Archive for the ‘Social Media Recruiting’ category

Do: Use Social Media for Recruiting. Don’t: Violate EEOC Compliance.

April 25th, 2014

Social Media RecruitingHiring managers are increasingly turning to social media to help with the research and recruitment process. Services like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter make it easy for people to put their best foot forward before even having submitted a resume or a cover letter, as recruiters scour social networks. In fact, a 2013 survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that 77 percent of SHRM members use social media to recruit candidates, which is up from 56 percent in 2011.

However, if you rely too much on social media to find new talent, you may be exposing your company to legal risks and scrutiny from the EEOC, according to a recent report by Michael Bologna at Bloomberg BNA.

Bologna notes that employers who use social media channels may be accessing protected class information that they could use to inappropriately disqualify candidates. This could wind up subjecting them to civil rights complaints under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

What’s more, by focusing on social media, hiring managers may create barriers to the recruitment process, with the idea being that a lack of access to social media, computers and the Internet could make it harder for people to compete for jobs.

The EEOC is not issuing guidance on social media usage in recruitment. However, to offset potential risks, a good approach for companies is to erect a firewall between hiring managers and recruiters and to have a designated person in HR who is trained in the legal ramifications of using information about candidates that has been obtained via social networks. Hiring managers themselves should not use social media for screening, noted Bologna.

In terms of hiring, social media really shines when companies use it to define and display their corporate culture, notes a recent report at the Undercover Recruiter. Your employees can refer to their own networks as they reach out to interested candidates, for example, and you will gain greater access to both passive and active job seekers.

It’s important to not rely entirely on social media to get out the word, however tempting and cost-effective it might seem. Companies shouldn’t put their vacancy ads on Twitter alone, for example, as they are only limiting their exposure.

When you do use social media, remember that you should only focus on publicly available information and not demand access to applicants’ social media account passwords to learn more about them. Such a request is a violation of the law in 12 states and may run afoul of the Stored Communications Act nationwide.

It’s clear that new software and technology, such as those used to underpin social media, can be quite disruptive to the way we do business. While social media is a great way for companies to discover promising new candidates to hire and can help extend their brand among networks of friends, it’s a good idea to be cautious and only use information that you are sure you are legally allowed to use.

Comments Off on Do: Use Social Media for Recruiting. Don’t: Violate EEOC Compliance. »

Posted in EEOC Compliance, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

International Recruiting: LinkedIn Usage By Country

July 27th, 2013

Planing on doing some international recruiting? LinkedIn should be a part of the equation. Thanks to Link Humans, a social media marketing agency, for compiling a list of the top 10 countries per continent on LinkedIn. The firm says the figures were taken from LinkedIn’s own advertising engine which Link Human nots as, “not entirely reliable as well as official figures released with investor updates”.

Comments Off on International Recruiting: LinkedIn Usage By Country »

Posted in Candidate Sourcing, hiring tools, Social Media Recruiting, social recruiting

Can Social Media Really Reveal Good and Bad Hires?

July 10th, 2013

hiring with facebookAfter favorably evaluating a job candidate’s resume, you look him up on Facebook. And there he is in all his age twenty-something glory – sitting in a hot tub, wearing nothing but a cowboy hat, looking as if he’s had way too many beers. Do you automatically toss his resume in the “No” pile and continue your search?

Your answer should be “Not always,” according to Shelley Dubois in her July 3 article on “Hiring Managers misuse (and misunderstand) Facebook” found at CNNMoney.

Dubois points to a recent study published in the monthly social networking journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Researchers assessed 175 university students on qualities like emotional stability and conscientiousness, and then asked them to examine their own Facebook pages for signs of substance abuse and badmouthing others.

Study Results

The study revealed that a tendency to badmouth others is linked to negative job applicant traits. However, the researchers also found that those students who may go overboard in posting photos and videos of partying with their friends tend to have extravert, or outgoing, personalities, which can be valuable in functions like sales and marketing.

The results of this particular study may be distorted because of the young age of the participants, as their FB posts tend toward impressing their peers. Also, because researchers asked them to self-report on their own FB posts, the students may have downplayed the negative material.

