As I was having my car treated to a long overdue car wash today, I was reminded about a golden rule of recruiting – always be doing it.

The friendly gatekeeper to the tunnel of car cleanliness greeted me with a smile, took my order and embarked in some idle chit chat while I waited.  By the time I had finished the cycle he was waiting around the other side of the building near where the drying and vacuuming extravaganza takes place.  The chit chat continued.

Come to find out, he is only 3 weeks away from starting a new journey in his life.  At 25, he decided to enlist in the Army and serve our country.  With a daughter and wife at home, I have to imagine that he took the decision seriously… he seemed very committed.

He explained all about the enlistment process, the ups and downs that he expected to go through, the hopeful adventures that this new-found path would lead him down – it was quite fun to hear the enthusiasm in his voice.

But, then came the part that really caught my attention.

After explaining all of the selling points of his new career, he asked me if I had ever considered joining the military.  I answered truthfully that I had.  He then asked if I had a college degree… again I answered that I did.

He proceeded to ask me to give the military some consideration and assured me that it would be a great career and an excellent way to serve my country.

As I walked towards my car and processed what had just happened, it dawned on me.  He was trying to recruit me.

Now, I’m not going to be signing up for the military due to this encounter… but, I felt like there was a lesson somewhere in this encounter.

When I was little, my Mom always told me, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”  What she was trying to teach me was that unless I was willing to ask for what I wanted, there was a very low likelihood of me ever getting it.  As an adult looking back, there was, and continues to be, much truth in this lesson.

Just as with goals, ambitions and everything else that we hope to achieve, recruiting has a very similar approach to it.  If you don’t ask, you don’t get… if you don’t ask the potential recruit to consider your organization, they probably won’t.  Engage in conversation, show the value of being a part of the team and ask them to take it into consideration.

Who knows… under the right circumstances, I may have said “Sure!” – at least he asked.

Beyond experiencing a recruiting moment on a Sunday afternoon at the car wash, this interaction also gave me mental fodder in terms of how recruiters are preparing all employees to go out and find the next generation of talent for our organizations.  Do all of your employees have a 60 second pitch?  Would they know how to share the great aspects of working within your organization?  What can we do to help deploy an army of recruiters?

To the soon-to-be Army recruit and the many others that are serving our country, I thank you!  Keep up the great work and know that we’re humbled by your sacrifice.

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a user conference last week in beautiful Minneapolis, MN.  Jobs2Web, a rapidly expanding recruitment technology firm out of Minneapolis, hosted a user conference for their various clients to exchange ideas, attend thought-provoking sessions and, of course, experience networking at it’s best over great food and drinks.

If you have yet to hear about Jobs2Web, I would recommend you check out their website and/or watch the promotional video.  It’s direct, to the point and will surely leave you thinking, “That makes sense!”

In fact, after having spent the past two years travelling, brainstorming and looking far and wide for the most progressive recruitment technologies, I can say for sure that Jobs2Web has made a fan out of me.  They are the real deal and, simply put, THEY GET IT!

How Jobs2Web Will Change Recruiting

To everyone I’ve spoken with about the product and the many more I will speak with in the future; it’s my firm belief that Jobs2Web will change the way we recruit.  With a very simple shift in the way we have always gathered candidate information, they are enabling their clients to build talent communities and engage through the use of social recruiting tools – something we have all been starving for!

In the past, the approach was as follows:

1. Establish job openings
2. Promote jobs through various channels
3. Have candidates go through the ATS application process
4. Pre-screen and interview candidates
5. Hire the best suitable candidate for the role

What Jobs2Web has done is, in essence, add a valuable step to the process and enable recruitment groups to capture data for both active and non-active members of the overall talent population.

The basic Jobs2Web process looks as follows:

1. Establish job openings
2. Promote jobs through various channels
3. Greet candidates with a short business card that they fill out
4. Have candidates go through the ATS application process
5. Pre-screen and interview candidates
6. Hire the best suitable candidate for the role

I know, I know… it doesn’t seem all that different.  But, it’s what they’ve done with the business card that makes all the difference in the world.

You see, Jobs2Web has created more than a business card that candidates fill out before proceeding with the recruitment process.  They have created an entire system around that information that allows recruiters to interact and measure results of the web traffic that visits their site.

