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Employer brand is the backbone of any great talent acquisition strategy. However, the advent of social media in recent years has complicated employer brand management. In his October 2009 article, “Revelation — Your Employer Brand Is No Longer Owned by Your Firm,” Dr. John Sullivan outlines how social media and other web technology has shifted the power in employer branding away from the organization to the masses. His article outlines very thoroughly how everything from text messaging to Twitter has affected this balance of power.

Effective employer brands are authentic reflections of a company’s culture, values, and purpose. Employer brand flows from the people of the organization, and it belongs to the people of the organization. To this end, employer brands aren’t created; they are discovered, expressed, and managed. While social media has certainly made the management of employer brand more complicated, in some ways, it has also made it simpler. The true impact of the tools outlined in Dr. Sullivan’s article is transparency. Employees have always owned the brand; they just haven’t had the tools to broadcast their opinions to large audiences as they do today.

Due to the transparency created by social media, it is no longer about simply discovering the brand and finding ways to express it through corporate and recruitment communication. Employer brand management has become a dynamic, full-contact sport that has broad implications for organizations. Embracing that the brand belongs to the people raises some sticky questions for human resources teams. keep reading…

Coming off of a year of layoffs, pay and hiring freezes, bankruptcies, and bailouts, one would think it’s not the year for a recruiting award.

Think again.

ERE Recruiting Excellence Award applicants found creative ways to redeploy employees, including recruiters, avoiding layoffs and saving money. Others used the recession to redo their career websites, build a new employee-pipelining tool, and change its sources of hire to upgrade the technologically savviness of its workforce.

The judges were impressed. They were diligent and inquisitive, too, so to all judges, thanks.

Here are this year’s finalists. As always, you’ll hear a lot more about them throughout the year — in the Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership, on this site, at ERE’s Fall Conference in Florida (October 25-27), and in the Spring.

As for the Spring in San Diego, there’ll be a reception Monday night where some information on the finalists will be available. The next day, the winners will be announced in front of the whole conference audience, and you’ll be able to ask them questions.

This year’s finalists, in alphabetical order within each category: keep reading…

A just-completed survey of more than 600 executives indicates that although executive hiring is selectively increasing, those increases have stalled since September 2009 and further growth in hiring is not predicted to be strong until 2011 and beyond for almost half the organizations. keep reading…

by Dr. John Sullivan and Master Burnett

Becoming a leading-edge recruiter is an admirable goal few corporate recruiters strive to achieve. Not only must a leading-edge recruiter routinely demonstrate a marked increase in positive business impact over other recruiters, but they must consistently monitor trends, devise new approaches, benchmark against emerging practices, and constantly fight with colleagues often resistant to trying something new.

Historically, staying on top of trends and new approaches was relatively easy, as there were only a few companies isolated in a few narrow geographies that one needed to watch. The War for Talent in 1997 certainly drew a lot of attention to the practices of technology firms in “silicon hubs” like California’s Silicon Valley (home to Google, Cisco, Intuit, Facebook, Twitter, and HP) or Seattle, Washington’s, Silicon Forest (home to Microsoft and Amazon), but up until a few years ago there was no formal process to identify where leading-edge practices were emerging and who was developing them.

ERE Media’s Recruiting Excellence Awards and articles by global strategy advisors like Kevin Wheeler and ourselves, who have advised and studied the practices of companies in more than 40 nations, are helping leading-edge recruiters focus their attention where evolution is occurring.

The Hotbeds of Evolution and Innovation are Shifting

No one can argue that rapid growth of the technology sector in 1997 left many technology companies desperate for talent, and that desperation drove many charged with recruiting for such organizations to both collaborate and innovate new practices to help close gaps in supply and demand. While not cheap, importing labor and shifting work to geographies where the supply of labor exceeded the demand has been the dominant approach. keep reading…

UPDATE FROM 9:28 A.M. EASTERN ON MONDAY…USA Today has the results of its Ad Panel up online. Monster’s fiddling beaver ad ranked #10. CareerBuilder’s casual Fridays commercial was 51 out of 63 ranked ads. The first place winner was the Snickers ad featuring Betty White.

