Jobvite recently published a free ebook entitled 33 Essential Social Recruiting Stats, and this eye opening collection of information reveals that employers are already stepping up their efforts to recruit through social media sites because this method is, well, effective.
One interesting statistic that Jobvite published is that 73% of surveyed people between the ages of 18 and 34 found their most recent job through social media. Jobvite also published that 55% of surveyed companies indicated that they would invest more in social media hiring this year. This means that social media hiring is likely to increase in the future.
Most recruiters already pore over social media sites and the internet to find candidates with relevant skills, and, while many large companies are laggards in adopting social media as part of their employment strategy, they are beginning to see the benefits.
One challenge that employers face is that they do not have the in-house knowledge to effectively use social media for employment purposes. Using a third party can help organizations make the most of internet recruiting, as many of these third parties already use social media for recruiting purposes.
SimplicityVMS is one third party VMS system that integrates with social media sites, making it easier for employers to directly hire their contract and temporary workers through social media.
For more information about SimplictyVMS, or to learn about how your business can benefit from a third party, click here, or contact:
Christina Fabugais
Marketing Manager
Contingent Workforce Solutions Inc.
Direct Phone: 416-642-9077
Toll Free: 1-866-837-8630 x9077
Email: christina.fabugais@cwsolutions.ca
The most expensive and most complex resource of any business is its people. Many factors affect human performance, and, as a result, the human dimension is generally considered difficult to measure in terms of efficiency and improvement. With visibility into their workers’ performance, however, companies can better manage their entire workflow process.
Companies often have very little insight into their contract employees; a segment of the human dimension that poses high risk with employment and tax law and usually accounts for organizations’ largest single line expense. Contingent workers currently account for approximately 25% of the workforce, and this number is expected to increase. Companies need to effectively manage this aspect of their human resources in order to succeed in today’s changing employment market. Workforce analytics give companies visibility into their contract workforce, allowing them to better manage workflow, productivity, and compliance.
A Vendor Management System (VMS) can provide companies with the workforce analytics that provide companies with insight into their contract workforce across the entire organization. With greater insight, companies can determine who is doing what, and how well they are doing it. This allows organizations to allocate resources, motivate workers, and better understand human-resource related costs.
There are four key components to an effective Workforce analytics program. These components are:
Interactive – Workforce Analytics must be used as a living tool with dynamic data that integrates with historical data, including exceptions and outliers.
Intelligent – Analytics programs should be predictive and provide enough context to not only answer questions, but also raise them.
Actionable – The data must generate realistic recommendations that guide management decisions toward cost savings and risk mitigation.
Motivational – Workforce Analysis should go beyond mere mandates and inspire employees to have a stake in best practices.[1]
Successful businesses always look forward and adjust their strategies to match the changing market. Implementing a VMS and a workforce analytics program is one way that companies can adapt and better manage their most complex and most important resource: their people.
[1] Leeby, Doug. Workforce Analytics: How to Define, Measure and Drive Productivity in Today’s Organization. http://www.sig.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5748
For more information about how you can benefit from a Vendor Management System, contact Christina Fabugais about SimplicityVMS
Christina Fabugais
Marketing Manager
Direct Phone: 416-642-9077
Toll Free: 1-866-837-8630 x9077
Email: christina.fabugais@cwsolutions.ca
Contingent Workforce Solutions (CWS) is challenging those who believe Canadian innovation is in danger by drawing attention to innovation that exists in small businesses across Canada. In lieu of the Sept 16th Globe and Mail article focusing on the danger Canadian businesses face with the decline of an innovation-giant such as RIM, CWS feels it is important to recognize that innovation is actually driven by small business[1].
In many cases, small companies have the same or greater innovative capability than larger companies; however they lack the resources to successfully market and sell their novel products. There are many highly educated and talented entrepreneurs in Canada that have innovative business solutions; however they have not found success because they cannot gain access to the resources that large companies have. In order to maintain or heighten the current level of Canadian innovation, more resources need to be allocated to innovative small businesses.
