Attendees of our open house on Friday March 8, 2013 all entered their business cards into our drawing "Cards for Cards." The winner was Frank Spreng, Ph.D, J.D., Professor of Economics & Director of the MBA Program at McKendree University. He won two (2) tickets to the St. Louis Cardinals versus Cincinnati Reds game on Monday April 29, 2013 at 7:15p.m., Section 171, Row 7! He also takes home the basket with Cardinals gear! Congratulations Dr. Spreng! A heartfelt 'thank you' to all who attended our open house and made it a wonderful day!

A recent episode of Big Bang Theory (watch the episode here) showcased workplace sexual harassment. It was a clear depiction of what sometimes happens in the workplace (exaggerated of course since it is television). The episode proved how it does not necessarily matter what the person meant to say, or what their intentions were. What matters is the perception of what was said. How did they perceive the comments or actions? Any time a harassment complain is filed, the employer is legally obligated to investigate and reconcile the issue. Some situations severe enough in nature require that they employees no longer work in close proximity, and sometimes results in termination.  There are many factors to consider when handling a sexual harassment complaint. It is far too complicated to entirely summarize in one blog post. Our online compliance portal guides employer’s compliance offering summarized legislation, forms, checklists, guidelines and more to help small businesses ensure their legal compliance in the human resources arena.

In 2011, a Belleville, IL employer settled one of the largest sexual harassment cases in history. An employee of Aaron’s Rent-To-Own in Belleville, IL was awarded $95,000,000 in damages.The settlement was so large mostly because the employer did not handle the complaint correctly.  If you don’t have millions to spare on a lawsuit, ensure you handle all harassment complaints appropriately. If you’re not sure what to do, give us a call. We help guide employer’s compliance. That’s what we do.

By: Kandi Mensing

Small businesses owners are a unique and talented breed of people. Think of farmers; they understand agriculture, financing, operations, management, and mechanics.  They oftentimes do their own accounting, ordering, hiring, and general management of the business, not to mention the day-to-day labor involved in their operations. They are even their own mechanic, fixing the machinery. It is the same in most small business environments; ownership is involved in so many tasks that it is hard to be a master at all of them. The marketing aspect can be tricky for owners of small businesses because if the business is not marketed appropriately, they are not positioning themselves to gain market share and succeed as a profitable, healthy operation. Not being a master in accounting can result in unaccounted for money as well as noncompliance with IRS regulations. The same goes with operations in the personnel arena. If an employer is not in compliance with human resource regulations, the resulting fines can be tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, not having the knowledge on how to effectively motivate and manage the personnel can cause the customer or client experience to be adversely affected. This could also prove to be detrimental to production quality and efficiency in any environment. Not all small business owners exercise the same strengths and weaknesses.  Every small business owner should take the time to determine their own strengths and weaknesses. They should then focus on maximizing their strengths while at the same time figuring out ways to improve upon their weaknesses.  Perhaps recruiting talent that appropriately compliments their own strengths and weaknesses is the most viable and beneficial option.

Maryland: First State to Bar Employers From Demanding Social Media InfoOn Wednesday, May 2, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed S.B. 433, the nation’s first law barring employers from demanding employees or job applicants to disclose their user name or password for accessing social media accounts. The law is effective October 1, 2012.

y: Kandi Mensing

In my career as a recruiter and talent manager, I have fired a great deal of people. As someone who has never been fired from a job, I certainly do not understand why it is so hard for employees to remain willfully employed.  The even more amazing thing is that almost every single person I have fired did not see it coming. Forget about the verbal and written warnings, the suspension(s), and the countless coaching sessions and chances the employee was given. Even when the employee is explicitly and repeatedly told that further such infractions can and will lead up to further disciplinary action including and up to termination, they still appear to be surprised in the termination meeting.

What interests me even more is when an employee will start fighting to keep their job after being told that their employment status is terminated with the company. What employees being terminated really need to understand is that firing someone is not a decision that companies take lightly. Terminations can get ugly with retaliation and litigation. Terminations can be very costly to an organization, not to mention the time and effort spent to source and train their replacement. Employers do not want to fire employees. Firing employees also temporarily leaves seats vacant in the company and work potentially undone. Plus, a reputable company does not want to hurt any of their employees or leave them stranded, which is why the employee is given warnings and opportunities to turn it around. Employees are usually deserving of their termination because they have not responded to the employer’s suggestions of improvement. Really, it is that easy; if an employer tells you a way to improve work on improving it. Most of the terminations I have conducted have been straight-forward and the employees deserving yet no one ever thinks it’s coming.

It really is simple to avoid termination – do your job! When your company gives your feedback on your performance, take it to heart. If employees would listen to what they are being told and learn to take constructive criticism rather than getting defensive, they would have a much better shot at success within an organization. Too many people get defensive when their organization tells them that they could improve. There is nothing wrong with being told where and how you can or need to improve. What’s wrong with personal or professional improvement? There is something wrong with not responding to the feedback and requests and making the necessary changes or improvements. On the other hand, I do think organizations could do a better job of giving purely constructive criticism, training their first line supervisors to better coach, develop and retain their employees, and also providing the positive feedback on a consistent and fair basis.

