Posts by Croaghie:
- Improved retention rates
- Better people engagement
- Increased productivity
- Positive hit to the bottom line
- Decrease cost to the business
- Improved internal and stakeholder reputation
- Improved profitability of HR & hiring function
- Higher acceptance of offer rates
- Improved business continuity
- ‘Fish where the fish are’
- Reduce attrition due to poor hiring decisions
- Improve effectiveness of the hiring team/function
- A better experience with your organisation for candidates
- Turn negative brand perception into positive brand reputation
- User generated content provides transparency and ‘real’ insight
- Sharing of valuable content – including thought leadership – improves candidate engagement and provides the impetus for ongoing communications
- Increase market visibility of employer
- Build a candidate pipeline or ‘tribe’: communities of people with specific skill sets, keen to join your organisation now or in the future
- Better engagement and loyalty of existing workforce
- Competitive advantage: hire the industry’s best
- Defining goals
- Listening
- Stakeholder buy-in
- Planning
- Strategy development & sign-off
- Optimization
- Content
- Going live: action/execution
- Engagement
- Management: of the strategy
- Management: of the tribes
- Review
- Brainstorm an upcoming client challenge for the following week over a glass of vino or cold beer
- Monthly, we share our respective highlights (or lowlights)
- Partake in one of the famous Daemon Trivia events
- How the company’s performing
- Staff changes; general updates
- Great news articles on industry activity and competitors
- Asking for feedback from employees: on the day-to-day, diversity, culture, competitors
- Encouraging your people to get to know one another better: what’s happening on the weekend?
- Challenge the Norm. Try resisting the temptation of placing your ad on that overpriced jobboard. It might make you feel like you’ve ticked all the boxes, but really, that’s just your comfort zone talking. As Stephen Fry says, be curious. Learn about better, more effective and efficient opportunities that will help you build a tribe of interested candidates.
- …which is the perfect segway to Point 2: Social Media. Don’t be afraid! (did you know Twitter is the biggest jobboard in the world?). If you’re not sure that Social Media is right for your hiring and talent sourcing efforts, you owe it to your business and your brand to at least start listening. Check out this cool blog entry on how to establish a social listening campaign.
- Video. It’s gunna kill it in 2012. And, as Google+ experiences massive user uptake (more on that soon), with sweet YouTube integration, it’s a seriously effective platform for reaching out to new candidates. Plus, the creative opportunities for engagement of your existing workforce are way exciting…. but too many to speak of here (someone stop me!)
- Mobile. Wow. Where do I start? From capturing really specific talent audiences (like grads or engineers) to building personalised relationships; from never missing an opportunity to present your EB to your candidate pipeline to modernising your brand. Mobile is totally happening.
Can you hear me?
January 11th, 2012Listening.
It’s step 2 of the 12 Steps to finding staff in the social web…..and it’s the MUST DO precursor to any social media activity.
So once you’ve set your goals for B2E social media activity, STOP, and take 5. WAIT before you set up that Twitter Account and start blabbing about the fabulous jobs you have open!
The critical listening stage will provide HRDs and Hiring Managers with an understanding of candidate interests, behaviours, likes and gripes (not to mention talent competitor insights).
Before actively engaging with your candidate tribes, being smart – and patient – enough to listen and observe will play a crucial role in creating a successful social engagement strategy. A strategy that will vastly improve your hiring efforts.
In order to listen with maximum effect, there are a number of stages to consider which I’ve outlined here; possibly not all relevant depending upon your workforce size and organisational complexity.
But remember this: whether you’re convinced or not of the need to participate in online conversations for talent sourcing, the act of listening is fast becoming a business imperative.
| STAGE | DESCRIPTION | RESOURCES NEEDED | IMPACT |
| 1) No objective | HRDs have decided to listen but with no pre-set goals; unsure of how to use the information for anything resourceful. | Simple social alerting tools, like Google Alerts and Feedreaders. Also time: identifying the talent groups; talent competitors; and industry activity you want to listen to.
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At the basic level, simple awareness (but of course with zero action from the data gathered, this isn’t time well invested). |
| 2) Tracking of brand mentions. Context: EVP and Employer Brand | Like traditional “clip reports” of media relations, companies now track mentions in the social space, both for brand and employer reputation purposes. But with no guidance, what to do next? | Listening platform with report capability based on brand or keywords (eg by skill set). Radian 6, Visible Technologies, Techrigy/Alterian, Buzzmetrics and Cymfony, Dow Jones are providers. | Improved EB awareness tracking volume of information, yet won’t track depth, or tonality of conversations. As a result, not complete insight into candidate & competitive market.
