Traditional HR & Mzinga's Hiring Experiment

My friend Aaron Strout over at Mzinga, has announced an interesting experiment. Instead of recruiting and hiring a social media marketing manager and a PR director through the traditional Stone Age process of Craig's List and resumes and interviews, he will try to hire a new social media manager and PR director entirely through the social media.

I like what Aaron is doing. Since Mzinga is the leading resource in hosting communities for large companies, it is fitting and proper that they take these innovative steps. But, to me, it's just one small step for hiring when we need a few giant leaps to modernize the recruiting-hiring process. I think Mzinga and other companies can go further-- a lot further, and will have to a few years from now, if they hope to attract the best and brightest of the emerging generation.

It seems to me that technology has transformed almost every business function to a far greater degree than it has recruiting and hiring. All that has universally happened there is that ads have migrated from the "Help wanted" section of the local paper to Craig's List. The actual recruiting-hiring process has remained pretty much the same, at least to the applicants and the people they will be most directly working with.

While that department is called "Human Resources," there seems to be room for a bit more humanity in the operational system. We apply with pieces of paper that use language we don't normally use, that reduces our lives to a few form-compliant paragraphs. We dress differently for an interview than we will if we get the job. The people we use for references are culled by title, not by closeness of relationship.

On the recruiting side of the table, people act as if this were the one company existing in harmonic bliss. There is no discussion of politics layoffs ridiculous customer or management demands. No one warns you that your co-worker has certain hygienic deficiencies The perspective employer is of one mind and voice and everyone working there seems delighted with the choreographed employee dance steps.

Both sides make decisions based on subtitles of what is not said in the recruitment ad or on the resume of what is not shown during the company tour.

Social media can change all this for the better. It can help both sides of the recruitment-hiring equation get a more complete understanding of what to expect.

Much has already happened in lots of places. Several recruiters are using blogs to help prospective applicants get a more complete sense of corporate culture. When Scoble was still at Microsoft, one of his most popular Channel 9 videos showed a typical day in the life of a recruit, including looks at the rooms where people get interviewed, the apparel that employees wear to work and even an interview with the campus bus driver. It added a very human perspective, I was told.

Stanford University is among a small handful of employers, who allow applicants to track the status of their application online, something greatly appreciated by applicants. I am particularly impressed with StandoutJobs, a Montreal-based startup that has created an online space for recruiters to try attracting the best applicants.

Social Media can put a whole lot more humanity into that which we call Human Resources. On both sides, people can use it to show who they are, which, in the end, may be more valuable than just show what they've done and what skills the job entails. Instead of filling slots, recruiters can start having conversations with team members. All sorts of relevent information can be shared. For example, video tours of neighborhoods where employee families live, including local parks, schools, summer arts festivals.

Ultimately, social media can not only restore the humanity to human resources. It can make the entire recruiting-hiring process a more accurate matchup at lower cost. Why would any company not move in this direction?

As for Mzinga, they have a couple of interesting jobs to fill. If you are interested, I suggest you make a cool video of yourself, post on YouTube and send the link to Aaron.

Comments

[Aaron Strout]

Shel - Wow! Chris Brogan just wrote a post about "The Community Ecosystem" and how important it is for us all to contribute in our own way. You just proved that there are few people that do this as well as you!

To provide a little update on how this experiment in social media recruiting is going, I've already had two GREAT potential candidates reach out to me via Twitter. I'm talking with them both early next week. Three or four other folks have expressed interest.

I'll keep folks updated on my progress via Twitter!

Best (and thanks!) @astrout

[Linda Sherman]

Shel, This is a terrific post. Certainly a gift to Aaron Strout (who I'm sure well deserves it). He is going to get so many strong candidates via your post that we're not going to get to see those cool You-tube videos that you suggested.

[Mike Keliher]

There's only so much social media can do for the hiring process, though. Sure, if I am an active online community member for its own sake, that could easily lead to a job working with someone who has become familiar with me.

However, it seems as though it would be rather difficult for a job seeker to start opening up, start "social media-fying" that process. This is as simple as the old "don't want the current boss to know" problem.

You could argue, in the honor of radical transparency, that shouldn't be a concern, but it is. As someone who recently experienced the chaos of *being told* by a colleague that she was interviewing and pursuing another job, I'm confident some things are better left unsaid or unknown.

That said, whatever the folks on the recruiting or hiring side can do to make *their* processes and actions more open and visible, that's great. And maybe that's all you're advocating here...

[Sam Lawrence]

It's cool Aaron is doing this. I'm at the end of process doing the same thing.

It started when I posted this video job req:
http://blip.tv/file/671732 a while back and got all sorts of interesting responses including this one http://blip.tv/file/730817 (which became somewhat of a meme) and a number of others (http://blip.tv/file/686453/ and http://blip.tv/file/752689).

I've found that using social networks is a great way to find folks in tech and the more creative you are, the more creative people you find.

That said, it opens up the door for all sorts of nuts, too. Luckily, I love nuts.

:)

[Jobs in Pods]

Wow Shel, I could not have said it better. Humanizing a company is soooo important in this new job market. Job seekers are tired of corporate marketing speak. Its time they embrace social media for what it is and connect with candidates on a entirely new level.

At Jobs in Pods, we are also contributing to this movement.

http://jobsinpods.com

[Ben Yoskovitz]

Shel - I'm glad you're impressed with the direction we're taking with Standout Jobs. We've got a few things up our sleeves that we hope will continue to bridge the gap between candidates and employers.

Ultimately, we hire people. It's really as simple as that. And for all the scorecards, rankings, evaluations, etc. - I'd say most people hire on a gut feeling as to whether the applicant will fit in. And applicants should care very seriously as to whether they think they'll fit in or not, and not take the job if they don't think it's right.

[Rita Wilhelm]

Hmmm... interesting discussion.

My initial thought was that social media would work well if you are looking for an extraverted type of a personality to fill a position.

But then I started thinking about how social media is the age of recommendation. It's easy for someone to hear about a position, and then forward that information on to a friend, a family member, or even post it on another social network.

Additionally, with people spending 50% of their online time on social networks, and with the majority of those people just viewing or watching content that is created by other people (instead of posting content themselves), you probably would still find that introverted type of personality.

So... I agree.

(I watch social media more from the marketing perspective, and not so much from the hiring prospective).

Out of curiousity, are you using LinkedIn as one of your social networks?

[Jenna]

I blogged about this article this week. It really related to what we talked about in class. We had a guest speaker named Dan Schawbel, who talked about a personal branding tool kit that included (resume - video resume, LinkedIn, link to blog/website), CD portfolio, References document, Website/blog, Business card - brand statement and picture, and Cover letter. I've been thinking a lot about making a video interview and posting it on youtube. This article just confirmed that need even more. Now I just need to find time to actually do it.

[Chris]

There is another solution. Referrals bonuses are allready #1 source for external hires in big corporations. Cisco is hiring up to 60% through referrals (Microsoft is still only 25%). With tools like FaceContact.com it is now easy also for small companies to establish and administrate such programms. And they are more powerful, because allow references from friends of friends, clients and even blog visitors.