Answer: Join a professional association related to your companies industry.

The benefits, of course, are a wealth of contacts, as well as a way to know what’s going on within the industry.

If you decide to join a group, here’s how to get the most out of it, according to Monster.com:

• Don’t be a stranger — Showing up to one meeting and getting a bunch of names and phone numbers is a bad idea. You want to be actively involved with the organization and turn it into a long-term resource.
• Get information — In addition to looking for candidates, use your time to gather info that will help you in your overall recruiting effort.
• Build visibility — One good way to get involved: Volunteer to speak at the association’s conferences or meetings.

As if hiring the right talent wasn’t tough enough, the Americans with Disabilities Act makes every step of the hiring process more difficult – from collecting applications and interviewing candidates to getting a new hire ready to start the job. Here are the most common pitfalls that trip up companies and how HR can help avoid them.

Last week, the EEOC released a question-and-answer guideline on disability hiring. Though directed at federal employers, the document contains plenty of information that applies to all companies.

Here are the answers to HR’s common questions:

1. What are the most common types of accommodations companies give applicants and newly hired employees?

Here are the top examples from the EEOC:

• making application and testing materials accessible in different formats (for example, making recruiting sites compatible with screen-reader software for the blind)
• altering facilities and work areas
• giving other employees responsibility for marginal tasks an employee can’t perform (as long he or she can handle the job’s essential functions), and
• changing the job’s schedule, if possible.

2. How do companies know if an accommodation will cause an “undue hardship?”

There’s no easy answer — figuring out which accommodations are reasonable is a case-specific question. The two most important factors to consider:

• cost (taking the company’s budget into account), and
• impact on other employees’ abilities to do their jobs.

For outside opinions and recommendations, the EEOC recommends contacting the Job Accommodation Network (www.jan.wvu.edu).

3. What if we think an applicant could pose a safety risk?

Again, determining whether a disabled applicant can perform the job safely requires an individualized assessment. Here are the things employers should take into account:

• the duration of the risk
• the nature and severity of the potential harm
• the likelihood that the potential harm will occur, and
• the imminence of the potential harm.

In other words, the EEOC says, “a slightly increased, moderate, speculative, or remote risk of harm” isn’t enough to deny someone a job.

Employers should consider qualified medical opinions, the person’s history performing similar work and of course, the possibility of erasing the safety risk with a reasonable accommodation.

4. Can employers give preference to disabled applicants?

Yes. Unlike other types of bias (race and gender, for example), there’s no such thing as “reverse discrimination” under the ADA. Though companies obviously want to employ the most qualified applicants, there’s nothing illegal about giving disabled candidates a preference.

Also, employers may state in job ads that they encourage qualified persons with disabilities to apply.

5. What should employers do after an applicant or new hire asks about accommodations?

Once HR or a manager knows someone needs an accommodation due to a medical condition, it’s time to start the “interactive process” to find out if any change is necessary and possible. Here are the EEOC’s keys for staying compliant and finding the best solution:

• Get specific — It’s important to get as much information about the specific limitations as possible.
• Ask for suggestions — The process is defined as “interactive” for a reason. The employee or applicant may know from past experiences what some possible accommodations are. (Note: The EEOC recommends giving priority to the employee’s preference, but companies aren’t required to do so if there’s a better solution.)
• Keep looking for alternatives — If a suggested solution isn’t reasonable, your obligations don’t end there. Companies need to exhaust all possible alternatives before deciding there’s no accommodation available.

On average, 25% of new hires quit within the first year, according to a new study by the Novations Group.

How can you avoid that and get your money’s worth with new hires? Here are the top three reasons employees jump ship so soon:

• 48% of newbies who quit said it was because the company had unrealistic expectations about them
• 33% said it was because their supervisors didn’t give them enough support, and
• 23% said they didn’t have the skills they needed to do the job.

That’s the situation one Scottish company recently faced.

Darren Mirren, a 16-year-old Glasgow resident, recently took a cleaning company to court after he failed to get a job with them.

Why wasn’t he hired? Because he never showed up to his interview. He got lost on the way and blamed the company for failing to give adequate directions.

The boy felt he was given bad directions because he was too young for the job, hence the discrimination suit. (Unlike the U.S., British law apparently allows suits from people who feel they were discriminated against for being too young.)

