In fact, a Forrester study found that, of U.S. adult social media users, 96% were on Facebook and only 28% on LinkedIn. Despite the much larger potential talent pool, many recruiters aren’t utilizing Facebook like they use LinkedIn.

While most people use their LinkedIn profile to promote job postings, ask for referrals and connect with candidates, many haven't considered using Facebook to do the same. But why not? Facebook has evolved quite a bit over the years, and is now evolving into a site that can be used for both personal and professional networking, with the introduction of lists and updated privacy settings.

Set up Facebook Lists and Privacy Settings

Lists and updated privacy settings allow Facebook users to keep personal and professional contacts separate from one another, and decide which information each group can see. For example, you can block job candidates from seeing personal information that isn’t available on LinkedIn, and can post jobs to them that none of your other connections can see.

The first step to setting up your Facebook account for professional networking is to create a list for each group of people you’d like to keep separate.

From your homepage, on the left column, find “Friends” and click “More” to bring up your current lists. Facebook has created lists for friends, family, coworkers, schoolmates, and friends who live near you. 

You can add a new list for job candidates by clicking “Create List,” adding a name for your list, and adding any members you’re already friends with on Facebook. You can also add people to this list as you “friend” more candidates. (For a video demonstration of this, check out our How to Recruit on Facebook Webinar, where we'll walk you through the process.)

Once your lists are set up, you should update your privacy settings to block certain parts of your profile from those lists. From your profile, click on the button under your timeline that says “Update Info” (if you still have the old profile, look for the button on the top right that says "Edit Profile").

Go through each section and edit your privacy settings so that your list of job candidates can't see anything personal, like your contact information, your friend list, etc. You do this by selecting the icon to the right of each item, clicking on "Custom," and choosing who can see your information, and who you want to hide it from (you can also see step by step instructions for this on our recorded webinar listed above).

Now you’re ready to start connecting to job candidates on Facebook, and they can’t see any of your personal information. Just make sure you add each job candidate to your specified list as you add them as friends. You can also use your profile to post jobs, just like on LinkedIn.

Post Jobs through your Personal Profile

Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook allows you to post jobs on your profile to specific lists. You can do this from your Facebook homepage, by typing in your message and selecting which list(s) you would like to send this message to. This allows you to make sure that job candidates only receive job-related information, while only friends and family will receive personal updates.

Another big advantage over LinkedIn is the engagement level and virality of Facebook. Job candidates can "like," "comment," or "share" your content, causing your message to be posted to their newsfeeds to potentially reach their entire network, as well as yours. You can also post jobs on your Facebook Company Page, just like LinkedIn.

Utilize Your Facebook Business Page to Post Jobs

LinkedIn has recently added the ability for users to "follow" a company, and have allowed companies to update their status–including the ability to post jobs on their LinkedIn company page for free, in addition to the paid “Careers” tab.

Facebook’s Business Pages also allow employers to post jobs to their profiles for free, as well as through a custom “tab,” both of which show up in their fans’ newsfeeds. Posting jobs on your wall for free works the same on Facebook and LinkedIn–just a status update. However, Facebook allows you to include a picture or video in the post to boost engagement, as well as a link to the job posting.

You can also use a Facebook job posting app to publish jobs to your page. This allows candidates to filter open positions, much like a job board. Candidates can apply for your job without leaving Facebook, or can be redirected to your ATS.

Jobs posted through an app can also be shared on other social networks, job aggregators, and through IM and email to increase your reach.

Each Facebook page comes with a robust analytical tool, Insights, which tells you which of your posts get the most interaction so you can improve your content, and how many people are sharing your content so you can gauge your reach. It also tells you where your likes come from so you know what is helping you build a Talent Community.

An important thing to understand about Facebook is that your content will only show to a portion of your page’s fans, and Facebook determines who will see your posts based on an algorithm called EdgeRank. Your posts will only show to 20-40% of your fan base, unless you advertise.

Advertising on Facebook

If you’ve used LinkedIn’s advertising platform for recruitment, you will find Facebook’s to be similar yet slightly more targeted; they allow you to filter by interests, location, demographics, workplaces, and more. To increase visibility, the ads show in multiple location–in the sidebar, in the newsfeed and on the sign out page. You can use ads to promote job postings, your Facebook Career Page, career events, or your career site.

While both networks have targeted advertising, only Facebook has Sponsored Stories, which allow your posts to get greater visibility. There are several types of stories you can sponsor:

• Page Like Story: When someone likes your page, his or her friends will see a story about it. This encourages them to like your page, as well.
• Check-in Story: When someone checks in to your office, his or her friends see a story about it. This is great if your candidates check in before their interview, because it may encourage their friends to check out your job openings.
• Page Post Like Story: When someone likes your page post, his or her friends see a story about it. This is particularly useful for promoting hard-to-fill job openings or career events.

Sponsored stories look more like content than ads, so they tend to boost engagement. This can be a great tool for referrals. Ask employees to post a story to your Facebook page, sharing why they love working at your company, and turn their post into a sponsored story that shows to all of their friends.

Between ads, referrals and job postings, recruiting tactics on Facebook are nothing new. It’s the same old story on a new medium. With 901 million members and growing, Facebook is the future of recruiting and a tremendous untapped resource for recruiters. So, go fishing where the fish are.

For more information on how Facebook stacks up to LinkedIn for recruitment, watch Facebook versus LinkedIn: A Social Recruitment Showdown.

1. How is your product different from your competitors?

Most talent management solutions share a core set of functionality that covers standard talent management processes (recruiting, performance management, learning management, etc.). Even so, pricing varies widely because of what are often subtle differences across these functional areas.

