I'm a firm believer that one-on-one, in-person communication is important, especially in a world where emails, instant messaging, Twitter, and Facebook dominate. I'm sure everyone has experienced an issue where their written words were construed to take on a tone that was never intended. While those issues are usually resolved by hashing things out with a conversation, taking the time to do that initially, could just as easily prevent the issue in the first place.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the Annual HRPA Conference and Tradeshow in Toronto. At the event, there were plenty of HR professionals talking about the latest trends, but there was one that stuck out. I had a discussion with a conference attendee, which centered on increasing interpersonal communication, and decreasing dependency on technology to boost success rates in candidate and employee management. As a representative of iCIMS, a SaaS provider, I was opposed, but the more I sat on the subject, the more I understood exactly what he was getting at - it's about striking the balance.

Candidates and employees alike need a gateway to information that will impact them - whether they need to understand what the process is for the performance review period or at what stage of the interview process they're at as a job candidate or hiring manager, people need access to information in a central location and need to know who they can call, for further explanation of certain topics.

Solely using technology to communicate can create gaps - it has to be used as a supplement to a conversation. On a supplemental level, technology can create a rounded process that not only supports the initial communications, but drives messages home with corporate branding and a defined organizational tone that can be referenced in the future. Not only does this improve communication, but it helps define an organizations' culture and values while simultaneously streamlining processes and procedures.

So, my question to HR Professionals is how have you utilized technology to support communication within your HR programs and how has it impacted your results?

We've all heard the line about HR being a cost-center to a company, but there is a growing trend among progressive HR Leaders to buck this notion through a creative means to drive new revenue. The source… in-bound candidates and job seekers. Think of how many resumes/applications your company receives on a daily basis. Over time, this becomes a group of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of individuals that have expressed interest in employment with your company. These people have suggested that they want to make your brand a part of their careers; a part of their lives. This audience of captive interest is invaluable to a company; however, many solely see this value within context of talent acquisition. More and more companies have found success in strategies that convert this passion for employment into an even greater passion for your brand.

Over the past decade, talent acquisition departments have vastly improved their approach to employment branding. Within the iCIMS' Talent Platform, many clients already use our HTML Communication Center to deliver branded communications. Some of the more progressive companies have taken this a step further, aligning their efforts directly with Marketing, by incorporating coupons or discount codes on the automatically generated emails that a candidate receives when applying. In addition, how about softening the blow of a rejection letter by including a similarly branded gift certificate for in-store or online use? Consider this:

A candidate applies online for a general manager position at a national restaurant chain. In his confirmation email, an eye catching HTML coupon is included for 10% off the entire bill at this restaurant. This applicant, already excited about the prospect of working for the company, now shares this passion with his family with dinner to your nearby restaurant location. This helps to foster both an increased employment brand image, as well as the brand loyalty every marketer aims to develop.

All promote a healthy job seeker-employer relationship, develop more general brand awareness, and (for iCIMS users) are actually very easy to make reality within our technology. 

Applicants are hanging on every word from the employer about their application, so there is your captive audience. Nearly guaranteed to read it!! Run that by your marketing friends and see if their ears perk up. Of course, this type of program may not make sense for all organizations, but for many it seems like there could be numerous benefits. For these brands, a program along these lines, with discount codes specific to HR, could certainly add a new arrow in HR’s profit center quiver. While this kind of strategy might not break many sales records at any organizations, every company values new ideas to improve the bottom line... and especially value those progressive minds that bring such ideas to the table.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this concept and if you think it would make sense at your company.

So I, much like many of you I'm sure, am frantically trying to complete my holiday shopping for friends and family. As much as I try to finish this daunting task in the early Fall, every year there are a few people on my list who cause me much angst to find that perfect gift and stretch my creative process.