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Peyton Manning? Who dat? Who DAT! The Who Dat Nation has spoken. The Saints won the Super Bowl. Decisively, without a doubt, without a question, and in a game that was one of the rare ones that got better and better after every play.

But you didn’t come to ERE to read about the game. You already know the Saints whipped the Colts 31 to 17.

Now comes the other important scores: Whose commercials made it into the top best. For the details on each of the commercials that ran, go to USA Today and its widely watched Ad Meter. All the commercials are available there.

But in the contest between CareerBuilder and Monster for the best job board ad, the highly populist, if less-well-known ERE poll has Monster in the lead by a touchdown. The fiddling beaver commercial had 40 percent of the vote to 30 percent for CareerBuilder’s casual Friday ad. keep reading…

Who had the best Super Bowl commercial? Yeah, we know, it probably was Budweiser. The beer company’s advertising hegemony is so nearly complete that Anheuser-Busch should probably be given the lifetime achievement award and let somebody else have a shot at the top spots.

But we’re a recruiting-focused site, so we’re asking you to choose between Monster’s fiddling beaver and CareerBuilder’s (very) casual Friday.

If you’ve actually been paying more attention to the game than to the commercials , the two videos are below.  If you’ve been mostly watching the commercials, then you should know that as this is being written, it’s half time and the Colts are ahead of the Saints 10-6.

So much for the high scoring game me and everyone else was expecting. The Colts’ defense, by the way, is amazing.

But back to the poll. Conveniently, both commercials aired before the half. So take a look at the commercials, and cast your vote.

Here’s Monster’s fiddling beaver:

Here’s CareerBuilder’s casual Friday ad:

The following was written Friday, before the Monster ad was available.

Our poll, unlike the USA Today poll or those marketing professors at Western Michigan University is limited to only the two job boards whose ads ran during today’s Super Bowl.

As this is written on Friday afternoon, Monster hasn’t released its Beaver-themed 30-second spot. CareerBuilder, which offered a choice of three for visitors to its website to vote on, hasn’t said which it will run.

So even though we’re opening the poll at the kickoff, you really do need to wait until both ads have run. When the game is over, we’ll try to remember to find the ads online and either post them here or provide links.

If you can’t wait for us, then try going to Spike.com, which religiously posts all the commercials that run during the Super Bowl.

We’ve set the poll up to allow everyone one vote. And don’t waste your time clearing our poll cookie; we’re also tracking your IP. We’re wise to you.

After a week of serious stuff –  Monster buys HotJobs and says “We’re No. 1.” CareerBuilder says, “No you’re not.” — Sunday brings us more of the same.

At some point when the Colts and the Saints aren’t going head-to-head, CareerBuilder and Monster will go head-to-head with TV commercials that will set the tone for the great 2010 matchup between these titans of job-boarding.

We’re going to have some fun ourselves with these multi-million dollar branding campaigns. (The ad time alone is running between $2.5 million and $3 million.) A few minutes after the 6:25 EST kickoff on Sunday, our poll goes live asking you to pick the best of the two job board commercials.

I can’t show you those commercials now, because neither company has posted what will air. But here’s a preview.

CareerBuilder began building buzz months ago with a $100,000 contest for the best user-created Super Bowl commercial. After reviewing more than 1,000 submissions, CareerBuilder awarded three of the $100,000 grand prizes. Its ad agency turned them into professionally produced spots and the world began voting for a favorite.

Go ahead and vote. But don’t expect the fan favorite to actually wind up being broadcast. CareerBuilder’s little disclaimer says, “The results of voting will not affect the outcome of CareerBuilder’s choice of commercial to air during the Big Game.”

