The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition By the MBA@UNC Career Management Team Introduction We are living through an exciting era in technology development the emergence of interactive, social media and virtual technologies whose business applications are not yet fully realized. While marketing professionals have been quick to embrace the potential of these technologies for product placement, branding and sales, HR and talent management professionals have approached them with a little more caution as they explore how interactive, social media and virtual world technologies can be effectively applied to attract talent to their organizations. This white paper: Identifies some of the major players in social media and describes their main features; Examines the pros and cons of using social media, simulations and virtual world technologies to expand talent pools and to identify good job candidates; Explores how leading organizations are using these technologies in their HR practices, and; Provides HR and talent management professionals with information they can use to help them incorporate social media and virtual technologies into their organizations hiring practices. Social Media This section highlights some of the major players in the social media market today, describes how recruiters are using social media technology to expand their talent pipelines, and how job seekers are using them to aid in their job searches. Some of the Major Players in Social Media More than 120 million users and growing. Developed as a business networking application with no mixing of business and personal. Used by recruiters to identify passive candidates and to see who candidates know, in what industries and at what levels. Helps talent acquisition professionals publicize their employment brand and advertise job openings.
Allows users to view and share videos online. Used by job seekers to post video resumes. Used by employers to create and post videos about their industries, organizations, talent brands and employment opportunities. More than 200 million users tweet their thoughts in 140 characters or less. Allows businesses to communicate to their stakeholders in real time whether that communication is about the latest product launch or a job opening. Allows users to find information streams they find interesting (like a company) and follow them. Allows HR professionals to market their employment brand, advertise job openings and push followers to their career websites. A Facebook application launched in July 2010. Allows users to separate their personal and professional lives while tapping into Facebook s 500-million user base. Allows employers to post jobs on their Facebook pages; shows users jobs they may like based on their professional profiles. Allows users to endorse people. Includes job postings on BranchOut by employers plus job postings from other boards. Shows users connections (individuals) they have to jobs; allows users to tap into people they know to start the networking process. Allows talent management professionals to find passive candidates, to review a person s job history, to advertise job openings, to promote their employment brands and to encourage visits to their career websites. A Monster.com product launched as a Facebook application in June 2011. Merges Facebook and LinkedIn connections and harnesses the power of Monster.com. Very similar to BranchOut in features, such as stepping users through the process of completing online profiles, awarding badges for completed steps and searching for jobs. Includes job postings from Monster.com.
Available to individuals, businesses and schools. Has interface that is similar to Facebook, but given its power to eventually harness other Google resources, recruiters should pay attention to it. Can categorize social connections through circles. For example, users can have circles that include only friends, only colleagues or only family members, but the application allows users to assign individuals to more than one circle. Allows users to develop profile information that is customized and visible only to specific circles. Streams information based on a user s pre-selected interests. This can be handy for recruiters trying to increase their employment brand or to advertise jobs. Allows videoconferencing for up to ten people at a time in hangouts. Users can specify friends or select circles to participate in a hangout, and users can come and go throughout the videoconference. User can even watch YouTube videos together in real time. Talent acquisition professionals can use this to stream YouTube videos promoting their organizations, interview candidates, and even hold small career fairs. How Social Media Is Being Used Social media appears to be successful in not only expanding talent pools, but in hiring candidates as well. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a 2011 Jobvite survey said they had successfully hired a candidate through a social network in 2011. Nearly all survey respondents (95 percent) said they had hired someone through LinkedIn; 24 percent of respondents had hired someone through Facebook and 16 percent of respondents had hired someone through Twitter. The quality of hires is always a concern, and while recruiters continue to rank employee referrals as the best source of quality of hires (8.6 on a scale of 10), social networks fair well with a rank of seven on a scale of 10. Corporate career sites, third-party recruiting firms, campus recruiting, job boards and search engines all ranked below social networks in the quality of hires (Jobvite, 2011). It is important to note that employee referrals and social networks are not mutually exclusive; some social networks like BeKnown and BranchOut include features that encourage employees to recommend colleagues and friends. The Pros of Social Media in the Talent Acquisition Process Social media offers recruiters several advantages. First, these applications expand talent pools beyond geographic boundaries, allowing employers to reach a global audience.
