The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology is Transforming Talent Acquisition

The Recruiting Revolution:
How Technology Is Transforming
Talent Acquisition

By: Shelly Gorman
Director, Career Management
MBA@UNC

All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011
Website: www.execdev.unc.edu |Phone: 1.800.862.3932 |Email: unc_exec@unc.edu

The Recruiting Revolution: How Technology Is Transforming Talent Acquisition

Introduction
We are living through an exciting era in technology development—the emergence of
interactive, social media and virtual technologies whose business applications are not
yet fully realized. While marketing professionals have been quick to embrace the
potential of these technologies for product placement, branding and sales, HR and
talent management professionals have approached them with a little more caution as
they explore how interactive, social media and virtual world technologies can be
effectively applied to attract talent to their organizations.

Promise
This white paper:

Identifies some of the major players in social media and describes their main
features;

Examines the pros and cons of using social media, simulations and virtual
world technologies to expand talent pools and to identify good job candidates;

Explores how leading organizations are using these technologies in their HR
practices, and;

Provides HR and talent management professionals with information they can
use to help them incorporate social media and virtual technologies into their
organizations’ hiring practices.

Social Media
This section highlights some of the major players in the social media market today,
describes how recruiters are using social media technology to expand their talent
pipelines, and how job seekers are using them to aid in their job searches.

All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 2|Pa ge


Some of the Major Players in Social Media

More than 120 million users and growing.

Developed as a business networking application with no
mixing of business and personal.

Used by recruiters to identify passive candidates and to see
who candidates know, in what industries, and at what levels.

Helps talent acquisition professionals publicize their
employment brand and advertise job openings.

Allows users to view and share videos online.

Used by job seekers to post video resumes.

Used by employers to create and post videos about their
industries, organizations, talent brands and employment
opportunities.

More than 200 million users “tweet” their thoughts in 140
characters or less.

Allows businesses to communicate to their stakeholders in
real time—whether that communication is about the latest
product launch or a job opening.

Allows users to find information streams they find interesting
(like a company) and follow them.

Allows HR professionals to market their employment brand,
advertise job openings and push followers to their career
websites.



A Facebook application launched a year ago.

Allows users to separate their personal and professional lives
while tapping into Facebook’s 500-million user base.

Allows employers to post jobs on their Facebook pages;
shows users jobs they may like based on their professional
profiles.

Allows users to endorse people.

Includes job postings on BranchOut by employers plus job
postings from other boards.

Shows users connections (individuals) they have to jobs;
allows users to tap into people they know to start the
networking process.

Allows talent management professionals to find passive
candidates, to review a person’s job history, to advertise job
openings, to promote their employment brands and to
encourage visits to their career websites.

A Monster.com product recently launched as a Facebook
application.

Merges Facebook and LinkedIn connections and harnesses
the power of Monster.com.

Very similar to BranchOut in features, such as stepping users
through the process of completing online profiles, awarding
badges for completed steps and searching for jobs.

Includes job postings from Monster.com.



Currently available to individuals only, but Google Plus
Product Specialist Manager Chris Vennard says the
application will offer business and school pages within the
first half of 2012.

Has interface that is similar to Facebook, but its power to
eventually harness everything “Google” makes it a must-
track for recruiters.

Can categorize social connections through “circles”. For
example, users can have circles that include only friends,
only colleagues or only family members, but the application
allows users to assign individuals to more than one circle.
Allows users to develop profile information that is
customized and visible only to specific circles.

Streams information based on a user’s pre-selected interests.
This can be handy for recruiters trying to increase their
employment brand or to advertise jobs.

Allows videoconferencing for up to ten people at a time in
“hangouts”. Users can specify friends or select circles to
participate in a hangout, and users can come and go
throughout the videoconference. User can even watch
YouTube videos together in real time. Talent acquisition
professionals can use this to stream YouTube videos
promoting their organizations, interview candidates, and
even hold small career fairs.



How Social Media Is Being Used
Social media appears to be successful in not only expanding talent pools, but in hiring
candidates as well. Sixty-four percent of respondents to a 2011 Jobvite survey said
they had successfully hired a candidate through a social network in 2011. Nearly all
survey respondents (95 percent) said they had hired someone through LinkedIn; 24
percent of respondents had hired someone through Facebook and 16 percent of
respondents had hired someone through Twitter.

