Archive for Featured Post

Social Network Ownership – Tug of War?

August 18, 2010 / Justin Hillier / 13 comments

Had an interesting chat with a recruitment agency earlier this week regarding their consultants and LinkedIn. Firstly hats off to them for pushing the use of LinkedIn as hard as they are, it’s a recruiters gold mine if you engage and use all aspects of the site/network, we receive a lead on average once a week currently from our efforts.

What was an interesting topic of discussion was “Who owns the 1st level connections that each consultant builds as their efforts on LinkedIn, the Employer or Employee/Recruitment Consultant?

This particular recruiters feels that all of the work that is done to either build an online or offline professional network during business hours, representing their company to promote their services, and thus connecting to that individual/s is the property of the business. I can certainly understand where they are coming from however is it that straight forward?

What of proof of time of connection (where they at the current employer when they connected on LI), can any company really stipulate that they own every person that their employees come in to contact with, and is this just taking the rules to far with internal business information and knowledge. Considering a LinkedIn account is represented by an individual, under their name, what ownership can a company have? Quite often you connect with more then just professionals in your industry, how can we really define or argue the two?

Now I agree that a LinkedIn network is certainly an asset, and once an employee leaves that asset is lost, however that person still needs to be replaced, with, you would expect, a potential new asset to bring with them. Can you really prove or is it realistic to ask an employee to prove their network and when they connected with them?

What are your thoughts? Should companies have the ability to “own” the employees networks either on LinkedIn or Twitter and demand they are deleted or similar once their tenure has ended?

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Social Media Inception

August 9, 2010 / Justin Hillier / 10 comments


Over the weekend I finally went and saw Inception. Unless you have been living under a rock you know this movie has something to do with dreams, and stealing them. On the surface that is initially what it is about, however as the movie progresses the key plot is planting an idea in someone’s dream/subconscious so that when they wake they will think the idea is their own.

Sounds simple right, wrong. And without giving away any more of the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet, (Go see it now) I want to focus on that point, “planting an idea in someone’s dream/subconscious so that when they wake they will think the idea is their own”.

Something dawned on me when I heard this and thought back to my recent Social Sofa episode with Steve Ludlow. Steve mentioned that the benefit that his business receives out of Social Media is that he gets to communicate with his network and does not feel the necessity to sell to them at every opportunity. With a more engaging and sharing approach, Steve has been able to fill 25% of his positions via Social Media in the last 12 months, without the need to sell or broadcast/spam his jobs.

Engaging with your network, providing interesting and varied content, encouraging feedback, conversation and no selling. When someone within your network is seeking a new career opportunity, they reach out to you, without the thought of another company. Without realising it they have you in their subconscious as the “Go To” company and it was all their idea. Did I hear you say Social Media Inception?

If this is not your strategy perhaps it should be, or at least be forming a large part of your social media communication, engagement and content creation strategy.

Social Media Inception, not a bad thought/approach if you ask me, what are your thoughts?

Category: Featured Post, Social Recruiting / Tags: , , ,

Mobile and Recruitment – The Future Report

July 8, 2010 / Justin Hillier / No comments

The Future of Mobile Recruitment report is the result of a roundtable co-hosted by Jobsite and Allthetopbananas.com in London in May 2010 with some of the leading brands involved in mobile, including Google and Microsoft.

You can download the report below, here though are some key findings:

  • More people now access social networking sites via mobile than desktop
  • In countries like India & Africa, mobile internet access has already far outstripped fixed line access
  • In the UK, mobile internet will soon account for half, or more, of all internet access
  • Mobile internet is now mainstream and featuring on the news pages of National newspapers
  • Part of the delay with a business response is the lack of revenue for developers in the mobile space – this could change shortly
  • Cloud computing is fundamental to the development of mobile and will help make it more powerful than desktop
  • There was a 390% increase in traffic to Jobsite.co.uk via mobile between January 2009 & April 2010

    • Download the report here mobilerecruitingwhitepaper

    AllTheTopBananas are a partner of SR360 and provide the Australian and New Zealand market place with an iPhone Job app with other platforms coming very soon.

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    Recruiting in 2021

    June 29, 2010 / Justin Hillier / One comment

    About eleven years ago Job Boards burst on to the scene to end the demise of print advertising. Whilst that has not entirely occurred, it certainly has made a massive dent in to the once prominent employment sections of the Saturday paper. But what of eleven years from now? Social Media, or Social Recruiting as we like to call it, is starting to make in-roads in to companies strategies of building talent communities to engage more directly with the candidates, but what will 2021 look like?

    Here are some perhaps weird, out there, crazy ideas.

    Augmented Reality
    This one I think has some real merit. Augmented Reality is going to be quite big I believe for the Hospitality, Tourism and Retail markets, but what if you could point your smart phone at a store, company Head Quarters, or just down the street to see what jobs are available. This brings the technology of Location mapping, Augmented Reality and Mobile all in one. Give the candidate the ability to apply, send of their online resume and all of a sudden candidates can apply for jobs just while walking down the street. THIS I REALLY WANT TO SEE.

    Voice Recognition/Voice Sentiment
    Ok, I said some whacky ideas, but what if whenever you said you hated your job or were talking about a really bad day at work, you received some type of message with the latest jobs in your area/industry etc. Ok there are some obvious privacy issues here, but if the candidate had control over these privacy points there may just be another angle to target candidates who are not happy in their jobs. A bit out there but you never know.

    Gaming
    The gaming industry is HUGE. There are already companies out there using gaming to target potential employees, but for the moment it seems to be gaming based jobs or Paul Jacobs using Farmville for Deloitte in New Zealand.

    What if the next time a company is building the next Sim City game (is that still around) or something where you have to work your way though a city that a company has a billboard on the side of the road or an advertisement comes up on the screen. You could target specific countries or even have a game within the game in a strategic manner to find a specific candidate with the skill set you are after.

    Holographic Interviews
    I love video interviews and they are certainly going to be the way of the future for first stage introductions. But what about holographic displays. No, I’m not talking about Princess Leia in Star Wars, but full scale holographic displays that shows every characteristic of the person at the “other end”. The technology is certainly out there, I have seen one company doing great things already (name escapes me) and I’d imagine that in eleven years time that cost, and access will come down considerably.

    Youtwitface
    This was a great joke by Conan O’Brian that in 3022 (something like that), that Youtube, Twitter and Facebook will merge to become YouTwitFace. Although it was a joke, is it really that hard to imagine that not all 3 will survive as we know them today or even be around at all. Facebook may overtake Google with most users and traffic, and it’s certainly heading that way at this stage, so why not in eleven years time would you not simply just use Facebook, or whatever it will be to recruit. If Facebook ever head down the business path with communities I think we can say game over for the rest.

    These are just a few ideas of what recruitment might look like in 2021. Whacky, Zany, think outside of the box, what would, or could, totally change the way companies recruit today, the technology is likely out there, let your mind be free. So, what is your idea?

    Category: Featured Post, Social Recruiting / Tags:

    Some reasons why you should be considering Social Recruiting

    June 2, 2010 / Justin Hillier / No comments

    This won’t be the world’s longest list – I could sit here for the next 3 hours and list every reason I can think of, but I won’t. I just want to make some clear observations and highlight my thinking around a Social Recruiting strategy, which combines with your current sourcing techniques to add value to your business.

    So here we go.

    1. Seek has just put their prices up again.
    I’m leading with this as it is always a sore point with many. It isn’t totally surprising (it is a yearly occurrence), but it does make other alternatives more attractive. I am a big Seek fan (I worked there for many years, so I have a slight bias) but the more the price goes up, the more other options need to be explored.

    2. Market your employer brand with minimal cost
    There are 1 million people on LinkedIn in Australia, approx. 2.5 million on Twitter and over 7 million people on Facebook. If you are not promoting your company via these channels what are you waiting for?

    3. Engage with candidates more effectively
    You want to talk to candidates out there that are interested in working for you. You don’t know where to find them. Look at the numbers above in point 2, that should be a good starting point.

    4. Expand your knowledge of the HR/recruiting market
    There is an enourmous number of people out there (both colleagues and candidates) that love sharing their ideas (I am one of them or you wouldn’t be reading this) regarding best practice, new concepts or whacky ideas for HR & recruitment. Tap in to this huge pool of knowledge and start reading. You might find something you like and can implement to get started in the area. Learn from other people’s mistakes.

    5. Strategic, Proactive, Cost Effective, Multi-dimensional and NOW
    Social media has downsides, just like everything else. The benefits far outweigh the risks, if it’s approached as a strategy and not just a cheap trick. The five words I used as the point title tell you why. If you don’t see the potential in something that’s strategic, proactive, cost effective, multi-dimensional and current, maybe it’s time we talked.

    6. Be seen as innovative
    There are only a few companies doing anything serious in the social recruiting space in Australia. There are many different ways to utilise social media to stand out from the crowd. One of the finest examples is Deloitte in New Zealand run by Paul Jacobs

    7. Social media is not a fad!
    I may have to say this 500,000 times. Look at the statistics, the media saturation of stories, the proliferation of blogs and ideas out there in this space – this is not something which will come and go, but something which is radically redefining the way we communicate and share information. Facebook is trying to out think Google everyday now (badly at times yes) but the trend of people using these tools to stay connected is undeniable.

    8. Are your current methods fool proof?
    The ultimate question. Is your current sourcing strategy 100% effective? Social media may not be the silver bullet, but it can certainly go a long way to providing a different perspective and a wide range of enhancements and improvements to your current approach. It is not meant to replace everything you currently do, but should be seen as an integral component and channel to a candidate market place that has moved on from newspapers, radio and to some degree job boards.

    Category: Featured Post, Social Recruiting / Tags: , ,

    Twitter – Some tips to build your network

    May 27, 2010 / Justin Hillier / 2 comments

    Gaining valued Twitter followers and building your Twitter network is hard work and there is no exact science. I have listed below what I think are some straight forward things you can do to build a stronger relevant network on Twitter.

  • Create your account so it can be found. Keywords in Bio are crucial.
  • Register with the Twitter Directories
  • Utilise hastags to be seen be like minded people
  • Follow relevant people and engage with them
  • Follow event # and get involved in the discussion
  • Retweet Retweet Retweet
  • Use tools available to search for your target demographic
  • Follow those who follow you, but keep them relevant
  • Follow Lists and create your own
  • Create a poll for your network, ask for it to be RT
  • Thank people who RT your tweets
  • Give/share more then take
  • Be personal, not corporate, but not to personal, there is a fine line.
  • Tweet as often as you can
  • Tweet in peak times
  • Add your Twitter username to your email signature, business cards and any other marketing material
  • Attend Tweetups in your area, search on Twtvite and share stories, take your online chats offline.

    What other tips or advice have you got?

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    Video and Recruitment – How and Why

    January 11, 2010 / Justin Hillier / 10 comments

    After today’s show with Bill Boorman regarding video usage in recruitment, it dawned one me that the general view of video use is fairly narrow in terms of alternative areas of use outside of Employer Branding and Video Resumes (I hate this term but for ease of explanation for now).

    Many people scoff at the thought of video as an effective tool for recruitment r employee communication, however in the age of Web 2.0 tools and companies competing for Talent, video is one of the key tools in connecting and engaging with a candidate more then most. I have blogged about this before on ERE

    So here is a list of what aspects of recruitment and employee interactions that companies can use video with.

    Attraction
    Typical Employer Branding video’s, Day in the Life style content, we all know this so I don’t think there is that much to say. Don’t go out and produce an Oscar winning video, make it real, make it in line with your company values and culture and make it now.

    Onboarding
    Typical starting dates are 2+ weeks after the letter of offer has gone out, so why not take this opportunity to use video to introduce future team members. A quick 2 minute video of the new employees team saying Hi, can’t wait to meet you, or the line manager or better yet MD/CEO welcoming the candidate can go a long way to further exciting the new employee.

    Most first weeks in a new job these days concentrates on training of new systems and processes. Why not use some of the many tools out there to record this training on screen with added voice. These tools are great to not only use internally but can give the new incoming employee a great head start on the systems they will be using and some of the process that is unique to your business.

    Training
    Sitting in a room learning something new in a class format is boring (trust me I know, I’ve taught English in a foreign country and had many in-company training sessions) Why not spice things up and have a good portion of all the different types of internal training that occurs in your business on video. Not only does this change the dynamic of the learning process but it also means that employees have access to this content at any time and potentially anywhere (stored on your intranet perhaps).

    Employee Engagement and Communication
    How many times have you sat there struggling to write that perfect worded email to your team or a company wide message only to get fed up and delete it all and start again. Writing is never easy and takes time to make sure that things like grammer, speling nad your message is right. How many times have you forgotten to spell check your email? ( I’m leaving those mistakes there to prove a point). Better yet, you can turn to your colleague and explain what you want to say perfectly, but on paper (so to speak) the words just aren’t professional enough.

    DO A VIDEO. Make it personal and exciting. If it’s an exciting piece of information to tell, show emotion. How do you expect people to get excited every time just from yet another email. Similarly, what I would love to see companies do is Senior management send out a video to their teams reviewing the week, month or quarter. They are often more heard about then seen, so put them front personal, approachable feel back to the people that are often more maligned then loved.

    Exiting
    Staff leave, its only natural. So how could video be helpful if they are exiting your business. Well for whatever reason they may depart, a personalised video message from their direct manager or better yet CEO/MD thanking them for their service to the company is a great touch. Not only does that show that the company has valued your input, but how many CEO/MD’s, or even direct managers do enough to thank exiting staff for their time and service. Not everyone leaves on a bad note.

    Interviews
    Utilising video is a great way to enhance or speed up the hiring process. Maybe the candidate is remotely based, maybe your schedules are not lining up, maybe you want to save time and travel costs. Whatever the reason using video can add a different dimension to the early stages of the hiring process. You certainly don’t need to do this of course for every job, but when appropriate why not try it, what do you have to lose.

    Screening
    A past post of mine on ERE explains this one.

    Candidate Video Profiles
    Or Video Resumes as some people like to call them. They are going to happen, maybe not tomorrow but certainly in the very near future. The one thing that is going to make them worth while for everyone is the expectation of what Employers wish them to be. There are many BAD candidate video profiles out there. But can we blame the candidate? How are they to know what is a good video if we do not tell them what is expected.

    I have also blogged about this before and this past post should also quell some of those DISCRIMINATION bandits out there screaming that it opens up to many problems.

    Video is another tool in your armoury that can add tremendous value to a wide range of applications to the whole HR environment. Don’t be shy and give it a go, there is a reason that Youtube is so popular…….

    Also check out Michael Specht’s views on video.

    Category: Featured Post / Tags: , , , , ,

    Job Ads – Are you a sheep or unique?

    November 11, 2009 / Justin Hillier / 12 comments

    sheepFirstly I have to apologise. I would like to apologise to all of my previous clients over the past 8 years that I have given advice to, on how to write an online job ad. I would also like to apologise on behalf of all of the job boards that are spewing out the same information day in day out on how to write the perfect job ad to attract candidates. Over those 8 years I towed the company line and gave the advice which for all intensive purposes is sound. The Internet allowed us to write as much as we want and we put a framework around it.

    Whilst I never led any of my clients astray, or told them something that wasn’t beneficial, that framework is now broken. Today’s internet job ads are clones of each other and if they are not, then there is nothing in the ad itself that tells you anything about what the job actually is (yes I can see you nodding your heads candidates)

    Today, this is how it roughly goes.

    1. Job Title – Write something that is the ACTUAL job title or something that is along the lines of the job title but catchy.
    2. Short Description – Think 140-160 characters depending on the job board, those who use Twitter should be getting the best out of this now. While I’m on it why don’t job boards tweet all short descriptions into relevant silo’s. Who is going to be first to jump on that, or has someone already, if so, speak up, we want to hear the results.
    3. Job Ad……………………

    This is where my frustration begins. Ok, so I was trained as a recruiter a couple of moons ago, that a good job ad consisted of 4-5 paragraphs. 1. Introduction of the company. 2. Explanation of the job title and who you will report to, team structure etc. 3. Overview of job role and purpose. 4. Qualifications and maybe just maybe salary. 5. Please Please Please Apply now.

    The problem is, it is so structured, and so drummed into the minds of advertisers that seek professional help from the job boards, that all creativity has gone out the window. Where has the every day language and realism gone, it seems now that job ads are just rehashed over and over again, and not just from recruiters, who are constantly doing it, but corporate’s as well.

    And it’s not just me, Thomas Shaw from Recruitment Directory has noticed as well and highlighted these 2 great ads on http://shar.es/aaPMp. Great ingenuity.

    So who is to blame? Do we blame the job boards, who over the last 10 years have not redefined and re-developed more functionality for job postings other then some fancy imagery (god knows video would add a wonderful dimension to each job, a 1 1/2 min advertisement from HR or the hiring manager showing you not only is this job real but we have a personality, flair and culture);

    Or do we blame ourselves, for sticking to this format so rigidly, that we have now no other way of writing an ad. Print was restrictive due to cost and space. The Internet has far more capabilities to advertise, why has it not developed?

    I hear every day that recruiters and corporates are swamped with applications. Most of the time the candidate doesn’t even know what it is that they are applying for, the ad is written that vaguely. We can’t blame them, every job ad sounds and looks the same, why not apply to them all?

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