Recruiting, The unblog dialogue

Could Moocs be the next big thing in college recruiting?

by  • 14 May, 2014 • 14 Comments

If you follow the learning and development community, then Moocs, or Massive On-line Open Courses won’t be a new concept. They have been gaining momentum, popularity and adoption since first appearing in 2008. .Wikipedia defines a Mooc as:

“A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC; /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs).”

Kevin Wheeler wrote on ERE in March 2014:

“Sites like Udemy, Moodle, Udacity, and others allow organizations to create their own private courses. These can attract potential candidates and provide a platform for engagement that is authentic and useful to the candidate and your firm. If you can involve hiring managers, as well as fellow employees, you will have one more high-quality source of candidates.”

In my work with Sydney start-up and SRM (student relationship manager) technology provider iGrads, I have been spending the last 12 months taking a close look at the trends within graduate and entry-level hire, and  I can see real potential for organisations to develop their own Moocs to attract students, by providing learning delivered by employees to support and mentor students in their course work during their study years. This would connect the organisation with students providing real value to all. For the student they get high quality, relevant learning, whilst the company gets a great opportunity to connect, build relationships, offer work experience and internship, as well as assessing a students skills, capability and learning through study, assessments, assignments and real life simulations. This has to be the ultimate in employer branding particularly when hiring students after the regular background check. Connect in year one, and you would be the obvious destination by year 3, as well as ensuring that study is relevant to work, a common complaint when looking at the traditional academic curriculum.It has been well documented that Gen Y value learning, whilst millennial’s value development opportunity, Organisations offering Moocs would stand out on both accounts.

Thinking beyond students in university, the rising cost of study, against a background of high level student unemployment has led to many questioning the value of continued education. An ambitious organisation requiring specific skills or learning could set up their own university equivalent as a means of attracting and assessing candidates in a whole range of areas, particularly talent short markets such as developers, your own in-house code academy, open to anyone interested in signing up.

My thinking is that this could be something we should see much more of over the coming years.

Bill

Recruiting, The unblog dialogue

The Talent Tipping Point

by  • 13 May, 2014 • 10 Comments

I’ve never been a big fan of the talent community concept. I get the idea. It would be nice if jobs, careers and companies were interesting enough to support real communities. A real community in my opinion, enables everyone to be able to connect, communicate and set the agenda for conversation. Whilst there was a lot of talk by companies wanting a community, what most really wanted was a talent network. The talent network can be defined as up and down communication between the recruiters and potential candidates when the messaging is relevant. Companies like AT&T have done a great job of this by utilising technology like Findly, that enables a simple sign up and the segmentation of data.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the Talent Tipping Point, and what this might be for different organisations. What I mean by this is the number of connections an organisation needs to reach the point of having all the message points they need to fill all of their future hiring needs. This need not be in a formal way via an organised talent network, it might also include social media connections such as fans of the Facebook career page, followers on Twitter or a LinkedIn page. All of these data points are searchable, which simplifies segmenting data, matching to content and jobs, and relevant messaging.

When we consider all of the data points that might be open to recruiters:

1) Current employees for internal mobility. All of the source of hire reports indicate internal mobility and promotions as the number one source. When employee data is retained in the CRM for matching and access by recruiters without the need for permission, and employees are made aware of every relevant opportunity.

2) Ex-employees for boomerang hires. As attitudes are changing to rehiring, organisations are increasing their percentage of rehire’s. This provides another pool of data within the CRM for recruiters, and increased connections. Ex-employee data is valuable because past performance, conduct, skills and achievements are known.

3) Social referral data. Modern referral technology such as RolePoint, (Disclosure: I serve as the lead advisor to RolePoint), enable recruiters to match opted in employees social media and other connections with content and new opportunities. When we consider that the average employee will have 125 Facebook friends, and 240 LinkedIn connections, it is easy to see the potential of gaining access to this data, with the opportunity for matching and messaging.

4) Previous applicants. Consider the high volume of applicants who have shown an interest in the company in the past. When this data is organised for search and retrieval, (rather than simply storage), this provides a huge pool of qualified data of people, some of whom will have already been met and assessed. When the candidate experience has been a good one regardless of the outcome, there could well be an interest in reapplying for the right opportunity.

