When people talk about amplification in social media, they’re talking about “reach” – how far a message can travel from it’s original broadcaster.  Your own network includes your circle of co-workers, former co-workers, friends, industry associates, customers and other people you’ve come into contact with over the years.

You’re one employee – add the total number of employees in your company and that will give you a combined “first-level” reach.  Of course, all of those people know people and have their own ‘first-level’ connections – and so on and so on.

Obviously, the bigger an individual’s network, or company’s by extension, the larger the potential for reach/amplification… and that’s the most obvious angle where ‘influencers’ come into play with recruitment marketing.  Sharing your opportunities with “influencers” – professionals within your space that are active on social media – with whom your company has a connection is a clear avenue… but there’s other roads worth pursing.

When Chris Hoyt joined PepsiCo back in 2010, he made the statement in his blog announcement that PepsiCo “Gets it.”  So, no surprise he tweeted about his on-boarding experience under the same hashtag:

“In 2nd Town Hall. EVERY leader I’ve heard speak today (~6) have talked about the importance of attracting top talent. #onboarding #GetsIt”  

How fantastic is that?!   Through a series of commonly hashtagged tweets over a month’s time, Hoyt shared part of Pepsi’s cultural ‘DNA’ with the Social Media world-at-large. This recruitment marketing tactic was sticky & it was relevant … not just to PepsiCo talent, either.

Through the concerted effort of connecting PepsiCo with an #onboarding hashtag; Hoyt helped draw in a wider audience through attracting interest of human resource industry and recruiting professionals. They, in turn, amplified his messages through sharing those positive examples of on-boarding experiences with their networks and thanks to the power of Google you can still see remnants of it today, two years later. When asked about the outcomes of the experiment, Hoyt said:

“I had a lot of feedback from people who said had I not done that; they wouldn’t have thought of PepsiCo as a next place of employment for them. And that was great, because it was the proof that with proper exposure we could be included in the answer to the question that we hadn’t even asked:

‘If I asked you where are you going now, where are you going next… what Companies, what brands, make that ‘top 3′ list?'”

So when you start talking about Social Recruiting, it’s not about filling a job as much as it’s about that question.

In Social Recruiting/Recruitment Marketing; our job is getting the Companies we serve into that ‘who’s who’ list of the top three. It’s not about the postings, the number of people who applied via twitter, or vomiting your job postings on Twitter – it’s about positioning your Company/brand to be on the ‘list’ of places people want to go next.

Why?  Because when a recruiter from those top three companies call/send an inmail? People don’t need to be sold; they’re automatically listening – their messages resonates more strongly than those that weren’t top contenders.”

Well said. Let’s review, shall we?  Through this tact, Hoyt:

1. Garnered interest of HR Influencers / Recruiting Influencers through hashtagging topics likely to be searched on twitter:  #Onboarding

2. Through sharing exciting experiences he had; Hoyt tied his Company and Brand to examples of successful culture – leaving a “PepsiCo DNA” imprinted on the web for other candidates to find.

3. With the tag #GetsIt, Hoyt had a little “hashtag fun” that started a fun trend that other people wanted to share and be part of this.

4.By creating fun, exciting, interesting content, Hoyt’s tweets personified PepsiCo as the popular kid everyone wants to be friends with:  positive, smart, understanding, caring. Fun.

5. The best part is that you can use this roadmap as a guide to do similar things for your organization, too.

But What’s the Immediate ROI???

Often when I’m working with clients and suggest these kind of measures, the immediate response is, “But I need hires NOW.”  Totally understand… but here’s the thing: successful social recruiting programs aren’t built at the snap of your fingers. Career Crossroad’s 2012 “Channels of Influence” survey showed that as a Social Media as a direct-sourcing channel yielded less than 4% of over 200k participant hires made in 2011.  That doesn’t mean Social Media is ineffective in recruiting; quite the contrary – Social Media shines as an indirect hiring channel, serving as a the 2nd largest source for influencing candidates’ decision to join a company (or not).

