TalentCircles Blog

Career sites will be windows of the marketing and sales soul

2012-02-23T08:59:00.001-08:00

And there were those who said the internet would killbusiness (then with a capital “I”). Crazy, don’t you think? We certainly knowbetter now.

I worked in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s where companiesscrambled over another like ants to sugar to get a website up, any website up,in order to have a website up. Fast forward to today and we’ve learned a lotabout search engine optimization (SEO), lead capture, call-to-action and thefact that according a recent TheEconomist article there are 4.6billion mobile-phone subscriptions worldwide (though many people have more thanone, so the world’s 6.8 billion people are not quite as well supplied as thesefigures suggest), and 1 billion-2 billion people use the internet.

One to two billion people use the internet. Research surveyafter research survey validates that the first place more and more of thegrowing internet user world goes in online, so it makes sense that the primarybusiness website (and mobile-friendly website) are the eyes to the window ofthe marketing and sales soul.

Consumer product companies get that and B2B companies aregetting it. But what is still lagging is the parallel (and the parable) of thecompany career sites, portals, pages, whatever you want to call them.

We treat (we can only hope) ourprospects and customers like kings and queens because they’re the livelihood ofour businesses. However, so are our employees and managers, because they’re theones who make and deliver the things that are the livelihood of our businesses.

Just as we profile our customers we profile our candidates(or should be), but unlike our core buyers, we should give our future employeesthe opportunity to profile themselves, to create a “universal profile” that’sportable and includes a 360-view of all interests and skills and experience,housed anywhere they want – LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, other networks – to thenbe able to move among the online crowd whether they apply for a job or not.Yet.

Granted, talent acquisition technologies including applicanttracking systems (ATS) have been slow to adapt to the online profile – there’sstill the “click here” to upload your resume. That’s changing for the better asthe candidate experience improves allowing for easy integration of the onlineprofile to the employer of choice, not to mention the benefits of a searchoptimized professional profile. Kind of like the way we’ve moved into theproduct and service marketing realm.

And that means that the company career portals will continueto evolve as the final destination – all employment brand fodder and jobopportunities will lead to them like sugar trails of Web lore.

Career sites will become windows of the marketing and salessoul. Amen.

Through the recruiting lens

2012-02-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

By Kevin W. Grossman

It’s not like the polar ice caps of data have been slidinginto the warming world around us of late; we’ve been accumulating this stufffor a long, long time.

In recruiting, companies have been accumulating tons ofapplicant data, mostly in the form of the infamous resume, although more oftenthese days it’s in the form of online profiles (thankfully). Thousands andthousands of people apply for jobs every day at companies around the world, andall that information goes into some kind of data storage – spreadsheets, applicanttracking systems, talent networks and communities, talent management systemsand human resource management systems once they’re hired…

Add to that the other sourcing activities of recruiting lorelike name generation via stealth cold calls; internet searching and advancedBoolean search; and more recently LinkedIn sourcing; social recruiting sourcingacross Facebook, Twitter and other networks; and let’s not forget theold-school way of sourcing at live networking events. There’s more data beingstored about applicants (and potential applicants when they’re just shoppingemployment brands) than ever before – an almost 360-view of professional andpersonal.

Lots of valuable data that’s then stuffed into electronicboxes and stored somewhat disheveled in the back room. The irony of coursebeing that once they’re stored away, ain’t nobody digging through the boxes ata later time.

Segueinto something related that I wrote this week:

"Put a lens on itfor me."

I sat across from him at the table, his team and mine alongthe periphery, waiting for him to expound on the statement.

He kept flipping back and forth in the proposal pages as ifmagical insight would jump forth and say, here I am -- buy me!

"Yes, that's whatI need to see -- put a lens on this for me so I understand what toexpect."

That was only a few weeks ago and has stuck with me eversense. That's what any of us need in business, right? Give me a lens on"information" I'm interested in so I can make fact-basedcorrelations, recommendations, decisions and predictions.

The ol' what's in it for me shtick. Really this time, inreal-time. Because Googling, managing spreadsheets and guessing is so 2007.

Managing data is mind-bending. Even though the human braincan store vast amounts of information, our working memory can only recall up to7 things at one time.

Easy peasy. But recalling vast amounts of data to make fact-baseddecisions?

Not gonna happen humanly (yet). Imagine the sheer volumealong and you'll pass out. A petabyte of information is equal to onequadrillion bytes, or 1000 terabytes.My goodness that's a lot of information. Our minds have a hard enough fathominga gig much less a handful of megabytes.