The quality of hires is always a concern, and while recruiters continue to rank
employee referrals as the best source of quality of hires (8.6 on a scale of 10), social
networks fair well with a rank of seven on a scale of 10. Corporate career sites, third-
party recruiting firms, campus recruiting, job boards and search engines all ranked
below social networks in the quality of hires (Jobvite, 2011). It is important to note that
employee referrals and social networks are not mutually exclusive; some social
networks like BeKnown and BranchOut include features that encourage employees to
recommend colleagues and friends.

The Pros of Social Media in the Talent Acquisition Process
Social media offers recruiters several advantages. First, these applications expand
talent pools beyond geographic boundaries, allowing employers to reach a global
audience.

Second, they allow candidates to find talent acquisition professionals. Most people
find jobs through personal or professional networks—moving those networks online
allows more people to be aware of an organization’s employment brand and job
openings. It also allows employees to notify their personal and professional networks
of job openings in their organizations.

Third, as organizations continue to do more with less, these technologies are
extremely cost effective. It costs little to establish a social media presence, although
managing those networks can be a challenge.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to use social media in HR and the talent
acquisition process, though, is because it is inevitable. Most large organizations
already have a prominent social media presence and leverage it to improve their
employment brand and to find active and passive job candidates.



The Cons of Social Media in the Talent Acquisition Process

One of the challenges HR professionals
face when entering the social media
Social Media in Recruiting on the Rise
market is that it is growing at
The 2011 Jobvite survey confirms that social
seemingly exponential rates with new
media recruiting is on the rise:
players regularly entering the arena.
This makes it difficult to know where • EIGHTY-NINE PERCENT of respondents said
one should concentrate efforts when it they used social media to recruit talent in
comes to talent acquisition. 2011.
With so many choices available,
• SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING TOPPED THE LIST as the
choosing one or more to use is a viable
most popular area in which respondents
concern for job seekers and recruiters.
planned to increase investment.
For job seekers, maintaining multiple
social media accounts could easily • FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of respondents said they
become a full-time job. The same is planned to increase their social recruiting
true for recruiting professionals, but
budgets. Only 16 percent said they planned
added to that concern is whether they
to spend more on job boards and a third of
will be using the “right” application for
respondents said they planned to spend
their talent acquisition needs as these
platforms develop. Unfortunately, it will
less on job boards, third-party recruiters
take time to see what application and search firms.
emerges as an overall or industry- Source: Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey, 2011.
specific leader.

Which Application Is the Right One?

In a side-by-side comparison of BeKnown and Branchout, J.T. O’Donnell, founder of
Careerealism.com, urged job seekers to choose one and stick with it because “you
can’t go wrong either way.” These are early days in social media for career
networking, and no single application has emerged as a clear overall long-term leader,
and none has emerged as a leader in a specific industry. Until that evolution happens,
recruiters will likely find themselves juggling multiple social media applications. When
selecting which social media applications to use, HR and talent management
professionals should not only consider the resources they have available to maintain
them, but should also consider which ones will best align with their organization’s
strategic HR plan.



Company Spotlight: Discovery Communications

Tyler Benjamin, vice president of global
talent management at Discovery
Communications, is the first to admit that
Discovery is not yet a leader in using social media for talent acquisition—and
that is deliberate. “We intentionally took our time to test out Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn. This helped us form a strategic social media plan,” said
Benjamin. “We quickly realized that establishing a talent brand was key and
that most of our followers, while disbursed throughout the world, wanted
local information. We’re currently concentrating on building that brand in the
United States because we not only need to have content, we also need to have
the staff to manage that content. Our plan is to expand our global ‘local’
content within the next few years.”

Discovery has used social media to establish alumni groups to some success.
“We have a lot of people who return to Discovery after spending time with
other organizations. Our alumni groups help us keep in touch with them,” said
Benjamin.

Simulations and Virtual Worlds
Although the terms “simulations” and “virtual worlds” are often used
interchangeably, they are not the same. Simulations replicate job-related tasks to
allow employers to assess a candidate’s skills. Virtual worlds like Second Life allow
participants to interact with each other through avatars. Virtual worlds were originally
created with social users in mind, but some employers are using it as a recruiting tool.
This section describes both types of technologies, provides examples of how they
have been used in the talent acquisition process and explores their possible growth in
this field.



