So says PotentialPark, a Swedish recruitment market research firm. Its annual survey (U.S. results were not posted as of this writing) of 3,552 U.S. college students and recent grads found young job seekers are comfortable with social media and expect that you will be too. While 86 percent of them make use of company career sites, more than half (56 percent) expect to find a company on Facebook, and 69 percent expect you to be on LinkedIn.

What PotentialPark found when it audited the corporate career sites of almost 500 U.S. firms was that only 57 percent link to their Facebook page; 79 percent connect to LinkedIn or some other professional network. The career site itself, says PotentialPark, “rarely offers any interaction.”

That’s a mistake, considering 61 percent of the young job seekers say their reason for interacting with employers online is to get in touch with recruiters. (Other reasons that ranked almost as high were: finding interesting jobs (60 percent); building their professional network (55 percent); and, getting realistic insights and interesting background information (51 percent).

“No matter which channels they use,” says PotentialPark, “jobseekers want to find relevant information quickly and easily with no time wasted searching. Customized, target job offers (opportunities), email job alerts, and a way to track the status of their applications are high on their wish list.”

Says Julian Ziesing, head of research at PotentialPark, “Jobseekers in the U.S. have gone multi-channel. The question is, ‘Can employers keep up?’”

The answer is that some can. According to PotentialPark’s detailed analysis of 117 top employers, Accenture ranks at the top in online recruitment communication. It not only has the best career site, Accenture has the best mobile presence, and ranked 10th for its Facebook efforts. It’s on Twitter, has a career blog, and its LinkedIn presence includes employee testimonials, a video, and career path information for its global operations.

Accenture and several of the other companies that made PotentialPark’s top 30 list also appear on lists of companies rated for Europe, the U.K., France, and Germany. What they all have in common, says the market research firm, is that they learned from experience. “They have gone through a learning process that typically involves trial and error,” says PotentialPark.

They design their efforts from a job seeker’s point of view, leveraging the attributes of each channel for maximum value.

Much of what PotentialPark’s young job seekers said was important to them is echoed in a report on the candidate experience, issued last month by the Talent Board. The non-profit group of prominent recruiting industry leaders, manages the Candidate Experience Awards, which recognizes employers practicing “exceptional and exemplary recruiting, and hiring methods.”

Some of the companies on PotentialPark’s top 30 also earned recognition for their candidate experience. These include addidas, PepsiCo, Deloitte, and General Mills.

After reviewing some 11,700 candidate surveys, submitted by some two dozen employers, the Talent Board found the company career site was the only channel used by a majority of candidates. Direct contact, either via phone calls or email, was a primary communication channel for job seekers. LinkedIn was the most commonly used social media platform. Job seekers went their primarily for research, not for specific positions.

The whitepaper from the Talent Board goes into much more detail about the entire job seeker experience, including what happened when they submitted an application. (Some 40 percent reported hearing nothing.)

What’s after the slash is what Nitro tries to give you in its new careers site feature, a little game built by Nitro’s developers. The San Francisco company, in the paperless office/document management business, wants to show that it is creative, fun, Australian-influenced, and un-corporate. So it asks candidates if they want to take the “wombat pack” career track or the “corporate drone” career track, as well as a few other quick questions to that effect.

On the site, it says it’s looking for engineers and product managers (and even a recruiter) who are “rock stars” and who “get *%$@ done.” Except it doesn’t use those characters.

Like most every other careers pages, it unfortunately loses a bit of the cool factor once you click on the job descriptions. Anyhow, check it out here.

Big Improvement

New York has long struggled with hiring a diverse workforce in both its fire and police departments. Of the 11,200 uniformed firefighters in New York City, just 9 percent are Black or Hispanic. The FDNY may have finally implemented an effective (though court-ordered) recruitment effort and attracted a diverse group of applicants.

John Combs, president of the black firefighters’ group called the Vulcan Society, made an important point by saying he “hopes the increases in minorities taking the test translate into actual employment.” Those from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., minorities) often fail to pass all of the selection components, and even if they do, they do so at a lower level than others.

Here’s why: The number of candidates selected compared to the number who apply is very low. There are insufficient preparatory and information sessions for applicants about the job, recruit school, selection process components, and the personality traits needed for both the job, and the extended hiring and training program. While it appears that the New York Fire Department offers information on its website, information about the job, recruit school, and the remainder of the selection process is lacking. The most important information — how to prepare for the process — could not be found online. Fire department selection processes may include background investigations, interviews, physical ability tests, and more.

More often than not, candidates from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and women who are often unfamiliar with the public safety environment are much less prepared to compete in the selection process than those who have sufficient information needed to succeed. The solution to limited exposure is a comprehensive study and dissemination of the information applicants need to advance in their careers. Here are some examples of exposure that could potentially help applicants land a job with the New York Fire Department:

• Volunteering in a fire department. A person who volunteers and learns about the environment walks into the Fire Department selection and training process better prepared than a person without this experience.
• A person who studies building construction manuals and hydraulics for the fire service would have an advantage in this process.
• A person who can demonstrate that they are a team player will have an advantage because firefighters live in the same firehouse and work together on fire incidents.

In the interview process a candidate who has this type of knowledge, skills, abilities and exposures, will increase his/her probability of success.

These examples are an extremely small sample of the information needed to ace the selection process. Collecting information and preparing for a selection process takes time and effort, but it pays off in the long run.

Facebook mobile users have a choice of downloading an application, or using the mobile Facebook. Eighty percent of mobile Facebook users use the application. With Twitter, users prefer the application, too. This data has confused many industry commentators, with many bloggers writing that applications are “winning the battle.” This interpretation is wrong.

Unfortunately such mistaken onlookers have driven many talent acquisition directors to ask me if they should develop a mobile recruiting application and forget about optimizing their mobile websites. After all, a mobile social media application, downloaded from Google Play or Apple AppStore, offers us a better experience so we can more easily enjoy and interact with social media.

On the contrary: your mobile recruiting strategies should have nothing more important than offering your candidates an optimized mobile website. Here’s why.

Facebook, Twitter, etc. are channels. We all “browse” media through these social channels. The people and businesses we follow within social channels curate web content, which we discover and consume. The Twitter and Facebook apps are our preferred window to consume the web; not only do these apps direct us to new content, they fetch it and display it for us in one place.

