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Cynthia Giles

Cynthia Giles

What’s What in E-Recruitment Software

After an extended detour through posts on the best of 2009, the possibilities of 2010, and a couple of hot topics—it’s time for the next installment of the Gartner Magic Quadrant tour.  As promised!

Gartner notes several significant factors influencing the e-recruitment market space:

  • Software as a Service (SaaS) dominates the space, with only 23% of study respondents using installed software—and that portion made up almost entirely of Oracle and SAP
  • Vertical markets are getting increasing attention—good example, software with specific workflows that help schools avoid discrimination claims
  • Holistic talent acquisition—i.e., mixing e-recruitment with “contingent workforce management”–is gaining ground, but less than Gartner expected
  • Vendor consolidation is a noteworthy trend, especially among the leaders—but new vendors (and new ideas) continue to enter the e-recruitment space

BIG number: “At least 400 vendors offer some form of e-recruitment capability.”

The Gartner Report (have a look, compliments of Peopleclick)  includes a handy outline of major e-recruitment functionalities; a helpful overview of Magic Quadrant definitions and criteria; and an explanation of what’s changed in the Quadrant since 2008.  Most interesting note:  “In this edition of the Magic Quadrant, we have broadened coverage to include more vendors from outside the U.S., and we have also strengthened our weighting for global features and support.”

Following up on that point, I’m going through all the vendor evaluations to see which ones are strongest in global implementation, and what that tells us.  So it looks like there will be a Part 3 focusing on this important topic.  But in the meantime, I’ll focus on the Quadrant group that always interests me most:  the “Visionaries.”

For those new to Q-land, the vendors are organized in four groups:  Leaders, Challengers, Niche Players, and Visionaries.  Visionaries inhabit the quarter that does well on “Completeness of Vision” (the horizontal axis) and less well on “Ability to Execute.”  These vendors generally have something innovative to offer, and it’s not surprising that their one-fourth of the Quadrant is often sparsely populated.

Of the four Visionaries in this report, Kronos is so near being a Leader that I’m not counting it.  And that leaves Mr. Ted, Neogov, and Jobpartners.  Neogov turns out to do just one thing really well (it’s the “dominant player in the U.S. public sector market”) and both Jobpartners and MrTed are UK-based, with strength in the European markets.  Of these two, MrTed obviously wins my personal award for Most Whimsical Name, so let’s drill down:

According to Gartner, MrTed has “deep and broad functionality, with a strong and innovative product vision, especially in the area of social software.”  MrTed has actually just launched its latest product upgrade, which is called MrTedTalentLink v9 (aka, Cloud 9–yes, really).  The product apparently focuses on easy customization.  According to MrTed:  “It features a configurable candidate database that can easily integrate data from any source, an independent business logic layer exposed through web services, and an on-demand user interface so recruiters can customize their own workspaces. This open architecture makes it fast and easy to connect with other talent management and HR applications, so users get the full benefit of cloud computing on their desktop.”

That’s definitely getting close to a description of e-recruitment heaven.  But as for MrTed’s strength in social software, noted by Gartner—I can’t track down what they have in mind.  Part of the problem is that the search capability at MrTed’s website doesn’t exactly work.  (Results list appears, individual items listed mostly don’t.)  But it turns out that MrTed offers SmartRecruiters, a pretty cool and completely free SaaS product that seems to be very social-savvy.

Stay tuned for the Global installment.

And the Onrec Goes to . . .

 

LV Home

Liverpool Victoria!!  (Better known as LV=.)

After spotting news of the Best Online Career Website 2009 Award handed out at the recent Onrec Expo 2009, I zipped right over to the LV= site, and had a really fun visit.  It’s quirky without being gimmicky—which is tough to pull off.

Onrec (“The Magazine for Online Recruitment Around the World”) didn’t offer any specifics about their award choice, but here’s my reaction to the LiverpoolVictoria site.

What I loved:

It’s loaded with real people.  They do seem to skew toward the extra-attractive, but not so much that it seems staged.  And they are identified with first names and titles, so there’s a feeling of authenticity. Nice touch:  The people are actually interacting with one another—sharing activities instead of just staring into the camera.

