Category Archives: Social Recruiting

What does your Company Culture say about your Future?

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Culture-is-the-wayToday, job seekers not only want to know what jobs are available, or what kind of salary they’ll earn or even what the company culture is like, they also want to know how rosy the outlook is for the company’s future. While most often business outlook is an important topic to investors, shareholders and others focusing on finance, it’s increasingly becoming HR’s employment brand issue too.

Have you asked employees their opinion of your company’s business outlook? If not, you may want to take a look at your company reviews on Glassdoor where you can find candid employee feedback.  As part of Glassdoor’s ongoing online company review survey, employees voluntarily and anonymously share their perspective about the work environment, the culture, their satisfaction with key factors like compensation and benefits, and they share their opinion on the following question: Do you believe your company’s business outlook will get better, stay the same or get worse in the next six months? 

Just think about the signals this sends your candidates that are deciding to come work for you.

To see what employees at your company think, you’ll need a free employer account. This will allow you to read all of your company’s reviews and be able to see their take on the company’s future business outlook. Below is a  recent company review from a Google Sales Executive that shows where, if provided, in each company review you can find sentiment on business outlook.

For susan

Curious to see what companies do stand out in terms of business outlook in the eyes of employees? Glassdoor recently released a new report that looks at Top 10 Companies with the Best Business Outlook based on company reviews shared in April. At the top of the list is Google – 86% of employees believe the company’s business outlook will improve in the next six months. See the complete list and how employee satisfaction stacks up at the top-rated companies:

Top 10 Companies with the Best Business Outlook

This report is a good reminder that employment brand isn’t just a reflection of what a company has done, but it’s also a promise of what the company can do.

Photo Credit: Noozmag

About the Author:

Samantha ZupanToday’s guest post comes from my pal Samantha Zupan who is Glassdoor’s Corporate Communications Director. Glassdoor is a jobs and career community that is changing the way people find jobs and companies recruit top talent. Follow Samantha on Twitter @SamanthaZupan.

Your Application Process Sucks! 3 Ways to a Much Better Approach

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Heinz_Sees_A_Huge_Stack_Of_PaperworkToday’s job application processes are insulting. You would think we are still in the 80’s. Some career sites take an applicant an hour to apply and are strategically created to do so, as to “weed” out the misfits. That’s absurd. And employers wonder why they can’t fill jobs?

80% of companies are using archaic software and processes from the dinosaur age – here’s what that looks like:

  • We waste 45 minutes having applicants fill out a cumbersome, 1999-vintage online application form.
  • They’re asked to remember and write down every hiring date (year AND month) and departure date (ditto) for every job they have ever held; AND remember every salary and every supervisor’s name plus their phone number (gross).
  • We want them to agree upfront to a background check, drug test, credit check, and reference check before they have even received so much as the courtesy of a return email message.
  • They’re required to send all their personal information into the abyss, on the off chance that the employer might stop to respond with a phone call, an email message or an off-handed auto-responder that says “Don’t call us; we’ll call you – or else we won’t.”

What self-respecting person is willing to put up with this demeaning routine? We’re treating potential candidates like  two-year-olds. If employers can’t show more respect to the talented people applying for work in their companies, why would any job seeker with other options sign up for this kind of treatment?

My suggestion would be that every recruiter or hiring manager take one day, put themselves in the shoes of the applicant and go through their own company’s application process to get a feel of what their applicants are experiencing.

So, what should the current hiring process look like? I don’t have that down pat but I do have a few suggestions. Here we go:

  1. Keep it simple, stupid. Stop asking dumb questions like “What is your greatest weakness?” or “How do you feel about working in a team environment?” Instead, allow the applicant to either upload their resume, answer a few questions related to the position and be done with it. Better yet, develop a mobile app that quickly allows candidates to find and apply from their mobile devices. Ain’t nobody got time for that other stuff.
  2. Stop requiring double work. If you ask for an attached resume and then have me type in the same information throughout the remainder of the online application process – you’re wasting my time. I’m gonna say “forget it – it’s not worth it” and hit the escape key. Don’t be redundant.
  3. Make it interesting. Get creative. Have your intern build a short game where your applicant can hit a green frog or a yellow umbrella in answer to a question. Okay, I kid (kinda) – but think outside the norm in ways you can get creative with your ATS. Is that possible? I think so. If this isn’t an option, how about incorporating social media into the mix? How cool would your company look if you were to do that?