“One product with ten features may be $1,500, another $150,000–and they’re both going to have the same types of features,” affirms Sarah White, Founder & CEO of Sarah White & Associates, LLC. “The difference will be how they execute.”

Ask your vendor for their take on how they differ from their competition. But try to get beyond the marketing rhetoric and uncover what really distinguishes one product from another–and determine whether those differences matter to you. Be sure to:

• Prioritize your needs. Even if a particular vendor’s solution doesn’t address everything on your list, if it addresses your top priorities better than competing solutions it might be the best choice.
• Consider the future. One critical area of differentiation is how robust a feature set a product has in particular areas. Whatever your needs are today, keep in mind what you’ll need tomorrow. For instance, if you’re planning on aggressive growth, a solution with a richer set of tools for recruiting and onboarding could be a wise choice.
• Don’t ignore the user interface. This is another area where products differ significantly, and it’s important. Regardless of a product’s capabilities, if it’s difficult to use, it won’t be used effectively–or used at all. Get a product demo, and poll your end users for their impressions of its usability.
• Be realistic about your support needs. Vendors differ tremendously in their levels and quality of support, both pre- and post-implementation. If you anticipate needing more handholding or, for instance, a lot of custom implementation work, prioritize vendors that will provide it.

2. How can your product improve my processes?

The primary goal for many talent management buyers is process automation. Automating key talent management processes can improve efficiency, and for many organizations–especially smaller ones–that’s sufficient. However, as HR Technology Advisor, Steve Goldberg cautions:

“Any company that is spending money on an HR tech platform–if they’re only thinking about automation, they’re doing themselves a major disservice.”

That’s because rolling out new talent management software offers a unique opportunity to refine your processes, not just automate them. Ask the vendors:

• Can you help me map out my existing processes and pinpoint areas that your product can help me improve?
• Do you have examples of clients successfully using your product to enhance their processes?
• Does the software help users adhere to talent management best practices?
• Does the software support managerial decision-making around processes, such as by tracking key metrics and presenting relevant data and action items through dashboards?

3. How will you help us be successful?

Choosing the right tool for your organization’s needs is only the first step. The end game, of course, is being successful with that tool–however your organization defines “success.” As independent HR technology consultant Tiffani Murray explains:

“To check the box that says you've implemented a jazzy new HR technology is one thing, to actually have an organization that is using it en masse successfully is another.”

It’s important to work with your vendor to establish appropriate metrics of success, which might include, for instance, user adoption, integration with other technologies, or meeting process improvement goals. There are no guarantees that you’ll be successful–and it’s certainly not entirely in the hands of the vendor–but some questions you can ask include:

• Is there someone in your company proactively focused on helping me be successful, not just reacting when things go wrong?
• What are the points of escalation if I’m not getting the support I need?
• What resources do you have for helping me drive adoption across my organization?
• Beyond your usual support offerings, do you have someone who can help me do more with the product (e.g., integrate with third-party products, customize the product in unusual ways, etc.)?

4. Can I get a reference?

Talent management vendors will supply you with a lot of information to help you choose the right product. You should supplement that information with some unbiased perspectives from organizations that have recently evaluated or implemented those products, or have been using them for some time.

In talking to these references, your goal is to uncover any hidden “gotchas”–things the vendor never mentioned or perhaps didn’t even know about, and things you never even thought to ask. Some tips:

• Ask the vendors for specific customer references–ones that are similar to you, and that are using the same tools you will.
• Find some references on your own. Any references a vendor provides you will have been vetted. Do some research and find more. As Murray explains, “There are many groups out there that can provide insight and where you can post questions and get answers from those who have gone through implementations with various vendors.” Ask companies why they chose–or didn’t choose–particular solutions.
• Take everything with a grain of salt. What works for one company or talent management process may not work for yours.

Only You Can Answer The Most Important Question

In the end, it’s not just about the product you’re buying–it’s about trust. “You’re going to enter into a long relationship with this vendor,” says White. “Is this someone you’re going to want when things get stressful and challenging? Is this someone you’d be comfortable calling–and that you feel comfortable will get back to you?”

Of course, these are questions only you can answer. Just remember: whichever vendor you go with, you’re signing on a new business partner.

In hindsight, what points in talent management software selection would you spend more time on? What questions do you wish you’d asked?

Feature image by: Stefan Baudy

But the role is full of misconceptions and unexpected challenges. I spoke to some experienced recruiters to learn about the mistakes they made earlier in their careers and what insights they would offer to new recruiters just starting out.

1. Recruiting Doesn’t Only Happen Behind a Computer

While recruiters can use the Internet as their primary tool for finding candidates, using it exclusively could limit their access to a wider, more diverse pool of candidates.

Jonathan Weems, a technical recruiter who’s been in the field for five years, says his biggest mistake as a new recruiter was assuming he could always find the best candidates online. He stresses that new recruiters need to network offline just as much. His advice: look for new groups and communities where you can engage in-person to find more people with the skills and qualifications you’re seeking.

“Also talk to employees within your own company, find out where they came from, and start building relationships internally,” says Weems.

“Those relationships are just as important as the ones you develop with job seekers, and you can leverage those co-workers as another channel for finding candidates.”

2. Use Multiple Tools to Source Candidates

With so many job boards and posting apps at a recruiter’s disposal, it’s easy for one to get overwhelmed by all the tools and technology. New recruiters sometimes fall into the trap of relying entirely on one or two tools–and using them in the same way–simply because they’re familiar with them or have seen some good results.

If recruiters are consistently achieving great results with a particular tool, like Monster or LinkedIn Recruiter, by all means they should continue using them. But failing to leverage other tools, could cause recruiters to miss out on a larger pool of candidates.

