Log-in: Pipeline (Member community)

Archive for the ‘Soapbox Holland Post’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Connected in Columbus

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

The following is a guest blog post written by Simone Murray, VP of Member Services.

Employers Connect kicked off its first 2012 meeting in Columbus, OH. Hosted by DirectEmployers (DE) Member companies American Electric Power (AEP) and Cardinal Health, the event included presentations about recruiting with the new Internet, developing an efficient and effective disability-related business and employment strategy, and social media.

One of my personal highlights was an intriguing discussion from a panel comprised of Members who have been recognized for diversity program achievements, and other industry experts knowledgeable on creating inclusive corporate cultures for people with disabilities. In fact, after the event, one of the attendees also commented on how helpful the discussion was for her in considering the proposed regulations from the OFCCP.

We also included an optional session for Members called “Owning Your Membership.” This session, which is offered at all Employers Connect events, provides an in-depth review of the products and services included with a DirectEmployers membership.

Check out our slide show from the event:

If you’re not familiar with Employers Connect, they’re regional meetings for HR professionals (open to both Members and non-members) to share or learn about innovative methods in recruiting and technology, as well as reviewing traditional best practices. Despite being launched just last year, so far the events have proven to be worthwhile to attendees for a great way to network with their peers face-to-face, and walk away with content that is timely, informative and relevant.

Steven Eller, VP of Human Resources at Robert Bosch said, “Attending the Employers Connect is very strategic because we’ve been trying to build our brand in North America. This is an opportunity to benchmark other companies, learn from their strategies in terms of personnel branding, marketing and assist us in our talent acquisition strategies.”

From the beginning, DirectEmployers has been committed having Employers Connect be a FREE and valuable ongoing education opportunity for recruiting and compliance experts that touch on the current issues faced by small and large companies. Fortunately this is largely possible due to our Members being able to provide space for the event and volunteer to present.

There will be six other Employers Connect meetings this year, including the next one on Wednesday, March 7 in San Ramon, CA, hosted by 24 Hour Fitness. If you are interested in learning more or hosting an event, please email me at simone@directemployers.org.

For those of you who have not attended before, I strongly encourage you to attend an Employers Connect meeting in your region, expand your knowledge, and network with other industry professionals. For those of you who never miss an Employers Connect meeting, we’ll see you there!

For more information about the 2012 Employers Connect meetings and to access the resources from past meetings, please visit: connect.directemployers.org

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

Best Practices for College Recruiting

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Employers plan to hire 9.5 percent more new graduates in 2011-12 than they did in 2010-11. In comparison, last year employers anticipated double-digit hiring increases.[1] To help our readers make the most of their campus recruiting efforts, I reached out to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Mimi Collins, director of communications for NACE, shared the following timeless best practices:

1. Build, develop, manage, and maintain campus relationships.
The successful college recruiting program looks at the long haul, not just short-term results, and is built on strong relationships.

Most college recruiting professionals identify the career center as their “base.” These typically offer career fairs, job posting services, on-campus recruiting, and other options for connecting with students. Plus, career center staff can provide you with intelligence about their campus—its culture and traditions, specifics about their students’ attitudes and behaviors, and such—which you can use to tailor your strategy. Career center staff also can help you develop relationships with other key campus contacts, including faculty and administrators.

The reality is, no college recruiting program can guarantee job openings for new college grads every year, but organizations achieving greatest success don’t abandon campus when they aren’t hiring. Instead, they find ways to maintain their ties, such as continuing their internship program, taking part in mock interviews, or performing resume critiques, for example. This is where career center staff can be especially helpful: They can tell you what options are open, and what will and won’t work for their campus.

2. Set realistic recruiting goals.
True story: At a meeting, a group of recruiting professionals toted up their respective hiring goals for a specific major, and found that their collective goal exceeded the number of candidates available. Consider that they represented just a portion of the employers seeking this major, and you’ll see the problem with setting goals that aren’t fact-based. Base your goals on supply, demand, and related factors. How large is the potential pool? Where are the candidates? Who are your competitors? What are they offering? Do this work upfront, and you’ll be better able to set reachable goals.

3. Choose your target schools carefully.
Most college recruiting professionals say they build their target school list around majors available, quality of programs, experience recruiting at the school, and school location. This requires research and careful tracking, so you can see which schools are working best for your organization.

