Crystal Miller's Posts - RecruitingBlogs2024-03-29T10:38:21ZCrystal Millerhttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/CrystalMillerhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1526997022?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=04wunalwwiv4h&xn_auth=noHow "Saving Mr Banks" Can Help Recruitingtag:recruitingblogs.com,2014-01-06:502551:BlogPost:17795132014-01-06T14:33:39.000ZCrystal Millerhttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/CrystalMiller
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557523862?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557523862?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350"></img></a> This week I took my youngest daughter to see Disney's latest, "Saving Mr. Banks." Truth be told, she wanted to see it far more than I did; I didn't expect to glean much from it at all. I'm pleased to report I was wrong. You might not think that a movie about the making of <em>another </em>movie, Mary Poppins, would have any relevance to recruiting. I don't blame you. But…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557523862?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557523862?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350" class="align-left"/></a>This week I took my youngest daughter to see Disney's latest, "Saving Mr. Banks." Truth be told, she wanted to see it far more than I did; I didn't expect to glean much from it at all. I'm pleased to report I was wrong. You might not think that a movie about the making of <em>another </em>movie, Mary Poppins, would have any relevance to recruiting. I don't blame you. But there was a line by Tom Hanks that snapped something that's been bothering me about recruitment, and the "social scene" in general, for a couple of years now into sharp relief: </p>
<blockquote><p>"That's what we storytellers do: We restore order with imagination." ~Walt Disney, Saving Mr. Banks</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Specifically, he was talking about adding "color" in the form of animation to a story... making it more <em>fun. More interesting. Finding value from an experience and sharing it with others. </em>That is something of an art, I suppose; but it's one we could stand to put more of a concerted effort into learning. Industry-wide, our job advertisements are lacking; they're often rarely more than external-facing job descriptions. Those who've put more effort into being "different' often miss the mark and land on overblown homages to their organizational egos: "See why we're so awesome to work for.." tributes or cool visuals, yet light on the "meat that matters" to the audience. Harsh? Yes. But no less true. </p>
<p>While I'm not saying that our focus on technology, making our respective online presences mobile-minded, and ensuring we have compliant job descriptions, etc. isn't important. It is. But it isn't where the 'soul' of recruiting is found: that's in the "story" we tell. Just as every company has a story, so does every division, team, and role within it. When I started recruiting years ago, my boss gave me a really important tip: "Getting a job description out there isn't what 'catches' the candidates you want. Sharing the impact that job has to both the organization and candidate <em>is </em>what will make the difference between success and failure in recruiting." </p>
<p>He's right. Every role has a value to the organization or we wouldn't be trying to fill it. But we don't really talk in terms of value, we advertise and discuss "responsibilities" and "requirements." Which, unless you're hiring for entry-level roles (which at times we do), smacks of overkill. Here's the current, general blueprint for job advertisements:</p>
<ul>
<li>Company Overview </li>
<li>Position Overview</li>
<li>Responsibilities</li>
<li>Requirements</li>
<li>Legal Mumbo-Jumbo/Compliance </li>
</ul>
<p>Across the board, bullets 2, 3, and 4 have a <span style="text-decoration: underline;">lot</span> of redundancy. Eliminate it. If you say the same thing twice, then your ad isn't ready for publishing. This isn't your legal job description; don't be afraid to make edits - because it is your first impression. You want it to look good. </p>
<p>I looked at over 200 companies in preparation for this article and I couldn't find a single company doing it right. Of all the openings I looked at, Facebook probably came the closest. We're not telling "stories" sharing the importance, value and difference the roles make to the organization. We often create confusion with our external job descriptions/job advertisements in our attempt to "restore order" to the organization by filling employment voids because we don't explain why they're there. Our ads and descriptions are way too busy and oh-so-boring. We can do better. And in the new year? We should endeavor to. <span style="text-align: center;"><br/></span></p>
<p>Tell your story, but tap into their need - that's where attraction comes in. Remember that it's not just about sharing your "bright and shiny" but demonstrating you understand why your candidate(s) <em>crave</em> it. <strong>Fill their void. </strong> Our greatest offense with job ads and descriptions is that they're all about us - our company's needs. Flip the script and share what you need from their point-of-view. How much does that change your ad? My guess would be: quite a lot. </p>If Facebook Can Predict Breakups, Why Not Your Next Referral Hire?tag:recruitingblogs.com,2013-11-05:502551:BlogPost:17659752013-11-05T13:30:00.000ZCrystal Millerhttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/CrystalMiller
