Recruiter Chicks

Did you start the new year off with a renewed sense of what Talent Acquisition professionals contribute to society?  I did!  Every New Year I feel more confirmation that I am in the right field doing exactly what I love to do.  Then, I come back to work, start up my PC and think about the progression in thought leadership in our field overall, yet the lack of innovation as it relates to the tools we use that should allow for more time to focus on the meat and potatoes of recruiting.

Most companies and recruiters are happy with their Applicant Tracking Systems overall – it allows the company to store and track data.  It also organizes the information and spits out shiny reports.  The ATS is a vital part of the great work we do.  While most of us love our ATS, we also love to hate it or wish it had this functionality or that functionality.  Today, I like my ATS but I sit and reflect on tweaks that could enhance it for the masses.

Our firm uses Sendouts and while we don’t use all of the functionality, we use the meat of it.  They have managed to do a good job of integrating basic Social Recruiting but the candidate search function could use a facelift.  I am by no means a Glen Cathey (Boolean Black Belt), heck I’m not even a green belt at Boolean.  I just want to find the data I need using the terms I know and quickly.  The keyword search revolution is over and I’m anxiously awaiting the new revolution – standard built in intelligent search.  I had not really seen a system that could provide accurate data using layman’s terms until Monster.com updated their search capability to 6Sense technology.  I had an opportunity to catch up with their VP of Product Management, Javid Muhammedali and through discussion and several follow up questions I think they have found the ‘secret sauce.’  They listened and came back with the technology recruiters are looking for.  Monster’s SeeMore Recruiting platform gives even the most inept Boolean user a fast and user-friendly interface that is ideal for focusing on finding great talent that’s likely hiding deep down in your ATS.  The gold that I wrote about in this previous post.  Frankly, it’s something so game-changing that it’s at the forefront of the intelligent search revolution.

Let’s face it, there are a million seminars, training sessions and webinars that we can attend as TA professionals.  At the end of the day, I want to be able to focus on finding amazing talent and recruiting them to my organization’s client companies.  I was not destined to be in this great profession to figure out the latest X-Ray search string, boolean logic or the 10 million ways I can search for an engineer using words besides engineer.  Recruiting compliance, employment law updates, jobs report trends and overall efficiencies – yes!  Needless to say, this is the very reason my ATS is driving me crazy.

I absolutely love my job, I have known that I was born to be in this field since I was a teenager.  Now, let’s continue to push the envelope, get the right people on the right bus and make all of our lives easier and most importantly, efficient.

The Recruiter Chicks had the pleasure of attending the HR Technology Conference last week in Chicago.  It is truly a great conference chock-full of the best and brightest in the HR & Recruiting space as well as fun tools, trinkets, and loads of HR tech service provider folk – duh!

I was asked more than once why I was attending this technology centered conference.  I found it rude for people to continuously ask me this question.  For Pete’s sake, I work for an organization that uses technology to fuel the engine…just like you.  I enjoyed the conference more because it was not the run of the mill recruiting focused conference and I was not running with my typical recruiter crew.  I threw myself into the world of technology savvy, code writing, software, platform and suite carrying ninjas – people like the other half of Recruiter Chicks – Chris Havrilla.

My key highlights from the show:

1.  It’s all about the people PEOPLE! 

My recruiting friend and fellow member of the #ATLDelegation, Eric Jaquith has always told me that conferences are about networking.  Well, HR Tech was no disappointment.  There were so many HR professionals who were ready to meet, greet, connect, learn and share in one location and over a three day period.  There was a crowd of about  4,000 in attendance.

2. Shiny Objects

I wish I had an aerial view picture of the Expo Hall at the Conference.  It would seriously look like Willy Wonka designed and built a conference expo hall.  There were all sorts of goodies, pictures, t-shirts, iPhone cases, candy, games and human targets luring you to their booths.  The companies that were represented spanned from Interviewing software, Social Engagement platforms, Performance Management suites, Mobile Recruiting platforms and Reference Check technology tools.  This Expo Hall was a great place for those that are looking to upgrade/change, just upgraded/changed or will upgrade/change a system or component thereof.  It was interesting and disturbing to see HR pros acting like grown kids who happen to have budgets around these shiny objects.