In researching which schools offer the majors you seek, be wary of “best schools for” rankings; it’s tempting to use these as a short cut around real research, but be aware that rankings are based on criteria that may not match up with your organization’s needs.

4. Send the right people to campus.
Would you approach a career fair booth if the booth staff looked bored? Would you be impressed by a representative who told you to check the company website to get answers to your questions? How comfortable would you feel in an interview if the recruiter asked you for a date? Unfortunately, this is how some company reps have behaved on campus.

Don’t take great pains to build a brand only to negate it by sending a “warm body” to campus. Research shows that who you send to campus is critical: Your reps have the most influence on how students view your organization. Send well-trained professionals who are equipped to answer questions, address concerns, represent your brand, and sell your organization.

5. Feed your full-time hiring with an internship program.
An internship program is one of the most effective recruiting techniques, helping you build a relationship with potential hires early in their college career (before they are “on the job market”) and gauge their fit for your organization. An internship program can also help you achieve better retention: Research shows new college hires who have served an internship are more likely to stay with the employer. (For more on internships, see “15 Best Practices for Internship Programs at www.naceweb.org/recruiting/15_best_practices/)

6. Measure and analyze your results.
Tracking how many hires you make, yes, but also track your rates for offer-to-interview, offer/acceptance, and retention. These can help you identify where you’re having the most trouble, so you can adjust. You also want to benchmark against others involved in college recruiting, to compare “apples to apples.” (For current benchmarks, see “2011 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey” at www.naceweb.org/2011_recruiting_benchmarks_survey/)

Learn more: NACE offers a variety of resources for college recruiting, including salary information, benchmarks, best practices, custom research, and more. Sample some of these resources at: www.naceweb.org/sample-resources/


1. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Job Outlook 2012 survey

A special thank you to Mimi and NACE for providing such great content for our blog!

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | 1 Comment »

Super Bowl Lessons in Diversity

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

The following is a guest blog post from Preston Edwards, Jr., Publisher, IMDIVERSITY, Inc.

I had the pleasure of watching Super Bowl XLVI and was impressed with how the NFL produces this mega-event. The NFL showed a national audience that it gets “It.” It showed that the NFL could reach new markets, engage its existing customer base and build its brand. It showed that the NFL gets diversity. The NFL scored a diversity touchdown with this year’s event. Let me explain.

According to Nielsen, this year’s Super Bowl drew a record 111.3 million viewers. Super Bowl tweeting also smashed the record for a sports event, with 12,233 twitter posts per second going out and in during the final minutes of the game. The NFL also produced the halftime performance, and its choice of Madonna for this year’s event was brilliant. Madonna’s halftime show was seen by an estimated 114 million people — a higher average than that of the game itself — and was the most-watched Super Bowl halftime entertainment show on record, according to Nielsen.

Why was this year’s halftime performance such an extraordinary success? Diversity!

We all know that Madonna is a pop-culture icon whose music and movies have been at the top of the charts for three decades. Even so, with this year’s halftime show it seems as no one was going to be satisfied with a show that featured Madonna getting on-stage singing and dancing to some of her multi-platinum classics. Smart! Instead of the ordinary halftime show, the producers created a performance that featured diverse acts within the larger act that appealed to a diverse audience. This performance was unique in that it brought together elements from musical genres like Hip Hop, Pop, Rock, Gospel and Soul. It offered Roman Centurions, Vogue models, DJ’s, dancers, cheerleaders, a marching band, circus acrobats and big-name performers, all on a stage bigger and better than anything ever seen. This was a super-sized universally appealing event that scored a touchdown with a super-sized audience.

By having such a diverse performance, the NFL was able to attract new viewers. It was able to keep existing viewers, and it was able to over deliver to marketers. This is where the Super Bowl halftime performance shows how the NFL “gets” diversity. It “gets” that diversity attracts, that diversity expands and that diversity sells.

It’s not enough anymore to have a superstar with mega appeal try to reach everybody. Marketers must now creatively, respectfully and meaningfully touch customers from multiple backgrounds, cultures and interests. This event showed us how truly powerful diversity is and what can be accomplished by those who understand it. They can keep their audience, expand their audience and sell more to their audience. Diversity is the spice of marketing, and since diversity is so tied to sales, it is a piece of so much more. Diversity will continue to have its powerful impact on education, employment and politics. Virtually every area of our lives will be changed by diversity. The NFL just gave us a taste of diversity, be it on a Super Bowl level.

