mining social networks for greater employee referrals

Mining Social Networks for Greater Employee Referrals

An ERE Webinar Presented by John Zappe

Contributing Editor / ERE Media

January 26, 2011

John Zappe Contributing Editor / ERE Media

Territory We’ll Cover Today

► Social media essentials   Who’s online and where are they

► Employee referral programs – Why? ► ERP & Social Media

  Goals   Expectations

► Emerging practices ► Resources


In the old days


What do we see today?


A best practice


One more thing


What’s the difference?

► 1,914 likes ► 29 posts from visitors

– since 1/1 ► 2 recruiter initiated

posts; 26 recruiter responses – since 1/1

► 116 members ► 0 posts from

members – ever! ► 8 recruiter posts in

6 months


The significance - Engagement

The lesson – Relevant content


Average age of social media users

44.9 38.4 28.4 31.8 39.1 40.4


Demographic breakdown


Some data points

►  178: Average number of connections (total) ►  80-100: Typical number of LinkedIn 1st degree connections ►  130: Average number of Facebook friends. ►  4-7: Number of “friends” Facebook users regularly interact with

The average male Facebook user with >500 friends:

►  Leaves comments on 17 friends’ photos, status updates, or wall

►  Messages or chats with 10 friends


Employee referrals produce results


WHAT IS ‘EFFECTIVE?’

► Hires made for $ spent

► Offers ► Candidate

quality


Source effectiveness


Why employee referrals?

► Cost of hire is lower ► Quality of candidates is generally

better ► Retention is enhanced ► Adds quality passive candidates

to the pipeline


What makes this so?

TRUST The employee is vouching for the referral. Their own reputation is on the line.

Retention is reinforced by friends working together.


Using social media to further employee referrals is a hybrid of the traditional “trusted associate” model.


Two sides of social media ERP

►  Combing through the multiple connections of participating employees.

►  Gain access via permissions, APIs, widgets

►  Receiving resumes and apps from referrals

►  Recommendations from employees

Hunting Gathering


Emerging practices: Invite Employees

► Opt-in ► Email notices

  Jobvites

► Widgets   SmartPost – Hodes

Group

► Simple submission pages

► Closed and open groups

► Maintain contact / report results


Sign-ups / submissions


Widgets / Job Distribution


Job Distribution


Create groups


Emerging practices: Cast wide the net ► Fan pages / sites

  Facebook for fans   LinkedIn company profiles & groups

► Target by site type / demographic ► Wide job distribution

  Twitter   Company pages should have a careers tab

► Matching to manage the hunt


Careers pages


Company pages


Building the talent pool


Targeting


Emerging Best Practices

Sean Broderick Vice President, Strategy & Business Development Bernard HODES Group

►  Target and match candidates and jobs

►  Trust – Generally devolves from participation in a social community

►  Selectively communicate   Avoid job spamming



Tim Keefe VP of Enterprise Talent Acquisition and Deployment CH2M Hill

►  Open communication   “The more you do social media, the more you

encounter the negatives.”

►  Create and use referral fields in the ATS

►  Director level and above = personal and fast contact

►  Reference forms include a referral and sign-up link.

►  CRM for regular contact with hot ERP candidates



Peter Weddle Author, consultant Weddle’s

►  Seek family connections   Create pages / groups just for families and

make opportunities available there

►  Leverage your ATS database   Invite participation; work groups or skills



Gerry Crispin Principal CareerXroads

►  Suggest to job seekers what methods they could use to find employee referrals

►  List top 10 schools of employees, communities they live in, military branches, organizations they belong to, etc.

►  Share openly/publicly the percentage of hires filled via referrals   Tivo’s storytelling


Report results


Emerging practices

►  Encourage employee opt-in   How it works; Privacy   Program value; not just bonuses   Report results; storytelling

►  Don’t spam – 2x a month is about right

►  Distribute jobs broadly, not indiscriminately   Twitter hashtags or profiles   Match jobs / candidates   Create groups for targeting   Make it easy for employees to post

jobs and distribute them.

►  Build the brand -- Content is King   Create fan pages / profiles   Regularly update; respond promptly   Expect negative comments /

Consider them feedback ►  Leverage all opportunities

  Reference check opt-in   Family / relatives connections   Alumni and retiree sites

►  Build talent communities   Communicate with them regularly

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING

Questions, suggestions or comments?

Email me at:

[email protected]

mining social networks for greater employee referrals

Business

ups submissions

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employee referrals

average number

emerging practices

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emerging