I have a few questions that I am hoping to join some knowledge from fellow Recruiters.....
Has anyone used PeopleSoft as an ATS systsem in Retail (my company has over 51,000 employees)??
What is the best ATS system out there? I used Vurv in the past, however I know that Taleo brought them.... I do not know if Taleo is suitable for Retail.
Any help would be great!!! You can Blog or e-mail me at nicoleegger@winn-dixie.com
The Social Recruiting Summit is being held today here in New York.
Fred Wilson, who is keynoting, posted his presentation and requested comments. What a fantastic way to improve your thinking on any topic, by the way. When this type of behavior gets "into the bones" of up-and-coming scientists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers, imagine how much more quickly we will cycle through all the wrong answers and get to the good ones. Kudos to Fred for pioneering in this regard.
I posted my thoughts in Fred's comments but I thought I would share them here as well for the broader HR community...
Lots of great thinking in this deck, and the exciting part of the internet and recruiting is that we are really just getting started. The newspapers are only now dying, and the Web 1.0 job boards "just" replicated their model. Cool ideas -- GlassDoor, Tracked, and of course, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meetup (at TheLadders, we've sponsored Meetups to very good effect for our recruiting) etc., -- are going to make the next decade even more exciting.
A few points that I think go along thematically with what you are saying but bear emphasis:
1. Social media are fantastic information and communications tools. A question we should be asking is: how do we use these tools wisely and well?
Commenter Melih notes: "I didn't really see you emphasize that while talent is valuable, the real value, to me, of the social hire is vouching for the integrity and the character of the person much more so than their skill set. I think it's fair to say that you wouldn't recommend a friend or colleague who you didn't think was strong enough, but would you recommend a friend who you knew would constantly butt heads with the VP of Engineering?"
As tools, we are using social media very well to find candidates, and to find people who worked with the people who worked with our candidates. But to really close the deal, we need to find a way to make social media better at making the art of referencing better. Because I'm not sure we really have. The cold call out of the blue from the nice person in HR at a company looking to hiring Jeremiah, who saw that you worked with him from 2003 to 2005, is not immediately, to my mind, somebody with whom you should exercise your complete and utmost candor. Legal and social consequences loom. We're finding the information, but we're not generating the right type of communication.
2. And I wonder if you should mention Uber community on the web -- Craigslist. Despite its enormous size today, it started as "social media" -- Craig sending out his favorite events to his email buddies, and somehow that DNA remains at the core of what Craigslist is all about. Especially with recruiting designers and college graduates, we find it invaluable. I think we all sometimes forget to put Craig in this bucket.
3. I agree blog posts and tweets are a great way to get people who are already engaged with your brand. This is the virtual equivalent of the "Help Wanted; Inquire Within" sign: to attract somebody, they need to already be attracted. Which is fantastic. But it's not going to scale for all the needs of a young company. How are we going to use social media to expand our message, not just repeat it in an echo chamber?
4. And, finally, I think it bears repeating: "0" is the number of people you've hired in or invested in without meeting them face-to-face. (Even more interesting if the answer isn't zero -- would love to hear that story!) The internet, social media, tweets and updates can not replace the value of sitting across from a human and learning their story directly from them. That's what we're all about - we are *social* creatures, and the *media* is there to serve us.
[Read Entry]This response comes from a question posted the other day regarding the differences between Creative Sourcing and Deep Sourcing. This is a great topic to talk about and really defines the strategy in which you find yourself implementing. Well I hope this helps. Feel free to comment and post your thoughts as well.
Question: What is your definition of Creative Sourcing vs. Deep Sourcing? Creative Sourcing is the baseline or fundamental approach a recruiter will take in developing their map to recruit from. Creative sourcing falls under the umbrella of information gathering.
You'll find thousands of answers out there to this age old question, but if you were to speak with true "sourcersâ in the industry you will find that they are researchers at heart. At the world conference this question came up a lot in discussions and I tell most people the same thing; we are in the information gathering business.
Recruiting, sales, deep sourcing, workforce planning and virtually anything we will do in our jobs require us to gather information. Without this we cannot be successful. So when we talk about building talent communities or talent gateways and social media etc. these are all forms of creative sourcing.
The question to ask is "How do we create interest and engage those talent gateways once they are created?â Without getting real tactical for this explanation it would be our goal to create chatter and a sense of community within these hubs. By chatter I mean conversation regarding industry topics, eventually with the "expertsâ naturally rising to the top of conversations. Most call this cultivating the group. I call this deep sourcing.
