Search Results - challenges

Blog Post: Utilizing Applicant Tracking System as a Small Business - Top 9 Tips and Best Practices: While an applicant tracking system is nothing new in the recruiting landscape, ATS solutions continue to push the way a recruiting team operates, eliminating menial tasks while helping to build…; Added by Rakuna at 9:55am on November 13, 2021

Blog Post: From Angry Birds to Hog Heaven

From Angry Birds to Hog Heaven

Presented by: Doug Douglas – National Engagement…

Added by Doug Douglas at 4:57pm on May 9, 2012

Blog Post: Review Your Current Recruiting Process and 6 Steps to Remove Unconscious Bias

Racism has always been a sensitive problem; today, it has become a more delicate topic than ever in recruitment.

As the human rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said: …

Added by Rakuna at 4:59am on November 8, 2024

Blog Post: Campus Recruiting Technologies to Adopt to Win the Campus Recruitment Battle: A 2020 article by …; Added by Rakuna at 3:33am on April 5, 2021

Topic: Meet Scott Wilde, Sourcing & Diversity Specialist at American Family Insurance: Profile • Personal Blog: http://amfamcareerblog.wordpress.com Scott Wilde is a Sourcing & Diversity Specialist at American Family Insurance. Hisfocus is workforce planning, strategic sourcing, project management, community and college outreach, and diversity programs. Recent projects that he has led include designing an employee referral program, Web 2.0/social networking and a national diversity recruitment strategy. More specifically, Scott has led project and program teams that led to increased volume of candidates through employee referrals and diversity channels. The employee referral program showed a 495% annual increase in referrals and a 5% increase in the number of hires. He provides Research and identifies candidate sourcing avenues while evaluating effectiveness based on successful recruiting. Scott provides guidance to Staffing Specialists to provide guidance and direction to develop depth and diversity within candidate pools. In addition, Scott Leads activities which support school and community outreach including membership of executive committees and best practice consortiums Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world, Scott. Scott: I have been married for 12 years to my lovely wife, Melissa. If anyone else out there married a person they met on a blind date, let me know. It was not what I expected from a blind date, but she is the best. Since then the family has grown to include two strong willed young girls who make me laugh and turn my hair gray. Mostly a lot of laughing at the humor they have along with the way they constantly challenge my thoughts - and are right. While most of my free time is reading, I also love to travel. Most of the recent trips have been to water parks in Wisconsin, but my most memorable trip was to the Soviet Union before it disbanded. If you can picture me in a large glass room in the middle of a foreign airport, that was my introduction to international travel. Who knew that wrong visa dates would be that much of a problem? LOL. Well since then there have been other trips mostly to the warm weather Caribbean. Oh yeah, a few trip to northern Wisconsin is sub zero temperatures too. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Scott: It has been ten years of recruiting. I still remember when I was offered the position in 1999 to be a corporate recruiter. When I walked in on my first day, the receptionist asked if I was here to interview for an internship. Well, I did end up hiring many interns. She and I still laugh about this. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Scott: My start as a recruiter was interesting. My wife took a position in the headquarters for the company so we got the opportunity to move to Madison, WI. At the same time a staffing position was listed in the same office. I applied, interviewed, and got the position. It was somewhat of a mystery to me what a recruiter did, but I found out quickly. Since that start, I have hired for just about anything. Some of the areas have been finance, actuaries, accounting, claims, customer service, marketing, human resources, and legal. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Scott: The event that had the biggest impact on me was in my first few months as a recruiter, I was asked to lead a project to hire 80 people. This was a great honor to be asked and it gave me additional confidence in my ability as a recruiter. Being able to create a strategy, lead coworkers, and guide several managers in the process was all new to me. Many things were just as we had planned and many were not. It was the best opportunity to learn through mistakes and recognize that I really loved this. There were a lot of long hours and hard work to get this completed, but I had a smile on my face every day. At that point, I knew what I wanted to do the rest of my career. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Scott: I do have a mentor. She and I have known each other since the first day I started as a recruiter. She was one of the four people who interviewed me when I was first hired into Human Resources. Since then she has been a teacher, coach, guide, manager, and most of all, a good friend. She has always been there with a positive attitude while being direct and honest. I could not see myself in the same place without her. Thanks Lori. Six Degrees: Tell us about your position. Scott: I am a Sourcing and Diversity Specialist American Family Insurance. My focus is to understand the talent needs of the company and build relationships with people and organizations to find the talent needed. I also am involved with the referral program and web 2.0 efforts in LinkedIn, Facebook, and blogs. What I love about the position is networking and building relationships across industries and across the nation. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? <<strong>Scott: I really admire a company with a good college internship program that compliments professional level hiring. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Scott: The most impactful trend is the downturn in the economy. This has touched every aspect of recruitment. There are fewer positions available while more people are looking for a job. Six Degrees:Tell us about your involvement at speaking events, awards, publications, where you have you represented your company: Scott: Recently I have spoken at the New Economic Opportunity Network (NEON) luncheon in Illinois. In the near future I will be presenting social networking to a few conferences, but I need to get those presentations ready yet. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Scott: My next career goal is to get into a role that combines recruitment with talent management. It is exciting to understand the trends for a company and build a strategy to meet those needs. To get there I need to continue building on my understanding of the complete talent management cycle to integrate it with recruitment activities. “HOW DOES SCOTT DO IT?” Six Degrees: What is the source of the "Most Hires" collected from at your present employer? (In terms of Quantity #) Scott: Referrals are a great source of hires. Most other recruiters I talk with agree this is the best source for hires. Six Degrees: What is the source of your "LOWEST COST OF HIRES" - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer? Scott: Referrals again. Referrals should be a strong focus in any organization. Six Degrees: What talent niche groups do you target and are these particular talent areas specialized under your review? Scott: I target any skill set that related to insurance. The good news is there are many careers in insurance that most people I talk with would fit well in the industry. Claims, actuaries, underwriting and sales are careers people often relate to insurance, but there are so many more positions as well. Over the years, I have been fortunate to hire for every part of insurance. Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of? Scott: AIRS, ERE webinars, conferences, SHRM events and many more. Training is key to keeping up with new trends. Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Scott: The tool that I use most often in recruitment is Linked. I also use an applicant tracking system and plenty of homebuilt spreadsheets. I am not sure how these tool translate in different countries, but I have built relationship with candidates all over the world. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Scott: I love this question. When I started, there were still paper requests from managers to fill a position. Today I cannot even imagine waiting for a manager to fill out a form and sent it to me. The communication from the managers to me is now instantaneous. Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people's assumptions about our vocation differ from reality? Scott: When I started recruiting, my thought was all I would need to do is talk to people. Well, I do talk to a lot of people, but there is so much to recruiting. The actual interviews are just one small slice of what a recruiter does. There is planning, metrics, project management, reporting, advertising, networking, public speaking, and a whole list of other things. One person who job shadowed with me could not believe all the work that goes into recruiting. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Scott: I should have a good answer for you since I have had plenty of “Learning Experiences” in my career. One that comes to mind was a person I hired over eight years ago. I can still remember making the offer and taking about vacation time. I miscalculated the days off and offered an extra week of vacation. Everyone was happy, but five minutes after I hung up and realized my mistake, I was on the phone again. It was not an issue with this person, but it was embarrassing. To this day, one of my coworkers still gets me with this example. If he makes a mistake, he will say “at least I didn’t offer them an extra week off.” It is good to know old mistakes are not forgotten. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. This is not something new, but I really like to focus on data when looking at staffing efforts. Using data to understand trends and results helps guide my decisions. While there are many activities that are challenging to measure, I do try to put some type of measurement to it. It can be qualitative or quantitative as long as there is some way to measure success. Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Scott: A best practice that I am most proud of was leading a great team of peers to revamp the referral program. The effort put out by each person was wonderful. In the end the new referral program showed results way ahead of anything we had seen in the past. Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Scott: The most frustrating aspect is there is so much to do and limited time to do it. This does not seem like an obstacle, but a good sign of the value being placed on recruitment. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? Scott: What inspires is helping people and the company at the same time. Nothing feels better than watching a manager and a new candidate really hit if off. When you know that you have helped someone find their dream career while making your company stronger is what I love. Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2009? Scott: In 2009 the biggest accomplishment will be planning and attending the National Black MBA Association conference in New Orleans. Planning is well underway to attend. I can’t wait to meet some great people there. Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry? Scott: My view to change the Recruitment Industry is one contact at a time. While there is a need to communicate to large numbers of people, I strongly believe in making those times I talk with someone memorable and valuable. To me it all comes down to building a relationship. The question I need to ask every time I get involved in a sourcing/recruitment process is how am I going to add value to this person or process.…; Added by Dave Mendoza to Six Degrees at 3:53am on March 16, 2009