5) Friends, fans and followers. Individuals are increasingly connecting with companies via LinkedIn and other social pages, Fan pages, Twitter accounts etc. The numbers will increase, and whilst there may be some attrition in connections as people choose to disconnect, other branding activity will bring in new people. This will also include people who choose to sign up for a talent network to keep in touch, in the same way as they might follow a company page.

When we look at these five data sets and consider the volume and relevance of connections, it is easy to see the potential for reaching a Talent Tipping Point of all the connections you are ever likely to need for future recruiting. If we can identify this point, (including relevant skills), backed up with technology for accurate and timely data retrieval in real-time, analytics, data mapping for succession planning and workforce analytics, and relevant messaging, then the focus of the talent acquisition team takes on a new dimension. Hit the tipping point of connections (and you may already be there), and its all about maintenance of relationships and cleanliness of data over new talent attraction.

Exciting times!

Bill

The unblog dialogue

Mental Health And Recruiting: A Little Honesty

by  • 12 May, 2014 • 7 Comments

I’ve been thinking of re-launching my blog, and today I think I have something important enough to start writing again. Yesterday, at #truStockholm, I got in to a bit of a conversation with someone about mental health, and how to best support someone suffering with depression from an HR point of view.

I’m passionate about this subject because it is very close to home, and something which I feel is grossly misunderstood, especially by recruiters and HR professionals, because mental health, unlike other disabilities is really seen as a problem. I don’t think that is right, and better understanding is needed in these areas because 1 in 5 people live with some form of mental illness, and many others are impacted by a partner, friend or family.
For my part, some of you will have heard me talk about my wife Fran, and how she is bipolar. I’m not going to say that it is something she suffers from, because it is a part of her, and something she deals with and just gets on. Most days you would never know, other days it is really apparent, but it just is the way it is. I’m sure she would change it if she could, but she can’t, so we do all we can to understand it and get on.
I think we are all a bit crazy one way or another. We all have down days and moments of high, the difference with those with bipolar is that this can switch quite suddenly, from extreme depression and lethargy to extreme excitement. When you live with someone like this you know the signs, and you can, for the most part see what’s coming and be supportive in the best way you can. Sometimes that means offering a shoulder to cry on, even though you can’t see the reason for the tears, and other times it means nodding in the right places and waiting for the high to subside.
What I have learnt as an observer is that anyone with bipolar lives life in extremes, outside of long periods of normality, (if there is such a thing.) Extremes can bring dreadful dark days, but it can also bring extreme creativity, energy and brilliance. The comedian and actor Stephen Fry is famously bipolar, so too was Steve Jobs. When you read the Jobs’ life story it is easy to see it. Van Gogh was bipolar, it can be a genius’s blessing and a genius’s curse. The question I ask here is if Steve Jobs would get employed in a job based on his “condition” and behaviour? Where would the world be if he was condemned as a “mad guy” and never given an opportunity?

If you are a business owner, we recommend you to look for a uniform supplier, so you can create a nice workwear for your employees.
All I’m asking for is for everyone in HR and recruiting to find out a bit more, if you do not how to do it, recruitment agency birmingham can give you a few tips. To understand what bipolar, depression and other mental health issues mean, and consider how you could make a bit of a difference. If you can deal with the downtimes, you know the genius will follow. Everyone is affected one way or another. We would make the effort for someone partially sighted, hard of hearing, disabled or with one leg, why should we think of mental health as any different? I know from experience that every down time is followed by genius. Embrace it and deal with it, because that might be where the elusive innovation can come from.
It’s good to be back,
Bill

#trulondon, The unblog dialogue

The #trulondon9 Schedule: Feb 26. Live from London

by  • 23 February, 2014 • 4 Comments

tru_london-befono

Research Sponsor

Drinks Sponsor

Lunch and Award Sponsor

Show and Tell Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

This #trulondon is all change. We’ve tightened things up by making the tracks 40 minutes, we’ve gone back to the City Hotel, which many past participants have called our spiritual home deep in Brick Lane, and we’ve added “show and tell”, to showcase 18 of the most innovative recruiting products from around the world.