Yes, people still look first to your company website for information; but just as recruiting professionals turn to social media to find candidates?  They turn to the same channel to find info about the companies they’re looking to join – so getting influencers respected in the industry talking about things they like about your organization, things you’re doing right, etc. has a huge ability to yield returns that last long after any one job opening you’d want an ‘Influencer’ to share…. Just like Hoyt did with PepsiCo.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.”  Photo Credit Pepsi Twitter.

• Getting their ideal job

• Being paid fairly past their 20s

• Being stuck in the “marzipan layer” of management below the C-Suite

A new study lead by Harvard University scientist Dr. Sreedhari D. Desai, suggests it’s not the colleague holding women back; it’s their wives.  The study showed that men with wives who did not work outside the home were more likely to:

• Believe that workplace operates “less smoothly” with more women in it.

•  See organizations where women are in leadership roles as less desirable.

•  Consider women candidates to be less qualified for promotion/hire to a position than comparable male counterparts.

This bias, it’s hidden – it’s not something overtly, consciously done; and the truth is that we all have them.  Some more than others… however much they might protest to the contrary.  So much so, that a recent study shows that while 28% of working males and 49% of women still actively see gender bias as prevalent in the workplace; 25% of them concede to ‘tuning out’ educational training.  So, how do you, as a Human Resources and Recruiting professional, attune your hiring manager to being receptive and aware to potential gender bias and promote awareness?  If the actions are subconscious … how can we address it in our hiring and retention practices?

To illustrate this, Dr. Desai offers “Project Implicit” you can use with hiring managers and executives to show how we have subconscious biases.  Over the course of 10-minutes and simple, repetitive keystrokes; you can see how the conscious-unconscious divergences in associations between “career” and “family” words paired with “male” and “female” names.  At first, I thought it was slightly dumb; but over the course of the test I realized that even I naturally associated certain words with women, and the word “family” I consistently associated with men.

My results were a little different:  I had a slight bias towards females in careers over males; as I continued to try to associate career terms such as “salary,” “management,” and “office” with women-  perhaps because they’re things I like and work to have.  “Corporation,” however, I associated with men. Go figure.  While I think I’ve acted fairly to both genders under my professional purview; I’ve now made a point to make the following adjustments to my hiring plan and management practices:

Create an Inclusive Environment by ensuring I’m equally recognizing the little accomplishments made by men and women on our staff, or with the teams I’m working with; make a point of offering men the opportunity to ‘knock off early to go hang with their kiddos (or whatever)’ and not just women to ensure that both men and women have strong workplace sponsorship regardless of gender.

Mitigate Gender Bias in Hiring by focusing on credentials first.  A study put out by the University of Wisconsin geared at finding interventions for gender bias in hiring showed that by sharing credentials (work history, certifications, skills, etc) for those at/above the 25% mark of the required qualifications before they released name of the applicant, prevents the initial bias upon gender.  While this can make Social Recruiting tricky, Amanda Bonneau, a recruiter at Poise Inc., offers this advice when searching on LinkedIn:  “Click fast on the name, start at the bottom of the profile and if you like what you see in the experience?  Then move up to get the name and put it into your CRM and contact the prospective candidate.”

Decisions made about employment based on biases – conscious or not – rather than legitimate experiences and competencies are punitive to talent workers that then lowers morale, negatively impacts culture and translates into increased attrition and recruiting costs… so it’s definitely worth the awareness exercises to ensure equality in your employment practices.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

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There seems to be no end to the “Talent Community” discussion these days; but, as you scroll through page after page of articles in Google search results, one thing is noticeably absent:  Where are the articles about why they’re good for the job seeker?  You know, the TALENT in the Talent Community??  Little has been written to explain what the benefits are to being an active participant in these forums/networks and how to get the most out them.

What is a “Talent Community” anyway?

Talent Communities are a re-branded form of the online social communities that have been around for years.  Online social communities can cover just about any topic: sports, gaming, products, etc.  Most job seekers are already members of at least one. As Talent Community Strategists design their own communities for their companies, remember that the content should serve the talent.  People frequent those communities because they share a common interest on the topics covered and it gives them a chance to learn from each other and demonstrate knowledge.

