I had an interesting conversation with someone following ERE about the lack of innovation in our industry in terms of Candidate Experience.  He suggested that if a vendor really cared – they would have someone on staff solely focused on making the technology easier for candidates.  After just 1 solid rebuttel’s, he stopped the conversation.  Cold.  Seriously people – you should know by know that I enjoy a good Debate – I learn, you learn, we all win.  Anyway…It got me thinking about the conference and the space and asking the question if we really do care about candidate experience.

If you look at the agenda for the ERE Expo and any other conference that I am scheduled to attend this fall – the answer is no.   There are no sessions on candidate experience or applicant retention strategies or quite honestly even on talent pooling (yes, super old term – but I still believe in it!).  Candidate Experience was brought up in a few sessions – but other than Adidas & Walmart  - no one really seemed to have a company strategy built around it.   It is nice to talk about.  It is nice to think about.  It makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside – but we don’t really seem to care if we are doing it or not.  Well, not really.  You see, it is one of those hidden things in our industry that is championed and talked about by large companies (that may or may not actually do it) and agreed upon and validated by smaller companies (that rarely actually do it).  Another way I know we don’t really care  - no one really tweeted about it beyond Fogarty’s custom built interview rooms with the ugly table.

So, since there weren’t a lot of session – I will give you the Sarah White break down on Candidate Experience that will work for any size company.  How do I know it will work for any size company?  My mind is always thinking in terms of scalability

1.  Don’t have bad job postings.  A job description and a job posting are not the same thing.  One is HR.  One is Marketing.  That means one is boring and one is fun.  (Ok, maybe that was too far…)  I think it was Shally who said to explain what it is like you were talking to his Nana.  Give your value add – what makes you better than everyone else.

2.  Make it easy to apply. The higher level the candidate the easier the application process should be.  If you have people that have resume’s applying for your positions use a solution like HRM (yes, I am partial) that allows for a direct email submission – nothing to fill out, no log in to create – just send in the resume and make the software work.  If you use another solution – make it easy for them to submit – less than 3 mins MAX.  (Pharma companies please listen – your apps are WAAAYYY to long – good people won’t do it.)

3.  Make it easy to get information.  Connect with them on twitter, facebook, blogs (if you can do it right), linkedin, etc.  Do a newsletter for candidates you haven’t hired that sit in your database.  Create a website that has RELEVANT information on it – things they really care about – not a bullet point list about your company benefits.  Let them feel comfortable with you.

4. Follow up.  This is really simple if you have a good ATS.  Pretty simple if you have an OK ATS.  Regardless, it needs to be done.  Especially if you are in a consumer sales organization where every candidate is a potential buyer.  Believe it or not, a candidate would much rather hear a “sorry, you aren’t a fit” than nothing at all.  For many people, the fear of the unknown is far worse than their fear of reality.  So – send an email (automatic message) that keeps them updated on where they are or are not at in the process.

Ok, so it isn’t rocket science.  But if it is so simple  - why isn’t our industry norm?  Other than we don’t really care.

3 more ERE post’s this week before I shift my love to #Recruitfest09! Cause I gotta feeling…

There were a lot of people at ERE Expo that are huge on twitter @TheRecruiterGuy is the only one to wear the shirt that said it!

I am not someone that is huge on Twitter.  A lot of the twitter superstar’s are also bloggers.  Not like I’m a blogger – but like real bloggers that people read and care about.  They have really cool things to say and make you want to learn more.   In fact, I was a bit of a late adopter and didn’t even start using Twitter until May when I got home from Kennedy this year.  So…what is that like 4 month?  Lame, I know.

My first national conference in 2007 was terrifying.  Not only was I attending – but I was called in as a last minute speaker for a general session.  To top it off, I knew NO ONE.  Honestly, not a soul.  Over the years, I have met a lot of amazing people in this industry – people that I have maintained relationships via a variety of channels.  Each one of them has helped me learn and grow both personally and professionally and they likely don’t even know it.   Twitter helped me develop, expand and strengthen a number of these relationships and build new ones with people that I had never known before.

My favorite Punk Rocker, Laurie Ruettimann, had a great blog today about the women of twitter that were there.   Jason Buss had a great blog yesterday on the best tweets of the event.  I taught Mike Greenier from Walmart how to tweet and use Tweetdeck this week (and created a monster).   Overall, Twitter at ERE was HUGE – used to help share some of the highlights of the various sessions, tweet complaints about sessions, locate people for lunch or pool time and share some after hours pictures (ummm…@marenhogan).

If Networking is King, then Twitter is Queen – playing an amazing role in my experience ths time around – giving me the chance to meet and connect with in person people that I have been learning from all summer. I didn’t feel like the awkward geeky girl trying to meet the cool kids (like normal) rather like the awkward geeky girl the cool kids already know is geeky and they accept her anyway.