Implement A Social Media Recruiting Strategy On The Cheap

Tweet I work in an industry (automotive) that has experienced significant economic hardships during the past few years (understatement of the decade). As such, recruitment volumes significantly decreased and recruitment spend became non-existent. Even when we did have a job opening during this period, the labor pool was so large, that we generally did not have issues in finding qualified candidates. Over the past few months, I've seen significant improvements in the job market that appear will carry some momentum moving forward. In preparation for this upswing, I implemented a social media recruitment strategy for my organization, which I felt was imperative to stay ahead, or at least on par, with our competition. Here's the problem: I still didn't have a recruitment budget. Zero, zilch, nada!

After attending a few HR association workshops on the subject, and conducting some research on my own, it was apparent that we needed to build a presence on the "Big Three"...LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Today's blog entry will focus on how I was able to create a successful recruitment strategy utilizing these sites, without breaking the bank. In fact, I have yet to spend more than $100 total.

LinkedIn
The first step I took was to build a career center for my company. You can view the page by clicking on the link: http://bit.ly/azeOCX. On this page, I am able to post all of our global job opportunities, news about the company and any other relevant content that will engage the job seeker. The job postings are updated 1-2 times per week, and the whole process takes very little time. To garner interest in the page, I posted the link on my profile which all of my contacts could see. I've found that virtual word of mouth is a powerful tool on LinkedIn. As of today, we have over 100 professionals that have joined our career center, and I was able to accomplish this with no paid advertising.

Secondly, I joined several industry groups on LinkedIn, each of which has their own job board. By doing so, I am able to post my job opportunities on sites that have a targeted audience (e.g. SAP programmers, supply chain professionals, manufacturing engineers, etc). Some groups may require permission to join, but I have only been turned down by a few. Posting on the group boards has proven to be an effective recruitment tool. Through the first quarter of 2010, LinkedIn was the second highest source of candidates for us. Because LinkedIn is considered a professional networking site, it tends to produce the highest quality candidates as well.

Twitter
I think the jury is still out on how effective Twitter can be in terms of recruitment. Nonetheless, I created an account for my company, knowing that there is the potential for Twitter to become a major player in the recruitment game. Also, there are no costs involved in establishing an account, so why not give it a try?

I post jobs on Twitter with same frequency as LinkedIn. Because you are limited to 140 characters per posting on Twitter, you must be able to "sell" your job opportunities succinctly. If you decide to utilize Twitter for your job postings, I highly recommend you establish an account with http://bit.ly/ (also free!). This site will take your generally long job posting links and shrink them down, thus reducing the number of characters in your postings. Since many Twitter users elect to get updates via their mobile devices, you're essentially implementing a mobile media recruitment strategy as well. Once again, at no cost.

I also made a decision to spruce up our job page on Twitter. This is where I spent a whopping $79. I utilized http://www.twitterbackgrounds.com/ to build a custom background for our page. You can view the work they did on our page by clinking on this link: http://bit.ly/c3hL8c. This has helped personalize our page and make it a better fit with our employment brand. As of today, we have 26 followers on Twitter. Nothing to brag about, but we expect that number to increase as we continue to establish our recruitment strategy.

Facebook
The jury is still out on this one as well. However, we have more fans on Facebook than we do on LinkedIn and Twitter combined. This alone indicates that there is some serious potential for Facebook to become a critical part of our recruitment strategy. Like the other two sites listed above, establishing an account is simple and it's free.

The first step on took was to secure the account name for my organization (e.g. CompanyXJobs). Because Facebook has very little restrictions on user names, I wanted to insure that nobody else snagged our name. I then used the (free) customizable name tool which allowed me integrate our company name in the url. Click on the link to view our Facebook jobs page: http://bit.ly/9U4I6J.

Be sure to include some basic information about your company, including your company logo. If you have a strong employment brand, be sure your page reflects that brand. You will be surprised just how quickly the news of your jobs page can spread. Because it truly is a fan page, friends of friends become aware of the page once their friend becomes a fan. Although we have yet to make a single hire from our Facebook presence, we have seen an increase in the number of job candidates driven to our careers page via Facebook. Many of which are quality candidates.

There are two additional (free) steps I have take to enhance our social media presence. The first is to send a weekly e-mail blast to all "Open Prospect" candidates in our applicant tracking system. Our definition of an open prospect is an individual that has shown an interest in our company by submitting their profile via our careers page, but did not submit their information for a specific job opening. Because I know the interest in our company exists with these candidates, I want to continue to make them aware of future opportunities when they become available. I know for a fact these individuals will be accessing their LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts more frequently than they will be visiting our corporate website. It just makes sense!

The second step I took was to download and utilize TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/). This tool allows me to post updates on all three of the sites from a single source. There is no cost for the download, and I found it saves me a great deal of time when posting my job openings.

So there it is...my social media recruitment strategy as it stands today. I will continue to research and pursue best practices on the subject. If I find any worth sharing, I'll be sure to keep you posted. In the meantime, feel free to e-mail me if you would like more information on my social media strategy. Happy recruiting!!!

Increasing New Hire Satisfaction with Electronic Onboarding

Tweet Let's flash back a mere twelve months ago. My company was conducting new hire orientations, similar to what I suspect most organizations do. The new hire would sit in the HR conference room for about 3-4 hours reviewing policies, manually completing forms, realizing they didn't bring the proper identification required for the I-9 form, calling home to get the bank account information for their direct deposit form and so on. Seldom did the new hires show up with everything they needed to "hit the ground running", and they seldom knew what to expect on their first day. Comments made on new hire surveys reflected a broken process and a general dissatisfaction with our onboarding process. To make matters worse, managers rarely made sure all the proper IT requests were submitted and rarely had the new hire's workspace cleaned, prepared and ready for use. Not a great first impression, is it?

