Meet Steve Rath, ‘Mickey Mantle Corp Recruiter,’ Part 2: “How Does He Do It?”
June 30, 2009
By Dave Mendoza
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Six Degrees: How many applicants at your present employer do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals?
Steve: I’d have to say that it’s been my experience that I’ve seen more qualified candidates come the way of employee referrals over the corporate web site. I’d also say that I believe employee referrals will continue to rise with the introduction of the social networking and it’s impact on our industry.
Six Degrees: What types of training in sourcing/recruitment are available to you and have you taken advantage of?
Steve: Ok, here’s a plug for Jobmachine.net (now Arbita), but it’s an accurate plug… I believe the training both Shally and Glenn provide to sourcers and recruiters alike will make the biggest impact in your career. If you’re serious about your recruiting/staffing career then keeping up on the latest tools, tricks, techniques is a must. It’s furthered my career and has made me a more sought after resource.
Six Degrees: What recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit?
Steve: I use a SaaS based ATS called CVTracer.com for all of my engagements. It’s a great place to store my sourced prospects and network with them from client to client. I also use LinkedIn quite heavily and am still amazed on the passive talent out there. Job Boards still have their place in our industry, but I’d have to say that social networking sites will be giving them a run for their money.
Six Degrees: What tools (technology or old school file folder, for example) did you first encounter early in your recruitment career?
Steve: Let’s see, when I first started posting was posting to a newspaper and receiving resumes was by mail (mostly) or by fax. Email was just starting to make its presence. Using the phone was the primary method of reaching out to someone. It’s interesting to reflect on what we now call getting back to the basics – picking up the phone and initiating conversation like in the “old days” – 15 years ago
Six Degrees: How did your expectations of being a recruiter compare to the actual, first time you got on the phone or in the cubicle? In your opinion, how do people’s assumptions about our vocation differ from reality?
Steve: You know I think my biggest adjustment was recruiting for a position, networking via phone, banging the phone for leads, and at the end of the day not getting the right candidate for the position. It’s comparable to spending your time building something, at the end of the day you have something to show for your hard work. But in recruiting it’s wasn’t like that. Recruiting is very time consuming as you’re creating an interest and working with those with differing goals and objectives. Keeping everyone focused and responsive was initially challenging.
I think people’s perceptions of recruiting is it involves little or no work to produce viable candidates. People only see the finished product and can not appreciate the work that goes into the “process” to vet a candidate. I subscribe wholly to the following quote –
“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”
Educating our customers, clients, and applicants is an important part of what we do on a daily basis. Definitely provides a new prospective that everyone can begin to appreciate.
Six Degrees: Worst mistake, biggest goof, lousiest practice you thought would fly but didn’t…and how that was a learning experience?
Steve: Ok, I probably have a few and some I have made a point to just forget, but I do recall sending a bulk email and mistakenly copying the list of emails (from the same company) into CC: instead of BCC:. I didn’t realize until I started receiving hate email back from some of the recipients. Talk about wanting to hide under a rock! Yes, I should have known better
Six Degrees: How do you personally expect to facilitate change within our industry, and/or at your place of work? If you started that process, outline the problem, your solutions, and the vision.
Steve: My plan to implement change within our industry is to take one step at a time, client by client. The last few years have been a testament to my growing list of clients. My legacy at each of my previous clients has help to create a bridge to my current and future clients. If I can consistently deliver and exceed the expectations of my clients I am able to influence change, knowing I’ve left behind a mindset both strategic and tactical approach in dealing with our industry.
The biggest challenge relates to customer service to both hiring managers and applicant. Providing a consistent message throughout an organization is critical as well as within the community you’re hiring from. Bad news travels fast and with the explosion of Web 2.0 technologies, keeping a consistent message is critical. My solution is for the staffing department to declare a mission statement, address customer service challenges, and consistently deliver on the define expectations. Creating a positive customer experience from both an internal and external perspective will help create an organization others will admire.
Six Degrees: “Best practice” you are most proud of developing (now or in the past) in your recruiting career?
