HR Futures Conference Take-outs

My wife, she’s always saying how much she loves a good wedding. Once an invite comes in the mail, she gets excited and speaks of nothing else until the day of the event. And then after; after she wants to debrief about it…how did I like the bridal dress, what about the food, wasn’t the food just delish. All that. Me? I’m not big into weddings.

But I love a good conference.

Last week I attended Michael Specht’s HR Futures conference. The event was a one-day intensive get together, with a focus on directions for HR and recruitment. Industry experts like Thomas Shaw from Recruitment Directory, spoke about Web 2.0 in recruitment. It was great to get together with some of these folks, many of whom were nothing more than blogs on a screen before I had the chance to meet them.

Anyway, just as my wife likes to debrief about her weddings, I like to break it down about conferences. (I promise, what follows will not include an assessment of anyone’s outfits!)

1. Social media in recruiting is on the radar: the take-home story on this is that most folks acknowledge the social media form of recruiting is the way into the future

2. Enterprise Wikis will form the future of content collaboration within an organisation

3. Blogs/comments should be seen as a vehicle for discussion for an organisation not something to fear. The term “social proof” was kicked around a bit by me. This describes validation from sources outside an organisation. I’m not keen on the word “proof” now. It denotes something definitive. I prefer the term “social-evidence”.

4. Job boards have some work to do to be part of the social recruiting platform.

In all, a good show, with heaps of blog-fodder. Stay tuned as I unravel, in blogs to come, some of the predictions about future directions in recruitment.

The Future Of Job Boards

We’d all agree with this: if any business or individual wants to communicate with other individuals or clients into the future, they will be required to do so via a means that is not static. By the term “static”, I mean the simple pronouncement of information, without adjacent means of interaction or relationship-building.

This statement applies to the recruitment industry as much as any other.

Moreover, this statement applies to job boards, as much as it applies to any other conduit of communication.

As it stands, the traditional method for recruiting is to place an ad. on a job board and wait to see what sorts of responses slink their way into your inbox as a result.

Usually the outcome is not pleasant, both in good and bad economic times. Let me extrapolate: in good times, desirable candidates are comfortable, entrenched in their positions and paid well. They’re confident. They don’t reach out and share because they see no purpose in it.

Contrarily, in bad times, EVERYONE feels the need to share, so recruiters are hit with a veritable onslaught of resumes, most of which read as though they are simply trying to meet the Centrelink requirement of having applied for a certain number of positions. All recruiters are familiar with the picture I have just painted, but nothing changes because:

1. The job board method is easy. It makes recruiters feel as thought they’re being effective (people like to feel like they’re making progress in their roles and duties)

2. Job boards are frequently underpinned by massive media companies, and we are accustomed to thinking these are the only agents of information dissemination.

3. We’re not creative or innovative enough to consider the situation from a different perspective.

But we’re going to have to. In much the same way as television, an historically static medium, has had to redefine its role by considering increased relationship-building and interaction with viewers, the recruitment industry needs to reconsider how it spreads its word.

Social media a godsend in this regard. It provides us with the means of providing information (eg advertising jobs), building relationships (with clients and candidates) and conducting forums for discussion (like this one) on how we can improve as an industry. With all this to offer, I cannot see space for the one-dimensional model provided by the job boards. In other words, I cannot see a role for job boards coming into the future.

This will no doubt be a hot topic at the HR Futures Conference ‘09

It’s ZaaBiz…

- Another shouts, “Vee look like Frrreeaks!

There’s viskers growing on our cheeks!”

A boy who vos extremely tall

Cries out, “Vot’s wrong.  I’m growing small!”

- Extract from The Witches by Roald Dahl

Ve’re all speaking vith an accent here at the office.  Been having a look at ZaaBiz, a new Biz networking site that offers social referral recruiting (SRR) tools. (see my profile) Nothing new, I can hear you all shout, 2Vouch and Hoojano are also chucking their hats into the ring where this is concerned.  The difference with the team at ZaaBiz, though, is that their service is free, and leveraging the growing numbers of Tweeters on Twitter.  And being free, their concept is a little more subtle than the referral service offered by its monetised competitors.

I’ve put a few of my jobs on there…testing the waters.

I vill keep you posted about zaa results.