I just finished reading an article from the wall street journal entitled “the new battle for MBA grads” and it really made me wonder how employers are missing the boat. The article is a discussion about what employers are doing to attract MBA’s from certain schools and how they are changing tactics to do so. However a lot of what they are doing is the 2nd step in recruiting talent as well as missing the most important point of Employment Value Proposition.
Consider appliance maker Whirlpool Corp., of Benton Harbor, Mich. The company continues to do on-campus recruiting at its "core schools" -- Duke University, Harvard University, Indiana University, the University of Notre Dame, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago.
But the company recently extended its reach to schools such as Dartmouth College, the University of California at Los Angeles and Berkeley, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California, the University of North Carolina and Clark Atlanta University by reviewing résumés online and conducting 45-minute telephone screenings of the most promising candidates. It brought its top picks to Whirlpool's offices for formal interviews.
In this case isn’t Whirlpool just increasing a flawed method? The campus recruiting effort is flawed as if they can’t recruiter from a certain number of schools than why increase the amount of schools to recruit from if the method is flawed? Now that I pointed out the flaw here is the solution. Whirlpool should not be increasing the number of schools they are recruiter from but to figure out the issues of why candidates aren’t working for Whirlpool? First Whirlpool isn’t a sexy company to work for so it’s up to them to make it sexy to work for. This can be done by increasing their employment value proposition, increasing awareness of their management track, or even highlight their longevity and what they have done to change society.
Whirlpool also is experimenting with a technology in which students answer a set of questions via a remote PC-based video camera. The recorded interviews are stored on a secure Web site that only a Whirlpool recruiter can access.
This is great idea however I revert to my first point that if you can’t recruit them how do you get them to answer any questions? More time should be spent on the front end to get these people in the door versus spending money on technology to interview them. If you get the pick of the litter of talent than your interview process becomes much easier.
"I believe recruiting will become more and more virtual," says the company's recruiting manager, Tiffany Voglewede. "We cannot afford to recruit only from our core schools because other schools, including some small schools, have amazing students."
I disagree with this point as I believe that recruiting has been online for sometime. I started my career in 1995 in recruiting and we were utilizing online techniques to recruit back then. I think the point here should be that online recruiting has been enhanced with a direct connection to candidates that spend time on linkedin, facebook and myspace. You can now connect with people where they spend time online.
Some companies are updating their career Web sites to get more in tune with today's students. Whirlpool, for example, is launching a chat feature on its site, assigning employees from different departments to answer questions at designated times. "Today's college graduates want someone right there when they have a question," says Ms. Voglewede. "Many college students have expressed their preference to communicate interactively with someone rather than just read someone's observations about the company."
I think this is great technology but how is it getting in tune with today’s students? Does it understand how the students thrive in the work environment? Does it understand the student and then try and recommend a position that would fit the student? Or is it just saying we have jobs you want jobs let’s chat?
Technology companies, not surprisingly, are among the most active online recruiters. International Business Machines Corp., which recruits at more than 100 U.S. universities, is planning to increase its online efforts, particularly for its Extreme Blue internship program. The company is setting up meeting spaces and islands in a virtual community called Second Life, where it plans to hold events such as recruiter question-and-answer sessions, educational lectures and online interviews. Students can log on, create avatars to physically represent themselves and visit IBM island. Senior business leaders, engineers and inventors, who often can't travel to campuses and job fairs because of work demands, will be able to participate in such virtual events.
Once again I believe that IBM is not taking the high road here. It’s not a matter of having a virtual island but how does one get to the virtual island. If the product is a reinforcement of their on campus effort than it’s really lost. Students have choices so if they have 20 companies onsite for a career fair than how do you stand out? Companies should be spending more time reaching these people before they are on campus or trying to reach the students that aren’t even showing up to meet employers. I liken these people to passive candidates as they are usually the candidates that you want first.
Wooing Candidates
While some companies aren't ready to give virtual recruiting a try, most understand the need to go beyond formulaic techniques to succeed in today's hot job market.
Nearly two-thirds of the respondents in The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey said their companies are trying new tactics to boost hiring rates. About 44% of the respondents said they are simply trekking to more schools. Others said they are recruiting earlier in the school year and staying on campuses longer, sending more senior managers to formal presentations and social events at the schools, and paying employees to refer promising M.B.A. students. Some companies are assigning "buddy" employees to top prospects to help woo them and making a bigger effort to convert summer interns into full-time hires. They also are emphasizing flexible work-life balance policies in interviews.
This one blows my mind. Companies aren’t giving virtual recruiting a try are really missing the boat. All signs point to internet growth, newspaper decline, web 2.0 is on the rise and people are coming together networking, meeting and greeting online. Without an internet presence how do you connect with anyone? When someone wants more information about you what do you do…mail them? The one piece that I thought that should have started the article was omitted from the article. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents in The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey said their companies are trying new tactics to boost hiring rates. If this number is referring the above mentioned tactics than I believe it’s not going far enough. Some of these tactics that they should be doing are the following:
Campus Recruiting Referral Bonuses
Search Engine Marketing Including Paid & Organic Search
School computer ip targeting to reach students via their school ip address
Online Behavioral Targeting
A good example of keyword ppc targeting is one of our case studies which consisted of our client Apex Systems that was recruiting entry level candidates that were college graduates. In a 3 month campaign we were able to capture 555 applicants with 5020 clicks. Most of the keywords that were utilized were geared towards college applicants, college graduates, entry level career or entry level careers. So not only was our client able to brand themselves but they were able to reach a specific demographic candidate that was their ultimate goal that no other employers were utilizing to do so.
So if I can give one piece of advice to employers. Start on the first step to separate yourself out from other companies in order to attract, recruit and retain the best talent in the world.