Let’s review: Short, sweet, to the point, interesting, social, creative and non-redundant. How hard could that be?

For a few great tips on tools that could replace the interview check this post!

This post originally aired over at DiscoveringSocial.

Check out this hangout with the @Gozaik team discussing the new Twitter Resume and Job Posting product Gozaik

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gozaikA few weeks ago I came across a new product for both sides of the hiring line – job seekers looking to find jobs and connect with recruiters online and for the recruiter and companies looking for prime candidates! I’m talking about a new kind of Google filtering within Twitter that narrows the job search for the above mentioned folks.

I immediately connected with the founder Joe Budzienski and asked if he would join me in a hangout to discuss it further, which we did. Here is the recording – it’s only around 30 mins!

I love anything that has to do with social and new technology! Check out the cool ways this is going to help you as Employers, Recruiters and Hiring Managers:

Promote Your Job Tweets

  • Gozaik job search displays job tweets to job seekers. Sign up now to validate your Twitter handle and drive more traffic to your Twitter job posts.

Search Candidates (COMING SOON!)

  • Identify active job seekers that meet your criteria. Review rich multimedia resumes. Watch video introductions.

Spot Trending Talent (COMING SOON!)

  • We spotlight ‘trending’ job seekers. Individuals with the most activity trend within your dashboard, highlighting job seekers you may be interested in.

Tweet Job Announcements (COMING SOON!)

  • Increase your job tweet response by delivering your job announcements through our ‘Job Announcement’ service. We structure tweets to optimize candidate response.

If you’re a job seeker or someone wanting to hire the best talent – do yourself a favor and check out Gozaik. Make sure to connect with them online. Get in on the ground floor!

 

Building a Brand in the Social Media Era

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brandingThanks to smart phones, social media and the 24/7 news cycle, we are now in the era of Social Business.  Every human contact with a brand is amplified.  Some brands have embraced Social Business (UnderArmour, SalesForce), while others have learned a lesson the hard way (Rutgers University, Target).

My friends at SlideKlowd and the co-founder and Brand Strategist Justin Foster know a lot about building a brand in the “fishbowl”.  Justin is a master at this and when he speaks covers a wide range of topics including:

·       How a positive internal culture can be your #1 brand differentiator

·       The first 10 seconds and last 10 seconds of first impressions

·       Adjusting your business and marketing strategy to harness transparency

·       3 emerging business tech trends – and what to do about them.

·       The role in personal branding for professionals and executives

Tomorrow, April 25th from 10:00 am – 11:00 am Central time, Justin will be a guest host on a WEBINAR that will dive into the above topics. You won’t want to miss it folks, I guarantee it! I’ll be there with bells on.

Head on over and Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

slideklowd webinar

FYI, we’ll be using the Slideklowd app during the presentation. Come on, you know you wanna join in on the action.

Managing Social Media while Recruiting – Is it possible?

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Here is a great post I came across this past week by my online friend Bill Vick from his site where he dives into using social media as a tool in recruiting and social networking. He puts out some great content and I’d like to share this video interview he did with Leslie Mason of the recruiting team Intuit. You can find the original post HERE!

The most frequent comment I hear from recruiters when we talk about social media is that it takes too much time… they are super busy finding candidates and filling reqs and don’t have 2 -3 hours a day to spend on social channels, updating their statuses and broadcasting information. While I agree that it takes a bit of time up front, once you have all your social profiles completed you really only need to spend 30 minutes a day monitoring and updating them.  I am a big believer in automating whenever possible and have found some great tools to help me navigate the social media waters.

