Hrcom Impact Of Social Networking On Recruiting

Impact of Social Networking on Recruiting Moderator: Glenn Gutmacher Internet Researcher, Microsoft (781) 487-6611 [email protected]

Panelist: Dave Mendoza Dave Mendoza & Associates (720) 733-2022 [email protected]

Panelist: Shally Steckerl Founder, JobMachine (678) 388-9208 [email protected]

Panelist: Diane Pardee Chief Marketing Officer SelectMinds, Inc. [email protected]

Connect to us on your social networks to increase your reach!

Social Networking’s Scope in Recruiting What we’ve been used to is evolving: • Virtual communities evolving out of user groups (i.e., Usenet posts archived at http://groups.google.com) and discussion chat (e.g., lists like http://groups.yahoo.com) • Recruiter discussions on lists like those hosted by ERE.net, making forums feel a bit more lively, are starting to transition into portals (e.g., TechRepublic.com) • ATS and HRMS systems that hold past employee data but nothing done with it
corporate and college alumni networks

Plus entirely new entities taking hold: • major social networking portals: both general ones (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, etc.) and niche (by industry, job function, geography, diversity, etc.) • social network data-aggregation tools like Pipl, Spock, Wink, etc. • Tools to reach out (IM, blogs, podcasts) and widgets/gadgets (content and functionality feeds) for one's website to add interest and stickiness to your website • Creating your own content to syndicate out via RSS, widgets, etc.

Social Networking – ease of finding Major players (recruiting/businessfocused): • LinkedIn.com (18MM accounts) • Xing.com (4MM accounts) More social, less business: • But too large to ignore! • Facebook.com (58MM accounts, > half are outside college vs. zero in Sept. 2006, average visit 20 min., growth rate 250,000/day www.facebook.com/press/info.php?st atistics) • MySpace.com (200MM accounts, growth rate 230,000/day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace)

Other major players by geography: • Bebo – UK, ANZ • Orkut – Brazil, Portugal • See annotated list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_s ocial_networking_websites Aggregators: • Pipl.com • Spock.com • Wink.com

LinkedIn.com Best balance of critical mass of professional users, networking tools and searchability: • •

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Many fields to search on, supports boolean search Fairly easy & quick to get to >4MM viewable profiles using TopLinked.com, MyLink500.com, etc. Join groups or launch your own Answers section and Recommendations feature facilitate self-branding as expert Paid membership tier fast-tracks outreach (e.g., InMail, job posting)

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Make sure to connect to all us panelists on LinkedIn to dramatically boost your network free - type our names and email addresses from first slide at www.linkedin.com/inviteMany Use search engines to find profiles that are outside your 3-degree network

Functionality is similar on other social networks, though often less robust and/or requires paid membership

Facebook.com and… Facebook has grown dramatically thanks to the post-college demographic and the many 3rd party apps that its open API allows even novice developers to create easily… and it lets companies self-promote Facebook allows Web 2.0 marketing/ branding - adapt for recruiting: • Mazda Design Challenge www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7 602701619 • Inexpensive to promote yourself (see Facebook recruiting tips at http://jobsinpods.wordpress.com/cate gory/facebook-recruiting-tips/ )

Group and Social network creation: • Creating groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., is a way to “own” a growing community for free • Ning.com is among the growing number of social network self-creation tools that also support widgets

Consider all Web 2.0 tools: Pay per click ads, RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, social tags, search engines, streaming video & other viral content Widgets: See appendix slides for many sources of (typically free) dynamic content via widgets, gadgets, plugins, add-ons, etc.

Other worthy social networks Plaxo Pulse (http://pulse.plaxo.com): • •

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It's a widget that aggregates all your online presences into one badge you can put badge on your blog, etc., and it emails your contacts with updates (e.g., see http://jobmachine.net/blog/shally on the left side above the blogroll). Plaxo auto-synchronizes changes in other people’s contact info with your address book (Outlook, etc.) This blogpost compares Plaxo and LinkedIn: www.staffbytes.com/241/isplaxo-the-new-linkedin/

Ziki (ziki.com) • Another approach to the aggregated online presence (e.g., see www.ziki.com/en/people/shally)

Blog Search: How-To Use niche search tools that just search blogs: •

Technorati.com

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IceRocket.com

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http://blogsearch.google.com

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http://search.blogger.com

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Industry-specific blog search is also growing (e.g., Blawgsearch.com across Legal blogs)

Blogosphere for Recruiting 1.