Instead of simply hoping for candidates to make it through the process, the business card allows for recruitment organizations to capture the very basic data necessary to continue dialogue with talent of interest… and, used correctly, develop of a community.

Why Does This Matter?

Well, if you have spent much time reviewing your career site metrics, I’m sure you have already found out that many candidates apply for jobs during peak normal business hours.  In the metrics I review on a normal basis, I can clearly see that the majority of candidates visit the career site between 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM from Monday through Wednesday.

While there is traffic on the other days of the week, it’s pretty obvious that parties of interest are out cruising for jobs during the workday.

So, what happens when they get interrupted?  Do you still have a chance to capture their information and follow up with them?  Probably not.

Jobs2Web, through the very simply insertion of a business card early on, captures the data necessary to continue the dialogue.

From the point of information collection forward, the candidate enters the normal process.

Building a Talent Community

What happens with this valuable information next is what makes Jobs2Web powerful!

While the business card is one way for candidates to enter the talent community, Jobs2Web has made it easy, with a variety of widgets for your career site and social media outlets, to allow talent to join your community and to be kept abreast of opportunities of interest.

Instead of spending money on job postings again and again to attract similar groups of people to your career site, the Jobs2Web technology enables recruiters to interact directly with the people who have been previously interested in opportunities.

The power of this method was affirmed by a number of clients during the conference – clients including Microsoft, Lifetime Fitness and HCR ManorCare, among others.  One client reported that their talent community had grown to 350,000 people over the course of two years.  Their recruitment advertising spend dropped by 50% and their number of applicants had increased by tens of thousands… per month!  Pretty powerful testimonial!

Analytics That Transform

Beyond being a smart way of going to market with your recruitment spend, Jobs2Web offers insight into how your advertising dollars are being spent.  Imagine being able to put a dollar figure behind every candidate recruited.  Do you know how much you spend on recruiting candidates?  Do you know what your exact ROI is from every source?  Wouldn’t you like to?

A number of clients reported a change in their abilities to negotiate rates with job boards, job fairs and other recruitment sourcing avenues.  Yes, you may be receiving clicks from job boards, but do you know how many of those candidates are converting to hires?  Shouldn’t you?

The analytics dashboard that Jobs2Web offers is pretty amazing.  From how many of your job related pages are ranking on Google to exactly where ALL of your traffic is coming from.  A Recruiting Manager, armed with a tool like this, will be able to measure, respond and spend with powerful data to back them up.  Gone are the days of “Post and Pray.”  Welcome the era of intelligent social recruiting!

In Conclusion

While this may have seemed like a long affiliate post for Jobs2Web, I assure you, it’s not.  I’m simply impressed.  For the first time in a while, I find myself sitting back saying “Wow! – This makes total sense!”  “Why didn’t something like this come out years ago?!?”

There are some great technologies out there for recruiting.  I’m sure many of them provide value to the recruiting process in some way.  However, Jobs2Web is, by far, the most progressive, intelligent and exciting technology I have seen for recruiting in a long time!  It very well could change the way we approach social recruiting, community building and recruitment advertising spend – that’s a lot of impact.

I’ve just barely scraped the surface of what Jobs2Web is capable of.  Seriously, check out their website and see what they have to offer.  Or don’t… this would be a great secret to keep!

Special thanks to Jobs2Web for the invitation to their conference!  You guys and gals are doing amazing work!  Keep it up!

In the coming weeks, I will cover some of the interesting presentations and topics that were covered at the conference.  Beyond the innovation that Jobs2Web has to offer, there was an amazing amount of brainstorming going on – all good stuff!

A while back, I had the opportunity to hand feed Ostriches.  It’s quite an experience and I’d recommend you try it… as least once.

One thing I learned about feeding them was that an Ostrich knows what it wants and it’ll go for it – sometimes nipping at your fingers in the process.  Naturally, if one took too strong of an approach, I would move on to the next.  Little did the Ostrich know, I had a whole bucket full of food hidden away.  With a gentler approach, they would have received my whole stash.

Fast forward to tonight as I scrolled aimlessly through Facebook, I noticed the following from Boolean Black Belt (Glen Cathey):

“#LinkedIn – active vs. passive candidates? I’m telling you, based on laws of statistics alone, % passive is same as any other source.”