“Get out of your comfort zone and diversify the types of sites you use, the approach you use on the site, and the way you tackle a search,” adds Weens.

3. Use the Internet, Don’t Watch It

According to a Jobvite social recruiting survey, 89% of companies said they would recruit in social networks in 2011, and 55% would spend more on social recruiting. While companies are beefing up their social recruiting efforts, I think one could argue that recruiting has always been very social.

“The best people who are [recruiting] online were probably pretty good at it when social recruiting wasn’t really an issue,” says Lance Haun, editor of SourceCon and community director for ERE.net.

“They’re naturally social and they’re trying to have conversations with people. It’s just an extension of what they’re doing in real life.”

Even though recruiting apps can automate daunting tasks like posting jobs to multiple social networks, recruiters who don’t actively engage with job seekers are failing to take full advantage of those platforms.

“With all the active status updates and the constant stream of information on social sites, it’s easy to treat the Internet like TV and just watch it,” says Miles Jennings, CEO of Recruiter.com. “Successful recruiters don’t watch the Internet and social networks–they use them as tools to do more of what they do best: talking to people.”

4. Understand the Job You're Recruiting For

Experienced recruiters say that finding candidates with the right credentials and experience isn’t always the hardest part about recruiting–it’s understanding the job that needs to be filled and the business requirements for that position.

For example, without any real-world experience as a software engineer or insurance claims processor, it can be tricky for a recruiter to know what to seek out in candidates for those positions. Beyond identifying relevant keywords to hunt for in candidate resumes, recruiters need to understand the business and what the hiring manager is really seeking in a candidate.

You can press the client to get more information about the position, but it’s more important to understand the business you’re recruiting for,” adds Jennings.

“It's that hands-on knowledge that gives you the capacity to understand what hiring managers want, and gives you the ability to have a real conversation with a candidate as opposed to a job-req-qualification information dump.”

Recruiters can start by engaging with professionals in the field they’re hiring for to learn as much as they can about the profession. Go to lunch with them, ask questions, shadow their day-to-day activities on the job and take notes, because the things you observe will give you a better understanding of the kind of candidate you should look for.

What other tips, challenges, or misconceptions should they know about? I think we’ll begin to see a lot of newbie recruiters out in the field pretty soon. And the more we can prep them, the better.

Thumbnail image by laughlin.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS), in particular, streamline and automate many recruiting tasks. From online applications and candidate tracking to video interviews and social recruiting, an ATS is essential for recruiting in the 21st century. And with affordable cloud-based systems, it’s easier than ever for small and medium businesses to upgrade their recruiting toolbox.

However, there are things even the most sophisticated applicant tracking systems can’t do. Here are three key components of a successful recruiting strategy that your applicant tracking system won’t do for you, and offer some ideas on what you can do instead.

1. Find Talent

ATS vendors are introducing more effective tools for finding candidates for your open positions. Their tools are integrating better with social media, increasing referral capabilities and running more powerful searches.

Though an ATS can help you source, Ternynck argues you need to look beyond your ATS for candidates.

“Applicant tracking systems were created to automate the process of tracking applicants. They’re not designed as a sourcing platform.”

In short, they’re not going to do your sourcing for you; they won’t get candidates in the door and in front of your hiring manager. The day an ATS can find talent–and accurately determine which candidate out of 10,000 is worth interviewing based on an algorithm–is the day you’re out of a job.

Recommendation: Don’t rely solely on a built-in sourcing application to find talent. Stay active in the channels you’re sourcing from, and focus on connecting with people rather than searching for candidates. Use your ATS to organize and track promising people you come across.

2. Automate Candidate Engagement

Your candidates aren’t interested in interacting with your ATS. They don’t want to spend hours searching through your job database and completing your online application. They’re getting tired of sending their resume and cover letter to an anonymous destination, then getting at best a one-line confirmation that their information was received. They want more touchpoints throughout the process, and don’t understand why you’re not providing them.

In terms of functionality, applicant tracking is to recruiting what order tracking is to sales. Tracking an order doesn’t close the sale–it keeps business processes organized, ensuring things don’t fall through the cracks. Similarly, an ATS help you keep on top of open positions, candidates and their status. But it is up to you to engage candidates and cultivate relationships that lead to hires.

Ternynck argues, “Automation is not the right way to engagement,” citing that too heavy a focus on process is going to drive candidates away.

A “high-touch” candidate experience isn’t easy to deliver. Recruiters in small companies often wear too many hats, and recruiters in large companies are juggling open jobs, hiring managers and candidates. However, according to Susan Thayer, Senior Technical Recruiter at Demand Media, you don’t have much of a choice. “You have got to be organized enough to make that candidate a priority–because they’re your reputation. It can be as simple as an email.”

Recommendation: A simple email goes a long way toward creating a sense of touch for candidates. But recruiters have found automatic responses much easier than writing personal emails for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Find a balance between the two. Craft quality automated responses for “we received your resume,” “the next steps are,” and “you’re not a good fit.” That way, you’ll have more time to spend on personal notes and phone calls to your more promising applicants.

3. Fix Broken Processes

Some companies assume that implementing ATS will somehow repair their broken recruiting strategies. However, introducing automation to a strategy that is flawed can make things worse, not better.

While ATS can improve execution of your recruiting strategy by automating certain tasks, strengthening weak points in your strategy requires more than shiny new tools.

“The very notion of applicant tracking and automation goes against employment branding,” says Ternynck.