As I began tackling this year's holiday gifts, I found myself thinking about overhauling my "gift process" to better leverage assisting technologies. Crazy, perhaps…or perhaps you think I just need to get on the band wagon? My husband thinks I'm obsessive with my whole approach to holiday gift sourcing and tracking and perhaps he's right. But with 30+ people to shop for, if I'm not careful, December 24th will be here before I know it, and rather than finding that perfect gift I'm excited to give, I fear I'll end up getting close family a holiday sweater, or worse yet, a re-gift…

So, what's my process now? It's what I'll call an organized mass of spreadsheets:

1. I've got my spreadsheet that tracks the family and friends to shop for, their interests, and potential gift ideas,
2. Our overall budget and expense breakdown by person and gift,
3. And the status of each gift in the process - drop down menus to eliminate confusion if the gift is on order, shipped, arrived, or wrapped.

With the onslaught of highly beneficial technology available, I need to consider moving my offline flow to a more efficient, productive technology for managing my efforts. A quick search online, and I am easily shown that my painful spreadsheet tracking can be laid to rest with some automated tools designed to enhance my productivity and reduce my manual efforts. An obvious recruiting correlation here that you might think I’m stretching for, but work with me… it's here!

• Sourcing: Finding that perfect gift, like finding that perfect candidate, can easily be facilitated with sourcing technology. Check out this site where I can define profiles and personality traits for my gift recipients. A pre-defined list can be generated: http://www.gifts.com/profiler. 
• Tracking: Like losing a resume in a paper pile, I am at risk of one-off-post-it notes with gift ideas that don't make their way to my spreadsheet. Centrally stored data for tracking gift lists and wish lists would reduce my manual tracking. Some great options here: http://lifehacker.com/5700124/five-best-gift+tracking-tool.
• Organizing: Like the tracker, staying organized and well informed with all of my gift/recipient – or key candidate – data in one accessible location is ideal. Amazon's Gift Organizer is just the ticket: https://www.amazon.com/gp/gift-central/organizer?ie=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0
• Reporting: Whether you're an HR Professional looking to pull recruiting metrics or a gift-obsessed holiday shopper like myself looking to stay on budget, reporting technologies are key to success.

So it's clearly time to replace my old, faithful spreadsheet and embrace technologies that can improve my efforts. I will let you know which one rings in as the favorite. So stay tuned faithful shoppers and good luck in all your holiday efforts!

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if your recruitment message could remain the same when sourcing passive candidates from around the world? Life would be much easier…

I say this because I’m currently in the process of researching best practices for sourcing passive candidates. And, in all of my findings it seems that what works for one group of people, may not necessarily work for another. Solution: targeted messaging. I am sure you have heard this all before, but I think one of the most effective ways to source passive candidates around the world is to 1) understand what they value and 2) speak their language.

When passively recruiting, whether through mass email or other channels, it is important to modify your recruitment messaging to reflect your target audience’s interest. With a little research, you can determine what company principles these candidates value. In a discussion with one of my coworkers, I found out that in India some candidates prefer the financial stability of a company and the popularity of the brand name, as both will help them better network in business circles. While other candidates might be more interested in monetary benefits such as a retirement savings plan.

Further, one of the more basic, yet interesting, fumbles that recruiters can make when recruiting international candidates is word choice. Let’s take a simple example:

You recruit for a best-in-class company with an outstanding onboarding program. You want your new recruits to succeed, so you therefore provide a seamless onboarding program with the right training to help them transition successfully. Well, now you are opening an office in the UK, and you need some local talent to support your endeavor. When targeting a certain sector, choose the right words! So, while the word “onboarding” may be used in the UK, you might want to try using a more common word: “induction”. Why not try changing your messaging to say: “We provide an unmatched induction programme because we want all of our personnel to succeed.”

Also, it is essential to have the right tools in place to drive your messaging. Sourcing and CRM tools usually make it pretty easy to send frequent, targeted messages to the right people. There is nothing worse then sending a message intended for Italian candidates to Japanese top talent.

Although you are an HR Professional, it’s important to leverage those basic Marketing skills when sourcing passive candidates. Target your messaging and you may just find you are sourcing the top talent needed to drive your company’s success.