At first, it kind of bothered me.  I mean, “passive” is where it’s at, right?  Isn’t that what all of the top search firms get paid the big bucks to do?  Further, isn’t this the pool of hidden talent that every company is after?  How could it be the same size?

Then I stopped and pondered his quote for a moment.  Could there really be as many active as passive candidates in the market?

Wasn’t this whole social media recruiting thing giving us an edge in connecting with audiences (namely the elusive “passive” grouping) that weren’t easily accessible in the past?

Then something occurred to me.  Perhaps, as recruiters, we have been ignoring the majority.

Candidate Groups

There are three groups of candidates in my mind… active, passive and non-active.

The “Active” group is pretty easy to define.  This is the group of candidates who remain active in the pursuit of career opportunities.  They apply for job openings, they are networking for a new position, and/or they stay in constant contact with their recruiter of choice.  In a nutshell, they’re ready to make a move and they actively participate in that process.

The “Passive” group is a bit trickier.  To me, this group consists of the people who are open to opportunities, but aren’t investing time and energy into the pursuit of a new role.  Should the right position come along, or the right convincing recruiter, they may consider a move.  However, for the most part, this group is happy at work, performing well and not out trolling the job boards for a new place to call Office.

Finally, we have the “Non-Active” group.  These are the individuals who think they are performing well, are living a good enough life that they don’t even want to consider transition AND they don’t have time to deal with recruiters.  They are content in their routines and/or happy with their current status.  These are the people who will come to us when they are good and ready and no sooner than that.

To expand on the “Non-Active” definition a bit more, this would represent the largest grouping of talent.  Following along with Boolean Black Belt’s logic;  if as of May of 2010 we have over a  9% unemployment rate in the U.S. (Active job seekers… at least, I hope so) and the Passive pool is the same size (9%), then the Non-Active group would represent over 80% of the talent pool.

Before you challenge me to a duel on the statistics, let’s say that the “Passive” group is much larger… how about 30%?

Even then, we are left with a Non-Active grouping of over 60% of the working population.

Branding Picks Up Where Recruiting Ends

As my career has shifted more towards the direction of employment branding, something has become very apparent to me.  For all of the efforts that the recruiting profession pours into hiring the Active and Passive pools of talent, we don’t often consider our largest potential group of candidates.

Some may say that Social Recruiting (aka Social Media, Social Networking, Social Rambling… etc…) has been the tool used for this type of engagement with the general population of Non-Actives.  While I agree to a certain extent, I would also argue that we’ve been actively utilizing the tools to connect with people who are open to opportunities (i.e. Passives).

I don’t blame us – in fact, I totally get it.  It’s easier to quantify the results when we consider currently attainable objectives.  If I put in X amount of hours into Y activities, I can quantify the results with Z figure.

I’ve done these kinds of calculations myself… in fact, I’ve written about ROI in Social Recruiting before.

Social Recruiting Balance

How can we utilize Social Recruiting effectively in balancing our active recruiting efforts (better defined by BBB as active and passive sourcing efforts) with our long-term Non-Active recruiting efforts?  After all, likelihood says that the Non-Actives will eventually look for a new position… it’s our job to be there first, right?

Is it simply a matter of framing the target and setting the long-term goals?

With our current technology, connecting with this audience is very attainable – we meet them where they live and play (online).  So, how do we speculate and measure the effectiveness of the energy and dollars we invest today in results that we are not likely to see for years?

I could contemplate this all night long, but I’d love to see what you think.  The pool exists, the tools exists, the long-term value exists…

Why The Ostrich?

That finger nipping, overly eager and somewhat scary looking Ostrich, had no idea of the food supply he gave up because of his aggression.  All of his focus was on the here and the now… and, as a result, it cost him something much greater.

Are we giving up our treasure chest of a talent pool by remaining so tactical?  How can we find balance and brand for the future?

P.S.  Glen Cathey (Boolean Black Belt) is a fantastic contributor in the online recruiting space.  This post was not intended to counter his comment or thoughts on the topic… he just caused some ideas to bounce around in my head.  Thanks Glen!

* Thanks to Vincent Kan for catching my late night spelling errors!

