It’s 2010 and in these shaky economic times, it’s your responsibility to optimize recruitment investments by hiring the best talent using the most effective hiring tools while keeping cost-per-hire under control. There’s just one problem. How can you possibly know how much to invest in sourcing tools if you are not maximizing your employee referral hiring first? Confident that referrals bring in the best hires, recruitment leaders are now diligently re-examining an already-proven ERP program, looking for opportunities to re-set the bar for referral results. 

Join us for a web cast on Tuesday, September 14 at 3pm EST to learn more about a "Referrals First" strategy.

Brian Solis recently wrote a post for the Havard Business Review discussing the importance of listening and engaging when building a company’s social media presence. He suggests that, prior to entering into social media conversations, companies first observe the pre-existing discussions surrounding their brand or associated issues. Only after conducting this “field study” will an organization be ready to contribute valuably to the discussions and prove its relevance.

Brian’s post caught our eye because engagement is such a crucial component of what we do at SelectMinds. His suggestions resonate with all aspects of our business. We believe that employees represent a wealth of value to the organization that extends well beyond their last day in the office. Not to mention that every employee within your organization possesses a social network in which you could mine talent and potentially future prospects, business partners, etc. The potential is truly limitless.

While it’s important to build and cultivate a vast network, you also cannot ignore the necessity of fostering relevant engagement with these groups. If you cease to maintain and grow relationships with your alumni when they leave the company, the chances of them returning to your organization or referring business significantly decrease. Cultivating your network connections—particularly those that exist outside of your office walls—is key to company growth.

“As the amount of inputs go up, as the number of people and ideas that clamor for attention continue to increase, we do what people always do: we rely on the familiar, the trusted and the personal.”

-Seth Godin

On Friday, Seth Godin posted a simple yet poignant idea to his blog. The central tenet of his post was that as digital noise increases, personal, genuine, human interactions are gaining value and meaning as well.  For SelectMinds, we found this a particularly profound post as it is a concept that we have built our business upon.

Our newest product, TalentVine, which you have all read about here before, allows companies to leverage their employees’ social network connections to recruit relevant, top talent. TalentVine was developed based on the principal that as people become saturated in online connections, chats, and networks they are more likely to turn back towards their existing, deeper relationships to serve multiple needs, from helping their business to potentially helping themselves or a friend with their next career step. 

Referrals have always been on the scene, but we have recently seen a rise in discussion around the benefits of referrals. While it’s often thought that those receiving a referral are the only ones enjoying the benefits, we have found that it’s just as valuable to give as to receive.   

For employees, one of the ultimate benefits to giving a referral is not the monetary reward, but rather the gratification of helping a friend or former colleague. Whether the referred talent came from a personal or professional network, it creates an increased opportunity to continue to mutually share news, relevant job openings and referrals. Ivan Misner  has recently discussed the visibility, credibility and profitability process otherwise known as the three phases to building trusted and beneficial relationships.

On the flip side, there are even more benefits to receiving a referral as giving one. For job seekers, the benefits are clear – an immediate job opportunity that is relevant to past experience, existing skill sets and future goals. For HR leaders, receiving a referred candidate increases the chance that the candidate is qualified for the position and often leads to a more experienced and passionate hire as well as a higher retention.  For businesses, referred talent or potential prospects not only contribute to future growth, but they can also open the doors to new markets and increase competitive advantage.

Whether it’s a business or person receiving a referral, the bottom line is the same: referred opportunities are often much more relevant and valuable to the business.

Recently our very own Vincent Ponzo, VP of Client Services, spoke with PR News about how to build and grow successful alumni networks by reaching alumni and adding value for them. Although the article, Tapping Alumni Networks: Well Engaged Ex-Employees Drive Recruitment, Brand is behind a subscription wall, its general theme is former employee engagement and how to get it.

Our business at SelectMinds was built on the premise that alumni are often an overlooked asset. We were founded on the principle that there was a better way to meaningfully connect with alumni for the benefit of both parties down the line via organized, private, and secure networks. The benefits to businesses include re-hires and referrals, business development and brand evangelism by those who know the company best.

Given the rise of social media and people connecting, sharing, and meeting up online, it’s natural that organizations would want to get in on that development potential, to enhance hiring and drive new business.  Whether by a Facebook or LinkedIn group, or by a secure company-run destination site, each company sees their involvement differently and some bite off larger pieces of online networking.  Every day we’re seeing an increasing number of companies enhancing hiring and driving new business just by engaging these former employees and expanding their alumni networks.

