Sometimes a small change can mean big change for the employment market. That’s what analysts are saying about the January unemployment numbers released last Friday by the Department of Labor.

Is the news all good for jobseekers? No, but it’s much better than anyone expected. Consider this: After losing 150,000 jobs in December, the U.S. economy lost only 20,000 jobs last month, a small statistical change that could signal much bigger things—most notably, that after a string of brutal jobs reports, the worst may be over. After revising its numbers from the end of last year, the Labor Department determined that unemployment fell to 9.7 percent last month from 10 percent.

Job-market watchers have jumped all over the unexpected good news. On the White House blog, Council of Economic Advisers chair Christina Romer wrote that “while unemployment remains a severe problem, today’s employment report contains encouraging signs of gradual labor market healing.”

Employment did rise in a few areas, including retail trade and temporary help employment, as well as manufacturing. The results of the Labor Department’s survey of households showed that 541,000 more Americans had work in January. But Romer’s choice of words may be an even bigger indicator in itself, as it marks the first time anyone analyzing the labor market has really talked about “healing” for the jobs outlook. Could the jobless recovery finally be getting back its jobs?

There are several caveats, of course. First of all, as Romer herself notes, the DOL’s revised numbers revealed that more than a million more jobs than previously thought have been lost in this recession. The new numbers suggest 8.4 million jobs have been lost in this recession, and it will likely take several years for all of those jobs to be restored to the economy.

But let’s look at that in a different light. Economic analysts believe we could add as many as 1.5 million jobs to the U.S. economy this year. For proof that 2010 is beginning to show signs of an improved outlook, look no further than CNN/Fortune’s new list of the best companies to work for in 2010. Out of those, almost a quarter have at least 500 openings each, which equals almost 88,000 jobs. In other words, Fortune’s top companies are hiring.

The top rankings this year, by the way, went to:

1. SAS
2. Edward Jones
3. Wegmans
4. Google
5. Nugget Market
6. DreamWorks Animation
7. NetApp
8. Boston Consulting Group
9. Qualcomm
10. Camden Property Trust

To some degree, this year’s list of top companies is just a reshuffling of last year’s, but it’s interesting to consider who moved and who didn’t. North-Carolina-based software firm SAS jumped all the way from #20 to #1, while Edward Jones remained at #2 and Google held at #4. Camden Property Trust made the biggest upward move in the top 10, from #41 to #10. Meanwhile, Cisco Systems, Genentech and Goldman Sachs all fell out of the top 10.

Unlike 2009’s list, not all of the top 10 companies had positive job growth this year, and the upticks were generally small in any case.

However, judging from what the companies are saying about their hiring for this year — and all of those openings — expect that to change on next year’s list.

For quite some time now, it’s seemed like you can’t turn around without finding someone tweeting, re-tweeting, or updating their Facebook status. The reality of social media has sunk into every corner of our culture.

Every corner, apparently, except one: HR. It’s hard to believe that the workplace could be so slow to deal with the social networking phenomenon, but a new study reveals that 75 percent of employers say their business has no formal policy instructing employees on the appropriate use of social networking sites on the job.

The study, “Employer Perspectives on Social Networking,” is being released along with the report “Social Networks vs. Management: Harness the Power of Social Media,” and compiles data from 34,000 businesses in 35 countries.

Beginning in October 2009, these employers were asked four key questions:

• Does your organization have a formal policy regarding employee use of external social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?
• In which of these areas has your policy been effective?
• In what two areas do you believe external social networks can provide the biggest boost to your organization in the future?
• Has your organization’s reputation ever been negatively affected as a result of employees’ use of social networking sites?

Three out of four employers reported their business had no policy governing social networking, and on top of that, another five percent couldn’t determine if such a policy existed or not!

The implications of these results are huge, for both businesses and workers. In a world where many people don’t think twice about regularly logging in to these sites, employers stand to lose a significant number of number of man-hours to shared Flickr streams and Ashton Kutcher’s latest posts.

In fact, 63 percent of employers who did have social networking policies in place reported that those policies improved productivity. More than a third also said their social-networking policies had helped to protect their company’s intellectual property and other proprietary information.

HR professionals should also consider that the lack of a policy can leave both managers and their employees feeling vulnerable. Many workers have already adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy when it comes to social networking at work, and may think the lack of specific guidelines protects them from disciplinary action. Managers may be frustrated by a perceived lack of support when they think social networking is leading to a loss in productivity. This is one case where any policy may be better than nothing — only 2 percent felt that their company’s guidelines were not effective.

About two-thirds of the existing policies cover only restrictions on the use of social networking. However, the study also revealed that many employers feel this type of site, when properly regulated, has potential in the workplace, and that this upside should be considered when drafting a policy. Nearly 60 percent saw a bright future for social networking in their own business, believing it could be useful in building their brand (20%), improving collaboration and communication (19%), recruiting talent (15%), and hiring (13%).

According to MarketingVOX, there are even bigger possibilities — and pitfalls — for social networking in the corporate world:

“Social networks have become a goldmine of information for companies skilled in the art of connecting the dots - a little-noticed development that is beginning to concern companies. In many cases mining such information is completely legally. For example, one can examine public statements by company staffers - especially if they are inconsistent - that can point to new initiatives under way.

Bob Fox, head of a competitive intelligence program for Canadian entrepreneurs advises firms to monitor competitors’ comments in the media, on industry blogs, at conferences and, yes, on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.”

The study concludes that, in general, employers are taking a “wait and see” attitude toward social networking. That may be true, but “wait” is a word that doesn’t mean much in the 24/7 culture of social networking,

Our recent blog post about “Up in the Air” inspired Mackenzie Carpenter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to call us for a story she was writing about the movie and its portrayal of corporate layoffs.

Here are a few excerpts from Mackenzie’s piece, which appeared in Sunday’s paper:

Just how accurate a portrayal of your friendly corporate terminator is “Up in the Air” anyway?

Not very, say those who actually do it for a living.

“A lot of human resources people were excited when we found out that George Clooney was going to be playing one of us, and the movie is very good — but it doesn’t reflect HR consulting as I know it,” said Sanjay Sathe, founder and CEO of RiseSmart, a Silicon Valley-based outplacement firm, which provides job-search help and career coaching to laid-off employees.

“People who are laid off don’t want a generic pep talk from someone they don’t know. I can’t imagine that tactic being as effective in real life as it’s portrayed in the movie.”…

[T]he film’s premise that people doing the firing are emotionally detached is not true, argued Mr. Sathe.

“People go into human resources, as opposed to, say, finance or accounting, because they enjoy working with people, they genuinely like people and empathize with them … my experience is that layoffs are usually very difficult emotionally on HR people.”

Still, as the economy limps along, will employees be seeing more strangers — handsome or not — come to bid them so long and have fun with that gourmet cooking gig?

Despite recent growth in the outsourced human resources industry, most companies will continue to handle firings themselves — with consultants brought in to help plan the layoffs or, like his company, to help them find new jobs, Mr. Sathe said. And there’s one small detail in the film that cuts a little too close for comfort, he added.

