The "Wild West" of Social Media Recruiting

I attended a seminar today about job searching and social media management.  The most valuable part was the communications with other participants.

Many people are afraid of social media to the point where they are argumentative refusing to accept the fact that employers are using social media as a first and primary source to fill open jobs.  Others in the groups were looking for convincing that they should use social media professionally, one participant was a conspiracy theorist, and the rest of us just did not understand the negative attitude surrounding social media.

You have to look at who is writing to understand my point of view and where it comes from.  My close friends will testify that my father is a video game addict from the early Scott Adams games on the TRS80 and all of the generations of adventure games before the age of 7.  My mother, in her late 70's, calls me on Skype with her iPad to give me grief in video shaking her fist because she needs an item in Café World or Farmville, or maybe get stuck on a puzzle and hold the ipad up to the laptop so I can see her dilemma.  I remember they had a problem with programming their 3D television and my mother is holding the skype camera to the television so I can troubleshoot and walk my dad through it.  I recently threw a party at the Asbury Park Pinball Museum and we could not find my Dad because he was all hunched over the machine playing the game with the fierce intensity of a teenager.  Needless to say, I was nurtured in an environment where technology played a role watching the evolution of technology from the first Magnavox Odyessy video game system to the evolution of current technology.  Needless to say, I am comfortable with technology and look for effective ways to use that technology.  

One of the participants argued social media is a waste of time, claiming there were no jobs posted on social media sites. I would have loved to challenge that idea to determine if she was just not understanding how it all works or if it was a preconceived notion.  The jobs are out there and success is happening.  In a Management Thesis I wrote for school, a credit union conducts all of their hiring by sending announcements and asking for referrals to their employees and customer base through social media.   

One of other points that stuck was a comparison made of social media being like  “the Wild West” and perceived as “the enemy”.   I disagree that social media is "the enemy", but I do agree this is like the wild west because employers are using social media not only for finding viable candidates, but determining the candidates skills and compatibility.  The laws in place protecting employees and candidates are obsolete and do not address new technologies.  

Third party companies who traditionally conducted criminal background and credit checks are now conducting social media background checks going back seven years.  The Federal Trade Commission lumped this in with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Social media researchers are looking for volunteerism, professional activities and affiliations, leadership ability demonstrated through industry influence, communication skills, as well as education, honors, or awards.  The list is not limited there because specific industries may have specific qualifiers and it will take a little legwork to learn what those qualifiers are.  Ultimately, this will help you determine how to manage your social media content to attract new professional connections, job opportunities, and continual collaboration.  

The disqualifiers are pretty standard looking for undesirable behavior such as speaking bad about your employer, disclosing employers proprietary information, discussion of illegal drug use or excessive alcohol use, excessive ranting and raving has been described as a disqualifier because it reflects the candidate has a bad temper and poor judgment.   They also look for inappropriate sexual content, racist or anti-social behavior, dishonesty and other industry specific traits.

There are some key questions that have arisen in the past few weeks as people have reported that employers are demanding social media passwords.  People refusing full access to their social media sites have terminated or disqualified for jobs.  This brings up a lot of legal issues which I will save for another blog post as this unfolds a little more.

Another concern is the violation of Equal Opportunity laws that prohibit discrimination against employees for race, color, religion, marital status, disability, or sexual orientation.  Questions normally prohibited during the interview process are facts that can easily be determined from a social media profile.  There are no specific protections when it comes to social media.  Law suits have already been filed and we are in a time where there will be growing pains as the use of social media for background screening is ironed out.

This is the “wild west” of the internet, but I believe by harnessing the knowledge and focusing efforts we can ultimately achieve more.

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Linked In:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/jbilodeau

Disengaged Employees

I actively participate in a number of professional groups.  One of the participants fielded the question about a “Disengaged Employee” and how to handle it.  I have seen this topic come up frequently and thought it was time for a Blog post.

I shared with this associate that my philosophy in dealing with any leadership issue is to look at both sides of the house. I try to "see" what the other employee is experiencing or feeling to cause disengagement. A disengaged employee is not experiencing job satisfaction, they are usually miserable to be around, and along with that they are not working efficiently thus becoming a weak link affecting the rest of the department.

It is up to the manager to lead by determining the problem and taking corrective action.

The few questions I ask myself:

Does the employee understand their job and how it affects the company whole?

Are employees acknowledged for "a job well done" by management or are they just approached when something goes wrong?

What is motivating the employee to act out in an undesirable way?

Back in my days of banking, we faced problems with employee retention, low productivity, and new employees we not matriculating into the corporate environment creating tense situations.  We developed an entire "Employee Orientation Week" where the new hires met with a representative from each department to understand the functions of that department and how their job affected that division and specifically showing the employee how their role would contribute to the company goals. It did wonders with establishing a co-operative cross-training corporate culture where people owned their job and looked for ways to improve. Other divisions in the bank were not so lucky as we were.

Leadership is one big juggling act and no one style is going to fit the bill. To engage an employee, a leader needs to allow employees to contribute that guide them towards growth and development. An experienced employee is going to take the task and run with it. A technically capable employee venturing into new territory typically needs a manager that is a "sounding board" for support and guidance. A low skilled employee can still be part of the process by taking five minutes to explain the task and get their input through conversation rather than just dictating orders. You can cause disengagement by micromanaging the expert just easily as you can by giving the less experienced no feedback.

Based on my experiences, one of the hardest lessons learned is if an employee does not want the job there is no cure for disengagement. People will only do what they want to do. It is up to a manager to guide them to achieving their goals to fulfill that intrinsic value and pride in their job.  It is really back to that old phase “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink”.  Sometimes a job is just a bad fit and you need to make the best decision for the organization.  If you can not move the employee into a position that gives them a sense of worth, are you really doing that employee or the organization any favors?

I left a position on very good terms to pursue other opportunities.  In preparation for my departure management dictated my replacement without input from the selected employee.  They placed an edict on the employee to take over my function without having a conversation to determine if the employee wanted the job. Management thought they were doing the person a favor saving them from unemployment because their former role in the organization was being eliminated.  My departure opened a position.  Although the transitioning employee had the minimum skills required, she was disengaged in the process.  Management gave us a 90 days lead time, assuming she would learn the ropes. BAD ASSUMPTION: The employee resisted all efforts to train, became despondent and near impossible to engage.  There was resistance throughout the training process whether it was independently reading materials, scheduling in person training, or merely attending required meetings and meeting deadlines.  The replacement disregarded critical tasks with date sensitive deadlines that demonstrated a clear problem. At one point I was scheduled to be at the employee's work site out of state to sit with them and mentor for two weeks, the employee called out of work just to avoid doing the job. When the person did show up to work, they disappeared in the building, started socializing excessively with others becoming easily distracted from the tasks at hand.  At one point on my last few days with the company, the employee admitted they did not want the job and perceived the transition as a punishment rather that the gift it was intended to be.

 http://www.linkedin.com/answers?viewQuestion=&questionID=932949&askerID=787967