On March 24th, 2011 my client, Informatica was recognized with the 2011 ERE Recruiting Excellence Award for the category of as “Most Strategic Use of Technology.” The award was based on the talent strategy architecture I developed this past year to establish a sustainable talent library founded upon a robust, competitive intelligence model. More significantly, the research oriented product was made actionable, as a plug and play resource for our talent acquisition team to access search syntax which could adopt and refine itself in progressive updates.

The award is the result of an aspiration to contribute on behalf of the corporate staffing industry in a meaningful and substantive way. It is a recognition of which I am grateful and humbled by and, as such, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the mentors, clients and friends which assisted in making this achievement possible.

First and Foremost, I thank my friend and mentor, Shally Steckerl, Leading Global Recruitment and Sourcing Consultant, Professional Speaker (NSA, for his hands-on guidance and support of my career goals,his thought leadership contributions and curriculum; all of which resulted in fundamentally changing the way I process and produce in regards to my craft. Years ago, he took the time and patience to smash my prior perceptions and “rebuilt” the thought engine of how I looked at data. It was his family that took me in and became my own when I was unknown and and a virtual blank slate. Shally took the care to review my nomination submittal draft and in those hours as in always; never refrains from challenging my thought process to his credit. His influence directly fueled my world travels as a speaker and opened my eyes in a way I never expected.

The award itself could not have been possible had it been for Brad Cook, Vice President of Talent Acquisition Management at Informatica. It was his recognition and investment in the feasibility and potential of my talent strategy proposal that produced the staging ground for this effort to become reality. He has been a remarkable corporate staffing visionary, eager to embrace new ideas and enact technology-based change , globally within the organization. I am proud to have him as a client and, most of all, a friend who genuinely contributes to my evolving consultation practice.

I thank Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business Division; more popularly known as its Gaming function, and it’s forward thinking, staffing management. Greg Hart and Danielle Monaghan assigned an opportunity to develop an industry best practices review which helped formulate some of the actionable recommendations that evolved into the basis of this award. Prior drafts of a competitive intelligence workbook were incomplete, until the broader vision of a product based, social media landscape roadmap were fine tuned within the best practices model in my deliverable. It was conceived at Microsoft and implemented as a refined proposal to be enacted at Informatica. Greg was especially helpful in helping me navigate the thought process of my deliverables and the results are a cornerstone of the vision bearing fruit.

I thank Carol Mahoney and Danielle Monaghan, as both former clients, friends and thought leaders for their encouragement and actionable input on both my deliverables and career navigation. The two are remarkable women and their leadership style says much about how they have molded, and in many ways, reinvented organizations in environments of change. I truly look up to them and thank them for caring about my career and my personal development.

What makes them directly attributable for this award is that both looked at my efforts and saw a ‘product.’ It was their direct review of my work that had me see the potential of the direction in which I was taking talent data – and I say this without overly stating how important their influence was in this matter. I could just as easily had tinkered and moved on had they not noted the significance of what I was trying to develop.

I thank Gerry Crispin, sage of all encompasses true thought leadership in the talent industry. He has made a career of contributing data driven analysis to the tried and true of best practices and fostered much of the meaningful conversation of impact of social media and emphasized the human aspect within the digital divide. He has made a career of making others known and recognizing conversations outside the norm of the conference circuit. Indeed, he makes chatter into an industry conversation. Several years ago when Shally introduced me to him, it was a phone call out of the blue from Gerry a few days later that was memorable. He took the time to ask about my goals and ideas and provided encouragement to put them to paper. In all certainty, I mark that conversation with all the significance that it deserves. It brought me out of my old environment into the new. He likely tires of my remarks in this regard, but it is sincerely stated and important to voice that when thought leaders encourage others to the stage of ideas … things happen.

All stated, nothing happens in a vacuum. My wife, Heidi, endures my long hours and my children, Tino and Siena Blue, recognize that my efforts contribute to their well being and for that I am consistently humbled and appreciative.

I thank the judging panel of the ERE Recruiting Excellence for this recognition, and I share it with every person who has taken the time to listen, question and encourage prior to and since.

This is an opportunity to likewise show appreciation for indirect influences; if not necessarily attributable for this recognition that I wish to highlight as reminders of what makes this vocation special. Margo Rose and Her “Hire Friday” efforts contribute to the well being of others in a manner that doesn’t fit neatly into a category within our industry, but nonetheless is impactful. Helping others in need with the resources of the talent industry reminds us of significance of our vocation. Dennis Smith, who as a staffing manager was one of the very first to take Web 2.0 into practice and whose humor and insights as one of the pioneer bloggers in recruitment encouraged my domain name purchase and first blog post. He is a life long friend who deserves continual recognition as a pivotal player in my professional brand development. He might as well have created a clock widget of the many he introduced me to, – to count down my blog creation.

Which leads me finally to …

Thank you to my readers at SixDegreesfromDave.com for watching and reading as I have grown into who I am at home and at work. I promise to continue to contribute and share.

Best Wishes

REGISTER For the Year’s Biggest Staffing Event!

ERE Expo 2011 Spring will be held at the world-class conference facilities of the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, CA. All ERE Expo events — educational sessions, receptions, tradeshow activities — will be held at the Hyatt. ERE is what opened my eyes to the broader universe of best practices and introduced me to my wide network of corporate staffing experts. Without ERE’s influence my ability to impact and deliver on cutting edge recruitment methodoligies would surely have been restricted to a much smaller audience. It has been a career changing experience attending over the years!

List of Speakers

RT @shally Complete this Five Question Survey and Benefit from Study Results http://bit.ly/a9z34z via @ERE_net

Shally “asks you to describe some of your tough to fill job requisitions and what methods you’ve used to fill them. We will compile all the data we gather and will publish our observations on what you tell us works (or doesn’t work) in today’s recruiting environment. Once this survey is complete, anyone who contributed by completing any part of the survey will have access to the full set of results published thus far.”

is only five quick questions, and will take you less than a minute. Please click here to complete it!

By Brenda Le
* First Published on ERE

There’s been a lot of chatter lately about an article in the Huffington Post, written by Laura Bassett – titled “The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered.”

The article is about companies who do not consider or hire anyone currently unemployed. Take that a bit further – I’ve heard a recruiter say his clients wont even consider anyone who has been unemployed at some point in their career through no fault of their own, even if they are currently employed. IMHO – It is a disgrace in this country, given the current economy that companies are practicing this kind of behavior – it can’t possibly be the norm. I know recruiters out there can not come forward for fear of losing their jobs and it’s understandable, and this very post might hurt my own chances of a good job in the future, BUT it makes my blood boil to know how many folks are still unemployed and how many companies are not willing to help them.

Does it affect me personally? You bet it does! It affects members of my family, my neighbors, friends, etc. Will it or could it effect you in the future? I think so. Sorry if this offends anyone, it’s not my intent to do that. I would love to see this story brought to the forefront and it would be nice to know “who” or which companies do this. For those who cannot disclose, it would be nice if you can make an effort in your own company to help curb this practice.

The article speaks of “disparate impact.” Disparate impact or not – it’s just plain wrong in most cases and does not work towards healing our massive unemployment numbers. Is there one circumstance out there that justifies a company possibly discriminating against the unemployed? If so, name it!

Karla Porter states, “that our integrity as employment professionals should demonstrate that we put the best candidates forward to hiring managers and that our rapport and trust built in those relationships dictate the process. Employment professionals should be outraged and refuse to allow these practices.” I agree with her.

At last week’s Sourcecon conference, one of the most anticipated and well received breakout sessions was the Firefox Lab. Russ Moon and John Turnberg presented one of the first “Crowd Sourcing” themed discussions as a means to interact as a community in sharing their top “add-ons” and how to use them, in return for gaining that same information from a broad universe of fellow Firefox users.

Attendees benefitted with extensive knowledge of how to use the web and an ability to be more productive using browser add-on capabilities. The goal of the presenters was to enhance the relationships formed during this session beyond the San Diego sesssion; instead, they facilitated a network of Firefox experts which attendees could take advantage of both during and after their session attendance.
Speakers: Russ Moon, John Turnberg

It was an amazing two day learning experience and I thank the ERE team in addition to Kate and Amy for the excellent content and organization of such outstanding presenters.

About the Presenters

Russ Moon is a SourceCon veteran, renown Sourcing Tool Beta Tester; i.e., Broadlook Technologies, Zoominfo, Jigsaw, CareerBuilder, PureDiscovery, AutoSearch.
John Turnberg is a senior Technical Sourcer at Tesla Motors. He is an expert in the areas of Sourcing, CRM, Boolean Logic, Advanced Internet Research, Training, Recruiting, Data Management

Glenn Gutmacher, Vice President of Arbita ACES recently detailed that a braintrust of over a dozen of the world’s top cybersleuths will be available at not cost, sharing their expertise as they do online mini-presentations to share their hands-on insights on the latest, most productive methods and tools in many sourcing topic areas via live webinar.

