It’s Opening Day in St. Louis, MO today and around the country. But you don’t have to be a baseball fanatic to love Opening Day. It’s a day to celebrate Spring (unless it’s snowing) and gather with the community to cheer on your hometown baseball team (Go Cardinals!). I can just taste the cold beer, hot dogs and nachos.

Opening Day is also a great time to see the fan favorite players and new rookies just out of the minor leagues. When you think about it, major league baseball is similar to recruiting. You will have your “A” players that perform well consistently and like their position, team and community. Teams strive to recruit these players because of their reputation for success. Then you have the “B” players, that perform well, but are looking for the next big trade that will make them into “A” players. Then you have the free agents that are always looking for more!

So, who’s going to Opening Day?

Also, check out these interesting facts about Opening Day:

“Presidential Pitches: On the first day of the 1910 season, William Howard Taft became the first president to throw the ceremonial first pitch. Since then, every president besides Jimmy Carter has thrown at least one ceremonial first ball for Opening Day, the All-Star Game or the World Series.”

“There has only been one no-hitter in Opening Day history. Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller, then just 21 years old, threw it against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on April 16th, 1940.”

“Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier on Opening Day in 1947, becoming the first African American to play for a Major League team. The 28 year-old made his debut at Ebbets Field, playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers.”

With our latest version (8.6) we focused on how our customers connect with candidates, clients and prospects. One goal was adding job posting options to gain additional exposure where candidates are searching. We already have integrations with major job boards and job aggregators but wanted to extend that reach a bit further by adding new options. After polling our audience, two choices bubbled up: Indeed sponsored and Dice posting. These new additions help recruiters reach their desired targets and ideally shorten their time-to-fill.

Why Dice?

• 6 of 10 candidates are passive
• 4 million loyal tech professionals
• 1,000s of niche sites for cross posting

Without leaving the system, users can post their open jobs and track candidates back to the source. Dice is a widely used job board amongst our users and this addition will be a huge time and money saver. Paired with our other job board integrations, Dice posting puts yet another tool at a recruiter’s disposal.

Why Indeed Sponsored?

• #1 job site worldwide
• 40 million unique visitors per month
• Centralized searching from thousands of professional and recruiting sites

We already offered free standard posting to Indeed which is a widely used feature and were quickly asked “When will we offer sponsored posting?” Well the wait is over. Now users can purchase and post directly from Sendouts without bouncing between multiple interfaces. This in-app experience provides users faster means to post and gets their job orders in front of millions.

If you’re already using Sendouts, these features are available and easy to implement. If you have any questions contact your account manager or look-up the article in Sendouts University.

If you’re not using Sendouts and would like to speak with our team, please request a demonstration and we’ll contact your shortly.

Finally, after a long winter, it’s Spring! Time to make a fresh start by dropping the winter wardrobe, having fun outdoors and Spring cleaning. I love to go into my crowded closets/cabinets and evaluating want I need and don’t, what can be given to charity or what needs to be thrown in the garbage. I also review what needs a fresh washing to look new again, like professionally cleaning carpet or power washing the house. Oh Spring, how I love thee!

But don’t forget, it’s always a good idea to do some “Spring Cleaning” to your business. No matter how prosperous your firm, the recession of 2007 has taught us to constantly evaluate your product/service, business practices, people and culture. In turn, your firm will always be prepared for economic downturn and survive even in the hardest times. This is a best practice that keeps you ahead of the competition.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Each year, we celebrate this day with green beer, parades/festivals and of course, corned beef and cabbage. But did you know that St. Patrick wasn’t even Irish?….and he never chased snakes out of Ireland?

St. Patrick was born in Brittian circa 390 AD. He was taken prisoner by Irish raiders and under captivity, he became extremely religious. When he escaped, he had a vision which lead him back to Ireland as a missionary. Eventually, Patrick became a Catholic priest and incorporated Celtic traditions and rituals into his lessons of Christianity. St. Patrick died on March 17th, which is celebrated as his feast day.

Also, it is true that snakes do not inhabit Ireland today, but they never did. Ireland is an island surrounded by extremely cold water which would not allow snakes to migrate. “But since snakes often represent evil in literature, ‘when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he drove the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland [and] brought in a new age’.”

St. Patrick was able to include Celtic traditions into his Christian teachings, which enabled him to bring Christianity into Ireland peacefully and the people were open to hear his views. This leadership allowed him to create a new “culture”.

In your workplace, has leadership created a company culture that allows employees to incorporate their traditions in order to have a much more productive environment? Will you be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in your office with a potluck lunch, green snacks or a happy hour? However small, these moments of celebration show employee appreciation and create a team environment.

For more information on how to create a great company culture, look for Sendouts latest whitepaper coming May ’11.

Join Sendouts In the Movement to End Breast Cancer Forever!

The time has come to Make an Impact! Will you join Sendouts in the fight against breast cancer?

This year, the Sendouts Team is making a big impact by participating in the 13th Annual Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure®. On June 11th, more than 65,000 people will gather in downtown St. Louis to take a stand to end breast cancer forever!

Did you know that:
· An estimated 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in women in 2010?
· Approximately 1,970 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men this year?

These are just some of the reasons why we fight to find the cures for breast cancer. There are a lot of ways for you to Make an Impact, too. We hope you will consider joining our team or making a donation to support our efforts as Sendouts participates in the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure.

Click the link for Team registration: http://www.komenstlouis.org/sendouts

Thank you for your support and for Making an Impact!