Or up to 7 items at once.

But today we can put a lenses on the vast amounts of data wedeal with in business and again make fact-based correlations, recommendations,decisions and predictions. We have the storage space and the magic algorithmsthat make it all happen.

That means that the art of sourcing is becoming more sciencethan art (don’t tell my recruiting friends that). The term is “Big Data” and ittruly is big. According to a recent New York Times article titled TheAge of Big Data:

Data-guided managementis spreading across corporate America and starting to pay off. They studied 179large companies and found that those adopting “data-driven decision making”achieved productivity gains that were 5 percent to 6 percent higher than otherfactors could explain.

And more closer to recruiting home:

Today, social-networkresearch involves mining huge digital data sets of collective behavior online.Among the findings: people whom you know but don’t communicate with often —“weak ties,” in sociology — are the best sources of tips about job openings.They travel in slightly different social worlds than close friends, so they seeopportunities you and your best friends do not.

We’re going to need more data-literate recruiting analyticsexperts to better monitor and manage applicant data – from outside the orgs aswell as in – and that’s what will give companies competitive advantage in theyears to come. Not that sourcing pros and recruiters can’t do some of thistoday, but as the warm data waters rise, we’re going to have to be able to divedeeper than ever before to monitor, analyze and comprehend an increasinglycomplex world of work and vast amounts of information while delivering moreeffective sourcing, recruiting and quality of hire.

"Put a lens onthe recruiting world for me, would you?"

Absolutely. We can do that now. As DominiqueHermsdorff, VP of Engineering at TalentCircles puts it, "Today, wehave too much data and not enough of the right information. Moving from resumesto profiles and profile analysis will transform your data into actionableinformation."

Talent network evangelists unite!

2012-02-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

By Kevin W. Grossman

With all the talk of the online job boards dying and theresume dying, you’d think they were dying.

They’re not. In fact, according to an article on ERE.net:

For being so out of fashion, so yesterday,job boards manage to come out on top or top-adjacent on nearly every source ofhire study. In a Bersin & Associates surveythis fall job boards tied for first with internal transfers as the leadingsource of all hires. CareerXroads says job boards produced 24.9percent of all external hires in 2010, second only to employee referrals (27.5percent).

Resumes are uploaded to job boards continuously every day.So, the reality is that the models are evolving – meaning, resumes are becomingonline profiles and job boards are becoming talent networks.

Well, the former more than the latter (fact is, talentnetworks are evolving into interactive job boards and then some). Remember whenyou used to painstakingly format your resume, or pay someone to do so, in oneof multiple standard formats, and then mail it to employers you wanted to workfor?

Some of you older kids do, like me. And even when we evolvedand moved to electronic formats in our resumes, they were in multiple formatsthat didn’t include what we now include when it comes to our growing onlinefootprint.

Think about these stats:

Facebook is nearing one billion users globally – andgrowing.
LinkedIn is over 135 million professionals around the world –and growing.

LinkedIn is a no-brainer. It’s become the new standard bywhich the online resume, or better known as the online profile, is managed bythe above millions and millions of professionals around the world. And it’sbecome the first choice of recruiters and hiring managers worldwide to sourceand recruit candidates.

Facebook is right about the corner. Still primarily knownfor a media-rich playground where friends and family play, it’s becoming fast anew playground for recruiters and hiring managers seeking candidates inFacebook users who are updating their profiles to include their careers, skillsand experience.

Consider this: Facebook, the U.S. Department of Labor, theNational Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), DirectEmployersAssociation (DE), and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies(NASWA) created the Social JobsPartnership. The partnership’s goal will be to facilitate employment forAmerica’s jobless through the use of social networks, including job postingsdelivered through Facebook at no charge. That is very cool.

I’vewritten about this before, but for those of you already have an onlinecareer profile you manage, as well as you employers that source and recruitonline and value the online profile over the resume, please evangelize to acceleratethe rest of the world, because this is where it’s going.

In fact, the career management industry can help too bysharing some of the same best practices applied to the resume that can andshould be applied to the online profile:

A consistent standard layout for portability
A concise professional summary
Accomplishment highlights that are relevant to the bottomline
A clear timeline of professional activities that account forany gaps
Search-optimized profile with the keywords you want to befound for
Request multiple online recommendations as well as givingthem
Update regularly whether you’re looking for a job or not

Let’s get everyone to know the power of the online profile!Talent network evangelists unite!