Last night, at about 11:30 PM, I decided to Tweet out a question that I’ve been contemplating.

“If, as a job seeker, you could have one request (minus “hire me!”) of companies you apply with, what would it be?”

I suppose that the question stems from a few thoughts and past events that I was engaged in.

• Delighters at Disney – While at Disney, I was fascinated with how the small details really came together to make the overall experience amazing – I think, in recruiting, we can learn from that.
• Back to the Basics – When something has gone wrong in the past, it’s usually been easiest (in my experience) to go back and first review the basics.  In many cases, one of the very fundamental pieces of what I had been pursuing was out of whack.
• Process Improvement – Sometimes the basics are in place, but perhaps they aren’t executed well enough or with the desired impact they were intended to deliver.
• Current Pursuits – I’m interested in this topic because of what I’ve been dedicating my professional time to.

The Responses

By about 9:00 AM this morning, I had received 12 good responses that I wanted to share.  Hopefully this conversation will continue and we, as a recruiting community, can get back to the basics of candidate experience.

1. Via @drivethruHR – Honesty please – be straight about opp, communicate expectations and process, then outcome
2. Via @TrishMcFarlane – Always follow up with the job seeker after an interview. Even if the answer is “you’re still in the process” – Main thing is to not let the candidate just hang there for weeks.
3. Via @MOconnorSA – Define the hiring process
4. Via @JessicaMalnik – To give me some insight in the process every once in awhile instead of leaving me hanging for weeks at a time.
5. Via @KeranM – my one request would be “talk to me”
6. Via @IAmEmmaMusic – Flexible schedules/options to work from home.
7. Via @Alpern – Be direct & truthful. Provide follow-up & insights from decision making process. Let the candidate know if they are + or -
8. Via @ekwan – open mind
9. Via @carigillespie – Actually letting me know if I didn’t get the job, as opposed to just blowing me off.
10. Via @whatever_angel – don’t list having a degree unless it is truly required.
11. Via @dynila – Tell us what you really want, plainly. No more corporate-speak job listings.
12. Via @vkan – Make your hiring decision in a timely manner so I can properly allocate my time and effort. (i.e. don’t leave me hanging)

If you look at this short list of answers, you will see a few consistent requests.

• Process Clarity – Offering clarity around the steps that a job seeker is most likely to take seems to be an important request.  Can we do that?
• Straight Talk – Instead of avoiding the hard conversations (i.e. Declines), we should be forward with the candidates.  Can we do that?
• Follow-Up – Whether it is during or at the conclusion of the hiring process, candidates want to be followed up with.  Seems reasonable.  Can we do that?
• Clear Requests – Instead of creating corporate-speak job descriptions, we need to communicate clearer.  If someone doesn’t work for our company, they probably aren’t familiar with the 100+ acronyms that we use daily.  Makes sense.  Can we do that?

So, job seekers and recruiters, what else should we put into our “Back to the Basics” bucket?  What else can we do to improve the candidate experience?

Share your thoughts and ask your colleagues.  I’d love to read what you think!

Photo Credit, Mykl Roventine

From a candidate’s perspective, it may seem that recruiters sit on a perch and simply sift through resumes until the right one magically appears – not so.

Recruiters have clients to answer to; clients that hold them accountable for their decisions.  Presenting too many candidates that fall short of the client’s requirements will inevitably damage the recruiter’s reputation.  A lack of candidates due to overly complex or demanding requests will also take a toll.

The balance, at times, is very challenging.

As Picky As Possible

So, the challenge becomes how to balance between finding the right person and finding the right person quickly.

Before you tell me that technology has eliminated sourcing/recruiting challenges, I would ask you to consider a couple of points:

1. There are often times too many candidates to review.  To paint a realistic picture, imagine you have just ten openings.  For each of those openings, you receive 100+ applicants.  You are now the proud responsible party for reviewing over 1000 resumes – makes the one page resume very attractive doesn’t it?
2. People lie.  That’s right, they lie.  While technology helps us identify keywords and sift through potentials, it doesn’t help us cut through the lies.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people do it.  Most everyone wants to earn a living and be self-sufficient.  Unfortunately, some people take it too far and lie about what they are capable of, what they have accomplished in the past and, worst of all, actual jobs that they have performed.  It makes a recruiter’s job pretty difficult.