Frequently we click links on Twitter from our mobile app. The webpage loads in our Twitter app. We do not take the URL and open a web browser and read the content. Social channels are the true “browsers.” We do not have to search or have a pre-conceived idea of what we are looking for. Instead we browse the social channel and when we see something we like, we order up more content by tapping the hyperlink.

Empowered with the knowledge that Twitter and Facebook apps on our mobile are the new browser, and knowing the enormous volume of users and time spent consuming these channels, what do you feel matters when it comes to mobile recruiting optimization? As recruiters wishing to reach a market it is very simple: a mobile-optimized career site/recruitment campaign coupled with social media activity puts your message in front the audience.

Check out the top mobile native apps: Instagram, Angry Birds, Facebook, Twitter, Ebay, etc. As a user I expect to return to these apps frequently either for fun or social interaction or new content. Looking for a new job at a single company is not a repeat process. The effort and reward of downloading an app to work at just one company does not add up. The native app will attract downloads from those doing additional research, those really interested in your firm, but these people have probably already applied for a job. Unless your employer brand creates incredible hunger and has millions of people desperate to work for you, an app in AppStore or Android is unlikely to deliver high ROI when it comes to talent attraction.

The mobile site is becoming a must-have for candidate marketing. The mobile application is typically better positioned to assist the selection and onboarding process.

If you’ll excuse the bravado, what TalentBin is trying to do is actually quite impressive and has leaped forward since I saw the beginnings of its private beta at the HR Technology Conference last October.

What it is trying to do is fairly simple: create a searchable database that merges information about a person from all over the web into a single profile so that recruiters can get all of the information about them in one, digestible place.

Pre-launch Reviews Were Strong

When TalentBin quietly went into private beta, several prominent folks got an opportunity to use the product hands-on. And the reviews from those people were strong.

Megan Hopkins wrote here on SourceCon a few months ago that, “in the four months I’ve been using TalentBin, I’ve located, extended offers to, and hired nearly a half-dozen candidates (all top-notch engineering and design professionals) and my pipeline is robust with killer talent that will, at some point, be looking for a new company to join.” She adds, “In terms of time, it took me a fraction of the time it used to take me, allowing me to be so much more efficient and contribute more to my employer. And, it saved us money — the ultimate ROI.”

Irina Shamaeva wrote on her Boolean String blog last November, “TalentBin is one example of a sourcing product that has a potential to become the Dream Software.” She concluded, “if you have a sourcing budget, I do recommend checking TalentBin out.”

Also in the press release is a customer list that includes companies like Groupon, Intuit, and Yahoo.

Profiles Built Based on Implicit Data From 30+ Sources

In talking with TalentBin co-founder Peter Kazanjy, he said that TalentBin has expanded its reach since its beta launch last year. “We’re now using over 30+ sources from the open web,” said Kazanjy yesterday by phone. “We’re going whole hog on creating an implicit database of potential candidates.”

Kazanjy explained that the implicit database it is building is better than competing search tools by LinkedIn or job boards because it takes in information people are creating elsewhere. He used the example of software engineers who may have a terrible LinkedIn profile and no (or a severely outdated) resume on a job board but have been active on Twitter or Quora or even specialty sites like GitHub or Stack Overflow. They use contextual clues from what the person tweets or works on based on less traditional sources of data and compile it all into a single profile.

Like LinkedIn, the bigger your network, the better your reach will be. That’s why TalentBin focuses very heavily on having your co-workers connect to your TalentBin so you can search resumes from their networks.

Added Chrome Plugin and API Access

One of the things that launched with the move from private beta to public was the addition of a Google Chrome plugin that allows you to have easy access to the consolidated profiles TalentBin offers when you’re cruising social networks. As an example, if you bring up my Twitter profile and click on the TalentBin plugin, you’ll get this:

That has a link to all of my social profiles as well as my contributions on websites like SourceCon and ERE. And even with a basic account, you can find a lot of information about me (and potential ways of getting in touch as well).

Kazanjy also said his company also added API access to the platform for the public release. “One of the things we heard from our [beta] customers is that they would love it if this could be integrated into their ATS,” he said. “This is a first step.”

The product itself still has some rough edges. Most of my tech contacts are admittedly based in the Northwest and while I wouldn’t call it a representative sample, TalentBin didn’t have some of these people in their system. As Kazanjy said, “If you’re looking for someone in Iowa, you’re probably not going to find a lot right now.” Indeed, it seems the further away you are from a technical background (or from Silicon Valley), the less chance there is that a profile will be in the system. He claims they are continuing to expand the number of profiles but they started with technical talent since that’s where the greatest need is at right now.

Pricing is on a sort of seats-based, freemium model. Kazanjy said they are debuting with a $4,800 per seat/per year price point for the full version of the product. He said that’s about half of what LinkedIn Recruiter costs.

To catch the live stream for free, go to this page Thursday and Friday. The event kicks off at 9 a.m. PDT both Thursday and Friday.

All of the sessions at the summit will be streaming live at http://recruitinginnovationsummit.com/mv2012/live/. In addition to watching the great information the session leaders are providing, you can also join the discussion with others, both in attendance at the Computer History Museum and participating virtually via Twitter using the #RIS12 hashtag.

Here is what you will see this week:

Thursday May 17:

9:00 AM – 9:15 AM – Welcome remarks from conference chair Jenny DeVaughn
9:15 AM – 10:15 AM – Innovation Inside and Out: How Recruiting Powers Global Growth At LinkedIn led by Steve Cadigan
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM – Driving Innovation In A Borderless Recruiting World led by Brad Cook
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM – Recruiting Tech: Evolving, Innovating, and Keeping Ahead of the Pack panel moderated by Jenny DeVaughn
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM – This is NPR: Recruiting for a big brand without the big budget led by Lars Schmidt
2:45 PM – 4:45 PM – The Recruiting Innovation Summit Startup Competition moderated by Master Burnett
4:45 PM – 5:00 PM – Closing Session

Friday May 18:

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM – Opening remarks from conference chair Jenny DeVaughn
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM – Chasing Purple Squirrels led by Mike Junge
10:45 AM – 11:45 AM – “A” Players? Or “A” Results? led by George Anders
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM – Closing session led by Jenny DeVaughn

To view more about the sessions, check out the full agenda.

