Is your organization ready to compete in this new era of talent management, or are you being held back by outdated or erroneous beliefs about what it takes to hire the right people? 

CareerBuilder recently partnered with the Human Capital Institute to uncover common misconceptions around both job seeker behavior and the ways in which employers attract and hire top performers, based on a 44-item survey of 358 HR professionals nationwide and follow-up interviews.

In this report, we take on six of today’s most widely held recruiting myths — and reveal what top employers are really doing to achieve optimal hiring results.

6 of the biggest recruiting myths

Myth No. 1: Big data is just a buzzword. It has no value to us in HR.

The reality: Big data lets you see trends and analyze characteristics of your most successful employees, so you can understand what drives performance and make more objective, fact-based recruiting and hiring decisions. Find out more

Myth No. 2: Unemployment is high, so I can get away with offering lower compensation.

The reality: If everyone refuses to pay market prices because they don’t want to hurt their financial standing, everyone will suffer. Fifty-six percent of employers say the main reason candidates turn down offers is because compensation isn’t competitive – and many employers, realizing the value of paying employees what they are worth, are also planning to offer higher salaries in 2013.  Find out more

Myth No. 3: Job boards are dead.

The reality: Though there may be buzz around new sources of hire, a quarter of new hires made in 2012 came from job boards, and job boards remained the source that most frequently resulted in hiring manager satisfaction. With 67 percent of candidates searching job boards (according to the 2012 Candidate Behavior Study), companies that neglect this platform as a way to advertise could be missing out on a great majority of qualified talent. Find out more

Myth No. 4: Social media doesn’t provide any value for HR.

The reality: More than half (54 percent) of all job seekers look at a company’s social media presence before they even decide to apply for a job, a 2012 CareerBuilder/Inavero study found. Companies without a social recruiting strategy are likely missing a huge opportunity to connect with a large percentage of top talent. Find out more

Myth No. 5: Employers don’t need a mobile strategy.

The reality: Does your site take more than 5 seconds to load? If so, you could be in trouble: 40 percent of job candidates abandon the search process when told they are leaving a mobile-optimized site to enter a non-mobile optimized site, and 6 million people searched for jobs via mobile devices in January 2013  ̶  up from 2.3 million
in March 2012. The fact is, employers who don’t start thinking about their mobile recruiting strategy — and doing something about it — are going to get left behind. Find out more

Myth No. 6: Employment branding is a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have.

The reality: Though 37 percent of our respondents said they didn’t have an employment branding strategy, those companies with a holistic brand are two times more likely to say their recruiting staff doesn’t wait for a requisition to come in, but instead constantly sources and builds their pipeline of talent. They’re also more likely to allocate their resources based on where high-quality candidates are looking for jobs. Find out more

Get the real story behind six of today’s biggest recruiting myths with our report, Common Recruiting Myths and Misconceptions Debunked, and get advice on how to best optimize your own recruiting strategies amid a rapidly changing talent landscape:

If you’re still lamenting the end of the 2013 HCI Human Capital Summit, you can dry those eyes and slowly take down your #hcsummitshrine: We’ve rounded up our favorite tips, quotes and ideas from the conference below:

1. More power leads to less perspective. As author Daniel Pink said, “The more power someone has and feels, the worse their perspective taking abilities get.” Decreasing your power, he says, increases your ability for perspective taking, which in turn increases your effectiveness. Leaders should empower people and reduce their roadblocks by reducing their own power.
2. “There are two types of organizations: The quick and the dead.” Dr. John Sullivan, CEO of Dr. John Sullivan & Associates, discussed how adaptive firms that effectively respond to turbulent environments will be most successful moving forward. Large firms no longer dominate smaller ones — instead, fast adapting firms now dominate slow-changing ones. In a VUCA world, if the overall rate of change inside your firm is slower than rate of change occurring outside of it, your demise is on the horizon.
3. VUCA is all the rage… Wait, what is VUCA? VUCA is an acronym used to describe the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of situations (at the summit, the term was widely used to describe our current economy).
4. “What do you believe an individual can do? Go one size up — go one step further. You’ll be surprised what your employees will do when given the opportunity.” –Lori Emerick and Nancy Turner of Nike
5. On effective coaching conversations: The manager/employee coaching conversation isn’t about the relationship — it IS the relationship. As a manager, do you do 50 percent or more of the talking? Managers can get to a different place in coaching their employees through the art of listening and questioning, say Emerick and Turner.
6. “You have to be noticing and recognizing people’s contributions all the time — it never stops.“ – Stuart Crabb, Head of Learning at Facebook.
7. What employees really want, according to Facebook: Facebook focuses on the top four things employees want (according to Gallup’s Q12 survey): 1) Set me free, 2) Be clear with me, 3) Care about me, 4) Recognize me.
8. Sheila Stygar, Sr. director of talent acquisition at Pepsico: ”If you are responsible enough to run a good team, you’re responsible enough to give people feedback on why they didn’t get a job or promotion.”
9. “65 percent people prefer a better boss over a raise.” — David Rock, director of the NeuroLeadership Institute
10. Leaders by nature create a lot of uncertainty and threat responses from employees without even knowing it, says Rock. By increasing stress in employees, we significantly reduce their creativity. Alternatively, giving someone a little more autonomy than they thought they were going to have in a situation can turn a stress response into a positive.
11. “Everything you can do in a regular classroom you can do in a virtual classroom – except eat.” – Andrea Procaccino, global head of learning & development for Avon Products, Inc. In 2011, there were 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide: That’s 87 percent of the world’s population. Yet, fewer than one-third of organizations deliver content via mobile learning. Mobile learning gives employees the ability to learn anytime, anywhere, at the point of need — they’re not tied to a physical location to learn. Procaccino says this will be the top trend in learning moving forward.
12. We need the three Cs (Culture, Context and Competition) for big data to make big progress, says statistician Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight. Take your theories and models and test them in real-world ideas. You can get yourself in trouble if you’re not actively testing things. With that said, if you don’t use big data, someone else will and will use it to get ahead. Bottom line: Let’s use big data, but make sure we’re being smart about how to get there.
13. This is the first time that we as a society have real-time data at our fingertips that can really impact our businesses. Experts call this time the “second age of enlightenment.” — Jamie Womack, VP of corporate marketing & branding at CareerBuilder

What did we miss? Did you have a favorite session, #HCSummit tweet or bit of wisdom picked up along the way to share?

If you’re still lamenting the end of the 2013 HCI Human Capital Summit, you can dry those eyes and slowly take down your #hcsummitshrine: We’ve rounded up our favorite tips, quotes and ideas from the conference below:

1. More power leads to less perspective. As author Daniel Pink said, “The more power someone has and feels, the worse their perspective taking abilities get.” Decreasing your power, he says, increases your ability for perspective taking, which in turn increases your effectiveness. Leaders should empower people and reduce their roadblocks by reducing their own power.
2. “There are two types of organizations: The quick and the dead.” Dr. John Sullivan, CEO of Dr. John Sullivan & Associates, discussed how adaptive firms that effectively respond to turbulent environments will be most successful moving forward. Large firms no longer dominate smaller ones — instead, fast adapting firms now dominate slow-changing ones. In a VUCA world, if the overall rate of change inside your firm is slower than rate of change occurring outside of it, your demise is on the horizon.
3. VUCA is all the rage… Wait, what is VUCA? VUCA is an acronym used to describe the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of situations (at the summit, the term was widely used to describe our current economy).
4. “What do you believe an individual can do? Go one size up — go one step further. You’ll be surprised what your employees will do when given the opportunity.” –Lori Emerick and Nancy Turner of Nike
5. On effective coaching conversations: The manager/employee coaching conversation isn’t about the relationship — it IS the relationship. As a manager, do you do 50 percent or more of the talking? Managers can get to a different place in coaching their employees through the art of listening and questioning, say Emerick and Turner.
6. “You have to be noticing and recognizing people’s contributions all the time — it never stops.“ – Stuart Crabb, Head of Learning at Facebook.
7. What employees really want, according to Facebook: Facebook focuses on the top four things employees want (according to Gallup’s Q12 survey): 1) Set me free, 2) Be clear with me, 3) Care about me, 4) Recognize me.
8. Sheila Stygar, Sr. director of talent acquisition at Pepsico: ”If you are responsible enough to run a good team, you’re responsible enough to give people feedback on why they didn’t get a job or promotion.”
9. “65 percent people prefer a better boss over a raise.” — David Rock, director of the NeuroLeadership Institute
10. Leaders by nature create a lot of uncertainty and threat responses from employees without even knowing it, says Rock. By increasing stress in employees, we significantly reduce their creativity. Alternatively, giving someone a little more autonomy than they thought they were going to have in a situation can turn a stress response into a positive.
11. “Everything you can do in a regular classroom you can do in a virtual classroom – except eat.” – Andrea Procaccino, global head of learning & development for Avon Products, Inc. In 2011, there were 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide: That’s 87 percent of the world’s population. Yet, fewer than one-third of organizations deliver content via mobile learning. Mobile learning gives employees the ability to learn anytime, anywhere, at the point of need — they’re not tied to a physical location to learn. Procaccino says this will be the top trend in learning moving forward.
12. We need the three Cs (Culture, Context and Competition) for big data to make big progress, says statistician Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight. Take your theories and models and test them in real-world ideas. You can get yourself in trouble if you’re not actively testing things. With that said, if you don’t use big data, someone else will and will use it to get ahead. Bottom line: Let’s use big data, but make sure we’re being smart about how to get there.
13. This is the first time that we as a society have real-time data at our fingertips that can really impact our businesses. Experts call this time the “second age of enlightenment.” — Jamie Womack, VP of corporate marketing & branding at CareerBuilder

What did we miss? Did you have a favorite session, #HCSummit tweet or bit of wisdom picked up along the way to share?

As we’ve talked about before, many members of Generation Y look at work a little bit differently than other generations.  ”I love my job, but I love my life more” is something you might hear Gen Yers say. Although members of Gen Y (the generational group comprised of those 18 to 29 years of age) have no problem with working hard, as a general rule, their job will never be the whole of their identity. Even more interestingly, as Aaron Kesher pointed out at SHRM 2011, their job and life may intersect in new ways than we’ve seen in past generations. “Gen Y doesn’t want a job – they want a life that hopefully includes a job.”

Hmm. So, what happens when that “life” is online — on Facebook, for example? How do their work and personal lives overlap, and what can employers learn from it? A new study, conducted by Millennial Branding, a personal branding agency based in Boston, Ma., of four million Gen Y Facebook profiles (gleaned from data and analytics company Identified.com), found that members of Gen Y, intentionally or not, are using their Facebook profiles to not only socialize with family and friends, but also to serve as an extension of their professional personality. And it seems that behavior on sites like Facebook is actually reflective of their attitute toward life and work as a whole. By understanding how Gen Y treats their personal and professional lives, employers can better understand how to attract, engage and retain this generation of workers.

Gen Y: Work versus personal lives on Facebook

Gen Y’s tendency to mix work and life appears to spill over into the way they manage the overlap of friends and family with co-workers on sites like Facebook, though the way in which they’re mixing their worlds may look different than you’d expect.

• Work stays at work (sort of): Sixty-four percent of Gen Y workers, for example, choose not to list an employer on their profiles, but have an average of 16 co-workers in their “friends” network. It may be that they’re comfortable with “friending” select people they’re closer to at work and sharing more personal details with them, but not comfortable making their Facebook profile a replicate of LinkedIn.
• Low on job pride? Eighty percent of Gen Yers list at least one school entry on their Facebook profile, while only 36 percent list a job entry; that’s a pretty significant gap. The reasons for this aren’t entirely clear — it could be due to them feeling a stronger sense of identity/pride/community with their school than with their job, a desire to keep work life separate from Facebook, or even good old college nostalgia. It could also point to the fact that with the current economy, many Gen Y and non-Gen Y workers aren’t in their ideal fields or jobs, and don’t necessarily want to highlight their current source of income.

