Bill
Warren, Executive Director of the
DirectEmployers Association
Last week, I attended the Direct Employers
Annual Meeting in Scottsdale. I was impressed by everything I saw:
— The
value of the Association
— The
quality of the event
The value of Direct Employers
Direct Employers is
a nonprofit HR consortium of employers started in 2001 under the leadership
of Bill
Warren, an HR veteran, who was the
founder of the first online recruiting company
in 1992. After a great career, Bill's goal was to help corporations organize
and build a top‐level .jobs domain similar to others like .edu or
.gov. Today, the success of Direct Employers is
obvious: It provides low cost solutions to online recruiting, unambiguously
improves labor market efficiencies, and has reached the milestone of one
million jobs from over 100,000 employers in syndication who benefit from the
basic service for free. For 93% of users, the online experience begins
with a search engine, something that recruiting via Internet must take into
account. Hence the critical importance of .Jobs, as well as the outstanding SEO
offered by DirectEmployers. I'll let you browse through the scope of services
provided by the organization as well as the amazing range of its partnerships
and job syndication alliances,
but one thing is clear: Its current 600+ members who
leverage all the services of Direct Employers,
have clearly proven the power of sharing best practices, advancing
industry standards, providing research, as well as understanding big data
analysis and what reducing recruiting costs is about. Any .org relies on the
efficiency and dedication of its leadership and employees as well as the
evangelistic power of any person who happens to be exposed to such
organization. So here is my advice: if your organization is not yet a member,
it should become one — for, in this case, pursuing the common good of offering
jobs to people also serves the pursuit of each company's self-interest.
The quality of the event
This Annual Conference is the most informative conference I have seen so far in
the HR industry. First of all, it's not a "show." It's a place where
employers share their experiences and initiatives to inform peers of what is
working for them — whether best practices in strategic interviewing to building
an online recruiting brand, creating veteran outreach, understanding the
potential and challenges of social media exposure, optimizing recruiting
efforts with a clear SEO strategy, focusing on meaningful performance metrics,
or designing a mobile career fair engagement. Presenters know first-hand what
they are talking about as practitioners, strongly involved
decision makers, or as employees of the Association.
It's hard to isolate any single reason why a conference
elicits such unanimous and sincere kudos. Clearly the organizing team's acumen
is critical — as is a participative audience of educated professionals. I would
also venture something else... The HR industry talks a lot about diversity
while, in practice, showing very little of it, as, quite strikingly, in the
main industry events, the majority of the speakers are men. What definitely
sets apart Direct Employers is
the presence of women. Its board
members include a majority of women.
The committee directing this year's programming, promotional opportunities and
sponsorships was comprised mostly of women, in addition to the (women-run)
marketing organization of Direct Employers.
Last but not least, the number of women presenters exceeded the number of
men...
Two phenomenal keynote speakers enthused the attendees for their
grit and their unstoppable determination, Aron Ralston, the inspired adventurer
of 127
Hours and Sage Steele, the epitome of the working mother
who made her way into a male-dominated world of sport (ESPN SportsCenter Co-Host),
who recounted her "lessons learned" with wit, fire and truthfulness.
Conclusion... Become a member of DirectEmployers, don't
miss their annual meeting — and check their smaller events too!
