Recruitment 2.0

Friday 30 July 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…

• Recruiting passive candidates -- how to get top-notch referrals
• Ageism -- are you being politically correct?
• What you don't know could hurt you
• How undergraduates use recruitment sites
• Another take on internships
• Job boards are simply everywhere
• Catch me if you can
• The power of sync
• Masters degrees - do employers value them?

A recruiting reality TV show? Only in America...

Find more videos like this on Recruiter Earth

Have a great weekend.

-Susannah

The make-up of a Graduate Recruitment Application Experience

You can tell from the lack of blog posts recently, we've been busy! We implemented 15 new clients in September alone - which is pretty staggering stuff. I've even got my hands dirty myself on a couple of larger projects.

It will come as no surprise to people that 93.3% of those systems have been graduate recruitment systems. It's funny given that I'm often asked – what is your company's speciality, graduate recruitment or experienced hire? The answer of course is that we do both and specialise in neither, we just happen to put together more grad systems. The simple fact remains – there are more companies out there who identify the need for a grad system over an experienced hire system – so we naturally cater for that need!

Anyway, I thought I'd take this opportunity to jot down the 'super-set' of all graduate recruitment requirements that we've come across in case you're either looking to build one, sell one or just wonder what goes into one.

• Brochureware website/campaign microsite/.mobi site
• Intake selection/intake finder
• Gross negative disqualifiers (killer questions)
• Junk/spam email avoidance
• "Save and return" application form with/without CV upload
• Self administration of contact details
• Top-up forms
• Visibility of email history
• Two way text messaging
• Event list
• Event registration
• Online tests
• Pre-screen/full screen tools
• Telephone interview scripts
• A/C results capture
• Offer generation
• Onboarding
• Candidate pre-loading
• MI/dashboards

(The list excludes inherent ATS functionality)

The majority of systems we build have 50-75% percent of these requirements to make a complete system – some do have less but they are rare. In contrast a fully fledged experienced hire system tends to have much less focus on the candidate experience and much more on the back office element.

If I get time I'll put together a similar list of what goes into the microsite/campaign site.

- Mike

Graduate recruiting tip #16: Design an effective selection process

Define and publish your selection criteria. What skills and traits do graduates need to be successful in your organisation?

You can use particularly successful graduates as models, and define the selection process around their attributes and experience.

Carefully create well-defined and measureable candidate selection criteria and use interviews, online tests, employee referrals, and other screening techniques in the selection process.

You can enhance your screening techniques by having students give presentations and pitches, work on well-defined “mini” projects, or participate in contests or brainteasers.

The actual selection process should be relatively quick. If you have defined your criteria up front, a recruitment management system can help to automatically manage this info and highlight your best candidates.

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

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #15: Start a recruitment blog

Recruitment blogs are becoming a popular part of online recruitment marketing strategies.

 
A blog (a shortened version of “web log") is a specialised web site that allows an individual, or group of individuals, to share a running commentary of events and personal insights with online audiences.

If properly executed, a recruitment blog added to your career site can be a powerful tool for communicating with potential new employees. But be warned - if you do not have the resources or commitment to update the site regularly with quality content this strategy could backfire and not make the positive impression that you intended.

An easy way to create a useful blog is to share the work amongst a small group of co-workers. Pick a few good writers in your department, or across departments, to regularly contribute their insights. Officially allocate an hour for each contributor to research and write an entry, and ideally update the blog every two or three days.

The main purpose of a recruitment blog is to promote your company, advertise current and future job posts, and attract graduates to your programme. You need to grab the interest of your readers to keep them coming back.

Suggestions:

1. Assign recent graduate hires to blog about their experience, this can be what they’ve learned, all the cool things they are involved in (pick carefully and don’t let this backfire).
2. Address graduate issues.
3. Include product information.
4. Add recruitment requirements.
5. Write about your interview process and how to apply.
6. Include “A day in the life” from members of different departments.
7. Add commentary on relevant industry news and issues.
8. Comments on company news.
9. Job hunting tips.
10. Interview with a graduate.

Many blogs link to relevant articles and other blog posts, so if you are regularly keeping up with your industry, this should be a breeze. A good recruitment blog will also have the benefit of increasing your ranking on search engine results. An interesting blog will attract links from other pages (a key to high placements) and changing, varied content will naturally add more key words.