Topic: Meet Scott Wilde, Sourcing & Diversity Specialist at American Family Insurance: Profile • Personal Blog: http://amfamcareerblog.wordpress.com Scott Wilde is a Sourcing & Diversity Specialist at American Family Insurance. Hisfocus is workforce planning, strategic sourcing, project management, community and college outreach, and diversity programs. Recent projects that he has led include designing an employee referral program, Web 2.0/social networking and a national diversity recruitment strategy. More specifically, Scott has led project and program teams that led to increased volume of candidates through employee referrals and diversity channels. The employee referral program showed a 495% annual increase in referrals and a 5% increase in the number of hires. He provides Research and identifies candidate sourcing avenues while evaluating effectiveness based on successful recruiting. Scott provides guidance to Staffing Specialists to provide guidance and direction to develop depth and diversity within candidate pools. In addition, Scott Leads activities which support school and community outreach including membership of executive committees and best practice consortiums Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world, Scott. Scott: I have been married for 12 years to my lovely wife, Melissa. If anyone else out there married a person they met on a blind date, let me know. It was not what I expected from a blind date, but she is the best. Since then the family has grown to include two strong willed young girls who make me laugh and turn my hair gray. Mostly a lot of laughing at the humor they have along with the way they constantly challenge my thoughts - and are right. While most of my free time is reading, I also love to travel. Most of the recent trips have been to water parks in Wisconsin, but my most memorable trip was to the Soviet Union before it disbanded. If you can picture me in a large glass room in the middle of a foreign airport, that was my introduction to international travel. Who knew that wrong visa dates would be that much of a problem? LOL. Well since then there have been other trips mostly to the warm weather Caribbean. Oh yeah, a few trip to northern Wisconsin is sub zero temperatures too. Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry? Scott: It has been ten years of recruiting. I still remember when I was offered the position in 1999 to be a corporate recruiter. When I walked in on my first day, the receptionist asked if I was here to interview for an internship. Well, I did end up hiring many interns. She and I still laugh about this. Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter? Scott: My start as a recruiter was interesting. My wife took a position in the headquarters for the company so we got the opportunity to move to Madison, WI. At the same time a staffing position was listed in the same office. I applied, interviewed, and got the position. It was somewhat of a mystery to me what a recruiter did, but I found out quickly. Since that start, I have hired for just about anything. Some of the areas have been finance, actuaries, accounting, claims, customer service, marketing, human resources, and legal. Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career? Scott: The event that had the biggest impact on me was in my first few months as a recruiter, I was asked to lead a project to hire 80 people. This was a great honor to be asked and it gave me additional confidence in my ability as a recruiter. Being able to create a strategy, lead coworkers, and guide several managers in the process was all new to me. Many things were just as we had planned and many were not. It was the best opportunity to learn through mistakes and recognize that I really loved this. There were a lot of long hours and hard work to get this completed, but I had a smile on my face every day. At that point, I knew what I wanted to do the rest of my career. Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after? Scott: I do have a mentor. She and I have known each other since the first day I started as a recruiter. She was one of the four people who interviewed me when I was first hired into Human Resources. Since then she has been a teacher, coach, guide, manager, and most of all, a good friend. She has always been there with a positive attitude while being direct and honest. I could not see myself in the same place without her. Thanks Lori. Six Degrees: Tell us about your position. Scott: I am a Sourcing and Diversity Specialist American Family Insurance. My focus is to understand the talent needs of the company and build relationships with people and organizations to find the talent needed. I also am involved with the referral program and web 2.0 efforts in LinkedIn, Facebook, and blogs. What I love about the position is networking and building relationships across industries and across the nation. Six Degrees: (A) What other companies' recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples? <<strong>Scott: I really admire a company with a good college internship program that compliments professional level hiring. Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why? Scott: The most impactful trend is the downturn in the economy. This has touched every aspect of recruitment. There are fewer positions available while more people are looking for a job. Six Degrees:Tell us about your involvement at speaking events, awards, publications, where you have you represented your company: Scott: Recently I have spoken at the New Economic Opportunity Network (NEON) luncheon in Illinois. In the near future I will be presenting social networking to a few conferences, but I need to get those presentations ready yet. Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there? Scott: My next career goal is to get into a role that combines recruitment with talent management. It is exciting to understand the trends for a company and build a strategy to meet those needs. To get there I need to continue building on my understanding of the complete talent management cycle to integrate it with recruitment activities. “HOW DOES SCOTT DO IT?” Six Degrees: What is the source of the "Most Hires" collected from at your present employer? (In terms of Quantity #) Scott: Referrals are a great source of hires. Most other recruiters I talk with agree this is the best source for hires. Six Degrees: What is the source of your "LOWEST COST OF HIRES" - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality) at your present employer? Scott: Referrals again. Referrals should be a strong focus in any organization. Six Degrees: What talent niche groups do you target and are these particular talent areas specialized under your review? Scott: I target any skill set that related to insurance. The good news is there are many careers in insurance that most people I talk with would fit well in the industry. Claims, actuaries, underwriting and sales are careers people often relate to insurance, but there are so many more positions as well. Over the years, I have been fortunate to hire for every part of insurance. Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of? Scott: AIRS, ERE webinars, conferences, SHRM events and many more. Training is key to keeping up with new trends. Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit? Scott: The tool that I use most often in recruitment is Linked. I also use an applicant tracking system and plenty of homebuilt spreadsheets. I am not sure how these tool translate in different countries, but I have built relationship with candidates all over the world. Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career? Scott: I love this question. When I started, there were still paper requests from managers to fill a position. Today I cannot even imagine waiting for a manager to fill out a form and sent it to me. The communication from the managers to me is now instantaneous. Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people's assumptions about our vocation differ from reality? Scott: When I started recruiting, my thought was all I would need to do is talk to people. Well, I do talk to a lot of people, but there is so much to recruiting. The actual interviews are just one small slice of what a recruiter does. There is planning, metrics, project management, reporting, advertising, networking, public speaking, and a whole list of other things. One person who job shadowed with me could not believe all the work that goes into recruiting. Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience? Scott: I should have a good answer for you since I have had plenty of “Learning Experiences” in my career. One that comes to mind was a person I hired over eight years ago. I can still remember making the offer and taking about vacation time. I miscalculated the days off and offered an extra week of vacation. Everyone was happy, but five minutes after I hung up and realized my mistake, I was on the phone again. It was not an issue with this person, but it was embarrassing. To this day, one of my coworkers still gets me with this example. If he makes a mistake, he will say “at least I didn’t offer them an extra week off.” It is good to know old mistakes are not forgotten. Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision. This is not something new, but I really like to focus on data when looking at staffing efforts. Using data to understand trends and results helps guide my decisions. While there are many activities that are challenging to measure, I do try to put some type of measurement to it. It can be qualitative or quantitative as long as there is some way to measure success. Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career? Scott: A best practice that I am most proud of was leading a great team of peers to revamp the referral program. The effort put out by each person was wonderful. In the end the new referral program showed results way ahead of anything we had seen in the past. Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general? Scott: The most frustrating aspect is there is so much to do and limited time to do it. This does not seem like an obstacle, but a good sign of the value being placed on recruitment. Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, -- what inspires you as you continue in your career? Scott: What inspires is helping people and the company at the same time. Nothing feels better than watching a manager and a new candidate really hit if off. When you know that you have helped someone find their dream career while making your company stronger is what I love. Six Degrees: What one thing do you ideally hope to accomplish in 2009? Scott: In 2009 the biggest accomplishment will be planning and attending the National Black MBA Association conference in New Orleans. Planning is well underway to attend. I can’t wait to meet some great people there. Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry? Scott: My view to change the Recruitment Industry is one contact at a time. While there is a need to communicate to large numbers of people, I strongly believe in making those times I talk with someone memorable and valuable. To me it all comes down to building a relationship. The question I need to ask every time I get involved in a sourcing/recruitment process is how am I going to add value to this person or process.…; Added by Dave Mendoza at 2:13pm on March 16, 2009