First get all your profiles “social ready” especially your LinkedIn profile.  Make it easy for candidates to find you, have your LI Profile completely updated.  Make sure you are an open networker and your profile clearly spells out what you are recruiting for, what industries, etc. and how to contact you so candidates can find you.  I also use a one click LinkedIn invitation and post that on my profile so people will connect with me.  A friend of mine, Stacy Zapar, figured out a way to do it.  Here’s her article with instructions: 
http://www.stacyzapar.com/2010/12/how-to-be-linkedin-pro-create-one-click.html
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My favorite tool and secret weapon is the Bitly Bundle!  Keep all your current job openings in a bitly bundle and post it on your LinkedIn profile at the top of your summary.  You can tweet and post to Facebook directly from the bitly bundle.  I socialize my bundle every Friday so people can review my job openings over the weekend. It’s quick and easy and only takes one click.  Bitly also tracks analytics and creates a QR code for your jobs… very cool.

Some quick ways to automate are to follow blogs and online papers like Mashable, TechCrunch, Fortune, VentureBeat, INC.com, Wired, Engadget, etc.  Then use RSS feeds to Google Reader or Outlook.  You can quickly scan and click on interesting articles and then use a tool like Buffer App to schedule sharing via Twitter, LinkedIn and FB.  This is a free tool that allows you to schedule up to 10 articles at specified times each day.

HootSuite or TweetDeck are great tools to manage social feeds.  I use HootSuite and have linked it with my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Feeds.  I have tabs for each stream and can schedule posts to all of these networks, multiple times.  Bullhorn Reach is also a free service to automate job postings; it will send your jobs out to your specified networks at specified times.

People are visual… we find that candidates today want to see what it would be like to work with potential employers.  A great way to show your company’s culture is with Pinterest.  You can create Community Boards with pictures of your campus and candid pictures of employees having fun at work as well as videos from the hiring managers.  This gives candidates a peek behind the curtain, into your organization.

Remember the first rule of social is to build relationships!  We are not out there to be a job board aggregator.  Become a subject matter expert in your area… follow thought leaders, engage with them, comment on and share their articles.  You never know…one day you may get an invitation from Bill Vick to be interviewed.

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Make sure to connect with both of these fine folks online – there’s great learning coming your way when you do.

Glassdoor’s New Social Recruiting Tools for Hiring and Employment Branding

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glassdoor logoI love discussing new technology especially as it relates to the world of work.

Just this week one of my favorite’s Glassdoor added some snazzy services to aid companies in their Employment Branding and Recruiting efforts with their Self Service Online Employer Center. These are FREE tools to assists companies in having a hand in their own company branding and if I do say so myself, a brilliant move by my friends at Glassdoor.

I’ve been singing the praises of Glassdoor for a few years now and just in case you missed it they are one of the main social job and career communities that are changing the way people find jobs and the way companies recruit top talent.

glassdoor ratings

These guys came on the scene in 2007 and here are a few of the items offered to job seekers:

  • Access to the latest job listings
  • The ability to see Inside Connections via their Facebook network
  • Access to company-specific salary reports, ratings and reviews of said company
  • CEO approval ratings
  • Interview questions to expect and what it’s like to work at said company (What to expect)

On the Employer End

Employers can also get involved in the conversation through Glassdoor’s suite of social recruiting solutions to reach target job candidates when they’re making career decisions

This new exciting add-on called the Employer Center is an easy-to-use self-service tool currently in beta that helps companies make social recruiting decisions based on job seeker activity and authentic workplace insights. Take a look at PepsiCo’s page:

Pepsi-Profile.-Short-Version-w.-highlights

With the Employer Center, companies can get access to information about job seeker engagement and demographics, understand what jobs attract the most candidates and when, track employee satisfaction ratings trends, and benchmark their brand’s reputation against competitors.

As a company representative with this account, you can:

  • Update your company’s profile with basic information (i.e. website address, headquarter location, employee count, year founded and more)
  • Provide a company description and mission statement
  • Respond to your company reviews and interview reviews
  • Add awards and photos
  • Request updates to your stock ticker, CEO and list of competitors
  • Flag reviews that may be inappropriate

The amount of insight and data a Brand Manager can obtain from this is unbelievable. I saw this in action in a private Webinar and was astounded!

I’m telling you, there’s no other jobs site or professional network that combines this level of employee feedback and job seeker activity to help companies make more informed recruiting decisions while allowing them to manage their employer brand.

Click HERE for a free Employer Account. If  you don’t check this you’re totally missing out!

