GSETA

Friday Link Round-Up

2009-10-23T04:11:20-07:00

Let's see what's in store with this week's roundup of links:

Susan Ireland's Top 24 LinkedIn Groups for Job Search--the title says it all.

WeTooArizona--Arizona workforce agencies are creating their own online social network through a WIRED grant. You can check out the projects they're working on by visiting the site.

500 People Apply for a $13/Hour Job--What happens when a company posts an administrative assistant position in this economy? Over 500 applicants by the next morning.

Microsoft Tips and Tricks for WFD Staff--How to do advanced search/replace, open password-protected documents and some keyboard shortcuts that can save a little time.

7 Ways to Get a Hiring Manager's Name--although in today's economy, you might just annoy the hiring manager if she's already being inundated with people who got past the receptionist.

What Does it Meant to be "Untouchable" in Today's Economy?

2009-10-21T05:20:03-07:00

Thomas Friedman has an interesting Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times in which he argues that our current recession, while torched by the financial crisis continues to burn because of our educational crisis:

"Our education failure is the largest contributing factor to the decline of the American worker’s global competitiveness, particularly at the middle and bottom ranges,” argued Martin, a former global executive with PepsiCo and Kraft Europe and now an international investor. “This loss of competitiveness has weakened the American worker’s production of wealth, precisely when technology brought global competition much closer to home. So over a decade, American workers have maintained their standard of living by borrowing and overconsuming vis-à-vis their real income. When the Great Recession wiped out all the credit and asset bubbles that made that overconsumption possible, it left too many American workers not only deeper in debt than ever, but out of a job and lacking the skills to compete globally.”

Friedman goes on to point out that in a global economy, "average" workers won't be able to make it:

Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait. Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables — to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies — will thrive. Therefore, we not only need a higher percentage of our kids graduating from high school and college — more education — but we need more of them with the right education.
As the Harvard University labor expert Lawrence Katz explains it: “If you think about the labor market today, the top half of the college market, those with the high-end analytical and problem-solving skills who can compete on the world market or game the financial system or deal with new government regulations, have done great. But the bottom half of the top, those engineers and programmers working on more routine tasks and not actively engaged in developing new ideas or recombining existing technologies or thinking about what new customers want, have done poorly. They’ve been much more exposed to global competitors that make them easily substitutable.”

Argues Friedman, workers who have the skills and education to make their occupations less routine and more valuable are the ones who will succeed in a shifting economy.

Just being an average accountant, lawyer, contractor or assembly-line worker is not the ticket it used to be. As Daniel Pink, the author of “A Whole New Mind,” puts it: In a world in which more and more average work can be done by a computer, robot or talented foreigner faster, cheaper “and just as well,” vanilla doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s all about what chocolate sauce, whipped cream and cherry you can put on top. So our schools have a doubly hard task now — not just improving reading, writing and arithmetic but entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity.

Given these changes, how is your WIB and One Stop supporting this shift? What are you doing as a staff person to obtain the professional development and skills that will keep you marketable in a transformed economy?

Friday Link Round Up--The Nor'Easter Edition

2009-10-16T03:34:15-07:00

Temps in the 30s and 40s and lots of rain and it's only October! What a beautiful Friday for some links . . . and some hot chocolate:

The Lost Generation--Business Week has a heartily depressing article on what the recession is doing to young people. This is critical for WIBs to read as they plan for the future. Some key quotes:

Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder.
Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago.
For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of "lost generation." Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.
Equally important, employers are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation. The freshness and vitality young people bring to the workplace is missing. Tomorrow's would-be star employees are on the sidelines, deprived of experience and losing motivation. In Japan, which has been down this road since the early 1990s, workers who started their careers a decade or more ago and are now in their 30s account for 6 in 10 reported cases of depression, stress, and work-related mental disabilities, according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development.

Creating a Social Media Listening Dashboard (to find out what people are saying about you)--recorded webinar and wiki page full of resources on how to find out what's being said about your organization, programs, services and trends on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, etc. And if you want to get REALLY technical, here's a very detailed article on how to set up a spreadsheet-based listening post.

Brand Yourself.com Tutorial--A video tutorial on how to use BrandYourself.com.

10 Killer Content Sources for Your iPod Learning Mix--Make that iPod do some learning work for you.

Online Adolescent Literacy Panel--You can join this October 19 Elluminate session online to interact with the team at The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the members from the TIme to Act Adolescent Literacy Panel for a discussion of their groundbreaking report set to shape the upcoming agenda for literacy reform and initiatives.

Friday Link Round Up: National Disability Employment Awareness Month

2009-10-09T06:18:47-07:00

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

As reported by Cornell University's Employment and Disability Institute, the 2008 population survey showed that only 17.6% of men and women who have a condition that limits their ability to work are in fact employed. In an already difficult labor market, this puts individuals with disabilities at an even greater disadvantage when they seek employment. In addition, as the population ages, the number of people with a disability in the workforce is expected to rise substantially.

