Carl Bradford

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A whitepaper’s – The ninth Source of Hire report from CareerXroads – key findings report that, on average, 41 of the country’s larger businesses filled just over 50% of their job vacancies in 2009 by internal transfers and promotions.

That’s the greatest percentage since CareerXroads first reported the information in 2002.

Predictions for 2010

Regarding 2010, however, 48% of the participating businesses believe they will hire and hire aggressively. The prediction is for a 29% growth in hiring. Only 10.8% of the interviewed employers anticipate hiring a lesser number of employees in 2010. Compare those percentages to the Source of Hire Report issued a year ago and you will discover that 100% of the businesses forecasted they would employ fewer employees.

The reports authors, Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler attitributed this to an increase in internal movement resulting from the US economic downturn, thus effectively obscuring many other sources of hire.  They expect internal movement (promotions and transfers) to return to more typical levels in 2010.

HR’s Disconnect with Contingent Workforce

Another key finding – and something recruiting managers and Human Resource professionals need to quickly get a handle on – is that 30% of the respondents were unaware for the size of their contingent labor force.

Amazingly, the survey preference selected from the 30% was that we “do not really know and can’t even guess” the size of the contingent employed pool. Of those who did report a size, the average was 13.6% of the labor force was considered contingent.

Another very interesting thing discovered is that forecasts call for these businesses to increase their contingent staff size to as much as 25%-35% in the coming years.  If that is correct, this only serves to point out that the HR and recruiting staff professionals have a very big ‘disconnect’ that has to be resolved.”

It should be pointed out however that the majority of the reports results deals with the source of employment of full-time staff.

Sources of External Hires

As Crispin and Mehler have reported for the last eight years, referrals are the largest supply of external hires. Not only were 26.7% of the external hires produced from recommendations from their workforce (who are the reason for the largest share), vendors, alumni, customers, and the like, but referrals are a powerful applicant resource.

A side note: If you’re reading this summary report, and are an active job seeker, this is a big, big clue on how to bypass the traditional recruiting application process and get recommended by an insider.  What, you don’t know anyone? There is a strategy for getting past that hurdle, but that’s part of what I coach my candidates on how to do.  You’ll need to contact me for that level of advice.

Just how effective is the referral system” “The yield for referrals is one hire for each 15 referrals, making this category essentially the most effective source by far and away,” say Crispin and Mehler.

Close to referrals, company job sites, at 22.3% of the total external hires, produce the most hires.

This is likely due to the fact that job seekers find the organization website from elsewhere; probably from the search engines or perhaps a employment post website link or an email from a friend.

Add these two top percentages together and you discover that 49% of all external hires come via referrals and the company website.

You’re probably wondering where job boards weigh in on source of hire.  The report indicated that job boards averaged 12.3% of all external hires.

Now the total for all three sources are 61.3%.

That leaves almost 39% of hires from other sources. Part of the difficulty in reporting on the 39% of external hires can be attributed to HR’s poor tracking systems, a portion of it is traceable, but attributed to a host of smaller sources.  One of the emerging sources is social media, but the ability to track that is still being developed.

An additional observation

LinkedIn accounts for 60 percent of all hires attributed to social media. Now, again if you’re a job seeker this is a big clue you must utilize in your job search.  The problem is, very few job seekers really know how to maximize LinkedIn’s effectiveness beyond the obvious.  For those that do, it is a treasure-trove of job opportunities, often yielding job opportunities with little or no competition.

Copying with anxiety and stress during a job search is just one of the stress activities that causes that “stressed out” feeling. A job change whether under duress to find a job, i.e. you’re unemployed and need that next job, or just trying to manage the job change process while still employed is often one of your biggest anxiety causes.

Let’s explore how you can cope with not only job search stress, but how you can get some anxiety help that includes a fantastic solution for all workplace related stress.

And…I tell you at the end of this article where you can find out more, including how you can take the FREE Wellness Challenge.

A Definition of Stress

Stress is defined as change that is seen by your body or mind as a threat – large or small, imaginary or real – or a change in your environment that triggers a rapid use of your reserves. Stress creates a demand on your resources. Soon, these resources become exhausted and you get sick.

What Causes Stress?

Distress can come from your environment, your body or your mind. Rather than being just a single event – such as a job search – stress accumulates over time from all three sources. It strangles the joy and pleasure from your days and nights. It makes you miserable, and then it makes you sick. Once you are sick, stress keeps you from responding as well to medical care. Yes, stress is a killer!

Office Stress and Other Work Stress

Yes, psychological stress and anxiety can come from the office, or absence from the office as in the case where you’ve lost your job.  But job search stress isn’t limited to the office environment; it applies to any job search.  You don’t really need an anxiety test to know when you’re “stressed out”, but you do need a solution to help you in coping with anxiety and stress.

