The annual conference of the Society for Human Resource Management is underway this week in Atlanta.
As it typically does, the event is a huge draw for HR professionals worldwide. Thousand attend the multi-day event that offers hundreds of workshops and sessions and training programs, and a show floor measured in acres.
For the recruiting community, especially for independents, there’s not as much of a focus on talent acquisition. This year’s conference is no different. Of the more than 300 sessions, 16 are designated for recruiting and new media. The emphasis is on how social media is changing recruiting and how recruiters are using social media to attract and hire talent.
Particularly for solo recruiters and small firms social media is an underused and even less understood tool for attracting candidates. Even for brand building and marketing — a topic covered by Randstad’s Joanie Ruge at the Fordyce Forum a few weeks ago — social media is being undertulitized.
However, your corporate brethren have been experimenting with social media for years, finding it not only a powerful tool for building employer brand, but an effective means for building a pipeline of engaged, talented potentials. It’s true that only a small portion of annual hires are directly sourced via social media, but the influence of social channels is significant and growing.
No wonder, therefore, that SHRM has paired recruiting and social media as one of the multiple focus areas for this year’s conference.
One noteworthy session is Brian Glade’s, The Quest for Global Talent. He’s managing director, Global Strategy and the Americas, Association of Executive Search Consultants. He’s discussing global sourcing and the trends in executive recruiting.
It wouldn’t be a SHRM conference without at least some fireworks, which, as has been the case the last couple of years, is being provided by the SHRM Members for Transparency. The organization said it would field a slate of candidates in a bid to remake the organization’s board of directors.
John Hollon, editor of our sister site, TLNT.com, detailed the announcement from the SHRM conference where the insurgent group opened its campaign and released the names of the first four candidates.