Congratulations to Sodexo on winning the 2009 Workforce Optimas Award for Vision

The company was able to improve hiring speed and quality even as it cut its annual recruiting advertising budget in North America by $300,000. The effort also has corresponded with better business outcomes. Customer satisfaction ratings have risen 0.3 points to 4.5 on a five-point scale since the strategy's inception. The firm's global revenue rose 7.9 percent for the year ended in August, and its net income increased 4.5 percent.

I am a fan of Sodexo's talent acquisition approach from afar and I am excited to see their social media "investments" paying off so quickly. I also love the better business outcome proof. By thinking more broadly they are spending less on recruitment advertising, but gaining a broader reach while hiring apparently better candidates. Talk about a triple play! And I am impressed because they really seem to walk the talk (from what I can see). I truly believe that they are improving their company brand by the clearly improved employer brand they are building. To me they are proof of the shift happening away from traditional job boards and advertising as how the majority of companies find talent.....-toward social media as how smart companies will find their preferred talent pools. Now, you should know - I am biased as the hair on my neck is always raised when I hear the "post & wait" mantra of some of our clients - it makes me crazy!

Companies are missing the boat by not using their website to attract the best and brightest for their needs now and in the future. Sodexo is ahead of the curve regarding a focus on driving traffic to their website vs paying to improve the latest job board's site . What doesn't anyone get about the fact that at its best talent acquisition is a sales function? Meaning you want to pull in those that are a fit for your company: while (in the perfect world) helping those that are not a fit, see that early.

Just wondering if I am alone in being so passionate about focusing social media efforts on capturing passive job seekers - the future of our talent pipelines. Some cool : MLB triple plays