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Leadership is a big deal. Employers and recruiters need to have leadership on the mind when hunting for new talent. Will potential candidates be able to grow with your company, take on more responsibilities, become leaders? How can you foster leadership in them? How do you know if they're ready? Are they a Cyclops (Middle management at its finest) or a Wolverine (Reluctant to lead, but born ready!)? A Batman (So moody, but inspires you to do better) or an Iron Man (Let's hope not!)? Doctor X is, of course, my favorite example of leadership. He knows how to foster creativity, initiative and drive from his team. This is, of course, in part due to his mind-reading abilities, but I'm sure he also honed many of these skills by reading this blog. In today's Link Love we've rounded up some great articles about leadership. How to do it well, how to foster it in others, how to lead better office meetings. The HR Bartender wrote a very insightful answer to the question of how to foster leadership in employees who are reluctant to move into a leadership position. And then there are those we wish were a little more reluctant to become leaders. "Real leadership serves as a talent magnet – not a talent repellent". According to Mike Myatt, if you can’t acquire talent, can’t develop talent, or can’t retain talent, you are not a leader. Harsh, Forbes, harsh! But as one bad leader can wreak some serious havoc on an entire business  (also see Iron Man 2 for an example) sometimes it's got to be said! Myatt also uses the terms chicanery and skullduggery, so harsh or not, you gotta love him! Some people should be leaders. If you have these qualities and characteristics of a great HR leader, then I applaud you! If not, then I hope, like me, you work for people that do! I also hope that they know a good leader encourages their employees to play Farmville. Okay, not exactly, but Dr. Todd Dewette makes a great point about increasing productivity by encouraging autonomy and fun! I prefer the use of office dance-parties to Angry Birds competitions personally, but that's because a little physical activity also increases productivity... And it doesn't get much more fun than watching one's colleagues drop it like it's hot! Last but not least, great leaders have great ideas! Steal this one, and make your office meetings a thousand times more productive. The rules are very blunt, but make perfect sense. How Batman would run a meeting : "If you're not getting anything from it, leave" — preferably with some cape flourishing and smoke! Although I recommend against leaving your colleagues tied up in a damp, Gotham warehouse for your managers to find. Oh, and in case you were wondering, as far as my leadership skills are concerned, I'm totally a Storm. Take from that what you will. Storm out.

The internet is blowing up with articles about Facebook Graph Search. Such as : Facebook Graph Search is going to revolutionize social recruiting, Facebook Graph Search is bad news for LinkedIn, Facebook Graph Search is not that big a deal (yet), or, actually it is a huge deal but has a terrible name soon to be replaced by simply “Facebook Search”. Phewf. And it’s still just in Beta phase.

Honestly, as of right now, there’s really not much actual Graph Search to speak of and there won’t be for a quite while. That’s not to say we shouldn’t pay attention, stay informed, and tinker with the prospect. But it certainly doesn’t mean adjusting recruitment strategies or creating new job titles (though “Facebook Graph Master” would be an epic addition to any business card!).

So, what does it mean?

It means, let’s focus on the tools that do exist. Tools like Facebook Ads, Sponsored Stories, Career Pages, Video, and Page Branding.

Facebook has over a billion users now — it also dominates every other social network out there when it comes to the amount of time users invest in it — so, whether you are seeking love, a kickball team to join, or kick-ass candidates, it’s the logical place to look! (apparently Graph Search is going to be as big a competitor for dating sites as it will be for LinkedIn!) And those candidates are more reachable than ever with Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories.

Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads are important because they are easily-targeted to a specific demographic, and can reach candidates who are not connected to your Page. They increase your Page’s visibility and Likes, and grow your online community.

Here’s a simple tutorial about how to use Facebook Ads for recruiting.

Sponsored Stories

Now that your Ads are kicking butt and taking names (by names, I mean Likes) you can add some Sponsored Story action to your recruiting strategy. Increasing Page Likes is important in and of itself, but has the added bonus of making Sponsored Stories even more effective.

