Recruiting in the world of Web 2.0 - where in the #@!! do you begin?!

Even though it's been a while and there's been a lot going on I thought it was high time I started sharing out my experiences. First, we all know recruiting has changed. We've moved from the job boards to job board aggregators to now blogs and groups that help employers push out their jobs to the candidates their targeting.

Welcome to the world of Web 2.0 folks! Let’s get moving to the world of 2.0 and beyond….

Web 2.0 is a combination of blogging sites, group pages, websites, and on-line communities all of whom have outlets for you to share your opportunities with audiences you might be targeting. The next question becomes which sites, pages or on-line communities do you start sharing your opportunities with? This ladies and gentleman is the million dollar question… Let’s start talking strategies and leveraging the world of technology to get us the best and brightest today and tomorrow. Stay tuned for more information... =)

Winning the war on talent... - finding the best of the best to work for you!

I was talking with a friend today about her new job which she's been working at for about 4 weeks. In talking with her she was ecstatic about the position. Not only because she'd found an opportunity, but because she found the "right" opportunity. She was excited because her job matched her skill set, her experiences, what she wanted out of new role and she was also working with a group of folks that she was genuinely interested in learning from. Because of these elements she's genuinely excited about her new gig.

As Recruiters it's our job to align opportunity with talent. Taking this a step further, it's our job to also align the desire and motivation of talent with opportunity. When we do each of these things, you then have applicant like my friend, who is excited and enthused at coming to work every day.

Even though it's only week 4 in her new role I'm betting that because her desire and motivation are aligned to the opportunity she's committed to she's definitely going to be there awhile. Because of this, they have a talented employee who is fully committed to the organization which also means they have an employee who is focused on doing her best work for the greater good of the company. Isn’t this ultimately, what having the best of the best means?

Why does a clear recruiting process matter?

Providing a great candidate experience means you're able to articulate to applicants your recruitment process. Without a clear process in place, candidates will have varied experiences that may or may not be great. A clear process allows you the opportunity to pinpoint where a candidate's experience might've gone awry.

The question now becomes, where do you start when you’re creating a clear process? My recommendation - begin with the end in mind. In other words, start with the goal. Ask yourself or your team what do you or your team want you’re process to achieve? Also, think about your goal in quantifiable terms. Meaning, how will you know whether or not you’ve achieved your goal (so once you’ve defined the goal ask – is it measurable)?

Finding top talent means prioritizing what you do - how to do this when you're on point to do everything...

Prioritizing time becomes an essential part of what we do... Having a mission outlined for your talent organization allows you the ability to make decisions that are focused on your core function. Creating your mission is the first part of this journey.

The quest for creating a great employer brand continues - it's part 3 in the series! =)

Don't knit pick ideas. We're at a point in our employment brand process where the ad agency has created mock ups of our potential site. This is a great place to be, although, we're now, picking apart the little things. Case in point, we've gone back on forth on colors and placement of items on the site which in the grand scheme of things are keeping us from looking at the bigger picture.

Big picture we need a site and brand that speaks to the kind of applicant we're targeting. So the colors and placement of items on the site are important as it relates to the folks we're targeting. If we're not keeping them top of mind we're not prioritizing what's important to the audience we're targeting.

To reiterate creating a GREAT employer brand means you're considering the following:

Audience + Organizational Values + Technology = A Great Employer Brand

So remember keep this formula and your Audience top of mind!

Unveiling OZ - A simple guide to implementing a sourcing model: Part 1

There's a certain mystique about sourcers that is similar to oz in the story the wizard of oz. OZ was this mysterious figure that knew all. Sourcers have this way of finding candidates that is definitely OZ like. Sourcers have great research skills and are able to grasp the perspective of a candidate like no one else I've ever seen.

The ability to find candidates and put yourself in the mind of the candidate is the work I'm focused on today. Simply put, I along with a team of folks are tasked with proposing a sourcing model for the organization.

To do this, we've started by identifying the premise or focus of work (it's the what we want a potential sourcing team to do). We're also looking at resources we have in place to help accomplish some of this work.

This is step 1 of our journey. Although we're at the beginning stages, we have a solid foundation to begin meaningful conversations about our potential body of work.

My plan is to use this site to document our progress to create a "how to" for organizations looking to create internal sourcing teams.

Giving back is just as important as finding the right applicant!

How many of us fell into recruiting as a line of work? I've talked with a number of folks and no one I know started out their college careers believing they'd be a recruiter. What if someone talked to you about a career in recruiting when you were in high school or even middle school, would you still be on the path you're on today. I was watching a story on the Today show about a book called "Citizen You". It's a book that inspires folks to give back and change the world. It does this by asking people, to try something. Citizen You reminds us that change happens one step at a time and one thought at a time. I was moved by the concept of Citizen Teachers which helps middle school students "connect the dots between schools and the real world." When you get a moment, inspire others and check out the website below.

http://www.citizenyou.org/blog/entry/welcome-to-citizen-you/