Jeff Nugent, founder and Managing Director of Contingent Workforce Solutions (CWS), is well versed in the challenges that new businesses face. After an extensive history in the staffing industry, Nugent saw that many companies were not equipped to deal with the administrative and legal burdens of hiring temporary and contract workers, which put these organizations at risk. He started his innovative company, CWS, which provides business process management solutions, consultation, and a unique VMS software package that allows businesses to better cope with the changing labour demands. While his solution was an innovative approach to an industry problem, he faced, and continues to deal with, many challenges. Bankers were unwilling to finance a start-up with no assets, and so he was forced to use his own savings to start the business. Also, despite Nugent’s extensive industry experience, many large businesses were unwilling to work with a new, small company for fear that it would not have the necessary resources to handle the demands of a large business.
CWS has been able to overcome many of these challenges and find success. In fact, it was recently ranked the number 1 top new growth company by the 12th Annual Profit Hot 50. Lter in its evolution, CWS was lucky to receive Industrial Research Assistance Plan (IRAP) funding, which helped to offset the cost of developing its specialized software. The software has helped to fuel CWS’ success, which shows that such resources are imperative to innovation. However, many innovative entrepreneurs do not have the personal resources to overcome the initial challenges, meaning that their innovations never reach full potential.
There’s no doubt that large, innovative companies, such as RIM, help to drive the Canadian economy. However, smaller companies contributing to the economy and innovative landscape with unique products and services. In order for these small, innovative, Canadian companies to exist and thrive, more resources need to be available to them.
[1]King, Steve, and Ockels, Karen. Intuit future of small business report. Research brief: Defining small business innovation. The Intuit Future of Small Business Series. March 2009.
At every HR trade show, demo, product announcement, or webinar technology vendors of every stripe talk about their mobile interfaces. Even if it never occurred to you to manage a workforce by cell phone, you can.
And now would be a good time to start thinking that way. Just last week the Pew Research Center reported that 85 percent of Americans own a cell phone vs. 76 percent who have a computer. Among the 18-29 year group, 96 percent own a cell phone.
Pew didn’t report the percentage of smartphone usage in this latest report, but earlier this summer another Pew survey found that 40 percent of adults use their phone to access the Internet, IM, or email.
That report also found cell phone use for things other than voice communications were higher for Blacks and English-speaking Latinos. Cumulatively 87 percent of the two groups own a cell phone versus 80 percent for whites. Half (51 percent) of the Latinos surveyed use their phone to access the Internet, while 46 percent of Blacks do. The survey found only 33 percent of non-Hispanic whites do.
Part of the explanation may be that Blacks and Latinos own computers at lower rates than do whites; 67 percent of Blacks and 70 percent of Latinos own a computer compared to 79 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
Obviously this has implications for diversity recruiting and for meeting the needs of a diverse workforce. Indeed, in many ways recruiting was ahead of the mobile trend. The first use of mobile by recruiters was SMS to alert candidates to opportunities. Candidates still had to access the posting via a computer to get the details and to apply. Today, job alerts are commonly sent via Twitter. It’s a feature offered by all the largest job boards and most of the major company career sites.
So sophisticated has mobile recruiting become that a job-seeker tweeted an interesting possibility can access the listing and even apply entirely by smartphone.
Then there’s the social networking aspect. comScore says that 74 percent of smartphone users accessed a social network with either an app or by browser. That’s practically a dead heat with search (73 percent). One telling data point that recruiters should be mindful of in their social media strategy: 31 percent of all smartphone users who access a social network did it via an app; 43 percent used their browser.
Earlier this month CareerBuilder announced an expansion of the mobile services it first launched two years ago. iPhone users, who account for 1.6 million searches on CareerBuilder and 115,000 job applications monthly, now will see jobs in their field of interest near where they happen to be at any given moment. They’ll also be able to actively search for nearby jobs, apply for them and view their application history, even create a new resume.
Android users also get many of the same capabilities. They can now search for jobs, use the advanced search functions, including geo-location, apply, check their application history, and create a resume, among other functions.
