Social Media, Networking and Recruitment

Social Media is the set of tools you use in order to do Social Networking. Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, You Tube, are just some of the websites which are the new buzzword in businesses world wide. However there is a lot more to social media than these few sites. Today the world wibe web is a humongous network of blogs, tweets, audio and video sharing sites, photo sharing sites, community sites, sharing tools, micro blogging and other increasingly new and sophisticated tools.
Most of us still treat the networking sites as social meeting points. Twitter has been instrumental in saving plenty of victims in natural disasters. Blogs have brought the peoples struggles in Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in front of us, literally, through our computers.
"Individuals have benefited from the viral virtues of social media: Musician Dave Carroll got the attention of United Airlines when his YouTube video about how the airline broke his guitar reached millions of viewers; TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington got Comcast to respond to him in 20 minutes and resolve a connection issue he had complained about to his 12,000 Twitter followers."
http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/19/facebook-twitter-linkedin-technology-cio-network-social-media.html?partner=airlines_newsletter
But these are some of the more obvious uses of these sites. Whats coming up now in a huge wave is the use of social and business networking for business purposes. In marketing that means using social media to reach the customer, to find trends, to get feedback. All major companies now have a 'social media strategy' and social media firms in India are springing up to help Indian companies in getting their message across as well as keeping a finger on the pulse of the consumer.
How social network can affect strategy

"Bad strategy execution originates from communication and engagement failures. The worst symptoms include employees disregarding the strategy and management ignoring employees' input regarding their strategic decisions."

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/19/facebook-twitter-linkedin-technology-cio-network-social-media.html?partner=airlines_newsletter
Therefore companies are now making social networks inhouse to monitor employee reactions and getting inputs to gauge the success of strategies.
Social Network and Recruitment
Facebook, Linked In and Twitter are the holy trinity of social networking strategies for individuals and recruiters alike.
http://blogs.forbes.com/work-in-progress/2010/06/14/social-media-twitter-facebook-linkedin/?partner=relatedstoriesbox
Jobvite, a recruiting software company, asked 825 HR and recruiting professionals about the extent to which they use social networking websites in their recruiting process to find and vet candidates for jobs. Their answers indicate that they view social networks as a viable channel for sourcing high-quality candidates and that they plan to increase their use of social networking websites in their recruiting efforts this year. (Only about 3 percent of survey respondents were Jobvite customers.)
http://www.businessweek.com/idg/2010-06-30/social-networking-ever-more-critical-to-job-search-success.html
Here are some of the reasons being touted to job searchers to get over the third party recruiter cycle and get on to the www.
1. You'll have access to job opportunities at progressive, growing companies.
Companies that are hiring the most people in the shortest periods of time "are the ones who are more aggressively pursuing social recruiting," says Dan Finnigan, Jobvite's CEO. "Companies with the most growth opportunities are trying to get better, higher-quality candidates through social recruiting."
2. You'll have access to job opportunities first.
The Jobvite survey results show that employers prefer using social networking sites for recruiting because they make advertising jobs and sourcing candidates cheap and easy.
3. Employers are increasingly using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to find and vet prospective employees.
According to Jobvite's social recruiting survey:
. 73 percent of respondents currently use online social networks or social media sites to support their recruiting efforts.
. 92 percent of respondents hiring in 2010 currently use or plan to recruit via social networks.
. 78 percent of respondents use LinkedIn for recruiting; 55 percent use Facebook (up 15 percent since over 2009); and 45 percent use Twitter (up 32 percent over 2009).
. One-third of respondents always check out candidates' social media profiles when vetting them. . 58 percent of respondents have successfully hired candidates through social networking websites.
4. You may not find as many job ads on job boards or job opportunities through recruiters.
Jobvite found that 36 percent of survey respondents say they plan to spend less money on job boards as the economy recovers. Slightly more (38 percent) will spend less on third-party recruiters and search firms as the recovery continues.
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After polling 100 hiring managers at small, mid-sized and large companies on how social media is being used in the hiring process, Jump Start, a New Jersey search engine found that a good number of the hiring managers have started checking social media sites to research candidates before making a job offer. While LinkedIn-the only professional social networking sites to research the credentials of job candidates, is the favorite for three quarters of those polled, a good 48% turn to Facebook and 26% to Twitter.
http://www.digitalcommunitiesblogs.com/international_beat/2009/06/social-media-can-also-get-you.php
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Of course Linkedin has been favoured for years by recruiters, such as ourselves, nowadays recruiters in companies and third party firms use social network sites to get an overall view of the individual, apart from his professional resume. It helps that people are unabashedly free spoken on sites like Facebook or Twitter. Testimonials on Linkedin are also like reference checks in a way, used with caution. And for just how long have we been using google.com to search for phone numbers, profiles or even just plain information on projects or theses.