Leveraging Participation and a Chance to Shine

During the planning phase, Community Managers spend a lot of time ruminating on how to get members to participate.  This largely revolves on adding content that generates conversations.  The best communities provide an opportunities to rally around a common goal for improvement by providing a project, educational opportunities (webinars, chats, etc).  Here’s some of the questions they ask themselves and plan around:

• What kind of content will provide the most value, be relevant to purpose, and generate conversation?

• What kinds of conversations will your members expect ?

• How do you get internal stakeholders (employees) to interact with external stakeholders (candidates)?

You can best leverage your participation as an ‘external stakeholder’ member through asking those same questions for yourself.  Start discussions and add content that fit with the community’s ongoing theme and purpose.  Chances are, you are in the community as the result of an invite; so the community wants you to participate.  Ask thoughtful questions of current employee members and interact with the content they and other members provide.  Sharing news articles, policy/law changes, and new technologies that affect your role or the business is a great way to differentiate yourself and leverage your participation into that of a valued, respected member of the community.

I Just Want a Job

Here’s the downside of the talent community platform:  it’s not an “instant solution” for either side.  Just as Talent Community Managers/Recruiters are told not to expect their community to be a viable source for gauging talent for a minimum of 90 days; so is it for the job seeker.  When you join the community, you are new – like a stranger at a party.  Even if you met someone who invited you – such as interviewing and then being invited after – at best you’re an acquaintance.  It takes time to build trust and maintain the consistent visibility necessary for people to recruit you because of your participation in a talent community. Keep your engagement levels thoughtful, strong, and consistent; network with the others in the community (inside or out) and over time, you’ll see a payoff.

Again, the rules for inquiring about a job are very similar to that of advertising one. If all you ever do in a community is consistently repeat “I Want a Job” or “Hire ME!” then you’re likely to be tuned out.  A good rule of thumb is to put in 100 pieces of content (responses, new questions, etc) and then use a 1:15 ratio:  for every 15 interactions you have, you can either let people know you’re looking or ask specifically about a job opening.

Talent Communities are extremely exciting for the HR / Recruiting space right now and so if you haven’t already been invited into one, be patient:  it’s coming.  Since a lot of your interaction as a job seeker will depend on how the Community Manager set it up; it can be tricky to give hard and fast rules of engagement.  But regular interaction, thoughtful content, and helping others by participating in their discussions will go a long way to building a positive name for yourself in any community you’re in – and shows just another talent:  good networking.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

We discussed the TheLadder’s Eye Tracking Online Metacognition research, which studies how cognition affects Recruiter decision-making in the selection/rejection process. The study was fascinating but what really stuck with me was the foundational misconception..  or miscommunication, if you will:  candidates thought Recruiters spent 4- to 5- minutes learning about them through their resume but the truth is that it’s really more like 1/50th of that.  The garish truth that study revealed is that the average recruiter spends six seconds on you (or at least  your resume).

Ouch… Talk about candidate rejection.

The truth is that you can’t really learn much of anything about anyone in 6 seconds; but you can glean keywords that lead to “yes” and “no” decisions.  So, as a candidate, it’s important to to ensure you use commonly-used titles, and the common key terms/words used throughout the job descriptions that line up with what you do in order to minimize the likelihood of being rejected when you actually had the requisite experience. Some other fast-facts the study showed to help avoid unnecessary resume and profile rejection:

• • TheLadders found that professionally written resumes scored higher on a ‘likeability’ scale with recruiters for the following reasons:

1. 1. They have a clear visual order, are evenly formatted and so are perceived as better organized.

 

1. 1. They only include relevant information without a plethora of “fluff” or “filler” words; and so are perceived as being easier to read.

 

1. 1. The areas where recruiters spend 80% of their time on your resume were highlighted:  Name, Current Title/position held dates, Previous Title/position held dates, and Education.

 

• • When creating a digital profile, consider creating a simple, clean online resume that’s free from visual aides such as charts, pictures, etc.  TheLadders’ retinal gaze study showed that recruiters were distracted by photos, ads, and such; which further reduced the amount of time that was spent on actual useful information like experience & skills. I recommend placing links to this “clean profile” on your social networking sites & embed in submittal emails.