Second, they allow candidates to find talent acquisition professionals. Most people find jobs through personal or professional networks moving those networks online allows more people to be aware of an organization s employment brand and job openings. It also allows employees to notify their personal and professional networks of job openings in their organizations. Third, as organizations continue to do more with less, these technologies are extremely cost effective. It costs little to establish a social media presence, although managing those networks can be a challenge. Perhaps the most compelling reason to use social media in HR and the talent acquisition process, though, is because it is inevitable. Most large organizations already have a prominent social media presence and leverage it to improve their employment brand and to find active and passive job candidates. The Cons of Social Media in the Talent Acquisition Process One of the challenges HR professionals face when entering the social media market is that it is growing at seemingly exponential rates with new players regularly entering the arena. This makes it difficult to know where one should concentrate efforts when it comes to talent acquisition. With so many choices available, choosing one or more to use is a viable concern for job seekers and recruiters. For job seekers, maintaining multiple social media accounts could easily become a full-time job. The same is true for recruiting professionals, but added to that concern is whether they will be using the right application for their talent acquisition needs as these platforms develop. Unfortunately, it will take time to see what application emerges as an overall or industry specific leader. Social Media in Recruiting on the Rise The 2011 Jobvite survey confirms that social media recruiting is on the rise: EIGHTY-NINE PERCENT of respondents said they used social media to recruit talent in 2011 SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING TOPPED THE LIST as the most popular area in which respondents planned to increase investment. FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of respondents said they planned to increase their social recruiting budgets. Only 16 percent said they planned to spend more on job boards and a third of respondents said they planned to spend less on job boards, third-party recruiters and search firms. Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey, 2011. Which Application Is the Right One? In a side-by-side comparison of BeKnown and BranchOut, J.T. O Donnell, founder of Careerealism.com, urged job seekers to choose one and stick with it because you can t go wrong either way. These are early days in social media for career networking, and no single application has emerged as a clear overall long-
term leader, and none has emerged as a leader in a specific industry. Until that evolution happens, recruiters will likely find themselves juggling multiple social media applications. When selecting which social media applications to use, HR and talent management professionals should not only consider the resources they have available to maintain them, but should also consider which ones will best align with their organization s strategic HR plan. Simulations and Virtual Worlds Although the terms simulations and virtual worlds are often used interchangeably, they are not the same. Simulations replicate job-related tasks to allow employers to assess a candidate s skills. Virtual worlds like Second Life allow participants to interact with each other through avatars. Virtual worlds were originally created with social users in mind, but some employers are using it as a recruiting tool. This section describes both types of technologies, provides examples of how they have been used in the talent acquisition process and explores their possible growth in this field. Simulations Early simulations were often administered on the job site and imitated actual job tasks (like typing speed and accuracy) to assess a person s ability. These early simulations eventually expanded into in-basket exercises where candidates had to assume a job role and handle some of the daily tasks of that job (Handler, 2009). Technology has taken simulations online and to a new level, making it possible to replicate a variety of work environments and to assess performance in a more automated manner. Today, these engaging simulations are being used to assess skills in such settings as call centers (data entry and customer service skills) and manufacturing (computer and logic skills), and to offer candidates day-in-thelife glimpses into an organization s working environment. Many recruiters believe that simulations offer advantages over traditional tests. First, they are more engaging than traditional, non-interactive assessments. In addition, they offer more realistic job previews and can reduce bias and subjectivity in the hiring process because of their realism and automated scoring (Handler, 2009). Company Spotlight: AutoMax Recruiting and Training AutoMax Recruiting & Training recently partnered with Hire the Winners, the creator of a car sales simulator that helps dealers learn more about sales candidates and their sales potential. According to AutoMax, the simulator has been used more than
16,000 times and has an 82 percent retention rate after two years for sales people the simulator recommended. For those the simulator recommended with reservation, the two-year retention rate was 64 percent, and for those not recommended, the two-year retention rate was just 14 percent. When Are Simulations Appropriate? There are a few important considerations for employers thinking about using simulations in the talent acquisition process. Some recruiters feel that simulations may turn off upper-level professionals who expect to be wooed rather than assessed, and they advise employers to consider the type of worker being recruited and whether a simulation is appropriate. Others are concerned that simulations may cause bottlenecks in the hiring process, particularly for organizations hiring a large number of candidates. Finally, the types of skills assessed through simulations must be considered they may be better suited to softer skills, such as customer-service orientation (Ruiz, 2008). For harder, knowledge-based skills, traditional assessments may be more appropriate. The Next Evolution of Simulations: Gaming The future is here in the world of simulations and recruitment, and that future is gaming. Employers are using gaming technology to offer realistic job previews and video tours to attract candidates to their organizations. Gaming technology lures candidates to the organization s website, keeps them there longer as they play a game or two, and in the process, users learn more about the organization in a fun and engaging way. Recruiters are learning from gamers that awarding badges and showing progress toward a goal attracts the Gen Yers who have grown up playing online games. Ken Wheeler from ERE.net predicts that gaming will become standard fare in recruiting within the next decade (Wheeler, 2010). Wheeler offers six tips recruiters can use to start the gaming ball rolling: 1. Give rewards (like badges) to visitors to your site when they ve engaged in an activity such as watching a video or taking an assessment. Encourage them to come back to the site frequently. 2. Consider using virtual world technology like Second Life. IBM, Monster.com and other organizations have used this technology to host virtual job fairs, conduct interviews and offer virtual tours. 3. Offer video-based job tryouts. 4. Hold virtual career fairs. 5. Use tests, puzzles and simulations. 6. Develop a full-fledged game. These simulated environments engage candidates and can immerse them in your organization s talent brand.
Organizations are taking gaming online to establish their talent brands and to attract candidates: Yahoo! Hotjobs launched Swivel Chair Relay and Flip Off Your Boss to engage their targeted recruiting demographic of 18-24 year olds. The games blend humor and entertainment with the HotJobs brand messaging. The promotion was considered a great success, with more than 40,000 people playing the games and registering as HotJobs members. Merrill Lynch developed their Financial Games Collection to educate undergraduates and MBA students about available careers and to drive traffic to their career website. The game teaches players about the IPO process while positioning Merrill Lynch as a great place to work. The U.S. Army was arguably the first organization to use gaming as a recruitment tool when it launched America s Army on its website. The game, according to the Army, significantly helped raise flagging enlistment rates. (Source: Brandgames) Company Spotlight: Marriot International Since its launch in June, gamers in 122 countries have played the My Marriott game on Facebook, the first game designed to educate players about careers in the hospitality industry. Players enter a virtual Marriott kitchen where they hire and train employees, ensure that meals are well prepared, serve guests, and buy restaurant equipment and ingredients on a budget. They earn points for satisfied customers and lose points for unsatisfied ones. The game is part of a painstakingly planned global employer brand strategy that was two years in the making, according to Susan Strayer, senior director for global employer brand and marketing at Marriott International. For Marriott, it was important to have a strategy in place for social recruiting. We didn t want to execute solutions without understanding how those solutions fit into the overall strategy, noted Strayer. That strategy included the release of a video in April with a new talent brand line, Find Your World, followed by the unveiling of a Marriott International Facebook page (which now has nearly 32,000 followers) in May and the My Marriott game in June. One of the goals of this strategy: to have people self-select into the industry in general and Marriott in particular. For Marriott, Strayer notes, it s not about finding people, but about finding the right people.
Virtual World Technology: Virtual Career Fairs The use of virtual worlds (mostly used to host virtual career fairs) in the talent acquisition process admittedly had a rocky start a few years ago. Limits to the technology at the time and people s unfamiliarity with how it worked caused these online experiences to be often clunky and sometimes downright embarrassing, according to Courtney Hunt, Ph.D., principle at Renaissance Strategic Solutions. I heard horror stories of avatars floating during virtual career fairs and that wasn t the person s intent, recalls Hunt. Others agree. Until recently, technological limitations made virtual career fairs just barely better than what employers could get through online job boards; a place to post jobs and a corporate profile, an area for online chats, and bulletin boards (Zappe, 2011). These limitations caused interest in the use of virtual worlds in recruiting to wane. New and improved virtual world technology, however, has caused a resurgence of interest among HR professionals who see virtual career fairs as a cost effective way to attract talent, particularly those who grew up using technology and who find online interaction more the norm than the exception (Zappe, 2011). In today s virtual career fairs, job seekers and recruiters use avatars to enter a virtual world. Participants can chat live through text, voice or video; conduct interviews using that same technology; and visit networking lounges where they can interact with different employers and other job seekers. Virtual career fairs can even allow managers who would normally be unable to attend live fairs to talk to candidates, speeding up the interviewing process. Virtual career fairs allow employers to reach candidates from across the globe without the costs associated with travel and hosting on site career fairs. They are also environmentally friendly because they are paperless (resumes are submitted virtually) and energy saving (reduced reliance on gas to get to and from live career fairs). A survey by Unisfair, a virtual engagement marketing company, found that 60 percent of respondents plan to increase spending on virtual environments and 67 percent of respondents are thinking about hosting ten or more virtual events in the next 12 months (Gardner, 2011). Virtual engagement is not just a replacement for a physical event, but is a new channel for reaching your audiences, notes Joerg Rathenberg, Unisfair s vice president of marketing. The research indicates that virtual events are being adopted across industries and enterprises and will continue to be the preferred way to meet, market, collaborate and educate for both hosts and attendees alike. (Gardner, 2011)
Company Spotlight: Monster Canada s Virtual Career Fair A virtual career fair recently hosted by Monster Canada was deemed a huge success by the company and attendees. The fair featured 21 employers and generated more than 400,000 page views, 18,000 visits, 21,000 job views and collected more than 12,000 resumes. Monster s first virtual career fair in April was hugely popular and the high level of activity clearly demonstrated how having an active online career strategy is the way of the future, both for successful job seekers and employers, noted Monster Canada Senior Vice President of International Sales Peter Gilfillan (Market Watch, 2011). Most recruiters agree that virtual career fairs should be part of a whole recruitment strategy and should not take replace face-to-face interaction. Many recruiters predict the emergence of hybrid career fairs a combination of physical and virtual locations that allow for human interaction. Conclusion Social media, simulations and virtual worlds are opening new and exciting venues for HR and talent management professionals to source new talent and to establish their talent brands. The rapid pace at which these technologies are developing will challenge HR professionals to stay up-to-date with their uses. At the same time, it will require HR professionals to be nimble enough to make changes to their talent acquisition processes on the fly while managing these applications in ways that will achieve their organization s strategic talent plan.