It will be an honor to join and share with the sourcing expertise of Amybeth Hale, Dan Harris, Glenn Gutmacher, Jim Stroud, Josh Kahn, Laurie DesAutels, Russ Moon, Shally Steckerl, Steve Rath, Teresa Bustamante, Tim O’Connor, as well as previous SourceCon Grand Master Champion, Mike Notaro and Eric Jaquith.

This is happening only once in 2010, and it’s called the Arbita Sourcing Lab, held in person and online in conjunction with SourceCon on Sunday, March 14 and Monday, March 15. SourceCon is in its first year under ERE’s ownership, with Shally and Glenn also more heavily involved, but you couldn’t swing the travel, cost, etc. So this is your answer!

IT COULDN’T BE EASIER

4) Ask any sourcing question you like (even if it doesn’t relate to the mini-presentation happening at that moment).

We look forward to seeing you online or on-site in just a few days! If you can’t make Sourcecon BUT you are attending ERE next week, we can likewise have another opportunity to meet in person. Look forward to seeing you or shaking your hands, virtually my friends!

By Dave Mendoza, Master Cybersleuth, Author, SixDegreesfromDave.com

VP of Sales, ERE Media Advertising and Events
http://www.ere.net
http://www.ere.net/events
Direct: 804.262.0189
email: kevin@ere.net

Meet my friend, Kevin Plantan, Vice President at ERE Media. Each and every ERE Conference, usually after the first reception night of the greetings … there is one person whose smile couldn’t be any more welcoming and handhake more firm capable of saying music to my ears “Mohitos for everyone, .. how many?”

You see I love Mohitos and Kevin does as well, and can appreciate my liquid toxin as a fellow colleague to pull a chair and start the conversation so that we can all catch up on what we have been doing since the last Conference event we saw one another. Few people are as sincere and as informative. We can joke about the cocktail environment but not the dialogue – it starts off hearty but it streamlines into the serious, in-depth exchange of ideas and observations one strives for at a conference.

Kevin is also someone never to take an idle chat or a kind gesture for granted. I can’t think of anyone ever so emphatic in their celebration of being listed on my Six Degrees group’s Top Ten, as my good friend Kevin Plantan. You would be surprised how often people listed take it for granted, it’s a powerful introduction among peers … Kevin happened to grow his network up to 800 industry peers. That said, I was surprised that someone as well established in the industry hadn’t transfered his in-person rolodex of memorable associations into an online relationship in the social networking sphere. Having since done so, Kevin takes the plunge like a natural Olympic champion. He looks at the score, challenges himself to do better at each meet … and thanks the Coach, .. a lot. I think that’s what makes this Vice President of Sales tick, or know so, …. it’s what makes Kevin succeed on behalf of ERE Media and in all things pertinent to building real friendships.

He’s simply a great guy and sincerely passionate about our industry. Kevin was kind enough to share his time with readers at RecruitingBlogs.com and SixDegreesfromDave.com

Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world.

Kevin: My world is Richmond, VA. Next month, my wife Kelly and I will celebrate being married for seven years. We have a daughter, Stacy-Lee, who is 15 months old. We live in Richmond and have lived in VA since Dec.. 2001, having moved from Connecticut. We love it here in Richmond! Can’t beat the people or the weather. This area is growing so fast and many of us are from the north so it’s a great mix of cultures. I have learned to try and just live life at less than 100 MPH all the time, and to be polite and have manners, which I think is good advice to anyone today.

Kevin: Like many of us fighting our 30s, I try to make it to the gym on a somewhat regular basis. Lately, it’s been a failure but 2008 is better than last year. What extra free time I have I like to spend around the house on the John Deere tractor, and hitting the local shops, running errands and working on the “honey-do” list. Also, have to see the college buddies, which usually involves getting on a plane a couple of times a year. Super Bowl weekend is key. Last weekend was a party for the NFL draft. During football season you will find me stuck in the house watching as many games as possible. I’m a Michigan and Cleveland Browns fan.

Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the recruitment industry?

Kevin: I joined ere media in Aug., 2000.

Six Degrees: How did you initially transition into this market space?

Kevin: David Manaster, current CEO at ERE.net, found me on cruelworld.com – anyone remember that site? At the time, I was at auctions.com, originally called Auction Universe, which was VC funded by the same people that own cars.com, classified ventures, which is most of the newspaper corporations that own CareerBuilder today.

Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your career?

Kevin: I would have to say majoring in journalism at Kent State University (‘96). My newspaper mindset opened the doors for me at auctions.com. They wanted someone with this background that could relate to the newspapers and talk to them about their classified listings, and how it was going to the web and online auctions. Classified Ventures started acutions.com because they didn’t want to buy 25% of eBay for $5M. Think about it.

When I started at auctions.com I had only been online less than 24 hours. This was in Nov., 1998. It is incredible to watch what Monster, eBay and Craigs List started over the last 10 years.

Six Degrees: Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after?

Kevin: I’ve learned so much from everyone I’ve ever worked for, obviously, and with. I learn a lot from my customers. They usually have some of the best ideas. Some of our best conference sponsorship ideas have come from my exhibitors and sponsors.

Six Degrees: Tell us about ere media.

Kevin: ERE Media is an amazing story. David Manaster created a website that takes advantage of all the best the internet has to offer with a solid focus on recruiting and bringing recruiters together with the best information that’s out there. It’s incredible that the company is 10 years old this year.

Six Degrees: How was ERE Company Founded?

Kevin: David started it in his parents’ basement as an online forum for recruiters when he was at TMP and he was one of the early people at Monster. The community, the key writers, everything started with him reaching out by himself to some very talented people in the industry and to a few dozen recruiters who brought in tens of thousands more. Today the website receives 90,000 unique visitors per month, and has constantly grown over the years. ERE is an industry leader.

Six Degrees: Your Company’s Value Proposition?

Kevin: ERE is THE recruiting industry’s No. 1 community. It features the best writers, opinions, and has created a great place for recruiters to network and learn more. It all starts with ere.net. And, since 2001, we’ve had our conference where all of this online learning and networking happens in person, face to face. In my role , Danielle Zittel and I connect the leading industry suppliers and vendors to the ere audience through online marketing and ere expo conference sponsorships. Every ere show is bigger than the last and the ere.net website gets bigger by the month!

Six Degrees: How long has ERE Media been involved in the conference/expo circuit and how they have evolved? I understand you have an upcoming event with several key offerings.

Kevin: Kate Bruener and her team are the best. That’s where it all begins. The ere expo has tripled in size over the last five years. It started with the San Diego show in the spring of 2001. Every spring we’re in San Diego and every fall were on the east coast. We’ve added several educational tracks and pre conference workshops over the years. If you’re a VP of HR or director of recruiting at a Fortune 500 company, the Strategy and Leadership track is for you. If you’re a recruiter we have the best and newest ideas for you in a separate track as well. The tracks and the new ways of learning and thinking continue to grow with every event. Lou Adler, John Sullivan, Kevin Wheeler and Gerry Crispin have been with the expo since the beginning.

Were always looking for the best speakers and never satisfied from what we’ve done in the past. The editorial team is terrific.

Six Degrees: In what direction do you anticipate ere overall, and its conferences evolving in the near future?

Kevin: Todd Raphael, ERE’s editor in chief, will continue to put out the best content, and we’re always on the lookout to make sure were adopting the newest web technology to create the best learning and networking environment for our community. One of our newest content offerings; our weekly webinar series has become a huge success.

Six Degrees: Tell me something others may not know about you.

Kevin: Thanks in large part to you, Dave Mendoza and his site, SixDegreesfromDave.com, I have over 800 LinkedIn connections now. Please contact me at Kevin@ere.net You can also find me on ere.net, LinkedIn and Facebook and I hope to see you there! David, thanks for the interview!

Six Degrees: Anything you want to plug?

Kevin: Please visit ere.net and get involved. I hope to see you at the San Diego Convention Center for two overflowing days of action-packed networking and learning starting on Monday, March 30. Call (212) 671-1181 for more info!

Summize is a free conversation search engine that allows you to scan content posted on Twitter.com.

While many of the “twits” or posts on Twitter offer little clues or meaningful context, it’s possible to extrapolate a few juicy tidbits of information.

One such example is when people use the phrase “I work for” followed by the name of a company. This is a great technique on any search engine, but it’s particularly useful on blog search engines because people love to talk about themselves. With Twitter being a microblog (only 140 characters allowed in a post) the brief comments offer little other information. But this is one of those short phrases where the context tells us much more than the text itself.

