Hey Deiter - Get Off My Freaking Cloud (Recruiting?)...

You make the call - is the term Cloud Recruiting an edgy concept or just more buzzword bingo?

Without question, the term Cloud Recruiting is coming from a smart guy.  Michael Marlatt works as a Recruiting Consultant for Microsoft’s U.S. Enterprise Services within the East Region. He not only focuses on sourcing new talent across multiple groups, but also delivers on-going training and mentoring for peers within U.S. Enterprise Services.  Good twitter stuff, and I must say, it looks like he has a nation of marketing types working on his slides.

He's launched a site and a blog focused on Cloud Recruiting.  Here's the pitch from MM, whom I've met over the phone and liked a lot:

"There’s no mystery or secret to unveil. The concepts behind “cloud computing” are nothing new.  The idea of giving the public access to remote computers was first floated when the Beatles were making their debut in a Hamburg night club:

If computers of the kind I have advocated become the computers of the future, then computing may someday be organized as a public utility just as the telephone system is a public utility… The computer utility could become the basis of a new and important industry.

John McCarthy, a computer scientist speaking in 1961.

The concept of Cloud Recruiting, as first presented to the attendees of SourceCon 2008, refers to a new and important understanding of how this evolved idea is enabling recruiters to connect with their work, their peers, their employers, and their candidates in ways that truly enables them to be “anywhere, anytime, leveraging any device” as the need and opportunity dictates.

Against the backdrop of a world where for most recruiters “the sky is falling,” the notion of cloud recruiting opens the possibility of finding new ways to leverage existing and emerging technologies to help deliver solutions for tomorrow’s challenges, today."

What say you?  Deep thoughts or Buzzword Bingo?

Me?  I like the concept and the terminology, because it helps capture a fundamental shift and trend in a way people can broadly comprehend.  Here's the challenge - I'm doing a workshop on Social Media for HR Pros late this month, and if I hit them with data in a similar way, their heads would start smoking.  Michael's working the digerati who are reading blogs and his Twitter stream, but the rest of the world has difficulty capturing how to execute on the dream on a basic level.

Take a plow through the site and let me know what you think.  Also, I'm offering up two videos below, one that is from MM about Cloud Recruiting, and one from some tech types explaining the concept of the computing cloud.

Both are worth the time, even if you listen to the music on the first one and start doing the German dance featured on that old SNL skit with Mike Myers - SPROCKETS....

Comments

[Amitai Givertz]

Kris - great post, thank you.

You say: "...if I hit them [HR pros] with data in a similar way, their heads would start smoking."

With the smell of burning flesh in my nostrils this morning -- http://is.gd/3AJY -- the truth is that educating a group who are mired in legacy-thinking and archaic practices is never easy. If a few heads get smoked in the process of sparking the imagination of others, so be it.

I think the trick for Michael is to be find ways of explaining all of what "cloud recruiting" means in terms that everyone can easily relate to. With the people that Michael is collaborating with on this project -- myself included: http://is.gd/3zLa -- I think you'll see us dealing with the concern you raise head on.

[Wally Bock]

Hey Kris, what a fine and provocative post. As I remember, the term "cloud computing" was only later attached to John McCarthy's speech. His concept was called "utility computing." In that vein, is there a blog somewhere called "utility recruiting" that doesn't involve sourcing engineers for Memphis Gas, Water and Electric?

[Meg Bear]

I have so many different ways to respond to this post. There is the "recruiting" piece, the explaining social media (or any technology for that matter) to HR pro's piece and then there is the shift to the cloud. All three topics are of interest to me in a very sad/scary way I'm sure.

I attempted to write a bit about HR needing to get in the loop here sooner then later here (http://talentedapps.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/hr-departments-youre-on-notice/). I'm very impressed you are attempting this KD, would love to hear how it goes.

Oh, and the link to the presentation was awesome for me as well. High quality post, way better than the spouse fluff someone gave you ;-).