TheLadders.com Class Action Lawsuit

Painting Turds Gold

Court Okays Suit Against Job Board for "$100k+ jobs" 

On March 12, 2014, NY District Judge John G. Koeltl ruled to deny TheLadders.com's motion to dismiss deceptive practices and breach of contract suit filed by consumer class action attorneys Bursor & Fisher a year ago.

The case alleges that the premium job search website:

• Scraped job postings without employers' knowledge or consent and misrepresented them as $100k+ jobs
• Didn't screen opportunities for to ensure all jobs were indeed $100k+ jobs
• Some of the opportunities listed either didn't exist or misrepresented income potential
• Offered "expert résumé critique" that simply triggered a form letter sales pitch for paid résumé re-writing services

According to recruitment blog Ask The Headhunter, one plaintiff claimed "a resume 'expert' at TheLadders produced a scathing critique of his resume — which he had previously paid TheLadders to write for him."

Plaintiffs were paid subscribers for premium access to TheLadders.com.

Check out that Headhunter blog for more info and to view a copy of the court's most recent ruling.

Thanks to Joel Cheesman for bringing this to our attention.

Talent Acquisition and Retention: The Six Bs

The 6 "B's" of Talent Acquisition and Retention

AND 6 QUESTIONS TO ASK TO ENSURE YOU'RE ON TRACK

You know I'm not a fan of oversimplifying complex processes with silly acronyms and whatnot, but the subject of the Human Capital's Bs came up yesterday, and I thought I'd share my two cents with you here on how world-class organizations attract, develop, and retain their talent pools.

Here is a short description of each of the HR Bs and questions executives should ask of their human resources professionals and internal leadership.

Buy

"Traditional" recruitment, including investments in:

• Employment branding
• Internal referral programs
• Business networking groups
• Automatic access to applications and employment data
• Relevant online recruitment resources
• Maintenance of contact with qualified prospects
• former applicants
• former employees
• contractors/consultants
• vendor reps

• Executives should ask "Are we effectively sourcing and onboarding talent?"

Build

Training and development through investment in things like:

• On-the-job development opportunities (i. e. advisory board, tasks force, special project)
• Training coursework (classroom and web-based)
• Mentorship and coaching programs
• Interdepartmental projects
• Empowerment, work/life balance
• Quarterly/Semi-Annual 2-way reviews

• Executives should ask "How do our employees rank their growth and satisfaction outside of work?"

Borrow

Partnerships developed with customers and vendors to increase innovation and share knowledge through:

• Joint ventures
• Experiential marketing
• Exchange programs

• Executives should ask "How much of our organizational intelligence comes from outside?"

Bound

Progressing talent through various career paths while promoting engagement 

• Personally relevant motivation
• Competitive compensation, and compensation incentives
• Non-financial investments
• Flexible and customizable benefits and working arrangements

• Executives should ask "How often do we fill key positions from the outside, and how does our retention rate compare to industry averages?"

Bounce

Drop the underachievers according to Welch's vitality model, but invest in:

• Defining and articulating the ideal culture
• Painting a clear picture of the future
• Transparent expectations and standards, with backing of Legal
• Providing candid feedback on all suggestions and complaints
• Fair and independent analysis of situations and markets
• Establishing just due processes including development opportunities
• Prompt and direct management of behaviors that are not in line with organizational goals and values

• Executives should ask "Are our poor performers in the right jobs? the right company?"

Bind

Constantly improve retention rates, foster pride and loyalty, and nurture potential through:

• Compensation
• Creative and personalized recognition and rewards
• Engagement tools
• Granting disciplined freedom with ownership of duties and outcomes
• Becoming an employer of choice by building a strong brand and employee value props
• Align internal and external communications to share and expand the message(s)

• Executives should ask "What more can we do to retain our top-performers?"

Monster.com: Bad April Fool's Prank or Bad Quality Control?

Sexperience Wanted

This posting was sent to me this morning. I laughed.

"Previous Sexperience in the Staffing Industry a plus." If this was intentional, Astrix Technology Group, then I take back my laughter. Here's the link if you want to see how long it takes for Monster to correct the mistake* after I notify customer service about the typo --> Account Executive, Schaumburg. When contacted for comment, a representative for Astrix Technology said that their "administrative staff is probably already aware [of the issue]." As of this writing, the job ad has been up for a week.

Another funny job-board goof

This posting reminds me of this one time when I found, years ago when I worked at CareerBuilder, a job posting for pool cleaners. Apparently the ad was scraped from a partner newspaper listing with a title longer than the job board's character limit for the title section. So, the advertisement went live on about 1400 websites saying something like "Growing Company Seeks Customer-Facing Poo." I was in the middle of a web-conference showing a prospective customer what a job-seeker would see if there weren't any relevant listings for their query, assuming that the keyword "poo" would be a guaranteed zero results search. That, and the word tends to lighten the mood during a long product demo.
Although it is embarrassing to uncover a quality control issue while live with a prospect, it allowed me to demonstrate another value in working with one of our experienced account managers, while illustrating the agility with which we work interdepartmentally and across company borders to make changes (right after taking a screenshot to giggle with coworkers about later).

So please, anytime you use self-service advertising, like job boards, directories, AdWords, even blogs, take the time to have someone proofread your copy before going live. It is also strongly recommended that you pull up your ad in a few different browsers and through other sites that may aggregate your content as soon as it launches. Remember, your words and images reflect your brand.

Don't Rely on AI

For this same reason, it is not advised to rely on non-human tools to do proofreading for you. I'm sure there are plenty of instances of auto-correct or Swype helping you put your foot in your mouth. For another example, here's what happens when you use Google Translate to convert the lyrics of the most popular i-Tunes download of the winter from English to Chinese to Portuguese and back to English:

Now, joined the club as "how? I have a big rooster!" explains

No, I just pump the thrift store to buy some dog feces

The ice edge is so damn cold

"Mother, this is a ghost white ass cold"

Roll the sandwich led Hella deep

Rosa, but my crocodile shoes using, these are green

Phi at the girl next to me, a mink leopard

Maybe should have been washed, smells of R. Kelly board

(Pissssss..)

But, Mom, this is 99 cents!

Damn, Coppin, wash it, Bout 'to get some praise

These others were walking in moccasins

Bummy and lame, sex, I'm flossing and stunting

I save my money, I'm hella happy, this is a business, [expletive removed]

I am your grandfather's style, I'm the style of his grandfather

Not true, ask your grandfather, I can have it I spend less? (Thank you!)

Velvet overalls and some slippers

The poop brown leather jacket, I found that mining

They have a broken keyboard, I bought a broken keyboard

I bought a UFO blankets, and then I bought a plate of knee

Hello, hello, my ace, my gentle

John Wayne has nothing on my game edge, hell no

I might need some wings to keep them fresh and sale of these

Movement toe: "Ah, he has a velcro"

That being said... 

Humor in job postings can be a great way to better target candidates for cultural fit and a certain level of intelligence. Here are a couple that I found fun.

A different kind of poo job:

A while back, I came across an ad for a Flash Designer (must have been a while ago... Does anyone even develop solely in Flash anymore?) that listed the following Job Requirements:
  > The ability to design, program and animate every aspect of a website.
  > Need a can-do, will-do attitude for every project.
  > Enjoys being shot in the head with a bazooka.
  > Can work as part of a collaborative team - willing to change creative direction at any time.
  > Is not afraid of chemical warfare. Or shaving cream.
  > Salary DOE.

Another oldie (Does Blockbuster even have stores anymore?):

Your turn!

Share your funny or strange job postings or stories below!
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* (update: 4/1/13) When I called Monster to report the mistake, I was promptly transferred to Employer Customer Service... Well, I mean after being on hold with poorly rendered elevator music and abnormally loud Monster advertisements for social-media integration products, world-wide exposure, diversity/inclusion products, and BI reports for just shy of nine minutes. The friendly and bright "Kimberly" took my call and was able to pull up the post, identify the typo,take down my email address, and ask if there was anything else for which she may be able to help, all within a few short minutes. Although she was unable to correct the "big mistake" herself, the ad had been edited within twenty minutes of hanging up. I kept hitting refresh after the conversation, so I know that it was at least 15 minutes. That's actually a pretty good turnaround time, right?