It’s tongue-in-cheek.  The banner at the top of the page looks like a bumper sticker, and there’s a continuing theme of lime-green hearts . . . and umbrellas . . .  and—well, you just have to see it.  In general, there’s not a lot of playfulness on corporate websites, because there’s always a risk that not everyone will “get it,” and it doesn’t wear well for long.  (Novelty has to be updated.)  But done right, whimsy can be very engaging.

It’s obvious, but not in a boring way.  That means you can easily find what you’re looking for (so it’s intuitive), yet you don’t feel the need to rush because wherever you are, there’s something of interest.

What I liked:

This was a total surprise.  I usually don’t like sound (music, speech, or otherwise) on a website.  But LV= is awash in sound–peppy music, people talking, etc.–and it seems to work.  I think that’s mainly because the sound supports the visuals and fits the personality of the company.  Plus:  You can easily turn it off, so it’s user-friendly.

The basic options are there, in the sense that you can you can easily locate and apply for vacancies, and you can also create a job alert.

What seemed to be missing:

I saw zero social media connection.  Although that’s not a deal-breaker, it does imply that the site is a bit behind the curve.  It’s interesting that Onrec (which is focused specifically on online recruiting) gave the top award to a site with no Facebook and no Twitter.  But on the up side:  If LV= hasn’t committed to a social media strategy, at least they are not trying to fake it.

I couldn’t find a link to the main corporate site.  That seems odd.

It doesn’t appear you can upload a CV proactively—just for a specific position. However, their description of the employment process (which is clear, helpful and easy to find) indicates that resumes will be compared against all open positions.

That’s the end about LV, but–

Did you notice that the bold words above represent all five vowels?  (Leaving out “sometimes W and Y.”)  They are borrowed from a nice presentation by Matt Adam, Chief Talent Strategist for NAS Recruitment Communications.  Not groundbreaking, but a good summary, plus lots of examples—and the “vowels” offer an easy way to remember some basics of best practice for the Careers website.

Social Networking: What About the Men?

 

Pingdot

Royal Pingdom recently figured up the ratio of men to women on nineteen social network sites, and the results are both not surprising and very surprising.  Also very important for those companies wishing to reach potential job candidates through social media.  Not in absolute terms (as pointed out at the end of this post) but as a reminder of the subtleties involved in social media strategy.

The “not surprising” part is that women significantly outnumber men in the social networking arena.  Even though men were the earliest adopters of online activity and continue to lead in overall Internet use, women have taken more territory in the social networking landscape.  The obvious explanation is that women are (in general) more social than men, and more interested in interpersonal communication—which is true in the aggregate, though not necessarily in smaller slices.

The “very surprising” parts are (a) the extent of the disparity in 2009, and (b) the enclaves that men have apparently chosen to occupy.  Some details:

  • Sixteen out of the nineteen sites included had a majority of women.  MySpace is one of the most heavily female sites, with 65%.
  • The two major sites had almost identical ratios:  Twitter users are 59% female, Facebook 57% female.
  • Men take over on the social news sites Digg, Reddit and Slashdot.  In fact they really take over, with 82% male users on Slashdot, and 66% on Reddit.
  • The most nearly balanced sites are Delicious, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and FriendFeed, all with just a slight female preponderance at 52%.

Several Pingdom commenters offer interpretations, pointing out that the male-favored sites are more about competition than sharing—that is, they focus on who’s got “the most” and “the best.”  Also that the often snarky tone of Slashdot lacks feminine appeal (which definitely rings true) and that women may be less interested than men in content labeled “news for nerds.”

There are a number of caution factors to be considered in looking at the Pingdom summary, which is based on data from Google Ad Planner.  First, it uses only U.S. data, which probably cannot be reliably extrapolated to other countries.  Second, the data is not weighted, so “users” can range from people who merely have accounts (but never interact) all the way up to power posters.  And third, many of these sites do not really figure into a recruiting strategy—or at least not obviously, not yet.

One Pingdom commenter points out that the best way to utilize these (and most) statistics about online activity is comparatively.  Excellent advice!  A lot of factors—such as fake profiles—may skew the numbers in absolute terms, but there is no doubt that the general indications are correct:  lotsa men at Slashdot, lotsa women at MySpace, and so on.

Crafting a social networking strategy involves significant challenges—and obtaining the statistical information needed to evaluate various channels is just one of them.  I found the Royal Pingdom info in a fantastic round-up from Jeremy Owyang, pulling together sources for a wide variety of statistical views.  I’ll follow up on a few more and post further highlights soon.

Looking Ahead: 2010 (Inspiration)

After looking back at the posts of a year now gone by, it’s time for a look ahead.  And many thanks are due to Sharlyn Lauby at HR Bartender for the post that started this thread:  Let’s Celebrate the End of 2009! It’s short but thoughtful, so be sure to stop by and read it.

I followed a link from that post to Seth Godin’s free and fabulous e-book, What Matters Now.  Download it and get inspired.  There are snips from dozens of writers—and though you won’t like them all, you are bound to love some.

Overview:

Here are more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year.  From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O’Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here.  The ebook includes Tom Peters, Fred Wilson, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.

There’s a page for each author’s contribution—and the goal is to spread the book far and wide.  In addition to great ideas, it offers information about Room to Read, a non-profit program that builds schools and libraries for some of the world’s neediest children.

I tried to pick a personal favorite page, but couldn’t get down to just one.  (Tip:  Turn on thumbnails in the PDF reader so you can easily skip around.)  So here are two . . .

Re-Capitalism by Chris Meyer and Timeless by Mark Rovner.

What Matters Now is an example of what will matter more and more in coming days:  Pooling talent, thinking deeply, making a difference.  And spreading the word via social media.

As for personal looking ahead—there’s an app for that!  Revisit Jeremy Owyang’s column about the Intention Web, then check out 43 Things, where people post their resolutions and find others who share their goals.   43 Things is a tag-based social networking site driven by mutual hopes—and it offers an opportunity to see what’s moving people and engaging them.

On the day I’m writing, 10,714 people list “get a job” as their goal—and a fascinating feature of 43 Things is that people follow up with stories of how they achieved their goals, providing inspiration to others.  Almost all the users seem to be very young—these folks are not A-level talent or passive candidates.  But they might be some day, and 43 Things opens a window into the ideas and attitudes of people who could be visiting the Careers site of your company right now.

So that’s a wrap for inspiration.  Next up:  2010 (Predictions)

What’s New (and Who’s Who) in E-Recruitment Software

The 2009 Gartner Magic Quadrant offers two scoops of info on all the major E-Recruitment players, plus a look at the up-and-comers.  Peopleclick has celebrated their location in the Leader Quadrant with complimentary access to the MQ, so I’ve been enjoying a stroll through the E-Recruitment landscape.

The MQ is always fun (for us wonks, anyway) because it does three things:

  1. Sets up the significant factors for evaluating vendors in a specific subject area
  2. Provides a nice visual of how the different players place in relationship to one another and to core considerations
  3. Offers a snapshot of what’s special—and what’s problematic—about each vendor

Thing #3 often includes some mild gossip (“customer references say XX is not very YY”), so the report makes for fairly interesting reading if you have the time and curiosity.   If not—or in the meantime—here are some highlights:

Gartner defines e-recruitment software as systems that “help to automate the requisition-to-hire process,” and characterizes this market space as “made up of recruitment specialists, ERP/human resource management system (HRMS) vendors and talent management suite vendors.”

According to Gartner, most customers responding to their survey (about 200, widely varied in size and industry) had “the basics” in place, and it appears that such fundamentals as requisitioning, candidate self-service, job board posting and applicant tracking are fairly similar among various vendor offerings.  The report goes on to describe several differentiators among the products included in the Quadrant:

  • Onboarding. Though “most vendors offer some sort of solution,” Gartner says there are significant functional differences, and niche providers are growing fast in this area.
  • Social Software. Amazingly enough, 22% of respondents say they are using social-software functionality from their e-recruitment vendor–but 34% report no plans to use social software. Here again, niche players are strong.
  • Interview Management. A difficult functionality area, according to Gartner, with some offerings significantly better than others.
  • Assessments. An important area for hourly hiring, with some providers excelling significantly over others.
  • Workforce Planning. Worth quoting:  “Understanding what demand will emerge for new hires, especially for critical roles in the organization, so that recruiters can proactively build talent pools, is the essence of workforce planning. However, only 16% of organizations have implemented it, and more than 50% had no plans to do so.”

Those differentiators were identified by survey respondents.  Gartner adds a few emerging areas:

  • Flexibility of Data and Workflow. Apparently . . .  much difference in degrees of flexibility regarding data captured in a requisition and on a candidate/applicant record.  “Some vendors require consultancies to modify workflows, others are more flexible.”
  • User Experience. Hmmmm.  “Improving the hiring manager and candidate user experience is key to addressing many challenges.”  Gartner says social software is “starting” to have an effect on this area” (I’d say that’s a bit behind the curve!) and that many vendors have “renewed or redesigned their user experiences to take advantage of advances in user interface technologies.”
  • Multinational Support. My note:  This is a complicated and increasingly important area of functionality that hasn’t yet received sufficient attention.  Gartner says: “Although many vendors offer several languages and flexible tools, few vendors provide out-of-the-box localization for multiple countries.”
  • Reporting/Analytics. Metrics for time to hire and cost per hire are standard, but some products also offer more sophisticated sourcing data.  There’s a growing focus on the quality of hire as well.  Gartner notes that some vendors build their own solutions, others rely on BI vendors.

Looks like I’m hardly even halfway through the report, so this post is Part 1!

My Pick of the Posts: 2009


Transport Number Collage

As we reach the end of my first year in the “Careers Corner” at Corporate Eye, it’s a great opportunity to look back over all the topics that have been covered in the column.  We’ve analyzed best practices, explored fundamental issues and emerging trends, cataloged some hits and misses, asked serious questions—and had a little fun.  Not a bad way to spend twelve months!

Year-end lists always seem to be the “Ten Best.”  (Or “Ten Worst,” but I’m not going there.)  So that was my goal.  But it turns out to be quite a challenge.  Just ten?  So I’ve cheated a bit, and chosen all the series from 2009.  Which actually makes sense, since the topics that merited multiple posts were among the most important.

So here they are, in no particular order:

1.  Employer Brand

Three posts exploring the 2009 Fortune list of 100 Best Places to Work:  Communicating the Employer Brand, Shaping the Employer Brand, and Energizing the Employer Brand.   Plus a Fortune Follow-up.

2.  Diversity on the Corporate Website

Possibly the most ambitious series this year!  The four posts were:  Hot Topic or Obsolete Concept?; Four Strategies; The Challenge of Messaging; and Disability and Unvisibility.

3.  Some Really Good Advice

Part 1 and Part 2 offer a road-map to John Sullivan’s important series of articles, which add up to 127 suggested features or capabilities for the corporate Careers website of the future.

4.  Surfing the Boards

Exploring a report on job rankings, which provided Thought Provoking Hilarity.  The first post did the thought-provoking, so the second is called . . . And Now for the Funny.

5.  A Macy’s Mystery

Part 1 and Part 2 investigate the Forrester Report on corporate websites–and consider Macy’s shift from an award-winning charmer of a site to something rather more ordinary.

6.  Talent Acquisition 2009

Three posts on an important study:  Considering the Aberdeen Report, No Surprises, and On the Other Hand . . .

7.  Tick Tock:  Recruiting Hourly Workers

Part 1 and Part 2 take a look at what’s true, what’s new, and what works in this challenging segment of the recruitment world.

8.  Social Media Roundup

An informal series on the most talked-about aspect of recruiting this year:  Twitterama, Fair Play for Facebook, and Leveraging LinkedIn.

Okay, that’s eight.  Which leaves just two more.  But—why not make it a dozen?  And since no one’s stopping me, I’m going with the four I most enjoyed writing!

9. Funny Business (because it has Jack in it)

10. Exciting Sites (because it’s beautiful)

11. Get the Popcorn (because it’s always fun to think about movies)

12. Silver Linings (because it touched me)

Once I started, this review process got really interesting—so I’m going to follow up with a list of the posts I think were most significant.  In the meantime . . .  here’s looking forward to 2010!


(Many thanks to James Cridland for the marvelous numbers.  They come from different places in the London Transport System—visit the original Flickr page for this image and you can mouse over the numbers to see where each one came from!)