Many thanks to Preston Edwards, Jr. for contributing this great post on diversity. IMDiversity, Inc., has been serving minority audiences, employers and career services’ offices since 1970. Through DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS, TEACHERS OF COLOR, and IMDiversity.com, IMDiversity, Inc. has built a trusted relationship with minority job seekers and diversity-seeking employers.


Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

UnitedHealth Group’s Angie Grilliot on Finding Talent, Core Values and the Future Job Market

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

This month’s interview features one of our new 2011/2012 Board Members, Angie Grilliot. After taking an unpaid internship 16 years ago, Angie has found a fulfilling career helping people find work and developing expertise around compliance.

Angie is also a member of the DirectEmployers Recruitment Regulatory Compliance Committee, Director of Talent Delivery at UnitedHealth Group and a mother of four girls. She masterfully balances her commitments and was kind enough to sit down for a great in-depth conversation about her career, what her team does well, how she benefits from DirectEmployers and the hopes she has for her children.

Nancy: Tell me about how you got to your position at UnitedHealth Group.

Angie: HR was a fairly new program when I was in college. I sought out an internship, which ended up being unpaid at a local hospital in the human resources department. That eventually led to my first job at the same hospital doing administrative duties. After a couple of years, I moved into recruiting position at retirement community. UnitedHealth Group was expanding in Ohio at the time and I got my third job out of college within a 2-year period – now I’ve been there for 16 years.

Nancy: What differentiates UnitedHealth Group’s approach to finding talent?

Angie: Not many people know UnitedHealth Group’s mission is to help people live healthier lives. We need to find people who can really resonate with our mission. It’s not necessarily about finding someone who can work on the benefit services side of the house and pay claims, it’s about that person fitting within that idea that we’re really here to help with a system, a healthcare system as it were, for that purpose and mission.

We’re really looking for candidates who demonstrate 5 core values – performance, integrity, innovation, compassion and relationship development. I feel like our talent acquisition team absolutely demonstrates those values every day in how they treat candidates, how they work with our hiring managers, how they think about innovative ways to find people and how they interact with candidates in a social media space.

Nancy: What do you feel your team does really well?

Angie: First of all, I think our talent acquisition team is best in class. We’ve looked at ways to really build almost an internal search function, especially for our executive-level placements.
Our talent acquisition team is great at developing relationships, building a pipeline of talent and knowing where the talent belongs within the organization. Our recruiters are actually aligned by function as opposed to business segment. The beauty of being functionally aligned is that all of our recruiters can work together to figure out, “If I have an IT professional, what part of the organization really has the need?” There are many ways candidates can interact with our recruiters. Even on the very front end of the process through recruiter chat and social media, we look at the candidate as our customer. I think a lot of recruitment teams look at the hiring manager as their primary customer. And of course, we have both, but the candidate is a key customer too and could be a current customer of our business or will be in the future, so we really have to think about our interactions.

Nancy: What would you say are some of the key benefits of DirectEmployers that you and your team utilize on a regular basis or that you find the most valuable?

Angie: Initially our partnership with DirectEmployers was really about finding a solution to post all of our jobs with the state job services. That’s been wonderful and we’ve been able to meet our compliance needs. Last year was my first DirectEmployers Conference and I was so pleasantly surprised on the networking ability, to find people in other companies who do similar roles as myself. It’s not like I don’t have other ways to network with people, but I was just surprised at the level of people who are focused on compliance within a recruiting function and the number of people from a staff perspective who are really focused on some of those diversity initiatives.

With the veterans outreach for example, it’s not just about “Oh, how many job boards can we make sure your jobs are going to,” but rather “How do we build partnerships and testify on Capitol Hill to make sure that we’re really shaping the future of policy as a representative of the employers?” For UnitedHealth Group we’ve seen value in getting our voice heard through an association, without needing to do that work internally ourselves.

We’re just now starting to get into the idea of the .jobs and are we going to put together some microsites.

