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The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap: From: David McGillivray Human Resource Management is about achieving the best from your workforce. Achieving high levels of motivation, engagement and productivity is impossible when employees are unsatisfied or actively looking... [Read Entry]

I have a few questions that I am hoping to join some knowledge from fellow Recruiters.....

Has anyone used PeopleSoft as an ATS systsem in Retail (my company has over 51,000 employees)??

What is the best ATS system out there?  I used Vurv in the past, however I know that Taleo brought them.... I do not know if Taleo is suitable for Retail.

Any help would be great!!!  You can Blog or e-mail me at nicoleegger@winn-dixie.com

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The Social Recruiting Summit is being held today here in New York.

Fred Wilson, who is keynoting, posted his presentation and requested comments. What a fantastic way to improve your thinking on any topic, by the way. When this type of behavior gets "into the bones" of up-and-coming scientists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers, imagine how much more quickly we will cycle through all the wrong answers and get to the good ones. Kudos to Fred for pioneering in this regard.

I posted my thoughts in Fred's comments but I thought I would share them here as well for the broader HR community...

Lots of great thinking in this deck, and the exciting part of the internet and recruiting is that we are really just getting started. The newspapers are only now dying, and the Web 1.0 job boards "just" replicated their model. Cool ideas -- GlassDoor, Tracked, and of course, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meetup (at TheLadders, we've sponsored Meetups to very good effect for our recruiting) etc., -- are going to make the next decade even more exciting.

A few points that I think go along thematically with what you are saying but bear emphasis:

1. Social media are fantastic information and communications tools. A question we should be asking is: how do we use these tools wisely and well?

Commenter Melih notes: "I didn't really see you emphasize that while talent is valuable, the real value, to me, of the social hire is vouching for the integrity and the character of the person much more so than their skill set. I think it's fair to say that you wouldn't recommend a friend or colleague who you didn't think was strong enough, but would you recommend a friend who you knew would constantly butt heads with the VP of Engineering?"

As tools, we are using social media very well to find candidates, and to find people who worked with the people who worked with our candidates. But to really close the deal, we need to find a way to make social media better at making the art of referencing better. Because I'm not sure we really have. The cold call out of the blue from the nice person in HR at a company looking to hiring Jeremiah, who saw that you worked with him from 2003 to 2005, is not immediately, to my mind, somebody with whom you should exercise your complete and utmost candor. Legal and social consequences loom. We're finding the information, but we're not generating the right type of communication.

2. And I wonder if you should mention Uber community on the web -- Craigslist. Despite its enormous size today, it started as "social media" -- Craig sending out his favorite events to his email buddies, and somehow that DNA remains at the core of what Craigslist is all about. Especially with recruiting designers and college graduates, we find it invaluable. I think we all sometimes forget to put Craig in this bucket.

3. I agree blog posts and tweets are a great way to get people who are already engaged with your brand. This is the virtual equivalent of the "Help Wanted; Inquire Within" sign: to attract somebody, they need to already be attracted. Which is fantastic. But it's not going to scale for all the needs of a young company. How are we going to use social media to expand our message, not just repeat it in an echo chamber?

4. And, finally, I think it bears repeating: "0" is the number of people you've hired in or invested in without meeting them face-to-face. (Even more interesting if the answer isn't zero -- would love to hear that story!) The internet, social media, tweets and updates can not replace the value of sitting across from a human and learning their story directly from them. That's what we're all about - we are *social* creatures, and the *media* is there to serve us.

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This response comes from a question posted the other day regarding the differences between Creative Sourcing and Deep Sourcing. This is a great topic to talk about and really defines the strategy in which you find yourself implementing. Well I hope this helps. Feel free to comment and post your thoughts as well.

Question: What is your definition of Creative Sourcing vs. Deep Sourcing? Creative Sourcing is the baseline or fundamental approach a recruiter will take in developing their map to recruit from. Creative sourcing falls under the umbrella of information gathering.

You'll find thousands of answers out there to this age old question, but if you were to speak with true "sourcers” in the industry you will find that they are researchers at heart. At the world conference this question came up a lot in discussions and I tell most people the same thing; we are in the information gathering business.

