Recruiting

Recommended Blogs for HR & Recruiting Professionals

We’ve come a long way baby…

As usual, former Punk Rock HR blogger (and now HR and careers mogul) Laurie Ruettimann sums it up pretty well. Along with the Evil HR Lady, Kris Dunn and Lance Haun, Laurie was one of the first to open up online to share her experiences about what it’s like to exist in the world of HR.

Now, there are more HR and Recruiting blogs than you can shake a stick at. Some are all kinds of awesome, while others are still finding their way and seeking an audience that includes more than their Mom – and likely me.

I subscribe to a ton of blogs and newsfeeds by using Google Reader and although I read many HR & Recruiting-related blogs, I think it’s important to read blogs and news outside of the space as well. For example, I enjoy reading blogs that are focused on Marketing, PR, Social Media, Leadership, Employment Branding and Professional Speaking to help me be a more rounded business owner and professional and also to stay on top of best practices and case studies that could be useful in helping my clients.

In summary, A&E called, and they want me to appear on their new show – Hoarders: Buried Alive Under RSS Feeds…

But like a junkie who needs another fix, I’m always looking for new blogs to discover, new Bloggers to connect with and new ways of thinking, so I’d like to get your input on blogs that you would recommend that I check out in these categories:

Must Read HR Blog/Possibly Undiscovered HR Blog

Jennifer’s Picks -> The HR Capitalist and Women of HR (multi-contributor)

Must Read Recruiting Blog/Possibly Undiscovered Recruiting Blog

Jennifer’s Picks -> ERE.net (multi-contributor) and Sirona Says

Must Read Leadership Blog/Possibly Undiscovered Leadership Blog

Jennifer’s Picks -> Great Leadership and Just Dewett – Fuel For Leaders

Must Read Social Media-Related Blog/Possibly Undiscovered Social Media-Related Blog

Jennifer’s Picks -> Social Media Examiner and The Anti-Social Media

Wildcard: Must Read Blog – Other/Possibly Undiscovered Blog – Other

Jennifer’s Picks -> Fistful of Talent (multi-contributor) and 1.00 FTE – Impressions of Corporate Life

Which blogs are on your list? Please share some or all of your favorites with me and others in the comments!

Written by Jennifer McClure

RecruitFest October 7, 2010: Learn From the Best for FREE

Yeah, I know. I attend a lot of conferences in the recruiting and HR space.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was someone who had never attended even a local conference before.

I was too busy to be out of the office. I didn’t have the money (or spent the money) in my budget. In an effort to be a good Boss, I made sure that the people who worked on my team got out for professional development opportunities – but I never made it to any.

I put myself and my professional development last. Boo.

Two years ago, I made a conscious decision to invest in myself by attending two of the leading HR and Recruiting conferences – the SHRM Annual Conference and ERE Fall Expo. I use the word “invest” on purpose, because at that time, I was a 3rd party recruiter paid only on commission, so any expenses related to attending came out of my own pocket (i.e. not paid for by my company) – and time out of the office took me away from revenue generating activities for a few days.

Yet I can safely say that getting out to some of these events to learn from many of the big brains in Recruiting, HR and Talent Management, as well as to build relationships with key people in my industry has been one of the best decisions of my career.

I’ve had the opportunity to learn from (and meet) some of the top Thought Leaders in my profession and I’ve listened to case studies and best practices shared by practitioners at leading organizations. I’ve also developed some of the strongest and most helpful business and personal relationships that I’ve ever had in my career.

To put all of that into business-speak – an extremely positive ROI has been achieved.

As I continue to grow in my career and develop my new business, I’m continuously curious and love to learn – so conferences are one way for me to meet those needs. But sometimes the cost, travel and/or time investment can make attending a no-go.

So I’m really excited that the folks at RecruitingBlogs.com and Monster.com are making the entire October 7th RecruitFest conference in Boston available to view FREE and Live online!

Big Brains/Thought Leaders/Practitioners from Leading Organizations? Check.

Opportunity to view and participate LIVE in the conference from the comfort of your office or while viewing at home in your pajamas? Check.

Easy to sign up and – did I mention – FREE? Check.

I’d recommend clearing your schedule from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm EST on Thursday, October 7th to be there.

You’re Boss will love you because you’re saving T&E dollars + you’ll get smarter = WIN.

Will I “see” you there?

Written by Jennifer McClure

Carnival of HR – Online Degree Edition

I’m so excited! It’s time for me to host the famous Carnival of HR for the first time!

