Recruitment 2.0

11 July Friday recruitment roundup

We’ve condensed the week’s news to just a few links.  Read on for interesting stories and videos regarding recruiting, technology and other random topics…

• Firms 'facing skills shortage’
• Mixed outlook for IT recruitment: New report paints positive picture for IT graduates, but less rosy for those wanting to join tech firms
• Should contractors fear dip in online recruitment?
• CIPD Web 2.0 and HR report
• Graduate recruitment market weathers the credit crunch storm despite gloomy predictions
• Credit crunch sees graduate salaries stall
• Generation Y’s unique challenge: Today’s mollycoddled graduates expect a lot and employers must learn to cater to their needs
• Aberdeen Talent Acquisition Survey – complete the survey and they will send you it free when it is done.
• Guardian launches Grad Facts 2008
• Universities recommend a web-presence as crucial to recruitment

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #2: Understand your market -- Generation Y

There has been a lot written in blogsphere recently about Generation Y. I especially liked the recent one on Times Online: Generation Y's unique challenge --
Today’s mollycoddled graduates expect a lot and employers must learn to cater to their needs. The headline says it all!

Like it or not, much of the graduate market is made up of this generation, which includes those born between circa 1976 and 1994.

Also known as the Millennials, this generation is shaped by the leaders, events, and trends of its time. By far the most significant influence on this generation is the Internet. Generation Y was the first to grow up with the World Wide Web, and is used to being constantly bombarded with messages and multi-tasking. The popularity of social networking sites like MySpace, instant messaging, and texting may explain why this generation is known for being peer-oriented and expects instant gratification.

A 2008 survey by UK recruitment consultancy FreshMinds Talent, in partnership with Management Today, suggested that Millennials are generally more ambitious, brand conscious and tend to move jobs more often than ever before. The survey of over 1,000 people, entitled Work 2.0, also revealed several misconceptions about Millennials, including that they are as loyal as their predecessors and believe that their job says something about them as individuals.

The bottom line is that Generation Y is a different kettle of fish. Many of their skills will complement your more experienced employees.

Once you understand your target market, make sure your hiring managers are up-to-date with the graduate hiring market. Hiring managers aren’t necessarily recruiters. Their “fond” memories of being recruited on campus can be dated and no longer relevant.

Educate your hiring managers on the current state of the graduate market. Send out articles and research throughout the year. In advertising, it takes at least three exposures to make a message stick. Keep educating, your message will eventually get through.

What are your thoughts on recruiting Generation Y? Leave a comment on this blog, we'd love to hear.

-Susanna

PS -- Tomorrow's post is on "paying attention to the user experience".

** This post is an excerpt from Advorto's “15-minute guide to graduate recruiting”. You can download the full report for FREE.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Just do it! -- HR Carnival #38

HR Carnival #38 is up on Changeboard.

It’s themed: Corporate social responsibility.

Check it out.

Then be a part of the solution.

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #1: Define your strategy

Taking the time to define and develop a well thought out strategy is the key to a successful graduate programme.

First, you need to understand why you are recruiting graduates in the first place. Have you always done it?  Are you creating a pipeline for your talent pool? Or are you merely trying to fill junior-level positions? All are legitimate reasons; they just require different strategies and tactics.

Next, spend some time understanding how you fit in the graduate market. Are you a big brand attracting graduates regardless of your strategy? Are you a known player in a sector, i.e. always part of a top 10 league table? Are you unknown in the sector and market? Are you trying to recruit graduates for a skill for which you might not be known? Your strategy will have to be based around these issues.

Make sure you that you have the infrastructure and senior-level commitment to support graduates and that you can use them well. Graduates want to grow their management skills and develop them over the long run. Set out promotional opportunities and career paths.

Think about your budget. Define it up front, and decide how you will allocate costs across departments. Decide how many positions you need to fill, and what expertise is required.

Succinctly outline your programme for graduates, including how it differs from the competition. Who “owns” the graduates? Which business areas will participate? What is the duration of the programme? What are the qualifications needed? What training is provided? How will you manage the graduates? What will they be paid and what happens when the programme is over? These are all details that can be overlooked if decisions are made in a hurry, but getting them right is critical to success.

The best resource you have for helping you put together a graduate recruitment campaign is right under your nose – last year’s hires! Get previous graduate hires involved in the programme. They understand your target market, and are more likely to know what will attract them – is it money? Is it training? Create a working group with these people in – they will add value.

What are your experiences with planning and strategy? Leave a comment here, we'd love to know.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post is on “Understanding your market – Generation Y”

** This post is an excerpt from Advorto's “15-minute guide to graduate recruiting”. You can download the full report for FREE.

The 15-minute guide to graduate recruiting – Available for FREE

Wherever you look, graduate recruiting is in the headlines these days. It’s graduate recruiting crunch time for the legal world and the decision of Trinity Mirror to put its graduate scheme on hold this year helped to contribute to its stock price tumble.