Blogs are also how many recruiting thought leaders and other industry professionals convey their perspectives (e.g., Gerry Crispin, Kevin Wheeler, and see Shally’s favorite blogs at www.ere.net/blogs/CyberSleuthing/DCEC4 C0E35004B92902198F19D228131.asp)

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Find voices you find interesting, provocative and/or insightful: –

Check blogrolls of blogs you like

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Check directories like RecruitingFly.com and http://community.hrblogs.org

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Check amalgamations of blogs as on Recruiting.com, ERE.net and RecruitingBloggers.com

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Use an RSS reader to follow them –

Most Web-based ones are free (e.g., Google Reader, Live.com)

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also available in your email (e.g., Attensa.com plug-in for Outlook 2003; RSS is integrated in Outlook 2007)

Large virtual communities with blogs •

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This is not an exhaustive list: -

Spaces.live.com

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blogspot.com

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LiveJournal.com

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360.Yahoo.com

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Weblogs.com

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Technorati.com

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members.aol.com

Besides searching directly on/from these sites, you can add site: in front of any of these to add to a search string. Example: site:myspace.com occupation.*.accountant intitle:tennessee

Corporate Blogs: What & Why? •

If you can discover and reach interesting prospects via blogs, doesn’t it make sense for prospects to be able to find interesting companies via their blogs?

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Gives you a chance to engage prospects in a powerful by: –

Showing your expertise / reinforcing that your company is “in the know”

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Conveying a genuine interest in the ongoing professional development of people in the field, whether considering a job change or not.

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Get them to participate in dialog (e.g., blog comments) and helping them evangelize/generate buzz with their peers

Corporate Blog: Value Propositions • • • • • • •

Allows both your staffing organization and its niche product/service/technology groups to heighten your personal and/or corporate brand Blogs raise search engine rank (SEO) of niche skillset terminology pages tied to a product or corporate brand Enhance the profile of employee bloggers as subject matter experts Enhance retention by maximizing the personal brand association with the latest technologies, product launches, software development research, etc., of the corporate brand identity Provides a vehicle for comments and forum widgets to share best practices in real time A good blog asks (or answers) questions about organizations, associations and competitors and, in the process, enhances the competitive intelligence research capabilities of your staffing organization. Above all, blogs offer your staffing organization a vibrant, direct marketing tool

Blogging For Talent

•Value Content - Industry News, Tips, & Job Postings •Design •Cool Factor •Frequent Posting •Links from Other Blogs •Search Engine Optimization http://recruitersdumpingground.blogspot.com/2007/02/t-mobile-jobs.html

Combining Blogs & User Forums = Candidate Attraction

http://www.cecsearch.com/phpBB/index.php

Blogs & Yahoo Groups

COMMUNITY http://www.wirelessjobs.com

Leveraging Alumni and Corporate Social Networks • • •

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Highlight your company’s enterprise social networks to new hires—gives you the winning edge with Gen Y + college recruits Build referral programs into your enterprise social networks and mine them heavily. Provide financial incentives Plug into your Corporate Alumni online network—mine the back-end analytics—who does what, knows whom, is interested in….be sure the profile includes job preference information Manage your own network of corporate alumni on your company’s proprietary alumni network Connect current employees with former employees—they will come back to work with their friends again Create a job section with your positions and those your alumni post—creates a broader job marketplace Use your company’s retiree social network to staff flexible job opportunities Use your company’s women’s network to bring women back from family leave—use the network to keep them current on professional accreditation, tied to their former colleagues

Quantifying Return: Rehiring Former Employees Clients told us Rehires ramp 49% faster than experienced external hires

Why do we care? Average Revenue Per Employee/Per Day Average Number of Rehires/Year

$882 156

Time Savings to Productivity: Rehires vs External Hires

99 days

Average Productivity “Boost” Rehires vs External Hires

$13,633,328*

* This equals approximately 0.4% of total revenue, on average, for the clients surveyed.

Quantifying Return: Rehiring Former Employees Clients told us: 66% of rehires become Star Performers versus 26% of all experienced hires

Quantifying Return: Rehiring Former Employees •

Star Performers are 3X more productive than average performers – According to The Corporate Executive Board’s Recruiting Roundtable – Productivity = Revenue per employee

Average Revenue Per Employee/Per Year

$232,808

Average number of rehires/year

156

Average number of Star Performers

103

Avg. Star Performer Productivity “Boost”

$48,115,596*

* This equals approximately 1.42% of total revenue, on average, for the clients surveyed.