I always start off my morning the same: get up, take out/feed the dog (Penny), get myself together for work, pour my cereal and coffee and grab my copy of Entertainment Weekly…I mean the New York Times. Yesterday was no different. Cereal was in place, newspaper was in line. All I needed was my coffee and I was good to go. I stood up from my chair, went about seven feet and bam…sneak attack…the dog went for the newspaper. (Oddly enough, not the food…) Even the dog wanted to read all the news that's fit to print! Or eat it anyway. Slow to react, the dog shred the paper in about 2.53 seconds. In a huff, I got the newspaper away from her, dumped it in the recycling and opted for the entertainment magazine instead. Penny lives and breathes the very definition of troublemaker, but there is one other word that I like to describe her as: a Doer. Penny is proactive. She searches for what she wants and she gets it. I chose to write about this little anecdote because 1) I find any chance I can to talk about my dog and, 2) what Penny did made me think, ironically enough, about my job. By studying my movements and waiting for the exact moment, Penny was one step ahead of me. I was unprepared for her move and thus, she gained an advantage over me. Now, let me subtly link this to Human Resources. It reminds me that HR thinkers need to stay one step ahead in order to develop a competitive advantage in the “war for talent”.

Everyone is competing to become an expert in their position. And, being in an industry that connects directly with Human Resource topics, I, too, find myself on this quest for absolute knowledge. Through research and analyses, HR professionals can stay one step ahead and create a competitive advantage that will lead to a more effective HR department.

Creating a competitive advantage can be process or employee specific. Let’s look at an example:

Company X and Company Y both operate in the Retail Industry. Both have stores in all fifty states and both require 30 employees per store. Company X has a 75-person talent pool to acquire candidates from while Company Y only has a 45-person talent pool. With a larger talent pool, Company X is more likely to source qualified talent quickly; thus lowering time-to-fill and improving employee retention. Obviously, Company X has developed some sort of competitive advantage causing an increase in candidate engagement as compared to Company Y.

The main question is: what did Company X do differently? Well, there are a number of possible answers. For example, Company X has an:

• Easy-to-complete application process
• Notably positive corporate culture
• Correctly targeted recruitment campaigns

But the real answer is they took the knowledge they gained through research and applied it to the challenges they were facing with departmental efficiency.

Human Resources is an age old department with age old processes. What companies CAN do is take those standard processes and learn how to effectively deploy them. And, as time passes, so do techniques. Bigger and better techniques surface (i.e. social media, applicant tracking systems, CRM tools, etc.) enabling companies utilizing them to create larger talent pools, acquire more specialized candidates, lower recruiting expenses and create a competitive advantage in the war for talent.

Here are a few examples (as you know, there are many):

Global Competitive Advantage:
Global firms can focus on a more diverse employee base when targeting top talent. In a SHRM study, more than half of the companies evaluated found a greater competitive advantage after focusing on diversity. The greater the diversity, the larger the scope of backgrounds and skills; thus, companies were able to effectively operate in a more global environment.

Hourly Competitive Advantage:
Companies that rely on hourly hiring can drastically reduce paper expenses and lost document error associated with high application volumes. By installing on-site web-based application kiosks that enable all walk-in candidates to directly send their information to an online database, these companies can eliminate the time and money spent on application data entry and printing. More time can be spent on sourcing top talent.

Employee-Type Competitive Advantage:
Healthcare organizations, for example, require a wide variety of workers often with necessary certifications. These companies can target LinkedIn focus groups to source specialized employee types such as nurse, part-time and volunteer.

So, stay one step ahead by researching, analyzing and implementing. Acknowledge the challenges you face, research solutions, and implement for a more effective department. Create a competitive advantage within your HR department to acquire top talent before your competitor does. As for Penny, I think it is time to practice “Stay”.

Sourcing can mean a few different things in an organization, depending on your function.  For example, some may immediately think of procurement.  However, to a corporate recruiter, a sourcer, or sometimes also called a researcher, is a strategic member of the recruitment team who partners with a full life-cycle recruiter and whose job is to proactively find passive candidates.  If done right, creating an internal sourcing team can save a company millions of dollars.  At least, that was my experience. 