Steve: I love implementing best practices and recruiting enhancements at the clients I engage with. Having had the opportunity to function as a hiring manager, agency sales, agency and corporate recruiter has provided me with the insight to share my experiences with the teams I support. And it’s not a cookie cutter approach as companies have varying needs. Determining what will work with one company may not with another. My Best practice strategy is understanding an organization’s Recruiting Process life cycle and providing enhancements to keep it running efficiently. There are many opportunities to enhance most Recruiting processes, maybe not overhauling, but providing new ideas and tools to help streamline or generate more applicants.
Six Degrees: What are some of the frustrating aspects/obstacles to your day to day as a staffing professional and in general?
Steve: As a recruiter you’re constantly juggling your priorities to achieve maximum bandwidth. We also say how we don’t have enough time in the day to get things done. You prepare a game plan and try to cover most angles which could derail a transaction (pre-hire negotiations) and of course it’s always the one you didn’t see that pops up and requires your immediate attention to resolve. It’s always the one you didn’t foresee that causes some angst. Yes, it’s a learning experience, but also frustrating for a seasoned recruiter.
Six Degrees: What are the most common themes of strategic and/or tactical mishaps involving past or present HR/Staffing org?
Steve: Internal perspective – requiring HR Admins to function as staffing/recruiting personnel which may in turn cause bottle neck from lack of inflow of prospective . When utilizing staffing agencies using them as a resume referral service instead of utilizing them as a full service.
Six Degrees: Considering all of the frustrations you have experienced in your career as a recruiter, — what inspires you as you continue in your career?
Steve: What inspires me is the fact I get to influence and change people’s lives. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing I’ve been a part of that process. Whether it’s for my clients or for new hired employees, knowing I’ve had a hand is my greatest accomplishment and that’s the most fulfilling part of my career.
Six Degrees: What one thing do you find most ideal given the opportunity to develop/ implementing/ invent professionally that has yet to be done.
Steve: Lot’s of opportunity to invent or create something within our industry especially given the exposure to the internet. I’d like to create a process or tool which would streamline the pre-interview process – from when the applicant expresses interest to the position to the initial phone screen. Creating a black box of questions specific to the job to help prescreen the applicant. A tool with AI capabilities which would rank the best candidate from the pool of applicants. Something I’d be interested in investigating.
Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug?
Steve: Of course – as I had mentioned earlier I’ve used many ATS or RMS tools and have found one tool which as helped me build my personal database of prospects over the years. The tool is a SaaS based Web hosted ATS by the name of CVTracer.com. It’s truly a recruiter’s tool. It’s worth taking the time to review and a great addition to any recruiter’s toolbox.
Six Degrees: How Are You Going To Change The Recruitment Industry?
Steve: Staying the course, continuing to exceed my clients expectation as well as those I come in contact with. Continue to help others reach their objectives (within my sphere of influence). Remain humble knowing I don’t know all the answers or will I pretend to. Always strive to give my best. Have fun at what I’m doing. Lastly, know that I am blessed in whatever I’m doing. I believe exhibiting those aforementioned attributes will help to change the Recruitment Industry or at a minimum with those I’ve had the opportunity to work with.
Jigsaw Launches “Jigsaw Data Fusion”
June 30, 2009
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Facebook Page now has a simple URL
June 30, 2009
Today Facebook enabled the pages that had less than 1000 fans to get a simple username.
However the pages needed to have more than 100 fans to be considered.
Thankfully a tweet and a Facebook appeal ensured that my number crossed from the 80 fans to 102 now – and now the URL to remember is http://www.facebook.com/HR.Blogger to get an update on what I am blogging or reading about.
Hope to see you there!
go green with new careerbuilder site
June 30, 2009
CareerBuilder recently launched Going Green Jobs, a site that makes it easier for employers with green jobs to connect with environmentally conscious job seekers.
The site will allow employers to post their green positions, full-time and part-time jobs by skill sets, enhanced green job titles and categories and geographic location.
Going Green Jobs will allow job seekers to post up to five different versions of their resume in order to increase their visibility to potential employers in a variety of environmental areas.
Job seekers also can use the site to find information about green job fairs and events, green workplace news and information and advice for everything from writing a green-focused resume to connecting with the right green opportunity.
Part of the inspiration for the site was the fact that earlier this year the Obama administration marked more than $98 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for energy and environmental projects. Many of those projects will encourage the creation of green jobs.