3.  Limos 

Who knew the best way to get to know others at this conference and Very Important People (by the way) is to take a ride in a killer stretch Cadillac Escalade limo?  Seriously.  This limo was packed with Who’s Who in HR and many recipients of the Candidate Experience Award that were awarded during the conference.  Big thanks to Monster.com for the opportunity to speed network and get close and cozy with a few industry leaders and frankly those that lead by example when it comes to Candidate Experience.  It was great for speed networking, celebrating and party hopping!

4.  Parties

There’s 3-4 dinners/parties a night during this wonderful conference and this is when the real playas play!  Many lifelong connections and business deals begin at these dinners/parties whether you’re bonding while eating beets on a stick, listening to Gangnam Style and attempting the dance or watching your friends blow the roof off the joint singing karaoke to “Ice Ice Baby.”

Overall, this was another solid conference experience.  I would be remiss not to mention the sessions, one in particular blew my mind away.  It was the ‘Marsh Transforms itself with Social Technology’ session delivered by Laurie Ledford and Ben Brooks of Marsh & McLellan.  They delivered this session from the 100,000 foot view and shared how social impacted their overall business, not just HR or Recruiting.  If you haven’t already, take the time to learn about their business and how they completely transformed their culture in a way that is rewarding both intrinsically and extrinsically.

I attended the SHRM-Atlanta conference last week and it was all about community and “Working for a Better Atlanta.  It was quite evident as soon as anyone hit the door that people were there to learn, network and grow as professionals over the two-day conference period.

As with other conferences, there were several sessions tracks from Business Acumen to Total Rewards to Talent Management so an attendee could attend sessions based on their current role, projects or future aspirations.  Most of sessions I attended were along with HR Leveraging Technology and Business Acumen tracks.

One of the best sessions of the conference was led by Cathy Missildine-Martin of Intellectual Capital Consulting.  Her session was titled, “Using Data to Make the Right HR Investments.”  Cathy had a room full and it was clear that HR professionals needed to sit in her session to learn more about HR Analytics, which Cathy so happens to be very passionate about.  Cathy discussed HR Analytics and its importance to the overall business strategy.  She started the session by referencing an Accenture study stating that “89% of CFOs have experienced an increase in their workload and 39% of that was taking over the Human Resources function.”  That was an immediate wake-up call for HR practitioners in the room.  She then asked a question to the audience, “How many metrics is your HR department currently tracking?”  There were blank stares all over the room…few knew the answer to this question.  And, we wonder why CFOs are managing and taking over the HR function!

She went through an HR Analytics model using an example of a company with a call center and she nailed down sales training cost along with rewards and recognition cost and tied those two pieces directly to customer satisfaction, turnover and engagement.  She laid out the cost/benefit analysis for an organization against the cost of training and rewards programs to help make the case for such programs and tie them to the bottom line.

Finally, Cathy ended her session by guiding the audience on how they should share recommendations with organizational leaders.  The key point that she drove home is…do not bring your leadership team pages and pages of data and sit it down for them to read.  She suggested using the “killer slide” concept, keep it simple and astound them with the overview of information not all of the details.  The point…you don’t have to prove to the C-level executives that you’re good at HR and math, just bring the information they need and use the language of the business.  Last but not least, she suggested you tie all recommendations and observations back to the overall business strategy.

To close, Cathy challenged us all to go out and be the HR Rockstars we all are!

This was one great session of many at the SHRM-Atlanta Conference.  You can find Cathy Missildine-Martin at www.intellectual-capital.net.

I have to tell you, I almost didn’t go to mRecruitingcamp (#mRec), the first ever mobile recruiting conference organized by brilliant and passionate Recruiting Consultant, Michael Marlatt.  WHAT???  NOT GO???  Michael stays on the forefront of technology that can support talent attraction and engagement — mobile, SoLoMo (social-local-mobile), augmented reality, semantic, social, cloud, etc., etc. — which if you know anything about me, you know this is just the kind of thing I love.  And yes – he is part of our amazing Atlanta team of recruiting and sourcing gurus – and you know we love to support our own.

