How deep is your organization’s talent pipeline?  How many years will it serve?  If you are one of many industries in the world facing looming talent shortages, these questions are of critical importance.  And let’s face it, those talent needs are not going to be satisfied simply be playing the recruitment version of musical chairs.  Is it your turn to hire that one local professional that every competitor in town has employed for 2 years?

In our live webcast today, Robin Miller, Director of Staffing at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, and Susan Milliken, Executive Director of Futures for Kids (F4K) talked about BCBSNC’s talent pipeline programs and how to bridge the gap between employers, students and careers.  At BCBSNC, their strategy targets both entry-level talent and professional talent.  Their entry-level needs are served by high school partnerships, including established ventures with:

• National Academy Foundation Programs
• Business Advisory Boards
• Career Fairs and Mock Interviews
• Futures for Kids:  I have had the pleasure of working with F4K starting in a past life.  In a nutshell, F4K “bridges the gap between the hopes and dreams of our students and the workforce development needs of our communities.”  Through targeted programs at middle- and high-schools, F4K
• Uses the Internet to help students discover what makes them tick
• Allows kids to explore careers that match their unique talents
• Gives every student a career coach to talk to
• Empowers educators with information about their kids’ career goals
• Enables businesses to grow their future workforce locally
• Shows our kids careers that can make them happy

Additionally, their professional talent pipeline is filled through:

• College Internship Program- think of this as a “broad-stroke” solution designed to give rising seniors from participants universities experience in multiple facets of careers at BCBSNC
• Apprenticeship Program-  is truly a part-time experience while enrolled in university
• Direct College Hire Program- a training program that includes leadership and technical courses

I am really impressed by how thoughtful and successful BCBSNC has been in designing and implementing these programs.  Want more info about partnering with F4K in North Carolina, Canada or pilots in the world beyond?  Check them out online.

I promised in an earlier post to tell you about my June traveling roadshow- HCI, MonsterTrak and Monster MediaWorks teamed up to go on a three city tour across our great country with pitstops in Chicago, LA and New York City.  Along the way, we showcased some great information about recruiting young people on campus, and met some terrific recruiters.

Our first stop was Chicago, and the event was held at the University Club of Chicago.  I love these old clubs- the decor of the space was so collegial and last-century.  (I’ll include some pictures that I took along the way here as well.)  For those of you that haven’t been to an HCI Innovation Tour- it’s a great experience.  Typically these are free, breakfast, networking and information events.  In this tour, we decided to feature the co-authors of Recruit or Die, Chris Resto and Ian Ybarra.  Chris was the keynote speaker in Chicago.

I’ve already written a bit about Recruit or Die here.  After Chris’ keynote, we had a panel session with Chris, Ian, and Carrie Dacey from Accenture.  We started out the panel discussion with my proposition of the following main challenges facing employers looking to recruit college grads.

The Challenges…

• Finding the right young talent
• Exponential growth in social media
• Crafting an appealing message
• Delivering the message
• Standing out in a crowd!

If you have suggestions of other challenges I missed, or would like to delete one from the list, feel free to say so in comments.

We ended the day by engaging our panelists in some thought-provoking questions, and the couple that I found the most interesting were:

• Q:What are some examples of innovative ways organizations are using social media? 
• A:From Chris and Ian:  Don’t just use it to use it.  Make sure you already have a great recruitment process in place and that your social media strategy works to elevate one or more aspects of Career, Glamour, Gossip.
• A:From Carrie: I’ll be writing about Accenture’s awesome strategy in the next few days.  They include blogs, Facebook, podcasts and SecondLife, among others.
• Q:How are employers delivering (career opportunity) messages?
• A:From Carrie:  Accenture uses an integrated web-based approach to delivering messages to recruits: Drive candidates to website or dedicated landing page through electronic newsletters, email campaigns, online banner ads, one-on-one conversations, search marketing tactics, campus events and presentations, print ads and on-campus ads, and print collateral.
• A:From Chris and Ian:  Compile case studies of past hires - their background, other companies they could have worked for, how they grew in their roles, options they had later and where they are now.   Post-offer management - multiple contacts at firm, visits to office, extended decision periods, and community building

 

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