Although incentive travel has returned to about 85 percent to 90 percent of its pre-recession levels according to David Peckinpaugh, president of Maritz Travel, companies are still facing inadequate funding pools to cover expenses for employees’ reward trips according to the Incentive Research Foundation’s latest survey. Nearly 73 percent expect their budgets to decline or stay the same in 2012 and 83 percent will offer trips within the U.S. instead of exotic resorts or overseas destinations.

About 41 percent of companies plan to reduce the length of the trips and cut or reduce “non-meal” components like alcoholic beverages, desserts and other beverages, such as milk, according to the survey. The group also says that spending averages about $2,500 a person and 67 percent of trips include some type of meeting or business interaction and more than half will only cover the cost of air tickets and not incidental expenses.

But companies can make up for smaller stipends and perks by offering more free time and fewer meetings according to a study by the Site International Foundation and Incentive Travel Council. More than 70 percent of respondents indicated that a trip with limited mandatory functions is more motivating than one with several required events, which makes sense, because it’s hard to inspire anyone to go the extra mile when the reward includes more meetings.

Photo: I, Katonams

Recruiting top technology talent can be tough. Your success depends on your ability to find top developers and engineers, in an extremely competitive talent market. Our friends at Recruiting Toolbox, Inc. get it.

That’s why they’ve created the first conference designed specifically for tech recruiters, hiring managers and HR professionals who recruit tech staff.

Talent 42: Tech Recruiting Excellence Conference

• June 13 – 14
• Seattle, WA
• Save $100 with code “T42DICE”
• More info and registration

What are the latest and best strategies for attracting and sourcing technical talent? Where is technology heading, and how will it impact target candidate profiles over the next 5 years? How should you interview and select rock stars, for managers and recruiters?

Join other top recruiters and brilliant tech leaders to tackle the challenges of hiring the talent that will build Web 3.0 and beyond.

Hang with your favorite social recruiting peeps during SXSW, March 9 – 11 in Austin, TX.

The TalentNet Live crew and Dice have teamed up. Connect with colleagues and tech pros during Dice-sponsored recruiting, tech and career events all weekend:

TalentNet Live Social Recruiting Conference

• Friday, March 9
• 9 am – 2 pm at the Iron Cactus
• 50% off with code “diceconnect”
• Get info and register now

TalentNet Live #DiceConnect Tweetup

• Friday, March 9
• 2 pm – 4 pm at the Iron Cactus
• Social Recruiting Conference attendees, stay for the Tweetup and you could win Dice/Mashable VIP passes!

Hackathon

• Friday, March 9
• 7 pm – 9 am at the Austin Music Hall

#DiceConnect VIP Mixer

• Saturday, March 10
• 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm in the #DiceConnect Lounge
• Get tickets for yourself and your VIT (Very Important Tech) at the TNL #DiceConnect Tweetup

Mashable House – VIP and Main Event*

• Sunday, March 11, VIP Party, 7 pm – 9 pm
• Sunday, March 11, *Main Event, 9 pm – 2 am
• At Buffalo Billiards
• Register here

*Admission is free, but pre-registration is required. Tickets are limited.

Career connections happen every day on Dice.com. At SXSW, connect using #DiceConnect on Twitter and with #DiceConnect bracelets. Follow @EmployersonDice to learn how.

Former managers and peers have first hand knowledge of a candidate’s assets and liabilities and they’ll tell you everything you need to know, once you get them talking.

• Prepare

Figure out what you want to know and create a short list of open-ended questions to illicit the information. Remember, it’s better to ask two or three questions and listen intently to the manager’s answers then run through a checklist of closed-ended questions.

• Break the Ice

Ease into the conversation and build trust by verifying critical information on the candidate’s resume or application and since there’s no point in continuing the conversation if you uncover major fabrications.

• Segue Second

Once you verify a few facts segue to an open-ended question for instance, after verifying an applicant’s substantial list of technical tasks, ask how he was able to master so many different technologies and diverse responsibilities. Once the manager starts talking, it should be easy to ask the rest of your questions. Listen carefully to his answers and be sure to ask follow-up questions if the manager hesitates or seems to hedge his response.

• Overcome Reluctance

If the manager absolutely refuses to talk due to company policy, read him the job description and ask if he would hire the candidate for the position. You may be able to ask why, but even if he refuses to elaborate, his short answer may tell you whether to make an offer or keep looking.

Dice and The Linux Foundation teamed up to survey more than 2,000 hiring managers to better understand the global 2012 hiring outlook for Linux professionals.

The big takeaways:

• 8 in 10 survey respondents say that hiring Linux professionals is a top priority for 2012.
• 85% say finding Linux talent is somewhat to very difficult.
• Companies are making significant investments to attract and retain Linux talent through better salaries, bonuses and perks.
• Mid-level Linux developers and systems administrators are most in-demand.