Blog Post: Why Boring Work is Subjective and Necessary: Added by Sean Pomeroy at 9:49am on November 17, 2015

Topic: Talent Talk Cafe - Chat Transcript for Community Moving to Action Part 1: e asked - What happens if you build a recruitment strategy that begins by first establishing a deliberate community focus. This week we explored moving to action and integrating social media into your recruitment strategy: Setting expectations. Building a compelling case for internal support. Anticipating community management time requirements. Evaluating and reallocating resources to establish a foundation for success. Following is the Transcript from Talent Talk Café June 24 - Making a Case to Integrate Social Media Into Your Talent Strategy Susan Burns Hi everyone! Its time for Talent Talk Cafe! 3:00pm Susan Kang Nam Hello Susan ~ I am here to learn from you and everyone! 3:00pm Slouch Hey Susan, Sharyn, Chet and The Talent Hunter 3:01pm Susan Burns Our topic today is Moving to Action to integrated social media into your recruitment strategy 3:01pm Susan Burns Hi Jaosn, Susan, Sharyn, Chet, Talent Hunter and Dave! 3:01pm The Talent Hunter Hello Susan 3:01pm Chet Volpe I'm all ears... 3:01pm Susan Burns Hey Jason - can u move the chat to center so its bigger and easier to follow 3:01pm Slouch its in the center for me 3:02pm Chet Volpe me too 3:02pm Susan Burns got it - just refreshed and its there for me too - fab! 3:03pm Slouch try refreshing your screen 3:03pm Susan Kang Nam same here.. Susan Burns So in the last couple of weeks we defined what community is and what happens if u build a talent strategy beginning with a first intention of community 3:03pm Susan Burns The main challenge now is building internal support so there are resources - mostly time, to invest in building community 3:04pm Slouch Time is what you need Susan Burns Do we want to open this up by addressing the first part around setting expectations for time - how can you get support to allocated 10 hours a week to focus on community 3:05pm Susan Burns And, what is the value in doing that 3:06pm Slouch ask with a nice smile? 3:06pm Susan Burns That's a start Jason ;-) 3:06pm Susan Burns Let me ask another question - do people feel they already have the time to invest in building communiities? 3:07pm Joshua Letourneau do you mean 10 hrs of a 40-hr week? (my corp recruiter friends pull a 40 - anything over that is not incentivized) 3:07pm Susan Burns Hi Josh! Yes, to allocate time into the regular workweek 3:08pm Joshua Letourneau hi 3:08pm Chet Volpe time is the double edged sword - if you don't invest you don't get anything back, now it's just a matter of roi... 3:08pm Susan Burns So Chet - would you see value in reallocating 10 hrs/week to build a community that would produce an ROI to you down the road? Chet Volpe yes, but I might not start with 10 hours a week, maybe build to a comfort level that leaves a good balance of getting everything else done as well. 3:10pm Slouch I think you need about 10 hours a week to make it a worthwhile place for potential candidates to come 3:10pm Susan Kang Nam Curious to know - how would you measure that time well invested = hire? would 10 hours be enough? 3:11pm Slouch that time includes thining about it as well, not just working on it 3:11pm Chet Volpe Susan, do you have an example? 3:11pm Chet Volpe site that is 3:12pm Susan Burns Susan - thats the other part of the equation: 1 - what r your expectations....how soon do you want to see roi and 2 - what type of support can u get to cover off other work 3:12pm Susan Burns Chet - what r u looking for an example of - time invested to roi? 3:12pm Scott Godbey Susan it seems to me that roi would not happen immediately. Have you found that to be the case? 3:13pm Susan Burns Scott - absolutely - that 3:13pm MN Headhunter (a little late, sorry) I think the issue is who you are. If you are a big, known company brand management is a lot easier than if you are a little dude like me in Minneapolis 3:14pm Maren Hogan It seems that community has to valuable and to be valuable most companies look at it as having to be very broad brushed 3:14pm Susan Burns i'm getting delays and missing feeds - sorry 3:14pm Ben Gotkin Hey Susan! 3:14pm Chet Volpe yes, a social network site that is working for someone that has the time invested and is showing the roi. MN Headhunter General Mills by sheer volume of who goes to their site can get a community up and running in weeks to 2 months. for me, 6 months 3:15pm Maren Hogan so if they have to be broad to be useful (current definition not mine) then it's really asking a corp to take a leap of faith 3:15pm Susan Kang Nam I think it's getting that support you will need to cover off other work maybe a challenge and to get validation for spending time to build this community first hand.. 3:15pm Slouch Hi chet, I always point to wirelessJobs.com as a targeted community built by Dennis Smith. He makes placements from it 3:16pm Joshua Letourneau the notion of ROI is (in most cases) overblown as the return can often be as qualitative as quantitative (i.e. perceptions of the "employment brand") 3:16pm Susan Burns ok i'm back - some tech problems - Hi Ben, Paul and Maren 3:16pm Maren Hogan not only the decision makers but for an internal corp presence? current employees would have to be involved as well 3:16pm Slouch I know he's happy with the effort he puts and what he gets out 3:16pm Susan Burns Susan - that's exactly it! 10 hrs is really the min to invest in moving something forward 3:17pm Joshua Letourneau example: Facebook E&Y group (grew to ~5000 in a very short amount of time) 3:17pm Maren Hogan what does up and running mean though? Is it really a community? I've never been so I am honestly asking. . . 