I also want to thank our live stream sponsor Dice for helping make it possible to bring this to you!

Lisa Sherr, senior director, global staffing marketing & analytics, talks with me about this training of “brand ambassadors,” “coaches,” and “certified social media experts” in the audio below. She covers:

• Why this was started in the first place
• Basic vs. advanced use of social media
• The use of recruiters to train ADP employees in other departments in social media
• Whether the training is tactical (e.g. how to use Twitter) or strategic (making and carrying out a plan)

It’s about nine minutes, below.

• Company X has a rigorous succession planning process, but the results of this process sit in binders in several HR business partners’ desks. Mary, a senior manager, has a critical vacancy, so she calls her recruiter, John, to fill it. John hires a retained search firm at great cost and expends a great deal of effort, but finally fills this critical but difficult-to-fill position. After the hire, John gets a call from his HR business partner, who asks, “Why were the three ready-now internal successors identified during talent reviews not even considered for this position?”
• Brad, a manufacturing site manager at Company Y, reviews his staffing needs on March 15 and determines that his plant is fully staffed. However, on March 22, he calls his recruiter, Jane, and tells her a change in business strategy has occurred, and he needs 100 new people at his plant by the end of April. Jane thinks, “Senior leadership must have known about this change three months ago. If only I had known ahead of time, I could have proactively pipelined external talent, and worked with Learning and Development and Succession Planning to pipeline internal talent. At this point, I’ll never be able to meet Brad’s timeline!”
• Peter, a new employee at Company Z, meets with his manager, Lisa, two weeks after his start date. In that meeting, Lisa tells Peter that HR requires every employee to have a development plan. She hands him a copy of the development plan template, and tells him to put anything he wants on it. Peter thinks, “I wish Lisa would give me more direction and support for my career development. I interviewed with so many people to get this job; you think they’d have some sense of my development areas and some suggestions for how to grow. I guess this company’s stated commitment to employee development is just lip service.”

Integrated Talent Management: the Solution

Many companies are trying to solve these issues by abandoning their siloed talent management models and replacing them with an integrated talent management function. But organizations are still struggling to understand what integrated talent management is.

An integrated talent management function has several distinguishing characteristics:

• Talent Strategy and Workforce Plan Are Tied to Corporate Strategy: An integrated function is meant to help the business meet the human capital needs of the corporate strategy. As a result, an explicit talent strategy and workforce plan are key to ensuring that talent management activities are aligned with the business. Workforce planning also allows an integrated function to rapidly adjust to changing business needs.
• Talent Management Processes Are Aligned to the Talent Strategy: The talent strategy and workforce plan should drive all talent management activities. In an integrated function, the talent strategy and workforce plan are the puppet-master, and the talent management processes are the marionettes.
• Talent Management Processes Share Inputs and Outputs (see the graphic): This is a crucial piece of breaking down the siloes of talent management. All three of the examples of siloed behavior discussed above can be partly attributed to a lack of data sharing: Succession Planning not sharing bench successors with Talent Acquisition; Workforce Planning not sharing scenario-based hiring needs with Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, and Succession Planning; Talent Acquisition not sharing hiring evaluations with Learning & Development.
• Competency Model as a Common Language: Each talent management process performs evaluations of talent. A consistent competency model ensures that each process can share that evaluative data with other processes by ensuring that those evaluations are using a common language. If talent acquisition is using a different competency model than Learning & Development, the value of hiring evaluations in the development planning process is greatly reduced.
• Technology Enablement for Talent Management: In some cases, the sharing of data across processes in Talent Management can be achieved without technology support, through cross-functional participation in meetings, or paper and email communication. However, technology support is critical to ensure these interfaces are scalable as a company grows.
• Change Management as a Foundation: The journey to integrated talent management is transformational, not incremental. A detailed and pervasive change management effort is absolutely essential to ensure that your business is able to follow your lead on that journey.

Creating an integrated talent management function is not just HR navel-gazing; it has been proven to have direct and measurable business results. According to the 2010 Bersin & Associates Talent Management Factbook, companies with strategy-driven integrated talent management functions have significant advantages over their siloed counterparts:

• 26% higher revenue per employee
• 28% less likely to have downsized during 2008 and 2009
• 40% lower turnover among high performers
• 17% lower overall voluntary turnover
• 87% greater ability to “hire the best people”
• 156% greater ability to “develop the best leaders”
• 92% greater ability to “respond to changing economic conditions”
• 144% greater ability to “plan for future workforce needs”

Integrated Talent Management: the Challenges

The benefits of integrated talent management are compelling, and the descriptions and diagrams above seem simple enough. So why don’t all companies have it? In the final analysis, most companies are struggling to develop a practical, simple, and systematic approach to designing their integrated function and determining a path to get there.

Consider this analogy. Assume that 300 engineers are tasked with designing a suspension bridge. In order to accomplish this, the group is split into three teams of 100 engineers: Team 1 is responsible for designing the towers; Team 2 is responsible for designing the cabling; and Team 3, the roadway. If this bridge were designed the way HR functions are designed, the head of the project would send all three of these teams to different locations, and simply say, “go.”

Once the team starts, Team 1 designs the towers, Team 2 designs the cabling, and Team 3 designs the roadway. But when all three pieces are put together, the bridge falls over. No one has taken the time to determine how the pieces fit together before beginning the design. The tower team doesn’t know what the cabling team expects of them in supporting the cables. The cabling team doesn’t know what the roadway team expects of them in supporting the road. And the roadway team doesn’t know how to design the road to fit into the towers.

So what is the antidote to this ill-fated bridge-building method? Come to my Fall ERE Expo pre-conference workshop to find out.

Unable to ride out the storm over a false academic degree listed on his resume, Thompson left the company over the weekend. Yahoo issued a statement Sunday mentioning Thompson’s name briefly, and only in connection with announcing his replacement, Ross Levinsohn, as interim CEO. Levinsohn was Yahoo’s executive vice president and head of global media.

The decision to replace Thompson over his false claim of holding a degree in computer science jelled late Friday, after search firm Heidrick & Struggles denied it had anything to do with the falsification. In meetings he held to attempt to calm the waters last week, Thompson blamed a staffer at an unnamed headhunting firm for making the resume mistake, which he failed to notice for eight years.

