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Sunday June 27th, 2010
Why isn't there more hard data about social media for recruiting?
From 'anecdotal' to 'fact-based'
The biggest challenge social media for recruiting (and leveraging employees' social media channels for recruiting) is simply lack of hard data.
Sure, everyone's got an anecdote or two ("I found Bob on LinkedIn last year, and he's turned out to be our best new hire in ages!"), and we've got lots of information on the demographics of social media.
But when it comes to drawing a straight line from 'time spent on social media for recruiting' to 'quantitative results' (time-to-hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, web traffic, application volume, etc.)...well, the data just isn't out there.
This is for two reasons:
- The mainstreaming of social media is relatively recent
Most organizations have only been using social media for recruiting in any systematic way for the past couple of years. The job market has changed so much during that time that it's been difficult to establish benchmarks.
- The results haven't been as spectacular as the evangelists said they'd be
For the past 3 years, social media for recruiting early adopters have been saying that social media would 'transform' the recruiting function. And it is, and it will - just not, perhaps, quite as quickly and dramatically as we thought.
(It's sort of like mobile software applications: In 2001, early-adopter types were saying that mobile applications would transform communications in the next 2 years; the transformation did indeed happen - it just took 7 years instead of 2.)
Until the results look better, no one wants to say too much, lest their organization gets the wrong idea and pulls the plug on social media for recruiting initiatives before they've had a chance to succeed.
Send me your social media for recruiting results.
We'll give you a great case study.
I'm pretty sure some of you have some metrics around social media for recruiting in your organization (or for you personally as a recruiter).
By themselves, they may not be too dramatic. If I combine them with others' metrics in a blog post, however, they'll at least start to create a picture of the real results of social media for recruiting.
Which may prove handy, the next time you walk into a boardroom and have to sell a comprehensive social-media-for-recruiting strategy to the larger organization.
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Friday June 18th, 2010
Egregiously Bad Candidates V!: Bad Cover Letters
Another in our series of blog posts designed to help you (recruiters and hiring managers) help candidates. You don't have time to give every candidate an 'Applying For Jobs 101' tutorial - just send them this link!
It's been a while since the last installment of Egregiously Bad Candidates, but the past week or two has seen a sharp increase in the number of unsolicited emails from job-seekers who don't know the cardinal rule of applying for jobs: Imagine you're reading this letter/resume for the very first time. Does it really communicate what you want it to?
Sometimes when you close a door, you should close the window, too
We've all been there: You're unemployed/about to be unemployed, the job market is depressed, and you're starting to panic. You're at the point where you're ready to take 'anything' as long as the salary meets your basic living expenses, and you're worried that if your resume and cover letter are too specific, you'll lose out on other opportunities.
But it doesn't really work that way.
PROTIP: If no one in the office can figure out what it is you do, it's unlikely we can help you find somewhere to do it
Today's gem:
TO: info@head2head
FROM: [name redacted]
Hello,
For the past 17 years, I have enjoyed working in the financial and education industries servicing various other industries while gaining valuable experience and knowledge in such areas as P&L management, product development, sales and marketing, strategic planning/execution, product pricing, team building and negotiation amongst external clients and internal departments....As an impact player who has had a history of success at every level, I look forward to working with you and your staff in finding my next success story....
OBJECTIVE: Senior management position - Plan, organize, and direct through a management team business development/operation activities and initiatives utilizing my executive management experiences with developed abilities in team leadership, strategic visioning and P&L management. This will contribute to enhancing profitable sales volume through process and performance improvements while maintaining customer satisfaction.
Salary Expectation: $110k - $170k plus incentives depending upon the overall package and level of challenge.
Um...but what is it you do, exactly?
The more vague you are about your skills, experience and desired job, the more difficult it is for a recruiter or potential employer to understand just how you'd fit into the organization and how you'd contribute to overall business goals.
A $60,000 salary range just makes you look desperate
You (the job-seeker) may think that using a range like this will make you look senior ("By saying $170k at the top end they'll know I'm a senior executive!"), flexible ("There are more jobs at the $110k level so I don't want to lose out on those opportunities!") and not entirely motivated by money ("A big range shows that I will consider the right opportunities, not just big paycheques!").
Not so much.
What the recruiter sees in a range like that is someone who (a) doesn't really know the marketplace for their skills/experience; (b) probably doesn't have a realistic grasp of their value in the market; and (c) is so desperate for work that they'll basically take anything.
1 interview for the perfect job is more effective than 25 discarded applications
Job-hunting really isn't a numbers game, especially at the senior levels.
Spending 4 hours refining your resume and cover letter for one specific job (for which you know you'd be a perfect fit) will always generate better results than spending 16 hours sending generic resumes and cover letters to hundreds of jobs for which you aren't really a good fit.
And here's another thing to consider: Applying to hundreds of jobs per day without getting a single response is more demoralizing than only applying to one or two jobs per day!
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Tuesday June 15th, 2010
Just how bad is your recruitment brand? Ask IT contractors.
Contract IT professionals are mobile, connected, and cynical - and they don't mince words. Asking them about how your recruitment brand is perceived could be the first step towards attracting better candidates across the organization.
(I don't think I get this, either. But I'm pretty sure there's an A-list programmer out there who thinks this is hilarious.)
Today I was talking to a senior Java/PHP developer who's in town for the weekend but who lives and works in St Louis, Missouri.
'Missouri' isn't the first place that comes to mind when I think of 'great career opportunities', so we got to talking about the major employers in the area, career paths, etc.
Turns out that St Louis has more businesses than you might think, and is home to some great brand names, including Anheuser-Busch (now owned by InBev, the same group that owns Labatt). Quite a few companies - like Wells Fargo, AT&T, DaimlerChrysler, Monsanto - have midwestern or divisional headquarters in the area, and it's the world headquarters of the Energizer battery brand.
"Wow," I said to the IT contractor. "So you have lots of options if you want a new job, then."
"Well....," he responded, "I don't think I'd work for [insert name of one of the companies above] or [ditto], and apparently [ditto] is a terrible place to work, especially for IT."
"Oh, I didn't know you'd worked at all those places," I said.
"I haven't. Actually, I haven't even interviewed at any of them. I've just heard they're terrible."
"In what ways?"
[ruefully] "You know, now that you ask me, I don't really know. I've heard that a couple of them pay pretty badly, but the truth is that I've never really investigated it. It's just sort of the word on the street."
How many passive candidates are you losing -
without even knowing it?
Now, my IT contractor friend isn't actively looking for a new job. But contractors - especially IT contractors, who often work on projects which have a specific beginning and end - in general tend to be more or less permanently in the job market.
In other words, they're the 'passive candidates' that recruiters like best: The ones who are hard-working, always employed, and willing to consider a new opportunity if the right one comes along.
However, like most A-list IT contractors, my friend gets called by recruiters all the time - scarcely a week goes by in which he doesn't get a voicemail or email from a recruiter, telling him about 'a fabulous opportunity at [some place or other]'.
The problem? As soon as he hears (or even just assumes, given the 'teaser info' in the recruiter's message) that the opportunity is in one of the organizations about which he's heard negative things, he doesn't even bother responding to the message, let alone get to the interview stage.
IT contractors talk to other IT contractors - a LOT
In many organizations, the computer geniuses - the guys actually building the back-end technologies that let the rest of us get on with our jobs - tend to be departments of one or two, or sort of separate from the rest of the organization.
Like scientists, they tend to share information with other people doing similar work in other organizations, because their loyalty is often to the work itself (i.e. solving a difficult problem) rather than to the organization they're doing it for.
So IT contractors - especially the good ones - tend to be involved in online communities and forums where they can interact with other people who actually know the difference between ASP and PHP.
It's in the process of these interactions that they end up sharing a lot of info - sometimes unwittingly - about the organizations they're working for.
All it takes is one guy in one forum ranting for one month about how he's going insane because the project manager at his company doesn't know the difference between a socket and a plug-in, or about the jerky recruiter who lied about the pay rate - and suddenly the 'word on the street' is that Acme Inc. is a terrible place to work.
