What's in a Name?

TalentRooster… We may have picked an unconventional name for our company, but it fits our unconventional technology and how we are trying to transform the hiring process.  Our name may be tricky to remember but our message is quite clear: A better return on talent.

The truth behind the name is that our technology allows candidates to “crow” louder than the rest. When a piece of paper determines a future, who wouldn’t want to be able to stand out among everyone else? There are only so many different ways to describe being a hard worker so our technology allows a candidate’s personality to be seen, something which can’t be transcribed onto paper.

As hiring managers, receiving resumes via job postings leads to a large stack of papers with scribbled notes like “good work history” or “seems personable on the phone” but after a week or two has passed, you’re left unable to distinguish your candidates from one another. Letting your talent “crow” leaves you with an online database of videos to help you put a face to the name and insures that you interview the candidates that would be the best fit for your company. Not everyone can have a name as unique as TalentRooster that stands out in your mind but each candidate is indeed unique. 

Cable TV Continues to Evolve - Has Your Resume?

It's hard to believe, but in the early 80's most U.S. households didn't have cable TV. Most people relied on ABC, CBS, NBC and that funny dial next to the channels where you could occasionally pick up another channel or two - if you had "rabbit ears"!

During this era, my dad was a true innovator by purchasing a satellite television. The company came to our house and installed a 10 foot dish - it looked as though we were doing spy work for the CIA. The channels were unlimited, from all over the world and it was great - when it worked.... Back then the technology wasn't quite right and is laughable by today's standards, but my hat's off to the pioneers that were willing to try!

Ironically, video resume technology has been around for quite a while as well - the idea isn't new. However recent advancements in technology and the wide acceptance by companies is quickly changing the place of video resumes in history.

The next time you walk into a retail store, take a quick look around to see if they are taking applications onsite, by computer. You may find it surprising, but more and more companies are migrating to a paperless format - it just makes better business sense. Just last week I saw some of these computers in Target and Kroger - I'm sure many companies offer this as well. How long do you think it will be until they add video as a component of the applications process, asking the candidates to answer a couple specific questions related to the job? Imagine the timesavings for both job seekers and hiring managers?

My point is that this evolution is fast approaching and job seekers have a unique opportunity to be ahead of this curve by creating a professional video resume. I'm not talking about the garbage you find on YouTube - I said professional. A video that captures your absolute best on film, plus other relevant information that will get you to the front of the hiring line. The economy is starting to improve and companies are beginning to hire - give hiring managers the ability to find you first by creating a video resume. TalentRooster has video resumes down to a science - check us out and learn how to increase your chance for hire. TalentRooster.com

Client Winning Business With Video Resumes

Yesterday we received an unsolicited endorsement of our video resume technology that we had to share - it follows, unedited.

Dear David:

You are genius! We got a new client last week from a constant contact who loved the idea and wanted to see more resumes. Today we filled an human resource position at said client starting at 35K. Tip of the iceberg brother, tip of the iceberg. You are a genius.

Thanks,

Mike

We all know that the traditional "paper" resume is heading toward the end of it's life cycle. It had a fantastic run, with history dating back to the Roman empire! What are you waiting for?

Those of us in search, recruiting, staffing and HR are supposed to be in front of hiring trends that others will follow - why then are some of us stuck on dated technology? Change never comes easy, yet everyone (especially the boss) loves a leader - LEAD, before the new hire takes the credit - I'm telling you, video will be a key component of the hiring process - get in front of the trend!

By plugging in (and using) TalentRooster technology will flat out improve your business - it just works. You can't join a gym, never go and expect to see results - you've got to use it! This same principle applies to technology, including TalentRooster. Like the gym, if you use our technology every day your results will be fantastic - if you don't, you won't. We've got plenty of clients eager to share their stories of success.

Entrepreneurial Client!

I absolutely love it when a client takes initiative! So many people go through life talking about what they are going to do - it is so refreshing when someone actually follows through! Our client in Dallas created a great video to market their services to candidates - how cool is that? No question this will help them find new candidates and help differentiate their firm in Dallas / Ft. Worth. Kudos to Julie at Cornerstone!

Social Media is a Two-Way Street in Recruiting

Recruiting has always been about networking — at least within our own circle of clients and candidates. Now it’s all about social networking and expanding the net to build lasting — and more profitable — relationships. This may make old-schoolers in this business a little uncomfortable, because it means sharing information that our industry once taught us to guard like pit bulls. But as the economic climate of 2009 proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that when jobs are few and candidates are abundant, we all benefit from leveraging every contact we have.

You already know how social media is changing the way we screen potential candidates, even before we lay eyes on them. We can now research their pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace to get a more complete idea of their personality, interests and activities. Twitter gives us insight into their communication style. We can even use RSS feeds and podcasts to shop for potential candidates. But all of this is only one side of the social media coin.

For as much as we can learn about candidates, we should make information on our firms equally accessible, because let’s face it — candidates are tracking our social media footprint to see why they should put their future in our hands. With that in mind, here are a few ideas to help you use social media to help candidates connect with you.