3:17pm Maren Hogan hi susan--paul, who doesn't know about that "aw shucks lil guy from mn?" 3:18pm Slouch I think that the time is a real issue because you can;t get immediate results - Takes time. but people start noticing right away and that is important too 3:18pm Susan Burns What are some of the "value" basis ideas that would get someone internal support to invest that 10 hours/week Josh today, E&Y Careers is pushing over 15k members 3:18pm Susan Burns And, set expectations for 6 months 3:19pm MN Headhunter Hey Maren, but that's my point the time it to took me to get here and the time Josh points out for E&Y is very different. It's easier for bigger companies 3:19pm Susan Burns Josh - how long did it take them to get to 15K 3:19pm Scott Godbey Well there are immediate benefits in terms of creating brand awareness. I don't think it's wise to underestimate what that can mean to business both short and long term 3:19pm Maren Hogan easier to set up but wondering how useful the comm is there--member number cannot be the bar? 3:19pm Ben Gotkin We are preparing to launch an alumni initiative here at McGladrey, one that will have benefits beyond just recruiting 3:19pm The Talent Hunter You have to have an identifiable brand and enough traffic to organize a successful presence, right? 3:20pm Susan Burns Maren - community will build overtime through nurturing 3:20pm MN Headhunter I look at a Best Buy with their 3,000,000 resumes last year. It should take little effort to get a community started 3:20pm Ben Gotkin This will be led by recruiting, but I've had to tell the recruiters involved that this will not be about recruiting at first 3:20pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - exactly one of the benefits of pursuing a social strategy - it can be a brand equalizer 3:20pm MN Headhunter Ben, great call Susan Burns Ben - great point on setting expectations for the recruiters as well 3:21pm Ben Gotkin It will be about building community and delivering engaging content 3:21pm Ben Gotkin Benefits for recruiting, business development, etc is a by-product 3:21pm Maren Hogan Ben have you found that people are more open to that in the current economic times? 3:21pm MN Headhunter Ben, please as you guys get into this document it if you can share 3:21pm Joshua Letourneau susan, i don't really know - i think they're into it for a year now (but they grew to 2000+ members in about 48 hours . . . yeah, 48 hours!!!) 3:21pm Susan Burns Ben - how have you allocated support to free up recruters time to engage 3:21pm Slouch its not about recruiting at first. you are correct sir Susan Kang Nam Ben - that's true.. 3:21pm Maren Hogan I've had clients want to set up employer branding, retention intiatives and internal communities that are in the midst of a hiring freeze 3:21pm Susan Burns Josh - that's a great story 3:22pm Ben Gotkin Maren - not sure, but alumni programs are pretty standard in our industry, we are a late-comer 3:22pm Joshua Letourneau jeez, talk about "first mover" advantage! 3:22pm Scott Godbey It is in a way Jason. Recruiting is about building contacts that can be utilized later down the line. It's just not the immediate gratificaiton but nothing in recruiting is. 3:22pm Susan Burns Maren - so is that for internal communities and external 3:22pm Ben Gotkin Susan - We have a central team that will help, and will get help also from Marketing and the field Maren Hogan yep--completely closed to idea about 8 mos ago 3:22pm Susan Burns Ben - how many hours/week r u investing to build/develop communities 3:23pm Maren Hogan now clamoring for it. maybe $ and resources come from a different place? Not sure 3:23pm Slouch Chet, of course it is about Recruiting just you can't expect to hire anyone right away 3:23pm Scott Godbey Ben, think it's wise to involve marketing. Having community consistent with overall brand is crucial Susan Burns Maren - retention probably gets more than recruiting 3:23pm MN Headhunter I have seen the title "Community Manager" pop up recently at a few Minnesota companies. I am hoping that means they are thinking not only about this but having it be managed properly 3:23pm Ben Gotkin The alumni program is our #1 effort right now, I'll spend a bulk of my time on this in the coming months 3:23pm Susan Burns Re community managers - Check out Jermiah Owyang's blog w/ list of roles by company Maren Hogan Kind of? It's not a community but the interface at standoutjobs.com makes it feel like one 3:25pm Ben Gotkin A link? I'll probably have a link to the blog after we go live 3:25pm Joshua Letourneau yeah, great suggestion, susan - every brand impression with candidates should include a link 3:25pm Maren Hogan so that's a semi-yes Susan for clarity 3:25pm Slouch I don;t think you need a ton of people in a talent network, you just need good candidates who understand the value of what the community brings and over time you can set up that community to foster certain community participation which ultimately=hires Susan Burns Ben - yeah a link to even drive traffic to your blog 3:25pm Jason Gorham three words for you....seo, seo seo 3:26pm Jason Gorham for the blogs 3:26pm Susan Burns Jason - and overtime that community will attract more people through conversations and there will be organic growth 3:26pm Joshua Letourneau in my eyes, the real value of the community is the OD element - imagine the pot of gold you'd be sitting in in terms of talent market intel 3:26pm Susan Burns Hi Jason G 3:26pm MN Headhunter In the few ads I run I include blog, Rss feed and Twitter addresses 3:26pm Ben Gotkin I think we see our talent networks being much stronger at the college level. We do alot of early ID efforts that will drive in traffic to our community-building efforts 3:26pm Susan Burns SEO - absolutely! Another very cost effective way to drive traffic Jason Gorham hello 3:27pm MN Headhunter Ben, outside of your industry who does this well? Who else