It’s never a bad time to SmartUp, or think about hiring. This month’s topic was “The War for Startup Talent.” In Silicon Valley there’s a new businesses popping up every second, and they’re all vying for Top Talent.

Our fearless leader, Jerome Ternynck led the panel in a series of startup questions that focused on finding the right talent to scale your startup. Who knows the challenges of creating a team better than startup founders themselves? The Smartup panel consisted of Saygent Founder & CEO Guy Hirsh, Reppify CEO Chirag Nangia, Stagedom Founder & CEO Shahar Nechmad, Fractal Sciences Founder & CEO Shaun Porcar, LocBox Founder & CEO Saumil Mehta , and Wowzer Co- Founder and VP of Business Development Imo Udom. Our goal and their’s was simple, uncover the secrets of how to recruit, retain, and grow your startup into an amazing team

The question session began with Ternynck explaining, “No matter how big or how small- a company’s most valuable asset is their people.” So the question begs… How do you get them?

1. What do you hire for? Skills or Fit?

2. Why do people join startups?

3. How do you find candidates?

4. How many candidates do you see per hire?

5. Tell us about a time when you lost a great candidate? Why / how did it happen?

One thing all the founders agreed is on, is that not everyone is right for your business, in order to scale and create a great company culture you need to hire the right team. Depending on where your business is you need to appropriately prioritize who you hire; some days you’ll need to hire purely for skill, and other days you’ll need someone to complete the culture.

Hiring is about seeing what the company needs to execute the next step. Identifying the right person is essential to the success of your business on every level.

Catch up on everything SmartUp’ers said. And join the meetup group so you don’t miss the next event!

June 26 marked another successful SmartUp here at SmartRecruiters HQ in San Francisco, this time on the topic “The Art and Science of Talent Assessment.”  For the uninitiated, SmartUp is our monthly meetup focused on elevating innovation in hiring.  There’s always an engaging panel or keynote, preceded and followed by food, drink and networking.

We’ve had big turnouts for all 13 of our SmartUps to date, and this last one was no exception. As usual, there was a good mix of recruiters, HR pros and startup people of all stripes.  We especially like seeing startup neighbors of ours doing innovative things in other fields/industries.  After all, your company doesn’t have to be in the HR space to benefit from expert advice on hiring.

This month’s panel featured Michael Tanenbaum , CEO of ConnectCubed; Michael Gladden, Head of Technology at Chequed; and Scott Marsho, Director of Assessments Distribution at Findly.  Also on hand was SmartRecruiters Founder and CEO Jerome Ternynck (Oh yeah, and the famous reuben rolls from Morty’s made a brief appearance.)

In an amazing coincidence, all three of the companies represented on the panel are launch partners for SmartRecruiters’ Assessment Center, a one-stop shop for scientifically assessing the candidates in your SmartRecruiters candidate pool.  That said, each panelist brought a unique perspective stemming from their respective areas of expertise: reference check, skills testing and behavioral evaluations.

Some top tweets from the day:

79% of companies considered as best in class use talent assessments. #smartup

— Laura Hong (@laura2hong) June 27, 2013

“If you’re not using an assessment you’re just not optimizing your workforce,” says @GetFindly‘s Scott Marsho. #Smartup

— SmartRecruiters (@SmartRecruiters) June 27, 2013

 

So far, the NSA, guys with pony tails, Ferraris, and economic workshops all made it into tonight’s #SmartUp @SmartRecruiters . Love it!

— Nik Hristov (@nikhristov) June 27, 2013

Don’t wait with reference checks to the end @Chequedmktg says. Reference check early to speed up hiring. #smartup

— Jason Hegyessy (@hegyessy) June 27, 2013

@tbaums @DavidSmooke Great job tonight. It’s now a “renaissance” of testing and assessment. A whole new ballgame, with DaVinci at bat. — AndrewKarpie (@andrewkarpie) June 27, 2013 

The newest and greatest innovations in hiring. That’s what @BizDevBen is talking about. #Smartup

— David Smooke (@DavidSmooke) June 27, 2013

Don’t miss our next Smartup (August 14): The War for Startup Talent.

#tru is the biggest ongoing series of recruiting unconferences. In San Francisco, #tru came to SmartRecruiters HeadQuarters.

Like SmartRecruiters. Like #tru events.

Follow SmartRecruiters. Follow #tru events.

