Optimizing Social Media for Hiring – HCI Webinar

One of the best, and most used, applications of the web 2.0 revolution has been to technologically enhance the way we all interact with each other. As we’ve seen, the “social” web has altered too how employers interact with talent pools. It has also sucked up time and energy on useless efforts to create meaning and hires.

This webcast will share how Microsoft has optimized their recruiters’ activities on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Ning, Twitter, and other key social channels to make them more productive on these networks. We’ll also learn about the creative ways they are measuring the effectiveness of these sources.

For more info or to sign up, click here

Employment Branding – To What End?

If your talent acquisition leaders are getting caught up in “employment branding” conversations with their agency, ask them, “to what end?”.  Fact of the matter is the value of your brand is determined by your target market, not by your advertising agency. Advertising creates awareness but awareness does not equal a powerful brand. Preference equals a powerful brand and outside of maybe the fashion industry, no amount of brand marketing can deliver the amount of preference or consumer choice required to create a brand.

Employment Branding is an even more nebulous, what does “employment branding” even mean? Ask 10 different agencies and you will get 10 different answers. Why, because employment branding is not easy to understand and many agency reps tend to explain it in a manner that makes it sound like recruitment marketing, which it is not. You may have a strong brand that helps you attract candidates like Microsoft, Target, Wall Street Journal or a strong local or regional brand, but the odds of you building an “employment brand” with a company that isn’t already a strong brand are slim at best. Yet millions of dollars are spent every year by talent acquisition execs that were lead to believe this would have an impact on their recruiting efforts.

Iin this day-and-age, with unemployment at historic highs, it is a rare exception when a job seeker actual stops before accepting or applying for a position to consider the affects of the companies brand on their resume or future employment. Today job title and location are the two big attractions and if I am an employer, I simply need to make sure that my jobs are easily found by job seekers and it is easy for the job seeker to interact with my company.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have your company logo prominently displayed on all your recruitment marketing efforts, or an employment branding strategy, in fact I recommend it. But never lose sight of the fact that the first responsibility of a talent acquisition leader is to make it easy for your recruiters to find and hire quality candidates. Deploying an “employment branding” campaign will not be a means to that end.

The bottom line is that the only time when something called “employment brand” actually exists is when an unbiased third party like Fortune, Forbes, Money or some other magazine or respected media comes out with a “Best Places to Work” list and your company is on it. Other than that, you’re better off spending your employment branding dollars on lottery tickets!

In my humble opinion.

Stay tuned for my next post on the topic of “Brand Jacking”

Scottrade Launches New Web 2.0 Career Site

Scottrade is an online brokerage firm that provides customers with a way to inexpensively manage their own investments while still receiving exceptional customer service. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the firm allows investors to conveniently place trades online while offering the added assurance of America`s largest branch office network among online brokerages.

Scottrade has recently launched their new web 2.0 career site with over 100 open jobs around the country.  Check it out; http://www.scottrade-jobs.com/

Watch out Twitter, Here Comes Flutter

This is hilarious! Must see!

Upcoming Career Fairs in the Northeastern U.S.

Below is a list of upcoming career fairs in the Northeastern region of the US.

Spring Career & Job Fair: April 8, 2009. University or Rhode Island-Kingston, RI

WMUR’s Project Economy Statewide Job Fair and Career Expo: April 9, 2009. Sponsored by WMUR Channel 9, Southern New Hampshire University & the State of New Hampshire. Southern NH University-Manchester, NH

Warren County Annual Job Fair: April 9, 2009. Sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Warren County Technical School-Washington, NJ

Southern Maine Career Fair: April 9, 2009. University of Southern Maine-Portland, ME

Monster Healthcare Career Fair: April 13, 2009. Sponsored by Monster/National Career Fairs. Boston, MA

Monster Career Fair: April 14, 2009. Sponsored by Monster/National Career Fairs. New York, NY

River Valley Job Fair and Transfer Day: April 14, 2009. River Valley Community College-Claremont, NH

Advance Healthcare Career Fair: April 16, 2009. Sponsored by Advance Newsmagazines. Woburn, MA

15th Annual RICE Education Career Fair: April 16, 2009. Sponsored by Rhode Island Consortium of Educators. Crowne Plaza Hotel-Warwick, RI

Urban League of Greater Hartford Career Fair: April 16, 2009. Sponsored by the Urban League. East Hartford, CT.

Nurse Guide Career Fair: April 16, 2009. Sponsored by Nurse Guide. Panicos Restaurant-New Brunswick, NJ

Job Expo: April 16, 2009. Sponsored by Job Expo. White Plains, NY

Monster Career Fair: April 24, 2009. Sponsored by Monster/National Career Fairs. Hartford, CT

Jobs for Maine Grads: April 29, 2009. Sponsored by the Employment Times. Auburn, ME

Check out These Atlanta Jobs at Home Depot

I had a follower on Twitter ask me about jobs in Atlanta yesterday and today so I wanted to share this link to over 90 corporate jobs at the Home Depot headquarters : Atlanta 

Good Luck!

Jobless Rate Jumps to Highest Level Since 1983

We are obviously not out of the woods yet and it may be awhile before we are.  The unemployment rate hit 8.5% in March, the highest level since 1983.  With serious uncertainty in the auto industry and consumer spending and confidence down, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the unemployment rate hit 10% + before it’s all said and done and we start to see a real recovery in the labor markets.

That said, I continue to hear stories of people finding good jobs and we continue to feed hundreds of open jobs each day through our Twitter page at http://twitter.com/thejobsguy .  My recommendation to people looking for a job or anyone else for that matter is to shore up your social network relationships as this is probably going to be the best source for your next job. If you are not active on LinkedIn or FaceBook get busy!  Feel free to follow me on LinkedIn at  http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenhorst