Sirona Says

Talent warehouses, recruitment communities and chocolate talent pools

 

Over the last month I have been doing a-l-o-t of writing. I had been commissioned to write a business report book looking at social media in recruitment and the reality of it in the workplace.As part of the process, there was obviously much reading and research.
It surprised me at how much it takes over ALL your time, but at least it is now with my editor and publisher for them to take my words and produce the book itself! <phew!>

One area that caused me some deep consideration is the subject of candidate databases. While I do have a strong opinion on them and where they will end up, a blog post I read this week by one of the world's top sourcing specialists, Glen Cathey, got me thinking again............... and in the opposite direction to where I was going with my thinking!!

In short here is a quick precis of my thoughts:

1. Most candidate databases might as well be full of chocolate and marshmallows for all the good they do! The clients keep filling them up with loads of candidates applying for their jobs - never to be touched again. No emails, no searching and certainly a waste of time.
Many have recruitment software that is limiting their management of their database, most have people in charge of recruitment that (to be fair) just don't understand the worth of what they have. And if they even have a clue of the worth of their database, then they have no idea what to do about it! {Apologies to the few that do >> you really are the exceptions :) ]

2. Some people call these Talent Pools. As per No.1 - as useful as a pool of liquid chocolate!
Different name but same outcome.

Caveat: there is absolutely nothing wrong with these in the recruitment process at all, as long as they are recognised as what they are. They are a list of people that at some stage have shown interest in working for your company (or via your recruitment agency). They are not a community/network/talent hub or whatever some people call them!

So where is it all going?

3. Interaction and two-way communication is, in my opinion, where evolution needs to take place with regards to these 'collections' of candidates.
The encouragement of dialogue and reverse discussion (i.e. candidates asking questions and interacting) needs to happen. There needs to be a way of engaging the talent that have shown an interest in working for your company.
Talent communities, recruitment communities, online communities or whatever you want to call them, are going to be the way forward for creating engaged prospective talent for the future.They may be small or large, but will have to be interactive in nature (and will probably need to be on different platforms (other than some of the ATS's) to be truly effective.

And for those of you that say that talent communities are just a bunch of more fluffy marshmallows, take a look at the 1000's of LinkedIn groups (as an example).
What do you think they are then? A business focused network (LinkedIn) that has groups of like minded people discussing subjects that are relevent to them. They are engaged with, and have an affinity for their niche - whether it be 100 or 1000 strong. Maybe not all talent communities by name, but in practice they are focused groups of similar talent engaging with each other

Then came the blog post by Glen.

4. Talent Warehouses. Glen's take is with regards to data. The more there is the better - but (and this is the key) - they are within secure talent data warehouses. Own the data and you own the access to the talent.
Glen's angle is that, just like business intelligence professionals and data miners, there will be an evolution in recruitment towards these skills. It is an interesting concept and maybe one that the huge global employers will consider adopting, building more skilled and able recruitment teams.


But hasn't social media and the proliferation of social networks and online databases done some of this work already? The likes of LinkedIn and Xing and Hi5 have all got millions of potential candidates sitting there. I haven't even mentioned the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social sites, as potential people sources (note I didn't say candidate sources).

There is so much conjecture, conversation and debate around this whole subject currently, it does make for interesting discussions.

All I know is that, for me, job seekers are crying out for engagement. They are fed up with populating recruitment databases for no gain.

My stake is firmly in the ground for community-led recruitment and resourcing going foward.

Engage the talent and you shall reap the benefits in the future.
Carry on just building your database and all you are doing is creating the worlds biggest walnut whip!!

Image credit Flickr

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The recruitment reality check: Your employees are leaving sometime soon!

Are you one of those companies who like sticking your fingers in your ears, while singing 'la la la' out loud. hoping that it won't happen to you? Come on, you know you are!
After all, all your staff are happy, you have a great employer brand and everything is 'nice and dandy' with your employees, right?

WRONG!

You need to order in some of the reality check cookies and start munching away quickly. Whatever you think you are as an employer and however loyal you think your employees are........... think again - we have entered a very interesting recruitment phase at the moment, that doesn't appear too often.

Some economists would probably call it, 'post recessionary recruitmentism' or some other 'over-clever' mumbo jumbo .................. for me it much simpler. I just call it recruitment reality.

We are coming out of recession (well most places are, anyway) , M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) activity is buoyant again and there is (finally) talk of large hiring strategies again. Things are already changing fast with regards to candidate availability, as recruitment markets are quickly picking up again - most recruitment agencies have been seeing a surge in demand for candidates now for the last few months. For many it is the busiest they have been for the last 2-3 years.

So what is going to happen?Here are my five 

1. It's hemorrhage time (go on sing it to MC Hammers famous song - you know you want to!). Candidate attrition has been still running at just over 18% on average  during the recession. This would mean that you would lose one in five of your workforce this year. BUT, realistically this could double if not treble over the next 12 months, as candidates start sticking their heads above the parapet again.  - Yes! Many companies will have staff turnover rates of well over 50% in the next 12 months!!!  What are you going to do about it then?  Are you ready to replace half your workforce? Where are you going to find them from? When was the last time you looked at your career site? You need to have a recruitment strategy in place (NOW!) just to maintain your existing workforce levels.
2. Past employers will return like Great White sharks. Remember they couldn't get rid of their employees quick enough two years ago could they?  You snapped up some great catches then, didn't you? Well, now they are leaner and meaner and ready to come hunting for your staff. And don't think your employees won't consider going back, they will for the right package - the recession has taught them to forget about loyalty (unfortunately) and focus on themselves and their own needs (perceived or real). You won't know anything about it until they are gone!
3. Recruitment agencies are also sniffing for blood. A fact of employment life is that your good staff WILL be getting calls from recruiters, looking to prise them from your company. Ignore this fact at your peril - a good recruiter is like a pitbull - once they have the teeth into your employees, they just simply won't let go, until they get what they want - your staff!
4. Thanks to social media it has made it even easier to find your employees!! To be fair, it has never been easier to find candidates, what with LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and of course Google. Obviously 'finding' candidates isn't recruiting them, and that is a whole different ballgame! But, they are there waiting to be found, and there is nothing you as an employer you can do to stop that happening.
5. Finally, what about all the 'regular ordinary workers' - your company's lifeblood -  out there, that are unhappy in their work? There are many! During the recession, they just keep their heads down, grateful for continued employment. Now the grass is looking greener again. They have started to realise that there are more jobs out in the marketplace again. They are starting to actually look for jobs again! >>> Now this is a BIG problem. These are the workers who you BELIEVE to be your loyal subjects, and happy in their work. When was the last time you said (about them) "they won't leave, they are like part of the furniture here" to a colleague? Don't say I didn't warn you - they WILL be walking out the door sometime soon!!

Now you may feel I am being a little over dramatic here - I just wish I was. I am having these conversations with companies every day - they are seeing their staff leave EVERY day, and yes they can counter offer, but that is only temporary. I read a survey last month that said 84% of all employees expect (or want) to change jobs in the next 12 months - now that is scary stuff!
Employee engagement, employer brand and (dare I say it) salary package reviews are all areas of focus at the moment, but is it too late for your company?

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Is this the ultimate talent acquisition strategy?

We all know the world of sports is a rule to itself when it comes to employment law and contracts. Today I want to ask your opinion on what I see as a very worrying trend at one Football Club, that is either unethical, unfair or just good business sense in the world of talent acquisition.

The Scenario: The football team in question is Manchester City, of The Premier League in the UK.They are owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and literally have unlimited wealth (£Trillions) at their disposal.
Over the course of of the last 12 months they have been buying many of the top talent (footballers) from clubs around the world paying huge sums of money in transfer fees and player wages to acquire them.
They have assembled a first team squad of over 50 top quality players that would get into most of their competitors teams.

The Rules: The Premier League, this year brought in squad size caps, limiting a squad of players at any Premier League club to only 25 players for the season (with changes only allowed to be made in January).

The Problem for the Employer: Talent management - keeping the talented players happy that don't get selected for the final 25 player squad. After all, all they want to do is play football, right?

The Solution (as Manchester City see it): They loan out all these talented individuals (that haven't made the 25 player cut) to other companies (Football Clubs) to ensure they stay plying their trade (football) and keeping fit - all the time paying their exorbitant wages as well at the same time!!
BUT, they control where the players go - and they certainly WON'T let them go to any of their competition in the Premier League (which is understandable).

THE BIG QUESTION

Is is right, morally or ethically, to 'buy up' all the talent available in a marketplace just to restrict your competitors getting access to it, just because you have the wealth to do it? OR, is it a good business decision that should be applauded accordingly?

What do you think? Are Manchester City demonstrating the ultimate in a talent acquisition strategy, designed to reach their goal of reaching the top ?

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Social Recruiting has to be a symbiotic relationship to be successful

Before I explain my thinking, let me first give you a biology lesson. Hands up if you studied biology at school? Well if you did, then you will know what symbiosis is and how it works - if you didn't let me just explain:
A symbiotic relationship between two organisms means that they need on each other to survive. An example from nature being the clownfish (above - you might know it better as Nemo!!). They feed on small invertebrates which otherwise potentially could harm the sea anemone (the habitat they live in), and the fecal matter from the clownfish provides nutrients to the sea anemone.

Ok, biology lesson over now.

Working with many companies on the subject of social recruiting / social media in recruitment, it is becoming very obvious that that they want to make it work. However, many are still failing to understand that for it to be successful, they NEED to make their social recruiting a symbiotic relationship.
Their social media interactions will die if they don't have the engagement of their followers, fans, readers, community or group members. Yes they can keep 'feeding' the online world with their content, but unless their followers, fans, readers, community or group members provide them with the 'nutrients' of comments, engagement and communication then their social recruiting strategy will simply die!

Equally, from the other perspective, if companies are not 'feeding' their communities with interesting, relevant and regular information then they facilitating their own demise themselves - 'starved' communities will simply go elsewhere for their 'nourishment'!

Remember, a symbiotic relationship is one where both parties need each other to survive. Social recruiting, for me, is a perfect example of this.

Now I have got you thinking biologically, I am going to change the word, and see if it makes further sense to you.

Take symbiosis and replace it with the word engage. Now you will see where I am coming from.

You go down the route of setting up a social recruiting strategy and engage with your followers, fans, readers, community or group members. This provides the two way communication you need to make it all a success:

Failure to engage will kill your social recruiting strategy dead:

As more and more companies take the (necessary) step into social media and social recruiting, the need to understand the route to success is critical. Yes, you can use the medium to broadcast out jobs, information and the latest news - but that isn't social recruiting. All you are doing is creating further broadcast channels to add to your marketing mix.

To understand social recruiting is to understand what your followers, fans, readers, community or group members want, and learning how to engage them in the most efficient way.

Without a symbiotic approach, then you are just kidding yourself that you are using social recruiting for real!!

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Social media in employer branding: Is this the key to successful social recruiting?

There is one question that employers want to know when discussing social recruiting, and it crops up time and time again:

What do job seekers expect with regards to social media, and how do they interact with social media with regards to recruitment?

There are usually three reasons behind this question:

1) Companies are considering social media as part of their recruitment strategy
2) Companies are using social recruiting, and want to improve their success rate by ensuring they are doing it 'properly'

3) Companies deciding not to be using social recruiting methods, use the answers to justify why they stay away (a good example is the 2009 Facebook fear campaigns in the press)

This is currently a very important area for employers, as their 'employer brand' is fast becoming very key indeed, in the transparent and viral nature of social media. HR Directors AND Marketing Directors should now be equally concerned with the power of their brand, because as with product and services, prospective employees are the lifeblood of any organisation.

There is a very interesting trend report carried out recently by Potentialpark Communications- a global research company on employer branding and online recruitment - that asked 16,000 job seekers across Germany, France, China, the US and the UK, that looked at social media in the decision making process of job seekers.

Vanessa Meyer who works for Potentialpark and helped produce the findings of the report, gives her opinion, "when the companies that chose not to have a social recruiting strategy in 2010, see a rise in the percentage of job seekers that look for career related information and opportunities through social media next year, the decision to go forward with a social recruiting strategy will be irrefutable. The upside of waiting till 2011 is that these companies will have a much faster learning curve than those who went in first and accumulated the "know-how" of social recruiting the hard way - through trial and error."

One of the findings of their report is really interesting to me, and I guess not that surprising - career sites are still HUGELY important in the recruitment process for employers. The graphic below from the Potentialpark trend report proves this:

 

Companies need to integrate social media into their career sites, making them user friendly (not something many career sites have taken into consideration, in my opinion!) and use social networks as traffic drivers to them. Here is the potential problem for me, with this: social media is 'sexy', fun, real-time and the future of communications on the web, but many career sites are just plain awful and don't portray the employer brand very well at all.
So you attract candidates via Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, you get them excited about you as a brand and an employer........................then they land on your career site....................DOH! Too complex, over engineered, boring and no well thought out user experience quickly send them away again! The result is that your employer brand takes a beating!! And the double whammy is that with social media being so viral and transparent, bad experiences get shared around!!

Another really important fact from the trend survey - and remember this is from 16,000 job seekers, is the reliance on the internet (and search of course) as an online information tool.

 

With search engines like Google and Bing now fully indexing the social networks like Twitter, Facebook (company pages) and LinkedIn so effectively, it is absolutely imperative that companies have a full social footprint to ensure the job seekers find your company. No longer is it sufficient just to rely on SEO on your career site to drive traffic, you need to be looking at a wide range of social channels. 

Many people are starting to turn against the phrase, 'social recruiting'. Many people still don't understand it, and the implications for recruitment strategies.
But, whether you want to call it 'social recruiting', 'social media in recruitment' or even 'social media recruiting' - one thing is certain, organisations who think that social media isn't for them will definitely be left behind over the next couple of years. It won't replace your current recruitment strategy, but social media will definitely become intrinsically linked to both you employer brand and your recruitment strategy.

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Is the new Facebook Recruitment App - Work For Us - the beginning of the end for Job Boards?

 
Facebook have finally crossed the divide into recruitment with a new app called Work For Us. This new app allows companies to post jobs and receive applications via Facebook. This really is where recruitment meets with a social network to become social recruiting!

When companies have installed the app, a ‘Work For Us’ menu tab appears on their Facebook profile/page displaying a searchable list of the companies job openings. Job seekers can then apply for these positions inside Facebook. Companies can then further promote their job openings using Facebook’s ‘like’ and ’share’ functionality.

Obviously, some companies are going to get a bit twitchy with this concept, and will of course want to drive traffic back to their career sites.  But for some companies they may want to reconsider their recruitment strategy full stop, and send people to a fully social recruitment page. Many company fan pages already have jobs fed through to then via RSS feeds, which is free and trackable, so they will probably not be interested in this approach. But, for the many 1000,s of SME's out there, I am sure this would be of interest, and will only grow, surpassing the 2000+ companies that are already using it to good effect.

The costs are very low for the job ads - much, much lower than the job boards.

1 job listing - Free
5 job listing - $9
25 job listings $49
75 job listings $199
Unlimited job listings $499

With fan pages being indexed by the search engines like Google, is this a potential future body blow for job boards? Will it even scare them? Should they even be bothered?

I don't know the answer to this, but judging by the speed the Facebook juggernaut is moving, I wouldn't want to bet against them stealing a big share of the market.

What do you think? Would your company use an app like this on Facebook? (why wouldn't you, more to the point?) Does this make you reconsider Facebook as a potential bigger part of your recruitment strategy?

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My Social Media Channels of Choice for Companies (infographic)

When talking to companies about social media, I always get asked which social media tools should be used for different corporate departments. So I thought to make it easy, I would demonstrate it with an infographic.

So here is my Social Media Channels of Choice for Companies infographic (download link below image).

 

If you wish to download a copy just click here to get a copy of this infographic.

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Should recruiters or hiring managers take 'job mashups' or 'portfolio careers' more seriously?

The recession is really impacting on many people's lives in a big way. And in the job market this is absolutely true. There are millions out of work, with some areas of the countries fairing better than others. While some people are lucky and find a new job - albeit it takes a little longer to get one - many are not so fortunate!

What has started to happen, both by choice and necessity is that people are stringing together a number of smaller jobs together, just to survive financially, because jobs paying the required salaries just aren't there at the moment.
These types of job mashups are known as portfolio careers - you no longer have one job, but multiple jobs and employers within one or more professions. Instead of working a traditional full-time job, you work multiple part-time jobs (including part-time employment, temporary jobs, freelancing, and self-employment) with different employers that when combined are the equivalent of a full-time position.