Standardize Your Process

If you routinely check social media sites like Facebook during the hiring process, it’s advisable to standardize your procedures so everyone involved in hiring performs the same steps. Although young people are becoming more adept at screening out uninvited eyes through their FB privacy settings, many are still available. Be consistent in reviewing applicants on social media – do it for all, or none.

The degree of tolerance you have for questionable Facebook postings depends on several factors, including your organization’s culture. You may be willing to go forward with a candidate who displays an inappropriate photo or two, but can you ignore discriminatory comments, signs of excessive drinking or any hint of illegal substances?

Implement Background Checks

While a few drinking photos may be harmless – having a background check reveal a potential employee’s criminal past is a clear red flag.  Not only do you need to hire competent employees who will help your company grow, but you need to make sure your company is a safe environment for everyone that works there.  Be sure to integrate background checks into any hiring process and make standardized decisions based on the results.

The advice to employers seems clear – don’t screen out job prospects based on their Facebook profile alone. Depending on your company culture, bring the qualified candidate in for a face to face interview, even if their Facebook page is less than wholesome.

Comments Off on Can Social Media Really Reveal Good and Bad Hires? »

Posted in Bad Hires, corporate recruiting, Facebook, Hiring, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

Using an Employee Referral Program Yet?

June 24th, 2013

Employee Referral Programs Deliver

Are you using an employee referral program yet?  Listen, these days, hiring takes a team effort. With labor markets beginning to tighten again, smart employers are turning to well-run employee referral programs to attract talent. Employee referral programs can be a great way to fill open positions and identify talent that would otherwise go undiscovered by your HR department. And, employee referral programs are great way to get everyone involved in recruiting by creating incentives that promote participation. A well-organized, consistent employee referral program will not only increase your talent pool but it will promote employee engagement.

Here are five reasons for your business to start using an employee referral program if you haven’t done so yet:

1.  Employee referral programs increase your talent pool.

The power of your employees’ networks should not be underestimated. There is always top talent out there that will not be reached through traditional job boards, careers sites, recruiters, etc. Your employees, however, have exclusive access to a unique network – their own friends, family, ex-coworkers and acquaintances. The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that the average American has over 634 in their overall networks (from Pew). These networks are potential treasure troves of talent that can become the currency of a well-run employee referral program.

2.  Referrals are worth spending time & resources on

Any hiring manager or recruiter needs to gauge how much time they should spend on any potential hire. If a hire is a long shot and very unlikely to commit, it doesn’t make sense that a hiring manager devote all their effort towards that individual.  The data on referrals shows that they are far more likely to sign on than standard hires, with an applicant-to-hire ratio of 1-3 vs. 1-18 for all other sources (from ERE.net).   In addition, your hiring manager won’t even need to spend as much time on that referral to close the deal.  The data points to the fastest application-to-hire time for referrals, at an average fill time of 29 days vs. 39 days for job boards.

3.  Referrals will be successful hires

The data on the success of referrals does not lie either.  Retention rate and hire quality both come in at the top of the spectrum for referral hires.  This makes sense.  Not only is your current employee vouching for the abilities of this candidate prior to hiring them, but once they are hired they now have an additional sense of ‘duty’ to live up to the potential that their friend vouched for.

4.  Involve your current employees in the hiring process

Not only does involving employees in the hiring process give your HR department some extra manpower, it also fosters a team environment.  If an employee feels partly responsible for landing a star player that ends up making the company more successful, that referring employee  will also end up performing better as an integral part of the team.   In addition, the referring employee might have already worked in the past with their referral candidate, which increases their ability to sync up and work together as a team.

5.  Referral Tracking Software is at the top of its game

An employee referral program is far easier to track in today’s day and age due to employee referral technology. Instead of having a piece on a paper application for a person to write in “referred by,” the process can be smooth and efficient utilizing the latest referral tracking software.

There are standalone tools like referagig that will allow you to create job posts and share them with your employees. They can then take these posts and share them on their social media networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. Should one of their friends respond to the job, the employee is already linked to that application – making it easy to track the referrals.

