The CUhire blog post every Wednesday is about delivering recruiting news and hot topics from other sites, newsletters and blogs.  Some great information caught my attention recently!

First, for Recruiting, Research and Sourcing professionals (if you’re not you can still learn something too) I came across a post this morning that has some valuable search techniques – from a site called GoogleGuide.

And, with all of the talk about social media and networking be sure to check out "Social Recruiting:  Corporate Adoption of Social Media for Recruiting and Retention".

If you consider competitive intelligence important in researching organizations and passive candidates, LinkedIn released some new features on their site that have a tremendous amount of value for a variety of users.  Check out the video for an overview.  Of course, if you haven’t had the chance to join the CUhire Credit Union professionals group on LinkedIn, check it out and join.

There is a lot of conversation about the competitive labor market, and the importance of creating an engaging experience for candidates.  As noted in a recent CUhire Press Release, one quick, easy and FREE way to do this is through the partnership CUhire created with Standout Jobs.

With the Reception service from Standout Jobs, you are able to give candidates the information and interactivity they have come to expect.  Key benefits to the Reception service include:

• Creating a career site to showcase your culture and team
• Managing the hiring process more efficiently
• Marketing and tracking jobs
• Building on-going relationships and finding great talent

To showcase the Reception product, CUhire created the following Credit Union Jobs page to reinforce the overall ease of use and effectiveness.  Besides the fact the product is FREE through the partnership, you do not need to have IT expertise to get your own site up and running…  Ours took about 20 minutes, take a look here:

We’d like to challenge you to create a more engaging and interactive career site for your candidates! The first Credit Union to create their site through Standout Jobs will receive a free "platinum" job posting on CUhire’s Credit Union job board.  Just post a comment on this blog post once it is completed.

A FREE job site, FREE job posting, and a more engaging experience for your candidates.  There is no catch, it’s a win-win.

Take networking to a new level - join the free and premier Credit Union networking group on LinkedIn!  Speaking of LinkedIn, I just came across an interesting topic that is posted on their Q&A module, on automated interviewing.

The question was around the effectiveness of automated interviewing, and the post stated the following:

There is sufficient curiosity surrounding the concept of automated job interviewing. After speaking with the recruiters that have used it, there was no doubt that it saves time, is more convenient for both applicants (especially passive job seekers) & recruiters, and is gaining steam in lower-level jobs recruitment.  Will automated interviewing be to the recruitment industry what ATM’s became to the banking industry? Initially, ATM’s were thought too impersonal but obviously proved that people were more than willing to bank thru a machine rather than stand on long teller lines.

Interesting concept, yet most research shows the highest effectiveness with the initial screening for high volume and entry level jobs.  In the end, most organizations still post and advertise jobs to active candidates.  Whether a company considers an automated interview process the key still lies within sourcing the right talent to begin with – and not pre-screening and sifting through unqualified stacks of Resume’s.  You can’t forget about the candidate experience, and human element…

On the flip side of automated interviewing is our Talent Sourcing – On Demand Service which IS automated for you, and is a great alternative to posting and advertising positions and hoping someone qualified applies!  The focus of this service is for us to seek out qualified candidates, at a fraction of the cost of typical job board postings and resume database passwords for you.

The CUhire blog post for Wednesdays is about delivering recruiting news and hot topics from other sites and blogs. 

This week I came across a great blog post from Jobs in Pods called "2 things every corporate recruiter should see and hear about recruiting with social media".  The videos are very telling.

Next, a post about job boards from John Sumser.  I have appreciation for John’s last comment about the importance of sites building alliances and partnerships across the web.  This is true for us too, and is a competitive advantage.  When you post a job CUhire’s Credit Union Jobs site you are leveraging our technology and partnerships with a growing network of general and niche job boards (including Monster.com), blogs, user home pages, professional networking, and association sites.  We target both passive and active candidates by also searching and marketing to a variety of associations, databases, and professional networking sites to drive targeted candidate traffic to your posting.

I’ll close out this post with some food for thought on a post I came across today on filling positions vacated by baby boomer retirements.

• Be proactive, seek out your employees and ask them to think about the best people they have worked with.  Depending on the role you are trying to fill, ask questions like “Who was the best manager?” or “Who provided the best customer service?”.
• As part of your orientation process, ask new hires for names or at a minimum, talk about the importance of referrals to your Credit Union.
• Network, or better yet, blog with other Credit Unions and employers to see what is working for them.  Brainstorm, and share best practices.
• Provide an inexpensive gift like a gift card or movie tickets.
• Provide recognition.  Be creative – use what works best in your Credit Union.  A newsletter, staff meeting, etc.
• Brand your referral program.  Create a slogan, remind people the reason behind their referral.
• Set goals.  Motivate, and raise awareness.  Make a chart or graph touting results.
• Give a rotating plaque, put their picture in it, put it in the lobby.
• Lunch with an Executive.  Either one on one, or ask your CEO to hold a quarterly luncheon – include those who have referred candidates and those that have been hired through referrals.
• Say thank you! Remember to stop by to say thanks, or pick up the phone if you’re in a different location.
• Hold a drawing for those employees that have referred candidates.  Give a free vacation day, talk about a motivator!

LinkedIn, now boasting over 20 million users and 500 employers, announced the launch of a new premium account designed specifically for Recruiters this week.

LinkedIn Recruiter offers premium features and services designed to fit individual corporate staffing departments’ needs. The new Recruiter account is geared to enhance both active and passive sourcing with:

• New productivity and team collaboration tools
• Powerful new search capabilities
• A new user interface for efficient recruiting workflow
• Bundled InMails and job postings

Click here to see more information on the LinkedIn Recruiter account.

If you have not had a chance to sign up for the Free Credit Union LinkedIn Group, click here for more information – and join a leading networking group for Credit Unions and Human Resources professionals.