Fri, February 29th, 2008 - 4:03 pm - By Gordon Basichis
Fired bloggers’ revenge against bosses
By Louisa Hearn
When it comes to hiring and firing, the boss traditionally gets the last word. But the tables may be set to turn as disgruntled ex-employees find a powerful new voice in community forums and online diaries.
Trailblazing this movement are perhaps not surprisingly the very staff who were fired for writing personal online diaries or “blogs” in the first place.
In many cases, the writers unwittingly included comments about their workplaces in their daily web diaries that later attracted the wrath of superiors.
Mark Jen, the blogger who gained notoriety for confessing a little too much about his new job at Google only to lose it soon after, is one such example. In response to being fired from the web search engine company, his blog attempts to make sense of Google’s actions.
For the entire article go to Investigate This
Corra found this an interesting article. The article is written about circumstances that may be more complex than they first appear.
On one hand Corra has always been ambivalent about employers monitoring their employee’s social networking sites. On the other, if you are foolishly bad mouthing your employer or, as they say, “putting their business on the street,” then you maybe deserve to get fired.
Corra suggests employers conduct background checks in order to determine behavior pattern and screen out those who may not fit in with your business environment. It is much easier to filter through the preemployment screening process than to dismiss someone after they have been established. For one thing, there are compliance issues, and for another it is always more expensive to fire someone who has even relative tenure.
Disgruntled employees often reveal this sensibility long before they do any damage to your business. Psychological profiling may also help weed out the undesireables. But the rule applies that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Check them out before you hire.
Thu, February 28th, 2008 - 4:29 pm - By Gordon Basichis
MySpace Agrees to New Safety Measures
By Clare Trapasso, Associated Press Writer
MySpace Agrees to Adopt Safety Measures to Protect Young Users From Online Child Predators NEW YORK (AP) — Under mounting pressure from law enforcement and parents, MySpace agreed Monday to take steps to protect youngsters from online sexual predators and bullies, including searching for ways to better verify users’ ages.
For the entire story go to yahoo.com
Corra believes there are so many loopholes that a predator might slip through, no system will assure the protection of the children. While Corra does not advocate legislation that would mandate background searches, requiring members to supply their names, dates of birth and their social security numbers may go a long way in filtering predators.
Younger people aren’t the only ones in jeopardy on social websites. Women, especially professional women of means, are particular prey for the unsavory. For women suspicious of their new suitors, Corra offers the comprehensive background check as well as the criminal report.
Check them out before you hire.
Wed, February 27th, 2008 - 5:22 pm - By Gordon Basichis
Improve Your Employees’ Job Satisfaction with an increasing number of workers eager to find a greater work/life balance, find out what you can do now to keep your employees happy.
The tough job market of the past two years has made life very difficult for those who are either unemployed or underemployed. And so you might think that your employees, because they have jobs, would be ecstatic. They aren’t. While no doubt grateful for a paycheck, U.S. workers are actually less satisfied than they’ve been in many years.
A November 2003 survey by CareerBuilder, a leading job-search Web site, documents the extent of this dissatisfaction. The survey found that nearly one in four workers are now dissatisfied with their jobs, a 20 percent increase over 2001 levels, with some six out of ten workers planning to leave their current employer for other pursuits within the next two years. A similar survey by the Society for Human Resource Professionals revealed that more than eight out of ten workers intend to look for a new job when the economy heats up.
Corra subscribes to the axiom that if you treat your employees well they will work hard for you. Albeit, not all the time. In fact there are numerous occasions when disgruntled employees will shuck work or even steal from your business. They will steal everything from personal supplies to cash and valuable databases and proprietary information.
As we have been told three million times during this election campaign, in the immortal words of President Reagan, “trust but verify.” In this case treat your employees well, take care of their needs, but have a pre-employment screening program in place to check out their histories.
Background checks can avoid a lot of heartache, financially and image-wise. You can use background checks to avoid a lot of costly litigation. While it is true that you should treat your workers well, and they in turn should care about the work they do, there are definitely a few million rotten apples in the work force. Run the social security trace and the criminal background check. If they have access to your proprietary data, run credit reports as well.
Check them out before you hire.
Tue, February 26th, 2008 - 4:50 pm - By Gordon Basichis
Job satisfaction: Strategies to make work more
gratifying
You’ve dreamed about an ideal job in which you’re motivated, inspired, respected and well paid. But in reality, you’ve had to settle for something that falls a bit short of your ideal. Maybe it started as your dream job and for a time you loved it. But now you find it harder and harder to get through the day.
Lack of job satisfaction can be a significant source of stress. Reasons why you may not be completely satisfied with your job include:
- Conflict between co-workers
- Conflict with your supervisor
- Not being appropriately paid for what you do
- Not having the necessary equipment or resources to succeed
- Lack of opportunities for promotion
- Having little or no say in decisions that affect you
- Fear of losing your job through downsizing or outsourcing
Sometimes it’s the job itself that causes dissatisfaction. For example, the work may be boring, or ill-suited to your interests, education and skills.
Take some time to think about what motivates and inspires you. You may even want to work with a career counselor to complete a formal assessment of you interests, skills and passions. Then explore some strategies to increase your job satisfaction.
For the entire article got to the mayoclinic.com
Corra finds this a most interesting article. However, we found several conditions that were not mentioned in this article. If you are investing in new technology then you must be sure you have the employees who are current and capable of using it.
