Wednesday May 27th, 2009
Supply Chain Meets Talent Management

An interesting article showed up on my radar recently: "Talent on Demand: Applying Supply Chain Management to People," which highlights some of the talent management ideas discussed in a new book by Peter Cappelli.

The attraction of his approach is clear: by applying the principles and rigour of supply chain management to human resources and recruiting, we can develop a more effective and responsive talent management strategy. To do so would clearly be a big shift in thinking in numerous areas -- the author questions everything from the value of the vaunted "big talent pipeline" to common hiring and skills development practices. And truly, what human resources professional doesn't bristle at the idea that people are to be thought of as a product, talent as inventory?

Yet there are clear correlations between common problems experienced in the manufacturing and hiring processes -- so why not see if there are similar connections to be drawn between solutions? This approach also seems to rest on a cornerstone of human resources thought: namely, that a company's talent management strategy, if properly managed, adds significant value to an organization's bottom line.

Is it possible to get the best of both worlds: employ a "supply chain"-style talent management strategy that delivers demonstrable value while simultaneously delivering an excellent candidate experience, supporting employees, and maintaining a workforce that is invested in and passionate about the organization? Just a little food for thought.

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Thursday May 14th, 2009
Guess what? Social networking is saving the economy.

In the past couple of weeks, everyone I've talked to - both in recruiting and in other professions - agrees:  the worst of the recession is behind us, and by Christmas we'll see some real recovery.

But it wasn't long ago that plenty of economists were saying that the recession may last until 2010.

So what gives?

Well, writing an article today - about how the recession is making us all more creative - I found myself comparing the current economy with being in London in WWII. 

There's a reason there are so many romantic novels and movies made about London during the Blitz:  what with everyone hanging blackout curtains, running for cover in the Underground, eking out their ration coupons and accepting women in the workforce, it forced everyone - regardless of class, wealth or education - to pull together as a team for a single cause.

And I can't help thinking that the same thing is happening now.

Thanks to social media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, etc. - we all know that the current economic downturn is global.  That girl from high school who moved to South Africa, that guy from your first job who's now in Spain, that guy who's travelling in South Asia - they're all talking (or Twittering or Facebooking or blogging) about how the recession is affecting them and the people around them.

This, in turn, is giving us a real sense of team spirit, with "Screw you, recession!" the rallying cry.

Since, as we know, the economy is driven by emotions (oh, people may think their economic decisions are rational, but they almost always aren't), this sense of team spirit is having a galvanizing effect.   Social media - a network in which everyone has a voice, and each node on the network has increasing value - has given us the confidence that we can change the world.

So instead of simply enduring the recession, with a fatalistic sense that there's nothing much we, as individuals - or even as businesses - can do to make a difference, more and more people are simply deciding that they're not going to let the current economy hold them back.

Instead, they're starting interesting businesses, building their personal brand, or changing the way they live so that material things aren't the main focus.

The result?

The consequences of the global financial meltdown haven't been nearly as disastrous as they could have been.

Heck, that $7 billion fraud by that French trader alone was just a drop in the bucket in terms of how much money disappeared from the global economy overnight.  In many ways, it's surprising we aren't all on the breadlines right now.

So what's different from previous recessions?  Social media.

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Wednesday May 13th, 2009
I like long walks on the beach ...

Job postings remind me a little of profiles on dating sites: sure, all the information's there, and there's something (or someone) real behind the façade, but read enough and they all seem the same. Responsibilities, experience required, skills desired, cut-and-paste company profile ... boring, generic -- and did I mention boring?

In a sea of "long walks on the beach" job postings, when a company does something a little different -- like show some real personality -- the opportunity seems to leap from the screen. A little over a year ago, we mentioned the success we had with a series of job postings that contained pop cultural references to everything from Red Bull to Jon Stewart. Of course, not every role or company will be best served by such references -- but wow, what a difference it can make if a job posting is written in a tone and style that truly reflects the organization's culture. (The potential candidates who are turned off by the tone? Probably wouldn't be a good fit anyway.)

Who do you think is doing something different or taking interesting risks in their recruitment strategies? What job postings have caught your attention in recent months?

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Thursday May 7th, 2009
Yes, Twitter is delivering results for us. Here's how.

Today I received an email from a guy who said he was doing an article on whether social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn deliver value in a business context, and if so, in what ways.

One of the perils of our networked world is that anyone can call themselves a 'reporter' and anyone with a blog can refer to their 'online publication' to give them credibility. And plenty of legit media channels have terrible websites, so an amateur-hour site doesn't necessarily mean the reporter isn't credible.

In other words: It's entirely possible that the email I received today was just a well-done generic broadcast email phishing expedition and next week I'll start receiving calls and emails from their hyper-aggressive sales team, trying to sell me A Social Media Solution Customized For Your Business.

However, as I've discussed before, I'm all about getting the Head2Head and Retired Worker brands in front of new audiences, whether it's an audience of 1 or 1 million. Even if this email was just a ruse, a response from me would put Head2Head in front of one set of eyeballs, at least.

My response ended up being a sort of 'case study' for B2B communications on Twitter. Since all of us are looking to answer the immortal question: "Is social media really good for business, or do we just tell ourselves that to justify all the time we spend farting around on it?", these insights into our Twitter experience may be helpful to you, too.

This is what I told this guy:

Does social networking deliver results?
Social networking only delivers results for business if you go into it with a clear idea of what you'd like to get out of it - but accepting that it's highly likely that you'll end up getting something completely different out of it.

For example, we started Twittering under the @RecruitingH2H name thinking that we'd use it to post 'hot jobs', and we'd get followed by job-seekers. So at first our tweets were just links to new job postings.

That was fine, but I realized that (a) no one wanted to follow me because the tweets seemed too boring; (b) as a small company, we didn't have 10+ new jobs to talk about every day (and you really do need to tweet 10+ times a day in order to build followers); (c) while I wanted job-seekers to follow ME, I didn't really want to follow THEM, because reading the tweets of unemployed people was neither interesting nor educational.

Head2Head's core competency is 'recruiting recruiters' (we place more contract recruiters, on- or off-site with clients, than anyone else in North America), so I decided it might make sense to build a network of recruiters, who tend to be early adopters of social media tools.

Being 'interesting' is more important than being 'relevant'
At the same time, I realized that the best way to build followers is to be interesting - which means including personal, funny and interesting tweets that have nothing whatsoever to do with 'business'. People whose tweets are 100% work-related, with no personal comments whatsoever, simply aren't popular, because the great thing about microblogging is feeling that there's a real person on the other end.

Delivering the authentic Head2Head brand experience
Anyone who's familiar with the Head2Head brand knows that it's not boring, corporate, or all business, all the time. In fact, the reason people like us is because we tend to be quirky, have a keen appreciation for an off-colour joke, and are quite happy to have a Friday-afternoon barbeque in the park behind our office.

Our Twitter posts needed to reflect that.

So I stopped posting so many job opps, started following other recruiters who looked interesting, tried to inject some humour into my tweets and profile (my Twitter bio includes "Fond of non-sequiturs. Newt fancier." - which makes it clear to potential followers that I'm not just some boring B2B person who wants to promote Head2Head 24 hours a day).

THE RESULTS
Our follower base is growing by about 25% per week
...and it's stable (it's my opinion that you get a more stable follower base if you make sure that the number of people you follow is always LESS than the number of people following you. Sure, if you follow 1500 people, a few hundred of them will follow you back - but when other people see that you're following 1823 people and only 432 are following you, they assume that you must be boring or desperate).

Our Twitter presence is already starting to build the Head2Head brand:
This week alone, Head2Head staffers have reported 10+ instances of meeting a new client or candidate and hearing, "I've been hearing about you and seeing you everywhere lately - I didn't realize you Head2Head was such a big player in the Canadian recruiting marketplace."

Twitter has driven a huge increase in our website traffic
Today, after only a couple of months of tweeting, Twitter is the #3 referrer (i.e. the link a visitor has clicked to get to the site), second only to our ATS and Google. Traffic directly to the blog has increased by more than 300% in the same time period - and we know those visitors are coming through social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Twitter increased responses to our recent online survey
- by more than 25% within 48 hours.

We're learning a whole lot
I'm now following 350+ recruiters and recruiting professionals, which means my Twitter feed is always jam-packed with interesting ideas, articles, links - it's an amazing resource. And it's not only me getting smarter: a lot of this knowledge is then disseminated within Head2Head.

Bottom line?
On the one hand, Twitter didn't really deliver against what I thought it would when I started.

But on the other hand, it's delivering a whole lot of benefits that I never anticipated.

Will we ever be able to draw a straight line from 'Twitter' to '$$'? Probably not. But the same is true for most marketing and advertising: It's virtually impossible to draw a straight line from, say, a billboard or tv commercial to specific revenue - but we all know that if you put up a bunch of billboards and run tv commercials, your sales will increase.

The only difference between billboards and Twitter? About $10,000.

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Wednesday May 6th, 2009
Social Media: A Resource for the Unemployed

It's news to no one that social media is changing the recruitment landscape: names like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have been on the lips of many top bloggers so often that they might as well be tattooed there.

But more is changing than just the ways we source and relate to candidates. A recent article in The Toronto Star begins, "The last time Canada went through a recession, there was no Facebook, no high-speed Internet access and no online chat rooms. Email was in its infancy. That meant public perceptions were shaped largely by economists, politicians and pollsters. The people who were hurting were seldom heard."

But social media is about so much more than being heard.

On Facebook, there's a group for pretty much anything you can name (within the boundaries of the terms of service, of course) -- and sure enough, there among the groups advocating taping bacon to cats and preparedness plans for the zombie apocalypse are everything from support and discussion groups for the unemployed, to industry- and role-specific groups where members may share information on how to find, apply for, and retain jobs.

On Twitter it's the same: in 140 characters or less, job seekers are not only commiserating, but sharing information and resources. New job sites. Open roles, companies who are hiring. Names and email addresses of people to contact.

These job seekers aren't just "being heard": they're being empowered.

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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