Posts filed under ‘Measuring Return’
Candidate Sourcing: The Self-Selection Setback
by Kendra Pearson
I recently had the privilege of attending the SHRM Talent Management Conference in Washington, D.C., and I was impressed by the caliber of conversation that took place in and out of the classroom, and on and offline. A lot of the dialogue focused on the tools and processes HR professionals are currently using to attract, engage and retain talent.
My colleague Matt Adam led a session on Innovation in Recruitment that touched on this very topic, and he outlined the steps for building an effective and proactive sourcing and recruitment strategy. To kick off his presentation, he asked members of the audience to raise their hands and indicate which components they were including in their current program. While it was not surprising to see that many attendees were using LinkedIn and making updates to their career sites, it was interesting to note how few hands were raised when he asked if they were tracking candidate behavior within their websites.
Understanding which sources are attracting qualified talent is essential in order to make recruiting budget allocations from a position of intelligence. However, if you are relying on candidates to tell you how they learned about your company—to self-select—the resulting data will almost certainly include inaccuracies. So when you evaluate your marketing strategies to identify successful sources, how can you be sure you have the whole picture?
During his SHRM presentation, Matt shared an excellent example of how self-selection can skew an organization’s metrics. Take a look:
So, I’m challenging you to raise your hand.
If you don’t already track candidate behavior, is it at least an organizational goal to do so? Or, are you still relying on self-selection to track candidate behavior on your website? If you are ready to explore a more comprehensive and accurate measurement strategy, I encourage you to download our “Escape the Metrics Maze” white paper here.
SHRM Cost-per-Hire Report
Have you seen the latest Cost-Per-Hire report from SHRM? NAS Recruitment had the pleasure of a sneak peak – thanks to Cyndy Trivella, a TalentTalk contributor as well as NAS Director of the Year! The paper was developed by a task force of individuals brought together from the SHRM Workforce Planning Group, specifically the Cost-Hire initiative. We are proud to have our very own Cyndy Trivella as part of this group.
From this white paper, you will learn: (more…)
Know What Your Recruiting Competitors Are Up To
Reprinted with permission of ERE Media – www.ere.net
It blows my mind how the subject and function of competitive intelligence falls by the wayside in most HR/recruiting departments. Just what exactly is competitive intelligence and what is it used for? Let’s start first by defining it:
Definition: the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization (Wikipedia.org)
A couple weeks back, I participated in a webinar about strategic recruiting methods along with over 400 HR/recruiting professionals. During the call, the host took a live quickpoll on the topic of competitive intelligence; here is the question that was posed to the participants, “Do you know today how your organization’s recruitment performance compares to other organizations in your industry?”
After a quick minute of tallying the results, an overwhelming 70% of the participants did not know how their own organizational recruitment performance stacked up against their competition, which leads me to ask: why not?
When I contemplate the concept of competitive intelligence and how it can impact a company’s recruitment strategy and performance, I cannot see how more companies are not incorporating this subject into a core strength of their recruitment strategy. I began to think further into some other industries/professions that I have strong interest in, where competitive intelligence is the starting point for strategies and plans.
Professional football is the industry at the top of my mind when it comes to competitive intelligence. NFL teams step on the field every Sunday during the regular season with real-time intelligence of the opposing team’s playbook, tendencies, tricks, coaches, and players. They want to know ahead of time what the opposing team may do: what play will they run, and what personnel package they will have on the field, for example. They want to gain the advantage on the competing team. NFL teams typically spend the equivalent of a few days watching film, studying pictures, and reviewing playbooks and players before the first game whistle is blown. Former head coach Jon Gruden went as far to make it a point to know what types of shoes the opposing players were going to wear.
Companies that sell products use competitive intelligence on a massive scale and on a daily basis. A perfect example is the competitive intelligence war in the soda industry. Coke & Pepsi are two industry leaders that use demographics, psychographics, consumer data, research, and numerous other data sources to locate their ideal consumers and then target consumers in various methods. So why is competitive intelligence not a larger part of the recruitment functions of companies? Why did 70% of HR/recruiting professionals on the webinar have no idea what their competitors are doing?
There are numerous tools and resources available to help companies and organizations gain competitive intelligence when it comes to the recruiting function. For example, there are reports available that provide real-time business intelligence for the marketplace. If you don’t know where to look or how to get your hands on these reports, there are agencies out there that specialize in such technology and can help you. Cutting edge HR/recruiting departments use such reports and intelligence to analyze employment trends, gather competitive intelligence, forecast economic conditions, and source hard-to-fill positions.
The same principles of competitive intelligence can be use within the recruitment functions and activities of companies. Using competitive intelligence can provide a dashboard of the competitions strategy. Give your organization a recruiting advantage. Use competitive intelligence to gain a step up on the competition and beat your competitor to the talent you desire. Don’t be one of the 70%’ers that are lost in the sauce.
Morgan Hoogvelt currently serves as NAS Recruitment Communications’ Director of Business Development for the South Texas and Louisiana region. Drawing on his expertise in essential hiring practices, candidate sourcing, Internet recruiting and social networking, he provides targeted, best-of-class solutions and employment branding strategies that help his clients meet the challenges of recruiting, retaining and rewarding top talent. He is also passionate about delivering excellent customer service and building positive, productive client relationships.
Stepping Out of Your Sourcing Comfort Zone
Deep into planning a two-week visit from my 17-year old sister, I received a curveball. It was revealed to me that, tragically, the latest Twilight installment hit theaters while she was here. “I know you don’t want to see it, but can we go?” she pleaded. I (very) reluctantly agreed, highlighting that if I’m ever nominated for “Sister of the Year,” this surely this should be noted in my application.
