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Careers

Are you looking in the right place for recruits?

David Wilson at Social Media Optimisation points to a very interesting article in the India Times. In this article, HCL Technologies estimate that over the next two years, two thirds of their recruits will come from social media.

2/3 of recruits will come from social media

We all know that these days recruiters are quite likely to Google recruits … and that this could come up with their dodgy Facebook profile, or the inappropriate comments that they made on a forum. A few companies set up areas in Second Life to help with recruiting; others establish forums and live chat on their own sites.
[Read more…] about Are you looking in the right place for recruits?

Some Really Good Advice That’s Hard to Get (Part 2)


advice-2

As promised in a previous post, here’s a roadmap to the four articles that comprise Dr. John Sullivan’s analysis of “127 suggested features or capabilities for the corporate careers website of the future.”  The links will take you in order to the articles archived on Sullivan’s own website.  (Links to the ere.net version are provided at the end of this post.)

Part 1:  Contains an analysis of the current state of most Career sites; a list of “16 Reasons Why the Web Is a Powerful Recruiting Sales Tool”; an index of the “18 Categories of Website Features or Capabilities” that will be discussed in the series; and discussions of the first three categories, which are:

  • Careers page easy to find on the lead-in page
  • Immediate “wows” to get their attention
  • Quick identification features

Each category has its own list, so Part 1 contains the first 23 of the 127 suggested features or capabilities.  (The category names in the individual parts sometimes are not the same as they were on the index list, but they are similar.)

Part 2:  Covers the next five categories, which are:

  • Initial classification of the visitor
  • Features that provide personalized information
  • Personalized features and expedited treatment
  • Features for attracting employed top performers
  • Features for attracting active job seekers

This group brings the features/capabilities total to 56.

Part 3: Covers the next four categories, which are:

  • Other information-gathering elements for all visitors
  • Careers page features that sell them on the firm
  • Jobs page features that sell visitors on this job
  • Features that make it easy to find jobs

This group brings the features/capabilities total to 92.

Part 4:   Wrapping up with the remaining six categories:

  • Features that bring the firm to life and make the firm appear genuine
  • Features that help assess job qualifications
  • Features that provide feedback to candidates and that answer their questions
  • Elements that help build the relationship over time
  • Geographically localized features
  • Other things to do related to the site, including metrics

The features and capabilities in the last category (Other things . . . ) are not numbered, so they are not included in the 127 total.

The links provided above are to the Sullivan site because the articles are more readable there and the titles are part numbered.  If you prefer to read them on ere.net (where the list numbering is continuous) here are the links in order:

Ere.net Part 1

Ere.net Part 2

Ere.net Part 3

Ere.net Part 4


(Thanks to “Solo, with others” for a lakeside view of the advice business.)

Energizing the Employer Brand

QuikTripStop the presses! Readers are expressing their opinions on the Fortune list of ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ — and the range of comments is a reminder that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Though some folks express enthusiasm for their listed companies, others said something like ‘How could you put Company X on this list???’ (And often enough, different people are saying opposite things about the same company.) Another big response category is ‘What about my company?’ or the variant, ‘What about Famous Company X?’

Well, as promised, today’s episode will be notes from my tour of the Careers sites for companies from the list, focusing on ways to energize the employer brand. But the comment-fest at Fortune is irresistible reading—and offers some useful insights–so I’ll post a follow-up soon.

Starting off: I set a goal to visit the Careers sites for half the 100 companies. Didn’t make it! But I did get through quite a few, and have decided that 25 is the new 50. Based on the adventure so far, I have three overview observations:

  • Too much video is . . . too much. After the first dozen companies, I felt like I was channel-surfing instead of web-surfing. It takes the visitor time to view each video, and soon you’re feeling like a passive audience rather than an active applicant. So–now that website video is no longer novel–look for fresh, meaningful ways to use it, rather than just putting up obligatory testimonials. (Chesapeake Energy sets a good example.)
  • Location of access to the Careers page from the home page and menus is important. When you see a prominent link in the top or side navigation, the message is ‘jobs/employees are important to us.’ When you have to search out a tiny text link at the very bottom of the page, you get the opposite impression. (There can be challenges on this point for some companies. I’ll talk about integrating the Careers page with other site components in a future post.)
  • Message fragmentation is the problem I found most frequently in sites that don’t energize. If the visitor has to click on ten different links to see ten different kinds of information, the energy deflates rapidly. So if you need lots of pages, keep the core message focused, make the navigation very clear, and give visitors a logical path rather than just a pile of links. (QuikTrip and Arnold & Porter both do a good job on this, in different ways.)
Umpqua
Stew Leonard
Zappos

Wrapping up: Here is ‘Cynthia’s List of 5 Interesting Company Career Sites.’ Out of the sites I visited in this blitz, here are the ones I fell for. They are good examples, I think, of creating positive energy for the employer brand.

