Recruiting Top Talent 2010 - Are You a Traditionalist Or a Web 2.0 Free Radical?

Regardless of how tepid the recovery, sometime in early 2010 the demand for hiring will pick up, exacerbated by an increase in involuntary turnover. Once this happens, panic will ensue, with everyone gearing up to hire the best people they can find, at the lowest cost possible, and in the shortest period of time. How you respond to this pickup will be based on whether you're a traditionalist or a Web 2.0 free radical.

Traditionalists are those companies who will respond to this increase in hiring by aggressively seeking candidates to fill these open positions using the latest niche sites, adding Facebook pages, expanding their social networks, pushing their ads to blogs and user groups, and adding Twitter feeds to their new crop of career pages. By itself this is a reactive approach, built on using silver bullet tactics. It's a form of the classic req-driven, "needle in the haystack" sourcing model. With a well-known employer brand, it actually might work. However, when you strip away the bells and whistles, it's based on the flawed premise that top people will respond to negative, boring, and exclusionary ads if you post them in enough places.

Web 2.0 free radicals have a different mindset. By now, they're well into their launch of a new talent-driven recruiting strategy based on the concept that top people seek new jobs, and select one over another, differently than how everyone else does. For one thing, these top people are looking for careers or better jobs, not the same jobs. This is a game-changing point that is so obvious, but surprisingly not considered in the traditionalist sourcing model. It changes the focus from the traditionalist's approach of finding current candidates to fill current jobs to finding and nurturing prospects for future opportunities.

This big-time paradigm shift impacts how ads are written, what technology is used, how the recruiting department is organized, and involves an overhaul of the interview and selection process. At the sourcing level, it involves shifting to a "hub and spoke" sourcing model from the outdated "needle in the haystack" approach. On top of all this, a talent-driven recruiting strategy requires that hiring managers be fully committed and capable of hiring top talent.

Following are some of the detailed steps involved in implementing this Web 2.0 free radical talent-driven strategy. You might want to rank yourself on these factors to see where you stand and what you would need to do to implement a talent-driven recruiting strategy. For grading purposes, give yourself 5 points if you're already doing what's described, 4 points if you're now implementing the plan, 3 points if you're talking about it, 2 points if you're fighting it, and 1 point if you couldn't care less.

1. Offer careers, not jobs. Postings need to emphasize career opportunities over skills and experiences. Most important, this career-related information needs to be at the top of the postings. FYI: employer branding is not job-specific career information, so this type of boilerplate doesn't count.
2. Look for prospects, not candidates. You must engage top people and let them obtain information before formally applying. This means you need to offer people the opportunity to chat with recruiters, ask questions about career paths, meet with the hiring manager on an exploratory basis, and evaluate different career opportunities. At the technology level, this requires the building of prospect databases nurtured by robust CRM systems.
3. Go req-less, using big-target talent hubs. The idea of posting an individual boring req on a job board is at the heart of the traditionalist's needle and haystack model. SEOing these ads or pushing them out to aggregators are short-term, bandage solutions, but something that should be done during the transition. The hub and spoke model combines similar jobs (e.g., all developers) into a micro-site that's easy to find with banner ads pushed to appropriate niche boards, blogs, groups, and social networks. More advanced talent hubs are being developed that optimize how to allocate the advertising budget based on the effectiveness of each channel. Once prospects arrive at the talent hub they are offered the opportunity to chat, explore career opportunities, become formal prospects, or search for current openings.
4. Target early-birds, not leftovers. The key to pulling off a talent-driven recruiting strategy is to get these top people into your system before they "officially" enter the job-hunting market. That's the primary point of finding prospects early and nurturing them until a career opportunity arises. Part B of this strategy is to make the spokes of the hub so visible (through SEO tactics) and exciting that good people will find them as soon as they enter the job hunting market. These are the early-birds. Developing a proactive employee referral program can help drive this early-bird traffic to both the hub and the spokes. Start tracking how long your candidates have been looking to gain a sense of how you're performing on this factor. If you're finding plenty of top people in week one, you deserve the full score here.
5. Convert your hiring managers into recruiting all-stars. Quite frankly, if your hiring managers are not open to having exploratory discussions with top prospects, or aren't very good at attracting the best people to work for them, this type of talent-driven strategy will be far less effective. This is the biggest, and weakest, link in the top-talent hiring chain that is frequently ignored or overlooked.
6. Differentiate your jobs, not your compensation. Most companies lose good candidates or pay too much for the ones they hire by focusing on job descriptions instead of careers as their primary marketing tool. Traditional skills-based job descriptions are counter-productive when trying to attract top people who are looking for growth or learning opportunities. Compensation then becomes the primary differentiator. Performance profiles change the rules of the game by emphasizing the challenges and opportunities and what's in it for the candidate. This way compensation becomes less important.
7. Convert your recruiters into partners and SMEs. If the recruiter isn't a trusted partner with the hiring manager, implementing a talent-driven strategy is much more difficult. To become a partner, recruiters must be subject matter experts (SMEs) with knowledge of the job, the department, the company, and the industry. This way they're seen as value-added participants in the hiring process, not just HR reps sending resumes.
8. Convert your recruiters from screeners and sales reps into career advisors. Recruiters represent the front line in attracting, recruiting, and closing top talent. Screening on skills and hustling the close is not how this is done when you're dealing with top performers. These people are seeking advice and counsel before they decide, and recruiters are well-positioned to provide this. Most, however, miss this tremendous opportunity to influence the final outcome.
9. Use a sophisticated broad-based selection process. Don't leave the close to chance. Top candidates make career decisions based on a number of short- and long-term issues. These range from compensation and work/life balance to job stretch and the management team. Providing candidates a formal means to make their decision is as important as a company making a deliberative choice whom to hire.
10. Implement an integrated technology platform. I'm surprised that ATS vendors have not stepped up to the plate here more aggressively. As a result of this misstep, they've opened the door to more nimble rivals by ignoring the Web 2.0 sourcing and integration opportunities offered by the hub and spoke model. Without a single source solution, recruiting leaders need to take a more significant role here, integrating multiple vendors into a true business process for hiring.

