We’re about halfway through our contest looking for the best blog posts from the ERE community in the month of July (still plenty of time to try your hand at that if you haven’t yet). At stake is an Apple iPad as well as two Amazon gift cards for the runners-up. I wanted to highlight some of my favorite posts so far and encourage you to check out all of the blog posts our community has to offer.
Making the case for job boards
Vanessa Bostwick writes: “As someone who is deeply embedded within the recruiting industry, I hear these words every day: job boards are done. Finished. Finito. Social media, which some say is quicker, cheaper, and easier to track and implement, is edging out job boards to become the top job channel for both job seekers and employers. But statements like these don’t reflect the true state of job boards and their continued adoption by users. Here are some strong arguments for why job boards aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Strong employment brands will rule social recruiting
Omowale Casselle writes: “Social media is redefining the way prospective candidates and employers interact. Not only do candidates now have the ability to directly communicate with employers, but they are also able to communicate with each other regarding the pros/cons of an employer. Employers have gained lots of expertise in one way communication with prospective candidates, and there is no doubt they will quickly master two-way communication as well. However, the key to success will be how well they can influence the conversations they are not directly involved with.”
Trust and privacy on LinkedIn
Irina Shamaeva writes: “There are questions about LinkedIn many members have. How many friends should you have on LinkedIn? Should you set your profile as public or private? Should you sign up for a business account — and for which option — or stay with a basic one? If you keep the number of connections small, what are your chances to reach others for business? Here are some facts and guesses that may help you make decisions on those options.
It may be slow, it may be bumpy, but it’s gonna hurt. Unless…
Paul Klip writes: “Stretched to the hilt, companies who were forced to decimate their talent acquisition teams have started feeling the effects of a recovery with a barrage of new requests from hiring managers as their businesses continue recovering from the worst economic downturn since the great depression. Still unsure as to the long-term viability of their hiring needs, companies are reluctant to add full-time talent acquisition professionals and are saddling their office managers, HR generalists and existing TA teams with more and more hiring requests which are beyond their scope of recruiting expertise.”
10 steps to making your relationship with Twitter work
Kendra Pearson writes: “Twitter and I have been involved for almost a year now. In honor of our upcoming one-year anniversary, I think it is appropriate to reflect upon my relationship with what I consider to be the most misunderstood social media technology. I will start by saying that it was not love at first sight. As stories of recruiters and job seekers connecting through Twitter flourished, I knew I needed to try this technology in order to understand it. But still I resisted. I felt like I needed a handbook just to join the conversation. Followers? Tweets? Hashtags?”
What no job board wants to talk about…
Jeff Dickey-Chasins writes: “As you might guess, I’m a great believer in the fundamentals of job boards. I’ve seen the emails from happy job seekers and employers extolling the many ways job boards can save users time and money. In essence, for many people, job boards work. But …there are things that job boards often shy away from — topics they don’t want to touch. Why? Because sometimes job boards don’t work. Perhaps there were unrealistic expectations. Perhaps there was just a mess.”
“Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.”
Maureen Sharib writes: “There’s an old saying you don’t hear much anymore: “Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations.” What it means is that someone starts out in work sleeves and succeeds enough to allow their children to wear silk sleeves. Those wearing the silk sleeves usually abandon the opportunity to do anything with the means that provided those silk sleeves and, ultimately waste it, leaving nothing but shirt sleeves for the third generation to wear.”
#SHRM10: Final Thoughts
Gerry Crispin writes: “Mark Stelzner’s blog summarizing his observations was so good as a conversation starter that most of what I could say about the conference I said in my comments there. My only additions are these:”