Still, it could. Here’s the video that got the most votes on You Tube. keep reading…

This morning’s monthly jobs report was a mixed bag offering something for both the bears and the bulls.The good news: Unemployment dropped from 10 percent to 9.7 percent. The bad news: The economy continued to lose jobs, shedding 20,000 in January when economists expected jobs to at least be flat, if not grow.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised its reports for November and December. In November, the BLS now says the economy gained 64,000 jobs, up from its previous estimate of a 4,000 job gain.

That improvement was more than offset by the bureau’s revision to its December number. Instead of the 85,000 job loss it first reported, the BLS now says 150,000 jobs were actually lost. keep reading…

When I started out as a recruiter, some 30 years ago, it was pretty clear that you could make more placements if you were a better interviewer than your hiring manager clients. Not only would all of your candidates be interviewed, but your best ones wouldn’t get tossed under the bus by superficial or narrow assessments, or if they possessed less-than-stellar presentation skills. This led to the development of the one-question performance-based interview.

As we started placing more people (typically staff and managerial positions in accounting, engineering, and operations) and tracking their performance, it was clear that a number of traits stood out as the best predictors of on-the-job success. Some of these included technical competency, motivation to do the work, team skills, job-related problem-solving, and trend of past performance over time, among others. (You’ll find the complete list of 10 factors and the assessment grid in my book Hire With Your Head.) To get buy-in from hiring managers we later came up with this short formula for hiring success:

Predicted Performance = (technical competency) times (motivation)2 plus team skills keep reading…

CareerBuilder released its North American revenue numbers today, which show that while it has been hurt by the recession, it’s still ahead of its closest competitor.

For the fourth quarter, CareerBuilder reported $131 million in revenue, a 30.5 percent decline from the last quarter of 2008. For the whole year, CareerBuilder’s North American revenue was $542 million, down 26.7 percent from the year before.

As a privately held company, CareerBuilder isn’t required to report any of its financials. It releases North American revenues voluntarily and has for some years. However, the company doesn’t disclose its international income or provide a profit and loss statement.

Monster, though behind in North America, has been aggressively growing its international business. In the fourth quarter of 2009, its international revenue nearly matched its combined U.S. and Canadian revenue.

Monster is getting beat up on Wall Street today. The stock opened down and went lower, and is off 16 percent right now, a clear signal that the markets don’t like what the company announced yesterday.

It announced that it had bought HotJobs for $225 million and that it lost money in the last quarter of 2009.

The HotJobs purchase brought it a sharp rebuke from Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel who downgraded Monster from a HOLD to a SELL. He said Monster “overpaid” for the acquisition, which will cost it $225 million. His change of heart about the company was also based on Monster’s 4th quarter loss and his belief that improvement in the job board industry will be slow.

No other analyst took as strong a position as Patel. The AP reported that Credit Suisse analyst John Blackledge, who has a “Neutral” rating on Monster, said while current operating results are not impressive, things are improving.

Meanwhile, CareerBuilder issued a four-point statement this morning, that essentially contradicts Monster’s claims of traffic supremacy, questions the wisdom of the deal, and wonders what impact regulatory review of the transaction may have.

The statement’s four points are: keep reading…

Campus recruiting is where the action is this year. Demand will be up, and competition for the same students will be common. Technical graduates are almost impossible to find, and visa restrictions, along with increased security, will make hiring foreign nationals more difficult.

It is no longer possible to be a passive corporate college recruiter; you have to have an aggressive and well-thought-out strategy if you even hope to attract the candidates you really want. Social media and the Internet have changed the game, and college students are looking for and will expect you to have a strong and interesting online presence. Going to campus to hold information sessions is definitely 20th century, and should be phased out over the next few years.

It will be replaced with online networks, brand-building, interactive and virtual information, and virtual mentoring programs. I have compiled a list of 40 elements that I think a 21st college recruiting program should have. I’d love your thoughts and feedback. Let’s get a good discussion going as to whether the virtual approach that I advocate will really be the way it is done.

Here is my list of the elements that make up a 21st century college program.

