Twitter - Do You Tweet?

This is reprinted from our newsletter so you can respond more easily - Do you Tweet?

Visions of Tweetybird seeing a puddy tat aside, do you Tweet?

Social networking has become the "in" thing. MySpace (or Facebook for us older types) is rapidly becoming the way to keep up with family and friends. Business social networks like LinkedIn are impacting the way recruiters find people, people find jobs, and groups with a common cause unite.

Recognizing the power of social networking, the Obama campaign was heavily invested in social networking sites, including Twitter. In fact, their grassroots campaign was effective in raising money, organizing local support, and getting out the vote using new technology in an unprecedented way.

It's been noted that he now has a database of literally millions of users with whome he can instantly communicate, mobilize on issues, and keep active and engaged. The best part? It's all mostly free.

I've been looking at Twitter as a means for us to brand Improvizations and our Kronos services. I'm curious - do any of you use Twitter for business contacts? How do you use it? Has it been helpful or is it a timewaster? I'd really love to hear your thoughts/input. Email: news@improvizations.com or reply to my post to the kronos-fans blog. Thanks everyone!

Amy "The Improv Marketing Chick"

Kronos Layoffs, Unemployment, and Networking

Kronos is laying off 8% of its workforce. Nationally, the unemployment rate is running a little above 7%. Scary? Yep, it can be terrifying – especially if you don’t have practices in place already that can help secure your current job – or help you find a new one.

What type of best practices do you follow today to make yourself memorable? How many recruiters know and remember you personally? How many hiring managers think of your name when they have a question or better yet – an open position? Do you have to start from scratch every time your contract ends? Or if you are laid off?

I remember an IT Project Manager that I interviewed once. Why do I remember him in particular? Because he is the best networker I have ever met, bar none. Once we met personally, I became part of his network. He periodically sends out emails to his network with updates about his current job, job openings that he knows, or – when he was laid off – about his job search. He asks for help when he needs it and offers help when he can. He's the first guy I call when I'm looking for a certain skillset or if I come across a position he might want to know about. Now THAT’S the kind of network you want to have.

Those of you who read this blog and are part of Kronos-fans already have a built-in network. Are you using it? Here are a few quick networking tips that I hope you find helpful. As always on our blog, comments and questions are welcome!

• It takes a long time to build effective professional relationships. Start now.
• Find the people who know lots of other people. I don’t need to know 50 Kronos programmers – I need to know 2 or 3 excellent Kronos programmers. They know (and can refer) everyone else to me.
• Stay in touch with people you like and respect even if they can't help you immediately. Don’t let the next time they hear from you again be when you desperately need something.
• Have business cards and give them out. If you have a specialty or a niche, make sure it’s on your card. And yes, it IS worth the extra few dollars to make sure your card stands out. For example, if I’m at a networking event, I may come home with 20 or 30 new business cards. The card that says “John Doe, specializing in Kronos Time and Attendance installations” is the one I’ll remember.
• Be consistent. Sending out one email won’t get the same results as sending out a monthly or quarterly status email. Attending an industry networking meeting once won’t get you the same recognition factor as showing up for several meetings.
• Join networking clubs and/or associations related to your job and volunteer so you can establish yourself as a subject matter expert. Can you write a column, prepare a presentation?
• Join linked in . It’s an easy way to stay in touch as well as a great place to find groups related to your career. I have one good friend who now recruits exclusively using his linked in network.
• Set aside dedicated time each week to maintaining your network. It might only take an hour every Friday afternoon but the long-term results are worth it.
• And remember, if it were easy EVERYONE would do it. I won’t lie. It’s not always easy. It will take time, persistence and dedication. Nevertheless, in this uncertain economy the strength of your network might make the difference between being employed or being between contracts/jobs for a very long time.

Tips and Techniques December 11 Follow-up

I need to follow-up on this Improvisations eZine article about the Kronos Workforce Central Timekeeper "Callable Totalizer" settings. I had a couple of people quickly respond to me about that article asking about the settings as they were eager to give them a try. So I grabbed my notes (screenshot #1 from v5.0 click to enlarge) and sent off a response, promising to follow-up here. Well it looks like I've been caught...

It seems that Kronos pulled the Callable Totalizer (CT) into the main Totalizer program with the Background Processor (BGP) starting at v5.1 or 5.2. My CT notes were from v5.0. I don't have a 5.1 system to look at right now but I'll check and report back later if someone here doesn't beat me to it!

The only choice we have starting with 5.2 (screenshot #2 from 5.2, click to enlarge) is to set the number of threads in the BGP to more than one. I've spoken to a couple of people from Kronos about this and neither one said that much is to be gained by messing with that setting. It's better to run a second BGP. Doing a little more spelunking I find that the best practice has more to do with maximums than minimums.

If you have a combined Workforce Timekeeper App/BGP server and testing shows you that the BGP isn't keeping up, you might find a benefit to configure two BGP threads. (If you do try two you might also need to increase the maximum number of database connections above the default.) If you have a standalone BGP you can configure up to four processing threads. More than that provides diminishing returns and one should consider another instance of a BGP.