So to make things a little simpler:
Creative sourcing: The process of development/branding for workforce planning. I.e. Information gathering; tactical planning; channel development; creation and development of talent communities.
Deep Sourcing: Micro managing these talent communities to maximize their potential. Making individual contact with and introducing the prospects to the specific organization we are working with.
Thoughts?
Be sure to check more postings and video tutorials at: CruiterTalk.com
I don't know about your workplace, but ours has seen a lot of absenteeism this year. I'm not sure how much of it is related to H1N1 because we don't ask employees to account for why they are using their PTO. But, several of my family members and friends have reported flu-like symptoms and several have had doctors confirm swine flu. Fortunately, their cases were only mildly debilitating.
Continuing to make news, H1N1 (swine flu) is a major workplace issue. People spend a lot of time at work in close quarters with potentially ill coworkers. Employees all use the same door handles, shake candidates' hands, push elevator buttons, and just in general, put themselves in harm's way.
I've written several times about how employers can prepare their workplaces for any contagious illness including H1N1. Today, I'll share several additional resources about H1N1 Swine Flu.
SHRM in Conjunction With the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP)
With contractual financial support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), today released a new toolkit, Doing Business During an Influenza Pandemic: Human Resource Policies, Protocols, Templates, Tools, & Tips
"We're beyond theory and onto execution. The pandemic is here. And we need every business to recognize the impact it can have. It's not too late, but time is of the essence," said Michael T. Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H., an international authority on pandemic influenza and business preparedness and CIDRAP director.
The toolkit, designed for organizations of all sizes, is intended to:
The H1N1 toolkit is available free of charge as a PDF document from CIDRAP or from SHRM.
Swine Flu on About.com
Preparis.com
Asks whether your workplace is prepared for an outbreak of swine flu and hazards the guess that, if you are like most employers, you are not. Here is a comprehensive guide to preparing for H1N1 in your workplace.
H1N1 isn't going away anytime soon, so check out these fine resources and make sure your workplace is prepared.
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Is Your Workplace Prepared for H1N1? originally appeared on About.com Human Resources on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 00:01:42.
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[Read Entry]We've just finished back-to-back years of employee referrals accounting for 75% or more of all external hires. This has caused me to do a little reflection on our progress, where we are and where we are going with this powerful recruiting strategy.
The background: AmTrust Bank grew its program from 28% of hires in 2006 to 78% in 2008 and continued the success by sourcing 75% of our hires through employee referrals in fiscal 2009. We increased our reliance on this source over time as we continued to validate that employee referrals stay longer and cost less than hires from other sources. Although, as we planned sourcing strategies for fiscal 2009 we knew the year was going to be a tough one.
The bad news: as we started the fiscal year in October 2008 the economy was a mess, the employed were not inclined to change jobs during such uncertain times and candidates were increasingly wary of joining the struggling financial industry. Not an easy time to be a recruiter.
The good news: we had a strong corporate culture, an engaged workforce and the momentum of our employee referral program. Our internal employee communications team did a great job of sharing positive stories, which our employees could easily incorporate into conversation with family, friends and others in the community. The employment brand, as facilitated every day by our employees, confirmed that this was a great place to work!
The reality: we would have to keep the program moving forward without the overt in-your-face internal marketing and generous budget we utilized in the past. We suspended our monthly participation prizes and annual $5000 grand prize and toned down the "fun" aspects of the program. Without all of this, we needed a new approach.
The new marketing approach: a no-nonsense-no-fluff-micro-level strategy. No more asking employees for all the referrals they could find. We featured intranet articles describing specific jobs we were recruiting for and only asked for referrals for those jobs. We directly solicited top performers and recent hires from targeted companies to ask for referrals and encouraged employees to utilize linkedin, facebook and twitter as a means to reach out to top talent in their networks. The focus became one of business necessity: we need great people, we need your help, and sourcing talent this way has proven results for the organization! In retrospect, without the strength of our employee driven employment branding and the momentum of our employee referral program, we would not have been able to offset the bad news and fill open positions as easily.
