Category: Recruiting

Joel Cheesman, President, HRSEO

Blogger’s view of online recruitment and beyond

“I’m in control. The individual is in control.”

Risk is good!!! Stare risk in the eye and take a chance!!! It’s not life or death.

Information overload – people are overloaded with information.

N’sync, sold 1 million albums first week, Napster. The Long Tail became an infinite tail of data for music. The tail is getting longer with job sites.

Search is very important to local job sites. Search is intent based advertising. Vertical search is particular channels. Indeed, Simplyhired, Jobster, etc.

API – I can take the technology of a company and put it on my own site.

Monster is not customer friendly.

Myspace – the suits moved in, TOS change so that we own it, critical mass attracts the evil doers now. Candidate for governor has a Myspace page. How uncool is that to young people.

Verticals have a problem with monetization. Simplyhired, lets get as many seekers as possible.

2 blogs created every second. What if you had blogs that showed the true face of the corporation. Showed “what if” example for McDonald’s with audience member.

Attract passive seeker with blogs.

Push versus pull – the world is changing about pull instead of push. Be remarkable!!! (or are you linkworthy?)

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Shally Steckerl, Manager, Core Technical Central Sourcing Team, Microsoft Corp

Raised in Colombia, South America, has worked in Nicaragua and Australia

Former Peace Corps, conduct and train on International Sourcing

Why does sourcing differ from country to country? Privacy standards, solicitation is not OK in some places, blogging is not increasing at the same rate in other countries, some people perplexed by this amount of information and you need to read up on cultural nuances of each target company.
Windowontheworldonline.com – useful country cultural information

Recruiting works best by region, while sourcing typically works best by channel.

Topjobsites.com

Searchenginecolossus.com – country specific search engines

Domain extensions typically correlate with ISO country codes.

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Patrick Sullivan, President, Workopolis

Canada’s biggest generalist job board, niche in terms of country focus

51% think they will find your next role on the web

Pecking order in Canada: Workopolis, Working, Monster, Jobboom

Strong partnerships with newspapers

Tiered levels – now additional fees

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Peter Weddle, Edito and Publisher, Weddles.com

Climbed the Matterhorn – outstanding story

The way you approach a challenge allow you to define success.

The war for any talent (there is still battle wounds from this in my opinion) morphed into the war for the best talent

Scarcity on verticals and for A-level performers

Defining attributes
– They are passionate about their career
– They’re not as rare as you think
– They listened to their mother
– They must be convinced to change devils

We need to understand what works best?

Prediction: job boards will double every three years.

Specialization and Transformation
There is no barrier to entry in the online employment industry

It is one the most successful segments of the e-commerce space

It’s tough to tell a well capitalized, well run site from something else

It’s surprises Peter that the institutional knowledge is not collected for the enterprise

International Association of Employment Web Sites (800+ sites)

Protect the privacy of information, the data that they report to you is accurate

Career Community Centers are the new trend

2GP + 3N + 2D = 1GH

Summary
Advantages
Benefits
Capabilities
Sign-off/Call to Action
(tailor your information)

Mentioned University of Michigan study in which hiring managers were only 4% better than a coin flip.

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John Sumser, Founder and President, IBN: interbiznet.com

Death of Diversity
– No Longer a Theory
– Requires Practical Tolerance
– Not Acceptance, Reliance
– Harness What You Already Have

Top 10
Transparency
Quantify and Test Your Assumptions
Lead With Like Gets Like
Encourage Collaborative Communications
Embrace Negative Publicity
Create Dynamic Employee Feedbackloops
Define Workforce Requirements, Flexible Solutions
Practice Small Group Commnity Development
Tune Employment Brand To Desired Workforce
Teach The problem. Use the Data. Encourage Dialog.

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John Younger, Founder and CEO, Accolo

Employee Referrals are the Best Source of Candidates
Only the Outcome Counts
It’s the Work, Not the Job
Align the Values

Job Seeker and Hiring Manager Satisfaction trending lower

94% of online applicants never hear anything from anyone

Disrespect is now expected from candidate.

Exactly the same model is being used from 1963 – more tools does not equal more productivity!!!

Battle of the Brands
Corporate Brand
– Become Employer of Choice
– Focus only on Corporate Success

Personal Brand
– MySpace
– Family Web Site
– Personal website

Interesting Work – why the right person would want the job

Personal Interest at this time

His Currency
Trust
Accuracy
Relevancy

Recruiting Relativity Theory – Desire to move is not a constant

Conclusions
– We are all “temporaries”, it’s just a matter of degrees
– We are all in various stages of availability
– The term “candidate” only defines a stage of life

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Matthew Parker, Group Managing Direcor, StepStone Solutions 

Europe – labor shortage (20 million by 2030 per projections)

Sweden – Candidate must authorize data deletion

Matthew detailed a number of very interesting problems with data and legal conflict in Europe.

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Louis Vong, VP Interactive Strategy, TMP (talks too fast)

Mobile networking is the web outside.

Mobile users are using “fill time”

There are more mobile than landline phone subscribers at this point n time

350 Billion text messages are exchanged every month

Advergaming – $1.8 Billion by 2008

Starbucks – Summer Scavenger Hunt

Dodgeball.com

Wiffiti

Download mobile assessment tests involving games

Gave away an Ipod by asking for a text of the alphabet – half the respondents in attendance got it wrong! Scary indeed.

(If you attended the ERE conference – come see what you missed at Onrec!)

Yves Lermusi, President, Taleo

Talent is about a “state of mind”. Your top recruiters are your executive.

Kai-Fu Lee – Microsoft to Google – settlement reached.

27% – amount time spent by executives on talent related issues. (The Economist).

Finds who spend more on training outperform S&P 500. Taleo customers do the same.

HR should be a value creator, not a cost center!!!

Prediction of worker shortage by 2010, 40% of companies have no succession plan. The largest 500 companies will have 50% of senior executives attrite in the next 5 years.

Which metric to use? Wall Street looks at the revenue per employee. Yet this is not good enough. Total labor spent, which should

Return of Workforce = Operating Income / Total Labor Costs

Operating Levers: Skills, motivation, job fill ratio

Workforce Levers: Offshore, Downsize, Change compensation

HR is becoming talent management. Selection and succession planning are becoming strategic drivers. Assess, Acquire, Align and Develop.

Critical things:
Be the enabler of best of class talent management processes.
– Only the Outcome counts: Quality hires that fit. Do I have the right people on the bus in the right way? Do you fit your role? How well do we assess our strengths? Cornell Study – fascinating chart shows self perception of performance versus reality! Retention focus.  Cost of workforce 36% of revenue (estimate)
–  Screening accuracy – scientific versus art.
Age – bad predictor
Graphology – bad predictor
Education – some degree of validity
Experience – declines after 5 years
Reference Check – some degree of validity
Interview (unstructured) – some degree of validity
Job Tryout – some degree of validity
Cognitive Ability –Top 4 Predictor
Work Sample Tests – Top 4 Predictor
Interview (structured) – Top 4 Predictor
Peer Ratings – Top 4 Predictor (This is interesting as almost all of my linkedin endorsements are from peers)

Communication – Market Maker – communication needs significant improvement

OP + NT = EOP
Old Process + New Technology = Expensive Old Process

Supporters and detractors are built through effective communication.

Summary
1) Executives need to be involved.
2) Quality Focus and you will impact top line
3) Communication with stakeholders must improve

Checkster – new company – matching supply and demand – info@checkster.com

Prediction: In the next two years you will see major innovations in recruiting.

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Dr Marie-Paule Donsimoni-Bupp – CEO, IKM

No Head of HR in the Boardroom – This is a problem!

There is growing and strong competition from overseas for your talent. We can have access to almost anyone anywhere in the world. Example – Wipro – IT outsourcing company.

Blogs (Heather Hamilton for example), Internal referrals, HID

You may not have the people you want to have, but you need to do measure the gaps accurately so you can fill the position appropriately.

Shorten the recruitment cycle – You need to have a human intelligence database to scan your workforce when new roles emerge. Flexibility is paramount.

Strengths and competencies can far outweigh any gap, processes must adapt to this. 

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John Zappe – Recruitment Analyst, Classified Intelligence

Personal Referral Programs – 3.9
Online Job Sites – 3.5
Social Networking Sites – 2.8
Career Fairs – 2.7 (Branding & Networking)
Print Media – 2.4

Employee referral plans – 45% expect to raise payouts in 2006
Career Fairs – flat spending
Social Networking – spending going up, though in experimentation phase, many had no opinion yet.

Niche professional sites, general/national sites – outperform

Diversity, regional and executive job boards – underperform

Linkedin – uncertain results, lots of time to farm and recruit

Niche site are on a higher growth rate to fill harder to fill positions

Question – Report shortcoming, no job seeker perspective. This was acknowledged.

Any changes in employee referral programs? Not measured.

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Discussion Panel:
Chair – Carl Kutsmode, Principal, Capital H Group
Ron Weber, Global Staffing Manager, Schneider Electric

Mobility when they are young, training the mindset, you must be comfortable with ambiguity, defining your terms (Ron)

General Questions on this topic – nothing groundbreaking

Germany – don’t put salary info in the ad, UK put it in the ad (David Hurst)
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Jerome Ternynck, CEO, MrTed.com

150 customers, 50,000 corporate users in 100 countries

China –
War for Talent in fierce in China
70% companies report problems to recruit
Salaries are growing fast
Staff Turnoveer average 13%
Agency market is booming
Becoming a “sales process” more than a “recruiting process”

But there is a contradiction…
Mismatch – 4 Million Graduates are coming out of Chinese Universities in 2006 and they have a hard time finding a job.