Here is a matrix which shows quite well the experience and expertise required and the method of recruitment favoured by a company.

http://www.ibscdc.org/Articles/social_networking_better_recruitment_platform.htm

How to go about it as a recruiter
The average user of social networks, mainly for job search has been found to be 37, therefore the GEN X-ers !1964-'80). Thats not to say Gen Y ('80-'95) does not use networking as a tool. However the message has to be put in a different way.
Gen X need interactive media such as Internet banner advertising, job boards, e-cards, text messaging, mobile media.
For Generation Y/Millennial mostly interactive and alternative media work: job boards, Internet banner ads, networking sites, RSS feeds, blogging, text messaging, streaming video, flash e-cards, e-mail marketing, splash pages, mobile media.
However there are downsides to this as well. Discrimination might be a huge charge which might bring the lawyers to the doorstep if you reject a candidate for his Facebook profile. Or Social Network sites not meant for professional networking might be actually too personal. Or even the chance of mistaken identity always remains.
Therefore there may be some precautions you have to take as suggested by http://www.ceridian.co.uk/hr/newsletter/nav/1,4813,593,00.html.

• Be aware of rules of equal opportunities.
• Keep a paper trail and archive print-outs that you have used when assessing a candidate.
• Ernst & Young set up the company’s own profile and network, then makes sure that the organisation’s reputation is not being damaged.
• Company information must be used responsibly.
• Constantly monitor your organisation’s profile on the various sites.

Happy searching.

Audi's Sound Concept cabin defines auditory excess: 62 speaker surround-sound

Audi's 7.2 Surround Sound

If you've been bragging about your all-encompassing 7.2 surround-sound system to of your friends, prepare for a mighty dose of humble pie. Audi has hand-crafted what it calls the Sound Concept, an in-car sound system so excessive it should be able to cause your soft, fleshy bits to pulsate in new and exciting ways. There are five tweeters scattered across the dash and the doors, five woofers (four in the doors and a monster in the back), and then a whopping 52 mid-range speakers encircling the entire enclosure, creating a package that's not likely to show up in the options catalog anytime soon. All these have been wedged into the interior of a Q7 SUV in the interests of Wave Field Synthesis, minimizing a user's ability to hear specific speakers -- and blowing Audyssey's paltry 11-speaker DSX system right out of the water

When is a good time to change your job

Leave recession aside for once. For every unlucky soul who lost her/his job there were some who still had the luxury of choosing to continue in their present job or to jump ship. We saw quite a few candidates change jobs through the last couple of tough years itself. And though the media is hyping, the job market is picking up a wee bit.

I often get this question from candidates as well as friends- real or virtual: Is it the right time for me to change? There has not been even one among us who have not been plagued by this question some time or another, even people who have been very happy in their jobs and been in a company for donkeys years. Yes, some candidates, perfectly good apples, I should say, have been in one company for 15 or 20 years before finally being head hunted and taking the leap. They never thought of looking out for a job on their own. Their profiles have never been on a job site, some, believe me, do not even have a CV. I should know, I dont have one myself.

Therefore, how do we know that it is the right time to change.

Some reasons are pretty straight forward and obvious- when the company is going down

Rats will always leave a sinking ship. And the writing is pretty much there on the wall for years before a company starts downsizing or closing shop altogether. When the Citi fiasco happened, there was an exodus from group companies like Citi Financial. An acquisition is another reason employees may want to leave a company desperately, especially if job security is not guaranteed by the acquiring company.
Often, and this has been proven, a bad boss is enough to push you out of the workplace. Sexual (or other) harassment- of course.