The future: we know we cannot rest on our past success and that we will need to be even more creative with our program to keep it fresh, relevant, and impactful. We must continue to upgrade our message and means of encouraging employee participation, as well as find new ways to recognize/reward employees for their efforts. We continue to listen to and learn from industry experts and other companies about their program success and have significant program upgrades planned for fiscal 2010. We do expect similar results in the future and are excited about proving that this level of program success is sustainable for years to come.
What do employers want to know before they hire you? You might be surprised at how much they want to know and how much they check. Employment background checks are being conducted by employers more frequently than in the past and some employers will confirm, very thoroughly, every detail of your resume or application. Employers may also require a pre-employment physical examination to determine the suitability of an individual for a job.
In addition, companies are concerned about negligent hiring lawsuits where employers can be held responsible for injuries caused by an employee, if they did not check the employee's background. Your credit history is important to employers because it an indication of how responsible you are.
What do you do if your employment history is shaky or your credit needs repairing? Zachary Hummel, Partner in the New York office of Bryan Cave LLP who represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, shares his perspective on the best strategies for job seekers when it comes to job applications and employment background checks.
More: Employment Background Checks
Employment Background Checks originally appeared on About.com Job Searching on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 06:00:51.
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[Read Entry]The unemployment rate hit a tough milestone last month, reaching 10.2% for the first time in 26 years. Since the start of the recession, payroll employment has fallen by 7.3 million jobs.
In October, non-farm payroll employment dropped by 190,000 jobs. Over the past three months, job losses have averaged 188,000 a month, however, declines are much smaller than they have been - last winter and spring job losses were over 600,000 a month. Among the unemployed, those who have been out of work 27 weeks or more increased to 5.6 million.
On a related note, the Senate and House have now passed unemployment extension legislation. This new extension extends jobless benefits by 14 weeks for every state and an additional 6 weeks, for a total of 20 weeks, in high unemployment states where unemployment is over 8.5%. If you're out of unemployment, or about to run out, check with your state unemployment office for updates on when you'll receive benefits.
More: Unemployment | Extended Unemployment Benefits | Unemployment Rate
Unemployment Over 10% originally appeared on About.com Job Searching on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 10:04:10.
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[Read Entry]What do employers want to know before they hire you? You might be surprised at how much they want to know and how much they check. Employment background checks are being conducted by employers more frequently than in the past and some employers will confirm, very thoroughly, every detail of your resume or application. Employers may also require a pre-employment physical examination to determine the suitability of an individual for a job.
In addition, companies are concerned about negligent hiring lawsuits where employers can be held responsible for injuries caused by an employee, if they did not check the employee's background. Your credit history is important to employers because it an indication of how responsible you are.
What do you do if your employment history is shaky or your credit needs repairing? Zachary Hummel, Partner in the New York office of Bryan Cave LLP who represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, shares his perspective on the best strategies for job seekers when it comes to job applications and employment background checks.
More: Employment Background Checks
Employment Background Checks originally appeared on About.com Job Searching on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 06:00:51.
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[Read Entry]Google's hiring process is as legendary for its difficulty, rigor, and thoroughness, as it is for its snobbery, byzantine scheduling, and unmannerly interviews.
From its inception, Google's approach to hiring codified a geek's secret-society pledge rush: a dozen interviewers, blackball elimination, math and coding tests, and the provision of one's academic grades, sometimes decades after the fact.
Advocates averred that the difficulties endured ensured that no jerks would be hired; that the large number of interviewers probabilistically cut down the chance that human screening errors would go unrectified; that intellectual standards would be upheld and only the best would join the singular team building the fastest-growing company in world history.
Detractors declaimed that groupthink ruled, ensuring that only the blandest of candidates would not snag a rough edge of personality on the closing door; that in practical terms, political horse-trading between managers determined hiring preferences; that academic and business success are not highly correlated in any event; and that requiring a double-digit quorum of staffers to make any business decision presumes their individual incompetence.
A revealing peek behind the curtain comes from Google's Director of Research, Peter Norvig who shared this analysis:
One of the interesting things we've found, when trying to predict how well somebody we've hired is going to perform when we evaluate them a year or two later, is one of the best indicators of success within the company was getting the worst possible score on one of your interviews. We rank people from one to four, and if you got a one on one of your interviews, that was a really good indicator of success.Ninety-nine percent of the people who got a one in one of their interviews we didn't hire. But the rest of them, in order for us to hire them somebody else had to be so passionate that they pounded on the table and said, "I have to hire this person because I see something in him..."
