During the final session of #HRevolution, Mark Stelzner presented the point that the HR social media crowd tends to mainly reinforce our own enthusiasm…

AMEN!!!

The goal, the future… the (hold on tight) CHANGE that we are going to see in this space will only be driven forward by everyone embracing a sense of inclusion.  Our efforts to explore the latest and greatest social media tools should be balanced with our desires to bring in the soon-to-be adopters – perhaps the hesitant-to-be adopters.

So, why should we?

In my humble opinion, social media, as it applies to HR has two apparent benefits.

1. Talent Acquisition
2. Learning

Let’s look at this closer…

Talent Acquisition

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that companies can experience great benefit from engaging with their target talent markets within social media communities.  This approach reinforces like-mindedness and shared values… not to mention openness to accountability.  All values that will be increasingly important with potential candidates to your company.

The tools and manner in which companies are approaching candidates within social media is limitless.  Personally, I would advocate some balance and limits in this type of implementation – but, truth be told, every company will have to find their own style and approach.  Effort and energy aligned, it can be very successful!

Learning

The other great benefit for HR professionals in social media is the ability to learn and share with others within your professional space.  Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration!

Knowledge has never before been so easy to gain!  With thousands of HR peers currently socializing and sharing professional thoughts, you have a real opportunity to learn.  Jump in!

How Can We Move It Forward?

Getting started is simpler than you might think.  I’ve chronicled approaches in the past, but if I had to do so again (in a simple way), I would recommend at least starting up with Twitter to connect with HR pros.

So, here is a two-part step-by-step:

1. Go to Twitter – http://twitter.com
2. Set up your account – Choose a fun name!
3. Make sure you use a picture – a name with a face is important!
4. Make sure you put some thought behind your bio.

Now for connecting with others:

1. Perform searches for “HR”, “SHRM”, “HRevolution” and anything else that you think applies to your field.  If people include it in a Tweet (message sent out on Twitter), you can find it by searching from your Twitter home page.
2. Start following people who are interesting to you!
3. Ask questions and send out helpful Tweets.
4. Respond to people who Tweet interesting things!

These eight steps will not change everything… but, I can promise you that it will get your ball rolling forward.  If a more comprehensive explanation is desired, check out the video I put together for SHRM last year – a few things have changed with Twitter, but, for the most part, things are the same.

So, let’s get HR Tweeting!  Let’s, at the very least, expand the bubble!

How else would you recommend that we include the masses?

Photo Credit, Pink Sherbet Photography

Guest Blogger – Alicia Arenas

Over the last several months, I have developed relationships with executive search and recruiting professionals on Twitter. The conversations I have with these folks are always enlightening and inspiring. This may not reflect the industry as a whole, but the people I talk with represent the true spirit of entrepreneurialism. What they do involves sales, risk, research, an intense understanding of human behavior, negotiation, intuition, knowledge of employment law, compensation and the ability to influence. You have my greatest respect.

Why a post for recruiters?

I recently had the privilege of being a guest panelist at a recruiting association meeting. Their goal was to give their members an insider’s, HR perspective on the world of recruiting. Do you know what shocked me? I was surprised to learn how little the recruiters really understood about the inner workings of HR. Hopefully this post will shed some light on what is happening behind the scenes in HR.

Human Resources Professionals Know Little About Effective Recruiting

Don’t get me wrong, most all HR professionals have received some type of interview training, but we’re not taught how to recruit. And the quality of the interview training we do receive is lacking. Here is what it looks like: 1/2 day of employment law training, 1/2 day of behavioral interview training & maybe 1/2 day of practice interviewing. That’s it. I worked for four Fortune 500 companies and this was the extent of the training the HR team received. If you are working with someone in a Generalist or even a leadership position within HR, this is probably the extent of their formal training too.

To get you even deeper into what happens behind the scenes, I would invite you to think about how tough it is to do something important when you haven’t been taught how to do it well…  Now insert that responsibility and pressure into the real life scenario of an HR pro: the need to effectively recruit for multiple openings along with handling employee relations issues, benefits questions, drug testing, background check verifications, training, investigations, performance management, audits, budget reviews, special projects, etc. If there is an employee crisis somewhere, the mountain of work gains altitude each day that crisis needs attention.

What does this mean for you?  Opportunity.