These contractors have more power than you think
You may be tempted to think that it doesn't really matter what IT contractors think about your recruiting brand - heck, those guys only hang out with each other anyway, right?
But...these guys are also all over the internet and social media - it's what they do for a living. So it's entirely possible that candidates for other roles who are Googling your company prior to applying or accepting an interview, will come across these forum posts (and blogs, and statuses, and websites).
Conversely, IT guys who like where they work and are passionate about it are more likely to talk about that online, too.
A better recruiting brand may start with a conversation with your IT contractors
If your organization has a well-known, relatively strong consumer brand, but you're having trouble attracting great people, it's probably time to talk to the IT department, particularly your IT contractors. They may just have a better, objective grasp on how you're perceived in the marketplace than you think - and they probably won't mince words when they tell you about it.
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Thursday June 10th, 2010
Put your napkin on your lap - and other ways to ace the interview
Being a good dinner-party guest teaches you everything you need to know about being an A-list candidate.
(There are times when the 18th century got it right.)
It's inevitable. If you're in the job market, sooner or later someone's going to ask you: "So, where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10?"
Since the truth ("Well, if there's any justice, 10 years from now I'll be lying on a beach drinking mai-tais after having either won the lottery or sold my internet business for billions. Until then, this job will be fine.") is unlikely to appeal to interviewers, it's important to have a creative answer pre-prepared.
Mine?
"My goal over the next 5-10 years is to continue to be a good dinner-party guest."
Dinner party guest vs job-seeker:
The required skills are virtually the same
Let's face it: Having a required degree or experience only accounts for about 10% of successful job-hunting. The remaining 90% is all about presentation, communication and good manners - the same skills required to be a good dinner party guest.
Here's how:
- Knowing the sort of people who host dinner parties.
In order to get invited to dinner parties, you have to know people who have dinner parties. Especially people who have dining rooms, decent china, and a wide circle of friends. In the job-hunting world, knowing people who are smart and successful enough to know the difference between a butter knife and a fish fork translates into a valuable network. And we all know how important networking is to finding a job.
- Building relationships.
It's not enough to know people who host dinner parties; they have to like you enough to invite you to their house for dinner. In other words, building relationships with people is crucial to job-hunting success.
- Knowing when to show up.
A good dinner party guest never shows up awkwardly early or inconveniently late. Similarly, the desirable candidate never arrives so early as to look desperate, nor so late as to create a bad impression. (And good dinner party guests, like good candidates, always phone to alert the host of any unforeseen delays.)
- Knowing when to leave.
A good dinner party guest never outstays his/her welcome. The attractive potential employee realizes when s/he has answered all the questions, says what s/he's come to say, and runs the risk of scuppering his chances by taking up any more of the interviewer's valuable time or blurting out something stupid.
A good rule of thumb for both dinner party guests and job-seekers: It's always best to leave when everyone's still glad you came!
- Knowing what to wear.
A Mexican feast at Bob and Jane's? Dark-wash jeans and a clean shirt are perfect. A catered 7-course dinner at Estelle and Louis'? Black tie, of course. The welcome dinner party guest just wants to fit in, look good, and avoid causing any embarrassment to the host or other guests. (It goes without saying that all his clothes are good quality, clean, and in good taste.)
All of this holds true for the job-seeker as well: Dress appropriately for the interview, and if in doubt, ask in advance.
- Knowing when to say no.
Even the best dinner party guest occasionally declines an invitation for one reason or another; so it is for job-seekers. Sometimes, you'll be invited to a dinner - or job -that just isn't the right fit. It's okay to acknowledge this and move on.
- Knowing what to bring.
Whether it's a six-pack of Mexican beer for Bob and Jane or a bottle of 15-year-old tawny port for Estelle and Louis, the good dinner party guest doesn't show up empty-handed. Likewise, the A-list job-seeker also comes prepared with thoughtful answers, contact info for references, and having done some research on the organization for which s/he is interviewing.
- Having good manners.