Now, one person's "so passionate" certainly counts for something and is in itself a positive signal. And it is a good sign that Google is doing the math after the fact to improve their recruiting efforts.
But what we learn from the story is that even the most data-driven, truth-comes-first company cultures can get wrapped up in what "should" work rather than what "does" work.
"Should" is a common trap in how we hire. After all, we've been making assessments of our fellow human beings since the crib. Choosing mates, playdates, loves and hates -- as social creatures a vast amount of our human experience is composed of picking other people.
So it is natural that we bring the lessons from those experiences into our work life. Often implicitly, we assume that what has worked for us all through our life "should" work in business. And why wouldn't it? It's what got you here.
But a company is not a social or family environment.
Your family has to love you no matter what.
A company hires you, at arm's length, to do a job and enters into a (mutually beneficial) contract for the duration. The relationship maintains until mutual assessments of future value, loyalty, productivity and satisfaction diverge.
And for all the reasons that assuming your boss or your employee relations are friends, rather than friendly, the heuristics that we naturally develop in these social and family environments are equally unsuited to hiring.
It places cultural fit, not work productivity, as your company's highest value. It selects for bon homie rather than business results. It replaces the rigor with which you make other investment decisions with the certainty of more frequent failures of human capital investments -- usually the most painful to unwind. And it excuses the introduction and perpetuation of inherently non-testable premises into the hiring process.
Picking mathematically gifted people who ruffle no feathers as your favorite people may have been satisfactory for your social milieu, but it does not mean the same process "should" or "will" work for hiring the best employees who will help your company achieve its business goals.
[Read Entry]Evaluating Resumes
With a little preparation and a discerning eye, you can easily reduce the time you spend scanning resumes and assure yourself you only schedule to meet the most quailifies applicants.
Having a detailed Job description on hand before you begin.
For the uninitiated, reviewing a resume seems like a simple enough process. A recruiter picks up a resume, gives it a cursory once over and decides in a matter of seconds whether or not the candidate fits the current job opening.
However, what most people don't realize is that screening resumes involves an evaluation process that takes into consideration several key elements about the presentation as well as the content of each resume.
And understanding what each of these elements is and how it impacts the recruiter's decision on whether or not a resume can help job seekers in their own resume preparation.
How to Screen a Candidate Out
Yes, it's true. Recruiters do look for ways to rule candidates out. Because they receive hundreds of resumes a day, it's just a given that 90 percent of them are not going to be a fit. That being said, it's a lot easier to screen a lot out then to screen a lot in.
What's important to know is what recruiters look for when screening candidates out. Here is some of the basic information they will screen for:
In addition, recruiters will consider the resume presentation as an indication of the candidate's writing skills and professionalism.
Proper Resume Layout and Format
It's amazing how many people still don't seem to understand how having a well- put-together resume can make or break their chances for an interview.
Of course it's important to meet the minimum qualifications of the position, too, but the recruiter may never get that far if the resume doesn't do what it's supposed to do: communicate the right information and sell the candidate.
When preparing a resume for submission, savvy job seekers will be sure their resume:
Anyone who is not sure what a resume should look like should seek the assistance of a professional. Resumes that get past this screening and make it to the "to be considered" pile will then have to go through a second more careful screening.
Evaluating for a Potential Match
Here's where the recruiter will take a little more time and give each "maybe" an even more thorough review. Now recruiters screen for:
While recruiters will still keep the idea of screening candidates out in the back of their minds, now they are more open to focusing on finding job seekers that are the best fit. Many people who have made it to this short list may be invited to participate in fact-finding, screening interviews in order to further gauge compatibility with the organization.
See our other Blogs at
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Advertising - love it or hate it, it's often the very first impression a candidate has of your organisation. Why? Because most candidates, when looking for a new job will start browsing the job boards. But amazingly, many recruitment consultancies really let themselves down through poor external communication - and that's not only a bad reflection on the brand - but it also means that response rates will be low or irrelevant. And in turn that means your money is going to be wasted!
How many of you really think carefully about how an advertisement will sell most effectively and therefore attract targeted candidates? How many or your advertisements have tired stock phrases such as 'our client' and 'the successful candidate'? How many or you see advertising as a chore rather than a tool to increase your chances of earning more revenue?