There are also integrated referral tracking software systems that sync up to your company’s applicant tracking system.  These referral programs are highly efficient because they leverage the power of your ATS and enable you to manage your referrals from the top level.  Not only does this allow employees to leverage social networks and share job postings through social referral software, but you can ensure employees vouch for their referrals, communicate referral rewards to employees, and track all your hiring program data under one roof.

Comments Off on Using an Employee Referral Program Yet? »

Posted in employee referral program, referral tracking software, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

Do Software Developers Need Talent Agents?

April 30th, 2013

hiring star developersIn locations such as Silicon Valley where the best developers and programmers are often treated like rock stars, recruiters are starting to find that they sometimes have to deal with their agents instead of negotiating directly with them as potential employees. That’s right: Programmers now have agents like movie stars and directors, according to a new report by ABC News.

The report notes that competition for programmers has increased so much, they have their own talent agency. Altay Guvench, a programmer and musician came up with the idea to launch a talent agency called 10x Management after observing how music managers helped their musician clients find work. The term “10 X programmer” refers to a programmer who is ten times as productive than ordinary programmers, and only programmers and developers of this caliber are represented by the agency.

It makes sense that programmers now have agents helping them further their careers, given that a star coder can have such a major impact on a startup or an established project, much in the same way that a top notch director or actor can jump start a production and almost guarantee enormous sales at the box office.

Although the world of high tech doesn’t function in exactly the same way as show business, an agency model can be useful for helping growing companies quickly land the programming talent they need for their projects.

HR professionals may find it unusual to negotiate with an agent rather than directly with a prospective employee, but for some, the agency is making a difference in helping them get up to speed with the talent they need to ensure the success of their project.

The emergence of an agency such as 10 x Management only serves to underscore that the world of hiring high tech employees is evolving. While relying on talent agents to deliver excellent programmers may seem like the next best thing, the standard recruiting process still has plenty to offer.

However, companies need to keep up with finding new talent in a number of different fronts. This includes making sure that their recruitment process takes advantage of all forms of social media, for example, in an effort to reach out to the most elusive of the talented software professionals. This means turning to sites such as Twitter and using blogs to get out the word instead of simply relying on LinkedIn and Facebook. Recruiters also should verify that their online recruitment applications and careers sites should be quick to access and easy to fill out, to avoid turning off prospective candidates.

While it might take some getting used to, the advent of talent agents for programmers and developers may mean that recruiters need to present their companies in the most positive light to attract the rock star talent they need to thrive. Job  postings and careers sites must accurately convey a brand, and potential candidates need to be treated with courtesy and respect through all phases of the recruitment process.

Comments Off on Do Software Developers Need Talent Agents? »

Posted in Hiring, Hiring Developers, hiring tools, HRTech, Recruiting Technology, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

Acqui Hiring Gives Big Companies an Edge in Hiring Tech Talent

April 4th, 2013
Rather than attempting to poach young tech talent away from their startup companies, major companies are increasingly turning to a form of acquisition known as “acqui-hiring,” the New York Times reported earlier this month.
In acqui-hiring, a larger company acquires a company while hiring the key personnel that attracted attention to the start-up in the first place. For example, Yahoo bought Summly, a mobile news reader app with a five-person staff and no revenue for $30 million. Apple purchased WiFiSLAM, a company that focuses indoor Wi-Fi and has just a few employees for $20 million.
You may wonder why these tech giants are purchasing the smaller startups outright instead of just hiring the founders or engineers themselves. This is especially perplexing when the buyer shut down the original product and has the new hires begin working on new projects. What’s more, non-compete arrangements are difficult to enforce in California, so there should be no problem poaching top-notch talent instead of buying their entire company just to gain access to their expertise and ideas.
A few factors will explain this acqui-hiring phenomenon. Talented engineers will not want to appear that they are being disloyal to the startup, let alone to the angel investors that helped them get started in the first place. Accepting a buyout lets the engineers continue to work on their innovative ideas while allowing the founders, investors and employees to reap large rewards.
There are also some tax advantages when a tech giant resorts to acqui-hiring. If a young tech company founder accepts a signing bonus to work for a bigger firm, he has to pay more taxes than if he sold his start-up for the same amount as the bonus.
Increases in acqui-hiring serve to indicate just how competitive the tech hiring market is for promising young talent. Larger tech companies are increasingly willing to buy other companies just to acquire the human capital.
Small and medium-sized business won’t have the resources to acqui-hire. This means that in order to compete with larger players such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo, smaller firms need to utilize other innovative and efficient methods to acquired the best talent out there.
For example, companies need to leverage all aspects of social media in their job recruitment process—by relying not just on LinkedIn and Facebook, but also Twitter, YouTube and blogs to spread the word. Smaller companies also need to pay attention to “simple” details like how long it takes to fill out an online application for employment. If it takes 60 minutes to fill out the application rather than a more reasonable five minutes, for example, promising tech talent will likely go elsewhere to seek work.
As more and more large companies turn to acqui-hiring to expand the products and services they offer, small and medium-sized businesses will need to step up their game in terms of recruitment if they want to remain competitive in the technology sphere.

