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Candidate Outreach: LinkedIn

welcome
Can I ask you a question? Have you heard of a social network called LinkedIn by any chance? Well, of course you have, and maybe you’ve just checked your own profile for updates (Still no news on that Richard Branson connect request? Oh well, maybe he’s busy).

With over 332 million members worldwide, Linkedin has become the place for professionals to network, share ideas, and recruit, and it’s not just a place for professionals either. The fastest growing demographic on Linkedin are students and recent college graduates, so, with a potential audience of experienced hires and brand new recruits, it’s no surprise that most companies use the network to share recruiting content, even it’s just listing existing vacancies.

There more than 4 million company outposts on LinkedIn, and although we work pretty hard at Corporate Eye, we haven’t checked them all out yet. We have seen quite a few however, and we’ve discovered some company pages that are very good indeed where recruiting and career messages are concerned.

So, if you have a company outpost on LinkedIn, how do you know if it’s any good, or could be better?

The good news is that we’ve come up with 3 basic rules to make your LinkedIn company page a constructive part of your online recruitment strategy:

  1. Share key messages, like: Why join us?

    The chase is on to recruit the best. If your business wants to attract in-demand high calibre recruits, it needs to project key messages that explain why they should join you, and not one of your rivals. A LinkedIn outpost can be an ideal place to explain your culture and share your employee value proposition. By sharing these key: “Why us?” messages, a company can vastly improve its chances of recruiting high quality candidates. Hopefully you’ll already have some content like this on your website, so not share it on your LinkedIn page?

  2. Engage with video

    59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, according to Forbes Insight, and why should potential new recruits be any different? Web statistics have shown a steadily increasing rise in the use of video content, with projections suggesting this will continue to rise. An engaging, well made video clip, like an interview or company overview, can engage and communicate key messages fast. If you already have good video content on your corporate website, why not link to it from your LinkedIn outpost?

  3. Start talking

    A company LinkedIn page can provide a great platform for directly communicating with potential recruits. This could involve answering applicant queries, elaborating on any corporate content shared on your LinkedIn page, and explaining in more detail what sort of candidate you’re looking for regards a specific vacancy. And if a company is seen to be engaging with candidates online, this also sends out powerful messages about how willing your company is to engage with applicants.

If your company LinkedIn outpost is already obeying our 3 basic rules, then we have only one thing to say to you: Well done!

However it’s important to add that we think that these are just the basics a company LinkedIn page should be doing to reach out to the right kind of candidate, and there are other ways to build an effective career strategy through social media (and other social media platforms too).

If you’d like talk to us about using social media to hire the right people, through LinkedIn or any other social media outposts, why not drop us a line and we’ll be happy to share our knowledge.

On the Hunt for Passive Candidates

hunting-nobleman-rv

The idea that high-value talent is concentrated among people not looking for jobs has become widely accepted in the recruiting community. And the potential to locate these “passive candidates” is probably the top reason cited for using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool.

So—how true are these propositions? And how does the hunt for PCs relate to the Careers website?

On the first proposition . . . just don’t miss Ronald Katz’s article “What’s So Great About Passive Candidates?” and the brisk discussion that follows it. Some highlights:

  • There is no bright line between the active and passive states.
  • Needing a job doesn’t automatically mean there’s something wrong with the candidate—especially in the present economy.
  • Finding and hiring passive candidates usually costs more. Worth it?
  • The mere fact of current employment isn’t necessarily a good predictor of potential value.

On the second proposition . . . it’s worthwhile to take a second look. Certainly there has been a swarming effect around LinkedIn for recruitment, and definitely it’s related to the passive-candidate hunt. But as LinkedIn increasingly becomes a database for recruiters, there’s no reason to assume that most (or any) people with LinkedIn profiles are “passive.”

And now that LinkedIn is a happy hunting ground, there are hunters aplenty. Although LinkedIn was a secret weapon when Lou Adler offered 10 Great Tips for Using LinkedIn to Find the Best Passive Candidates on the Planet in January of 2008, those were the good old days. By February of 2009, LinkedIn was releasing Talent Advantage, an extensive suite of search-and-woo tools for recruiters and companies.

