That’s the way it begins – change – the movement from one
state to another, from a static status quo state to a hopefully more
progressive and productive state. Like moving from flat two dimensions to a
vibrant three.
The change begins in small groups, the sharing of new
knowledge of what can be done that hasn’t been done before and the return of
that “change” investment. The new knowledge fills the room, some of it
permeating each exposed pore, entering the bloodstream and flooding our brains
with possibility.
I recently spoke with a smart group of HR and recruiting
practitioners at the Northern California Human
Resources Association (NCHRA) Santa Cruz Region Meeting. My presentation
was on social recruiting but with a focus on talent networks, the long tail of
recruiting and quality over quantity – of change and what can be.
Most of the attendees were from smaller companies in the
Santa Cruz area, but what was striking (and not surprising) was the fact that when
I shared some recent research on social recruiting that claimed over 90 percent
of employers would be engaged in it this year, everyone looked at me as if I
just said we’d be riding magical unicorns in the big screen release of “Everybody’s
Doing It” in 3-D.
Of course the reality is that while about half the room
confirmed they use LinkedIn for professional networking, sourcing and
recruiting, only three had Facebook company pages and no one, and I mean no
one, used or even understood what Twitter was.
Well, there was one attendee who said he kinda used it.
Kinda.
We then discussed the realities – that half the room
prohibited most access to social networks during work hours. One HR
practitioner even proudly said her company banned Facebook and Pandora during
work hours.
Oh, man. Don’t kill my music. Mercy me.
But no one balked at my from-the-hip truths (one recruiter
in the room nodded away and winked at me):
- There are a gazillion people on social media today
- Recruiters do source and recruit using social media
- Candidates do use social to search for jobs
- Companies are still mixed as to recruiting value
Companies are still mixed as to the recruiting value of
social, which is why I’ve been thinking a lot about online talent networks this
past year, writing about them, interviewing various HR and recruiting
practitioners and vendors about them, speaking about them, dreaming about them
(yes, really), and living and breathing inside one in particular – TalentCulture’s #TChat. (You should’ve
seen the looks on the NCHRA attendee faces when I explained Twitter Chats.)
Much of social recruiting and talent network mainstream as
it stands today relates to recruiting new employees for a company, but they can
and should also form inside of companies with existing employees, and alumni,
and their networks, both inside and out — a mass of hub-and-spokes circles
within circles within circles that we only dream of maximizing return on.
Most everyone in the meeting agreed that the
three-dimensional “unicorn” in the room is the fact that a talent network is
only a network when those who belong collaborate, commiserate and connect with
one another regularly for what can amount to infinite combination of reasons –
but not necessarily applying for jobs outright. This of course can happen in
existing social networks, other platforms and software systems that help create
talent networks, and combination of all in between.
But the most common reality is that we usually end up with a
two-dimensional network model, sourcing active candidates from a smattering of
job postings and creating a database of people where occasional, hopefully
relevant company and job information is shared with them. There’s just no true
“network” inside.
Other kids may be
running around and around the sandbox, but for those who are in it, for
whatever time that is, it becomes an impromptu network where folks aggregate
again and again. They’re not coming to the sandbox because you put it there.
They’re coming because they want to play with the other kids and parents.
What, you don’t know what a Twitter Chat is?
