I’ve said many times that your recruiting software needs to interface with Facebook and LinkedIn. One recent commentator thinks that we’ll all forget about the latter in two years.

“Why Facebook Will Destroy LinkedIn” was the provocative title on ere.net, an excellent source of recruiting information and buzz. The author is Jody Ordioni, an HR consultant who regularly contributes to ere.net.

Ordioni argues that Facebook has four distinct advantages over LinkedIn:

• Size – as in 630 million more users.
• Same demographic for both sites – namely, young-to-middle-aged professionals
• Monster recently chose to partner with Facebook, not LinkedIn, for BeKnown, its new recruiting app.
• Another app, BranchOut, makes Facebook (not LinkedIn) a more candidate-friendly tool by shielding some personal information from recruiters.
• Facebook’s peer-to-peer marketing power is not matched by anything at LinkedIn.

Ordioni’s prediction for LinkedIn: “2011 will be a tough year for the professional networking site. 2012 will be brutal. And, sometime in 2013, Facebook will finally destroy LinkedIn.”

Is she right? I don’t think so.

For one, LinkedIn is growing faster than Facebook. Many commentators have noted that  Facebook may be reaching its near-saturation point, which means that it will only grow (if at all) as more of the world comes online.

Secondly, LinkedIn is very well-established in professional circles. It’s “siloed,” as the IT people like to say, which means that, unlike Facebook, it’s for one area of a user’s life – namely, employment-related connections. Lots of people – as in, tens of millions – are comfortable sharing their work life on LinkedIn and their personal life on Facebook, and it will be hard to get them to change their practices and mindsets.

Also – as I noted in a recent post – the real social media recruiting challenge to LinkedIn and Facebook will come from Google+, which makes it easy for users to “silo” their e-lives without leaving the Google+ platform.

So don’t change your recruiting software yet. LinkedIn will be here for some time to come.

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

Will Facebook Beat LinkedIn as a Recruiting Tool? is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. Recruiting With Facebook Followers of this blog know that 1) I think recruiting...
2. The Use of Social Networks in Recruiting Continues to Grow In two previous posts I discussed whether LinkedIn will Replace...
3. LinkedIn Kicks A@@ I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: LinkedIn...

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 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’ve always been impressed with the Human Capital Management Buyer’s Guide, so I submitted a success story about our recruiting software for this year’s edition. I was pleasantly surprised when the Guide’s editor accepted it.

In the article (which starts on p.60 of the Guide, by the way) I tell the story of easyJet, a small British airline that used our recruiting software and, more importantly, began thinking about human capital as a resource which can be effectively managed as a supply chain.

In other words, easyJet’s executives started coordinating recruiting and staffing efforts and soon discovered that they could get a lot more high-quality recruiting done with fewer employee hours. Their investment in Bond Talent recruiting software was recouped in about four months, with all other savings now improving the company’s bottom line.

As I write in the article, “companies will compete for the same top talent” as the economy rebounds. “Firms that invest in strategic, streamlined Human Capital Supply Chain management now will be poised to react quickly and snap up the most qualified workforce – and save time and money while they’re at it!”

What else is in the Buyer’s Guide? Lots of other stories and information about; human resources software, recruiting products, social media in HR (a favorite topic of mine), and new technology available for recruiting & staffing professionals. The four-page chart that compares companies and the products they offer is particularly helpful.

I highly recommend checking out the 2011 Human Capital Management Buyer’s Guide. And I highly recommend contacting Bond Talent if you want to know more about how our recruiting software can help your company improve its recruiting and staffing efforts.

Check out the 2011 Human Capital Management Buyer’s Guide is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. Human Capital Supply Chain Speaking and Event Schedule – June 2011 Recruiting Software and Human Capital Management are the topics, and...
2. Leveraging Human Capital Supply Chains – Live Webcast   Human Capital Supply Chains defines the business processes, technology...

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.

What are some of the key features every applicant tracking software (ATS)should have?

I get asked that question a lot at conferences and other events where I promote recruiting software. Here are my standard talking points.