It’s also the midpoint of summer here in the US, meaning it’s almost time for the kiddos to head back to school (which according to Staples – and many parents – is the most wonderful time of the year), so I’ve got class schedules and degree programs on my brain as the parent of an incoming freshman at THE Ohio State University. (Go Buckeyes!)

In the spirit of education, I thought I’d whip up a quick online degree program for HR Pros, Recruiting Rockstars and Talent Management Geeks everywhere by organizing the great Carnival of HR submissions I received into an educational opportunity and featuring some great bloggers Teachers just for you!

So grab your assigned seat, take out your pen and paper, bring some chocolate an apple for your Host and check out all of the posts! I’m confident you’ll find some great new blogs and bloggers you’ve not yet discovered and you’ll also be a wiser and more educated professional for having done so.

———-

Corporate Culture

Leadership Belief and Building ‘People-Centric’ Culture – Professor Tanmay Vora of QAspire Blog.

Class Summary: The Leader’s choice to treat people as “humans” or as “resources” and how that can affect an organization’s culture.

The Perfect Corporate Culture Doesn’t Exist – Professor Jennifer V. Miller from The People Equation.

Class Summary: Explore how even the best of corporate cultures aren’t perfect.

Diversity & Inclusion

Inclusion Measurement – Tracking the Intangible – Professor Erik Samdahl of The Productivity Blog.

Class Summary: Learn some indirect measurements for gauging inclusion success in an organization.

The Act of Including – Professor Joe Gerstandt of Our Time to Act.

Class Summary: The not so fine line between being unintentionally exclusive versus being deliberate, intentional and proactive about being inclusive.

Employee Benefits

Survey Says: Employees Don’t Want Their Benefit Information Tweeted – Professor Lexi Ruben from the Precept Employee Benefits Blog.

Class Summary: To tweet or not to tweet benefits information? That is the question.

Employee Relations

Anniversaries Matter. Jobs Matter More. – Professor Kari Quaas of the Seasonal Human Resources Blog.

Class Summary: Don’t be schmucks.

Rehire Fired Employee? – Professor Susan M. Heathfield from the Human Resources Blog on About.com.

Class Summary: How following the recommended steps for firing an employee might influence that decision.

Why Do Companies Punish Whistleblowers? – Professor Suzanne Lucas from the Personal Success Blog on BNET.

Class Summary: Establishing a process for reporting and investigating problems within your company to keep communication lines open.

Global Human Resources

Future Imperative – Professor The HRD of My Hell is Other People.

Class Summary: Discuss the seismic changes taking place and globalization of work – and whether or not organizations are prepared.

Salary Inflation II – Professor Frank Mulligan of the Talent in China blog.

Class Summary: Explore the effects and consequences that recent increases in wages in China are having on the nation’s & region’s economy.

Upside of a Global Organization – Professor Amy Wilson from the TalentedApps team.

Class Summary: Learn about some of the challenges and tremendous leverage of working in global teams.

HR Technology

Top Three Challenges of Implementing an HR Automation Software – Professor Gireesh Sharma of the Grasp e-Marketing blog.

Class Summary: Review the top 3 challenges during the software implementation cycle based upon Gireesh’s experience.

Leadership

Make Sure You “Hug” Your Top Performers During Times of Change – Professor Dan McCarthy from Great Leadership.

Class Summary: The importance of not taking top performers for granted and making sure they know they’re valued.

Responsibility and Leadership – Professor Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership Blog.

Class Summary: When Dwight Eisenhower gave the order to launch the D-Day invastion, he faced the real possibility that things could go wrong. But he was willing to take the responsibility.

Stop Trying to Make Others Happy – Professor Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire Collaborative Services.

Class Summary: Personalizing rewards and recognition to motivate employees.

Legal & Compliance

Dear Evil Skippy: The FMLA Expands Family Trees – Professor Jim of Evil Skippy at Work.

Class Summary: FMLA definitions, communication and navigation. (Note: This required class is sure to be a riot. Good times.)

What You Need to Know About Floating Holidays – Professor Kim Urban of Kim’s HR Potpourri blog.

Class Summary: The intricacies of handling Floating Holidays in the state of California.

Organizational Psychology

Trains and Perception – Professor Steve Boese of Steve’s HR Technology blog.

Class Summary: What we call programs and activities in our organizations can influence the perception of their importance as well as the approach and enthusiasm of the people involved.

$5000 or a Stranger’s Happiness? – Professor Drew Tarvin of Humor That Works.

Class Summary: Learn how surrounding yourself with happy (or unhappy) people impacts you.

Performance Management

Performance Management is a TOOL and not a CHORE – Professor Cathy Missildine-Martin of Profitability Through Human Capital blog.