Pre-Interview: “Wow, this person looks perfect for the role!  They have all the skills and experience necessary – my client is going to be thrilled!”

Post-Interview: “They haven’t even worked with the technology they have listed… what were they thinking!?!?”

I know, I know… you would never do that.  Good.  But, believe it or not, it happens frequently.  Of course, it’s not polite to label it as lying – people simply “exaggerate.”

So, put yourself in the recruiter’s shoes at the time you submit your resume.  Too many resumes and a recruiter who is very accustomed to people exaggerating in an effort to get the interview.  On top of that, their clients expect delivery… and fast!

Work With Your Recruiter

Beyond what I have listed, there are hundreds of other small dynamics that go into recruiting… it’s a complicated sport.

So, knowing all this, I ask you to think about your approach and how you can work best with a recruiter.  Here are a few points to keep in mind:

• Make sure your resume is concise, truthful, compelling and formatted well.
• Realize that while you may think you are perfect for the job, the recruiter may know more about your suitability for the role than you do.
• Be helpful… recruiters remember.  If you aren’t a match for the role, consider referring someone else for the position.  I can almost promise you that your recruiter will remember the trust and helpful disposition you displayed.  It’s likely that this will help when the right opening comes around.
• It’s not personal.  If you are right for the role, the recruiter will push your candidacy forward.  If you’re not, they won’t.

Recruiters love placing the right person in the right position – it’s why we do what we do.  There is nothing more fulfilling for those who have chosen this as a career path.

So, recruiters… what’s your top suggestion for candidates who are out searching for that ideal role?

And how about you candidates?  Any best practices that you have been impressed with?  Has a recruiter knocked your socks off with their approach?

Blake Mycoskie from TOMS Shoes

I’ve been to more than a few conferences in the past year… in fact, it’s starting to feel a bit like a foggy mess of speakers, social hours and information overload.

I don’t mean that in a bad way, but there does come a point when you start to forget and everything starts to mesh together.

Perhaps this is also the point when the culmination of ideas that one has been exposed to start to mold and become personal -- the whole “I don’t know how I know this, but it seems like something I’ve heard of…” shift.

When I saw the roster for the 2010 Human Capital Summit, I was energized with the speaker list.

Human Capital Summit 2010, Tucson, AZ

Unlike many of the conferences I’ve attended lately, this is what I would refer to as an un-unconference – or, in other words, a conference.  Schedules, no cell phone usage reminders and lots of dress-to-impress clothes.  The speakers have written books as opposed to starting online followings (in many cases)… and the participants are from large corporations with big budgets behind them.

Beyond the initial shock that no one was walking around in flip-flops with a flip cam, I settled in to old conference life pretty quickly.  Of course, I didn’t bring along any dress up clothes, so I guess that’s only partially true.  Nonetheless, I sat through the opener and the second opener and the first speaker, etc…

There were some real golden nuggets of information shared today, so I’ll just get right to it.

Geoff Colvin, Fortune Magazine

He was great and I really enjoyed his style.  Starting out with the current headlines, he reminded the audience that the only way our companies will be successful is with the right people.

He stressed that attracting talent should be the most important key competency if we are going to push our organizations to be the best.  Check out his website.

Here is a video I found of him on YouTube.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqdFoLxRn-s

Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes

Blake is the man – I mean, c’mon… the guy started a company that gives as much back as they take.  For every pair of shoes that someone buys from TOMS Shoes, a pair of shoes is donated to a child in need.  Blake has a common sense approach to changing the world and it is quite inspiring.

If you haven’t visited their site already, check them out: Website Link.  You can find Blake on Twitter here.

Here is a cool video with the history of the company.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTQsQUu1Ho8

Jim Carroll, Futurist, Trends and Innovation Expert

I found this presentation to be pretty “in your face” and inspiring.  This may have to do with the fact that I love the topic of innovation… but, that aside, I think that the audience was forced to sit back and say “Wow! I need to change the way I think.”

Boiling down his message, I left with the notion that companies who ignore the speed of change will be left in the past.  To be the future, you have to think about the future.

Check out the video below and perhaps visit his website.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yajhwh5_-k8

Great message Jim!  I enjoyed it!

