Friend? Follower? Job Opportunity?

It seems like everyone is talking about how organizations can and should be trying to leverage social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter,  particularly for recruiting.  Many professional and corporate recruiters have written reams of white papers, given webinars, and created podcasts that aim to educate organizations on the most effective use of these platforms. But the truth is many corporate recruiters are still not familiar with these tools, and are not utilizing them in their recruiting processes.

Recently a pair of Applicant Tracking System (ATS) vendors announced tighter integration with their platforms and the social networking platforms.  This integration can make it easier for 'slower-moving' recruiting organizations to begin to harness the social networking and social media space.

The first is Jobvite. Jobvite has implemented support for corporate users of the ATS or visitors to the company jobs page to send job information and invitations to apply for specific jobs to contacts in their external social networks.  Similar to the familiar 'Share this' widgets that appear on most blogs and websites, a job listing in Jobvite includes a 'send Jobvite' widget that allows the user to search through Facebook friends, LinkedIn contacts, e-mail contacts, and also to Twitter, either as a broadcast JobVite via Tivoupdate, or a Direct Message to a follower. 

Another really innovative vendor in this space is Jobs2Web.  Recently I attended a webinar that described in detail how Best Buy has partnered with Jobs2Web to create a different, and better applicant experience.

Jobs posted on a Jobs2Web powered site can also be shared with job seekers E-mail, IM, and social networking contacts.  The 'sharing' widgets are remarkably robust, covering e-mail, IM, social networking, social bookmarking (think Delicious and Digg), as well as most of the popular blogging platforms.  This deep, rich and native integration from the corporate

Jobs2Web via Best Buy

 job site through to numerous and extensive 'public' social platforms is a truly breakthrough piece of technology. Jobvite and Jobs2Web have both delivered impressive functionality that delivers on the true potential of social media and the desire of many HR and recruiting professionals to better leverage this space.

This native integration from these two relatively smaller vendors underscores and emphasizes the significant functional deficiencies in many of the more established enterprise systems, particularly the ATS modules of the major ERP vendors. For example, the ATS module of Oracle's E-business suite, iRecruitment, does not offer social integration, RSS feeds, or support native social bookmarking.  The 'breakthrough' capability is the ability to manually enter a friend's email address to forward a link. 

This was 'cutting-edge' in 2002 maybe, but today it is incredibly substandard.

JobVite and Jobs2Web represent some of the most progressive and innovative functionality in this space, and I would encourage any one looking to improve or enhance their corporate recruitment systems to give them a long look.

Maybe that next Facebook update you see will be a job opportunity from a friend, instead of a friend request from that guy/girl from High School you only half remember.

Update : This 'Tell a Friend' widget from SocialTwist is the same one the is used by JobVite and Jobs2Web on their platforms to enable 'social sharing'.

Empty your cup

There is a famous Zen story or Koan called 'Empty your cup' that reads: Flickr - kazukichi

Nan-in, a Japanese master received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

The point is a telling one, that preconceived notions and pre-drawn conclusions effectively limit one's ability to accept new ideas, consider new approaches, and see things in a new light.

Since I am a professor of sorts, this koan is one I think about often.  As teachers, it can be incredibly easy to walk into class with a 'full cup', comfortable in the knowledge that your views, your experience, and your insights are the only important ones, and that since you are the 'teacher' it is the student's that carry the empty cups, relying on you for wisdom and guidance.

But truly, that is an extremely short-sighted, and selfish point of view.

Each time I have taught, I have become more and more convinced that I learn as much from the class as they learn from me.  In many ways I am simply a facilitator or experienced guide, but the real learning only can come from their interactions with each other, and with the larger community.

I have tried to introduce more 'community' into my class, by encouraging the students to use Twitter and read and comment on blogs, and in the last session of my most recent class by holding a really exciting 'virtual' Expert Panel discussion.

Going forward, I plan to emphasize these elements more, and try to de-emphasize my role as the 'sole source of truth'.

After all, when class begins the next time, I will walk in with an empty cup.

Who do you call?

Dali or Gauguin, whichever you like
Dali
Originally uploaded by steveboese

This Wednesday, February 25 I have the great honor of presenting a Webcast for HR.com on Workforce and Succession Planning, titled 'Understand your workforce today, so you can plan for tomorrow'

In part, the presentation will cover the more or less traditional, or generally accepted steps in designing and implementing a Succession Planning process. To paraphrase Abe Lincoln, it is altogether fitting and good that I cover these  concepts in the webcast.

But as I did the research and preparations for the webcast, I came across some really interesting research that has the potential to alter the idea of 'best practices' for Succession Planning programs.

Namely, the idea that 'who you know' may be as significant as 'what you know' when making a determination of which employees
are likely to demonstrate success and high achievement in a new role.

The common sense reasoning behind this is likely very familiar to most, in the classic example say a Senior Manager position is vacant, and the 'best' performer from among the Manager's direct reports is promoted into the role.

The promotion may be 'deserved' on the basis of past performance in the former job role or based on seniority. The new Senior Manager may even have demonstrated most of the key competencies the organization has determined are necessary to perform at a high level.

But one essential element is missing from typical succession planning, namely the identification and analysis of the former managers key personal network, those colleagues, mentors, friends that he or she has relied upon for aid in decision making, determining strategy, navigating new responsibilities and gaining deep organizational knowledge.

Let's call the departing Senior Manager Jane. Jane, over the years, developed a deep personal network that she drew on to support her in the successful performance of her duties. Specifically, she relied upon different components of her network to support different aspects of her role. For example, the people and resources she relied upon for budgeting and forecasting help, were not the same people she called upon for employee relations and motivation concerns.

This distinction in personal network segregation or specialization is an important one. So often when junior employees are promoted into more senior roles, or placed in managerial roles for the first time, they bring with them very developed practical and technical skills and networks that while still important to their new managerial role, are not always the most critical in predicting success in the new, more complex role. It is quite likely the new manager's skills and perhaps more importantly their current personal networks are centered around those 'old' skills and capabilities.

Let's call the newly promoted manager Jake. Jake was the top engineer and formerly a good designer. The first time the Jake is called on to participate in a complex strategic planning exercise with his new peers, will he perform below his potential at least partly due to the lack of a mature valuable personal network in which to support him in that function? If Jake keeps trying to draw on his 'old' network of designers and engineers, most of whom are not involved in strategic planning, he is in a position to struggle.

How can the HR leader identify and address these situations?

One method is to develop a process to identify the key or top performer's personal networks and the roles those network actors perform. So for Jane, have Jane identify the three or four most important skills or competencies that she needs for success, then identify the key individuals she relies on for support, advice, and guidance. This categorized personal network can then be compared to Jakes', and it is quite probable it will reveal that Jake has not yet developed relationships with many of the KEY players that he will need to count on to be a success in the new role.

Plans can then be put in place to ensure personal introductions and/or meetings are arranged with Jake and these new individuals that he will need to start building his relationships with. This kind of intervention can be a key factor in how quickly Jake adapts to his new role, and quite possibly if he ultimately succeeds at all.

A by-product of this kind of personal network analysis is that in can reveal much about the 'hidden' stars or key cogs in an organization. If analysis of the personal networks of your staff of senior managers reveals that all or most of them call upon a key individual or two somewhere down the hierarchy for advice and counsel, the organization would be well served to to make sure those key influencers are happy, and that adequate succession plans exist for them, even if they are considered on paper to not be critical or 'high-potential'.

Who employees turn to for help and information is a incredibly valuable piece of organizational intelligence.

Who do you call?

Ask the Experts

News flash - I do not know everything. Flickr - Great BeyondIn fact, even in my area of expertise, HR Technology, I do not have all the answers.

So when you accept the fact that you don't know everything, but still want or need to provide answers, insight, customer service, whatever, what do you do?

You find people who do have the answers, or at least can help lead you in the direction of the answers.

So for me, for the final session of my HR Technology class, for the part of the class where the students typically look to the instructor for some final thoughts, insights, and advice for the future, I did just that. I asked the experts.  I put out a request to the Twitter community for HR and HR Technology experts willing to connect to a web conference and participate in a expert panel Q&A session with my students.

And in a show of community and support that is a hallmark of the Twitterverse multiple experts volunteered their time, and shared their knowledge, expertise, and insights with my class. I have thanked them all on twitter, but I would like to thank and acknowledge them once again here. So, here they are, the Steve's HR Technology Class Expert Panel for 2009: (in no particular order):

Diedre Honner - aka The HR Maven follow her on Twitter - thehrmaven

Lisa Rosendahl - the voice behind HR Thoughts - follow her on Twitter - lisarosendahl

Karen Mattonen - from HireCentrix - follow her on Twitter - HireCentrix

Becky Allen from Serco North America - follow her on Twitter - beckyallen

Michael Krupa from Infobox - follow him on Twitter - pdxmikek

Susan Burns from Talent Synchronicity - follow her on Twitter - TalentSynch

Mark Stelzner from Inflexion Advisors - follow him on Twitter - stelzner

Without exception, each expert brought great perspective and wisdom to the class, and I truly thank them once again, and appreciate their contribution.

Already, folks are asking me when the next chance will be to connect with my students and do it all over again, so I am sure these type of expert panels will continue.

I don't have all the answers, but more and more, I know how to find the people who do.

HR Carnevale

The Carnevale delle Risorse Umane or Carnival of HR is up at the great Jon Ingham's Strategic HCM Blog.

While I am really glad to be included in the Carnival for the first time, it is a bit bittersweet, as the theme of this Carnival is the global recession, and the Carnival is full of posts about job loss, job seeking, but ultimately moves to a more optimistic and positive light with posts about the Job Angels movement and Lisa Rosendahl's advice on getting the job offer.

Thanks Jon for hosting the Carnival and for your continued excellent work.