And it is a way of earning more revenue - in fact it's your life blood. As recruitment advertising copywriter we were talking to recently said: "Get it right and not only do you get a better quality of candidate, you also impress the casual browser, the potential client, the person who may not be quite right for that role but who may then bookmark your site for future reference."
Let's look at a couple of regular objections I've heard from recruiters about ads:
Well, who knows your client best? The consultant who has just returned from a client meeting or your marketing manager? By the time you have briefed the marketing manager, you could have the ad written! Your consultants are at the front line and are therefore the best people to 'sell' the job. And that also means making sure that consultants are not taking a job brief that isn't going to produce decent candidates - after all you are consultants who know your markets so educate your clients!
Ok - we all know that consultants don't like being taken away from revenue earning activities but they need to see advertisements as just that- the potential to earn more revenue! The easiest way to make time is to ask your consultants to draft an advertisement at the point that the job brief is taken - in fact make it part of the job brief requirement. The vacancy will be fresh in the consultant's mind and this way you will have a large bank of advertisements on file and ready to be used at any time.
Of course it is and if you do have a marketing department make sure that they are interacting with your job board and understanding the way to maximise advertisement positioning in search. More of which later for those of you who don't have that luxury!
We think that's a myth - but then we would say that wouldn't we? However, to quote a consultant we were engaging with recently: "The reason why good candidates don't respond to adverts is because they look like they've been written by dyslexic ten year old or because they are saying nothing different than the hundreds of other job ads out there." Surely there's an opportunity for differentiation here?
So how should it be done? Let's look at the structure of the ad both from an SEO and a candidate attraction point of view.
SEO
Search engine optimisation is the art of ensuring that a web page appears within results when a user is searching on a particular keyword or phrase. So you need to think about what particular keywords your potential applicants will be searching on. That means that you need to follow a few simple rules if you want to make sure your advertisement is ranked highly on www.recruitersite.co.uk
Headlines
You need to think of this from a search engine point of view. It's what we call the "Ronseal School of Advertising" - because search engines need an ad that does 'exactly what it says on the tin'. If you are advertising a job for a lorry driver then make sure lorry driver is in the title. The headline 'A job on the open road' may grab attention in the print media but it won't work online. The headline needs to be clear, to the point and non-cryptic. Don't include the location in the job title field as it will interfere with your results.
Location
When prompted to tell us where your vacancy is located, to improve your SEO you should provide the postcode and the nearest city or town.
The ad itself
The first 150 characters of your advertisement are crucial to your job posting. You'll need a short overview repeating the job title once, the location once and a couple of other related key points. If you can also fit in another instance of the words that make up your job title then you should see a benefit in your ranking. It is also important that this forms a coherent sentence - not just a string of search terms as search engines reward well constructed opening content.
Example: A Finance Director Role based in Reading
Outstanding opportunity for an FMCG finance specialist to join this Reading based corporate head office. As Director of Finance you'll head up an international team covering the group's global operations.
The remainder of your job description should contain keywords and key phrases that your ideal candidate may be searching on in a variety of ways. Taking the job title as most important, make sure it appears at least three times ( but no more than six). Featuring benefits and talking about responsibilities will enable you to use keywords and key phrases in a number of different ways. So for example:
You'll be based in Reading for around 50% of the time as the Finance Director has an international role and will consequently have the opportunity to travel to the group's other finance functions around the world. You'll have had significant exposure to international financial reporting standards at Director or Controller level ideally in an fmcg environment........
As a general rule aim for keywords and keyphrases to make up between 5 and 10% of your advert and you should have a well optimised page.
Candidate Attraction
As well as optimising your advertisements, you also need to make sure that they actually inspire the candidate to want to apply for the job!
Take a decent job brief
The key to a good job ad starts before the writing stage - it has to start with the job brief. You cannot possibly write a good ad without a full job spec. You can't sell an opportunity if you don't have all the benefits and you can't sell a company if you don't have all the co information
Talk to your applicants
You may have noticed in the examples above that the phrases 'our client' and 'the successful candidate will..' are conspicuous by their absence. Who else's client is it going to be - and what other type of candidate is going to get the job? It really isn't necessary to use these tired stock phrases. Why not just talk to the reader and use 'you'?
Sell benefits
Think about how is this move going to benefit the candidate and feature those benefits rather than just listing requirements. Obviously you do need to feature the experience needed but make sure that this is balanced with what the applicant will actually get our of the job move. Think about how you would sell a role to a candidate on the phone or face to face - it's the same with an ad - and this will also appeal to passive as well as active jobseekers.