Steps to Success:
Gain Control
Streamline Delivery
Source Smart – no set standards in company brands – yet…
Hire Right
Train to Retain

If you follow these practices you will be in the top 5% of employers and have an advantage.

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Steven Rothberg, President and Founder, CollegeRecruiter.com

Extremely basic introduction to social networking – though much of the room seemed unaware of what he was speaking about in general.

Talked extensively about Generation Y attitudes and how they are indifferent to what is being perceived. (What he didn’t talk about is that perhaps the viewer should not be so judgmental and more understanding of these issues as they affect corporate culture even in the perfect candidates.)

Posting information on the Internet is kind of like getting a tattoo.

Problems for employers (assumes the information is accurate):
– If true, great for background checking but perceived as an invasion of privacy
– If bogus, lack of judgment by candidate but best candidates eliminated
– If bogus and posted by third party can you tell?
– Legal – tortuous interference with employment opportunities?

Sincere potential for potential backlash. 

Legal issues:
Discrimination
Federal Communication Act – TOS outlaw commercial purposes

Benefits –
Remember this is all about networking
Alternative to resume searching
Candidates can advertise availability to you
 
Every employer should have a Myspace page. (While I agree with this sentiment, if you maintain the pathetic 94% non-response rate I saw quoted frequently throughout the conference it would be damaging to brands).

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Barry Mehrman, Director Employment Strategy, US Human Resources, McDonald’s

Workforce trends –
Aging
Workforce supply is beginning to tighten
Shortfall by 2010

Technology – POS, etc

Tope Sources:
Employee Referrals
Customer Employment merchandising
Community organizations
Media

Careerbuilder (29,700/420,000) higher application rate than Monster (19,550/479,200*) 2006 YTD *25% of visits come from mcdonalds.com

McState.com – local site

60% of hires come from Internet

Retention efforts are an area of increased focus

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John Benson, CEO, eFinancialCareers.com (has print media background)

Founded in 2000, publishes websites 14 countries and 6 languages

jobsinthemoney.com 

Increased demand for professional skills
Increased demand for more diverse skills and cultures
The adoption of global norms, standards & qualifications
Skills becoming increasingly mobile

Demographic shift – the population is both aging and declining

How far would you move for a new job? 55% said they would go to a new country or new geography.

Solutions;
Work longer, retire later
Export jobs
Import talent

Content on sites drive traffic: pay news, hiring trends, etc

Does considerable Search Engine Optimization and Marketing techniques to create traffic.

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Chair, Hank Stringer, Managing Director – Qtalent, Consultant – ItzBig Partners
Bryan Burdick, COO, zoominfo.com
Faryan Yahsin, President, International Group, Careerbuilder
Matthew Embrescia, CEO, Dotjobs
Teresa Fearis, Partner Manager, SHL
Don Ramer, CEo, Arbita

Disconnect between expectations and realities of online recruiting exists. (Don)

People view it as a transaction and it can be transformational to both the individual and the company. (Don)

Online recruitment is a resource to attract talent. It is a sourcing channel not a complete solution. (Faryan)

Getting the right person in the right role at the right time, you need to work collaboratively to find the right role. (Teresa)

It can be more than just finding candidates. It’s a sales role more than a recruiting role. (Bryan)

We have dehumanized the process. We have to remember it’s about the people. It’s about a match between vision and value. (Don)

You gain a lot of efficiencies with online recruiting, but recruiting is a personal activity. (Faryan)

Transparency is bi-directional and an agreement of values. (Don)

Marketing will be necessary for the next generation of online recruiting. (Bryan)

We ought to be looking at how to make I more simple. (Don)

Candidates want quality, time savings and feedback. (Hank)

Aggregation of vast quantities of information is not what people want. People want to match their values with the ability to be value add to an organization.

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John Bell, CEO, Boxwood Technology

Looking for candidate that loves sports, food, money, SEX (millionairematch.com)

Dead last in where recruiters currently look: Association web sites

Associations Industry is huge!!!!!

86,000 associations in the U.S.

Annual budgets exceed $62 Billion Dollars

113 Million Dues Paying Members

27% goes to Education & Public Iinformation

21 million people attend conferences

5 million attend committee and board meetings

Micro niche job boards – percentage of total market matters

Afponline.org, American Marketing Association, aaf.org, the-dma.org, marketingcareernetwork.com

How do I find and association “job title” and “association” 

(If you attended the ERE conference – come see what you missed at Onrec!)