Recruiters – Have You Figured Out Snapchat? You better…

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I’ll be the first to say, I don’t currently use Snapchat.  My sons do. In fact, they use it constantly. So, do their friends. Teens and College students are using Snapchat to communicate with each other in a major way, and you are starting to see major stars and athletes join as well. Unless you have kids from the ages of 12-22, you probably have no idea what Snapchat even is.

Why should you care? Check out this chart:

Screen Shot 2016-02-03 at 8.17.52 AM

 

Two years ago the use of Snapchat didn’t even register. In the spring of 2015, it was 13%. What do you think it’s right now? My guess is over 25%, maybe even more!

This isn’t necessarily about recruiting on Snapchat. Although, I know some folks will do this and find a way to be successful in some certain areas. Most of won’t.

Understanding and using Snapchat is about knowing how the talent you want to recruit likes to communicate. It’s about building your brand on a communication channel of your target audience.  You can dismiss it, but your competition probably won’t.

Another interesting thing about the chart is the dramatic shift from teens out of Facebook.  We’ve seen this in the industry for a while. As Mom and Grandma jumped on Facebook, the kids jumped off in a major way!  I suspect, and we’ll eventually see the data to support this, is that when they stop being kids, those kids will come back! Either way, Facebook is still an important tool to understand as well, because we recruit more than young adults!

Check out this tutorial on Snapchat to see what it’s all about:

Also, check out this great piece by SocialTalent on How to Use Snapchat to Recruit.

Why Most HR Strategies Fail

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We wear a thousand hats in HR.  Developing a good, solid HR strategy is one the hardest things you’ll ever have to do.  Most of the time, when I see an HR strategy fail it has to do with the leadership just not understanding what they should be focused on.  Then, once the focus is determined, not going deep enough to really understand it fully.

It reminds me of an old writing analogy I was told by one of my professors in college. Imagine yourself in a room that is completely black. You have a flashlight and you shine it on the wall. Within that circle of light, you shine on the wall, you can see some stuff.  It’s not clear, as you stand in the middle of the room, the light (your attention) is dispersed.

As you move closer to the wall, the beam of light becomes narrower. You begin to see more detail. Your focus became clear to what you are seeing.

The goal of writing is to make it clear to others what you are seeing.  Standing far away, you could give them some sense of what you’re seeing. As you stand closer, you can give them great detail and specifics to what you are seeing.

Great HR Strategy is similar.

You can make a strategy that is focused on everything, but rarely does that go anywhere. Most will fail. Or, you can get very specific with your strategy, ensure everyone sees what you see, and make it happen.

That is the challenge for HR leaders, moving closer to the wall, providing that clarity.

 

T3 – Beamery @BeameryHQ

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This week on T3 I’m reviewing the recruitment marketing platform Beamery. Beamery is fairly new to the market being launched in 2014, and jumping into the hottest sector in HR and Talent technology: CRM, recruitment marketing, recruitment automation. They are carving out space by billing themselves as candidate engagement software, knowing almost every company in the world is concerned with candidate experience.

Beamery records and helps you track every single candidate that engages with you and your career site, whether they apply or not. That is important because a solid 70% of those people coming to your site will never apply, but if continue to engage them, you’ll get many to eventually apply.  Beamery’s strength is creating an inbound marketing machine for your recruiting department.

You can develop unlimited talent pools by whatever criteria you select, and engage each pool of candidates differently based on how you decide. The talent pool management, built on machine learning, is definitely a powerful piece of what Beamery delivers.  Beamery integrates with your ATS and is already partnered with Greenhouse.io, one of the hottest new ATS products on the market.

5 Things I really like about Beamery:

1. Beamery has integrated Candidate Experience surveys into their platform, that you can automate to be sent at a certain point within your process, manually push, change by position, etc. All the analytics are then put together on the backend within Beamery analytics engine. This is something not all recruitment marketing plays have right now.

