Comments on: Engaging Your Candidates with Blogs

By: Rithesh Nair, PHR

Rithesh Nair, PHR — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:57:19 +0000

Great Article Ben and an excellent move for RSM.

By: McKinley Chronicles » Blog Archive » Engaging Your Candidates with Blogs

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:08:45 +0000

[...] For great advice and how-to’s, check out the full article. [...]

By: Jim Rose

Jim Rose — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:28:28 +0000

Ben,

I’ve been a fan of your corporate blogs for a little while now. Thanks for taking the time to document the process…

Cheers,

Jim

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:44:24 +0000

Thank you, Ben. I did not wish to imply that blogs should reflect a particular tone or style. Blogging is a tool, which allows for the rapid dissemination of opinions and information. As such, it is inherently neither good nor bad, but can be used for either purpose. Useful information can be gathered from a “cor-blog,” much as can be obtained from a corporate website, a press release, or an advertisement. However, in none of these cases should it be presumed that the information is objective or unbiased. My larger point is that one should be particularly skeptical of sanctioned information releases from any powerful organization that may seek to have you feel, think, do, or buy something.

Cheers,

Keith Halperin keithsrj@sbcglobal.net 415.586.8265

By: Ben Gotkin

Ben Gotkin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:46:51 +0000

Lisa,

Thanks for the link to the Houston Police Dept Blog. They do indeed do a very nice job. I should also reference two other corporate recruiting blogs that I enjoy, One Louder (http://blogs.msdn.com/heatherleigh/default.aspx) by Microsoft’s Heather Hamilton, and the HCA West Florida recruiting blog (http://recruitingathcawest.com/).

If anyone else knows of any other corporate recruiting blogs out there, please let us know by listing them as a comment here. It would be great to be able to start cataloging all of the active corporate recruiting blogs that exist out there.

By: Ben Gotkin

Ben Gotkin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:43:45 +0000

Keith,

I understand where you are coming from as there are many who believe that blogs only exist to be edgy, controversial, and to expose the bad as much as the good in an organization. Being the non-conformist that I am, I tend to disagree with this mind-set.

I almost hesitate sometimes to call our blog a ‘blog’ in fear that an expectation has been set that every post must be this highly transparent expose of whatever wart may exist in our company. Is our blog a marketing tool? I say yes without apology. Is our blog edited by our marketing and legal departments? Absolutely not. The blog represents the unfiltered words and thoughts of our recruiters, and increasingly, our actual employees.

Should some level of transparency should exist on a corporate recruiting blog? Yes, and in our case, we are open to posts that may show something less-than-flattering, or comments that may be critical in nature (although honestly, we have not recevied many to date).

The point though is that using a blogging platform can effectively render the static media options of the past irrelevant. It provides an opportunity to continuously deliver new content describing the interesting and exciting things happening at your organization. We are trying to proactively push-out content that we believe will be of interest to those who are exploring career opportunities with our firm.

Most organizations have a multitude of great stories to tell. Blogging is a great way to tell stories, share information and educate. Candidates will believe what they choose to believe. I hope that when they visit our blog, they will see that our stories and intent are genuine in nature, and not just a bunch of marcom-generated hype.

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:34:39 +0000

A well-written article. At the same time, I find it hard to imagine that in these times, few save “dripping-behind-the-ears babes-in-the-woods newbies” would be so naive/gullible as to trust the regurgitated Corp Com/MarCom sludge produced in the dimly-lit dens of the organizational Hype-Meisters or the cubicles of their Stepford Drones.

Cheers,

Keith “Not as Cynical as I Sound” Halperin
keithsrj@sbcglobal.net 415.586.8265

By: Glenn Gutmacher

Glenn Gutmacher — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:16:37 +0000

Nice one, Ben, and you’ll be happy to know that today’s SmartBrief e-newsletter picked up your post, too (http://www.smartbrief.com/servlet/wireless?issueid=C9CAE9EE-A8EA-48C9-A54E-C21EB1572966&sid=f8d92a98-7d63-438a-98c9-17465f2f984e)!

By: Lisa Turner

Lisa Turner — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:41:56 +0000

I thought you might be interested in this blog for the Houston Police Department. They update daily and the writer does a great job.

http://www.hpdcareer.blogspot.com/

By: James Durbin

James Durbin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:28:41 +0000

Good article Ben. Some folks say blogging is dead, but I see it as the focal point for recruiting efforts. Candidates prefer blogs because they know there’s a real person behind it. We don’t know that about career sites.

Your approach works best for corporations. It’s low cost, and dependent on the recruiting staff rather than requiring work from other departments. That’s a winner in this economy.

For those reading, just remember to keep the blog focused, and don’t expect fast results. This is about changing the way we react to candidates, not just creating another sourcing tool.

And you get out of it what you put into it.