The above fall into what is called the HYGIENE factors of Maslows Theory of Motivation.



The bottom two are the hygiene factors. Assuming that your office has bathrooms and your desk is dusted every morning, and you have your necessary stationery, and also that your job is more or less secure, then the motivation factors come in.

BELONGING, the third factor from bottom in the pyramid, stands for relationships and friendships in the company. How do you fare with your boss. How are your colleagues. The next is the ESTEEM. Is your work recognised? Is it rewarded as it should? Are your achievements recognised? The last is SELF ACTUALISATION- which stands for how creative your job is. Does your company allow for out of the box thinking. Are you allowed freedom in your work. Are you allowed to innovate.

Recently I came across an article from the India Career Journal which lists 10 pointers about when to leave your job. Here they are
Here are 10 signs that could indicate that it’s time for you to move on – either from your current job function or from your organization – to other adventures.

1. Social networking but not working: Spending too much time on the internet on sites or proxy sites for prolonged period of time.
2. Been there, done that: You are not learning much any more.
3. Not challenged enough: Responsibilities are not making you grow.
4. Unmet goals: Your career not moving where you want it to move. IN short, no promotion.
5. Too big for your shoes: You have reached your level of incompetence in the company. Time to reskill or move to a better fit.
6. Closed to change : You dont agree to company change, or you cant handle change. A cutltural misfit.
7. Politics over mechanics: Office politics too much for you.
8. You’ve been overlooked — again: self explanatory.
9. Don’t want your boss’s job?: Cause thats where you are headed in your company.
10. Evil thoughts about your boss?: If your boss is forever pulling you down you should think of moving.

Negotiating Benefits when Compensation is not much to write home about

Of all ideas on Compensation and Benefits, here is one which is a win win situation for both the employee and employer. Excerpts below. Find the original article here.


Can't Get A Raise? Negotiate Your Benefits
Bobbi Dempsey, 06.30.10, 10:48 AM EDT
There are many ways your employer can make your job more pleasant, even when money is tight.

For employees who can't get a raise in salary, a "benefits raise"--getting the employer to increase or enhance current benefits or add new ones--may be the next best thing. Here are a few tips on persuading your employer to consider a benefits raise.

Come Up with a Win-Win Scenario
"The best approach would be a benefit/incentive program that is going to produce more benefits for the employer than it costs," says Robert F. Fallis of Fallis & Associates, an organizational psychological consulting firm in Seattle.
Fallis suggests something along the lines of the Scanlon plan, in which employees come up with creative solutions to improve the ratio of sales vs. labor costs. Employees then get a pre-negotiated percentage of the resulting savings, unlike a standard profit-sharing arrangement where much of the profits are often diverted to other things before employees get their share.
Look for Any Upside
An example could include any potential tax savings for your company resulting from an increase in your benefits.
"If you are requesting additional funds contributed by your employer into your Health Savings Account, that contribution is deductible in Tampa, Fla. "Talking up potential tax savings is a great selling point for many increased employee benefits."

Realize Some Things are Off-Limits
To a certain extent, your employer's hands may be tied when it comes to some benefits.
"Companies with fully insured benefits plans don't have the luxury to offer you a 'better' health/dental/vision plan than what they offer everyone else, and employers must be careful about what 'extras' they offer so as not to be discriminatory in their benefits offerings," says Roxann Kerr Lindsey, vice president of CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services of Kansas City, Kan.

Be Creative
If you do run into a dead end with the obvious benefits, think of other strategies.

Focus on Work/Life Benefits
This is an area where employers are often willing to consider giving some extras. Flex time, for example, may be an option.

Think Small
If your employer resists any increase in major benefits, think of small things that could still make your life better. Some of Lindsey's suggestions: reimbursement for parking fees, ability to retain the frequent flier miles earned for company travel or a health club membership. Another idea: See if your employer will cover the cost of an out-of-town seminar or continuing education program. Not only do you get a little getaway, but "this is deductible for the employer, plus they benefit from your increased knowledge."
The Bottom Line
Your salary may be in a holding pattern, but by using your imagination and your best negotiation skills, you may still be able to get a few extra perks that will help make your life a little easier.