Time Flies

I can't believe I've waiting two months to contribute to my blog. It hasn't been for lack of content. There has been a ton of information out on the web. Jobscience even sponsored the ERE Social Recruiting Summit at the Googleplex a couple of weeks ago.

From the Tweetup, the Summit, and the reception following I had the opportunity to meet and converse with some of the great recruiting and sourcing minds. Our challenge is how to promote social recruiting and sourcing throughout the job market.

Every day I talk to HR departments that tell me that they are not hiring or have more applicants than they need (even if they aren't qualified). We need to educate more than ever that relationship development and social connections will be the items that separate a successful organization from one that never started using their relationships as leverage for identifying top talent.

I'd like to personally thank Jenny DeVaugh, Shally Steckerl, Glen Cathey (aka BooleanBlackbelt), ERE and all of my new friencs for helping me stay connected and for giving me new tools and ideas to pass along.

What Are Recruiting Functins Not Doing

I was reading an article today on a need for a paradigm shift from a Sales role to more of a Marketing role. The idea promotes a turn from selling the organization to developing an employment brand based on employment satisfaction. APQC and Kennedy performed a survey asking the respondents if they every measured the satisfaction of the recruitment experience. Sixty-two percent said they did not.


The article also implied that recruiters are pressured into a sales role because of the desparate need for qualified resources. In addition, the sales roles focuses on the internal needs of the facility to fill a position and not necessarily the needs of the individuals. I'm not sure I completely agree wth this due to the nature of the competitive market. More often than not we accommodate as much of the jobseekers desires as we are able to afford (politically speaking).


I do see the advantages of employment branding. It is effective and sells the organization's goals, mission, beliefs, etc. Branding is not dating; it's commitment. I learned a lesson when I was recruiting in healthcare. If you sell a brand new facility, you'll receive candidates who want the newest and the best and will leave when someone else has built a new facility. If you sell comp and benefits they'll leave when someone pays more or offers better benefits. We tend to sell for the short term.

If you sell your employment brand then you will attract candidates who are looking for the same values, goals and business objectives. This could be more of a match made in heaven. If you are trying to recruit for the long-haul, employment branding may be your best bet.

The Web 2.0 Job Seeker (Jobs2web Blog)

This year in the recruiting industry there has been a lot of talk about how companies are tapping into Web 2.0 technologies to enhance their recruiting. But how is the candidate community also using these technologies for their own purposes, and what impact is it having on our recruiting strategies?

Web 2.0 Candidates Are:

• Faster. Candidates can gain access to more available jobs within minutes on any day.
• Smarter. Access to salary, compensation, and corporate performance data is everywhere.
• More Connected. Social networks help candidates identify insiders at any employer before or after they apply for any position.

Web 2.0 Candidates Are Faster

When job boards came on the scene 10 years ago, they made accessing available job information much easier for candidates. No more digging through the classified section of the Sunday newspaper, crafting up witty cover letters on fluorescent letterhead to get attention and postal mailing resumes. Remember when we’d put our fax numbers on our ads? Come on: how many candidates really had fax machines in their houses? Today, there are “job aggregators” such as indeed.com and simplyhired.com which put all the jobs from multiple job boards into a single search engine that stream directly into any candidate’s personal home page on Google via RSS feeds every day.

I think one of the main reasons that recruiters are after “passive candidates” is that we think we have more time to get them through the interview process, versus “active candidates” who machine-gun apply from job boards to a dozen jobs on any Monday. With the latter, we have to get them setup with an interview within 24 hours and make a hiring decision within two to four days. That’s how fast the market is moving with so much job data available online.

Web 2.0 Candidates Are Smarter

In addition to having access to an ocean of jobs, most candidates tap into salary and compensation data via sites such as payscale.com and/or salary.com. Not to mention that the younger generation of workers aren’t shy about sharing their comp levels in the lunchroom or over beers, unlike our parents’ generation who considered salary discussions to be so taboo they would only share this information with the IRS when filing their annual tax returns.

Many recruiters have candidates show up with a salary report printed from one of these salary sites and demand that their pay be at or above the level on the report. Candidates don’t care if our job descriptions aren’t perfectly matching the ones on those websites; they just see the numbers and get an expectation that’s usually out of line with our compensation levels. Regardless of how you handle this situation in your interview process, employers are under pressure to know how their pay grades compare to other major employers in their markets.

Web 2.0 Candidates Are More Connected

Remember when you would get an applicant resume, see which companies a candidate previously worked for, and then quickly find which of your internal employees had worked with the applicant in the past, in order to get “inside information” to determine if they were a good or bad prospect? (Never mind that 51% of people will comment positively or negatively on someone because of how they liked their personality — and not their actual work performance.)

During the interview process, candidates were lucky to run into a former colleague in the hallways. Or if they get lucky in the interview, they will discover who they might know in common with the interviewing managers and try to discover which “moles” they could find within the prospective company, which would help them do their own due diligence on the employer — not to mention that they will try and gain advocates to help them get the job should their interest grow.