Video Filmed & Edited by David Smooke.

Since our niche job board CollegeRecruiter.com went live way, way back in 1996, I’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of entry-level positions that include a four-year college degree as a job requirement. Some professional jobs such as engineering and nursing positions require degrees as people who work in those fields need to licensed by a local, state, or federal government authority.

What concerns me aren’t the positions requiring some type of governmental licensure. What concerns me are positions for which no such requirement exists. Your typical telemarketing job, for example, requires no such licensure. Yet a review of telemarketing job postings reveals that many require a four-year degree. Is there really a need for a college degree for typical telemarketing positions? And, if not, then why are more employers requiring college degrees when seemingly none should be necessary? Could it be that some of those employers have motives which are less than pure and have stumbled across a way to exclude racial minorities from their candidate pool? Even if such idiotic motives aren’t present, could it be that in an effort to cut down their list of qualified applicants – and therefore reduce the amount of work they need to do in order to hire a new employee – some employers have created illegal hiring requirements?

It has been clear since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark Griggs v. Duke Power Co. decision in 1971 that certain education requirements and intelligence tests used as conditions of employment acted to exclude racial minority job applicants, did not relate to job performance, and therefore were prohibited. In Griggs, the Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited the use of employment practices that have the effect of excluding racial minorities even if the employer did not intend to discriminate unless the employer can prove that the practice is related to job performance. The question that I’ve been asking, “Is requiring a four-year college degree for telemarketing and other such jobs illegal?”

Some may argue that candidates with college degrees are likely to perform better on the job than those without and, in may cases, that is true. If an employer can demonstrate through the use of data that their telemarketers with college degrees, for example, perform better than those without, then that the employer should be able to require future candidates to have a college degree. But what about those employers who have no data to support their use of college degrees as a hiring requirement?

Griggs puts the burden on the employer to prove that the requirement relates to job performance if that requirement acts to exclude racial minority job applicants. If an employer has no data proving that a college degree is related to job performance, the next question is whether the requirement acts to exclude racial minority job applicants.

Our college campuses are becoming more diverse, and most agree that’s a good thing. Since 1980, a far higher percentage of all racial groups are enrolled in colleges and universities. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the percentages of 18-24 year olds enrolled in two- and four-year colleges and universities by race are:

So employers who require a college degree for a position are making that position available to some 44 percent of caucasians but only 32 percent of African Americans and 26 percent of Hispanics / Latinos. A requirement of a college degree excludes racial minorities as a far higher percentage of caucasians, for example, get college degrees than do African Americas or Hispanics / Latinos.

I understand that many and probably virtually all employers who are requiring college degrees for positions either need to (i.e., hospitals who are hiring nurses) or have an honest belief that employees with college degrees perform better than do employees without college degrees. My concern is only with that latter group and I suspect that employees with college degrees do in fact perform better than employees without college degrees in many cases. But given that the law requires employers not just to believe that but to be able to prove it, I urge all employers to make sure they have the data to support their hiring practice of requiring a college degree. If they can’t get that data, then they should consider the possibility that their actions – properly motivated or not – are at best immoral and at worst illegal.

Steven Rothberg is the President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading niche job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

CollegeRecruiter.com and SmartRecruiters are co-hosting a Smartup learning and networking event on the secrets of college recruiting from 6 to 8:30pm on Monday, May 13^th at the offices of SmartRecruiters in downtown San Francisco. Register today for $10 or for $20 at the door.

Don’t forget to check out our list of best jobs for college students.

Marketing to the SMB buyer is complex and filled with nuance. “Small” deceivingly hides the fact that there are almost as many ways to modify messages for this market as there are thousands of different kinds of businesses.

We understand this challenge, and at our inaugural event InfluenceHR on May 13, we’re going to be talking about disruption and innovation. We’re not leaving SMB out of the mix.

InfluenceHR is going to bring you marketing insight from experts who are reaching the SMB market each day. These are industry experts and CEOs who know what they’re talking about.

In HR Technology and the SMB Market — Who, What and How, a panel of HR technology leaders experienced in the SMB market will discuss key issues and challenges of marketing and selling to the SMB buyer — and will offer their expert opinions on which approaches, strategies, and tactics lead to success. Panelists include SmartRecruiters’ Jerome Ternynck, HR Tech’s Steve Boese, BambooHR’s Erin Jacobs, SumTotal’s Steve Parker, and Talent Technology’s James Thomas.