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520466?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520466?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="420"></img></a> The big news in the last week seems to be that Facebook can tell you if your relationship is going to work. No, they're not clairvoyant, it's based on <a href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.6753v1.pdf" target="_blank">research from Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University surrounding something called "dispersion."</a> Jon worked with Lars Backstrom of Facebook and researchers to…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520466?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="420" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520466?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="420"/></a>The big news in the last week seems to be that Facebook can tell you if your relationship is going to work. No, they're not clairvoyant, it's based on <a href="http://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.6753v1.pdf" target="_blank">research from Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University surrounding something called "dispersion."</a> Jon worked with Lars Backstrom of Facebook and researchers to organize analysis around this foundational question: <strong>given all the connections among a person's friends, can you recognize his or her romantic partner from the network structure alone?</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span>Turns out, you can. To find out, they took data from a large sample of Facebook users - 1.3 million - and developed a new metric of connection strength: `dispersion' --- the extent to which two people's mutual friends are not themselves well-connected. The results offer methods for identifying types of structurally significant people within an individual's life... at least online. </span></p>
<p><span>Drawing on the theory of <a href="http://dumbwaiter.tumblr.com/post/5522515582/social-foci" target="_blank">social foci</a>, the researchers argue that dispersion is a structural means of capturing the idea that a friend spans many contexts in one’s social life - either because they were present through multiple life stages, or because they have been intentionally injected into multiple social circles (the way you would with a romantic relationship and/or spouse during the "meet the friends" stage). </span></p>
<p><span><strong>Breaking it Down</strong><br/></span></p>
<p> </p>
<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>For awhile now, we've been calling social networks "communities." You have your Twitter community, your Facebook community, etc. Following that logic, each individual's connections (the set of people to whom they are linked) form "network neighborhoods," which have been shown to have important consequences in things like social support based on network make-up and professional opportunities through created a competitive advantage that exists within connection gaps. As people increasingly use their online social networks to manage and even excel within varying aspects of their lives, the structures of their network neighborhoods reflect this.. and the associated complexity of it. </span></p>
<p>Dissecting the network neighborhood of the average online user typically shows a rather diverse set of relationships comprised of family and various types of friends - from the very close friends from childhood to the "Holiday Card" acquaintance set. Pepper in connections with current and former coworkers, members of religious communities, activities, and potentially romantic partners or the individual's spouse. When we use the available features in the data of all of these connections, we can identify the <em>variation</em> in the types of relationships held within the network neighborhood.</p>
<p>This opens up a wide application for analysis of the interface between an individual and the rest of their neighborhood: in the way they manage their own identities, how they group and identify their connections, and the information they take in from each of the groups in their networks. </p>
<p><strong>Tie Strength and a Rich Tapestry of Connections</strong></p>
<p><span>What we're looking at is something called "tie strength," which </span><span>forms an important dimension allowing us to characterize a person’s links to their network neighbors. Sociologists have been actively studying this for year, and have found that the strongest ties are those "embedded" within the network neighborhood through a large number of mutual friends and extensive interaction. 'Weak' ties, by contrast, have fewer mutual friends, but that doesn't mitigate their significance. In fact, one could say it's the crux to successful relationships - because they serve as "bridges" that diversify the network neighborhood. This gives the individual access to broader perspectives, new ways of thinking and novel information - the interesting, anecdotal stuff people like to talk about. </span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520757?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="300" class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520757?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"/></a>Going back to how Facebook can predict breakups? What this research revealed is that the more well connected a couple's mutual friends were, the more likely they were to break up because it lacked dispersion: those diversified bridges. By basically sharing the same social network neighborhood (high levels of shared "embededness" and low dispersion), they essentially have less to offer because it keeps them from acting as <em>intermediaries </em>(the bridge) between different parts of their networks for their partner. This gives each individual in the relationship <span style="text-decoration: underline;">value</span> through "if not but for" causation: it opens up new doors and experiences for their partners that they wouldn't have <em>if not but for the relationship. </em>But, the more shared connections a couple have, the lower the dispersement level - the less likely they are to be able to provide that value and the more likely that the relationship will ultimately implode.</span></p>
