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How emerging markets could make this economic recovery different…

How emerging markets could make this economic recovery different…

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All

We all seem to be waiting for the economy to turn around, and many of us have given up hope in a sense.  We hear it regularly, including on my blog, “… is this the new normal?”

I think it’s a legitimate question.  This recovery, if you can call it that, has been jobless and some would say almost hapless, seeming to be knocked back down by bad news coming from all fronts at all times.

Amidst all the bad news, there was a snippet of good news that could make a big difference when and how things turn around.

The rapid growth of emerging markets
This is something we really have not seen before on the scale that we have now.  The impact of this on the employment market could be significant and may be the engine of economic growth that we all need to pull ourselves out of the recession and start adding jobs to the economy.

Take a look at the top 10 rising economies according to the Business Insider from March 2011.

1. Nigeria
2. India
3. Iraq
4. Bangladesh
5. Vietnam
6. Philippines
7. Mongolia
8. Indonesia
9. Sri Lanka
10. Egypt

Total projected GDP by 2050: $135.05 Trillion
Average year over year growth: 7.3%

I bet many of you are surprised by at least half of the countries on the list and by at least one country that is missing from the list,China.  To be fair, this list is a ranking of year over year growth vs. total GDP or size of the economy, but what I find interesting is that the total GDP that they represent is still significant and when combined, significantly more than China’s.

For comparison, and to bring to light how much GDP is missing with large, still emerging, but “slower” growth economies,China’s GDP is projected to be $123 Trillion by 2040.  In 2050, the top 5 countries in the G20 are projected to beChina, US,India,JapanandBrazilin that order, which points to the fact that emerging markets are widespread.

Manufacturing jobs
One of the areas that could see a significant increase in business opportunities are within the manufacturing sector.  In many parts of the world, US products are still viewed to be of high quality and value.  Just look at China and how American cars are viewed as a luxury item.

One question is how much this will translate to a positive impact on the US job market.  Will it create many direct manufacturing jobs or will it create a smaller number of administrative and professional level jobs only because the American product is made overseas?

The other question is whether or not American companies can react quickly enough to get products that appeal to these emerging markets into the hands of their consumers to build and sustain brand loyalty.  Fortunately I think we are doing fairly well in this arena, but we cannot be complacent.

Research and development jobs
One area that the US still dominates is research and development.  While other countries continue to make progress, fortunately so do we! 

These jobs will become more critical as we need to make products that appeal to more and more different markets to maintain market share, gain competitive advantage and continue to build brand loyalty.

So these jobs will include many of the areas that immediately come to mind (software, consumer electronics, etc.) and many that do not immediately come to mind (food products, beverages, home goods, consumer products, etc.)

Shipping/transportation and logistics jobs
Always an early indicator of a economy reviving, we could see growth here early on as companies ship more products to new markets, demand for individuals within these areas would naturally follow.

Import/Export jobs
If theUS is able to position its products to appeal to these emerging markets, demand for Import and Export Professionals could increase significantly, with the Import side depending on what products these emerging economies produce and whether or not Americans will have a need for them…

The economy in general
While the segments I spoke about will likely see a significant increase, trade and wealth generation (even in emerging economies) create jobs.  So many other sectors of the economy will see some increase in job growth.

Conclusion
I think we all agree that this economy has some way to go before everyone is back to work, but this could be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Part of the challenge we have now is that we cannot rely on domestic consumer spending to pull the economy out of recession because all of us have spending constraints compared to 5 years ago. 

A real possibility is the increase in consumer spending coming from overseas, with emerging markets, notEuropeleading the way and established Asian economies following closely behind.  If that creates enough growth for theUSconsumer to feel confident again, we could see a very robust, but different, economic recovery than those of the past.

And of course that all means, the war for talent returns… this time, with some new fronts!

Feel free to share your thoughts!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

What if this is the new normal?

What if this is the new normal?

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Nearly all

One thing that I wondered when watching the weather here in Southern California was, if were always below “normal” or average rainfall, shouldn’t the average (or “normal”) start to move down until it reaches some sort of equilibrium, where recent “normal” is roughly equal to reported or referenced “normal?”

As I thought about this, I began thinking about the employment market and how long this recession has been and how much longer it seems like it might be, when a similar thought hit me… what if this is the “new normal?”

So if  the new normal is 9.0%+ long term unemployment, wild swings in the market, complete lack of consumer confidence and next to nothing housing market what does that mean to us in talent acquisition?  Do we throw out all the old strategies because all our positions are filled?  Do we shift to becoming gatekeepers again?  Do we do something entirely different?  The answers could be different than what you expect.

Top three impacts

Impact number one- working longer whether they want to or not
We need to be prepared for people to work with our organizations not only longer, but we need to be ready for them to work with us when they really didn’t want to.  This is not just about people working past retirement, although that is part of this, its people that are working with you because they have few other options.  This can be someone that was highly competent and motivated 6 years ago, but now they are ready for a change but cannot find that opportunity because of the market.  What does all this mean?  We need to have strong performance management systems in place, proactive practices that identify when someone is struggling and/or dissatisfied and good tools for assessing what the true root cause of the problem is.  Companies need to look at themselves from a cultural perspective and decide exactly how much they are going to be willing to work with people to resolve these issues and be consistent as litigation will likely increase as frustrations among workers continue to build.