Applicant tracking software should….

1. Efficiently Track Applicants. It sounds obvious, I know, but software programmers can be like automobile designers: They get so caught up in bells and whistles that they don’t attend to streamlining high-quality core functions. How does the software manage candidates through the entire recruitment cycle and make you a more efficient recruiter? Always ask that first.
2. Be easy for company employees to use. If you need extensive training to use it or if you have a hard time figuring out features on your own, it’s too complicated. Remember, applicant tracking software isn’t just for recruiters, but for any person in the company who is part of the hiring process, including executives.
3. Be easy for applicants to use. Actually, it should be easier for applicants to use because they don’t have the benefit of (or the time for) a training module. Applicants should be able to see the status of their application(s), search for other jobs, sign up for email or text alerts, and forward information to a friend almost intuitively. They also should only have to enter their basic information once – an easy feature to overlook.
4. Automatically screen applicants. You and the candidate should be automatically notified if a candidate is, because of lack of a degree or requisite experience, not suitable for a job. This feature, which is typically in the form of “Knock-out Questions”, can literally save recruiters a hundred hours per year.
5. Be multi-lingual and multi-currency. That is, it should allow applicants and recruiters to easily translate Resumes/CVs as well as salary amounts. In today’s global economy, even small companies now need access to multiple cultures within their own country and top talent from countries around the world.

I usually try to answer questions about recruiting software in a product-neutral way, but here, in my own blog, I can just come out and say, “Bond Talent’s global applicant tracking software is the best in the business!” It really is. Contact us to find out more or to see if I really know what I’m talking about when it comes to recruiting software.

Five Things to Look for in Applicant Tracking Software ATS 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.

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.

Recruiters have always had a preference for local candidates. Yes, there are some positions – usually C-level jobs – that warrant a nationwide search. But most positions are filled with local candidates because many candidates aren’t willing to move.

This is especially true today, when moving often entails 1) selling a house in a horrible market, 2) selling a house at a loss, and 3) coming up with a substantial chunk of cash to cover moving expenses. Obviously, most candidates for mid-level (and lower-level) positions won’t be able to do any of these.

Readers of this blog know that I’m a big proponent of using social media and other internet resources in addition to recruiting software. The “big” recruiting sites like Monster and Indeed allow users to do local searches, but many job seekers focus their attention on local internet sites. Recruiters, then, need to work those local sites too. Some common local job sites:

• Craigslist. It has great functionality, which is why it gets millions of hits each month despite its boring interface. The “jobs” list is quite extensive, allowing a recruiter to target their pitch to the intended audience. Craigslist also gives recruiters the option of posting positions anonymously, which cuts down on the number of phone calls when a job is posted – although some would also say that anonymous posting is bad for a company’s reputation.
• Classifieds. Yes, newspapers still have them and people still read them. In general, the older the target audience, the more likely they are to read a newspaper ad.  Classified ads always run online, so it’s not as if a recruiter is sacrificing online presence by running one.
• Hyperlocal sites. AOL invested over $100 million in Patch, which aims to have local e-newspapers all over the country. Results so far are mixed, but my guess is that Patch, EveryBlock (started by MSNBC), and similar local-news/sports/blogs sites are here to stay. Recruiting through them makes sense, especially since long commutes are what workers often hate most about their jobs.

Do you know of any other ways to take recruiting into the local online community? Let me know and I’ll share your insights in a future post.

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

Improve Your Local Online Recruiting 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.

In my last post, Blogging 101 for HR Professionals, I talked about why blogging in the HR world is a good idea. I promised a follow-up list describing how to get an HR blog started. Here it is.

7 Easy Steps for Starting and Maintaining an HR Blog

1.      Get permission from the boss. Unless, like me, you are the boss. Then just do it.

2.      Ask a few questions, then limit. What does your company (or HR department) do for people? How does HR contribute to the bottom line? What’s one trend in HR that you’re a part of (and why)? Once you get going, you’ll find plenty to write about. If you’re intellectually engaged in your job and in the HR industry, the real trick, in fact, is limiting yourself. This blog, for example, is focused on recruiting software, the staffing industry, business leadership, and employment patterns. I find lots of other things interesting, of course, but this isn’t the place to write about them.