Facebook Sponsored Stories only reach users who are connected to you by having a Facebook friend who Likes your page or by Liking your Page themselves. This means a slightly smaller reach, but it’s worth it, because Sponsored Stories increase “Social Proof” by showing potential talent that their peers are into you. And as much as humans are loathe to admit it, we’re waaaay more likely to Like a Page if our friends do too. True Fact!

This is one of the reasons that Sponsored Stories have an extremely high CTR (click-through-rate). Another reason for their high CTR is that they show up directly in a user’s News Feed and have excellent visibility with mobile. We all know how crazy important mobile is. You can also choose to sponsor a story that shows potential candidates just how much their peers dig you — by promoting positive comments. For example, we got this lovely comment from one of our awesome users:

I have been using a lot of tools for online/social recruiting, Jobcast is by far the BEST. Thanks guys for this great tool! Looking forward to the upcoming features!

Not only did it make our hearts sing, it also made for a perfect Sponsored Story. Thanks Ruben! If you don’t have comments like this to promote, you can also sponsor Likes, but I highly recommend encouraging current employees to leave positive comments about their experience working for your company and promoting these. Current employees can be an amazing asset for improving your Facebook employer brand.

When potential hires click on your ads and stories, they will be directed to a landing page of your choosing. Please, please, please make it a Facebook Page, as we all know how much users dislike being directed off-site! It takes them outside of their comfort zone (Facebook) and makes them confused and grumpy – no bueno!

You want your candidates to click through to a Page that showcases your employer brand and company culture. Having a custom banner, integrating company colors, posting cool articles related to your field, and lots of staff pics (preferably ones that include foosball and cake!) are the best ways to make your Career Page appealing. Oh, and video!

Recruitment Video

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a billion.*

Embedding a recruitment video directly onto your Career Page is a must. You don’t need to spend a ton of money or use a lot of gimmicks to create a lovely, hilarious and inspiring recruitment video. So long as it expresses your company culture, values, and awesomeness with gusto, it will woo potential hires. This fantastic article has some great advice on how to make a great recruitment video on the cheap. I also recommend watching this recruitment video by Oakwood. It makes me a little teary… but so does a really great espresso and “The Next Ultimate Fighting Champion”, so take from that what you will.

At Jobcast we strongly believe that Facebook is amazing for finding talent, branding and improving employer social media presence, if handled well. Which is why the Premium version of our app places so much emphasis on branding. We think a fully branded Career Page, with video and great design, is an integral part of Facebook Recruiting.

Your Employer Page is the first impression you’ll make on potential hires, so make it count!

"A hugely powerful way to be creepy on Facebook"

That is my favorite quote about Facebook Search so far. Although, with the amount of attention the topic has been getting, I'm sure it will be replaced shortly by something even wittier. Despite not even being available to the general public, Facebook Search has got the blogosphere atwitter (social media puntastic!) If you want a good laugh, as well as a succinct explanation of Facebook's upcoming new feature, you really should check out Kyle Wagner's article on Gizmodo. Kyle also shares some tips about how Facebook Search will eventually be able to help you find a cat-loving lady in your area! (For recruiting, not dating, obviously). I was going to do a post about leadership, but the leaders I respect were all posting about Facebook Search. Some leader I am. Okay, a few of them are posting about this adorable stock market predicting kitty genius, but I'm totally above posting links like that. We also had to tackle Facebook Graph Search, because of how much it  will influence Facebook recruiting. Mark Zuckerberg even brought up Facebook Graph Search and its recruiting power. When explaining how it worked to Wired reporter Steven Levy, he said:

“Let’s say we’re trying to find engineers at Google who are friends of engineers at Facebook.” He typed in the query and found, not surprisingly, that there were lots of people who met those criteria.