Googling yourself won’t cause Blindness

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google yourself“If it can be Googled – it shall be Googled“ 

Last summer I wrote a post titled “Have You Googled Yourself Lately” which sparked a little conversation. It’s a catchy title and a pretty informative read that talks about the importance of your online trail – your brand. How you are perceived in the eyes of folks online. It also gives a few great social listening tools out there to see what folks are finding out about you through what you’ve allowed them to see online.

We joked about this on a recent Twitter Chat and someone stated “I hear that causes blindness.” And we all laughed.

Laughing aside, it’s important to understand that folks are using things like Google Search or other mediums to find out about you and what you’re sharing online. Whether it’s for a potential job to which you’ve applied, perhaps you’ve filed for FMLA and your manager actually wants to see if you’re in Cabo for the week, if you’ve recently applied for a loan and your bank wants to check you, or if you’ve filed an insurance claim for disability and you’re your insurance company wants to make sure you’re not off skiing somewhere – folks are starting to use the internet to look you up.

That being said, it’s important for all of us to see how others are viewing us and make sure that you are being represented properly and protecting yourself and your personal brand.

I’ve heard recently that because of Google’s algorithm, for example, there may be things that others see about you online that even you’re not seeing about yourself. But there are certain things you can do to protect your online personal brand whether you are in job search mode or simply concerned about how folks are judging you, online.

  •  If you have a Google account, you can set up Google Alerts where you can get daily or weekly email notifications when your brand name (or your name, etc) shows up online. This is a great way to see where you’re popping up online and it’s free!
  • Google yourself (or use another search engine) often to see what’s actually getting out there and what others are seeing.
  • You can make your social accounts (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) private and change your settings – but why not simply behave yourself online. Most folks these days want to see your personality, interests and other things to see your human side. And, Recruiters and Hiring Managers are looking on these very same sites to fill key positions at their companies. See this Infographic about how Recruiters are using Facebook’s new Graph Search.
  • Everything you say online can and may be held against you. Here’s a great Infographic on managing your online reputation and some key things you can do to protect yourself. Take them to heart.
  • There are a few settings within Facebook that will allow you to remain semi-private. Here’s some info on the new privacy changes and what you can do to protect those privacy’s. Don’t fully disclose your birthday, street address and other information that others may potential steal and ruin your online reputation.
  • Don’t allow third party apps (especially within Facebook and Twitter) access to your information. When using these games and third-party apps within these platforms you are allowing them free reign to inside information and this can be damaging.
  • Don’t look at porn. If you simply find that you must do this – use an alter ego (a different name) so that these trails can’t come back to you. I see folks all the time on Facebook looking at naughty things and it’s posting to their Facebook walls. Just don’t do it. Go to the Library or something and use their computers :)
  • Think before you post. Don’t post status updates or pictures when you’re not being responsible or when you’re mad at someone. This is always the best advice to live by. These things can come back to bite you on the butt later on.

In the end, if you’re using social media and being aware of what you’re showing, what your’e posting and not making bad judgement’s then you should have no worries about what’s being found about you.

Go ahead and try it, Google yourself right now (I know you want to) and see what comes up. You may be a little embarrassed but I promise you won’t go blind.

Photo Credit: Sodahead

HR and your Social Strategy – Do you even have One?

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???????????????????I always love to go to my extra-smart friends for guest posts to mix it up a bit. I’m quite boring, in reality, and don’t wanna bore you to tears. Jeff Waldman is one of my go-to-guys in that respect. Check out this outstanding post and make sure to connect with Jeff and his team. You can find them all over the place. 

Photo Credit: en.blog.zyncro.

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SocialHRCamp business partner Salima Nathoo and I recently co-authored a 2 blog post series for SmartRecruiters and Blogging4Jobs on “Why HR Needs to Speed Up Social Media Adoption” and “Why HR is Slow to Adopt Social Media”.  The former post focuses on the business case and the latter on barriers to adoption.  It was a tough exercise to go through because there are so many reasons why HR needs to adopt and why HR has not already done so.  The focus of this post is on a simple question that can be applied across all business functions.  The question is… “What does social media adoption have to do with strategy”?

