090603 Visualization Links

Thought for the Day: More and more, HR-Recruiting will be the place you go to understand the data about people in the organization. And, people outside of the organization. And, how they go together.

• Obama / One People
  Don’t let the title keep you away from this amazing visualization. It shows the changes in cell phone traffic over time during the week of Obama’s innauguration. HR should be pioneering the use of this sort of tool to help see and understand the flow of communications and work in the organization.
  The link shows domestic activity in Washington, DC. Also see the global visualization.
• Jorge Camoes Charts
  Follow this guy if you want an ongoing tutorial in how to make your data mean something.
  Always ready with a technique to make your spiel more effective.
• Show Me The Numbers (Amazon)
  The single most practical place to start making your presentations more coherent. Increasingly, we’re all going to be interpreting a sea of data. This is a very good starting point.
• Edward Tufte
  Tufte is the godfather of data visualization. His approach favors quantitative graphics that deliver more information the harder you look. There’s something to be said for ‘hit ‘em over the head’ simplicity, Tufte’s not the place for that. If you’re trying to think about how visualization works in HR-Recruiting., start your thinking here. No one in HR is going to help you much.
• Moving Dependencies
  One of my favorite charts ever. It shows the ratio of dependents to workers (and whether they are older or younger) for countries over time.
  The ‘dependency ratio’ is one way of thinking about the ‘overhead’ a country carries. The higher the ratio, the more dependents per employee.

090602 #SocialRecruiting Links

Thought for the Day: Social recruiting is participatory or it isn’t socia.

• JobScience on Social Recruiting
  Ted Elliot has built JobScience into a technical powerhouse. They’re a primary sponsor of the Social Recruiting Summit. The add-iness distracts from the message. The service itself is extremely powerful.
• Who Owns Your Social Media Accounts?
  Michael VanDervert starts a good conversation on the question of who owns personal accounts that you build on the company dime. Probably the company but the area is murky.
• Finding New Employees, via Social Networks
  It’s weird to see a direct marketing datamining operation referred to as Social Recruiting. That’s part of the problem with the definition of Social Recruiting. Most of the tools really just automate a sourcing process. Nonetheless, this NY Times piece is a watershed moment for the burgeoning movement. The best advice in the piece is that job hunters should get social even if their prospective employers aren’t.
• Job seekers say social networking sites aren’t effective job search tools
  You’ve got to love any operation that will say “research says” without linking to the research. It’s like it’s 1950 all over again.
• Energy-Northwest Jobs
  Is a podcast social recruiting?
• Heather Bussing on Contact Ownership
  Our favorite lawyer weighs in on the Social Media Account Ownership question.

090601 Ordinary Links

Thought for the Day: After all of the fluff about passion and employee engagement, this emerging trend focuses on the value to be found in a good day’s work. Somehow, in our quest for wealth and status, we lost sight of the fact that even a menial job can be a great job. It’s not really in the hands of the employer, it’s in the hands of the person working.

• Just Work
  Having a basic job is an asset. If you live in Merced, CA, where unemployment is in the 20s, a job is an asset. This essay from earlier in the Spring, looks at the value of plain and simple work.
• Steve Boese on his First Job
  Somehow, a bunch of liquour is the rite of initiation in some Enterprse HR shops. This story makes an onboarding experience seem much more like an on-flooring exercise.
• First jobs – seeking meaning in the ordinary
  As a drycleaning clerk, HRMaven found and returned people’s treasures.
• “Escape Arts in Delusionville”: My Average Life
  Zen Master John Tarrant thinks about ordinariness and its importance.
• Employee Engagement: Treating the Symptom Instead of the Disease
  The problem with focusing on “employee engagement” is that makes it sound as though employees were disengaged because of the lack of employee engagement programs. But engagement programs treat the symptom not the disease The real disease is poor management—and that’s you, bucky. Employees don’t need programs and engagement strategies. They need managers with vision, an understanding that employees want and need to work to the best of their abilities.

090528 Sourcing Links

Thought for the Day: There are no people to be found on the internet. But, there are a lot of documents. Good sourcing is all about looking for documents. It is not about people at all.

• GRecruiter
  Ami Givertz is singlehandedly revising the sourcer’s desktop. GRecruiter is the emerging outcome. Get onboard.
• Boolean BlackBelt
  A unique combination of spin-free observation, good training and smart views about Recruiting. Here’s how he makes the case for sourcing: “”
• Top Influencers v1.04 Elaine Orler
  Knowledge Infusion’s Recruiting powerhouse. Sourcing is a waiting game.
• Claudia’s Wednesday Wisdom: Lying Sack of Recruiters
  “It’s your job search, tied to your career. Nobody has a higher stake in the outcome than you do, so stop whining, get a stopwatch of your own, and start firing the bad ones. If you’re not sure how to assess a good recruiter from a bad one, RBC is an excellent forum to engage in that conversation; put up a post and I’m sure you’ll get an earful.“
• Sourcing Webcasts from HCI

090527 Disruption Links

Thought for the Day: Disruption happens when the price drops and the profit increases. Incumbents fail.

• The Myth of Macroinnovation:
  “My experience with large companies and governments shows me that it is not a simple or trivial matter to recognize the benefits or marshal the resources. A common failure mode is where the leadership say they want disruption and innovation, the grass roots want it, but the middle management tiers aren’t incentivized to deliver it because their bonuses are tied to metrics on existing product lines. Disruption eats into existing businesses. “Maximizing Shareholder Value” is a wonderful focusing device but, without an explicit time-frame for that value, innovation risks shareholder lawsuits for sabotaging profitability.“
• The Disruption Talk
  A remarkable hour of video in which a VC explains the mechanics of disruption to assembled Googleheads. Beautifully delivered in a Jimmy Stewart presentation style. The irony does not seem apparent to either Fred Wilson, the presenter or his audience.
• The Law of Disruption (Wikipedia)
  It’s this year’s buzzword, a great follow-up to disintermediation. Real change can not be embraced by the status quo. Losing this year’s profits is always too high a price to pay. Incumbents are always vulnerable to disruption. “Alvin Toffler in Powershift writes that a “…revolutionary new system cannot spread without triggering personal, political, and international conflict.” Because current personal, political and international relations rest upon the old system any new comer holds the possibility of upsetting that balance. In the midst of the “dilemma,” chaos reigns.“
• Unleashing the Killer App
  Here’s how Google does books. Note bookstore choices and the ‘find it in a library‘ link. The “library project” is an interesting one in which Google becomes the global card catalog. More disruption
• How Technological Disruption Changes Everything
  Consider this an official recommendation that you read  “The Innovator’s Dilemna“. The HBS synopsis is a good start. Big companies don’t innovate because it rots their hearts out, literally. Agile entrepreneurs can always beat the incumbent.

090526 #SocialRecruiting Links

Thought For the Day: Sourcing is not social. Using social tools for sourcing is not social. Networking is social. That involves communicating with other people.

• Social Recruiting and Your Job Search
  The dos and don’ts for candidates. Quotes David MAnaster heavily. Light on the “How to be social” part of social recruiting.
• The Future of Recruiting Technology
  You have to read this so you’ll know what to talk with Michael Specht about at the Social Recruiting Summit. He’s thinking hard about the way that technology moves through our industry. (PS… it moves in a non-uniform way. The future of technology in HR-Recruiting is not evenly distributed. It happens at differing rates in differing sectors.)
• Social Recruitment Gaining Grounds
  Australian blog publishes Jobvite statistics. Seems a little suspect. Read the actual Jobvite report for yourself. 68% of companies have mad a hire using social media?
• Define Your Efforts: Social Web Recruitment Funnel
  From the folks in Higher education… a way to visualize the social recruiting strategy. It’s like herding sheep into the shearing pens.
• The UK’s First Conference Dedicated To Social Media In Recruitment
  I happen to personally know someone who would make a great addition to this lineup.

090428 Media Death Links

Thought For The Day: Marriott Corp.’s recent decision to stop delivering the paper to hotel guest rooms won’t affect the numbers until the next reporting period

Today’s links paint a picture of the abrupt end of about 80 years of specialized prosperity for the newspapers. Immense fortunes were made and lost by the moguls who built these media empires. Today’s new moguls look like internet property owners.

The newspapers have been around since the mid 1700s. They didn’t get really interesting until the 1830s when a steam engine driven printing press made volume printing possible at a reasonable price. Over the following 175 years, they have adapted to each new wave of technology.

The question today is not whether the news function will survive, it is how? As Bill James notes, 100 years from now, this will look like a tempest in a teapot.

• 23 of Top 25 Newspapers Post Circulation Declines
  It continues to fall, the papers get smaller. There is some amazing reporting being done in the dwindling page count.
• U.S. Daily Newspaper Circulation Plummets
  A graph to demonstrate the death spiral.
• Nielsen report on the state if the web.
  One of the things that web ads are bad for is branding. This report’s punchline is that no one can remember a web ad. That’s probably a growth area for print media.
• Bill James on The Future of Newspapers
  Bill James matter of factly diagnoses the current ills as a transition just like other transitions.
• Are magazines doomed, too?
  The basic premise of print media is decaying. They want to be content purveyors. Where they have a role is as community builders. Or, at least that’s what Jeff Jarvis thinks.
• Remember When Online Ads Were Going To Save Newspapers?
  A chart comparing overall revenue and internet ad revenue for newspapers. Google beat them at their own game.
• The Way To Save Newspapers? Kill More Of Them
  ..Like millions of homeowners, newspapers are buried in debt.

• I’m on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.
• I’m doing a Free Webinar:Regional HR Marketing and PR – Tailoring Sales to Market Realities
  - Thursday, May 7, 2009,
  - 10-11 am PT (1-2 pm ET)
• I’m leading an Intensive workshop called Recruiting Strategy in a Down Economy: Identifying What’s to Come in the Upturn at the Kennedy Recruiting Conference in Las Vegas on May 19.

081211 Social Layoffs Links (Dec 11, 2008)

Thought for the Day: Don’t develop a reputation for spreading malicious gossip.

• The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0)
  This fantastic piece was referenced in the comments about Marissa Mayer’s Simple Advice On Who To Hire: Smart People Who Get Things Done. If someone figures out how to spot these folks early, the world will beat a path to their door. The Interview Guide cuts to the chase with common sense that isn’t usually found in our industry.
• Just Got Fired From Yahoo? Have A Taco.
  Now this is guerilla recruiting. A startup is giving away tacos and job applications to the recently laid off Yahoos.
• Yahoo’s secret layoff doublespeak revealed!
  The details of the layoff talks and scripts. Let this be a lesson: what you do in your company will be seen online.
• Corporate Blogs Not Trusted
  This is a thorough vetting of the new Forrester report on trust and communications. Well worth understanding.
• Zentact Might Be the Best Social Networking Idea This Year
  Josh Kahn pointed this one out. Zentact is a relationship strengthener that helps you remember to give your network value in a practical way.
   

081210 Cool Recruiting Industry Links (Dec 10, 2008)

Thought for the Day: Recruiting is broken by its focus on transactions.

• Why Recruiters Should Use Twitter and Must-Know Tips for Finding New Talent and Business
  In the downturn, the folks who will survive are polishing their skills. These are the twitter basics simply presented.
• Social Networks for the Job Search
  Jason Alba is fantastic. He always praises his sources while pointing out the underlying value. This piece references two reports on Social Network Demographics: The Social Network Geographic report and the Social Network Traffic Report.
• Kevin Wheeler on xtremerecruiting.tv
  Bill Vick is single handedly documenting our industry on Video. Kevin is one of the foundations of our industry.
• The Secret to Using a “Refer a Friend” Script
  Shannon Seery-Gude pointed out  this clear headed analysis of a great web tactic.
• JPIE
  Jeffrey William Tincup is doing a great set of interviews with Human Capital Bloggers.
   

081209 Industry Context (Dec 09, 2008)

Thought For The Day: Failure is the only way to learn what needs improvement.

• Tribune Co. files for bankruptcy protection
  The old media death march continues. Newspapers are losing relevancy and revenue at an astonishing pace.
• A Web Start-Up Counting on Ad Sales? Good Luck
  It’s getting harder to sell ads and harder to raise money for web based companies that make their money selling ads.
• Kosmix – searching for optimism
  "Google is the best place to go if you’re looking for a needle in a haystack – if you’re looking for one single website or piece of information. But Kosmix is about exploring a whole topic." While
  Kosmix probably isn’t it, there will be no shortage of Google alternatives.
• Young graduates struggle for Silicon Valley jobs
  The downturn is spoiling some dreams in Silicon Valley. It’s not as easy as it used to be to get a high tech job.
• He’s Just Not That Into You
  Maren Hogan weighs in with the quote of the year: "Continuing to stalk passive candidates as a business mandate during a recession is the dating equivalent of Molly Ringwald bagging that guy in her odd homemade pink dress in the 80s."