Recommendation: Before buying ATS, first work on any process issues. Focus on the things you can fix. If job descriptions are slapped together haphazardly, establish consistency in formatting and content. If hiring managers don’t supply you with detailed feedback immediately after candidate interviews–thereby bottlenecking recruiting cycles–schedule debriefs after every interview. If senior leadership is rarely in the office, work with them to reserve one or two days a month as “Interview Days.”

A Shift in Focus: Enhancement vs. Automation

Rare is the flawless recruiting process. As conversations around candidate experience and employment branding continue to gain momentum, it’s apparent that technology alone will not enhance your recruiting strategy.

What do you think? Are we relying too heavily on technology to do our recruiting for us? Have we over-automated? Leave a comment, and share your thoughts.

Feature Image by:Martin Cathrae

“Most job descriptions don’t even reference a person. There’s no ‘him/her,’ ‘you,’ or ‘us.’ They must be hiring a robot, I suppose.” — Keesha Galindo, director of HR for Moolala

This could be a real problem for employers when they try to hire Generation Y Millennials (read: not robots)–people like me. While some managers and recruiters are annoyed and fed up with the stereotypically whiny and self-entitled millennials, Generation Y is predicted to comprise nearly 75% of the world’s workforce by 2025, according to the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation. And while some of Gen Y have “failed to launch” amidst the Great Recession, the best of them are in high demand. So start using the job description to court them.

Here are six ways employers should tweak job descriptions to attract Gen Y:

1. Tell them why they should want to work for you.

Hiring managers, this is your chance to make job seekers fall head over heels in love with your company and the open position. Millennials don’t just want to crank out work and check off items on a to-do list. We want to love the company we work for, so use the job description to get us excited.

“The language of the job description should reflect the company's culture,” says Brie Weiler Reynolds, content and social media manager for FlexJobs. “Instead of using the same old wording to describe the desired qualifications, be a little creative when talking about your preferred applicants.”

Describe your ideal candidate honestly, without using jargon or cliches. Here’s a snippet from a posting that does a great job describing the ideal candidate in a way that’s less robotic and straightforward and mirrors the company’s voice:

Our ideal candidate:

• is not afraid of the phone and has a surplus of energy;
• has a curiosity about the high-tech world;
• views sales as a path to uncapped income and fulfillment;
• earned a GPA above 3.0; and
• has extraordinary “people skills” and enjoys interacting.

2. Tell them why the position matters to the company.

I love my current job because I know how my actions drive company growth. Understanding how my job contributes to the organization is one of the biggest motivators for me and my Gen Y colleagues.

“Companies that describe how the job they're hiring for is a key role within the company are on the right track. Millennials want to know how their work will impact a company, how they'll be connected to decision-makers, and where they fit in the grand scheme of things.” — Brie Weiler Reynolds

3. Talk about what the job could do for them.

While it’s motivating for millennials to know about all the great things this position would allow them to do for the business, they also want to know what they’re going to get out of it. Aside from a salary and benefits, what skills will they gain, what professional connections are they going to make, what opportunities exist for growth within the company, and why would this position make them more desirable candidates when they start looking for their next jobs?

4. Tell them about your creative benefits.

If you only offer the same roster of benefits that almost every other employer offers (like health insurance), your company won’t stand out. That’s why it’s important to offer some creative benefits that are compelling to Gen Yers, like flexible work hours or gym membership reimbursement. Detailing such benefits in your job description can go a long way to attracting millennials.

5. Tell them about your vision for the position.

Tenure within a company may not be the most important selling point for a millennial, given the trend of younger workers job hopping regularly. At the same time, the only companies I want to work for are those where I can imagine myself working for several years. The job description needs to show that the company has the same sort of vision for the person who fills the position.

“Millennials really want to be able see themselves at the company where they’re growing, succeeding, being challenged, and enjoying it all at the same time,” says Ryan Ruud, director of marketing for Four51. “It’s not just about taking a seat at company X, cranking out a list of tasks and requirements every day.”

6. Tell your company story, quickly.

You probably have a company description somewhere on your website. Don’t just copy/paste that into your job description, but don’t fail to include one, either! This is your opportunity to quickly convey your company’s mission and how it came to be as it pertains to the kind of applicant you’re looking for.

“Just like you have a mission statement internally to motivate your team, you need one that is outwardly facing that excites the right people,” adds Ruud.

What other ideas do you have for revamping job descriptions to attract millennials? What do you think Gen Y talent want in a job description?

1. Develop your personal skills
2. Build alliances
3. Take a high perch
4. Believe in something big
5. Ensure the odds are “ever in your favor”

Develop your Personal Skills

In The Hunger Games, Katniss displays her prowess with a bow and arrows. This skill helps her defend herself and earn the respect of peers. HR executives can sharpen their personal skills in order to survive and thrive, too. For example, strategic talent management skills can go a long way in advancing recruitment and selection processes. Invest the time to learn about the companies that offer the latest developments and tools to enable recruitment and selection for your company.

These applications may be as common and familiar as the ubiquitous applicant tracking system (ATS), however, how many companies fully utilize the power and capability of their ATS provider?

Just as new arrows provide improved performance to an archer, ATS functionality can really energize a candidate selection process by integrating new features and delivering enhanced benefits.

Contact your ATS provider for a quick demo, follow the company on Twitter, watch their YouTube videos and attend webcasts that provide insight and training on their new releases and enhanced functionality. Knowledge is power. Skill development is the best way to harness this power.

Build Alliances

Katniss Everdeen forms alliances for a number of reasons: to gain security, scale power, provide protection and attain personal goals. She possesses a natural ability to build alliances with peers, mentors, coaches, media and others.

