In any given month, Francene Taylor has 1,200-1,500 job openings to fill. She’s the director of resourcing in the Americas region for IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) and has been in the biz long enough to remember when Internet recruiting was limited to sourcing someone who was “technical.”
Taylor, a self-proclaimed techno-geek, has kept up with the rapidly changing recruiting technologies, and has an infectious enthusiasm for her job and the Association. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Taylor recorded during our 2010 Annual Conference.
Interview Video Clips: SEO & Reporting | Direct Traffic | Why Join DirectEmployers Association
So, ball park for me in a given day, or even a week or month, how many jobs does IHG have out there worldwide?
We have somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 positions posted globally. Because of the volume of job postings we have we needed an elegant, fast and simple way that we could put our jobs in front of thousands of people and relieve the administrative burden on our staff.
So, that was your entrée into DirectEmployers. Once you found that solution, have there been other facets, products or services that have helped you?
Absolutely. Search engine optimization was key. Everything is online now, especially in the Americas, and to have the assistance that DirectEmployers supplies on search engine optimization is extremely valuable. Direct Traffic sends me information about source of candidates, such as the view source and what job seekers are searching on. This information helps me make good decisions around where to spend my money. We have an amazing staff at DirectEmployers. They are dedicated, passionate and will do whatever it takes to bring value to the Member organizations.
How did you hear, personally, about DirectEmployers?
I came across DirectEmployers through another association and some networking with fellow HR colleagues, and it intrigued me. I began looking into it and contacted Patti [VP – Member Services] and Nancy [VP – Marketing] to get more information. They told me they would be able to deliver my jobs to the right one-stop centers. After talking with them it seemed this was too good to be true. We didn’t have to copy and fax, or copy and mail ever again! That hooked me right away.
Was that your biggest need at that point?
Well, this was four years ago, so obviously online recruiting was huge. Because we’re in a highly decentralized organization – our hotels are scattered across the United States and around the world – there was no easy way to take the administrative burden off of our HR directors at the U.S. based hotels. Finding a solution to help them get their jobs in front of the right people easily, so that they could then turn their attention to the other HR-related matters was critical. They were again, copying and faxing to get to the different state centers and individually putting jobs out in front of colleges, universities or different local alliances. Now with DirectEmployers, we have automated all of that and made it so easy for thousands of people to find our available jobs. Our HR directors can now take the time they spent on all of that and put it towards working directly with our employees.
What are some of those things for you personally and your team that have been the most valuable within DirectEmployers?
The online recruiting world is moving at an extremely rapid pace. I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years now and I remember the early days of the Internet when the conventional wisdom says, “well you might find a candidate out there, but it’s only going to be someone who’s technical.” Right now, you’ll find everybody out there and DirectEmployers is bringing innovation to the world of, not only online resourcing, but to employers and potential employees finding each other. I’m not seeing that kind of innovation from the for-profit companies that I have worked with in the past. But for DirectEmployers, it really marries up well with the mission of DirectEmployers and what Bill is trying to do. I can’t see anyone else that’s on the leading edge of things, like .jobs as well as bringing TweetMyJobs in as an alliance partner for example – no one else is trying this and providing the technology to the Members to make it easy.
What is the mission of DirectEmployers, according to you?
The mission of DirectEmployers is to bring value to employers and to potential employees leveraging technology and call it, “taking out the middle man”…putting employers and potential employees together directly, and sharing best practices among Member companies.
You mentioned earlier Direct Traffic. For those people who may not have ever heard of Direct Employers and the different products and products and services, what is Direct Traffic?
Direct Traffic is for a techno-geek like me. It’s something that I love to get into every month because it shows me where people are viewing my jobs, how they’re viewing them, what the view sources are, and what search terms are used. That’s giving me information on how I can best position my postings and craft them accordingly, and where my best sources are to drive the traffic that I need for those 1,500 jobs.
Interestingly enough, it’s not just the United States and the hotels that are in this country that are benefiting from our DirectEmployers Association membership. We’ve got a lot of traffic that comes in through our DirectEmployers feed for positions located everywhere around the world. I see a great deal of traffic for our Singapore location, for India, the Philippines and quite a bit of traffic for positions in China. DirectEmployers is making a big difference for our company all around the world.
For somebody who may be considering joining the membership of DirectEmployers, still kind of on the fence about it, what would you tell them about why they should and what benefit it would be to them?
If they know what they’re spending on job boards, where they’re getting candidates and they know how much their cost-per-hire and time to fill numbers are, they should evaluate those and find out where they are spending their money. Then, they can take a look at the cost of a membership in DirectEmployers and what it brings to the table like free delivery of job postings to thousands of their alliances such as colleges and universities, diversity sites and military sites. DirectEmployers brings the data to them through Direct Traffic, search engine optimization, and support in maintaining compliance if they are a government contractor as we are. It is amazing once you take a look at what you’re spending on some of your other sourcing and what you might spend as a Member of DirectEmployers. You can absolutely see immediately, the amazing value you get for your membership.
You have come to the Annual Conference for many years. Why do you keep coming back? What do you keep learning? What is the main thing that keeps you coming back to this Conference, with your time being as valuable as it is?
Two things really – I love being able to talk to my colleagues that are DirectEmployers Members and learn what’s happening in their world. What are the challenges they face, and how we can work together to present a unified voice to some of our other associates that we may be working with. DirectEmployers’ Annual Conference provides the platform for us to do that. I also keep coming back because I want to see what’s new. There’s always something new DirectEmployers has to announce, put forward, propose, start thinking about, and that’s exciting. They’re able to take me around the next corner and show me what the future might look like.
What does the future look like it’s going to hold for your organization?
Well, .jobs is coming on and I love to see the whole universe light up. I think that’s going to change the face of online recruiting as we know it right now. We’ve got mobile technology coming forward, which I’m really excited about because as we know, everyone lives with their smart phone in their hand and if you’re on the go, you need to be able to access data, check out websites and apply for jobs on the go. Mobile recruiting is going to be the next phase for us.
My last question to you – you’ve been in this business for 20 years, why? Why are you passionate about HR?
It’s never the same thing twice. There’s nothing better than saying that’s the right person for that job and I helped make that happen.
Perfect. As always! Thank you Francene.
