Jason Blais: From the Recruiting Front Lines

The report below, published in 2008 by the Governor’s Workforce Board of RI, outlines the issues facing the hospitality industry in that state- a state which relies heavily on this sector of the economy (who doesn’t love Newport?).  What’s disconcerting, however, is that it’s now been a year since this was originally published, and there has been little or no change in behavior by the employers within this industry.

I’ve worked somewhat closely with a couple trade associations that cater to this industry, and am forced to come to the conclusion that the problem lies not with the applicant pool, nor with the industry itself, but with the individual hiring managers who are tasked with staffing.  It’s time that this industry look in the mirror.  As far back as I know, the hospitality industry has been famously cost-conscious, to the point of being penny wise and pound foolish.  In the following report, you’ll read that 3 out of the top 5 issues facing this industry are related to hiring and retaining employees.  That may not seem to big of a deal, until you consider that more than 50% of the US population has worked in hospitality at some time during their working lives.

IF 50% OF THE POPULATION HAS SOME LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE TO MEET YOUR STAFFING NEEDS AND YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEMS ARE HIRING EMPLOYEES, THEN IT’S TIME TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR!

HELP WANTED Signs

Overwhelmingly, employers in this industry rely on the old “hang a sign in the window” recruitment advertising.  They spend ZERO dollars to attract a sizable pool of applicants, and very little time on selecting the best candidates to make offers to.  Unfortunately, this stereotype is playing out every day by a very large majority of these businesses.

While employers think they’re saving money by not running job ads, what they’re really doing is increasing costs as they take on the costs of extreme levels of turnover coupled with overtime pay to cover the unfilled positions.  What’s even more disturbing is that this industry more than most, relies on high quality service (food quality, room cleanliness, customer relations, etc) and high rate of customer loyalty to survive, while most are in a constant churn of staff.

You’d think if your business’s survival was based on your customers having good things to say about their experience with you, you’d invest more time in recruiting the people that make up that experience- waitstaff, hosts, receptionists, reservationists, concierges, cooks, chefs, housekeeping, attendants, etc.  In reality, it’s quite the opposite- these types of positions (aside from chef’s in many cases) are often looked at as low-level, low-investment seats to fill within the organization.

Hiring managers, it’s time to step up.  There is a HUGE pool of qualified, experience candidates on the streets right now looking for work.  It’s time to stop making excuses, and build a strategy to attract and select the best of the best.  You’ll need to develop your employment brand (what makes your hotel or restaurant a better place to work than the one across the street?), build employee training and advancement opportunities into your organizational structure, and take the time necessary to make sure you’re hiring the very best person for every position every time (what motivates them compared to what you have to offer; how will they fit into your culture; why is your job a good fit for their work/life balance?).

Here’s the good news, though.

If you take these steps, while you may be investing more time and money up front than you are accustomed to, you will most certainly increase your revenue (better candidates equals longer retention, which equals better quality work, which equals more satisfied customers, which equals more revenue) and reduce your overhead costs over time (better candidates will stay longer- reducing all the costs associated with turnover).

Here’s the link to the report from the Governor’s Workforce Board.  It’s great to see that the state is investing in this type of self analysis, and now it’s time for private businesses to make the changes necessary.

http://ow.ly/E1lS

And if you’re interested in how to get started with building an employment brand, here’s some posts to point you in the right direction:

Building Your Employment Brand

New Hampshire Business Review

Building your employment brand

By Jason Blais

Friday, October 9, 2009

I was told once that the way to determine whether the glass if half full or half empty is to know whether your filling the glass or emptying it. If it started out empty, it’s easy to see the glass as half full; if it started out full, you’re likely to feel that it has become half-empty. Following that logic, I suggest that the glass of our economy is half full.

“What I can tell you is that we are seeing signs of improvement. Layoffs, although we are still having them, seem to be leveling off a bit compared to a number of months ago. Of course, that doesn’t help those still out of work.”

Those were the words of Fran Allain at the beginning of September. Allain is the employee retention project manager for the State Department of Resources and Economic Development, one of the officials on the front line of the labor market here in New Hampshire.

Allain continued: “Simultaneously, we see more hiring. Not in great numbers, but there appears to be some positive movement. I wouldn’t expect massive hiring too soon. It’s going to be a conservative, long-term correction to the workforce.”

