Fistful of Talent

I Tweet...and therefore I must be prolific...

Ok, I'm having a Seinfeld moment, or maybe it was the Taco Bell I had for lunch - but Twitter is bugging me today. Ok, not Twitter but I guess those great people that I follow and rely on for my daily dose of what's happening in the world - more specifically within the HR world!  Let's be even more specific - it's not all the people I follow, but a very small percentage, but today it seems like a very big percentage and now that I think about it - I'm part of the problem.

Have you ever wondered why people on Twitter seem to have this obsession with wanting to be quoted or send out famous quotes - it's like there's a race to see who can be the most prolific tweeter of all time, and if you win, Twitter will change the name of tweets to "Jenny" or "Mark" or whoever wins the prolific quoting game we seem to be playing each day.  I have to say, but today, I'm all quoted out.  I don't think there is one thing that can be said that already hasn't been said on twitter, at least twice.

Ok, again, that last statement was a bit exaggerated - there are some things that haven't been said on Twitter yet - here they are:

• @PunkrockHR just decided she isn't a cat person, hates working from home and won't be attending a HR conference in the next 21 days.

• @GuyKawasaki I can't find another link to send out

• @Wallybock isn't recommending @KrisDunn for #FollowFriday

• @TheRedRecruiter Come to think about it, I really prefer black shoes, but I was young, and drunk, and well red sounded cooler - plus no one had red shoes, how big could it get?

• @JonKeel no Swine Flu deaths to report (ok, these just creep me out - I'm just sayin' - love you Jon)

So, here it is -  the unwritten Twitter Rules for HR Pros:

1. 1 to 1 tweets to follower rule - yep, that's right, if you have 5000 followers, you can send 5000 tweets. No longer can you send out more tweets than you have followers, it's just irresponsible.

2. You can only #FollowFriday someone once per quarter, anymore than that and it becomes stalkerish.

3. You can only send out a quote that you think you've made up on your own - if you've written a book (that's been published).

4. It's ok to talk about your pets...to people who give a shi between the hours of 9pm and 7am (that's when I won't be bugged by them)

5. Follow @TimSackett - all the cool kids are doing it

Not sure how we ended here, I started out really upset over people trying to act way too smart and all-knowing through their twitter accounts, and then some shining object caught my attention and we got to top 5 lists. Oh well - as Seinfeld says "Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason."

Editor's Note: Tim Sackett, SPHR is the Executive Vice President of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better.  He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side – so he gets it from both sides of the desk.  Want more?  Um, OK... He has a Masters of HR and....well, he was recently voted #5 best assistant little league coach of his son’s five team league.

Oh, Yeah? Well, My Org Chart is Bigger and More Beautiful Than Yours!

Okay, I admit it. My Org Chart is certainly not bigger than yours. As a solo recruiter, it's just me - one lonely, little box.  "One man, alone . . . betrayed by the [Org Chart] he loves . . . "

And, while I'm confessing today, I also admit my Org Chart is most certainly not as beautiful as yours, either.  There are no other boxes around; nowhere to draw perfectly straight lines to.  Nope, no ego-boosting or self-gloating just because my little box sits above your little box on 500-lb poster stock for the world to admire.

But, it's not the fact that you have many more boxes and lines that I'm most envious of.  It's your "white space" I want.  The problem is that white space is abundant for one fraction of a moment and sometimes scarce the next.  And your white space, while slippery and nebulous by nature, is something nobody (or no organization) can take from you.  It's all yours . . . and we can't have it.

At this point, you're probably thinking I've floated over into the deep end of the pool . . . without my floaties on.  And while I can't argue that point, let me take a stab at illustrating the beauty of white space.

The image here shows a typical Org Chart 'smashed down' (image courtesy of OrgNet and Valdis Krebs).  As you can imagine, the purple node in the middle is the Sr Manager, while the green nodes are Middle Managers, and the blue nodes are the Worker-Bees making it happen. The dark black lines are beautiful, sure.  But they simply illustrate authority and hierarchy.

If you look a little closer, however, you'll see the thin, gray lines.  These lines show directional flow. See, if something flows through a network, we can map it. These network contagions include happiness, information, gossip, germs, trust (no kidding, trust can be mapped), violence, etc. . . and in this case, information flow.  What the thin gray lines show us is invisible to the human eye, and in some cases, even the trained anthropologist. And the thin, gray lines show us what cannot be seen through the beautiful boxes and lines of the Org Chart.