The Pew Charitable Trusts recently found that green jobs growth outpaced other job classifications by almost 250 percent during the last decade. That’s a 9.1 percent growth rate from 1998 to 2007, compared to 3.7 percent for the overall job market.
“The focus on green jobs continues to increase year over year as job seekers look for more environmentally conscious career paths and employers make changes to protect the environment,” Jason Ferrara, vice president of corporate marketing at CareerBuilder. “One-in-ten employers say they have added green jobs in the last 12 months. Goinggreenjobs.com will enable employers the ability to specifically target their environmentally friendly positions to an audience that is actively seeking employment in the green field.”
monster debuts talent management suite at shrm
June 30, 2009
Monster has released a newly-configured Monster Talent Management Suite (TMS) for employers, which includes career site hosting, applicant tracking, and post-hire workforce optimization modules. According to a press release, the TMS is customizable and scalable for any size business.
Monster is introducing the TMS at the SHRM Conference & Exposition taking place now in New Orleans.
The TMS has three offerings:
* Monster Career Site Hosting: Includes an employer branded hosted career site, private resume database, EEO/AA reporting, optional OFCCP data capture and reporting, Monster.com integration for job postings and sourcing resumes, and candidate email capability
* Monster Recruit: An applicant tracking system that offers employers self-help capabilities and on-line support
* Monster Custom Recruit: A customizable enterprise version intended for employers whose requirements are beyond the capabilities of Monster Recruit
A key component is the modular pricing structure, which is based on a ‘per-user-per-month’ model. The TMS is available with various pricing tiers, with further deductions taken when users are added for the purchase of multiple solutions, or if the client signs a long-term contract.
“It has never been more crucial for companies to elevate their unique employer brand and advance their workforce by efficiently assessing, attracting and on-boarding the talent they need,” said Puneet Bhasin, senior vice president, employer product, Monster. “Monster TMS delivers the tools to help companies easily accomplish these objectives by providing employers a customizable and affordable solution to develop and retain the talent they have to cultivate a more engaged, prepared and productive workforce.”
Monster TMS also offers post-hire modules including on-boarding, learning management and performance management. The addition of these post-hire modules marks the expansion of Monster’s product portfolio into talent retention solutions.
The new product is available in 10 countries and in eight languages with additional global expansion scheduled throughout 2009.
job loss forecast
June 30, 2009
WANTED Technologies is forecasting that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will report a loss of 260,000 jobs in its upcoming June Employment Situation report.
WANTED’s forecasting model combines data the BLS reports with changes in levels of online job ad volume. As can be seen in the accompanying chart above, the percentage change in year-over-year job ad volume has been improving since April. The improvement in the level of Hiring Demand in June was among the largest since the onset of the recession in December 2007.
WANTED is predicting a loss 11,700 jobs in Transportation and Warehousing, and a gain of 30,200 jobs in Health Care.
In addition, WANTED expects the BLS to report a loss of 16,000 jobs in Finance and Insurance. Within sub-groups of that industry, WANTED forecasts a drop of 7,600 jobs in credit intermediation and related services, a decline of 7,300 jobs in securities and commodities, and a loss of 1,600 positions with insurance carriers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to release its Employment Situation report for June on the morning of Thursday, July 2.
manage your career with workthing+
June 30, 2009
Workthing+, an online career management service based in the United Kingdom, launched last week.
The site claims to offer job seekers everything they need to manage their career. It gives candidates access to professional services that were previously only available to senior executives. Workthing+ is a subscription-based service, but promises to refund the entire subscription cost if a job seeker is unsuccessful in finding work after six months.
Workthing+ allows users to search for jobs and lists the most popular jobs by job category and job type. There are sections for job networking and training, which are only viewable by members, as well as career advice. The career advice section of the site helps users understand interviewers’ needs, manage your online reputation and build the perfect CV.
The CV builder helps members create a tailored CV for every job application. Workthing+ provides feedback on CVs and enables them to be distributed directly to a national network of specialist recruiters. The site also provides access to five full psychometric tests, including Myers-Briggs. The site then offers practical career recommendations based on a candidate’s psychometric profile.