That said, there’s still some room left for getting creative with LinkedIn—and you can even do it on a budget with PeopleToucher, a clever LI search application. One thought:  There are still some really passive candidates on LinkedIn, in the form of entrepreneurs and self-employed folk who in fact are using LI for other purposes than luring recruiters. In the rapidly changing talent landscape, these hold-outs may offer a new source of energy and ideas for companies that aren’t getting everything they need from conventional hires.

So what’s the connection between passive candidates and the Careers website? Arguably, these are the visitors who may demand the most from your site. Active candidates might love your site if it lists any jobs they can apply for, and ignore everything else while filling out forms and uploading resumes. If there are no applicable job listings, they may leave in a hurry (unless the site provides other rewards, and/or encouragements to stay connected).

But a passive candidate contacted by a recruiter may very well go straight to the company site for a look around. And what they find there could have a considerable influence on whether they decide to pursue the opportunity.

A Christmas Post: Room for Beauty . . .


Winter Trees

Every season has its own kind of beauty, and Winter is no exception.  Those pesky leaves that looked so refreshing when Spring came are now long gone, so trees are showing off their sculpted shapes.   It’s an annual reminder that what’s underneath is just as important as what’s apparent.

Which is my not-so-subtle way of saying that the fundamental design values of a website are as much a key to excellence as those persuasive videos and clever messages that decorate the surface.

By and large, corporate Career site designs are not exciting.  And some are downright dull.  In a number of cases that’s just because the design has been around for too long.  While business sites can’t be continually scurrying after the look of the moment, they should periodically shake off the dust of outdated design values—not merely because time has passed, but because web design has come a long way fast.  The paradigms emerging today are just far better, aesthetically and otherwise, than what could be done (or imagined) in the past.

Here are a few other reasons why dullness happens:

  • “Boring” has been mistaken for “businesslike.”
  • Stakeholders are afraid to take a chance on something different.
  • No one thinks the design really matters.
  • The Careers site is tied to a dull corporate design and can’t get loose.

I keep an eye out for signs of changing approaches among the mid-size to very-large companies, but don’t see much yet.  While we wait, though, here’s a Christmas card of beautiful sites designed for smaller businesses and creative professionals.  Consider them an inspiration!

First:  A rich, inviting design sets the tone for this thematic microsite, created by Sounds True to showcase related products and content.

WithInsight 2

Next, the artful energy of WebDesignerDepot has helped to build a large, enthusiastic audience for the site.  And the outstanding content is worth following for anyone who has an interest in design.


WebDesignerDepot

Whimsical charm paints a quick picture of imagination at work, from the Australian design studio Racket.

Racket

The eclectic artistry of Peapod creations is perfectly captured in this design.  (Mousing over a category produces a ravishing color view.)

Peapod

Of course–sometimes all you need is a beautiful product!

Porsche

And finally, here’s proof that stand-out colors plus bold simplicity can make even a grid look great.

FWJ

That’s all for this Christmas.  But while we’re exploring imaginative options, here’s food for thought from 37 Signals:

Imagine an employee handbook that just said: “We trust you. Be mischievous.”


(Many thanks to ahisgett for revealing the beauty of winter’s bare branches.)

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.

Data: The Next Big Thing in Social Media?


Many Eyes

Well, probably not the next really big thing.  But data sharing has certainly begun to establish a perch in the social media world.  And companies that make use of other social networking opportunities should keep an eye on the developing social data space.

What is the social data space? A broad definition would include one of the most-visited websites in the world:  Wikipedia.  Wikipedia provides a location in which people can work together to amass and improve information on almost any topic imaginable.  Insofar as data and information are the same thing, Wikipedia is the ultimate in social data publishing.

A more strict definition would focus on data that fits in spreadsheets–and visualization sites like Many Eyes, Tableau Public, and Swivel that allow users to format and share spreadsheet data online.  Users can bring their own info (for example, non-sensitive business data) or grab some from an open source (typically a government agency or non-profit organization) and create an information graphic that is publicly visible.  Others can add to the product, link to it, or comment on it.

Essentially, the social data space is like YouTube for facts and numbers.  In addition to the data viz sites already mentioned, there are also sites that make it easy to get/create/share just the data itself.  Socrata, for example, offers an easy-to-use interface for accessing government info like White House visitor records, and also hosts user-created datasets that range from Le Sarkometre (the 113 promises made by candidate Sarkozy) to World’s Largest Cathedrals (embellished with photos, Wikipedia links, and factoids like approximate volume).  There are even specialty sites like StatPlot, where sports fans have communal fun with figures.