While graduate recruiting is top of mind, we’ve taken the opportunity to release the latest in our series of 15-minute guides.

The “15-minute guide to graduate recruiting” is available now for FREE.

This practical, hands-on guide is loaded with tips and suggestions about graduate recruiting, including how to:

1. Define your strategy
2. Understand your market
3. Pay attention to the user experience
4. Build your brand
5. Make recruiting a process
6. Communicate in their language
7. Go green, and ethical
8. Use a Recruitment Management System
9. Build a graduate talent pool
10. Create a student placement scheme
11. Go on campus
12. Construct a top rate graduate recruitment site
13. Make use of video
14. Create a graduate recruitment newsletter
15. Utilise social networking sites like Facebook
16. Start a recruitment blog
17. Design an effective selection process
18. Think out of the box
19. Measure results

I’m going to cover each section in the next few weeks in Recruitment 2.0. If you don't like your information serialised, you can go ahead and download it now.

Hope you like it. I look forward to your comments.

-Susanna

The Google day care controversy: a recruiting lesson about setting the right expectations

Have you read about it? The Google daycare controvery has hit blogosphere.

In a nutshell: As an employee perk, Google offers in-house day care centres. Not your run-of-the-mill day care centre, mind you, but a $37k a year all singing and dancing nursery complete with the latest educational toys and trendy Reggio Emilia genius-training philosophy.

Google’s in-house recruiters used it as a lure for future employees (who wouldn’t?) But imagine the dismay when the new recruits found out that it could take up to two years to get a place for their child. Oh well. The price for working for the “best company on the planet”.

But the current controversy is that during this credit crunch someone at Google finally woke up and discovered they were subsidising each child way above the industry average. Ooooppps. So they decided to almost double their childcare rates. Yikes.

As a parent with children in daycare, this would alarm me. Actually, stress me out. If I were a Google employee in this situation, I would feel that on top of the stress of juggling a job and childcare, now I can’t afford it and I have to move my child elsewhere even though he/she may be settled quite nicely and the new daycare will add extra commute time.

Here’s the lesson: Don’t create perks you are going to take away. If you take something out of one hand, put something in the other. In sales, it’s all about setting the right level of expectations and then delivering on it. If you can, over deliver. Do not, I repeat, do not under deliver.

Of course it is easy to criticise from the comfort of my laptop at home. I can just image how it happened: a brainstorm session with lots of free pizza and someone has the idea of increasing employee retention by offering the greatest childcare on earth right on campus. Good idea, if you can substain it.

But come on Google, we expect more forward thinking from an industry leader.

- Susanna

4 July Friday recruitment roundup

We've condensed the week's news to just a few links.  Read on for interesting stories and videos regarding recruiting, technology and other random topics.

• The (Virtual) Global Office Moving beyond Second Life marketing, many companies are infiltrating virtual worlds for employee meetings, mixers, and recruiting
• A Sucking Sound The old job-for-life is on the way out across Europe. The new trend is temp-time. Now for the backlash.
• Accountancy firms halt recruitment as credit crunch takes toll
• Trinity Mirror freezes its graduate trainee scheme
• Secrets of a Successful Contractor
• Small and Medium Management Consulting Firms in India
• Take your job for a test run: On-the-job training lets graduates try a wide variety of specialisms
• Don't head hunt! (video), thanks Andy Headworth

- Susanna

Yes you can – Join the Web 2.0 revolution – Twelve steps to get up to speed with Web 2.0

Our recent post about “Why is HR slow to adopt Web 2.0 technologies?” sparked an online conversation covering the many possibilities. The main one seemed to be fear – fear of losing control, fear of wasting time on a passing trend, and reading between the lines, fear of the unknown.

Peter Gold recently released a white paper on “Removing the Web 2.0 fear factor; and turning social networks into friends”  He points out that a critical mass has embraced Web 2.0 and this trend will continue. You can dismiss Web 2.0 as being for the “younger generation” and let other companies reap the benefits, or you can roll up your sleeves and see what it is all about.

I agree with Peter, the best way to learn about something is to try it yourself. Test the water. At the end of his paper he has a section titled ‘Top 10 tips to becoming an e-socialite”.

Here’s my version. I've written it with recruiting in mind, but it can apply to any industry.