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| 3) Identifying risks and opportunities | This proactive process involves seeking out discussions online that may result in identifying flare-ups, or possible candidate opportunities. | In addition to a listening platform existing talent actively seek out discussions and revert to internal teams. Alerting tools and listening platforms recommended. | Reduce risk of flare-ups before they become mainstream; identify talent prospects and unhappy competitors’ people.
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| 4) Improving Recruitment campaign efficiency | Rather than just measure a recruitment marketing effort after it’s occurred, using tools to gauge during in-flight; yields real-time campaign efficiency (including ROI). | Dedicated resource to manage reactions, activity, and sentiment to a recruitment marketing effort, and the resources to make course corrections nearly real-time. Traditional web analytics tools like Omniture, Webtrends and Google Analytics are common.
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More effective campaigns, as hot spots are bolstered, and dead spots diminished. Time and cost per hire reduced. Better opportunity to engage with quality hires. “Best Fit” talent. |
| 5) Responding to candidate inquiry | This proactive response finds candidates where they dwell online (fish where fish are) in order to answer questions. Example: ask candidates in a specific skill set/job family about succession plans in their organisations, via Twitter.
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An active recruitment team that’s empowered, training, and ready to make real-time responses (nearly) around the clock. | Candidates with a greater sense of satisfaction. Can backfire, as it teaches prospective hires to ‘yell in public’ to get a response. |
Source: I’ve borrowed the format from Jeremiah Owyang’s “Web Strategy”, but customised it for B2E. Thanks Jeremiah!
In July 2011, Dell commissioned Forrester to conduct research on ‘Listening and Engaging in the Digital Marketing Age’. Findings showed information collected during the ‘listening’ phase provided organisations with key insights that were used to create strategies across all areas of the business.
Report what you learn. Share it with your stakeholders. Use the learnings for all workforce groups, business-wide.
Have you listened to your future hires online yet? Let me know!
Follow us on Twitter:
@Croaghie
@Lu_cy_Lu
@Daemonwithin
What’s the point?
January 11th, 2012Goal Setting…..Step 1 of the 12 Steps to finding staff in the Social Web
As HRD or Hiring Manager, you’re likely hearing about the proliferation of online social communities or ‘tribes’. But you’re not sure how to tap into these groups, to help your organisation’s talent and hiring needs.
Plus, you may be thinking your current strategies for finding people, and managing your organisation’s employer brand, is a little dated; not as punchy as it used to be; even tired.
Where do you start?
Before you get the ball rolling in the social stratosphere, think about what you’re aiming to achieve.
What’s the point?
A good idea during the process of goal setting is to define the desired outcomes of your goals. This way, you’re able to see and manage tangible results (and in time, you’ll need to set success metrics for your activity….I’ll post that up soon, as part of this series).
Here are some thought starters, in the B2E world:
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Goal: |
Outcome: |
| Better quality of hires |
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| Reduce the cost of hiring |
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| Decrease time to fill |
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| Stop reactive or ‘stress’ hiring |
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| Build market respect for the business as an employer |
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| Improve the desirability of the organisation as an employer |
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Once you’ve defined the ‘why’ of social media, the idea of taking it on for hiring and employer reputation management will be a lot clearer, and more achievable.
Give it a go! And let me know if you think I’ve missed anything.
Follow us on Twitter!
@Croaghie
@Lu_cy_Lu
@Daemonwithin
12 steps to finding staff in the social web…
January 9th, 2012The traditional channels for finding new staff (read: great people that will ‘fit’ with your business) as stand-alone sourcing opportunities are increasingly ineffective: we’re talking jobboards, press ads or ringing your trusty recruiter.
No surprises here.
What is surprising is the glacial speed with which many ‘innovative’ organisations are moving, in accessing all that the social web has to offer, for building tribes of great talent.
I say ‘tribes’ as the old ‘talent pipeline’ chestnut, although a meaningful idiom, never really stuck in execution. The global community in which we now live is increasingly tribal. And we run in multiple tribes…. by interest, hobby, gender, religion, profession, skill set, ethnicity, politics, opinion, experience….
These tribal habits which candidates are developing online (and let’s face it, everyone is a candidate), are providing a clear pathway for smart organisations wishing to cut-through and grow their own tribes of best-fit future staff.
Prospective hires for your workforce (or your client’s workforce, recruiters), housed on your candidate database or CRM, are not real prospects. Why? Because they’re not a community, they’re a number. They’re not treated with insight and intellect. They’re a back-stop.