While not a very positive outlook for job-seekers across the state, it is a very good environment for employers. In fact, forward-looking employers have a rare opportunity to significantly enhance the quality of their workforce. Those companies slowly adding new staff will have the pick of the litter when making hiring decisions. Now more than ever, they can position themselves to attract high-quality talent that had not been available prior to the recession.

Of course, to be successful, employers will need to pay close attention to the recruitment process.

FOR FULL ARTICLE: New Hampshire Business Review

In this week’s look back: social media in vacationland, the art and science of winning negotiation, eLearning for HR, and thoughts on the economy.  Read on for quick hits on these topics, or follow the links for more in-depth coverage.

On september 24th, the SocialMediaFTW conference erupted at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.  Yes, it’s true- my home state, Vacationland as it were, does indeed have access to the world wide web, an avid curiosity of social media, and actual universities.  More than anything else, the shear turnout (this event sold out in advance to over 225 attendees) and thirst for knowledge were undeniable indicators that even in the farthest reaching corners of the US, the impact of social media is being felt. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL POST

The long term survival of employment websites, aka Job Boards, is dependant upon their ability to provide employers a larger and more effective suite of services targeted to help them make better hires.  It will no longer be enough to simply drive eyeballs to job advertisements, according to the thought leaders at IAEWS’s Annual Member Congress earlier this month.  JobsInTheUS saw the writing on the wall at the end of 2008, and launched a new department to focus on identifying and developing new programs to increase their value to employers who primarily utilize their services to advertise job openings.  The first of three major new initiatives was rolled out in September, with the announcement of six new webinars designed to assist employers in the hiring continuum.  Four of these programs have received HRCI accreditation for General Credits. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL POST

More from NextStep Negotiating.  HRSentry and JobsInTheUS signed off on the framework and agreement of a new alliance, enthusiastically completing a successful negotiation. The force of like-minded individuals working together to reach a common goal can be dazzling.  From discovery to agreement, this process was completed in under 30 days, despite a cavernous gap between the desired terms from each side.  The theme of this negotiation?  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  One aspect of this process worth consideration was the ability to re-frame the model in order to find a new solution. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL POST
In an effort to share the data we collect as an industry leading employment website in our markets, we’ve launched a new series of monthly job reports with state specific job data.  These videos are available on JobsInME and JobsInNH currently, and can also be viewed on our new Channel on YouTube.  You can also see these two videos on the home page of this site: jasonblais.com.

As an industry leading recruitment resource for the past decade, JobsInTheUS has worked with thousands of hiring managers and HR professionals, read through tens of thousands of employment advertisements, and spoken to hundreds of thousands of job seekers through our outreach and education programs.  Learning from this experience, along with participation in local SHRM chapters in ME, NH, VT, MA, and RI, and a commitment to ongoing education, JobsInTheUS has developed a web-based education and training curriculum for the HR community and small business owners and managers.

The new eLearning series will launched today with the presentation of 20/20 Employment Branding.  Each month, JobsInTheUS will present two different topics, which registrants can attend via webinar.  Four of the programs have already been approved for General Credits by the Human Resources Certification Institute.  While these programs will be promoted heavily in New England, the web-based learning platform allows for registrants from anywhere in the world.

Here are the current programs on the schedule:

• Internet Recruiting 101 (HRCI Approved for 1.5 General Credits)
• 20/20 Employment Branding (HRCI Approved for 1.5 General Credits)
• Organizational Staffing 200: Working Through a Recession (HRCI Approved for 1.5 General Credits)
• Employment Branding 201: Communicating Your Employment Brand
• Employment Branding 202: Employment Branding Analytics
• Social Media: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (HRCI Approved for 1.5 General Credits)
• Reinventing Your Company: Best Practices

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THESE PROGRAMS

As I mentioned in my earlier post from the ere.net expo and the IAEWS Annual Member Congress, I will be writing 7 posts in 7 days related to those events.  This is number two of these seven.

After an absolutely exhilerating day participating in the Annual Member Congress of the International Association of Employment Websites, I was prepared to sense some level of deflation as I entered day two of my trip, and day one of the ere.net expo.  After all, I work for a group of employment websites , and this was a conference primarily geared toward full time corporate and 3rd party recruiters. These were the people paid to find the talent that’s theoretically not looking for work on websites.

As I entered the presentation hall, it was apparent this was a big deal. Hundreds of attendees packed the hall, and the stage, video, and sound system were absolutely top flight.  The opening welcome remarks were given by Kevin Wheeler (another sign this was a big deal), the President and Founder of Global Learning Resources, who’s client list includes PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Eli Lilly, and Sun Microsystems.  Wheeler gave a nice, and nicely brief, welcome, and ushered in what may have been the best presentation of the three day event.