And even though I can try to steal your nodes by recruiting them away, and I can try to take your contagions (or spread my own through your network), the one thing I can't take from you is the "white space", or the medium in which the contagion flows. 

So, in closing today, stop ignoring your white space and treating it like a red-headed stepchild.  Love your white space.  Embrace it.  Coddle it and give it some "TLC".  You just might be surprised at the good things that come out of showing your white space a little love this year.

Editor's Note - Josh Letourneau is the owner of LG and Associates, a Strategic Sourcing, Executive Search, and Human Capital Intelligence firm based in Atlanta.  Prior to founding LG & Associates, Josh worked as a Sales & Marketing professional in the software biz and was a hard-charging Sergeant in the Marines.  In his spare time, Josh enjoys shooting at other sourcing and search professionals as available in random paintball games.

Lessons Learned from One Sourcer in 2009...

2009 for me has been about bringing my "A" game - every day.  Every single day.  Nothing is ever the same, especially in the arena of internet sourcing and recruiting.  It's an exceptionally fluid medium, and in the Social Media arena, sites can change on a dime.  I think that's why I've developed a love for training, because live courses that accommodate the fluidity of this medium can show Recruiting professionals how to problem solve.

I could sit here and revisit with you all the challenges we faced in 2009.  But I'm not going to.  We lived it and are coming out the otherside.  I'm extremely hopeful and excited for 2010.  But as I think about the year gone by, here are some of my lessons that I think have made me a better professional:

There are no guru's.  I loved it when I attended TWTRCON and there were literally the icons of social media and PR sitting on a panel and vowing they were not guru's - that we're all learning about this medium together. And each of us has a different perspective and analysis. We're all bringing something to the table.  So for me - the phrase "guru" is rather passe, and well, "last decade".....especially in the land of internet sourcing and recruiting.  

Be Humble.  Every once in a while, I get a bit cocky and think I know it all.  Fortunately, I work in a company with people as experienced, if not more so, in recruiting and search.  I've learned to learn from them, they make me better for it.  And I totally own when I've made a bad call. They have made me a much better sourcer and trainer, and I have to thank them for that.

It's not a hack if you're sourcing outside the firewall.  I heard one of our trainers say this during the past year and I love it.  Be real about what you do.  Much of the classic search techniques are extracting the information you need from publicly indexed pages.  

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone - Move The Damn Cheese.  I own that the bulk of my recruiting experience is in Telecom and Engineering.  In some ways, that can be an easy ride when sourcing online. But, I am happy to take on tasks that are outside my usual knowledge base.  I learned more in 2009 about sourcing for professionals in Mining, or Biotech experts with Monoclonal Antibody experience, than I ever thought possible.  Set yourself up to be successful no matter the industry with a good strategy and toolkit.  

Test Your Limits.  I am an introvert.  Classically so. Public speaking is huge for me, but I've found if I'm speaking about my company, sourcing, recruiting, or social media, that I don't care how big the group is.  I love talking to other HR professionals about solving their recruiting issues and tactics they can try.  Having a love for that gets me over the insane panic of speaking to large groups.  And if we're going to thank someone for getting me over this hump, it's @BobCorlett, the man behind ProjectSAME.

Social Recruiting is more than building a Facebook Fan Page.  I mean that in a nice way.  You should have a strategy to source and brand using Social Media.  Keeping the whole Find and Attract mojo working.  And you should certainly diversify beyond Facebook.  If you're still trying to convince your HR higher ups to embrace Social Media as an asset to your recruiting strategy, show them this. (Thanks @lisarosendahl and @mikevandervort)

Social Media is not the quick fix on your sourcing strategy.  I am a firm believer in multiple components to augment your sourcing and recruiting plan.  Job postings, with the right job board for your needs, are important.  Employee Referral programs are key. Sourcing is paramount.  Multiple sites, resources, career fairs, college recruiting, diversity initiatives, etc., are all part of the ingredients that help you bake the ultimate recruiting cookie.

I love the cloud.  I do. I feel like I should do a YouTube video for Google.  Their many features have made my professional life bliss because of their accessibility and recruiting usability. I am a working mom with 3 active children. So I work everywhere, laptop in tow. Google helps me do it.  And a Passport Drive, because let's face it, you need a portable back-up.

