ERE was at RecruitFest in Toronto last week. Organized by Jason Davis, it featured some great speakers such as Susan Burns, Scott Love, Craig Silverman, and John Sumser. We asked speakers and attendees about what changes and challenges to expect in 2009.
Tag: networking
Four Required Recruiting Tools
by Kevin Wheeler Sep 4, 2008, 6:25 am ET
Here we are in 2008, soon to be 2009, and almost a decade into the 21st century. The Internet is maturing: it’s been around for ordinary people to use for almost 15 years and has already earned its place as a technology and a social movement as important as electricity.
Most recruiters, corporate or agency, have finally developed career sites and use the Internet for attracting, sourcing, and communicating with candidates and clients. The website is the bedrock of an effective recruiting practice, and while it may still be possible in local or niche markets to avoid it, for mainstream and volume recruiting a website is essential. In this article I am assuming you already have a decent website that has interactivity, video, audio, and other graphic material and updates frequently. That is old news.
But, to get a jump on your competition and to attract the savviest candidates, it takes more than a good website and good recruiting skills. Here are four essential tools for success.
Tool #1: Facebook or MySpace
You should have a personal and a corporate presence on a social network. I have only listed Facebook and MySpace because they represent the largest share of the social networking world in the United States and a significant percentage outside the U.S. If your organization has global operations and recruiting needs, then there are networks for China, India, and many other places that you should also consider.
College students and most other young professionals turn to these networks for information about you, to ask their friends about you, or to join a community of practice that you have created.
IBM DB2 developers have a Facebook community developed and maintained by IBM. KPMG in South Africa has developed a Facebook page to attract and communicate with potential candidates.
The U.S. Army, faced with massive recruiting challenges, has numerous Facebook and MySpace pages. Some of the pages act as testimonials or provide videos of real people talking about why they joined the Army. Other pages are focused on fun experiences such as simulations of driving a tank or on gaming.
However you use these networks, you will be exposing your brand to thousands of potential candidates who, at least to some degree, will judge their potential work experience by the quality of the content. That’s why these pages have to be done thoughtfully and have to connect to the type of viewer and what they are expecting to see and hear.
Willie’s Woes in Perspective: Some Thoughts from Readers
by Kevin Wheeler Aug 7, 2008, 7:12 am ET
Two weeks ago, I wrote an article about an imaginary Willie who was faced with some challenging issues.
He heads recruiting for a large construction company where business is good and hiring strong. There are many open positions for experienced, senior-level people and there will soon be many more as a large number of boomers are approaching retirement. He is being urged by some on his team to begin using Web 2.0 techniques and to develop a more exciting and interactive Web presence in order to get ready for both current and projected needs.
So Willie is wondering….would a social network be useful for his organization? Would it give him any return on his invested time and money? Or would it just divert attention from more urgent recruiting challenges? Is it worth investing in today or should he wait for some commercial applications to arrive (if they ever do)?
What would you do if you were Willie?
Here is one of the first responses that I received from a reader:
“I would suggest Willie fishes where the fish are. Web 2.0 is fun, new, different, exciting and sexy, however the fish he is looking for are not feeding there. 45-55 year old engineers and project managers are not on social sites on the Web. . .”
There is certainly a lot of merit in this argument. While a recent Pew study suggests that a very large percentage of people over 50 are using the Internet, it is likely few of them would use the Internet to find a job.
13 Trends In Corporate Recruiting for 2009
by Dr. John Sullivan Aug 4, 2008, 6:18 am ET
A significant part of my work involves giving presentations around the world on the hottest recruiting topics. It is an aspect of my work that I truly enjoy because it affords me an opportunity to continuously learn about where our profession is headed.
Through speaking, I not only help companies understand the latest recruiting trends, but I also learn from hundreds of professionals about what they see as hot topics, emerging trends, and how they are approaching them. I wanted to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on what recruiting trends will top the agendas of Global 500 recruiting managers in the next 12 to 18 months based on my interaction with more than 300 organizations around the globe this year.
The Latest Trends in Corporate Recruiting
Based on conversations with recruiting leaders, questions asked during seminars, advisory requests, and best-practice research, expect to see an increased emphasis in:
- Upgrading employment branding. Nothing is hotter around the globe in recruiting than employment branding. Firms throughout Asia, in particular, are increasingly adopting employment branding as a wildly important activity for 2009. The success of Google, a firm that has built the world’s strongest employment brand over an amazing five-year period, has led others to focus on this impactful long-term strategy. Key focus areas include increasing media coverage, increasing visibility online, building your “green” brand, and countering your “negative” employment brand. Firms to watch: Facebook, Google, Yum Brands, Tata, E&Y, Enterprise, U.S. Army, and Sodexo.