Our show and tell sponsors Lumesse are launching a technology ecosystem partnering with the best technology providers from around the world, and this is a great opportunity for the 18 companies taking part to showcase what they have to offer. Our global sponsors Kelly Services will be creating new content throughout the day in the Kelly studio, and lunch sponsors Maximum will be presenting awards for the most engaged career brands on Twitter and Facebook based on their performance over the last 12 months on the Social Recruitment Monitor. Social Referral company RolePoint are the research sponsor for #trulondon, and will be sharing some exclusive research in to Big Data and recruiting on the day. Gold sponsor Stack Overflow will also be sharing research on what developers look for in a brand when making the choice to move. There is a full line up of track leaders from around the world. It is going to be a great event! The #trulondon9 schedule:

The show and tell schedule, situated in the bar.

 

 

 

 

You can buy one of the last 6 tickets HERE

 

 

 

#trulondon, The unblog dialogue

#trulondon 9 – Feb 26’th – All new line up

by  • 6 February, 2014 • 2 Comments

tru_london-befono

After the last #trulondon in September, we made a decision to freshen things up a bit. Not lose any of the excitement and conversation, but give the opportunity for new topics, retain some of the favourites and give hands on access to some of the new technology we talk about. We have a great line up of track leaders and some exciting extras, and we have moved to a one crammed day of content with tracks lasting 40 minutes. As always, dress code is casual, theres no name badges or powerpoint, we’ve added luch (a curry, what else in Brick Lane) and we are back at our favourite venue, the City Hotel. Thanks to our global sponsors Kelly Services for once again making this event possible, and keeping ticket prices affordable. 

Whats new?

> Show and tell tech lab

18 new product sessions with the usual no pitches. 20 minute sessions consisting of 5 minute discussion on need, 10 minute product demo and 5 minutes Q&A. At the end of the sessions participants will answer a simple question with thumbs up and thumbs down, “If you had the need and the budget would you buy it?”
Any company can take part by buying a show and tell ticket priced at £250
Companies taking part include:

> Take the interview from New York – Interview process technology and video
> RolePoint from San Francisco and London – Social referral technology
> Loop from Brighton and San Francisco – Mobile platform for branding and recruitment process
> OnRecruit from Amsterdam – Performance analytics, campaign management for pay per click
> Job and Talent from Madrid and London – Aggregation and matching technology
> PocketRecruit from London – Mobile content and engagement platform
> WorkDigital from London- Unveiling a new product
> Pando from NewYork – Business intelligence platform
> Joberate from Finland – Predictive recruitment analytics and talent pooling
> Maximum employment marketing group from Rotterdam and China – Proxy targeted display advertising

We will be announcing the next 4 participating companies next week, and theres room for 4 more. get a show and tell ticket if you want to take part.

 

> Social Recruiting winners with Maximum and the Social Recruitment Monitor

The Social Recruitment Monitor™ ranks social media recruitment activity for the world’s leading employers. It accurately tracks data for the major social networks, and refreshes weekly so that the ffigures stay up to date. The SRM Index is the overall rankings indicator: it uses a combination of carefully weighted variables that are proven indicators of popularity, activity and interaction – not just the “fan base”.
> Brought to us by sponsors Maximum Employment Marketing Group , tracks will be hosted by the people behind the top performing career brands for the last 12 months according to the index. During lunch Maximum will be presenting recognition awards for the top performers (according to the data) on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. (and they are paying for lunch!) Real stories from real companies.
> The #CandE companies
The evening of the 25th Feb will be marked by a celebration of the UK candidate experience awards winners for 2013. Companies judged by data collected by their candidates, not the opinion of a panel. It is the most comprehensive benchmarking of candidate experience in the UK.
The #CandE tracks will be hosted by Leigh Carpenter, UK programme director, featuring an opening breakdown of the data by Gerry Crispin and a summary by Elaine Orler, and representatives from 4 of the participating companies sharing what they have done to improve candidate experience during 2012. Real stories with no small talk.