Learn How Stress Vitamins and Nutrients Can Help

As the Employment Guy, for over 40 years I’ve seen more than my share of job seekers who are coping with anxiety and stress and I’m certainly not immune to it either, no one is.  But I have found that if I pay attention to my health – and that includes what I call stress vitamins – I do better, a lot better.  You can as well.

According to a stress article by Brazos Minshew the Chief Science Officer at TriVita, a leading Nutraceutical products company, the opposite of stress is homeostasis. He says, “So, while stress is constantly trying to pull you apart, homeostasis is constantly working to put you back together. Homeostasis is the priority process your body uses to combat stress.”

He adds, “Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are essential for homeostasis. If we have the nutrients we need at the moment we need them, we will thrive! Conversely, if we do not have the proper nutrient base in our system every day we will suffer loss of energy, poor mental performance and an increased risk for disease.”

And when you’re interviewing for a new job opportunity, you certainly want to be at your best mentally.

Add the Right Supplements to Relieve Stress

The word supplement means an addition to something to make up for a deficiency. All supplements are an important addition to a healthy diet. They make up for the deficiency we face because of poor nutrient density in our foods. They also help out when we miss the mark of diet perfection.

Supplements are no substitute for good dietary choices, but the fact remains that most of us don’t make the best food choices on a daily basis. We need a multiple nutrient supplement every day to serve as a foundation for health and to combat the nutrient demands of a stressful life.

A New and Better Supplement

According to Brazos Minshew “Staying on top of our nutrient reserve is important. Our body makes millions of new cells every day – heart cells, brain cells, bone and blood cells. Stress kills millions of vulnerable cells every day. Every time a cell dies it should be replaced. If you do not have the right amount of nutrients to construct a new cell, you will either make an incomplete cell or none at all. The outcome is bad in either case; so, we really need to keep all nutrients on board at all times.”

My wife and I have recently discovered a breakthrough new product and you can find out more about this new product called Wellavoh™ (wel-lah voh), a new multi-nutrient complex for men and women.

In fact, we’ve experienced such dramatic and positive results that we were motivated to create a new website called Health Wellness Answers and I invite you to go there for more information…and be sure to view the  benefits revealed in the short videos on Nopalea and take the FREE Nopalea Wellness Challenge.  This is a fascinating story!

Whether you’re a Baby Boomer like me or one of the younger generation, you’ll find some highly valuable and new health-related information on Health Wellness Answers.

I’ll be forever grateful to my multi-millionaire businessman colleague who introduced me to this health and wellness product line.  Thanks Kelly for paying it forward.  It’s my turn now, I’m paying it forward to the first five people who contact me and qualify for the FREE Nopalea Wellness Challenge.

Managing your career today is different! You’re likely to get beat for the best jobs every time unless you start doing things differently.

In order to solve this issue, it’s important to for me to back up a step.

People often ask me to help them improve their careers.  I usually ask them this question. “Are you willing to make changes and be flexible?”  If they say “yes”, I may continue on, if they say “no”, the discussion is over.

In most cases, I get a “yes” answer to which I then ask them to change something that I’ve observed about them.  For example, in one case I asked the person to shave his beard (which by the way was very professionally maintained).  He responded, “I’ve had this beard for the past 8 years and I’d feel completely naked without it.  I won’t do that.”

Discussion over- right then and there!  I really didn’t care whether he was willing to shave off his beard.  It had nothing to do with helping him manage his career.  I just wanted to test his open mindedness to change.  Most people will say they want to change, but they really won’t consider what they really need to do.

Change requires learning and unlearning or you really haven’t changed at all.

Change requires how you “brand” yourself in today’s world. Today the Internet and social networking have made it easier than ever to sell brand “you.”  But this is not a “do it yourself” job, or at least it shouldn’t be.

Don’t take my word for it.  Here are a couple of recent articles on the subject on CNN.  Enjoy the articles from CNN. Very informative.

Me 2.0: Branding Yourself Online By Mark Tutton, CNN

Digital Dirt can Haunt your Job Search By Rachel Zupek CNN

If you would like to position yourself for opportunities for the rest of your career, build a powerful reputation based on your expertise, be recognized as an authority in your industry or in your functional area, I have the solution.  I have a strategic alliance with an organization that works with you personally to achieve all the objectives in the articles

Today’s paradigm for driving a successful career in this digital era is changing at warp speed. In order to survive, you must adapt. Executives who are selected for leadership positions or who want to advance through their companies, have demonstrated that they are state-of-the-art, possess a commanding presence on the internet, and are digitally savvy.

Contact me today and get some information.  Are you really ready for change?