The CareerXroads Annex

Supreme Court Ricci Decision: Cliff Notes Version

Gerry Crispin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:35:05 -0400

My eyelids droop when I hear lawyers or Phds explaining anything. And when they explain something legal, my head hurts. And when they explain the legality of testing, my head droops, hits the desk and I hurt even more.

(There are exceptions and among them I happen to love Charles Handler who recently wrote an ERE article on this subject)

However, while I think staffing leaders want to understand what is going on in all relevant corners of their world the recent Supreme Court decision on the Ricci case (which may eventually have some bearing on testing) is confusing.

The problem is that it is a complex finding and, while it will certainly be dissected for the next few months offering lawyers, EEO experts and psychologists extra exposure on webinars, my simplified [and arguable biased] take in a few somewhat declarative sentences follows:

- The City of New Haven uses a written test to determine whether to promote firefighters to a "command" position.

- The test adversely affects minorities i.e. they do significantly poorer.

- The City refused to accept the results of their own test because the results were "discriminatory". (The guys and gals who took the test and came out on top were upset and cried foul.

- The Supreme Court refused to accept the city's argument. The results stand.

- In sustaining the original results, the Supreme Court said that the City gave the test and now they need to live with the results.

-The Supreme Court also said that the City poorly argued that the test wasn't valid in the first place and so they had to assume it was valid until it was proven that it wasn't. (Lots of experts support the notion that the written test in question aka the "book learning" approach lacks any connection to the reality of what it takes to lead firefighters. Unfortunately, the [so called] experts argue among themselves about the best way to measure validity and ended up confusing the court.)

- Bottom line, the Supreme Court supports scientific selection which on its face cannot be ignored simply because a specifc group does poorly. The Supreme Court however is not saying that you can get away with a test that discriminates if it is NOT truly valid.

- However, the ruling was close and a minority [no pun intended] decision by Ginsburg championed a new notion- that "diversity" is a "primary objective in staffing". This has a lot of folks up in arms who think (as most of us do) that hiring candidates who will perform well is the primary objective..and that doing it fairly to ensure the successful candidates are, in fact, diverse is what we are talking about.

In the short run, if you validate against performance, you will have fewer problems. If you recruit against criteria you've validated, simply make sure your diverse candidates all meet the same bar. Tom Janz sent me this link to SIOP content and a few notes which prompted my blog. Thanks Tom (another PhD I can understand)

N'awlins: Settling in

Gerry Crispin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:44:02 -0400

Saturday, June 27 #SHRM09-BoB

7:30AM
Cafe Du Monde. Hot coffee w chicory and Beignets. It's a ritual. Unfortunately, by 8:00AM it appears to be the place every one wants to be this mornig and it is hot enough that I may be the only person drinking coffe hot.

Joined by LV and afterward we amble over to the Marriott for 8 hours of panel discussions surrounding the Society's assessment/re-assessment of its strategy, technology issues, legislative challenges, etc., etc. Finished up with 5 of us prioritizing technology trends impacting the profession. Most, but not all, were to be expected but some interesting twists. We'll see whether other groups concur.

The find of the day however was at 5PM after registering at the convention center and walking back along Tchopitoulas. A self-serve wine bar with over 190 wines...and cheese. We left for dinner 2 hours later. This will definitely not be part of speaker expenses.

Ended the evening with Elaine Orler at a very loose holdem table. We rocked. Nuff said. Looking forward to tomorrow's opening session and the vendor show. Expecting paid attendance around 7,000 and 10k total. At least those are the numbers floating.

N'awlins: You can feel the difference.

Gerry Crispin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:28:02 -0400

Friday, June 26 #SHRM09-BoB

8:00AM
Headed down to N'awlins this morning. First time in nearly a year. This has been the longest time between trips to my favorite city since 2004, a year before Katrina.

10:45AM
The plane included a few HR consultants (MJ Sinclair among them) and Academics (Mark Hueslid) whose company I enjoy. All of us have full agendas at the conference but in totally different spaces. In between the special expertise panels, vendor meetings, and presenting on candidate experience at a concurrent session Tuesday there's food, drink and the sheer pleasure of N'awlins- a city totally without peer.