The keynote presentation, entitled “Impossible Is Nothing” Recruiting, was given by Steve Fogarty, Recruiting Captain for adidas North America, along with Steve Bonomo, Head of Global Recruiting, adidas Group.  Two men who clearly eat, sleep, and live adidas branding and recruiting.

Initially, I had little hope for this presentation- what can our site learn from these guys, and what can I bring back that will translate to smaller businesses.  In fact, one of their admissions was that their greatest recruitment edge was the athletes who endorse their products.  What they realized was that people identified with the brand of adidas through the athletes, and therefore, their ability to bring in people who were passionate about working with them was also linked to these athletes.

Great.  First notes on my note pad, “key to successful employment branding = sign sponsorship deals with international stars…simple ” .  -That’s exactly what I have written on my yellow legal pad.

As they went on however, the two Steve’s did a masterful job of connecting their research to the development of their employment brand, then illustrating how they reinforce an leverage that brand to attract top talent.  The following bullets highlight some of the great thoughts they shared:

• At the executive level, their company understands that employee productivity is directly related to employee engagement
• Talent Acquisition department is modeled after sales/marketing department, even using the words candidate and customer interchangeably -
  • Employment Branding = Marketing; Sourcing Candidates = Sales
• There are only 2 fundamental principles in Branding that a company can affect- Choice and Expectation
• There are three driving forces to affect Brand: Focus, Alignment, and Linkage
• Utilizing an activity called Differentiation in Degree v. Differentiation in Kind, they were able to identify what really makes their work environment unique (this is where they realized that the athletes were key)
• One tool to remaining focused on their brand was to the creation of a Brand book, with illustration of how the employment brand related to all areas of the talent acquisition process.
• Talent Acquisition Process: Perception, Initial Contact, Screening, Interviewing, On-Boarding
• Best in class methodology includes building a recruitment web space that is monitored and analyzed just like an eRetail site
  • Where do they go when they enter?
  • What are they looking for?
  • What leads to the application/sale?
  • Where do they leave from?

All in all, this was an amazing presentation that showed the audience the power of a fully realized and supported employment brand.  As someone who consults with employers on employment branding, I found myself feeling please both because much of what they said reinforced the work we do, and also because I learned so much more about the process.

As you’d expect, there was no sense of deflation after this start of the day, and it just got better after that.

As I mentioned in my earlier post from the ere.net expo and the IAEWS Annual Member Congress, I will be writing 7 posts in 7 days related to those events.  This is the first of these seven.

One of the primary topics for discussion at the Annual Member Congress of the International Association of Employment Websites (IAEWS) was how social media growth is affecting the “job board” industry.  In fact, of the seven seminar topics presented, social media was an integral piece of four of them, and was touched upon in two others.  Just by virtue of the floor time devoted to this topic, it’s pretty clear this is a major issue, and one that many people in my industry are worried about.

Ultimately, the question comes down to this: Will social media platforms cause the demise of internet job boards. Put another way, are internet job boards dying?  I won’t keep you in suspense- the answer to those questions is a resounding NO.  And that’s not just my opinion as a director with an internet recruiting resource.  Honestly, that’s merely the conclusion I come to no matter how many ways I roll this around in my head.  Thinking critically, it just doesn’t make sense.

Shannon Seery Gude, VP-Digital for the Bernard Hodes Group provided the keynote presentation, and talked at length about effective online reputation management.  Gude provide many well-referenced stats on the growth of social media, but also shared excellent insight to why job boards are getting a bad rap.  It was her position that this industry doesn’t have enough of a voice online.  In this day and age, people learn by searching on Google and other search engines.  While many people post rants about the “death of job boards”, nearly everyone doing so has a vested interest in this position- such as 3rd party recruiters, resume distribution platforms, or recruitment ad agencies.  Gude’s advice?  Engage in this new media.  Generate content in social networks and in blogs, which are both highly indexed by search engines, and tell the positive stories and real world results being achieved through recruitment advertising on internet job boards.

A committee assembled by the IAEWS also provided a preview of a Future of the Industry report they are assembling.  As you’d expect, this report revealed the underlying fear that our industry is in danger.  It also illustrated just how much time, effort, and resources are being allocated in the job board sector to adapt to social media.