For example, a search for “I work for Microsoft” reveals a few people like:

• ThatGuyNamedKen
• Tafelzoetstof
• Rickster_CDN
• rtvenge
• Lindsi
• Vriyait
• ClarkeZone

READ MORE HERE

Courtesy of http://www.fordyceletter.com

REGISTER HERE: https://ere.webex.com/media/redir/index.html?siteurl=ere

The Sourcer’s Daily Dozen: E-Sourcing Methods from a Recruiting Research Guru
WHEN: June 5, 2008 at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
Presented by: Glenn Gutmacher, Sr. Researcher, MICROSOFT

Glenn Gutmacher is one of the preeminent sages among the sourcing elite. He is an author, an educator, a trainer, and I am proud to say, a friend. In all things he is innovative and personable. When I started my journey as a Cybersleuth, he was one I contacted when entering a new industry to gather suggestions on niche talent online. As Shally has stated, he is “… a builder, an innovator and a treasure trove of knowledge.”

Join HR executives and other technology-decision makers for a one-of-a-kind webinar. There is no cost to attend this event. The event is free, thanks to the support of its sponsor, Jobscience.

This program has been approved for up to one (1) recertification credit hours toward PHR and SPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). For more information about certification and recertification, please visit the HRCI homepage at www.hrci.org.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Do you know the fastest no-cost methods to find resumes outside of the job boards by geography, # of direct reports supervised, and other criteria? How to find relevant, unblinded LinkedIn and other social network profiles quickly, even ones beyond your 3-degree network? How to run complex strings without having to remember all the boolean syntax and special search engine commands, and get ongoing, new relevant results automatically? How to quickly find relevant companies beyond the top competitors everyone knows, and alternate job titles to find qualified candidates elsewhere who don’t use your jargon? Super-lookups for people contact info and other key data? How to gauge which search strings are most effective for a given kind of search? You’ll learn all that and more from one of America’s top sourcers/trainers in an info-packed hour of useful methods you can apply immediately.
back to top Date & Time

“The Sourcer’s Daily Dozen: E-Sourcing Methods from a Recruiting Research Guru” is an online presentation. All registered attendees will receive detailed instructions on how to access this event via email prior to the start time.

This online event uses WebEx technology, which should be functional on any platform. All that is required is an Internet connection and a telephone (for the audio portion of the presentation).

HOW TO REGISTER

Register HERE

There are only 7 days left to the start of “The Sourcer’s Daily Dozen: E-Sourcing Methods from a Recruiting Research Guru.” Registration is free!* To sign up for “The Sourcer’s Daily Dozen: E-Sourcing Methods from a Recruiting Research Guru,” click the button above or call (212) 671-1181, option 2.

ERE webinars are particularly suited for the following individuals:

* Staffing directors and VPs
* Recruitment managers
* Corporate recruiters
* Third-party recruiters
* CEOs and top HR executives in talent-driven industries
* Other HR professionals who are tasked with evaluating the recruiting process

ABOUT GLENN GUTMACHER

Glenn has been a lead Internet sourcer for Microsoft since 2005, and previously at Getronics North America where his work contributed meaningfully to two finalist nominations in 2005’s ERExcellence Awards. He entered the recruiting field in 1996 by founding one of the newspaper industry’s first regional job boards, JobSmart, which won the international newspaper industry’s two most prestigious awards in 1998: the EPpy Award (Editor & Publisher) and the Digital Edge Award (Newspaper Assn. of America).

In 1997, Glenn created one of the recruiting industry’s first Internet sourcing seminars, the online version of which has been continuously updated through today. He was the official Internet recruiting certification instructor in 2000 for SHRM’s Northeast Human Resources Association (NEHRA), in 2001 for the Boston Herald’s Jobfind.com and in 2002 for the Boston Globe’s BostonWorks.

Glenn remains a leading innovator in online sourcing methods and application of Internet tools to recruiting. He has trained recruiters and sourcers from hundreds of corporations from the Fortune 500 to small TPRs. Besides penning numerous articles for recruiting trade publications and portals, he currently writes the highly-regarded blog, Advanced Online Recruiting Techniques. He is a 1987 graduate of Yale University.
about Jobscience

Since 1999, Jobscience has been a market leader in human capital management solutions providing a comprehensive suite of web-based products and services that meet the needs of any sized business across any industry. Our software solutions map to your workflows, processes, and preferences; and our expert consulting services are available to help you design and implement the optimal solution to recruit, source and retain top talent for your organization.

View my profile on RecruitingBlogs.com