Twitter Job Search

Introducing TwitterJobSearch.com
Twitter is being talked about everywhere - millions use it, especially recruiters (who seem to be early adopters on all things social media). Anyway, today TwitterJobSearch.com launched its beta service, which lets job seekers find jobs posted on twitter (usually by recruiters). Over 30,000 jobs were posted on twitter.com in the last 7 days. 7 days! In this economy! Imagine what'll be out there when things turn around?

You can search by keyword and location, or just browse job titles.
Check it out here: http://www.twitterjobsearch.com/browse

Get Demographic Data To Focus Your Recruiting

Trying to build an online media recruiting campaign?

• Ever wonder whether a popular website attracts more men than women?
  
• Or what countries or cities attract the most users?
  
• Or whether the sites visitors have college degrees?
  
• Or even what other sites - or types of sites - visitors to this site also tend to visit?

Enter Quantcast. Quantcast.com is a firm/site that independently measures traffic and demographic data for popular websites. It was started by Stanford Statistics Professors, and now can be leveraged by us (recruiting professionals) to help evaluate whether a particular site attracts the kind of users we'd want to target in specialized online ads.

While it doesn't show job titles, it does allow you to slice and dice to see how many people fit your general profile.

So, if you're trying to build a case - based on data - on why you should run online ads on a big tech blog to go after those degreed, african american, under 30, New York based, $60k+ candidates with an interest in technology, quantcast can help. They can help you identify the right site, gather current data, and compare it to other options without having to engage an ad agency.

Give it a try.

• LinkedIn's stats: http://www.quantcast.com/linkedin.com
• Dice.com's stats: http://www.quantcast.com/dice.com

Quality analysis about prior recessions, and when will this end?

I'm no financial expert. But I do work with a financial advising firm. Kenneth Smith, CEO of Empirical, has great, fact based insights that he shares with clients. When I feel anxiety, his analysis helps to calm me down (smile).

While the financial markets aren't a perfect proxy for good/bad news in recruiting, they certainly correlate. So I've grabbed a few things that I found interesting in his February letter to clients, and thought I'd share.

Timing of Recession and Market Recovery

1. The average recession length was around ten months with the longest recession lasting sixteen months and the shortest lasting six months. We are approaching fourteen months in the current recession. (JV: Remember, this recession officially started in Dec 2007)
   

2. The market bottomed and began to recover, on average, five months before the official recession end dates. It is reasonable to expect the market to begin to rebound prior to the end of the current recession as well.
   

So what? Well, I see this and wonder if we're hitting bottom now. If so, bring on the turnaround! If not, hurry up and get to the bottom.

Full article, with a great overview of past recession timing and turnarounds on the last page, here: http://www.successfulinvestingradio.com/file/ewm_recessions.pdf

Which Social Media Sites Would You Pay For?

Techcrunch's Erick Schonfeld reports on a survey by Abrams Research that shows which social media sites over 200 social media elite say is best for business. It's interesting, but maybe not surprising, to see Twitter on top, beating out Linkedin, for social media services they'd recommend a business pay for.

"...if you ask, which one would they recommend for businesses to pay for (if they had to), Twitter beats Facebook by more than two to one (39.6 percent vs. 15.3 percent). LinkedIn again comes in second. Why did Twitter come out on top. It is seen as an efficient way for companies to get their marketing messages out there. One typical response:

It’s the quickest way I’ve seen to spread information virally to a wide scope of people attached in a lot of random ways.

The survey was taken at Social Media Week 2009 and included “founders, bloggers, journalists, entrepreneurs and members of the Twitterati.” Basically it is the opinion of the insular social media elite. So what they say may just be wishful thinking, but the results are good fodder for discussion nonetheless."

1. Which social media service would you be most likely to pay for?

• Facebook 32.2%
• Linkedin 29.7%
• Twitter 21.8%
• YouTube 13.4%
• MySpace 1.5%
• Digg 1.5%

2. What social media service would you advise a business pay for?

• Twitter 39.6%
• Linkedin 21.3%
• YouTube 18.8%
• Facebook 15.3%
• Digg 3.0%
• MySpace 2.0%

3. Which social media service will be the first to die?

• ImInLikeWithYou.com 41.1%
• Bebo 12.4%
• FriendFeed 8.9%
• Meetup.com 8.4%
• Flixster 6.9%
• Digg 5.0%
• Last.fm 3.0%
• Other 14.4%

4. Which corporation has done the best job of using social media? (Respondents were asked to choose one; these were the most popular choices, ranked accordingly)

1. Zappos (online shopping site)
2. Obama (campaign and presidency)
3. CNN
4. Comcast (“Comcast Cares”)
5. Jetblue
6. Dell
7. Burger King
8. NPR
9. New York Times
10. Ford

Are you on twitter? Is your company on Twitter? Facebook? I'm sure you're already on LinkedIn, right?

http://twitter.com/vlastelica

Are you going to ERE's Spring Conference? 10% Discount

Hope to see you at ERE this Spring


As a speaker, I can offer you a special 10% off registration discount. Just email me (john [at] recruitingtoolbox [dot] com) if you'd like the code.