One of the most compelling presentations came from Chris Forman, CEO of AIRS.  If you get a chance to listen to this guy, or work with him, I’d suggest you take it.  He came across as smart, well read, thoughtful, and able to utilize his critical thinking skills to postulate plausible assumptions about the future of social media and recruiting.  As Forman points out, we can’t deny the growth of social media, nor can we ignore the power of social network platforms.  From his research, he shared this staggering statistic- in 2008, one in eight marriages were between people who met in social media.

That being said, Forman also believes that this growth provides great opportunities for job boards to increase market share, and develop better tools and services.  One of the most poignant comments he shared, was that HR tends to be a risk averse department, and this quality will help shield recruitment and job boards from social media intervention, giving us time to develop new ways to integrate.

Getting back to my initial statement, that social media won’t supplant job boards, nor will job boards simply cease to exist, many of the thoughts and concerns were aired during group sessions, where the members were asked to participate in a group dialogue.  When our group looked at how our industry, and our services are viewed, there seemed to be a wide variety of perceptions.  While most agreed that there was a perception that job boards were becoming outdated, it was widely agreed that at the end of the day, these services work.  And they don’t just work for the employers who pay to advertise, but they also work for the job seekers who use them to find work.  This is what any good service, product, or industry hopes to achieve- Pervasive Customer Satisfaction.

When you really begin to break it down, job seekers will always need to know where to look to find volumes of job opportunities.  While it’s great, and imperative, for companies to post jobs on their own site, it simply wouldn’t be plausible for job seekers to have to search for jobs company by company.  Additionally, not all businesses hire computer savvy individuals, and literally millions of job openings are still coming from very small businesses, and for jobs that are non-technical.  The employers are far less likely to invest the time and resources to create career centers on their own sites.  Likewise, most small businesses will NEVER have the time to search through social networks, seeking out one resume at a time.  While I am certain that this type of activity will grow for employers who employ full time recruiting departments, it simply doesn’t work for the more than 70% of employers who are considered small businesses.

So, as I mentioned, when you begin to look at the job search / job advertising relationship critically, and break down the behaviors, drivers, and demographics of the users, it’s very hard to come to any other conclusion.  Internet job boards have proven to be an excellent use of technology, that provide value to both job seekers and employers.  While all businesses and industries evolve over time, when something makes this much sense, and is this easy to use, it’s here to stay.

Jobs, Talent Acquisition, & Money: The Insider’s World.

Beginning on September 9th, hundreds of the most influential profiles in talent acquisition descended upon the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, FL to shape the future of how people find jobs, and how employers find people.  Two of the most powerful associations in this world held major events- The International Association of Employment Websites’ (IAEWS) Annual Member Congress, run by Peter Weddle, and ere.net’s (ERE), founded by David Manaster, Fall Expo.

As a first time attendee, it’s clear that this is the epicenter of the recruiting universe.  Over 3 days, top executives from leading job search engines, such as JuJu.com and Indeed.com, recruitment advertising agencies, such as Shaker Advertising, TMP, and Hodes, job boards, such as SalesGravy, HotJobs, and Jobing, along with private recruiters, vendors, and corporate recruiters participate in panels, seminars, and networking events that ultimately shape how people and employers connect.  Discussion topics range from how Adidas corporate recruiters develop an engaging brand, to how boolean search strings can be used effectively to source candidates; from how ad agencies work with media, to how OFCCP regulations will affect the recruitment process.

Make no mistake, the influencers here are powerful, are moving a great deal of money, and are effectively driving behaviors in this space.  As a business development professional in the media side, I found this event to be exhilerating, fascinating, and truly enjoyable.  New ideas abound.  Creativity is rewarded.  Impossible is nothing.

To adequately capture this experience and share it in more detail, I will be adding 7 posts in 7 days beginning on Sunday, when I’m settled back at home.  Each day will have different content, and will examine a different aspect of this event.  Stay Tuned.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date by following the conference on Twitter using the hashtag: #ereexpo

As I arranage the furniture in my new home, I can’t help but look back over the past 2 years spent posting on The Recruiting Front Lines on Blogger.  For most of that time, I spent a great deal of my effort managing our marketing and education events for the sites of JobsInTheUS.  During that time, we launched sites for AL, MS, and LA, and in 2008 attended more than 250 events across 7 states. Through this activity, we keep our feet on the ground and our fingers on the pulse of the employment markets we serve.  Personally, it was an amazing opportunity to learn first hand the fears and hopes of job seekers, and the frustrations and successes of employers.  We were able to establish ourselves as the number one recruitment resource in our markets, and had the best connection with our local markets in the industry.  I’m very proud of what we accomplished, and excited as we continue to deepen our relationships with employers, job seekers, and educational institutions.

