The Buzz About Online Networks & Talent Communities

“There’s a lot of buzz on Talent Communities in the HR world right now.”  It seems like that’s something that’s heard at least a couple of times a day and it’s true, there IS a lot of buzz out there.  Everybody wants to have a voice in the conversation because of it; and like the latest fashion, there’s a mad rush to have one of our very own.  So, the building begins, the community is launched as people are invited.  They sign up, the make an initial post & participate in a discussion or two and then?

Nothing.  Where has all the ‘talent’ gone from the talent community?

In the mad rush to create the talent community; many businesses & HR/Recruitment professionals fail to invest the time to properly understand that success is not a given.  Communities do fail; and according to Fortune, most do.  There are four main pillars of success for any online community:

• Commitment

• Strategy

• Content

• Members

Without these four components planned prior to launch; there’s little chance the community will succeed.  And if they do fail; it’s in front of those you were trying to strengthen a prospective employment relationship with.  Not exactly inspiring for the ‘talent,’ is it?

Commitment

The first pillar to Community success is to have commitment to dedicate the resources, time, and the appropriate personnel.  The best community managers are natural ‘control freaks’ who have learned when to hold tight of all the things that need to be done; and when to ‘let go’ of controlling the conversation so the invited members can do what you invited them to:  get connected.

Community architects & their organizations also have to be committed to the holding firmly to the truth that they don’t get to retain true ownership of the talent community… and they shouldn’t want to.  In order for the community to blossom, they must ensure there are enough content to initially bond around; but ultimately allow the community members to drive discussions & ownership.

So how do you get comfortable enough to let go?

• Liken your community to a 24/7 party.   When you’re hosting a social gathering, a lot of planning and preparation goes into making sure it’s a success.  But while you plan the food that will be served, the games that will be played, and the entertainment that’s enjoyed… do you script the conversations everyone will have about them?  No, of course not.  Same with your community, you provide the initial content & continue to “refresh the plates” as needed; but then let the guests discuss and enjoy it as they will.

• Give it Away.  Whenever I launch a community, I immediately seek out the help of 2 others that can serve as additional administrators & champions of the cause.  They’re given administrative rights & the freedom to use them. The strategy is shared & once responsibilities are clearly understood; I back off and let them lead, taking more of a ‘strategist’ role.  This allows the new administrators’ excitement to remain high & will increase the likelihood they’ll evangelize new members & drive discussions.

The next step is to make it abundantly clear that the community is there for your talent - and they don’t need your permission to post a new topic, or have their views moderated.  No one likes approvals – it bottlenecks the conversation & is a major cause of community abandonment.  If you can’t give the control away to your admins & members; you might as well prepare for the ghost town.

• Remember No One’s Perfect.  Learn to be okay with making mistakes and remember that it’s not possible for everyone to like you – even Fairy Tale Heroes have detractors.  Ensure your reaction to your detractors is calm, measured, and in keeping with your brand.  Don’t delete the negative unless it’s offensive material; use it as an opportunity for your influencer members to rally around your brand.

Strategy

For any community to succeed, you need to know what you want to get out of it… and then build it as though it’s not about you.  Because the truth is that it’s not.  If it’s about your motives, your agenda; your Community will fail. Success comes when you can merge your desired outcome with their perceived value.  It is that which will drive participation.

Be careful about the technology & platform you pick to hold your community. Most people have problems with third party platforms; there is enough social congestion that they don’t have the desire to log in & track conversations on a separate platform.   If you can effectively build your community on a platform they’re already interacting with you on?  You’re ahead of the game & it greatly increases the odds for success.

By following these guidelines and checking out part 2 of this blog series, you’ll help keep the talent in your talent community interested in coming back for the long-haul.

Crystal Miller, known on Twitter as @theonecrystal is a builder of talent communities, addicted to Instagram, and avid social recruiter who also co-hosts a weekly radio show called Talent Net Live. Visit her blog, TheOneCrystal.com to learn more.

Protecting Employee Facebook & Social Network Privacy

The American public went gaga in March of this year after the media reported a growing trend by employers who are requesting Facebook password and user ID access during their hiring and interview process.  These requests for special access to social networks not only are an invasion of privacy for the potential employee but leave the employer vulnerable as they now have access to protected information as per Title VII.  These protected classes and their information are illegal when used as part of a hiring, promotion, or disciplinary process.  For those that do when it comes to social networks, I call this social media discrimination.

Outside of accessing to a job seeker’s Facebook, companies can find a great deal of protected information online.  Information about a person’s sexual preference as the EEOC considers transgender as a protected class.  Companies have access to health information like a female job seeker’s sonogram photos or if an employee likes a Facebook Page for cancer survivors.

SNOPA: Social Networking Online Protection Act

The public outcry and controversy surrounding online privacy especially when it comes to social networks has led to legislation in many states who are proposing bills that would make employers requesting social networking passwords and ID’s in violation of the law.  States like California, Maryland, and New York have began crafting state legislation protecting job seeker and employee privacy.  Last week, Representative, Elliot Engel introduced  a federal bill called the Social Networking Online Protection Act.  SNOPA, H.R. 5050 would make it illegal for employers to request passwords and other private information from employees and job seekers on social networks.  Employers would not be able to discipline, terminate, or deny employment for those who do not provide such information.  If they did, they would be subject to civil penalties $10,000.

Once SNOPA or a SNOPA-like bill passes, employees and job seekers need to educate themselves on what is protected.  Just like being asked an illegal interview question, you need to be prepped and prepared with your answer.  And in my opinion that answer should be, “I’m sorry Hiring Manager.  I don’t feel comfortable answering that question or providing access to my private social network information.”

Read more about the practice of employers requesting access to job seekers and employee’s social networks like Facebook.

Photo Credit.

Need Buy in From Your Executive Team on Social Media?

Do your senior executives’ eyes glaze over when you talk about using social media to drive branding and market share?  Are they leery of the benefits? Prefer to interact face-to-face than key-board-to-keyboard? Or afraid to admit they don’t get it or understand it?  That’s the challenge that many organizations are facing today.  Companies, senior leaders, and the C-Suite are struggling to embrace and understand the power of social media external as a marketing tool as well as internally with internal social networks.

As part of the Diversity and Inclusion strategy at The Hartford, we launched a Reverse Mentor Program to teach senior executives about social media, emerging technologies and related trends to drive business value. On the surface, the program is fairly straightforward- pair tech-savvy millennial employees with senior leaders, reaching across generations and organizational levels. But what evolved was so much more- relationships formed, there were “Aha Moments” and executives got the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of Millenials.  Most importantly, they learned about the powerful ways that people and businesses interacting using social media.

Social media offers an individual experience catered to the interests and goal of the user making it very complex.  Our reverse mentoring program at The Hartford helped answer common executive questions on social media:

• How can employees communicate and knowledge share using internal social networking and collaboration tools

• How social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook are used for information and knowledge share as well as communication

• How YouTube can be used as a training and information tool helping you improve your golf game

• What is the ROI of social media but more importantly how younger generations are communicating and why

What is a Reverse Mentoring Program for Social Media?

“Reverse mentoring” as a practice has been used by hundreds of companies on numerous topics.  Eight years ago, more than 500 executives at GE participate in a program to learn about the Internet and technology applications.  Jack Welch spearheaded the effort, which went on to bring significant changes in the way that GE worked.

In 2011, we “piloted” the Reverse Mentor program with our executive leadership and C-Suite team (CEO, CFO, Chief Risk Officer, Lines of Business Presidents, etc.) Due to the program’s success, we’ve expanded participation in 2012 to their direct reports and select departments.

The program consists of seven sessions, 30-60 minutes in length, scheduled approximately every three weeks. Topics include “Technology and Devices, The Power of Search and Online Presence, Networking, Connections and Communications”, etc. The sessions follow a broad outline that mentors can tailor to meet the experience level and interests of their mentee.

Social Media Program Learnings from the CEO

The pilot taught us that there are three phases in learning social media:

• Gain trust & buy-in

• “Aha moments” and key insights

• Creative brainstorming

The first couple of sessions were about finding common ground- building trust; swapping app’s breaking down stereotypes and creating a challenging, interactive learning environment. Second phase, mentors respectfully offered ideas and help. Execs began to listen with an open mind… and saw value… and ideas and opportunities started flowing.

Working across generations helps realize the tremendous value of diverse perspectives, which often spur creativity and innovation.  The long-term success of any organizations depends on the contributions of employees from all ages and experiences.

Looking for a way garner executive buy-in for internal collaboration tools and social strategies?  Leverage the talent within your own organization to launch a Reverse Mentor Program.

Photo Credit. 

Lisa Bonner is the Assistant Vice President of Contemporary Work Practices at The Hartford.  She is the proud mother of very active 14 year-old twin boys and resides in Suffield, Connecticut. Connect with her on LinkedIn.  The opinions expressed are personal and not related to The Hartford.

Diverse Audience Among Digital Natives

Know your audience. This phrase has been drilled into the heads of marketers and content creators since the beginning of marketing and content creation. And while your mind may immediately jump to a consumer audience, the reality is that recruitment marketers must be in-tune with their job seeker audience in order to really connect and make an impact.

This brings us to a “shocking” statistic (although it’s not so hard to believe if you take a look around). Digital natives – a.k.a. Generation C, Gen Y and Millennials – shift their focus between different media platforms 27 times per hour… or approximately every other minute. This ever-shortening attention span of job seekers makes it increasingly difficult to market employer brand and draw them in to your organization. However, they’re not the only ones you have to worry about.

The Dividing of the Talent Pool

Yes – I said pool. While the whole idea of talent community is nice, for the sake of simplicity, we’re not going there right now. The real point is that consumer marketers identify and target segments before developing a strategy, and the same process should hold true for recruitment marketers. And though the segments will not always be as clear cut as digital vs. traditional, it is a good starting point.

Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants

Typically, marketing segments are based on demographics, geography, behavior, etc…, while your recruitment marketing segments likely target experience and cultural fit. But to break it down further, your platform and content choices must be geared toward an audience that’s diverse in their digital usage and preferences. Here’s why: The number of digital natives who send or receive a text message on a given day is 63% higher than that of digital immigrants, with Facebook usage 40% higher and Twitter close to 86% higher. And because jobs – unlike many products – are not age-specific, these varied digital habits call for multifaceted recruitment marketing campaigns.

Adapting to a Digitally Diverse Audience

In every industry – whether it’s HR, recruiting or other – hot, new trends make us susceptible to Shiny Object Syndrome. Instead of using a data-driven approach and getting to know our audience and our community, we drift toward the latest tool and latch on like it’s our only hope. Then, many wonder why things like social and mobile recruiting don’t work for them.

While it may be tempting to get involved with every new development, the reality is that your recruitment marketing strategy must be well-rounded and well-researched to reach target talent. Think about it: Using Facebook to advertise jobs isn’t going to capture your entire target market, just as e-mail campaigns won’t effectively engage every type of job seeker.

The key to successful engagement is getting to know your job seeker audience, their habits and their preferred methods of communication. While the latest trends may seem like the greatest, you can’t walk away from traditional methods just yet.

Photo Credit.

Autumn McReynolds is the Content Strategist and Lead Blogger for TalentMinded, an online publication focused on talent attraction and engagement in the digital age. After landing in the recruitment space in 2009, she has spent the past three years with Careerbuilder.com as both a recruiter and project manager, consulting with clients about job advertisements, employment brand and SEO strategies for attracting new candidates via job postings. You can connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.

I miss color-coding

I still color code my clothing… All my blouses, skirts, and dresses hang in my closet according to color and length of sleeve, leg, or skirt. It works out well for me. But, I love and miss file folders in all different colors, I miss having a reason to use my 36 different colored sharpies. I still keep them around. I always will.

With our transfer to and fascination with all things virtual, have we lost the need to organize, color-code, systemize, and categorize? Oh yes, I know there are virtual folders and if you are like me, you can color code events and calendar items in Outlook, but is it the same? As a recruiter, I used to love sectioning off the Director of Business Development candidates in the red file folders, while the Director of Product Development candidates were in blue, and the Organic Chemist’ candidates were in purple. Holding paper resumes that were marked up with my handwritten notes, in red, green, or blue gave me such satisfaction. It showed the work, in my hand!