- Reinvigorating referral programs. Despite the growth of career-related Internet sites, the highest volume and quality candidates still come from well-designed employee referral programs. While heavy adoption was initially hampered by cultural issues around the world, today such programs are proving highly effective everywhere. Key focus areas include proactively approaching key employees for referrals (program targeting), leverage non-employee referrals, making reward systems more comprehensive, immediate, and visible, and last but not least, helping employees leverage social media to restore relationships, make new relationships, and build stronger relationships. Firms to watch: AmTrust Bank, Edward Jones, Whirlpool, and Amazon.com.
- Renewing the focus on quality of hire. As a result of strong research by organizations like staffing.org, recruiting leadership has begun to refocus its efforts on identifying factors that increase the quality or the on-the-job performance of new hires. Key focus areas include improved quality of hire metrics, calculating the performance differential between average and quality hires, and identifying sources that produce high-quality hires. Firms to watch: Aimco and Wipro.
- Reinforcing the business case for recruiting. As budgets tighten and slow economic growth continues, recruiting budgets will face constant constraints. Instead of whining, many leading talent organizations are seizing the opportunity to reposition themselves as non-transactional organizations. When the focus in recruiting is placed on non-transactional, more systemic issues, such organizations can work with the CFO and risk management to demonstrate the importance of supporting recruiting even during times of reduced hiring volume. The key focus areas include predictive modeling, dollarizing recruiting results, and showing the dollar impact of vacancies in revenue generating positions. Firms to watch: Aimco, DFS, Wipro, and Google.
Willie’s Woes
by Kevin Wheeler Jul 24, 2008, 6:30 am ET
Web 2.0, Web 2.0! That’s all Willie is hearing from some of his recruiters, and the words seem to pop off every page he reads. This morning he picked up the Wall Street Journal and there was a big headline espousing the many benefits of social networks and Web 2.0-enabled websites.
Willie is a progressive guy, usually the first to try out new technology or bring new ideas into a conversation. He was one of the first recruiting managers to adopt an applicant tracking system years ago, and he is an advocate of maintaining close relationships with candidates via email. He is just not sure how to go about implementing a Web 2.0 strategy or how to create a social network.
Willie’s organization is a construction company with over 1,000 employees, mostly all located in the United States with a handful in China setting up a new operation.
Despite the economy, they have lots of work. Many of their contracts are local and state government jobs that are funded by tax dollars and have strict deadlines. Revenue is excellent and the firm projects to earn more than US$1 billion this year. The future looks bright given the poor state of the U.S. infrastructure. They project doubling revenues within 5 years as more roads, bridges, airport runways, and water systems need to be replaced.
But Willie faces some major challenges.
How to Be a Group Leader
by Maureen Sharib Jul 5, 2008, 2:08 pm ET
I wrote a post awhile back in the MagicMethod group here on ERE called “Get a Group, Get a Blog, Get a Website” and I know at least one person (Sam Medalie) followed my advice and started two groups here on ERE - the informative “Finding Passive Candidates” group and the ever-interesting “Interviews With Hiring Managers” group.
I hope (and believe) both these excellent groups will give Sam exposure for his phone sourcing business, Longfellow Search. More than that, I know Sam will personally go places he never dreamed he’d go as moderator of these groups! (How are those working for you, Sam?)
Recently I’ve been watching (and thinking about) the changes that are coming over our ERE site.
ERE Media’s DC Networking Event: Who Knew Work Could be So Much Fun?
by Madeline Tarquinio Jul 3, 2008, 1:50 pm ET
Last Thursday night I was joined by over 200 recruiting professionals in the Washington, DC, area, who came out to have a drink on ERE and network with other recruiters.
For those of you who showed up, thanks for coming! A big thanks to Beeline RPO for sponsoring appetizers, door prizes, and name badges! For those who couldn’t make it, here’s a taste of what you missed.
We’re just getting started with these local meetups, so if you have any suggestions for places where we can hold them, or want to help us put them together, get in touch with me at madeline@ere.net
The Value of Networks
by Kevin Wheeler Jun 5, 2008
What makes a network valuable to you or me?
Is it the number of connections you have? I don’t think so. I have over 10 million first-, second- and third-degree connections on LinkedIn, but I get almost no value from that network, per se. I know recruiters who collect names because they are looking at quantity not quality. They judge themselves and others as “successful” by how many people are in their network.
The Social Networking Tug-of-War
by Robert Godden May 30, 2008
All around the world, organizations are scrambling to formulate policies to deal with social networking. Should our employees be allowed to use Facebook at work? Can we check out someone’s MySpace page before we hire them? Can we stop our sales manager from posting pictures of himself at a drinking festival wearing just a barrel and a cheeky grin?
There’s an equal air of excitement within marketing: It’s so hot right now, how can it help us sell more, find new customers, or stay closer in touch with the customers we have?
Social Networks, What a Mess!
by Kevin Wheeler Apr 24, 2008
Are you overwhelmed with the hundreds of new tools, applications, websites, and services that have sprung up over the past few months?
Social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn are all the rage. Some recruiters are charging forward with Twitter and other SMS-type tools. Websites are being revamped with videos, blogs, and simulations.
Candidate Engagement
by Kevin Wheeler Apr 17, 2008
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.
Why Social Networking and Internet Search are Essential
by Kevin Wheeler Mar 13, 2008
I am sitting in Vermont this morning reading a local newspaper with the headline: “Vermont lost 2,000 jobs last year.” But the article does not attribute this to the slowing economy; instead, it attributes it to the aging workforce.
Now, Vermont is a tiny state and certainly does not represent most of the United States. Its unemployment rate is low, its workforce a mix of highly skilled professionals and those engaged in farming, forestry, construction, or tourism. But what is noticeable is that this loss of jobs is attributed to demographics.
A Talent Opportunity Alert Process: You Should Have One
by Dr. John Sullivan Mar 10, 2008
One of the most common questions I get from recruiting managers and executives is “What differentiates a world-class recruiting function from an average one?”
Well, in case you didn’t know, one of the primary differentiators is the practice of “proactive recruiting.”
Aggressive Talent Poaching in Bathrooms and Parking Lots
by Dr. John Sullivan Feb 25, 2008
Ever since the unsolicited offer by Microsoft to buy Yahoo, recruiters have been literally “circling” Yahoo in a manner that would have to be labeled as aggressive even by Silicon Valley standards. The tactics vary from the relatively tame practice of “cold calling” into Yahoo in order to find nervous employees to the more aggressive “trolling” by recruiters outside Yahoo’s parking lot and in local spots where Yahoo employees hang out.
Even though Microsoft hopes to gain a significant amount of Yahoo’s talent through acquisition, a number of groups at Microsoft are not waiting. Already on the Internet you can find copies of emails sent by Microsoft recruiters to known top talent at Yahoo, offering them an opportunity to explore a Microsoft career in this time of uncertainty. Those interested in reading one such email can check out this blog posting.
Some Thoughts on Blogs and Networks
by Kevin Wheeler Sep 27, 2007
I read around 50 blogs on a regular basis and find myself scanning more and more of them. They are replacing newspapers and even magazines as a source of information. Some blogs are taking over the product review business and give you and me the chance to express our candid opinions about products and services we use.
This means that, eventually, blogs will comment on your recruiting process, your career site, and even on how people were treated when interviewed by your organization. They bring what used to be private, or at least fairly contained, to a much wider audience. Hence their power and their potential to do harm.
Woo Candidates During an Invited Open House
by Dr. John Sullivan Sep 17, 2007
Most career sales professionals have learned that it is easier to sell reluctant customers face-to-face versus remotely via phone calls and emails. As recruiters are essentially professionals selling career opportunities, it makes sense that nearly every recruiting strategy should leverage one or more face-to-face approaches such as an invited open house.
Unlike some approaches, the invited open house can be tailored to fit nearly every situation and industry around the globe.
Creating Interest Among Passive Candidates
by Mike Nale Aug 21, 2007
In today’s competitive search market, it may just take a bit more than a creative voicemail or a tasty phrase in your cold-call in order to entice a passive candidate to entertain a better opportunity.
Within my own very tight market in Hawaii, unemployment is at an all-time low and potential passive candidates deal with a barrage of cold-calls and emails from recruiters looking to fill positions with top talent. A more progressive strategy for finding these candidates could make all the difference in your search.
Progressive Referral-Base Networking
by Mike Nale Jul 31, 2007
To capitalize on your referral base network, it’s important to implement different techniques and strategies in order to maximize the return of investment. In this article, I’m going to suggest different techniques or strategies that will continue to build your referral-base network so that it will provide you with a wealth of referred candidates and yet provide you with a progressive recruiting tool that can diversify your results.
When you first started building your referral-base network, you used simple tools like meeting key people, asking for referrals from placed candidates, or attending professional networking events.
The Rise of the Social Networks
by Dave Lefkow Jul 24, 2007
After recent announcements by Facebook and the rise of networking platforms like MySpace, LinkedIn, and Ning, social networks are once again gaining momentum. Usage is accelerating, new audiences are being drawn in, and new applications are being developed that can help us all better manage our lives and contacts. Recruiters stand to benefit most from these trends, and here’s how.
One of the biggest challenges in online recruiting has been a lack of detailed, regularly updated and public information on candidates. Social networks have the ability to change this, and we’re still in the early-adopter stage. There are signs that social networks are growing up, expanding their audiences beyond the earliest adopters, and increasing their usefulness to recruiters.
An Open Letter to Our Candidates
by Lou Adler Jul 6, 2007
Imagine that this letter appeared on the first page of your company’s career website, or perhaps on your company’s home page in place of the “Careers” button.
Dear Candidate,