Likewise, if you are conducting sourcing research you should have employees who know how to really research, who can also negotiate the bet possible deals for your company. Corra has seen over the years where a great deal of money has been lost to shoddy sourcing and vendor negotiation.
Another factor is that for an employee to offer advice and suggestions, to put his two cents in, it would be best that employee possess good written and verbal communications skills.
These are but a few reasons why it is so important to conduct a pre-employment screening program. You want to be sure when you are moving your business forward you don’t have wheels falling off the wagon. Background checks can help assess the qualified candidates and the job candidates most likely to be able to prove both an asset and grow with your company.
Check them out before you hire.
Mon, February 25th, 2008 - 3:23 pm - By Gordon Basichis
When Doing Nothing Is the Right Thing
Take time out to learn from every experience and apply that learning in the future — and in your business.
From: Inc.com
The practice of reflection, like many skills that make a leader more effective, doesn’t always come naturally. Some people never stop doing long enough to reflect while others spend so much time reflecting, they never start doing. The key is to find balance between these two extremes and put reflection to work for you.While it may sound like some New Age practice, reflection is basically just structuring time to stop what you’re doing long enough to assess what’s working, what’s not and why so that you can adjust future actions in order to achieve a better outcome. In other words, reflection is taking time out to learn from every experience so that you can apply that learning in the future.
Look before you leap
For the entire article go to Inc.com
Corra knows every business has its…uh…speed bumps. It has been written that the more successful companies do not necessarily achieve that success and the subsequent lasting power through remarkable strategic planning. Rather the more durable companies have found their best actions formed through trial and error. Keep what works and toss out what doesn’t.
Of course, to even begin to separate the successes from the failures, there must be staffing taking time for analysis and reflection. They have to be honest about it and candid with each other and with the upper echelon of executives as to what was worth it and what was a waste.
It may take awhile to get this right, but to get it right you need the properly skilled employee. You need candidates with behavior habits that reflect good character and the right discipline and work habits. They must have the right work habits.
Background checks will help you determine who is capable of accurately reviewing tactics and implementations and who is not. Credit Reports will help reflect the discipline of your candidate. Other background checks, such as the criminal report, will show the more obvious while others will add pieces of the overall behavior picture.
Check them out before you hire.
Fri, February 22nd, 2008 - 4:27 pm - By Gordon Basichis
Restructuring
Cutting Underperforming Brands, 15% of General Managers in Bid to Maintain Spending
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AdAge.com) — Procter & Gamble Co. will eliminate 15% of its general-manager positions and an unspecified number of underperforming brands while keeping overall employment flat to negative, in a bid to accelerate productivity amid rising commodity costs and tougher competition.
For the complete article go to Adage.com
Corra has to wonder if this is a sign of the times. And if it a sign of the times, does this reveal actual economic downturn, or a sign of inefficiency that has lead to a reduction in profits?
Surely, profits are off and the public is tightening its belts. But there are staples the public requires. Maybe they don’t need the premium and, frankly, over priced coffees. But they do need coffee. Perhaps in an attempt for companies like P&G to capture more of the market, they have overreached and have diluted their branding and the products therein.
Either way, judging by this indicator, there will be the newly unemployed looking to be employed once again. They will be answering job postings and interviewing with your HR Managers. Some will be real finds, and some will be discards that the other buy was glad to be rid of.
Run pre-employment background checks since they will help you determine who should be snatched up and who should be cradled in the bosom of your business workplace. There are many different kinds of background checks, and Corra can help you package them to fit your own particular business means.
Check them out before you hire.
Thu, February 21st, 2008 - 4:39 pm - By Gordon Basichis
Corra will soon be launching a new site, Tenant Checker, but has for quite some time conducted tenant screenings for real estate entities and apartment and business landlords. Corra runs everything from tenant credit reports to the criminal records reports and eviction notices.
To run these checks before allowing someone to move in to your apartments or offices is a prudent and cost effective move. Should they not pay you, think of the cost, the time and the aggravation in trying to get them out or tracking them down for past rent.
When Tenant Checker comes completely on line, check it out. Meanwhile, you can inquire with Corra Group and open your account. Feel confident before you lease. Check them out before you lease.
Wed, February 20th, 2008 - 3:06 pm - By Gordon Basichis
Fat pay hikes coming this year too
Posted by robblogger
Salaries of corporate employees in India rose 15.1 per cent last year, and the realty business handed out the biggest raises, leaving behind the outsourcing sector that has been known for the most generous pay …
From topix.net
Great news, employees are getting a pay raise. In India. Corra thinks it would be nice if business was robust enough here that American workers could enjoy a pay raise. Our economic forecast, as we all know, if a bit grimmer.
With it being an election year, we hear a lot of promises about better times. If nothing else, we suppose we can warm ourselves in all that hot air. Maybe it’s a new take on alternate energy sources.
But life is what it is, and there will be business who do well in slimmer times. They will need to hire new employees, and they will have a wider selection. But in these times you never know if the person you are thinking of hiring was merely downsized or let go for reasons due to her personal records or criminal behavior. A sudden personal credit problem, substance abuse or domestic issues can turn a good employee into a problematic one.
So Corra advises you to run background checks on all your new employment candidates. It is cost effective and can save you a lot of aggravation as well as money. Check them out before you hire.