The Career Tree Network Blog

Background:
Last month I read a study which reported that 45% of employers screen social media profiles as part of their hiring process. And, 35% of those organizations have found content on social networking websites that caused them not to hire a candidate.

Click Here for a press release about the study.

With more employers using Social networking websites, it suggests that candidates need to clean up their on-line reputation. A clean profile will ensure that the picture of you doing a keg stand doesn’t cost a job offer.

In this blog post, I’d like to share how I use social networking webites for both business and personal interactions. This method might not be the holy grail…but it has worked as an effective strategy for me. Please feel free to share your strategies or thoughts in the comments section below.

In January, I made a conscious decision to start using Facebook and Twitter to enhance my professional image. Most status updates are related to my business efforts, certain pictures have been removed, and I’ve found that social networking websites have become an effective way for me to engage with both health care employers and candidates.

The Problem:
A few months after I converted “Brian Weidner” to be 100% professional, I no longer had a place to post personal updates and the pictures of me in a bathing suit with a margarita in hand. My personal interactions were suffering. Childhood friends got my business sales pitch and I become unable to take advantage of the “social” side of social networking.

The Solution:
Using a different email address, I created secondary accounts for my personal use on Facebook and Twitter. Information about this ”alias” account was shared via an email message to friends and family. I am able to use these secondary profiles as my social outlet. While Brian Weidner is attending conferences and sharing career development resources, my alias is talking about fantasy football or debating the best micro-brewery in Wisconsin.

In my opinion, the role that social networking websites play in our lives will only increase. Many organizations have jumped on the bandwagon and now include social networking as a central component of their recruitment strategy.

As such, both Human Resources professionals and candidates should consider creating an alter ego account so that their main accounts on these websites can remain as tools for professional interactions.

“If you can’t say it in 140 characters, then you’re trying to say too much.” This seems to be the mantra of many young people. Text messages and instant messages are typically very short and often might not even use punctuation. The status update feature on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn limits the number of characters, thus requiring users to choose their words wisely. Young people are skilled at this “small talk” while it takes a little more effort for those of us who were not born with a cell phone in our hand.

As organizations look to attract recent college graduates for their open positions, the communication strategy should be explored. The length of job descriptions and recruitment emails must be kept to a minimum. And most importantly, your communication should be very well written, so that a candidate’s interest is retained.

Remember: Our world of modern communications caters to those people with short attention spans. And as such, I’d like to congratulate you for reading this entire blog post. I’ll also pat myself on the back for being able to retain your attention for all 188 words.

Most organizations have a huge gap in their hiring process! It can cause candidate frustration and…(drum roll please)…might lead to a candidate rescinding an accepted employment offer.

I call this gap, “Pre-Orientation”. It refers to the time before a new employee has their first day, but after they’ve signed the offer letter. They are no longer a candidate and are also not an official employee. (Can we call them an “Emplidate”?)

Even though the candidate accepted your offer, she might still have interviews scheduled and additional offers could be presented to lure your star new employee away. Our objective is to ensure that candidates who accept your job offer actually show up (with enthusiasm) on their first day. This can be accomplished by nurturing and developing the relationship that has already been formed. Here are three ideas to make this happen…

Idea #1
Refer back to the list of folks who the candidate met with during her site visit and have each person call or e-mail to welcome her to your team as well as to express their excitement to work with her.

Idea #2
As soon as possible send a welcome kit with orientation materials, work schedule, and other company logo’ed “gifts”. If possible, have her business cards printed up and include those with the welcome kit. Business cards create a shared identity for your candidate and enable the sharing of new contact information with friends and family.

Idea #3
Consider setting up a lunch meeting with the candidate and her new supervisor prior to the start date in order to jumpstart that important relationship.

Conclusion
At the end of the day, a pre-orientation process simply provides the candidate with a positive confirmation that she has made the correct choice to join your organization.

Our church distributed this prayer on Sunday; please take a few minutes to think about unemployed family and friends…

All-generous God, we pray to you for those who are out of work.  You made us in your image and intended us for creative work; look with love on those who are unemployed.  They wish to use the gifts and talents you have given them to earn a just wage.  May all of us have the joy of contributing, according to our abilities, to the common good by an honorable livelihood. 

Guide the leaders of our economy that they may make wise decisions which will benefit us all.  Grant that we may share together in the abundant goods You have given us so that we may then share with others. 

Amen. 

My blog post on How to Treat Candidates Like Pond Scum generated a good email from an HR professional in Chicago.  I’d like to share with you the email and my response: 

- - Begin Email - -

I disagree with your assertion that using a General HR email account is bad practice.  Do you realize how many emails that we get from candidates?  I simply don’t have the time in the day to deal with all those emails.  It might work if very few candidates are coming forward, but that’s not the case in my company. 

- - Begin Response - -

Thanks for your message.  It sounds like you like the idea of building a personal relationship with candidates but the large quantity of emails would cause trouble with the execution.  There is a way to accomplish this by leveraging technology. 

Step 1:  Set up a second email address for you.  For example, if your real email address is: john.doe@company.com the new email could be jdoe@company.com. 

Step 2:  Use this new email address, with your real name on all job postings, websites, etc. 

Step 3:  Set up an automatic response to be sent out when a new message is sent to that address.  The autoresponse should say something like:  Thanks for the message.  This is an automatic response.  While I’d like to respond personally to each email, I’m unable to due this based on the large number of emails that I get each day, around XXX.  (Note:  I recommend giving an average number of emails that you get so that candidates can have empathy for you.)  Be assured that I will read your email.  In the meantime, please visit:  www.company.com to learn more about our organization and current hiring needs. 

Step 4:  If possible, have every email sent to that new email address forwarded back to your regular email, but put in a separate folder.  If this is not possible you will need to be given access instructions on how to utilize the secondary email account. 

Step 5:  Block off your calendar for one hour a week to check the secondary email account and take action on the emails.  You do not need to respond to every email, but there will probably be some diamonds worth further attention. 

These five steps leverage technology and provide candidates a greater level of personal service.