These people that hold down these portfolio careers and succeed need to be applauded for their attitude towards wanting to work. They are actually showing many traits that employers should be looking for going forward. However, my fear is that both recruiters and hiring managers will steer away from them when they come to apply for a individual higher salaried jobs.

With the available pool of talent being more representative of a flood currently, recruiter and hiring managers, will be looking to find the most obvious matches, and the easiest routes to a placement/hire. This is bad news for candidates with a CV showing their portfolio career!! Job seekers with multiple shorter duration jobs on their CV's will be swept to one side by the deluge of people with "stable" job histories with fewer, longer duration jobs on their CV.

So by working hard, wanting to make sure they are working, and paying their bills the best they can, me fear is that these portfolio career workers could actually be setting themselves up for a longer term job problem!

Are the (unfortunately) harsh realities of clients and recruiters alike - specific requirements and available talent - going to seriously hamper these portfolio career job seekers?

I for one, applaud the attitude of these workers, I just wish more people had the same attitude towards work!!

What do you think?

Ten ways for a job seeker to REALLY upset an interviewer!

It is pretty safe to say that you will have attended at least a few interviews in your life so far. They are not always the best experience, but they are there to serve a purpose - to try and help get you a job.

In this current climate there are fewer interviews going around, so it stands to reason that you would want to try and do your best at an interview, wouldn't you? Well, judging by some of the candidates that I have personally interviewed over the years, as well as the many clients interview de-briefs I have listened to, 'doing your best' is a VERY loose term!

If you have sat on the other side of the interview fence, then what I am going to say will make perfect sense to you. You may even be able to condone my 'thinking' on this.....then again maybe not!
As a recruiter I, (like many interviewers) have developed a way of dealing with candidates that seem to go out of their way to really ****me off during an interview. I put my right hand under my desk, bring out a large axe, and then embed it in the centre of the forehead of the said candidate!
While I obviously don't really do it (honestly I don't), the thought of the process is strangely therapeutic! So what will a job seeker have to have done to 'warrant the axe'?
Here are my ten ways that a job seeker can really upset an interviewer and warrant having their head cleaved with a metaphorical Woodman's axe:

1. Don't turn up late to an interview and offer no apology whatsoever. This is just blatant rudeness and will not be tolerated at all. If they can't even acknowledge being late what hope have they for working for you?
2. Don't turn up smelling like they have just smoked 20 cigarettes in the last five minutes. Sometimes it is even worse - you meet them from reception and they still seems to have a smoke cloud around them! Makes me question nerves and addictions immediately and gets me reaching for an early axing!
3. Don't be overly arrogant or blatantly rude, especially to receptionists, secretaries or PA's. Interviewers don't hire cocksure bullies whose ego is bigger than Mount Everest! (Exception to the rule are Investment Banking City Traders; their default requirement is an ego the size of Africa!)
4. Don't display a complete lack of motivation or laziness. If you can just about to be bothered to get you ass out of bed to get to the interview, then quite frankly don't bother! Even worse, if during the interview you utter those immortal words....'I dunno', 'yeah, whatever'or 'the Job Centre told me I had to apply', then expect the interviewer to buzz through to their secretary to send them down to the local DIY shop for a real axe!
5. Don't continually complain or moan about previous employers or employees. While there may be a fragment of truth in your previous issues or grievances, don't air them at your interview. It makes you come across as an angry, embittered person, who is not able to look forward and take the positives out of a previous situation. If the interviewer just happens to know the people you have been slagging off then you will have finished the interview before you have got started!
6. Don't lie. Get caught lying and the axe will be out quicker than you can say 'Gordon Brown's a Loooser'. If you have been stretching the truth on your CV then make sure you know it inside out and are prepared to be challenged on it. Quiver, shake or say 'umm' too many times and you will have given yourself away and got caught committing a cardinal sin.
7. Don't show a lack of respect for either the interviewer or the company you are sitting in front of. Do no go to an interview without doing the basic research. You WILL DEFINITELY be asked the question, 'So what do you know about our company?' Failure to be able to answer that question  - after all even if you just read their website you could answer it - is tantamount to high treason, of which there is no excuse.
8. Don't forget to put deodorant on. Turning up to an interview with a strange smelling aroma about your person, is an embarrassing situation for both you and the interviewer. Under stress and duress, the human body will sweat - that's only natural. Make sure you are prepared, make sure deodorant is used and avoid the potential nightmare.
9. Don't drink and interview - they just don't mix! Dutch courage should be left in Holland, and shouldn't be taken prior to any important meeting, especially an interview. I am not sure if there is anything more annoying to an interviewer, to know that the person has had to go to a pub or bar to get the 'strength' to attend the interview. No excuse at all.
10. Don't take the interviewer for granted. When you get up to leave, shake the person's hand and thank them for the time. Even ask them if they have been successful at the interview. But don't leave the room without doing both of these things, remember, that is the last thing the interviewer will be thinking about you.