Polly Pearson, EMC

I’ve wanted to hear from Polly Pearson for a while on the topic of social media/networking within a larger organization.

Polly brought the audience through the steps that EMC took in order to roll-out and embrace a larger strategy.  It was pretty cool to listen to her laid back style for making the overall approach function.  The messages I took away were:  Trust, ROI, Baby Steps and Find A Bigger Bully Than Legal.

Trust your employees to act like adults and make good decisions.

ROI = Risk Of Ignoring = If you don’t get involved with social media, your competitors may… are you okay with that?

Take Baby Steps in getting the organization on board – start with an internal network and let it build towards being external facing.

Finally, if Legal wants to shut you down and is acting like a bully, find a bigger bully than legal to help you along with your cause.

Here is a video of Polly speaking at the Gravity Summit.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CktwxxiNkI

John Phillips, Microsoft & Doug Berg, Jobs2Web

John and Doug definitely earned the Tactical Award for the day!

This was not a conversation about potential methods for using social media in recruiting – nope!  This was a down to the bones, real picture, show you the steps kind of presentation that had plenty of metrics to back up the claims.

First of all, I commend Microsoft for embracing forward-looking methods in recruiting… kudos to John for being able to articulate the business case for use.

Second, Jobs2Web is amazing!  I’m not often left sitting back saying “Wow!” – but this did it.  Really, really, really good stuff… and it’s all backed up with metrics.  Doug Berg knows his recruiting stuff and it shows!

Check out the Jobs2Web website when you have a second – it’s pretty cool!

So, that’s the story for Day 1 at the HCI 2010 meeting.  Lots of information to take in, but it’s been well worth it thus far!

If you are interesting in following the hashtag on Twitter, you can find the Tweet under #HCI10

Sarah White - @imsosarah at SxSW

It’s a conference like few others – big, bold and full of talented individuals all interested in similar topics.

Today was my first day at SxSW Interactive here in Austin, TX.

Last year at this time, I was attending Chris Brogan‘s training called Inbound Marketing Boot Camp with Alicia Arenas.

It marked an important point in my learning curve around the use of social media as a tool for community building.  Chris, as always, shared some golden nuggets that stuck with me as I developed my own approach to getting involved in the online social recruiting niche.

It’s amazing how much can change in a year!  In fact, between personal and professional changes, I would be hard pressed to even list them all out.

So, fast forward and here I am at SxSW.

This year, I am attending as a Racker and we have taken a different approach with the conference.  We have enlisted a number of members from the Recruiting Team to be a part of the events and chat with talented folks attending the conference.  I wrote a post about it on the Racker Talent site, but here is the list of Recruiters in attendance should anyone want to say hello to them on Twitter or while you are at SxSW.

Roxanne Molina – Recruiter

Twitter Name: @roxymolina

Oren David – Technical Recruiter

Twitter Name: @odavid1

Scott McCamish – Recruiter

Twitter Name: @scottmccam

Taryn Little – Recruiter

Twitter Name: @tarynLIL

Paul Norman – Director of Recruiting

Twitter Name: @pmnorman

Michael Long – Global Talent Scout

Twitter Name: @theredrecruiter

If you like to meet passionate people, I recommend finding one of the team members!

Tomorrow I will be headed to a few sessions in the morning before going back to the Rackspace booth.  It’s really crazy to see all of these high-tech and social media related companies all in one spot – it’s like virtual world come to life… even though I know that to be true already, it’s just different in person.

On Monday night, we are having a great big Rackspace party at Maggie Mae’s starting at 8:00 PM.  Word is that we will be raffling off two Gibson guitars among other exciting party features.  Be sure to stop by if you get a chance!

So… for those of you who couldn’t make it this year – is there anything that you want me to learn about, blog about or bring back from SxSW?  If so, drop a comment and I’ll do my best to find you the answer!

Back to non-virtual Twitter land!

I clearly remember the day I swore that I would never again work for another person or company for the rest of my life. *Clenched fist*

How does that saying go?  Never say…

So what happened?

Back in September of 2009, I started working closely with a San Antonio based technology organization called Rackspace.  For those of you from San Antonio and the surrounding areas, I’m sure you are already familiar with this gem of a company.  If you are from further away, you may not be… yet.

