What's next in recruiting? Hear it all at the next Recruiting Innovation Summit in May
Archive for April, 2008 Manpower is out with its list of the 10 hardest jobs to fill in the United States, and for the third consecutive year, sales representatives, technicians, accountants/finance staff, and machinists remain in demand, proving that job seekers with specific skill sets are still in demand.
This list shows the ranking for 2008, with the 2007 rankings in parentheses:
I’ve been a contingency recruiter for over 11 years. Some days I say to myself, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.”
Think about it: How do contingency recruiters get business? They compete with other recruiters for the privilege of spending their own (or their boss’) money on clients who may hire a candidate we present at some unknown time in the future.
… so far at least.
MTS Driver Recruiters wanted its customers to know just how much goes into hiring someone. Actually, how much work goes into not hiring someone. While corporations may think MTS is watching Oprah all day, it’s actually trying to find the one to three people out of 100 applicants who will end up being hired.
At least that’s what it’s trying to say with this impressive Excel file. It works, though some of it is confusing and overwhelming. Again, that’s all by design, as it gives MTS the chance to talk it over with prospective clients.
The next time you’re dealing with difficult talent management issues and think, “What would Peter Cappelli do?” consider heading to Harvard’s latest smarty-pants co-operative.
No, not the one in Cambridge that offers way too many crimson hoodies and emblem-heavy coffee mugs.
This new co-op is of the RSS-feed variety, an attempt by Harvard Business Publishing to put its wealth of resources at the fingertips of its users to offer perspective on both new research and “classic” works to make better business decisions and drive improved performance.
A while back, I was asked to give a presentation at Google’s main campus in the heart of the Silicon Valley on the future of corporate recruiting. The audience was a combination of Google recruiting staff and recruiters from other organizations in the community that Google was interested in getting to know better.
Looking back, I realize that there is probably no better place to hold a discussion about the future of recruiting than at the one company that is proving daily that they are dedicated to pursuing a model that is effective first and foremost. While some might argue their approach is inefficient, Google’s powerhouse “recruiting machine” is demonstrating that to truly make evident a value for top talent you might just have to abandon all that you know and experiment.
Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing intended as a technique of conservation. After capture, the fish are unhooked and returned to the water before experiencing serious exhaustion or injury. According to the Wikipedia definition, using barbless hooks makes it possible to release the fish without removing it from the water (a slack line is frequently sufficient).
Catch and release has been practiced by some countries for centuries as a management tool to reduce the cost of stocking hatchery-raised trout, and as conservation to prevent target species from disappearing in heavily fished waters or “prized” circumstances.
What’s that sound you just heard? It’s the sound of the bubble bursting over the heads of many soon-to-be graduates of the Class of 2008. By all accounts, it seems they are entering a market that is quickly getting more competitive as employers slow their hiring pace amid economic uncertainty.
In fact, a new CareerBuilder survey shows that 58% of employers plan to hire recent college graduates in 2008, down from 79% in 2007. That 58% figure is remarkably similar to MonsterTrak data released last month, showing that only 59% of employers plan to hire this spring, a decrease of 17%.
These figures contradict new data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which recently suggested that hiring new recruits is expected to be 8% higher than last spring.
My definition of talent is simple: it’s those people who have the skills, knowledge, and desire to work for your organization. Increasingly, it is hard to find people with either the skills or the desire.
When I speak with young people they are generally turned off by what they perceive as the impersonal and uncaring attitude employers have toward them. They wince every time they hear the expression “people are our most important asset.” They know that most executives really believe that labor is a cost, just like steel or semiconductors, and want to get it as cheaply as they can.
For a company that must be happy to put 2007 in the past, this week’s Peopleclick user conference seems well-attended (about 175 registered), in a stunningly pretty but not-too-accessible oceanfront Ritz in Orange County … Ed Newman asked the crowd, “Who thinks their company is doing a decent job of workforce planning?” and maybe two hands in the whole audience went up, sheepishly … John Sullivan lists some of his favorite companies for workforce planning: Microsoft (partly because of its willingness to move people to partner companies), Intel, Aimco, Booz Allen (for its strength in moving people internally), Valero, and Sodexo … At lunch, one customer tells ERE that Peopleclick’s VMS is improving enough that he feels like he could someday scrap Fieldglass, which he says offers inferior reporting … A Peopleclick partner says the apparent recession isn’t all that severe; meanwhile, CareerBuilder, as usual, didn’t seem to be tight on money either, as evidenced by the money it spent on a martini party … Who cares that the labor market is tight in Montana? Peopleclick client GlaxoSmithKline does, as it has critical operations there and is playing up the lack of traffic and outdoorsy lifestyle to candidates.
Neal Bruce, who recently departed Monster to join the Bedford, Massachusetts, office of First Advantage, will serve as the senior vice president of product management for the Employer Services division. He chatted with ERE about innovating in his new gig, his renewed focus on talent acquisition products, his blog, his legacy at Monster, and more.
ERE: Congrats on the move to First Advantage! Were you looking for a new opportunity, or were you pursued?
NB: I received a call about joining First Advantage, and the timing was right for me to take on a new challenge.
I’m not sure why, but I’m fascinated by cons and confidence games. When I lived in New Jersey, I loved walking around New York City just south of Times Square because I was always sure to see some tourist happily handing over his vacation money to a Three Card Monte gang.
I’d stand cautiously and observe as a team of experts would masterfully lure a “Vic” to the game, peek into his wallet to figure out how much money he had, let him win a few games, block his wife as she desperately tried to talk some sense into him, and finally go for the big payoff.
Article and research by Charles Handler and Mark C. Healy
For the last five years, Rocket-Hire has surveyed talent-management professionals who use Web-based screening and assessment products to enhance and quantify their hiring processes. Our goal for this research is to document trends in the usage of online screening and assessment tools in order to help provide a clear understanding of the popularity of these tools and their perceived positive and negative attributes.
UPDATE 4/18: Hans Gieskes clarified the H3 change in ownership today, explaining it amounted to a realignment of the shares of the company that solidifed his control. “I’ve taken back control,” Gieskes said, hastening to add that it was not a hostile matter.
There are no new owners; the firms that provided the venture capital are still invested in H3, and there’s no change in the business model.
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Anyone who has worked in corporate recruiting for any period realizes they work in a profession that has dramatic up-and-down cycles. Unfortunately, the down cycles following rapid growth tend to be the harshest. Who can forget the literal “implosion” of world-class recruiting functions like those at Cisco, Nortel, and Trilogy after the 2001 downturn? Those dominating recruiting functions have never recuperated.
During the “great recruiter massacre” that followed the tech crash, many of the best recruiters from a wide spectrum of firms were forced to leave the profession for good. Whether there is a large or small recession, and whether it occurs this month or in six months, it is critical that you be prepared for it, regardless of when it actually occurs.
Get schooled on background screening…
employeescreenIQ (profile; site) says its recently launched employeescreen University provides free background-screening information aimed to help organizations make better hiring decisions.
The interactive learning tool is designed specifically for human resource, risk-management, and security professionals. It features a free newsletter, employment screening news compiled from international sources, U.S. legislative news updates, industry white papers, background-screening media resources, and upcoming industry events.
I’ve been a judge for the ERE awards for the past three years and have attended numerous recruiting conferences around the world. As part of this, I’ve seen great ideas come and go, and some not so great, somehow hang on. So I’m a bit cynical with most of the hype and the emergence of the next great hope.
However, something chilled me at this year’s ERE Expo in San Diego that hadn’t before. If you weren’t there, you missed something special. I was there, and even I missed it at first. It took awhile to register. While some of the presentations were great, some weren’t, but that’s not the point. What was special about this event was a sea change of ideas that collectively will hugely impact our business.
UPDATE 4/10: Multiple sources have confirmed that former Monster exec Neal Bruce will be going to work for First Advantage. No official word yet from the company, but sources inside the company said he reportedly will be working with the ATS group. Recruitment blogger Joel Cheesman first reported Bruce’s new employer Tuesday.
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Veteran Monster (profile; site) executive Neal Bruce has left the company where his last assignment was vice president of the global innovation group.
Monster (profile; site) has signed a deal with MSNBC to power its career channel, including the popular Todayshow.com site.
Announced this morning and already implemented on the MSNBC site, the deal puts the Monster brand and its jobs listings in front of the 35 million unique visitors to the popular news and entertainment site.
Monster wouldn’t say how much it will pay MSNBC, but five years ago CareerBuilder (profile; site) committed up to $150 million over five years to power Microsoft’s MSN family of sites, including MSNBC. The site is a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC Universal News. Almost at the same time, CareerBuilder closed a similar, four year deal with AOL for $115 million.
Vurv Technology (profile; site) this week officially unveiled its new Vurv Perform 4.0, an on-demand solution designed to engage employees and improve retention.
Derek Mercer, the company’s founder and CEO, recently chatted with ERE about a product he hopes will be “intuitive and accessible to everyone” to give everyone a role in a company’s performance.
Specifically, Mercer notes that key enhancements from Vurv’s previous performance management offerings include succession tools for gap analysis and development plans; job modeling tools; and goal management capabilities, among other features.
Former Vice President of Alliances for Monster (profile; site) Neal Bruce is headed to the First Advantage team, according to several reports.
One high-level First Advantage executive spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, and on Thursday, Rena Levin wrote on the Hire Calling blog that Bruce would, in fact, be joining the company’s ATS team. The rumor started swirling on Tuesday, when Joel Cheesman announced it on his blog.
Levin wrote that while at Monster, Bruce “brought such a wealth of knowledge to the table. Monster customers sought out his opinions and trusted his vision. I had a great deal of success when the product was under his direction. My career path eventually lead me to First Advantage Corporation and I’m so thrilled to say Neal is joining our ATS team here. I can’t believe Monster let him go. He is such a valuable asset. He will certainly have a dramatic and positive impact here at First Advantage.”
With final exams underway at colleges across the U.S., it's only a matter of weeks before the first of millions of young Mill... more »