In my new capacity, I am now focused much more on surveying the internet employment advertising market, developing strategic partnerships, and building new revenue streams for our sites.  This is another evolution of my work with JobsInTheUS, though I continue to be grounded in the education and outreach programs.  Recently, I agreed to become a monthly columnist for the New Hampshire Business Review, writing a regular article on the labor market for employers, and I continue to work on the board of the Granite State HR Conference.  This year, I have also been working hard at building our company’s curriculum of HR-focused content, developing 4 webinar programs that have been accredited by HRCI, and wrapping up 2 more.

As my company works to broaden our reach and increase our value to both job seekers and employers, we will continue to focus on building real, relevant, and timely programs.  Our focus will remain unchanged, as we work to help job seekers find and land their next great job, and help employers attract the very best candidates for every position, every time.

That being said, through this blog, I will be sharing not only my experiences related to the front lines of the labor market, but also my activity as I work with new partners, develop new programs, and build new and lasting relationships with strategic partners.  I hope to write compelling content that will provide both advice and best practices, and a unique perspective of the employment market.

Thanks for taking a look, please come back often and share this address with friends!

Upon reading this internal communication, I realized just how much negative press has been devoted to exposing the dark underbelly of corporate greed through the acquisition of private and revealing emails. Rarely does one encounter a news bit that begins with, “Our station has acquired a copy of the internal email…”, and is followed by a feel-good or uplifting story. Normally, this type of exposure ends in a story about some type of insidious and greedy business practice that serves only to put an ugly face on capitalism and corporate culture in America.

Not today. Today, I’m sharing an internal communication (used with permission), that shows the humanity behind a good business. I’ve acquired a company email that sheds light on the good people who are remaining positive and seeing the silver lining, despite significantly adverse business conditions and the depressed economy. Earlier this year, the leading recruitment resources in ME, NH, VT, and RI rolled out a free program to help employers who are forced to reduce staff this year. (I shared this in an earlier post, which you can view here.) While this program was created to assist those in transition, provide a valued service to employers, and keep the JobsInTheUS brands top of mind, it’s clear through the following email that the program is truly a reflection of the people of this company.

The following email was written by Robert Ayers and sent to the entire company at JobsInTheUS. Ayers is responding to a communication highlighting the work performed by the company’s outreach and education coordinators, which includes presenting workshops at private companies, state career centers, and trade associations to people who have been recently laid off, or are about to be. As you can imagine, the climate of these workshops can be quite somber, and the outreach and education coordinators do their best to build optimism while sharing real-world advice on how to launch a successful job search. Here’s Ayers’s email:

That’s great info for our sales talks once we get our contact on the line, just to find out they are laying off their employees and in some cases friends and family members. I mention this service daily, and in my conversation with my contacts, they will typically ask how the recession has changed my (JiUS) business. I remind them of this….although it looks bleak from an employer perspective, I myself have literally helped thousands of honest, hard working local people find jobs. This may not pay dividends in my commission check, but as always, it will open their hearts to the good that we do as a company in their community and state. Aside from all the negative publicity on the news today, we do a great service for our respective states. Let’s give a big shout out to Caleb and Steve, how depressing has their job been lately????? You guys ROCK! Thanks!

Okay, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must acknowledge that this is the company I work for. And I am so proud. You see, in our industry, recruitment advertising, we sit on the front line of the economy. Months before the national news was ready to report that the economy fell off the table, we saw companies freeze their hiring, not fill open positions, and begin to contract. For our sales staff, this has truly been a difficult year, calling on long term clients who are holding off on their recruitment advertising for the first time in a decade. Imagine spending your days calling to ask companies about their recruitment needs, and listening to well-established businesses explain how they’re facing layoffs for the first time in their 40 year history, or how they’re closing their doors after five good years.

Despite this difficult climate, our business remains strong, which I attribute to our core mission of helping to connect qualified local job seekers with quality in-state jobs. In the face of severe adversity, we continue to keep our chins up and focus on the good effect our work has on our communities. Thanks to Robert Ayers for allowing me to share his comments.

Every company has a good story to tell, and there’s never been a better time to share yours.

Have a good story to share? Please share your comments, we’d love to hear it!