When it comes to enhancing applicant tracking software, Facebook and LinkedIn are the best social media venues out there. But Google+ recently moved into the neighborhood and experienced a surge in users after opening up to the public.

Google+ may not make it in the long haul. After all, Facebook has around 700 million users and LinkedIn has around 120 million. Both companies have adapted to mobile technology and have the resources – both human and monetary – to continue to improve their products

But if any company’s up to the challenge of taking on Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s Google. Google is worth a lot (over $200 billion), is also devoted to R&D, and has the money and people to develop and improve its products.

For now, Google+ is more geared toward sharing with friends and family (Like Facebook) than professional socializing (Like LinkedIn). But as we all know, businesses use Facebook all the time, and all kinds of people use Facebook for business. HR professionals who use applicant tracking software know it’s a great tool for managing a company’s database of candidates, but it’s not a great way for candidates to interact with companies. That’s where the social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and maybe Google+ come in.

Will Google+ be able to imitate Facebook and LinkedIn’s community and engagement functionality for recruiters? In all likelihood, yes and the key is its “Circles” feature.

This feature allows the user to divide up “friends” into circles, so the user has a school circle, a job circle, a close friends circle, a family circle, and so on. It’s easy, then, to communicate messages to specific circles – who wants to share information about a great date with Uncle Joe and Aunt Mary, for example? Facebook has been working on this problem for a while, and recently came out with “friend lists” following the launch of Google’s “Circles”.

The “Circles” feature will allow users to bracket off their professional/work life, and that, I think, will make people more comfortable participating in job-searching, referring, and other activities that recruiters can capitalize on.

BUT – it all depends on the numbers that Google+ can generate. Google+ recently hit 50 million users after opening up to the public. If it can top the 100 million mark and keep improving its interface, I’d certainly use it to complement my applicant tracking software.  Time will tell but for now, we’ll continue to dabble in Google+, just in case it becomes the social media of choice for the recruiting industry and job seekers.

What’s your experience with Google+? Do you think it will be a good recruiting and staffing tool? Please share your thoughts below and join the ongoing conversation about social media, recruiting software, and the ongoing challenges of recruiting.

More Recruiters start Using Google+ is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Recruiting software can get you good candidates for interviews. The rest is up to you.

Tony Robbins, the popular (and controversial) self-help speaker and writer, has popularized “Neuro Linguistic Programming” (NLP), a way of interpreting non-verbal habits. If we can believe what he says about NLP, interviewers can learn a lot from the way a candidate moves while talking. The eyes, in particular, communicate a lot.

Here’s a helpful diagram from Global NLP training (Click to enlarge):

Image courtesy of bLaBbErWoRkS

 So, if the eyes look up the candidate is accessing visual information. If up and to the right, it’s a remembered event. If up and to the left, it’s a constructed event. “What color is your car?” will normally prompt an up-and-to-the-right response, for example, while “What kind of racing stripes would look good on a purple sports car?” would prompt the eyes to go up and to the left.

People who predominantly think in sounds – words and music, mostly – normally move their eyes side to side when accessing information. Every once in a while, they will look down and to the right, which indicates that they are accessing a “digital” or “recorded” sound, meaning a “tape” that they have created for themselves (as in “try not to slouch”).

The “Kinesthetic” response (down and to the left) is common in people who think with their bodies, as it were – they process answers until they “feel” right.

Supposedly, learning how to read such clues can tell you a lot about the way a candidate thinks. Moreover, it can help an interviewer change his or her behavior in order to set a candidate at ease. Practitioners of NLP say that, in almost all cases, people who have similar eye movement patterns find it very easy to get along.

At a high level, when people shift their eyes to the right after a question, it is to mentally search their memory for an example.  When people shift their eyes to the left when responding to a question (their eyes move to your right or left as you are facing them), they are generally trying to put together an answer they think you want to hear.  This could be good to know when asking questions about a specific example, accomplishment or experience the candidate has had which would indicate relevant job experience.