“I wish Clooney’s character were not called a transition consultant in the film because we call our employees transition specialists.”

Just as Mr. Clooney delivers inspirational speeches to those he’s just fired, “We also give pep talks — not about building empires, but about how marketable they are based on a review of their backgrounds,” Mr. Sathe said.

“We might say, ‘Hey, have you considered applying for a job in the health care sector? Because your experience is great and would transfer very well to that industry.’ But I guess that kind of pep talk would not sell many movie tickets, would it?”

To follow up just a bit on the topic of empathy vs. detachment, I’ve recently read critiques of “Up in the Air” that argue that it’s not so much Clooney’s character, but the movie itself, that is detached and glib in dealing with corporate layoffs.

As Salon’s critic puts its:

What [director Jason] Reitman doesn’t seem to get is that [the film's] real-world testimonies are only a half-twist away from the slickster line of goods — “Losing your job is the best thing for you. Really!” — that Ryan’s character specializes in.

When Ryan is spouting these prefab pearls of wisdom, they’re treacherous falsehoods; when real people use them to make the best of a bad situation, they’re enlightenment. Reitman can’t even see the condescension in that.

By putting these faces in front of us — faces of people who have, most likely, suffered through some pretty rough times in real life — he isn’t making a grand statement about the precarious world we live in; he’s turning the misfortunes of others into a gimmick, a convenient hook on which to hang his movie.

That makes him less honorable than his smooth-talking, high-flying antihero. At least Ryan Bingham knows he’s selling us a line of bull.

Personally, I liked the film. But I suppose you could argue that if Reitman really gave a hoot about the fate of those laid off, he would have attempted to make a film like Time Out, which explores the pain of an executive who loses his job (but can’t bring himself to tell his family) in excruciating detail.

At the very least, I’d put the empathy of HR folks up against that of Hollywood types any day of the week.

Although the U.S. closed out 2009 with steep unemployment, some recently announced year-end data indicates that hiring is set to rebound in 2010. The encouraging news comes from this 2010 Job Forecast, which surveyed more than 2,700 hiring managers and human resource professionals about their staffing plans for the coming year.

While the forecast warns that employers are still keeping a cautious eye on the economy, their general reluctance to hire seems to be abating. Fully 20% of the employers surveyed said they plan to add permanent full-time employees in 2010 — up from 14% in 2009. Meanwhile, on the job-loss side, just 9% of the respondents said they plan to cut headcount, which is down from 16% in 2009.

These numbers, taken together, show plans for a 11% net gain in companies that are hiring full-time workers, which would bring welcome relief to our unemployment situation.

The sunny news is not confined to the U.S. According to The Wall Street Journal, a similar survey of our northern neighbor offered even better numbers: 29% of employers indicated that they plan to increase permanent full-time employment in 2010 — up from 18% in 2009. Only 9% plan to cut positions in 2010, making their “net hirers” number hit 20%.

Here are some other hiring practices the survey identified as growing trends for 2010:

• Rehiring laid-off workers
• Replacing low-performing employees
• Rehiring retirees / delaying retirement
• Continuing to hire contract workers to mitigate risk
• Increased need for bilingual workers

Not every field will see gains equally. Fields that the survey found were most likely to increase hiring were:

• 32%   Information technology
• 27%   Manufacturing
• 23%   Financial services
• 22%   Professional and business services
• 21%   Sales
• 21%   Healthcare
• 18%   Transportation
• 15%   Retail

In a related article, “The most secure jobs for 2010” describes careers likely to be in high demand in 2010 and beyond. While some made perfect sense — occupational therapist to our growing population of senior citizens is a needed specialty, and being a gas/electric/utilities strategic planning analyst in a time of energy crisis is surely secure — others came as an interesting surprise to me (for instance, I was not aware that there is a projected demand for more interior designers in spite of economic pressures, but the profession is on the rise). Check out the whole article to read their take on the most recession-proof jobs for the coming year.

What’s your sense of these numbers and trends? Will 2010 be the year we turn unemployment around? Do these “more companies hiring than firing” predictions seem feasible to you, based on what you’re seeing out in the field? Let us know in the comments, and please be sure to note your location, too. Not all regions are suffering unemployment equally, nor will they recover at the exact same pace. We’re interested in your eyewitness reports.

Human Resources has core functions around the beginning and end of each employee’s job, but no one should overlook all that HR has to offer during one’s tenure.

HR professionals can assist individual workers and entire teams with training, benefits, job satisfaction, and more — and you have help to offer them in return. So let 2010 be the start of a more symbiotic relationship with HR!

As pointed out in the Work Awesome blog post “Using Human Resources as Your Resource,” HR is the only department that actually exists just to help you.

With current employment trends, there’s a good chance that downsizing or hiring freezes have left HR with less to do temporarily (do a little research to see how your HR department has been affected, of course). Naturally, allowing them to assist employees in transition is more time-sensitive and trumps your needs, but if they have time to help you develop your skills, teamwork, and satisfaction, take advantage of their expertise.

Here are Work Awesome’s top tips to utilize HR effectively:

• Ask for their expertise on benefits: learn about flexible spending, 401(k) accounts, and more
• Inquire about training: they may be able to help with core skills such as communication or time management, or college courses in your specialty
• Offer to help them with employee satisfaction: by volunteering to help on a committee that measures worker satisfaction, you can make your own voice heard while helping the organization

It’s not just factual info that you can get from HR, either. You can cultivate a real partnership with someone in that department:

Today’s HR pros are business-focused. They help engineer ways to make the business better, and to do that they have to understand the business — and all its components. That means that someone in HR can offer you a lot more than just accurate information about the vacation plan. She could help you redesign jobs, create an incentive plan to drive up profits, or find an assessment tool to improve your hiring success.

That’s what the ABC News article, “How Human Resources Can Help You Get the Most Out of Your Team,” says — and it lists specific, actionable tips for you to begin bonding with HR and start working toward your mutual benefit.

First, they advise, figure out the structure of your HR department: who are the specialists, and who are the generalists? Try to bond with the person in the most appropriate role, as defined by your needs.

Then, after building up some trust and interest, offer to take them out to lunch specifically to teach them something about your sector of the business (HR likes to learn about different parts of the organization as much as you do).

Eventually, shift the relationship by asking them to teach you something about your company’s HR function: how are policies arrived at? What are company-wide priorities? Who are the decision makers? As the relationship develops, keep them in the loop about your department’s progress. The goal is to be equally looped into their policies and culture.

Perhaps the best tip I read in this article was the suggestion to volunteer to pilot new programs that HR is considering. If they want to try out flex time, job rotation, job sharing, or any other unconventional arrangement, people who have previously partnered with HR and offered helpful feedback are a natural fit for experiments. This is a great way to stay cutting-edge within the company and make sure that your opinions are heard.

Human Resources has a lot more to offer employees than simple hiring functions and lists of holidays, but many people never invest the time to build a mutually supportive relationship with HR. Try to see that the department is a resource for you, and respectfully use it to better your career, your team, and your entire organization.