Share your termination story!

Objectives on your resume can be detrimental to your job search. This objective can eliminate you from consideration immediately because the position may not be challenging and the company may not be growing.

By: Kandi Mensing

{FORMATTING} A resume is a glimpse at your work history, an indicator of your grammar and punctuation skill set, and a look at your attention to detail. Resumes are intended to get applicants to the interviewing phase of the recruiting process. Many people compose 'paragraphical' resumes. If you learn one thing from this blog, please take this away: do not format your resume in paragraphs. {BULLET POINTS} Bullets are always the answer. In this economy, it is said that you have 15 seconds to catch a recruiter's attention. Look at your resume. Does it communicate the most important parts of your resume in that time? {BOLDING} Is the name of your company and years of experience in bold? If your answer to that question is 'yes', listen up! While your prior places of employment are relevant,  they are not near as important as the actual position you held with that organization. You should always bold your position/title, not the company or dates of service. Now, while we're talking about formatting, let's talk about those bullet points. First of all, each bullet point does not need to be a full sentence. Just make sure that within your bullet points for each position you include keywords that describe your work experience accurately. {KEYWORDS} Keep in mind that many application interfaces are able to identify applicants by keyword. Include keywords in your resume that you would use to search for candidates for employment such as yourself.{OBJECTIVE} I would argue that objectives actually hurt an applicants chances more than they help. Objectives are the first thing listed on a resume, the hardest part of a resume to author, and truly do not tell the recruiter much of anything because applicants purposefully compose them to be vague. All too often, I see the objective "To obtain a challenging position with a growing company." Well, the job may not be challenging and the company may not be growing.  With this objective and in this scenario, you have automatically eliminated yourself from being considered for employment on this basis alone.

{ATTENTION-GETTER} So, how do you catch a potential employer's attention with your resume? First of all, your name needs to be LARGE. This is YOUR resume we're talking about. You want your name to stand out and be remembered. {PERSONALIZE} Resumes are almost always black and white, text and paper. It is refreshing to see a little color, or a designed/personalized letterhead. Add some color to your resume. Don't be afraid to be yourself!  I repeat, it's YOUR resume; a representation of YOU. Make sure your resume reflects who you are and what the potential employer is getting if they hire you (within reason of course!). If a job doesn't want you for you, then you probably don't want that job. You want to be happy right?

{SO, HOW DO YOU GET TO THE INTERVIEW?}

1. Proper Grammar
2. Correct Punctuation
3. Consistency in formatting
4. Keywords
5. A concise resume that quickly outlines your experience and has the ability to catch the recruiters attention quickly
6. Professional and proper correspondence (more information to come in our future blog)

Resumes are complicated, yet integral pieces in your job search. We offer resume and image consulting for interview and job search preparation. Contact us for more details.

CHICAGO – In a lawsuit against a Chicago employer, the U.S. Department of Labor obtained a summary judgment in federal court requiring the company, the owners and officers pay 57 workers more than $200,000 in back wages and liquidated damages for violations of the overtime and record-keeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The judgment also permanently enjoins the defendants from violating the FLSA in the future

Source: http://www.dol.gov

As the Human Resource Manager for a mid-sized manufacturing company, I was in charge of many important, mostly challenging, projects, and some were fun. Implementing this employee Veteran Wall honoring our employees who have or are serving in our Nation’s armed forces was indeed a fun project. It meant a lot to the employees and their families. It was also pretty interesting to see some of the employees’ old military photographs. Overall, it was a largely successful project and was fun to direct. I have always honored the military and the families that support them. I cannot even begin to imagine what they sacrifice on an ongoing basis. I applaud the military members who have and do risk their lives. I cherish my freedom. I am grateful that my husband, son, and I get to be with each other nearly every day. I thank each and every one of you for your service to our wonderful Nation and I honor your contributions in efforts to maintain our national security and American freedom! May you be showered with gratitude, hand shakes, and many thank you’s this Veteran’s Day, but not only this day, EVERYDAY! I think our Veteran’s Wall was a fantastic addition to the company’s lobby and was a joy to implement and inaugurate!

In 2011 alone, ICE conducted I-9 audits of almost 2,500  U.S. employers, criminally arrested 221 of them,  and ordered more than $10.5 million in fines.  (Source: ice.gov - Nov. 4, 2011 press release).  In order to increase the pressure on U.S. businesses  to ensure they are hiring only those legally eligible  to work in the U.S., ICE has stated that employers  of all sizes and in every industry will be targeted  by their inspectors, with stepped up resources  that will support more auditors and more prosecutions. 
By: Kandi Mensing