Lawson Software Booth at HR Technologies Conference

Today was day one of the 2010 annual HR Technologies conference in Chicago. Every year it is one of the premiere human resource conferences and this year was no different.

But if one booth in the exhibit hall stood out from the rest — and one did — it was Lawson Software’s. This video shows why. No booth was larger and with the artist perched well above the exhibit floor and accompanied by John Lennon tunes, this booth was a real eye catcher.

Find more videos like this on CollegeRecruiter.com

Video: Taking Your Recruiting Message Mobile: Why, How, and When

I had the pleasure of delivering this 75 minute presentation a couple of months ago in San Diego, California at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2010 annual conference. The description of the presentation was as follows:

Learn why your organization needs to have a mobile recruitment marketing strategy and how best to implement it so you can recruit the candidates you need and stay within your budget.

Virtually every member of Gen Y and about 90 percent of Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers care enough about only one electronic device to carry it with them virtually everywhere they go: their cell phones. If your organization’s web site and recruiting message are not fully accessible to your most sought after candidates on their mobiles then those candidates will end up becoming employees of your competitors. In this highly interactive and humorous presentation, learn why your organization needs to have a mobile recruitment marketing strategy and how best to implement it so you can recruit the candidates you need and stay within your budget.

The Sexy Side of HR

Jessica Miller-Merrill of Blogging 4 Jobs recently contacted me to ask if I would be interested in partnering with her and a few other human resource industry professionals to deliver a panel presentation at the SXSW Interactive conference in March 2011 in Austin, Texas. Her vision was to put together a group of us who could talk about how and why employers should use cell phone text messaging, social media, and other technologies to recruit and retain top talent. I gave her the enthusiastic thumbs up.

Jessica submitted the proposal in July and last week was notified by SXSW that her proposal made it to the second round of consideration. This next round consists of voting from visitors to the SXSW Panel Picker Page and those votes count for 30 percent of the score given to each proposal. In short, if you think that this is a good topic, it is really, really important that you vote for our panel.

Jessica (@blogging4jobs) will moderate The Sexy Side of HR panel and we’ll be joined by Joel Cheesman, Blogger & VP at Jobing.com (@cheezhead) and Carrie Corbin of AT&T Talent Attraction (@thealphafemme).

Please take out two minutes and do the following: Go to the Panel Picker Page, click the link to “Sign In” near the top corner, click “create a new account” (assuming you don’t have one already), complete the simple form, and vote for The Sexy Side of HR panel. It really is that simple. Thanks!!

Where to Network

The importance of networking cannot be overestimated for people looking for a job or trying to grow their own business. The crucial question is WHERE and HOW to do it in order to get best results for the time and effort spent.
Today I would like to address the issue of WHERE to network:
1. Think outside the box: networking in narrow circles (students’ groups, university related groups only) will not provide you with a lot of opportunities. Think in broader terms with regards of your background: gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc. There are a lot of networking groups in United States tailored for every specific background.
2. Perform a thorough search. Be aware many of the networking organizations that pop-up on the first page of Google search tend to ask significant amounts of money for membership and extra fees for attending events (this is why they have finances to make sure they appear on the top of the search results). Really good job seekers support organizations are usually non-for-profit, they don’t have membership fees and organize events for free or for a tiny fee. But as a result they lack funding and unfortunately not all of them have a website (they communicate via an e-mail list serve). In my experience people find out about their existence only through the word-of-mouth so the more you network the more valuable information you’ll be able to collect.
3. Have a clear picture of who you would like to meet: make a background research on the type of companies you are targeting. After that ask yourself a question: where the managers and key decision makers from these organizations are likely to network? Are you more likely to meet them at a university event, a specific conference, seminar, exhibition or may be a golf networking event?
4. Become a member of a professional association: it will not only give you access to a lot of networking events but also will be a great learning opportunity. Students usually pay reduced fees for membership but enjoy full spectrum of benefits.
Of course, each city and town is different in terms of available networking opportunities. The bigger the city the more options you have: Chicago, where I live, presented me with so much “networking material” that it was more than enough to create a comprehensive networking guide. But at the same time I researched Illinois in general too and I found out that bigger organizations usually have several chapters across a state. In addition to that smaller towns have their own community support organizations. Most likely the latter won’t have a website but chances are they have their regular meetings in a local library (at least it is true for many of the smaller Illinois communities) – don’t forget to check out your nearest library!

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