Recognition

Check out some of UnitedHealth Group’s rankings and awards:

  • Earned a top rating of 100 percent three years straight on the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation
  • Ranked #1 for “Innovation in the Insurance and Managed Care” category on Fortune Magazine’s 2011 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies

Nancy: Given your role professionally and as a mother, what are your hopes for your girls in terms of the job market and how they’ll progress as they enter into their careers?

Angie: I think about a lot of different things. First of all because I have four girls, I’m amazed at the world of work difference now. During the 2008 election for example, I found it fascinating that none of my kids were surprised that an African American and female candidate were going head to head in the primary. For them it was just normal and it made me reflect on the progress we’ve made as a country. And I think a lot of credit can be given to human resource professionals out there who have helped drive that idea of diversity in the workplace. That gives me a lot of hope that there’s not going to be a glass ceiling, or that phrase is won’t even exist in their vocabulary as they are going through college.

Thank you so much Angie for taking your valuable time to share with us. You can also catch Angie sharing some wise words for job seekers in the following video made for the Social Jobs Partnership: http://vimeo.com/33534439.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | 1 Comment »

DirectEmployers Receives Recognition from the State of Arkansas

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Through our relationship with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA), DirectEmployers continues to develop outstanding partnerships with state workforce agencies.

Recently our efforts, and particularly efforts of DirectEmployers staff member Christy Merriman, were cited in a letter from Arlee Williams, Director of the Department of Workforce Services of the State of Arkansas.

As a result of our efforts and technology, their database of job openings has increased from an average of 1,300 to consistently over 10,000 each day in the past five years!

I am very proud to share the full letter from Arkansas below, and personally thank all of our hard working individuals here and at NASWA for making these results possible.


(Click image to see full size PDF)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

Committee on Education and the Workforce Requests More Information from OFCCP on the NPRM Regarding Individuals with Disabilities

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

The Committee on Education and the Workforce recently submitted a letter to Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, requesting additional information around the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) December 9, 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding individuals with disabilities.

The letter questions the legal authority permitting the OFCCP to establish a numerical hiring standard as well as concern with instituting a quota. In addition, the Committee goes on to express concern over the NPRM asking job applicants to self-identify as disabled – this conflicts with the statutory language of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This also means relying on accurate self-identification and disclosure during the application process, which, as the letter states, “…has the potential to create more problems than solutions.”

Lastly, the Committee voices concern about the paperwork and recordkeeping that would be required. The letter references a President Obama comment that, “sometimes rules and regulations have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business–burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs.”

The letter ends with several inquiries and asks the OFCCP to respond no later than February 10, 2012. In addition, a request was made to extend the NPRM’s comment period by 90 days from the current closing date of February 7, 2012.

View the letter and let us know what you think. What concerns do you have or share with the Committee on Education and the Workforce?

DirectEmployers Association is working diligently to stay on top of this ongoing discussion and will continue to provide helpful resources through webinars coupled with updates and a blog series in the Pipeline (online Member community). Members interested in submitting comments to the OFCCP and learning more about the NPRM and Section 503 can contact Julie Cook at JCook@DirectEmployers.org.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

New DirectEmployers Team Member to Lead National Disability & Employment Initiative

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

DirectEmployers Association (DE) would like to formally welcome to the staff, Julie Cook, Operations Manager for the National Labor Exchange (NLX). To many of you, Julie is no stranger. She has actively been working with the Business Development team for the last year to assist in developing what is now taking shape as a national disability and employment initiative for DE Member companies.

Over the next 12-18 months, Julie will be writing a series of blog posts with the intent of helping the compliance, recruiting and human resource professionals in your organization better understand integration of individuals with disabilities into the workplace, creating inclusive environments, building internal capacity, and sourcing prospective candidates in your organization. Her first post, “NPRM for 503: Ready, Set, Go?” is now available in the Pipeline.

Julie comes to us with a diverse background in both the private and public sectors. She has a BA in Political Science from Indiana University and is currently seeking her Master’s in Public Administration from Indiana State University. Julie started her professional career in financial services, obtaining her Series 7 and 63, where she provided portfolio consultation and sales services, business development and SEC compliance oversight. She also has an additional 5 years’ experience in retail management and has insight into the struggles that many companies encounter in the day to day balancing of business and personnel needs.

She entered public employment in the Indiana Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning (OMPP). There, Julie worked on a variety of initiatives, including policy review and implementation process development, provided communications, oversight of all Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policies and procedures, and creation of the internal governance manual utilized by OMPP staff.