And before you know it, they’re being fed great content by, and forging relationships with your talent competitors: which means, you fall further down the list of ‘organisations I want to work for’.
The approach for sourcing talent on the social web is simple. Below I’ve defined the 12 key steps. They’re sequential, and they’re easy to achieve.
Importantly, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for hiring. Start by thinking about altering your traditional approach to finding people. And combine this with simple social sourcing strategies that are tailored to your talent needs NOW and in the (near and distant) future.
Over the next few days, I’ll shed light on each of these steps.
Today’s about getting your head around the concept. And on that, I have enormous respect for Deloitte’s lateral approach to tapping into candidate tribes online. Have a read.
Have you started to think about using the social web for your hiring needs?
Follow us on Twitter!
@Croaghie
@Lu_cy_Lu
@Daemonwithin
How productive are your Fridays?
January 6th, 2012Friday in many industries, marketing included (…ahem), are often approached by staff in a casual, laissez-faire manner.
When does weekend wind-down mode start in your office? Thursday night?
In an ad agency I used to work for, the creative department checked out most Fridays at midday. Literally. Most often never to return for the week. And if they did, they were usually….. well… not very tidy.
How do you keep your people motivated on Friday?
Here over at Daemon Within HQ, we often…
On that, to my horror, about 3 weeks into my tenure with Daemon, my lovely colleagues @rockylindner (alias Twitter handle: @youreffindreamin) and @lucie_may (alias Twitter handle: @SexyMcAwesome) decided to host a rock-a-sted-ford style trivia event. And sadly I hadn’t prepared myself (ie, no alcohol involved). So I belted out a few lines of ‘American Pie’, whilst trying to bustamove. And I can’t sing. @Croaghie #FAIL.
So, on our experience, it’s a good time for culture development.
What about informal team meetings: not boring or task oriented, but sharing of information such as:
Another previous employer of mine, had the ‘Ad-Agency-Name Hour’ at 4pm on Fridays in the boardroom. Sadly, the culture was such that many people would bugger off at 345, knowing the CEO and other business leaders were actively participating in said ‘Hour’. Hmmm….not good!
Finally, if you’re really lucky, and have a boss like David Brent, you could goad him into dancing for charity…..
Happy Weekend Everyone!
Follow us on Twitter!
@Croaghie
@Lu_cy_Lu
@Daemonwithin
4 Crucial Considerations for HRDs in 2012
January 5th, 2012As the momentum starts to build here at Team Daemon Within, we’ve come across a truckload of predictions for 2012, from a broad cross section of the blogosphere; particularly relating to Social Media and emerging digital platforms.
But firstly, if you want to take a squiz at a very cool interactive infographic, on what was 2011 in the context of Social Media, check out this fab retrospective
Now…. looking forward. In the spirit of all things new and starting afresh, here are 4 crucial considerations for HRD’s in 2012. In no particular order….
Each of these crucial considerations will be given the greater attention they deserve. So watch this space.
But in the meantime HRDs…..get curious. Soon you’ll see…..your sourcing ROI will speak for itself.
Follow me on Twitter! @Croaghie
Being kind to your colleagues…..
January 4th, 2012Back to work for 2012…..
Today I returned to work for the New Year. And it’s been an interesting day.
I’m not going to pretend that I could hardly wait to get back to the office. In fact, now that summer’s finally arrived in Sydney, I felt more inclined to head straight to Bondi Beach.
However it HAS been interesting. Dare I say it, pleasantly surprising…..
I’ve reflected on my time away from work: the people I caught up with, the fun I had, the activities I enjoyed.
I’ve reviewed last year’s business activity and started the foundations of 2012’s Master Plan.
And I’ve really enjoyed it (no eye rolling please).
But I’m probably one of the few.
I received calls & texts from friends & family over the past week, bemoaning ‘getting back to the grind’ and ‘working for the man’. Culturally in Australia, we can be overly addicted to holidays and down time, yet the stats tell us that stress (and the often resultant depression), increasingly places a major strain on workforce productivity and our health system.
What strikes me as I return to work today is that this week, next week, and right up to Australia Day, many of us returning to work, will do so feeling uninspired. Have a quick read of this great article about being uninspired at work…
As your business kicks off for 2012, be mindful that this is a flight risk period. Some talent will come back to work, looking for a ‘better’ alternative.
So at this critical time, think inclusion: in planning, in communications, in sharing ideas, in sharing the ‘fun’ part of the workload.
Getting back into the swing of things in a New Year can be a challenge for anyone…. including ‘the man’!