Remember, 'good manners' aren't about following an arbitrary set of ridiculous rules. Good manners are designed to help everyone feel comfortable and reduce distractions in social situations.
At dinner parties, this may mean avoiding chewing with your mouth open; in interviews, this may mean turning off your phone. Either way, it's less about knowing the difference between a butter knife and a fish fork, and more about making sure that the interaction is a positive one.
- Knowing when to speak (and speaking intelligently on a wide range of topics).
A good rule of thumb for both dinner parties and interviews: If you can't think of anything intelligent to say, don't say anything at all.
Not everything you say, at a dinner party or to a potential employer, has to be unremittingly positive. In fact, some of the most desirable dinner party guests are the ones who can tantalize and scandalize with a well-placed morsel of malicious gossip.
(As a job-seeker, however, 'malicious gossip' should be replaced with 'evidence of critical thinking'.)
In both cases, a touch of polymathism never goes amiss: Demonstrating your knowledge of, and interest in, current events, pop culture, history, politics, literature and even sports is the best way to make someone think, "S/he's so interesting/smart/funny/up-to-date/connected - we've got to have him/her back!"
- Knowing when to listen.
As Dale Carnegie can tell you, the best way to make other people like you is to listen to them talk about themselves.
Dinner party guests who listen attentively to their host and fellow guests are guaranteed to get good post-party reviews; job-seekers who listen attentively to the interviewer - whether the interviewer is talking about the company or just about the bad day they've been having - are guaranteed to leave the interviewer with the kind of good impression that makes the difference between getting a callback or never hearing from them again.
- Knowing when to use flattery and sincerity.
Nobody likes a kiss-up; on the other hand, very few people want to hear the truth about themselves all the time.
The good dinner party guest is free with compliments when it comes to the hostess and food, but stops short of ingratiation and doesn't attempt to make every other guest his/her new best friend.
Similarly, interviewers appreciate (and expect) enthusiastic statements about the job and the company, but don't respond well to blatant insincerity: The guy who says that he's wanted to work for Acme Inc. since he was 5 years old, even though Acme has only been in business for 10 years, just looks like (a) a guy who'll say anything to get a job, regardless of truthiness and (b) a guy who hasn't done his pre-interview research.
It's all about being a person that other people want to spend time with
Consider: Everyone needs to eat dinner, and almost everyone needs to work.
So why is it that some people stay home, eating alone every night, while others have invitations to dinner coming out their ears? And why do some people leap from fantastic job to fantastic job, while others are un- or under-employed?
The answer is simple: Good dinner party guests, like good candidates, are the sort of people that other people want to spend time with. In other words, it's all about ensuring that the answer to questions like "Would I want to spend 5 hours at a party with this person?" and "Would I want to spend 8 hours a day working with this person?" is a resounding "Yes!"
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Wednesday June 2nd, 2010
More top 10s: Top 10 HR-related recruiting trends of the past 10 years
As part of Head2Head's ongoing celebration of our 10th anniversary, another top 10 list: Top HR-related recruiting trends of the past 10 years.
Top 10 Recruiting-related HR Trends of the Past 10 Years
As part of our month-long celebrations, our newsletters this month have a 'Top 10' theme. This week, the top 10 recruiting-related HR trends we've seen in the past 10 years.
- Embracing change. With the economy, technology, and the internet moving faster than ever, HR is more responsive and nimble than 10 years ago. It's an exciting time to be in HR!
- Increased use of contract resources. Part of being 'nimble' means having a flexible workforce, and the past 10 years have seen organizations respond by making greater use of contract staff.
- Hiring manager SLAs. Recruiting's become more complex in the past 10 years; Service Level Agreements between recruiting and hiring managers have become more important to ensuring success.
- Social media. Social media continues to become a crucial factor in the way organizations communicate with employees - and the way employees communicate with them.
- Privacy. Thanks to #3, one of the biggest developments in HR in the past 10 years is privacy of information, whether of candidates or employees. And we'll see it continue to be a big issue in the next 5+ years.
- Personal branding. The personal brands of organizational leaders have become more important to HR and recruiting; the personal brands of employees and candidates have become more important to the organization.