2. Beamery uses predictive analytics for automated followups based on algorithms they have developed.  This truly helps recruiters stay onto of what’s important, and helps them not to forget. It’s a classic recruiting weakness because so many of us end up putting out fires, and we forget about a possible great candidate from a few days ago. Beamery automatically reminds you to follow up.

3. Their email sync with outlook and google is very powerful. One problem every recruiting shop has is getting information from email strings to where it needs to be within a system of record. Beamery uses machine learning to pull any email communication between recruiters and candidates in automatically, without the recruiter having to do anything.

4. Like many of the Recruitment CRM software, Beamery also does unlimited landing pages for jobs, events, etc. Allows to push simple calls to action to build talent pools and easily moves these pools back into your ATS. They also allow one-click action by candidates to engage with you by sharing any kind of social profile – Facebook, LinkedIn, Github, Google profile, etc.

5. Beamery is the first platform I’ve seen that truly has separated the function of Sourcer and Recruiter – working to define that Sourcers use Beamery, Recruiters use the ATS, and they’ve built a workflow to help organizations really build out this practice. For large organizations that have both functions, this will really help define the roles for your team.

I really liked Beamery’s technology and ease of use. Clearly, recruitment CRM software is for more sophisticated recruitment shops, who work in competitive marketplaces. That doesn’t mean just technology jobs. Finding Truck Drivers, Machinist and Retail Managers are super competitive! But you have to want to embrace the technology to help you reach your goals.

Beamery has a great introductory price point for 1-5 seats, and will work with you on enterprise pricing. I was shocked at how low of a cost a SMB shop could get into this software! Check them out, Beamery is well worth a demo.

T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market.  None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion.  There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on T3 – send me a note.

Would You Fire Your Top Performer for Punching Another Employee?

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The world of the NBA brings us the real live HR Game Show – What Would You Do?

I know most of you could care less about professional basketball, and I promise, this post isn’t about basketball. In case you didn’t hear last week, Los Angles Clippers Allstar, Blake Griffin, punched an equipment manager of the team, Matias Testi, after a game, while out at dinner.  In the face, more than once, and he broke his hand doing it. So, now he can’t play for the next six weeks.

Most people just chalk this up to stupid, overpaid, professional athlete does wrong. Not even page 1 news. Almost happens on a weekly basis.

For those HR Pros in the audience, you know, the Clippers have a major problem now!  One employee just did bodily harm to another employee. Not only that, your BEST employee just did bodily harm to an employee that can be replaced by a million people in a second.  Your best employee can’t be replaced, and if your competition gets him, it hurts your company. That’s pretty close to the truth.

So, tell me Mr. and Mrs. HR Pro – What Would You Do?

Let’s break down some options:

1. Fire both parties. It takes to get your butt beat. Both were engaged in a verbal spat that one party took further.

2. Fire Blake. He’s twice the size of the guy he hit, and he’s at a much higher level within the company, thus his responsibility is much higher on how he acts.

3. Don’t fire either. Which is probably what’s going to happen – but would never happen in the ‘real’ world. The two parties involved are friends. Something happened that shouldn’t. The lower employee has the job of his life, constantly surrounded by millionaire athletes, he doesn’t want anyone fired. He probably wants to apologize that his head wasn’t softer so he didn’t break Blake’s hand.

4. Fire Matias. He’s replaceable. You could easily cut a severance agreement for a small price and all this goes away. Being in the position he was, he should have known not to push Blake’s buttons and the value Blake has to the franchise.

5. Suspensions all around. Suspend Blake and Matias for their involvement in the industry. The problem with this is the Clips are trying to make the playoffs, probably will, and they’ll need Blake, which is about the same time he would be coming off this injury. Are you really going to suspend your best employee for the playoffs? Heck no. I don’t care about Matias, you can suspend him, no one will notice.

A real HR pro in this situation only has one option. Fire Blake.  He’s demonstrated that he’s willing to physically harm an employee of the company, put the organization in harm’s way by missing games, and even self-implode by not controlling himself in a scenario a normal person would.

This is where reality kicks real life HR Pros in the teeth.

The real call here is to get rid of Matias.  This decision on all fronts leaves the most positive outcomes for all involved.  The Clips get rid of a low-level employee for very little money. If he’s truly a friend of Blakes, he won’t cause problems, he knows where the real money is in this relationship. You can’t leave the possibility, even the remotest, of this, happening again. With Matias on the team, this could always happen again.

Real HR Pros gasp at this scenario because we all know where this would lead in real life. The courtroom. That’s where you miss one really smart play here, that you also can use, the severance agreement. Get them to sign the paper, hand them a check, move forward. The Clips would be smart to move forward, not without their best player, but without an equipment manager, they could easily replace.

Do I do anything with Blake? Yeah, something has to happen. I probably give him the biggest fine I can under the collect bargaining agreement, and maybe even go higher, just to prove a point, knowing it will get knocked down.

Agree or disagree? Hit me in the comments!

Hey, Kid! Know Your Place.

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Something really funny happened this past week in the NBA. Kobe Bryant who was sitting out of a game against Portland, in street clothes, came out to the bench after the game had already started. All the seats were taken on the bench. So, what did Kobe do?

He made a rookie give up his seat and sit on the court. A rookie who was actually dressed to play in the game – take a look:

This is brilliant!

I want to work in an organization where when a legend walks into a meeting room, some kid gives up his seat when there isn’t one available!

I know. I know. We’re all supposed to be Servant Leaders. Kobe should have sat on the court himself and let the kid keep his seat on the bench. Screw that. Kobe is one of the greatest players to ever play the game. If he wants a seat, someone better get up and give him a seat.

For real, though, there’s something to be said about knowing your place in an organization and respecting those who came before you. Respect is earned. Kobe clearly has earned that in his final retirement year.

I can’t stand seeing formal power used in organizations. “Oh, that’s the President, he demands to have the first parking spot.”  There is a little bit of this in the clip. But, if the kid truly didn’t want to give up his seat, he probably wouldn’t have.  He even mentioned as much on Twitter, later, saying Kobe has earned his respect to give up his seat.

I hear too often from people, especially HR and leadership thought leaders, who take the opposite stance. I think we’ve gone a bit too far on this one. As I am told I need to value these young bucks coming into the organization for what they bring, they, also, need to value the years of value I’ve already brought and continue to bring.

Yeah, I said it. These damn kids need to know their place in the organization! Now get off my lawn!

Sometimes, You Quit a Job for Love

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Every once in a while you an employee who decides to move out of state, or another city, or a country, to be with the love of their life. There’s very little you can do as an HR pro or leader to keep this person. You can’t beat love. This is a story about that, but way more.

When I was in middle school my Dad did something for me that I will never be able to truly thank him for. His company, Spartan Stores, started sponsoring the Michigan Special Olympics. My Dad was asked if he would volunteer to help cook food for all the participants. He brought me along, even though I really didn’t want to go.

It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I got to see true joy. True empathy. I got to see something that changed my life. I continued to volunteer all the way through college, then got involved heavily in coaching youth athletics, and I haven’t been back. But, I will. I only say this because I have such a special place in my heart for people living with Downs and other genetic abnormalities. They have so much to show us and offer us.

To feel love this strongly over just one thing in your life, you would be lucky. To feel this love over more than one thing in life is a godsend. Take a view, it’s only 2 minutes:

New Mexico is definitely losing, but Denver is definitely gaining!

I think it’s important to point out, there are two kinds of love here. Job love, which is very strong here. Real love, which is even stronger! When you’re employees leave you for the love of another, it can be heart wrenching on them. Do them a favor, and don’t make it harder.

Just be happy for them. Support them in every way you can. You’ll find another employee. They may never find another love of their life.

Hands-Free HR – HR Self Service for the Next Generation!

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Remember the first time you got to use Hands-Free with your smartphone? For those of us who live on our phone, it was life changing! Wait, you mean I can drive, I can cook, I can workout and still get this call done? Yes, I want that. No, wait, I need that!

Now, imagine you could do that with your employees. No, not talk to them more. But be able to give them all they need, without being able to talk to them, or at least, eliminate the day-to-day mundane HR needs that all of our employees have.

HR Self Service has been around now for two decades. The difference today is Hands-Free HR at the most dynamic companies is being delivered in a way that does what we all hoped for when it was first launched. The problem with traditional HR self-service models is that HR still does most of the heavy lifting. Hands-Free HR puts the knowledge and the skill in the hands of the employees and allows HR to focus on strategies that make your business successful.

FREE Webinar Alert!

Marjorie Borsiquot (Assistant Vice President of Business Process Integration for Georgetown University) and I will discuss how the best organizations today are delivering a hands-free HR experience to their employees. The tools and processes they use to make this successful, and feedback from those on the front line making it work today.

Click here to register for this SHRM Webinar, sponsored by the great folks at PeopleDoc!

I’m really excited to dig into the details of Georgetown University’s transformation of their HR service delivery. For those of you that work in complex organizations like public education, healthcare, and multi-unit delivery, this will be very insightful!

Look forward to you all joining me on Wednesday, February 10th at Noon EST!

T3 – SwitchApp @GetSwitch

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This week on T3 I review the new “Tinder” for job search app called SwitchApp.  SwitchApp is a completely mobile job search app for candidates and companies to help match them together.  It’s basically a marketplace for passive job seekers, where they can ‘swipe’ right if they are interested in a job, and a notification will go to the company of the interest.

Swipe left, and the company doesn’t get notified. For you Tinder users, you’ll get this. Obviously, to make all of this happen a job seeker first must download SwitchApp to their Apple or Android device and set up a profile. They can create a profile easily by linking their LinkedIn or Facebook profile, or filling it out manually. The profile is automatically set to anonymous, and any company on your profile will not be able to view your profile.

Swipe’s job matching algorithm then goes to work showing the jobs that the job seeker is eligible to see based on Switch’s matching criteria. If a job seeker is matched to the job, the organization can ‘like’ it to show their interest.  Then it’s up to the job seeker to decide if they’re interested. Right now, 47% of candidates matched by Switch and shown to companies are ‘liked’ by the company.

SwitchApp allows companies to post position with a structured data job posting. Basically, a company will input all of the skills they need for the position, title, location, salary range, etc. The matching technology does the rest. SwitchApp does not allow companies to ‘search’ the database of job seekers and contact anyone they want, there must be a match to make the magic happen!

Current users of the app actually love the fact that there is no searching taking place. Just post the job and see if matches come back. It eliminates much of the traditional noise you get from postings and having so many people apply that aren’t close to what you’re looking for. With SwitchApp you only get pinged when a candidate matches the criteria you put into your posting.

SwitchApp is currently free for employers to try out and use.  Primarily, it’s only going to work in New York and San Francisco (the Bay Area), because that’s where it’s being tested and launched first.  It’s not only for tech hires, the app also has finance, advertising and other business-related professions they are targeting.

It’s free. Give it a try if you’re out in those areas and looking for talent, many companies have already made hires. Eventually, Switch is going to be charging employers for usage, so it’s best to try it out now before that kicks in sometime this year.

T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market.  None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion.  There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on T3 – send me a note.

Job Seekers You’re Only Judged on These Two Criteria

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If you’re out looking for a job it usually feels like you’re being judged on every little thing you do, have done or potentially will do in the future. Interestingly enough, a Harvard professor discovered you’re actually only judged on two things:

“People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating?

Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions.

In her new book, “Presence,” Cuddy says people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you:

 – Can I trust this person?

 – Can I respect this person?

Psychologists refer to these dimensions as warmth and competence respectively, and ideally you want to be perceived as having both.

Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in a professional context, believe that competence is the more important factor. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to handle your business.”

Trust and Respect.

I’ll add this is probably the two things you’re being judged immediately following the judging that gets done on your overall appearance, which is almost instantaneous! Let’s face it, we like to hire pretty people.

Once you open your mouth, you’re being judged on how well can I trust what this person is telling me, and can I respect their background, work ethic, where they came from, etc.  Most of this is based on the person doing the judging, not you.  I know, that sucks.

How do you help yourself?

1. Try and mirror the energy of the person who is interviewing you. If you come in all calm and cool, and the person who is interviewing is really upbeat and high energy, they’ll immediately question you as a fit.

2. Do research on who you’ll be interviewing with and try and get some sense of their background and story. Try and make some connections as fast as possible in the interview. This will help build trust and respect with this person. In today’s world, it’s not that hard to find out stuff on an individual. If HR sets up your interview, just politely ask who you will be interviewing with (the name).

3. Be interesting. Have a good story to tell, one that most people will find funny or interesting. Not too long. A good icebreaker to set off the interview on a great tone.

I tell people all the time. An interview isn’t a test, it’s just a conversation with some people you don’t know. We have these all the time. Sometimes you end up liking the people, sometimes you don’t. If you don’t like the people you’re interviewing with, there’s a good chance you won’t like the job!

It’s Tim Sackett Day! Celebrating Michael Kelemen aka the Recruiting Animal @Animal

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January 23, 2012 my friends made that day forever be known as Tim Sackett Day!  By January 23, 2013, those same friends thought I couldn’t take another day of celebration and honor, and decided to honor another individual but still call it Tim Sackett Day! Last year on Tim Sackett Day we honored the great Victorio Milian! So, welcome to the 5th Annual Tim Sackett Day celebration!

This year we are celebrating our first Canadian on Tim Sackett Day, the Recruiting Animal, Michael Kelemen.

I have to say when the Tim Sackett Day committee first brought up Animal’s name, I wasn’t very happy.  I think Animal is basically an asshole.  That’s when the committee reminded me that I’m basically an asshole, and it’s why I was honored to begin with.  They had a very good point.

For those who don’t know Animal, he’s original to say the least.  He took recruiting and a morning zoo radio show schtick and pushed the recruiting conversation into areas no one else would ever take it.  Not me. Not Punk Rock, Laurie Ruettimann. Not anyone in our space. He says what we all think, but are afraid to say.

So, why do I think he’s an asshole?

Animal invited me on his radio show and warned me, he doesn’t pull any punches.  He was going to come at me and challenge me about how I thought about recruiting, and wanted me to back up how I thought with very specific examples.  It ended up being Animal yelling at me for thirty minutes. Here’s the show – take a listen for yourself.

In hindsight, I wasn’t ready for the Animal show.  Animal wants controversy and conflict. It makes good radio. I didn’t bring that. I also didn’t bring a set of boobs which would have helped since Animal yells way less at the ladies on his show! He’ll disagree with that last statement, which is Animal he mostly disagrees with all statements. Laurie Ruettimann claims he’s a Teddy Bear, but she has boobs, so I discount her opinion on Animal.

Why do I think Animal is the perfect person to honor on Tim Sackett Day?

Animal loves the recruiting industry. Agree with him, disagree with him, he has an extreme passion for our profession. You have to respect that! He’s been doing this since 2004!  I didn’t even start writing for Fistful of Talent until 2008!  He basically paved the way for all of us that write and speak about recruiting in the social space.

Animal calls a spade a spade.  What he really wants is for our industry to share the great stuff, and call out the bullshit. He’s like a bullshit cop. When all these people were out three or four years ago talking about how great talent communities were, he was the first to call them out and ask them to prove it. You know what you don’t hear about anymore? Talent communities.

I think my friend John Nykolaiszyn said it best the very first time I met him (to his defense it was after a few glasses of wine):

“Tim Sackett!? Fuck you! Fuck You! Fuck You!…I love you!”

John hated that my writing challenged things he truly believed in, but also loved the fact that I made him think about things in a different way. 

That, in a nutshell, is Animal. He challenges everyone to think about what we are truly doing and saying.

Please join me in celebrating the Recruiting Animal, Michael Kelemen today! Catch him on Twitter @Animal (getting “Animal” as your twitter name also shows how far in front of the game he is!), also his website and radio show: Recruiting Animal