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Have you “Binged” yourself yet to find out what Microsoft’s new “decision engine” says about you?  Well, here is yet another reason to double-check your online footprint for the sake of your career.

CareerBuilder.com is launching a new Applicant Explorer tool which runs on the Bing API.  The tool matches resumes in the Careerbuilder database with an applicant’s online “brand.” In seconds, the tool will help HR reps screen candidates by pulling relevant data from the following sources and displaying it all on one neat page, at least according to Careerbuilder.com:

• Social networking sites
• Professional and personal blogs
• Personal and corporate Web sites
• Press releases
• Discussion and forum postings
• Articles and news stories published online

We may be entering a brave new world of recruiting.  But there are quite a few reasons why this development may not be that significant:

• A Google search already returns the most relevant info about a candidate on the first page
• Many people don’t have that many data points about them online so the tool won’t be that useful
• Having an “online brand” isn’t necessary for many jobs
• Power players don’t really need to use social media platforms
• Some people will turn their privacy settings up a notch to cover their tracks while others will continue to game the system, thus clouding any conclusions one could make

The Applicant Explorer tool is free if you have a CareerBuilder.com account.  Would this new tool make you more likely to sign up?

If California fails to figure out how to close a $24 billion dollar budget gap in the next few days, the state may start issuing I.O.U.s to its creditors. Although Governator Schwarzenegger says his state doesn’t need a  bailout from Washington, and the Obama Administration has thus far stuck to its “can’t-save-California-from-itself” stance, the Golden State’s Treasurer has asked for a guarantee from Washington that would allow it to take out short-term loans at lower interest rates.

Here are a few of the arguments in the media in favor of federal intervention:

• Slashing state spending will mean even more unemployment. That will eventually hurt the private sector too.
• We’ve already tossed billions to AIG, GM and Bank of America. What’s the harm in a few more?
• California is the “key catalyst” for US retail and auto sales. If California fails, retailers across the nation will go under, too.
• Californians subsidize every other states’ social programs, receiving 80 cents in federal money for every dollar they pay in federal taxes.  Piss them off, and California could succeed from the union.
• California simply can’t cut its social programs.
• If the feds don’t bailout California, puppies will die.
  

47 states are also dealing with projected budget deficits. Yet only one can claim to be the world’s eighth largest economy.

But is California really “too big to fail”?

Photo by Flickr user “Pouria,” CC 2.0.

Managing people is never easy, but it’s a lot tougher when times are tough. How do you motivate people when they’re distracted by the threat of layoffs, and how do you avoid alienating the employees whose help you need now more than ever? Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and author of the Harvard Business Review article “How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy,” discusses the unique challenges that managers face in troubled economic times.

Featured Guest: Bob Sutton, author of the Harvard Business Review article “How to Be a Good Boss in a Bad Economy.”

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Get the most out of your home workspace by using “feng shui,” the Chinese art of placement. In this podcast, feng shui expert Kirsten Lagatree offers tips on using location, color, furniture and accessories to create greater balance and harmony in your home office. She explains why black is a lucky color and why your workspace should be located as far as possible from the front door.

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On a recent BNET post, Jeffrey Pfeffer outlined the ways America’s work culture leaves us sicker than we should be.  Employers that disregard a reasonable work-life balance end up causing health problems related to stress.  Pfeffer argues that healthcare reform starts at the office because “working in America is literally hazardous to your health.”

Researchers at Wharton take the argument one step further.  Employers shouldn’t just focus on ways to prevent sickness.  Employers should pay their employees to be healthy.

Kevin Volpp, professor of medicine and health care management at Wharton, and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, along with his colleagues Mark V. Pauly, Wharton professor of health care management and George Loewenstein, professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University believe that cash incentives from employers or insurance companies, known as “P4P4P” or pay for performance for patients, could be one of the best ways to create a healthier workforce and ultimately drive down the costs of healthcare.