Workthing+ offers advice and video insights as to what interviewers are most likely to ask, as well as the best responses from experts. The site further provides tools and advice on how to optimize and manage your online presence, which is important, as 80 percent of employers have admitted to searching for a candidates’ online presence on social media and other Web sites.
Workthing+ was created by Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment, which is a portfolio of specialist market-leading job sites that attract candidates across a range of industry verticals. The company has more than 3.5 million registered candidates across its portfolio of sites, which receives more than 1.8 million visits, 3.3 million searches and 443,000 applications each month.
ten background screening trends
June 30, 2009
EmployeeScreenIQ, a provider of employment screening, has released a list of 10 background screening trends for 2010.
Since 2007, the company has developed an annual list to be unveiled at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference and Exposition. This year’s trends were announced at SHRM’s New Orleans conference.
Top background screening trends for 2010 include:
1. Greater hiring controversies due to social networking. Social networking has exploded in popularity and changed America’s culture. A recent CareerBuilder study found one in five employers used social networks such as Twitter and Facebook to influence hiring decisions. However, many sites have no verification process and several can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Sites such as YouTube and MySpace have few content requirements, and nearly all sites allow users to make up a profile in someone else’s name. At risk are FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) regulations and EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) guidelines.
2. Contractor and PEO background checks rise in importance as temporary labor gains widespread use. As the economy regains its footing, employers will turn to temporary labor such as onsite vendors, contract employees and PEO workers. When a contractor is on-site at an employer’s business, which party is responsible for screening the contractor’s workforce? And how can all those involved be sure the contractor has chosen a screening provider who employs best practices? Addressing these issues before signing a contract will be critical for employers in 2010, and their diligence will be tested.
3. Increased hiring in 2010. Integrating a background screening program with applicant tracking systems (ATS) will enable companies to save time and money in the onboarding process. This will help speed the inevitable hiring upswing in 2010, as companies realize that the recent mass layoffs cut too deeply into their workforce. Key employees will be rehired and job vacancies will need to be filled.
4. Fewer employers will respond to requests for resume verifications. Mass layoffs have left HR departments short-staffed and spread thin in managing responsibilities. As a result, employers are either slow or unable to assist with background checks and verifications. The reality is that former employers don’t make money providing verifications, and many are outsourcing the verification process to a third party provider. However, such companies simply provide payroll data that their client – the candidate’s former employer – uploaded to their system, and information is lost about the candidate’s performance, attitude, skills and experience.
5. As job seekers become more desperate to regain employment, resume falsification and diploma mills will increase in use. As the recession triggers an increase in overall crime, employers will see sharp increases in false information from job applicants as well as applicants with criminal records. EmployeeScreenIQ’s newest verification study finds that approximately 50 percent of resumes have some kind of inconsistency. The study also found that approximately 17 percent of background checks conducted by the company identify some kind of criminal activity.
6. A greater “blind” dependence on the FBI criminal database—despite the reality that it’s not fully effective. This database is a law enforcement tool that wasn’t created for the purposes of background screening. It lacks more than 50 percent of all criminal records, it’s slow and cumbersome, and includes records that resulted in non-convictions. As the number of government jobs increase, our legislators’ reliance on this database as a thorough, accurate and effective screening for regulatory guidelines provides users with a false sense of security. It also creates more gridlock since the tool was never intended for employment background screening purposes.
7. Controversies over increasing attempts to enact privacy laws, redacting social security numbers and other background information from court records. In recent years, state legislators in New Mexico, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and others introduced bills that would remove personal identifiers such as Social Security Numbers and birthdates from public records. All were defeated, but this is a misguided effort to reduce the potential for identity theft—the unintended consequence is an insurmountable setback to any organization who conducts background checks on job candidates. If states destroy such records, employers may not be able to perform due diligence on candidates. The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) is leading the efforts to educate public officials and defeat such bills.
8. Increased state legislation aimed at discriminatory use of credit reports. Legislators in the state of Connecticut recently drafted a bill that would prohibit employers from using credit reports when conducting employment background checks. While the stated purpose is “to prevent discrimination against prospective employees on the basis of their credit history,” the abolishment of this important screening tool is not in the best interest of the state’s employers or its citizens. A similar measure was proposed and nearly passed in California until it was vetoed. Such bills would significantly increase businesses’ exposure to civil actions over the use of credit checks; further, they increase administrative costs to those employers who must legitimately use credit reports as a screening tool. This legislation is an obstacle to employers’ use of available information to make hiring decisions.