If you have any doubt about the market for mobile uses, CareerBuilder said it will build mobile career sites for its corporate clients. A mobile site is different from a typical website in that it has been optimized for viewing on small cell phone and smartphone screens.
The announcement about this new service says: “Recruiters can post jobs through their smartphones and leverage company employees as mobile ambassadors. When employees access the site through their mobile device and email jobs to contacts, it becomes hard-coded as a referral that the company can track. “
Have you ever gotten a video resume where the candidate brags about her gorgonzola mashed potatoes? Or another where the candidate declares his faults, one of which happens to be that he lies?
Trouble has. His given name is Nick Chiapetta. (Think about it. You’ll get it.) His job is to screen all the video resumes that the director of human acquisitions, Alina Deloris, gets, and recommend candidates to her for temp jobs with Celltons, a company that makes cellphone buttons.
Nick, or Trouble, as he prefers to be called, used to own the temp agency where Celltons is now, until an unfortunate incident involving a bus and a 33-week absence lead to the agency’s demise. Now he’s temping for Celltons.
Those of you still reading, but wondering what I’m talking about, you are excused. You may return after completing the pre-requisites for this post about what may be the most incredible branding adventure in recruiting history.
Everyone else here knows about The Temp Life, Spherion’s Internet TV show. What began as a branding effort aimed at the entry-level demographic has succeeded so well it has been declared a “bona fide phenomenon” by Fast Company. It begins its fifth season in November.
Produced by CJP Digital Media, the phenomenon tag is anything but hyperbole. The videos have been watched some 18 million times. The show was nominated this year for a Streamy Award – the online Emmys. It has a Facebook page and a loyal Twitter following.
It’s also been picked up by cable TV syndicators and is being shown to 1.9 million Marriott, Hyatt, and other hotel guests every year on in-room entertainment.
“A phenomenal success,” declares Lisa McCarthy, Director of Marketing and PR for SFN Group, Spherion’s parent, who says the success surprised everyone.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” she told me. “We didn’t know what we were dealing with.”
That was back in 2006. YouTube was a year old and hadn’t yet been bought by Google. In the recruiting world, we were all worrying about the impending “War for Talent” and the necessity for employers to brand themselves.
Spherion was worrying about that, too. One of the largest staffing agencies in North America, Spherion Staffing Services was discovering it was almost unknown among college students, few of whom even thought about temping.
Like so many other employers, Spherion knew it needed to raise awareness of itself, especially among 18-25 year-olds, the entry-level demographic.
“We were sitting around a room brainstorming ideas,” McCarthy recalls. There were thoughts of using Second Life, the virtual world that was a hot trend for a while. Videos were an obvious choice for branding. But Spherion’s push-the-envelope culture, plus the demographic it wanted to reach, meant a talking head video wouldn’t do.
What emerged was the Internet TV show you see today. “My gut instinctively said it would work,” says McCarthy. To be sure, especially considering the investment she would be asking the company to make, focus groups were conducted to see whether the idea would resonate with the target audience.
It did. The C-suite bought into the idea and, though McCarthy won’t say what the program’s budget is, it clearly has grown along with the show’s success. Still, she says it’s less costly than a full-blown ad campaign.
Branded entertainment is not new. It was pioneered in the early days of radio, later making the transition to television. Although cost and audience taste have curtailed branded broadcast TV productions — Hallmark is one of the few remaining — it’s flourishing online. IKEA, for instance, sponsors Easy to Assemble. Topps, the trading card company, and Dick’s Sporting Goods, sponsor Back on Topps, the winner in the Branded Entertainment category.
What’s different about The Temp Life is the almost complete absence of a Spherion pitch. Only at the beginning of each episode is the company mentioned. The show’s website discreetly offers a jobs tab. But that’s it. And that’s intentional.
The demographic Spherion is pursuing is savvy to obvious pitches, explains McCarthy, and easily turned off by it. That’s also why there’s no attempt to capture viewer information, either by requiring a registration or even offering a newsletter or other come-on.