A smoking-cessation study led by Volpp, “Financial Incentives for Smoking Cessation,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine and conducted among employees at General Electric, found that 9.4% of smokers who were offered $750 in incentives to quit smoking were able to remain smoke free for 18 months, compared with just 3.6% of smokers who tried to quit without financial incentive. Another Volpp-led study, “Financial Incentives for Weight Loss,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that dieters who could earn money by loosing weight lost more pounds more quickly than those who weren’t offered a monetary reward.

Some businesses have tried financial incentives before, such as handing out a gym membership credit once a year. Volpp believes those incentives are inneffective because people respond best to frequent, small rewards that encourage positive behavior over the long run.

However, even if the costs of healthcare could be reduced under a P4P4P system, do you think it is an employer’s right or responsibility to pay its employees to be healthy?

Image by Flickr user “Argonne National Laboratory,” CC 2.0.

America’s business leaders are largely absent from social media platforms.  A study of the web 2.0 footprints of the CEOs from the Fortune 100 found that only two had Twitter accounts, 81 percent did not have a personal Facebook page, just 13 used LinkedIn and none had a blog.

It makes sense for CEOs to avoid using these platforms to engage company stakeholders.  They have a pr and marketing department for that.  As Rick pointed out on a BNET debate, for B2C communications, (1) data shows that Twitter is a ghost town and (2) businesses have no practical way to connect with large numbers of their customers through the service.  And for all the hoopla surrounding Steve Jobs’ health and Apple’s stock, think of the investor relations nightmare if cryptic updates of 140 characters or less had been sent out from a hospital wing.

Business executives aren’t just skipping social media tools as a means to broadcast company copy to consumers or investors.  They clearly aren’t using these virtual networks to find and connect (at least publically) with other business leaders, the supposedly biggest benefit of social media.  Traditional networks based on education, social background or spiritual beliefs, for better or worse, considering their exclusivity, are the ones that still count.

Perhaps that’s because people with Rolodexes filled with influentials that they’ve actually met don’t feel the need to obsess over their connections. I’ll leave you with a passage from a biting article, “Let Them Eat Tweets,” by Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times:

Only the poor — defined broadly as those without better options — are obsessed with their connections. Anyone with a strong soul or a fat wallet turns his ringer off for good and cultivates private gardens that keep the hectic Web far away…

The connections that feel like wealth to many of us — call us the impoverished, we who treasure our smartphones and tally our Facebook friends — are in fact meager, more meager even than inflated dollars. What’s worse, these connections are liabilities that we pretend are assets. We live on the Web in these hideous conditions of overcrowding only because — it suddenly seems so obvious — we can’t afford privacy. And then, lest we confront our horror, we call this cramped ghetto our happy home!

Do you consider that post-interview thank-you note to potential employers a dull formality?

In this competitive job market, it’s high time you got over it. With multiple job seekers clamoring for every executive position, you only have a few opportunities to distinguish yourself, and the right follow-up is key.

Here are a few pointers for making the most of this opportunity:

1. Stand out by seizing the moment.

“Having been in the employment placement industry for 23 years, I’ve found that only around 10 percent to 20 percent of candidates actually send a thank-you note after an interview,” writes recruiter Harry Urschel on the Career Rocketeer blog. “And of those, fewer still send one after each interview at a company.” Urschel argues that it isn’t always the closest match to the job description who garners the offer, but the person who seems to want the job the most and can express that desire with flair.

2. Send a value-add.

Just thanking the interviewer for her time won’t set you apart from the crowd. What can you do to show you gained insights from the meeting? “Do not write a thank-you letter or an e-mail that just restates your qualifications,” TheLadders columnist Don Straits writes: “Instead, provide something unique that dramatically sets you apart from others. Here’s how: Focus on a topic discussed in your interview, and then provide your prospective boss with additional information on that topic.” The interview is a golden opportunity to learn what’s top of mind for your prospective employer; do the diligence afterwards to find some intelligence that can help him with those goals and challenges.

