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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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 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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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

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I’ll say up front that the subject matter of this post is a bit unreal. Great interviewing can’t be boiled down to a list of questions. It’s a combination of helping a candidate feel at ease, listening, observing, talking and, yes, asking the right questions. And what a recruiter or potential employer does (or asks) in any given interview depends, to a large extent, on what the candidate is like.

Strategies can also change in mid-interview – several times, in fact – because of a candidate’s verbal or non-verbal response. And much depends on what kind of interview is taking place – a get-to-know-you phone interview, a final interview, an interview for a full-time position, an interview for contract work, or something else.

In short, there is no simple instruction manual for great interviewing. I would say, in fact, that it’s a difficult skill to learn, and the only way to get really good at it is to do it a lot, observe other interviewers, and try to constantly improve. If someone can speak with an experienced mentor, all the better.

So are there really “two interview questions that you should ask”? No, not absolutely. But there are two that should get asked in most interviews. Here they are, followed by some explanation:

1) Can you give me an example of how you ……?

In most jobs we are required to solve problems and complete projects/tasks in an efficient and effective manner.  You should finish this question with things like; solved a problem for a customer, designed a presentation for a company meeting, conducted research that you also shared with a client, disciplined an employee, etc.   An interviewer will customize this question to uncover successful completion of and knowledge of the type of things they will be doing in their job at your company.

It’s easy for an applicant to give a hypothetical example of how they would do something but this is a far cry from a specific example of what they actually did.  This question separates people who get things done from people who talk about getting things done.

2) Can you give me another example ……?

There are two reasons to ask this question; first,  it’s fairly easy for an applicant to spin up one example of something they did and make it sound like an answer to your question.  If the example they give is vague, they could simply be nervous or they don’t really have specific experience doing what you need them to do.

The second reason to ask this question is that even if they give a good example in the first question, someone with great experience doing what you’re asking should have many examples.  If an applicant can’t come up with at least two good examples of where they successfully accomplished the project, task or job you are asking about, they may be lacking the experience you want or need.

Keep in mind that the applicant may need a little extra time to come up with a second example and let them know that by saying, “take as much time as you need to formulate your answer”.  We are not trying to get them to stumble with this question; we are looking for solid examples of success in the job.

I’ll say it again: there are many, many other great questions to ask during an interview, and there may be a few interview situations in which the above two questions may not be necessary.

Now I’ll ask you a question. If you had to pick two interview questions that recruiters and employers should ask, what would they be? I’ll follow up on the answers I receive in a later post.

As always, feel free to reach out to us to learn more about how to manage the candidate through this process with recruiting software.

The Two Best Interview Questions You Should Ask is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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I recently stopped thinking about recruiting software long enough to Google “pre-employment personality test.” The top result was “How to Pass a Pre-employment Personality Test” at eHow.com.

Which made me wonder if pre-employment personality tests actually do any good.

I’ve never been a big fan of such tests. Tests that measure actual skills that will be used on the job make sense, but “personality” is a vague term – which means it’s hard to test for – and it’s simply a fact that different personality types can thrive in the same job. At the risk of trading on stereotypes, I’ve met highly successful accountants with exuberant personalities and CEO’s of successful companies who were quiet and shy.

The tests themselves leave a lot to be desired. One had “I have known someone who shoplifted,” followed by “Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree.” How can anyone “strongly agree” with such a statement? You either have known a shoplifter or you haven’t. The question is either just plain confusing or, worse yet, is meant to be confusing, which would mean that it’s manipulative. Either way, what is an employer supposed to learn about a candidate from the answer to this question? The makers of such tests always talk about gleaning personality types from hundreds of such questions, but with many of them so odd, I’m skeptical about any conclusions drawn from them.

It also seems to me that any skilled recruiter or employer should be able to get a sense for a candidate’s personality in an interview (or maybe two interviews). Yes, it’s true – every employer has a story of someone who was great in the interview but who turned out to be a toxic colleague. But if such a person can fool an experienced interviewer, he or she shouldn’t have much trouble answering the questions on personality test in their favor. After all, anyone can go online, learn about how such tests are analyzed, and adjust their answers accordingly (see above).

I also wonder about using a candidate’s time by giving them such a test. Isn’t it inconsiderate (or even unethical) to take advantage of a candidate’s desire for a job by subjecting them to a half-hour test that may or may not tell you anything about their suitability for that job?

If you have stories or data that suggest I’m wrong about pre-employment personality tests, pass it along. Until then, I recommend that you stick to interviewing OR hire them as a Temp-to-Perm worker if you want to see a candidate’s personality.

For ongoing thoughts about Human Capital Management and other employment-related topics, subscribe to this blog.

Do Pre-employment Personality Tests Work? is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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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

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