But what about how companies reject candidates? Often times there is no notification; and other times frustration can get the best of our rejection messaging. Case in point, that 3,000 letter viral rejection letter sent to 900 applicants (for one job opening). This is NOT how I recommend writing a rejection email. #TalentNet Radio Chat invited the letter’s author, blogger Shea Gunther, to talk about, well, how you talk about saying, “No Thank You.”  There was no “best practice” decided upon … although, the majority consensus was that candidate communication should not be relegated only to selection.  Rejection counts, too, and so notifying candidates matters.

But what happens when, despite your best foot forward, you’re still shot down for that role you really thought you’d be a great fit for?

“Sort of a funny phrase, when you think about it” he said. “After all, isn’t the hiring process the candidate experience?? Why separate it out from that which it was meant to be to begin with?”

“Maybe,” I recall musing, “The reason we separate it out is because so many companies do such a poor job of focusing on the candidate at all.”  I thought about it a little bit. To a degree, he had a point – the hiring process is what the candidate experiences. Some of it they see directly; others they just feel the impact as they shuffle along the road – waiting – for that offer to arrive (or not).

Truthfully, I think that’s it. Overall, across companies and industries, Human Resources has done a rather shoddy job historically of treating candidates like a valued commodity, or true “talent” they profess to be warring over. If I had to put a finger on it; it seems like many companies don’t ‘discover’ value in the candidate at all until they’re about to put together an offer – and then, my friends, is a little late in the game to begin. Putting that aside for a moment, those who don’t get to the offer stage are left with little- to no- question as to just how much they’re “worth” to employers… a clear message is sent when they simply disappear from view. No warning, no follow-up… just nothing. [Editor’s Note: Always Value the Candidate’s Time. Reply to All Applicants.]

It should be of little surprise that I think social media has made it to where there’s basically no excuse for this sort of experience. I actually thought there was little reason for that experience even before social media hit the scene; but there’s just too many ways to create some stellar candidate experiences with social media that if there WERE an excuse before? It’s certainly gone now. Let’s start at the beginning:

What IS “Candidate Experience??”

Simply speaking, the ‘candidate experience’ is derived from perception. The Candidate Experience is the sum of the perceptions a candidate  through every interaction they’ve had with your brand,  product, employees, communications…

it’s the overall quality of their experience with your organization. If you’re a company dedicated to creating a positive experience, you’re likely scrutinizing every email, phone call, face-to-face interaction, the design of your process, etc. That’s great… but your candidate? Is likely to look at things a little more simplistically.

“How did they make me feel??”

Truthfully, there’s a lot of components that goes into that statement; but that’s what it boils down to.  Candidates want to feel good about what they’re going into and be made to feel like they mattered… even if not ultimately selected. There’s been a lot written about how we’ve failed to do that or the process-driven side of candidate experience; let’s focus on practical things we do (or should) that maybe we could amp up – just a bit – to increase the candidate experience:

Accept that Social is an Advantage in the Candidate Experience, and Leverage It: 

• Don’t be stingy with Social Connections. Most companies already connect the recruiters and sometimes the hiring manager with the candidate on LinkedIn. But why not go a step further and connect other levels of the organization to the candidate as well?

• Share your company’s social footprint. Show where they can find information about your company – good and bad (if it’s out there), and be ready to talk through it with them. Candidates will often find out some about you online. But this is your story; share it with them in your words so that the story is more than what they have come across on their own.

• Connect on multiple platforms. Lead your candidates to your Facebook pages at the beginning of the process and encourage them to interact with others that have “liked” the page AND with employees you’ve also encouraged to participate on the page. Plus, they can see all the available jobs on your company Facebook page.

• Break-up the “quiet abyss.” We’ve all be there – in the middle of a process that’s a little lengthier than we’d like… with No. Update. From. The. “Home Camp.” It’s frustrating – and the largest complaint I’ve consistently heard when talking with candidates.  Social media offers you the opportunity to drop a little line through direct message, inmail, or FB message to a candidate letting them know something you appreciated in their interview, or a strength they have, or just that you (or they) aren’t lost in the abyss. You can make note of the interaction in the ATS to maintain compliance with your company’s policy and complete record-keeping.

• Use Social to Build a Relationship. I save this for last because I believe this is the most important benefit of social in the Candidate Experience. No one says, nor expects, you to come out of the other side of the hiring process as “besties” with those you have recruited along the way; but the fact remains that true “networks” come from forming the basis of ongoing acquiantance with our candidates: providing value when we’re unable to hire, letting them know they were heard, letting them know your time is valuable and well .. being … friendly. Interact with candidates at regular intervals by responding to/re-tweeting something that catches your eye on Twitter, and congratulating their good news that they broadcast over social media. These are the things that pay back in spades in the long-run & show off that you are who you claimed to be in the hiring process!

Social Media has given us the opportunity to stay connected with candidates and show a much needed “humanized” side to what’s often a cold and rigid process. By leveraging the opportunities it provides, we not only improve the candidate experience – “Socially Speaking, of course;” but we improve our company’s lasting relational networks, as well. And that’s a “win-win” proposition that’s worth tapping into!

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

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At first, I struggled to keep from giggling.  Two years IS a long time to wait to decide you made a mistake accepting your job.  But as I listened to her talk; I started to get why she was so upset.  She had originally accepted a Business Partner role for a small company of 400 employees.  During the recruiting process, she had been given a job description with clear duties reporting to the President.  The first couple of months, she actually did some of the duties that were listed in the recruiting materials and job description…. enough that she assumed that as she “proved herself” she’d be trusted with those she had yet to do.  Her boss never told her and she wasn’t going to rock the boat as the new employee so didn’t ask.

As time passed, instead of “growing into” the role she had accepted and expected; she found herself as a “catch-all” for whatever they needed done.  She grabbed dry-cleaning, catered lunches, filled in for nannies, handled A/P when Accounting was overloaded, negotiated contracts with vendors for Purchasing, helped redesign marketing programs and handled a lot of HR duties.  While she could have skipped being the errand girl; at first, she thought that the cross-functional exposure was kind of cool.  It was like an unofficial ‘high potential’ program that exposed her to other areas of the business.

But, at review time, she took a hit:  she hadn’t been doing a defined job role, so there were no real metrics against which to judge her performance levels.  She hadn’t kept track of all the odd-ball jobs and “off-description” duties she’d been doing – so, she had no case to leverage and she didn’t get a bonus, nor a raise.

Time marched on and she still wasn’t doing her original role but she had done a good job of keeping track of all the oddball responsibilities she had.  She was still enjoying the diverse exposure she had in the business but.. it was getting less challenging and more messy. Multiple departments and subsidiaries all had work for her to do – at the same time that all were “top priority.”  She now had NINE unofficial “bosses” in addition to her actual boss.

At review she got a bonus; but not a raise.  The justification was that she hadn’t improved in her mis-defined role and furthermore, they’d discovered another problem:  there was nowhere for her to ‘grow’ to next.  She knew a little about a lot of different facets in the company; but hadn’t developed a real expertise in any of them given her limited involvement with each. Her boss saw her as invaluable for the personal errands she ran for him without complaint; but, he reasoned, you can’t give someone a raise because you like them and they weren’t large enough for “levels” of the same role to make her a Sr. Business Partner.  That’s when she left to call me.

I sympathized; but couldn’t help thinking her employer could have prevented if appropriate steps had been taken back in planning stages of recruiting for the role by:

1)  Charting out ALL of the possible tasks that you expect this role might handle.  If you’re the president and that includes picking up your dry cleaning? You need to be honest up-front (write a transparent job description) and have that discussion during the recruiting process so your new employee doesn’t feel duped or under-valued when you had over the retrieval ticket.  Also, be realistic: there are 40-hours in most work-weeks. Whatever you’re going to have them doing; you need to make sure your planning duties that -as a norm- fit into that 40-hour work-week.  If it’s consistently more than that, then make sure you level with the candidate before you hire them.