Look at how you look
Before you press that button take a good long hard look at how your organisation will be viewed by the outside world. We've lost count of how many times we have looked at online recruitment ads and found spelling mistakes and poor grammar. What impression is your ad going to give?
A reader requested an article about managing deadbeat employees quite a while ago. It took me some time to write it - not because I don't think it's an important topic - I do - but here's the deal.
Deadbeat employees, for the most part, are made, not born. For most of them, it's not nature but nurture in our workplaces. The majority of your employees do not start work at your company thinking, I'd like to become a difficult, deadbeat employee. Nor, do they get up in the morning planning how to screw up their day - and yours, even if it may not always seem this way.
A carefully orchestrated hiring process should screen out the few really bad apples. Would you agree?
Favorite Quotes - More Quotes
"Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things." --Dogen
Share a favorite quote of yours. I'll give you credit or not, as you prefer. Please tell me whether to credit you by first name, first and last name and whether you'd like me to use your company name and a link.
Image Copyright Joshua Blake
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Deadbeat Employees: Made or Born? originally appeared on About.com Human Resources on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 04:42:15.
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[Read Entry]THIS BLOG SERIES WILL FOCUS ON GIVING HIRING MANAGERS
SUGGESTION's and IDEAS ON HOW TO GO ABOUT AND HIRE A NEW EMPLOYEE.
About a year ago while doing research for a marketing brochure
about the Hiring process, I took a poll of 200 random Executives
and Human Resources Professsionals. I was surprised how many had
little or no idea the different ways you can find an employee for
your company. The response I was given by most was, "that's always
the way we've (I've) done it.
The following, is a list of resources to consider when you are
looking to add employee(s) to your company.
Your Own Website
This is FREE advertisement for your company. Potential candidates
can not only receive extensive information about your company, but
will also learn every detail about the open position. It also
allows a candidate to look through benefit information, (some web
sies) have them posted,financial data, recent news etc. This
information is not easily found through other means of recruiting.
Sell your organization as an excellent place to work!
Employee Referrals
A great source - often overlooked. Your employees know your
company, your standards and work policies. Employees rarely
recommend people that they cannot vouch for as they are putting
their own reputation on the line.
TIP: Consider a reward system for a referral. It doesn't
necessarily have to be in the form of a check. Why not an extra day
off with pay, or a discount on whatever product your comany
manufactures.
Print Media
Newspapers and other print media have traditionally been the most
utilized resource to advertise for employees. Although a shrinking
medium to advertise for a position in your company, this is still a
viable resource to consider. Compared to other sources, Print Media
has limitations which include, limited ad exposure in terms of
geography, lenght of time an ad is run, and the ease of the
Internet.
Newspapers charge by the size of the ad, so be economical with your
use of words and use abbreviations as long as they can be clearly
understood.
Tip: Job seekers who are
computer literate and comfortable with technology will probably not
consider the reading the classifieds, at least not in the initial
phase of their job search.
The Internet
There are many providers of job listing services, e.g., Monster,
Career Builder, Job.com, and other internet sources. The costs vary
and they can be an excellent source of candidates. Unlike newspaper
ads, you can be as descriptive as you want about the job
requirements and qualifications, word limitations are very
generous. There are always new job boards popping up every day.
Many niche boards also exist. College Newspapers, Schools,
Corporate Alumni, i.e. (Big 4 CPA firms) Outplacemenent firms, i.e.
(Lee Hecht),have their own boards. Many times all you have to do is
sign up, enter Email, Name Address etc, many are free services
Tip: Take advantage of any tools available to qualify the
applicants. Some sites allow you to ask screening questions and
then score the applicant so you can focus on those candidates who
meet your criteria. You will get a lot of "hits" using the
internet, but many of the candidates will not meet your criteria.
It is too easy for someone to hit the "Send" button to forward
their resume.
Professional Organizations
Many professional organizations have job posting boards. Some are
free to members and others charge to list a position. If your job
requires a certain professional background, this may be an
excellent way to source good candidates.
TIP: Inform the organization if you hire one of their referrals.
They appreciate the feedback and it is an excellent networking
opportunity.
Educational Institutions
Community Colleges, Universities, etc. can be excellent sources for
candidates, especially for part-time and internship opportunities.
You can post your positions for little or no cost in most
instances.
