RPO and Talent Management Blog by Ochre House | Ochre Talk

The engaging community

Sure, job boards have their place, particularly when it comes to volume hiring or the sourcing of talent for relatively easily filled vacancies. But what happens when you’re faced with sourcing talent for specialist or niche roles where candidates aren’t exactly hanging around? Seemingly endless searches through CV databases are equivalent to the hunt for a needle in a haystack and desperately seeking referrals with the time ticking away looks, well, desperate. So do you have any alternative in such circumstances but to turn to the potentially expensive services of a recruitment agency?

If only there could be a nice warm pot of potential, relevant hires bubbling away somewhere in the background and ready to listen to a sensible proposition. Pipe-dream? No, it’s community development.

Community development is, quite simply, the next big thing in HR CRM – the fostering of groups of peers who share information and knowledge for mutual benefit, not just on a one off, but on a career-long basis. But for it to work, it has to be done properly, with a significant application of common sense and with an aim to supply the community with what it wants and needs rather than what you might like to tell it.

Community development is most definitely not about bombarding a group with a constant stream of job vacancies or with thinly disguised corporate propaganda. What it is about is contributing to a discussion, engaging in a supportive way so that your organisation becomes an accepted and trusted member of the collective. Managed sensitively over the medium to long term through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like, this will allow you to deliver the online version of a tap on the shoulder and the mention of a possible opening as and when the need arises.

Once you’ve built a decent community the huge benefit is that, if your members are tagged properly (e.g. Sales Manager, Birmingham, Engineering), then finding the right person within your community can become as easy as putting ‘Sales Manager, Birmingham, Engineering’ into your system and pressing enter. And just think how powerful that can be in comparison to the traditional routes to hiring we have all come to rely on for so long.

• Tweet

Comments

1. LondonRecruit says:

   January 11, 2012 at 9:30 am

   I have read many articles about this but I just do not see it working in practise. Think of this from a candidate perspective, how many different companies are an individual supposed to engage with? 5, 10, 50?!!

   Realistically an individual might want to engage with 5 businesses and these are likely to be the ones with the strongest brands. If you are working for Jon’s Tyre Shop, no matter how good your content and talent pipeline intentions, no-one is going to follow you or join a community.

   The reason good agencies have their value is that they are constantly working with a network of engaged candidates, updating them on new jobs with many different companies and ensuring they have relevant information and data sent their way. Many people in-house believe an agency will just post an advert online and then hope someone good comes in, this is just not true and it is the constantly engaged candidate group that is being paid for. This is your external talent pipeline so to speak.

   This is why agencies will always have their value. If you are fortunate enough to work for an aspirational business that people might want to follow or be engaged with. you will probably never need to use agencies, however if you are in one of the 95% of companies that does not carry a strong brand, you will probably be best steering clear of a talent pipeline and instead use LinkedIn to search for specific candidates on a case by case basis.
2. Andy Curlewis says:

   January 12, 2012 at 10:41 am

   A topical debate for a number of reasons. The world we live in is very different to the world we were in only a few years ago – changing consumer trends, evolving social mobility and working habits, economic boom and bust and of course the digital revolution.

   The latter has enabled us all to communicate and engage with each other, products, brands and companies in ever more sophisticated ways.

   And we certainly have rushed into it.

   Superfast broadband, a bourgeoning internet, ever more powerful computers, social medias, smart phones and interactive TV – all connected and increasingly affordable to everyone.

   Monologue and broadcast has evolved into dialogue, collaboration and personalisation – the kind of things we did face to face for centuries before all of these devices and digital platforms enabled us to take our natural habits online.

   And one of our strongest habits it to seek out and socialise with like minded people whilst there is nothing more powerful than a peer to peer recommendation.

   With this in mind and bearing in mind the plethora of affordable or free tools, technologies and techniques at anyone’s disposal now, it’s no longer the preserve of the major “brands” or “employers of choice”. Most companies, big or small, are actively engaging their stakeholders, from sophisticated CRM techniques to simple Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook profiles.

   Consciously or not, they are building or taking their communities online and whilst this usually starts with customers, it also now includes suppliers, partners and of course their staff.

   It therefore follows that employers are exponentially better placed to find relevant candidates in their communities’ networks, even within smaller companies and niche jobs.

   Of course not everyone wants to work for a well known brand or big company – career decisions are increasingly driven as much by location, work/life balance and culture/community as skills, experience or remuneration.

   The connected and social world we now live in means it’s also far easier for potential employees to discover or be recommended these opportunities and make these kind of decisions.
3. Netdogca says:

   January 12, 2012 at 7:54 pm

   This is definately a discussion point and a question for organizations to take on. I am for Talent Communities.
   While I agree at some level with LondonRecruit that agencies will have their place, it will be those who are truly engaging the candidate pool as he discribes. The volume of those agencies is small compared to the post and pray agenices out there. Far too often I see agencies posting jobs on boards. They are not engaging the talent.
   From the corporate side, as well as a professional or candidate perspective, engaging in a community that is specific to my field or industry is not such a bad way to go to: 1) be informed of events in my field, 2) be informed of advances in my field 3) be informed of career possibilities in my field 4) be informed of what others are doing in my field.
   A good talent community will be one where great minds converge to discuss the field. Formt here, the connection to careers can be made, for those who are willing (key word there).
   As an employer, why wouldn’t I also want to advance my brand through a talent community?
   To the point about not spamming, this will be the fine line for companies to walk. I know I am tired of getting castleville request from my FB friends. I can only imagine getting irrelevant job postings spamming me from what I thought was a professional community.

   p.s. and if the job isn’t for me, I might be tempted to tell a friend, if the community employer is doing things right.
4. Nicola Longland says:

   January 13, 2012 at 2:56 pm

   These are all valid points. A community can be used to build long term relationships with potential candidates. Content should be relevant to the audience and not merely a jobs feed from a corporate careers site.

   Communities work particularly well for niche and specialist areas where people like to be up to date with what is happening in their world as well as to build a network of like minded people. It is important to share information that is not particularly related to recruitment but that will increase awareness of the organisation that you are trying to promote; both giving a feel for what it is like to work for the organisation as well as information on products, services and project wins.

   Planning is essential to building a community. The better view you have on likely requirements the better you can focus on the right areas and engage with the right audience. You would not build a community in an area where you only hire once a year. They work best for those roles where you have an ongoing hiring challenge and similar requirements recurring over and over again.

   There is no doubt that communities take time to build and require dedicated resources to keep them alive; however it is time well spent. How else can you gain insight and understanding of your marketplace without engaging with it on a regular basis? At the same time you are giving yourself a head start for each new hiring requirement.