In recognition and support of National Disability Employment Awareness month, this week's link round-up focuses on resources and information for staff to assist individuals with disabilities.

NTAR Leadership Center--This site is packed with podcasts, webinars and other resources and tools.

NCWD Youth--Devoted to the special needs of youth with disabilities. Be sure to check out the Professional Development area.

Disability and Employment Community of Practice--This site is relatively new, but aims to provide connections to best practices and other materials that have resulted from the Disability Program Navigators program.

START UP USA--Resources for individuals with disabilities to pursue self-employment.

Online Disability Awareness Training--Learn about basic disability facts, barriers and accessibility, strategies for inclusion, insights from the disability community and ways to take action through this series of 5 self-paced modules. An excellent tool for orienting WIB Disabilities Issues Committee members and One Stop staff to the basic issues facing individuals with disabilities in employment. Also check out the Employer Resources section for information on the ADA and tax credits.

Diversity World's Employment Resources for Specific Disabilities--Resources for everything from ADD to Traumatic Brain Injury.

Webcasts from the Job Accommodation Network (JAN)--Archived webcasts on a variety of issues, including accommodations for people with hidden disabilities, such as learning and mental health issues.

Issue Lab: Close-up on Disability and Employment--An excellent collection of tools and information, including a podcast with Kathy Krepcio, executive director at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University about communicating research most effectively; Lucy Baker, executive director at the Oregon Business Leadership Network about connecting businesses with research and resources about people with disabilities; and, Lisa Dworkin, Director of Vocational and Training services at Little City Foundation about how research figures into the day-to-day work of someone who connects people with disabilities with employment.

Disability 411: The Podcast for Disability Information--an excellent repository of over 60 podcasts.

Heath Resource Center--The HEATH Resource Center is an online clearinghouse on postsecondary education for individuals with disabilities. The Clearinghouse has information for students with disabilities on educational disability support services, policies, procedures, adaptations, accessing college or university campuses, career-technical schools, and other postsecondary training entities.

Nondisc riminatory Job Interview and Job Analysis Training--Free online modules for conducting job interviews and job analysis in accordance with the ADA. Good info for employers and for One Stop staff.

Reaching Out to Customers with Disabilities--an online course for business that is also applicable to One Stops.

Access for All: A Resource for Meeting the Needs of One Stop Customers with Disabilities--This manual by the Institute for Community Inclusion serves as a training and staff development tool for enhancing the ability of One-Stop Systems to meet the needs of customers with disabilities, and also as a reference work for ongoing use in serving people with disabilities.

I dentifying and Serving Customers with Hidden Disabilities in Our One Stop Centers--Many disabilities, such as cognitive functions and chronic disease, are “hidden” that is they are not readily apparent. Counselors need to know what these disabilities and how to relate to these individuals. This presentation by CLM Connection in Ocala FL provides an overview of the issues and practical advice on how to identify and serve these individuals.

Serving Workers with Disabilities--Learn about specific techniques implemented in the State of Massachusetts to encourage One-Stop Career Centers to assist people with disabilities, including people with psychiatric disabilities, obtain and retain quality employment opportunities. Also hear about a variety of effective and practical practices under the disability program navigator program, where partnerships are enabling leveraged resources and providing quality services to business and to customers with disabilities.
Webinar on Serving Veterans with Disabilities in the One Stop Center--good info in this recorded webinar.
Disclosure of Disability Information at a One Stop Career Center: Tips and Guidelines--a fact sheet for job seekers that would be appropriate to share during Orientation and in Resource areas.

Free Leadership Training Resources

2009-10-08T07:58:19-07:00

Whether you're looking for leadership resources to use with youth programs, for job seekers or for staff, the Internet has you covered. And all for FREE.

10 Great Leadership Video sites (via Great Leadership)

1. The Washington Post’s “On Leadership” videos
Well over a hundred good interviews with private and public sector leaders; about 4-6 minutes in length each.

2. The Wall Street Journal’s Lesson’s in Leadership
Similar to the Post’s platform, although many are less than 2 minutes.

3. BNETs’ videos
More of a “how to” collection, by trainers and consultants.

4. The Marshall Goldsmith Library Athena Online SmartBytes
While Athena is a fee based site, Marshall offers up his for free. Great for coaching!

5. Success Television
Hosted on YouTube, a lot of personal development, with some leadership.

6. American Express’s Open Forum
For business owners, lot’s of cutting edge expert interviews.

7. Harvard Business Review on YouTube
No need to spend $50,000 for a Harvard MBA… you can watch their star faculty for free!

8. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
Very cool. Hi-tech, science, and business.