> Tech Recruiting and the tech #SourceLab
Hosted by our tech track sponsors StackOverflow Careers 2.0 European Managing Director Dimitar Stanimiroff, who will be sharing some sourcing secrets from Careers 2.0, and tricks and hacks from:
> Martin Lee – Director of Research and Search at Social Media Search
> Andrea Mitchell – Talent community manager and sourcer at GE/Ochre House
> Shane McCusker – Founder at Intelligence Software
> Matt Burney – Talent acquisition and in-house resourcing strategist at G4S
> Craig Fisher – VP Recruiting, LinkedIn training and social media strategy at Ajax Media


> Kes Thygesen of sponsors RolePoint, the social referral platform, will be hosting the open tracks  with tracks from:
> Kevin Wheeler – Future of Talent Institute
> Danielle Weinblatt – Founder – Take the interview
> Peter Gold – Hire Strategies/HR Mash
> Crystal Miller – Digital Strategist – AT&T
> Peter Cosgrove – CPL
> Michael Beygelman – joberate
> Felix Wetzell – JobRapido
> Rachelle Falls – Sun Strategies
> James Smith – CareersinLuxury
> Steve Ward – Cloud Nine
> Andrew Gadomsky – Aspen Advisors
As an added bonus, theres an opening conversation on culture branding by the global head of marketing at our global sponsors KellyOCG, and a closing conversation on communities from the founder of one of the only real community platforms, StackOverflow.
Coffees are brought to you by our drinks sponsors Colleague.


The whole event is only made possible by our fantastic global sponsors Kelly Services, who have a few surprises lined up for the day, including Kelly TV.
There are only 30 tickets left, and you wouldn’t want to miss this line up!
Bill

CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO BUY TICKETS

#HRTechEurope, The unblog dialogue

The #HRTechEurope Unconference Sessions

by  • 20 October, 2013 • 2 Comments

 


The Unconference sessions are designed to allow for open conversation away from the structure of the conference. This presents a great opportunity for participants to question and engage with the speakers, as well as put forward their own point of view. Each track will last for one hour hosted by a track leader. The track leaders are chosen for their expertise in the topic. Their job is to start the conversation and offer expert opinion when needed, a track can take many twists and turns with the participants at the center of the conversation. This is a complete break from the presentation and powerpoint. All tracks are hosted in collaboration with #tru – The Recruiting Unconference, who have hosted over 150 unconference events across 4 continents in the last 2 years.

Track leaders and topics – 24 October

16:00-16:30 Everything you know is wrong Room G105

John Sumser – Principal Analyst at HRxAnalysts

In this session Sumser challenges the things we believe, and the reality of the situation, using a series of “big” statements and challenges if what we believe can be backed up by evidence. This is always a popular track with plenty of surprises.

16:30-17:00 Technology in Technology Recruiting Room G105

Gordon Lokenberg – Technical Recruiter – TomTom

Lokenberg is known for his tricks and tactics for attracting the best tech talent in high growth companies. Lokenberg will share new and innovative technologies like augmented reality, and how they can be deployed to attract the best tech talent. Expect plenty of surprises and a very different approach.

16:30-17:00 HR Employee & Manager Selfservice Portals Room G106

Jochem ter Steege – HR IT Project Manager, Business Brands
This track will ask the questions: “to what extend can solid HR services be delivered when there are managed by employees / managers themselves. Do HR selfservice delivery models have a strong future? “ Bring your viewpoint.

11:15-11:45 HR Analytics Topaz Lounge

Andrew Marritt – Founder, Organization View

Big data is driven by analytics, the question is what are you really looking for and how does this impact on operational practice? What are people really doing with data day to day? What technology helps in the process, and how is analytics being used to aid decision making and strategy? How much is hype and how much is reality?

11:15-11:45 Social Recruiting 2013 Topaz Lounge

James Mayes – Director, Exolite

How is social changing recruiting? Who have been the winners and who have been the losers? How do hiring teams select the best social technology for talent attraction and selection? What is the real ROI? How do social channels integrate with recruiting technology?

16:00-16.30 The Future of Work Topaz Lounge

Ilonka Jankovich – Innovation Investment Manager, Randstad -

Work is changing, and so is the technology around it. From remote working and virtual teams, to project work to globalisation, we are heading in a new direction. This track will discuss where technology drives change, and the important part “future proofing” technology for the new world of work.