Is this theory helpful? I honestly don’t know, and I’m not sure how I’d find out. If I concentrated on a candidate’s eye movements during an interview, I’m afraid that I would miss most of what he or she would say! And I’m certainly not one to record interviews. Anyone have any experiences looking for eye movements and/or trying to adapt their interview behavior based on a candidate’s eye movements?

For now, I think I’ll stick to marketing the best recruiting software out there.

The Eyes Don’t Lie During an Interview is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. The Two Best Interview Questions You Should Ask I’ll say up front that the subject matter of this...
2. Companies Recruiting College Grads May Need to Increase Their Budgets I was recently talking with a friend of mine whose...
3. Does Your Company Career Site Suck ? As someone who knows a thing or two about recruiting...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m not prone to feel sorry for people who don’t put together a good resume and complain about not finding a job, just like I don’t feel sorry for recruiters who complain about bad applicant tracking software but who never took the time research such a crucial purchase.

But then again, I can’t tell you the number a times a recruiter has asked, “Why is it that the best candidate is never the guy/gal with the best resume?”

In other words, a lot of good candidates lurk behind those mediocre, poor, and maybe even downright awful resumes.

How do you find them without interviewing all of them? Assuming that a poor resume still contains all the basic information – education, experience, references – and is not padded, here are some good tips I’ve picked up for seeing a good candidate through all the dross:

• Look carefully at the work history. Two things speak well of a candidate: 1) A long time with one company and 2) No long periods of unemployment. Both suggest a solid work ethic, dependability, and initiative. Along the same lines….
• Look at the work history within a company. Did this person stay in the same position for a long time or did they steadily advance? If the latter, he or she is almost certainly skilled and is probably ambitious and eager for challenges.
• Study the time frame of graduate degrees. MBA’s are great, but MBA’s earned while working full-time suggest dedication and the ability to multi-task. On the other hand, a Master’s done between jobs can suggest a directed effort to enhance or even shift a career, and there are few qualities better in a candidate than passion for what they do. Likewise….
• Don’t dismiss “irrelevant” degrees. Everyone says that what’s most important is the ability to think and learn, but when it comes to hiring, most recruiters revert back to experience and relevant degrees – with “relevant” usually meaning something “related to business” like finance, accounting, or the ever-vague “business administration.” Philosophy and English Literature majors probably know more about analyzing an argument and communicating clearly than the average human resources major, so give them a break.

Have you noticed that I used the word “suggest” a lot? Like all good recruiters, I know that it takes a few interviews to know if a candidate is a good fit (and even then, every recruiter has a “He/She turned out to be a rotten employee” story).

Do you have any suggestions for squeezing good information out of a poor resume? Please leave a comment below.

One final note:  I still don’t feel sorry for those who buy bad recruiting software. Didn’t anyone tell them to look at Bond International Software, Inc. first?

How to See a Shining Candidate Through a Lousy Resume is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. Does Your Company Career Site Suck ? As someone who knows a thing or two about recruiting...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m presenting Human Capital Supply Chains: Linking Just-In Time Talent to Profits at the Performance Management virtual conference on Tuesday, September 13. The presentation is about more than recruiting software. In fact, it’s about changing the way companies think about human resources.

Too often, we hear about massive layoffs during down times and hiring blitzes during good time. We should ask, “Why didn’t that company’s executives have a better grasp on what the company really needed on a monthly basis?” Or even a weekly basis?

Companies that managed supply chains like that would soon go out of business. So why don’t companies manage human capital as a supply chain, with all the same ways of gathering data, sharing data, and acting efficiently on that data.

On Tuesday at 12:30 pm Eastern time, I’ll be explaining how companies can manage their human capital as efficiently and effectively as they manage all of the other parts of their business. I’ll talk a little bit about recruiting software, but what I’m really interested in is helping companies like yours improve their bottom line with better human capital management.

I hope you can join me. Register here.

My webinar is part of a two-day virtual conference hosted by the Institute for Human Resources, which exists to help HR professionals grow professionally. The conference includes 17 webinars over September 12-13.

