In recent history Monster.com was a major player.  There was a fee for employers to post their jobs online.  Then things started changing.  Craig’s List was one place where jobs started appearing.  Then companies developed their own accounts on LinkedIn, touted  as a professional site for networking.  There they posted jobs and participated in discussion groups related to their businesses.  LinkedIn developed a hiring solutions segment with tools to help recruiters in their search.   The site has a reputation for having a comprehensive resume database, and is a go-to site for executive talent.

Now..we have Facebook entering the market.  Companies have also developed accounts on these sites, and post jobs and videos of current employees on the site.  There is much discussion among the various website companies as well as recruiting professionals about using this tool.  On the one hand, LinkedIn execs said that users regarded LinkedIn as their professional life, and Facebook as personal.  In their focus groups, job candidates were sharply averse to being contacted through Facebook for jobs.  On the other hand, Monster.com execs acknowledged that the Facebook recruiting platform is growing rapidly.  Their company has launched their own Facebook append it has grown to 800,000 users in a couple of months.

Right now all the players are seeing an increase in activity and revenues.  The future, however, seems to be in the social networking arena, with more and more companies adding those skills to their recruiting departments.  As individuals spend more time on the social networks, the recruiting power of these sites can only grow.  One reason Facebook is a target for the recruiters is that individuals spend a lot more time on the site, and one company found that candidates are 50% more likely to apply for positions found through Facebook than other means.

The result of all this discussion seems to be that both companies and job seekers are going to have to spend some time developing their skills in using the social network sites.  Just what we all need – more lessons to learn!  Good hunting, all of you.

We also wanted to provide that personal attention to the potential employee, and to do this we asked the hiring company to acknowledge and respond to the applicant right away, letting them know how their resume stacks up and where the company is in the hiring process.

This mode has been used in other areas and some of the media groups hold online job fairs to keep it simple but also maintain a personal connection. As there are more and more job fairs the job seeker has to make choices according to their time limits, and this virtual fair eases that pressure while giving information on what’s happening right now in the tech industry.

Job seekers might also make a better online presentation by using the social network pages to film a self interview, or contact companies that can help with that product. If that isn’t possible, addressing the reasons why you would be the perfect applicant as it relates to the open position helps give the recruiter a little better picture of your abilities. There is one caution we would offer to the applicant. Read the job descriptions carefully and make sure you fit with the type of candidate the company is looking for. It doesn’t’ help your cause to apply for jobs that you aren’t qualified for.

Get your job description/resume ready and sign on on March 15 – 19 to participate in this exciting event. See you (online) there.

1. Where are you going to find the candidate you want? The sources change as the market for jobs changes. Running ads, online or otherwise, has evolved to posting on job boards, to posting on the company site and select professional site boards, to attending professional society meetings and job fairs, and finally to social networking sites. As the number of job seekers increases, the company may not publish the job information too broadly, but rather do their own search through Facebook and MySpace and other popular sites. Research published by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 46% of staffing professionals felt the social networks were effective in finding executive talent. The jury is still out on the legal issues of screening applicants through their social network postings, but there doesn’t seem to be an issue with identifying potential candidates this way. Above all, don’t forget your internal sources, both for referrals and for candidates.

2. How will you describe the job? The more precise and clear you are in the posting the more relevant the resumes submitted will be. THIS IS NOT A JOB DESCRIPTION! This is a summary or overview of the job offered. Skills or education required, the level of authority and responsibility involved, benefits of working at the company and the nature of the industry (a good company description) are all important. Try to make the title for the job relevant to the general public and not just to your internal group.

3. What is your application process? According to a Job Seeker Attitudes report on Staffing.org, the company is better served by making the process simple. The major complaint of job seekers that didn’t apply for a particular job was that the process was too frustrating or lengthy. Admittedly if one wants a job badly enough they will struggle through, but it doesn’t make a good first impression if your company is perceived as being "difficult". Some companies have included aptitude tests and personality surveys in the application process. This may be overkill as it does self-select for candidates that love to take tests, and the recruiters will need to have a method to evaluate all this extra data. Collect the information you need to make the initial cut from the applicant pool, and then drill down.

Hopefully these tips will help your company connect with the best available candidates in the most efficient manner, and that everyone involved in the process will have a positive experience.