Be a Consultant, Not a Recruiter

This is a true story. There was an IT recruiter who wanted to do business with me, but we did not have (nor did we anticipate having) any IT openings. I explained that to him and his answer was “That’s okay. Someday you will. In the meantime, do you want some pointers to help you with your other openings?” Pointers? Of course I wanted pointers! So over the course of a couple of months he took time from his business to show me how to be a better recruiter. He gave me search tips, taught me to read between the lines in a resume and how to get worthwhile information from references. Because of his help, I did a better job filling the positions I was responsible for. The result – he made me look good to my hiring managers. Folks, in the HR world that is priceless. We’re seen as a “drain on the budget” or “a necessary evil.” When something you do helps us deliver results to our internal client, that is golden. Three months later I had an IT opening – it was for an EVP. To whom do you think I gave the order?

What do you think? What can you do today to shift your focus from recruiting to consulting?

This past week, I had the great privilege of visiting with a large group of recruiters in Southern California for the inaugural BarCamp Recruit event in Newport Beach, CA.

Gretchen Benes and Chrisa Mott conceived of the event after attending something similar for the Real Estate industry.  In summary, it was an unconference for recruiters that had a pretty intense focus on the use of social media.  Topics ranged from SEO to Twitter Best-Practices.  For the participants, it was a jam-packed day of valuable information!

Gretchen and Chrisa threw an excellent event!  Keep your eyes open for a BarCamp Recruit close to you… it’s coming!

The more I travel the country and meet recruiters, the more I enjoy teaching about how social media is becoming a force in the area of recruitment and HR.  Perhaps it’s because the more time that passes, the more the topic becomes relevant.  iStrategyLabs just reported last week that Facebook is trending to pass Google in unique visits per month by September… do you know what this means for the recruitment industry?  Are you planning to embrace this change?

During the training at BarCamp Recruit, I said to the group that any recruiter who does not familiarize themselves with social media over the course of the next two years will be a dinosaur.  I meant it.  In fact, in retrospect, I should have said “over the course of the next year” – it would have made more sense.

No one can deny that this little phenomenon that we refer to as social media is growing.  I just wonder if people realize how fast it’s growing.  And, it’s not just about Facebook.  Think about how many people are adopting Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging… just to name a few routes for social interaction online.  Are you improving your recruiting game as it applies to these tools?  How?

So, what does this all mean and how can a recruiter start to make sense of this online frenzy?

Here are a few suggestions…

Getting Started In Social Media

1. Decide on an available user ID – This should help… http://www.usernamecheck.com
2. Register your accounts (at least Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr)
3. Put together a short and interesting bio that you can use across multiple sites… be consistent.
4. Go have 50 pictures taken of yourself and pick one that you like… make sure your face is central.
5. Edit your pictures in http://picnik.com – Great for cropping pictures to the necessary size for social media.
6. Start being curious… poke around, read what people say and how they interact online.
7. Read a few blogs that have to do with social media from general and recruiting specific perspectives… here are some:

• Chris Brogan – Lots of valuable information on approach, strategy and processes
• Mashable – Lots of nitty-gritty on the tools (good for if you’d like to be “in the know”)
• Boolean Black Belt – Constant exploration of sourcing topics… very valuable information
• (Feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments… there are many great sources, but I’m blanking at the moment.)

Social media should not consume your life.  Perhaps it’s our natural curiosity – we love knowing what’s going on.  When we get that first sweet taste of being informed all the time… it can be a bit intoxicating.  You’ll ultimately do whatever you’d like… just remember that it’s important to balance the online with the off.  Spend time away from the computer and develop a fresh perspective.  It will make you that much more interesting when you return to exchange thoughts with your online friends.

Do Something About Social Media

No one is expecting that you are going to wake up tomorrow and be a super-savvy social media user.  However, you are going to be expected, over the next year (or more), to have a grasp on this topic.  If you are banking on it being a fad… wake up!  It may change and evolve, but it’s not going away.  Getting familiar with how things work will only benefit you and your career.

What did I leave out?  What would you suggest for an HR pro or Recruiter who is just starting out?

It’s the topic that never gets old.  The topic that constantly racks the brain of any dedicated recruiter.

How d0 I develop the best talent pipeline?

To answer a question so broad, there is no simple answer.  In fact, one could probably spend a career dedicated to answering this one question alone, only to find out that the right response had changed.

The strategy of recruiting evolves.  It evolves faster every single day.  Since I started in this profession, I’ve heard hundreds of logical ways for identifying and connecting with top-tier folks.  Most of them made sense, some of them did not.