9. Fast Company TV
It’s, well, Fast Company… via video.

10. The Leadership Hub’s Hub TV
A leadership social networking site’s collection of leadership videos.

100 Leaders You Can Learn from on Twitter

This list of leaders to follow on Twitter covers an amazing range of people from entrepreneurs to politicians to CEOs and beyond. And by following them on Twitter, you can learn in 140 character bites.

Manager Tools Basics

This series of podcasts lets you learn about core management skills and principles in the car, from your desktop or while you're jogging. Assuming you have time for exercise.

Friday Link Round Up

2009-10-02T06:44:05-07:00

It's the first Friday in October and fall is in the air. Here are your links for this week:

US Job Seekers Outnumber Jobs 6 to 1: Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.

Resume 2.0--What to Include: Do your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles belong on your resume? Definitely include LinkedIn. Twitter and Facebook--it depends.

The Job Search Rejection Letter: One way to find out why you didn't get the job, although I'm not sure that all employers will respond to this.

Green Jobs and Careers--Yahoo Jobs has an entire section devoted to green jobs with some interesting resources. You can also follow green jobs on Twitter.

The Recession is Transforming Our Economy--How is your One Stop going to cope with some permanent changes in the workplace, including the fact that millions of jobs are gone and won't be coming back and we aren't sure what their replacements will be? This is the question that should be keeping all of us up at night.

Keeping on Top of Developments in HR

2009-09-29T07:32:20-07:00

Providing effective job seeker and business services means that we need to stay on top of human resource trends and developments.

From the job seeker perspective, we need to understand how hiring practices are changing, what employers are looking for, and how they are recruiting and retaining staff.

From the business perspective, we need to know what's happening in industries and across businesses so that we can advise our business customers, especially small businesses that may not have access to or time for information on HR developments.

Social media (blogs, podcasts, Twitter, etc.) is a great way to learn about and connect to HR professionals as more and more HR folks turn to the web to do their jobs and share their experiences. Here are some resources for accessing HR people online:

The Best HR Podcasts--You can listen to these directly from your computer or download them to your iPod to listen to later.

Top HR Blogs from Alltop--These blogs have been identified by other HR professionals as being tops in the field. They provide news and insights on a lot of the trends and issues impacting HR today.

HR & Recruiting Professionals on Twitter List 1 and List 2--These people share a lot of great HR links, news and information, including job openings.

Linked HR--The largest HR group on LinkedIn. Also publishes a bi-monthly e-zine.

10 LinkedIn HR Groups--scroll down to get to the list.

Friday Link Round Up

2009-09-25T03:34:37-07:00

How To Stay Happy

View more documents from Ascendi.

It's the last Friday in September and here are your links for the week:

Are You Really Networking?--If you only have a single contact with a person to ask them to introduce you to a hiring manager, then you aren't really networking.

4 Ways to Take Your Resume from Good to Great--A few interesting resume tweaks.

4 Awesome Visual Search Engines to Transform Your Search--Sometimes visualizing your search results will be more effective than plain text.

Youth Engagement and Social Media--This site has tons of great information on how you can engage young people using social media. At a minimum, check out the "Listening" page to find out how you can monitor what's being talked about online.

Retraining Roulette: New Skills, No New Job--MSNBC takes a look at WIA and asks whether or not retraining really works. Also check out this related paper on the impact of WIA retraining on earnings in 12 states.

How to Stay Happy: This just seemed like a good thing to share.

Register Now For the October GSETA Institute Training on Sharpening Your Listening Skills

2009-09-22T04:44:08-07:00

It's not too late for you to register for the GSETA Institute Training on Sharpening Your Listening Skills scheduled for the North/Central Region on October 7 and the Southern Region on October 8.

By the end of the session you'll be able to:

Recognize the importance of developing good listening skills by reflecting on their past learning experiences.
Discover the five different listening approaches used in communication and the specific characteristics of each approach.
Discover that most people use their most natural listening approach.
Explore strengths and challenges as listeners
Identify effective listening approaches and behaviors and practice modifying their listening approaches to meet the communication needs of team members.

More details and registration information are here.

Friday Link Round Up

2009-09-18T02:59:10-07:00

How To Make A Vision Board

View more presentations from Kristi Daeda.

It's Friday, which means more links. . .

12 Step Crash Course in How to Write a Resume--from Susan Ireland, author of the Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume.

10 Best Jobs in Green Technologies--includes salaries. And here's another list of green jobs.

Five Ways to do Better in Phone Interviews--Good advice from "Brazen Careerist," Penelope Trunk.

8 Golden Rules to Getting a Job in a Bad Economy--Some helpful tips here.

New Jersey Community Resources--a massive list of links to all kinds of organizations and resources in NJ.

100 Amazing How-To Sites to Teach Yourself Anything--Has everything from tutorials on crafts to lessons in business, technology and languages.