Conversations the past few weeks have led half a dozen folks to agree to tweet under #SHRM-BoB (Band of Bloggers) and the group will likely grow as more of the community pour into the city on Sunday. A Tweetup is planned for Tuesday but BoB may find a way to check out all the Monday night parties as well.

Good conversation on the plane with MH around the standards initiative SHRM is supporting under ANSI/ISO protocols. Discussion helped me to articualte responses to some concerns expressed by the academic community.

1:00PM
Arrive at Montoleone in the French Quarter and, after settling in I take a 2-hour walk-about taking stock of the recovery by first winding through the French Quarter, American and Warehouse districts and ending at the Convention Center (stopping at a brewery for a local ale and a [small] taste of gumbo).

You can feel the difference. There are lots more people in the streets and our convention hasn't yet arrived. If you know what to look for there are still gaps. Later next week I'll tour the outer rings where I know the problems are still major but downtown you can see the hotels are back in business, new construction and especially the change along Tchopitoulas just opposite the Convention Center is significant- where btw a wine store offering 190 different wines by the ounce and glass is definitely calling to me.

It's hot here. There is a reason for wearing straw hats and loose clothes and walking very, very slowly.

The Convention Center in N'awlins is 1 mile long. The SHRM areas are quickly being built. Several 4 and 8 hour workshop sessions will be conducted tomorrow. The speaker's room wasn't open. Returned to the hotel via the stores strung out along River Walk. Cooler and pleasing to see the crowds there as well. A year ago it was half the size and many stores were still closed.

6:00 PM
Stopped by the Westin to see if NW needed any additional members to network with the large contingent of HR students from around the country attending the conference. Fortunately, not needed and quickly head out to my newest food adventure with Scott Elliott, a fellow foodie from NJ, and a couple of his friends from Pensacola who have raved about a restaurant...Uptown.

This is really Uptown. We reached Jacque-IMOs after an hour on the Charles St Trolley, well past the Garden District and very near the end of the line. Incredibly the restaurant can best described as a beach shack. The street in front is totally demolished. Walking into the bar in the front of the "no reservations" restaurant reminded me of rush hour trains in Tokyo. To say the place was packed was an understatement and, amidst the chaos, shoving and shuffling the [very casually dressed] GenY maitre de offered us, after a moment of mental calculation, a potential time for being seated as "maybe in an hour". I thought "maybe" I had opted into the wrong choice but we retired to a bar nearby with far fewer patrons and an unusual ceiling fan. The fabulous local brew and stimulating conversation helped the time pass quickly. The restaurant staff came and found us and soon we discovered why this place was worth all the wait and much more.

To say the food was moaning good doesn't do it justice. And who could describe an appetizer like Alligator cheesecake anyway let alone help someone taste it like I did. Everything was sauced, subtle but complex and intensely flavored. Even a cornbread dipped in honey and seasoned with garlic and tyme was extraordinary in its details. We shared several appetizers but a stuffed eggplant was so good I begged them for the recipe. The blackened redfish was even better than promised. I've eaten in nearly 100 restaurants in N'awlins. For local color, down to earth good eats and a truly different experience, Jacque-IMOs is a great adventure.

11:45
Returned to the downtown, checked to see if EO was at the Casino as she intimated she might be. Yup, she was there and we played some 3-6 holdem but nothing happening with my hands so time to call it a night.

2nd National Standards Task Force Launched: Performance Management

Gerry Crispin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:32:57 -0400

This week SHRM launched the second National Standards Development Task Force (Performance Management) since being named a Standards Development Organization (SDO) in February by the American National Standards Institute (the ISO member for the US).

In May, the first Standards Task force, Staffing and Workforce Planning, was launched to initially address three standards in the area of metrics, job description and WP as a way of jump starting its longer term of work. 170 professionals within the staffing community- academics, research and consulting professionals, suppliers and vendors, etc. responded to the call for interest by the closing date of June 5. (As these standards get addressed and are offered for public comment there will be more opportunities to participate in new staffing standards- for those of us who like this sort of thing).

I'm leading the Staffing & WP Standards Task Force and expect announcements regarding the colleagues I've appointed for each of the staffing and WP standards initiatives will be in place this week. After discussions with them during next week's SHRM conference we hope the full task force meetings will begin in July.

