Whether you realize it or not, every firm has two brands: a product brand and an employment brand. And, of the two brands, quite often the stronger one of the two is the product brand. Rather than bemoaning that fact, the key lesson to be learned by recruiting managers is that if you can successfully piggyback on potential applicants’ current knowledge and trust in your product brand, you can, in turn, dramatically bolster your employment brand and your recruitment results.
Like It or Not, You Have an Employment Brand
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Raghav Singh Jan 25, 2008
There are lots of jobs to fill; not enough candidates, and many are poorly qualified; arcane laws around hiring; and fierce competition for talent. Sound familiar? You could be a recruiter for the Roman army in the 4th century B.C.
In the collections of the British Museum, there is a decree signed by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C., promising a reward of 300 sestertii to any soldier who brought another to join the Roman army. This is the first known example of an employee-referral program. And, it’s a generous one at that: The amount represented a third of a soldier’s annual pay. It reflected how serious the Romans were about finding soldiers. They had the first known recruiters and faced many of the same challenges we have today.
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Kevin Wheeler Jan 24, 2008
Blogs are hot. Recruiting blogs have sprouted up on a regular basis for months, and competing writers now vie with each other for readership and “followership.” The majority of readers of blogs are Gen Yers, and they are the influencers and indicators of what the future of media may look like.
A survey published last fall by Forrester’s Charlene Li indicates that “24% of Gen Yers read blogs, which is twice as often as the 12% of Gen Xers (ages 27-40) and three times the 7% of Young Boomers (ages 41-50) that read blogs.”
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John Zappe Jan 23, 2008, 1:33 pm ET
Today’s admission by former Monster chairman and CEO Andrew McKelvey that he participated in a stock backdating scheme that cost the company $340 million is only the first act curtain in a criminal investigation that appears likely to ensnare other executives from as far back as 1996.
In federal court in New York this morning, McKelvey admitted he “along with others at Monster Worldwide, Inc. routinely selected prices for stock options grants based on historical dates when Monster’s stock price had closed at, or near, a low point, resulting in grants of in-the-money stock options.”
Stock options allow employees to participate in a company’s financial success. But in Monster’s case, prosecutors charged that McKelvey and others backdated options so they would be immediately profitable when granted. The price difference represented compensation to the employee and should have been reported. But it was not.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in New York City, which prosecuted McKelvey, declined to discuss the status of the case or to say whether other company executives were being investigated. However, a statement by the Securities and Exchange Commission said its investigation into the stock backdating continues.
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Lisa Calicchio Jan 23, 2008
You’re at a dealership seated at a desk across from the sales manager. Right across from you on the showroom floor is the very car you’ve had your eye on for several months. One hour until the dealer showroom closes, the sales manager has a contract in front of you stating what he says is “the deal of a lifetime.” Do you sign? It’s a moment of truth.
Another scenario: You think back to your New Year’s resolutions for 2008, with eating healthier at the top of your list. You attend your first business meeting of the year, and it comes complete with sandwiches, salads, and the ever-popular tray of desserts. You finish your salad (sans dressing), sip your water, and eye the cookies. “It’s one cookie,” you say to yourself. “But it’s only January 2,” you counter, “and already temptation is setting in. What about the ‘new’ you?” Do you take one little cookie? It’s another moment of truth.
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Todd Raphael Jan 22, 2008, 9:07 am ET
Fortune’s annual list of the top 50 employers is out.
Google, no surprise, is king of the mountain. Less predictable: Quicken Loans, in the #2 spot.
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Todd Raphael Jan 22, 2008, 9:07 am ET
Fortune’s annual list of the top 50 employers is out.
Google, no surprise, is king of the mountain. Less predictable: Quicken Loans, in the #2 spot.