We also need to have strong succession plans in place for when people do leave as it may be a sudden move… whether it be the person that gets fed up with waiting and just leaves one day or someone that moves quickly out of fear of losing a new opportunity, we need to be ready to turn around much more quickly than we have before with much more purpose.

Impact number two- smart screening
Screening technologies and techniques could become more critical than any of us thought if unemployment continues to remain high.  We will need to build competency assessment systems that not only give us basic information about what someone knows, but will need to be strong enough and reliable enough for us to be able to convince doubting managers that even though someone has been out of the workforce for 5 years, the tool indicates that they have remained competent and that this is the individual we should hire.  Sadly in a market with prolonged unemployment, the best person for the position may be the person that does not have a job right now.

The system also needs to be reliable for another reason; it needs to be able to withstand close scrutiny in a court and by government agencies like EEOC, OFCCP and state agencies like DFEH.  Complaints, charges and lawsuits go hand in hand with frustrated people and we’ve seen this already for some time.

Impact number three- social media and CRM become more important
Being able to fill positions quickly from a group of potential candidates that are already engaged, interested and perhaps somewhat pre-qualified may become a critical firewall for companies that are trying to shield themselves from mass numbers of candidates and the potential liability that could come along with them.

Companies could build relationships with people on social media sites, eventually move them into a talent community and start marketing new positions to them first.  Of course you could not exclusively market to them, you do need to make your positions publically available, but you can significantly shorten the time your position is open to the public by having people ready and engaged for opportunities with your company.

Conclusion
While I hope this is not the “new normal” I think it is prudent for all of us to think about what that could mean for our respective organizations.  Obviously my top impacts may be very different than an organization with a strong international presence or that works with a different segment of the market than I do.

In either case, we may need to be prepared to both screen and engage people at the same time, which is a challenge for many of us.

In reality, whether this is the “new normal” or not, these practices are sound ones that would be good to pursue in any economic environment.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

 

 

How placement firms can work better with corporate recruiters and how corporate recruiters need to step up.

How placement firms can work better with corporate recruiters and how corporate recruiters need to step up.

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Your Organizations Ability to Source Candidates

Hardly a day goes by without receiving some sort of pitch from a placement firm.  I think this isn’t a big difference from anyone else in a leadership role within a Recruiting department, but I think what would surprise some people is what I hear from corporate recruiters that makes me want to slam my head into my desk.

So this month I thought I would give my unscientific top five things that each side needs to do better list.

Top five things that placement firms can do to work with corporate recruiters

1. Know yourself and/or your organization
   If your firm specializes in helping organizations that have little to no corporate recruiting capability, or does especially well helping organizations in regions that people don’t want to move to or a certain size of organization, etc. learn that, know that and own that.  I can’t tell you how many times I talk to firms that in the course of our review I determine do a good job placing people, but only because the companies they work with have no recruiting team to speak of.
2. Figure me out before calling
   I don’t expect you, as someone that is cold calling me, to know all about me (although it’s pretty easy to find out a lot about people nowadays), but at least know what industry I am in, what openings I have and a little about my teams capability.  For example, on a regular basis I get calls and emails from companies that want to place people with me for Software Engineering or Electrical Engineering… well since I work for a hospital system it’s a waste of my time to even return your call now isn’t it?
3. Just because I have an opening doesn’t mean I need help
   I can’t stand it when I open a position and an hour later I get a call from someone saying “…I see that you just posted xyz position open, do you need help?”  Or I see you have (fill in the blank for an entry level position) open, can we work on that?  In the first case, it would be rare that I would feel that we needed outside help and that I would post the position without already talking to someone, in the second case, I honestly should be fired it I can’t find an entry level person.
4. Don’t be clueless
   If I am going to go to a hiring manager and recommend that we use you, do you really think if you call me and you know nothing about my company, the role, the industry, the profession and already have presented a plan to fill the role that goes beyond posting something on a bunch of job boards (guess what- I know how to do that too) that you are going to be the one I recommend?  Don’t waste my time, but if you want to waste yours more power to you and call someone else…
5. Work within my process (if there is one)
   I know you hate this, but we do need to have some kind of process in place.  Most of the time, this shouldn’t get in the way and sometimes it ends up benefiting all involved.  You will also appreciate the next section though, because this is one of the things I address on the corporate side as well.

Top five things that corporate recruiters can do to work with headhunters (surprise- some of this is similar to what is above!)