The thing is, as the PR News article points out, you have to add value to whatever kind of a community your organization gets involved in and in some cases, it may be easy to let thriving, organic communities continue to flourish as well. Some tips they suggest include sending targeted communications, allowing for customized content for users, providing interesting forum topics, polls on current events and issues, in-person events like group dinners, photos, news sharing, etc. Once you hook them in it’s important to keep them talking through regular engagement.

We see time and again it is not about collecting names, it is about maintaining the conversation and relationship on whatever platform you choose. This sounds like a no-brainer, but once the ball is dropped and people leave your network or stop checking in, it’s incredibly difficult to rebuild that base.

More and more, companies are finding it imperative to tap into the knowledge base of their former employees.  “Corporate alumni,” always recognized as prime sources of new business and employee referrals, also present great potential to become customers and re-hired employees.  The ability now to connect these alumni electronically – with each other and with current employees – will escalate these benefits by fostering a free flow of information that will enhance hiring and drive new business just by engaging these former employees.           

Talent is the key to remaining competitive, and it exists within your very own Corporate Alumni Network.  Use it to maximize referrals, make better-fit hires, minimize hiring costs, reduce first-year turnover, increase retention rates, shorten time to productivity for new hires, increase your proportion of star performers, and drive referrals to win new business.

Any company over 10 years old probably has more alumni than employees.  Why not tap into the value of this massive group?  The benefits of connecting are becoming well known to many of the world’s leading companies that have implemented Corporate Alumni Network solutions, with many money making and money saving results.

Last week, the Labor Department released the July figures for employment in the US. As most of you have probably already seen, there were areas of ups and downs – for example, the jobless claims rose to their highest since April, up 19,000 to 479,000. The nuances of those numbers seem to lie in the fact that the number of people actually receiving unemployment went down but the extended payment recipients went up. Lots of factors go into the overall sentiment.

The general consensus in the press seems to be that all of this signals a slowing down of the recovery but there are other factors at work in the market. Spending is down as people save up for the back to school season and with the census ending there was an irregular loss of 65,000 associated jobs.

As noted by Reuters, businesses invested in equipment and technology rather than potentially more volatile new hires in this period. As a technology provider that deals with hiring ourselves, we straddle an interesting and unique line here, hence why we see these numbers and findings as incredibly complex. One technology that we’re seeing continue to maintain and grow in popularity are alumni products. While businesses may not be ready to jump into hiring again just yet, they are laying the framework for doing so by investing in platforms to tap into their former employees and maintain relationships with them. These businesses, as noted on ERE this week, are taking stock of the intangibles in their business including talent that is at the company or was previously. The other noted perk of employer-run networks is that it puts a positive angle on staying in touch as the recovery rolls on, as opposed to the potentially negative angle that it could take on if it was started by those that had been let go through the recession.

Aside from staying in touch, the goal of increasing productivity is another one that can certainly come from technology investments, just as much as from increased manpower. Our newest product, TalentVine streamlines whole organizations for the ultimate benefit of growing the team. Organizations can now tap into the existing online networks of their employees for the sourcing of top talent via platforms including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

So while the economic recovery may be slowing when it comes to jobs being generated, the technological investment shows us that businesses are being more prudent in their growth then perhaps they were in the past. It’s competitive times like these that people have to rely on their friends and networks more than ever. We hear time and again how important relationships are and how those relationships can now translate directly into a better personal position for someone if they update / maintain / and value them as best as possible. You never know when someone’s company may lift a hiring freeze, create a new position for a tax credit or simply decide that now that their infrastructure is secure, it’s time for more talent. At SelectMinds we encourage people to reach out and re-connect with people from their old jobs or friends whose careers they admire. It could all payoff in the end.

Lately, we’ve seen a few articles providing tips to job hunters around using online resources to find a job. Like job seekers, businesses have access to multiple online channels that can support various parts of the business and are faced with the similar challenges to use these online tools to the maximum benefit.

At SelectMinds believe these online networks provide vast business opportunities, especially when it comes to sourcing talent. Although the strategies may vary for different organizations, below are some of our thoughts around attracting and finding the best talent for your business online:

      Update your online image – The image a company projects will determine the type of talent attracted to the organization. Everything from the company’s Web site, Twitter stream and company blogs should all tie into the core values of the organization. A business’ online presence should highlight why top talent should trust their careers with your business.

      Maintain connections – At SelectMinds believe a company’s employees – past and present – are extremely valuable assets [link to: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/05/rehiring-former-employees.html] with extensive networks and there are fantastic opportunities to turn these networks into business results. Create an online group, such as a Facebook group or a private social network, that is available to the company’s current employees as well as alumni. Maintaining these relationships with employees not only opens the door to potential new business opportunities, but also encourages increased talent referrals.

      Social network with a purpose – We like to say that social media is here to stay. Now that enterprises have outlined and approved the use of social networks, one of the ways companies can achieve ROI is by leveraging these networks to source talent. The networks of a company’s alumni and current employees are extremely valuable. Integrating social networks into the recruiting process provides another channel to reach, identify and engage with talent prospects.

      Encourage employee referrals –Dr. John Sullivan states that a company’s employee referral program should be the foundation of all external recruiting efforts. We couldn’t agree more.  Building an employee referral program with the structure and organization to send targeted jobs and track incoming suggestions as well as motivate employees to refer talent is a great first start. Providing the infrastructure to enable employees to source talent on social networks via their existing connections is even better. Consistently monitoring and optimizing the program can generate solid results.

At the end of the day, we believe that implementing practices that continue to develop and strengthen the relationship with your current and former employees, and their networks, are sure to result in improved recruitment. 

Do you agree?

Here at SelectMinds we’ve been having ongoing internal discussions about how social media can benefit the workplace – obviously this is an idea we believe in.  However, lately the discussions have taken a new direction.  In the wake of our new referral recruiting offering, TalentVine, we can’t help but feel the value that referrals can deliver for businesses, not just in the realm of recruiting but in other areas of businesses in the future as well.

TalentVine allows businesses to maximize referral hires by leveraging the existing networks of their current and former employees online.  In essence, by utilizing human capital for the purpose of recruiting your people have become your platform for sourcing – in this case it’s for the sourcing of hires.  But the value of a referral is not specific to the recruiting world.  By and large, referrals are the best way to do just about anything, and every business is looking to find the best technologies available to help them streamline their operations and strengthen their ability to execute. As Jennifer Johnston Canfield  wrote on SlateStrategy.com, “companies don’t fail because their strategy is flawed. They fail because their strategy execution is flawed.” What Jennifer proposed in her piece is that executives need to apply the philosophy of inbound marketing towards their internal brand building. The argument is that inbound marketing was initially based on a behavioral change and it should be understood that people have also changed how they feel about communicating and sharing information as an employee.

With increasingly less work / life distinction these days, employees understand the new ways to share content and ideas, collaborate on projects, etc. These are capabilities businesses can easily leverage via existing social media channels but ultimately it’s up to the strength of the network they are working with internally to make these efforts successful. We anticipate that as businesses find success with using these networks for referral hires there will be a growing demand for people-based platforms for sourcing of other business drivers. Do you agree?

Last Monday, Sommer Saadi, Bloomberg BusinessWeek intern, wrote an article about how business schools worldwide are adding social media courses to their curricula. Sommer cited schools from Harvard to Columbia and INSEAD to London Business School, all of which have added some form of social media agenda to their programs in recent years.

Entering into the formal curriculum of prestigious schools is certainly a mark of merit for the social media players such as Facebook, Twitter and various analytics offerings. It’s also a sign that the importance of Internet marketing and social media strategy is being understood and accepted to a greater degree by corporations who are seeking out employees with these skills. For students, being able to harness and leverage these skills that were once considered personal, not professional, makes them more appealing as potential hires.

Per Sommer’s piece, it’s very telling that the courses are ramping up in interest and in some cases being overenrolled threefold. These students realize that social media skills could be the difference between getting a job or not especially as the percent of MBA graduate placement rates has declined recently to 84%. These abilities differentiate candidates and offer companies skills that, in many cases, older employees don’t have the time or interest in grasping the nuances of. While placements may be declining, there is a rise in social media related jobs, community management positions and online marketing strategy roles. These roles increase the pressure that business schools feel to create coursework that can more fully prepare students for the demands that will be placed on them when they enter the workforce.

As companies begin to wade into the water of creating their own social media strategies, there’s another benefit to these new courses – large companies can be the case studies for these students to work on. Sommer mentioned that at INSEAD students are creating plans for companies including Coca-Cola, Nokia, Hermes and BMW. These new marketing strategies help both the brand and the student begin to understand what tactics and platforms work best for their needs.

From our perspective here at SelectMinds, the newfound popularity and increasing depth of these courses serve as further evidence of the importance of employees’ online abilities and relationships to businesses. Whether a company is trying to tap its employees’ networks for referrals of people, products, services or customers, they are accepting that online savvy employees serve that need well and can also bring a wealth of knowledge on tips and best practices for online marketing and social media strategy as well. This educational programming serves to further solidify social media’s growing position in the enterprise arena.