1. keep reading…

Recruiting and HR will not evolve independently of global events and pressures. Geopolitical issues, energy, global warming, rapid industrialization, demographics, immigration, and the constant invention of new jobs and disciplines will always drive the day-to-day realities of recruiting and HR.

A key driver of the evolution of recruiting and HR is the amount of growth in the economy and in a specific business. Recruiting for new roles is significantly different than recruiting to replace. The more clearly a role is understood and documented, the more the market behaves in competitive fashion. Once the new role is completely commoditized, it’s easy to talk about job descriptions, resume analysis, and community development. As long as the role represents growth and innovation, it is hard to characterize, and recruiting involves more intuition.

Status also makes a difference. Methods and processes used for recruiting and HR vary on two dimensions: level of compensation and the degree to which the job involves intellect. When compensation is low and involves brute force, the issues revolve around safety and reliability. When the questions involve enormous fees and lots of conceptualization (and notably, few real safety issues) the game is very, very different.

The following brief scenarios will give you some idea of the way that talent acquisition and management could evolve given a shifting landscape: keep reading…

Monster’s acquisition of HotJobs is a major coup for the recruitment firm, catapulting it into the lead in traffic, and boosting its global growth prospects, while also helping it to gain greater entree to the small employers that to this day still turn to newspapers for recruitment.

The $225 million deal gives it HotJobs, a presence on Yahoo! sites in the U.S. and Canada, and partnerships with some 600 newspapers and media outlets.

No wonder that Monster CEO Sal Iannuzzi told Wall Street analysts in a conference call this afternoon, the purchase makes his company the “No. 1 global firm in our industry.”

Monster’s closest rival CareerBuilder may not agree, but Iannuzzi’s comment is no idle boast. Monster’s overseas revenue is on a par with its North American revenue. (In the 4th quarter of 2009 it had international revenues of $88.5 million. Revenue from the U.S. and Canada was $90.9 million.

Uncharacteristically, CareerBuilder did not respond to requests for its North American revenue (the only number the privately held company provides). However, in the third quarter it had North American revenue of $135 million to Monster’s $95.2 million. keep reading…

Monster is buying HotJobs. The news of the $225 million acquisition from Yahoo! was announced just moments ago in New York.

The deal includes a three-year agreement in which Monster will power the career channel on Yahoo’s homepage in the U.S. and Canada. Yahoo will continue to manage the 600+ newspaper advertising and content consortium it has put together over the last several years. Monster, however, will get the recruitment advertising, giving it a print and online network of more than 1,000 daily and weekly newspapers across North America.

The financial terms were not detailed in the press release, but are likely to be one of the topics to be discussed at a 2 p.m. PST conference call with financial and other analysts. That conference call was scheduled weeks ago to coincide with today’s release by Monster of its 4th quarter and 2009 annual financial results.

Monster’s financial report, released at the same time as the announcement of the HotJobs deal, shows revenue was off for the quarter by 27 percent and off 33 percent from the same periods in 2008.

For the 4th quarter, Monster lost 2 cents per share or $2.1 million. The average of analyst estimates had been a loss of a penny per share.  After accounting for certain adjustments, Monster’s pro forma performance was in line with the analyst average.

For the year, Monster posted a $18.9 million profit, which translates into earnings per share of 16 cents.

Recruiting often requires creativity, especially when candidates are hard to find. But sometimes creativity results in strange or weird approaches to recruitment. Take for example this recruiting video from a hospital in Canada. The video follows a woman who goes to drop off her resume at the hospital. There, she ends up singing and dancing with staff in its hallways. Patients dance with intravenous drips, a doctor sings, and a child plays with a stethoscope.

If that’s what hospitals are like in Canada I’ll be certain not to get ill if I’m north of the border, but apparently as a recruiting tool, it worked pretty well. The video has been viewed more than 60,000 times since its online release in mid-September. And the hospital received some 2,600 resumes within the first few weeks after its release, which equalled the number it received in the previous six months. It also managed to make 200 hires. keep reading…

Talent management vendor Kenexa eked out a small profit in the fourth quarter of last year, but still ended the year with a loss of $31.1 million.