1. Know yourself and/or your organization
   For the corporate side of things, we need to know our organizations, the openings, the managers, the requirements (tangible and intangible).  We also need to know what we are good at as a recruiting team and plan and react accordingly when positions are open.  So if we aren’t strong recruiting certain specialties, we need to still put our best effort in and get better at it, but also need to come up with plans that probably include placement firms to meet the objective of finding the talent we need, regardless of where it comes from.  Many organizations know when they have a tough position to work on, but they fail to do anything about it.
2. Let go of “us vs. them”
   I sort of understand where this comes from… the adversarial relationship that some corporate recruiters hold on to.  This is a classic example of you get what you incent.  In the past, many corporate recruiting departments looked at needing a placement firm as a sign that they failed because many times that is indeed how it was viewed by leadership and internal clients.  I think this has largely changed because of the complexity of the workforce and the acknowledgement that everyone cannot be good at everything.  Placement firms do need to be used diligently (I would not be employed if suddenly 80% of the placements came from outside firms), but the adversarial view needs to go and good placement firms need to viewed as partners and an extension of the internal teams capability.  I can’t stand it when a corporate recruiter will keep doing things they know have very little chance of working just to keep from using an outside firm.
3. Get out of the way
   Corporate Recruiters also need to know when to get out of the way.  We have a role in helping with the selection of the placement firm, negotiating the contracts, setting up reasonable processes, etc., but beyond that the gate keeper mentality needs to go.  Once the contract is in place, let the placement firm talk to the hiring manager directly, there is no value in the corporate recruiter relaying this level of information.  Have the placement firm submit directly to the hiring manager and have them cc: you so the candidate can be checked out internally (did they recently apply, are they a former employee?) and set up regular short status meetings so all those involved can stay on top of issues.  Beyond that step aside!
4. Don’t be clueless
   Nothing drives me nuts like when I ask a Recruiter to tell me about the role they have been working on for 2 months and all they can do is stumble around while they read me the posting… really?  Well since we’ve submitted 20 people that meet those requirements, perhaps it’s time to actually pin the manager down on what they really want!  We need to know the department, the manager, the role, the skills needed, etc.  If we don’t then we have failed and certainly if the placement firm is not able to find this out, they will also fail.
5. Create a reasonable process
   I touched on this a bit in number 3, but it’s worth emphasizing.  Make sure the process you have is reasonable.  This starts with a reasonable contract and as little intervention as possible by you.  Good people can only do good work when they are allowed to by not having others get in the way.  I think it’s reasonable to sit in on the meeting or conference call as the placement firm talks to the hiring manager (you will probably learn some things), but it’s not reasonable to be the gate keeper and not allow the placement firm to speak to the manager at all.  It is reasonable to ask to be copied on submissions so you can check on past interactions with the candidate (if any), but I would be cautious in requiring that resumes be submitted to you and then you in turn send them on to the manager.

Conclusion

I certainly understand where a lot of the problems with the corporate recruiter placement firm relationship come from.  Past measures of success (or failure) are among them, but there is an unfortunate number of placement firms that are not interested in being anyone’s partner and are only interested in fees and still more that are not malicious, but are either poorly run or are trying too hard to be what they are not.

On the corporate side, the problems also abound, with Recruiters that are nothing more than administrators that process paper to those that have no clue what their internal clients need to those that simply insecure.

Successful organizations realize that there are plenty of problems on both sides and work toward resolving them by having a strong review process in place for placement firms and in coaching and sometimes removing recruiters when they do not align themselves with the greater needs of the organization.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Midyear Report Card: Mike’s Predictions for 2011

Midyear Report Card: Mike’s Predictions for 2011

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All

This January I continued the tradition of trying to predict what was to be in the new year.  As I did last year, I thought this would be a good moment to take pause and see how those predictions are coming along.

I think I did a little better with this year’s midyear report card than last, but some things remain uncertain.

Recovery, recovery, recovery

Grade- Who knows at this point!

Prediction- This year, especially the latter half, we will be fully focused on the economic recovery that will finally become wide spread.

That is not to say that we will see strong growth in the employment sector and I would be surprised to see the national unemployment rate drop to anything below 8% or even 8.5%, but all of us will hopefully see that things have started to turn around.

Commentary- Well, we are all talking about the recovery, but more in the way people waiting for a late bus talk about what happened.  So we have some pockets of recovery, but it’s really questionable if this is going to take hold throughout the nation anytime soon.   Just a month ago, I thought this would be a very different entry, but this economy is struggling to get to its feet more than any other post recession economy.  I still think we will have a national unemployment rate that is somewhere between 8.5% and 9% later this year, which is still better than it was.

Mobile will become the hot thing in Recruiting

Grade- A

Prediction-   People are going from the mobile experience being something of a novelty to an expectation.  Someone will be using their phone in their living room just feet from their PC, but will expect to be able to search jobs without waiting for the PC to boot up, update, etc.

Commentary- I think this was one prediction that has really started to take hold.  Talking about mobile is wide spread, more and more companies have mobile sites (including mine) and the first ATS/TMS to provide a mobile experience for candidates (not just Recruiters like many) is available on the market.

Geo-Targeted recruitment advertising will grow, but not be wide-spread

Grade- C

Prediction- Products like FourSquare, Google and Facebook equivalents as well as others will find their way onto the media/social media plans for a small number of companies. Many other companies will watch to see what can be done with this platform.

Commentary- The part about it not being wide spread is definitely true, and there are some companies that are using this, but not many.  This is something that may catch on next year for some, and many will likely table this until the war for talent fully returns.

Social media will flatten out

Grade- A

Prediction- This is the year that we will see social media start to flatten out.  But that’s not to say it won’t continue to grow, it will just do so at a more modest pace.

Commentary- We’ve seen the demise of MySpace (although I would have never predicted Timberlake buying it) and other platforms are starting to or continuing to flatten out.  LinkedIn showed some increases in traffic because of new services, but according to Quantcast, Facebook is growing, but  slowing and Twitter seems to be possibly starting a decline.  This does not spell the beginning of the end by any means, rather that it has reached a new level.  It will be interesting to see how Google+ impacts all of this.

If you have any questions, comments or anything you would like to add, feel free to send them my way!  All the best to you until next month!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Let’s make employee opinion surveys meaningful…

Let’s make employee opinion surveys meaningful…

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Your organizations ability to source candidates and Your organizations ability to sell open positions

At most organizations employee opinion surveys (EOS) are viewed skeptically.  Employees roll their eyes, thinking that once again they are asking for my opinion and it will lead to nothing.   The managers, namely the ones that need the feedback most, hate this exercise because it only confirms what they don’t want to admit.  Human Resources beats their head against the wall because they have to administer this ritual only to be frustrated by the combination of suspected poor managers being confirmed as such with actual data and the lack of willingness by leadership to do anything about it.

I could point out the obvious things that we should be doing, anchoring portions of the manager’s annual bonus to their EOS score, recognizing those that are doing a great job or, the most obvious, simply doing something about those that perform poorly.

But I am not here to point out the obvious… I am here to share something different.

What if, we borrowed some concepts from the familiar practice of peer reviews on product and retail sites like Amazon.com?  What if we put the overall EOS score for each department on their job postings?

Resistance
I’ll be the first to admit that my own organization probably wouldn’t go as far as putting every departments overall score on the departments postings, but I think this is something to move toward.

Certainly the knee-jerk reaction would be “are you crazy?” from both leadership and Human Resources.  VPs and Directors would immediately know and be concerned about the impact on recruiting for poor performing departments… after all, who in their right mind would apply for a position where the department’s score is 1 out of 5 or even 2 out of 5?

The real problem
What is more disappointing is that we allow unsuspecting candidates to apply for those positions out of ignorance…  How upset would you be if you found out that a retail website was actually withholding or manipulating peer review scores on their products?  I suspect you would be pretty pissed.  If pervasive enough, there would likely be investigations and inquiries from the authorities and tremendous brand damage…  But here we are, essentially doing the same thing!

But once again, since we all live in the Information Age, anyone that thinks they control information simply by suppressing it is delusional at best and is doing more harm than good.

As we all should have learned by now from social media, just because we aren’t talking doesn’t mean that no one is talking.

The problem is the person doing the talking is generally a disgruntled employee that is really “motivated” and they are going to any number of sites to let everyone know what they think about your poor performing department.

Don’t believe me?  Go to Glassdoor.com and see what is listed about your company.  This is in addition to anything people are saying on social media and to their friends.

So once again, we have turned the conversation over to a wacko and we’re hoping that no one listens…

What’s worse is that you can’t win either way on these sites… any positive reviews are a best viewed with suspicion that the post was from someone who has other motivations (i.e. HR).

A better way
Now let’s imagine an alternative where your company takes the bold step of posting all their EOS scores.

Managers would suddenly pay attention to the scores, for different reasons, but they will be focused them.  They could be concerned about being able to recruit staff (and funny the bad ones probably need to recruit the most), they may be concerned about how their director of VP would react, but I suspect for most it will be that they simply don’t want to look bad in front of everyone.   What is nice is that the ones that need help will be more motivated to seek it.

Some employees that weren’t being honest before will be honest now.  Why?  Because even the semi-smart ones will realize that if I am slamming the boss just to slam them, they will have a hard time hiring new people to replace those that left, leaving more people for the remaining staff.

Employees will also see that the survey has value.  Instead of just being an exercise of checking off the EOS box for the next “Best Placeto Work” survey there is useful, actionable data and rewards and consequences for managers.

Human Resources will finally see that something constructive is being done with the survey information and perhaps this will be just the beginning of things that make EOS worth it.

Candidates will obviously gravitate to higher rated departments and will likely respect the organization for putting the scores on postings.  The company would also get a great boost in word of mouth type recognition among prospective candidates for being open and honest.

Retention would also improve because candidates will make more informed decisions.  Your company would also decrease the brand damage from good talent coming into bad departments and leaving to tell anyone that may consider your company how bad it is.

Information on sites like Glassdoor would still be posted and reviewed, but if your site has EOS data on it, many prospective candidates would not feel the need to check the site.  Those that do go to Glassdoor will realize that they can check the comments posted there against the EOS information to see if it matches or if there is inconsistency between the two, allowing them to make a more informed decision.

Ways to implement
I would be surprised if most companies posted EOS scores for all their departments, but there is a less threatening way to at least start adding some of the information.

I suggest that you start with posting EOS information about the best performing departments only.  You could work with Marketing or your Advertising Agency to create a special logo that indicates if a department is a “Top 10” department as rated by its employees, or the top department at a particular site, etc.

This allows the concept to get started as a recognition program.  Which will encounter significantly less resistance after all, how could leadership not support both lending credibility to the EOS and having a cheap (nearly free) way to recognize high performing departments?

This could set the stage to later expand the program in the future to include more and more scores until they become more widely used.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Does .jobs matter?

Does .jobs matter?

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Branding and candidate awareness, Your organizations ability to source candidates

Somewhat recently, there has been a lot of discussion about .jobs.  Much of the discussion that I have seen has little to do with whether or not this is a good idea or not.  Most of it centers on the controversy between SHRM, Employ Media who SHRM partnered with to manage the top level domain and ICANN, the organization that essentially manages major functions of the internet.

ICANN has brought action against Employ Media stating they are violating the .jobs charter and brings into question whether or not SHRM got in over their heads and/or partnered with the right people.

I think there is a larger more important question that may make all of this largely irrelevant- Does .jobs matter?

For those of you that aren’t familiar, .jobs is a top level domain (TLD) similar to the more popular .com, .edu and .gov.  ICANN released .jobs to SHRM with the thought that the leading HR organization would be able to manage the registration process more effectively than the existing process that has been in place for all other domains.  This process is where domain registration companies take registration requests and if it’s available the registration is yours.

On a side note that I have to point out, when you register a .jobs domain, you first go to Employ Media’s site, which then has… wait for it…links to the same domain registration companies that handle all the other registrations anyway, now that’s value add SHRM- thanks for adding needless layers and now legal complication to things!

Side bar over, back to the .jobs domain… The intended purpose for .jobs was to become a “shortcut” that people could use to get to career sites.  So a company like Ford could have the domain ford.jobs.

On the surface this sounds interesting, but I have to wonder, who’s been wanting this?

Employers?
As an employer, I don’t see this as a huge benefit… my career site is decent, we market it well using a wide variety of tools, etc.  It’s reasonably well designed and most people can find what they are looking for.

On the other hand, the .jobs domain is very inexpensive to register and you could simply have the .jobs URL point to your career site and you’re pretty well covered.  So there isn’t anything compelling against getting it.

Job seekers?
It’s pretty rare that candidates can’t find a companies website and/or the jobs on it… if they can’t the sites usually poorly constructed, or the jobs aren’t listed or the candidate is computer illiterate.  So some may be interested in the convenience of the .jobs domain, but I am not sure people would not seek positions on non-.jobs domains in the same manner I could eventually see job seekers not apply for jobs with companies that lack a mobile or social media presence.

Job boards?
Certainly the job board industry isn’t interested in it.  In fact, they are leading the charge against the .jobs domain because they see it as a threat.  Just imagine a day where job seekers can find jobs on corporate career sites or by using something like SEO, SEM, Indeed, SimplyHired, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn… if only these things were a reality … oh wait… that’s right, they are aren’t they?  Well job boards you keep chasing away the big scary .jobs domain while everyone else eats your lunch…

Conclusion

So I guess there isn’t anyone that is clamoring for this.  While there are a lot of companies that have their .jobs domain (including mine) I think they have it because it is cheap and simple.

And just because a lot of companies have .jobs domains doesn’t mean that it will become anything significant or strategically or tactically important.

What’s my opinion?  .jobs doesn’t matter, but it will be widely used for a time and then fade away.  I think it’s an idea whose time has long passed that is only being saved by its simplicity and very modest cost.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

SHRM 2011 Talent & Staffing Management Conference Recap

SHRM 2011 Talent & Staffing Management Conference Recap

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All

Several members of my team and I attended the SHRM Talent & Staffing Management Conference that just took place here inSan Diego.  I wanted to share some of our thoughts and experience as well as what was presented as the state of talent acquisition.

Conference overview
This was my first time attending this conference as was the case for most of my team.  All of us felt the conference had good, solid, practical information that seemed to skew slightly more toward corporate talent acquisition professionals vs. our colleagues that work for placement firms or headhunters.

The personality of the conference was much lighter than International SHRM which I have attended several times in the past, including last year inSan Diego.  This made for a much better experience.

The information was much more focused and relevant for me being in talent acquisition and I didn’t struggle to find something that I could at least pass the time with as I do occasionally at International SHRM.  While International SHRM has made significant improvements in providing content for those of us talent acquisition, we are still somewhat overlooked.

By comparison to ERE, which I have also attended a few times, this conference was a little more main stream and less cutting edge.  For some organizations that is probably not a bad thing.  Why go to a conference like ERE that focuses more on the leading edge when your organization still runs ads in the paper and your team still wonders if social media is really going to take off?  That is not to say that this conference was lacking for good content and some leading edge processes, because it still had some of that.

I would say the overall theme was engagement of employees and of candidates, which seemed to be interwoven throughout many sessions, but let me share some of my experience more specifically.

Social media is still a big player
I attended a great session presented by Matt Kaiser, who is always on top of his game, about social media and it became very apparent that social media is maturing and perhaps flattening out a bit, but it is still growing, companies are becoming much more sophisticated with it and a lot of potential remains for it as a tool.

Many best practices will likely come from consumer brands that need to engage customers, investors, employees and candidates. One example provided was a video of Gatorade’s “Mission Control” which is where they monitor their social media presence, and I suspect the presence of the individuals that are endorsing their product.  The video can be found on YouTube by searching Gatorade Mission Control.  While it doesn’t provide a lot of meaningful content, it is interesting to see how very seriously they must be taking these channels to engage people.

Recruiting Veterans
You may know that OFCCP is focused on how companies are recruiting veterans for a variety of reasons including the issue of integrating veterans that will be coming back fromAfghanistan andIraq into the civilian labor market.  Aside from the obvious problem of trying to manage more people coming into the labor market, it is also the right thing to do for those that have sacrificed for us.

The session on Tactics for Attracting and Recruiting Veterans with Disabilities presented by Lisa Rosser from The Value of a Veteran was excellent in that it was clear, practical and made sense.   One tactic is one that is pretty obvious, yet overlooked.  Use similar messaging that the military itself uses to recruit people into the military as those themes will only resonate even more with people exiting the military.

Themes include being part of an elite group, challenging work, training opportunities, your work impacts others, and camaraderie within the team.

But she pointed out that we also most go beyond just themes and take the same approach to recruiting veterans we do to college recruiting with welcoming messaging specific for them, content focused on them and ways to engage them across all media.

Mobile
While I can’t recall any specific sessions about using mobile platforms in talent acquisition, right on the heels of social media being woven into many sessions, was mobile.

It was discussed in many of the sessions that I attended that were focused on other topics, including recruiting veterans.

My take is when something pervades topics that seem unrelated, that is something to become part of.

From the exhibit hall
I always take a couple passes through the exhibit hall to see what is going on in the market.  There were some interesting things that I came across as I walked through.

No major ATS/TMS vendors were at the event.  This surprised me somewhat, and it could be because they elected to go to ERE, which was also in San Diego just a couple weeks earlier, but not only were their no major players, there really weren’t that many mid level players either.  I suspect that this space is hurting from the recession and we may see further consolidation of vendors or outright failure of some smaller ones in the next year or so.

It also seemed like every other vendor was a testing vendor or background check vendor.  As I thumb through the exhibitor directory I see my observation was not far off, with 16 of the 52 falling into this category (or 30.7%).

Most striking from the exhibit hall was the lack of anything that seemed new…  Perhaps the vendor was at ERE, as I mentioned, the more leading edge conference of the two, but I also feel like it may be because our space has been struggling…  we always take a hit from a recession and certainly this one was a bigger one than most.  I see plenty of opportunity for some bright people to come to market with something that truly moves us in new directions within the next couple years.

Conclusion
Speaking to the other attendees, it seemed like all of us are getting busier and that the worst is behind us.

However there are significant challenges that are before us, including how to engage our employees and candidates better.  Certainly social media is one way to do so, but it will go beyond that to making sure our messaging, both internal and external, is authentic, resonates, and is on the mark with the audience regardless of the platform.

While we have some time because of the labor market to refine this, the next round of the war for talent will be upon us sooner than we realize.  Those that do not find a way to engage people will be at a huge disadvantage, which seemed to be the message between the lines of this conference.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts!  Until next month, all the best to you!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Where is the employment market heading?

Where is the employment market heading?

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: All

I was recently attending the San Diego County Economic Roundtable which takes place annually.  If I remember right, I have only attended one other one, but I plan on making this a regular even on my calendar because it afford me the opportunity to move outside of a pure employment market perspective and look at the economy from other points of view with some respected local Economists and industry experts.

The majority of the information was locally focused, but our experience is probably somewhat similar in more ways than not to other regions.  Sure the numbers may be different, but the trends are similar.

Today I would like to share some of the information that I gathered and what I felt would be good food for thought.  I was writing my notes furiously at some points, so if you find numbers that are different than mine, it could be simply a note taking error.  But even in those instances, the trend and scope of differences, declines and increase are likely to be important as it was only in cases where I was surprised at the number or the scope that I made it a point to notate it.

Consumption is down
We all knew that consumption was down, but recently we have heard the improved sales and improved consumer spending numbers.  We all tend to forget that those numbers are relative to fairly recent times, and recent times have not been good.  So yes, the numbers are better, but compared to the depths of the recession in most cases, not to where we used to be.

So how much is consumption down?  According to one Economist that was citing nationally recognized data, were down 20-25%.  That is huge to say the least!

This explains some of why we keep hearing mixed messages.  On the one hand we hear spending it up and on the other we hear that unemployment is only going down by a marginal percentage.

Savings is up and debts are being lowered
As a country, we are (or at least were) saving more of the money that we didn’t spend.  Our savings rate went from an average of 1% of income to 6% of income (another staggering number).  We also started to pay down debts, which also put a curb on spending.  That is because most of us need to cut from somewhere to pay down debts and if we were saving more, that only leaves one place to cut and that is spending.

