Social Recruiting Summit - Going Rogue and Candidate Engagement

From ERE Net |posted by Ernest Feiteira on Nov. 19, 2009

I heard it from several attendees at #SocialRecruiting summit
- "I'm hoping to build a case to bring back to my company." That is the
mantra of an employee playing it safe. One of the speakers, Fred
Wilson, a venture capital investor in twitter, indeed.com, meetup.com
and others, suggested going rogue.  He did state that you need to be
mindful of laws and other legal compliance issues.

Some people are
early adopters and others are not. Why are some people and companies
early adopters and other not? I think risk tolerance is a big reason.
People that are riskier (innovators) are willing to try new things,
these people know that sometimes the new things they try will
completely fail, but sometimes the new things will be BIG homeruns.
Those that play it safe all the time will have less failures, but will
also miss out on the early and most rewarding gains and advantages.

Going rogue is about trying something new and different and doing it
outside the traditional risk level of the organization. But, with a
policy like one-third of time and budget goes to trying something new
and innovative and two-thirds of the time and budget to proven
strategies and tactics, companies and individuals can avoid the sticky
messes that develop with going rogue. I believe some research and
homework helps, just avoid research and analysis paralysis.

Social media - social networks, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites,
etc... are often considered rogue activities. John Sumser talked about
the "technology adoption curve," I view this concept as the "rogue
curve," the earlier in the curve you are the "roguer" you are....

Social media is largely an open and public discussion. Social media
opens organization to new levels of direct dialogue with customers and
jobseekers. In the past, companies could hide behind mail, email and
the telephone, with little risk if you ignored correspondeances. Now,
with social media, avoiding blog posts, "wall" posts, tweets, comments,
video posts and other forms of contact on publicly available forms can
have negative consequences. Sodexo, Microsoft and RSM McGladrey
representatives were on a panel that discussed their social media
strategies and their perspectives on candidate engagement. Here's each
one's response.

Here's the video:
Sodexo Candidate Engagement - Kerry Noone

RSM McGladrey Candidate Engagement - Ben Gotkin

Microsoft Candidate Engagement - Heather Tinguely