Carpe Diem.  When opportunities arise to meet people you've networked with online, take it!  I was so happy to have the opportunity to meet some tweeps in DC like @jessica_lee, @therecruiterguy, @sodexocareers, @lifeatmcgladrey and @lruettimann.  I will make the commute in if you're in town, because having a live conversation over a 140 character trade-off is invaluable.  I really enjoyed the #socialrecruiting summit, not just from the great speakers point of view, but because I got to meet so many clients face-to-face and have off line chats about social sourcing.

Thanks so much for all the value YOU have brought to my 2009 and to all the people who made me excited to do what I do in such a challenging year. As for 2010, all I can say is...Game ON! 

Editor's Note - Kelly Dingee is a professional stalker Technical Writer/Sourcing Researcher for AIRS/A RightThing Company. Prior to joining AIRS, her experience includes sourcing for Thales Communications, Inc., and Internet recruitment for Acterna (now known as JDSU). Follow her on Twitter and get the lowdown on what's going on each day in sourcing - she's a Twitter machine...

Who Should CEO's, Managers and HR Pros Be Friends with on Facebook?

Raise your hand if you're on Facebook! Meeee! And you, and you too, and 200 million others as well, except for those in China who at the moment cannot access Facebook whatsoever including even accessing my company's lovely and harmless careers page on Facebook. (Shameless plug!) But I digress...

Lately, I've noticed a bit of coverage online about whether to be friends on Facebook with coworkers, or should you be friends with your boss on Facebook, or implications of friending/defriending... and while I understand these dilemmas, one particular issue struck me... why are managers "even friending" their staff members on Facebook in the first place? If you're unsure of whether to be friends with your boss on Facebook, fine. But what to do if your manager sends you a friend request? Oy. Let's talk that one through.

I was talking with my CEO the other day, and the issue has come up with other leadership team members for varying social networks, and the topic was simply the proper etiquette for becoming friends or connecting with others on social networks. From my CEO's perspective, and as a CEO, he'll accept a Facebook friend request from someone within our organization (and yes, I friended him as soon as I found out he was on Facebook!)... but he won't personally seek out any "friends" within the company. And his reasons make sense:

• He doesn't want to put pressure on them of any sort to have to be his friend.
• He doesn't want them to think he's pursuing them in any inappropriate way. And maybe most importantly...
• He doesn't want them to feel like he's watching them in any way.

My CEO's logic got me thinking... the same should probably apply to anyone who manages staff and perhaps the same should also go for HR pros too.

Now I know, some of you out there will argue that maybe if your culture is ripe for it and that you're not a hierarchical organization and therefore, it's actually okay for a CEO or an HR pro to "friend" employees. It shows you're open, it shows you're accessible, it shows you're cool. I don't buy that though. I work for one of the flattest organizations ever, it's extremely non-hierarchical - and I love that about our culture. But at the end of the day? Even in a flat organization, you can be friendly with staff, but I'd argue as a CEO, as a manager, and as an HR pro, you can't really be friends with staff. You have decision making authority, you hold a position of power, and you can influence. And that does not put you on even footing with staff.

When I think about myself, I signed up for Facebook initially to use it as a spy tool. Seriously. And I still use Facebook today to look at candidates and business contacts. And I know the debate rages on about whether it's even legal or appropriate to do such - but that's not the point of this post. People are becoming more and more aware that many employers are "watching" their staff and looking at potential employees via social networks... and that simply makes it really hard for staff not to feel like they're being watched no matter how open and friendly a culture you have.

My advice? Be prudent. Don't try to be everyone's friend and follow the lead of my CEO. Be friendly, yes. Accepting a friend request, sure. Friending your staff? No. Let's just not go there. It's unavoidable; they're going to wonder if you're watching them...

Editor's Note- Jessica Lee is a Senior Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm based in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD.  When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's thinking about the future of HR, wondering how she can avoid using the job boards (but of course not rely on just social media) to fill the next spot in her organization.

Friday FOT Bonus: KD's Super-Special Social Recruiting Story...

Earlier this week, JLee riffed on a recent social media recruiting success story she had.  Lots of comments on that one, and it kind of gave me that warm inner glow - so I thought I'd share one of my own:

The date is early January 2008.  The HR Capitalist had gone pretty well, and I got approached by a conference/media company to put together a second blog focused on talent management issues.  When I met them and figured out what they were looking for, I knew there was no way I was going to do the second blog all by myself and keep my day job.  So I pitched them the following:  I'll own the blog and recruit a team of smart people from the industry to write on Talent Management issues.  You sponsor it.  Film at 11.

They said yes.  There was just this one little problem:  I didn't know anybody who could write in the style I was looking for (big writing talent, big snark, pop culture junkie, in the talent game).  So I did the only thing I could do:  I wrote the following "help wanted" ad and put it out on the Capitalist:

HELP WANTED - (4 Positions Available)

"Progressive blogging organization is looking for witty and sometimes jaded professionals, in the Talent Management sector, to blog on a weekly basis, about their life as part of the machine.  New blog, as yet unnamed, to be launched to provide perspective of people conducting recruiting, staffing and talent management activities in the field.

Requirements:

-A working position in recruiting, staffing or HR, focused on acquiring, aligning and maximizing talent in your company, or on behalf of clients.

-Writing skills, plus the actual willingness to write and blog on a weekly basis.

-Personality and the ability to merge other resources and pop culture in writing, all in an effort to make it digestible for the commoners (that's me..)

-Ability to tell the world who you are while you are blogging - name, what you do, and where you do it.

-Skin thicker than that of a donkey, for the lashings you'll receive in the comments section.

What You Get in Return:

-Membership in an exclusive, yet opinionated team that will undoubtedly make the dysfunction in your extended family look like an episode of "Little House on the Prairie".

-The ability to blog and share your thoughts without having to start your own site.

-Exposure of your ideas and brand in the online property of a national periodical in the Talent Management space.  If you're a current blogger, you'll also get enhanced exposure for your blog.

-A projected stipend per month that will fall somewhere between a night out at Denny's and paying your cable bill.

-The warm feeling of giving back to your profession with the professional distance that only digital media can provide.

Sound like you?  Interested in hearing more?  To apply, please confirm your interest in the comments section or email the Capitalist at hrcapitalist@gmail.com.

The results from that social recruiting play using the Capitalist?  53 applicants, over 30 of which I had submit a writing sample and 6 or 7 that I brought aboard the original cast at FOT.  See if any of these names sound familiar:

-Jessica Lee- that's right, the current editor of FOT responded to a social media help wanted ad.  Now she's running the shop.  Hard to do much better than that.

-Jennifer McClure- the Cincy Recruiter was one of the responders, and was already and uber networker by the time we met.  She jumped on the opportunity to carve out an onlinevoice as part of FOT.

-Kelly Dingee- The first and last voice I listen to when it comes to sourcing.  Answered the call and gave FOT creditability when it came to sourcing. 

-Maren Hogan- OK, Maren didn't actually answer the help wanted ad.  I found her off a backlink to the Capitalist she put up at Big O Recruiting, which was the 1.0 Marennated.  I actually cold called her and told her thanks for the link and asked her to be a part of FOT.  Backlink to phone call - maybe an even cooler form of social recruiting.

Think about it - how's that for a lineup that was recruited straight up off a blog?  Others, like Paul Hebert, Tim Tolan and the rest of the gang came through professional relationships and later introductions, but these four?  Straight up off the social platform.  Once they got warmed up, all four have done other things - their own blogs, big twitter presences, etc. - but I was able to connect with them through the social media infrastructure.

As time goes by and we've attempted to recruit other writers, I've become more self aware of how unusual some of that talent I originally connected actually is.  Thanks for reading gang, and more importantly, thanks for responding. 

Pass the tissue.

A Success Story - Using Social Media to Recruit. And There Are More....

It's noisy in the blogosphere when it comes to using social media to recruit. Lots of folks have things to say about it. How to do it. Why to do it. What's so great about it. Some folks have a little bit to say about metrics and measurements and results. But I feel like it's not often enough that we're talking about results. I like hearing about folks who have gotten jobs because of social media, like you see here. But still, I don't see enough success stories. We can't be out there on social media proclaiming all of its greatness if we don't have results. So what have you done with it? 

Here's a success story of mine. A recent hire. It's a good story. 