That firm would have been Heidrick & Struggles, which was handling his placement at eBay.

That did it, for the normally reserved firm. “The CEO of Yahoo has made potentially damaging allegations about our firm that are simply not true and cannot be allowed to stand in the public record,” wrote CEO Kevin Kelly in a letter to company staff.

“The media articles in question have indicated that the Yahoo CEO told members of his senior staff that, many years ago, a junior member of our firm invented an academic credential for him in the course of preparing standard profile materials. Based on information in our possession, this allegation is verifiably not true and we have notified Yahoo to that effect.”

That information reportedly is a resume Thompson gave the company.

According to a report on All Things Digital, which posted a copy of the Heidrick & Struggles letter, a similar letter was sent to Yahoo’s board.

What’s not discussed in the letter or in articles about the Heidrick & Struggles letter is whether the firm did a background check on Thompson to verify the information. Heidrick & Struggles has not yet returned a call asking about that.

What is clear is that dissident shareholder Third Point and its founder, Daniel Loeb, did look into Thompson’s background. In the last several weeks, Loeb learned that Thompson’s alma mater, small Catholic Stonehill College, did not even offer a computer science degree until four years after he graduated — with an accounting degree.

Loeb and Third Point, which was waging a proxy fight with the Yahoo board, called for Thompson’s resignation because of the falsification.

That proxy battle ended Sunday, when Yahoo agreed to appoint three Third Point nominees to its board. Board Chairman Roy Bostock stepped down, as did four other members.

In a different post, All Things Digital said Thompson won’t be getting the usual large severance package that typically is given to ousted executives. Instead, the Yahoo board intends to say he left for cause. It’s relying on a clause in his letter of offer requiring him to “abide by the Company’s policies and procedures.”

On the other hand, if Thompson’s departure was voluntary — and the Wall Street Journalsays his recent diagnosis of thyroid cancer may have helped him decide to leave — then he may be obligated to return the $7 million he was given in upfront bonuses. His employment offer says he has to return the money if he leaves voluntarily within a year of his hiring.

Including innovative practices and sources in your recruiting is essential because innovators look for signs of innovation in the recruiting process as an indicator that innovation permeates the firm. And if your firm is one of the first users of these hot sites, you further reinforce your employer brand image as a first mover and innovative firm. If you are going to be a strategic recruiting function, you need to look beyond the short-term goal of filling reqs. 

Build Your Image as an Innovative Firm

Unless you have had your head in the sand, it is hard to not have heard about the rapidly growing popularity of the social media sites Pinterest and Instagram (and to a lesser extent Dribbble.com). Their growth has been exponential and although they are not primarily recruiting sites, they have a great deal of branding and recruiting potential. One of the primary reasons to use one of these new social media channels is that being the first to recruit on it will certainly get you noticed as an innovator. Not only will users recognize that you are leading the way but so will the media and blog writers. The net result of being a first corporate user on these hot sites will be getting you coverage and mention which will have a value well beyond any cost associated with using the tool. And incidentally, if your firm has a current reputation of being conservative or old school, using the new channels will get even more notice.

Why Use Emerging Sites for Recruiting

You might initially think it is strange to use these sites that contain primarily pictures for recruiting, but you would be wrong. Pictures and videos are “worth more than 1,000 words” because they provide the capability of making the excitement of your work environment come alive. Firms have been successfully using YouTube for years to recruit; these two new sites are just an extension of that approach. A second important benefit is that users on these sites post pictures of their actual work, so you can evaluate their design and creative capabilities directly. And last, if your firm is among the first to recruit there, you may initially startle some users but you will impress even more and you will face little recruiting competition.

Pinterest as a Recruiting Tool

Pinterest is a rapidly growing social media community where users pin (i.e. post) pictures related to their interests on their electronic pin “board” (like an electronic version of a cork board bulletin board). Many users use it to show off their work, so recruiters can use it to spot great designers. Users can also view the pins of others (pictures or videos) on their mobile phone to get ideas for travel, decorating, do-it-yourself projects or fashion ideas.

Pinterest is particularly appealing because its demographics are perfect if you are targeting women or young people as recruiting prospects. Southwest Airlines and Work Club have already used Pinterest for brand building and recruiting. Recruiters should encourage employees to post exciting work pictures on their own individual boards. Each department can have its own board where it posts compelling pictures. Recruiters can even post pictures or screen captures of job announcements and they can also subscribe to the pins of individuals.

Make your pictures easy to find by including the most popular keywords and hashtags. You should also include QR codes and links to your careers page or your LinkedIn profile if you want to communicate directly with interesting prospects. And don’t forget the important benefit that your brand image will likely improve because you’re using this hot app.

Instagram as a Recruiting Channel

Instagram is a photo-sharing mobile app that was recently purchased by Facebook. Instagram certainly has the “cool factor” that draws trend leaders and that also helps to build your employer brand image. Its primary feature is that it provides filters that allow even amateur picture takers to make their average pictures look much more appealing. The app also allows you to post a filtered picture to multiple sites including Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. And like any picture site, it allows recruiters and employees to post pictures that reveal the fun and excitement of working at your firm.

Dribbble.com as a Recruiting Channel

Dribbble.com is a social media site that focuses on designers. And because of the growth of social media, designers are in extremely high demand. The site has two purposes. The first is to allow designers (prospects) to post pictures of their designs (what are you working on?) related to specific topic areas (e.g. the iPhone). But the site is unique in that it allows recruiters (scouts) to join and use the site to identify talented designers. Rather than having to rely on their resume, you instead get a chance to assess their work directly. Apple, Google, and Facebook are all users.