Assumptions: Workplace Connections Research Report • Connectivity = Productivity • 87%: most productive when surrounded by colleagues with whom they have a good relationship/rapport. • 57%: expanding their professional network helps them do their job more effectively. • 65%: networking is extremely beneficial to their professional development. • 63%: the quality of information from personal contacts is superior

• Connectivity = Retention • 83%: trusted relationships with co-workers and suppliers are a critical reason for joining and staying with an employer. • 70%: the social aspects of work are very important to their workplace satisfaction. • One in four reports quitting a job due to feelings of isolation.

How do you put it all together? It's the synergy of all the employment branding and outreach methods that creates the greatest effect: Increase sourcing pipelines/efficiencies using Web 2.0 tools Using Web 2.0 sites as recruitment marketing vehicles your corporate/alumni community corporate staffing blogs syndicating other content out (e.g., job widgets) building your personal branding within niche talent groups (industry and college level) – the dual corporate strategy between the technical and staffing sides of the house

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Q&A and Thank You! • Connect to us all on LinkedIn and raise your network by over a million names for free: www.linkedin.com/inviteMany • • • •

Glenn Gutmacher ([email protected]) Dave Mendoza ([email protected]) Diane Pardee ([email protected]) Shally Steckerl ([email protected])

• And other social networks, too!

(reference) How to Blog •

Be yourself, use your real name and title

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Express your own ideas. Use the blog to reflect the company’s image and values, but don’t just “two the company line” – express your own thoughts and ideas too.

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Stay on point. You are an expert on recruiting in your industry, the theme of your blog should stay within the realm of your expertise.

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Stay fresh. Frequency is an often debated point, but post at least a couple of times per month.

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Be positive. Don’t treat the blog as a soapbox from where you can attack things or people you don’t like. Its ok to think critically but don’t be offensive.

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Maintain confidentiality. Don’t disclose confidential company information, or things people have asked you to keep secret about them.

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Don’t copy. If you like something else you see online, by all means comment and link to it but don’t copy it.

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If you have a team blog, it may help to create some blogging policies in writing so that your team and guest bloggers know what rules to follow.

(reference) Audience Targeting •

Engage candidates from a what’s-in-it-for-me perspective, not just what’s cool about your company

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Even those that do usually do a one-size-fits-all appeal to everyone, or at best college vs. industry candidates

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They rarely target their content to the specific audiences that are hardest to attract, biggest ongoing pipeline needs, etc.

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Analyze who your most important audiences are, and ignore the rest when developing your website/blog

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By maintaining a razor-sharp focus, you will stand out and insure greater appeal to the important minority who will evangelize for you

(reference) More example Corporate Blogs • http://googleblog.blogspot.com/index.html • Honeywell http://honeywellblogs.com/ • Getronics http://us.getronicsjobs.com/dayinthelife/ • Intel http://blogs.intel.com/it/ • SouthWest Airlines http://www.blogsouthwest.com/ • Harvard Law WebLogs http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/home/ • America’s Army Blogs http://www.americasarmy.com/community/blogs.php • Peace Corps Recruiting Blog http://www.thirdgoal.com/

Content Sources: Automated Widgets (also known as badges, gadgets or blidgits): mostly free tools that provide content and/or functionality on your website/blog that are easy to install •

Simple way to add relevant, dynamically-updated content

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Many types of widgets available, and growing rapidly

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No programming skills needed, but level of customization may be limited

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Some are ad-supported, so check a few sites with them running to see if the look and feel is acceptable

Content Sources: Automated Some of the many widget repositories you can tap; many work on any website, but you may need to copy the Javascript code version to the web page if you are not using one of the main blog platforms (Typepad, Wordpress, etc.), requiring a bit of HTML knowledge: •

Widgetbox – comprehensive set of offerings (www.widgetbox.com)

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TypePad: www.sixapart.com/typepad/widgets/ (partners with www.widgetbox.com for many of theirs; also many independents are creating widgets)

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A recommended best-of-blog list: www.stephanspencer.com/archives/2007/01/19/best-of-theblog-widgets/

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Widgetoko – another growing compendium of selected widgets (www.widgetoko.com) with links to other compendia at bottom right of homepage

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Live.com (“gadgets”) and Google.com (“widgets”) also have many plugins/add-ons

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Or use the WidgetFinder search tool (www.squidoo.com/widgetfinder)

(reference) Content Sources: Automated Examples of widgets that would probably add value to a website/blog targeting a niche passive candidate audience: •

News headlines: Select category of stories and get a headline feed (or create your own) – newscloud.com or newsvine.com

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Site search: You can have instant searchability of your blog (or entire site), including automatic “most popular” searches based on your visitors’ behavior, relevant results from other sites you pick, other blogs’ topically-related posts, etc.