Ultimately, Julie found her passion when she took over direction of a federally funded grant, known as the Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG). The MIG was created with the goal of creating infrastructure that removes barriers and increases opportunities to employment for individuals with all types of disabilities. In 2010, she moved from OMPP to the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services (BRS) and worked with the state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program to further the goals of the MIG in Indiana.
Through the MIG, Julie with the BRS and MIG leadership was able to create a five year strategic plan for the state of Indiana to further the goal of increasing employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The plan focused on four strategic areas in Indiana where the MIG could create actual impact to systems; one of those goals was better engaging the business community in the hiring and advancing of individuals with disabilities in their employment ranks. The MIG supports many business related activities including the Business Leadership Network (BLN), Project Search, and Corporate Development, including a strong relationship with the regional Department of Labor (DOL) staff.

Through this relationship with the DOL, DE was introduced to Julie and decided to bring her on staff to lead both the next generation of the National Labor Exchange, now under us.jobs, and work with Member companies to identify needs, solutions and resources in implementing the proposed changes to Section 503.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

What Do President Obama, Jon Bon Jovi and DirectEmployers have in Common?

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Simone Murray, VP – Member Services and several Members attended the announcement of the Summer Jobs+ initiative at the White House. She kindly agreed to write a guest blog post to share her incredible experience.

We all support Summer Jobs+


DirectEmployers Members at Summer Jobs+ Announcement

Members regroup for a photo at the White House. From left to right: Kelsey White - The SI Organization, Simone Murray - DirectEmployers Association, Eric Airola - J.B. Hunt Transport, Jason Capili - PwC US, Rebel Johnson - Camber Corporation, Brian Jensen - McGraw-Hill, Rich Skelnik - General Dynamics C4 Systems, David Bartlett -CenturyLink (not pictured)

DirectEmployers Association and several of our Members had a unique opportunity to be a part of the Summer Jobs Plus Summit held at the White House last week. The experience still seems so surreal. We had the privilege of being in the same room with the President of the United States… someone pinch me! How did we even get this incredible opportunity, not to mention many of our previous ones like the Social Job Partnership with Facebook, USDOL, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA)?

It boils down to relationships and follow-through. Over the last 10 years we have mushroomed into an Association with 45+ employees, yet we have over 600 + Fortune 1000, Fortune 500 companies who view us as true partners because we value the need for impactful relationships and actually making things happen. Our rapport with Bob Simoneau, Deputy Executive Director and Workforce Development Director at NASWA, led to a connection to Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor. Jane reached out to us last year regarding the Summer Jobs program and we immediately took action and helped spread the word and committed ourselves to hiring youth for summer jobs.

President Obama surprises guests with his appearance and speaks about the importance of the Summer Jobs+ initiative. Pardon the shaky video and audio - I had to hurry and capture the speech on my cell phone!

The purpose of the January 5th event at the White House was an outreach by the DOL to businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for low-income and disconnected youth in the summer of 2012. The President, who spoke for about 11 wonderful minutes, proposed $1.5 billion for high-impact summer jobs and year-round employment for low-income youth ages 16-24 in the American Jobs Act as part of the Pathways Back to Work fund. How will this happen without government funding? The only suitable way to have sustainable success with such a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), as one of my favorite authors Jim Collins would say, is by businesses, government and non-profits joining together to formulate a dynamic relationship that will have the greatest impact on our youth today.

DirectEmployers&theWhiteHouse8

   My photo with Jon Bon Jovi at the White House.

Yes, it was impressive and historic for me to see the first African American President of the United States and never mind me also taking a few star struck pictures with rocker Jon Bon Jovi. Yet as I sat through the presentations and listened intensely to the young people on the panel who have had a second or a first chance of success through summer internships, I imagined the possibilities of us as an association making a difference of our own. What relationships can we start building and with whom? One young lady shared her experience during the panel discussion moderated by Secretary Arne Duncan and Ben Jealous, CEO NAACP. Her internship at a cancer center programmed in her two underrated words that has stayed with her until this day – “good job.” How did this young lady who was disconnected from the core of today’s society education and employment get to now be a first year student at Penn State University – because someone gave her a chance.