Oh Right… Strategy…
Does it not make sense that the activities that you perform during the course of your work day support some strategic aspect of the business you work for?  Sure there are tasks that one would describe as mundane, repetitive, pointless, etc… but if you ask yourself “why” you are doing those tasks you probably could, or should come up with some strategic reason for why you do them.  The same holds true for social media.

Ah Ha Moment…
Before you dive into the social media maze you need to clearly understand what your core HR business challenges are that you are trying to solve.  Forget about social media for a second; every organization has challenges and strategic objectives that are being tackled.  If they did not exist there would be no organization to work for.

Ask Yourself…
Pull out the dusty HR strategy and the business strategy and identify the top 3-5 priorities.  Are you trying to attract higher quality talent to “hard-to-recruit” jobs?  Are you trying to solve a growing retention issue?  Are you trying to support the business expand and enter new markets?  Will you be tasked with organizational restructuring or acquisition initiatives?  You get the point but it’s critical for you as an HR professional to figure this out first.

2nd Ah Ha Moment…
For all you non-HR people reading this blog post this also applies to you too.  It does not matter what area of business you work in, the fact remains that you need to understand the core business challenges you are trying solve before you dive into social media.

Now You’re Ready to Think About Social Media…
You now have a crystal clear idea of why you want to use social media; now it’s a matter of identifying the social media platforms that will enable you to achieve the best results.  The task of figuring this out will be so much easier if you have a clear idea of why you want to use them in the first place.  Sorry, just slapping up a Facebook page because “everyone else” has one is a complete waste of time, and will ultimately make you look foolish.

So, think strategy first, then social media second.

This blog post was originally published in the Social Media Camp blog.

About the Author:

jeffSocial media enthusiast, entrepreneur, social HR strategist and educator, Jeff is the Founder of Stratify, a social HR solutions consultancy and SocialHRCamp, the first-ever global HR unconference. With a background in business, HR and marketing, and a diverse career spanning all facets of HR Jeff has been carving out and leading the way in a growing niche that brings together HR, social media and business. Founded in 2012 SocialHRCamp helps the global HR community adopt social media into HR business practices and will be running events in Canada, United States, Singapore, Philippines and India.

Maybe it’s time to dumb down our Social HR presentations

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social 101When it comes to adoption of Social tools into our organizations some folks may be a little behind in adapting. That’s okay, because that was us at one time or other.

I have spoken at my share of events and conferences especially in regard to technology and social tools in the workplace. Something I have to keep in mind is that “Not everyone is on the same level playing field.” We’re all at different levels of adoption and knowledge of these things. And that’s okay.

At a few recent events we (those of us who have been involved in social and technology longer) seemed to have forgotten this and really seemed to have taken it over the top of the heads of the attendees.

Sometimes we talk to our audiences in our own language and they’re sitting out there looking at us like a young calf looking at a new gate.

I try to remember when presenting that it’s best to “keep it simple, stupid” – because you don’t want to lose your audience completely.

When holding social presentations there will probably always be a mixture in the crowd of the following:

  • Those that have no clue about social adoption (as it regards internal collaboration and social media at work)
  • Those that understand the need for adopting but have no idea how to begin
  • Those that think these tools should never be incorporated into the cubicles and spend tons of dollars on “how to block it” at work
  • Those that have jumped in and are getting their feet wet
  • Those that have fully adopted technology (mobile, internal tools, etc) and have seen great success

This will more than likely always be the case. That being said, it does make it difficult when presenting to this kind of crowd. Perhaps it’s best when planning our events to segment our presentations into (a) (b) and (c) groups instead of lumping them all together.

At one of my most recent events I had a few folks (ladies) come to me in the lady’s room afterward to tell me “Thanks for talking on a level we could understand. Most of us aren’t up to speed and you kept it simple and very easy to understand.”

HR is rapidly advancing in social technologies but we must remember to share on a level that folks can understand not only in the need for incorporating these tools, the benefits and ROI’s but also share the “Here’s how to do it” as well.

Cause let’s face it – we can pretty much Google stats and the “WHY you need to do Social” – am I right?

Photo Credit: JohnHaydon