Today on HCtv we featured a panel discussion from the Employee Referral Networks learning track and I was joined in a lively and thought-provoking discussion by Matt Grove, KPMG, Ben Gotkin, RSM McGladrey, and Scott Kahle, Dundridge Consulting.  Our main focus today was on the technology currently being used to manage, administer and enhance employee referral programs.  I’ll paraphrase their advice below.  (By the way, both Matt and Ben are speaking at SourceCon 2008 next week.)

Scott:  Be proactive!  Don’t just start an employee referral program and then never talk about it again with your workforce.  Make sure to have an active strategy for keeping it forefront in your talent acquisition strategy.

Ben:  The most critical component for recruiting efficiency is to ensure that any dealings with candidates are memoralized and managed through your applicant tracking system.

Matt:  Technology is great!  But don’t forget the fundamentals:  recruiting is about relationships.  You won’t hire anyone if you don’t TALK with people!

What is new in employee referral programs?  How is your organization actively working to keep your program verdant and valuable?

Social Recruiting Practices From Best Buy  Cheezhead

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business… and Recruiting?  Chris Brogan

More social recruiting ideas  CollegeRecruiter

In today’s webcast, Ed Newman, President of the Newman Group, unveiled his new vision of affecting employee quality and creating a talent mindset.  It’s a doozie- what a great idea.  I’ll encourage you to check out the whole webcast here when you get a chance.

A new role for talent acquisition? 

Ed suggests that for organizations to take their recruiting abilities to the next level, they shift focus from recruiters as administrators to network collaborators.  How?

• Become a Talent Coach - Leading, nurturing and sustaining networking practices amongst the hiring team.  (And don’t charge them with administrative tasks like entering a req in the system.)
• Assist the Hiring Manager in developing and maintaining a network of enough people to hire from (20 – 35)
• Identify prospects to be introduced to the Manager’s network (avoid the old boy network)
• Provide the tools for managing the Network (e.g. LinkedIn, Salesforce.com, etc.)
• Attend industry events with the Manager and organize social events
• Assist the manager maintain periodic, systematic communication with network members
• Create a Talent minded culture.  This synergy happens when everyone at a company- regardless of position- has the same thought when they meet someone new at a restaurant, at a party or on a plane:  Could this person work for us?

Network Theory

Additionally, he presented the radical idea of using network theory as a way to measure success.  Network theory is essentially a science that measures, through graphs, the strength of said network.  Its application here is through a relatively new concept of social media analysis, and there are some amazing tools out there assisting in this… Ed mentioned www.touchgraph.com- so I quickly made my way over there.  Using my name and HCI, this is a pictorial representation of the power of my network.  Pretty cool, huh?

A couple of weeks ago, Zach Thomas, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, presented on a webcast on Career and Social Website Evolution.

Social Technographics®

Source: Forrester’s NACTAS Devices & Access Online Survey, Q4 2006

Internally at HCI, we have a formal strategy to attract all of these users, and of course, this blog is part of that strategy.  A great fringe benefit is the heavy-lifting it will do in assisting with developing our talent brand.

How is your organization planning on capturing visitors to your social recruitment network?

If your aim is to be a master of social utilities, you should strive to mimic Accenture.  If your goal is to be an expert in campus marketing and talent acquisition, you have no better model than Carrie Dacey, where she leads the US Recruitment Marketing team.

Accenture has implemented some really courageous and innovative social networking methods.  And here’s a hint:  it isn’t all just about LinkedIn.  (No offense to LinkedIn, of course.)

• Video Blogs from real employees about real work.  Nothing says “realistic job preview” from hearing it directly from the source.  Our newest generation is not amused or tricked by actors reading scripts or corporate schills.
• Reading more your style?  Then surf on over to the at least one dozen different active blogs, again from real employees about their actual work and what it’s like to do it.
• Accenture has a virtual presence in Second Life.  Now, I never managed to even get out of the tutorial in SL, but that doesn’t mean others don’t play there.  (Apparently the top online user has spent a total of 726 hours online in SecondLife.  That’s over 30 NON-STOP days.  Or over 90 working days.)  Talk about a captive audience.  Enough has been said about the trials and tribulations of recruitment marketing by minds far more powerful than mine, so I won’t digress too much further.  But I must raise this final point:  if you aren’t there, who is?
• Yup, Accenture has a corporate Facebook page, too.  Actually, it has more than one.

Get the point yet?  These sites- and I am guessing their strategy- is about much more than “Apply Here for Job Now”.  Sure, that’s one of the overall aims, but it isn’t the end-all be-all.

Their social networking strategy also isn’t an endgame- rather, they already have a terrific talent mindset and want others that share in that vision, and this is how they figured out to find them.  Oh, and by the way, those blogs aren’t edited. 

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?

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