Glen Cathey
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E-sourcing is leveraging information systems for
active Talent Identification
Searching:
•Job board resume databases
•Internet Search Engines
•Applicant Tracking Systems
•Social Media/Networks (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
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The quality and the quantity of your search results is
tied directly to your ability to “speak” the same
language of the systems you are searching.
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Most major information systems “speak” Boolean
• All major and most niche job board resume databases
• Most Applicant Tracking Systems
• Internet search engines
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
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AND – Narrows and refines your search
•
• Java AND Oracle AND J2EE AND AJAX AND XML
• OR – Broadens your search
• “OR” = search results must mention “at least one of” the terms in the statement
• Best leveraged for searching for several terms that can mean the same thing
• (HelpDesk OR “Help Desk” OR “Technical Support)
• NOT – Narrows and refines your search
• “Project Manager AND NOT construction
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• Quotation Marks: Indicate searching for exact phrases
• “Project Manager,” “Exchange Server,” “Director of Tax”
• Asterisk: Indicates a root-word or stemming search
admin* will return results of any word beginning with the root of “admin”
•
e.g., administer, administrator, administration, administered, …
• DICE is the only “major” job board that does not support the asterisk
• Most Internet search engines to not support the asterisk
• Parentheses: Used to enclose OR statements
• (PMP OR PMI OR “Project Management Professional”)
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Social Media
At a minimum, use the “Big 3”
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LinkedIn
LinkedIn is highly searchable
Supports full Boolean queries of seemingly infinite length
•
OR, NOT, No need to type AND (any space is an “implied AND”)
•
Advanced operators: ccompany:, ctitle:, joined:…
•
Example: ccompany:google ctitle:recruiter country:\"united states” zip:95101 radius:25
• http://learn.linkedin.com/linkedin-search/#advanced_people_search
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Twitter
Twitter is highly searchable
Supports full Boolean: http://search.twitter.com/
•
Advanced Operators: http://search.twitter.com/operators
•
Geocoding - e.g.: java NEAR:dc within:25mi
•
Many 3rd party search applications:
•
Twellow
•
TweetGrid
•
TweetDeck
•
TwitterFall
•
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Facebook
Facebook is NOT very searchable
Most effective techniques:
Coworker search: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/srch.php
•
Profile search: http://www.facebook.com/advanced.php
•
Yahoo’s Linkdomain search:
•
• Find websites/pages linking back to Facebook to locate groups of target people
• linkdomain:facebook.com (association OR organization OR group) women engineers
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The X-Ray search technique is one of the most
powerful available to sourcers and recruiters
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LinkedIn
• Use site:linkedin.com to search LinkedIn via Google and search
for, find, and view ANY public profile
• Examples:
site:linkedin.com \"San Francisco Bay Area\" \"business analyst\" SQL (inurl:pub OR inurl:in)
-intitle:directory
site:linkedin.com \"Dallas/Fort Worth Area \" \"current * business analyst\" (inurl:pub OR inurl:in)
-intitle:directory
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Twitter
• Use site:twitter.com to search Twitter via Google and target critical
identifying information located in Tweets AND Twitter bio’s
• Examples:
site:twitter.com (Atlanta OR ATL) (~design OR ~develop) Java
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Facebook
• Use site:facebook.com to search Facebook via Google and find people
who are not in your “networks” or in your local area
• Examples:
site:facebook.com (\"software engineer\" OR developer OR programmer) inurl:people
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Search Engines
• Utilize Google, Yahoo, Live Alerts
• Use Alerts to automatically search the Internet, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
LinkedIn
• Utilize Saved Searches
• 3 with a free account, more with paid
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Aggregators
• infoGIST, TalentHook, AIRS, Data Frenzy
• Search paid and free job board resume databases with one search
• Import into your ATS/database for permanent data capture
•Best use: run broad searches to import resumes, the perform precise
searches from within your ATS/database
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Job Board Resume Databases
• Saved Searches
• Some people post their resume for a very short period of time
• If you don’t capture them during this brief window of opportunity, you
may literally never find them again
• Use saved search “agents” to capture candidates as soon as they post
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Semantics
Semantics refers to the study of meaning, as inherent at the levels of
words, phrases, and sentences.
Sourcers and recruiters can leverage semantic search to more quickly find
more relevant results
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When the search results match the intended MEANING of the
search, there is a semantic similarity between the search and its
results.