If one of your business resolutions for 2010 is that your company should grow as a learning organization, developing a mentoring program should be high on your to-do list. Mentoring is useful and popular because it benefits the individual mentors and protégés alike, all while helping the larger organization. Whether you are focused on grooming existing talent or simply sharing organizational knowledge, mentoring can help your organization grow, thrive, and change.

A notable expert in the field of mentoring is Lois J. Zachary, Ed.D. Dr. Zachary is the author of the books The Mentor’s Guide: Facilitating Effective Learning Relationships, The Mentee’s Guide: Making Mentoring Work for You, and Creating a Mentoring Culture: The Organization’s Guide. She regularly blogs about mentoring at Lois Zachary’s Mentoring Expert Blog. She writes:

A mentoring culture is a vivid expression of an organization’s vitality. Its presence enables an organization to augment learning, maximize time and effort, and better utilize its resources. The relationship skills learned through mentoring benefit relationships throughout the organization. As these relationships deepen, people feel more connected to the organization. Ultimately, the learning that results creates value for the entire organization.

Her article on mentoring culture delves into the eight hallmarks of an organization that can support a successful mentoring program. The eight points are covered in depth here in Part 1 and Part 2 — and really deserve their own full reading, because they’re that good — but a quick look at what’s necessary is right here:

• Accountability — Determine goals, responsibilities, desired outcomes and accomplishments
• Alignment — Ensure a cultural fit within your organization
• Communication — Use consistency in your message, but express it using multiple modalities
• Value and Visibility — Employ branding, messaging, and rewards for your program
• Demand — Use buzz about your program to create a “multiplier effect”
• Multiple Mentoring Opportunities — Support multiple types of mentoring (both group and one-on-one, for instance) to appeal to a wide population
• Education and Training — Integrate the program with other training opportunities while remaining flexible and diverse
• Safety Nets — Anticipate challenges and provide pro-active support to participants to ensure success

This is just a short preview of Dr. Zachary’s wisdom; for elaboration on these themes, you’ll want to look into her books or her mentoring blog.

As you plan a program, you will undoubtedly find yourself asking: why do some mentoring programs thrive, while some fail? How can I ensure that I am doing what’s necessary for my fledgling mentoring program to thrive?

HR consultant and writer Judith Lindenberger tackled this question on Evan Carmichael’s blog in the thought-provoking post “Play ‘20 Questions’ to Develop a Successful Mentoring Program.” She recommends you ask yourself her 20 illuminating questions before you seriously embark on a mentoring program. Some of the questions are far-seeing and strategic, while others are extremely down-to-earth and practical. I guarantee that among the 20 questions, there are at least a few you haven’t considered yet. You’ll consider issues such as these:

• What are our business reasons for developing a mentoring program?
• How will we pair mentors and protégés?
• What are our criteria for success?
• How will we motivate our employees to participate?
• What should we do to support long-distance mentoring?

…and 15 more. Launching a mentoring program can bring great value to your organization, but because it affects so many individuals, you’ll want to thoroughly research the issue first, identifying resources, goals, mechanisms, measurements, and more. If you use the mentoring culture resources we have provided here, you’ll be much better prepared to meet the challenges of introducing mentoring to your team and furthering your collective journey into becoming a true learning organization.

Any experience launching a mentoring program? Share your best tips in the comments!

“Career transition” is on a lot of minds these days. The U.S. has more than 15 million unemployed — and if you count the discouraged and underemployed, the number is more like 27 million. You may be one of these people seeking a new job, or you may be one of millions of others who are employed, but trying to strategize a major career change in a tough market. No matter the specifics, the economic downturn is probably affecting your career.

As you craft your long-term plans, you’ll want to consider where the jobs are — and where they are going. Consumption drives these patterns, but so does technology. Don’t forget to account for older generations retiring and leaving needed jobs open, either. All of these elements affect which jobs are available.

Then, to maximize your future demand, think about adapting your strategy — be it higher education, government re-training, or developing a new area of expertise — to a field that is projected to grow.

To help you with your planning, we peeked into our “crystal ball” (actually, government projections) to share the latest statistics for the industries growing the most, and the occupations that will be adding the largest amount of workers, now through 2018.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently published its 2010-11 edition of  the Occupational Outlook Handbook, a report on occupations and employment growth trends that is updated every two years. This particular update covers 2008-2018 — meaning it has data through the end of 2008, and projects out to 2018. This is notable because it does cover one full year of the downturn (2008), which began in December 2007. Nationwide, employment is projected to increase by 15.3 million (approximately 10%) over the decade between 2008 and 2018, and the OOH describes exactly where the growth will be. Here is the OOH’s list of the 20 “fastest-growing” professions through 2018, as measured by percentage of growth.

1. Biomedical engineers: Slated to add 11,600 jobs, a 72% increase
2. Network systems and data communication analysts: Will add 155,800 jobs, a 53% increase
3. Home health aides: Set to add 460,900 jobs, an increase of 50%
4. Personal and home care aides: Will grow by 375,800 openings, or 46%
5. Financial examiners: Slated to add 11,100 jobs, an increase of 41%
6. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists: 44,200 jobs will be added, a 40% growth rate
7. Physician assistants: This field will add 29,200 jobs, growing by 39%
8. Skin care specialists: Set to add 14,700 positions, growing by 38%
9. Biochemists and biophysicists: Will grow by 8,700 positions, or 37%
10. Athletic trainers: Set to add 6,000 jobs, a gain of 37%
11. Physical therapist aides: 16,700 jobs will be added, a gain of 36%
12. Dental hygienists: The workforce will add 62,900 jobs, an increase of 36%
13. Veterinary technologists and technicians:  Slated to add 28,500 jobs, a 36% increase
14. Dental assistants: Will be adding 105,600 jobs, growing by 36%
15. Computer software engineers, applications: Set to add 175,100 jobs, a growth rate of 34%
16. Medical assistants: Will grow by 163,900 personnel, an increase of 34%
17. Physical therapist assistants: 21,200 jobs will be added, growing by 33%
18. Veterinarians: Will add 19,700 jobs, an increase of 33%
19. Self-enrichment education teachers: Slated to add 81,300 positions, an increase of 32%
20. Compliance officers, except agriculture, construction, health and safety, and transportation: Will add 80,800 jobs, growing by 31%

The first thing to note about this list is that a smaller industry can show an explosive rate of growth, yet still add fewer jobs in total than a huge industry that is growing more slowly. This is shown by the top occupation, biomedical engineer, which is going up steeply (72%!), but in spite of this is still only adding one job for every 39 added of the #3 job, home health assistant.

Examining the above list, here are some big trends I observe in the fastest-growing industries:

Biological sciences: In the Top 20, we see a high demand for biomedical engineers (#1) and biochemists and biophysicists ( #9), which reflects medicine’s growing interest in genetic research and biologic drugs. If you are inclined toward the sciences, biology would be a strategic area to explore.

IT: Don’t overlook the second-fastest-growing job, network systems and data communication analysts, which is set to add more than 150,000 new jobs, while computer software engineers, applications, #15, is adding another 175,000. Together, this is 325,000 jobs, so people who can run networks and write software will definitely continue to be needed.

Health assistance: Home health aide is #3, while personal and home care aides are right behind at #4. It makes sense: our increasingly aging population has an independent spirit, values their health, and would like help with it at home rather than at an institution. Physician assistants (#7), dental hygienists (#12), dental assistants (#14) also reflect these demographics, plus increased access to and demand for medical and dental services. Could you grow a career around this?

Veterinary sciences: The pet is of ever-increasing importance in the U.S.: people devote more of their money to a pet’s needs than before, and rates of pet ownership are up. So it’s not surprising to see veterinarians at #18 and veterinary technologists and technicians at #13. If you love animals, veterinary medicine may be the path for you.

Those were the occupations with steep growth. If you’re more interested in which occupations will be adding the most jobs in terms of sheer numbers, the following list (also from the new edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook) delivers that. Here are the 20 occupations that will be adding the most new jobs, in individual openings:

1. Registered nurses (581,500)
2. Home health aides (460,900)
3. Customer service representatives (399,500)
4. Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food (394,300)
5. Personal and home care aides (375,800)
6. Retail salespersons (374,700)
7. Office clerks, general (358,700)
8. Accountants and auditors (279,400)
9. Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants (276,000)
10. Postsecondary teachers (256,900)
11. Construction laborers (255,900)
12. Elementary school teachers, except special education (244,200)
13. Truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer (232,900)
14. Landscaping and groundskeeping workers (217,100)
15. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks (212,400)
16. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants (204,400)
17. Management analysts (178,300)
18. Computer software engineers, applications (175,100)
19. Receptionists and information clerks (172,900)
20. Carpenters (165,400)

Observations on the list of occupations that are growing the most:

Healthcare: The need for registered nurses is #1. Although they didn’t make the Top 20, you should know that licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses came in at #24 on the list, and physicians and surgeons ranked #28. Being a doctor or nurse has always been an in-demand profession, and the demand will continue.

Services: The service sector is adding millions of jobs in the coming eight years. A large portion of them are adjacent to healthcare; home health aides are #2, while nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants is #9, and personal and home care aides is #5. Other growth areas in service are food preparation and landscaping.

Construction and carpentry: Good news! Building is projected to come back from its current slump, making construction laborer #11 on this list, and carpenter #20.

For more planning resources, be sure to visit the OOH website. There, you can read up on hundreds of jobs. For each job, you will find descriptions of the duties and working conditions, the skills and experience needed, projected earnings, and even information on the job in your region. It is a valuable resource for imagining, planning, and implementing your successful career transition.

The impact of social media cannot be denied. The 2009 word of the year was “tweet,” and the word of the decade was “google,” according to the American Dialect Society. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube—which are defined by their user-generated content—have wiggled their way into most people’s working hours, and thus onto many workplace computers.

In the field of Human Resources, most talk of social media has to do with pre-employment: talent sourcing, advertising job openings, and performing background checks. But social media is now integrated with each stage of the employee lifecycle: before, during, and after. HR practitioners should study their proper use (and possible misuse), and learn what steps to take now to maximize their benefit while heading off potential legal problems.

An excellent article on this topic was just published in The National Law Journal. In “Social media permeate the employment life cycle: Employers must address their use and misuse before, during and after an employee’s tenure,” labor and employment attorney Renee M. Jackson writes about the simultaneous opportunities and risk presented by social media. Here are some of her top thoughts, as well as those of HR pros, on points you should consider at each stage of the employee lifecycle.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT

The networking power of social media is undeniably helping people find jobs, and helping companies find talent. If you’re ready to take full advantage of it, check out an article like Fistful of HR’s “5 Must-Use Social Media Tools For HR & Recruiting Professionals In 2009.”

Know this, though: because people now publicly disclose much more information than they did in the past, organizations must take care, writes Jackson in The National Law Journal:

… Applicants may reveal more information about themselves through social media than they normally would during the hiring process. In making hiring decisions, employers can lawfully use information relating to an applicant’s illegal drug use, poor work ethic, poor writing or communications skills, feelings about previous employers and racist or other discriminatory tendencies. Employers may also lawfully consider an applicant’s general poor judgment in maintenance of his or her public online persona.

Employers, however, may face liability under federal, state and local law for using any information learned from social media about an applicant’s protected class status — race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, etc. — in a hiring decision. It may be hard for the employer to prove in later litigation that it only viewed, but didn’t actually use, the information obtained in a social medium when making its hiring decision.

Your organization must seriously consider whether you want to use social media in your talent searches at all. If you do, Jackson recommends that you follow these guidelines:

• Conduct uniform searches that are just and consistent
• Use a non-biased third party to perform social media research
• Do not “friend” applicants to gain access to non-public information
• And other important points

DURING EMPLOYMENT

One of the biggest issues caused by social media during an employee tenure is the simple theft of working time. There are also matters of privacy, nondisclosure, taboo topics and hostile work environment, brand protection, and many more. The good news is, this is the stage when you have the most control over the situation. Most organizations would benefit from a well-researched, clear, and fairly applied social media policy. To research the matter, I recommend  beginning with “10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy” by Sharlyn Lauby, who you may know as The HR Bartender, or “How to Develop a Social Media Policy” from About.com. There are a wide range of policies, but one thing all the experts agree on is that a successful policy is not arbitrary, but is a genuine expression of the needs of an organization which has considered both the risks and rewards of this new media.

Some of Jackson’s top recommendations for points to include in a policy are:

• A prohibition on disclosure of the employer’s confidential, trade secret or proprietary information
• A request that employees keep company logos or trademarks off their blogs and profiles and not mention the company in commentary, unless for business purposes
• An instruction that employees not post or blog during business hours, unless for business purposes
• A request that employees bring work-related complaints to human resources before blogging or posting about such complaints
• And others

AFTER EMPLOYMENT

Then, there are the former employees. Some will be nice, and some will be not-so-nice.

The best defense against nightmare scenarios like this and like this is a having had a good social media policy in the first place—one that lasts beyond employment, if at all possible. But if you are dealing with a situation that falls outside of that, you might want to read an article such as “Dealing with Disgruntled Ex-employees via Social Media.”

Another huge issue is recommendations. Increasingly, people are asking former colleagues to write them recommendations on social media such as LinkedIn. Is that the same as an official post-employment recommendation? Jackson says yes—although it’s difficult to define when people are speaking for themselves, and when they are speaking on behalf of the organization. It’s a good reason to have a solid policy in place.

The warmest and fuzziest scenario is positive relations through social media in the form of corporate alumni networks. In Computer World’s article, “The new word for tech’s ex-employees is ‘alum’” large, successful sites catering to groups of ex-employees are examined. Microsoft’s alumni network, for example, has 10,000 members—what an incredible opportunity for networking and goodwill!

THE TAKEAWAY

What HR should take away from this, writes Jackson, is that the risks of social media are too great to be ignored any longer.

First, employers must understand the myriad issues surrounding social media in the workplace in order to strike the appropriate balance in the eyes of their employees and the law. Then, employers must craft appropriate policies and procedures regarding social media that are consistent with their industry and firm culture, and apply such policies in a consistent, objective and nondiscriminatory way.

Workers are tweeting, googling, and friending, and they’re doing it at all stages of employment. We need to acknowledge this, and craft good policies in response.

I don’t generally think of myself as a movie reviewer, but my critique of “Up in the Air” — written, of course, from my perspective as the CEO of an outplacement firm — has gotten some attention, first in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and then in the online Wall Street Journal.

Wrote the Journal’s Josh Beckerman of our press release on the movie (which this week was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture):

Best of all is RiseSmart’s debunking of the theory that “laid-off workers can be mollified with generic pep talks.” The company invokes Clooney’s line that “anyone who ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you are sitting, and it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it.”

RiseSmart says “the thought that this kind of condescending pep talk would ‘work’ on people is insulting to those who have actually had to go through this experience.” Right on. The downsizing victims in the movie are too easily impressed - the cynical J.K. Simmons character is rapidly persuaded about the merits of opening a restaurant during the credit crunch, and there’s a queasy suggestion that layoffs are okay because you get to spend more time with your family.

Since Hollywood doesn’t make many movies about HR consultants, my 15 minutes of fame as a film critic is probably over. So Roger Ebert, don’t quit your day job.

But I would like to add one more point about the movie, which I’ve come to upon reflection. The unflattering treatment of HR consultants in “Up in the Air” might normally be dismissed as standard Hollywood storytelling. But the movie’s popularity and Oscar nod suggest it has struck a chord of authenticity with audiences.

Why so? I think it’s at least partly because hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of workers who have been laid-off in recent years have been less than pleased with the quality — and the results — of the help they have received from traditional outplacement firms. It’s the real story of old-school outplacement, which the Wall Street Journal told a few months back.

So ironically, for all its inaccuracies, “Up in the Air” points to the reason I started RiseSmart Transition Concierge in the first place — to make outplacement services more accountable to both displaced workers and their employers, by getting employees back to work sooner.

Affiliated Computer Services, a Fortune 500 company and global leader in business process outsourcing and information technology services, has introduced a new service offering, ACS Transition Services - Powered by RiseSmart.

Said Mark Squiers, executive managing director of ACS Human Resources Outsourcing services, in the company’s press release:

This is a new model for transition services, one that is geared to providing strong returns for both employers and employees. By eliminating costly traditional services like office space and group seminars, which have been found to be of low value to employees, the focus is on aggressively helping workers find a new job. Valuable services such as professional resume writing and personalized support for individuals remain, while companies have the ability to quickly deploy the additional services without dealing with infrastructure issues.

We are delighted to partner with ACS as we continue to transform the way outplacement works, both for employees and employers.

2009 was a long and challenging year for jobseekers. Unemployment reached record highs, and competition for jobs was fierce. If you had trouble landing your ideal job, you weren’t alone.

As we cross into 2010, it’s a natural time to take stock of your 2009 job search: what worked, and what didn’t; what time was well spent, and what time was wasted. If you were using methods that didn’t give good returns on your time and energy, now is the time to drop them.

Then, resolve to channel your fresh start and high energy into new habits designed to get you into your ideal job in the coming year. Here are six recommended resolutions to make your job search successful in 2010.

Resolution #1: I will create a list of targeted employers.
If you’re only applying to jobs that you see being advertised, you’re leaving key elements of your job search up to chance. Take control of your future by identifying the organizations in your industry where you would like to work — even if they don’t have any job openings at the moment. Do your research, and make up a list of 8-12 target employers with products or cultures you admire. Devote time to introducing yourself to them as a future candidate. Get on their radar now, before a job is even open, and sow the seeds for them to call on you later on when something opens up. This is one of the best ways to take advantage of the “hidden job market.” It requires time and planning, but the end result is a position with a company you hand-selected as a good match for your skills and desires.

Resolution #2: I will carry job-search business cards.
A person’s job is a large part of their identity, and sometimes displaced workers feel lost without the security of a title and a business card. But do you really want to be scribbling your contact information on a napkin or index card when you network in public? Increase your poise, confidence, and professional appearance by creating and carrying a personal business card just for your job search. They are easy to produce at home with a printer, or simply use a free service such as Vistaprint, which offers jobhunters 250 cards printed free (pay only shipping and handling). Job-search cards are the perfect positive marketing tool — shorter than a resume, but something physical for people to take away and remember you by. This leads to our next resolution:

Resolution #3: I will expand my network.
No matter how much you are networking, you could undoubtedly do more. Jobseekers are often shy about expanding their network, but people are typically flattered to be asked for their expertise or connections. So take the plunge: if you haven’t made the time for Facebook or LinkedIn, now is the time (keep it professional on Facebook, of course). And don’t just concentrate on online, either! Whenever you talk with a friend, peer, neighbor, or relative, aim to get at least one informational contact (not a job interview, but a person you can call and chat with for 10 minutes or so about their industry) out of the conversation. While jobseeking, you should aim to have a short informational call or coffee meeting at least a few times a month. People will be impressed with your initiative, and flattered by your attention. You may be surprised where these short, no-pressure meetings can take you.

Resolution #4: I will build my personal brand.
This is a fairly new element of the job search, and as such, many older jobseekers are not aware of it. The candidate’s role now goes far beyond their resume; it is now common for employers to do preliminary research on you on the Internet before you are contacted. Your competitors are building their personal brand online, and so should you. Start commenting on an industry with a Twitter account or on a free blog at WordPress or Blogger; establish your expertise. Benefit #1 is that you’ll make great industry connections. Benefit #2 is that you’ll shape your online image for those who are researching you. Both are necessary for your successful 2010 job search.

Resolution #5: I will revamp my resume and cover letter.
When was the last time you really gave these crucial materials more than a simple update? Adding your last position is the bare minimum, and for 2010, you owe yourself an upgrade. Research current job ads for the hot keywords are in your field, and make sure your terminology matches the current jargon. Evaluate the entire document, even older sections that have served you well for years — these are the very sections that could benefit from a re-write in the context of your later accomplishments. Aim for a clean, simple look. When you’re done, save a formatted version for printing and email attachments, and a plain text version for online forms.

Resolution #6: I will genuinely seek out feedback.
Many jobseekers get “stuck” on some issue that they don’t even know about. Maybe it’s the presentation of their resume; maybe it’s some interviewing quirk. The point is, they won’t ever know about it unless they ask their “support squad” for constructive criticism. Unfortunately, due to rejection in the job market, these same people may feel too vulnerable to ask for any feedback. If this sounds like it might apply to you, turn to trusted friends and family for resume critiques, mock interviews, and ideas about where your talents might be useful. They know you better than anyone, and you should resolve not to let any insecurity prevent you from asking for their excellent help and perspective. Ask for feedback, and you may get a surprising boost!

Do you have any job-related resolutions for the New Year? We’d love to hear about them. Share your inspiration and progress in the comments.

There are just 45 days left in 2009, and for many managers, it’s time for employee reviews. (Searching for “performance reviews” on Twitter at this time of year leads you to countless people who are either busy writing them, or nervously waiting to receive one.) It may have crossed your mind to skip or postpone performance reviews this year – as the business landscape keeps changing, the goals you made 12 months ago may seem unrealistic, or perhaps your organization has a freeze on salary increases. But no matter how bad the economy is, you cannot afford to miss giving feedback to your people.

Here are five compelling reasons why.

1. Simple legalities. You expect your employees to live by the handbook? Then so should management. If you have a written policy committing to an annual review, then provide the review. Skipping it means risking your reputation in court against a dismissed worker, who may portray the skipped review as a sign of poor management or bad communication.
2. Retain top talent. In tough times, you need your best people more than ever. Instead of avoiding their review because of economic turmoil, make a point of meeting with them and letting them know how much you appreciate them, even if the salary and bonus situation is not what it once was.
3. Put underperformers on warning. You can’t afford to have poor performers on board, so use the review as a chance to help them grow into a productive member of the team, or set the stage for their departure.
4. Re-align employees with the big-picture goals. Reviews aren’t just for the employees; they’re also a great time to revisit the company’s larger goals and make certain that the work being done reflects them.
5. Prepare for future difficulty or change. If the time should come in the future for a sale of the business, or a mass layoff, having recent, reliable documentation on hand will streamline the process. Same goes if new leadership is brought aboard.

No matter how rocky the economic outlook, your employees deserve to have a formal check-in on their progress. Plus, many aspects of the performance review directly benefit management (it’s not just handing out raises!). So don’t even consider skipping this important step, no matter how much you may be dreading performance review time in a bad economy. Evaluations can actually help you with your goals for the organization!

For more information:

• You can’t afford to skip reviews A well-argued case from Entrepreneur magazine.
• Should We Skip Performance Appraisals This Year? From 2008, but still very relevant to the issues we’re facing one year later.
• Don’t skip mid-year performance reviews Written about mid-year reviews, but this Wall St. Journal piece applies to year-end reviews equally well.
  

The months of November and December are traditionally spent preparing for, and enjoying, holidays such as Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s. People who work in offices are often overloaded as they try to combine personal goals such as shopping, traveling, and hosting family with work goals such as finishing all of their projects before their holiday break. It’s a well-documented fact that stress and depression levels soar at this time of year.

At the same time, it’s a crucial period for businesses trying to achieve certain goals by year’s end. The clash of these important issues can be enough to bring even the best performer down.

We recommend that HR managers recognize that employees are likely to be distracted, stressed, and unfocused around the holidays, and take pro-active steps to minimize their stress and help keep their eyes on the prize at this challenging time of year.

Keeping work-related focus during the holidays is a issue that comes up annually, so we turned to the very best articles on the subject, written over the past few years, to glean the best ideas in the business. Some are Santa-like, and some have a touch of Scrooge about them, but all of them have been recommended by bloggers we know and respect.

• Set a good example as a manager. If “focus” is something you are asking of employees, don’t cheat by shopping online during working hours, and don’t skate out of the office early just because the in-laws are town. Take the high road, every time.
• Watch out for signs of the “winter blues.” As a manager, be on the lookout for signs among your people of “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” abbreviated SAD, a condition whereby a lack of sunlight causes depression. The short days of the winter months, combined with work anxiety and the stress of the holidays, can quickly add up to a serious medical problem. Fortunately, if diagnosed, SAD can easily be treated with light therapy and/or antidepressants.
• Celebrate together. It’s good for morale to acknowledge that it is a special season. Your celebration can be as simple as coffee and cake in the break room, or as elaborate as a holiday party in an upscale restaurant. Many workplaces enjoy a small gift exchange among employees, and employers who have had a good year often give out gift certificates or small tokens of appreciation.
• If you give year-end bonuses, tie them to performance. Oftentimes, these bonuses are taken for granted. Work around this false perception by setting up a clear expectation that bonuses are tied to performance to keep people focused until they actually get the check.
• Give the gift of time. Sometimes, a little free time in a busy season is even more precious than cash. Consider flexible scheduling at this time of year, or simply give everyone a certain afternoon off to do their cooking, cleaning, shopping, wrapping, and other holiday tasks. What it may cost you in a few hours’ wages is more than made up for by the goodwill it brings back.
• Engage people’s giving spirit – outside the organization. People tend to forget any petty concerns and stress when they focus on something bigger and outside of themselves. Build on their holiday spirit and willingness to give back with an employer-sponsored toy drive, charity partnership, or volunteer time spent at a soup kitchen. It will do good, and bring your team together. Together, you can do much more than any of you could do alone.

• 8 Simple Steps for Maintaining Employee Efficiency during the Holiday Season
• How to Stay Focused During the Holiday Season
• Holidaze: Beating the Holiday Blues and Stress
• Holiday Stress Hotspots: Manage Holiday Stress with Knowledge

I usually write to you from an HR perspective, but today’s blog is from my perspective as a job-seeker. I just finished an 80-minute task that was deeply demoralizing: I applied for a job using some of the industry’s “best” employee screening software. What I experienced was excruciating.

I thought the process would be short-ish, perhaps 15 minutes at the most, because the hiring company used a well-known screening software that I had used before. I even remembered my username and password! However, this did not seem to mean that the system remembered me, as once I was “welcomed back,” we began with my name, address, email, and other depressingly basic information.

I had hoped that the system would have retained my resume (isn’t that why I have an account and a password?), but no such luck. But if I uploaded one, the site promised, it would “read” my resume and extract the relevant information. I knew better than to upload my “fancy” PDF, and chose the simplest Word document I had. Even so, all the software could extract were my dates of employment. As I began the tedious task of filling in company names, titles, duties, and more, I recalled performing the exact same task with this same software just a few months ago. Why could it not remember me or save any information to my account?

Then things got… deep. Before I could actually submit my application, I had to provide:

• the names, titles, and contact info for not one, not two, but three professional references
• starting and ending salaries for every position I have ever held
• the reason I left each and every job, and whether it was voluntary or involuntary
• consent for a background check and a credit check
• a pledge to submit to a drug test within 72 hours of an offer of employment
• a written explanation of any gaps in my employment lasting 30 days or more

At this point, I started to feel that I was just giving the company reasons to reject me. After all, this job and I are not even at the courtship stage yet! Is it really necessary to compile such an exhaustive list on a candidate that you haven’t even spoken to – and may never speak to? Of course, I support the right of HR people to get the information they need to do their jobs, and I do understand the role of screening software, but this process left zero room for any magic, any spark, any feeling of “this is the right job for her” or “she’s the right person for this job.”