Twelve easy steps to get up to speed with web 2.0

1. Join Linkedin to start a professional network. It doesn’t take long to input in your CV and create a profile. Add a work photo. Connect with co-workers and re-connect with past colleagues. Get references. Join groups. Ask and answer questions. Watch your connections grow. Guy Kawasaki has a great post on how to get the most from Linkedin.
2. Create a Facebook profile to interact with family and friends.  Add a fun photo. Use the email tool to find some “friends” and start interacting with them. Update your status. Write on your friends’ wall. Try a fun application. It’s a great way to keep in touch with minimal effort. Here’s a post on how to get the most out of Facebook.
3. Try Twitter to be "in the know". I was very skeptical about Twitter. Why should I care if someone was having coffee at Starbucks or walking their dog? The key is you don’t have to if you find the right people to follow. The value of Twitter is its ability to update “followers” on topics in real time, and then spark spontaneous conversations. Try it. It’s like following breaking news and having your say. You can follow me for a start, and then check out some the people I follow, mainly ones in the recruitment industry: mikemclelland, louisetriance, joningram, andyheadworth, and petergold. Also follow some of the popular technology gurus like Scobleizer and guykawasaki.
4. Find some blogs that are relevant to your industry. Start with the list to the right of this blog. Then read them.
5. Configure an RSS reader, such as Google reader. Google reader is an easy way to manage blogs and newsfeeds. Once you find a blog or news source you think is relevant, cut and paste it into Google reader. Then scan it once a day to see if there is anything interesting.
6. Create a Google alert to find more relevant news sources and blogs.  A Google alert can help you to track your industry, your clients, recent job posts, company growth, etc.
7. Join a social network, such as Talent Management Network. Create your profile (you only need to do this once, and then cut and paste for other networks). The largest is recruitingblogs, there is also HR Zone, HRM Today, Recruiting, Recruitment Community Europe.
8. Start a blog. Lots of the social networks have a facility for you to start your own blog. Write about something you know. Ask for comments. Watch the conversation grow. You may surprise yourself. When you have the confidence, get a Typepad account and start a blog of your own.
9. Learn to search Google like an expert
10. Have a social networking strategy
11. Don’t be a wall flower, join in conversations. Start conversations. Ask questions. Answer questions. This is what Web 2.0 is all about, learning from others.  It has the added benefit of building your profile.
12. Manage your time. Social media can be a big drain on your time. Allow a half hour in the morning and half hour at the end of the day to catch up and contribute to online discussions. Don’t become an addict.

After a few  months, evaluate what you have learned. Do you feel you are better at your job because of Web 2.0? Have you made any valuable contacts that you would not have made via traditional methods? Have you found the perfect candidate?

If you have found that it adds value, great continue along the Web 2.0 track. If not, take a break, and try it again next year.  That will give your competition enough time to gain the upper hand.

-Susanna

What is Recruitment 2.0?

It all started with Web 2.0. This is the idea of the Internet truly coming of age –being more than just delivering news and allowing you to buy your food and other stuff online. With Web 2.0 you can actually deliver genuine web-based services that provide value that simply would not have been possible before the Internet.

Examples of Web 2.0 applications include:

• LinkedIn & business networking
• TypePad & blogging
• Flickr & image publishing
• Facebook & social networking
• Twitter & micro-blogging
• Amazon & Ebay
• AJAX as a technology
• Instant messaging
• Youtube & video hosting/publishing
• Wikipedia (& other Wikis)

For Web 2.0, don’t simply think “the web does it better than offline”, think “not possible offline”.
Recruitment 2.0 is the recruitment revolution that is happening as a result of Web 2.0.

Driving factors in this revolution are:

• Candidates applying online
• Job boards
• Social/business networking
• Text messaging
• Online background checks
• Resulting closer relationships between the client and the candidate
• Recruitment management systems
• Talent pooling/talent banks
• Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO)

All of these activities will have a large part of their activities undertaken online, replacing their predecessors wholesale. The traditional recruitment market (pre-1995) will continue to change because of these enabling events and tools – this is Recruitment 2.0.

Some people believe this will drive us towards a cataclysmic event which will turn the recruitment market, and all its players, upside down. I do not believe it will happen in this way, however, the recruitment industry will be certainly unrecognisable in 2015 versus how it was in 1995.

1995 Model
In short, as a corporate recruiter you would almost always have to go through an agency or advertising medium to attract candidates. Generally, this involved posting adverts in the local/national/trade press and the job centre or using a recruitment agency. It also included a huge cost. Simply put this was expensive and inefficient.

2008 Model
Today, your recruitment options are relatively limitless: you can run large scale advertising campaigns in a cost-effective manner; you can track cost to hire; and you can track, in real time, the effectiveness of these campaigns. Using communication tools, you can reach good candidates ‘you already know’.  Moreover, your ability to retain candidates in a talent pool and stay in touch with them is vastly improved – again cutting down time and costs when you do come to hire people.

Our recent post on “Why is HR slow to adopt Web 2.0 technologies” facilitated a dialogue that suggested the reason for slow adoption was fear.

Web 2.0 enthusiast Peter Gold recently wrote a white paper about taking the fear out of Web 2.0, “Removing the Web 2.0 fear factor; and turning social networks into friends!”  It’s complimentary – check it out.

This mesh of enabling tools, technologies and services is what we call Recruitment 2.0. Take out the fear factor, and you have a winning combination for recruitment.  My aim for Advorto is to allow corporate clients to take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies to help them recruit smarter. Hence the name of our blog.

- Mike