2. Give it the human touch.

In her blog, From the Recruiter’s Desk, Lindsey Olsen, a partner and recruiter with Paradigm Staffing, sings the praises of a hand-written thank-you note — again, with a specific point or two that shows you’re already addressing the company’s needs. “A well-written and personalized thank-you note lets the company know you are a serious candidate and someone who excited about the opportunity,” Olsen writes. “An interviewer should never have a doubt about your interest level in the position.”

TheLadders columnist Dean Tracy concurs and suggests you put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes. “Your human touch is manifest when you reach out to thank someone in the form of a hand-written card,” Tracy writes. “As leaders at some point in our career, we have put the invoice to the side while we quickly open the envelope that looks like it might be a card or an invitation. The same is true of the hiring manager or people of influence in your last interview. You must send a hand-written thank-you card.”

Hopefully America’s university presidents have been paying close attention to the fate of the music and news industries.  If a profession can be digitized and thrown up on the web, prices will tumble.

According to U.S.News & World Report, more than 4 million Americans took an online course last year, up from less than two million in 2003.  The recession is also contributing to the online education boom as more people consider courses that cost hundreds, rather than thousands per class credit.  The University of Phoenix, the largest online education company, says new enrollment has increased 20 percent since the downturn.

Universities are going to have a tough time getting every student in a 300 person lecture hall to pony up $4000 to hear an undistinguished professor drone on for a semester when there is an online course available for a few hundred dollars taught by a team of the best academics on the planet.  If the course comes with 24/7 email support, homework guides, virtual quizzes, a community built around the subject and a well-curated reservoir of academic resources, it’s easy to see how online courses could be a more effective learning option.

Traditional universities still control what counts as a legitimate education and will fight challenges to their industrial education model.  But now that Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, is entering the education business with his online MBA program, university administrators need to realize that entrepreneurs are ready to build brands that can chip away at their multibillion dollar industry.  Welch’s program costs just $20,000 rather than the $100,000 an MBA would cost at a top notch school.

Universities should start collaborating on the web across campus lines to deliver the best and most cost-effective education to their students.  The campus bubble has burst.

Photo by Flickr user “anne.oeldorf,” CC 2.0.

It’s a tough time to be in the advertising game.  Big agencies running on the retainer model are having a harder time justifying their expenses, especially during this recession.  Nimble, new media marketing players can pitch cheaply produced viral ads.  But those consumer-powered online tactics don’t come with a 15 percent media buy mark-up.

For those agencies that can still get potential clients on the line, one bit of conventional wisdom seems to be in their favor: that during recessions, the most successful companies stay aggressive and increase their ad budgets to power through.

While Madison Avenue has Main Street convinced that spending more on marketing during a downturn will increase sales, that premise is not supported by the study which all those Mad Men keep citing, according to Steven S. Little, who has a new book out on business strategy called Duck and (Re)Cover.

Reports Steve Strauss on USA Today:

It turns out that all of [them] are talking about the “McGraw Hill Research Laboratory of Advertising Performance Report 5262.” Little discovered that what report No. 5262 actually says and what the millions of sites citing it think it says are not nearly the same thing.

In fact, Little found that report 5262 expressly states that there is no “causality” between advertising in a recession and sales growth, that the study only looked at public companies, that these companies had sales more than $1 billion a year, and that the study took place in 1985.

Although sales may not increase significantly from more advertising during a downturn, it does seem plausible that spending more on marketing will help increase a brand’s market share in the meantime, especially if competitors are cutting back.

Share your thoughts on recession advertising below.

Photo by Flickr user “Mr Fix It,” CC 2.0.

Middle managers may get ridiculed in pop culture – look at Dilbert, The Office, Office Space, but what is the truth about these people – are they victims, villains, or just plain essential to get work done? Bob Paul Osterman, Professor of Human Resources and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of The Truth About Middle Managers: Who They Are, How They Work, Why They Matter, discusses the identities of middle managers, and why they’re a group that no one pays enough attention to.

Featured Guest: Bob Paul Osterman, author of The Truth About Middle Managers: Who They Are, How They Work, Why They Matter.

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