director of recruiting

New technology alert: Blogging Systems

For some time, recruiting industry pundits have been suggesting that companies treat their career websites as more than just a job search engine or company overview by providing relevant, timely content about your target audience's industry. Many years ago, Dr. John Sullivan coined the (non-PC) term "answer guy" sites to describe how these might work, as in provide answers that your target candidates want to know and they'll come to the site whether they need a job or not.

I recently saw a potential evolution of this concept from a company called Blogging Systems. For several years, the company has been using a platform that has been quite successful in the real estate market in driving qualified and local leads to agents around the country. The concept is really quite simple, yet it would be difficult for an individual company to replicate on their own - aggregate content from across the web and blogosphere specific to a target audience (like game developers, auditors, insurance agents, nurses - anything) into a local, community-based site that is sponsored by an employer or set of employers.

In the recruiting version of their product, there are opportunities to leverage employee populations' content preferences and opinions to help drive more highly targeted traffic. The big idea here is that, by engaging people on a level that goes beyond their desire to work at your company, an organization can get some immediate conversions to applicants ("this employer really gets me"), start building relationships with people for future openings ("I can opt in to learn more"), and stay top-of-mind with a desireable audience of qualified individuals ("this employer is on my radar because of the valuable service they are providing us").

Think of a niche, hard-to-find candidate. Are they ever searching for a job online? Not often. But they do look for content that is relevant to helping them do their jobs better every day. If your blog or website contains relevant content, you'll come up in search results and have the opportunity to connect with them about careers in a way that you couldn't with a traditional career website. It's a lesson that our friends at Microsoft (like Heather and the tech blog gang) know very well. (incidentally, do a search for jobs blog microsoft on Google and look who's sponsoring keywords on the site - just another reason to talk with companies like JWT that are setting a new standard in search engine marketing and measurement)

It's amazing what the similarities are between the real estate and recruiting industries are, which is one of the reasons I was impressed that Blogging Systems chose to make a bet in the recruiting industry and hints at how successful this may eventually be for employers. First, buying a house and looking for a job are two life-changing decisions that require a lot of thought and research. In a way, you actually interview houses. Second, the marketplace for finding houses and finding jobs are both largely transactional and posting-driven.

They're still at an early stage in the recruiting industry, although the platform is mature and far beyond a first-gen system. My understanding of their business model is that employers will have the opportunity to lock down specific target audiences and locations (while locking out competitors). If you're game to be an early adopter and be an active participant in how this will work in the recruiting industry, their press release asks you to contact Steve Amsden about joining their customer advisory program (steve.amsden@bloggingsystems.com). 

(Note: I have no business relationship with Blogging Systems or financial incentive for this post. Thought you might like to know that.)

What are you doing about the baby boomers retiring?

You might have heard that there are some troubling signs in the economy, the global market sell-off, housing starts down. Yet what is Ben Bernanke most concerned about? Baby Boomers retiring. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve wants to know what you're doing about it.

Here's an excerpt:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke renewed a warning to Congress Wednesday that failure to take action soon to prepare for the retirement of aging Baby Boomers could lead to serious economic harm.

Bernanke did not address the outlook for interest-rate policy or Tuesday's selloff in global stock markets in his prepared testimony to the House Budget Committee, which were nearly identical to remarks he delivered to a Senate panel last month.

Bernanke offered no policy suggestions. An old mentor of mine used to say "don't just give me problems - give me solutions."

Right now is the time to scenario plan for whatever the future may hold - even if you don't have a high proportion of experienced workers, you can expect a ripple effect to hit almost every industry. If you're in healthcare, you should be thinking about how to attract and more importantly retain people in this growing and vital profession. If you're in government, you should be thinking about how to make working in government cool again to a younger generation that would prefer to go into the private sector. If you're in an engineering or computer science related field, you should be thinking about what your organization can do to improve what has been a steady decline in enrollment. And everyone should be thinking about what they're going to do when they need to hire less experienced people, individuals who just graduated from college or even high school, and grow and mentor them into the talent they need.

The post-hire interview

Here's a great post from a new entrant into the world of talent blogging, Jeremy Votaw. Here's an excerpt:

Post hire interviews typically take place as soon as possible after a person is hired. I have conducted these interviews as quickly as the first day a person starts. These prove not to be as effective as interviews held later in the first week of employment.

The point of these interviews is two-fold:

1) To welcome the new hire into your organization and confirm to them that you want them to be there. You want them to feel comfortable, you want to make sure they get all the tools they need to perform there job and also let them know that you are an ally to them. This is contrary to the management style of fear and intimidation - but that style should be completely obsoleted soon anyways.

2) The best source of locating additional talent is through your current workforce. Designers typically know other designers. Accountants know other accountants etc… Most don’t think about referring another person. It is counter-intuitive from an employees perspective to give their employer the name of somebody else that can do their job. You must work to resolve this barrier - as you need talent - and they have the names you are looking for.

Read more...

It's great to see someone entering the fray from outside of the walls of recruiting and HR to try to "bridge the gap between employers and employees," someone who's built businesses and is coming at this from a fresh perspective. Here's how Jeremy describes himself:

Who am I? I guess it depends on who you ask. If you ask people in new media, you will hear that I am a new media designer, I have won tons of awards from Macromedia, Adobe, AIGA (San Diego and LA) and 15 DevAwards.

If you ask people in the business world, you will hear that I have built and sold two web development companies. I work for fun and the love of building things.

If you ask people in the HR world, I am the person that brings employers and employees together. I am anti-union and pro free-market economies and free-market workforces. My unique situation of having hired many people, as well as working in corporate America allows me to connect the myths and facts about personnel and the employment process.

If you want to understand a hiring manager's and entrepreneur's view the world of talent, Jeremy is definitely someone to keep on your radar.