The introductory video on Tableau Public’s home page offers a nice look at the possibilities of data visualization, and the blog Information Aesthetics has in-depth reviews of Many Eyes and Swivel that will help orient newcomers to the data viz space.  IA also offers an overview of Google’s data apps.

Relevance for corporate recruiting?  It’s common practice now for companies to have an established social media presence that includes (at least) YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.  They may also use other social media channels targeted to particular user groups.  So for companies that do a lot of recruiting in the areas of technology, science, IT, analytics, and so on—it seems like the social data space would be a natural next step.  Businesses could post interesting visualizations based on their own data, look for passive candidates in the online communities, and embed interesting/relevant visualizations in company weblogs, just like YouTube videos.

I don’t know of any companies or recruiters actively utilizing the social data space, but it’s bound to happen.  Worth considering, anyway!

What are you doing about Knowledge Management?

In Foresight 2020, a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit on Corporate trends, Knowledge Management was singled out as a critical corporate issue.

Knowledge management. Running an efficient organisation is no easy task but it is unlikely on its own to offer lasting competitive advantage. Products are too easily commoditised; automation of simple processes is increasingly widespread. Instead, the focus of management attention will be on the areas of the business, from innovation to customer service, where personal chemistry or creative insight matter more than rules and processes. Improving the productivity of knowledge workers through technology, training and organisational change will be the major boardroom challenge of the next 15 years.

So what is Knowledge Management (KM). Simply put, there are two types of knowledge. Tacit knowledge is often known as “expert knowledge”, (this is what is stored in our brains), which is often difficult to explain and intangible. Then there is “explicit knowledge,” which is tangible and can be codified in books, manuals and specifications. Tacit knowledge is vital to the success of any organization. Knowledge Management is the process of capturing, organizing and distributing this knowledge from many stakeholders in a manner that yields competitive advantage and value for the organization.

KM has a major business issue in the past few years as millions of baby boomers are planning to retire over the coming decade. Millions of baby boomers turned 60 in 2005, those who haven’t already retired are certainly planning to do so soon. When they leave, the knowledge they acquired over the course of their long careers leaves with them – unless companies take the initiative to capture the knowledge stored in their brains.

Here’s what some organizations are doing —

COMPANY

INITIATIVE

Procter & Gamble and Eli LillyFormed YourEncore, creating a pool of retired employees that each company could call upon for temporary help
John DeereRegularly hires back retirees to teach, lead projects and participate in product development.
Quest InternationalTo transfer knowledge to younger employees, senior experts are given responsibility for two or three junior application specialists. Quest uses this “buddy approach” to make sure veteran specialists guide younger colleagues and help them gain experience
Northrop Grumman, Aerotek, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Consulting and Integration JapanHave integrated communities of practice (CoPs) into their knowledge management repertoire. These CoPs meet regularly in person and on-line. Older and younger workers share current information, best practices, and personal stories of success and failure. And they ensure the survival of tacit knowledge – knowledge that cannot be codified but is based on years of experience on the job and can be transmitted only from person to person.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)Uses storytelling for a different type of knowledge retention. Since early 1999, monthly storytelling sessions have been held in JPL’s library. These sessions, which usually are videotaped, often bring NASA veterans back to recount what it was like being part of old missions. This effort is intended to help socialize newer employees into the JPL culture and to connect them with the lab’s history and mission of “doing what no one has done before.”

Adapted from “The Boomer Exodus: Ready to Pass the Torch?”, Alice Graves

While these forward looking companies both recognize the coming knowledge loss and are taking action, they are too many who are not.

Many U.S. organizations are failing to capture critical workforce knowledge and experience from older employees facing retirement, and few organizations are transferring that knowledge to newer employees, according to the results of a survey released by Accenture.

The survey of more than 500 full-time U.S. workers between 40 and 50 years of age found that nearly half (45 percent) of respondents’ organizations do not have formal workforce planning processes and/or tools in place to capture their workplace knowledge.

For those companies in the 45% … it is time to get those geezers and millennials collaborating.