Next, let's look to Jim Stroud, as his article is the best I've read so far about how Facebook Search will apply to recruiting. Jim points to its long tail (yeah, I didn't know either !) and intuitive search format as useful features for sourcing candidates. Jim's article is not all rainbows and kittens — he also emphasizes that it probably won't be useful right away, since many users don't fill out their "About" page, nor do they "Like" and "Comment" as much as would be optimal for a recruitment-based search. Hopefully he'll get a chance to try out Social Graph for himself soon and give us a more detailed review. Now, just in case you were wondering where the whole Graph part of Facebook Search is coming from, here's a pretty great description of what Facebook's Social Graph is all about. (With diagrams, yay!!) It differs from a Google search, because Facebook knows all your juicy social data. This makes it far more powerful, and yes, more creepy. Brittany Darwell explains, in an article for Inside Facebook, just how useful this aspect of Graph Search will be for marketers. She includes some great examples. My favorite being "what are the musical preferences of women living in Chicago who like Obama?" Answer : "Monica". Obviously. And I miss the 90s. Graph Search has already taught me so much, and I can't wait to try it out for myself, or at least read about what other people's experiences with it are, whilst I writhe with jealousy!

Today we're going to talk about how to improve the process of hiring through gamification. Before reading any further, I suggest you gather your team and engage in some research and skill-building — namely by battling each other at Mario Kart. This will get everyone excited about gamification. It will also make you the office favorite. At least until someone brings in a really tasty batch of cupcakes. So, what can we learn from Mario? Simply put, make it fun. Injecting some levity into the recruiting process is more important than you may have been led to believe  The reason gamification works so well for training is because it makes training more enjoyable, like... you guessed it, games! This works for the recruitment process as well, if you don't believe me go play some Plantville. The hiring process is stressful for candidates. Many people avoid it like chopped liver. They would rather stay at a job they hate than hand out resumes, and go for interviews. Me, I love the stuff, but for my liver -hating husband, I serve it covered in bacon and onions — works every-time. A sure-fire way to increase candidate engagement is to cover it in bacon gamify it! You probably want an example, huh? Well, you are in luck. With their new Facebook app, the Marriot Hotel chain has strategically changed the way in which they discover and hire candidates. Even those simply playing around on the internet, not looking for a new job at all, may find themselves in the running for an awesome new job. Playing My Marriott Hotel doesn't feel like a job-hunt, it feels like just another game of Farmville. And gamified recruitment is not only for big business. It can be be simplified and applied smartly by smaller companies as well. A simple quiz, if well-worded and challenging, can engage potential candidates, and even encourage social sharing. The UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) used an online puzzle to recruit hackers. Isn't that far more exciting than a regular listing? Upon completion of GCHQ's puzzle, those who do reasonably well are invited to apply for a job. The quiz not only tests the skill-set of potential talent, but also makes candidates feel special for having been "selected". For recruiters and employers working in less secretive fields, you can also encourage those who have taken your quiz to share their results on Facebook and Twitter. This can increase the amount of potential talent that see your quiz, as well as boost your brand visibility. So, what have we learned? Firstly, grow a mustache and purchase some brightly colored over-alls. Next, make candidates laugh. Thirdly, don't take it all so seriously. Trends come and go, and gamification is certainly exciting, but you don't need to spend a zillion dollars and create the next Legend of Zelda in order to make it work for you. Pick the aspects that suit your company, and ignore the rest. Life is too short to chase every trend. Unless every trend is also a mushroom that makes you grow big. Or for that matter, a flower that lets you shoot fireballs. Or a metaphor that wont die. To learn more about the principles of gamification check out this article by Ken Krogue. If you're more into videos, here's a really great one starring Gabe Zichermann. He gives some really cool insights into what businesses and researchers are doing with gamification principals. This video is also super entertaining! Here's another great video about gamifications principals. It's a little less fun, but a bit more specific to recruiting, so it's totally worth the two and a half minutes. I'm off to take that hacking quiz ... or maybe I'll just watch Hackers for the ninth time.