Actions to Take to Build Your Image as an Innovative Firm

When assessing a potential new recruiting site like Instagram, Pinterest, or Dribbble.com, be sure and consider the following actions:

• Accept the role of spreading the innovation message — set as a goal to be among the first to use new innovative Internet and social media sites for recruiting, brand building, and business purposes.
• Decide to be first – “getting there first” provides a certain amount of street cred and follow up press coverage, so being an early adopter is critical. Your recruiting function must monitor potential sites so that when they begin to grow, you can act quickly to increase your presence. Even if it is only a minor effort, being the first to use the site for recruiting is important if you want your firm to be considered a “first mover.”
• Market research will tell you “who is using what”– the key deciding factor in any channel selection decision should be “are members of my ideal target audience heavy users?” Rather than guessing, it is better to use a market research approach to identify the user base of any site that you are considering. Start by surveying a sample of your own innovative employees and ask them to identify which social media and Internet sites that they frequent either at home or at work. If your own key innovators use it, the odds are that other innovators are also using it. And if the demographics and the characteristics that you are trying to attract are present in the heavy users of the channel, you must be visible on it. And even if the total number of users is initially small, remember to also assess the “coolness factor” of the site for employer brand building.
• Seek out the non-job-looker population – most social media sites are not recruiting sites, and that is their great advantage. The people using them include the 80% of the population that is not looking for a job, so they give you an opportunity to reach the large population who are not active job searchers.
• Forget the volume and focus on quality — many of these new channels will not produce a high volume of recruits, simply because the primary goal of these social media sites is not recruiting. The key is to disregard the volume issue and instead focus on the quality of the prospects who use the site. You are likely to find that the first users of a social media site are also leaders in other areas, and as a result, they are prime recruiting targets.
• Focus on the employer brand building value – a primary goal is to build your image and to send a message to all that your firm innovates in every area, and recruiting helps to reinforce that message. And remember to include the branding bump that they provide in your ROI calculations.
• Be patient – these niche social media communities will not ever produce large scale results, but they do reach people who would never look on a career site. So you have to be patient because results might take a little time.
• Don’t stay forever– once many firms begin using any recruiting channel, it will become saturated. With all the competition, you lose your competitive advantage and you begin to get diminishing returns on your investment. So if the channel is crowded, it might be time to deemphasize the channel and move on to something else that is getting hot but it is still not used by your recruiting competitors.

Final Thoughts

It takes a degree of courage and hard work to make a success out of these hot media sites. Because there not designed for recruiting, it takes some creativity and even trial and error in order to make them produce results. But if your goal is to recruit first movers and innovators, it may be time to move away from Facebook (which is “so last year”) and begin recruiting on these more innovative sites where you can see the actual work of your prospects.

Whether outsourcing any particular business function is good or bad can be debated, but for those companies who choose to outsource their recruitment departments and select an RPO provider, there are several key elements that will either make or break the initiative. Most important, understand what a particular RPO provider is willing to deliver and what they are good at delivering. Through personal experience it seems that most RPO providers have forgotten or ignored the “R” or “Recruitment” in RPO and spend the majority of their time and resources focusing on “Process” and/or “Outsourcing/Optimization.”

For me, the “R” is the most important aspect in the term RPO and is what I focus on. If a provider can’t deliver on the “R,” then “P” and “O” are useless to me.  Other organizations may place a higher value on the “P” and “O,” and again it is all what is best for organizational needs. To me, most RPO providers have lost the concept of recruiting and now focus on the outsourced part.

Although it may be more efficient and although it may be more cost effective — I still demand a certain bang for my buck and while I don’t expect executive-search-quality candidates for every position, RPO providers should still be focused on providing candidates of a certain level of quality and not just numbers.

Lucky for me after trial and error, I was able to locate a provider who has not lost focus on “recruitment” and that can and does deliver at a high level, and that is what it is all about for me. Do your homework, talk to some other professionals in the industry, and conduct a proper assessment prior to partnering with an RPO provider. And if all else fails – meet me at the 2012 ERE Expo in South Florida where I can tell you an RPO story that will make the hair on the back of any HR executive’s neck stand straight up. See you there.

According to the report, the company plans to send out more detailed financial information by the end of next week to potential buyers.

Monster Worldwide shares are up over 15% in late-day trading in reaction to the report.

Back in March, Monster CEO and Board Chairman Sal Iannuzzi said, “At a certain price, anything’s for sale.” As to the buyer, Iannuzzi told Bloomberg it is less important and he said at the time, “The real issue is we know we have value, and we know we can go around and look for opportunities to get that.”

That was before a rare bright spot for the company in recent months.

Two weeks ago, Monster released its first quarter results that doubled analyst’s earnings expectations. That too sent shares soaring but only for a short time.

An acquisition by LinkedIn has been rumored (fairly unsubstantially I might add) as Monster’s stock price continued to deflate. The social network for professionals competes directly with some of Monster’s products (notably the job posting and resume search business) but some Monster’s other technologies like the semantic search product SeeMore and Facebook networking platform BeKnown might be an attractive piece in addition to an influx new customers.

That’s what we found at the NSHSS, an international honor society recognizing outstanding academic excellence in high school and college scholars globally — 750,000 scholars representing over 160 countries. The full list is at the bottom of this article.

Members were asked to rank their preferred companies to work for and selected from a list of more than 200 companies.  The list of companies was created by combining the 2012 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, selected companies from Fortune’s Global 500, and popular write-in choices from prior surveys.  Respondents were given the opportunity to select up to three companies and were also allowed to write in choices. Results have are available charted by overall ranking, gender rankings, high school/post-high school rankings, and diverse/non-diverse rankings.

The most popular choices continue to reflect interests in technology and health fields, with Google moving to first place in 2012 as the most preferred employer. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, local hospital and health providers, and the Mayo Clinic all placed in the top 10 most preferred. Teach for America was a popular choice, ranking 16^th.  Many government agencies place highly as well. The FBI ranked #6 and the CIA closely followed at #8. The Air Force ranked #15, the Navy ranked #26 (up from # 31 in 2011), the Army ranked #28, and, the Marines ranked # 64.

Respondents were also asked about the importance of certain workplace factors when choosing an employer, with options separated into four categories.  Students ranked responses based on what they most want in an employer, ranked below. The factors ranking as most important in each area included fair treatment, strong benefits, opportunities to enhance career skills, and the ability to create a harmonious work/life balance.

What They Want, Ranked

Perception and Image

1. Treats employees fairly
2. Corporate social responsibility
3. Prestige of company
4. Brand

Pay, Benefits, and Perks

1. Benefits (including health insurance, retirement, etc.)
2. Flexible work hours
3. Base salary
4. Performance bonuses

Job Specific and Opportunities

1. Gaining skills to enhance career
2. International opportunities
3. Teamwork
4. Work within the U.S.

Work Environment

1. Work/life balance
2. Friendly colleagues
3. Workplace welcomes people of all backgrounds
4. Accessible office location

Not Worried About Big-name Schools

Respondents were also asked which characteristics they think most qualify them to work for the employer of their choice. They ranked their opinions of the importance of the college they attended, their GPA, level of education, personality, prior work experience, ethnicity, skills and experience. The majority (60%) ranked their skills and experience as the most important qualification, with personality following at 46% and level of education at 37%. Ten percent ranked the particular college they attended as the most important qualification.