16:00-16:30 Zero Unemployment Topaz Lounge

Jerome Ternynck – Founder – Smart Recruiters

Technology should be an enabler to connecting potential employees with companies looking to hire, with limited friction and simple connection. In this track participants will look at what the barriers are, what gets in the way of connecting and engaging, and how to remove the barriers from their own process.

16:30-17:00 Making Your HR Lean Topaz Lounge

Dwane Lay – Author: LeanHR/ Head of Technology Process, Dovetail

In this track Lay will share the case studies from his popular book lean HR, looking at the best strategies to implement a lean approach, implementing change through technology. This is guaranteed to be hugely informative, useful and is a must attend for anyone charged with bringing about change.

16:30-17:00 What does good candidate experience look like? Topaz Lounge

Leigh Carpenter – Director: The Candidate Experience Awards UK Ltd

Theres lots of talk about candidate experience. The Candidate Experience Awards (CandE’s), measure data from the people who really matter, the candidates. In this track, Carpenter will share the data and discuss what good really looks like, as well as the practices that made the winners really stand out.

Track leaders and topics – 25 October

11:15-11:45 Its All A Game Topaz Lounge

Michael Tanenbaum – CEO, Connect Cubed

Innovation finalist Tanenbaum is talking games and gamification within HR Tech. More time is spent playing games on-line than any other activity. What is the big deal, and how can gaming methodology enhance HR Technology? Join Tanenbaum for a lively and entertaining conversation.

11:15-11:45 The Retail Gap Topaz Lounge

Adam Lewis – Founder – Apploi

Lewis is founder of innovation finalists Apploi working in the retail and hospitality sector. The front end technology and process in on-line retail is at the forefront of e-commerce, the back end recruiting and HR technology lags some way behind. This track will look at the differences, and what can be taken from the front end of on-line retail to the world of HR and Recruiting.

11:45-12:15 Data, Data, Data Topaz Lounge

Dan Martin – Managing Director, Broadbean Technology

In this track Martin will discuss data flows and data analytics, and some of the surprises that come out of measuring every click. What are the data collection tools and methods, and what questions need to be asked to properly understand the data story.

11:45-12:15 Crowdsourcing in Technology Topaz Lounge

Ravi Mikkelsen – Founder – Jobfig

Mikkelsen is founder of innovation finalists Jobfig. In this track the conversation is centered around how crowdsourcing is changing the way technology is built and applied with practical examples and open discussion. Real crowdsourcing to formulate a clear view of the changes in hr technology.

12:15-12:45 Mobility Topaz Lounge

Bill Boorman – Founder – #tru -

This is not the usual mobile conversation about numbers, platforms and why companies should be mobile. This track looks at what mobility means to people, HR and recruiting. What impact does mobile have on the way we work and live.

12:15-12:45 Globalisation Topaz Lounge

Aki Kakko – Technology entrepreneur and founder of Joberate / Partner in #Tru

The world is getting smaller by the day. As a partner in #Tru, Kakko has visited over 50 countries during the last 18 months, and spoken with 1000’s of recruiters and HR professionals about what keeps them up at night. Kakko will discuss how you deliver HR tech globally and locally, and why this approach is important.

14:15-14:45 The Work Environment Of The Future Topaz Lounge

Josh Bersin – Principal & Founder – Bersin by Deloitte

What will the future of work look like? How will technology drive and keep up with change? What should HR be considering to future proof the business? Open discussion. All views welcomed.

14:15-14:45 Innovation & The Innovators Topaz Lounge

Jason Averbrook – Chief Business Innovation Officer, Appirio

What is innovation in HRTech? Are we seeing real innovation or more “faster horses?” Where will we see innovation moving forward, and what does this mean in HR? This is an open discussion lead by one of the leading commentators on innovation in HR technology.

14:45-15:15 The Traffic Jam Topaz Lounge

Rene Bolier – Partner, OnRecruit

Paid traffic is a critical part of any recruiting campaign, but with so many options what is the best choice for budget. In this track participants will look at the part analytics plays in media selection, what works for who, and how to implement agile campaigns.

14:45-15:15 Data Science, Profiling & Gamification Topaz Lounge

Gareth Jones – Chief Technologist at the Chemistry Group

Using case studies from global deployments, Jones questions if the much talked about gamification of HR Technology really works, as well as looking at profiling through the use of traditional and social data, and how this applies to the world of HR.