How can we as professionals help young people by encouraging them with simple yet profound words such as “good job?” I came back from the summit and challenged my boss Bill Warren to take on the commitment plus challenge. Yes, we have committed to hiring five youths for the upcoming summer. In addition, how can we as an Association help to foster and nurture the youth around us? I have resolved to take the first step – formulating relationships.

View the full press release for more information.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

2011 DirectEmployers Association Year in Review

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Over the last 365 days, DirectEmployers helped connect job seekers with disabilities to employers, joined the Social Jobs Partnership, provided tools to help veterans and military families find work and launched The .jobs Universe. Not to mention we also celebrated a huge milestone – our 10th anniversary.

Below, you’ll find our year in review – simplified.

PanelatPressConference2

A photo journalist captures the press conference.

January started with a lot of excitement as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted unanimously to approve Employ Media’s plans to expand the use of dot-jobs (.jobs) domains. Internet recruiting was finally under new management – the employers – and we continued the build-out of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) sponsored .jobs Top Level Domain (TLD). Shortly thereafter, 40,000 domains were pushed live. The current portal for job search can be found at jobs.jobs.

Several board and operations team members participated in a press conference to announce The .jobs Universe and address questions from the press. The press, recognizing what a great resource .jobs is for job seekers, picked up the story and provided coverage on several news outlets including NPR, CNN and ABC. Shortly after the announcement, over 11,000 .jobs domains were added.

DirectEmployers also launched The Employment Line video blog to help our Members stay connected to the latest trends, tips and tools in the recruitment industry.

We embarked on our first Employers Connect event in March. Hosted by Newell Rubbermaid and Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), the event was designed to expand thinking around current and new recruitment technology. Employers Connect provided Members another opportunity to network in-person aside from the Annual Meeting & Conference. Employers Connect events took place throughout the year in Atlanta, Indianapolis, New York, Seattle, Houston and Denver. Watch The Pipeline events calendar or your Pipeline Digest email for upcoming 2012 dates and locations.

IMG_0034

Photo with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis at the Summer Jobs announcement.

Veterans.jobs and MilitaryFamily.jobs launched in April, bringing more than 860,000 employment opportunities from over 90,000 employers nationwide to our nation’s armed forces, spouses, dependents and caregivers. Representatives on behalf of DirectEmployers flew back to D.C. for a press conference to share the excitement. Later that day, the group also met with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to show support for the Summer Jobs Initiative.

Next, we pushed the Pipeline live. This member-exclusive online community allows Members to network, share best practices and access webinar archives, tools and advice.

Another trip was made to D.C. in June. This time, DirectEmployers and the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) sent expert staff members to testify on behalf of our efforts to put America’s veterans back to work.

DirectEmployers continued to support elite organizations through exhibiting and presenting at the National Industry Liaison Group, SHRM, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) conferences.

To help companies better communicate their employment opportunities to military men and women we launched the .jobs Military Crosswalk. The first four Member companies that piloted this tool were AT&T, Camber Corporation, Providence Health & Services and ConocoPhilips. Learn more about implementing your own .jobs Military Crosswalk.

In late September, we officially celebrated our 10th anniversary and hosted the Annual Meeting and Conference in Indianapolis. The event was packed with incredible educational, informative sessions and networking events. (Check out my blog post from the conference or our photos on Flickr.)

DEAM11_SBW_0004

Centerpiece from the Annual Meeting & Conference networking reception.

In October, DirectEmployers Association partnered with the National Guard Bureau, Kenexa, Inc. and Military Spouse Corporate Career Network (MSCCN) to create the National Guard Employment Network, via National Labor Exchange (NLX) technology. The NLX job feed provides new opportunities on a daily basis with special emphasis on veterans and military, people with disabilities and diversity.

DirectEmployers also returned to D.C. – this time with Facebook, the U.S. Department of Labor, NACE and NASWA to announce the Social Jobs Partnership. The goal of this initiative is to facilitate employment for America’s jobless through the use of social networks. Look for more details in 2012 about this partnership and how Members can become more involved in recruiting via Facebook.

We proudly joined forces with Think Beyond the Label in November and announced a jobs portal for people with disabilities to help promote disability employment opportunities, grow the pipeline of qualified job candidates with disabilities and meet businesses’ hiring needs.