<p><span>Bottom line, people work best when they have their own "lives" and friends, but shared interests and relationships that respect that tend to work out the best. </span></p>
<p><strong>Applications for Employment </strong></p>
<p>It's a fascinating concept, really, and I can't help but wonder: can this be similarly applied to determine the likelihood of success of referred candidates in employment? I tend to think it can, especially for companies who are still focused on longevity of tenure vs "project-oriented" employment. As a society, we tease each other about having "work spouses" and remark that our teams can become like family because we spend so much time with them. Makes sense, when you think about the fact that we spend approximately 2/3rds of our life at work. We know that referrals often make the best hires... because the relationship with the referrer brings with it loyalty and often an increased level of performance (at least initially). The referrer doesn't want to look bad for recommending the candidate for a role and so has an investment in the relationship. The referred hire has a connection and relationship in the company which eases transition, and doesn't want to let the referrer down, so perhaps tries a bit harder in their work.</p>
<p>We've long since established there's a benefit to this... but when do the scales tip? Is it possible that having too many shared connections between 2 individuals at work could lead to a similar implosion in their working relationship, causing turnover? If so, could we use the dispersion theory pre-hire to analyze if there's <em>too many </em>shared connections to have a sustainable working relationship? </p>
<p>Should we be looking at the connection density and identifying useful "bridge connections" of our employees, who exist at healthy dispersion levels, as part of sourcing to produce better cultural fits and hires for our organizations? To some extent, we already are, but I think this dispersion metric and the methods to analyze it, has real application for those in Talent Attraction & Management. As making sense of "big data" continues to trend for both HR Technologists and organizations alike, being able to maximize recursive dispersion for better referral hiring certainly seems like something that bears a closer look. </p>
<p>As always, I would love to hear your thoughts. </p>
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<p><em>Photo Sources: Top Left: Reuters/Dado Ruvic, Middle Right: 123rf.com</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"></p>News from #InTalent: Has LinkedIn Handed Recruiters a Branding Pandora's Box?tag:recruitingblogs.com,2013-10-18:502551:BlogPost:17598992013-10-18T11:30:00.000ZCrystal Millerhttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/CrystalMiller
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520723?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520723?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"></img></a> On Wednesday, the big news at Talent Connect was that LinkedIn had gone mobile. But mobile access wasn't the only upgrade that LinkedIn's Recruiter product received, although this one received very little fanfare: recruiters who occupy a LinkedIn Recruiter seat can now post status updates directly onto the Company's Career Page. On its face, it makes sense. There's a 94%…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520723?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520723?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300" class="align-left"/></a>On Wednesday, the big news at Talent Connect was that LinkedIn had gone mobile. But mobile access wasn't the only upgrade that LinkedIn's Recruiter product received, although this one received very little fanfare: recruiters who occupy a LinkedIn Recruiter seat can now post status updates directly onto the Company's Career Page. On its face, it makes sense. There's a 94% adoption of social recruiting, according to <span>Jobvite's 2013 Social Recruiting Survey and 100% of that 94%</span> use LinkedIn to identify, attract, and connect with candidates (in case you're wondering, only 65% use Facebook). </p>
<p>When this feature was shared with me, LinkedIn reps, including Parker B<span>arille, LinkedIn’s Product Chief for Talent Solutions, </span>talked about the benefit it would bring to recruiting teams & how it would enhance their engagement initiatives. Sure, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">on the surface</span>, that makes sense. The benefits to the smaller recruiting team were echoed by multiple LinkedIn representatives that I queried regarding this new addition to the Recruiter platform. <em>"After all,"</em> one asked me, <em>"why wouldn't you want to be able to allow recruiters to add compelling and engaging content on the careers tab of the company page?" </em></p>
<p>Let me count the reasons why you might not, for there are several. For the sake of word count, I'll focus on my top 3 reasons why this new feature very well could be a "Branding Pandora's Box" if not managed <em>very, very carefully:</em></p>