9. Screening Providers Will Achieve Industry Accreditation. This January, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) announced the launch of a new Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP). The result of a seven-year effort, the BSAAP will offer a widely recognized seal of approval that brings national recognition to screening organizations that demonstrate a commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards and ongoing institutional improvement. EmployeeScreenIQ will be one of the first providers to apply when the association begins accepting applications.
10. Litigation will increase over perceived discrimination in screening and hiring decisions. For years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) field offices have aggressively pursued cases where one or more forms of discrimination permeate a company’s hiring practices. Such discrimination cases will only increase in America’s litigious culture. For instance, in most cases it’s not enough to simply adopt a policy against hiring felons, someone with a poor credit history or with a less-than-honorable military discharge. Instead, employers need to ask if there is any nexus between the hiring standard and the job the individual is being hired to do. A continuing area of legal concern is Adjudication Modules—grids or charts that dictate specific reactions to convictions for identified crimes. The pitfall is that different jurisdictions define crimes differently and such inconsistencies can result in possible employer EEOC infractions.
the mystery of the social media summit
June 30, 2009
Recently I attended the ERE Social Recruiting Summit at Google’s HQ in Mountain View. I was amazed that hundreds of major employers had converged on arguably the largest search engine’s campus to discuss their social recruiting strategies. It had me wondering why the event wasn’t held at LinkedIn or Facebook.
Being at Google, I kept asking people the simple question: “Do you have your search strategy online so that candidates can Google your jobs and find them?” And the answer was consistent: “Nope.”
This was amazing to me. There are over 220 million “job” related searches on Google each month alone (per their Adwords statistics), which is higher than any of the major job boards by a long shot. There seems to be a huge oversight on the part of talent acquisition leaders who have already jumped over several other key interactive strategies and into social media.
The unspoken theme of the conference was clearly that the social networks are the next frontier of recruiting and will solve every employer’s recruiting problems. One employer even went so far as to suggest that they weren’t even going to continue their corporate career site, but instead only build out their career site on Facebook.
While I agree that social media plays a key role in any employer’s long term strategy for attracting and maintaining relationships with key candidate segments, it’s only one part of a multi-channel interactive strategy that needs to be created.
In order for companies to bring online a true Web 2.0 strategy that can help decrease their addiction to the job boards as their only source for talent, taking a multi-channel approach will produce the desired results.
Key elements have to include search engine optimization and marketing, job aggregators and classifieds sponsorships, employee referral marketing, talent community development, and recruiter optimization (sourcing and marketing, and most importantly multi-channel source tracking, or visitor through cost-per-hire).
The other amazing thing about the conference was that only 1-2 companies were truly pursuing an interactive recruiting strategy. Most weren’t doing anything more than putting up a Facebook careers page, signing up with LinkedIn, and calling these tactics their social network recruiting strategy. Apparently the fear around brand and reputation management is paralyzing them from moving forward in their legal and PR departments of their companies.
The recruiting ad agencies are also licking their revenue chops and selling the social strategies. The problem is, as they put packages together to help employers build their social brochures as an extension of their career sites, they don’t go far enough to bring online the functionality and depth of strategy in building social recruiting channels.
True micro-communities create true talent pipelines that have integrated, actionable content (basic job search/feeds) and measurability into any ATS system which are automated and require little recruiter involvement.
Don’t get me wrong: the excitement around social media is justified. It’s a powerful future frontier for the recruiting world, but it’s a complicated and ever changing landscape that is proving to be a mystery for even the smartest consumer marketing minds.
But when there is “low hanging fruit” in much easier and proven approaches (SEO, SEM, Pay-Per-Click, Talent Community Development, etc.) that can be easily deployed and will produce short/long term results (and best of all are measurable end to end), it seems logical that employers should consider these strategies first versus the complexity and long term politics of trying to launch a comprehensive social recruiting strategy.
Training & Event management
June 30, 2009
what is the T.Code of DISPLAY training catalog in
training & event management?
thanks and regards
Char an