I am already thing of having to do a second list -  a sort of Part 2, but I will save that for another day :-)

Just for reference though:

No, I am not undergoing anger management classes
No, I don't really have an axe under my desk - just a metaphorical one!
No, I am not a vindictive, mad axe murderer
No job seekers were harmed in the research for this article

.....and Yes, I do have a vivid imagination!

Obviously there is a little fun involved here, but the mistakes are only too real. if you are a job seeker, please see through the humour and take not, after all, jobs are hard enough to get at the moment, without alienating the interviewer immediately!

Do you know what happens to your CV when it arrives on an Employer's or a Recruitment Agency's desk?

As a job seeker looking for a new job, do you know what the primary purpose of your CV/Resume is?

Is it:
a)  Ammunition for the office 'bin basketball' competition?
b)  Paper airplane material?
c)  A guarantee of getting a job?
d)  Something to make the reader of your CV laugh out loud?
e)  A route to a work permit?

Well, if you hadn't already guessed, it is none of the above!

The primary purpose of a CV is to get you an interview with an employer. That's it!
The CV won't get you the job - YOU do that. It just gives you the opportunity to get a job.

As a job seeker, do not send another CV until that has sunk in, because it has massive implications on your job search. Your task in the CV is to just achieve this, so if some of the information on your 8 page CV could be classified as ' would this get them excited enough to invite me for an interview', then get rid of it now!

Here are some other important things to consider before you send your nice new shiny CV off to an employer or recruitment agency:

1. When an employer or recruitment agency is going through CV applications for a role, the average time spent on looking at a CV is no more than 10 seconds (and for many recruitment agencies it is, unbelievably, less). Tip one:First impressions count.
2. At the initial selection stage, your CV will only ever end up in two piles - 'reject' or 'read more'. You will only ever be filtered out at this stage, nothing else.  Tip two: Don't waste your time applying for jobs that just aren't suitable for what your CV says you do - otherwise your rejected applications will grow and grow!
3. Many companies(surprisingly) don't have skilled (and in some cases dedicated) staff carrying out the recruitment process. Tip three: Do all you can to help by making it very clear at the beginning of your CV what you do and what you want to do, in a well written profile.
4. The majority of recruitment staff (and this goes for both companies and recruitment agencies alike ) are not technically minded. So don't try and bamboozle them with technical data and gobbledy-crap - it won't work. Tip four: Explain in legible easy to read and accepted business speak, not techo-geek anachronisms.
5. Many recruitment consultants within recruitment agencies have become CV blind. They see literally 100's and 100's of CV's a day (both incoming and via their CV databases). For this reason they (understandably sometimes) miss good CV's due to the volume they receive. Tip five: If you have sent a CV for a job (making sure you can actually do the job in the first place), don't make the cardinal sin job seekers make by not following up the CV with a phone call.

In this current recessionary climate, there is no doubt that trying to find a job has become a numbers game - don't be under any illusions about that. You will suffer rejection again and again - the thing to remember is not to take it personally. The interviewer doesn't know you, hasn't yet spoken to you, doesn't even know anything about you. All they see is one or two paragraphs of your CV (more if you are lucky), and then they make a decision......the 'reject' or 'read more' pile. As I said it isn't personal!

If you would like any more of my 'words of wisdom', then you can get a free 12 pages pdf of valuable job seekers tips here.

So here are some of my tips for job seekers regarding sending CV applications, but what would you add? What other nuggets of advice would you suggest based on your experiences?