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

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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

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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

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Bond Talent is doing well. The recruiting software industry – along with the HR software  industry  – is a good one to be in right now.  CEOs, COOs and HR execs are starting to realize that investments in high-quality recruiting software pay for themselves rather quickly.

Here are the important numbers from the home office in the U.K.

• 40 percent. That’s how much revenues increased in the first half of 2011 when compared to the first half of 2010.
• 18.4 million pounds/28.9 million dollars. That’s the new revenue number for the first half of 2011, up from 13.2 million pounds/20.7 million dollars in the first half of 2010.
• 3.1 million pounds/4.9 million dollars. That’s the improvement in revenues generated by recruiting software in the first half of 2011 when compared to the first half of 2010.
• 4.3 million pounds/6.8 million dollars. That’s the improvement in gross profits for the first half of 2011 over the first half of 2010.
• 62 percent. That’s the share of revenues that recruiting software generates.

I’ll say it again: Bond Talent is doing well. Its success is partly due to smart managerial decisions and partly due to the excellent products it produces – especially its recruiting software. I have no doubt that I’ll be reporting on even more growth and bigger profits at this time next year.

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

Bond Talent US Mid Year Update is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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A less than perfect economy (especially after a 15% US stock market decline in just 2 weeks !!) affects every type of business including recruiting.  Yet in every down economy there are always a number of companies in every industry who find a way to thrive.  With this in mind, I spent some time recently researching all the creative ways recruiters were finding, recruiting and retaining top talent in spite of the less than perfect economy. I found two types of advice:

Tips for Recruiting in 2011

• The market for mid-level and high-level talent is heating up. As many have said, finding candidates is easy, but finding qualified candidates is hard. Employers are skittish about letting top talent go when the future is so uncertain, and employees are reluctant to leave for the same reason. So be prepared for a long road when looking to fill mid-level and high-level positions.
• Be careful about relocation demands. Yes, you want employees – especially high-level employees – close to the office. But if a great candidate is willing to drive 40 miles to work, don’t sweat it. He or she probably can’t afford to sell their house in such a lousy real estate market, and email and other e-communication tools can usually make up for someone’s presence in the office.
• Review your brand presence. Does your company’s website and Facebook page convey its personality? Its values? Its mission? Is it, in a word, authentic? This is especially important for recruiting younger candidates.

Perennial Tips for Recruiting

• Write a clear and concise job description. This will keep out many unqualified and/or uninterested applicants, sparing you and them unnecessary hassle.
• Remember basic courtesy. You don’t owe every applicant a reply. But once you contact an applicant, you owe them timely updates on their status. Failure to do this will most certainly be noticed and communicated on the web.
• Remember that skills can often trump experience. It’s often easier to train a candidate with less experience to do things your way than it is to get an experienced candidate to think outside their old company’s box.
• Take your time. I ran across this piece of advice several times. Never rush the hiring process. Always interview more people than you think you should. Be willing to let a good candidate go if he or she is asking you to make a quick decision.
• Always be looking for your next employee. As a recruiter, we should always be networking and meeting new potential employees, even though we may not have a position open at the time.
• Get top-notch recruiting software. It will make your recruiting more efficient and effective and help give your company the professional look and feel that top candidates expect. (OK, that one was from me).

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

Recruiting Survival Tips in a Very Tough Economy is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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