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Polls: Can be more engaging than simply requesting comments (also at polldaddy.com, etc.)

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Audio: add visitors’ audio comments to a blog

(reference) Content Sources: Automated These widgets would help if you had certain experts, magnet hires, etc., as bloggers whose opinions would interest your target audience: •

Library widget: what books s/he’s reading, ability to search his/her library

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Box.net: File/content sharing

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Social bookmarking tools / sharing – helps get content disseminated virally

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Think creatively on how you could leverage existing widgets, or even utilize your company’s techies to create your own!

(reference) Content Sources: Automated Install free widgets on your website/blog that allow instant communication with active/passive candidates. •

IM chat might be less intrusive than instant phone (e.g., meebome.com), but phone is more natural to some candidates (e.g., jaxtr.com)

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If it's a corporation with resources behind the blog, you could have a recruiting receptionist capable of handling the initial inflow and routing calls appropriately

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Some widgets even allow video calls (e.g., WengoVisio)

Content Sources: Automated Widgets of value to yourself/your company: •

Subscribe to alerts: Let people subscribe to your feed via email or IM

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Text messaging: opt-in to capture people’s mobile phones to send them news, jobs, etc., via text message

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Popularity: Identify which links your visitors click most frequently

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Traffic: lets you see site traffic without having to need access to server logs

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Linking: what sites/blogs are linking to you?

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Many others of this type at www.sixapart.com/typepad/widgets/publishing_tools/ and other aforementioned widget directories

Content Sources: Automated Widgets you may or may not want to include: •

Corporate photo stream: auto-cycles through corporate campus pictures – show your cafeteria, nursery, parking lot security, gym, diverse staff, etc. (some will even do streaming video)

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Job search: these pull from the major job aggregators, meaning that while you can set very specific search criteria, the results will include jobs other than your own

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Music and games: fun content, but is it more distracting than anything else? Is your website really the place you want associated with that?

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Video search: The vast majority of available video is still entertainment-focused, so you may be perceived as promoting time squandering

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Q&A: user-generated answers to questions topically related to your blog; problem is that you don’t control what’s shown within that topic

Content Sources: Manual •

Original blog posts don’t have to be long -- many popular blogs consist of frequent, 2-sentence posts about things, and link to the original sources

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Putting your spin on (and linking to) an industry news item can be compelling

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Use a rotating blog format whereby each participant only has to contribute once per week/month

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If you read something interesting in a newsletter, forum, mailing list, etc., or otherwise not already published to a blog, offer to publish it with whatever crediting they desire. (Almost always you will get permission without cash compensation.)

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Stockpile blog posts that are not time-sensitive to use when you are short on material

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Whatever you do, do it regularly. One new item daily is ideal. Your resource will become known.

Leveraging Available Resources •

Your company includes industry experts – the people who already do the work that equate to the roles you’re trying to fill

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Find the more knowledgeable and curious employees who seem to know what the latest cool tools, methods, resources, etc., are

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Team them up with good writers/editors if they cannot write well

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They are more credible as blog posters than marketing or recruiting spokespeople

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Have them rotate the blog contribution responsibilities

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Get them invested in the process by participating in a task force on company blogging, send them to industry conferences to discuss blogging on panels, etc.

Separate domain for your blog portal? PROS •

Credibility as an individual voice vs. another "corporate puppet“

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Able to be creative with look/feel and design

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More freedom of content choices

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Portability – can more easily move from one blog platform/technology to another, what company division it falls under, etc.

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You can pick an industry term for the site (e.g., OpticalNetworkResearchers.com) which reinforces the “objective” feel you want

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Ranks higher on search engines when domain name contains keywords

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More likely to get cooperative link exchanges

CONS •

Does not reinforce company brand

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May appear slimy to not openly connect your company as source of content

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May not get corporate funding or support

Example Corporate Blogs