To achieve peak performance in their roles, HR executives should also build alliances. Some alliances are built to enhance security and safety. Because HR traditionally reports to the CEO through the finance department, HR executives should extend an olive branch to the office of the CFO. As HR executives become more strategic in their approach to talent management they can share valuable information with finance and, in return, be empowered by their support for new initiatives.

Learn to connect HR processes to business outcomes and the CFO will be all ears.

Another favorable alliance is with the business unit leaders responsible for the key outcomes of the company. This includes areas such as sales and customer service. Forming mutually rewarding alliances that share information and action for these business areas can greatly enhance the effectiveness of people practices. Quantify HR’s contributions to business results and you’ll see powerful alliances that extend the influence of HR executives.

Take a High Perch

Sitting high in a tree provides protection from danger and a broad perspective on the world. Moviegoers will see Katniss scramble up trees to avoid danger, seek a safe place to rest and to gain a better view of the surrounding landscape. Here we have another opportunity for HR executives to think about how they view their workforce.

Sometimes we become so familiar with what we understand to be important that we fail to ask the questions that can lead to innovation and improvement.

HR practices can sometimes be very tactical and process-centric. Big data offers the ultimate high-perch perspective; however, very few companies excel at process excellence and strategic innovation because they lack the data to guide improvement.

Commission a professional services firm to conduct a skills gap analysis and a bench strength report. Gather and share data that helps your CEO understand the people supply chain as it relates to the organizational strategy. Does your current workforce have the skills to execute the strategy? Where are the leaders of tomorrow? HR leaders must rise above the surrounding transactional trees to gain a perspective on the strategic positioning of their workforce.

Believe in Something Big

Competing against superior adversaries is a challenge shared by Katniss Everdeen and HR leaders of almost any company you can name. Katniss comes to believe that she can overcome the overwhelming odds working against her. This helps her find inner strength while inspiring others to believe in something big.

HR leaders are often the spokespeople for their organizations during recruiting activities. Think about the first people you met when you encountered a potential employer – they were probably from HR. Leaders that can effectively position the company, its people, products and services, will attract the top talent they need to win in today’s economy.

People want to believe in what they’re doing, to be a part of a great company and to be valued for their contribution.

This is true of new hires and the incumbent workforce. Feedback from employee engagement surveys proves the point. Top-performing organizations understand that employee engagement is the force that drives business performance.

A recent study by Gallup reveals significant differences in engaged worker productivity, profitability, safety incidents, and absenteeism when compared to disengaged workgroups. Furthermore, engaged organizations have 3.9 times the earnings per share (EPS) growth rate compared to industry peer organizations with lower engagement scores. Increasing employee engagement, and their belief in something big, correlates directly with a positive impact on business metrics.

Ensure the Odds are “Ever in your Favor”

One of the characters in The Hunger Games has a favorite phrase. She says to potential participants of the games, “Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor.”

To ensure favorable odds, one must increase certainty of outcomes.

HR leaders can blend strategic talent analysis with practical steps to influence how people view their work, their employees and even their customers. Workforce analytics provide data points related to job tasks, skill levels, talent, performance, and risks associated with workers’ compensation claims and liability.

For many companies, the processes necessary to collect, analyze and impact these business metrics are not in place. This lack of data on such key business metrics puts HR leaders in the unenviable position of having to take action and make recommendations based on guesswork rather than empirical evidence. This severely decreases the odds of making informed talent decisions. The results can be very costly to their organization.

While The Hunger Games takes place in a fictional future, the lessons that HR leaders can learn today are very real. By aligning people, processes and business outcomes, businesses can drive operational performance. A quote from the The Hunger Games describing Katniss Everdeen can also be applied to HR professionals:

“She has no idea. The effect she can have.”

HR executives can learn a great deal from this imaginary character. Imagine the effect you can have on your workforce.

Image Credits: Hunger Games Katniss

“The media plays up the overnight successes like Instagram,” says Jay Turo, co-founder and CEO of Growthink, “but for the vast majority of entrepreneurs, it is a long, slow, and gradually upward growth process.”

From an HR perspective, in particular, there’s a lot of work to be done, and it’s up to you. I recently connected with Turo and Dan Roitman, Founder and CEO of Stroll–two entrepreneurs who have successfully grown their businesses from scratch–and posed the question: What does it take to grow a company from startup to small business?

Here are five must-haves they identified to take your business to the next level.

1. A Culture that Supports Your Purpose

You need to decide what kind of culture you want your company to have. That depends, somewhat, on what you want your company to look like down the road. Start with the end in mind. For many entrepreneurs on the cusp of growth, it’s still go-go-go (and likely will be for a while). But stop working for a second and reflect on what aspirations you have for your company. According to Roitman, “Your long-term game plan should be supported by a culture that will take you there.”

For Stroll, the goal was to be a high-growth company. “We defined what values people need to embrace to make sure our employees are accelerating the business.”

Values like strategy mindedness, ownership thinking, and being the best have made the company one of the fastest growing in the U.S.–growing an average of 73% per year since 2002 and 135% last year.

2. A Sustainable Operation

Can your business survive a week without you? How about four weeks a year, as Roitman suggests? For Turo, “The greatest obstacle has been scaling–to go from actually doing the work myself to training and managing others to do so.”

Of course, it’s hard to loosen the reins. Before you cede control, you need a team you can trust. But if you’re self-funded, getting the best people in the door isn’t easy.

As a stop-gap, hiring a few temporary contractors can free up some of your time–which you can then spend on finding your rockstars.

Also, invest time in codifying some standard operating procedures. Even with a small team, a little structure will go a long way. Develop some guidelines for how work should get done to empower your new hires to hit the ground running, and to keep them aligned with your culture and desired work style.

3. Refined People Process

Once you can afford to take a breath, devote some time to developing people processes. The first step, as Roitman sees it, is developing a great hiring process, “so you can begin cherry-picking your team.”

Before you hire anyone, decide how you will define success–for your company, your employees, and your managers–and how you’ll measure it. Apply this to how you score candidates and gauge cultural fit. Recruiting inevitably takes longer than you expect, and you’ve got a business to run.

So whether you hire an in-house recruiter (as Roitman suggests) or contract this out, get someone to help you build your team.

People processes don’t end with hiring. Open, two-way communication is key as you build your organization. Be transparent. Share your vision, and openly discuss how things are going. Implement a process for tracking employee goals and performance, and meet with your team regularly to give–and receive–feedback. Make sure everyone is set up to succeed at what you hired them to do.

4. A Network of Support

It’s lonely in the driver’s seat. Establishing a network of mentors and non-competing CEOs is pivotal to your personal development and that of your organization. “Get some accountability. Develop a broad network of entrepreneurs so you can learn from them,” says Roitman. There are endless resources available for honing your leadership skills (for instance, Roitman was a member of the peer advisory group Vistage for seven years). Don’t go it alone.

5. An Eye Open for Improvement

Don’t get too comfortable just because you have things cranking a bit. Even if you’ve built a sustainable organization, your work is far from done. As Turo points out: “Be prepared to work harder (and enjoy working harder) than you ever have in your life.”

You’ll make some mistakes (everyone does), which is why process improvement is always iterative. Learn from them, adjust, and consider how you can optimize for success.

“Every time you walk down the street,” says Roitman, “there’s a lesson to be learned about how you can improve the way you’re doing things.”

This list is nowhere near exhaustive, as both Roitman and Turo can attest. What lessons have you learned in your own journey from startup to small business? What else would you include in a list of must-haves? Leave a comment, and share your insights and anecdotes.

If your company finds itself in a lawsuit, will you be prepared with the important documentation needed to defend your business?

HR software could be your best bet for avoiding litigation or increasing your chances of a successful litigation outcome when it comes to an employee-employer lawsuit. By taking advantage of some of the applications within an HRMS that assist with documentation, time and attendance tracking, and employee evaluations, companies can minimize the risk of litigation.

Protect Against Wage and Hour Claims

When it comes to employee-employer lawsuits, many times the defending company is left to rely on the plaintiff’s own records.

“In almost every case that we deal with that reaches litigation, there are instances where better organization and documentation would provide us with a better opportunity to defend the case,” says Brian Ussery of The Law Office of Brian Ussery LLC. “It’s very rare that we come across a perfectly executed human resource model.”

According to Ussery, discrimination, harassment and retaliation have always been the “bread and butter” lawsuits when dealing with the employer-employee relationship. However, wage and hours claims as well as leave of absence benefits claims have become the hot-button topics more recently.

“When you’re dealing with these types of claims related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), oftentimes you’re just dealing with simple math and being able to identify and calculate the number of hours an employee has worked in a given work week to determine if you owe them overtime pay, or the number of hours worked to be entitled FMLA benefits.”

Workforce management systems help HR departments keep better track of employee scheduling, attendance and hours worked, which could be key in determining if a plaintiff is entitled to additional compensation or leave.

“Wage and hour claims are very difficult to defend against if you don’t have a good record keeping system in place. As a practicing lawyer, these are the claims I’m often defending against because [FLSA] is an easy statute to violate,” says Gino Benedetti, Chief Human Resources Officer and partner with Dilworth Paxson LLC. “From the standpoint of an HRMS, time and attendance modules are excellent for defending against wage and hour claims.”

Protect Against Failure to Hire Claims

While failure to hire claims aren’t as common as wage and hour or termination claims, companies can still take advantage of their HRMS to ensure they have the proper documentation and consistent processes in place for screening and interviewing job applicants.

“In cases such as these, we try to prove that the employer treated the applicant in the same consistent manner as they did with other applicants and that the reason they decided to pass was due to some legitimate reason based on qualifications or the applicant’s performance during the interview process as compared with applicant they ultimately hired,” says Ussery.

In addition to being able to electronically manage the recruiting, interviewing and hiring processes, applicant tracking software can help companies implement a more consistent application and interview process.

Employers can enforce a company-wide online application and consistent interview processes based on objective criteria for evaluating candidates, and then formalize those processes within an applicant tracking system.

“Having consistent documentation will be crucial if an applicant decides to bring up a lawsuit because they feel they should have been hired,” says Benedetti.

Protect Against Wrongful Termination Claims

In lawsuits based on wrongful termination, usually a former employee is relying on a federal or state statute such as Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of a protected classification. If an employer chooses to let go of an employee based on poor performance, the company needs to be able to prove the employee was consistently evaluated and was not able to meet the position requirements even after communicating that feedback to the employee.

Companies may miss the opportunity for consistency by not creating standardized employee evaluation processes with consistent documentation, evaluation time frames and grading criteria.

“We see supervisors write performance down on a cocktail napkin, and we see supervisors write feedback down on a very thorough, disciplinary document,” says Ussery. It’s hard if there’s no consistency between the forms within the documentation to glean the necessary information needed to defend a company in court.”

One of the ways employee performance evaluation software systems can help is by automating the time consuming task of regularly evaluating employees. These systems can track performance, help supervisors track and schedule monthly or yearly reviews and then share the information with authorized users across the company.

However, at the end of the day, it’s up to the employer to evaluate employees accurately and communicate those evaluations to them.