September 17th, 9:13am. I put out a tweet using my personal account  and it's pretty harmless. I say I'm going to be looking for some entry level folks interested in health policy/healthcare comms. That's all I wrote. I didn't include a link to a job posting. I just made the statement.

September 17th, 1:08pm. I receive an email via Facebook from someone interested in the health policy role. It turns out that her friend follows me on Twitter, saw my tweet and told her about it.

They go to this blog which is linked to my Twitter profile. They find a link to my Facebook account which is linked to on the blog. And then I received the email. And then I asked for her resume. 

September 21, 12pm. I did a phone interview with her.

September 23, 12:30pm. She comes in for her first round of in-person interviews. 

And then a few more interviews a few days later. Then a final interview. And then I made an offer just a few days after that. She started working for APCO last week and we're all thrilled to have her on board.

How 'bout them apples? Right? I tweeted something pretty harmlessly. They went to my blog to learn more. They then contacted me via Facebook. And then the wheels started turning. Twitter. Blog. Facebook. Oh, and one other detail about this story? Her friend was following me on Twitter because a recruiter at a competing company recommended that she follow me during an informational interview where she was asking about people in the industry to pay attention to for jobs. Read that again. Community matters. Networks matter. Relationships really matter. And - there was no cost to this hire except for the investment of time and effort I've made to be a good, contributing member of the social media community. That's it. 

And there are other success stories out there. So, what's yours? What have you done and where have you found success? Help me de-mystify using social media to recruit. Hit me in the comments with your stories.

PS - I'm going to be talking about this story and the many other success stories at the Social Recruiting Summit in NYC on November 16th. Will we see you there? We're going to be having conversations about social recruiting tactics and strategies - not just more pie-in-the-sky ideas. Come meet me and Kelly Dingee, who will also be in attendance, there. 

Editor's Note- Jessica Lee is a Senior Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm based in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD.  When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's thinking about the future of HR, wondering how she can avoid using the job boards (but of course not rely on just social media) to fill the next spot in her organization.

 

Pankow Puts Down the Xbox Controller and Meets Social Recruiting...

I'm pretty new to this whole Social Recruiting thing.  I have a Facebook account, but I've kept it pretty personal.  I had a MySpace account, but I finally dumped it because my wife didn't like so many half naked women trying to be my friend.  I only recently, and reluctantly, joined Twitter after @jessica_lee and @kris_dunn told me I should.  Other than LinkedIn, I've tended to stay away from the whole social media scene, at least on a professional level.  Really, other than using them to stalk people, I didn't see the purpose. Of the FOT peeps...I'm the social recruiting nit-wit.

Cutting to the chase...after piggybacking off some of the brilliant FOT minds and their followers, I began to see how social networking can help me out.  I began experimenting a bit with my personal twitter account and even started playing around with one directly linked to jobs at Xbox.  It's been great.  The percentage of applies to my reqs from Facebook at Twitter is in the double digits.  As a skeptic going in, I am a believer, now.

Social networking has been great at getting people to me, which is awesome.  Still...how can I use it to effectively bring myself to people?   

Enter AIRS.

AIRS has a new class, kicked off earlier this year, on Social Recruiting in which you can earn a certified social sourcing recruiter (CSSR) certification.  I was recently able to take part!  (Full disclosure, FOT's own Kelly Dingee, our own sourcing master, is an AIRS/The RightThing staff member...and, as incestuous as this all may seem, really we're above influencing each other for favorable reviews of each other's stuff...and this is independent.  We swear!)

Going in, again being skeptical, I wondered what, if anything, I was actually going to learn.  So people have a Twitter account.  Doesn't mean I'm interested in what they had for lunch.  I wasn't convinced that there was anything of substance to be gained from any social site, other than LinkedIn, which I have trouble looping in as a Social network.  At the end, I was quite pleased!

Minus the chapter about blogs (my favorite part of the training), much of the first half was recruiter review, especially if you have ever taken an AIRS class, before.  It covered Boolean searches, x-raying and flip searching and LinkedIn.  Any recruiter with basic sourcing skills, and certainly anyone who's previously taken an AIRS course, should already know how to do this.

The second half was great.  Not only did I learn how I can, indeed, use Twitter to actively source candidates, but we also played around in some tools that help you search.  Also...have you ever considered X-raying Facebook?  I'm sure you have.  But, I didn't.  I don't want to give anything away as you should all just go and take the course...but, AIRS introduced me to a couple new search sites that I am loving, so far.  They also have some great tips on using social networking sites to build your employment brand.  Even if you work for a corporate behemoth, like me, there are some lessons to be learned here. 

Anyway...who should take this class?  If you are like me and you know social media is out there, but you think it's more about gossiping and Superpoking and less about sourcing, you should take the class.    

Who shouldn't take this class...Maren Hogan and anyone else who is already a social media master.  Also...anyone who isn't committed to building their own presence online.  Social Recruiting takes a Social Recruiter.   

Great class for people serious about social recruiting.  Although, I do wish they offered more West Coast times.  There's a reason why there are so many coffee shops in Seattle.  We Pacific Northwesterners don't like getting up early for a 7:00 Webcast.  

Editor's Note - Jason Pankow is a Senior Recruiter for Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE and Xbox Software groups.  Jason supports the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, bringing in technical, as well as creative, talent to Redmond.  Look him up on Xbox Live, where he'll ring you up for a triple-double as Steve Nash on NBA 2K8 or kick it old-school via a 7-digit score on Galaga...  

Take 2: Recruiting, Social Networks and Discrimination, Oh My!

Lots of folks have had lots to say about a Workforce article where lawyers discussed the legal pitfalls (gasp!) of recruiting through social networks. Their points are valid: a good recruiter is not sourcing just from social media networks. A good recruiter knows where his/her audience is and goes to find them. Social networks are another tool in your tool belt, not the entire belt. 

I agree. Really, I do. There’s a ‘but’ coming though, you knew that, right? Okay, I agree, but, with the increase of HR pros, recruiters and hiring managers checking out the social media profiles of candidates, the potential for discrimination also increases. I believe that the advances in social media and our ability to connect with more and more people could be causing a retreat to a more discriminatory time. 

I’m not talking about the deliberate and conscious act of discrimination. And yes, it still happens today. And yes, we all know it’s illegal. I’m talking about the subconscious discrimination that could occur. You know, our gut level reaction to folks based on the color of their skin, accent, disability, status. Carol Miaskoff, Assistant Legal Counsel with the U.S. EEOC, talked about this in her recent presentation at the ERE Fall Expo. You can check out her presentation here.

Think about it. There’s blog post after blog post advising candidates to connect, share, build their brand, show their personality. Be authentically you. But how much is too much? Could a candidate’s minority status or interests cause others to gain a false perception of them? How do we know that profile pictures, tweets, or status updates are not manifesting any preconceived notions of a particular culture? There’s not a lot of talk about these issues, and it’s much harder to prove, but let’s not think for a minute that it could not happen. Carol Miaskoff says in her presentation, and I agree with her, “Discrimination is, despite our progress, a real concern and a reality today.” 

From an HR/Recruiting perspective, we have to be mindful of what could happen with the enormous amounts of information available to us on these candidates. What are we doing to make sure we get past any chance of subconscious discrimination within our organizations? Do we have mechanisms in place to get past those gut level reactions? Are we doing our jobs and presenting the best qualified candidates, regardless of race/ethnicity? Have we developed the trust needed with our leaders/hiring managers, and do they know that we would not present a candidate if they were not qualified? Do we have enough of a voice within our companies that enables us to push back, and bring a little fire to the situation when we feel that something is just not right? Like the hiring manager who uses the “I can’t put my finger on it” or “They’re just not a good fit” reasons. Do you have enough fire power to push back, probe and get specifics? 

I’m sure you’re saying that this doesn’t happen in your organization. Really? How do you know? What are you doing to ensure that, with the increase in social media usage, good candidates are not being passed over based on any discriminatory issue?  

The end result should be that we place the very best candidate, right? So let’s be real about this issue and not shove it under a rug. Let’s take the steps to make sure that it’s not happening on our watch.  Editor's Note: Crystal Peterson is the Chief People Officer & Senior Vice President of HR at Doe-Anderson, one of the Midwest's most recognized advertising agencies - and count her as a driving force for making Doe a great place to work. In her spare time... well, she doesn't have spare time. But when she can find a minute to breathe outside of the world of Doe, Crystal is a stage mom mom and wife, and lives the dream in Louisville, Kentucky. Crystal can also be found blogging at CrissCrossed.

