan and learning development plan. The following procedure will assist managers to confidently perform an effective performance review and help develop their employees and business.

1. Gather performance appraisal information

• Recall regular performance review outcomes
• Obtain job description
• Gather information from action/development plan
• Identify Key Result Areas and Competencies to measure
• Modify appraisal forms to include what is measured

2. Complete the forms

• Team member to complete all self appraisal forms
• Rate Key Result Areas and Critical Competencies
• Manager to complete all appraisal forms
• Manager to determine overall performance rating
• Complete action and development plan

3. Conduct appraisal interview

• Set date, time and venue with no interruptions
• Encourage open and honest discussion
• Have team member talk about their self appraisal
• Give specific feedback
• Discuss Key Result Area feedback with team member
• Discuss Critical Competencies with team member
• Discuss achievements/development opportunities
• Finalise, distribute and gain commitment
• Review job description for next period’s appraisal

4. Follow up meeting

• Check outcomes since performance appraisal
• Check progress of learning and development plan
• Identify commitment of team member to improve
• Take appropriate action

Businesses that see performance appraisals as a strategic method to develop employees benefit because the added competence further develops the organization’s capability, competitiveness and sustainability.

Being well prepared for a performance appraisal will help ensure its success, remembering if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

1. What we do. We help students and recent grads find meaningful jobs by bringing top Canadian companies on the site to advertise their entry-level jobs and internships, and we also produce and aggregate resources and content which help students and recent grads manage their job hunt, career and life. Essentially, we’re helping our friends, classmates and colleagues help themselves through a challenging transition.
2. Our awesome company culture. This information may not be as widespread as What we do, but those of us who work for TalentEgg take the opportunity to share it among our friends and family as often as possible:

• The average age of TalentEgg employees is 24, so we’re a tight-knit group of colleagues that are sometimes more like friends.
• We try to get around more traditional (and expensive) ways of doing business by being creative and tech-savvy.
• Everything each of does on a daily basis has a huge impact on What we do and how successful we are at doing it.
• Flexibility: I played in a softball league last summer and was allowed to leave very early every Thursday to attend the games. This year, I worked from home for four and a half months until I was able to move back to Toronto. One of my colleagues skips lunch every day so he can leave at 4 p.m. instead of 5. Our last intern was able to miss two days of work on short notice to attend a conference she got a free ticket to. Ultimately, these simple allowances give us every reason to love our boss and the company instead of resent them.
• We close up shop early on Friday afternoons to sit in our office and talk about what happened that week and what’s coming up in the weeks ahead … over beer. Just one beer each and half-an-hour to an hour of positive, business-related conversation which we all contribute to is enough for us to leave the office every Friday pumped about the work we do.

I know this all sounds a bit like an ad for TalentEgg or something, but I started thinking about why my colleagues and I think this is a great place to start or further our careers after reading this article from Fast Company: How Do You Attract and Retain Generation Y? Learn From Google, Intuit and Disney by Bea Fields. Although the top of the article contains all the typical Gen Y jargon, the bottom lists 10 companies which do really cool things aside from their business to attract and retain young employees.

What I took away from the article is that employers don’t have to do everything under the sun to attract young workers like my colleagues and me. TalentEgg doesn’t have the resources to offer the same perks as, say, Google; but it works with what it has to keep its employees happy. And if a company as small and as new as TalentEgg can do that, any company should be able to do the same.

With the exception of Google, each company on Fields’ list focuses on one thing:

• Intuit engages workers by rotating them between departments
• Disney creates raving fans through its renowned internship program
• Deloitte and Touche offers a state-of-the-art coaching and mentoring program
• Nike headquarters sits on acres of land which also contains a fitness centre, playing fields and running trails

Check out the full list to read up on what perks and opportunities the other five companies offer their current and future employees.

During frosh week, social sciences and humanities students were taunted by the engineers, who called out, “Spatula!” Meaning: we didn’t have any career options after university and were destined to work a low-wage fast food job.

Humanities students were specifically targeted with “A-B-C-D-E-F-G. H-I-J-K. L-M-N-O-P. Q-R-S. TU-V. W-X-Y-Z. Now I know my ABCs, so I can pass the humanities,” implying humanities courses are easy.

At the time, I just assumed this was a way for the engineering reps to promote faculty pride in their first year students, and this attitude wasn’t present throughout the rest of the institution.

However, it appears that was only wishful thinking: in the last few years, the humanities and social sciences have faced many budget cuts in instructors, number of classes offered and resources available, and I know that this is not unique to my school.

Once I completed a few years of school, I thought going to a career fair would be a good way for me to decide what I could do with my degree in the future. Not being in health sciences, engineering or business, meant few employers were interested in my degree.

I attempted to talk to a few different companies and was turned away when I told them I was in a combined humanities/social science program. I didn’t approach other groups because they had no information for students in more than one faculty. Quite frankly, the whole thing was a complete waste of my time, and I felt very frustrated and disappointed.

Does it mean those engineers were right, or do career fairs need to be re-worked in order to support the diversity of educational options out there?

I’m hoping for the latter. I was told to never to judge a book by its cover and, as an English major, that advice seems almost too fitting.

If your company is attending a career fair at a university or college, remember there will be students from all kinds of academic programs there and, as a result, students with a variety of different experiences, both in terms of education as well as employment.

Just because a student isn’t in a certain degree program does not mean they aren’t qualified for a job in your company. For example, I have experience in HR, public relations, marketing and management, which is something you wouldn’t know if you only look at what program I’m in.

Sure, if you’re part of an architecture firm you’re primarily going to want to hire architects or engineers. But if someone from another program comes to your table, you do not have to turn them away. Every company has multiple departments that need a variety of employees with different kinds of work and education experience, and your company should be no exception to this.

You attend career fairs to entice students, not to deter them. And just because your company doesn’t have anything to offer one student, it doesn’t mean the same student can’t pass on information about your company to a friend or two.

This is one of the fundamental problems of the typical event booth and the most common reason why students are so often disappointed by what they find at career fairs and information sessions. It’s the reason we ask employers to get feedback from their newest hires on their company profiles on TalentEgg.

As we suggested last week, more and more young people are choosing entrepreneurship as a career option. This is due in part to Gen Y’s inherent skepticism of large companies. There have been so many corporate scandals in our lifetimes, it’s only fair that we are cautious of whose hands we put their futures in.

When a student comes to a recruiting event and visits a booth, they want to find out what they can expect from their future employer in terms of day-to-day activities, but also about the culture, the on-boarding activities, the make-up of the teams, etc.

They want to talk to someone who is actually doing want they want to do. They don’t want to talk to a recruiter. (Sorry guys!)

They want to make their own decisions based on the information they’ve gathered, not be sold on something. Ideally, they should be able to gather this information during a casual conversation with a peer – someone who has been where they are in the past few years or so.

A handful of your newest hires would probably be more than happy to spend the day telling students how awesome it is to work for your company. Identify “raving fans” (hopefully everyone is a raving fan!) and let them sell your company for you. Honesty and transparency go a long way with today’s students and new grads.

This isn’t surprising considering Gen Y’s tendency to think of work and life as one in the same. An ordinary job equals an ordinary life which has no affect on the bigger picture, whether that bigger picture is within a department, an organization, a culture or our now-global society.

So, cookie-cutter jobs aren’t usually of interest to Gen Y. We’ve been able to customize almost every aspect of our lives since we were born, so it’s tough to step into roles in which there is virtually zero flexibility for personal customization. Suddenly we have to change ourselves to fit into business hours, a cubicle environment, a corporate culture, a dress code, etc.

According to a 2008 survey reported in the Wall Street Journal,

Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine. Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds. And 70% of today’s high schoolers intend to start their own companies . . .

Obviously our interest in personalization and customization has resulted in a generation of entrepreneurs who, if they don’t want to start their own business, at least want to make a meaningful and very personal contribution to the business they work for. It’s not about fame or glory or (that infamous Gen Y word) entitlement, it’s just the way our brains work.

Speaking from personal experience as an employee of a small company started by a young entrepreneur, I can say my work here has been infinitely more rewarding than the work I’ve done for giant corporations. My peers who work desk jobs pushing paper in traditional environments are more often than not bored out of their skulls, numbed by the monotony of their jobs. They are surprised at and envious of my experiences.

And almost every single person I’ve talked to would rather work for a small business than a corporate giant.

I’m not sure where this leaves large companies, but I think it probably means they have to change some aspects of their prevailing culture in order to become more appealing to Gen Y workers, especially in the face of an upcoming labour shortage. During the recession, small businesses are hiring and training  young workers while large corporations institute hiring freezes.

Here’s an overview of the survey:

Respondents’ Top 4 positive factors were all related to being able to track their applications’ progress and the ability to come back to it at a later time to finish. Particularly for long applications (which were not favoured by they respondents), an applicant may not have the time to fill it all out in one sitting.

A large proportion of students mentioned the following four positive aspects:

• Speed
• Convenience/cost-effectiveness
• Fairness
• Presentation

However, “many systems in use continue to prove problematic in some very basic ways.” The Top 3 factors which hindered respondents’ experiences with ATSs included application length, website navigation and system speed.

Respondents were also concerned about the ability to accurately judge their suitability for a job based solely on what they write in an online application – “that the successful candidate was getting through based upon their writing skills as opposed to personality,” suggesting many respondents were not getting past the online application stage.

A top priority of respondents was an application system that is “easy to find” and clearly labelled on a site specifically designed with students and new grads in mind. Also, the authors of the survey report say they “were surprised by the volume of respondents still asking for systems that do not crash,” indicating many applications are still suffering from simple technical issues.

The survey also found there was demand for more information about the process, such as feedback on their application or simply stating how long it typically takes recruiters to hire for a position so the applicant isn’t waiting on edge for a response.

According to the survey, employers most regularly rated as having the best or second-to-best ATS were:

Deloitte (got the most mentions)

Ernst & Young

Procter & Gamble

NHS (in various guises)

KPMG

IBM

PwC

Marks & Spencer

Boots

Barclays

Civil Service

RBS

Sainsburys

Allen & Overy

Lloyds TSB

GTI recruiting solutions offered the following suggestions to employers for their own ATS:

• Test the system thoroughly before launch
• Keep it simple
• Make sure it can be completed in a reasonable length of time
• Think carefully about all the issues that really annoy users
• Respond promptly and sensitively to submitted forms

A recent Financial Post article says Google “has become a major recruiter of engineering and computer science graduates from Canadian universities.” (Is Google good for Canada? by Matt Hartley and Jamie Sturgeon, Financial Post)

That’s no surprise considering Google is near the top of nearly every techie’s career wish list and Canada – Waterloo in particular – is training some of the world’s most innovative young minds. Whether it was done with recruiting in mind or not, expanding business along a corridor with dozens of universities and colleges will help set them apart from other international businesses and help them compete better with local businesses also recruiting at those schools.

Here’s why:

Local connections: Google employees now live in those communities and potentially attend events held at the school. Many are probably alumni of those schools. They will share their experiences working for Google and explain the company’s culture in a genuine way that even the best campus recruiters can’t hope to achieve. The company can develop lasting relationships with professors and school administrators.

Tangibility: The company now fits into the students’ current lives. They may see it as they move around their city and they can assess whether they’d enjoy living and working in that location once they’re done school. They might even drop by the office for a tour or a job shadowing session. Top candidates eliminate attractive entry-level roles all the time because the roles aren’t located where they want to live – even moving to another city within Canada can be a terrifying prospect, never mind another country.

Work-life balance: This is related to location: young people often want to live near to their friends and family. After all, work-life balance, friends and family are often the top priorities of Generation Y. Many put their careers on hold until they can find a suitable position with the amenities they want in the location they have to live.

But what if you’re not Google?

Most companies obviously cannot expand their operations to the cities which produce the most or the best potential employees in your industry. But you can take advantage of and focus on the resources near you by:

• developing local connections
• appealing to Gen Y’s desire to know everything about a company before they sign on the dotted line
• providing the work-life balance local students and new grads will desire – post-secondary education becomes more expensive every year and many students choose to live at home to avoid accumulating debt