Check out the agenda here
http://www.ere.net/events/2009/spring/ataglance.asp

I'll be presenting on how we can help our hiring managers succeed, as well as co-leading a pre-conference workshop for recruiting managers and directors with Jeremy Eskenazi on building and leading a consultative recruiting team.

The conference starts March 30. And it's in beautiful San Diego. Email me if you plan to attend so that we can be sure to connect.

Learn about Recruiting Metrics - Webinar: Feb 19th

Leveraging Recruiting Metrics with John Vlastelica

Join me next Thursday, Feb 19th, at 10am Pacific, for a 1 hour, info packed webinar on recruiting metrics.

We'll talk about the problems with traditional metrics and the keys to measuring speed, quality, costs, hiring manager and candidate satisfaction.

Like all of my training, this webinar will be real world, practical, and ready for immediate use.

To learn more, or to register, go to http://www.kennedyinfo.com/ProfessionalDevelopment/detail/20265

New Website, 2 New Team Members

New Website: www.RecruitingToolbox.com
We've just updated our website to include more information about the real world consulting services, custom recruitment training, and
customizable tools we offer. Please check it out. We still need to break up some text heavy sections. Would love your feedback.

New Team Members: Welcome Kristin and Edith
Kristin Westby and I worked together at AT&T Wireless in the late '90s (she was a staffing manager there), and Edith Rothenberg and I worked together on a project a few years ago (she was a staffing manager who also led the interviewer and recruiter training efforts for all of Microsoft).

Kristin will focus on project management for new custom, hosted recruiting toolbox buildouts and Edith will focus on custom training design and delivery. Check out their bios to learn more.

SMA Seattle Event: Nike on Human Capital Supply Chains

Hi - Join us March 4th in Seattle for a great lunch workshop by Nike Recruiting Leader, Dan Hanyzewski. To register and learn more, visit www.smaseattle.org

Human Capital Supply Chain Strategies - How Has an Iconic Brand (Nike) Leveraged All Classifications of Talent Resources?

Join us Wednesday, March 4th for an informative discussion featuring a top Pacific Northwest brand, Nike. When Daniel Pink wrote the book Free Agent Nation he was envisioning talented job candidates would become more transient and market driven. Well he was partially correct. As labor demographics change and global mobility impacts the Supply Chain, forward-thinking companies are utilizing Independent Contractors, Freelancers and/or Contingent Labor to strategically supplement their core workforce. Nike looks to leverage these and other channels of talent to keep its brand competitive and win the “war for talent”.

• Learn how a temp to perm proposition can not only make sense but become strategic to your sourcing strategy.
• Learn how to look at large populations of talent that might be better represented by an outsourced solution. Why? So you can leverage your valued Talent Acquisition resources to focus on more specialized and critical hires.
• See how Nike is establishing an insourcing solution (a business within a business) that is based on a cost per unit pricing approach, not wage base.
• Investigate how Nike has built a bridge to convert highly skilled labor through its Contingent Labor Managed Program, and more.

Catbert, Evil HR Director

http://dilbert.com/2008-12-21/

A free tool to host docs for your leads and candidates

A tool to help Recruiters share info with leads and candidates

For the past year or so, I've been playing around with a document hosting/sharing service called box.net. Basically, box.net allows you to upload docs - pdf, word, excel, powerpoint - to their server, and then share those docs with people via the web.

Why would you want to do this?

• First, some docs are too large to email. You may have some high resolution docs that your marketing team created, or a full color recruiting brochure, or a non-proprietary powerpoint that your execs created for a conference...all things that you want to share with leads and candidates, but all large. Too large to email. With box.net, you can simply email them a link to these downloadable files instead.
  

• Second, if you're like many corporate recruiting departments, you may struggle to keep the latest versions of your application forms, background check release forms, driving directions to your office (for interviews), etc all in one place. With a service like this, you can keep only the most recent, approved versions of the docs stored online (and even password protect them if you don't want just anyone to find them).
  