Not surprisingly, the tribunal threw the case out, adding that the court system needs a procedure in place to weed out frivolous suits.

Answer: Flexible scheduling.

Nearly 80% of companies with at least 50 employees let workers periodically change arrival and departure times, according to a recent survey by the Families and Work Institute.

That’s an increase of 16% since 1998.

Some jobs require strict start and end times, but with many positions, flexible scheduling can be a free benefit that employees really value.

Is flexible scheduling available to your employees? Do they use it? Let us know by leaving a comment.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, some younger job seekers have taken to sending thank-you text messages — sometimes just minutes after leaving the interview.

Also, recruiters say candidates are using “text-speak” (i.e., “Thnx 4 the interview : )”), both in actual text messages and in e-mails. And some have been “friended” by candidates on social networking sites.

Not surprisingly, such antics usually mean the person won’t get the job.

What has your experience been? Has technology changed the way younger job seekers are communicating with you? Does it affect how your company hires? Let us know in the comments section.

Answer: Impress them quickly.

That’s the word from a recent survey by the Novations Group. Employees under 30 (notorious for job-hopping) were asked how long it takes to decide whether or not a new job is right for them. The results:

• 26% said “less than a month”
• 51% said “one to six months,” and
• 22% said more than six months.

In other words, if young hires don’t feel highly satisfied within the first few months, most of them will be heading somewhere else.

Hang on to talent

Here’s some advice the Novations Group has for retaining young employees:

• Don’t underestimate the power of relationships. Employees (especially twenty-somethings) are more likely to stay in a job where they have friends. Set new employees up with peer mentors so they have a go-to person starting on day one.
• Offer training and help attaining professional certifications. That’s a low-cost benefit that has a lot of value for both employee and employer.
• Explain how the job fits in with the “big picture.” Early on, introduce new workers to other departments and explain overall how everything’s connected. Folks tend to be more committed if they see the effect their work has on the organization.

The results of managers’ interview mistakes range from serious legal trouble to driving good candidates away and hiring the wrong ones. Here are five common mistakes and how HR can help avoid them:

1. Asking anything related to a disability

A recent EEOC Discussion Letter made it clear that asking disability-related questions before a candidate gets a job offer is a violation of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Most often, problems arise when managers try to make sure candidates can handle a job’s requirements. The simple solution: Just lay out what the employee will have to do and ask if that’s OK.

2. Touching on race, religion, gender, etc.

Questions about protected classes can arise when discussing job requirements, or even during small talk (e.g., “What church do you go to?”). But asking them can have serious repercussions later if the person doesn’t get the job.

Train everyone who does interviews to lay off any topic that’s protected by discrimination law.

3. Taking the wrong notes

If a candidate mentions something related to a protected class, managers need to be sure not to make any mention of it in their interview notes.

In the event an unsuccessful candidate tries to take your company to court, everything the manager wrote down during the interview will be used as evidence. For example, if the candidate mentioned a disability and the manager made a note of it, a judge or jury will suspect it had an effect on the hiring decision.

4. Stopping the show

To anyone in HR, keeping interruptions to a minimum is common sense. But 56% of employees say they’ve had managers interrupt their interviews to take a phone call, according a recent Vault.com survey.

Others said interviewers had left the room to attend to something or paused to check e-mail. Unless it’s a real emergency, stopping the interview for any reason just gives a bad first impression of the company.

5. Talking too much

A good interviewing technique is leaving a long period of silence while waiting for the candidate to answer a tough question. But too often, managers get uncomfortable with the quiet and throw the interviewee a bone or ask an easier question.

It’s probably a lot more common than a lot of HR managers realize. Half of all advertising and marketing employees have been victims of backstabbing co-workers, according to a recent survey by The Creative Group.

Why don’t many companies realize this is happening? For one thing, when asked what they’d do if they worked with a backstabber, only 10% said they’d talk to a manager.

What’s it mean for HR? That HR pros should be on the lookout for candidates with backstabbing tendencies. During interviews, probe with questions about how people worked with teams and how they handled co-workers they disagreed with.

The Department of Labor announced last week that the number of workers filing for unemployment claims had reached the highest they’d been in six years. This week, the numbers have fallen slightly but remain high (the number went from 450,000 to 436,000).

Also, companies have continued to cut positions, pushing the net loss of jobs to 463,000 for the year so far.