FEATURED ARTICLE

Caution- Keep it Social

When is the last time you did not hear something about social networking and its use in recruiting? Maybe it is a week, couple of days or a few minutes!

In fact, 45% of organizations plan to increase the use of technologies that link to social networks, such as LinkedIn© and Facebook©, during the recruitment process. [DoubleStar Recruitment Report] To interact or collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content sounds like the perfect match for sourcing top talent. Hey, social networking is hot, hot, hot and everyone is onboard. So, it is time to go full steam ahead with social networking for recruiting in 2011, right?

Social networking should play a role in your recruitment strategies; but don’t turn completely away from other resources. In many cases, the rules of engagement are still being formulated when it comes to social networking and talent recruitment. Our advice at this time is to “Keep it Social”:

Think of social networking like an extension of your employee referral program.

Find ways to have your employees add content or post. Don’t force your employees - but if they want to, make it easy for them to do it.

The largest users of social networking [Gen X/Gen Y] are very protective of their networks. They are starting to show signs [and results from recent studies are confirming] that they will gain an increasingly negative view of a company who is attempting to use social networking as a marketing tool for products, services and careers.

Yes, social networking for recruiting is in the fast lane; but at some point it will hit the first speed bump or maybe even something bigger [can you say “bubble”]. During this period of rapid adoption; taking the right steps when adding or enhancing your use of social networking will provide you with the flexibility you need to increase or decrease your future efforts as needed.

Christi Schreyer
Co-Founder and Principal
Instigate, Inc. – The home of TalentAssist™

HR Roundtable - February Meeting


Thursday, February 3rd @ 8:00 am

Burnsville City Hall

1000 Civic Center Parkway


Join the Burnsville HR Roundtable for a Morning of Engaging Content


Candidates are Consumers, What is Your Message?

Employer branding from the candidate perspective

Web 2.0 recruitment strategies for SMB's

Metrics will help provide your recruiting roadmap

Presented by: Christina Schreyer, Founder and Principal Instigate, Inc.

Click Here For More Information

Online event registration for HR BREAKFAST SERIES: PROTECTING THE PRESENT - PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

PROTECTING THE PRESENT - PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
Tuesday, November 09, 2010 from 7:30 AM - 11:00 AM (CT)
Hampton Inn North
(694 and Lexington Ave N)
1000 Gramsie Road
Shoreview, MN 55126



Join HR Thought Leaders For a Morning of Engaging Content



Candidates are Consumers, What is Your Message?

Christina Schreyer, Founder and Principal

Instigate, Inc.



Keeping High Performers Engaged in Turbulent Times

Victoria Fuehrer, CCP, SPHR, MBA—Founder and President

PORTICOconsulting



Ten Steps to Protect Your Business

Thomas Revnew, Attorney and Shareholder

Seaton Beck and Peters, P.A.





Complimentary Breakfast Will Be Served

Click Here To Register Online

For More Information:

Phone: 651-429-1131

Email: services@instigateinc.com

Instigate Has Gone Sourcing 3.0 with Semantic Search!


It is no secret recruiters have used the Internet for years to find the most qualified candidates. A majority of these efforts have involved keyword searching on resume databases and social network sites. The next wave of Internet search is already underway and Instigate is ready to deliver the results to you. Welcome to Semantic Search!


Semantic Search shifts the focus from ‘keyword’ sourcing to the ‘actual’ meanings found within resumes and job descriptions. At the heart of semantic search is search engine and ranking technology which enables our Internet searches to be ‘trained’ to identify the equivalent meanings of terms found in resumes. No two company job descriptions or candidate resumes are written alike, semantic search is able to find hidden matches that current rigid searches would normally overlook.



The value of Semantic Search:



Better Candidates

By improving and automating the searching of a large number of different passive and active candidate sources, Instigate is able to provide you with results on the best matched individuals from tens of thousands of potential candidates found on the Internet.



Faster Hires

Instigate is now able to filter out near-match candidates far more effectively than traditional Internet search efforts. Semantic Search allows us to filter and rank results automatically to greatly reduce the amount of time necessary to sort through lesser qualified candidates.



Reduce Hiring Costs

Our team can focus more time on recruiting and candidate management - not just candidate sourcing. Finding qualified candidates in a fraction of the time of traditional search means less time and money wasted on searching through hundreds of thousands of candidates and interviewing near-matches. Semantic Search will help us match you with your top talent faster.



Semantic Search is now active with all TalentAssist™ - Enterprise-Wide Recruitment Process Outsourcing Services. We are excited to add this capability to our service offerings as we focus on delivering to our valued clients best-in-class recruitment processes, technology and resources. Please feel free to contact us to learn more about how we are putting Semantic Search to work for you.

Behind The Numbers – Unemployment Rate and Recruitment Success

There is certainly no lack of statistics and data regarding the current national employment situation. One question we have heard over and over since the beginning of the year: “With so many people unemployment, why are we struggling to fill our job openings?” The answer may or may not be your recruiting processes.

Like many employers, do your job openings require a bachelors degree or higher? If yes, the unemployment rate for those who meet your job requirements is significantly lower.

Employment data kept by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the unemployment rate for those with at least a bachelor's degree was 4.5 percent in July 2010, while 10.1 percent of high school graduates who didn't attend college were without jobs. Add those who never graduated from high school, and the unemployment rate creeps up to 11 percent.

If your job openings require a bachelors degree or higher; solid recruitment practices and strong employer branding are still critical to attracting top talent even with today’s difficult economy.

Solving Real Recruiting Issues - Online Job Interviews Beta

We build our services to solve not only the pain hiring managers feel with recruiting; but also what we ourselves live as recruiting specialists. That said, we think we’re well versed with the time and money cost associated with recruiting and finding top talent.

Job boards, ATS, resume search, phone screening candidates, on-site interviews, spending a day having the team interview top candidates… it all has a real cost which can easily add up to thousands of dollars.

We are in the process of adopting virtual interviews as a best practice within our process of evaluating job candidates. Our goal - get a better feel for the candidate. We believe virtual interviews will give decision makers the ability to quickly get a solid feel about candidates in the shortest amount of time. Stay tuned for more information on this new service feature.