Class Summary: Decide whether Performance Appraisals should be 1 question, 3 questions or 435…

In Defense of Recruiters – Professor Bill Boorman of Norton Folgate: The Recruiting Unblog.

Class Summary: 5 ways to fix the process and build better relationships between Recruiters and HR departments.

The Need for Speed – Professor Mervyn Dinnen of T Recs.

Class Summary: Debate whether finding the “best” candidate for clients is hindered by expectations of speedy submissions.

Social Media for HR/Recruiting

Developing a Social Recruiting Strategy: From Bigot to Believer – Professor R.J. Morris substitute teaching for yours truly right here on the Unbridled Talent blog (good stuff in case you missed it).

Class Summary: Case study of one man and one company’s approach to developing a social recruiting strategy.

How to Get Started in Social Media with Mike Vandervort – led by Professor Ben Eubanks of UpStartHR.

Class Summary: Learn how HR practitioner Mike Vandervort is using social media to create a competitive advantage for his employer.

We’re Social Media Hippies Who Live in Mamby-Pamby Land. I can dig that. – Professor Kevin W. Grossman of HR Marketer Blog.

Class Summary: Explore the risks and the values of using social media in the workplace – while saying cool words like Mamby-Pamby.

Talent Management

If Lebron Went Corporate: A Cautionary Tale – Professor Aaron Ziff from the Respectful Workplace Blog. Class Summary: Talent management lessons from the real-world case study featuring basketball hero or zero (you decide) Lebron James.

Talent Management Best Practices for a Post-Recession World – Professor Lois Melbourne of Aquire.

Class Summary: Talent strategies to keep your top talent as the economy improves and employees have more choices.

There Is No “I” in “Team”. But There Is a “Me”. – Professor Benjamin McCall of ReThink HR.

Class Summary: Talent Management and succession planning lessons from the world of sports.

Tour de France’s Lessons for Human Resources and Management – Professor Michael D. Haberman from HR Observations.

Class Summary: Review some lessons from the Tour de France related to talent, teams and planning that are important for businesses today.

Talent Selection

How to Hire People Who Understand the Values of Your Organization – Professor Amit Bhagria of Young HR Manager.

Class Summary: Review a case study and examples of how to shift the focus of your interview process to asking questions that reveal a candidate’s self beliefs and value system.

Low Performers Are Laid Off First – Professor Chris Young of the Maximize Possibility Blog.

Class Summary: The importance of pre-employment assessment validity.

Winning the War on Talent – Professor Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Advisors.

Class Summary: Review a case study that could change sourcing, screening and assessment processes to ensure hiring candidates that match an organization’s culture.

Workforce Development/Career Management

Making Employees Career Competent – Professor Lance Haun of Rehaul.com.

Class Summary: HR’s role in helping today’s workforce develop new skills to improve employability.

New Generation – Professor Laura Schroeder of Working Girl blog.

Class Summary: Debate whether the new generation is owed an express ticket to executive management because they’re willing to work hard and have black belts in social media – or not.

Extra Credit/Self-Study

Ten Minutes with Vinnie Mirchandani – Industry Expert – brought to you by The Devon Group.

Class Summary: Hear from the author of the book “The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations”.

Top Summer Reading for Business Leaders – compiled by Professor Trish McFarlane, the HR Ringleader.

Class Summary: What thought leaders in HR, recruiting and academia are reading this summer.

———-

Whew! Well there you have it folks. A crash course in all things HR, Recruiting and Talent Management.

If you read all of the posts and passed the exams, give yourself a pat on the back. You just graduated from the Carnival of HR Online Degree Program! Now be sure to leave a comment on this post so I’ll know how many seats we’ll need at the graduation party…

Thanks to all who submitted great posts for the Carnival of HR! Next up, the August 4th Carnival will be hosted by Drew Tarvin at Humor That Works. Be sure to check it out!

Written by Jennifer McClure

Developing a Social Recruiting Strategy: From Bigot To Believer

In an effort to highlight HR, Recruiting and Talent Management professionals who are developing and implementing Innovative People Strategies every day in their workplaces, I’m starting a regular guest post series here on the Unbridled Talent blog to share some of their work and best practices. Today’s guest post is from R.J. Morris, the corporate Director of Staffing at McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. I first became aware of R.J. through reading his guest posts on Fistful of Talent and soon began following him on Twitter. My impression was that R.J. is a recruiting professional who “gets it” and I had the opportunity to confirm my suspicions when I met him in person at the recent Social Recruiting Summit at Best Buy in Minneapolis, MN.

