College Recruiting on a Shoestring Budget

COLLEGE RECRUITING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET Best Practices in Low-cost Recruiting ere.net Webinar February 11, 2009 © Dr. John Sullivan Professor, Author and Advisor to Management www.drjohnsullivan.com Dr John Sullivan [email_address]

Dr. John Sullivan’s summary bio
Former Chief Talent Officer of Agilent Technologies , the HP spinoff with 43,000 employees
Has advised over 250 major organizations in 30 different countries. His appeal is so broad, that work has been translated into 23 languages
Monthly column in Workforce Management Magazine
Columnist for the Electronic Recruiting Daily
Author of eight books and more than 750 articles.
SHRM called him “One of the industries most respected strategists” & the Best Practice Institute honored him as one of the Top 10 Leading Thinkers in HR
Staffing.org noted that he was “the father of HR Metrics” and Fast Company magazine called him the “Michael Jordan of hiring”
He has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the NY Times, the Financial Times, CFO Magazine and have been interviewed by CNN and the CBS and ABC nightly news
Currently he is a Professor of Management at San Francisco State University and the chief consultant of the management advisory firm DJS

BMW HP B of A Siemens Cisco Intel Oracle Pfizer Macy’s Sprint World Bank Whirlpool McDonalds Corp. Dell Sun Charles Schwab Mc Kinsey & Co Valero Microsoft JP Morgan Yahoo Deloitte Consulting Marriott Intl. NIKE PepsiCo MGM Grand Starbucks Chevron Morgan Stanley SC Johnson General Mills Coors Nestle Lockheed Martin Stanford facebook Johnson & Johnson GE Google

Dr. Sullivan has a monthly column… on the “last page”

Dr. Sullivan’s current books

My three goals for today
To demonstrate the best practices in no or low cost college recruiting
To excite you about trying new things
To answer your questions
Note – Please post questions at any time! Questions not answered live will be answered via an upcoming ere.net article.

Topics areas for today
We will cover three broad topic areas
Introduction to recruiting during tough times
Increasing recruiting impact by leveraging other people’s time
Low-cost but effective recruiting tools

Part 1
Opportunities and problems related to
Recruiting during tough times

Is it worth it to seek out the very best?
One top-notch engineer is worth "300 times or more… than the average"

(Google) “would rather lose an entire incoming class of engineering graduates than one exceptional technologist”
-- Alan Eustace, VP of Engineering, Google

Opportunities - Why recruit now?
A chance to “cherry pick” - the same talent quality is there but there is less competition
Some firms have weakened employment brands due to “public” layoffs, ethical issues and mergers
Candidates will be easier to sell because they have fewer options
A chance to develop the capability to explode out of the box when things turn around

Potential problems with recruiting now
Travel budgets are reduced or frozen (Need for remote recruiting)
A loss of trust and confidence in business
Managers are less focused on recruiting
Technology budgets are reduced
A flood of applicants

Potential problems with your current approach
Pizza & slide shows might yield average students
Is free food the best way to draw in innovators?
Are slideshow s great sales tools?
Do the best students have time to come to meetings?
Do diverse students like pizza?
New style academic programs and abundant web resources mean that fewer students are on campus/utilize the Career Center

Part 2 Recruiting using OPT (Other People’s Time)

Leverage other people’s resources
“ Do more with less” using “OPT”
Premise – with reduced budget and recruiter time, the best way to do “more with less” is to… utilize the time of your employees and others
Now some tools and approaches… for leveraging other people’s time

Leverage other people’s resources
College referrals
The very best students are connected to each other (they share classes, clubs, social connections)
Expand your reach by turning students (and those that know them)… into your recruiters
Referrals produce both volume and quality
Referrals also have assessment and sales components

Intuit - Best practice example
Intuit
Offered a $50 award to students who referred someone that was hired
They have hired over half of those who were referred through the program

Best practice example
Valero
Offered a $25 gas card to grad assistants that made successful referrals
They filled every slot in one day

Best practice example
Referrals - Endeca gives a flat screen TV as a referral bonus for college students referring a friend from Harvard, MIT etc. that gets hired

Mom’s are better recruiters than recruiters
Use those that influence – This site was launched in response to research that showed mothers were more likely to believe other mothers than recruiters

Referral tools
College referrals tools
“ Give Me Five” – approach individuals and focus their thinking (Google)
Approach everyone - interns, grad assistants, student club/honor society leaders, staff, alumni
Reference referrals – Who else do you know?
New hires - Who else is really good?
Use referral cards – have paper & electronic versions. Hand them out at events or while on forums and social network sites (Example)

An illustration Because there are so few really talented people in the world… I just wanted you to know that… you really impressed me www. Apple/innovators.com

Leverage your employee’s time on social networks
Students are constantly on social network sites
Encourage your employees to develop a social network profile
Educate them on the type of content that will attract college students (offer materials)
Offer referral prizes
Facebook - is the most popular (used by HP, GE, Microsoft, Accenture, IBM)
MySpace, Twitter, global sites, LinkedIn

Leverage your employee’s blogs
Blogs can make your firm appear “real”
Encourage your employees to add recruiting related information to their blogs
Set company blog rules & expectations
Reward individuals for writing blogs
Offer referral bonuses for related hires
Users - Coca-Cola, Marriott, Kodak, SW Air, MGM Grand, Dell & MS (11% have them)

Encourage employees to make videos
Videos can show the “passion” within your firm
A moving picture is worth 1,000’s of words
Post them - on your corporate site, YouTube and provide links on their blogs and social network sites
Users - Google, US Army, Microsoft, Cisco, USMC
Podcasts – can also be effective (IBM, BMW)
Hold a video contest >

Encourage your employees create and post videos Deloitte film festival

Hyatt’s “Make your mark” video contest

Sony Ericsson produced great results with video
“ Received three times the amount of applications”
48 hrs was equal to five months using ads

Mobile phones are an ideal single contact platform
Mobile phone recruiting
Cool factor with text
Everyone has it continually
Used during idle time
Global capability
Verizon, Fidelity, HCA, U.S. Army and Microsoft
Single platform – push job alerts, text messages, social networks, blog feeds, GPS and web links

Leverage employees attending events
Recruit them when they gather in “1 room”
Identify events where students attend
ID employees that also attend (travel desk)
Consider – walks/runs, charity events, sporting events, student clubs, professional association meetings, rock climbing clubs, robot competitions
On-line too – encourage your employees to frequent chatrooms, forums, Google/Yahoo groups and other online discussion groups

Google recruits at public events

UPS set up recruiting booths at concerts

Other approaches that leverage your employees
Additional approaches to consider
Employment branding – have managers and key employees speak and write to build your brand (Universum and BusinessWeek best place to start a career)
SecondLife – encourage employees to identify innovators when they are active
CEO and executive calls to candidates
PDA parties
Offer e-mentors

Part 3 Low-cost recording approaches to consider

Leverage your interns
Interns can be great ambassadors /recruiters
Benefits – they expand your on-campus presence throughout the year and are more credible
On campus ambassadors – Microsoft, Qualcomm and Google have on campus Ambassador Programs
Educate them – about the features of the firm and assessment in recruiting techniques
Encourage them to attend events

Contests attract and assess

Put together contests
Contest for college recruiting
They excite and assess potential candidates
Contests can be anonymous ( diversity)
Contests can be global
Some examples…

Google attracts math majors

Looking for talent through contests
Used by Google, Yahoo, Sun, Intel and Microsoft

“ Summer of code” contests Google Summer of Code ™ for 2008 is welcoming 1125 student contributors on 175 Free and Open Source projects. They received 7,100 applications from over 1,300 universities in 98 countries around the globe.

C ontests to excite HS students
Google – Highly Open Participation Contest
(Open source for Pre-University students)
http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/

Contests are low-cost recruiting tools
Ernst & Young uses contests to attract and assess
The "Strategy Zone” - combined technology and games in their recruiting initiatives by offering interactive case studies on their web site , it resulted in 500 MBA hires
“ Your World Your Vision” - a student competition where teams create an event or initiative that has the greatest impact on their local community. The three winning schools are awarded a significant cash prize

Facebook’s puzzle page contest
Facebook invites budding computer engineers to try one of their ‘puzzles’…in order prove their worth and attract the attention of the company bosses

Microsoft’s fifth annual college puzzle challenge - a competition for 1,400 computer engineering, computer science & math students at 18 universities Microsoft college puzzle challenge

There are “contest websites” www.innocentive.com

There are “contest websites” GrouperEye live case competitions

Consider “Green recruiting”

Demonstrate your “ green brand ”
Green approaches
Sustainability
Corporate social responsibility
Carbon offsets
Recycling
Solar panels
Bike to work
Mass transit support
Alternative energy (Wind, wave, bio-fuel etc.)

Toyota sends a clear “Green brand” message http://www.graduates.toyotajobs.com/html/about_vision.asp

GE is a green recruiting leader Ecomagination challenge

Green recruiting
Solar panels, hybrids and electric cars

Low cost tools for recruiters
Low cost tools for recruiters
Google searches for names
Utilize the Google “alert” feature – it will automatically notify you when information about and target a candidate appears in the news or within blogs
“ Speed dating” format to interview candidates for manager jobs (Travelodge)
Information for “helicopter” parents (Enterprise rent a car)

Low cost things that recruiters should use
Low cost tools
School specific facebook pages (E&Y)
“ Friends of” e-newsletter (Deloitte, Google)
Bid on short term projects (Whirlpool)
Conduct a search for “negatives” - Yahoo finance, Workrant.com, JobVent.com, Glassdoor.com, Employerscorecard.com Rateyouremployeramerica.com

Corporate website features for the “next” generation

Corporate web sites can excite
Advanced web site features
The page morphs to fit their interests
Customizes information to your location
Video profiles of employees (people like me work here)

Microsoft has the best corporate site Microsoft shows it’s perks

Microsoft’s “Genius Lounge” attracts

Virtual recruiters – Chat and Q&A
Discuss the possibilities with one of our recruiters!

Nut’s about Southwest The Luckiest Girl in the Whole World By: Beverly Behrens 06-05-08 My name is Bev B. and I am a Southwest Employee at our University for People, a self-proclaimed bookworm, and a lifelong learner. And, I think I just might be the luckiest girl in the whole world. Allow me to explain why ....

Are you ready for this? Individualized recruiting is here They plastered her name on billboards, pizza boxes and gas pumps -- and even aired a commercial on MTV -- in hopes of getting her to enroll. As one message put it: "We just hope you're on your way to Wilkes University next year."

Did I make you think?
Any questions?
www.drjohnsullivan.com

http://www.ere.net	718
http://www.slideshare.net	19
http://www.collegerecruiter.com	13
http://www1.ere.net	6
http://74.125.113.132	2
http://static.slideshare.net	1
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	1

College Recruiting on a Shoestring Budget

by beeshields on Feb 11, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

7 Embeds 760

Statistics

College Recruiting on a Shoestring Budget — Presentation Transcript