Now Seeking Employees

Trying to restart writing a blog is a pain.  Honestly, it may have been better this way since October was a heckuva month.  Onwards...

For those following my comments on Facebook you'll notice I spend a lot more time on HR-esque things than I used to, a perk of middle management.  Of late there has been a big focus on hiring staff to fill our vacancies.  Specifically we're now at 4 vacancies to fill: two in Membership, one in Program and one in Unit Service.  Given the rather broad backgrounds most pros come from one would think this wouldn't be too hard given the relatively high unemployment however you would be wrong and I can't help but wonder why.

As we've embarked on the mission to find and hire quality staff the task actually seems to get harder the longer we work at it.  At first, it was all "there's lots of people out of work, this will be easy", then to "if they're camping in the city mad about not having a job, try applying, we've got decent pay and good benefits" and now to "dear god, even someone applying that doesn't fit would be a good start".  I really don't think we're being all that picky up front, although we screen hard when we do have folks apply having learned before that a good first impression doesn't always last.

On Friday, I tried a new tack: searching through resumes online at a local university's website.  I had high hopes starting that were quickly dashed as I read the resumes.  Truly, does no one even consider that their resume may be the difference between them having even an interview, let alone a job, or continuing to have lots of quality time and no income?  If they do, their resumes show a startling lack of skill or knowledge in basic things like grammar, punctuation and even just basic idea sharing.  After reading somewhere around 150 resumes I narrowed it down to about 19 that seemed to have promise based on vague gut calls and some liberal interpretation of what was written.  We'll see how this works out.

The point of the ramble is not just that we're struggling to hire folks but that we're doing so in a time that one would believe we should be flooded with applicants.  I wonder then, how much of the unemployment problem is a lack of jobs and how much is a lack of people with the right skills for the jobs available.  If it's a lack of people with the right skills, how'd that happen?  How does that get fixed?  I have a sinking feeling that these aren't easy questions but really hard ones that have more questions tied to finding hard, and likely expensive answers.  I won't even try to tackle them now, but I'm guessing it's gonna be a while before we get back to where we were.

In the meantime, if you know someone seeking a job with weird hours, willing to work with a unique assortment of people and do both for decent pay and good benefits have 'em send me a resume.

I promise I'll be tactful in my critique.

Why a Moose?

I've decided to return to blogging, not really for the sake of anyone but me. For those who read "Fugitive in a Land of Cheese"the writing style should seem awful familiar.

Anyways, to the point of the post title, why did I choose "Musings of a Moose"? First, expect this to read like the voice(s) in my head which isn't scary but scattered so "Musings". Second, "Moose" for many reasons but the similarity in temperament between a moose and I and an identity from my days in Chippewa as "the Moose Who Prepares for the Journey" were foremost.

With that, welcome to my Musings!