2010: Hope to see you in person!

First, a belated Happy New Year to you!

Quick personal update
2009 was a fantastic year. Business was amazing, I was able to work on some really interesting projects with some big global organizations and some small start ups. I got healthy. And, in late October, I accepted a phenomenal opportunity to return to a corporate leadership role as the Sr Director, Global Recruiting with Expedia.

Events in 2010
Here are some of the places I'll be in 2010. I hope to see you in person!

• I'm honored to be the MC and Chairman of the 2010 ERE recruiting conference in San Diego this March.
  
• I'll be speaking here in Seattle at the SHRM Washington State Council Annual Conference, also in March.
• I'll be hosting Kevin Wheeler's Future of Talent regional event at our Expedia headquarters in April.
  
• I'll be MCing our annual Staffing Management Association Staffing Symposium in Seattle in May.
  
• And I'll be speaking - for the first time - at SHRM's big annual conference in San Diego in late June.

Here's to a great 2010 to you and your team!

Free Recruiting Trends Webinar - prepare for the economic turnaround

Join Kevin Wheeler and I on October 21st at 10am PT/1pm ET as we explore the critical issues you need to consider as you prepare for 2010 and the (assumed) economic turnaround. This facilitated panel discussion will focus on the key questions you need to answer to prepare for the recruiting work ahead. We'll discuss possible answers to questions like...

• How to prepare your departments and hiring managers for 2010
• How to drive the right workforce planning conversations
• How to engage the candidate communities you recruit from ahead of the need
  

Learn more and register (free!) at Kennedy's RecruitingTrends.com site.

What does a good third party recruiter do to partner with corporate recruiters?

Jenifer Lambert - a Pinnacle Society recognized, top rated executive recruiter - recently interviewed me for her Recruiter Earth radio show. It was unscripted and live, and she asked some tough, frank questions about the keys to partnering with corporate HR.

I joked that I know that, for many third party recruiters, HR stands for "human roadblock". But I also shared some insights into what the best, most effective third party recruiter partners do - and should do - to work with (not against) their corporate partners in HR.

You can listen to the interview here:
http://recruiterearth.com/forum/topics/elevate-with-jenifer-lambert

I'd love your comments. What do you think is the key to a great partnership between corporate HR and search professionals?

Explore legal issues of using facebook/myspace and the web to recruit

Do you wonder whether it's legal to use information found on the web about a candidate to make a selection decision? I mean, the candidate or prospect put that picture of himself drinking for everyone to see, right? And his comments about his last employer and "hot co-worker" should be fair game for our use as HR/recruiters, right?

Join us next Wed, 9/16 in Seattle for a special lunch seminar which will explore the legal issues of using sites like Myspace and Facebook to screen candidates.

“Landmines, Pitfalls and Potential Law Suits – Understanding the Risks of Using Search Engines and Social Networking Sites to Screen Candidates.” Featuring Lester Rosen, Attorney at Law

Learn more and register at www.SMASeattle.org

Wednesday 9/16 Seattle 11am-1:30pm

45% of Employers Using Social Networking Sites to Research Candidates

A June 2009, 2,600 hiring manager survey from Careerbuilder found that 45% of employers are examining your online, social networking presence (especially Facebook) to learn more about you before they make a hiring decision.

Well, we probably knew that this was happening. Apparently, it's up from 22% last year. Again, no surprise that it's rising. But still...

More interesting is that 35% claimed to have found information on a site like Facebook that caused them not to hire someone. 35% is huge!

What kinds of things caused them to reject a candidate?

• Over 1/2 found inappropriate photos or information.
• Almost 1/3 said they found evidence of poor communication skills (What? Do we need to ensure we use 'you're' instead of 'your' and 'its' instead of 'it's' appropriately, or never use slang or PG-13 language even when we're casually writing with friends?)
• 14% said they rejected someone for using an emoticon (:<

But, 18% also said they used online content about candidates to justify their hire. They liked what they saw, and found it to be a major positive influence on their hiring decision.

So, lessons learned? The careerbuilder article has a list of 5 dos and don'ts. Basically,they say be very aware of the messaging you're putting out there about yourself - your personal brand, and maybe your next job, is at stake.

Learn Best Practices for College Recruiting: NACE Web Conference

College Recruiting Best Practices: Online Conference, Aug 11-13, 2009

I'll be presenting at my first NACE conference in a few weeks. My topic will be How to Leverage Your Hiring Managers. We'll discuss how to lead, how to set managers up for college recruiting success, what tools they need to effectively interview, select, and sell candidates, how to engage and reward managers, and how to leverage SLA conversations to set and manage expectations. I'll also be part of the opening keynote session on The Future of Recruiting.

I'm excited to hear great speakers like Kevin Wheeler, Gerry Crispin, and Steve Lowisz talk about social networking, the future of recruitment, metrics, and more.

Details are at: http://www.naceweb.org/education/2009recruiter/default.htm

Hiring Top Performers - Overview Article

How to Avoid Hiring Mistakes and Select Top Performers

I was asked to write an article for the WTIA (Washington Technology Industry Association) Executives Forum (designed for non-HR leaders). While most of you reading this blog entry already practice these best practices, I thought I'd share it with you in case it's the type of thing you'd like to share with the execs you work with. It's a good short read on what leaders can do to prevent hiring mistakes and hire the right people.

Whether you're an emerging small company or a large technology leader, every hire counts...especially in this economy, where headcount is so precious. So, what should you focus on to...

• Avoid hiring mistakes?
• Structure your interviewing process to yield the best hires?
• Leverage your interviewing strategy as a selling strategy?

Full article here:
http://www.washingtontechnology.org/community/forums/thread/615.aspx