Acqui Hiring - Big vs SmallRather than attempting to poach young tech talent away from startup companies, the big players in the tech sphere are increasingly turning to a form of acquisition known as “acqui-hiring,” the New York Times reported earlier this month.

In acqui-hiring, a larger company acquires a smaller company while hiring the key personnel that attracted attention to the start-up in the first place. For example, Yahoo bought Summly, a mobile news reader app with a five-person staff and no revenue for $30 million. Apple purchased WiFiSLAM, a company that focuses indoor Wi-Fi and has just a few employees for $20 million.

You may wonder why these tech giants are purchasing the smaller startups outright instead of just hiring the founders or engineers themselves. This is especially perplexing when the buyers shut down the original product and have the new hires begin working on new projects. What’s more, non-compete arrangements are difficult to enforce in California, so there should be no problem poaching top-notch talent instead of buying their entire company just to gain access to their expertise and ideas.

A few factors explain the acqui-hiring phenomenon. Talented engineers will not want to appear that they are being disloyal to the startup, let alone to the angel investors that helped them get started in the first place. Accepting a buyout lets the engineers continue to work on their innovative ideas while allowing the founders, investors and employees to reap large rewards.

There are also some tax advantages when a tech giant resorts to acqui-hiring. If a young tech company founder accepts a signing bonus to work for a bigger firm, he has to pay more taxes than if he sold his start-up for the same amount as the bonus.

Increases in acqui-hiring serve to indicate just how competitive the tech hiring market is for promising young talent. Larger tech companies are increasingly willing to buy other companies just to acquire the human capital.

Small and medium-sized business won’t have the resources to acqui-hire though. This means that in order to compete for talent with larger players such as Facebook, Google and Yahoo, smaller tech firms need to utilize other innovative and efficient methods to discover and acquire the best talent out there.

For example, companies need to leverage all aspects of social media in their job recruitment process—by relying not just on LinkedIn and Facebook, but also Twitter, YouTube and blogs to spread the word. Smaller companies also need to pay attention to “simple” details like how long it takes to fill out an online application for employment. If it takes 60 minutes to fill out the application rather than a more reasonable five minutes, for example, promising tech talent will likely go elsewhere to seek work.  Essentially they need their hiring process to be smooth, efficient and inviting.

As more large companies turn to acqui-hiring to expand the products and services they offer, small and medium-sized businesses will need to step up their recruiting games  if they want to remain competitive in the technology sphere.

Comments Off on Acqui Hiring Gives Big Companies an Edge in Hiring Tech Talent »

Posted in Acqui Hiring, corporate recruiting, human resources, Recruiting Technology, Social Media Recruiting, social recruiting

Tags:

Recruiting Employees from a New Generation of Talent

March 20th, 2013

recruiting young talentIn a recent article “Hiring New Grads? Don’t Make These 3 Mistakes” appearing in The Daily Muse, Trent Hazy compares the process of recruiting graduating college seniors to dating in middle school. As the naïve college student reaches out (flirting) with employers, the recruiter often ignores sound advice that could have come from well-meaning parents.