This short description may help:

Fanatical Support® has made Rackspace the world’s leader in hosting. We deliver enterprise-level hosting services to businesses of all sizes and kinds around the world. We got started in 1998 and since have grown to serve more than 70,000 customers, including over 51,000 cloud computing customers. Rackspace integrates the industry’s best technologies for each customer’s specific need and delivers it as a service via the company’s commitment to Fanatical Support. Our core products include Rackspace Managed Hosting, The Rackspace Cloud™ and Rackspace Email & Apps(formerly Mailtrust). There are currently over 2,800 Rackers around the world serving our customers.

In essence… really great and cutting edge technology, people (Rackers) who have a passion for what they do, and, if that weren’t enough, the organization has an amazing commitment to servicing clients.

What I’m up to

When I started working as a consultant for Rackspace, we began exploring concepts and approaches for creating a more authentic candidate experience.  Social media, as a tool for sharing and connecting with a variety of communities, seemed like the most promising route for establishing this piece of the talent acquisition arm.

During and after our initial conceptualization, I worked closely with the Director of Recruiting (Paul Norman), to design and create an employment portal (I like “Talent Portal”) that would serve as more than a simple stopping point to read bullet points and apply for a job.

We wanted to create something that would allow future Rackers to peer through the window and gain an understanding around what the culture at Rackspace really meant.  The hope being that once they had a chance to see it, they would be more inclined to engage in dialog about potential opportunities.

It takes a culture

While the above outlined goal was great, it takes more than a good idea and some planning to make something like this work.  I can tell you now (with a high level of certainty) that the culture of the organization matters most when attempting this sort of task.

Without the spirit and support of the many Rackers who have helped us along in this process, it would have been impossible to establish a system for sharing the authentic employment experience at Rackspace.

Fortunately, Rackspace is a company that takes great pride in being transparent and allows employees to engage in social media freely.  At last count, I’m pretty sure there were over 600 Rackers on Twitter alone.

As the months progressed, we engaged with Marketing, Communications, Legal, HR, Sr. Leadership and many others to establish a plan and level of understanding around what we were about to do next.  Everyone showed a huge amount of support for the project and so we pushed forward.

Further, the Recruiting team at Rackspace has been amazing!  I have never before worked with a group of individuals more committed or passionate about what they do.

Birth of an employment a talent portal

As of March 11, 2010, we launched our new talent portal and I accepted a permanent position with Rackspace to head up the efforts as we push forward.

With the help of the many amazing Rackers involved, we hope to share and engage talented individuals around the globe who are interested in working for an organization unlike any other I’ve witnessed.  For me, Rackspace is more than a company – it’s a way of doing business and a commitment to serving.

Just take a look at the Rackspace Core Values.  NOTE… these were not concocted during an executive retreat in the hills – they were created by the Rackers themselves and they truly reflect the spirit and commitment you will find when you walk through our doors.

• Fanatical Support in all we do.
• Results first, substance over flash.
• Committed to Greatness
• Full Disclosure and Transparency
• Passion for our Work
• Treat fellow Rackers like Friends and Family

I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Rackspace and to have once again regained my faith that a company like this actually exists.  It’s refreshing!

I encourage you to stop by “Racker Talent” to see what we’ve been up to!

It’s time for TruLondon!

I’ve never been to London, or Europe for that matter, and I’m really excited!

The very amiable Bill Boorman is hosting the second TruLondon conference this coming week and it’s sure to be an exciting and informative event.

With speakers from all over the U.S. and Europe, the topics span from best practices in HR to the cutting edge of social media recruiting – topics I’m mildly interested in!

If that weren’t enough, on the 18th there is a Tweet Up planned that is rumored to have a red shoe spin to it.  The #truCurrytweetup is taking place the first night of the event and will surely be a great way to meet the various track leaders and help a worthy cause in the process.

Even if you aren’t attending TruLondon, I would encourage you to stop by to be a part of the festivities!  As a small piece of advice, I’d recommend establishing a Twitter account before arriving.

Beyond TruLondon, this week will also have me visiting the Rackspace facility in the UK.  Having spent the past five months working at Rackspace on a variety of initiatives, I’m very excited to meet the UK team in person!  A number of the UK-based Rackers will be joining me for the conference and engaging in the topics presented.