is doing this? 3:27pm Susan Burns So, if we go back to securing internal support - do people feel they can get what they need or are there obstacles 3:27pm Jason Gorham you can get a blog indexed quicker in a search engine than a typical website 3:27pm Ben Gotkin Paul - how are you using Twitter to build community? I showed it to my boss on Friday and he wasn't sure what to make of it 3:27pm Joshua Letourneau well, to steal from my (not) girlfriend Giovani of Ning . . . the point of the community is also viral expansion 3:27pm MN Headhunter Ben, it's not a bout building a community but participating in a general conversation 3:28pm MN Headhunter for me The Talent Hunter From a corporate perspective, I think this proposal would receive a lot of static 3:28pm MN Headhunter that builds followers, name recognition, awareness 3:28pm Joshua Letourneau just twitter out every update with a tinyurl back to the community/blog/social network 3:28pm Maren Hogan I heard the other day that it is less about content now than conversation, hmmmm 3:28pm Jason Gorham Correct static 3:28pm Susan Burns Ben - Twitter is a great example of joining the conversation first, moving to community and then engaging to get hires... 3:28pm MN Headhunter Talent Hunter yes, Ben who else is doing this that you know of? 3:28pm Jason Gorham it's all about value now 3:28pm Susan Burns Also re Twitter - its a biz conversation first before a recruiting conversation - 3:29pm Jason Gorham With so many sites...social networking etc how will you provide value? 3:29pm Susan Kang Nam resistance.. The Talent Hunter Of course, a lot depends on the resources available within an organization and their level of edge-y thinking 3:29pm MN Headhunter Josh, yes but many poeple get ornary with the links only. Too self promotional, not adding valued content 3:29pm Susan Kang Nam Jason G - that's what I am curious about as well. 3:29pm Ben Gotkin Paul - don't know of many, still bleeding edge 3:29pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter and Susan - what do us anticipate as the objections Jason Gorham If you build a community...site or recruiting drive...go with one idea 3:30pm The Talent Hunter resource allocation, afterall time equals money 3:30pm Susan Burns Jason - re noise w/ sites - the opp is in finding a niche and energizing it - and giving people a voice 3:30pm Jason Gorham and with that one idea drive around that 3:30pm Chet Volpe . 3:30pm Joshua Letourneau well, if the community is for recruiting, then the 'product' (job) better be HOT - people will reject a meatball sundae like a bad kidney! 3:30pm The Talent Hunter 25% of time spent on a new project equals 25% less expected performance of core competencies\ 3:30pm Jason Gorham if it's college what makes you difference? Maybe you go green, maybe you have ipods etc 3:30pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - what would u need to deliver re ROI to get the investment time needed Jason Gorham roi = cost per hire 3:31pm Susan Kang Nam I just have value questions about it.. at the end of the day, it's the result.. so how to show it..etc.. 3:31pm Jason Gorham or employer of choice 3:31pm Joshua Letourneau susan, maybe i'm old school, but great recruiters and talent acquisition pros will MAKE TIME to do this as opposed to trade off other things, right? 3:31pm The Talent Hunter you would need evidence that it has worked in the past, or show a documented timeframe of ROI to even be considered a viable avenue, IMO 3:31pm Susan Burns Could roi also be future - time to hire, reduced advertising costs, higher quality.... Joshua Letourneau p.s. remember that the notion of return can be qualitative as well (not just quantitative) 3:32pm Susan Kang Nam Talent Hunter - agree 3:32pm Ben Gotkin ROI probably starts with #hits on your community site, time spent on site. It is challenging to track as a source though, ask Microsoft 3:32pm Maren Hogan I agree with that! I almost got "community time" yanked but finally, two months ago, we started seeing real results. I even took a pay cut to focus in on it. 3:32pm Susan Burns Josh - I think many will but I've also seen great recruiters that are pulled in so many directions they never get a block of quality time Susan Burns Maren - how long had u been investing time before seeing it tip to a plus 3:33pm Slouch Maren, did you take a pay cut before you started seeing results or after 3:33pm Susan Kang Nam Maren - really.. hmm. 3:34pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - Paul can give u the ROI - 6 mo to hire via blog, 10 days via Twitter, 2 months via mySpace - did i remember that Paul? 3:34pm Maren Hogan it was over six months susan, maybe 7? I was learning too. Maren Hogan Before, like four months before. They lovin me now tho! 3:34pm The Talent Hunter for his sized organization...what is size and reach 3:34pm Susan Burns 6-7 months is not bad at all - how many hours/week? 3:35pm Maren Hogan oh the four months was how long before results I took the pay cust, to clarify 3:35pm Joshua Letourneau candidates go through periods of 'progression' (cold,warm,hot, etc.) . . . so the community is a way to maintain conversation with them 3:35pm Susan Burns Talent Hunter - can I call u TH during the chat ;-) Susan Burns Paul - r u still there? 3:35pm Maren Hogan probably (does blog writing count here?) >15 3:35pm The Talent Hunter absolutely...or confuse everyone and call me Mike 3:35pm The Talent Hunter 3:35pm Slouch Josh you are right. that's key 3:36pm Ben Gotkin Josh - BINGO! Our blog and our alumni network will serve that very purpose 3:36pm Susan Burns Josh - YES!!! absolutely - community ensures people stay warm and can then be moved to hot much more quickly 3:36pm Susan Burns Thanks Mike! he Talent Hunter i believe that creating an online community is a lot easier and quite possibly more effective from a TPR standpoint than from a corporate standpoint 3:36pm Susan Kang Nam Josh - definitely 3:37pm Maren Hogan if you work contract (which do) there is also the roll-off time to consider 3:37pm Slouch not everyone is in a position to change jobs now and having a place you can stay in touch and deliver a message while letting them network is a good thing 3:37pm Susan Kang Nam TB (Mike) - TPR? sorry getting use to all this lingo.. 