We are well into the new year, but the best-of lists just keep rolling out! In the last week I've read dozens of articles predicting the future of "Social". Personally I think it's potlucks in the short-term, but picnics are going to own the market starting sometime in May. Unless you live in a climate that allows for perennial picnicking, in which case, I am so jealous it hurts. As far as social media goes, I'm kind of shocked to read that Google+ is making a comeback! The blogosphere is once again abuzz with posts about it. Most notably, Social Media Examiner posted an article claiming that Google+ Can Now Engage Anyone, Tech Crunch recently featured multiple articles about Google+'s end-of-year features blow out, and both Lifehacker and Mashable wrote about their impressive new Pan & Zoom feature for large photos. But the most interesting and persuasive article on the matter has to be Dave Llorens', in which he writes:

"I'm willing to stake my reputation on the following statement: If Google Plus doesn’t have a staggering number of active users by the end of 2013, you can all come over to my office and pie me in the face."

I have to (very shamefully) admit I'd kind of written it off. Not because Google+ isn't a great tool — it's just that I'm super-busy trying to determine which filter does the best job of evoking the intense emotion I feel when Instagraming my breakfast (Walden)! But that's why I have four different e-reader apps on my iPad: To shame me into keeping up with the social media Joneses! I also try to stay up on trends in recruitment, especially trends in social recruiting. Lately I've noticed a growing number of pieces reporting on the problems recruiters encounter when incorporating social media into their strategy. An interesting example of this is Steve Ward's recent article on Undercover Recruiter.

It compares LinkedIn recruiting to fast-food and warns of its potential to overload recruiters with quantity candidates instead of quality talent. Controversial and informative — what more could you ask for? Speaking of controversy, Forbes went so far as to suggest we abandon social medial all together. Thank goodness for Jim Dougherty's thoughtful rebuttal. He reminds us that social media is often heavy on the media, light on the social, but it doesn't have to be. Controversy aside, I've saved the best link for last! The Starr Conspiracy recently published a list of the top 40 HR Bloggers under 40 and it's awesome! Check them out, your e-readers will thank you. Promise!

Gamification is a huge buzzword in recruitment lately.

For those of you thinking this means discovering top talent by forcing applicants to compete in epic games of capture-the-flag… you’re half right! But I’ll give you a quick summary anyway.

Basically, gamification is about the use of game mechanics outside of traditional gaming (think Fitocracy and Free Rice not Monopoly, Mario, or Words with Friends). Gamification was one of the hottest topics in social media last year and it will be even bigger in 2013.

For recruiters and employers, gamification can be used in three main ways. To engage candidates, to assess potential talent and to train new hires. As an added bonus it can also promote employer brand. Gamification for training is nothing new, so I’m not going to write too much about that — think: learning how to type with Mavis Beacon.

Here are some cool examples of how employers are gamifying their training process!

Before we can discuss the specifics of how gamification can (and should) be applied to recruiting, we first need to go over what makes it successful. Especially when you consider new statistics that show how most of the gamified apps produced this year will probably fail (although I think that could be said about apps in general).

Don’t let that put you off gamification though, it’s not actually very complicated to use successfully. Really, I promise, you can totally do this, so long as you keep these three things in mind:

1) Content

You can’t just slap a mustache and overalls on a recruiter and call him Mario!

Badges, leveling-up, and snazzy game dynamics on their own, while decidedly trendy, will not hold your candidate’s interest for long. There must be a challenge,  engagement, and an enticing reward, especially in a recruitment scenario. Don’t be like those banner ads that make you stomp a cockroach with your mouse, or throw a banana at a moving target, because we all know that the game is a sham, and the prize (an iPad!) is not real. That’s an extreme example, but it is good to remember that using  game mechanics just for the sake of gamification alone, isn’t fun for anybody.

A great way to begin creating quality content is by thinking about the audience you are gamifying for, which brings us to point number 2.

2) Target audience

Who are you looking to attract? Hopefully you know the answer to this and have already tailored your recruiting efforts accordingly.