If performance management is a part of your firm's or your function's DNA, you might want to consider (or share with a colleague that they should consider) getting involved. Unfortunately, SHRM's PR announcements could use more "call to action" language and resource links. So, just send a note to lee.webster@shrm.org and mention Performance Management Standards as your interest. He'll send you info on how to register.

Is Turnabout Fair Play? SEM for the Job Seeker

Gerry Crispin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:15:00 -0400

This blog (PRSquared) is an eye-opener.

The writer is a Principal in a PR firm, SHIFT. He was "targeted" on his Facebook page with an ad that said "SHIFT should hire me" and then went on to explain how the ad's author could help the firm.

Several other members of the firm also saw the ad on their Facebook pages.

You gotta love it. I'm adding it to my list of "disruptive" suggestions for job seekers.

This interesting note was passed on to me by Joe Shaker, Jr. Thanks Joe.

A Standing Ovation: Are You Ready for an MBA OATH!?

Gerry Crispin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:34:37 -0400

"As a manager my purpose is to serve the greater good by.... I will seek a course that enhances the value my enterprise can create for society over the long term...therefore , I promise..."

The idea of a Hippocratic Oath for the Business Grad is going to be ignored by many, scoffed at by nearly every GenXer and, perhaps even made the butt of a few jokes in the National Review but, most Boomers will not only get it, we'll applaud. (Personally, anyone who signs on to this and attempts to walk the talk in the next few years will get my complete support - not that any of them need it.)

Take a moment to look at the MBA OATH site and read the initial names signing the oath.

First of all, the names you'll see are individuals who represent half of Harvard's 2009 MBA Class (the daughter of my business partner, Mark Mehler, was among those who walked a week or so ago).

Second, most of these grads are not "fresh outs" but successful young business people and entrepreneurs with several years experience. Their idealism, while tempered by their experience, seems undiminished in what they are aspiring to achieve. (You can be sure that the back story on this movement will be interesting).

Finally, if these folks walk the talk, they will be mainstreaming a values driven approach in (principally) a For-Profit environment that in the past, only a small percentage of their colleagues would have even considered.

If you listen carefully you'll hear the sound of my hands clapping as I rise to congratulate them.

Collusive Restraint: I'm betting someone is going to jail.

Gerry Crispin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:45:18 -0400

Cecilia Kang, writing in the Washington Post this past Wednesday, June 3, announced a Federal Antitrust Probe that is targeting Google, Apple, Yahoo, Genentech and more. Much more.

It might by you.

Remember how proud you were when you snagged that top performer from your company's biggest competitor? (And this was the third top pro your team won over from them this year.) They obviously were having retention problems as their new product pipeline emptied out.

Remember how worried your boss was? She kept asking if you were sure there were no legal non-compete contracts signed by the candidate (or other problems that the company's lawyers were going to have to deal with despite your assurances to the contrary). You knew you did your due diligence.

It wasn't long after that when word filtered down that we were going to "stop considering" candidates from three of our fiercest competitors...including the company you recently did all that sourcing work..."just for now", she said. There was no notice in writing. Word was quietly shared with the team. No mention was made about where the "decision" came from either but, it sure couldn't have been at your pay grade because...we were in a war for talent...right?

Did someone declare a truce?

Remember how ticked you and your team were, especially since you had been loading the CRM with prospects from all three firms. Several of them were ready to come over after nearly a year of building relationships via events, conferences and the like.

No you don't. You remember nooothiiiing! This scenario must have been a figment of your addled brain.

The concern expressed by the Justice Department is that the "practice" is industry wide. According to the article, "By agreeing not to hire away top talent, the companies could be stifling competition and trying to maintain their market power unfairly."

I don't think that is it at all. I think that as unemployment tops 10%, the public perception about firms that purposely hold their recruiters back from considering qualified candidates is going to play very well...and someone is going to go to jail.

I also don't think we are talking about "Industry Wide" here as code for IT Industry. This probe might rapidly escalate to the entire "Staffing Industry". And you can bet that if they really get serious and bring some heat to bear on the conversations that take place with third party firms, it will get ugly.

Not for anything but next you are told not to consider qualified folks from a firm where you have a "Nice" relationship, tell them to #%!@ off...in a "nice" way.

In business [in the US anyway] you cannot negotiate a truce with your competitors for talent any more than you can negotiate your product pricing.

National Task Force for Staffing Standards: Final Interest- June 5

Gerry Crispin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:41:14 -0400

June 5 [Friday] ends the initial call for volunteers interested in participating in the development of Staffing Standards that I wrote about a few weeks ago.

100+ professionals from nearly every segment of Staffing indicated an interest so far. Still, we are a bit short of academics among the category termed "developers" (not surprising) and few are "customers" i.e. hiring managers, job seekers etc.

If you know someone interested, the invitation that needs to be completed with RSVP form can be found here.

The Last Bastion of the Digital Divide May Have Fallen

Gerry Crispin — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:13:21 -0400

He has accounts on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. He runs an Internet Forum on Yahoo and keeps in touch with the rest of his friends via email.

He is 37 and homeless. He lives under a bridge in NY City.

"Mr Pitts may lack a mailing address" according to a May 30/31 Wall Street Journal feature by Phred Dvorak but you can certainly find him virtually.

Roughly half of some 200 shelters in the city (run by various non-profits and the city itself) offer online access.

When was the last time you required a mailing address to make a hire? Gotta love it.

National Standards Task Force for Staffing and Workforce Planning Launched: I'm In

Gerry Crispin — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:29:23 -0400

If you are interested as an observer or as a "Stakeholder" in the development of Standards for Staffing and Workforce Planning, send an email simply stating your interest (individually or representing a group, vendor, association, company) to Lee Webster HRSTDS@SHRM.ORG before the end of MAY

Last week a well-worded but routine press release was issued by SHRM without any accompanying fanfare outside of a member magazine mention- despite the fact that a SHRM Staffing Management Conference attended by more than 700 HR and employment professionals was taking place in Las Vegas at the same time.

The SHRM Press Release details the May 2009 launch of a National Task Force responsible for developing Human Resource Standards for the Staffing and Workforce Planning fuctions. The launch is part of a much larger initiative that first surfaced (after more than a year of preparation) in February, 2009 when SHRM was designated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a Standards Development Organization (SDO). (ANSI is the US organization that serves under the International Standards Organization-ISO). This task force is one of the first of at least 3 being launched in 2009. As many as a dozen or more task forces might eventually be working collaboratively with stakeholders to pioneer first US and eventually ISO Standards for the HR profession and its functions.

Now if you aren’t already full to the brim with acronyms and detail, the protocols for establishing standards include reaching out to interested parties, managing public debate and eventually developing consensus through voting by potentially hundreds of stakeholders.

I’m hoping you are interested, or that your organization is, or your association, or, someone you know is. I know I am. I'll let others debate the value of this initiative. I'm interested in driving the folks who get the potential of standards development and who realize the value in participating to get in the game. I believe the implications for this initiative have the potential for taking the standards work pioneered by many other organizations to a new level of professional and industry acceptance.

If you are from any of the following 4 stakeholder groups: Staffing and HR Practitioners, Customers (public and private sector organizations and employees), Developers (suppliers and vendors, academics, attorneys, researchers, and consultants) and General Interest representatives (all other interested parties) and want to particpate or simple observe, you should email Lee Webster, Director, HR Standards, at HRSTDS@SHRM.ORG no later than May 30, 2009.

I plan to create an open forum based on one or more existing platforms where all interested participants and observers can see the action on the three initial "calls for standard" and grind slowly forward. A beta of that site is at http:staffingstandards.ning.com. Join me.

Implications for Recruiting With Restricted Travel

Gerry Crispin — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:23:58 -0400

Several years ago after the SARS epidemic in China and amidst the hype over the potential for Avian flu reaching our shores, I wrote out a case-style scenario that assumed we were hit with Avian flu and that travel was curtailed indefinitely.

I presented the scenario to a group of 30 staffing leaders (at a meeting hosted coincidentally by Disney) and asked them to develop a contingency plan for recruiting and onboarding new employees w/o travel by recruiters, hiring managers or job seekers. I gave them an hour to deliver a map of the "new" hiring process starting with a sourcer handing over prospective interested candidates.

Initially the task seemed simple. after all, in our post internet world we have enormous choices in how we communicate and collaborate.

After a few minutes though the problem started to get a bit difficult as the strategies being bantied about came in conflict with tactical preferences, hiring manager traditions, available resources, technologies that wouldn't integrate as well as vendors that wouldn't integrate them.

The teams met their goal but the check list of potential problems in deployment was quite extensive. All agreed a lot of pre-planning would be necessary to carry it off without a hitch. Of the firms in the room (and all had enormous resources at their disposal) none had experience recruiting large numbers of hires in a restricted travel environment and none were confident they could move deliver to the standards that the scenario presented.

Try it yourself. Despite the hype over swineflu, the most recent Workplace Readings published by SHRM quoted a CNN article that reminded me of the scenario.

"Companies are taking steps to combat the spread of swine flu by limiting travel...Microsoft, General Electric, IBM, and Dell already have contingency plans in place..."

The need for contingency planning - for bad times for good times and for the next times are as critical for staffing leaders to engage in as any other function in the firm.

Better Tools For Job Seekers May Be At Hand

Gerry Crispin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 10:53:07 -0400

The article below from our monthly CareerXroads update speculates on new tools for job seekers and offers advice (some controversial) that we support.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to Find A Job (Fortune Magazine, 4/13) could have been a bit meatier but it is well written and includes some key stats - estimating for example that as many as eight people are available for every new job posted.

There were a few anecdotes we enjoyed in the article. One story was about an engineer who seriously studied the software of a firm with which he was about to interview. He managed to uncover three problems in the software code which he then pointed out in the interview. He got the job. We bet he didn't interview with the original development team.

It's a given, however, that scarce skills are not getting any easier to find even with all the layoffs - few folks are capable of analyzing software let alone uncovering flaws so it is no wonder that hundreds of unqualified folks are applying for each of your openings. Hopefully, many of them will figure out that submitting blindly is a waste of everyone's time.

Perhaps if they had more tools to level the playing field as an alternative to simply caving to an employer's recruiting process, otherwise known as the Black Hole Syndrome. Imagine if job seekers could:

get really solid honest advice about the openings that exist based on an independent review of their profile including feedback on becoming more competitive.
get help tracking ALL openings for which they are qualified - in real time.
target firms based on a "candidate experience" ranking i.e. the company's ability to inform and provide feedback.
obtain "concierge-like" assistance applying to ALL positions for a miniscule fee to save time.
use a resume helper app on their mobile phone to apply to and accurately match jobs in a target firm with a single key stroke.
answer your application question, "How did you get here?" by putting in the name of an employee referral EVERY time
know in advance who the hiring manager is likely to be and download a profile of that person's interview style

We are aware of real and developing resources for each of the possibilities noted above and expect significant changes as these tools are fully deployed. In the mean time, here are CareerXroads' top tips for gaming the system:

1. Privacy is Your Choice. It cannot be compromised for someone else's convenience. Protect it!
If they ask for your SS# before you have an offer, make it up!
If recruiters can see inappropriate content on your Facebook page, shame on you!
But if they do see it and don't hire you, threaten to sue their ass!

It is just wrong to ask for personal information before a company has made you an offer based on your skills, knowledge and experience. It is not illegal to ask in advance (not yet anyway) but it is dangerous - to you.

2. Go Mobile, Explore the Cloud. Fake it if you must (since nobody really knows what these terms mean)
Walk into your next interview with a Smartphone in your hand.
Type '#job' and your two best skills on twitter's advanced search page. Once you find a search string for a job that reflects your interest, type '#candidate [your skill and location preference] on your twitter page each morning.

3. Stand in the Light Where Recruiters Can See You. They seldom search in the dark holes.
Join the largest national association in your profession and every chapter in your city. Get access to every directory.
Ask yourself who would I call first if I were a recruiter looking for me. Make that person your friend and referral. Get a twitter account and learn how recruiters and employers use #. Try adding #candidate to your tweets just for fun

4. A Company's Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is A Virtual Mirror. Look Into It!
Study it. Confirm it. Relate to it. Choose it or move on. Use it.

5. Transparency Doesn't Mean Naked. Seek answers to the "Great Questions" that affect your decisions without embarrassment. Ask as if you already know the answer and choose the firms that can answer them.
Since only 17% of practicing engineers are women, could you share with me your distribution by level?
You seem like a firm that is committed to developing its people. How many of your employees in similar positions to this one were transferred or promoted last year? How many left?

6. Know The Answers to #5 in Advance.
"Hi. You and I went to the same school but graduated at different times. I'm interviewing for a position in your firm later this week and, before I meet with HR and the Hiring Manager, I would like to test out a couple questions I have about your firm on you and see what you think the answers might be." (Later, ask if they will be your employee referral)

7. Bait and switch: Bring Your Network To Your Interview.
"I want to thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today. I learned a great deal about your position and am certain than I am a good match. I'm excited at the prospects for how my success in this job will make a difference for the company and I look forward to successfully competing for this opening.

While I'm convinced you will eventually see me as the top candidate (and I would be happy to return to continue the discussion), if for some reason you decide I'm not the best fit as you go forward, let me leave you with two colleagues' resumes.

These are Professionals in my network that I've gotten to know. These are people I'm planning to continue networking with once I'm established me in a new position.

8. Patience. Timing is everything. Your Only Location Preference Is "Open".
You cannot accept an offer that won't be made. Only negotiate after the offer is in your hand.

9. You Cannot Shake Hands With A Computer. All Relationships Have Touch Points.
Get out and meet people. Create an online journal of those you meet or have met and touched in person and keep them apprised at least monthly with an upbeat two paragraph summary of the last 4 weeks and the possibilities you are still developing

10. There is only ONE answer to how you got here- Employee Referral.
Never, EVER again complete an application without one.

Can you add to our top 10? The more outrageous the better. Send your suggestion to mmc@careerx roads.com

Shopping for a Career Coach? What Are Your Criteria?

Gerry Crispin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:54:33 -0400

I know quite a few really good Career Coaches- people that I refer on a regular basis, people who I've sent my family members to (and that is a big deal).

I also know a lot of good people who really need good career coaches. There are many more in need than there are good coaches.

The good news is that young people are in search of career coaches and mentors in larger numbers than ever before.

The bad news is that anyone and everyone can hang out a shingle...and they are.

I'm looking for a list of what to look for in choosing a good coach. A list that offers some measurable, observable items. The materials I find on various association sites are useless.

Despite all the certifications and certificate programs (that seem to now number in the hundreds), the sub-profession of coaching lacks consensus over its body of knowledge. None of the competing programs have any public brand identity. None of the associations (that I can see) have any means of protecting the public or themselves from anyone hanging a shingle. The details of most of the certifications and certificates are not as transparent as I would have them and, when they are, they seem a bit shaky (read that as too easy). In this country licensing is for "counselors". "Coaches" is synonymous with unlicensed counseling.

I'm pretty big into caveat emptor but has two incidents today that made me think about this list I'm looking for.

Both incidents were small enough.

The first was an email from one of the out-of-work Staffing Leaders at the director level I network with (I'm networking with 25 at the moment...and counting). He sent notes out to several career coaches via Linkedin earlier this week. He wanted to add them into his network and perhaps have some deeper conversations about how they could assist one another.

Now this Staffing Leader is most likely to end up in another leadership position in a major corporation sooner or later so, if I were a career coach, I would jump at the chance to link to someone like that reaching out to me. Even more so since this person noted she was a career coach who was "actively pursuing a position in HR or Career Services". Instead of connecting, she clicked �??I don�??t know this person�?? thereby dinging the person attempting to link to her. If she were just dumb, she could have chosen "archive". She needs a coach.

Then, an hour later, I received a request to connect along with a resume from a career coach who had just finished a post grad certificate program at a major university. This person has at least 20 years in staffing related activities and will be going full bore to develop an executive coaching practice.

Her resume included this phrase near the end:

COMPUTER SKILLS: Proficiency in Microsoft Office, PeopleSoft, Lotus Notes.

Pretty standard stuff until I thought "lotus notes?" "who cares if she can use MS?" My 9 year old grandson would have that and a ton more.

What was missing: all the community building skills you might now expect a career coach to help you with. Personal branding skills. Examples of online networks. Use of and knowledge of social aps, critical databases, etc. And yes, I sent back a nice note w/o going ballistic.

Again, it was a small missing, perhaps overlooked component but with the Strategies AND Tactics of every profession undergoing enormous change, how you choose help for one of your most vulnerable personas is a critical decision.