We’re honored that Jerome from SmartRecruiters is participating because his vision is changing the way companies go to market. SmartRecruiters’ free pricing model has allowed their customers to spend HR dollars on other areas of the business that matter. It’s not just about saying HR can focus on strategy — it’s making that a reality.

In addition to that, SmartRecruiters has a customer-driven and candidate-driven design model. These two things, combined with a commitment to Zero Unemployment, means that SmartRecruiters is ahead of its competition when understanding the marketplace.

InfluenceHR is one day that will make a difference in the lives of marketing professionals. And by making a difference with these professionals, the end game is to educate and elevate HR professionals and give them better choices for products and services. We want HR to be in the business of attracting, retaining and engaging the best possible talent. SmartRecruiters does that, which is why it’s our honor to include them in our inaugural event.

George LaRocque is the leading strategist and go-to-market consultant for HR-related technology and the human capital management (HCM) marketplace. He has personally launched market-leading HR technology brands to profitability, funding or both. He is the president of LAROCQUE, a go-to-market consultancy, the operator and organizer of the InfluenceHR Conference, and the publisher of the #hrwins reports on Innovation in HR Technology.

This April, SmartRecruiters presented a Smartup event about when to outsource recruiting because a successful company doesn’t just grow, it grows smart. And that means not only using the right tools to manage your hiring, but also knowing when to let an outside recruiter give you a hand.  SmartUp events are about elevating innovation in hiring.

This event featured MitchelLake CEO Greg Russell, Business for Social Responsibility’s Managing HR Director Rosalind Cohen-Baruch, and SmartRecruiters’ CEO Jerome Ternynck. View the video below:

The Next Smart is May 13th: The Secrets of College Recruiting. The esteemed panel is CollegeRecruiter.com President & Founder Steven Rothberg, Doby College Relations Manager Steffan Martell, Social Recruiting Expert Bill Boorman, and SmartRecruiters CEO & Founder Jerome Ternynck. Join the Smartup Meetup Group to stay to date on events that elevate innovation in hiring.

Video by Ely Tran & David Smooke.

A more prosperous economy, changing social norms, longer lives and technological revolution have each helped change the idea of an American “career” in the past thirty years. Though plenty of individuals still struggle through the workday, our aspirations for and general perspective on why we work no longer mirrors the often-downtrodden subjects of Studs Turkel’s 1974 expose “Working.” We live in an economy with an implicit understanding that if we’re talented, we’re entitled to love our work – to find in work an awe-inspiring purpose than exclusively providing for ourselves and families. Employers, accordingly, are beginning to realize that they’ll need to oblige this sentiment if they want to attract the best and brightest.

Of course, the more valuable a candidate’s skill set and the more competitive the industry in which she operates, the more she is able to demand this be the case. Take the tech sector, for example. In an extremely quickly moving, and often volatile industry, talent is particularly valuable. Sure, salaries are super high in tech, reflecting the demand for quality developers, designers and strategists. But, at a certain tier, marginal salary differences between competing companies become less important than the myriad of those companies’ other qualities. Indeed, companies have to do a lot more than pay to attract the best talent. Creating a more viscerally joyful work experience is a start (hence the profusion of tech startups with ping-pong tables, free booze, and other fun additions to the workplace that have now become almost cliche). But to distinguish themselves, good companies must foster fulfilling work experiences – they must develop an excellent culture and community, provide opportunities for personal growth, and communicate an awe-inspiring purpose to contextualize day to day work functions.

A number of companies serve as good examples here. Take Asana, a software company that basically builds a sophisticated to-do list. Given that description, Asana wouldn’t strike the reader as a company whose purpose motivates its employees. But there are no discrete standards for what makes a company more purposeful than another, or whether one company culture is better than another. How well a company creates a satisfying work environment depends on the lens through which it views its work, the way in which it executes that work, and how that resonates with employees. Back to Asana:

“Asana’s mission is to empower humanity to do great things. Our approach is to build software that makes group communication and coordination effortless, giving teams of like-minded people the tools they need to accomplish dramatically more ambitious goals.”