2)  Making metrics a MUST.  If your new employee could be performing cross-functionally or is in a high-potential program; take the time to make performance metrics to measure how effective they were with what they were tasked to do and learn in each area.  Also be sure to graph out how much time each department will get from that employee so they can budget what’s tasked to them appropriately – realistic expectations are great expectations when it comes to Talent Management.

3)  Allowing the buck to stop with the “Big Boss.”  Multiple managers and dotted-line reporting structures can be an employee’s “professional purgatory” when not well-defined and supported.  The fastest way to confuse your newly-recruited employee is to not set expectations as to how each of the cross-functions fit from a time-management and priority perspective.  Business needs can cause this to shift at times; but let everyone know who’s on first, second, etc. Finally, make sure they know they can come to you when demands or business needs conflict with their understanding or ability to perform.

4) Planning performance management that never stops.  Don’t wait for review time to tell an employee that what you’ve been directing them to do – or the extra projects they pick up – will keep them from advancing/performing in your company.  This is their career and it’s another time where the buck stops with you.  As an employer, YOU recruited the employee, YOU directed or allowed performance to veer on a different course than originally charted, and YOU are equally responsible for providing an environment where your employee’s career can flourish.  Otherwise, as hiring outlooks continue to improve you can set your expectations from ‘employment greatness’ to that of frustrated employees and a regular need to re-recruit for what will likely be a revolving door.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

 Yes, we naturally want to share information & experiences that we find interesting in our lives.  Consumer marketing and mainstream media get it – thus, the “social sharing” buttons such as Facebook’s “thumbs up” ‘Like’ recommendation.  So, if they get it… why does it seem to be such a leap to really do more than lip-service for Mainstream Recruitment?  Why do we not put more of an emphasis on it in our recruitment marketing and application process?

I can practically hear the Recruiters, HR Leaders, and Business Executives reading this thinking to themselves, “But, wait a minute… we DO put an emphasis on referrals! We have a referral program, after all!!”

So, in response, let me say that simply saying you have something doesn’t mean much.  Perhaps a distinction needs to be made between existence v. utilization v. effective return.  For a social referral program to be truly effective; it must be constantly monitored and marketed.  This means more than putting a poster up in the breakroom & circulating emails saying that you pay cash bonuses for sending prospective employees HR’s way.  This means embracing a whole new way of thinking, starting with your expectations of social recruiting.

• Aim High:  A referral program, when correctly designed & implemented, should make up at least 50% of your candidate source.  Frankly, a well-executed program requires far too much effort to receive a third or less in returns; so, if the bar is set there to start with, then it’s likely to end up being a frustrating endeavor for all involved.

• Keep Standards:  Return metrics aren’t the only bar that should be set high. Ever heard the phrase “Junk in, Junk out?”  If you allow employees to put anyone in as a social referral; then chances are that the quality of referrals you’ll see over time will diminish.  For starters, the “everyone’s in” philosophy actually promotes throwing names against the wall to see what sticks more than it does having employees do some vetting for potential fit.  Over time, this can discourage the recruiting staff from paying referrals the attention they should be due.  Instead, encourage employees to carefully consider their potential referral’s skill sets against the position(s) being referred for and overall company fit.  To reinforce this company culture, consider making your ‘referral rewards’ a sliding scale program that’s balance is determined by success of previous referrals.  The better the past referrals, the farther along the scale the employee will go.

• Get Proactive:  Never lose sight of the fact that your referral program is a Marketing program.  A fundamental flaw of many referral programs is that nearly immediately after launch; they shift into a reactive “hurry up and wait” mode.  This is never going to bring the results you’d want to see – your employees aren’t there to recruit; so, they’ll get preoccupied with their job and forget until someone else brings it up.  Make that someone you by:

Regularly switching up the internal promotions/rewards for employees to continue to entice/attract participation

 

1. Include your ‘High Potentials’ on another level: “birds of a feather,” and all that jazz – if you have a profile that fits, it stands to reason they might know more people like them to refer in to be co-workers!

 

1. Share Program Successes – By regularly communicating the # of hires, $ saved, and $ paid back to the company through the social referral program; you are encouraging participation. This is social recruiting. It won’t be long before people start thinking, “if Bob can refer 2 people and look like a rockstar for helping the company – surely I can, too!”

 

Social Referrals

 Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

A Case for Creating Proactive Recruitment Processes

Each year, I work with approximately 20-25 businesses on revolutionizing their Recruiting Departments.  Of course, only 20% of those start out with a call to proactively change the approach within their recruiting program.  It usually starts with a frantic push to hire 5 Salespeople, or 6 of something else…and a couple of new recruiters to keep up with the burgeoning workload of requisitions that go far beyond the acceptable time-to-fill metrics they’d set for the department.

It’s all behind the curve, so to speak; because it’s all reacting to something that’s already happened.

In the past, talent acquisition departments and recruitment agencies would focus on filling the needs that were already open.  If they were lucky, they’d start with a week or two advance notice.  But make no mistake, that’s still reactive recruiting because the need has already been identified and you’re still going to end up racing against a clock to find that ‘next right fit’ in time  to appease your hiring managers and keep work flowing smoothly.  But with the advantages of social recruiting and good ‘partnered planning’ … is that way of working really necessary in today’s world?

No … at least not entirely. 

Look, there will always be an element of reaction in recruiting; as candidates don’t move past the sourcing/prospect phase until there’s a slot to put them. The true ‘fail’ and call out for change comes the failure to chart out a proactive recruitment plan so that those prospective candidates are identified, familiar with your employment brand and receptive to hearing more when you need them. It’s a much more effective recruitment  model, too; studies have shown that there are nearly double the amount of qualified applicants for professional positions when recruited proactively vs when ‘reactively’ filled.

So where to start:  begin with a solid workforce planning document.  When your business units are working out their annual business plan; they should be planning out the people resources needed to make the objectives within those plans. If you’re reading this thinking, “Our business didn’t do that…”  – that’s okay, start where you are.  Spend some time with your managers going over things like:

• Business Objectives – by quarter, compared against existing people resources;  will new additions be required?

• Historical Attrition – this will give you an idea of what naturally needs to be replaced each year

• Any Identified Potential Attrition – due to performance improvement issues, planned promotion, etc..

This should help get you started with an idea of  what types and how  many of each positions you should plan to fill.  From there, you look at your hiring process.

• What elements of your hiring  process can be fleshed out  in advance? – Determining and doing what can be done in advance will save you time, give reason to begin fostering a relationship with your talent pool/community members and get them jazzed about your company before they continue on in the hiring process.

• How can you use your ATS to aid in this initiative? While this is often the “not fun” step; it’s critical to the mindset shift from proactive to reactive recruiting.  For many companies, the ATS is a ‘resume graveyard;’ and candidates not selected for hire are put in to  never be seen again.  Total missed opportunity.  Take the time to go back through already sourced candidates candidates and involve them into your new proactive talent pools/network/communities.  There are some really good ATS platforms, like SmartRecruiters, that offer social integration and LinkedIn profiles to build truly robust talent pools and source/communicate socially.

• Do you have a ‘promotion plan’ for your brand?  Tweeting out “I have a job” or “Our Company Rocks” isn’t  a Talent Marketing  plan.  Spend some  time creating a ‘brand promotion/recruitment social ed cal’ to  share brand benefits to prospective candidates along with #learnshare content that  would be of interest to your target audience.

• Have you made Recruiting a “Community Affair?”  Finally, proactive recruitment  extends beyond the HR department.  Involve your whole company in the talent identification process and get them involved in your talent communities. Who’s going to be able to spot a top notch developer better than, well… another developer? Who’s going to be able to positively promote your company better than an engaged employee?  By including different levels, departments, and employees you can turn a talent pool into  a true community; and increase the levels of success in  your new, proactive recruiting program.

Crystal Miller creates great Talent Marketing and Social Recruitment Programs at M3 Talent Consulting in Dallas. As an advocate for proactive social media in recruiting, she works as the Co-Host of #TalentNet weekly Radio Chat on Twitter/Focus w/ Talent Net Live. Crystal believes, “Candidate first.” 

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