• Create a company page on Facebook that serves as a resource for candidates and convinces them that you’re the recruiter they need.
• Use Twitter to immediately broadcast job openings across your candidate and corporate contact lists.
• Welcome and adopt new technologies — such as video resumes and digital profiles — to share candidate information with employers.
• Use LinkedIn to connect with professional contacts and clients to establish a candidate cross-recommendation network.
• Consider creating a two-way exchange for FAQs on your website where candidates can ask questions, get answers and have everything become a searchable resource for others.
• Blog and post comments to other blogs. This is information sharing at its best because you’re providing thought leadership and best practices that establish trust and drives clients and candidates alike to your website—not by selling, but by proving your worth.
• Consider creating podcasts on topics candidates want to know about, like switching careers, breaking into the job market after college, interview techniques and so on.

Committing to a social media strategy is a huge step, but it’s one of the greatest sources of free publicity and networking you can have. Does it mean your peers will know what you’re up to? Yep. Does it mean you’ll have a lot of work to do to keep your pages and blogs current? You bet. But when done right, the investment of time is a small price to pay for a bankable pipeline of talent. And that’s exactly what social media can help you build.

Seven ways technology will change recruiting

How in the world do you fill precious few jobs with top candidates when your office is flooded with literally thousands of applicants? That was the million-dollar question for recruitment agencies across the country in 2009. And it wasn't just a question of success — it was a question of survival. Still, in spite of a rotten job market, many firms not only managed to get it right, but found success in the process. How? By leveraging technology to solidify their talent pool, make the most of their budget and transform our longstanding industry culture of information hoarding into one of information sharing. In 2010, technology will continue to change the way we find great talent and build better relationships—with our clients, our candidates and each other. Here are seven ways I see it happening.

1. Recruiters and employers will track candidates' social media footprint. A skill set and work history on paper will never reveal a candidate's true personality. By visiting a candidate's social media pages, like Facebook and Twitter, you can learn their hobbies, interests and communication style. This makes it easier to thin the heard down to only the best, well-rounded candidates for a particular position and corporate culture.


2. Video resumes will take on new dimensions as a recruiting tool. Any yahoo with a webcam can create a video resume, right? True, but does it look polished? Does it deliver the important information and personality cues employers are looking for? Probably not. In 2010, video resumes will become more of a holistic profile that incorporates detailed skills assessments, work experience and professionally produced on-camera interviews that allow the candidate's personality and spontaneity to shine through. Forward-thinking recruiters and HR leaders will be able to offer video resume services easily and affordably to their candidates. These services will allow potential employers to evaluate the candidates of their choice without wasting time on interviews that go nowhere. They will also provide recruiters with a way to earn revenue on every candidate, even if they don't get hired.


3. Candidates will be empowered through "searchability." Forget the classifieds and massive job boards. Candidates can now search specific niche databases by keywords and target their job hunt. For recruiting agencies and employers, site optimization, social networking and cross-linking via blogs and other mechanisms will be key to expanding your reach and making sure candidates can easily find the opportunities you have for them.


4. Networking will be just as important online as offline. Remember the old shampoo commercial that talked about telling two friends, then they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on? That's the idea. Social networking is the electronic version of word-of-mouth referrals. Networks like LinkedIn enable you to e-mail job openings to your targeted contacts who can then forward them on to their connections, and so on and so on—until you find the right candidates. And here's the best part—it's FREE.


5. Mobile recruiting will slash time in "getting the word out." Imagine being able to instantly match an incoming request for a contract position to 30 profiles in your candidate database. You notify them all at once via text; they come to your office; the position gets filled—done. Simple as that. Watch for this technology sector to soar in the year ahead because it's going to make all our lives a whole lot easier.


6. Huge job boards will evolve or die a slow death. For years, Monster, CareerBuilder and many other gargantuan job sites have charged high rates for postings and thrived on delivering quantity, not quality, when it comes to candidates. For those of us who have grown frustrated — and we are many — niche job boards have provided greater ROI for less money. With social and, potentially, mobile recruiting providing even more cheaper, and effective options, big job boards will have to rethink their strategy and prove their worth, or eat dust.


7. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) will eventually "play nice" with social recruiting. Nothing undermines your efforts to build relationships and garner referrals quite like a system that was never designed to do it in the first place. This is part of the information hoarding culture I was referring to earlier. Because of the compliance issues we face as recruiters, and our need for an automated process, applicant tracking systems are here to stay. But if I owned an ATS company, you can bet I'd be finding a way to be first-to-market with a more effective solution flexible enough to meet the growing demands of social recruiting. It has to happen, soon, or the systems we depend on will put us at odds with where the industry is going.

You've heard that necessity is the mother of invention. Without a doubt, savvy recruiters invented brilliant strategies to combat a dismal job market in 2009 by using emerging technology. This trend is only going to pick up speed in 2010 as information-sharing changes our industry—permanently. It's no fad, and that's a good thing. Technology will allow us to better serve our clients, support our candidates and strengthen our businesses as we build and maintain relationships in exciting new ways. How are you meeting the change? I'd love to hear what you're doing and the results you're getting. Here's to the revolution!