We’re very proud to be participating in this event, as we think that the next two years will be a turning point in the HR profession and a vital time for the recovery of our nation.

Join Me at the IHR Virtual Conference is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. 2011 SHRM Conference In Las Vegas What do Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Michael J. Fox, and...
2. Companies Recruiting College Grads May Need to Increase Their Budgets I was recently talking with a friend of mine whose...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I was recently talking with a friend of mine whose son is starting his sophomore year in college and just changed his major to Petroleum Engineering.  When she asked her son why he chose that major he informed her that is has the highest starting salary potential of any job for college graduates.  He obviously did his research as you will see below.

As a quick follow-up to my recent post about college recruiting, here are the top-paying jobs for recent college graduates (and those which give the term “entry-level” a new meaning):

1.      Petroleum Engineer. Putting physics, chemistry, and industrial engineering classes to work can net a twenty-something nearly $120,000

2.      Computer Hardware Engineer. It requires a computer science degree and the ability to keep up-to-date with almost-daily changes in the industry. But at $97,000, it’s probably worth it.

3.      Electrical Engineer. The field now includes robotics. And it can bring an $85,000 salary.

4.      Investment Banker. Who said that scientists and technicians should have all the good-paying jobs? $85,000 a year for those who can perform top-notch financial research and communicate it effectively.

5.      Economist. No longer practitioners of “the dismal science” and certainly no longer confined to the halls of academia and government, economists help companies (and non-profits) of all shapes and sizes understand and prepare for changing market trends. Salary: $84,000.

6.      Computer Programmer. No need to explain this one. Starting salary: $73,000.

7.      Management Analyst. I’ll confess that I hadn’t heard of this job before reading the description in the article that provided the information for this post. I guess they assist in making and executing strategic plans for businesses. Hard to imagine someone right out of college doing that, but easy to imagine a smart 23-year-old contributing to a team – especially when he or she can make $73,000.

8.      Database administrators. Like everything else related to IT, these people are in demand. And the starting salary of $73,000 reflects that.

9.      Registered Nurses. I’ve read a lot about a coming (and possibly current) shortage of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. Add to that the force of unions and you get a $68,000 salary.

10.  Landscape Architects. The modern rage for good design and environmental responsibility have created a demand for these professionals. The result: a $64,000 starting salary.

As you can see from some of these starting salaries, companies may being seeing a rise in their human resource expense line, driven by the newest members of the work force.  This will put even more pressure on corporate recruiters to better execute on their talent management strategies and tactics if they want to fill some of the above mentioned positions without having to offer the highest salary in the market.

Do these starting salaries seem high, low or about right to you?  Feel free to comment below!

Companies Recruiting College Grads May Need to Increase Their Budgets is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. College Recruiting Has A Heartbeat !! It’s that time of the year again! College grads are...
2. Recruiting With Facebook Followers of this blog know that 1) I think recruiting...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s that time of the year again! College grads are hitting the workforce, and their prospects look better than the rest of the population’s.

According to a recent article on ere.net (a helpful source of recruiting news), the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Hiring Index reports a recent jump in both recruiting and hiring of college students.

The article also states that these bumps counteract a recent downward trend.  Below are a few more details from the article:

• The outlook for college hiring in 2011 was 13.5 percent higher than the outlook in 2010.
• Nearly 50 percent of companies surveyed expected to increase the number of college hires – up from 16.9 percent the year before!
• Alas, 40 percent of companies planned to decrease their college hires and 10 percent thought that their college hiring levels wouldn’t change. The silver lining in such numbers: they’re not planning on laying off recent college hires.

Our nation has never really experienced long-term unemployment for significant numbers of recent college graduates, and we certainly don’t want to start now. A look at post-communist countries and the modern Middle East shows us that high unemployment among well-educated twenty- and thirty-somethings drags down an entire society. Getting young people into the workforce directs their energy to the greater good and away from civilization-destroying activities and overdependence on government

If you have stories about your company’s college recruiting strategies, please post a comment below. When the National Association of College and Employer’s next index come out, I’ll include it in my reflections.

For ongoing thoughts about talent management, recruiting software, and other recruiting issues, subscribe to this blog.

College Recruiting Has A Heartbeat !! is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As you know, I spend a fair amount of time blogging about recruiting software and the talent management industry.  I’m always surprised by the small number of HR professionals who are also blogging.  It’s true, it does take time, but I’ve found that blogging is a great way to get more exposure for our company and products.

My intention in this post is to inspire other HR professional and recruiters to also consider blogging so with that, here are my 5 Reasons Why Blogging in the HR World is a Good Idea (in no particular order);

1.      You engage more with your job. It’s terribly easy to do a job thoughtlessly. When faced with a blank page, however, you have to start to really wonder about the things going on around you, even things you’ve seen a million times. You end up asking, “What are the new ideas out there?”, “Is there a better way to do X?”, “How will social networking impact this industry” and other such questions.

2.      You engage more with your industry. When you start asking questions, you feel like you have to answer them. So you go on the web, read other HR blogs, and start developing your thoughts on your own blog.

3.      You can become a thought leader. If you produce a steady stream of solid (and occasionally fun) content, your peers in the industry will think of you as a go-to person for HR questions. That can be good for both self-esteem and business.

4.      It’s fun. If you haven’t noticed, I love sharing my “Shakespeare time” with my daughter. There are business lessons to be learned in Shakespeare, to be sure, but the reason I started that blogging stream was simply because I liked it and thought it would be a fun way to put a new spin on things.

5.      It’s good for business. See above. Regular blogging also helps with search engine optimization, and it improves your sense (and, in most cases) your employees’ sense for what the company does and why. You can also promote your products, note upgrades and improvements (especially if you produce software), share customer testimonials, and link to product pages on your website.

My next post: Starting and Maintaining Your Own HR Blog. Stay tuned.

For ongoing thoughts about Talent Management, applicant tracking software, and other employment-related topics, subscribe to this blog.

Blogging 101 for the HR Professional: Part I is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. HR Thought Leadership and YOU Part 2 There are common traits that can be found in those...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: LinkedIn is a great tool for recruiters!

The company has a bunch of products that can help any recruiting professional make the most of the world’s biggest professional network.

Fortunately a lot of LinkedIn’s material is free and you can find out more in the following 3 links. If you check out their Corporate Recruiting Solutions Resources page, for example, you’ll find dozens of whitepapers, webcasts, brochures, and datasheets about recruiting in general and LinkedIn in particular. The Webcast page has a list of upcoming webcasts (nine in June alone). The blog is also quite good.

Why do I think LinkedIn is so important in the recruiting world? This Q&A with Allen Blue, LinkedIn’s VP of Product management, basically answers that question – along with LinkedIn’s actual performance as an ever-improving recruiting tool over the past two years. In short, LinkedIn has, thus far, gone from strength to strength, and they show no sign of altering course.

Do you use LinkedIn in your recruiting efforts? If so, what’s been your experience? Share a comment below and I’ll be sure to follow up on it in a later post.

In the meantime, stay up-to-date with LinkedIn. It’s a company that will probably continue to serve recruiters – and lots of other HR professionals – very well.

For ongoing thoughts about Talent Management, recruiting software, and other employment-related topics, subscribe to this blog.

LinkedIn Kicks A@@ is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We all have moments when we have trouble articulating what we want to say, or putting down the exact words that we want to write. This can be a big problem if it persists and keeps you from moving forward. Many people have their own techniques, habits, and solutions for when the elusive block comes – whether this is a writing block, a thinking block, or a general block of creativity doesn’t matter – because in the end, it all keeps things from getting done. Here are a few suggestions for what you can do when your brain just isn’t agreeing with your goals:

1. Do something else! Let’s say you are working on a proposal and your deadline is in a few hours and you just cannot figure out how to conclude it. You’re staring blankly at a computer screen but nothing comes to mind. Relax! Take a breath and take a step back. Go get a cup of coffee, reorganize your desk drawers, or write responses to a few e-mails you have been meaning to get to. You will find the words you were looking for when you stop actively looking for them.
2. Read. There is nothing wrong with looking up and reading pieces similar to those you are trying to work on and create yourself. If you’re having trouble finishing a blog for your website, go and read some blogs. The same goes for any other kind of project you’re trying to finish – creative, or otherwise.
3. Try Freewriting. Freewriting is a technique used mainly when someone who is writing a fiction or creative piece comes to a block and needs to get their ideas flowing once more. All you have to do is sit down with an empty word document and write for a set amount of time or space. Ten minutes, or a full page or two works. You don’t think about what you’re writing, you don’t read it as you write, you just write. A lot of times when you are done with freewriting and go back to review what you have written, you’ll find you have worked out a lot of problems through just letting your subconscious go.
4. Talk it out. Find an audience – a coworker, an employee, a casual friend. Talk to them about what is keeping you from finishing your work, get their input. It could be more beneficial to speak to someone who knows nothing about the work you are trying to finish, someone who doesn’t even work in the same field as you. That way their input will come from a direction you may not have even considered when you were working on your own.

If you find yourself still stuck after attempting some or all of these techniques, try something else! Anything that seems right to you might just be what you need. For all we know, all you needed was a chocolate bar! To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

HR Professionals Need To Write More is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. HR Thought Leadership and YOU Part 2 There are common traits that can be found in those...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As someone who knows a thing or two about recruiting software, I assumed that information on building a company “Search for Careers” webpage would be easy to find. They are, after all, pretty common, especially in the websites of medium- to large-sized companies.

I was wrong. Or, perhaps, all of my normal internet search tools weren’t what was needed for this topic. (If you have suggestions, please post a comment below!)

In any case, I’ve heard a lot of complaints about these pages from job seekers, and I’ve learned that some very well-qualified candidates simply walk away from jobs if the online application process is too cumbersome. A recruiter’s nightmare!

Rather than focus on “What your career webpage needs to be successful,” I’ll pass on the complaints and let you examine your own career webpage.

• Complaint #1: My information got lost. A lot of application programs automatically time out after 10 minutes or so and then erase all of the information already entered. In many cases, it may take candidate more than 10 minutes to track down important information (like the phone number of a former boss who has since moved on to a different company). A similar complaint: “There was no way to save my information before final submission.”
• Complaint #2: Inconsistent information. A standard story: “I read the job description on the website, went through the application (which took 30+ minutes), then was informed that the job was no longer available after I submitted everything.” Another common story: “The posting I saw said that two years of experience was required, but the application program says I’m not qualified because I don’t have five years of experience.”  Would you want to work for a company that did that to you?
• Complaint #3: It required me to enter information that was already on the résumé. I’ve heard this complaint over and over. Why should anyone have to enter the information of her four previous employers when that’s already on the résumé she uploaded? A related complaint: “I applied for more than one job at a company and had to enter everything in multiple times.”
• Complaint #4: No one to follow up with. Someone spends 30-60 minutes filing in boxes, then hears nothing and can’t find out if his information even got through. This reinforces the opinion that the company’s public search is really a front to cover an inside job transfer.
• Complaint #5: Personality questions. “How do you take criticism?” “Do you consider yourself a team player?” Such questions – which are meant to provoke self-examination – are a real turn-off for applicants As more than one applicant has wondered, there’s no way for an HR person to know if the applicant is telling the truth, so what’s the point of asking such questions?
• Complaint #6: Too long! After registering with a username and password, filling in all the little boxes, and uploading a résumé, online applications often take more than 45 minutes to complete. That’s too long, especially if most of the pertinent information is on a résumé.

Have you checked out your career webpage lately? Have YOU tried applying for a job through it? You should !  If not, some of your best candidates may be clicking off your site in frustration.

Does Your Company Career Site Suck ? is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. Top 5 Social Networking Potholes There are many great ways Social Networking can be utilized...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.