“You can have all the bells and whistles when it comes to performance management systems, but unless you sit down with people when they make mistakes, document it and review it, no system is going to help you unless you’re disciplined to do it.” – Gino Benedetti

Tips to Start Minimizing Risk Now

Workforce management, applicant tracking and employee evaluation systems are some HR applications that could minimize an employer’s risk in regards to wage and hour, failure to hire, and wrongful termination claims. But according to experts in the areas of employment law and HR systems, there are some simple steps companies can take using HR software to further mitigate risk.

“Companies need to make sure their employee handbooks or policy manuals are up to date,” says Benedetti. “And they need to review them annually as employment laws are always changing.”

Another tip for companies to minimize overall risk is to follow their application and interview process to a T, even if that requires extra time and energy to make sure they’re hiring the right people.

“I think a good HRMS will prevent companies from hiring people too quickly,” says Ed Mills, co-founder of Omniprise. “If you have a good process in place that hiring managers have to follow, you reduce wasted time and money spent hiring the wrong people.”

We caught up with Mills for a video interview to discuss the topic even more:

The information in this blog post is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue related to employment law.

Thumbnail images courtesy of Horia Varlan.

But new tools and technology need to be learned and mastered, and this is driving demand for changes in learning management. Employee engagement and participation in learning and development programs has always been a challenge, and leaders are now looking for methods to tackle this issue head-on.

To that end, gamification–the use of game mechanics in non-game environments to improve user experience and participation–is rapidly gaining interest as a solution for improving learning management. But there are many misconceptions around what gamification really is and how it can be leveraged to fundamentally change an organization’s learning and development processes.

In this article, I’d like to play my own game to shed some much-needed light on this topic as it relates to learning management.

Two Truths and a Lie About Gamification:

Have you never played Two Truths and a Lie? The rules are simple. I make three statements, and it’s up to you to determine which two are true and which is a lie. To begin, let’s tackle gamification in general:

• Gamification is not just about making work fun.
• Gamification is about beefing up employee engagement and participation.
• You can gamify a process by issuing badges and scoring performance.

The first statement is certainly true. At its core, gamification is a tool for motivating your people to show up and perform to the best of their ability.

But let me be clear: Gamification is not about turning work into a game.

Sure, it could make work more engaging, but as Andrzej Marczewski of Capgemini explains, employees won’t be sitting at their desks, “with Call of Duty-like games on their screens, shooting at reports and running around 3D spreadsheets.”

Rather, gamifying a process leverages basic elements of gaming (e.g. levelling-up, progress bars) to enhance user experience and motivate employees to take a more active role in the work (be it learning or otherwise). Thus, the second statement is also true. Which, of course, means that the third statement is a lie… Kind of. Let me explain:

“Badges” and “scoring” are certainly gaming elements. According to Molly Kittle, VP of Digital Strategy at Bunchball: “Badging makes it easier to track progress. They’re a good mechanism for showing people where they stand.” But unless those badges exist as key performance indicators (KPI), as a measurement of success within the organization, they’re not going to mean anything to your people.

“Gamification isn’t about turning the office into a circus,” says Kittle. “You’re taking things that are fundamental to motivation, which have been proven to work, and applying them in a very non-game way.”

The True Opportunity for Gamification and Learning Management

But is there an opportunity for gamification to make a stagnant learning management program more dynamic? Certainly. But application of this strategy is still in its infancy, and training and development pros have some questions. Let’s see if you can tell which of these three common statements is false:

• Gamification can re-energize stagnant learning and development programs.
• Gamification can increase engagement, and information recall and application.
• Gamification is limited to software and workplace technology.

The first statement is true, and is a large reason why gamification is getting so much attention lately. Learning and development for many organizations is dry at best. For many, it’s downright stale. Leadership wants to minimize time to productivity–for new hires, existing employees in new roles, or rolling out new tools.

And, as Kittle points out, “Leaders are intrigued by gamification because it allows you to tie learning to things that aren’t stale,” like business objectives and performance goals.

Successful learning and development depends largely on content. And as the workforce is getting younger and more demanding, employees have come to expect a deeper level of interaction in the workplace. It’s important to understand what gets your employees going, and that’s the greatest opportunity gamification has to improve learning management.

Motivators innate to gaming–levelling up, achievements, and real-time feedback–all act to consistently reinforce a clear path forward. In learning management, gamifying provides indicators of mastery and connects mastery with application, which makes learning a more interactive and dynamic experience.

What many program administrators fail to realize, though, is that gamification can be applied to more than software and workplace technology. Concepts like real-time feedback may be more difficult to translate, but the core of gamification is engaging and motivating employees. Manual systems like contests and competitions may require some heavy lifting to get off the ground and to maintain, but that shouldn’t stop you.

At Software Advice, we track KPIs on a whiteboard every month. The transparency on the team’s performance can be pretty energizing. There’s something about going up and tallying up progress on the board for all to see that gets us going.

Friendly competition adds a level of positive reinforcement to goal attainment, while simultaneously building a sense of camaraderie–both valuable in a high performance work environment.

Gamification can also improve how you’re delivering your content–and I’m not just talking about training materials. Kittle suggests breaking content down into more achievable chunks by grouping related material. “It all comes back to having a clear path to success, organizing things in a logical way, doling things out to users/employees that allows them to feel like they’re accomplishing things.”

Prediction: With Understanding, Wider Adoption

But at the end of the day, people want to get good work done, right? If they have a little fun doing it, what’s the harm? “We have a mindset of, ‘Work should be work and fun should be fun,’” says Kittle. “The term ‘game’ can be scary.”