Handwritten professional references on a yellow pad were time consuming to transcribe but those conversations were etched into my brain because they were etched by my hand. Business relationships, for some reason, seemed more solid because there were mounds of paper behind them, backing up every conversation, not collapsible notes in a CRM or added details in an online address book. Business cards went somewhere instead on in stacks on desks and tossed in drawers. The notes on a business card meant something and were always visible as you cruised through your Rolodex.

How we save information now is great, it’s green, right? Wait, green isn’t a dirty word, is it? I just miss the way we used to touch paper, write on paper, file paper, find paper and read from paper. To me, it is earthy, it is visceral. Like face-to-face communication – almost indelible.  It is the cement, the glue, the binding, and the handshake.

As much as I love the new front porch, I kind of miss the old one. The hash marks on my daily call sheet, the whoop when an actual letter came in the mail or the whirring of a fax machine, the hand-written thank you note from biz connections. Now we pray for a LinkedIn recommendations, so our profile will be 100% complete. And some of our “friends” have avatars, not real faces. Sometimes, I feel like Yoda, having to balance the magic that made the old ways work with the new Force before us.  Do or do not, there is no try.

Yeah, I still miss color-coding.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Check out this Thursday’s free webinar at 11 AM CST, “What the <bleep> is a Talent Community?”  Participants are eligible for HRCI recertification credits.  Not able to attend?  We also offer free webinars on demand.

What the Heck is a Talent Community?

There are buzz words that happen in any industry and recruiting and HR is no different.  Some of my favorite buzz words of recruitment and HR past include: social media recruiting, seat at the table, and employment branding.  Contrary to some popular opinion, buzz words should not be banned as they  provide benefit and insight i into the industry in which they serve because they help drive the viral nature of conversation and learning through the principles we discuss.  One buzz word that has come to light is the idea of a talent community.  This is a topic that Rayanne has written about before on the blog (read it here), but after careful thought I decided to try to dissect the buzz word and get do to the business of what is a talent community and how it can be used to drive candidates, candidates, and engagement to the organizations that we serve.

The best definition of a talent community is this,  ” A Talent Community is a place, sometimes online, that is created for targeted, qualified individuals to engage with company representatives to develop a sustainable pipeline for sourcing, recruiting, training and development,” via Maren Hogan.

Talent Communities Differ From Talent Networks & Talent Pools

A talent community is a community not always controlled or managed by an company, organization, or team of recruiters who take advantage of said community for recruiting, sourcing, and talent pipeline purposes.  It is also not an email distribution list or a one sided marketing campaign or applicant tracking database.  These communities require engagement, relationships, learning, and most importantly conversation.

For companies, it is not only important to develop relationships within these outside talent communities and networks which is why our industry has relied heavily on forums like Glassdoor or even LinkedIn Groups to be able to build a candidate  pipeline.  The point of contention for most is that talent communities aren’t easy, and require a certain amount of effort, faith, and time before they begin to establish a positive ROI.

Is a Blog a Talent Community?

Talent communities are a lot like blogs.  Just because you build it does not mean they will come.  It requires conversations, marketing, and content that appeals to your intended audience, and for most corporate recruiting and HR teams, this level of candidate engagement is a foreign concept.  I spend a great deal of time designing, crafting, managing, and developing content here on this blog.  I also spend almost equal amounts of time asking questions, having discussion, and getting to know the talent community I wish to engage and build.  My interactions don’t guarantee success.   This is also true when a recruiter engages a job seeker, they won’t always accept their job offer.

So if the concept of talent communities are so murky and wishy washy why should companies give it any effort?  Because relationships are built on things like trust, engagement, and personal stories, and that is what sets a talent community apart.

Come and learn more about Talent Communities and how they differ from talent networks and talent pools this Thursday at 11 Am CST during our free webinar here on Blogging4Jobs.  Register now for What the <bleep> is a Talent Community? and join in our discussion on what makes a community and community and why talent management teams should engage their potential candidate pools using an engaged recruiting relationship approach.  

Photo Thumbnail Credit.