It was an improvement over the $104.7 million loss the company posted for 2008. However, that loss included a $167 million downward adjustment for goodwill. The 2009 report includes a further $33.3 million goodwill reduction.

Without the goodwill hit and some additional minor and one-time charges, Kenexa earned $15.9 million last year on revenue of $157.7 million. That’s down from 2008 when the company earned $36.6 million on revenue of $203.7 million.

Kenexa’s numbers, released this afternoon, mirror the HR technology sector’s as a whole. Although most companies in the sector are privately held, the public ones have generally reported quarterly earnings in 2009 below those in the previous year. Most companies have also reduced the value of their goodwill.

In releasing the quarterly and annual numbers, Kenexa CEO Rudy Karsan said, “As we enter 2010, we continue to believe that Kenexa’s financial performance will remain consistent with recent quarters as the unemployment rate approaches stability, which is currently expected to occur around the middle of the year. As this occurs, we believe that Kenexa is well positioned to begin scaling its quarterly revenue run rate.”

The company said it expects revenue in the current quarter to be in the $38 million to $40 million range, resulting in net income between $2.2 million and $2.6 million. For the year, the company expects revenue to be in the $160 million to $168 million range and income between $14.5 million to $18.5 million.

One of the things I hear often, in many places I go, is that people tend to describe the downturn and the potential of the upturn in extreme terms. The downturn has been “all bad” and there’s “nothing good that’s come of it.” Similarly, when others talk about the upturn and 2010 (and beyond), I hear a lot unbridled enthusiasm and optimism.

To me, the truth lies somewhere in between. keep reading…

Coming up Friday is the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And if early indications are correct, it could confirm the hope raised by last week’s robust GDP numbers that not only is the economy recovering, but it is picking up steam.

As a barometer of the political economy, the employment report is closely watched, which will be especially true this week, coming on the heels of a State of the Union speech in which every other paragraph seemed to mention the word jobs. Friday’s release will offer the best indication yet of how much improvement there is in the jobs picture.

While many economists expect the report to show flat job growth — itself an improvement over the last two years of almost monthly job losses — there is a growing feeling of hope it might show the economy added jobs.

The Conference Board’s monthly report on job openings released today showed the number jumped 382,000 over December. According to the report, there were 4.024 million jobs advertised online in January. That’s the most since November 2008 and is the third month in a row that openings grew. keep reading…

Here is what is going on this week in the ERE.net world:

• Sign up for this week’s free webinar on Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. ET – The Art of Identifying and Recruiting Passive Candidates: Next Generation Search, led by Krista Bradford. Krista will share her secrets of this next-generation search so you can fill searches faster, better and more affordably.
• If you are on the search and placement side of the business, check out the just announced agenda and speaker roster for the fourth annual Fordyce Forum 2010 taking place in Las Vegas from June 9-11. Over fifteen big billers and industry experts will share their success strategies on how to increase your billings and improve your process. And register by Friday to lock in the $400 early bird discount.
• On the events front, both SourceCon 2010 & ERE Expo 2010 Spring are quickly approaching next month in San Diego. SourceCon, the premier sourcing event for our industry takes place March 14-15. Corporate recruiting leaders are getting ready to converge on San Diego for the 10th annual ERE Expo on March 15-17.
• During breaks at the Expo in San Diego, we’d like to show some of your videos. Make a 1-minute or shorter video of you telling your favorite recruiting story — it could be the most heartwarming advice or experience you’ve had, one that made you proud of the profession — or, it could be bad behavior by a candidate (or a manager!) during an interview, an employer brand gone awry, a botched recruitment ad campaign, or something else. Email Todd Raphael (he prefers PG-13 or cleaner) the Youtube embed code and we’ll pick some of the best to show at the upcoming conference.

If you have questions about any of this, please post them in the comments below. Have a great week!