• Third, with box.net's integration into Linkedin, you can now allow leads and candidates who find your profile (a lot of active candidates are leveraging Linkedin these days to find recruiters at their target companies) to directly access similar files. So active and passive candidates now get direct access to your marketing materials. Just one more way to expose your recruiting messages without lifting a finger.
  

• Fourth, if you're a candidate, box.net would allow you to upload your resume, portfolio of work samples, letters of recommendation, and more to your own linkedin page, for recruiters or hiring managers to access.

Box.net is free for a basic account, which allows you to host 1GB of docs. Details at www.box.net

Want to see how it works? Login to your Linkedin account, then find me - John Vlastelica - to check out my profile and access a few documents I uploaded yesterday.

Note: I take no kickbacks or commissions from box.net or any vendors. When I recommend a service, it's because I like it, not because I'm incented to market it.

Recruiting in a Downturn

Top 8 Tips for Recruiting in a Downturn
When economic times get rough, we – as recruiters and HR managers – must adjust our approach. Layoffs, budget cuts, and nervous candidates change our landscape and require us
to operate differently if we’re to survive and thrive. So what do the best corporate recruiters do when the going gets tough?

Read the article I wrote for DICE here:
http://recruitingtoolbox.com/resources/papers.htm

A sarcastic reply to a sarcastic suggestion about careers sites

Sarcasm gone a little too far?

I was suggesting to one of my clients that - when we launch the new ATS-powered online careers site - they should create a more visible home page link to their careers site, as it's hidden now under a link to "411". Love this client, as they make me laugh - and share a common love of sarcasm in email!

Their response:
I was planning on putting it under 411 and then having a hot button “More 411” and then a hot button “411 Extras” and then a hot button “Want to Work at [Retailer]?” and then “Really Want to Work at [Retailer]?” and then “Apply Here”, but I guess a Jobs link on the home page would be ok.

My response:
What would be even cooler, is if people had to create an avatar (online pic of themselves), and dress them in only [retailer] brands, and then literally go on a treasure hunt to find jobs on the site. We hide the jobs all over the site – like in investor relations and privacy policy areas. They collect “hoops” for jumping through hoops, and when they reach 100 hoops, they get a special code SMS’d to their cell phone (Verizon only). With this code in hand, they go to a new website (www.jumpthroughthis.com) where – after entering their 16 digit, case sensitive code - they get to see the magical “apply now” button (Mac only, no PC users). We would get SOOO much press if we did that – wicked cool!

One month on Twitter

So my friend Carmen Hudson (we worked together at Amazon.com; she's now with Yahoo) told me I had to try twitter. I said my initial exposure to it was not good - random comments from people "waiting in line to get a latte" and 140 character ponderings about politics or fashion from people who clearly had too much time on their hands.

Well, admittedly, you do get some of that. But what I've found - after a month really using twitter - is that I like it. Here's a few reasons why...

1. It's an easy way to stay connected to people you know. Lots-o-people I know are on it. I was surprised, frankly, at how many experienced, senior level folks I know use it. You probably know a lot of people on it, too.
2. The messages are short, and often funny. It takes little time to write and read "tweets", and at least 1/3 amuse me, 1/3 educate me, and 1/3 are just little status updates (telling me where someone is, or what they're doing at work or home).
3. Assuming the people you know have similar interests, you can benefit from community filtering of news or events. A recruiting leader I know writes a 5-10 word intro to an interesting article he read, and then links to it in his twitter update. I know he's "vetted" the article for me, as he's no dummy, and wouldn't pass it along if it wasn't interesting.
   
4. You can share timely, important updates with your network. For example, a recruiter friend of mine just went through a 40 person layoff last week. I put a note out on twitter saying I had a contact there if anyone was interested in these folks, and immediately got 3 other recruiters interested. Another friend publishes his "hot job" of the week on there, instantly exposing it to 100s of people who follow him.
   
5. You can connect your updates to feed into sites like facebook, so that you update your status in one place, not two or three.
6. You learn things about people you thought you already knew. I've learned what I do - and don't - have in common with people I know. Politics, hobbies, favorite restaurants, travel destinations, vendors they like, conferences they like, news sources they read, etc.
   

I'm going to stick with it. Have you given it a go?

http://twitter.com/vlastelica

If you're in the Seattle area, connect on Linkedin

Hi - Just a quick note to let you know that I set up 2 different Linkedin Groups over the past month.

SMA Seattle's Seattle Recruiting Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/902697
Join this if you're an HR or recruiting professional interested in the Seattle marketplace. We're just about to 100 "members" now.

Corporate Recruiting Leadership Group/Seattle:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=888827
This group's membership is limited to corporate (no vendors/search) recruiting leaders (managers/directors/vp's only) in the Seattle area.