The Hotel Marriott’s gamified Facebook recruitment app is a great example of catering to a target candidate pool. Their app is FarmVille-esque — perfect for attracting Facebook users, as they are already familiar with the formatting. It’s cute, brightly-colored, and appeals to a more conservative crowd. It’s also simple enough that it won’t intimidate less game-savvy candidates. It’s pretty much the opposite of what I want in a game, but they aren’t looking to attract me, so it’s perfect.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s the recruitment games created by the Swedish Army. They’re competitive, difficult enough to be engaging, and look like games I would play for fun (the voice-overs used in both games totally remind me of Resident Evil).

Something that both companies’ games have in common is that they give the recruiter insight about their potential candidates. The Hotel Marriot app has candidates virtually perform common hotel service industry tasks. If the candidates are successful, they level up to more problem-solving tasks that require the kind of decision-making skills necessary for employment at a management level. The Swedish Army’s game requires teamwork, problem-solving, time management and cognitive skills while under pressure. Both apps are pretty ingenious and quite successful.

3) Reward

Participation, or “participaction” (as I like to call it), doesn’t happen without incentivization. For a successful gamification effort, you’ll need to offer your participants a reward for playing. According to Taghd Kelly, the reward can come in the form of prizes, validation, and/or objective completion. In the case of recruiting, the obvious prize is a sweet new job.

Validation is more about giving participants a way to show-off to their peers. The Swedish Army’s game does this by letting players challenge friends to beat their scores and gives the option of posting their high scores on Facebook.

Completion, if handled well, is one of the best rewards that a company can use. LinkedIn’s 100% complete profile is a perfect example of this type of incentive. In order to have a 100% completed profile, users must explore and utilize different aspects of the site. Not only is this a great way of teaching new users how to use LinkedIn, it also increases the user’s time investment, which promotes continued use of the site.

Completion also works to gamify blogs!

You have now reached 50% completion of Jobcast gameification certification and are a level 2 recruiting elf.

Make sure to read next Monday’s post, so you can reach 100% and become a level 10 gamified recruit-wizard (pointy-hat not included).

Hopefully everyone is well recovered from their New Year's Eve shenanigans. Mine were quite easy to recover from, as they involved mostly fireworks, running and pancakes (running from fireworks towards pancakes). I thought I knew what fireworks were all about until experiencing them Dutch-style. There were blasts of light exploding in the sky in every direction I looked. The Dutch spend 70 million on fireworks for New Year's Eve, and set them off from canal boats, parks and rooftops. The results are pretty darn magical. Speaking of starting 2013 off with a bang (and, of course, a cheesy pun!) I thought I'd dedicate this Link Love to articles and apps that provide inspiration. The hardest part of any project is getting started (except maybe with projects involving jiu-jitsu, where the hardest part is having your limbs torn asunder...). So, what better way to begin the year than by finding new ways to get psyched-up about getting things done? I've written already about my love of Google Currents as a tool for keeping up on new blog posts and articles. It lets you keep an eye on all your favorite blogs and has a snazzy magazine type layout. Feedly is a new tool that's made my morning coffee and research sessions much more productive and enjoyable. Like Currents, it pulls content from Google reader as well as other feeds you've selected, and also presents them in magazine form. Feedly is much slicker than Currents, since it has more sharing of options and a  “tagged for later” section (super useful!), which Currents lacks. I still use Currents, as I find it to be slightly more reliable (Feedly is still rather new and has some bugs to be worked out), but I highly recommend adding Feedly to your social media arsenal — it won't disappoint. So, now that I've gotten that off my chest, (really, I've been dying to write about that app for way to long) here's the rest of the links we're loving. Hopefully they'll get you as excited about your 2013 projects as they did us :) What's more motivational than shiny new plans? Nothing! Bill Connerly explains why businesses should ring in the New Year with a new plan. He also lays out some super easy-to-follow tips for how to choose and implement new strategies. Awesome! Here's some motivations for the job seekers out there — Jessica Miller-Marrell shares 7 Steps to a Kick-ass Job. This article has tons of great tips for anyone looking to improve their networking skills. Note to self: Update business cards! Okay, I take it back, the promise of rock-star level awesomeness is even more motivational than shiny newness. Kristi Hines details the path to becoming a "Social Media Rockstar" and blows my fragile little mind. Leave it to Lifehacker to make the simplest stick-to-your-goals post of the New Year. Follow through on your resolutions this year with these tips. I especially like the one about rewards, although I guess I probably shouldn't reward 20 minutes of running with a whole plate of nachos... But, what's Wednesday night without nachos?!? Happy Link Loving.