Recruiting, sales, deep sourcing, workforce planning and virtually anything we will do in our jobs require us to gather information. Without this we cannot be successful. So when we talk about building talent communities or talent gateways and social media etc. these are all forms of creative sourcing.

The question to ask is "How do we create interest and engage those talent gateways once they are created?” Without getting real tactical for this explanation it would be our goal to create chatter and a sense of community within these hubs. By chatter I mean conversation regarding industry topics, eventually with the "experts” naturally rising to the top of conversations. Most call this cultivating the group. I call this deep sourcing.

So to make things a little simpler:

Creative sourcing: The process of development/branding for workforce planning. I.e. Information gathering; tactical planning; channel development; creation and development of talent communities.

Deep Sourcing: Micro managing these talent communities to maximize their potential. Making individual contact with and introducing the prospects to the specific organization we are working with.

Thoughts?

Be sure to check more postings and video tutorials at: CruiterTalk.com

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How well does your organization select and integrate talent for internal promotion? If you are like many organizations we've seen â€" not very well. When promoting from within, do you select the person who is doing the best job in their current role? Do you promote the person you like the most, the person who has [...] [Read Entry]

I don't know about your workplace, but ours has seen a lot of absenteeism this year. I'm not sure how much of it is related to H1N1 because we don't ask employees to account for why they are using their PTO. But, several of my family members and friends have reported flu-like symptoms and several have had doctors confirm swine flu. Fortunately, their cases were only mildly debilitating.

Continuing to make news, H1N1 (swine flu) is a major workplace issue. People spend a lot of time at work in close quarters with potentially ill coworkers. Employees all use the same door handles, shake candidates' hands, push elevator buttons, and just in general, put themselves in harm's way.

I've written several times about how employers can prepare their workplaces for any contagious illness including H1N1. Today, I'll share several additional resources about H1N1 Swine Flu.

SHRM in Conjunction With the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP)

With contractual financial support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), today released a new toolkit, Doing Business During an Influenza Pandemic: Human Resource Policies, Protocols, Templates, Tools, & Tips

"We're beyond theory and onto execution. The pandemic is here. And we need every business to recognize the impact it can have. It's not too late, but time is of the essence," said Michael T. Osterholm, Ph.D., M.P.H., an international authority on pandemic influenza and business preparedness and CIDRAP director.

The toolkit, designed for organizations of all sizes, is intended to:

• Help HR professionals new to pandemic planning come up to speed quickly on high-priority HR issues related to operating during an influenza pandemic.
• Provide concrete ways that organizations can implement federal guidance.
• Offer new ideas that can be used to improve existing plans.
• Serve as a reference for benchmarking.

The H1N1 toolkit is available free of charge as a PDF document from CIDRAP or from SHRM.

Swine Flu on About.com

• Vince Ianelli, M.D., the About.com Guide to Pediatrics, has created a comprehensive resource for parents and families: Swine Flu Symptoms. Swine Flu News.
• Kristina Duda, R.N., the About.com Guide to Colds and Flu, presents an outstanding guide to swine flu H1N1 including day-to-day symptoms, resources, and more.
• Trisha Torrey, the About.com Guide to Patient Empowerment, offers frequently asked questions about H1N1 Swine Flu.

Preparis.com

Asks whether your workplace is prepared for an outbreak of swine flu and hazards the guess that, if you are like most employers, you are not. Here is a comprehensive guide to preparing for H1N1 in your workplace.

H1N1 isn't going away anytime soon, so check out these fine resources and make sure your workplace is prepared.

_{Image Copyright Randy Plett Photographs}

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Is Your Workplace Prepared for H1N1? originally appeared on About.com Human Resources on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 00:01:42.

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We've just finished back-to-back years of employee referrals accounting for 75% or more of all external hires.  This has caused me to do a little reflection on our progress, where we are and where we are going with this powerful recruiting strategy.    

The background: AmTrust Bank grew its program from 28% of hires in 2006 to 78% in 2008 and continued the success by sourcing 75% of our hires through employee referrals in fiscal 2009.  We increased our reliance on this source over time as we continued to validate that employee referrals stay longer and cost less than hires from other sources.  Although, as we planned sourcing strategies for fiscal 2009 we knew the year was going to be a tough one.  

The bad news: as we started the fiscal year in October 2008 the economy was a mess, the employed were not inclined to change jobs during such uncertain times and candidates were increasingly wary of joining the struggling financial industry.  Not an easy time to be a recruiter.    

The good news: we had a strong corporate culture, an engaged workforce and the momentum of our employee referral program.  Our internal employee communications team did a great job of sharing positive stories, which our employees could easily incorporate into conversation with family, friends and others in the community.  The employment brand, as facilitated every day by our employees, confirmed that this was a great place to work!     

The reality: we would have to keep the program moving forward without the overt in-your-face internal marketing and generous budget we utilized in the past.  We suspended our monthly participation prizes and annual $5000 grand prize and toned down the "fun" aspects of the program.  Without all of this, we needed a new approach.   

The new marketing approach: a no-nonsense-no-fluff-micro-level strategy.  No more asking employees for all the referrals they could find.  We featured intranet articles describing specific jobs we were recruiting for and only asked for referrals for those jobs.  We directly solicited top performers and recent hires from targeted companies to ask for referrals and encouraged employees to utilize linkedin, facebook and twitter as a means to reach out to top talent in their networks.  The focus became one of business necessity: we need great people, we need your help, and sourcing talent this way has proven results for the organization!  In retrospect, without the strength of our employee driven employment branding and the momentum of our employee referral program, we would not have been able to offset the bad news and fill open positions as easily.   

The future: we know we cannot rest on our past success and that we will need to be even more creative with our program to keep it fresh, relevant, and impactful.  We must continue to upgrade our message and means of encouraging employee participation, as well as find new ways to recognize/reward employees for their efforts.  We continue to listen to and learn from industry experts and other companies about their program success and have significant program upgrades planned for fiscal 2010.  We do expect similar results in the future and are excited about proving that this level of program success is sustainable for years to come.

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What do employers want to know before they hire you? You might be surprised at how much they want to know and how much they check. Employment background checks are being conducted by employers more frequently than in the past and some employers will confirm, very thoroughly, every detail of your resume or application. Employers may also require a pre-employment physical examination to determine the suitability of an individual for a job.

In addition, companies are concerned about negligent hiring lawsuits where employers can be held responsible for injuries caused by an employee, if they did not check the employee's background. Your credit history is important to employers because it an indication of how responsible you are.

What do you do if your employment history is shaky or your credit needs repairing? Zachary Hummel, Partner in the New York office of Bryan Cave LLP who represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, shares his perspective on the best strategies for job seekers when it comes to job applications and employment background checks.

More: Employment Background Checks

Employment Background Checks originally appeared on About.com Job Searching on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 06:00:51.

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The unemployment rate hit a tough milestone last month, reaching 10.2% for the first time in 26 years. Since the start of the recession, payroll employment has fallen by 7.3 million jobs.

In October, non-farm payroll employment dropped by 190,000 jobs. Over the past three months, job losses have averaged 188,000 a month, however, declines are much smaller than they have been - last winter and spring job losses were over 600,000 a month. Among the unemployed, those who have been out of work 27 weeks or more increased to 5.6 million.

On a related note, the Senate and House have now passed unemployment extension legislation. This new extension extends jobless benefits by 14 weeks for every state and an additional 6 weeks, for a total of 20 weeks, in high unemployment states where unemployment is over 8.5%. If you're out of unemployment, or about to run out, check with your state unemployment office for updates on when you'll receive benefits.

More: Unemployment | Extended Unemployment Benefits | Unemployment Rate

Unemployment Over 10% originally appeared on About.com Job Searching on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 10:04:10.

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What do employers want to know before they hire you? You might be surprised at how much they want to know and how much they check. Employment background checks are being conducted by employers more frequently than in the past and some employers will confirm, very thoroughly, every detail of your resume or application. Employers may also require a pre-employment physical examination to determine the suitability of an individual for a job.

In addition, companies are concerned about negligent hiring lawsuits where employers can be held responsible for injuries caused by an employee, if they did not check the employee's background. Your credit history is important to employers because it an indication of how responsible you are.

What do you do if your employment history is shaky or your credit needs repairing? Zachary Hummel, Partner in the New York office of Bryan Cave LLP who represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, shares his perspective on the best strategies for job seekers when it comes to job applications and employment background checks.

More: Employment Background Checks

Employment Background Checks originally appeared on About.com Job Searching on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 06:00:51.

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