“Maybe at some point we’ll do something. Maybe not,” she says. “We didn’t want to make it a commercial.”
So what’s been the results?
McCarthy says that as a branding effort, The Temp Life has accomplished more than the brainstorming group could have hoped. The viewership numbers are her primary metric. A second is the buzz. The Temp Life pops up regularly in entertainment and marketing blogs, and was named one of Brandweek’s Bright Ideas.
She wouldn’t give me any details, but she did mention that a second series, aimed at a different demographic, may be in the works. She soon heads to New York, where The Temp Life is filmed, for a meeting to discuss the new show.
Though few employers have the kind of resources to sponsor an Internet series, let alone two, McCarthy believes The Temp Life offers ideas recruiters can adapt for their own companies.
“It’s really all about content,” says McCarthy, who eschews those common and all-too-formulaic job hunting tips and ideas. “Talk about the local things in your community,” she says. “The key is to build a rapport with the people out there.”
Videos are great, but there is no silver bullet. Take advantage of all the social media available. Be useful, she counsels. And “have a little fun.”
In the recent past, a part-time job was primarily a stepping-stone to full-time work with all the associated benefits.
In the last decade, however, many employees began viewing project stints as a refreshing departure from the capriciousness of Corporate America. They witnessed employers’ revolving-door approach to staffing—and consequently ratcheted down their own loyalties, changing jobs more frequently.
Now with the recession easing, 2010 may officially mark the start of the decade of a much less committed relationship between employer and employee. Owing to the disappearance of job security, the desire for greater independence, and the emphasis many baby boomers place on smelling the roses, more senior professionals are becoming what I call “tempreneurs.”
Tempreneurs are managers who seek a temporary schedule that makes it unnecessary to put all of their eggs in one corporate basket. They are independent contractors with an entrepreneurial spirit. When employment reaches respectable levels once again, these project consultants may have to be cajoled into working full time.
So what does this mean for establishing and maintaining a corporate culture of continuity, cohesiveness, and productivity? From a leadership standpoint, it seems imperative that businesses maintain a core of employees, but react to external and global influences with some agility to remain profitable.
CONTINGENT WORKERS
Technology has made it feasible and economical to work with virtual teams. LinkedIn has enabled the lightning-speed assembly of teams and supply chains. Employers, if they’re wise, don’t want the peaks and valleys of hiring and firing. It’s bad for business, not to mention customer loyalty.
All these factors contribute to greater reliance on contingent workers—and in many cases, the tempreneur. Firms are now adopting a variety of strategies to organize and manage contingent workers. They have to become adept at leveraging the talents of tempreneurs, yet treat them as valued team members.
Ultimately, perhaps both sides are getting what they asked for. And as is the case with any two entities that negotiate terms of a working relationship, both sides will have to compromise.
A tempreneur is not driven by a necessity to make ends meet between full-time jobs; it’s a personal career choice. Temporary workers go from project to project, usually on-site. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, have made a career decision to work for themselves, most often off-site. Tempreneurs constitute a new and improved hybrid of the temp worker and entrepreneur. This is a stronger, wiser, more resilient employee.
While they are different from most workers of prior decades, tempreneurs do cross over in certain instances. For example, tempreneurs must collaborate and work on a mutually agreeable schedule with the client, much as consultants do. The differences?
• Tempreneurs are more senior than the average temporary worker.
• Most temps require much more supervision than do tempreneurs.
• Consultants are slightly more senior than tempreneurs (many work directly with CEOs), and they leave much of the execution to the client.
• Since tempreneurs are not as senior as consultants, they can more affordably fill the voids in staffing.
• Tempreneurs make it easier for their clients to contend with business ebbs and flows.
The trend toward “tempreneurship” began in earnest in 2001, during the dot-com bust. As the last decade unfolded, project consulting became “the great escape.”