I was fortunate enough to be a part of a forward thinking organization that wanted to reduce the amount of money they spent working with third-party staffing companies and headhunters.  As a result, they hired a virtual team of 4 and created a sourcing team.  The team eventually grew to 7 and in the first year, saved the company over 2 million dollars in agency spending, reduced their time-to-fill, and cost-per-hire.

When attending sourcing conferences or recruiting events and talking with other corporate recruiters, I would usually get two immediate questions: 

1. Why can’t full life-cycle recruiters do their own sourcing?
2. How do you find your candidates?

Starting with the first question, in my experience, recruiters have the ability to source candidates, but they just don’t have the time. They are typically working overtime managing the candidates that have applied, working with the hiring managers, managing the applicant flow process and the offers, and the list goes on and on.

To address the second question, the answer again goes back to time. While sourcers may be a little stronger at understanding how to do Boolean searches or point out niche professional organizations to network with, the only real reason they can find the candidates is because they have THE TIME. Having said that, and to put an end to the mystery, I’ve outlined a few of my favorite, and admittedly somewhat basic, resources below:

1. Thorough Intake with Hiring Manager:  Don’t just ask, “What qualities are you looking for?” but also ask if they want to target specific companies to recruit from and if they belong to any professional organizations that you can network with.
2. Pay for Research:  I highly recommend Corporate Navigators, Melissa Moreno, and TechTrak.  Within 48 hours of providing them with a request, I would have the contact information of the requested titles and companies for a nominal fee.
3. Power of Boolean Searches:  My Boolean knowledge is basic and I’m here to tell you, I can find conference lists, employee directories, and just about anything I want on Alta Vista or Google.  If you are new to it, just Google “Tips on Boolean Searches” and you’ll be directed to many resources.
4. Traditional Methods:  The websites that yielded the best results for me were a combination of LinkedIn and ZoomInfo. I would find my candidate’s profile on LinkedIn but I didn’t have a great response with the in-mails.  Therefore, I would use ZoomInfo to get a contact number and email address.

In conclusion, I would like to add that sourcing teams will not replace third party staffing companies.  It is still necessary to partner with these vendors.  For example, there are certain types of positions, such as actuaries, where the contingent firms have the best candidates.  Furthermore, sometimes a company needs the ability to conduct a confidential search, which of course is better served by a retained search firm. 

Oh, and to bring everything full circle, if you believe your team would benefit from building out a sourcing function or if you are a full life-cycle recruiter who sources, make sure your current ATS supports this.  If your ATS doesn’t give you the ability to upload your own candidates, attach them to a pipeline, mass communicate with them, and effectively search your database, then call iCIMS.  That’s what I did!

Out with the old and in with the new! 2010 promises to be a game-changing year for the talent management industry. As the economy and employment rates show signs of rejuvenation, recruiters are once again faced with the challenge of targeting and attracting top talent.  To prepare for the forecasted increase in hiring (with, thanks to mandated layoffs, a bare bones recruitment staff), successful recruiting organizations have placed greater emphasis on passive candidate recruiting strategies. While HR technology and social media networks have made identifying passive candidates easier than ever, many recruiters still find it difficult to engage these candidates over extended periods of time.

Chances are these candidates receive an introductory email pitching the benefits of working at your organization, but does communication end there? How does your organization ensure that your employment brand remains fresh in the minds of these passive candidates over prolonged recruitment cycles? Maintaining a robust pipeline of engaged candidates is not an easy task.
 
For an increasing number of organizations, Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) now plays a central role in their recruiting strategies. CRM is the practice of building, and more importantly maintaining, meaningful relationships with candidates to keep them engaged throughout an extended recruitment process. An effective CRM program involves ongoing communication with both passive and active candidates and strategic marketing communications targeted at certain demographics in a candidate pool. Effective CRM programs use a variety of mediums to engage their pipeline, including: branded electronic postcards, promotional offerings, company newsletters, etc.

Once this robust pipeline of engaged candidates is in place, it is important for recruiters to take advantage of it; a well-managed and well-utilized candidate pipeline has been shown to significantly lower overall recruiting costs. To maximize their CRM program, a growing number of recruiters are leveraging CRM software technology to streamline their processes and ensure consistence. While it is sometimes necessary to implement a separate CRM technology, many organizations have access to enhanced CRM capabilities directly within their core Talent Acquisition System.
 