Hazy lists three rules, patterned on dating protocol, to avoid overlooking or losing good candidates.  He takes into account several values that are overall good qualities a recruiter can possess, including social intelligence, patience, respect and tenacity.  Consider them especially as they apply to highly competitive software development, engineering and IT jobs:

  • Don’t be too-quick to make a decision during the interview – after all, not everyone falls in love at first sight. A nervous performance at an in-person or video interview doesn’t mean the candidate can’t excel in your organization. Remember, they’re new at this. Go the extra mile to meet them over lunch or take them on a tour around your site. In these venues, you’ll be better able to judge personal qualities like leadership and creativity. Best of all, go where they are – set up an information table at the university coffee shop or host a Q&A session on campus about your business or industry.
  • Give the relationship time before making a decision. Go beyond the resume and interview. Ask for a sample of the student’s work, such as a class project description or paper, that’s relevant to the position or industry. Also, consider paid summer or after graduation internships in which you can assess the candidate’s real performance on the job. You may find gold that was hidden under interview clutter.
  • Treat the student – or date – with respect, just as you would any other professional candidate. Remember that you’re representing your organization and brand. Students deserve common courtesy, so return emails and calls quickly, and don’t keep them hanging on your decision. Even if you don’t hire this candidate, it’s possible your paths will cross in the future through your common industry interests.

And here’s another thought: technology is an essential part of life for students going out into the workforce, so embrace everything that social media recruiting has to offer. Post open positions, college events and internship opportunities on Facebook – you can make it even easier through automated interfaces like LinkUp.com. Don’t forget LinkedIn and Twitter. Also, consider creating a mobile app that links directly to your organization’s career website.

Just like dating, recruiting is a courtship, especially for highly-sought after post college grads in fields like software development and engineering.  Follow these basic dating rules and the resulting relationship will benefit you, your organization, and your new employee.

Comments Off on Recruiting Employees from a New Generation of Talent »

Posted in corporate recruiting, Facebook, Hiring, human resources, mobile recruiting, Recruiting Technology, resumes, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

A Guide to Fast and Efficient Hiring Practices

March 4th, 2013

best hiring practicesDespite high unemployment rates, many HR professionals and recruiters are still finding it difficult to attract talented candidates to fill open positions at their firms. HireRight’s 2013 Employment Screening Benchmarking report notes that 52 percent of respondents said their biggest challenge is hiring and keeping talented employees. In fact, employers may actually be discouraging excellent candidates from applying, writes Kathleen Davis in an article about the report and its detailed infographic at Entrepreneur.com.


First impressions are important not only for job seekers but for employers. As many as 75 percent of job seekers told HireRight that a job posting’s look will influence whether they bother to apply, and that they spend less than half a minute examining any given help wanted notice.


To improve the situation, your business should make sure that job postings convey your brand—some 51 percent of applicants said that job notices don’t offer accurate branding messages. What’s more, giving your candidates a strong first impression of your company paves the way to them becoming customers, even if they don’t wind up working for you. The report notes that 32 percent of respondents said they were less likely to buy products from a business that failed to respond to their applications.


Even when your job notices do properly reflect your company’s brand, it’s important to keep them fresh. After a notice has been up for about 15 weeks, candidates tend to think the job is no good.


With people living out more of their lives on the Internet, social media is playing an increasingly important role in the job recruitment process. HireRight reminds employers not to settle for using Facebook and LinkedIn, but to also use blogs, Twitter and YouTube to get out the message.


When was the last time you tested how long it takes to fill out an online application for your firm? HireRight’s report shows that 60 percent of applications made online took at least 10 minutes, while an astonishing 8 percent took an hour. Given the state of recruitment software available now, your application should require five minutes or less for applicants to fill out.


The report also underscores the importance of courtesy. You may practice excellent customer service with your clients and customers, but how are you treating your job candidates? Providing a personal touch and treating each applicant with courtesy will prompt 90 percent of them to encourage their peers to come to work at your firm.


Companies with poor hiring processes stand to lose the best job candidates to their competitors, as well as deter potential customers. Prudent business owners will want to take a close look at their practices and try implementing some of the changes suggested by HireRight’s report.