Happy New Year’s Eve!

I love New Year’s, possibly more than Christmas, possibly more than chocolate… Okay, definitely not more than chocolate, but a lot.

I do not love it because of the parties and booze — I’m definitely more of a “stay home and watch a movie” kind of gal. I do not love it because I think of it as a fresh slate or have any delusions of becoming a better version of myself (although making resolutions is always fun). Nope, I just love all the “best of” and “predictions for the new year” lists that flood the blogosphere this time of year.

I love the best-of lists because they catch me up on all of the things I am behind on and I love the prediction lists because they are the lazy man’s way to look like you know what you’re talking about.

I do NOT make predictions, as I am too afraid of being completely wrong and my wrongness being forever etched into the public record.

But I have to write about the new year at least a little, or I’ll be cast out by the Bloggers Guild of the Netherlands and I have grown used to all the perks. Free pickled herring anyone?

I have definitely noticed some trends in social recruiting, HR and social media that I think will gain even more ground in the coming year. All of these trends have been blogged about by other people, and I will link to them, so if I’m wrong, I can point my finger accusingly. But, on the other hand, if any of these predictions turn out to be true or useful, do feel free to attribute all credit to yours truly.

Things to be super aware of, obsess over, and express frustration about for 2013:

Mobile!

Obviously. We’ve already talked a bunch about the importance of mobile and it’s only getting importanter (also trending for 2013 : making up words!). There’s still a surprising lack of focus on mobile as a social recruiting tool, even though in 2012 we saw the amount of mobile users shoot up to 1.2 billion. The importance of Facebook ads that directly target mobile will just keep on rising, especially considering that 55% of Facebook users log on with mobile and that number doesn’t look like it’s going to drop anytime soon. Sales of PCs are down and mobile devices are up up up!

I am a prime example of this trend. Gen Y’r and proud (actually not at all — rather ashamed in fact — mostly due to Garden State being considered our generation’s defining film)*, I do not use a PC, as I work pretty much exclusively with a tablet and other super smart mobile devices – I’m that cool. So, if you must make one social recruiting strategy resolution this year, make it mobile-related and you will not be sorry. If you are sorry, please blame ERE.net (not me!) as their article claiming that mobile recruiting is about to get very hot is far too convincing.

Social Proof

Social proof refers to the perceived popularity and acceptance of your online presence by others. This perception is affected by positive comments, Likes, re-tweets and other similar interactions. Social proof makes you more appealing and trustworthy, and as such makes visitors more likely to Like your Facebook page or feel comfortable signing up for your newsletter.

It’s basically like how having a decent friend group makes you seem more date-worthy and less like a potential psychopath. People are much more likely to do something if they know other people are doing it to, especially members of their own peer group. This is why Facebook sponsored stories work so well and why I, and many other social media bloggers, predict that ads and recruiting campaigns should try to increase and capitalize on social proof if they want to be more socially successful in 2013.

Gamification

HrExaminer has been talking about gamification for a while now, and I’m seeing more and more articles about its applications for HR, recruiting and social media in general. We all know that gen Y’rs grew up on a steady diet of video games and soft-drinks. This means we are only motivated by achievement badges that we can post on our Facebook pages (social proof!), leveling-up, and sugary treats.