Tweets, Blogs, and Widgets – Oh MY! Web 2.0 for Recruiters

Join me and about 125 other Seattle-area recruiters and recruiting/HR leaders for a great lunch and learn session on Web 2.0 on Nov 12. Details at www.smaseattle.org. Hope to see you there!

Our November program will welcome back Carmen Hudson to the Pacific Northwest! She’ll talk to us about Web 2.0 and describe emerging trends in web technology that aim to enhance creativity, information sharing and collaboration. This fun, interactive session will go beyond LinkedIn to explore the world of social media, “cloud recruiting”, blogs, widgets and avatars. What is Web 2.0 and why should recruiters plug in? Do sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Second Life yield real-world hires?

Carmen Hudson, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Yahoo!, will share her experiences, wins and pitfalls of leveraging Web 2.0 to attract talent, as well as discuss exciting new tools on the horizon. Bring your questions and observations to prepare for this lively exchange!

Referral Bonuses - I saw something new today...

When I was a Corporate Recruiting Leader, we'd make changes to our employee referral bonus payouts to see where the law of diminishing returns kicked in (if we double it to $4,000, will we get twice the hires?). We also recognized that we wanted to set reward levels differently based on position, but it was a hassle to administer and track, so we generally set bonus levels for big groupings, like hourly and salaried.

This week I'm reviewing ATS's for a 350+ store retailer/client, and - today - I received a demo of HR Smart.

They offered something I've never seen, but often wanted.

• In their system, you can set different employee referral bonuses based on the req. So your easy-to-fill marketing job may have a small or no referral bonus, while your tech job may have a $1,000 bonus and your tech manager job may have a $4,000 bonus.
• The referral bonus amount for a job is shown to the employee at the time they review open jobs on your internal careers site. No need to refer to a separate ER policy/program page matrix to figure out what each job pays.
  
• You can set it up so that the bonus pays out in phases - maybe $500 if their referral makes it to an interview, $500 if hired, and another $500 on their 30 day anniversary.
• And, you can even set up referral bonuses for non-employees. So that anyone who reviews your careers site can see the $1,000 (or whatever) bonus you're offering for a job.

Granted, I got a 75 min demo, and didn't see how all of the back-end processing works (or doesn't work). But I love the fact that a systems company is looking for ways to help us maximize our #1 source of external hires.

p.s. Again, I get no commissions or kickbacks from this or any ATS vendor.

SMS for ATS

Well, spent a good part of the day getting a demo of Virtual Edge, a top rated ATS. Coming soon to a theater near you...they're going to be offering SMS text notifications from their ATS. Very cool.

I have a client that hires mostly 16-25 year olds into their retail sales positions. And I'll tell you, SMS/texting is going to be great for them. Email is sooooo 2006.

Imagine auto texting an acknowledgment of an application submitted online, notifying someone of a new job opening that fits their job-agent criteria, confirming interviews, or even sending referral solicitations directly to kids' (er, young people's) cell phones.

I don't know of other ATS vendors that offer this. But am glad to see it's coming. Soon.

p.s. I don't take any sales commissions or kickbacks from Virtual Edge or any ATS vendors.

Talent Acquisition Leadership Academy

I'm off to LA today to teach at the Strategic Talent Acquisition Roundtable's Leadership Academy. We'll be hosting recruiting managers and directors from across North America, from companies like Pitney Bowes, Home Depot, Owens-Corning, FedEx, Officemax, and more.

Our next session is in Chicago, next week.

Details at www.staroundtable.com

Hiring Decisions are big financial decisions

I loved this - heard something new today. Not mind blowing, but a really simple way to think about the hiring decision.

A new client of mine said, "You know, our tenure averages 15-20 years for certain jobs. When you think about it, our Hiring Managers are making $2 million dollar investment decisions when they decide to hire someone."

He was leveraging simple math - [fully loaded salary] x [years in the job] = $2 million dollar decisions.

Now, your company may only have expectations of people staying in their jobs for 5 years. But still, that could easily be a 1/2 or 3/4 million dollar decision.

Anyway, I liked the way he talked about the financial investment/decision without using the typical negative-feeling measures around costs of turnover, lost productivity, lost customers, recruiting costs, wasted training, etc.

Spring Conferences

The 2009 Spring (starts Mar 30) ere conference agenda was just published.

I'll be presenting again this year, including a half day session on leading consultative recruiting teams with my colleague Jeremy Eskenazi, and a solo session on how we can make our hiring managers successful.

Details at http://www.ere.net/events/2009/spring/ataglance.asp

I'll write more about ere in the coming months.

Hope to see you there!