Where Talent Strategies + Social Media Intersect
Posts tagged as:
This is the first in a series of movies I’m creating on the joy of work.
I got bored with blogging, so this is my attempt at a little expression, creativity, and hopefully some entertainment value.
I would imagine that anyone whose ever interviewed for a job – or interviewed candidates for a job – will be able to relate on some level.
Above all…enjoy!
Scridb filter
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod
Recently a blog post on tlnt.com by the fabulous Laurie Ruettimann caught my attention, “Don’t Facebook Me: Why You Shouldn’t Google During the Recruiting Process.”
Laurie writes, “I don’t believe it is appropriate for Human Resources professionals to hop on Google, root around the Internet, and look for incriminating pictures and create reasons not to hire qualified people during America’s worst recession in decades.
Googling is a sloppy, lazy, and unseemly method to verify a candidate’s character. And who the heck is HR to put itself out there as a judge of character? I told the audience, “Some of us in the room are human and screw up on a daily basis. If you can’t use Facebook to post pictures, where is the joy in life?”
My first thought was, “But I am not looking for information to rule candidates out. I am looking for information to rule them in.”
When I am using Google or any other search tool as a part of my sourcing and recruiting efforts, I am seeking information about individuals’ professional experience and expertise. When working on a search, the goal is to find the most qualified candidate. Most of the searches that I work on are highly-specialized; clients hire me to find qualified individuals at a certain level within a small, very specific niche.
There is typically an extremely limited pool of these people that I am looking for. So, when I start researching someone’s professional background, I am hoping to find information telling me they are the right candidate for the job.
I WANT this person to be the right person for the job – so I can fill it and move on to the next one!
The problem arises when things pop up during this research that provide some doubt as to whether the individual may be the right fit for a client. The reason I am always writing on my blog about how it’s not a good idea to have drunken, naked, or otherwise unprofessional photos that are available to the general public is that we recruiters don’t want to find that stuff when we are doing our research! If we do, it might give us pause: ”Well, now, what if my client researches them and finds this and I didn’t tell them about it?”
Let me give you an example.
During a search I was working on several years ago I came across a potential candidate’s resume. He was a consultant for a Big 4 professional services firm, and his education and work experience were impressive.
The problem?
His resume was outlined on his MySpace page…right next to pictures of him, um, hugging the Porcelein God if you know what I mean. 
There was also a lot of commentary about how he likes to drink and get drunk and there were pictures of naked woman all over his page.
My first thought was that if the partners of his firm saw this they would be mortified. And what if a client or potential client of theirs found it??
And then I thought the same thing about if the partners of the firm I was representing at the time saw that. They would be equally mortified. To have the name of the firm right there next to all of that…I still shudder at the thought.
Fortunately for me, it turned out his experience was not a direct match for what I was looking for so even if I had not seen all of that he would not have been a fit for that particular role. However, I just kept thinking…what if he had been? Then what am I supposed to do with that information once I have it?
Part of being a good fit for certain MOST roles is demonstration of good judgment. That, was not.
I think it’s perfectly fine to post your pictures on MySpace or Facebook or wherever. Naked or drunk or otherwise.
I think it’s also a really, really good idea to think long and hard about whom you want to see that stuff and whom you do not…and to USE PROTECTION THOSE PRIVACY CONTROLS THEY GIVE YOU.
Scridb filter{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod
According to the Seeking Cost Advantages in HR Technology and Service Delivery – 2009 HR Technology Trends Survey conducted by Towers Watson:
The advent of social media has allowed employers to move from simply collecting resumes in a database to developing somewhat personal and meaningful relationships in and around the pool(s) of talent they want to attract.
What is the difference between an applicant database and a talent community?
Kevin Wheeler writes, “Databases suffer from two major problems when it comes to being effective recruiting tools:
Problem one. They tend to get old very quickly and the data about the people is not current and often not even useable. While no one I know of has done actual research on the quality of the data in corporate resume databases, I know from anecdotal conversation that it is poor. I would guess that over half the people in the typical database are either no longer interested in a position or cannot be contacted. (I, too, know this from experience!)
Problem two. The recruiter has a one-dimensional view of the candidates, generally only from the resume itself. There is no additional information, no personal observations, and no reference data. Because resumes have been added mostly through electronic and impersonal methods, the candidates are completely unknown to the recruiters. This means that the qualification and assessment of a candidate begins after the resume is retrieved and may take quite a bit of time, assuming the candidate can even be contacted. Candidate quality is often poor, and the time to find candidates can become very long, especially for hard-to-fill positions. Ask yourself how many positions are filled with people you find solely by searching in your ATS database.”
A talent community is so much more than a database (applicant tracking system) which, in many cases, quickly becomes a one-way, stagnant dumping ground.
A talent community is an opt-in, interactive forum where individuals with particular skill sets and interests can interact in a personal and meaningful way with corporate HR and company management in order to better understand – and be a part of – the firm and all that it has to offer from an employment perspective.
Joshua Kahn wrote a job description for a Talent Community Manager. You can read it here.
I think it’s an excellent start, though I would add to it elements of driving interest and traffic to the talent community itself via social media and face-to-face networking opportunities such as conferences, unconferences, etc.
In this series we will explore why and how companies should build talent communities.
We will also discuss the benefits of joining such communities for individuals — whether or not they are actively seeking employment at the time.
I’d love to hear from those of you who have built/are building talent communities for your own companies or firms. What’s working well for you and where do you aspire to go with this endeavor?
Scridb filter{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I know, you thought I was dead.
Or in a coma.
Or that I forgot my password to my blog.
But alas…
I’m still here.
Still kicking…and in fact I’m running a half-marathon on Saturday. (That’s 13.1 miles.)
So, here I am, reporting to you live from Nashville, Tennessee…
I know this has nothing to so with social media or recruiting or finding a job, but training for and running a half-marathon DOES require fortitude which is something we could all use a little more of if we want to be successful at any of the above.
So stay tuned.
More from Nashville — and — now I also owe you 11 more steps to becoming a more committed blogger.
Oh, and P.S.
A little insight into my motivation for you…
#inspiration
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
