A recent study asked employers how they handle employees who call (cough cough) to say they won’t be in that day.

But our favorite part of the study asked employers to share the most unusual excuses they’ve been given by employees for missing work.

Some of the best excuses:

• An employee said his 12-year-old daughter stole his car, and he had no other way to work. He didn’t want to report it to the police.
• Another said bats got in her hair.
• One guys said a refrigerator fell on him.
• An employee said she was in line at a coffee shop when a truck carrying flour backed up and dumped the flour into her convertible.
• A hunter said a deer bit him.
• An employee’s child stuck a mint up his nose and had to go to the ER.
• Another employee hurt his back chasing a beaver.
• After going to too many garage sales, one employee claimed to have a headache.
• One person said their brother-in-law was kidnapped by a drug cartel in Mexico.

The study was conducted by Harris Interactive and surveyed more than 2,600 employers and 4,300 workers. The results were initially published by CareerBuilder.

Other findings:

• 15% of employers have fired people for calling in sick without a legit excuse, and
• 28% of employers showed a little more faith (but not by much) — they checked up on someone who called out with a questionable excuse.

Of that 28%:

• 69% required a doctor’s note
• 52% called the person at home
• 19% had another employee contact the missing employee, and
• 16% drove by the person’s home.

What about you? Got any “can-you-believe-this” moments you can share about absences? Share your best in the Reply box below.

Why do more than a third of salespeople plan on testing the job market, and how can you keep them from flying the coop?

The answers range from pay to work/life balance, according to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.

It revealed 35% of salespeople have plans to seek employment elsewhere, and 28% of sales managers have begun taking measures to retain their best salespeople — and keep turnover low.

The survey included responses from nearly 400 salespeople across a broad range of industries, and found that:

• 35% of salespeople were dissatisfied with their current pay
• 20% were unhappy with their work/life balance, due to more hours and added responsibilities, and
• 21% were unsatisfied with their job growth potential in their current sales position.

So what can managers do to keep their best talent from jumping ship? The answer may lie in the responses salespeople provided regarding what they’d be looking for with a new employer (in addition to better pay and benefits):

• a positive work culture (59%)
• good career advancement opportunities (52%)
• a company that’s financially stable and growing (52%)
• a less stressful environment (40%)
• the feeling that what they do makes a positive difference (40%)
• paid training and learning opportunities (34%)
• flexible work schedules (28%), and
• more camaraderie and stronger ties among employees (26%).

Do you expect retention be a major issue at your company in the near future? If so, what are you doing to keep employees happy? Share your thoughts in the Comments Box below.

The number of hiring managers reviewing a candidate’s musings, photos, updates and tweets on social media sites has doubled compared with a year ago, when only 22% looked online. And by the end of this year, a further 11% will be checking online profiles before hiring.

In this economy, employers can afford to be picky. And they are. Nearly 35% say they’ve found inappropriate content online that caused them not to hire a candidate.

What turns them off?

• 53% ruled out candidates who had posted inappropriate photos
• 44% eliminated candidates who’d said something about drugs or drinking (a reminder not to tell the world when you have a hangover!)
• 35% said no to applicants who had bad mouthed colleagues, coworkers and previous employers
• 26% discovered job hunters had made discriminatory comments
• 24% found  job hunters had lied about qualifications, and
• 20% discovered that candidates had shared confidential info from previous employers. That could send a red flag that they may take a similar approach to commercially sensitive data.

It’s not all provocative photos and bitching online, found the study of 2,600 hiring managers by CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive.

Some employers have found info on sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs and LinkedIn that have encouraged them to hire candidates.

You may want to ask:

Does the profile of the candidate fit the job description? 50% of employers say candidates’ online activities and profiles confirmed their instincts.

Does the candidate’s bio support their professional qualifications? 39% employers have analyzed this.

Does the candidate show creativity? 39% checked this.

Do they write well? Show solid communication skills? 35% have looked at this.

Have others posted references? That was important to 19% of recruiters.

Of course, what’s inappropriate to one employer may be acceptable to your organization. For example, 14% have eliminated candidates who have sent e-mails with text language like GR8 instead of writing great. That could be a big deal to some recruiters, but irrelevant to others.

Read more on this study at CareerBuilder.

Posted by Julie Power, editor in chief of the Internet Marketing Report Online.  Follow her on Twitter on JuliePower and HRTraining.