Imagine for a moment that this software was used for pre-screening romantic partners instead of potential employees. Who would put up with answering this depth and breadth of questions simply to see if there is mutual interest in a coffee date? (And who could tolerate the intense scrutiny?) I doubt that most of us would have met our current love interest if the date had been preceded by a questionnaire that demanded you list each former relationship, your levels of satisfaction with it, whether your separation was voluntary or involuntary, and phone numbers and email addresses of your former sweethearts for a “romance reference check.”

The automation of this system, and its extremely detailed nature, left me feeling more “dissected” than “discovered.” I knew perfectly well that I was typing away to a database, not a human, and that the database was designed to weed me out, not “discover talent” or help the employer and I connect. I don’t have anything to hide about my past, but this process was SO exacting that I felt I was not able to make my best qualities, skills, and experiences shine. Worse still, I was forced to tip my hand on the matter of compensation. If this employer ever decides to contact me, I’ve already lost the salary negotiation, unless I was devious enough to lie, which is a prohibited activity that I agreed not to do elsewhere in the application.

I probably wouldn’t go so far as to use the word “suck” to describe this kind of software, but other bloggers certainly do:

• Hey Employer, Your Online Application Sucks!
• Online job application systems suck
• Job Applications Suck

I’m interested in hearing solutions from the job-seeking side to the time-consuming process of screening. I know that using a portable resume format from a service like ResumePal is a good start in saving time on redundant application info. Many people say, “Dodge the software altogether and guerrilla-approach the HR department.” While this may be effective, the very fact that so many people advise doing an end-run around the software reinforces to me that it is more of a barrier than a doorway.

Is there a better way? Let us know in the comments.

They say that time is the most precious gift you can give. And if that time is paid time off – and the recipient is truly in need – it is beyond precious.

This deeply meaningful gift is being given not by friends, not by family… but by co-workers. I’m talking about a trend in generosity that should be quite interesting to HR professionals: employees donating their Paid Time Off (PTO) to colleagues who need it to treat an illness or care for a family member who is chronically ill, or for employees who have gone through a major disaster.

I’ve known about catastrophic leave-sharing programs for some time, but I’ve come to appreciate this trend from reading a site called GivesMeHope which focuses on “life’s beautiful moments.” It’s a simple, text-based site, filled with short anecdotes submitted by users. Each story ends with a statement of what “gives me hope,” or, as they put it, “GMH.” Check out this story:

When my mom was dying of cancer, my dad had to keep working to keep his health insurance. His midsize company has a program by which employees can transfer paid time off to one another. A person in HR sent out an email explaining his situation. Within 3 hours, my father had 12 weeks of paid vacation. Strangers’ sacrifices GMH.

And this one:

A woman my mom works with has cancer and has been out of work for a long time. She recently found out she has to be out for longer but doesn’t have enough sick days left to cover it. Every nurse on my mom’s floor at the hospital is donating at least one of their paid sick days to her so she can finish her treatment – and get paid for it. GMH.

And finally, this one:

My girlfriend got the swine flu and was out of work for two weeks. Her paid time off wasn’t enough to cover the absence. When she got her first paycheck after returning, she found one of her coworkers had donated 8 hours of paid time off to her. Anonymously. She’s only been there 6 months. GMH.

If these stories warm your heart, consider starting a leave-sharing program for your employees. Most examples of leave-sharing come from universities – most notably the University of California system – but state and local governments also offer it, as well as some labor unions, non-profits, and private corporations. It may come with a bit of red tape, but leave-sharing programs are a low-cost, high-impact way to show thoughtful, flexible support to employees who fall upon tragic times. The show of altruism is wonderful for morale and can really bond a team.

Of course, transferring PTO between employees requires a solid policy – to describe what circumstances and family members qualify, and to determine how the program will be administered. It is best to address all this before a potentially emotional situation arises. Each situation must be researched carefully. There may be tax consequences, or state rules concerning what kind of hours can be donated (sick leave, holiday leave, or compensatory time may be treated differently.)

To explore this in more detail, we recommend An Employer’s Guide to Employee Leave-Sharing Programs as a start.

We’ve collected some examples of leave-sharing policies to get you started exploring the topic:

• Catastrophic Leave Sharing  Program from the University of California at Davis
• Catastrophic Leave Sharing Program for the City of Salem, Oregon
• Advocate Health Care PTO Sharing / Donation
• Catastrophic Leave Sharing Bank for Coast Federation of Classified Employees

Do these stories give you hope? Do you have a story of altruistic leave-sharing that you would like to share with our readers?

It’s been a difficult year for everyone, and the economic downturn has affected how companies celebrate the holiday season. In a time of layoffs and furloughs, it just doesn’t seem right to celebrate lavishly.

Still, even if you’re mentally prepared for a scale-back, the severity of the actual numbers may surprise you. The annual Challenger Gray & Christmas survey showed that just 62% of businesses will have a holiday party this year. That’s down from 77% in 2008, and 90% in 2007 – meaning that 28% of businesses have dropped the custom in just two years. Want more proof? In her recent post “The 2009 Holiday Party: Holding On…” Ann Bares of Compensation Force cited some research from BLR about the state of the 2009 holiday party:

• For 37% of employers, the budget will be about the same.
• For 24% of employers, the budget will be smaller.
• 20% say they had no holiday party last year and won’t have one this year either.
• 14% say they had one last year but won’t this year.

In a nod to tough times, Coca-Cola execs said that they would be making a donation to a hunger-prevention charity instead of throwing a holiday bash – for the second year in a row. Individual departments will be encouraged to throw potluck lunches to celebrate instead, reported business publication TheStreet.com.

Some business owners who are really getting into the right spirit this year were James and Melinda Hemdon, profiled in the Orange County Register story “O.C. businesses trim, not end, year-end parties. ” The couple, who own Scuba.com, used to throw a catered dinner cruise. This year, though, in an attempt to scale back, they’re cooking a homemade dinner at their own house for staff.

It seems to me that employees who are facing more work for less pay, along with the loss of colleagues and an uncertain future, are likely to appreciate these gestures of restraint very much. It’s good for members of an organization to get together and appreciate what they have together, without spending money in such a way that calls their judgment into question. “Low-key” seems to be the watchword as we close out a very tough 2009.

How is your company handling the 2009 holiday party? Are you part of the 14% that have retired the office party this year? Do you have any creative ideas for celebrating on a budget? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

We are pleased to be the subject of a feature in the IndUS Business Journal that went live online today. Here’s an excerpt:

Corporate outplacement is a mainstay in corporate America and is certainly on the uptick now as the unemployment rate continues to rise and more and more companies reduce their headcounts. However, as [RiseSmart CEO Sanjay] Sathe points out, traditionally corporate outplacement provided services such as grief counseling and gave laid-off employees work space for short periods — while RiseSmart’s Transition Concierge puts the emphasis on employment.

“We really see filling an unmet need on the corporate side,” said Sathe. “We focus on what is important in the transition — to get to the next job.”