Asana’s employees don’t believe they’re creating a pretty task list; they believe they’re changing the world. Buildasign.com, Etsy, Airbnb and Zappos are just a few others on a growing list of organizations whose products might not immediately suggest or require a deep connection to social impact or company culture, but whose employees, and often times customers, are acutely aware of and invested in the connection. The data show it’s good business, too. A 2003 University of Michigan study showed that organizations that were perceived by employees to be more virtuous also had significantly higher productivity, quality outputs, and lower employee turnover.

However, you can have an outstanding culture and mission and still fail to attract top talent. Good recruiting depends on successfully communicating those core company elements. Employers need to leverage media to succeed here. Your values, your culture, and the special sauce that makes your company the right place to be for the right candidate are all elements that candidates need to feel. The more relatable you can be, the better fits you’ll identify. Rich media provides the opportunity for candidates to get to know your company and, if they’re the right fit, become attracted to your company (yes, it’s sort of like the dynamics of online dating but for employment).

Try testing this theory. You’ve now spent a couple minutes reading my thoughts on work and recruiting. As passionate as I am about what I’m writing, you only have a cursory sense of who I am. Now go to our site: www.zoomforth.com/about (this is an elegant plug, isn’t it?!) and click on me. Check out a few photos and watch a few seconds of video. Pretty quickly, you get a much better sense of who I am. At Zoomforth, we’re helping companies do the same thing.

Growing organizations use multimedia to describe their people, positions and culture so that they attract the right fits. If companies can both implement measures that generate well-being and also communicate them, the returns are enormous. Beyond the intrinsic good of putting people in the right work environment and making them happy, the happier employees are at your company, the more effective they’ll be and the longer they’ll stay.

Photo Credit Smartup Zoomforth

It’s the new year, so SmartUp! Join us at SmartRecruiters headquarters in SOMA to feast on the personal social media recruiting stories of William Tincup, Craig Fisher and John Sumser. Drinks, Dinner, and raw social recruiting brainpower!

Tickets are $10 in advance, $20 at the door … and FREE if you are attending Social Recruiting Strategies Conference [register and bring your conference pass to event].

“SmartUp: Feasting on Social Recruiting” will be 6:00 to 8:30 pm Wednesday January 30th at the SmartRecruiters HeadQuarters, 56 Tehama St.

Register here. Follow the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. This great panel includes:

William Tincup.

HR Vendor / Consultant, MBA, SPHR, Speaker, Blogger, DriveThruHR Co-Host, Fistful of Talent Contributor, HR Software User Acceptance / User Adoption Expert.

Craig Fisher.

3 boys’ Dad • CEO #Talentnet • Sales & recruiter strategy Ajax Social Media • Linkedin Certified Training • Employer Brand • Speaker/Blogger Instagram/fishdogs

John Sumser.

Seasoned analyst of HRTech market strategy. Demographic economist. Analyst for HRxAnalysts (brand meaning-perception) in HR. Editor of the HRExaminer.

6:00-7:00 pm: Dinner, Drinks, and Networking
7:00-7:45 pm: Panel Discussion
7:45-8:30 pm: Drinks and Networking

Time to Feast on Social Recruiting. Register for this SmartUp.

It’s party time, people!

That’s right it’s the holiday office party season and there is plenty of good and exciting news for everyone to enjoy.  First of all, 91% of companies will have an office party this year. That’s up from 74% in 2011.  Oddly enough this is a sign of economic development and more growth expected. Battalia Winston also reported that 66% of companies expect to grow and hire in 2013 (as opposed to 48% who expected to grow and hire in 2012).

Office parties improve employee engagement, morale and help define your company culture. Engaged employees are more productive and loyal. If your people are happy and proud to be on your team they will work harder and buy into your initiatives. This can also increase your employee referral rates. People love to tell others about their great jobs with great perks and benefits, but it is even better to see the great perks of your great job. Who doesn’t love a good party?

The holiday office party is a great way to celebrate a good year, uphold tradition, onboard new employees, and even recruit new employees. That’s right your little office gathering could be a highly effective recruiting tool.

CEO’s, Managers, Supervisors and HR must set the mood.

We’ve all seen examples of bad office party behavior; this year we are focusing on the good. If there’s going to be drinking, dancing and games then the appropriate tone must be set or else there could be HR issues. The tone of the party establishes your employer brand to all party guests. Remember, although it’s a party, it’s still a work function and it’s important not to be that person who crosses the line of socializing and embarrassing behavior. Staying true to your personality goes a long way.