- HR is more strategic. In an increasingly competitive talent market, HR is becoming more strategic across recruiting, retention and employee engagement.
- More metrics. In the past 10 years, HR has done a better job of analyzing recruiting metrics. Determining the sources of the best candidates and long-term performers is just one way metrics contribute to business success.
- Employee engagement. As Gen Ys - and their commitment to a more positive work/life balance - take a larger role in the workforce, employee engagement has become more important. Expect to see this increase in the next 5+ years
- Diversity. As the workforce - and most organizations' client bases - become increasingly diverse (especially in major population centers), diversity has become even more important for HR and recruiting.
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Tuesday June 1st, 2010
Employees using social media at work? Great! Your recruiting team just got a lot bigger.
Your employees are all over social media. Why not use them to source candidates?
(I didn't create this starfish, and I don't know who did. But it's kind of neat, and reminds me that there are way more social media sites than most of us realize.)
In the past 12-24 months, most organizations have overcome their initial fears about social media: 99% of marketing departments are using social media to communicate with stakeholders, and 90% of recruiters say that social media is an important part of their recruiting toolkit.
However, the use of social media at work - i.e. employees visiting their personal Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter/etc. pages while they're at work - remains a challenge.
Blocking social media sites is irrelevant since almost everyone has a web-enabled phone; setting down overly-specific social media policies can backfire because they set up the possibility of 'loopholes'. (HR and legal professionals will tell you that sometimes, having a vague 'use good judgment' policy is ultimately more defensible - because it allows for more scope - than a 25-page, detailed social media policy.)
In other words: Eliminating social media at work is impossible. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
At least half your employees are using social media on a daily basis.
As of March 2010, there are more than 10 million - almost one-third of the population - Facebook users in Canada, and LinkedIn adds 75,000+ new Canadian members every month. Combine that with Twitter, YouTube and other more specialized social media sites, and it's hard to find a Canadian under 70 who doesn't have a social media account of one kind or another.
In other words: If your organization has, say, 500 employees, you can safely assume that at least 250 of them are using Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter at least once a day.
If you can't beat 'em, leverage 'em!
Recruiters say that the #1 source of A-list candidates are referrals from current and former employees, and the best way to build a strong employment/recruitment brand is by word-of-mouth.
Why not harness your employees' social media channels for recruiting?
Status updates alone will make a big difference
Harnessing your employees' social media presence doesn't mean they have to set up company-specific social media accounts (Sodexo, for example, got a lot of buzz in 2009 because they had so many employees twittering under the Sodexo name).
All you really need are status updates:
100 employees
x
100 Facebook friends each (average)
x
1 company-related status update per week
=
10,000 more sets of eyeballs per week than you're getting now.
Make it easy for them
Let's face it: Asking employees outside the recruiting department to think up, and remember to post, a company/recruiting-related status update on a regular basis is going to be one of those tasks that fall into the "Oh, sorry, I kept meaning to do that but I never got around to it" category.
So make it easy for them: Once a week, send out one or two pre-written status updates that they can just copy and paste.
Examples
"We're looking for Senior Developers for the Toronto office. Email bob@acmeinc.ca for more info."
"Just hired 12 new technicians in Vancouver! Looking for 4 more - www.acmeinc.ca/jobs"
"We just won gold at the Best Company Ever contest! www.bestcompanywinners.ca"
"We're sending a team to the Walk for Cancer in Edmonton this weekend - want to join us? www.acmeinc.ca/cancerwalk"
"We were in the news again because our office has just gone totally green: www.newspaperarticle.ca"
Results will happen faster than you think
Status updates sound like such a small thing, but the results can be dramatic, and they happen fast. They're particularly effective when you're doing high-volume, tight-timeline recruiting (i.e. you need 42 technicians by next week).
But don't take my word for it: Do a test.
Next Monday, send employees a pre-written status update advertising a particular opportunity with a specific link to the job on your web page. Then monitor the traffic to that page over the following 48 hours.
That 25-50% spike in traffic you're seeing? That's your recruitment brand equity going up!
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Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.