In a previous post, I offered the opinion that passionate recruiters are crucial to a successful company. Dan Black is one of these rockstars. I spent the beginning of June this year traveling coast to coast for an HCI Innovation Tour on campus recruiting, and Dan was part of our panel in NYC. It was superb event, and I’ll share more about it in posts to come.

Dan is the Director of Campus Recruiting at Ernst & Young, and like many great recruiters, he didn’t set out from college with a career in talent acquisition in mind. In fact, he’s an accountant! But now he leads the college recruiting efforts for a global organization and is a shining example of a corporation that “gets it right.” I’ll use their gigantic Facebook profile to demonstrate how this is true.

Aside from the obvious typical recruitment pitches you’ll see here, (read: brand, logo, career website link, recruiting collateral) the surfer will also find an extensive network of alums, interns, and interested candidates, a mechanism to share UNEDITED thoughts on EY, great resources on real career opportunities, and info about EY’s view on social responsibility, among others.

Anyone that says young people don’t want employers to be on FB- the proof is in the pudding. Check out how many fans they have. So, does your org have a Facebook profile?

According to Chris Resto, Ian Ybarra, and Ramit Sethi, authors of the definitive book on recruiting Millennials, Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat The Big Guys In the War For Young Talent, the three essential facts to know about young talent are Career, Glamour and Gossip.

What does this mean?

Career: Millennials want options. Resto, et al., use Teach for America to illustrate this point. Working at Teach for America satisfies so many of the desires of young people. The work is philanthropic: its aim is nothing less than changing what they define as our nation’s greatest injustice- educational inequality. The corps is close-ended: it requires a 2 year commitment so applicants know they won’t get pigeon-holed. It is very competitive- in 2007 18000 individuals applied and less than 3000 were hired. Finally, Teach for America proudly declares what their employees do AFTER the job has ended in the form of graduate school and corporate partnerships, like the Top 10 law schools and Google, McKinsey and GE, and alum discussion portals.

Glamour: Remember, the generation we’re discussing has been marketed to since long before they were allowed to swim in the pool unsupervised. This is the generation for which the term “tween” was coined. If it isn’t rewarding, they ain’t comin’. But it isn’t just about the money. Sure, that’s great, but glamour encompasses a whole host of benes you can offer to make them feel special- the key is to make them feel MORE special than anyone else. That might include cool or critical work assignments, personal relationship opportunities with a big cheese, or perks like concert tickets and travel.

Gossip: If you know any young people, you know they are mixers and connectors- they love to talk and have about 10 different ways to do so. And they are totally into information. Remember, we’re talking about the generation raised on 24 hour-a-day news and instant internet updates. Everything an employer does, say the authors, GOOD or BAD, is amplified.

Presented by Meredith Morris, Senior Research Analyst at Monster Intelligence, and Liz Friedman, Group Marketing Manager at Microsoft.

For the first part of the webcast, Meredith presented data from MonsterTrak’s 2008 Annual Entry-Level Job Outlook Survey.  Key takeaways:

• That although the number of companies planning on hiring recent college grads is decreasing, organizations that are planning to hire new grads are going to hire more than last year.  Meredith said there are several factors that influence this- she mentioned lower salaries for entry-level employees, increased technology skills in younger workers, and quality of talent as some possible few.
• There is a disconnect between employers and college job seekers on what the purpose of the interview is.  Job Seekers think the interview is designed to allow employers to assess their experience, while companies say they are looking to evaluate the candidate’s behaviors.

I am thinking…

Is your organization strategically planning on hiring new grads this year?  Is the total number up or down from last year?

How should we systemically address this soft versus hard skills evaluation issue to set expectations appropriately?

The second part of the webcast was a case study from Microsoft on creating a candidate value proposition, and Liz shared some great information with us.  I was most impressed by the “pillars” of their CVP- People, Opportunity and Impact.  What a cross-generational appealing message.  She also shared some examples of how MSFT is getting the “word” out about why candidates would want to work there using some really cool niche sites:

• Improving the Candidate Experience
• Valuing Diversity at Microsoft
• Thinking outside of the box- campus-style

I am thrilled to be launching a new blog on talent acquisition- what a fantastic place to discourse on the good, great, and not-so-great practices, people, and ideas I have the privilege of hearing every day.  It is my role and pleasure to direct the content we present to you on the topic of finding and hiring talent, and I spend most of my days seeking out the very same.

I’d like to set the tone for each consecutive entry you’ll read here by offering an opinion on a consistent theme I see behind every organization that gets it right.  And I’m not talking just about hiring the best folks, I also mean offering the most to the world, reaping great returns and generally exceeding where others fail.  My proposal is this:  that greatness balances on the edge of one individual’s passion.  It all begins with one person’s devotion and enthusiasm, and can’t succeed without it.  So what am I saying?  That passionate recruiters- those loyally devoted to hiring the best and staking their claim on nothing less- are the first critical component to hiring terrific people.

Look around you- who are these rock stars of talent acquisition?  I encourage you to nominate them here- we need to showcase their passion.  Maybe it’s even you!