Recruiting via Social Networks = Discriminatory Hiring Practices. Oh Really?

Guess what? It was only a matter of time before the lawyers were going to come in and say that social networks are bad for our health. Don't use social networks to recruit! You're going to discriminate! Disparate impact! Watch out! 

Dunh, dunh, dunhhhhhhh. Cue the scary music. Lawsuits. Eeeek! 

Go read this. It's food for thought - the potential risks of using social networks to recruit. And in the article, you'll see a lawyer who claims that using social networks to recruit is "ripe with risk for future discrimination claims." Here's the logic that we've been presented with in the Workforce article:

• The economy has tanked therefore, companies are slashing recruiting budgets.
• Social media is on the rise, and it's cheap if not free - so companies are using social media to recruit in lieu of job boards.
• Social networks are segmented and certain networks have audience demographics that skew one way or another - disparate impact may occur so be careful.

I see how it's easy to arrive at this conclusion. But let's think about this a bit more critically. 

I wonder, how much are we thinking about the explosive growth of social networks? What about the penetration of social networks on a global basis? Are they really still that elite? Think about these recent numbers released by comScore:

• Facebook experienced its highest growth rate in July 2009 – 87.7 million unique visitors in the US
• Time spent on Facebook increased 36% in July, to a total of 15. 
• Twitter grew by 6% in July 2009 with 21.2 million unique visitors in the US
• Time spent on Twitter increased 26% in July, to a total of 4.75 million minutes

And these are just two social networks. Read some more stats on how social networks are growing here. And the more social networks grow, won't they become more and more diverse? I believe that. 

Here's what else I believe though. I also believe that recruiters and HR pros aren't dummies. I don't know of any recruiting and HR pros who can say confidently that social media for recruiting is precisely what has saved them and they are relying on it alone. Do you? Social media for recruiting isn't the end-all, be-all. It's a piece of the puzzle. For now, at least. And recruiters aren't that foolish to rely on just social networks when only a certain segment of the population can be found on them. For now, at least.

So lawyers? Try and scare me. Go for it. But I'm calling foul on your claims. And give recruiters and HR pros a little more credit, will ya? MKayThanks.

Editor's Note- Jessica Lee is a Senior Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm based in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD.  When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's thinking about the future of HR, wondering how she can avoid using the job boards (but of course not rely on just social media) to fill the next spot in her organization.

Connected Employees - Do You Buy iphone Candidates or Palm Pre Candidates?

There has been a lot of discussion on social media and the need for job candidates to have a social presence.  When BestBuy announced it wanted its new employee candidates to have 250 twitter followers, it really hit home that a candidate's social footprint was a possible criterion for being considered for a job.  Some thought it might be a bit too avant garde - others said it was openers in our increasingly interconnected world.  I myself sat on the sidelines - until now.

This month's issue of Wired magazine had an article called "Betting on the Store" by Steven Levy.  Levey highlights some of the impressive technology in the Palm Pre, and compares it to the iphone.  But the real point of the article is that for all the technology both phones have, the thing that is driving iphone sales - and will be needed to drive Palm Pre sales is... 

Applications!

That's right.  The phones themselves are secondary to their ability to connect with applications that make the phones do more, do different stuff, do things we haven't even imagined yet.  The value of the iphone is its ability to connect to many different applications - 50,000 now.  The Palm Pre - 30.  (yeah you read it right 30 apps.)  The google Android has 15,000 apps.

From the article:

"For all its technical wizardry, the iPhone's greatest triumph is the way it ushered in a bounty of mobile apps, a fecund diversity previously seen only on the desktop."
 

The value is in the connections

From a recruiting standpoint, it's the same thing.  You can have an applicant that can do the job and has impressive previous experience.  But they're just a "phone."  Or you can have an iphone candidate - yeah they do the phone thing pretty well - maybe even a bit less well than the other applicant - but they have connections baby!  They know this person and that person.  They're already connected on a blog in their vertical and have 2,500 twitter followers who are actively engaged.

Which candidate is better?

Job requirement-wise it might be the "phone."  Enterprise-wise - the iphone applicant is your better bet.

So, like Steven Levy says in the article...Bet on the Store.

Editor's Note - Paul Hebert is the Managing Director for i2i (an influence consultancy), the brain behind Incentive Intelligence and a recognized authority on incentives and performance motivation...