<p>1) <strong>While recruiting is a form of marketing, it's a <span style="text-decoration: underline;">huge</span> stretch to then say that recruiters are ostensibly brand marketers.</strong> <strong>They're not.</strong> Recruiters are marketers, but there's a difference in "marketing" and "brand marketing" that comes into play here. <em>Marketing?</em> Is what you do (it's <u>push)</u>. <strong><em>Branding</em></strong> shares who you are (it's pull). Marketing is largely tactical; branding is extremely strategic and is the underlying foundation that aids any marketing effort. </p>
<p>Let's put this in "people terms:" Recruiting (marketing) sources (identifies) candidates (buyers) for jobs (product). Branding helps convert (sales) those candidates into loyal employees (buyers), advocates, and even cements evangelists out of those who "buy" into the brand (think employee referral programs). The process to make this happen isn't something you stumble upon, it isn't "figured out" with time, anecdotal information or casual conversation; there's a complex and set strategy that's needed to make this work. </p>
<p>Recruiting, while challenging, is essentially tactical marketing and while LinkedIn's Talent Connect clearly demonstrated that our industry is beginning to really understand the <em>value </em>in branding, we're not there yet. Recruiters are ill-equipped and unprepared to manage this branding effort. </p>
<p>2) <strong>There's currently no "publishing workflow" - it's "post and pray" all over again, except this time with branding.</strong> Had LinkedIn created an approval process, whereby recruiters could create a "draft status" that administrators could then approve, that would actually be a pretty great product enhancement. Unfortunately, that's not what happened and from the conversations I had with members of LinkedIn's team at Talent Connect, it's not currently on the roadmap. While I'm unclear if the LinkedIn Recruiter seat makes the 'seated' recruiter a full administrator of the career tab/page, it was explained that they would have publishing rights as an administrator. Which means when they click "update," it's live and in living color, for all company followers to see. </p>
<p>3) <strong>It's difficult enough for the branding team to learn how to maintain a cohesive "unified voice and brand tone,"</strong> much less get large recruiting & staffing teams all in sync. Unless Recruiter-initiated updates show as the individual recruiter and not the Company? This will likely add to that difficulty rather than relieve it, and could create a nightmare for larger enterprises. When I spoke with a LinkedIn representative about this, I was told the expectation was that companies would benefit from the increased engagement and it would be their responsibility to educate/police the use of this feature. </p>
<p>Well sure it is.... but that's not something that happens overnight, or by pulling together a simple 2 hour training session. For a company that so closely monitors and protects their own brand, this seeming lack of awareness/understanding of the potential ramifications this particular product enhancement could cause is a little surprising to me. Hopefully there's more clarification on this new functionality from the company forthcoming, and a product update soon after that would allow for a 'checks & balances' system while we undertake the process of educating sourcers & recruiters on the intricacies of brand messaging & content marketing. </p>
<p>Until then? I'd recommend that HR, talent attraction, and recruiting leaders implement a content marketing calendar so that "shared updates" are <em>not </em>done on the fly and can be crafted to fit tone & messaging prior to publishing. Unfamiliar with what a content calendar should look like? This can be created in excel and should cover topics, timing intervals for publishing, channels, and the actual message/links being shared. Here's an example of a social content calendar that I have used with many a client over the years. We used it with our Talent Attraction Social Team at AT&T, as part of a larger content management program, prior to moving to a more robust online system. The updates shared here have already been published, so you can see how the process starts in the content calendar. It's then reviewed by the team, tweaked and reviewed again before it's finally approved for publishing to our community. </p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557521083?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557523908?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The feedback from those I've had the chance to chat with about this new Recruiter feature has been lukewarm at best, but perhaps we will all have a positive "ah-ha" moment once LinkedIn shares more about the enhancement's functionality, purpose and rationale behind how it's set up. Either way, it's evidently here, so stay tuned in the coming weeks as we help you with content you can use to help prepare your teams on LinkedIn's Recruiting platform to use it, should you choose to. </p>Live from #LinkedIn #InTalent - LinkedIn's Going Mobiletag:recruitingblogs.com,2013-10-16:502551:BlogPost:17593162013-10-16T18:51:54.000ZCrystal Millerhttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/CrystalMiller
<p><br></br><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520721?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520721?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"></img></a> We have been hearing for awhile now that mobile is where it's at, and today? LinkedIn announced they agree. A big part of the product announcements are focused on their mobile users. Makes sense, since somewhere between 70-80% of job seekers report using mobile to find their next career move & 30% of LinkedIn views happen from a mobile device, according to…</p>