Your guests will take note of the parties’ scale. The extravagant parties with limos can tell of the companies growth, but also, of how wisely it chooses to allocate resources. I think these type of pampered parties are being replaced with theme and custom parties; beautiful dining halls and restaurants. Nice and simple but not over the top. This speaks to a level of social responsibility and organizational integrity. In reality the country is coming out of a recession and the fact that 9 out of 10 companies are hosting parties means that things are getting better. We have a ways to go. There are still many businesses that are not expecting to grow this year. So you want to party responsibly; you don’t want your employees to feel that the money spent on an expensive party could go to better use – like raises or better technology.

Show guests how your business does!

Holiday office parties’ can not only increase engagement but they can be wonderful ways to onboard new employees. Just as employers use the office party to assess behavior, employees use them as confirmation for accepting a position with your company. With all the outsourcing and lay-offs over that past few years, workers are ready to enjoy work again. Your office party maybe the first opportunity for you and your employees to bond.  A great holiday part is a great way and place to introduce newer employees to your company culture.

Chris Fields is an HR professional and leadership guy who blogs and dispenses great (not just good) advice at Cost of Work.

SmartRecruiters catered a delicious holiday dinner, with guests and a new hire, in front of a modern fire above an ambitious company purpose.

Are we witnessing the death of the traditional resume?  With data about our interests, skills and qualifications proliferating across the web, can the four corners of a page still possibly contain enough data to help an employer make the right hire?

Jerome Ternynck, founder and CEO of SmartRecruiters, is not pulling any punches: “Resumes are dead,” says Ternynck.  “Our digital footprints reveal more about our talents, interests and experience than the traditional resume ever did — or ever will again.”  That’s why SmartRecruiters‘ users are invited to apply for jobs using their LinkedIn or Facebook profiles – rather than using a traditional resume.

Resumes Out, Skills In

Venturocket CEO Marc Hoag sees the limitations of the traditional resume.  Venturocket began with essentially the same idea that Ternynck expresses: “The job market is broken and everyone knows it.”  It is difficult to verify the honesty of résumés and cover letters, and there is no way to prevent unqualified applicants from applying.

“Résumés and cover letters don’t work,” says Hoag.  “Résumés are padded and exaggerated, cover letters are blatant hyperbole, and both make job and talent searching needlessly complex.” On Venturocket, users simply list keywords and short phrases describing the general professions, explicit skills, unique qualifications, and personal characteristics they possess or require.

“Resumes and job applications are great,” adds Hoag, if your goal is to spam every employer on the planet.”

Tapping the Social Web

Jon Bischke of Entelo wants to go beyond the resume, too – by harnessing the mass of candidate information on sites like GitHub and Stack OverFlow. “There’s all this data and all these sites that didn’t exist even a few years ago where people are going online and talking about things that they’re interested in,” says Bischke.  And they’re using these sites to prove their expertise.

Entelo aims to index the data from a wide variety of such sources, with the aim of going out and finding the best candidates  —  rather than waiting for the best candidates to come to you.  Instead of just looking at resumes, you’ll be seeing real-world examples of a candidate’s work and interests, giving you a better picture of their capabilities.  Bischke calls it ““Proactive recruiting.”

Resumes: Not Dead Yet

Adam Spector, co-founder and CEO of Virtrue, recognizes the limitations of the resume.  But Spector acknowledges what many don’t, that the resume is here to stay — at least for now.  The trick is not to ignore it completely, but to verify its’  information.

“The traditional resume is dying, but the information it provides – education & work history – is not,” says Spector. “Our digital life has become our resume, and managing, understanding, and verifying that life history is critical to a successful job search.”

Virtrue harnesses publicly-available candidate data from a wide variety of websites, including social networks.  Once a candidate is verified, an employer can hire that person with confidence that they are who they say they are.  “Transparency, in a verified way, is the key to trust,” says Spector.  “Virtrue makes that possible.”

 Come Meet the Founders

Want to learn more about the future of the resume?  Have a burning question for one of the founders?  Come meet Jerome, Jon, Adam and Marc at SmartUp: Beyond the Resume, taking place tomorrow, September 5 at SmartRecruiters HQ.  Registration and more information here.  Hope to see you there!

@BizDevBen is a native of San Francisco, practices martial arts, and is on a quest to partner with all the best recruiting services. Ben Klafter will be moderating the SmartUp: Beyond the Resume. Photo Credit ExactSource.