Simulations

Early simulations were often administered on the job site and imitated actual job tasks
(like typing speed and accuracy) to assess a person’s ability. These early simulations
eventually expanded into in-basket exercises where candidates had to assume a job
role and handle some of the daily tasks of that job (Handler, 2009).

Technology has taken simulations online and to a new level, making it possible to
replicate a variety of work environments and to assess performance in a more
automated manner. Today, these engaging simulations are being used to assess skills
in such settings as call centers (data entry and customer service skills) and
manufacturing (computer and logic skills), and to offer candidates “day-in-the-life”
glimpses into an organization’s working environment.

Many recruiters believe that simulations offer advantages over traditional tests. First,
they are more engaging than traditional, non-interactive assessments. In addition, they
offer more realistic job previews and can reduce bias and subjectivity in the hiring
process because of their realism and automated scoring (Handler, 2009).

Company Spotlight: AutoMax Recruiting & Training

AutoMax Recruiting & Training recently
partnered with Hire the Winners, the
creator of a car sales simulator that helps
dealers learn more about sales candidates
and their sales potential. According to AutoMax, the simulator has been used
more than 16,000 times and has an 82 percent retention rate after two years
for sales people the simulator recommended. For those the simulator
recommended with reservation, the two-year retention rate was 64 percent,
and for those not recommended, the two-year retention rate was just 14
percent.



When Are Simulations Appropriate?

There are a few important considerations for employers thinking about using
simulations in the talent acquisition process. Some recruiters feel that simulations
may turn off upper-level professionals who expect to be wooed rather than assessed,
and they advise employers to consider the type of worker being recruited and whether
a simulation is appropriate. Others are concerned that simulations may cause
bottlenecks in the hiring process, particularly for organizations hiring a large number
of candidates. Finally, the types of skills assessed through simulations must be
considered—they may be better suited to softer skills, such as customer-service
orientation (Ruiz, 2008). For harder, knowledge-based skills, traditional assessments
may be more appropriate.

The Next Evolution of Simulations: Gaming

The future is here in the world of simulations and recruitment, and that future is
gaming. Employers are using gaming technology to offer realistic job previews and
video tours to attract candidates to their organizations. Gaming technology lures
candidates to the organization’s website, keeps them there longer as they play a game
or two, and in the process, users learn more about the organization in a fun and
engaging way. Recruiters are learning from gamers that awarding badges and
showing progress toward a goal attracts the Gen Yers who have grown up playing
online games. Ken Wheeler from ERE.net predicts that gaming will become standard
fare in recruiting within the next decade (Wheeler, 2010).

Wheeler offers six tips recruiters can use to start the gaming ball rolling:

1. Give rewards (like badges) to visitors to your site when they’ve engaged in an
activity such as watching a video or taking an assessment. Encourage them to
come back to the site frequently.

2. Consider using virtual world technology like Second Life. IBM, Monster.com
and other organizations have used this technology to host virtual job fairs,
conduct interviews and offer virtual tours.

3. Offer video-based job tryouts.

4. Hold virtual career fairs.

All Content © UNC Executive Development 2011 10 | P a g e


5. Use tests, puzzles and simulations.

6. Develop a full-fledged game. These simulated environments engage
candidates and can immerse them in your organization’s talent brand.

Organizations are taking gaming online to establish their talent brands and to attract
candidates:

Yahoo! Hotjobs launched Swivel Chair Relay and Flip Off Your Boss to engage
their targeted recruiting demographic of 18-24 year olds. The games blend
humor and entertainment with the HotJobs brand messaging. The promotion
was considered a great success, with more than 40,000 people playing the
games and registering as HotJob members.

Merrill Lynch developed their Financial Games Collection to educate
undergraduates and MBA students about available careers and to drive traffic
to their career website. The game teaches players about the IPO process while
positioning Merrill Lynch as a great place to work.

The U.S. Army was arguably the first organization to use gaming as a
recruitment tool when it launched America’s Army on its website. The game,
according to the Army, significantly helped raise flagging enlistment rates.
(Source: Brandgames)

Company Spotlight: Marriott International

Since its launch in June, gamers in 122
countries have played the My Marriott
game on Facebook, the first game designed
to educate players about careers in the hospitality industry. Players enter a
virtual Marriott kitchen where they hire and train employees, ensure that meals
are well prepared, serve guests, and buy restaurant equipment and ingredients
on a budget. They earn points for satisfied customers and lose points for
unsatisfied ones. (Continued…)



Company Spotlight: Marriott International (…continued)

The game is part of a painstakingly planned global employer brand strategy that
was two years in the making, according to Susan Strayer, senior director for
global employer brand and marketing at Marriott International.