<p><br/><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520721?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557520721?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300" class="align-left"/></a>We have been hearing for awhile now that mobile is where it's at, and today? LinkedIn announced they agree. A big part of the product announcements are focused on their mobile users. Makes sense, since somewhere between 70-80% of job seekers report using mobile to find their next career move & 30% of LinkedIn views happen from a mobile device, according to <span>Parker Barrile, senior director of product at LinkedIn.</span> </p>
<p>The "Work With US" feature that allows users to see jobs that are connected to the company when they're viewing an individual's profile will now be on the mobile experience as well, which is something that should make it easier for the mobile user to find jobs. Talking with a LinkedIn strategist about this yesterday, this can also be keyed to work <em>within </em>a company, as well: there's a significant percentage of workers that view their coworkers' profiles - why not show them career opportunities they can access as well and capitalize on internal mobility / employee referrals? </p>
<p>Job ads are also getting a mobile facelift, so expect to see "Sponsored Jobs" on the mobile app the way you have for some time on the desktop experience. Employers can pay to get <span>priority job ads inserted into relevant users’ news feed. The keyword here is <em>relevant</em> and so, LinkedIn surmises, jobs appearing in the feed will be both useful and welcome. </span></p>
<p>The biggest announcement targeted for the benefit of the job seeker was probably the launch of the mobile apply product, however. Applicants can now apply via mobile and the LinkedIn profile officially becomes the "resume" in this case, rather than merely a marketing tool. </p>
<p>For recruiters, work gets a little more "mobile" as LinkedIn Recruiter is now accessible via mobile app. Things you'll be able to do from the mobile version of Recruiter include responding to <span>candidate messages sent through LinkedIn’s InMail, view the full member profiles created by LinkedIn’s 238 million members and collect feedback from hiring managers/those involved in the recruiting process. Now, why you want to do that on a 4.5" screen might be a different story, but the <em>option to be mobile is still exciting, nonetheless. </em></span></p>
<p></p>@TheOneCrystal: My Top 3 Technology Finds from HR Technology 2013 #HRTechconftag:recruitingblogs.com,2013-10-14:502551:BlogPost:17582212013-10-14T17:00:00.000ZCrystal Millerhttps://recruitingblogs.com/profile/CrystalMiller
<div><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557521887?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" height="173" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557521887?profile=original" width="346"></img></a> Once again, HCI vendors, analysts, and HR executives made the annual pilgrimage to Vegas... not to gamble, but to see what's new, what's exciting and deem what's important in HR Tech. For my part, I work in Talent Attraction / Recruiting, so I pay particular attention to technology in that arena, which accounted for approximately 7% of the exhibiting companies this year.…</div>
<div><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557521887?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1557521887?profile=original" width="346" class="align-left" height="173"/></a>Once again, HCI vendors, analysts, and HR executives made the annual pilgrimage to Vegas... not to gamble, but to see what's new, what's exciting and deem what's important in HR Tech. For my part, I work in Talent Attraction / Recruiting, so I pay particular attention to technology in that arena, which accounted for approximately 7% of the exhibiting companies this year. Even still, I met with approximately 23 different solution providers about their platform offerings. </div>
<div><strong>Here's a rundown on my "top 3" finds:</strong></div>
<div> </div>
<div>1) <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Loop </strong></span>- This is, without a doubt, the most interesting technology find of the year for me and has had pretty fantastic reception from the analysts and consultants I've pointed to them to "gut-check" my initial reaction to their offering. John Hancock, CEO of Loop, will tell you they fancy themselves to be a "telecommunications company for HR," but don't let that throw you off. They're a communications platform and quite frankly? They will rock your talent attraction process - internally and externally - here's how:<br/> <br/> Yes, they also have a mobile apply feature, but there's 2 parts to Loop that I want to hit on: their text messaging platform, which is part of their Mobile Career Tools and their newest offering, which they call "Engage." The text messaging function is certainly not new, and on it's own might not rock your socks off - but it's one of the smoother programs I've seen. From a cost perspective, they're less expensive and provide a better candidate experience than any of their competitors in the space that I have come across thus far by personalizing the process to the candidate in a series of leading questions. The data collected stays with the system, thus "learning" that candidate and providing what's relevant to them without blowing up their phone... keeping you compliant with the newly changed CAN laws (head's up, they're changing again the 16th of this month).