The Virtual Talent Search
By Sharon Kahn, FORTUNE, Dec 21st, 2009
Gone are the days of “post and pray.” Whether scouring an interactive job board, mining a social media location, or tapping into an affinity or alumni organization’s site, corporations are using the Internet to take back the recruiting initiative. “There’s no silver bullet yet,” says Laura Terenzi, director of talent acquisition strategies at Pitney Bowes Inc., which uses a variety of tools to fill 4,500 to 6,500 positions annually. “But we’ve become much more proactive, making a conscious effort to connect with people we might want to hire.”
Even though today’s high unemployment rate has turned the job environment into a recruiter’s market, employers are taking the opportunity to zero in on candidates that are the right fit. “Companies increasingly differentiate themselves by their talent,” says Francois Dufour, senior director of enterprise marketing at LinkedIn Corp., the social medial site for professionals. “That means recruiters are getting better at identifying who they want to work for their companies.”
STAR SCREENING
Job boards like Monster.com, CareerBuilders.com, and Job.com, as well as aggregator sites like Indeed.com and Simplyjobs.com, remain crucially important for most employers. Niche sites help narrow the field: Job.com maintains some 200 sites specialized by geography (such as Californiajobnet.com) industry (medicalcareernet.com), and field (HRjobnet.com). Employers also use automated search techniques that can pinpoint candidates by experience, industry, education, and even by companies in similar fields.
Beyond position postings, companies are using job boards and social sites to attract candidates who mesh with their lifestyle and values. “In many cases, the job becomes secondary,” says Elisa Bannon, talent acquisition manager at United States Cellular Corp., which is especially partial to social sites and affinity groups. “We want associates for whom our customer culture resonates.” The Chicago-based company recently launched a Facebook page that not only directs applicants to its company career site, but also emphasizes volunteerism and giving back to communities where U.S. Cellular operates.
In addition to filling open jobs, recruiters also troll the Internet for passive candidates—people not actually looking to switch jobs—and poised employees, who may be inclined to move for the right offer. “History repeats itself,” says Brian Alden, president and CEO of Job.com which he describes as the Internet’s fourth-largest job board and one of the fastest-growing. “employers feel that if they can find an employee who is happy in a current job, he or she may be happy in the new job, as well.
Most companies large enough to have an in-house recruiting department recognize that talent search is an ongoing process. Pitney Bowes reports its active database comprised 1,752, 336 resumes in November. Although some candidates came through its career site or in response to ads, Terenzi and her team collected many resumes from job board databases and social media sites.
Recruiters insist the search for just the right applicant will continue to evolve as long as technology is changing. Scotty Morrison, director of global recruiting programs and technologies at Salesforce.com, says the company advertises job openings through mobile-phone campaigns, Twitter, and job boards, as well as inmails to passive job seekers on social media accounts. “When job seekers are interested, we want to give them options of how to engage with us, he says.