An organizational decision was made to improve the process globally, and it was my task to find the solution. After about of month of research and vendor presentations, we finally decided to pursue an electronic onboarding solution. The goal: improve the new hire onboarding experience, while significantly reducing non-value added orientation activities. As I write this today...mission accomplished!

We have successfully reduced non-value added orientation time by 95%. New hires no longer spend 3-4 hours in the HR conference room, they spend about 30 minutes (a human touch is still required). A local portal for each of our global facilities is housed on the onboarding solution which allows the new hire to walk in knowing just about everything they need to about their new workplace (i.e. cafeteria services, lobby hours, local dining information, HR contact information, detailed benefits information, etc). Since the solution is web-based, the new hire has the ability to review the information from the comfort of their own home. If they fall behind a bit behind on some of the required tasks, the system sends them a friendly reminder that the task due date is approaching. Hiring managers and HR also receive reminders if they fall behind on their assigned tasks.

Additionally, we have been able to eliminate 95% of the paper forms we used to give new hires when they walked in the door. The forms are now available to the new hire electronically, which not only saves some trees, it also gives the new hire an opportunity to review the required information needed to complete some of the forms (i.e. bank account information for the direct deposit form). Our U.S. locations are no longer required to fax new hire information to our payroll entry person, since she is now able to retrieve the information via the system.

Our electronic onboarding system is also utilized for post hire activities. Required e-learning, online pay statement information, a new hire survey and a quality-of-hire questionnaire are all initiated and tracked automatically within the first 120 days of employment. Since we completely manage the content, we are able to enhance the process "on the fly". We also have future plans to utilize the system for offbaording/the exit process. New hire reactions to the system have been positive. We've seen a significant increase in our new hire survey scores, and have been told by several new hires how helpful the system was in getting them prepared for their new position.

If your organization is struggling with implementing an effective onboarding strategy, I highly recommend that you explore an electronic onboarding solution. The product license is probably cheaper than you think, and the implementation process can be relatively simple. Once implemented, I guarantee you will be thinking, "Why didn't I do this sooner?"

Click here to view the webinar I hosted on the advantages of implementing electronic onboarding.

Keep Your Resume Clutter Free

Tweet I've literally reviewed tens of thousands of resumes during my illustrious HR career. I've seen some beautifully written ones and others that would make a first grade teacher cringe. Resume writing is an art form, so you really need to put some thought into the content of your resume, keeping in mind that you will be lucky if the individual reviewing your resume spends more than 20 seconds looking it over. Here are just a few quick samples of items that should not be found on your resume:

Your Picture
As good as you may think you look in the picture, nobody wants to see it. In fact, I've spoken with a number of HR professionals that won't even consider forwarding a resume to the hiring manager, due to a fear that the manager may make decisions based on the picture. Don't expect the Recruiter to take the time to fix up your resume before passing it on...it's not going to happen. If you insist on keeping your picture on the resume, please don't include a picture that looks like a prison mugshot. I've seen a number of resume pictures that had me thinking "This is how you choose to present yourself?"

Company Logos
I'm interested in who you have worked for...I don't care what their logo looks like. Adding company logos makes your resume look busy and keeps Recruiters from focusing on the relevant content. Also, by adding the logos, you're more-than-likely increasing the file size of your resume. No Recruiter wants to wait 30 seconds for your resume to finally open up.

Your Hobbies
I'm very happy that you like to fish, golf, hike, bird watch and collect stamps. Unfortunately, none of these hobbies has anything to do with the job you're applying for. Leave them off, they're not helping your cause.

Age, Family Information and Health Status
All items that make HR professionals cringe. I've seen it more than you may think.

References Available Upon Request
That's a given. We're going to ask if we want them, we don't need your permission.

These are just a few items of the many that could derail your goal of finding that new job. The focus of your resume should always be your accomplishments. Recruiters and hiring managers want to find out what you've done, how you did it and how it helped the company you work(ed) for. Time is not on your side, so make it stand out.

Let me leave you with a few tips:

• Each of your accomplishment statements/bullets should begin with a verb. Avoid using words like assisted and participated; be sure to use words like implemented and lead.
• Absolutely check, double check and check again for grammatical errors. Having a second set of eyes peruse your resume is always a good idea.
• Don't put anything on your resume that you can't back up during the interview.
  

I hope you find this information to be helpful. Look for some additional resume writing and job searching tips in my upcoming blogs. Feel free to send me an e-mail, if there are any other HR related topics you would like me to address.

A Tip for Job Seekers Using LinkedIn

Tweet As someone who has been in staffing management for over ten years, I believe LinkedIn is the most powerful (free) recruiting tool available today. I have had success in finding qualified candidates with relative ease, while saving my company thousands in what would have been spent on recruiter fees. Additionally, I have started a career center for my employer on LinkedIn, which allows me to post our global job opportunities at no cost. I also utilize specific group job boards for posting as well.

With so many registered LinkedIn users, it's not surprising that I receive large responses to my job postings. Recently, I've observed a trend in the way potential candidates are responding to my job postings, and it's starting to become annoying. I have received multiple messages from candidates asking me to view their profile, see if it's a match for my job opening, and then contact them if it is. Here's how it should be done...review my job opening and apply if you're interested! Recruiters, present company included, barely have enough time to review the influx of resumes we receive for job postings. Asking us to take additional time to review your LinkedIn profile, and then contact you is ludicrous. I hate to say it, but it's still an employer's job market, so job seekers don't have leverage.

I certainly don't want to discourage job seekers from using LinkedIn for job searches. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Continue to make as many connections as possible, and don't be afraid to reach out to those connections about job opportunities they may be aware of. Just don't take the approach I referenced above.