<br/> <br/> The second piece of their offering is "Engage:" this is a mobilization of the apply and ongoing recruitment communications process that's simply brilliant. You can share the job description, of course, but you can also use simple gamification features to help gauge initial culture fit w/ a candidate, test for knowledge and skill level, poll for interest in opportunities and receive not only reporting directly into your CRM/ATS on accuracy of responses, but the speed in which the questions were answered as well. The system also has gamification features, such as a leaderboard, which can be of help with adoption and building a little friendly competition with ERPs.<br/> <br/> On the back-end, the analytics are equally impressive.<br/> <br/> All in all, this is a technology offering whose time has not only come, but is backed with a founder-leader who has a thorough knowledge of the recruitment function, the legal advisement necessary to keep its users on-top of issues and knowledge needed to navigate the telecommunications space with candidates, and a robust feature-set to help progressive organizations completely differentiate their candidate experience by balancing the candidate wants necessary to keep them engaged to fill the organizational talent needs. <a href="http://www.loopworks.com" target="_blank">Check them out,</a> and when you do, be sure to tell John I said hello. ;)<br/> <br/> 2) <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Clear Company</strong></span> - Bersin's report on 2014 Predictions was weighted heavily on HR's need to be more "business integrated" and Clear Company's performance management platform does exactly that. While this start-up's launch pitch still needs fine-tuning, the purpose, design and functionality makes perfect sense. Simply put, Clear Company focuses on the reason businesses have employees to begin with: to achieve a business purpose and then drills down into the work goals needed to accomplish them. Their mission? To help companies recoup the 40% bleed-out that the average company experiences from lost payroll productivity.<br/> <br/> I'll give you a moment to take that in: the average company wastes 40% of its payroll - because that's the amount of time in the average work day/week/year that the typical employee is engaged in activities NOT associated with work associated to achieving the business purposes/objectives they were brought in to do in the first place.<br/> <br/> In all candor, I truly have an apathy for most performance management systems. Many are cumbersome, clunky, and have a lot of unnecessary data that they want to collect that the employee doesn't quite know why it's being asked for or how it's ultimately used in improving the performance of their career. Gamification, when applied, seems to focus on the wrong areas in an effort to gain user adoption, and ironically often still fails to meet that objective. However, the project management features associated with Clear Company alone made me want to get this for my team.<br/> <br/> Each user on the team being able to then look up to see how their work impacts the work objectives and current projects of the other members of the department and even peek in on other departments to understand WHAT they do and how that impacts overall organizational goals (and make comments/ask questions about it) was simply the icing on the "collaborative cake."<br/> <br/> Not convinced? Talk with the Dale Carnegie organization, who can't seem to get enough of it. And when it comes to productivity and engagement, didn't they literally write the book?<br/> <br/> 3) <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Modern Survey </strong></span>- To say that I was excited about the possibilities that Modern Survey offered my own organization would be a bit of an understatement - it actually made me downright giddy, Data, from the collection to the subsequent analyzation and alignment for use in meeting program/organizational objectives is an often under-appreciated part of Talent Attraction and Acquisition outside of the "Big Three Conversion Set"</div>
<div><br/> 1). Clicks<br/> 2). Applies<br/> 3). Cost-Per-App/Cost-Per-Hire<br/> <br/> Clearly, there's far more to a good program than those metrics... Especially if you're creating or retooling a employer branding or recruitment marketing campaign, or adjusting a kink in your recruitment process. Don McPherson helps you take the problem you're trying to solve for and create a series of questions you need to poll your audience set to get the data you need to create an appropriate solution. This help makes a complex process simple and branded in a way much smoother than a SurveyMonkey poll ever could hope to be. Here's a run-down of the features set:<ul>
<li>Proprietary survey items</li>
<li>Accessible via mobile</li>
<li>Intuitive reporting</li>
<li>Data mining tool to drill down into the demographic groups and explore discovered trends.</li>
<li>Post-Survey action planning module to help you simplify change management and act on the results.</li>
</ul>
<div>The implications into how this could help you reengage your employees (of whom over 60% at any given time are disengaged from their job, thus not as productive as they could be) is fantastic. How that data could then be used to help your organization optimize its talent attraction campaigns? Even better. Check them out - this is money that would be <i>well </i>spent & Don seems to be a great guy to work with who really understands the point of what to do with the "big data" you're collecting from your organization.</div>
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<div>There you have it. There's an honorable mention for Zoomforth that I'd like to make, but as I don't think they were technically presenting at HRTech, I'm saving that for a separate post. Look for it next week along with my take from LinkedIn's Talent Connect conference, happening this week in Las Vegas.</div>
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