Today’s contingent-worker labor pool is made up of many categories: temporary workers, independent contractors or freelancers, outsourced employees, part-timers, and consultants. When companies are in the full hiring mode again, there will likely be budgeting for long-term use of these contingent workers like never before. It’s easy to forget that employers, too, were traumatized by the recession. They suffered the decimation of their bottom line and payrolls, leading to a desire for a paradigm shift to more flexibility.
LONG-TERM APPEAL
With the focus on greater competitiveness and cost-containment, including real estate, travel expenses, and changes in project peaks and valleys, not to mention fixed payroll expenses, the tempreneur has long-term appeal. Further supporting this trend is the rise of entrepreneurship. Many startups are underfunded, making the tempreneur option more desirable, the proverbial best of both worlds.
Now factor in more sophisticated technology, providing a “facsimile digital community” for those working off-site. Video conferencing is bridging the gap and facilitating a greater person-to-person connection. Social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn create a sense of community formerly found only in a physical office. And the proliferation of cellular networks, smartphones, and air cards makes mobile offices more mainstream. Plus, employees can socialize without in-person watercooler chats and happy hours.
Clearly, regular full-time employees will never vanish. And there are regulations that your HR department will help you comply with when hiring and classifying workers as contract employees. But 2010 marks a unique time when the U.S. workforce and management face each other with a challenging shift in the relationship they once had.
It can be for the better. Start by understanding that each side must first set a foundation of goals and expectations, with an eye toward mutual gain and trust that’s more than “temporary.”
The attraction and management of a total workforce requires a significant number of providers to bring this function to life. Some of these providers are transactional “plug and play”, but others require a bit more thoughtfulness when scoping the need, implementing and managing this solution. This article will review the different types of solutions found inside of Corporate Recruiting Functions and some tips to developing an effective vendor mgt. program.
First let’s take a look at many of the different types of products and services leveraged to acquire and manage a total workforce. Each of these services may have different stakeholders, requirements, implementation and management processes. All of these vendors will require an understanding of how their services, technology and / or solutions integrate into your processes which will result in contracts being developed, statements of work, SLA’s and governance practices to ensure the relationship is successful.
How do you decide which vendors are for you? Building Your Requirements
1. Begin to answer the following questions: What type of vendor are you looking for?
2. Answer the related questions: What is your overall recruitment strategy? What types of labor categories are you supporting? What is the volume? What is the geography? Does your organization have any specific talent demand drivers, such as holidays? What policies do you have in place to support the acquisition of talent? What infrastructure is required to make this work efficiently? How do you have to ensure compliance? How does cost play a role?
3. Apply your answers to the vendor type: Identify all of the roles or stakeholders who interact with this type of product or service. What is everyone’s spoken and unspoken knowledge, assumptions and expectations of this service?
4. Ask the questions: How does each stakeholder engage or leverage that service? What are the expectations? Is it supported by people and technology? How? What if there is a problem? Why would that occur? What happens? How do you fix it?
5. Identify the processes: Identify the work processes that support the engagement, utilization, management and measurement of that work effort based upon the insights above. What would you change? What can you change? Who do you need to drive that change? How do you need them?
For example: Do you have a situation where a recruiter goes out on Maternity leave? Who fills
her role? Options: Do nothing. Engage a contract recruiter. Give her work to another
recruiter.
Example 2: Need a recruitment advertising firm to support both common and creative projects.
Understand how does the entire recruiting organization procure advertising support
today? Centralized or decentralized? What would change or stay the same? How does this
align to the needs communicated to the Advertising agencies? Who needs to be involved in the
selection process to achieve buy in? How does this align to corporate brand efforts? How can
you structure the pricing based upon your purchasing behaviors?
Once you identify your requirements, than create a RFP. The RFP should:
1. Articulate what you are trying to achieve.
2. Provide the adequate amount of information for the supplier to provide the best solution.
3. Provide your expectations of this solution?
4. Have NDA’s signed.
Upon receipt of the RFP responses, begin the Selection Process
The selection process must include:
1. All of the required stakeholders.
2. A clear rating and selection system.
3. All stakeholders should have a common understanding of the service provider, clear definitions and has reviewed the RFP response.
