Jobs in Pods Blog

Photo sharing sites like Flickr and Slide represent yet another free way to promote your company.

You already have pictures on your company website. Why not take it a step further and use these new social media sites to increase awareness? Take a look at what LinkedIn does. On their company blog they have a Flickr widget displaying their latest photos. They call it “Working at LinkedIn” and show the actual people and working environment. How cool is that!

So do yourself a favor this summer. Hand one of your interns a camera and instruct them to photograph your office and the people in it. Give potential candidates an inside peek at what it looks like and humanize your corporation. Be more open. Be more transparent. Make yourself more approachable and candidates will begin to see you in a different light.

Bill Vick of Xtremerecruiting is doing some cool interviews with industry execs. This one should be of particular interest to our readers. It features Shannon Seery of Bernard Hodes and she dishes the dirt on social media recruiting.

(We tried to post the video here but had some technical problems)

Social media blogger Shel Israel has a great post on the effects of social media on HR. We couldn’t have said it better ourself.

Social Media can put a whole lot more humanity into that which we call Human Resources. On both sides, people can use it to show who they are, which, in the end, may be more valuable than just show what they’ve done and what skills the job entails. Instead of filling slots, recruiters can start having conversations with team members. All sorts of relevent information can be shared. For example, video tours of neighborhoods where employee families live, including local parks, schools, summer arts festivals.

Ultimately, social media can not only restore the humanity to human resources. It can make the entire recruiting-hiring process a more accurate matchup at lower cost. Why would any company not move in this direction?

Why indeed.

We have discovered 2 pieces of media which every recruiter MUST consume if they want to adopt and promote social media in their own company.

The first is a video from Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester Analyst.

Video: Len Devanna on Culture Changes how Corporations Adopt Social Media (3min)

In it Len Devanna, Web Strategist at EMC says the following on getting executive buy-in:

“How are your kids communicating? Are they talking online? Are they twittering? And that generally rings true, that this medium is real…its here to stay and the current generation coming up expects it from a company.”

The second item is a podcast from the Marketing Edge. Its even more revealing than the first.

The social mind of a corporate marketer

In it, Chris Barger, a Social Media Strategist for IBM/GM says this about the ROI of social media:

“This is a relationship building process, sales happen as part of a larger relationship and thats what blogging, podcasting and online social media was intended to do.”

Interviewer Albert Maruggi’s reaction to the above statement is priceless. There is no better explanation of what social media is and is not in this interview.

There has been an explosion of articles in the mainstream press and blogosphere about utilizing social media to recruit. Here are some of the best.

Innovation: Corporations Embrace Social Networking (Foxnews)

Recruiting and social media (Powerpoint presentation from Organic)

Companies recruiting through social networks

Recruiting through social media

Social Media & its Impact on Online Recruitment- revolution or fad? (OnRec)

10 Social Media Tactics for Finding Talent

The answer is absolutely yes. One of the questions we often get from corporate recruiters is whether or not older folks are using sites like Facebook, Youtube, etc. They understand that Gen Y is on them but are unsure of others.

While many of these sites skew to a younger audience, there is a significant audience above age 35. Here’s the proof.

Facebook: 25-35 yr olds are the fastest growing demographic

Youtube: 62% of users are 35 or older (view graphic)

Podcast listenership: Nick Tabbal of comScore said, “While the conventional wisdom says that only young, tech-savvy consumers are downloading and listening to podcasts, there is also a sizable market among 35-to-54-year-olds, indicating that the audience is broader than previously thought”

MySpace: Internet users between the ages of 35-54 now account for 40.6% of the MySpace visitor base

These sites/technology are becoming pervasive across them web and integrating themselves into the lives of almost every American on the web.

We got a call yesterday from a recruiter at a major insurance company. She was investigating the use of “web 2.0” technologies (aka ‘social media‘) for recruiting and wanted some advice. It was a refreshing call. We think HR is finally beginning the push into these new media tools.

Several employers we have talked to recently seem to be researching the tools of web 2.0, so at least they are beginning to recognize the fact that they have to change their strategies to take advantage of them. In this month’s HR Magazine we came across a study about the use of web 2.0 and HR.

(full press release)

Its interesting to note that 34% are actively using some form of web 2.0 to recruit.  But 65% of respondents said they do not use or have never heard of them. Over the next 2 years that should change in our opinion. Most HR departments are rather slow at adopting new technologies, but as the milennials enter the workforce their influence will help change that. They will expect their employers to integrate these tools into the workplace (see what one company does). In fact, we think there will be whole new positions created like “Social Network Recruiter” whose sole job it will be to post jobs and interact with users on Facebook and MySpace.

Social Media Recruiting. Just do it.

We’d like to introduce the recruiting version of the Social Media Starfish, made popular by blogger Robert Scoble. Over the course of this year we will be blogging about how employers can take advantage of each of these tools in an effort to promote themselves and attract candidates.

Its a social media world out there. Time for companies to dive in.

One of the challenges we sometimes face with getting companies to use Jobs in Pods is getting it approved from within HR senior management. Normally when a company calls us, it’s usually a lower level HR person who came across the service and wants more info. Inevitably they have to “get back to us” after running it by their boss(s).

Being such a new technology we understand that the approval process can take time. There are some in HR who still don’t understand the power of social media as a recruiting tool. But the world is changing. The next generation workforce has already integrated social media: blogs, podcasts, social networks into their daily lives. They will EXPECT business to do the same once they enter your doors.

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research has a great post on how you can approach your management and get “buy in” when it comes to social media. Here’s an excerpt with a link to the full post at the end;

Look at the coming generation
I suggested that a conversation start with executives about the changes in communication, and if they have pictures of kids of their desk, that’s a good way to start the conversation. Ask you senior leaders how their kids communicate, if they don’t (perhaps they’re too busy running the company) ask them to take a closer look, and get back to you. My former CEO analyzed that his kids were using IM on PC, surfing the web, Text messaging on phone, school work on the couch next to them and the TV on in the background…and that was considered studying!

Immigrants vs Natives, guess who wins?
This next generation of digital immigrants are using the the web and other digital channels to communicate, update each other, and talk (Forrester’s 2007 stats indicates nearly two-thirds of teens access a social network at least once a month) and nearly 1/3 of adults access social networks a month. This doesn’t include other tools, just social networks. The truth is, this next generation of natives will enter the workforce with connections to employees, customers, prospects, partners, and even competitors, firms must be ready.

Continued >>

Too few companies realize how powerful sites like YouTube can be for marketing themselves. We’ve written about companies like Sodexho using it before. But we cant stress enough the fact that YouTube is a tremendous opportunity for employers if they use it correctly. It represents social media recruiting at its best.

There are 2 main reasons to incorporate the popular video site into your recruiting efforts.

• Employment branding
• Promoting your jobs

Once you set up a channel and add content you get FREE exposure to YouTube’s millions of users. We’re still amazed at how many companies still don’t post their recruitment videos to the site even though they are on their corporate site. Doing so could double, perhaps triple the number of views that video gets by uploading it.

Beginning tomorrow we will be showing you step by step how to setup your Youtube channel to maximize its usefulness.

Stay tuned.