You can stuff a Potato Head, but you can’t fake community

2012-02-02T17:13:00.001-08:00

By Kevin W. Grossman

It’s been on the market for decades and it’s barely evolvedfrom its original state. Sure it’s added a myriad of enhanced accessories overthe years, some more fun and attractive while others are more utility thananything, but fierce competition from more technologically advanced productsthreaten to extinguish its presence once and for all.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato head, time to ride off into the sunset.

Or is it? As parent of two little girls in a family of “ToyStory” fanatics – that’s not gonna happen anytime soon. In fact, these toyshave lived revival after revival over the years.

Like the applicant tracking system (at least in their ownunique short history). Wait, I know you’re thinking, “C’mon, Kevin. Really?”

Yes, really. Maybe you remember EZaccess, the softwarecreated for staffing firms way back in the mid-1990s. Or, maybe you rememberwhen it became Personic and then Unicru and then to the many flavors of talentacquisition software on the market today.

Applicant tracking systems for the most part storecandidates and candidate stuff; you can also store stuff in your Potato Heads.But the trend of late is to add features and enhancements to make the systemsmore seemingly social, to go beyond talent storage to talent networks viasocial recruiting activities – posting jobs on social networks and sourcingcandidates from them. And there are a lot of quality talent acquisition systemsout there scrambling to add social.

But that alone doesn’t make for talent networks and qualityconnections and engagement – facilitating communication and activities betweencandidates as well as employers and candidates, 3-way conversations do.

The key here being the interactive activities and theorchestration within. And it’s the people that make that happen, whetherone-on-one or in groups. It’s the HR pros, the recruiters, the hiring managers,the candidates and those who are interested in the employment brand but haven’tactually applied for anything yet (and may never apply). The talent network thenorchestrates how systems are used and in turn creates “community” of sorts.

It’s really dark inside the Potato Heads especially when allthe appendages are attached, all the holes plugged. That’s what it’s like withthe basic social functions of ATS’s today. Applicants are sourced, filtered andstored, but there’s no interaction inside, and only limited outside. Just coldand dark and lonely and the qualified applicants inside aren’t going to wait,just stagnate and move on to other talent networks.

The quality interaction that which engages is what happensoutside of the cold, dark stasis. Potato Heads on their own aren’t connectornetworks, but where they’re played with, when the kids (the applicants) and theparents (the employers) conduct the orchestration between Potato Heads and oneanother, then the reason-to-stay fun begins.

It’s got to be a 3-way Potato play:

Playing solo with all theinteractive accessories (career management exercises, assessments, etc).
Playing live in similar groups(“kids” with other “kids” – white boarding, mentoring, videochats)
Playing live in mixed groups(“kids” with the “employer” – webinars, training, video chats)

You can stuff a Potato Head, but you can’t fake community.And basic ATS social just isn’t enough to drive the interactive engagement youneed to stay competitive with the right talent.

The Strategic Role of Sourcers in the Social-driven Economy

2012-01-25T17:40:00.000-08:00

by Sean Sheppard and Marylene Delbourg-Delphis
The role of sourcers is changing as quickly as the role of marketers and in very similar fashions.
The times when marketers assumed that customers would buy a product because they needed it (or be brainwashed by advertising into believing they did) are rapidly vanishing. Today, as consumers, we expect to build a relationship with a company. We expect an experience – a positive experience, not the “bad” experience that makes us return products and try competitors – as well as vent our disappointment on social networks or other public venues such as Groubal.
In today’s competitive business environment, consumers demand personalized attention before and after any transaction. So do job seekers. They don’t want to be treated as interchangeable pawns, even for lower positions. People are not job-fillers… They are people first – and if they are unhappy, they’ll just look for another opportunity. Let’s keep in mind that the vast majority of people who look for or are open to a new job already have one!

It’s time to start looking at things a little differently.

Staffing departments, just as all other departments must rewire the way they work to succeed in a world where brands are no longer what companies alone shape up, but are equally what customers/users declare to their friends and peers on social networks as “great” or “poor.” When our friends speak ill of a brand, do we rush to buy from it? No. We look at the competitor.
Candidates are just like customers. In fact they are customers, not wretched creatures who can be talked to condescendingly and should be happy to be offered a job no matter what. If they don’t like your brand, if they don’t gain sincere insight on what it’s really like to work for your company, they’ll go next door. You will lose that top 1% that all sourcers want to find, regardless of what this top 1% represents — whether it is the cool kid who has the potential to be an amazing administrative assistant, or a brilliant, tenured engineer.