4. Timeline and results of the supplier presentations should be clearly and fairly articulated to all.
From here, you will move into the CONTRACTS phase. This phase focuses on:
1. Liability
2. Terms and conditions
3. Pricing negotiations
4. Clearly defined statement of work
Once the Contract and SOW has been signed, the relationship begins to develop. Now phase 2 of hard work begins.
Key success factors during this time:
1. Review of expectations and statement of work.
2. Relationship building.
3. Cultural assimilation.
4. Transition expectations.
As the program or product implementation stabilizes, the management this relationship may focus on: 1. Metrics
2. Escalations.
3. Performance.
4. Compliance.
5. Governance.
See figure below:
Vendor selection and management is a process. It requires knowledge of processes, technology, contracts and delivery outcomes. Some vendor selection and management efforts require a bit more work than others, yet they all require thoughtfulness associated with the execution.
Feel free to reach out if you are looking at putting a vendor management program in place, for additional insights and details. Tracey Friend tfriend@brightfieldstrategies.com
Having made the transition from in-house recruitment to recruitment process outsourcing than managed services programs, you begin to see an evolution with great similarities and pains. The trends that I see are the movement towards identification, automation, measurement and operational excellence when managing all aspects of labor. This evolution is much more mature on the full-time hiring front than the contingent and professional services space. However the contingent workforce management industry is leveraging the best practices from its counterpart and their ramp towards automation and visibility is moving much more quickly.
As we begin to gain control and insight into all of the labor categories, this begs the question whether an in-house recruiting organization will look the same 10 years from now. I say it doesn’t. My prediction is Recruiting organizations will become WORKFORCE STRATEGY AND DEPLOYMENT functions. Managed services providers and recruitment process outsourcers, will focus on the flawless execution within the labor category they have been designated. Better yet, both will be focused on getting butts in seats, operations management and data management. The In-house WORKFORCE STRATEGY AND DEPLOYMENT function will work with the business to determine the best labor type needed to get the job done. Additionally there will be specialty sub functions that will focus on attraction, compliance, marketing, integrated technology solutions and vendor management within all the associated practices and processes. So where are we now? Let me show you.
In-House Recruitment Function: Full-Time Only
This is a high level view of an in-house recruitment organization, minus the nuances that a specific industry may bring to the organization. However the key thing to note is, all processes are now leveraged through an ATS system, the focus is now on process optimization, scalability, vendor management, improving marketing, sourcing and the candidate experience. Finally, the overall management of this function is moving towards metrics, the cleansing of data and trend analytics.
Contingent Workforce Management Model
At the same time, many companies are now exploring technology for contingent workforce management and the first labor category to get automated is the contingent worker provided by staffing firms. Over the next couple of years, the movement towards automation and visibility of all labor categories outside of full-time will migrate to the VMS. The VMS technology companies will continue to optimize as these functions mature and data becomes readily available. The program leaders are focused on compliance, rate controls, billing management, process management and adherence to policies.
Evolution 3
As the two groups move towards their common platform the challenge will be how they migrate this information from two solutions into meaningful business intelligence software so that it can be used. The other challenge is the maturity around the cleanliness of the data due to economic and operational limitations. As these problems get solved, new skill sets will be birthed and the role of workforce modeling and planning will move from infancy to a juvenile state.
As insights are captured and trends over time are recognized, this will challenge all stakeholders involved.
- Managers will need to shift their thinking about how to get work done – outside of full time hiring.
- HR / Procurement will need to evolve to understanding the entire labor pool and options.
- Technology firms will be challenged to deliver an integrated solution both at the system level and at the portal layer that is easy for everyone to use.
- Organizationally leaders will need to address “How does this shift the need for people, skills and the methods by which we bring labor into the organization?”
The reality is, we do much of this already in a very disparate way and this will be an evolving challenge for everyone as we learn more about whom we are and how we leverage people to get work done inside our organizations.
Evolution 4
This is the age of the Workforce Strategist. These roles are business roles that focus on labor based solutions. Outsourcers will be leveraged to optimize the delivery of their specific labor category and workforce modeling groups will drive pricing, compliance, trends and program level decision making.