TIP: If you want to advertise in the college paper, be aware that
often they have tight deadlines.
Job Fairs
If you have several openings to fill, a Job Fair may be the way to
approach your search. It is normally not cost effective to
participate in a job fair for one or two positions.
TIP: Plan for enough staff to manage your booth at the job fair,
particularly if it's an all day event. It is recommended that you
collect resumes and then schedule the interviews at a later date.
Networking
One of the best ways to recruit, but often misunderstood.
Networking is not limited to your professional contacts. When it
comes to recruiting networking means letting everyone you come in
contact with know about your job opening. The Internet and sites
like Linked In, MY Space, Twitter, etc have given the term
"Networking" a whole new meaning. It is simple today, to reach out
to specific industry groups, Start a discussion, blog etc
TIP: If yu have a following on Twitter you can simply post your
position (tweet), or you can start a discussion on Linked In, post
your position within a specific location, industry group etc. Get
the word out there!
Recruitment/Temporary Agencies
Recruiting Firms can also be a resource for employees. The can work
in several ways:
Flat out fee to find you someone, usually around 25% of the
employee's salary, and often with a 90-day guarantee. A recruiting
firm does all pre-screening and reference checking and many will
also do drug screening.
Temp to hire: Employee remains on the temporary agency payroll,
usually for
90 days or a certain number of hours. The agency pays all
employment taxes, etc. This is a good way to see if someone is a
"fit" for your organization before you put them on full time.
Utilizing temps is also a good way to handle seasonal employment
needs.
TIP: Let the agency know immediately if someone isn't working out.
You do not have to keep them for 90 days. They are more than happy
to find someone
who will be a better fit to keep you happy as a client.
Government/Social Services Agencies
Department of Employment Security (unemployment) and other
government and social services agencies often provide job search
assistance to their clients.
TIP: Many of these candidates have not been successful in getting
employment on their own. Some are disadvantaged in terms of their
background, e.g., criminal record, etc., and may not meet your
recruitment criteria.It's best to be up front regarding your
recruiting criteria so they can refer appropriate candidates.
*Please be sure to visit our other Blogs for regular updates
ANY COMMENTS AND/OR QUESTIONS TO:
Edward Lewis Group
1375 Broadway 11th Floor
New York, NY 10018
(212) 689-0900
www.InterviewingandHiring101.blogspot.com
So chances are you have heard of social media and you have a
strategy in place to reap the benefits of the new wave of
interaction that is now available to us all. You are using
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Xing, Delicious, Digg, ah the
list goes on and on.
Your strategy is sourcing you a great deal of traffic and to date
you have somewhat figured out there is a benefit in doing all of
this and you are starting to see some return for your
efforts. Well done, this will and should occur with a defined
plan in place. Whilst it is still very much early days and
the approach may very well change in 5 years time, we must get the
most out of it's current structure while we can, why not, it's an
opportunity missed otherwise and what is the business value in
that?
So for now you have solved what is the puzzle of social media and
recruiting. But is that really it? It can really be
that "relativelyâ easy can it?
What if I was to suggest that your strategy is only 33% complete?
And there should be in fact 3, yes 3, parts of your social media
strategy.
1. Attraction + Engagement + onboarding
This one is a bit of a no-brainer for the first 2 uses, but who is
using social media for onboarding? Attraction and engagement is
great when talking about utilsing all of the above mentioned sites
to spread the word about your company, the fantastic opportunities
you have, and what a great business you have become.
But what about on-boarding. Do you encourage new employees to
connect with current employees prior to starting and entice them to
start getting involved in the business in any way they can.
Either just by following a conversation or getting up to date with
current projects that they will be working on.
2. Retention + Engagement + Collaboration
Here is where your social media strategy provides you your greatest
ROI. You have attracted talent, hired them, they have
under-gone a great on-boarding process and they are starting to hit
their straps. You're employees are all over social media as
we know, however how can you harness social media internally to
improve outcomes and enhance engagement and more
collaboration. We do after all enjoy the people we work with,
more then the job itself most of the time.
Supplying your staff with the ability to create chat groups, pose
questions to the rest of the business and move projects along with
more communication is every companies dream. Imagine allowing
managers the ability to have a better understanding and the "pulseâÂÂ
of their staff by simply getting more involved in what they want to
talk about, business or otherwise.