Lastly, we ended the year implementing a job posting schema on USA.jobs. This new standard is meant to help search engines categorize jobs by location, job title, education and veteran’s preference.

None of this would have been possible without the continued support of our Members and Board of Directors in addition to the dedication of our staff. I am so grateful for the amazing collaboration and end results that we’ve been able to produce over the last decade.

To see our accomplishments in more detail, please visit the 2011 Annual Meeting Archive in the Pipeline.

Looking forward to a productive 2012!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

Sodexo on Talent Acquisition and Social Media

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Sodexo’s talent acquisition team might have been dramatically different today had Anthony Scarpino pursued his original intent of becoming a veterinarian. After changing his major to nutrition and obtaining a master’s, he became a dietitian and eventually landed a position with Sodexo.

Did you know?

Sodexo is the largest employer of dietitians in the U.S.

After a decade as food-service director, his boss approached him with an opportunity in recruitment. He has since spent his last 5 years in talent acquisition, and that is the “super abridged” version of Anthony’s passage to his current title, Senior Director for Talent Acquisition.

As Anthony explained to me, he wears a lot of hats including management of veteran outreach and employment branding in the U.S. throughout the online and social media space. Since Sodexo is so renowned in the industry for their accomplishments in social media, I wanted to know what Anthony thought about why that is and what advice he would give other companies.

Nancy: Since you’ve been with the company so long, what do you think Sodexo does really well in the area of talent acquisition?

Anthony: That’s hard – I don’t like to brag. I think our social media presence is really one of the benchmarks in our industry. I think the secret sauce of why we’re so strong in that area is we have the engagement and involvement of virtually the entire talent acquisition organization. The entire leadership team is present on Twitter, Facebook and other social media spaces.

We have somewhere around the neighborhood of 30 recruiters that are active on each of the different portals. It’s likely that our entire team is active on a site like LinkedIn. We’re able to amplify a message because we have the involvement of our entire team, whereas other organizations will have one social media manager sharing the content.

We’re also very focused on improving the diversity of our workforce and attracting the best and the brightest diverse talent to our organization, so I think we do a real strong job at that as well.

Recognition

Check out some of Sodexo’s rankings and awards:

  • Named a “Best Company for Hourly Workers” by Working Mother Magazine
  • Named a “Best Company for Multicultural Women” by Working Mother Magazine
  • Named one of “The World’s Most Admired Companies” by FORTUNE
  • Named One of World’s Top 50 Green Outsourcing Suppliers
  • Ranked number three in the world among outsourcing services companies
  • Ranked #2 among “Top 50 Companies for Diversity Inclusion” by DiversityInc
  • Named One of the 2009 DiversityInc Top Ten Employers for LGBT Workers
  • Named a 2010 Straight for Equality in Business Awardee by PFLAG
  • Ranks Second on the 2009 DiversityInc Top Ten Companies for Latinos
  • Named as One of “World’s Most Ethical Companies”

Nancy: There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to a social media strategy, including team structure, messaging and approach. What advice would you give to a company just starting in social media, or maybe has dabbled but struggling to get to the next level?

Anthony: The important thing is to realize it’s not all about you. It’s about talking with the customer, or with the candidate. The first thing that I would recommend to companies is to audit their brand online and spend some time on all of those social spaces; what’s being said about your company, who’s talking about you as an employer, who’s talking about you as a product, what things are they saying they need? Then do the same thing with your competitors. What are they saying about your competition that identifies a niche that you might be able to fill?

Then decide how best for you to participate, whether it’s one person or multiple persons.

Nancy: Lastly, how does DirectEmployers Association help you with day-to-day work and your various roles?

Anthony: Originally we were interested in DirectEmployers because of the job distribution model and the ability to get our jobs out there and attract the best talent for the future Sodexo leaders. A model that’s made by employers for employers really helps all of us as well. It’s not something that you’re going to spend an extreme amount of money on without getting results. We get great results and it’s a real cost-effective program.

DirectEmployers fills a lot of needs for me. It’s not just the job distribution, OFCCP compliance and getting our jobs out to veterans and the states, but the benefits of membership fits both my recruitment needs, as well as helping build our brand presence.

A special thank you to Anthony for participating in this interview and speaking on our social media panel at the 2011 Annual Meeting & Conference. Members can view his presentation on the Pipeline.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Soapbox Holland Post | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »