The way social media can effect recruiting and retention was a hot topic at the recent ERE Social Recruiting Summit held this week at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Jenny DeVaughn attended and wrote a nice synopsis of her experience that can be viewed on the ERE Community site. I watched many of the presentations through streaming video that was made available. And I monitored the conversations that emanated live from the event on Twitter.
One of the topics that caught my interest was the idea of "relational onboarding" presented by Sacha Chua. Jenny DeVaughn describes the session:
"Sacha Chua led our next discussion on how we all can have the most awesomest job search ever. Sacha was unapologetically enthusiastic about her love for her current role with IBM. Sacha described how important "relational onboarding" is to new or potential employees. It is vital to have genuine connections and relationships with your future co-workers before you start working. I agree with @JohnSumser, this is the key to seamless recruiting. Sacha also mentioned, once you are an employee, you are an ambassador. Laurie Ruettimann retweeted one of my tweets during this session while I was sitting two seats away from her. How cool is that?"
Here is a presentation Sasha Chua posted just prior to the SRS:
I touched on this subject in my article for Universum, Organic Branding for Employers. The idea is that Social Networking should not only be encouraged at work, but that it should now be considered an essential part of the onboarding process and is key to company culture, retention, and job satisfaction.
Also of interest was the presentation by Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, who believes that we should all think of ourselves as a small business. Here are the slides from his presentation:
One of my growing fascinations is the potential for better communication with candidates and clients through Mobile Recruiting. So you can bet I was dialed in for the Mobile Recruiting presentation by Chris Hoyt and Michael Marlatt. Per Jenny, "They discussed the mobile myths: mobile is just hype, only used by the youth generation and that it is only a device for spam. They also shared that SMS (a text message to your phone) has a 94% read rate. We all participated in a live step-by-step text (short code) demonstration. In mobile marketing, we are only limited by our creativity; however, one must consistently create value."
Overall it appeared to be a really great event with cutting edge information shared by entertaining presenters. Once again I was amazed at how easily those of us who couldn’t attend could follow so closely through the live stream and on Twitter.
Local Dallas recruiters and HR professionals will be treated to two low cost events here in DFW this year that will cover some of the same topics and more. The Texas Recruiters Association – Workshop Seminar and Networking Event will be held on July 16th from 4pm to 7:30pm at the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre. The cost is a very affordable $40. I will be one of those featured on the "expert panel" along with Chris Hoyt, April Leah Grady, and Dennis Smith.
The next event will be loosely based on the popular Twitter forum for Recruiters, #TalentNet. TalentNet Live will also feature me, Chris Hoyt, Dennis Smith, and others who will provide training on leveraging the latest tools and techniques to more effectively recruit and grow your business. It will be held on September 11th at Frito Lay Headquarters in Plano, TX. Additional details for this event will be available soon. This local recruiting expo will also be available for a low entry fee, a portion of which is planned to be donated to a charity for the families of firefighters.
If you are one of the many Dallas area staffing professionals who couldn’t attend the ERE Social Recruiting Summit, please consider coming out to one or both of these local workshops. They will each provide unique and useful information that you can use for motivation and strategy in recruiting.