In conjunction with ERE, iCIMS is sponsoring the following webinar: “Leveraging Your Current Talent Acquisition System as a Candidate Relationship Management Tool”.   Isn’t it time your organization maximized your HR Technology Investment?
 
This webinar will concentrate on the following:

• The importance of Candidate Relationship Management
• OFCCP compliance concerns and solutions for federal contractors 
• Leveraging your system's electronic correspondence capabilities
• Using hot lists, candidate folders and search agents in your system 
• Social Networking opportunities
• Task and campaign management

This webinar is being offered free of charge on January 20th from 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET. Register Here.

Let us know how you are incorporating CRM into your talent management strategies!

Driving to the store the other day (with the radio cranked up as per usual), I was surprised by the break in the normally predictable radio commercials. Instead of the traditional hair replacement or car insurance advertisements, the voice on the other end of my speakers wasn’t selling a product at all; instead, the recent Rutgers University graduate was selling his educational and work experience, essentially delivering his elevator speech to millions of listeners in the tri-state area.

I thought that was one of the coolest things I had heard in a long time. 

Radio stations (like New York’s Z100) have begun offering job seekers air time (free of charge) which they use to pitch themselves to prospective employers. A virtual resume, if you will. The hope is that the increased exposure will aid in the job seeker’s (sometimes very difficult) quest for employment.

You have to admit, the idea is definitely creative. How effective is the program, though, at actually leading to a job offer? It's probably too soon to tell. But it does raise another interesting question: with the HR community (especially those within the Talent Acquisition realm) giving increased attention to all things Web 2.0 (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Video Resumes, etc.) – could Radio Resumes be the next big thing? Will we soon be sourcing candidates according to the radio station their resume was aired on?

What do YOU think?

It's the middle of summer in iCIMS-land and most of us are longing for the beach: sitting under the cloudless sky, reading trashy novels and watching seagulls steal our sandwiches. Don’t be fooled though, there’s always staffing work to be done, and summer is a fantastic opportunity for any business seeking seasonal employees. Whether it's a law firm looking for summer interns, a tax preparation company getting income tax specialists during April, or a retailer looking for help on the floor during the holiday season, there’s always a need for seasonal hires. In fact, according to a CareerBuilder study, 34% of retail employees during the summer are seasonal hires.

While it’s always tempting just to get out of the office, there may not be enough time to sort through all of your incoming applications, emails, and paperwork as it is. But let’s step back: if you’ve done the right work, started your game early and have staffing plans in place, you deserve that cool drink by the shore. Now, while we’re not ashamed to toot our own horn here at iCIMS and say we’ve got a pretty comprehensive solution for seasonal and mass hiring needs, there are a couple of tricks that might even go beyond software.

For example, this AllBusiness article has some pretty good ideas for getting young talent. Since many college and high-school students have time-off during the summer, they’re usually a good start. Think of a plan to raid the local schools and universities, and do it early. While there are plenty of students willing to put in summer work, you need to give yourself enough time to evaluate your need across these applicants. Checking Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace is also a good idea to find driven workers. You might also find plenty of retirees looking for work as well, so be sure you tap into these circles, as well.

Another valuable pieces of advice is to encourage referrals. If you have happy, dedicated employees already, why not let them help source your candidates? Referral programs are typically cheaper and more efficient than other means of sourcing, and they can boost morale across your organization. Many employees wouldn’t mind working along a friend or two, and if these are quality employees they’ll likely supply quality referrals. After all, your workers certainly want to look good within your company - and make a little bit of the referral bonus you’re offering. (You are offering one, aren’t you?)

Remember, your organization’s success depends on how it responds to industry trends and demands. And if you prepare with the right mix of workers at the right time, you can stand on solid footing as a recruiter, even wearing sandals and a pair of sunglasses. But don’t get too comfortable – the holiday shopping season is only 4 months away!