The challenge with saving more and paying down debt is that it does not create very many jobs.

Bad was much worse than I thought
Although I keep an eye on our local market, I did not realize how bad, bad was during this recession!

Prior to this recession, the San Diego employment market lost 8,000 jobs during the worst quarter of the worst recession on record at the time.  During this recession, the San Diego employment market lost 30,000 jobs during the worst quarter.

Some may argue that San Diego is larger now, so the comparison is not apples to apples.  While this explains a little of the difference, let’s not kid ourselves either, San Diego has not more than tripled in size since the early 1990’s.

Housing vs. employment- the chicken or the egg?
We’ve heard many times that housing won’t bounce back until employment strengthens, but this will be tough since housing is such a significant part of our economy and employment market.

If that is the case, are we doomed to lethargic growth in employment forever?  Probably not, but without housing, which is dependent on employment, the recovery is going take much longer.

What we may see a housing “recovery” of sorts that differs from what we are expecting, where homeowners that have decided they can’t wait for their home to rebuild equity before moving up will instead invest further into their homes making wide ranges of improvements.  These improvements could be relatively minor (painting the house, landscaping) to something more significant (new pool, addition, etc.).

For many homeowners this could be smart because it would increase the value of the home and extend their satisfaction with their home to weather the end of this downturn.  It would also be easier for them to potentially get a loan for a new pool vs. buying a new home with the prospect of trying to sell their old home.

While this would not have the same effect on the employment market, it would have a positive impact.  When combined with some housing markets coming back and investors ready to buy properties ahead of the recovery, we could see housing start to come back before employment in a different way than expected.

Things to watch for are improved sales at home improvement stores (which we may be starting to see based on results for Home Depot and Lowes) and other business associated with home improvement.

Heading slowly in the right direction
Despite where we’ve been we are heading in the right direction.  I still stick with my prediction that by year’s end the national unemployment level will be somewhere close to the 8.0 to 8.5% range, but it is clear that we have some distance to cover.

Full employment is defined by some as 5.5% or lower.  So even by years end, if we are at 8.5% we are still far from full employment.

For some groups of people and some regions, recovery seems to be closer at hand.

For example, the unemployment rate for those with a Bachelors degree is less than 5%.  If you’re one of the many with a Bachelors degree that is looking for work, I know that the rate doesn’t matter much, but it is better than the 15% unemployment experienced by those without a degree.

In addition, there are regions of the country that have employment markets that are coming back to life.  Placement firms, temporary services, etc. are also all reporting that they are getting busier and busier.

As a country we need to generate between 100K and 150K new jobs per month just to take care of those entering the employment market, so hopefully we will see these groups and regions that are recovering more quickly help pull us more quickly in the right direction.

Conclusion
Where are we all headed? For what it’s worth, I think we are still headed for a slow employment market recovery that will grow from certain demographic groups and regions of the country.  Housing may come back in the form of home improvement and then investors, followed by traditional buyers and may slightly lead the employment markets recovery.  If I were to look into a crystal ball, I think we won’t see full employment (as defined by a 5.5% or lower unemployment rate) until the second half of 2013 at the earliest.

Unfortunately I think this recession’s biggest victims are high paying jobs that only require a high school diploma.  There will still be some, but every recession takes more and more of them away and this may be the biggest blow to them yet.

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved

Place me! How Placement Counselors and others can better position those they work with to find a job

Place me!  How Placement Counselors  and others can better position those they work with to find a job

Segment(s) of the TSC Impacted: Outreach Activities

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of being part of an employer panel at the California Placement Association’s Annual Conference along with some distinguished colleagues from around San Diego.

The California Placement Association consists for individuals that help people find new jobs.  Many of them work in education for universities, community colleges, trade schools, etc.  Others work with specific groups of individuals with other needs.  These professionals may work for the California Employment Development Department, various agencies that work with veterans, the disabled, those that have finished their sentences in the corrections system, etc.

They were truly gracious hosts and had some great questions that I wanted to share with others in the hope that some of the information could be used by those that were not in attendance or by those that perhaps are in similar situations  that sometimes wonder what we on the Recruitment side of things are thinking.

So I am presenting the five issues that I felt would be worth sharing to help you place individuals.

Use of social media- 3 issues

Attract and engage candidates
The first was how we use it to attract candidates.  Of course, this is something that is growing in understanding and I’ve blogged about it quite a bit, but we use social media to announce jobs and events as well as engage people by sharing content.

What I don’t see candidates take advantage of as often as they should is the content that is shared.  This is a great way to show interest in the company, assess if you would like to work there and engage hiring managers and Recruiters during an interview to stand out.

Screening candidates
My organization does not actively use social media to screen candidates by checking out profiles, but not all companies take the same approach.

While personal pictures of you with your friends on Facebook are expected there are limits on what you should publicly post.  It is best to be pretty conservative with your profile, so I always recommend either locking down your Facebook profile or putting pictures on Facebook into two categories, public for non-controversial pictures and private for pictures that may be of any concern.  I personally don’t like anyone looking at my pictures on Facebook, so my pictures are only shared with a select group of people.

I would also recommend only having an appropriate profile picture on LinkedIn and Twitter and being very selective about pictures that you share on Twitter.

Of course, content that is reviewed is not limited to pictures.  Companies may look at you posts and other content as well.  I recommend that people not post anything publicly that you wouldn’t share publicly in person.  So some advocacy and some less controversial opinion is not a problem.  But be careful what you share for everyone to see.

The other thing that employers may be looking at is your competence and judgment in using social media.  So if you have a Facebook profile and you don’t know how to secure your profile or share private/more controversial content with a select group of people vs. publicly that is a problem.  If you post a lot of non-professional content on your LinkedIn profile that is a problem.  If you use Twitter to announce how many drinks you had on Saturday night that is a problem.

Networking with Recruiters and HR professionals
Many candidates use social media to network with key people at prospective employers, but there are two distinct groups that take different approaches.

One group identifies companies ahead of time, identifies the appropriate key people to establish contact with and, most importantly, first give of themselves before asking for help.

First giving of yourself is something that I advise my Recruiters to do while networking online and in person.  It can be something as simple as saying that you would be willing to help and if the new contact needs anything to just let them know.  It can be a bit more by periodically sharing and asking for a contacts opinion on industry and professional news articles that you share with them.

This establishes a more balanced relationship and dynamic with the individual and allows you to create goodwill with the contact.

The other approach was finding people to network with after an opening has been announced.  I realize that someone who is networking cannot cover all potential employers and that openings present themselves from organizations that one may not expect sometimes, so in those cases, while still not ideal, it is OK only because you don’t have anything to lose.

In this situation you have some disadvantages in that you cannot first give of yourself to build goodwill with the individual and you do look like you are just connecting with the individual as a means to and end, partially because you are.

Some Recruiters don’t mind this at all, some take offense to it, likening it to ignoring your neighbor for years and then suddenly trying to become their friend when they have a pool installed.

Assessing what you have to offer vs. what the organization needs
We are regularly approached by organizations wanting to place people with us.  We are very well branded in the region and nearly every healthcare professional in San Diego knows my organization.  So when a school calls with entry-level individuals that have just completed some sort of 6 month program the value of that is really questionable for us.

First, you may want to share their resume, but we probably already have it.  If that is the case, we have probably already reviewed the person and have decided whether or not to interview them.

Second, for many positions we either do not hire entry-level or if we do, we receive far more candidates than we have openings.  So the best thing you can do is make sure your people are competitive for the openings that present themselves.

My guidance would be to really get to know the organization by carefully looking at their open positions, asking Recruiters whether or not there is an opportunity and changing your approach as appropriate.

The other aspect of this is being realistic about what your situation is.

For example, if you are a technical school that graduates 60 people every 6 months and there are 10 other campuses or similar competing schools doing the same thing in the region, realize that there are 1,200 of these people who are entering the employment market every year.  We probably not only have all of their resumes, we may have them multiple times.

So what does changing your approach mean?  It means focusing your efforts on where it makes sense.  Perhaps the large widely desired employer doesn’t hire entry-level people or gets overwhelmed by resumes when they rarely do.  I would recommend marketing your people to those less known and perhaps smaller employers that may be overlooked by candidates.  Many times these organizations don’t get 1000’s of applicants, so they are more open to entry-level candidates.

After an entry-level candidate works for a smaller organization for a couple of years, they are now much more marketable to other employers, including the ones that don’t typically hire new grads.

Make your candidates job market ready
This is something that we really struggle with.  Schools are in the business of making people ready for a new career.  Other organizations that work with veterans, the disabled, etc. often have wonderful and admirable missions, but they sometimes forget that their mission and their passion for it, is not always enough to get someone job market ready.

When we are approached by these organizations, it again comes down to whether or not this make sense for the employer.  Most employers are obligated to hire the most qualified person… this is something we generally agree upon, but while someone who has overcome something is admired, but if we cannot defend the hiring decision, this is a significant problem.

At the event I was at someone indicated that they work with the elderly and his clients do not have the computer skills to complete an online application.  The unfortunate truth is those individuals that he works with need to develop the computer skills to complete a basic online application, be computer literate enough to function in the modern workplace and be competitive in the job market.  To illustrate this problem, how would you feel about a 22-year-old that says he can’t fill out your online application?  I would bet, unless there are special circumstances, you would not be very forgiving.  I can honestly say I know many people who are considered elderly that function just fine on a computer and have no problem completing an online application.

Conclusion
I applaud and am grateful for what these placement professionals do… they work with people who range from the new graduate that simply doesn’t know what to do, to those that have overcome tremendous challenges to enter the employment market, to those that have sacrificed greatly to protect all of us

I hope those of you that work with individuals find what I have shared useful and helps you align your efforts to build upon your success.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send them my way!

© 2011 Michael K. Peterson, All Rights Reserved