While this is just a prediction and it may never fully be realized, it begs the question around IS NOW THE TIME TO CHANGE THE WAY WE LOOK AT THE ACQUISITION AND MANAGEMENT OF people driven solutions to get work done?
How people communicate and leverage the web today has
significantly changed since 2007. These
changes will challenge the recruitment and staffing profession to understand
web trends, become experts in programs and only execute activities that align
to both the brand promise and the brand experience.
The brand promise is what
audiences are assured of receiving as a result of their relationship with the
brand.
A Brand is our image in the marketplace. Recruitment and Staffing is an extension of
the brand and the brand experience.
Therefore our customers, who are candidates, get attracted by our brand, the messaging and the opportunity. The activities we engage in as Recruiting
professionals should communicate the brand and serve as a beginning of the
brand experience.
STOP
Stop and ask yourself, what is your corporate Brand and how
does that translate to the experience a candidate should receive? Would you segment your population? How? Keep
that question in mind as you put in action your robust marketing plan. NOTE: ACTION
and EXPERIENCE can impact referrals and hires.
A poorly executed recruitment marketing program where the follow through
is the missing link, can create a word of mouth viral marketing effort that
counters all of the good efforts.
Web Behaviors
Now that we have walked through the definition of the Brand
Experience, the next step is to understand how the web is used by every day
people and how this can impact the success of our recruitment marketing
efforts.
In 2007 – 52% of the population were inactive. 33% watched. 19% criticized. In recruitment the activities translate to
a focus on Job Boards, banner advertising,
and email communications. The
critique factor came from websites such as Vault.com and corporatememos.com. Technologically applicant tracking system companies improved
the candidate interface, support two levels associated with source of hire, as well as enable communication
triggers and tools to communicate to a candidate. Candidate communications were very
transactional and simple between the candidate and the employer. Finally the
OFCCP began their journey around the definition of an internet applicant.
In 2010 – 24% of
people used the internet to create, 33% converse, 37% are critics, 59% have
joined and only 17% are inactive. How
this translates to recruiting are the increased tools to source candidates; The
evolution of Social networking websites such as Linkedin, Spoke and others; Real-time communications such as twitter and
texting; Mobile media and interactive strategies to provide a candidate instant
access to a live person or experience. An increasing number of corporate critic
sites such as glassdoor.com and jobvent.com.
Technologically applicant tracking systems which have focused on
compliance must now merge with CRM tools to show the love. Finally, the start
of an evolution to actively market to retiree’s, alumni and contingent labor as
we move into the FREELANCE ERA.
Emotionally
The impact of these changes results into a set of expectations,
that due to economic trends and the stretched role demands of HR and
Procurement are not being met:
Candidates Want:
1.
Instant feedback
2.
Company insights and education
3. What
they read is what they should expect
4. A
clear path on how to enter a company whether it is full-time, part-time or
project based
employment.
Whereas Recruiters are expected to:
1.
Outreach to more people
2.
Obtain quicker results
3. Stay
focused
4.
Provide quality service
5. In
some cases move from a high touch to a high transaction delivery model
The reality of these changes are:
1. People can learn and experience within a very
short amount of time.
2. Candidates
do not get the instant feedback, if any.
3.
Recruiters have many more people to sift through.
4. The
candidate experience has suffered.
5. HR
and Recruiting must execute programs and marketing with greater strategy and
skill.
6.
People are using and leveraging internet technology different and so must we.
7.
Networks are alive.
We need to look at how we work differently and fine tune all
of our strategies and practices to meet the changing world. While today we grapple with measuring our
lead to hire ratios, we will also need to look at the brand and its impact over
time to attract and retain quality talent. All of which tie back to an ongoing recruitment
marketing strategy which is dependent upon an overall talent strategy within
the organization.
Have you ever gotten a video resume where the candidate brags about her gorgonzola mashed potatoes? Or another where the candidate declares his faults, one of which happens to be that he lies?
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