Games are nothing new. I’d guess that anyone who attended elementary school in the last 50 years has experienced gamified learning. Games have successfully encouraged knowledge retention and application for years, but is that value limited to young minds? I’d argue not. And according to a Gartner study conducted last spring, “more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes” by 2015.

Until recently, we’ve lacked good examples of game mechanics being used in the workplace to encourage employee motivation, completion, adoption. As we continue to see more and more evidence supporting gamification as a powerful business solution, however, I expect we’ll see wider adoption.

Feature image by: farnea

In a 2011 survey about how recruiters use social networks to screen candidates, 91% of the respondents claimed they have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. Sixty-nine percent of them have even rejected a candidate based on what they found on his or her social networking profiles, such as an inappropriate photo, a post about the candidate using illegal substances or negative comments about a previous employer.

But what are hiring managers and recruiters actually hoping to accomplish by doing this? And what happens when they find something questionable?

I talked to a lawyer/social media expert and a few recruiters who have with experience screening candidates online to get their take on using social networks to check up on potential job candidates.

Why Do Recruiters Care About Your Internet Persona?

It’s expensive for companies to hire someone only to learn weeks or months later that he or she isn’t the right fit for the job. With social media, it’s possible to learn a lot more about a person than what’s on their resume, giving recruiters and hiring managers more insight into the behaviors and personal lives of their candidates.

“Businesses and recruiters want to know as much as they can about a person who they may give a job offer,” says Eric Meyer, partner in the labor and employment group at Dilworth Paxson LLP and author of The Employer Handbook. “But the real purpose behind screening is to make sure the person you’re hiring doesn’t have any red flags that would make them a bad fit or a potential liability for the business.”

Red flags, or careabouts, for hiring managers will also likely vary for companies. According to Amy Henderson, account executive with Technisource, part of Randstad Technologies, the way she screens candidates online really depends on the role the person’s being considered for.

“We heavily rely on LinkedIn to verify skill sets and backgrounds required for more technical positions,” says Henderson. “You’re friends with your friends on Facebook and it’s hard to say you’re something you’re not. You see it more when someone’s background on their resume doesn’t align with their LinkedIn profiles.”

With more customer-facing roles, Henderson may check out a candidate’s Facebook page (if it’s public) to make sure they’re representing themselves in a way that doesn’t hinder their chances of being placed.

“If we find questionable photos or status updates, we’ll use that as a coaching opportunity and try to consult the candidate on his or her online reputation so the client [hiring company] doesn’t get the wrong idea when and if they choose to screen the candidate on social media sites.”

The reality is, most social media profiles aren’t updated with recruiters in mind. People are posting about things that are relevant to their lives, interests and personalities. By screening candidates’ social media profiles, recruiters are getting a clearer picture of the person behind the resume.

What to Expect When Employers Find a Red Flag

Most job seekers should know there’s a chance a hiring manager might glance at at least one of their social media profiles throughout the duration of the hiring and interviewing process. There’s also a chance he or she might find something questionable, like a nasty comment about a former boss, causing a red flag to go up and throwing a wrench in the hiring process.

While recruiters have rejected candidates based on what they’ve found on a social network, (depending on the severity of the red flag) some would prefer to give the candidate a chance to explain the reasoning behind it.

“If there’s something that comes up on a profile and it’s really out of line, I have no problem letting a candidate know that something on their profile has brought their candidacy into question,” says Henderson. “It may be out of line with the core values of the client, but I’ll definitely hear them out to see what’s going on and why that red flag went up.”

Meyer would agree: “I think it’s a good practice as an employer who’s doing really any kind of a background check to give candidates a chance to explain themselves. Oftentimes there’s a story behind what was posted online or what might show up in a background check.”

Maybe those stories won’t hold up, and in that case the candidate probably wasn’t the right fit for the company. But just as 69% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profile, 68% have actually hired someone. Of those, 39% did it because whatever they found “gave a positive impression of the candidate’s personality and organizational fit.”

“In terms of mindset and outlook on life, people use their social networks and their blogs to really express themselves,” says Rachel Dotson, content manager for ZipRecruiter. “If you see someone consistently posting negative things and it’s apparent they have a poor outlook on life, that’s the kind of thing (especially at a small company like ours) that’s going to give us a lot of pause. One toxic employee can ruin an entire department or organization, depending on its size.”

What’s Social Isn’t Always Private, and Other Reminders for Job Seekers

Whether candidates are active on just one or multiple social media profiles, they can’t assume anything they put online is private.

“You may have privacy restrictions set up on Facebook and the like, and an employer may not be able to view what’s behind those privacy restrictions, but you never know how they might gain lawful access to that information,” says Meyer.

And as for recruiters and hiring managers who do choose to look up candidates online, it’s likely that what they find will also shape their first impression of that person.

“Perception is reality in the business world,” Henderson says. “The way people perceive you online, through social media–that’s what they use to make first impressions. And those first impressions are lasting impressions.”

For most job seekers, these points are pretty common sense. But if more and more hiring managers start demanding login information for candidates’ social media profiles, employers will have more to worry about than what’s on a job seeker’s Facebook profile, such as the legality of accessing electronic information without authorization, or the of risk losing top talent due to a perceived lack of trust.

“Employers run the risk that if they require job candidates to relinquish Facebook logins and passwords as a condition of employment, those candidates will respond by removing their names from consideration,” Meyer adds. “At the moment the company requests that private information, it projects a lack of trust, which is a bad building block for an employer-employee relationship.”

What other best practices should social job seekers consider for maintaining their social reputation online?

Additional thanks to Rosemary Haefner – VP of HR, CareerBuilder.com – for sharing her expertise on this topic.

Thumbnail image by Andreas Eldh