Gamification has been used for ages in schools and the workforce to train new skills.  I still have fond memories of learning to type with the classic Mavis Beacon key-mashing game. More recently, it’s being used to increase employee engagement and offer the feeling of reward for a job well done, according to Forbes. Although I honestly think a good pep-talk is a better way of accomplishing these goals, I must admit I’m a sucker for Gameification when it comes to health and fitness. So, maybe it would easily manipulate my competitive nature in the workplace as well.

It’s a trend, it’s gaining in popularity and I’m super interested to see whether or not it’s successful, especially when it comes to recruitment. For a cool example of how companies are using it to recruit, check out My Marriott International’s Farmville-esque app.

Job Boards

Okay, this is less of a trend and more of a “hey, I told you so”.

Jobcast is a Facebook app, but we still cater to job board and their users because, well, the overwhelming majority of job seekers still use them and that’s not going to change in 2013. We wrote a few months back about how job boards are still very relevant for social recruiting, but if you don’t believe me, check out this rather blunt quote pulled from the Fistful of Talent blog:

“The Job Boards? Still not dead. Why? Because the majority of ‘job seekers’ still go to a job board to find a job and most corporate HR/Talent Pros still don’t know how to pick up a phone and actually recruit passive talent. As long as ‘Post and Pray’ is the primary recruiting strategy of corporate talent acquisition – the Job Boards will live.”

I think they just may live past the point of “Post and Pray”, mainly because they’re comfortable and useful – just like that old pair of jeans that you just can’t bear to part with. For more info about job boards check out what the Job Board Doctor Blog has to say.

Last but not least…

Facebook!

Mostly because it’s where the most important app of 2013 is located. Of course I am referring to the Jobcast app, and I know you’ll all agree. But I also mention this because of a growing amount of evidence that points to Facebook beating out other online networks for social recruiting clout in the coming year. Like this study that says job Seekers Choose Facebook over both LinkedIn and Twitter — awesome.

So, from all of us at Jobcast, have an amazing New Year’s!

The Dutch celebrate Christmas on both the 25th and the 26th. So, in keeping with tradition, instead of a whole bunch of informative links, I’m just going to post some cool stuff and this kitten picture!

Links!

This amazing Infographic shows how employee volunteering brings happiness into the workplace.

Need a new podcast to blow your socks off? Check out the New Yorker Fiction Podcast, it’s lovely, promise!

If you didn’t already do enough shopping, Apartment Therapy’s amazing best of 2012 store profiles should put you over the edge.

Think all Santa-related art has to be cheesy? Think again! Artist Creates 500 Santa Sand Sculptures — from DesignTAXI.com.

Apparently “No” is the most powerful word you can use in 2013, and here I thought it was cake — I stand corrected 🙂

She blinded me with science! 12 Obvious Science Findings of 2012. These are hilarious. HILARIOUS.

Happy holidays 😀

Oh! It's Christmas Eve. Already? How did this happen!?! Sooo ... happy holidays! I'm going to put on some Christmas oldies now. Much better! Living in the Netherlands, far from family and Canadian friends, it's been pretty easy to ignore what time of year it is. There's also a significant lack of reminders in my general surroundings : No mall Santa, no huge pre-Christmas sales and crazy shoppers, no holiday music blasting my ears or Starbucks employees tempting me with sugary pepperminty holiday beverages. When I first noticed this I asked my lovely friend K.J. what Dutch people did for Christmas. He responded by rolling his eyes and saying, voice dripping with mock disdain:

"We celebrate the birth of Jesus!"

They do this by feasting for two full days! It's amazing! I'm not entirely sure of the direct connection between Jesus' birth and food, but I'll take feasting over mall Santa any day. No fretting over finding the perfect gift, crazed last-minute shopping, or terrifyingly jolly fake-bearded men. Just family, friends and mulled wine.

It's pretty wonderful actually!

So, from all of us at Jobcast, have a wonderful holiday season. May it be as devoid of stress as possible! Skip the malls, and instead cuddle your friends and family with a mug of cocoa. Fijne kerst!