3.      Start writing. It’s not an essay or a novel – it’s a blog post. Something around 200-500 words is fine. Present your question/puzzle (“I’ve been thinking about…”) and your thoughts.  Remember to have someone look over it before you post. Being good (or even great) at your job does not mean you are good at writing about your job – but with an editor and practice, you can become a good writer.

4.      Keep writing. A blog really isn’t a blog unless you’re posting at least once a week. Twice or three times a week is better. If you approach it as a way of working – that is, a way of getting better at your job by reflecting on it – it won’t seem like a chore. And once you start getting feedback, you’ll probably find that you wish you could blog more than you do.

5.      Spread the word. Start telling people about you blog: your colleagues, your peers in other companies, your mom, whoever. Solicit feedback (especially feedback online) and make changes.

6.      Don’t worry too much. I’d like to think that this blog is better now than when I started it. Remember: the internet is forgiving. If you misspell something on your website, you can make the correction without reprinting anything. If you write a poor post, you can write a better one in a few days, knowing that most readers won’t remember the poor one.

7.      Interact. A blog is more an ongoing conversation with an audience than a soapbox. That’s what’s great about it. I regularly get feedback from my readers/peers that teach me something and gives me fodder for future posts. Which leads to a request…

If you have any further ideas, hints, suggestions, or warnings about writing an HR blog, please leave a comment below! I will definitely follow up in a future post.

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

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

Related posts:

1. Blogging 101 for the HR Professional: Part I As you know, I spend a fair amount of time...

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

A while ago, I mentioned to you about how I have a daughter who studies philosophy and literature in college. We’ve discussed multiple different ways her world of arts and my world of business coincide and have even produced a blog from one of those very discussions. Today is another addition to those that I have already shared with you. This day is a day we take some advice from the greatest playwright of our time and apply it to the business world, because what Shakespeare taught us about love and war, he can also teach us about business. Today’s topic: The Taming of the Shrew.

 If you are unfamiliar with the plot of the play, here is a very brief summary: There are two sisters: beautiful and gentle Bianca and her more outspoken and unpleasant sister, Katharina. While Bianca has a number of suitors, their father insists that Bianca cannot be married until her elder sister is first. All of Bianca’s suitors are annoyed by this so they bribe a man named Petruchio to wed Katharina. He agrees and takes her to his country home and denies her food and sleep while complimenting her at the same time. His behavior ends up working on her and in the end she becomes even more of a submissive wife than her younger sister.

What can this play teach us about modern day comings and goings? Well…

1. The best kind of partnership is one that is equal. While Petruchio and Katharina eventually get along because she succumbs to his will, it cannot be said that their relationship is a particularly healthy one. She is fearful of him and agrees with him because of this as opposed to because she actually agrees with the ways in which he sees the world. This is a good thing to look at when it comes to business partnerships as well. While another company who is flashier or more popular may seem like a company to make a partnership with, it is always good to look deeper and do proper research before jumping into or agreeing to anything. You never know what you might find if you look just a little deeper.
2. Beauty isn’t everything. I am not talking about beauty in the literal sense, though that is the form in which it takes in this play. I mean that, in the confines of the play, the less beautiful of the two sisters ended up being what could be considered a better wife because she is more adaptive and knows how to handle herself in situations she would rather not be in. This could be said about any business partnership as well – while one company may be more aesthetically pleasing up front, another may be more beneficial to you and your dealings in the long run.

 The point of these blogs is to remind you that the best ways to handle your business and lessons to learn these things by can be found just about anywhere and the sooner you start looking, the more you will find in places you would never expect. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.

Do you know a Shrew that needs Taming? is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

Related posts:

1. Listen to YOUR employees, PLEASE Four things to take in to consideration in order to...
2. The King and the Recruiter I have twice used my discussions with my daughter to...
3. Shakespeare Returns to HR  Today is another addition to those “literary posts” that I...

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