Game-Changing Recruiting Technologies

By Paula Santonocito

What do the U.S. Marine Corps, AIRS, Sodexo, Kelly Services, and Jobstick have in common?

Onrec Winners

These organizations all received top honors in their respective categories and were announced as winners of the first annual Onrec Recruiting Technologies Awards. Awards were presented at the Onrec 2008 Conference & Expo in Chicago on September 9.

Award winners were chosen from among submitted nominations, with the chief criteria being best-in-class innovation.

2008 Onrec Award Winners are:

Best Online Career Website - U.S. Marine Corps, for its recruitment site, www.Marines.com

Most Innovative Online Recruiters - AIRS, a company of The RightThing, Inc.

Most Innovative College Recruiting Campaign - Sodexo

Most Innovative Employee Referral Program - Kelly Services

Game-Changing Recruiting Technology - Jobstick

The following companies received honorable mention and were also recognized in the Game-Changing Recruiting Technology category: Broadlook Technologies; Dillistone Systems; Checkster; PreVisor; Talent Technology Corporation; RecruitAlliance; BountyJobs; iCIMS; Dayak; Madgex; Arbita; and JobTarget.

Best Online Career Website

With its legendary slogan, ìThe Few. The Proud.î as a header, the U.S. Marine Corps recruitment site incorporates the best of Web 2.0 technology, creating a feature-rich experience for site visitors that never veers from message.

But perhaps the person who nominated the site says it best: ìTo date, I have not witnessed a site that combines both the creative elements and social media aspect, and captures emotion such as the Marine Corps recruiting website www.Marines.com.î

The person, who only identifies him/herself as an executive recruiter, references a channel for parents, and also points to the most innovative aspect of the site: ìThe ëWhy I Serveí element allows users to upload their own video, thereby creating a viral infomercial of sorts. In my estimation, successful social media-based recruiting initiatives are geared at recreating the best elements of (and harnessing the power of) marketingís ultimate panacea, the Infomercial. What I found most surprising was the integration of video from Marines currently serving in Iraq, such as http://our.marines.com/cms_content/showvideo/type/wis/rel_id/136/story_t....î

The nomination then goes on to say there is much for corporations to learn and adopt from the Marines recruitment site. The Onrec Awards committee agrees, and from among many fine recruitment sites chose the U.S. Marine Corps recruitment site as the Best Online Career Website.

ìOn behalf of the Command, we very happy and thrilled to receive such a noteworthy and prestigious award,î says Major Christian Devine of the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Command. ìWeíve put a lot of thought into the site and we feel it is a true and holistic picture of what the Marine Corps is that will help us find quality men and women who want the challenge to become Marines.î

Most Innovative Online Recruiters

ìOverall, AIRS can be defined as the ëGoogleí of online recruitment. What Google does for search, AIRS does for sourcing talent,î says the person who nominated AIRS, a company of The RightThing, and a leader in recruitment training, technology, and outsourcing.

The Onrec Awards committee concurs, and from among many nominations chose AIRS as the winner of the Most Innovative Online Recruiters award.

AIRS has a long history of innovation, and it continues to move forward. Building on its unique, award-winning SourcePoint software, a technology program that unifies key tools and automates important sourcing tasks, AIRS has worked aggressively to expand its partnership base and continuously add new job boards. With over 176 integrated job boards today, including Monster, ZoomInfo, Taleo, Spoke, Jigsaw, and more, SourcePoint has been called ìthe most comprehensive, well established, and most effective online recruiting solution on the market.î

The company is also known for its leading-edge training. And here it hasnít rested on its reputation either. AIRS continuously updates training courses to stay one step ahead of the latest trends, providing up-to-date and forward-thinking Internet recruiting strategies in the 300 workshops and more than 35 courses it offers each year. This year it has updated its market-leading SearchLab class and its new Certified Diversity Recruiter program. To supplement trainings, this year the company has also developed an Expert Learning webinar series that focuses on timely topics such as Virtual World Sourcing and more.

Thinking globally, AIRS has expanded its online recruitment technology and training into the UK and European markets, opening an office in London and introducing a specially tailored UK version of SourcePoint. More than 20 training workshops are scheduled for the year in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

ìAIRS has worked hard to continuously innovate, improve, and perfect our online recruitment and technology offerings, says Chris Forman, President of AIRS. ìItís a great honor to be selected as the Most Innovative Online Recruiters.î

Most Innovative College Recruiting Campaign

Sodexo is a leading integrated food and facilities management services company with 120,000 employees at 6,000 locations throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2007, the company launched a best-in-class college recruiting program to hire its future leaders.

Sodexo targeted key schools, engaged students and faculty, and leveraged its recruiters and HR/Operations partners to drive ROI. The programís first year resulted in a 230 percent increase in college hires.

How did the company achieve such impressive results? At Sodexo, everyone is involved.

ìSodexo has a profound understanding that top college talent will be the future leaders of our company. We actively engage employees from all levels in the organization in recruiting, training, and retaining college students. Since the pulse of the organization comes from our leaders, our executive team is fully engaged in our college recruitment initiatives,î says Cassandra D. Caldwell, Ph.D., CDR, Director of College and Strategic Relations for Sodexo.

Caldwell cites how the Sodexo Future Leadership Internship Program, a world-class internship program that engages students as early as their freshman year, provides mentors, and provides professional development webinars. She also points to how the company leverages its Strengthening, Talent, Acquisition, Relationships (STAR) Faculty Program, a national think tank consisting of deans and faculty from top universities, to continuously improve the companyís college recruitment initiatives.

As part of these and other efforts, Sodexo uses social media tools to communicate with candidates: the Sodexo Careers blog; Sodexoís Facebook Careers page; Sodexoís LinkedIn Career group; Sodexoís YouTube channel; Twitter; and mobile messaging.

The company believes it is essential to focus on new approaches and game-changing recruiting technologies when targeting the college market.

ìIn order to be relevant in the highly competitive recruitment landscape, employers must integrate cutting-edge technology into their college recruitment initiatives,î Caldwell says. ìTop college students identify with social networks, online environments, and innovations in information technology. Companies who are technologically progressive will win the war for talent.î

As far as the Onrec Award, Sodexo is leveraging it as well. ìWe are very proud of the award and it is highlighted on our careers website,î Caldwell says.

Most Innovative Employee Referral Program

Kelly Services, the company credited with creating the temporary staffing industry, may be a household name, but its approach to employee referral is anything but ordinary.

Kellyís online referral program, Worcle (slogan: ìYour Work. Your Circle.î), utilizes a fully automated and interactive system that allows employees to make referrals online. The Worcle program includes auto-generated communication touch points, ensuring eligible employees and referral candidates are kept up to date on their status. It also features enhanced program management through streamlined reporting and detailed response metrics.

But itís not only technology that makes Kellyís program special.

ìOur referral program is unique in that it offers referral bonuses to both flex (temporary) employees and core (permanent) employees. Our employees can turn in referrals at any time, and if those referrals are used for any position, the employee is paid out. We offer bonuses based on the position that the new employee is filling,î says Deb Cooper, ACIR, CIR, Talecris Team Lead for Kelly Services/HRfirst.

The online program happens to be fun and easy to use, too. And, in keeping with the Kelly Services theme, Worcle features a lot of greenÖwhich, competitors may note, also happens to be the color associated with envy.

Worcle, www.worcle.jobs, takes the best elements of old-fashioned recruiting and leverages new tools for maximum return. ìEmployers should be looking to the future,î says Cooper. ìNetworking, blogs, podcasts, videos and other new information delivery methods are going to become very important if they want to keep up with the way top talentóand the worldólives.î

And how does the Onrec Award figure in the Worcle circle? ìIt is an honor to be noticed for our employee referral program and efforts to recruit and retain the best in the industry. This program is an important part of our success and one of our strongest sources of hires for our practice area,î says Cooper.

Game-Changing Recruiting Technology

The game-changing recruiting technology award category featured many nominees worthy of accolades. But the leader in innovation in this particular category, in the opinion of the Onrec Awards committee, is Jobstick, for its product Jobstick Filter.

Jobstick Filter differs from other new products because it provides a best-of-breed candidate filtering tool that operates in real-time and provides both a front-end and back-end solution for Human Capital Management: Jobstick Filter powers a company's career portal where candidates can get matched with the top job for which they are qualified and it seamlessly integrates into a company's ATS to help HR staff quickly and efficiently identify top candidates for each position.

There are no other products like Jobstick Filter on the market. Itís so new, in fact, that the Onrec show was the companyís inaugural exhibit.

Avi Marcus, CEO of Jobstick, points to the importance of earning first place at the companyís first show.

ìWinning the 2008 Onrec Game-Changing Recruiting Technology Award was a tremendous honor. Onrec is one of the most respected sources in the online recruiting industry, and having this recognition certainly identifies Jobstick as a major player in this market,î he says.

Marcus tells Onrec that Jobstick has been referencing the award in its sales efforts. ìWhen we speak with a potential client (over the phone, over a web conference, or in person), we certainly mention our awardóthe award certainly lends significant credibility,î he says.

Why Change the Game

Awards are great. And sure, innovation by and of itself is exciting. But what exactly is the payoff?

And so Onrec asked Avi Marcus the all-important question: Why should employers that want to attract top talent focus on game-changing recruiting technologies?

ìThese new and innovative game-changing recruiting technologies are those products that have identified the problems that current technologies fail to solve,î Marcus says.

ìFor example, Jobstick Filter was developed in response to the failures of keyword searching and job-specific questionnairesóthese current technologies are ineffective at reducing the overall number of resumes received by a company.

ìIt is common for nearly 9 out of 10 applicants to be unqualified for the job they seek, which forces a tremendous amount of manual review by HR.

ìJobstick Filter matches each candidate against every open job in real-time, and automatically filters out unqualified candidates based on the job's requirements. This tool helps HR focus its sourcing efforts on those candidates who are most qualified for each positionóa much more efficient and effective use of that time.

ìSo, by using game-changing recruiting technologies like Jobstick Filter, employers are able to correct the failures exemplified by the current HR ëprocessí and make this process more streamlined.î

As Onrec Award winners demonstrate, new tools and new combinations of existing tools and processes can significantly impact recruitment success. By embracing game-changing recruiting technologies, employers can up their gameóand win the talent they seek.