High Expectations

A number of respondents expect to work while in college, 41% indicating that they do or will work while attending college and 23% indicating they will need to work in college to help meet their family’s expenses. Despite the current economic realities, respondents expect to become financially independent soon after college, with 48% expecting to find a job in their field right after college graduation and 27% expecting to find a job in their field within six months of graduating college.

Slightly Fewer on Facebook

As expected, technology continues to play a vital role in respondents’ daily lives, trending upward annually. While 96% own a cell phone, while 57% of those have a smartphone. Texting continues to play a critical role in communications, with 24% send more than 50 text messages daily. The percentage of those having a Facebook account is actually down slightly from 2011: 95% in 2011 and 94% in 2012, but those with Twitter accounts has risen from 19%  in 2011 to 33% in 2012. Only 11% have a LinkedIn account.

Respondents were asked how they preferred to be contacted by employers about career opportunities, and were allowed to select multiple answers: 81% indicated by email; 68% by telephone, and 63% through networking/career fairs. Only 9% indicated they would like to be contacted by employers through Facebook.

About the Students

We’ve conducted this survey online for five years, emailed to current and former NSHSS members annually. More than 10,200 students, ages 15-26, participated in the 2012 survey, answering 26 questions. The survey results were analyzed by independent external research consultant Stephen Hyslop. The respondents reflect the diversity of NSHSS and are college-bound high school students, currently-enrolled college students, and recent college graduates. Members must have an academic GPA minimum of 3.5; 40 percent join with a GPA of 3.7 or higher. Of the total membership, 49% identify themselves as non-white.  The majority of the respondents were high schools students in the 11th and 12th grades, predominantly female, and residing in the United States.

More Key Findings

• Respondents indicate their strongest college and career interests are in health-related fields, sciences, technology, and business.

• Health-related employers and technology employers continued to rank highly as preferred companies while financial services companies have fallen.  JPMorgan Chase was the only financial service company to increase in overall ranking compared to 2011 (#35 in 2011; #29 in 2012).

• Gender differences in ranking are pronounced in a few cases, at tunes reflecting traditional fields (males preferring Mercedes-Benz and computer/software companies such as Microsoft, Dell, and Intel; females ranking clothing companies such Abercrombie & Fitch, Nordstrom, as well as L’Oreal, much higher than did males.).

• Diverse candidates (compared to the overall rankings) ranked AT&T, Aéropostale, and Wal-Mart much higher than non-diverse counterparts

• Younger students (high school compared to post-high school) preferred retail names with which they would be familiar (Aéropostale, A&F, L’Oreal).

• Older students (post high school) preferred the accounting firms (Deloitte and Ernst & Young), as well as other well-branded employers such as Exxon.

• Respondents indicated a strong preferences for internships while attending college. Over 83% expect to participate in an internship during their college careers.

• Parental involvement remains an important factor. Millennials are often characterized as being raised by “helicopter “ parents, who are heavily involved in most aspects of their children’s lives. In this survey, 67% indicated that their parents or guardians were involved in their career decisions, with 33% of these indicating their parents/guardians were very involved in their career decisions.
• As in past surveys, respondents continued to indicate a preference for studying and expecting careers in the fields of medicine/health services, sciences, engineering, technology, and business. Psychology also continues to be popular major.

Here’s that full 1-100 list. If you have trouble reading it, click on the link that says “Where They Want to Work 1-100.”

Where They Want to Work 1-100

Of PwC, DiversityInc said this: “Always cognizant of the war for talent, PwC continuously creates innovative strategies to find, engage, and promote the best and brightest employees, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups.”

Surprisingly, considering the layoffs and slowdown in hiring that have beset the finance industry, it was well represented on the list. Ernst and Young, Deloitte, Prudential, KPMG, and a few others in the sector made the list.

Tar Heel Cops Needed

The highway patrol in North Carolina is hiring. There are 183 jobs open in its “first recruiting blitz in five years.”

Recruiting Company Lawsuit

The U.S. EEOC says Randstad U.S. LP is settling an ADA-related lawsuit for $60,000.

The EEOC alleges that the company “refused to hire Jason O’Dell, who applied for employment with Randstad’s Frederick, Maryland branch, because of his disability, Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Based on his qualifications for the lab technician position he sought, Randstad had originally fast-tracked O’Dell’s participation in the hiring process. Soon after he disclosed the disability, however, O’Dell was told that the lab technician position had been put ‘on hold,’ and he was not hired.  Meanwhile, Randstad continued to recruit for the position.”

In addition to the $60,000, Randstad will:

• permit O’Dell to enroll free in 10 Randstad training classes, courses, or other training of his choice;
• modify its anti-discrimination, harassment, and  reasonable accommodation policy statements and make the new statements available to current and newly hired employees nationwide;
• provide two hours of on-site training to all internal employees working in the Frederick branch and amend its existing nationwide employment law  compliance training for both current and newly hired employees; and
• post a notice  in all of its Maryland branches affirming its commitment to provide a workplace free of discrimination where personnel decisions will be made without regard to people’s disabilities or their need for a reasonable accommodation.

[An update, 9:19 a.m. Pacific ... Randstad says via email that it "has a strong record of equal opportunity employment and is vigilant in complying with its obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and all other employment laws. Randstad denies the allegations in the EEOC’s lawsuit and any wrongdoing with respect to Mr. O’Dell. The case was settled to avoid protracted and costly litigation.]

Referrals and Responses

A recruiting ad agency called CKR Interactive made several videos at the San Diego ERE conference, interviewing recruiters about such things as:

• How one recruiter got higher response rates on LinkedIn
• The use of the word “recommendation” vs. “referral” when talking about employee referral programs
• What Riviera Advisors’ Jeremy Eskenazi says (at the 3:57 mark) is the key to recruiting success, even more than sourcing people, finding people, and an employee value proposition

Here’s one of those videos, about 4 1/2 minutes long.

