Talent Filter

Talent Drive Event Calendar

It's going to be a busy June, as we are headed out to three events this month

June 1-4:  We're in Orlando, FL for the IHRIM 2008 Annual Event And Technology Expo.

June 19th, we're at the ISA Annual Event here in Chicago

June 22-25 we're at the SHRM Annual Expo here in Chicago.

Look for Talent Drive and stop by and say hello to talk about Talent Filter.

Profile: Katy Katz, Director Of Client Services For Talent Drive

Katy Katz is currently the Director of Client Services in the Midwest for TalentDrive. She has been in the staffing industry for the past five years, and most recently was the Director of Sales for Aquent, the world's largest marketing and creative staffing firm. Katy joined CPRi, a national staff augmentation and outsourcing firm with a dedicated focus on marketing services, in 2003 as the Account Director in Chicago. CPRi, under the direction of Sean Bisceglia, was sold to Aquent in 2005.

Prior to joining CPRi, Katy had a successful career at The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, a leading organization providing information services. During her seven years at D&B, Katy worked with clients to develop needs for information solutions primarily for credit, marketing and supply chain functions. Katy spent her last three years at D&B working with the Global Accounts team and servicing D&B's largest clients.

Katy holds an MBA from Loyola University in Chicago and a BS from Miami University in Ohio.

Adding The Numbers Up On Your Job Offer

You might be thinking the grass is greener on the other side.  But, what does greener mean to most people? Is it a hefty raise, better healthcare, or a less stressful work environment?  Patti Ghezzi addressed the topic of opportunity coming with the job offer but not the money.

Tally up your total compensation before you start your job search, so you’ll know going in what kind of salary you need to make the leap. Be especially careful when calculating the cost of commuting, as an extra ten miles can add up with gas so expensive. If you decline an offer, be up front with your recruiter and potential new employer, thus leaving the door open for the future.

Time and money quickly become spent in the expense of looking for jobs, taking off work, and printing materials for interviews. 

You may come across a company that is meaningful and highly compensating.  However, most people overlook the expense of getting an increase in income, such as lower healthcare, or the opportunity loss of a promotion like the one Mark almost missed out on in the  Patti Ghezzi article Compare Offers, Do the Math.  Taking the time to figure out where your expenses will go and how you will spend your money shows the employer that you are not just blowing smoke his way.  If you tell them this is how much and why, it is a lot more comforting to say yes or no to a new career opportunity.

Help yourself make the best choice for both you and your future employer.  Get a cup of coffee, open up Excel and run the numbers.

Clean Up Your Online Profile

Have you ever seen the profiles of candidates dressed up at a disco party using a beer bong? What about the candidates that leave hateful comments about their co-workers and bosses?  The wonder of self-publishing has given rise to a new danger for candidates, and Lance Haun at YourHRGuy.com write about the phenomenon of netwoking yourself out of a job. 

Having an employer who encourages online professional networking can be a Catch-22 situation. If you aren’t engaged with these sites, you might fall out of the inner circle. However, becoming too involved can reflect poorly on your professionalism. It is important to find a sensible balance and to do the brunt of your networking off the clock.

Applicant Tracking Systems Don't Add Value

I thought that title would get your attention. Michael Homula over at Fistful of Talent throws out the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and says that ATS software was built for compliance and bureaucracy and not relationship recruiting.

Let's face it.  The ATS was built to manage process and track information for the purpose of compliance, EEOC, OFCCP, the corporate legal counsel and HR weenies in the house.  Sure, occasionally they kick out some tired, worn out and meaningless metric about time to fill, or number of positions filled in a quarter, but all the ATS really does is take the recruiting process on paper and put it on a server.  No value add whatsoever to actual recruiting.

What's astounding is that no one in the comments got angry - maybe it's because the story hasn't filtered out to the larger industry yet, but there's a real question of what works best in recruiting.  Internal systems by their nature have old information.  A resume is obsolete shortly after we enter it, which is why TalentFilter is focused on external sources.

Job boards are important because they work.  They've transformed the staffing industry and corporate human resources and made it easier for candidates and hiring companies to find each other.  There may be other problems in the employment process that include filtering, interviews, and offers, but from a supply/demand standpoint, job boards hold up their end of the bargain. 

Granted, top notch recruiters don't need job boards.  Fantastic, social media savvy candidates who read Seth Godin can go out and find their own jobs.  What about those of us who aren't best-selling authors?  We go to job boards, and we put in our resume, and we wait to be contacted by companies looking for the most recent information and availability.

And it works.

Give HR More Respect?

Human Resources is often the punching for columnists looking for a way to connect with their readers.  Human Resources for better or worse is in charge of hiring, and considering the number of hires versus applications in any company, they're are always cheap shots that can be taken that people in a crowd will cheer.

In many organizations, sales and marketing professionals are even taught to use Human Resource as an excuse for not meeting quotas.  Everyone knows that hiring is the basis of success (remember the "get the right people on the bus" mantra?), and Human Resources is in charge of hiring.

David, Mezzapelle, a member over at the job boarders network, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on why Human Resources professionals should be treated with respect, and how they can be a competitive advantage when they're used as a strategic resource rather than a convenient excuse.

In a company built to leverage human capital, the HR staff would spend less time processing benefits requests and more time being the expert resource on the state of the organization's work force and its ability to perform.

That has been difficult in the past, because many of the administrative duties assigned to human resources involve a lot of detail and complexity that make them labor intensive.

But now, Web-based applications, many of which lend themselves to self-service, offer a solution. Employees can visit a Web site to sign up for benefits, change their addresses, enroll in training programs, search for jobs, assess their knowledge and set goals and objectives for the year. Managers can use them to give out bonuses and raises, appraise performance, transfer employees and find internal candidates to fill open positions.

What's more, many companies offer HR outsourcing services, and a number of large companies have entered into long-term contracts to outsource multiple HR processes to a single vendor. I believe that for most companies, outsourcing is the right way to handle HR administration. Not only does it release HR professionals from a set of no-win activities, it frees them up for work that is of greater benefit to the organization.

We get this.  The explosion of tools that can automate HR processes is something we follow closely, and it's the basis of our TalentFilter product.  Our goal was to find something that recruiters do and make it easier.  Human Resources in general has a lot of paperwork, but although the benefits side of the house is working on less admin work, the recruiting side should be focused on talent acquisition, and that means more time building relationships with a workforce and less time chasing paper.

And in the process, we think that CEO's will start to see HR as a partner, and not just the place that keeps birthdays straight and passes out paychecks.