A good example of a graduate recruitment blog is Microsoft Jobsblog. blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/

What are your thoughts on recruitment blogs? Please leave a comment and let us know.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post in this series is on "desiging an effective selection process".

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

How much recruitment automation is too much? Can good candidates "fall through the cracks"?

I recently met a senior partner at one of the big four accounting firms. Their graduate recruiting scheme processes nearly 1,400 students each year in the UK. Impressive by all measurements.

The firm relies on this programme for its future employee base. Even during the current credit crunch they have no plans to scale down -- it would do more harm to their employment brand than good and the programme has so much momentum it "would be like trying to stop a train".

They have a good process in place, use an eRecruitment system, and among other things, have applied online screening.

The senior partner's only worry was that perhaps all the "automation" was allowing some "good" candidates to fall through the cracks.

As an eRecruitment vendor, I can think of all kinds of reasons to use automation. It can allow you to recruit more with less cost, gives you accountability and visibility in to the whole process, and helps to get rid of the endless spreadsheets.

But I wouldn't rely completely on automation. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" so to speak.

My guess (hope) is that this leading accountancy firm is already doing this. The problem then is one of communication -- the senior partner just does not realise that the graduate programme selection process does not purely rely on "automation" and there is a significant human element.

The morale of the story: Don't be afraid of doing a little of your own internal PR. This is one thing Americans do well. It is not really the British way, but give it a go, it can pay dividends in the end.

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #14: Utilise social networking sites like Facebook

Social networking sites started with students, and they continue to be very active on these sites.

Facebook was originally created for Harvard students to network and get to know each other, and it quickly branched out to other Ivy league schools. Competitors such as MySpace and bebo soon joined the scene, but they tend to attract a younger crowd.  LinkedIn is used by experienced professionals, but its popularity is starting to pique the interest of soon-to-be graduates. While Facebook and MySpace usually contain information about the location of the next social gathering, don’t be too sceptical.  Students use these sites heavily. You may even experiment with Twitter. Be creative - where there’s an audience, there’s a way to reach them.

Suggestions:

1. Use Facebook to build a network of your upcoming batch of graduates so they have a chance to interact and meet each other before they start. Your current graduate group can monitor and help manage this group.
2. Ask a star graduate to start using Twitter to “tweet” about interesting happenings at work and include a “follow me” link from your graduate recruitment site.
3. Have recruiters and recent graduate hires post profiles to attract potential candidates, and link back to your careers site.
4. Create a company profile on LinkedIn.
5. Ask high profile employees to advertise jobs to their Facebook “friends”.
6. Approach your social networking candidates with an honest, open dialogue. Most online communities will respect this and will be more willing to interact with you.
7. Adopt the language and tone of the network (informal if necessary).
8. Create a cool facebook application for students. For example, an accounting firm could create a trivia quiz about tax law.
9. Take senstive information with a grain of salt

Find out more:

• Peopleshark wrote an excellent series on Twitter entitled: "Five days to Twitter literacy".
• Want to be join the web 2.0 revolution and get up to speed with social networking? Here are twelve easy steps.
• Build your Linkedin profile (video tutorial)
• Four required recruiting tools (Facebook, Linkedin, your blog and Twitter)

What is your experience of social networks and recruiting? Is it worth it, or is it just a waste of time? Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post in this series is on "starting a recruitment blog".

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

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #13: Start a graduate recruitment newsletter

An e-newsletter is a cost effective way to keep your company in the minds of graduates.

A good format is to start with a summary from an exec, and then highlight company news, links to blog entries, press articles and of course a detailed entry about your graduate programme.

Provide useful information, such as the details about your programme, the type of graduates you are recruiting, how to get more information, and how to apply.

You can highlight a successful graduate in your newsletter, and provide links to current company information and activities.

Make it easy for students to receive your newsletter. Add a prominent button for RSS feeds.

Make sure you have permission to send out these emails, so they are not seen as spam.

There are several ways to send out newsletters. A good recruitment management system may have this capability. Also talk with your marketing department, they probably have a system in place, or know of vendors that offer this service.