One could look at these ten steps as an action plan for getting ready for the recovery. It is, but it's also much more. Collectively, it's the tactical planning needed to implement a talent-driven strategy, focusing on finding careers for top people, rather than finding candidates to fill current openings. At its foundation, the needs of top people must drive the process. To do this, it requires adoption of consumer marketing principles, Web 2.0 technology, and the use of sophisticated solution selling techniques. In the grand scheme of things, though, it must have the direct and complete involvement of hiring managers. Without them, this list is just another bunch of good ideas that won't work.Regardless of how tepid the recovery, sometime in early 2010 the demand for hiring will pick up, exacerbated by an increase in involuntary turnover. Once this happens, panic will ensue, with everyone gearing up to hire the best people they can find, at the lowest cost possible, and in the shortest period of time. How you respond to this pickup will be based on whether you're a traditionalist or a Web 2.0 free radical.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

HOME » Business » Careers Employment The Skills You Must Have in a Webmaster - Job Description By John F Smith Platinum Quality Author John F Smith

A Web Master is high skilled and knowledgeable in everything pertaining to the maintenance and design of websites. Basically a Webmaster Job Description is a combination being an expert in the field of web design and web development. There is a booming demand for this kind of expertise especially now that most enterprises rely on computers in operating their businesses.

In designing you must be very familiar with languages like HTML and XHTML. This technology is the basic language used in the development of websites. CSS or cascading style sheets is the more developed language of HTML. This enables people to browse thru several pages of a website. This language is used to make several changes on the website at any time. JavaScript and Ajax are other languages you should master. In creating websites you have to familiarize yourself with these because these are the basic elements of a website. Your task of developing websites will become easier with the use of these languages. C++, PERL, ASP are other languages you need to know. Flash is essential in creating animation and graphics.

The important part in a Webmaster Job description is to learn and to manage a proper database. Fulfilling a complete course in MYSQL and MS Access will be necessary. In order to be able to perform your duties as a Webmaster efficiently knowledge with these languages will be required of you.

Optimizing the Search engine is another item in the job description list. With the current boom in information technology more and more people are relying on search engines and the internet in general. A webmasters task requires several skills and a great responsibility in maintaining the smooth flow of internet operations. A college degree in Information Technology or in Computer Sciences may be a requirement by your employer in terms of educational attainment.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

What is in a Web Master Job Description?

A career in the Information Technology industry is one of the most promising and lucrative jobs that you can ever have. Although it is very technical, a Web Master position is one of those glamorous, high paying jobs that can assure you of employment anywhere in the world.

A Web Master Job Description entails that you should be in charge in maintaining Websites on the World Wide Web for individuals and companies alike. The job requires more than just writing computer codes or updating links to other Web sites. You also have to responsible for making a web site easy to navigate at the same time addressing the needs of your clients.

Although a Web Master works in an organization and communication with a lot of people is a must, he is expected to the expert in troubleshooting problems on the website for that is his technical expertise. Good communication skills and the ability to work well is others are one of the requirements in being an effective Web master.

There are several tasks a Web Master must be able to perform to ensure that websites work efficiently and is very accessible to a lot of people. These includes making the servers (or the computer network that provides the service to other computers in the network) and browsers (the programs used in accessing the website) process email, send out news and download their files.

People using operating systems such as Windows and Macintosh must be able to access these sites. Webmasters must be updated with the changing trends in technical standards such as HTML (hypertext markup language), XML (extensible markup language) and HTTP (hyper-text transfer protocol).

To qualify for the position, at least a degree in Information Technology or Computer Sciences will be required. Years of experience working as an apprentice in a software company or as a Web designer will be a plus if you are aiming for a Webmaster position.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

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