Visit here to read the full 2012 Linux Jobs Report.

Not familiar with Linux? It’s a UNIX-like operating system that is free and can be run on many platforms, including PCs and Macs.

 What other tech skills are in demand for 2012?

According to our most recent hiring trend survey, Java/J2EE developers, Software Developers/Engineers and Mobile Developers sit atop the top 10 the list.

What IT job titles top your hiring list? Share your 2012 recruiting priorities below.

Unless, of course, they’re half-full of futile hopes for a higher salary.

Ever get the feeling that an applicant saw the salary in a job posting, thought to themselves, “Well, I’m completely unqualified but what the heck? I’d love to make that much!” — and applied anyway?

Share your encounters with unrealistic salary expectations when optimism got a little out of hand.

Post your comment below.

Can your salaries for IT candidates compete? See Dice’s Tech Salary Survey Results.

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In HR and recruiting, you have the BEST stories. You’ve lived through them to tell us the tales (anonymously, of course!) We simply put them on paper for others to empathize - and enjoy a little hiring humor.

Retaining and engaging pivotal talent was cited as the key to a deal’s success by 46 percent of respondents in a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, while finding the right people to lead the newly combined organization was cited by 83 percent.

Of course, HR needs to be involved from the outset so they can quell employee concerns by communicating the purpose and benefits of the deal while merging databases and formulating new benefit and compensation plans. All too often, HR is notified when the deal is imminent, putting professionals behind the eight ball when top performers ask about their new bonus plan while voracious competitors salivate on the sidelines.

HR professionals need to undergo training so they know what to do before, during and after a merger or acquisition, but in case you’re called into action before you have time to complete a course, here’s a list of action items from Mercer.

• Serve as a trusted adviser to executives and the deal team
• Be the HR/people subject-matter expert
• Provide timely and actionable input before, during and after the deal
• Help shape the post-close organization
• Manage the intense flow of information and related employee anxiety

In terms of marketing, one aspect that consultants seem to value is certifications. Forty percent of them say obtaining a certification helped them land a new gig. That’s about 10 percentage points higher than their colleagues working in traditional roles.

Want the details? See this month’s Dice Report.

At many workplaces on the list, it seems, it’s all about perks and Google is king of that. One that’s become popular at Google: Trading a standard sit-down desk for a standing desk. Those of us who sit too much could attest to how that could win points with workers, especially since one Googler wrote: “Employees are never more than 150 feet away from a well-stocked pantry.”

But as retention issues continue to rise, it would seem there are no one-size-fits-all perks. A couple of months back, I interviewed a young doctoral student who had interned at Google and other tech companies. For him, the free food, bus passes and gym paled in comparison to the value he put on the opportunity to learn and grow in his career. Though the next generation of workers has been getting some bad press, those workers might press companies to really address the needs of all workers.

While clicking through the Fortune slideshow on the best workplaces, I stopped at No. 9, CHG Healthcare Services. The text says it routinely acts on employee suggestions. That simple act of listening to its workers — then following through — strikes me as the best perk of all.

But SAP recently bought SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion and Salesforce.com scooped up Rypple for an undisclosed sum.

According to eWEEK, only Salesforce.com records and stores more daily transactions than Taleo. As it explains Oracle’s strategy:

Oracle and Taleo will team up to offer a full-service cloud service for organizations to manage their HR operations and employee careers. Oracle’s ready-to-go public cloud infrastructure and market gravitas melded with the Taleo know-how will push ahead the development of the HR cloud services model in large measure.

The move is widely viewed as a stepped-up challenge to SAP for a market valued at $6 billion. Financial Times points to an IDC study that found a market growth rate of 41 percent for the sector between 2009 and 2010, with Taleo and SuccessFactors as leading players.

However, analyst Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics, tweeted Thursday that the real challenge Oracle is trying to address is not from SAP, but Workday, the software created by PeopleSoft co-founder Dave Duffield after Oracle acquired the company.

All this acquisition fever could make the timing right for a Workday IPO, according to Forrester Research analyst Paul Hamerman. He pointed out to The Associated Press that Oracle is paying about six times Taleo’s annual revenue while SAP is buying SuccessFactors for about 10 times its annual revenue.

And analyst Josh Bersin said of the deal:

Companies like Workday, Salesforce.com, ADP, and IBM are not going to sit back and wait for Oracle and SAP to grab market share. Plus, there are hundreds of well-capitalized, innovative young companies in talent management software who will continue to innovate in this market. These companies will likely continue to grow, and hope that they too can be acquired by SAP or Oracle.

There are still many “unsolved problems” in the talent management space, just now two very big players to deal with.