  • Umpqua Bank: Their whole site is so charming that I considered moving so I could bank with them. The Careers page highlights unusual perks, such as paid time for volunteer work.
  • Stew Leonard’s: The Careers page for this small grocery chain made me laugh and cry. (Really.) The use of snapshot-style photos to illustrate each of the ‘Ten Reasons”’ creates an emotional connection, making the company’s benefits seem personal rather than abstract.
  • Starbucks: Although I’m a major Starbucks enthusiast, I think their Careers site could be better. But the approach of creating a ‘Career Center’ works well from an energizing perspective. The site is visually active and information-rich, with a good brand fit.
  • Zappos.com: In a class by itself! This quirky site makes the list not just for the Core Values Frog (though that’s a hard one to top) but also for clever use of social media.
  • Alcon Laboratories: I was determined to find a big company with an energetic Careers site, and it wasn’t easy. But Alcon finally won me over with a bold, blog-style site that steps outside the typical corporate look without losing its dignity.

And FYI: If you’re wondering how I picked my visits—I went to every company with a Q in the name; three companies I really like; three I really don’t like; several I thought would be fun; and a random selection of law firms, construction companies, communication giants, etc.

What’s New: Graduates, Gadgetry, and An Edgy Approach


cosmic-soap-bubbles

As the class of 2013 gets ready to matriculate, they can probably look forward to seeing quire a few 2009 graduates on campus.  In a 2009 Student Survey, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that fewer graduating students already had jobs than in previous years–and fewer were looking for jobs.  The study, conducted from February through April, surveyed more than 34,000 students (about half seniors) from over 800 colleges nationwide.

It turned out that less than 20% of the about-to-be grads who were looking for a job actually had one, compared with more than half of the 2007 set.  But the steep drop actually took place last year, when the percentage plummeted from half to 26%.

In terms of job-seeking:  64% were already on the hunt in early 2007, slightly more in 2008, and down a bit to 59% this year.  So not a terribly big change.  Similarly, not a huge shift in the percentage of students planning to attend graduate school rather than enter the job market.  The trend was upward, though, with 20% bound to grad school in 2007, 24% in 2008, and 26% this year.

According to the survey, most of the 2009 seniors were planning to look for a job . . .  So it will be interesting to see–when September numbers come out for unemployment and graduate enrollment–how they fared.

Meanwhile, a lot of companies and recruiters are receiving a lot of resumes.  For those who either don’t have a dedicated Applicant Tracking System, don’t like the one they have, or just can’t resist a gadget, Hireability has come up with a product that will turn the Outlook Inbox into an ATS.  Step right up, folks!  The handy-dandy ALEX Desktop will parse a resume, create a Contact, paste the resume content into the Contact notes, and make the whole thing searchable.  For now it’s free, so why not take it for a spin?

On a completely different topic–I came across the website for a company called Talent Revolution, which styles itself as “a drastic change in thinking and behaving with talent.”  They clearly want to establish themselves as different, starting with the look of the site (a definite urban flavor, with graffiti, bricks, and black leather) and the tone of the content (lots of superlatives, challenges, and pronouncements).

I left the TR site with two somewhat contradictory reactions.  1.  It’s nice to see something different.  Now that I think about it, most corporate Career sites and most of the recruiting blogs take a middle-of-the-road, nothing-to-offend approach, both visually and verbally.  2.  It’s not nice to be baffled.  The TR site was so fragmented I couldn’t figure out the navigation (seriously), and even after reading quite a bit of the content, I wasn’t sure what the company actually does or what message they are trying to deliver.

My own takeaway:  Edgy has appeal–but when you invite people into less-familiar territory, it’s important to give them a good map, well drawn.


(Thanks to woodleywonderworks for the amazing Cosmic Soap Bubbles.  Not sure how the picture fits the post, but I just liked it a lot!)


Exciting Sites: Want to Join the Circus?

cirque-3

“Your corporate website is increasingly the soul of your recruiting process. And as you know, it’s not a one-time effort but a continuous improvement process that demands a fair share of development and analyses.” That’s the opening of the descriptive blurb for a session at Kennedy Information’s upcoming Recruiting 2009 Conference and Expo.

Since I think those two points are absolutely correct—it was a surprise to find that this single session is the only mention of the corporate Careers website in the whole conferences agenda, which covers more than three days of sessions, keynotes, workshops, intensives, and summits.

That’s not to say the topic won’t come up in other discussions at the conference, but from the agenda standpoint, it certainly seems to be in an isolated position. The ERE Expo for Fall 2008 also had just one session focused on the corporate website, and the Kennedy Conference in Fall 2008 had none.

So I started to wonder why the “soul” of the recruiting process isn’t getting more attention in these venues—and I still think that’s a very good question. But before I could start looking for answers, I noticed that one of the speakers involved in the Kennedy session (which is a panel discussion) was the Employment Manager for Cirque du Soleil.

How fast do you think I got to their site?

Some of you have already been there and back between the last paragraph and this one, I’ll bet. Because we ALL want to run away and join the circus. Plus—one just has to be curious about how an over-the-top fantasy factory like Cirque would design their Careers website.

Well, I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t exactly what I found. The site is a bit more boxy than I imagined, for one thing, and although the Home page is madly visual, the secondary pages are basically text on white. There’s an image slideshow running on each page, but it’s rather small.

On the other hand, the unusual color scheme definitely sets it apart—and the functionality is top-notch. All the right information, nicely accessible.  And there is certainly enough of the unusual to convey a sense of Cirque.

So what about some other exotic employers? Of course Cirque has a huge operation, so they hire all kinds of people. Pilobolus, on the other hand, is a small organization, and it’s all about dancers. But, yes, they do have a sort of miniature Careers page (Menu, Contacts, Work with Us), tucked into their absolutely stunning website:

pilobolus-1

Then for a last stop, I thought of Las Vegas. And I learned—which I did not know–that MGM Mirage owns just about everything in Vegas. Which is convenient for job-seekers! The available positions seem to be of the ordinary sort (i.e., accountants and receptionists, not croupiers and showgirls).  But the Mirage Careers site is practically a mini-vacation, with good music and glamorous visuals. Worth a visit.

mirage-1

So what’s the takeaway from these sites, if your company doesn’t happen to walk on the wilder side? The main thing I’d note is that they deliver much more than information. They capture the feeling of the employer brand, and create excitement about the idea of working there.

That’s actually something any employer can do, by developing a site that reflects what’s special about the company. Just look at one of my favorites, Umpqua Bank, for an example that’s not exactly exotic, but still very distinctive and inviting.

Recruiting Veterans

I invited Thomas Jones to write a guest post for us today about veterans and recruitment. Have you considered targeting this group with a dedicated recruitment website? Let us know, in the comments…

Over to you, Thomas!

military man to businessmanThe global financial crisis has hit the world hard. Economies have been left in tatters and governments are having to cut budgets to weather the current economic downturn. Military defence budgets have been greatly affected with many countries around the world reducing the amount of money being spent on their military programs. The UK, USA, Germany and more have already reduced their defence budgets, with more countries planning to follow suit shortly. These budgetary reductions have seen thousands of jobs being cut and thousands of veterans being honourably discharged from the armed forces. A number of businesses have seen opportunity here and have started to roll out special websites and programs targeted to attract veterans looking for work.

This article will explain how, and why, companies are targeting these veterans using special veteran recruitment websites, recruitment policies and rehabilitation projects.

Why veterans?

Veterans are highly skilled and highly motivated individuals.

When serving in their country’s armed forces, they learn the value of discipline, teamwork and hard work.

Veterans have been trained to work hard and work well: they are model employees.

Methods used by companies to reach job seeking veterans

Many companies are instituting veteran recruitment programs that will see hundreds of thousands of veterans being employed around the world. These companies use a number of different methods to attract unemployed veterans.

#1 – Veteran recruitment websites

Many companies are building special websites tailored specifically to target veterans. These websites focus on the unique skills that veterans possess while explaining how the company will be able to make use of them.

These websites normally contain information about the numbers of veterans already working in the company as well as statistics about their career progression.

Many of these websites contain testimonials from employed veterans, too, either in video, audio or text form. These testimonials normally focus on how their military skills have been useful when working in the company while explaining why the company is a good place for veterans to work.

#2 – Charitable donations to military support charities

Veterans share a bond. They look after each other and watch each other’s backs.

Companies that donate to military support charities are looked upon favourably by veterans. These donations show that the company is committed to improving the lives of veterans around the world, regardless of whether they’re employed by the company or not.

However, it’s important for the company not to brag about these charitable contributions. These donations need to be seen as an act of goodwill – they should not be construed as a ploy to attract attention from veterans.

#3 – Rehabilitation projects to ease the transition back to civilian life

Life in the military is very different to civilian life. It is difficult, demanding and disciplined. Every day is highly regimented and planned out in advance.

Many veterans find the transition back to civilian life difficult. It can take time before they are able to feel comfortable living a civilian lifestyle.

Many companies have instituted veteran rehabilitation programs to help ease the process. These programs usually see veterans being assigned a mentor or advisor who will provide advice and help to ensure that the veterans under their tutelage are able to successfully transition back to civilian life.

Specialised schemes targeted to veterans that were injured in action have also been instituted by a number of companies. These schemes can help provide medical and psycho-social assistance to help deal with the injury as well as vocational support to ensure that the injury does not affect performance in the workplace.

Conclusion

Veterans make excellent employees. They are highly motivated, highly skilled and dedicated to their work. The three methods listed above are proven methods companies around the world are using to help attract veterans to join their workforce. Make sure to use them when instituting a veteran recruitment program for your business.

Thanks Thomas!

Thomas Jones is a business consultant that has a particular interest in specialised corporate business practices and how you work and develop over time. He also writes business guides and articles at BestPracticeHub.com