I guess if I had to boil it down, there are some “back-to-the-basics” approaches that have always worked well.  Will they blow the roof off of your talent pipeline… maybe.  More than likely, they will simply serve as good common sense approaches in developing the types of relationships that render quality talent.

You probably have more ideas, so feel free to help build the list.  These are a few things that I’m always thinking about when developing the recruitment relationship.

10 Best Practices For Recruiting Top Talent

1.  Leave the BS behind – Top candidates are serious about their careers.  They are also usually very quick to smell a raw deal.  If the opportunity is less than stellar, don’t try to recruit someone away from a great position.  If you manage to attract them into the role, your reputation will suffer later when they figure out that you fooled them into something less than stellar.

2.  Ask for more questions – As a recruiter, one of our main responsibilities is to clear up ambiguities.  Sometimes candidates don’t know what to ask.  You must plant the appropriate seeds so that they don’t wake up in the middle of the night wondering.  Push the candidate to ask more and more questions… until the point that you have exhausted all possible angles.  This just creates a healthier dialogue.

3.  Put them two steps ahead – When possible, you should always career map a candidate.  Forget about this job… what about the next two steps.  Is the opportunity apparent?  Can you articulate it?  If you are on the agency side of things, be sure to gain clarification from your client around the career trajectory of an “A” player.  Any true top-tier candidate is going to want this.  If they don’t… well, are you really chatting with the best?

4.  Let them walk away – Convincing a candidate to take a job should never enter the picture.  If the two sides want eachother, then it will be.  Your job is to clarify and facilitate a smooth process.  To build strong relationships, your best candidates must know that they can walk away at any time.  You should never strive to place them in the wrong position.

5.  Answer the spouse’s questions – This only has to happen once for you to understand how influential the spouse is.  While you can’t ask if a candidate is married… you can ask if anyone else will influence the candidate’s decision.  Once the door is opened, ask if the other party has concerns or questions that they would like addressed.  I can’t stress enough how important this is.

6.  Network – If you establish a strong relationship with one “A” player, it’s very likely that you will build upon that over time with others.  The crazy part… you don’t even have to place the first person.  That’s right, if you treat them with dignity and respect… answer their questions and stick up for their best interests, they will refer great people to you.

7.  Be honest – This should go without saying, but it’s important to reinforce.  You are a professional recruiter.  You know how to persuade people – you do it for a living.  Bending the truth is not a complex task for you.  When you are working on deals that are worth 30k, 40k, 50k+, it’s easy for the little dishonest voice on your shoulder to prod you into bending the truth.  Beware, it only takes one time for your reputation to be forever tarnished.  Why give up years of hard work at establishing your reputation for one placement?  It’s silly… be careful.

8.  Coaching – You may be dealing with the most talent and educated candidate of your career.  Don’t assume that they know what to ask.  Your time recruiting counts for something and you need to flex that muscle when it matters most.  Make sure your candidate is prepared with questions.  Not just the ones they have, but the ones that they should have.  Never assume that they know what to ask.  Your job is to coach them through the process and help them make an educated decision.

9.  Feedback – Every great candidate I’ve worked with wants feedback.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad… they still want something.  If you are on the agency side and your client won’t give it to you… ditch the client, keep the candidate.  If you are on the corporate recruiting side, have a sit down “Come To Jesus” conversation with your hiring manager.  You can’t attract the best unless you are equiped to do so… hiring manager feedback is an essential tool for doing a great job at recruiting.

10. Did I hear singing? – You must stay in contact with your candidate even after they start in the role.  The “two week notice” period is critical.  The “two week honeymoon” is critical.  The first month is critical… first quarter, etc…  Get feedback.  Stay in touch.  Make sure that you are learning from the process.  What ended up as it was described?  What is different from how it was described?  You are partially responsible for this great candidate taking this new position.  Make sure that you stay with them and learn as much as possible.  Oh yeah… and don’t forget about referrals.

There are a multitude of excellent recruiting trainers around the globe.  Every single one of them has a unique spin on how to accomplish the same tasks.  We all want the best talent for our clients, so we must dedicate to learning how others do it and, ultimately, coming to terms with a style that suits our personalities.

The lesson is simple.  Be good to your candidates.  Help as much as you can (even if that means saying “no”).  You are a source and guide for them, so take that role seriously.

What else would you consider to be of the utmost importance in recruiting top talent?  Have you found anything that serves as a best practice?  Share your thoughts… I’m sure I’m missing about 30+ points here.

Photo Credit, PShutterbug