Comments Off on A Guide to Fast and Efficient Hiring Practices »

Posted in Applicant Tracking System, corporate recruiting, Hiring, human resources, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

JobLark, Joins the Flock of Employee Referral Tools

February 4th, 2013

JobLark joins the growing flock of employee referral management products that have landed in the market over the past 18 months. Very similar to Zao, Goood Job, Sticky, Select Minds (Oracle) and dozens more Joblark leverages social networks to enable referrers to discover and refer job applicants. And like Zao, Joblark also allows employers to track and reward all the people that help make successful hires, whether they work for the employer or not. Joblark (like Zao) makes money by charging a fee once a hire is made.

Headquartered in Utah, JobLark appears to have around twenty or so employees and claims to have taken 1 million dollars in funding with 9 million more committed by Apple Tree Capital. Not much else is known about the company, the management team or active customers.

The Hiring Sciences Hunch

The employee referral management space is white hot but the space is getting crowded. The editors here at Hiring Sciences agree that ERM is an interesting niche in the HR Tech landscape but the window may be closing quickly for small upstarts like JobLark. Competition from applicant tracking software vendors, many of which already offer integrated employee referral management modules, will force standalone solutions like JobLark to focus on smaller employers with smaller budgets. Also, user adoption will pose challenges for the likes of JobLark as employees are inundated with tools and a standalone ERM solution may not carry the weight of other more mission critical systems. Overall, we believe the ERM space is very interesting and solutions like JobLark are making great use of social networks but it’s still unclear if a majority of employers are ready to adopt these new standalone tools.

If you are interested in learning more about JobLark visit the site at https://www.joblark.com/

Comments Off on JobLark, Joins the Flock of Employee Referral Tools »

Posted in Employee Referral Management, Hiring Sciences Hunch, HRTech, Human Resources Software, Just Another Recruiting Start Up, Product Reviews, Recruiting Technology, Social Media Recruiting

Tags:

Recruiter Roles are Evolving with Technology and Social Media

February 1st, 2013

Social Media Recruiting TechnologiesFacebook’s value to recruiters as a tool for discovering promising new job candidates will get a boost now that the social networking behemoth has announced the release of its new Graph Search feature.

Graph Search, currently available in a limited beta program for testing, is a search engine running inside of Facebook. It is designed to let ordinary Facebook users find answers to queries such as, “French restaurants in San Francisco my friends have eaten at” or “videos of my friends’ birthday parties.”

Savvy recruiters know that they have to keep up with developments in technology and social media if they want to find the best candidates for the positions they are trying to fill. Sites such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter offer a treasure trove of information about potential candidates. They enable employers and recruiters to follow connections as they search for professionals to fill important positions.

Facebook’s Graph Search should provide value to recruiters because it will enable them to search the social network for candidates who have  profiles that align with employer needs, according to Work4Labs CEO Stephane Le Viet’s recent guest post, “Graph Search And Online Recruiting: How Facebook Is Transforming An Industry,” at Forbes magazine.

Le Viet notes, for example, that the Hard Rock Cafe could use Graph Search to help it fill positions in a new Tokyo outlet by targeting Tokyo residents who have said they like rock music.

Facebook’s value to recruiters becomes even more evident when you consider that you can focus on specific keywords and dive deeper into data about the candidates you discover. The recruiter will see details about the candidate’s education, job history and what motivates and interests them, Le Viet says, without necessarily having to even review a resume.

As potential job candidates spend more of their time on sites like Facebook, it makes sense to look for them there.  This is where there personas, skills and interests are truly on display.  If the open position relies on the candidate being tech savvy, checking up on how they present themselves via online profiles can be very demonstrative to their abilities.  For example, you can see how helpful  or knowledgeable a candidate is as he offers (admittedly self-serving) advice to people via Twitter or by posting comments on someone’s Facebook page.

It is a sure thing that social networks such as Facebook will change the way that you look for and recruit job candidates. Users are connected to  one another in ways they they may not even realize, such as through shared interests or people in common. This may lead a discerning recruiter to discover candidates who are friends with people already working at the company and whose interests and skills line up with the requirements of the position.  It is integral that those at the front lines of recruiting keep up with the latest web technologies – in particular the big social media platforms like Facebook.

Comments Off on Recruiter Roles are Evolving with Technology and Social Media »

Posted in Facebook, HRTech, Recruiting Technology, screening process, Social Media Recruiting, social recruiting

Tags: