find+attract

i love this idea. it makes me think about whether an industry group or industry coalition could pull this off... like for me, i'm recruit for the PR world and there are other PR agency recruiters i connect with and at times, we share candidates. it's in our best interest to work together at times - and we all know that our cultures are different from one another and while one might not be a good fit for my firm, they could be awesome elsewhere. i've stopped looking at other agencies as competitors and am digging the notion of being more community oriented with other recruiters in my industry... and if there were someone who managed the talent community on the whole for all of our industry... wow! that blows my mind...

Jessica, that's a slightly different take on it than what I was thinking, but valid all the same. Actually, I've suggested that to a number of agency friends. Wouldn't it make sense, as an agency that places contractors (or perm) to have a social network for all the people you place? If they're a contractor, then they can stay updated on your other opportunities as their contracts are coming due. This way they are less likely to be poached by other agencies and the candidate stays more loyal to your agency. Beyond that you could invite the stakeholders at your clients to be a part of the network. They can then interact with potential candidates right there, or see what other projects they've worked on etc. It would totally change the presentation of candidates from an agency standpoint.

you are a man ahead of your time, Josh! nice post and I don't think we're far from seeing this be more common among larger org's. I think @therecruiterguy has somebody on his team at AT&T that performs this role - i think they just have a different job title.

Hey Dennis, thanks for your kind words. I agree. Its interesting to think about. I was recently part of a project to hire a 'community manager'. I simply took the job description from that, modified for a recruiting angle and voila.

Now would seem to be the time to build this capability too. As sourcing gets easier and easier (at least the find part) we'll need to have effective ways to filter the masses, and establish good relationships with potential candidates. To me one of the exciting ideas with community management is transparency about the true work environment. I think this alone will provide a natural way for people to filter themselves out of the process. Which can be just as valuable as someone opting in to the process for specific job. Spoke with Chris yesterday, as I'm sure you know, he's up to some good stuff. Excited to see how the addition of Amybeth Hale to that team will play out.

4/1/2009

Dear Sir or Madam:

I just made my first visit to the new Boulder, CO store on 30th st. and was witness to first a verbal, then PHYSICAL attack on an employee by a manager that is clearly not cut out for supervision or social interaction. Although it is 4/1 (incident at ~2:10 MDT), this is not a joke - I have contacted Kelly and Susan in public relations as well, so please coordinate accordingly.

The manager that verbally and PHYSICALLY assaulted the employee was wearing a red dress shirt, about 6ft tall, Caucasian and dark brown hair. Apparently there was an employee in back (on break) behind the CS desk that he wished to return to the floor. The manager appeared to be out of control as demonstrated by the frantic nature of the other two managers around him racing to the scene after the physical assault, to their obvious humiliation.

Regardless of whether the employee was 'slacking', the manager's verbal tones and screaming loudly were far out of line in ever way. He was screaming at the employee to get back to work, repeating himself over and over, louder each time, despite the fact hat the two parties were only a few feet apart, and I was only ~8ft away. After not getting the overtly submissive action he was looking for, the manager then approached the employee after which, immediately throughout the front of the store customers could hear the employee cry out for the manger to stop physically assaulting him, for the manager to get his hands off of him. At that point two other managers ran toward the incident, bumping into one another and looking at me to see if I was witness to the outrageous behavior. Indeed I was. They were clearly humiliated and frantic.

I am writing in support of the employee on several levels. Regardless of whether the employee was insubordinate or a 'slacker' the manager's verbal outrage and abuse was highly unprofessional and highly asocial - I felt fear, when really I should not have even been privy the conversation in the first place, but in this case I’m glad to support your employee. The manager's actions, before the physical assault ever took place should be enough to send the guy to the streets. It was very upsetting for me and as the employee waiting on me can testify (as will your security cameras), I was obviously nervous, torn and found it difficult to provide her with simple information such as my name and address for a rain check. The manager kept glancing at me and with each glance, I became increasingly afraid that he may lash next assault me for showing disapproving interest.

I am a mid-30's professional and what I saw on my first visit to the Boulder store was the manager in red completely losing himself and his self-control. No one should be treated the way that this man treated your employee and I can't help but wonder how he treats other people outside of work. He clearly has a psychological malady. He severely abused his (retail) authority, which has clearly gone to his head. After the employee's cry out for the manager to discontinue physical assault, I realized the legal implications for Best Buy - you may very well be sued and this matter must pass through the Legal Department. I am offering my sworn testimony in support of the employee regardless of whether he presses charges. He should not lose his job because of this specific incident but the manager in red certainly should. Due to the violent nature of the outburst I very seriously found myself entering the sympathetic nervous reaction (“Fight or Flight”) in which I felt that I should enter the merchandise storage area behind the service desk and intervene and offer protection to the employee being physically assaulted.

I cannot emphasize enough in this letter just how passionate and unleashed this manager became, he did not appear to be in control of himself and I feel that he may be a future threat to other employees and CUSTOMERS. Look for this incident to be posted in multiple public forums as well as sent to local media of management is not convinced by the wealth of evidence that the man should be swiftly dismissed.

I can't say that I care to return to this floundering Best Buy after having made disapproving eye contact with the guy several times. On that note, I asked the girl helping me to let the management know that the man's behavior was far out of the acceptable social norm, and then there is the physical element which is prosecutable should the employee deem it necessary. With utmost sincerity and plenty of corporate experience myself, I hope that corporate Best Buy management will act swiftly to terminate the manager from future employment at any Best Buy Store. Meanwhile, be assured that I am pursuing this with fury as I am very much upset and outraged as Kelly or Susan in PR can verify. As I said, I have reported to Public Relations already and my campaign to keep you informed will continue until I know that the rabid manager is no longer a part of your organization, which until this point has involved mostly pleasant experiences. I don’t think it would be a wise decision for me to go back and confront the man about his public, social and professional behavior, but if you don’t, count on me doing it for you. I’d prefer to avoid such a stressful scene.

Sincerely,
(hidden, ask Susan or Kelly in Corporate PR)

P.S. As an active investor with common shareholder interests, I obviously take this matter seriously.

Interesting. However, rather irrelevant to my particular blog. I'll leave your comment up in the spirit of open discussion. Rest assured I've connected with the other Best Buy employee's whom you've communicated with via comments or other. Your concern is in the right hands now.

I welcome any comments here, the more relevant to the content here, the better.

Josh,

I really like this idea for a few reasons, but I think the overarching theme is that this is engaging.

From a candidate experience perspective, applying for a job is usually disconnected. You read company marketing about the culture, advancement opportunity, and job duties, then you click a button to submit your resume (sometimes answering a few questions). Then in 3-6 weeks you get an email that you're not qualified. You don't get any personal interaction with employees (unfiltered of course), you don't get a taste of what the job is like, you don't really know what the internal process for getting hired is, you don't know what your boss would be like. You're basically in a void. It would be really beneficial for a company to provide transparent answers (and activities) to all the questions and energy existing in the potential candidate marketplace.

Interesting though, if you really look from a candidate side, you're not in a void. There are plenty of outlets to connect with other candidates (employees too sometimes) and share experiences. Indeed.com can be scary sometimes from a corporate perspective... The risk is that right now most companies don't pay attention, not at this detail level. Should they pay attention? I think so, because one bad experience can contaminate an entire pool of candidates.

I'll stop here for now, but this is interesting stuff. I think if you really worked to develop a community self identified, talented, segmented, active and engaged candidates, you would certainly have a competitive advantage in recruiting, and you'd see a number of improved metrics (less time to fill, more candidate quality, less applicants who don't meet min quals, better candidate experience, less help calls, etc).

Hey Mark,

thanks for stopping by and the thoughtful commentary. Agreed that the resources for candidates to connect with or get closer to a company's employment experience are there. Thing is, they're not often provided by the company in a way that fits a recruiting end. So I file this under "the big misses in employment branding", most companies have ample, and cheap resources to develop a fantastic employment brand, many are either too brainwashed or handcuffed by traditional marketing methods to think differently.

Since it's such a tough market out there for recruiters/sourcers/hr budgets ... we are offering a FREE Sponsored Job Listing on Indeed. Just our way of doing an Economic Stimulus. Watch & sign-up here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BodPOc9kQ4g

Cheers,
Jeremy Langhans
Sourcing Consultant
http://www.visualcv.com/execsourcer

Josh,

I can see why you would be frustrated because it is important to manage quality talent that's vital to a company. I agree with you on point 4 that HR departments do seem to be a little squeamish about using all these social networks and media.

In you're opinion what would help HR in getting their feet wet with social networking and media?

Hey Cade,

Well, beyond having forward thinking HR leaders, I have a couple ideas
on convincing HR people of social media's value. Remember of course
that value is relative. Social Media tools by themselves have no value.
Its only when considered in the context of the group you may be trying
to engage, and to what end, that the value, or lack of value reveals
itself.

I think some early adopters from the ranks of recruiting/sourcing would
help. Sourcers especially, since they tend to be "out there" searching
the web more often, they may tend to be more savvy about the dynamics of
social media and its potential value. Ask them, or encourage them to
play a bit, on a small scale. The beauty is, trying stuff is generally
free and can give you some data to work with when going to those who may
be unconvinced.

Also, look to other industries outside of HR to help show the value of
social media. A simple google search should show you plenty of news
stories on how social media has impacted business needs. There are even
some stories now specific to HR or Recruiting. Buzz alone is usually
not enough to convince people, and it shouldn't be.