DirectEmployers Association

DirectEmployers Association in Social Media

Nancy Holland — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:05:51 +0000

You’ve probably noticed more tweets from DirectEmployers recently, or perhaps the 2009 Annual Meeting & Conference photos on our new Flickr page. With the majority of Members constantly on the go and actively engaged in social media, DirectEmployers wants to leverage platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to communicate, interact and share news and ideas.

We would love to hear from you too! Keep us updated on your accomplishments, needs, thoughts… and let us know when you’re excited about your partnership with DirectEmployers!

We will continue to tweet Member jobs, Direct SEO participants, survey highlights, success stories and more. DirectEmployers is working on several projects for release later this year that will take social to a new level. Stayed tuned and, in the meantime, follow us on Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. Thank you for your support!

Interview with Jason Leonard (JCPenney) – Part 2

Nancy Holland — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:11:22 +0000

Jason Leonard
Director of Field and
College Recruiting
JCPenney

“At the end of the day there’s no technology that’s going to eliminate the recruiter role. It’s kind of funny…every time the next big thing comes along, everyone says ’aw, recruiters are going to be obsolete.’ I really don’t think that will happen. Good communication skills, a strong work ethic and a desire to be successful are always going to enable the best recruiters to continue to exceed expectations. The tools just help them do it a little bit more easily.”

continued from Part 1

Jason, what challenges do you face in recruiting and what kind of keeps you awake at night?

I think we’ve touched on one of the challenges, which is how do you always stay abreast of current technology that’s going to be cutting edge and give you a competitive advantage. It’s interesting… if you were using the major job boards in 1998, you had a competitive advantage because most organizations weren’t using them yet. When it spread to mass market, you had to be on them just to be status quo; but there was minimal competitive advantage. You still had to do it because, if you weren’t, you were behind the curve. So, people are always looking for what’s going to be mainstream a year from now…I want to start using that today, because that’s going to give me the competitive advantage. It’s a constant struggle that will never end because it’s always changing.

Another challenge that I’ve read a lot about lately is the transferability of skill set. I read an interesting article in Business Week where they were saying that, even though unemployment is approaching double-digits across the U.S., there are still over 3 million open jobs that companies can’t fill. And they were extrapolating the reason as the average American isn’t willing or able to learn a new skill set. They don’t want to move to a different industry, a different skill, or they can’t geographically relocate because of the housing market. They can’t sell their home in Detroit and move to a place that has a lot of open jobs. And I just use that as an example. So, it’s interesting when you think about it- people are either unwilling, unable, or incapable of learning a new skill set, which is perpetuating the shortages in the health care industry, education, government….so that’s an interesting dichotomy. We have nearly double-digit unemployment, but we have over 3 million jobs that companies can’t fill because there’s no candidate match.

It begs the question of how you increase the candidate pool, instead of stealing from one another’s very finite pool of currently skilled labor. Then, you start to move beyond just recruiting and you’re getting into training, development, true talent management, instead of just talent acquisition.

Yes, do we recruit them or do we grow them?

You’re exactly right. And, of course, the quandary that you end up with is whether it is worth the risk to train them and someone else steal them from us?

It does happen.

Yes, it does. Before Penney’s, I spent 3.5 years with Citigroup as Director of Recruiting and that was an interesting problem that Citigroup had when I first started there in 2005. Citigroup, at the time, was known for having really good talent and they had a great training program. They grew a lot of it in-house, but other financial services companies would come in and pluck them out within 6 to 12 months of them going through that training because they knew Citigroup was a great training ground. Citi’s challenge went from “gosh, how do we grow it?” to “gosh, how do we grow it and keep it?” It’s interesting because everyone is trying to meet their business needs and frequently that means strategies like that, so I would say those are the things that keep me up at night.

Wonderful insights Jason, thank you. In conclusion, I would like to ask, as a member of DirectEmployers Association, do you have a favorite Member benefit?

One of the things I find most compelling about DirectEmployers is the fact that it’s only employers. It seems too obvious to say, but it really is unique because you don’t have to worry about being influenced by vendors, someone who’s trying to sell you something or who has an agenda. It’s wonderful to have a community where you’re literally talking to peers within other organizations, many of whom are either facing the same problems or faced them before. It becomes reciprocal. You can say, this is the challenge we have, would you help me? Absolutely. This is one we have. Will you help me? Oh yeah, we did that last year. It is unbiased relevant input, and it’s great for networking.