So why, you ask, would I even hesitate to go?  Like everyone else, I have to weigh time, budgets, and other commitments against the return — and it is all about the short term, right?  At first I thought, I have two back to back conferences in Vegas (#HREvolution and HR Technology – posts coming) directly after #mRec that directly relate to work I am doing right now — in addition to an already full plate of billable work, conferences, speaking, blogging, and my beautiful, busy family — and frankly, I am not in the midst of deploying a mobile strategy, sooo…  Ugh.  I hate it when I am short-sighted.  It would have been a huge mistake.

Michael did a great job of putting together an incredible agenda and group of speakers, all carefully designed to enlighten, educate, and most importantly think ahead about how organizations can leverage mobile media and technology to find, attract, and retain talent.  Not only did he accomplish that mission but he attracted an incredible array of attendees as well — humbling to be around so much brain power and forward thinking!!  It also made for excellent social engagement pre- and post-conference

And newsworthy…Congrats to Michael and mRecruitingcamp for also being featured on ABC7 News, KGO-TV San Francisco, CA:

#mRec highlights for me were eye-opening statistics, trends, tools, strategies, and a variety of things to think about before embarking on a mobile strategy.  There was of course the normal debate over mobile web vs. mobile apps — though for most organizations I am not sure why this is a conundrum.  In my humble opinion, most people are not going to be searching for or downloading a special app for your company — the chances are they will just happen upon your site — so put your focus getting it mobile ready.  Which brings me to what I think should be the biggest takeaway for anyone who attended — or did not — and that is, whether you like it or not, you ARE already mobile.

One of the more popular and staggering statistics cited at #mRec is that 77% of the world population carries a cell phone — but only 20% of the Fortune 1000, have a mobile optimized site (infographic alert #1 – thx @TalentMinded).  And 92% of career sites ignore the mobile channel all together (infographic alert #2 – thx @mobile_dave).  Even less detect mobile access upfront and automatically redirect to a mobile rendered site.  FACT:  A huge percentage of those cell phones are smartphones, and the tablet market is also starting to explode.  FACT:  Mobile data networks are more robust than ever and people are accessing the internet more and more with these devices on a regular basis. So let me say it again – YOU ARE ALREADY MOBILE.  Because you don’t have a choice, it really is wise to take control of your mobile strategy and make your site compatible with this means of access.

Presentations from practitioners such as Chris Hoyt, Talent Engagement & Marketing Leader at PepsiCo (@TheRecruiterGuy) and Richard Cho (@ChoRichard), Recruiting Manager at Facebook were incredibly insightful and thought-provoking.  Keynotes from Michael Becker and Chuck Martin, a great session on Mobile Gamification by Louis Vong, as well as the panel discussions, were also worth well beyond the price of admission.  I plan to write more about some of these topics over the coming weeks — including tidbits from the conversations that occurred around the sessions I attended.  Lastly, a big shout out to emcee, Jenny DeVaughn!  While many of you may think I am biased about my good friend, she really was the icing on the cake at #mRec – great job, Jenny!!!

Check out the slide presentations, graciously provided via #mRec.  And most importantly, if you didn’t make it this year, don’t miss #mRec2012.  Stay connected and follow those on the forefront of mobile via:

Twitter: @mRecruitingcamp; Hashtag: #mrec
Facebook: Facebook.com/mRecruitingcamp
Mobile:  TXT “MREC” to 82257 for special event promos, updates, and more! (*Standard text & data rates apply).

Our very own Chris Havrilla is featured in today’s US News Careers blog and she speaks about using several tools in your job search, including job boards.

As many of you know, there is talk of job boards being dead because of all the new tools that have hit the market over the past five years.  Many of these are social media tools, which too are effective when used as a part of your job search strategy, not as the only tool.

Chris goes on to give great suggestions to job seekers about using job boards, following up with the Recruiter after applying for a position and mastering the applicant tracking system among others.

Let’s face it, job boards are not dead.  Whether you’re a Recruiter or a Jobseeker it is a great tool in your kit.  Not the only tool, but a great one.

Check out Chris’ quotes in Miriam Salpeter’s blog post at US News Careers: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2011/07/06/a-recruiters-tips-for-job-hunting