Wants to see some in action? Newsweaver, a company that helps to create newsletters, has several recruitment examples. Microsoft Careers Newsletter is another practical example. Also take a look at PWC's WORKgateways.

What are your thoughts on recruitment newsletters? Leave a comment and let us know.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post in this series is on "using social networking sites like facebook".

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

Graduate recruiting tip #12: Make use of video

Video can add depth to your web site. It’s easy to make professional-looking movie clips these days. Take advantage of easy-to-use video editing software such as Apple’s iMovie.

Viral videos are all the rage and viral marketing expert David Meerman Scott has a good article on his site on "how to make your youtube video go viral".

There are some real crackers out there, including this Barlcays recruitment video (hat tip Andy Headworth)

I'm sure the Barlcays video was not produced on i-Movie -- it does raise the bar. But this PWC video is hilarious and reeks of home-made.

How should you start? Get last year’s grad recruits to make it. Set the group of prospective grads the challenge of making a video as part of their placement scheme and use this video in next year’s campaign. They can cover topics like a “day in the life”, what people get out of work, company sponsored events, etc.

Once you create your video, make sure you distribute it on YouTube. Make sure it isn't too corporate or the "YouTube Police" will pull it faster than you can post it!

What is your experience with using video for recruiting? Leave us a comment, we'd love to hear.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post in this series is on "creating a graduate recruitment newsletter".

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

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #11: Build a top-rate careers site

You never have a second chance to create a good first impression.

Students are busy. They love the Internet. They will visit your website. So please, make sure you put your best foot forward and make your graduate site your most successful recruitment tool.

In many cases, the first time a potential employee is exposed to your company is through your web site. Your best candidates come though this channel, so its creation and maintenance deserve your utmost attention.

At the very least, your careers site needs to include an up-to-date listing of open positions and information about your company and its products. A fully developed site can include bells and whistles such as an online profiler, interactivity and streaming audio and video content.

Here are some things to think about when developing a top-rate careers site:

1. Understand your target group's expectations, preferences and priorities.
2. Design a simple layout and navigation scheme around this, and test it on graduates.
3. Provide a job site map.
4. Include an RSS feed so potential applicants can get updates automatically.
5. Use their language – graduate lingo.
6. Keep a consistent employer brand throughout the entire website.
7. Explain your company’s recruitment process. Include a “How to Apply” section to lead a potential employee through the process, with a very prominent “Apply Here” button.
8. Include a list of compelling reasons to work for your company and don’t ignore the basics – include in-depth information about the job, and clearly articulate the interview and hire process.
9. Add a system for managing and tracking applications. An online application form has the benefit of standardising information from candidates.
10. Have a mechanism to receive feedback, and then use this valuable information.
11. Use the fact that the careers page is often the most visited page on your site (after the homepage) to get much deserved budget from senior management.
12. Include a mechanism to get back to applicants quickly, and whether they will advance in your process. This will create a positive impression, not the sense of a “black hole”.
13. Above all, keep it easy to use and friendly.

A good example of a graduate recruitment site is www.hewittgraduate.co.uk. And check out Microsoft's "Hey Genuis" graduate recruiting site for some innovative ideas to say the least!

What have your experiences been creating careers site? Any tips to add? What is your favourite site? Least favourite site? Leave a comment and let us know.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post in this series is on "making use of video".

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

-Susanna

Graduate recruiting tip #10: Go on campus

There’s no substitute to meeting graduates in person.

You can gain so much subjective information through a face-to-face meeting that you just can’t get in the online version. But you can use the Internet to do a lot of your ground work, including using a recruitment management system to automatically schedule interviews.

Don’t just focus on a small number of “good” universities. There are good students at all universities; you just have to find them. The Internet allows you to focus on a wide range of institutions, not just a small circle that every company is targeting. This allows you to increase your reach.

Take some advice from Google, forge relationships with professors and graduate assistants at top universities. They are in the best position to spot star students.

Use alumni from recent graduates to internal management to create a “team” to help lead the efforts at targeted universities.

What is your experience of recruiting on campus? Any tips? Let our readers know by leaving a comment on our blog.

-Susanna

PS -- Our next post in this series is on "building a top-rate recruitment site".

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