The other product that stands out is the job syndication through DirectEmployers and JobCentral. Again, the purity is what gives it such value and makes it so relevant and impactful. If you go to some of the major job boards- I won’t name any names- you get a lot of job postings, but you get a lot of trash. You get a lot of a spam, marketing, sales stuff, people who really aren’t out there putting true open positions in the purest sense of the word.

In summary, the three biggest values of our membership are the type of dialog that occurs, the networking that you can facilitate through the organization because they’re people just like you, and then the pure resources and tools at hand.

Jason, I really appreciate your time. Thank you.

Interview with Jason Leonard (JCPenney) – Part 1

Nancy Holland — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:38:58 +0000

Jason Leonard
Director of Field and
College Recruiting
JCPenney

Jason, tell us about JCPenney, most people know you are a retail organization, but can you tell me a little bit about the history and some things that people may not know?

I joined in January of 2009 and am very happy to be here. JCPenney is a great institution and is over 100 years old. It actually started in 1902 by James Cash Penney; thus the name of the company. He ran the company for over 50 years and, since then, JCPenney has only had 7 CEOs through its 107 year history. Today, we represent 150,000 associates and over 1,100 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, so we’re a domestic retailer. Actually in terms of store count, we are the largest department store now. Our major competitors are Macy’s, Kohl’s and then some high-end department stores, like Neiman Marcus, SAKS and Bloomingdales.

This economic downturn has hit retail a little harder than other industries; however, JCPenney made the decision not to lay off their staff – the most important asset. That meant fewer hours for a lot of hourly individuals, but they’re still employed. Penney’s has taken a different perspective on the economy than some retailers and it’s actually done well for us.

What do you do? I know you’re a Director of Field and College Recruiting, but what is a day-in-the-life like for you?

JCPenney structures their recruiting efforts into two sections. I have a counter-part, Leslie Kourlis, who is the Director of Recruiting for all of our corporate and executive recruitment. So she’s responsible for all the middle office functions, legal, finance, HR and all of the executive hiring. Then my team is responsible, pretty much, for everything else we hire for…hourly associates, store managers, assistant managers, district managers and regional managers. JCPenney has a very extensive supply-chain network with 18 distribution centers throughout the United States that employ over 8,000 people. My team handles recruitment for that division as well. And, finally, I have college relations. JCPenney has had intern training programs that feed directly out of undergrad programs for about the last 10 years. And we’ll hire about 400 people, trainees and interns, this year.

When you think back about your career in Human Resources, what was the starting point for you? How did you get into Human Resources and more specifically, into recruiting? Was it something that you’ve always wanted to do, or did you, like probably 90% of us who have been in the recruitment industry, kind of fall into it?

I’m like the 90%, I sort of fell into it. It’s interesting – I always liked to make money, so I went into a retail sales role straight out of high school. I was making great money for an 18-year old. I wanted to go to college, so I went to school part-time and worked full-time. My last couple semesters prior to graduation from the University of Oklahoma, I was interviewing pretty heavily with different companies because I knew I wanted to move past retail into corporate America. The company I found most attractive was actually an external search firm. The recruiting business was compelling because it was the first type of sales transaction I had been exposed to where you have to sell both sides of the equation. When I was in retail, I just had to convince the consumer that that product was for them. I didn’t have to convince the product to go home with them, right?

Right.

In recruiting, you have to sell both sides. I just found that very fascinating so I went to work for a boutique search firm straight out of college. That firm was subsequently acquired by Spherion, but, at the time, it was Boutique…focused more on IT and Telecom. I did the agency recruiting bit for about 3 1/2 years and then moved to the corporate side in 2001. I’ve spent the last 8 years in corporate recruiting.

You’ve been in the industry long enough to know that there are fads and trends that come and go and, then, there are some trends that stick and improve the recruitment industry. What kind of trends are you seeing today and which ones would you think…ok, my crystal ball would tell me that this is one that’s going to stick.

Great question. It is interesting because I started in the recruitment in spring of ’98 so, I guess 11 years now. At the time, the Internet was really just starting to catch on, but most recruiters were still using fax machines, hard-copy folders…very old school.

Rolodex.

Literally, Rolodex.

And then people started using E-mail and all these job boards started popping up and that was the first iteration. Then things shifted to the data-mining tools. From a recruiting perspective, how do I go mine for candidates? Then, after a few years, it sort of shifted to the job-board aggregators. All of these still have relevance, but what I’ve learned is that there is no one silver bullet – everything is sort of a tool in your arsenal, and you need to use multiple tools in order to be the most effective.

