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The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition By: Shelly Gorman Director, Career Management MBA@UNC All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 Website: www.execdev.unc.edu |Phone: 1.800.862.3932 |Email: [email protected] The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition Introduction We are living through an exciting era in technology development—the emergence of interactive, social media and virtual technologies whose business applications are not yet fully realized. While marketing professionals have been quick to embrace the potential of these technologies for product placement, branding and sales, HR and talent management professionals have approached them with a little more caution as they explore how interactive, social media and virtual world technologies can be effectively applied to attract talent to their organizations. Promise This white paper: Identifies some of the major players in social media and describes their main features; Examines the pros and cons of using social media, simulations and virtual world technologies to expand talent pools and to identify good job candidates; Explores how leading organizations are using these technologies in their HR practices, and; Provides HR and talent management professionals with information they can use to help them incorporate social media and virtual technologies into their organizations’ hiring practices. Social Media This section highlights some of the major players in the social media market today, describes how recruiters are using social media technology to expand their talent pipelines, and how job seekers are using them to aid in their job searches. All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 2 | P a g e The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition Some of the Major Players in Social Media More than 120 million users and growing. Developed as a business networking application with no mixing of business and personal. Used by recruiters to identify passive candidates and to see who candidates know, in what industries, and at what levels. Helps talent acquisition professionals publicize their employment brand and advertise job openings. Allows users to view and share videos online. Used by job seekers to post video resumes. Used by employers to create and post videos about their industries, organizations, talent brands and employment opportunities. More than 200 million users “tweet” their thoughts in 140 characters or less. Allows businesses to communicate to their stakeholders in real time—whether that communication is about the latest product launch or a job opening. Allows users to find information streams they find interesting (like a company) and follow them. Allows HR professionals to market their employment brand, advertise job openings and push followers to their career websites. All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 3 | P a g e The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition A Facebook application launched a year ago. Allows users to separate their personal and professional lives while tapping into Facebook’s 500-million user base. Allows employers to post jobs on their Facebook pages; shows users jobs they may like based on their professional profiles. Allows users to endorse people. Includes job postings on BranchOut by employers plus job postings from other boards. Shows users connections (individuals) they have to jobs; allows users to tap into people they know to start the networking process. Allows talent management professionals to find passive candidates, to review a person’s job history, to advertise job openings, to promote their employment brands and to encourage visits to their career websites. A Monster.com product recently launched as a Facebook application. Merges Facebook and LinkedIn connections and harnesses the power of Monster.com. Very similar to BranchOut in features, such as stepping users through the process of completing online profiles, awarding badges for completed steps and searching for jobs. Includes job postings from Monster.com. All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 4 | P a g e The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition Currently available to individuals only, but Google Plus Product Specialist Manager Chris Vennard says the application will offer business and school pages within the first half of 2012. Has interface that is similar to Facebook, but its power to eventually harness everything “Google” makes it a must- track for recruiters. Can categorize social connections through “circles”. For example, users can have circles that include only friends, only colleagues or only family members, but the application allows users to assign individuals to more than one circle. Allows users to develop profile information that is customized and visible only to specific circles. Streams information based on a user’s pre-selected interests. This can be handy for recruiters trying to increase their employment brand or to advertise jobs. Allows videoconferencing for up to ten people at a time in “hangouts”. Users can specify friends or select circles to participate in a hangout, and users can come and go throughout the videoconference. User can even watch YouTube videos together in real time. Talent acquisition professionals can use this to stream YouTube videos promoting their organizations, interview candidates, and even hold small career fairs. All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 5 | P a g e The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition How Social Media Is Being Used Social media appears to be successful in not only expanding talent pools, but in hiring candidates as well. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a 2011 Jobvite survey said they had successfully hired a candidate through a social network in 2011. Nearly all survey respondents (95 percent) said they had hired someone through LinkedIn; 24 percent of respondents had hired someone through Facebook and 16 percent of respondents had hired someone through Twitter. The quality of hires is always a concern, and while recruiters continue to rank employee referrals as the best source of quality of hires (8.6 on a scale of 10), social networks fair well with a rank of seven on a scale of 10. Corporate career sites, third- party recruiting firms, campus recruiting, job boards and search engines all ranked below social networks in the quality of hires (Jobvite, 2011). It is important to note that employee referrals and social networks are not mutually exclusive; some social networks like BeKnown and BranchOut include features that encourage employees to recommend colleagues and friends. The Pros of Social Media in the Talent Acquisition Process Social media offers recruiters several advantages. First, these applications expand talent pools beyond geographic boundaries, allowing employers to reach a global audience. Second, they allow candidates to find talent acquisition professionals. Most people find jobs through personal or professional networks—moving those networks online allows more people to be aware of an organization’s employment brand and job openings. It also allows employees to notify their personal and professional networks of job openings in their organizations. Third, as organizations continue to do more with less, these technologies are extremely cost effective. It costs little to establish a social media presence, although managing those networks can be a challenge. Perhaps the most compelling reason to use social media in HR and the talent acquisition process, though, is because it is inevitable. Most large organizations already have a prominent social media presence and leverage it to improve their employment brand and to find active and passive job candidates. All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 6 | P a g e The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition The Cons of Social Media in the Talent Acquisition Process One of the challenges HR professionals face when entering the social media Social Media in Recruiting on the Rise market is that it is growing at The 2011 Jobvite survey confirms that social seemingly exponential rates with new media recruiting is on the rise: players regularly entering the arena. This makes it difficult to know where • EIGHTY-NINE PERCENT of respondents said one should concentrate efforts when it they used social media to recruit talent in comes to talent acquisition. 2011. With so many choices available, • SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING TOPPED THE LIST as the choosing one or more to use is a viable most popular area in which respondents concern for job seekers and recruiters. planned to increase investment. For job seekers, maintaining multiple social media accounts could easily • FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of respondents said they become a full-time job. The same is planned to increase their social recruiting true for recruiting professionals, but budgets. Only 16 percent said they planned added to that concern is whether they to spend more on job boards and a third of will be using the “right” application for respondents said they planned to spend their talent acquisition needs as these less on job boards, third-party recruiters platforms develop. Unfortunately, it will take time to see what application and search firms. emerges as an overall or industry- Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey, 2011. specific leader. Which Application Is the Right One? In a side-by-side comparison of BeKnown and Branchout,