A new approach to sourcing

So what can sourcers learn from what the social media groups in marketing and customer service departments are doing? How can they combine their efforts to engrain “social,” engagement, and relationship marketing into the corporate modus operandi? The urgency for such cross-departmental collaboration is all the more obvious as sourcers are in charge of identifying the job candidates who will be the flag-bearers of the “socialized” brand and the representatives of the new corporate behaviors.
Below are examples of conversation starters that sourcers can use to start learning from their social media and marketing counterparts:

How is social media redefining the company’s brand strategy?
How can we combine efforts in relationship marketing?
How can I/we become a digital leader and empower teams into digital leadership?
How is social media impacting key performance indicators?

In truth, sourcers are poised to become critical touch points in the “social” economy, for sourcing is where it all starts. Sourcers must immerse themselves into the engagement culture that will be able to spot and attract the socially connected who in turn will help companies to migrate from the 2000′s to the 2010′s and beyond.
By engaging and remaining connected with candidates, whether or not there is an available position for them at a particular point in time, sourcers have the power to turn potential job seekers into fans, and provide them with a sense of belonging and relevance. And just as marketers, sourcers will have a critical role in building the value and the equity of a brand within social networks, because social is a key differentiator. In the years to come, social capital will become a major indicator of companies’ performance and impact their market cap.
Sourcers and marketers have all the reasons in the world to share insights and collaborate in order to better adapt to a fast-changing business environment. They work for the same company and can only benefit from the success that can be found in combining forces – start the process of cross-company education and start learning from one another!
Originally posted on SourceCon.

Social Recruiting 2.0: Own Your Talent Network

2012-01-09T16:36:00.001-08:00

From Social Recruiting 1.0 to Social Recruiting 2.0

Social Recruiting today primarily refers to the ability to post jobs and spot candidates on public social networks, and comes across as the equivalent of classified advertising on new channels. It's business as usual, only with an extended reach. Is it "social?" Marginally. Does it substantially change the way organizations engage with candidates? Scarcely. Does it significantly improve the candidate experience? Minimally. Does it simplify the life of recruiters, improve their relationship with hiring managers, reduce costs and time-to hire? Barely.

Using social networks as a sort of outsourcing mall for everything social is only a small part of the socialization of business and may even end up weakening the Web presence of a brand: "why would you spend so much over the last 10–15 years in marketing money to get people to your web site only to send them somewhere else?" asks Jeremiah Owyang, one of the most prominent analysts in social media. In other words, what becomes of your Web identity as an organization and how do you differentiate yourself from all the other companies that compete for the same talent as you do? That's what "social recruiting" as it is performed today doesn't address.

Social Recruiting 2.0

What is Social Recruiting 2.0? A way for recruiters to leverage technology to scale what's part of their DNA: create relationships, facilitate and encourage connections with and between people, communicate the brand identity, its purpose, and its values, and identify talents to whom hiring managers will relate.

When companies compete for the top 1% in whatever category (the best engineers as well as the best administrative assistants) and 6o% of employees are actively seeking or open to a new job, how can you intercept and nurture the attention of potential candidates? The only way is for companies to create a hub for people and information, a place "where people and company opportunities meet," as Gerry Crispin likes to say. This means welcoming candidates into a trusted private social network where recruiters can maintain a bond between the brand they represent and the people. The Social Recruiting 2.0 approach prompts an environment conducive to focused interactions between a company and the candidates and fosters a continued engagement that enables recruiters to meet, retain and select people who show true interest in the company's culture and its values.

Great candidate service is as critical for any brand as is great customer service. Recruiters are poised to be at the forefront of listening and engagement and will play a critical role in the socialization of businesses.

Is it time to jump into Social Recruiting 2.0?

Yes. Social Recruiting 1.0 only adds a social "layer" to recruiting, which only adds complexity on top of sometimes unyielding systems. Social Recruiting 2.0 transparently embeds connectedness between people and information, and makes it as natural as in our everyday lives. Simplicity drives effectiveness, which in turn drives ROI.

The TalentCircles Social Recruiting 2.0 design reconciles recruiting networking and technology by mimicking real life interactions in a turnkey “social” home that you will master in a matter of minutes.