First, a return to the ongoing question of “what’s up” in recruiting. Standout Jobs surveyed corporate recruiters and HR professionals at 450 companies (mostly small to mid-sized) about recruiting trends for 2009:
- Predictably, 43% of respondents will cut spending on job boards. The top three areas expected to receive greater emphasis are referrals, company Career website, and internal transfers. Respondents see social networks and candidate relationship management as the top tools to improve recruiting efforts in 2009.
- Surprisingly, almost half the respondents expect hiring to increase sometime in 2009. Also a surprise—“lack of qualified candidates” came in first among anticipated challenges, followed by “uncertainty in our industry.”
- Somewhere in between . . . Twitter was dead last in the tools category.
- Download Recruiting Trends 2009.
Also relating to the “what’s up” question: A recent Business Week article asserts “Yes, There’s Still a Talent War.” Columnist Liz Ryan says “Employers are starved for solutions. Candidates who bring a world view, focusing on problems and even evaluating possible solutions on the spot—sometimes before Day One on the job—will get hired, candidate surplus be damned.” Worth pondering whether (a) that is true at your own company, and if so, (b) whether your company’s Careers site gets that message across.
Next, another tidbit on recruiting ROI: Talent management hub Taleo (which offers ROI consulting services, among many other products) has some interesting white papers on the topic.
And—found while (still) looking for recruiting metrics—this provocative self-assessment tool from Lou Adler: “’Crazy Metrics’ for Progressive Recruiters.” Although Adler’s inventive measurements (such as the Maslow vs. Money Index, Gauge of Persistence, and Unsolicited Referral Rate) are intended to evaluate personal productivity, it’s interesting to see what happens if you apply the same tests to a Careers site.
Finally, because I can’t resist, an update on Jack. As you may know, Mr. Box has recovered from his brush with death and is back at the helm. But did you know that JITB created a standalone website—HangInThereJack.com—for the campaign? In addition to a series of (hilarious) webisodes that follow the dramatic events surrounding Jack’s coma, the site offers ringtones and badges for the true Jack Fanatic, plus social media links.
And as it turns out, the whole coma campaign was designed to set up a JITB image makeover. New logo, new website design, new media-enriched office for Jack, and a (hilarious) new Twitter stream in which Jack really does answer the question “What are you doing right now?” I’ll leave off with a sample:
Cynthia Giles has followed a serpentine career path from academia to publishing to marketing and design to information technology and corporate communications. There’s plenty of detail about this journey at www.cynthiagiles.com, but briefly--the common theme has been ideas, and how to present them effectively. Along the way, she became an accidental expert on data warehousing and business intelligence, and for the past ten years she has combined corporate contracting with an independent consulting practice that focuses on marketing strategy for smaller businesses and non-profits.
Having spent quite a bit of time looking for work, and anywhere from two weeks to two years inside a wide variety of American companies—she has given much thought to what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to creating a great employment fit.