15:15-15:45 Empowering Hiring Managers Through the ATS Topaz Lounge

Rob van Elburg – Global Technology Recruiter, ING Bank

Over the last 12 months van Elburg has been responsible for enabling hiring managers to manage their own hiring via their global ATS. Van Elburg will share the hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve this on a global scale, as well as discussing the pros and cons of empowering hiring managers through technology.

15:15-15:45 Investment in disruptive technologies Topaz Lounge

In this session Derlyatka and Polishchuk will look at how tech companies secure investment, and the next phase of disruptive HR technologies that are catching the VC’s attention. This gives a clear idea of what might be coming next, because where the start ups go, the enterprise companies are sure to follow.

14:15-14:45 Winning With HR Tech Contracts Room G105

William Tincup – Tincup & Co

How to negotiate contracts for the benefit of the user, and come out with a win-win outcome. Tincup will talk tactics to retain the balance of power throughout the negotiation. Expect plenty of off the wall thinking, and plenty of laughs.

14:45-15:15 Talent Management In High Growth & Emerging Markets Room G105

Dominic Toledo – SVP Global Sales. Page Up People -

Many MNC’s are headquartered in Europe/US and have regional operations in emerging and/or high growth markets. Talent Management practices and technology currently supports the needs of developed markets, though companies
are increasingly seeking to execute on talent management strategies for their emerging and high growth markets.

15:15-15:45 The Social Referral Room G105

Kes Thygesen – Co-Founder – RolePoint -

Thygesen is the co-founder of finalists in the innovation competition, RolePoint. In this track Thygesen will examine the critical differences between traditional and social referral, and how social media has turned the referral process on its head. From rewards and recognition to implementation, Thygesen will lead a discussion that examines all areas of this important source of candidate, and the part that technology can play in making the ERP work.

15:00-15:30 The Future of Learning Room G107

Stacey Harris – VP Research And Advisory Services, Brandon Hall

Technology is changing the way we learn formally and informally. Technology is rapidly disrupting the learning landscape. This track will look for the real ways that learning is changing, both from the point of view of the learning and development professional and the learners themselves, with a view to understanding just what is possible now and in the future.

15:30-16:00 Big Data BS Room G107

Patrick Boonstra – Business Development Recruitment – Coosto

This will be the most interactive session of the conference, which sees Boonstra posing a series of statements relating to “Big Data” to determine the fact and the fiction. Boonstra is a veteran of the unconference, and his tracks are always the most popular, with all particicipants playing a full and active part to slay the BS dragon.

 

I hope we will get to meet you there. If you still need a ticket message me, I have a secret discount code!

Bill

Rants, The unblog dialogue

The trouble with trolls. Thoughts on Johnnie Jobs

by  • 23 August, 2013 • 8 Comments

Sometimes something starts out as fun, but ends up being anything but that, Maybe a joke that goes too far. Damaging or hurtful comments made under the guise of a bit of light-hearted banter. Like describing the speakers at a conference as drunks or drug users, or taking pictures of conference attendees and describing them as MILFS looking for a pick up, cat ladies or suggesting that this lady (with a picture) in the book shop line better be buying a book on dress codes. The thing about trolls is that they make these posts and comments under another name, and are guarded by the cloak of anonymity. This lets them say what they want without any concern for their own brand or reputation, and they do this for a reason.
It might seem like a lot of fun to the small clique in on the joke, but these types of posts are always posted on popular twitter streams, usually events, as they were this week on the #HRFL13 hashtag. Plenty of people invest time talking to the folks in HR about why they have nothing to fear from their employees getting social, and why they should embrace it. I’m sure most of the clique behind Johnnie Jobs have had the same conversations many times. A conference like the one in Florida attracts lots of new people trying out Twitter for the first time, or revisiting for another look. There is a real opportunity to show them what is involved, and how this might be useful, and how they might get value from taking part. Showing them pictures of attendees labeled as MILFs, poking fun at unbeknown people, or personal attacks on speakers is not really what you would expect. The pictures were coming from within the conference, as a means of saying we are here,we are watching you, and we are laughing at you. Is that really the impact you want to have? In jokes are only funny tp the in crowd. Most people looking in from outside will be believing what they are seeing, and it is damaging and hurtful. What effect would it have on the lady described as a MILF looking for a pick up? The comment and picture were in the open stream, and on the #HRFL13 hashtag.

If you really believe that it is all just good fun, why not post it in your own name or on your own blog? Why not say this is me, this is what I, and my company think of you all? It is only fun after all. Why not include this in a keynote delivered at another state conference, take public credit for your work? I’m sure that those behind Johnnie Jobs speak at enough. I might be considered a “ narcissistic HR social media type who has had their sense of fun sucked out” for having the view that trolls and these types of comments aren’t funny. I hope the collective behind it have another think about it, and open themselves up publicly, on their own blogs and accounts. If it is just all humour, then there can’t be any harm in that.I believe twitter has now pulled the account, although I didn’t complain. This takes some doing, so it must be more than me who feel the same way. Twitter also might consider pulling all the associated accounts to prevent further wrong doing by the account holders. it will be interesting to see if this happens.

I’m fine with snarkiness, a bit of humour, and I laugh more than most. I’m open to critique, and the plenty of people who think I am wrong. I often am, I just think that this should come in an open way, and not from a troll account. The intention might well have been fun, but you could damage the reputation of others, and hurt innocent bystanders with the barbed tweets about MILF’s etc, attached to pictures. I hope more people take a stand against trolls, and demand they go public, because we know the harm that’s being caused by cyber bullies in schools and other places, and this kind of behaviour just isn’t any different.

Bill

Recruiting, The unblog dialogue

When a games recruiter hits 40 and thinks recruiting sucks (G.I.T. Jusin Hall)

by  • 5 August, 2013 • 1 Comment

I met Justin Hall earlier this year at #truSanFran, when he ran a track (on the old Lenny Kravitz tour bus), on recruiting in the gaming industry. Justin had just moved in to a recruiting role after a career making games, and he was finding it hard to get his head around what he found to be the way recruiting is done. I think it was a bit of a shock after a creative past. I’ve been trying to get in touch with Justin recently, although he appeared to have gone off the radar, then I found this brilliant video on his LinkedIn profile. If you pick up this post Justin get in touch. I want to help out with your sabbatical, and I want to hear more about your adventures.

 

src=”//www.youtube.com/v/iefICpsVvxg?version=3&hl=en_GB” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”560″ height=”315″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”>

 

#trulondon, Recruiting, The unblog dialogue

The end of the in-house recruiter? #DiceTru #TruLondon

by  • 1 August, 2013 • 104 Comments

Recruitment is changing, there is no doubt about that, but there is a particular trend that seems to be gaining momentum that recruiters should be very conscious of because it could have a major impact on the role of the in-house recruiter. This could be the beginning of the end of in-house recruiters as we know them, or could be an evolution in to something completely different. Over the next 4 weeks I’m going to be exploring this in a bit more depth by talking to lots of recruiters and asking lots of questions about what is really going on. We will be hosting #DiceTru in partnership with EmployersOnDice in Mountain View, USA on the 15th August, and in San Francisco on 16th August, and then again as part of the #Kellylive hangout at #trulondon on 6th September.

I first started really thinking about this at the beginning of the year when I did a bit of a San Fran tour and caught up with the sourcing technology companies Gild, Entello, DiceOpenWeb and others. What surprised me at the time was that I was consistently getting told that it was hiring managers who were buying this technology directly, rather than sourcers or recruiters. Through the work I have been doing with social referral company RolePoint, I was becoming aware that more and more hiring managers were looking to run their own referral campaigns outside of the normal company process. RolePoint have had to go as far as creating a whole new work and data flow to accomodate this.

The data from the candidate experience awards in both North America and the UK was showing us that an increasing number of hiring managers were being set KPI’s for things like time to hire, cost of hire, candidate experience etc, the kind of metrics we had previously always associated with recruiters. We have also witnessed a growing reliance on the business to generate employer and culture brand content for talent attraction, and for employees to engage directly with potential candidates. My friend Rob Van’Elburg had also just started a new project with ING Bank to co-ordinate the training of all the hiring managers in technology across the world to run there own hiring campaigns through Taleo, from creating job specs to offer management. All of the technology recruiting for a global business being co-ordinated by one person. All the signs were pointing in one direction.

Probing a bit deeper in to why this was happening, with a number of hiring managers at global corporations, some of the reasoning behind this became clear. For a start, a lot of the tech jobs had never really existed before, and hiring managers wanted more access to who was out there in order to shape what they were actually looking for. We were also looking at data for a number of hiring managers where they were getting to see 5 in 1000 applicants by the time the ATS had sifted out 70%, usually on random criteria, the recruiter had eliminated CV’s, then done video or phone screens, then interviews, then other tests like assesments for team fit, skills etc before the last few standing got in frount of the hiring manager. It is no small wonder that hiring managers have started to want to look a lot closer at that pipeline for themselves.

I have also been aware of a new recruitment model evolving at Oracle in the EMEA region, which has since been adopted globally. Recruiting is a profit center that charges the business for their time. Recruiters are responsible for sourcing, (along with a sourcing and social media team), new potential hires. They don’t do any admin or logistics, that is all they do. Find people, qualify them, send them on to the hiring manager. The only time they ever get involved again is in helping to close candidates.They deffinitely don’t do any interviewing or anything like that. Very different, but very effective against aggressive hiring targets, with 30% of hires coming from social media, 30% from referral and 40% from direct sourcing. I’m begining to see this model being mirrored in other organisation looking to achieve the same thing, making recruiting being about sourcing, on a just in time basis.

That leaves us then with the question: If hiring managers are going to drive their own recruiting, what is going to happen to the recruiters? I asked this question at the #tru sessions at lRecruit earlier year. I was running a track that had about 18 heads of talent acquisition in the session. Industry analyst Josh Bersin was quick to pick up on this and ask if this really a trend in the organisations, given that most of the participants were senior and represented global brands. 18 of the 19 companies all confirmed that this is the direction they are going in, with more and more hiring managers taking on more and more of the day to day responsibility for hiring in their teams, assisted by some clever recruiting and assesment technology. It is becoming clear that this is much more than a trend, and not isolated to one region or one sector. That would be too simple.

My thinking is that in-house recruiters, and recruiting functions are going to go in one of four distinct directions:

1: The super recruiters. The last few years have seen the rise of the super recruiter. People like Matthew Jeffery at SAP, Chris Hoyt at Pepsico, Paul Maxin at Unilever, Jeff Moore at Google, Arie Ball at Sodexo, Donna Quintal at Sears, Anne-Marie O’Donnell at Oracle, Lars Schmidt at NPR, Ted Meulenkamp at Roche, and a number of others. Individuals who are much more strategic than tactical, who have high level influence. This is a great opportunity, but they are in the minority.

2: The sourcers – As with the Oracle model. 100% focussed on generating candidates by effective sourcing, and leaving the decision making, selection and recruiting to the line. A very lean, focussed role, with niche or location specialists. More opportunity for direct sourcing functions within larger organisations. Numbers driven, lean operations working on a just in time, on demand basis. Many of these roles could be filled by the new breed of contract recruiters, who come in as needed, and drop off when things are slack, or through RPO operations, importing expertise at the sourcing end. Potentially this will mean less opportunities for in-house recruiters.

3: Talent Networkers. I couldn’t think of a better term, although I’m sure there is one. This changes the recruiters role from filling jobs to populating the pipeline and the talent network. Sourcing people who are a cultural fit, with longer term potential as hires, and organising the data in the talent network for the hiring managers to recruit from. Whilst this role is proving valuable for those companies who go down this route, few companies will prove as forward thinking. We will also see a rise in companies like Norman Broadbent company Social Media Search providing this as an outsourced function.

4: Administrators – Managing the admin and logistics around recruiting such as interview scheduling, assessments etc on behalf of line manager, back to the days of the personnel manager. Whilst this has to be the least appealing option, cost considerations may well see this as the most likely route.

You might think I’m mad in thinking this, but it is too big a trend to ignore. You can come and disagree/discuss/debate this point with me at #DiceTru in Mountain View on the 15th Aug, SanFran on the 16th or #trulondon on the 6th Sept. I look forward to the debate!

Bill