I don’t know what to expect from this upcoming week, but I’m sure it will provide more than a few experiences worthy of blogging about.

As always, thanks for stopping by!  If you have anything that you would like me to check in to while in London, be sure to leave a note below.  I’ll be (hopefully) throwing up a photo stream soon for everyone to follow along with.  The pictures will probably vary from the conference to various shots around London… I’m feeling adventurous!

Anything you recommend for me to see while in London?

Photo Credit, Dimitry B

“The good news is – you’re fired. The bad news is – you’ve got, all of you’ve got just one week to regain your jobs starting with tonight.” – Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross

Wouldn’t that be a fun and interesting way to start off your work week!?!

What if, starting today, you had one week to make it or break it?

Would you buckle under the pressure, or could you make it work?

Working on the agency-side of recruiting for most of my career, I learned very quickly that pressure was something to get comfortable with.

Did I always enjoy the pressure?  Nope.  Did it make me plan and prepare more for the times when I would need to perform under pressure?  HELL YES!!!

The concept of ABC – “Always Be Closing“ – was something that a past boss introduced me to.

While he loved to give the Alec Baldwin speech (language) in jest… the message he was trying to convey was that in order to perform when things got tough, we would have to develop a recruitment strategy that we could deploy at any given moment.

That strategy, in my practice and as he taught, was “Always Be Recruiting”.

Always Be Recruiting

Recruiting, in many scenarios, offers us the ability to plan relationships for the future.  While it sometimes seems easier (and cheaper) to maintain a reactive stance – we run a much higher amount of risk by not having built our pipelines in advance.

The tendency to take the reactive route is further reinforced by high unemployment markets because it’s so easy to gather interested candidates.  Post ad, review candidates, interview potentials, hire… wash, rinse, repeat.  Sound familiar?

The problems start when the market turns the corner.  Suddenly, that endless pool of candidates starts to dwindle and they begin to get picky with which jobs they express interest in.  We sit back confused and start to evaluate our methods… “What the heck is going on?”

To amplify our concerns, turnover starts to occur internally… Why?  Well, probably because we went about hiring a number of highly qualified individuals in the down season and paid them less than they were worth – that was dumb!  Lesson learned (probably not) but, lesson learned

So then… this leads me to “Always Be Recruiting”

Your biggest opportunity in recruiting comes when you don’t need the people that you are going to hire in the future.  No, I’m not suggesting that you purchase a crystal ball to figure out your talent needs… but, I am suggesting that you consider potential needs for the future.

Think of it like a matrix…

If you would normally hire X, Y and Z skill sets – have you developed a bench of talent that you can pull on when hiring season ramps back up?  Are you continuing to recruit even though you don’t need the people right now?

Here is an example of what my old boss had his offices do:

1. Define the top 6 skill sets that the team would target.
2. Figure out where those pools of talent exist (Job Boards, Social Networking Sites, Forums, Etc…).
3. Develop a grouping of at least 6 deep on each one of your 6 skill sets… 6 x 6 = 36 Active Candidates
4. Constantly stay in touch with those 36 people (Emails, Calls, Newsletters, Etc…)

How ABR Changes Your Approach

You may have just finished reading this and are saying to yourself, “Of course, that’s easy… and common sense.”  I hope you are.

Fact of the matter is, most recruiters never take the time to stay disciplined with this sort of pattern.  While the agency side of recruiting (especially staffing) demands preparedness on short notice, I’ve rarely seen this approach taken on the corporate end of things.

Staying on top of your skill sets and in touch with potential hires for your organization can decrease your time-to-fill, improve the quality of hire and save you money on your car insurance (okay, not the last one – unless of course you are less stressed out due to the new process and drive your vehicle with fewer emotional distractions… in which case, yes, it could save you money in the long run).

Think about it and consider starting out by choosing 1-2 skill sets.  Can you build an available pool of talent that you can connect with on very short notice?

Can you build interest in your organization based on the future… not just the present?

Given a week… “just one week”… could you pull off the impossible recruiting request?  Just think about it…

Photo Credit 1 – Site

Photo Credit 2 – williac