3:37pm Susan Burns Mike - is i was a corp recruiter today its would be one of my top 3 prioritse and would move resources to make it happen 3:37pm Slouch third party recruiter 3:37pm Joshua Letourneau sometimes a warm candidate can get hot when they read a success story - my thought on communities is that they can serve as subtle infomercials 3:37pm Susan Kang Nam I meant TH (Mike) 3:38pm Maren Hogan which is why RSS feeds WITH VALUE are awesome (part of comm, not as replacement) 3:38pm Susan Burns Oh - there were lots of typos in that last note ;-( 3:38pm Susan Kang Nam Jason - thanks 3:38pm Susan Burns Josh - yes, that and the viral aspects build a lot of momentum 3:38pm Maren Hogan We gotcha SusanB 3:38pm Joshua Letourneau every marketer i know LOVES an infomercial - it's crazy people like us telling us that we can be rich and lose a bunch of weight just like them 3:38pm Susan Kang Nam lol 3:39pm Joshua Letourneau ok, i went off on a tangent - sorry! 3:39pm Susan Burns Depending on your company's brand there is lots of value that could even extend beyond recruiting which in turn adds more value to the recruiting team 3:39pm The Talent Hunter susan-i agree that it is the wave of the future, but i also think that an Amarr Garage Doors will have much less success than a Lowe's Home Improvement 3:39pm Susan Burns Josh - maybe there's a "will it blend" for recruitment! 3:39pm The Talent Hunter 3:40pm Joshua Letourneau an infomercial probably isn't the best analogy . . . but there is something there we could use 3:40pm MN Headhunter I think the reason a TPR can do this is we do not need permsission from so many layers of mgmt. But time to build community is much less I expect for a large company 3:40pm Susan Burns Mike - depends on what Amarr Garage Doors brings to the table? The other big key - what differentiaties...what adds value...what engages...what energizes 3:41pm Maren Hogan Wow, it's almost over and we haven't talked about alcohol once. We are maturing! 3:41pm The Talent Hunter MN - agreed 100% Ben Gotkin Alot of podcasts and corporate videos are 'infomercial-like' 3:42pm Susan Burns That's the part art part science question of community - What do people want, who is talking to them, who is engaging them in conversation - listenting to them Susan Burns Also, many big companies have stubbed their toes while testing the waters - they try to PR it or marketize it and its bit back 3:44pm Joshua Letourneau the 'smaller' niche org (like Amarr) may wind up the winner here . . . perhaps not on quantity of hires, but perhaps better match or QOH.?. that would be a great case study 3:44pm Maren Hogan you know, I just really disagree with that. I think the true (forgive the namby pambyness of the word) "essence" of community has to be created by someone passionate about it MN Headhunter . 3:45pm Maren Hogan And whether it's a one man shop, or small business or large corp, the time to engage is the same there just might be less people to do it 3:45pm Susan Burns WalMart had their PR agency - Edelman - writing their blog - bad idea, esp when its not done so visibly 3:45pm Joshua Letourneau maren, good point. and i could be wrong here, but one thing i've observed about today's 'community' versus those of the late 90s' are about user empowerment 3:45pm Maren Hogan sorry this is kind of directed at Paul because I sort of feel your pain. I think you are right in that the communty stuff (website, chat function , blah, blah, print junk) is 3:46pm Ben Gotkin Walmart used a PR agency? too funny 3:46pm Joshua Letourneau giving 'them' the ability to create content, upload video, etc. (i.e. youtube.com/dunkindonuts) 3:46pm Maren Hogan easier to set up but the engagement will take the same amount of time 3:46pm Maren Hogan and I think engagement is far more a community element than the "stuff" 3:46pm Susan Burns Ben - yes - google Edelman and Wal-Mart - wasn't a pretty site. They've learned and are now letting employees blog 3:47pm MN Headhunter Yeah, I think about how much time I have put in for me and wonder if I did it for someone else what kind of footprint that could be 3:47pm Joshua Letourneau sorry, i meant today's communities are more about user empowerment than simply the creators 3:47pm Joshua Letourneau it's like handing someone a paint brush as they walk into the sistine chapel 3:47pm Susan Burns Josh - YES, and its those companies that will listen and allow people to be heard that will win 3:48pm Slouch MN, your efforts here make a huge difference 3:48pm Susan Burns Oh, I like the paint brush analogy 3:48pm Maren Hogan yeah but if there were someone else doing the "work-work" stuff and you did the comm building and socnet stuff, it would seem like less but you have to do it all so it feels like more 3:48pm MN Headhunter What I mean is, if in the beginning I was spending 15 hours or more for my little brand. What 15 hours could do for a big company. I have to think a Best Buy would have huge returns 3:48pm The Talent Hunter MN - i agree with that 3:48pm Slouch im not retracting my statement 3:48pm MN Headhunter Jason, I appreicate that. And this is an examnple of how a community should be. How it should start, evolve, content, etc The Talent Hunter they have the established brand and customer base 3:49pm Maren Hogan Of course they would, it's becoming increasingly valuable AND that's why so many people are hiring social media managers or the other thing you said earlier comm mgrs 3:49pm Joshua Letourneau paul, i agree - a huge brand isn't starting from ground zero, so 'velocity' is easier to achieve 3:49pm MN Headhunter absolutely 3:49pm Ben Gotkin Paul - You bring up an interesting point. So few large organizations have embraced this, but they would probably stand to benefit the most if done correctly. 