Well, because of the growth of social networks (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Jigsaw, and many more), the minute most candidates apply for any job (and sometimes even before they apply for a job), they can now instantly see who they know at any prospective employer, all the way back to their old high school or college buddies.

This tilts the access of information toward the candidate community — who can now see if there are bad previous bosses or old enemies working within your company, which they may wish to avoid. The candidates’ reasoning will be if your company hires personalities the candidate disliked, it indicates that your culture prefers those types of individuals, which will have an impact on your employer brand whether you get a chance to enter the conversation or not.

This puts a new pressure on employers to create a working culture that will attract these more web savvy candidates. These Web 2.0 candidates don’t believe most of our career sites’ language about having an exciting work environment. They want to find out for themselves (via networking) what it’s really like to work within the sub-cultures within our company, which are driven by management personalities and business cycles which are exciting to certain candidate types, and a turnoff to others.

http://hotgigs.typepad.com/jobs2web/2008/10/the-web-20-job.html

Do you "date" your recruits?

Dating and recruiting have a lot in common. Learn how to improve your recruiting efforts by applying the most common dating rules.

Dating rule #1
First impressions are critical.

Recruiting application:
Differentiate yourself. Resist the "I have a great position for you" especially if you have never spoken to them.

Dating rule #2
Don't believe everything you see. We have all heard stories from people that signed up for an online dating service and were shocked when their date was two feet shorter and 10 years older than the profile.

Recruiting application:
Candidates exaggerate their strengths and skills and down play their weaknesses. Do not assume anything. Prescreen, interview, administer assessments, and call the references before you present the candidate to your hiring manager.

Dating rule #3
Play hard to get. Desperation is the world's worst perfume.

Recruiting application:
If you make a huge fuss over the candidate and beg them to interview, you will diminish your negotiating power.

Dating rule #4
Be selective. You can not change people.

Recruiting application:
Look for the red flags; don't avoid them. It is better for you to uncover any candidate weaknesses or issues than your hiring manager discovering them. Your name and reputation is all you have in this business.

Dating rule #5
Prepare for the date.

Recruiting application:
If your candidate has spent 20 minutes on the phone with you and takes time off work to come to interview, and then you ask them "so, tell me what you want to do?" - you are wasting the candidate's time. You should have notes on the candidate's resume that you want to clarify, and if appropriate, the company profiles that best match what your candidate's needs.

Dating rule #6
Don't talk too much. People who express the "enough about me, what do you think about me?" attitude sit home alone, a lot.

Recruiting application:
The candidate should be doing most of the talking. Assess what the candidate has to offer, what they need, and then set expectations of how you will work together. Let the candidate talk about the interview before you disclose the hiring manager's view. If you blurt out "they love you, you are the best candidate they have ever met!" - what do you think happens to the candidate's salary requirements?

Dating rule #7
Follow up with your date.

Recruiting application:
As an industry, one of the biggest complaints we get from candidates and hiring managers is the lack of communication. No news is still considered news to the candidate; make sure you keep your candidate in the loop.

Dating rule #8
Don't be afraid to end the date early.

Recruiting application:
Pre-screen carefully, ask the hard questions, and always tell the candidate the truth. If they are not going to fit into your recruiting focus (skills, salary expectations, location, etc.), coach or make suggestions regarding who may be able to help them in the market.

Dating rule #9
Improve your odds by hanging out where (like) people hang out.

Recruiting application:
If you are recruiting technology talent, sign up and participate in technology activities in your market. Volunteer at association meetings to check members in: you will meet every attending member, every meeting.
Explain to people you meet that there are two types of people you would like to be introduced to: those who are leaders in their field and are looking for an opportunity and those who are leaders in their field and are not looking for an opportunity right now. You are an expert in your market, so people who are not looking now would still benefit from knowing you and the people in your network.

Dating Rule #10
They will not buy the cow if they are getting the milk for free.

Recruiting application:
When you agree to represent a candidate, you are entering into a business agreement. You need to set clear expectations of how the process must work. If the candidate will not agree to the terms, they are not committed to you, so turn them loose.

http://www.ere.net/2008/08/06/10-rules-for-dating-and-recruiting/

You are never too small to think global.

This morning I'm listening to a sales presentation from the site Selling Power. Bill McDermott the CEO from SAP Americas is discussing his success and the success of this company. He said something today that really hit home to me regarding business. He said that business is going global. How does this apply to recruiting?

In today's labor market, can anyone still think that they are too small to think globally. I work for a recruitment technology company (Jobscience). We have technology that allows me to see who is accessing our sites and from where. Today there was someone in Italy looking at laboratory jobs that one of our customers had posted on our site. Someone from Europe is looking for a job in a US hospital. Last week I attended the ASHHRA convention in Austin. I heard so many times from attendees, "We are very small and don't need a recruitment solution."

In order to be an effective recruiter you must think globally. That does not mean that you are going to start an international recruitment campaign. It just means that you never know where your candidates are coming from. You need to have processes and solutions in place that connect with people on a global level.