With meetings always cancelled or shifted to a time when not
everyone can attend due to sickness or holiday, the meeting itself
never resolving or covering every discussion point required, and
follow up more and more difficult as some people just cannot be
tracked down, why not have your staff continue moving things along
with the power of a community platform.
Not only is this great for speeding up discussion and greater
collaboration, but if you ever have a question why not pose it to
the rest of the company in a non-intrusive manner. Who knows
what answers you will get and what other business enhancements may
be raised from one conversation alone.
3. Exiting + Alumni
It is suffice to say that people move on at some stage, but does
that mean your communication should cease entirely.
Understanding why people leave is never easy or straight forward,
and answering surveys, being involved in discussions and simply
making them feel like their voice is still being heard is crucial.
You may not want to stay in touch as a business with every ex
employees but it would be remiss not to have some connection with
former employees for either future job opportunities or business
deals. You never know who might be your client or vice versa
moving forward.
This is just a snapshot of course, but how many of us can say, we
are indeed utilizing social media and its power to its full
potential. My mum always told me if I'm going to do something
do it properly, I wonder if this relates to social media and its
use in recruitment as well?
What if we had a crystal ball and could look ahead 50 years to see what the recruiting trends will be. How will people be recruiting? Will it be some with the aid of some high tech "Web 29.0" job boards?
If we go back 50 years ago, how useful would a crystal ball have been then? Had any of us had a crystal ball we could have predicted many things and by now been richer than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett 10 times over. That's because we could have foreseen the explosion of contingency recruitment, contract and temp recruitment, job boards, ATS technology and the list goes on. Recruitment as we know it today didn't exist 50 years ago, so how will it look 50 years from now?
With the internet, job board advertising and email usage dominating the contingency recruitment market over the past 14 years or so, recruiters have had more and more opportunity to be lazy. In theory a recruiter can get a job emailed from a client, post the job on a job board, get the responses, exchange emails with potential candidates and forward the top three to the client. In theory that recruiter can make a placement with very little interaction with either the client or the candidate. This is not recruiting!
50 years from now it's easy and scary to predict how little interaction a recruiter may need to have in the process. Maybe computers will replace the need for recruiters in 50 years? We can all argue that this could never be, but with a large percentage of contingency recruiters already working as "administrators" and not much more, we can be forgiven for observing a trend curve pointing towards automation.
I feel very fortunate though to have a crystal ball. (-: I know what effective recruiting is going to look like in 50 years, and even 100 years from now. How can I possibly know this? Well it's the same reason that in 2009 so many contingency recruiters miss a trick. With a very high percentage of competing recruitment companies relying almost exclusively on job board advertising and their outdated databases of candidates, they're all fighting over the same candidates.
These are the 10% or less of the working population who are actively looking for work. In 50 or 100 years one thing is not going to change drastically. The percentage of people who are not actively looking for work will remain the high majority. So whether it's today or in 100 years, why go fishing in the same pond as thousands of other recruiters? Why not take a leaf out of our high end head hunting friend's book and start to focus on the population of the workforce who are not looking?
Mapping out company organization structures and headhunting shouldn't only be for board level executive positions. Just because someone is not actively looking for work, it doesn't mean to say they'll not be open minded to a conversation about a potential career move. In 50 years, picking up a phone and asking an employee of a well respected company if they are "open minded to a conversation about a potential career move right now", will be no different to doing that today. A high percentage of them may not be open to moving, but will be open to hearing about what's going on in the market. This is where relationships starts. This is where quality referrals happen.
Of course the cynics are going to say "well it takes too long to headhunt candidates when I can just be advertising for positions". Well how long does it take to work on a position only to find out your candidate has already been forwarded? I'm not talking about giving up your job board subscriptions and focussing exclusively on headhunting. Why not do both, and over time I believe job board administrator recruiters will develop a much more rewarding career. Who knows, maybe you'll like it so much you'll be around in 50 years to tell the ERE community about your "most successful half century ever".
More importantly, what do you want and need from your applicant tracking system? In theory, it is an easy answer, "I want an applicant tracking system that will save me time and money.â But, what features and tools will you need to accomplish this? To select an applicant tracking system, start by identifying your software needs:
1. Review your Hiring Process
2. Define the Goals, Needs, and Wants of your System
3. Select who you want to access the system, and how they will get there
4. Determine a Budget
For more information, download the applicant tracking selection toolkit.