3:49pm Susan Burns So have we made any headway in helping to create a compelling case to get time/resources and set expectations for an ROI? 3:49pm MN Headhunter I have always believed it harder to start with no reputation than it is a good/bad pone 3:49pm Maren Hogan oops gotta go, read transcript later! thanks everyone! 3:49pm Joshua Letourneau p.s. hey, there could be some major liability with the larger brands too, though 3:50pm Susan Burns Thanks Maren - great contribution as always! 3:50pm Susan Burns Josh - there is risk but more if they don 3:50pm MN Headhunter Josh, yes and I do get that barrier 3:50pm Joshua Letourneau there are a lot of people that love to 'bash' an employment brand with the huge retailers (i.e. walmart) 3:50pm Susan Burns oops - more if they don't engage - then someone else creates their brand Susan Kang Nam Joshua - how so? 3:50pm MN Headhunter But they will anyway so why not put out the good stuff to combat it 3:51pm Susan Burns The "talk" will happen with or without the company's involveent but without they are sure to lose Joshua Letourneau p.s. i agree with paul that the larger brands have immense advantage in the early stages 3:51pm Ben Gotkin very true Susan 3:51pm The Talent Hunter Josh - i can see the community backfire, people going ther to slam the company...at that scale it would need to be actively monitored 3:51pm Susan Burns At least if they "play" they can share their story and if done authentically over time it will quite the other voices 3:51pm MN Headhunter I think it is worth the risk 3:51pm MN Headhunter should not shock anyone I said that Susan Burns Additionally, the community will help to quiet the disconnected - again, if the company is acting authentically 3:52pm Joshua Letourneau susan kang name: WalmartSucks.org 3:52pm Ben Gotkin I was very encouraged at our firm recently when our Marketing director said that he would be OK with some negative comments on the blog, as long as they are not damaging or inaccurate usan Kang Nam Joshua - got it! 3:52pm MN Headhunter I think to engage and address them is a good thing 3:52pm Susan Burns Josh - #2 facebook fan site for Deloitte is "Deloitte is why I drink" - it was #1 but is now #2 becuz Deloitte started to get more involved 3:53pm MN Headhunter but not some PR release person but an actual person who is passionate about the company Susan Burns Ben - that's great! 3:53pm Ben Gotkin We'll address and engage regardless, but you have to moderate some to prevent unnecessary bashing 3:53pm Joshua Letourneau paul, great point - i just read an article about starbucks blowing it because they didn't respond and engage! 3:53pm Ben Gotkin Susan - that's my favorite Deloitte site ;-) 3:53pm Susan Burns Was that with their new MyStarbucks site to collect feedback? 3:54pm MN Headhunter Seems to me people say bad things whenever they can. Might as well pu some good stuff out there too Susan Burns Ben - I thought it would be ;-) 3:54pm Joshua Letourneau susan, i need to check that out - will be back to your email later 3:54pm MN Headhunter Ben, will you be in Mpls again? 3:54pm Ben Gotkin Was just there last week for a quick in-out 3:54pm MN Headhunter where's the love/ 3:55pm MN Headhunter ? 3:55pm Ben Gotkin Hopefully next time I'll have more of a chance to get out 3:55pm Slouch lol 3:55pm Slouch lets not go there 3:55pm The Talent Hunter hmmm 3:55pm MN Headhunter (my bad) 3:55pm Susan Burns Question for all of you about next Chat unity site - sound good? 3:56pm Susan Kang Nam ouch.. 3:56pm The Talent Hunter definitely 3:57pm MN Headhunter A case study would help and something others can look at 3:57pm Ben Gotkin Anyway, Paul - one of our Mlps recruiters was at your last Roundtable, said he had a great time 3:57pm Susan Kang Nam sounds good Susan & Jason... 3:57pm Ben Gotkin Susan - sounds good 3:57pm Susan Burns Paul - lets talk about the case study - r u around later today? 3:57pm Slouch Susan, we can send out details late or early this week about where and when 3:57pm Susan Kang Nam I would be interested in reading more case studies - agree with MN 3:57pm Slouch we can build a private talent community and I can let a targeted group of people know about it all in the same industry 3:57pm Susan Burns Absolutely Jason - lets figure out the details and then we can send all the info 3:57pm Slouch we can develop it over time and I can bring real orders into it 3:58pm MN Headhunter today, no. But if you are up for a later night conversation, yes. 3:58pm Slouch to be filled of course 3:58pm Susan Burns Paul - perfect - I'll give u a buzz 3:58pm MN Headhunter Susan, you sure you want to chat with me 2 days in a row? 3:58pm Susan Burns Sounds great Jason! 3:58pm Susan Kang Nam For Defense - I would recommend Bill Murphy highly... 3:58pm Susan Burns Paul - I'll take the risk! 3:59pm N Headhunter you are a saint 3:59pm…; Added by Susan Burns to Talent Synchronicity at 5:33pm on June 24, 2008

Blog Post: Interview with Laura Harlos, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air: Added by Soapboxholland at 5:14pm on December 1, 2010

Blog Post: What is the single most important part of your job search? Is it your résumé? Your second interview?: By now you’ve heard that the most important step in getting your next job is having a great résumé because otherwise you won’t get an interview. Or perhaps you read recently that clearing your mind…; Added by Hal Horowitz at 5:36pm on October 26, 2009