The thing that everyone’s talking about today, which will be on the radar for the next several years, is social networking. People are figuring out the best candidates aren’t necessarily active job seekers; although, in a bad economy sometimes good people are impacted and they become active job seekers. But the really good talent tends to be the passive candidates, so people have drawn the conclusion of “well, I need to go where those people live.” The great thing about all of these social networking tools is that they aren’t really built for recruiting purposes and that’s where these perspective passive candidates are living. So, if you can get into the space where they spend their leisure time, or even some of their work time, then that’s how you start to forge those relationships with folks that are really going to be your superstars. I think recruiters are savvy to that idea.

At the end of the day, there’s no technology that’s going to eliminate the recruiter role. It’s kind of funny…every time the next big thing comes along, everyone says ”aw, recruiters are going to be obsolete.” I really don’t think that will happen. Good communication skills, a strong work ethic and a desire to be successful are always going to enable the best recruiters to continue to exceed expectations. The tools just help them do it a little bit more easily.

Yes and I would even argue that the tools make recruiters even more important and indispensible because they need to know how to actually utilize those tools in the most effective way.

That’s very true. And the tools are always changing, so what is the flavor of the month? Today it may still be relevant, but a year from now it may be replaced with something else. And the recruiter community is dialed into what works. So we need those people to have a constant finger on the pulse of what is going to give me the maximum ROI.

It’s funny- you look at an organization and imagine to yourself who is the most well-rounded person within my organization. And you might think a senior manager, a C-level person, but I actually point to recruiters. I’ve been in the recruitment industry about 11 years myself… you really have to get in the head of the perfect candidate for that unique role and figure out what it is that is going to entice them. It’s vital to learn about different types of roles and responsibilities and, in addition, stay up on the technologies, understand what’s new, and figure out how to most effectively use technology to reach the right candidate.

Yes. As I’ve climbed the ladder in my career and moved up in the hierarchy, I’ve become more detached from the daily flow. And you get out of the loop on what is the cutting edge tool today…and the most effective strategy. You’re job definitely becomes more strategic and less tactical. And that has its own advantages, but the disadvantages are, as you move up into senior management, you become a little more detached from what’s really going to make you competitive. So you must stay in touch with your front line of soldiers to make sure they’re sharing information up and you’re sharing information down.

To be continued (see Part 2, to be posted on March 1, 2010)

DirectEmployers Association Member AT&T Leading the Way

Nancy Holland — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:50:44 +0000

DirectEmployers Association Member AT&T Presents at U. S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) – Listening Session

Carrie Corbin, Sr. HR Manager of Talent Attraction for AT&T, provided an overview of AT&T’s efforts to hire people with disabilities during an ODEP listening tour in Dallas, TX on January 21, 2010.

Corbin highlighted one of AT&T’s efforts to accommodate people with disabilities – closed captioning on their employment videos. Amongst the other examples, she highlighted their recruitment videos on www.ATT.jobs (career site) which features their hearing impaired employees and those with other disabilities.

In addition, Corbin noted the partnerships AT&T formed to make their jobs more accessible to a diverse talent pool.

Corbin identified AT&T’s membership with DirectEmployers Association as a key business strategy in leading these efforts for Diversity, Disability, Military and other special interest groups that AT&T seeks to hire.

Corbin described the .jobs initiative by DirectEmployers Association as a new approach to online recruitment because it is not simply a single job board or website, but an internet platform known as a “Top Level Domain” (TLD). It’s identical to familiar TLDs such as “.com” and “.edu”

Within .jobs, Corbin explained that DirectEmployers Association will be creating special interest groups like www.Diversity.jobs; www.Disability.jobs; www.Military.jobs and www.Veteran.jobs with specific requirements for employers and the jobs that will be available to job seekers. For example on www.Veteran.jobs, veterans looking for civilian jobs will simply type in their military occupation code (MOC) and the .jobs technology will “crosswalk” the MOC to the correct occupation code and display relevant results that closely match their military occupation. For example, 32E.jobs will provide Civil Engineer job results.

DirectEmployers Association has received very valuable feedback from users, employers and other interested parties about the .jobs universe. The .jobs platform will be taken out of test-mode and officially launched when these suggested enhancements have been completed.