I need to think a little more deeply about the expectations I have of career coaches...and I'm not even shopping for one.

Mobile Recruiting: One small step for recruiters, One giant leap left for Jobseekers

Gerry Crispin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:31:18 -0400

John Zappe's excellent ERE article about an iPhone app allowing recruiters and hiring managers mobile access to ATS functionality is getting picked up in quite a few places.

Let me know when a jobseeker can search and apply for a job using their mobile phone.

Actually the giant leap left for jobseekers is to hear back from the firms they apply to, but that is anbother story.

Do you Know Where Your Company's Staffing Site Conversion #s Are?

Gerry Crispin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:43:49 -0400

A few years ago we collected data from about 50 large companies that went something like this:

About 720,000 visitors touched their website each month for all the right and wrong reasons

About 68,000 visitors reached the staffing pages driven from all manner of sources...directly and indirectly.

About 18,000 of the the visitors completed an application for a specific job in a given month.

About 6,000 of the completed applications were qualified applicants for the jobs they applied for

About 2000 of the 6,000 became finalists, and

500 positions were filled.

We're updating these numbers.

If you have data, we would love you to share it (can't make it up though as we'll check in with you). Your contribution to this survey will be anonymous however and, while we (Mark and I) will know who participated we promise to keep your company name quiet. We'll also try to help you bench like firms w/o giving any one who participated away.

Survey can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ct5gya

The reason we're updating this issue is pretty obvious as we look at the means to bench initiatives to increase the conversion or, develop alternatives for those not ready to go the next step and potentially loop them back in at a future time.

An invitation-only discussion of the results online will take place when we have enough useful data. We'll certainly invite all who participate. We'll eventually share what we find with everyone as we do in other areas.

Bullets on #EREEXPO

Gerry Crispin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:31:14 -0400

Collecting thoughts while waiting out the delay in San Diego.

- The Twitterati were out in force at ERE's conference (sounds better than twits). And as folks learn the "#" trick to setting up their tweets to be searched, more interested parties than ever before used twitter search to monitor the conference in real time.

- ERE is the only conference with the sense/vision to use live streaming video to engage the "community" that can't attend with a tantalizing window into the main circus tent.

- Smaller conference (1/2 the people in 2X the space)but more discussions and more time for conversation. Folks who did make it were solid and the sessions were generally strong and interactive.

- ERE Awards are the best in the staffing industry and really the only ones based on stated results. Smart of Monster to continue its sponsorship. More firms should apply for these awards. This has become the archive of best practices anywhere.

- The ERE Foundation wrote a check this week for $50,000 to an organization dedicated to building schools in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan to [especially] benefit girls. David the foundation 4 years ago and the money raised from recruiters is going to some worthy efforts. The recruiting community should feel good about that.

JobSerf: Concierge services for the job seeker

Gerry Crispin — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:37:03 -0400

How much would a job seeker be willing to pay for a high-end concierge service that tracks down highly customized job leads by the bushell AND applies to each of them individually...representing you -the job seeker?

No, I'm not talking about the automated " email blast"scams from a few years ago that purported to ship your resume to thousands of waiting recruiters. I'm also not talking about the Haldane-like services that send out broadcast letters after counseling for thousands of dollars either. This is different.

Again, imagine a concierge service- an intelligent discussion with real people toward building an indepth profile of who you (the jobseeker) are- your skills, knowledge and experience- your interests, preferences and restrictions (including the answers to the likely questions that targeted companies will ask to test your interest, qualifications and capabilities.)

Imagine the service as an ongoing iterative process that feeds back the leads that are found in real time so you can tweak them until all are on target.

Imagine that all those labor intensive profiles/applications in all those sophisticated ATSs are indivdually completed by people who know you as well as might reasonably be expected (and who mask their ISP so it looks like it is coming from wherever you are).

Imagine getting a detailed report of jobs applied for delivered in real time so you (the job seeker) can productively spend your time following up, networking to employees who can refer you, etc., etc.

I have a cousin who worked for Lehman. A network professional in his early 50s with very high-end skills who, when absorbed by Barclays, was not suprised to learn that he along with thousands of other financial services technology pros were to be put into he street over Christmas with little support or severence. We all have friends and relatives in a similar boat...with kids in college, etc., etc.