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Shea Putnam Jan 22, 2008
In my previous article, “The Naked Truth about Recruiting at Diversity Conferences,” I focused on how companies could achieve a return on their conference investment by implementing a detailed process. We now need to look at a more elusive problem and understand how it impairs the recruiting initiative. That problem is called Business Process Interoperability. (Stay with this folks, it’s brilliant…)
When you really think about it, recruiting is a fairly simple process that deals with moving information and events from one stage of the process to the next: getting a candidate’s resume into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), submitting a candidate to a hiring manager, or closing the candidate after an interview. The problem with its successful execution is not always the completion of the obvious major steps of the process, but often the communication gaps that exist between these steps in the process.
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Leslie Stevens Jan 21, 2008, 11:46 am ET
The bankruptcy filing of Ensemble Chimes Global in Los Angeles on Jan. 9 leaves the users of staffing services through the company’s vendor management system with some unresolved issues. However, the greatest learning opportunities for staffing clients may come in the long term, as all of the issues surrounding the bankruptcy come to the surface, and clients gain a heightened awareness of the potential risks associated with running staffing transactions through an intermediary company.
Currently some staffing suppliers are opposing the sale of the system to Ensemble Chimes Global’s former president, and alleged improprieties have come to the surface about the financial dealings of executives of Axium International Inc. the parent company of Ensemble Chimes Global, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. As these events transpire, clients are realizing how they can become vulnerable, should their vendor management system supplier be acquired, file for bankruptcy protection, or handle funds inappropriately. While the bankruptcy trustee has made interim arrangements for the operation of the system, at the very least, clients face the potential for business interruption should vendor management system firms go belly up and all of the financial ramifications have yet to be identified or decided in this case.
As of Friday afternoon, Ed Lenz, senior vice president for public affairs and general counsel for the American Staffing Association said he had heard from staffing suppliers that outstanding receivables owed staffing firms by Ensemble Chimes Global totaled anywhere from $100 million to as much as $300 million. Lenz said it was his understanding that the majority of the outstanding balances represent billed but unpaid client invoices.
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Employee referral programs routinely produce the highest volume and the highest quality hires in corporate recruiting. These employee referrals are so effective simply because they turn every employee into a recruiter. When every employee is a recruiter, you dramatically increase the volume of recruiters (every employee) looking for talent. In addition, because employees have broad social networks and they continue looking outside of work, you also, in effect, expand the amount of time (24/7) your recruiting effort is active.
Unfortunately, our extensive research into the referral program practices of over 600 employers has shown that most corporate referral programs suffer from low expectations, poor design, and weak results. If you are not getting at least 50% of your hires from employee referrals, either you have a company that your employees are ashamed of or you have a poorly designed referral program. If your program is under-performing, one of the simplest things you can do to improve it is to provide some of your key employees with “referral cards” that they can hand to promising potential applicants.
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Lou Adler Jan 18, 2008
We’re currently conducting a major research project on how top people look for new jobs. This research will offer great insight into what companies need to do to better align their current sourcing efforts with market realities. If you’d like to take part, just send this survey link to all of your best candidates and those you’ve recently placed. Even though the current research is preliminary, one thing is already obvious: the best people don’t look for new opportunities the same way average candidates do. Over the next few years, those companies that aggressively redeploy their resources and technology to match how the best seek out new opportunities will be those that hire the lion’s share of them. While not simple, it starts by understanding how the best people look for work.
Here’s a typical four-step process that most good people who are fully-employed follow when they decide to enter the job market voluntarily. It suggests that contacting these people earlier in the process might be a far better sourcing tactic than wasting money posting jobs where the best people never see them.
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Kevin Wheeler Jan 17, 2008
It’s all about performance. Over the past four or five years, I have seen a steady increase in organizations spending time and effort to define and measure employee performance. Firms like Success Factors, DDI, and Authoria have had good commercial success in providing the tools and processes that make this easier to do. Oracle and SAP offer modules that ease the process of defining competencies and measuring employees on their contributions.
As the economy heads into a recession and profits are under scrutiny, this will become even more important. No organization can afford people who do not contribute and who cannot perform consistently at a high level.
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Archive for January, 2008 