Tidepool Filling Up

You may remember that “Tidepool” site we mentioned, with roots in eHarmony’s matching system. It has launched, and the company is emailing prospective job-seekers to encourage them to “take our assessment, read your personal feedback, and share with friends at www.tidepool.co. We’ll soon give you tools to compare your feedback with friends and co-workers, learning more about yourself and others along the way.”

Comings and Goings

Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, has joined the board of directors of Central Desktop and Balihoo. Central Desktop, is a cloud-based collaboration platform company. Balihoo provides local marketing automation technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs.

For more podcasts, webinars, and articles on recruiting be sure to check out ERE.net!

This is one of the most misunderstood, hence mishandled, situations preventing good candidates from being hired. I have seen people get poor reviews because of “sour grapes,” and it happens more often than you may think. I’ve had managers tell me negative things about a former employee, and upon diving in and asking more detailed questions, determined the negative feedback to be sour grapes or a poor fit with culture or the manager. Oftentimes a hiring manager calls a former associate of his whom the candidate worked for and gets a lousy reference. In a split second the candidate is dropped from consideration without further investigation.

The opposite holds true of positive references: if the same manager gets a glowing reference on the candidate, he makes an offer. But neither of these situations individually indicates whether or not the candidate is “right” for you.

Benefit of the Doubt

When checking references on potential hires, remember that you must look at the circumstances by which the candidate received positive or negative feedback. Assuming a candidate is the “right” one for the job because of positive evaluations is just as problematic as assuming a candidate is the “wrong” one for the job because of negative evaluations. Due diligence is critical; dive deeply into any evaluation an individual received prior to you extending an offer of employment.

If you are able to uncover information about a potential hire who received poor evaluations or references from past employers, consider yourself ahead of the game. Remember … the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard about candidates who received glowing reviews, only to totally fail in their positions. Look at this as an opportunity to dive headfirst into why they received it. You need to speak to the evaluators as well as the candidate in question. Create a safe space for the evaluator and candidate to speak freely and without repercussion. Ask thoughtful questions that determine what was behind the negative or positive review. Just because a candidate was successful or unsuccessful in his last position will not directly indicate success or failure with your organization.

I’m not saying that a candidate with multiple poor employee evaluations shouldn’t raise a yellow flag. I’m saying that it’s imperative to ask questions of the evaluator that will provide you with answers that help you determine if it makes sense to move forward with your candidate.

Here are just a few questions to keep in mind that may very well cause an employee to receive poor evaluations:

1. Was the employee a cultural mismatch with the company? This can be one of the biggest causes of trouble with an employee.
2. Did the past company truly know the profile of a successful hire and determine it through an objective assessment? Many companies never assess and benchmark their employees to determine hiring profiles. Have you evaluated your employees to determine if this individual will be a fit for you? Gut feelings don’t count.
3. Was he a fit with his past manager(s)? Maybe the manager turned out to be a micromanager. I know few successful professionals who will tolerate being micromanaged. In my experience, these folks end up leaving their company because of the manager.
4. Did the hiring manager end up leaving and was he replaced with someone the employee was unable to work with? This usually happens because of what I’ve mentioned in #2 and/or because the interview process doesn’t work.

Since many companies don’t have clear alignment around talent and business strategies, you may have recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers automatically discounting candidates because they don’t know how to effectively check references. They may not have the knowledge to ask the best questions. They may not have the ability to get someone to open up to them about a former employee. They may not have the power or respect to have an open discussion about these things with their hiring managers.

Just remember that there is always a gray area and it is here where you need to be looking.

Nowhere on the list of qualities a CareerBuilder survey reported as important to employers was craziness listed. Perhaps that trait was covered by the “Is creative” characteristic that 43 percent of the respondents look for in a new executive.

But I don’t believe crazy creative is what the surveyed hiring managers and HR pros were intending. I suspect that what the 31 percent of them who expect to be filling executive positions in the next several months will look for, will be the disciplined creativity of a Norman Podhoretz.

Look at the important traits on the CareerBuilder list and they seem respectable enough: speed and agility is important to 47 percent of the respondents; 62 percent want proven ability in problem solving. Ability to motivate and emotional intelligence make the list.

Then you look at the makeup of their executive teams. The survey found 22 percent of the companies have no women executives; 41 percent have no African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, LGBTs, disabled, or other, similar individuals.

What that seems to say, is that employers want executives who think outside the box, just not too far outside. And they are most comfortable with executives who look like them.

Which brings me to Dan Oswald. “So,” asks he in a sort of pean to Steve Jobs, “my question to you as a manager is this, “Who are your crazy ones?”

“So often, as managers, we want everyone to conform. We want our people to fall into line and not make waves. But often the good ones challenge the status quo and in doing so ruffle a few feathers.”

Jobs so ruffled feathers that he was ousted as CEO of the company he founded. He ignored convention, and dropped out of college so he could study what he wanted. It was, he told a Stanford graduating class years later, “beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.”

“None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life,” he said, until years later when Apple built the Macintosh and opened the world to desktop publishing.

What does this have to do with hiring business executives? Says Oswald, author of the Oswald Letter and CEO of HR-focused BLR:

Look for those who think differently. Find those misfits, rebels, and troublemakers and figure out how you can best use the talents they have…

They might be hard to manage at times — maybe all of the time. They may be disrespectful or unorthodox, but they can and will perform. It’s your job to figure out how to best use their unique talents to the benefit of the organization. Don’t dismiss them for being different, embrace it!

This is startling given that the economy is not strong and that millions are out of work. The natural inclination would seem to me to be to hunker down and hang on to the job you have, no matter how bad it is. That is what happened in previous recessions. Yet these were disgruntled, unsatisfied, and unfulfilled people who voluntarily, many without other positions or jobs lined up, chose to leave.

In discussions with some of them, I heard talk about feeling they having been used to bolster executive salaries and inflate shareholder expectations unrealistically. Many felt unappreciated and disrespected — a word I hear a lot now and never used to hear at all.

And with eroding benefits and the potential of better access to health care, the hold that corporations used to have is loosening.

I think we are seeing the early signs that the attitudes and expectations of the emerging and experienced workforce are changing faster than many thought likely and that traditional firms may find it harder and harder to employ the best people.