This cousin had never before had to look for a job in his life. He is well connected but the time he spent NOT networking but instead engaging in repetitive non-standard transactional activities was occupying 6-8 hours a day.

Jay Martin, JobSerf's founder, offered his concierge service to my cousin for free in order to engage me to potentially write about it.

It took awhile to get up and running. Reluctance on my cousin's part to giving up control was a part of it. Concern that JobSerf wouldn't get the leads right or that the folks at the other end would screw up their representation or that the reports of work accomplished wouldn't be detailed enough for him to follow up caused delays in getting set up. There were glitches in communication and early efforts had errors. These were quickly resolved.

In the end, 57 applications were completed for highly targeted leads in about a week. My cousin is back to work as one of those leads (one he would never have found or completed on his own by the way) ended up in the hands of a hiring manager who knew him at a company previous to Lehman and literally called to hire him on the spot.

Last week I shared the above story with 20 staffing leaders. People whose firms probably hire -even in this economic climate, a half million people a year. They cringed. At first, I thought it was the name. Then concerns over whether it was ethical, even legal were the immediate reactions...that is asuming it worked beyond the occassional anecdotal evidence I offered. I smiled.

The idea of examining, finding, scanning, tracking and prospecting through the personal data of millions of potential hires on the employer side is not at all a concern to employers while it seems for some the idea of remote power application tools in the hands of job seekers is a seriously deviant "grey" area. Hmmm.

Just wait. Job seekers are close to being able to obtain detailed facts about jobs, the profiles of the hiring managers who own these jobs as well as the people they know who know the managers, the pay that is expected, the people who have applied etc., etc. in ways few might have imagined just a year or so ago.

So how much would a job seeker be willing to pay for a high-end conceirge service that tracks down highly customized job leads by the bushell AND applies to each of them individually...representing you -the job seeker?

Would you pay $2 per quality application?

I would.

Memo to Bernanke: Pay the Bonus

Gerry Crispin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:39:43 -0400

Dear Ben

Let's pay the folks who've been whinning for their "contracted" bonus- skimming their piece of the stimulus off the top. Pay them all. AIG, Merrill, Lehman, whatever.

Just make sure they all profile themselves on Linkedin and Facebook.

I want to NOT connect with each and every one.

Yup, I want them all to be my NOT friends

That way I can see if they give their bonus to former friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs or homes. Maybe not.

If not. If they keep it, they'll certainly want more sooner or later and I would like to see where they go.

Maybe to a waste management firm that promises to treat dangerous chemicals, or as safety manager for a nuclear energy construction company. I'm sure they will work hard to earn a bonus in their new firms with the same set of skills knowledge and experience they applied in their old jobs.

Whatever they do, whatever they sell in the future, I want to know so I can NOT invest. Oh, and I would like to NOT connect to the hiring manager who selects them, the recruiter who found them and the HR pro that vets them.

Thanks for listening Ben

myhusbandneedsajob.com

Gerry Crispin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:39:58 -0400

How far would you go to help your significant other get a job?

Jason Dolier, a top notch MBA from Georgetown who graduated in 2007 and participated in an ERE panel in DC that I moderated sent me a link to the website of a friend of his, Mike Stearns.

Mike also graduated with his MBA from Georgetown. He was president of the University's Consulting Club and moved to San Fran with his wife Robin.

Apparently unable to find a job, Robin and Mike put up a site called MY HUSBAND NEEDS A JOB

Ya gotta love it.

ISO 9001 for HR?

Gerry Crispin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:05:06 -0400

A recent Press Release from SHRM announced that the Society was designated a "Standards Developing Organization (SDO)" by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). (ANSI is the American representative to the International Standards Organization.)

This year long effort to gain approval was led by Lee Webster, a SHRM staffer with considerable standards expertise, and it has the potential of touching off a decade long sea change in how the profession of Human Resources will be viewed in the future.

The protocols for building HR standards are rigorous and require input from ALL stakeholders in the process as well as a consensus around any standards to be proposed to ANSI and eventually ISO for acceptance. This means that an extraordinarily open process may soon get underway in each of the many silos claimed by the profession including Staffing.

The implications for those who buy and sell products and services are far reaching. For the rest of the profession though it will be some time before this press release sinks in.

Stay tuned.