In other words – you get what you’re looking for
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When search results simply match the search terms but not the
intended meaning of the search, there only a lexical similarity
between the search and its results.
In other words – you don’t get what you’re looking for
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BASIC User-defined semantic search
Adding functional terms to your searches
• admin*, config*, deploy*, manag*, implement*, audit*, reconcil*
This can help you target results of candidates who talk about DOING
certain things, not just mentioning buzzwords
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MID LEVEL User-defined semantic search
Employing proximity search via the NEAR operator (Monster, Exalead…)
(implement* or deploy*) NEAR SAP
•
reconcil* NEAR (accounts or statements)
•
Searching for words in close proximity (NEAR = 10 or fewer words) can help you target
sentences in which candidates talk about DOING things (configuring, reconciling) with other
specific things (SAP, accounts) and in specific environments. This can effectively help you
perform natural language search.
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ADVANCED User-defined semantic search
Employing configurable proximity (Exalead, Lucene, dtSearch), and
variable term weighting (Lucene, dtSearch)
Exalead: (implement* or deploy*) NEAR/5 SAP
•
Being able to control the EXACT distance/proximity of responsibility related terms
(implement*, audit*, deploy*, etc.) and skill terms (SAP, records, servers, etc.) increases
relevance and reduces false positives. This enables you to find people based on what they
DO, not just what words they happen to SAY.
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System-defined semantic search
Applications that claim to:
• Have “pseudo-AI” – concept matching based on a back end list of keywords
• Perform “natural language” search
• Execute “context-aware” semantic matching of jobs and resumes
• Perform fuzzy matching – returning results that are likely to be relevant
• Have “full AI” – the software is designed with algorithms to create relationships
between words, abbreviations and phrases dynamically and without human
intervention
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Partial List of Vendors:
Pure Discovery: http://www.purediscovery.com/
Actonomy: http://www.actonomy.com/
Semetric (Engenium): http://www.krollontrack.com/semetric/
TalentSpring: http://www.talentspring.com/
Sovren: http://www.sovren.com/
BurningGlass: http://www.burning-glass.com/
ResumeMirror: http://www.talenttech.com/
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Benefits of user-defined semantic search
#1 Reduce sourcing time by reducing/eliminating “false positives”
#2 Move beyond “buzzword bingo” - find people based on what they
DO, not just what they SAY
#3 YOU are in control of the search and decide exactly what’s relevant
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Limitations of system-defined semantic search/AI:
Pre-programmed lists of “relevant” keywords may in fact not be relevant to your search, and
•
can get outdated quickly
• Fuzzy matching by definition is “approximate” or “inexact” matching
• Applications are essentially “guessing” the intent of your search
• Systems will return results with related words – may not be relevant
Be wary – do not seek to automate that which you do not fully
understand how to perform manually!
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“When every business has free and ubiquitous data, the ability
to understand it and extract value from it becomes the
complimentary scarce factor. It leads to intelligence, and the
intelligent business is the successful business, regardless of its
size. Data is the sword of the 21st century, those who wield it
well, the Samurai.”
- Jonathan Rosenberg, SVP, Product Management @ Google
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When it comes to leveraging information systems for
talent identification and acquisition, it is critical to
assess the depth of the human capital data offered by
the source and how “searchable” the source is
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Know what sources provide the highest ROI
Deeper sources of human capital data
• Allow you to quickly analyze and assess potential candidate qualifications
• Location, specific roles/responsibilities, years of experience, education…
Highly “searchable” sources
Allow you to more quickly find more appropriately qualified candidates
•
• You can control critical candidate variables with your search strings
• You have an increased ability to reduce and/or eliminate false positives
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10
Job
9 Boards
Most ATS’s
8
Data Depth
7
Talent Warehouse
Internet
6 (Resumes)
5
LinkedIn
4
Facebook,
3 Myspace...
2
Twitter
1 Internet (non-resume)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Searchability
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A Talent Warehouse is similar to a data warehouse
• Not an ATS – a specialized repository of a company’s human capital data
• Highly searchable: full + extended Boolean, as well as AI matching
• Source of deepest human capital data
• In addition to resumes, users can add tags, notes, references, interview data
Examples: Bullhorn and Avature come closest to providing a true Talent
Warehouse solution
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For more E-sourcing best practices,
explore
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