For Marriott, it was important to have a strategy in place for social recruiting.
“We didn’t want to execute solutions without understanding how those
solutions fit into the overall strategy,” noted Strayer. That strategy included the
release of a video in April with a new talent brand line, “Find Your World,”
followed by the unveiling of a Marriott International Facebook page (which
now has nearly 32,000 followers) in May and the My Marriott game in June.
One of the goals of this strategy: to have people self-select into the industry in
general and Marriott in particular. “For Marriott,” Strayer notes, “it’s not about
finding people, but about finding the right people.”

Virtual World Technology: Virtual Career
Fairs
The use of virtual worlds (mostly used to host virtual career fairs) in the talent
acquisition process admittedly had a rocky start a few years ago. Limits to the
technology at the time and people’s unfamiliarity with how it worked caused these
online experiences to be often clunky and sometimes downright embarrassing,
according to Courtney Hunt, Ph.D., principle at Renaissance Strategic Solutions. “I
heard horror stories of avatars floating during virtual career fairs—and that wasn’t the
person’s intent,” recalls Hunt.

Others agree. Until recently, technological limitations made virtual career fairs just
barely better than what employers could get through online job boards; a place to post
jobs and a corporate profile, an area for online chats, and bulletin boards (Zappe,
2011). These limitations caused interest in the use of virtual worlds in recruiting to
wane.



New and improved virtual world technology, however, has caused a resurgence of
interest among HR professionals who see virtual career fairs as a cost effective way to
attract talent, particularly those who grew up using technology and who find online
interaction more the norm than the exception (Zappe, 2011).

In today’s virtual career fairs, job seekers and recruiters use avatars to enter a virtual
world. Participants can chat live through text, voice or video; conduct interviews using
that same technology; and visit networking lounges where they can interact with
different employers and other job seekers. Virtual career fairs can even allow
managers who would normally be unable to attend live fairs to talk to candidates,
speeding up the interviewing process.

Virtual career fairs allow employers to reach candidates from across the globe without
the costs associated with travel and hosting on-site career fairs. They are also
environmentally friendly because they are paperless (resumes are submitted virtually)
and energy saving (reduced reliance on gas to get to and from live career fairs).

A survey by Unisfair, a virtual engagement marketing company, found that 60 percent
of respondents plan to increase spending on virtual environments and 67 percent of
respondents are thinking about hosting ten or more virtual events in the next 12
months (Gardner, 2011).

“Virtual engagement is not just a replacement for a physical event, but is a new
channel for reaching your audiences,” notes Joerg Rathenberg, Unisfair’s vice
president of marketing. “The research indicates that virtual events are being adopted
across industries and enterprises and will continue to be the preferred way to meet,
market, collaborate and educate for both hosts and attendees alike.” (Gardner, 2011)

Company Spotlight: Monster Canada's Virtual Career Fair

A virtual career fair recently hosted by Monster Canada was deemed a huge
success by the company and attendees. The fair featured 21 employers and
generated more than 400,000 page views, 18,000 visits, 21,000 job views and
collected more than 12,000 resumes.

“Monster’s first virtual career fair in April was hugely popular and the high level
of activity clearly demonstrated how having an active online career strategy is
the way of the future, both for successful job seekers and employers,” noted
Monster Canada Senior Vice President of International Sales Peter Gilfillan
(Market Watch, 2011).



Most recruiters agree that virtual career fairs should be part of a whole recruitment
strategy and should not take replace face-to-face interaction. Many recruiters predict
the emergence of hybrid career fairs—a combination of physical and virtual locations
that allow for human interaction.

Conclusion
Social media, simulations and virtual worlds are opening new and exciting venues for
HR and talent management professionals to source new talent and to establish their
talent brands. The rapid pace at which these technologies are developing will
challenge HR professionals to stay up-to-date with their uses. At the same time, it will
require HR professionals to be nimble enough to make changes to their talent
acquisition processes “on the fly” while managing these applications in ways that will
achieve their organization’s strategic talent plan.



About UNC Executive Development
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applicable experiences from our faculty and staff, integrated with the knowledge our
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We call this approach The Power of Experience. We combine traditional with
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Our Approach: The Results

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Contact Us

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