Follow the .jobs blog for exclusive announcements (including notification of the official launch date) and progress of new features on the .jobs platform including: social integration; accessibility improvements; improved caching and much more.

Veterans are Talent STRONG!

DirectEmployers — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:54:23 +0000

SEARCH & EMPLOY JAN/FEB 2010

LAST JANUARY, before demobilizing from the Army back into civilian life, I was honored to speak to a group of over 200 Wounded Warriors at Fort Benning, Georgia.

I talked about their transition to civilian life and what they should convey to prospective employers when trying to separate themselves from the mainly civilian pack during their job searches.

Luckily, the week before, I had been asked to give a presentation to the Continental Airlines recruiting group about the advantage of hiring prior military. John Whalin, Continental’s Senior Analyst, Employment Compliance, is ahead of most when it comes to understanding just what former military bring to the table. But unfortunately, most employers cannot relate to military experience unless they were former military themselves.

So I started my time on the floor, in front of the Wounded Warriors, with the Continental presentation and spoke to why they are great candidates. I covered the following points:

LEADERSHIP

In the military, as you propel through the ranks, you are required to attend several leadership schools. If you fail to attend classes or pass the courses, you are stripped of rank—demoted. Thus, leadership is not an option in the military. Everyone is trained for leadership and expected to become a leader at an early age.

UNDERSTANDING THE RULES

Military personnel are held to a much higher standard than civilians, and are even governed by a more strict set of rules—the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

DIVERSITY

The United States Armed Forces, considered as a single entity, are the largest employer in the nation, and one of the most diverse. In combat, the color, gender, or religion of the individual to your left or right does not matter. What truly matters is the person’s proficiency in his or her job. Are there cases of discrimination in the military? Yes, but they are dealt with swiftly under the UCMJ.

TEAM PLAYERS

A single soldier cannot watch his/ her own back—meaning the solitary soldier cannot efficiently complete the mission. That is why on day one of basic training in the Army, every trainee is issued a battle buddy before being issued anything else. Soldiers are trained to travel and work in teams, and if individualism is spotted—well, let’s just say it’s frowned upon.

EDUCATION AND TECH SAVVY

Military personnel can attend college, when not deployed, and have Uncle Sam pick up a big portion of the cost. So when personnel leave the military, they commonly have degrees or are working toward them. And after they leave, they have ample opportunity to further their education via the GI Bill and other readily available funding programs.

The military also invests in and utilizes state-of-the-art technology, and has close to a hundred technical positions. The Air Force and Navy are extremely technical. Their personnel are extremely well trained in anti-cyber-terrorism and are responsible for protecting America’s cyber borders, so to speak.

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE

Imagine doing your job every day knowing there are lives at stake—and knowing that the preservation of those lives depends on your performance. The pressure of performing in what could quickly develop into a grave situation is merely a part of everyday military life.

DRUG-FREE AND HEALTHY

Military personnel regularly receive drug tests and physical examinations. The military thereby keeps its personnel drug-free and physically ready, to ensure combat effectiveness and their ability to fight and win on any battlefield.

Military personnel are accustomed to urinalysis once a quarter, daily fitness training, and physical fitness testing—which includes upper body, core, and endurance events at least once a quarter. Imagine what our health insurance rates would be if every company implemented such programs.

SECURITY CLEARANCES

The military conducts in-depth background checks and provides security clearances to personnel who come in contact with certain levels of information. Those personnel are cleared and vetted well before hitting the civilian market.

QUICK LEARNERS

One of the words best describing military personnel is adaptability. To train for the War on Terror, soldiers are taught to be adaptable and think on their feet—unlike 20 years ago, when soldiers were taught not to think. The battlefield has changed, and so has the training of U.S. soldiers. The new kind of training blends well into the civilian market.

WILLING TO RELOCATE

Military personnel are accustomed to moving once every three years or so, but this does not mean they are job jumpers. Uncle Sam religiously rotates troops to give them the ability to adapt and overcome in any situation or environment.

I have listed just a handful of the traits of our talent strong military personnel—characteristics that employers desperately need in any type of economic environment. And in these tough economic times, it makes especially good sense to recruit military!

Chad Sowash is Vice President of Business Development at DirectEmployers Association, where he leads VetCentral and several other veteran-centric employment projects. Chad was an Infantry Drill Sergeant in the United States Army. Contact him at 371-874- 9003 or chad@directemployers.org.

Survey Summary: Reporting and Benchmarking

Nancy Holland — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:51:21 +0000

DirectEmployers Association initiated the Member Surveys to execute recruitment industry benchmarking through a professional online survey with other member companies.

Survey Concluded: December 1, 2009

26.9% of respondents stated that on average >18 reports are being generated out of your Applicant Tracking Systems.
80.4% stated that <75% of these reports are created in-house.
46% stated that <25% of these reports are canned.
64% stated you are reporting out of multiple systems.
66.7% stated your systems are not integrated.
83.7% stated that there is manual intervention required.
52.9% state you are currently exploring a better reporting solution.
Analysts were ranked highest as the primary people pulling the reports.
58.8% stated these Analysts are from Talent Acquisition.
58.8% stated that in a global company the reporting is centralized.
Data Analysis at 85.1% was the most selected included in the reports, with Charts/Graphics at 70.2% the second most selected and Data Trending at 63.8% the third most selected.
48% state that <25% of your reports provide analysis (i.e. key messages, interpretation of data, data trending, etc.)
45.1% state that <25% of your reports offer self-service analysis (i.e. requestor’s ability to interpret information, trend data and add key messages, etc.)
Reports are distributed to HR Managers by 84.3% closely followed by HR Vice Presidents by 80.4% and reports are distributed to Recruiters by 70.6% and Company Executives (i.e. Vice Presidents)
93.9% stated reports are being distributed by Email.
51.0% stated the distribution frequency is On-demand as well as Monthly and 46.9% stated the distribution frequency is Quarterly.
9 respondents provided contact information for additional information.

You can find more about other DirectEmployers surveys recently conducted here: Surveys

U.S. loses 85,000 jobs, but hopes grow

DirectEmployers — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:05:08 +0000

The Christian Science Monitor

By Laurent Belsie, Staff Writer

December saw losses of 85,000 jobs, but Friday’s labor report also showed a small
employment gain in November, the first since the recession began in December 2007.

The job market isn’t improving – not yet, anyway. But signs of future growth keep popping up.

To begin with, the US actually gained 4,000 jobs in November, according to revised data released by the Department of Labor on Friday. That upward revision in November makes December’s unexpectedly big loss of 85,000 jobs look all the more stark.

Still, the November total (which is still preliminary) marks the first time in 23 months that the US has actually gained jobs.

Another hopeful sign is temporary employment, which typically turns up before full-time employment does. Since bottoming out in July, that sector has grown by 166,000 – 47,000 in December alone.

“Companies, when they come out of recession. they tend to hire temporary workers first to do critical projects that they need to get done,” says Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Holdings, which runs specialized career websites in the technology, financial services, and healthcare industries. “As their confidence [in the recovery] builds, they shift over to full-time hiring.”

Mr. Melland is seeing the same improvement in his own business. On its its database of technology professionals, searches by recruiters were up in the fourth quarter, he says. The number of job listings on the company’s websites has also been growing.

Other recruitment services are also seeing an increase in activity.

“2010 is going to be brighter than 2009, no doubt,” says Nancy Holland, a vice president at DirectEmployers Association, a nonprofit human-resources consortium focused on recruiting by Fortune 1000 companies. In a recent survey of its members, all 60 companies that responded planned to hire this year.

The hiring was across the board in terms of industries and types of positions, not merely to replace workers but to add to corporations’ head counts, Ms. Holland says. “It’s not a boom. It’s not a wow … but it’s definitely getting better.”

Even American workers are more optimistic, according to a telephone survey conducted in December by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of SnagAJob.com. One in four working Americans said they believed the job market was improving; one in three hadn’t yet seen an improvement but was optimistic that things would improve soon.

PDF of article

State Expands Listings on JobLink

DirectEmployers — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:28:18 +0000

Lincoln Journal Star – December 8, 2009 – The Nebraska Department of Labor announces the addition of job postings from a 50 mile perimeter around the state through an update that provides a daily download of jobs from DirectEmployers JobCentral National Labor Exchange.

The state of Nebraska has uploaded postings to the National Labor Exchange for quite some time, with jobs listed by and for Nebraska employers published nationally. Now, a nightly download from the National Labor Exchange will increase the number of job postings available through “JobLink” in Nebraska by more than 2,000 jobs daily and will enhance opportunities for Nebraska’s job seekers to find the positions they are seeking, the department said.

“JobLink” is an online tool that helps jobseekers and employers connect”, said Commissioner of Labor, Catherine D. Lang. “The alliance with Job Central National Labor Exchange will enrich JobLink and present more job opportunities for Nebraskans.”

Job postings from cities such as Council Bluffs and Sioux City, Iowa, Marysville, Kan., and Cheyenne, Wyo., and Yankton, S.D. for example, are now included in the download, expanding work search possibilities and more job prospects.

Honor Vets and Vet-friendly Companies

DirectEmployers — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:02:42 +0000

FROM CHAD SOWASH blog the CHAD
Today is a day set aside to thank veterans for preserving freedom and to remember those who paid the ultimate price for freedom. I want to thank every one of my brothers and sisters at arms and also honor the companies who are hiring them as they come back home and into the workforce, not just today but every day.

DirectEmployers’ Members who made the Military Friendly list.

Union Pacific Railroad Company
CSX Corporation
USAA
ManTech International Corporation
Norfolk Southern Corporation
Cintas Corporation
Southern Company
ITT Corporation, Systems Division
The Home Depot Inc.
Lockheed Martin Corporation
URS, EG&G Division
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc
General Electric Company
JB Hunt Transport Services
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Applied Materials, Inc.
Corrections Corporation of America
Deloitte & Touche LLP
Fluor
CACI International Inc
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
Southern California Edison Company
AT&T Inc.
L-3 Communications
T-Mobile USA
Sodexo
Harris Corporation
Exelon Corporation
CDW Corporation
U-Haul International
CSC
Eaton Corporation
Aetna Inc
The Shaw Group Inc
Frito Lay, Inc.
Rockwell Collins Inc
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
US Cellular
Dominion Resources, Inc.
Merck & Co. , Inc.
U.S. Bank
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC
Waste Management
Xcel Energy Inc.
WellPoint, Inc.
DaVita

If you are a veteran looking for work please utilize VetCentral, an extension of the National Labor Exchange. Also connect with your respective state workforce agencies and take advantage of your preferred status in local workforce offices for help.

Tell them proudly that you’re a veteran!

Making Employers’ Jobs Easier To Find

DirectEmployers — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:53:56 +0000

Indianapolis, IN – October 19, 2009 – DirectEmployers Association is helping companies and job seekers connect more efficiently without the filter and costs of a third-party commercial enterprise. Previously when a job seeker searched for jobs on Google the results were dominated by third-party job boards. Thanks to DirectEmployers, now more and more of those results are populated by employers.

“Even in a tight economy there are over 3 million jobs available in the U.S. Job seekers need to be able to locate these jobs and feel they have a legitimate place to apply. What better place to apply for a job than with the actual company who is doing the hiring and what better place to locate that job than directly with the employer?” stated Bill Warren DirectEmployers Association’s Executive Director.

DirectEmployers, a non-profit association comprised of more than 70% of America’s Fortune 500 companies, is helping its Members by making their job offerings easier for job seekers to find through searches on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other major search engines. Utilizing Search Engine Optimization (SEO), eighty-two (82) organizations including Kodak, Providence Healthcare, and McGraw Hill have taken advantage of this free SEO solution. Job seekers will now be able to go straight to their corporate career sites and apply directly to the company, eliminating the middle man.

SEO has been a buzz word in the Web 2.0 world and recruiters within leading U.S. companies have been trying to find an inexpensive way to test the waters. They understand that they must find more ways to promote their jobs.

Tom Eckhart, DirectEmployers Association’s Vice President, said, “Instead of going to a vendor and spending a minimum of $10,000 or hiring additional resources in house, our Members come to us for SEO, Federal Contractor Job Listing Compliance, and many other solutions. DirectEmployers Association is a member owned and operated human resources trade association focusing on making recruiting more effective and efficient.”

About DirectEmployers Association
DirectEmployers Association (www.DirectEmployers.org) is a nonprofit consortium owned and managed by leading U.S. employers whose Board-of-Directors includes representatives from: ABB Inc., BT Americas, Coca-Cola Enterprises, ConocoPhillips, General Dynamics, IBM Corporation, Janus Capital, KPMG, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Newell Rubbermaid, Providence Health & Services, Qwest Communications, Rolls-Royce, The Boeing Company, The McGraw-Hill Companies, and Xerox Corporation.

Media Inquiries:
DirectEmployers Association

Nancy Holland, Vice President – Marketing
DirectEmployers Association
9002 N. Purdue Road, Suite 100
Indianapolis, IN 46268
nancy@directemployers.org
317.874.9022 phone
317.874.9100 fax