I among others have been predicting that the age of the entrepreneur is dawning — a time when more and more people are confident and optimistic about working for themselves, offering their services for a fee to someone who needs their skills. Many of the ones I speak with are convinced that this is a better way to feel fulfilled and be prosperous than the daily grind of going to work for an employer.

The success of crowdsourcing sites like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and other sites where anyone can offer their services for bid such as elancer or freelancer say a lot about what is happening. It has become relatively easy to offer products for sale on sites such as eBay or Craig’s List or to find a match between your skills and the needs of someone else.

But many corporations and recruiters are in denial. They will not agree that a significant number of people feel this way but at the same time they will not deny that it is hard to find, attract, close, and retain the skilled talent they need. And as Baby Boomers start to retire and move out of the active job market the gap will grow.

It does not take a crystal ball to see the signs of change.

Expectations Have Changed

People expect work to be engaging, interesting, and fulfilling. Younger people even feel it should be fun. The organizations that offer project-type work, work that poses a challenge, or work that fulfills humanitarian needs, are not having much trouble finding good people. Gen Y, those in their 20s, have been the pioneers in changing attitudes and in showing that individuals can find work that is fulfilling and earns money — often by working independently or by joining a very small firm or startup.

Choice, Not Control

People want to be empowered to make decisions, to be free from bureaucracy and administrivia. They know they have a lot to contribute and are frustrated when seemingly meaningless rules and procedures are put into place with no consultation or discussion.

Firms like Brazil’s Semco are run as democracies, and employees have the power to decide almost everything. For the past few decades this, along with Gore-Tex in the U.S., have been storybook examples of how organizations may look as we move into this century. The hallmarks for success include participation in decision-making, freedom over schedules and work assignments, and fair, transparent, and equitable pay based on contribution.

A Focus on Employment Branding

But, in lieu of making these painful changes to structure and existing practice, firms are instead focused on using the power of advertising and image-shaping to enhance or create an employment brand in the hope of attracting people.

Most employment branding efforts use Madison Avenue-style tactics to raise interest in a company. The campaigns are expensive and require immense effort, but there may be a period of time when more good people are attracted to a firm. The downside is that once hired they may quickly move on if the hype is not reflected in practice.

Semco, on the other hand, has no trouble attracting great people primarily through referral, word-of-mouth, and by the quality of the products and services they offer. Historically, very few firms have had to resort to expensive branding campaigns to attract the people they needed. Talented people with the right skills sought out the firms. This is why the employment market has always been skewed toward the employer who has been able to set salaries, offer the benefits it wanted to offer, and carve out jobs with minimal regard to the candidate’s or employee’s needs or desires.

Firms such as Lincoln Electric, Gore-Tex, IBM, and recently Facebook have little need to do overt employment branding because their employees do the recruiting for them.

More Interest in the Candidate Experience

Also, almost in acknowledgement that they have not done a good job in providing a candidate with a positive experience — with good customer service — when they apply for a job, there is now more emphasis and interest in improving that experience.

Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads has long been an advocate for improving the candidate experience and has tirelessly worked to get firms to make substantial changes in how they deal with a candidate. Recently he has created the the Candidate Experience Awards to further enhance this effort.

But it is unfortunate that he has to do this. It is simply another sign that the tide has turned away from traditional employers to the smaller firms that do care about the candidates and do listen to them and offer decent service.

More Effort and Money Being Placed on Becoming Listed as “The Best Place to Work”

Many firms spend thousands of dollars in fees and salaries to compete for a Best Place to Work award. Many have full-time employees dedicated to this effort for a significant time period while also ramping up employment branding activities.

Again, this is only viable because there is not enough natural interest in these firms to attract good people.

As traditional organizations try to fit round pegs into square holes, the smaller startups and enlightened larger firms are finding it easier to hire good people.

Good people are attracted to places that are in alignment with their needs, attitudes, and intellect, and those places are increasingly organizations that are flexible, fun, empowering, respectful, transparent, and flat. But the dinosaurs didn’t evolve successfully and I doubt that larger firms will either.

The answer is a resounding, “Maybe.”

The National Association of Colleges and Employers says employers expect to hire more new grads this year than last, and the hiring picture has even improved since early last fall. The organization’s spring survey update found employers are planning to increase their grad hiring by 10.2 percent over last year. In the fall survey, the increase was 9.5 percent.

CareerBuilder reports that 54 percent of the companies it surveyed plan to hire from this year’s graduating class. That represents a 17 percent improvement over last year’s results.

Students looking for internships should also have an easier time. Another NACE survey found intern hiring plans are up 8.5 percent over last year. Not surprisingly, the best salaries will go to students in engineering and computer science programs. They’ll earn, on average, $20.79 and $19.10 respectively, says NACE.

Some companies — Google, for instance — pay far above the average, one reason they made last week’s top 20 list from Glassdoor. Based on ratings from recent interns, the lists shows starting salaries as high as $6,746 a month for a research intern at Microsoft, which ranked just behind Google.

Prospects are also better for teenagers who want summer jobs. The hourly job board SnagAJob says more than half of respondents to its annual summer job survey indicate that they would be hiring teens this year. The numbers are expected to be about the same as last year, which was a little less than 1.1 million jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even though only 10 percent of the surveyed hiring managers told SnagAJob they’d be upping their headcount, competition for the jobs is likely to be easier than at any time since the recession began at the end of 2007. Two developments account for that:

1. There are fewer older students hunting for work who have been competing with teens for the same jobs. Last month, there were 360,000 more 20-24 years employed than in April 2011. It’s also nearly 800,000 more than in April 2010.
2. Fewer teens are looking for work. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the global outplacement firm, says its analysis of BLS data “reveals that more and more teenagers are opting out of the labor force entirely and have no desire to seek employment.” “The number of 16- to 19-year-olds not wanting a job has increased steadily since 1994,” says the firm.

The hotel chain received the 2012 ERE Recruiting Excellence Award in the employment branding category. It also has experimented with Facebook contests and games in the past, as mentioned in this post by Matt Jeffery.

Marriott’s Jessica Lee and I talk about the shoe program, below. She describes what drove the creation of the giveaway; how the company will measure results; what it means by a “spirit of community” it wants to create; and the balancing act between investing in a Facebook career page vs. a corporate careers site.