Transition Concierge provides RiseSmart’s Internet job searching power, a team of resume writers and support from a transition specialist for six months.

With reports tabbing the corporate outplacement industry at least $3 billion a year, there is certainly no shortage of opportunity for RiseSmart. Still, the company makes a strong play with its pricing for Transition Concierge, which Sathe puts at “a fraction of the cost” of more traditional outplacement services. According to him, many of these would charge $4,000-$5,000 for three months of service — RiseSmart charges $2,500 for six months.

“It is great in terms of value to the individual and the organization. And it is also very important from a price standpoint,” he said.

“[Companies] want to do the right thing. They want to help people get their next job,” he added. “We realized there is a lot of opportunity for us as a company.”

Read the full story here.

I lived in Dallas for years before launching RiseSmart in 2007. Then, 18 months after starting the company, I moved RiseSmart to Silicon Valley.

Because of this experience, I’m often asked by entrepreneurs in Dallas and elsewhere if and when they should move their startups to the Valley, too.

To answer some of the questions I’ve received, I wrote a post for Alexander Muse’s Texas Startup Blog. You can read it here.

Unemployment is up, and job openings are down. But there is one sector where hiring is on the upswing — the hiring of interns. And within many companies, the roles and responsibilities of interns are expanding.

There are certainly pros for the interns and the companies alike: the interns get needed on-the-job experience, and the companies get eager (and often free) assistance. There are many strong and well-respected intern programs out there, and most professionals will tell you they couldn’t have gotten where they are today without a key internship.

But there are cons, too. The most worrying item is that the recent ubiquity and “upsizing” of the intern role means that regular, paid entry-level work is increasingly scarce, which can result in difficulties for younger workers.

In the recent The New York Times article, “Hiring Is Rising in One Area: Low-Paid Interns,”  business owners were very clear on how valuable interns are to them. The owner of one marketing firm says bringing on interns is “a brilliant, recession-proof way to double your work force,” and that he experiences a certain personal satisfaction when an intern succeeds and he knows that he gave them “that little boost.”   The Times went on to quote C. Mason Gates, the president and founder of Internships.com, as saying that with economic uncertainty, smaller businesses would continue to view interns as a source of growth, talent development and project-based work.

It’s clear that such internships are win-win. People are using them to get ahead, and companies are using them to stay strong in a tough economy. But is the upsizing of the internship coming at the expense of paid, entry-level positions? And what might be the consequences of this?

Among my job-seeking peers, I am more and more often hearing the complaint that “all” the entry-level openings have been re-tooled as internships where you are offered “experience” and “exposure” but very rarely pay. These people (most of whom have been laid off after 2-6 years of experience) consider themselves “past” seeking internships, and would prefer paid work. But these increasingly upsized internships, they claim, are eclipsing regular work.

I found myself curious about my own profession: has the role of intern shifted in the past few years? Just to check, I took a an unscientific, but well-informed, whirl through the want ads on craigslist.org, checking the openings in my own specialty. I’ve kept daily tabs on this website and this category for seven years or so, and I often contributed to posting and writing the ads myself for big-name local firms. I figured I could easily spot some differences in titles, duties, and pay, if they existed.

Some former employers jumped out immediately, and so did the terms of their ads. I can say with certainty that at one former employer — a medium-sized publishing company — entry-level jobs seem to no longer exist. What we would have once called an “assistant editor” is now an unpaid intern with a full load of responsibilities such as reviewing products, writing articles, proofing pages for publication, and more.

While I don’t begrudge the interns their chance to shine, I uneasily recalled that some of these activities come with a journalistic code of ethics and corporate exposure to liability. I wondered what kind of legal oversight a company has over unpaid workers. When I worked there (and the economy was good), unpaid interns were given mostly “grunt work” concerning mailing lists, data back-ups, contest administration, and organization, coupled with the chance of possibly writing one heavily-supervised article each issue. With training, good interns eventually made their way into paid entry-level positions — which are now, in turn, internships.

I have to say that something does seem wrong with this picture. I am a strong supporter of internships, but I am concerned that the poor economy is leading to a deficiency in paid entry-level work. Ironically, it seems that the solution to this is to — you guessed it — get a great internship, get your experience, and try to transition it into a paid position. It may simply be a reality that market forces have led to a shift, and we may all have to adjust expectations accordingly.

Do you have any observations about the changing role of the intern?

Clooney and Kendrick arrive to perform a mass layoff.

George Clooney in an HR role … who among us wouldn’t want to see the most debonair actor of our times take on some of the tasks we perform every day? The prospect is just too delicious — so I headed out to find a theater that was screening the new comedy-drama “Up in the Air,” currently in limited release from Paramount.

In the film, Clooney plays the glib, charming Ryan Bingham — traveling corporate downsizer by profession, and budding inspirational speaker (focusing on having no baggage, of course) as a sideline. He spends most of his time on planes, hence the film’s title, and his real home is not the depressingly empty junior apartment he keeps back in Nebraska, but in hotels and airport waiting areas.

The film’s ad campaign strongly stresses the “air traveler” motif, and our hero does travel constantly, but the phrase “up in the air” is clearly also meant to signify the fates of the people to whom he delivers bad news.

Ryan Bingham works for a management consulting firm that appears to have a very limited focus. Clooney’s character does nothing but perform corporate layoffs — the service offered by his company is to hire out consultants who fly from city to city giving the bad news to workers for employers who don’t want to do it themselves.

Bingham has a catchphrase he uses to ease the downsized person (and himself) through the painful moment. “Anyone who ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you are sitting — and it’s because they sat there that they were able to do it,” he promises.

Then, the aftermath. In the film, the stunned person who has just been laid off is gently urged toward a packet. “In that packet,” Clooney assures, “you’ll find all the answers.” His words are empty and glib — the packet is thin, and the individual is distraught — but Clooney’s job is to get them to take the packet, return their keycard, and box up their belongings. Then he hops on another plane.

Unfortunately, scant mention is made of those whose job it is to help workers pick up the pieces after a layoff — both internal HR personnel and the outplacement firms they hire.

I realize that the film is fiction, but the bleak scenes did turn my mind to all the wonderful services that a good outplacement firm can provide: coaching, assistance with resumes and cover letters, and help in ferreting out job openings, among other offerings. This is the good news that comes after Clooney’s bad news — but “Up in the Air” leaves this part of the story untold. Up in the air, as it were.

The movie has proven to be emotional for many who have lost their jobs in this economy. The film’s storyline (which involves a romance, and a loyalty program motif with Bingham’s favored airline) is periodically interrupted to show stark, candid documentary-style footage of regular people describing the moment when they were downsized. It’s gut-wrenching, and you’ll find many mentions in Internet forums of how grueling it can be to watch.

But as dark as those moments are, most of us who have been laid off fight through them, and in many cases move on to bigger and better things — often with the help of an outplacement service. That’s the part of the story that “Up in the Air” doesn’t tell.

“Up in the Air” will go into wide release in the U.S. on December 25. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and reactions.