As the economy recovers, more businesses are hiring. Unfortunately, sometimes hiring done under the gun (also known as "butts in chairs syndrome") can backfire, resulting in the dreaded Bad Hire. As a staffing firm, you can remind your clients of the drawbacks of the Bad Hire and point out the benefits of using staffing to try before they buy.

Bad Hires usually reveal themselves in the first three to six months of employment, so businesses might think that once the Bad Hire has been released back into the wild, they're only out those few months' salary. But that's just the most obvious cost of a Bad Hire. Other direct costs include... 

Fuel costs have been going up recently, and with summer on the way, they're likely to keep increasing. Not only does the rising cost of gas affect you as a consumer, it affects your business and your candidates.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do to affect the price of gas itself. But you can manage your use of it for business purposes, and you might discover some efficiencies you can keep using when--or if--the cost of gas ever goes down again. 

Social media is a major player in communications today. Yes, it allows us to share trivial details about our lives, but it also allows us to share important information-such as Osama Bin Laden's death last week-incredibly quickly and with impressive reach to others. It's also a major economic force; Facebook alone has a market valuation of around $70 billion, which is more than the GDP of almost 2/3 of the world's nations.

However, alongside the positives of connecting with loved ones, spreading news and communicating in a crisis, there's a major potential for misuse of social media. And this is especially true for companies whose employees use social media regularly. 

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We're proud to announce the new COATS Users Group on LinkedIn. We created this group for COATS users to discuss the software with us and with each other so we can all get more out of it. 

This is a members-only group, so you don't have to worry about anyone wandering in and spamming us. Unfortunately, that means you do have to apply for membership, but we promise you'll get in; all you have to be is a COATS user. We look forward to seeing you there!