Nine months ago, I would tease my wife when she logged into her Facebook account after the kids went to bed. In a horribly superior tone, I would ask her if she was 15 and IM’ing her BFF. I was neither classy nor witty. Like my mom ten years ago when she talked about “that internet thing,” I sounded like a complete idiot—a social media bigot, if you will. Thankfully, my wife is a very cool lady and recognized that I made fun of Facebook because I did not understand it. These days, I write guest blog posts, tweet and am helping to implement social recruiting in my organization.

Now? My wife makes fun of me daily.

How do you go from bigot to believer? I was, of course, initially afraid I had missed the boat. I kept hearing that companies were using social media to drive recruiting and business results—my limited exposure to Facebook made it seem like it was a tool that told me “Sally’s excited about shopping today” or “Heather has completed the Bugs Collection” on Farmville. Twitter? That was for folks who wanted to follow Ashton and Britney. I was hopeless and overwhelmed.

Thankfully, the social media community is very welcoming, and I began to learn. Progressive HR professionals were soon interacting with me, offering outstanding knowledge and resources. The challenge was how to translate that knowledge to the business that I support. “Look how much professional development I get from colleagues on Twitter,” is quite different than, “Here’s why we think we need to develop and implement a social media strategy across multiple communication channels supporting distinct organizational goals.”

We still don’t have it all figured out. We are trying to be deliberate, not splashy. Our team is responsible for recruiting activities nationwide, so we looked through that prism. LinkedIn was a safe first play. Executives at the company understood the tool, and many were active on the site. For our recruiting efforts, LinkedIn has tools that aligned well with our sourcing strategy, so we went there first. It is, of course, the least social/most controlled network, but it allowed us to establish a presence outside of the corporate website and show some results.

Facebook was next. Yep, my wife enjoyed mercilessly making fun of me each night as I logged on to check out competitors and review top page designs. Mashable became a good friend as we matched user demographics to our national recruiting strategy. I was scared that selling Facebook as a recruiting tool to a conservative organization in a down economy would be tough. Nope. I work with smart people, and they quickly saw the potential power. They realized we were going to have a social media presence regardless—either we would be heavily involved in crafting that presence, or someone else would.

Next up is integrating Twitter and an employee blog to make our people more accessible as we tell our story and show off who we are. We are also reviewing communication material we developed for internal use over the past 12 months—much of that can be leveraged to ensure we can share ongoing and engaging content.

Like most companies, we are still figuring social recruiting out. When we did not know anything about social media, I was upset and felt we were behind. Now, we realize we are working with emerging communication platforms with dynamic rules and usage—getting social recruiting integrated is a process. When I talk with companies that want to start, I tell them to engage with people in the community and learn.

And, no matter what, don’t make fun of people for using the tools.

———-

R. J. Morris is the corporate Director of Staffing at McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. – an ENR Top 10 building company based in St. Louis, Missouri. McCarthy has offices and projects nationally and they recruit really smart people who want to join a company where everyone is an owner. R. J. is responsible for leading and directing all national recruiting activities using both tried and true old school tactics and the implementing the latest methods (including social recruiting) to support the growth needs of the organization.

Written by Jennifer McClure

If Google Says I’m the Best Recruiter in the World… It Must Be True

You may have heard this phrase before:

“It’s not who you know… but who knows you – and what they say about you.”

I believe that statement is very true, but since we live in an increasingly online world, maybe it should be modified to:

“It’s not who you know, or what they say about you… it’s what Google says about you.”

Case in point – a short email I received last week:

Wondering if Curt was on to something, I Googled the phrase “best recruiter in the world” and here’s what I found:

The first two unpaid hits out of over 2,200 results came from a tongue-in-cheek post on this blog from July 2009:

I’m no SEO expert, but I did choose the title intentionally back then, assuming that it’s possible people (ideally client companies) sometimes go to Google and start with that phrase when looking for a Recruiter. A long shot I know. But nothing ventured, nothing gained right? As someone responsible for developing my own business, I try to use every option available to me.

Looks like my title strategery worked a little better than I expected – or at least it worked well enough to give me a laugh. And Curt got a nice response for being a little more creative than the too often used – “I see you’re a Recruiter. Can you help me find a job?”

This cheeky little example was a good reminder for me of how important it is to be mindful of what I put out there on the interwebs. Like it or not, your credibility (and mine) is being judged every day by people searching Google (and other search engines) who are finding your blog posts, tweets, LinkedIn profile, etc.

Thankfully, Google got it right this time.

Let’s be careful out there…

« Previous Page
1
…
4
5
6
7
8
…
10
Next Page »

Recommended Blogs for HR & Recruiting Professionals