Check out the infographic for more details about Gen Y’s Facebook behavior:

What does this mean for you, the employer?

For employers, it’s important to keep in mind that Gen Y workers, while similar to other generations in many ways, are seeking particular traits in an employer. By remaining flexible with workers and understanding that they value a life outside of work, a solid career path and the trust to try new ventures and fail, you’re one stop ahead of many other employers. As Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of Me 2.0, recommends, “you must allow your employees to become more entrepreneurial at work so they stay with you longer instead of working for a startup or starting their own company.”

In addition to encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit, connecting with Gen Y is not necessarily about a 180 degree company change, but about taking your current way of doing things and steering it in a new direction. Initiating flexible schedules, knowing that employees are often on all the time, is a start, as is making sure employees have a mentor and giving proper recognition for a job well done or sharing innovative ideas.

How could these findings help you better understand and connect with Gen Y employees?

The data and analytics for this study were provided by Identified.com.

In CareerBuilder’s recent webinar, Future of Recruiting, hosted by Beth Prunier and Chuck Loeher, area vice presidents at CareerBuilder, it became clear just how much recruitment has changed since — well, since shows like M.A.S.H. (you ‘ll just have to listen to know what I mean).

The way we consume our information is more fragmented, because we have so many places to get it.  And with each technological innovation that comes along, adoption of that technology gets quicker and expands into other areas of our lives. Radio took 38 years to reach 50 million users, for example, yet Facebook reached 50 million users in nine months. With these rapid market changes, we’ve seen an evolution in recruitment — perhaps more quickly than we ever imagined. Here are some highlights of what Beth and Chuck discussed; scroll down to listen to the full webinar or to check out the slideshow.

Future of Recruiting Highlights:

• You’ve got to fish where the fish are: Job seekers are already spending time on social media sites, search engines, and mobile devices, so it’s important to reach them in these places.
• The job search is now like buying a car — job seekers are consumers, and they’re accustomed to the process of making decisions and engaging with a brand.
• According to a Q2 Inavero study, 98 percent of candidates reported using search engines at the beginning of their research phase (when they’re searching on a more broad level, and not yet researching specific companies).
• Only 14 percent of candidates believe what a company says about themselves, yet 78 percent of candidates believe what users or employees say about a company.
• 58 percent of candidates say they complete all research before they ever apply to an organization.
• Retention today doesn’t begin when a candidate is hired into a job; it actually starts when a candidates learns about your organization, researches your company, finds interesting opportunities, and begins the application and interview process (can start 3-6 months before a candidate applies to a job at your company).
• The No. 1 reason employees leave their organization, according to a Deloitte study, is due to their relationship with their direct manager.
• Prospective candidates can research your company completely anonymously.
• It’s vital to survey and find out things like: “What do prospective candidates want in an opportunity?”, “Why did current employees join my organization?”, and “Why did former employees leave my organization, and in hindsight, do they believe it was the right decision?”

Three factors critical for successful recruiting in 2012 and beyond:

• Engaging with your candidates like consumers
• Building your recruitment strategies by position and geography
• Evaluating how — and when — your organization retains candidates

Yesterday we released our 2012 Job Forecast, including some of our employment predictions for the New Year. But, before we jump into the future, let’s take a look back at the most read posts of 2011:

#1 – Workplace Bullying and Your Employees: What Can You Do?
Published April 20, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site 

A newly released CareerBuilder survey reveals that workplace bullying is still happening. We share 6 tips to help your company work toward a bully-free workplace.

#2 – Search and Review Candidates – Faster and More Efficiently with ResumeFlip
Published July 14, 2011 by Stephanie Gaspary, editorial director for The Hiring Site

Easily flip from one resume to the next with CareerBuilder’s enhanced Resume Database. You’ll view full, complete resumes – the way candidates want you to see them – instead of just generic-looking resume summaries.

#3 – 10 Global HR Trends for 2011 and How to Manage Them
Published March 17, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

Howard Wallack, the Director of Global Member Programs for SHRM, discussed 10 global HR labor trends for 2011 at HRPA 2011 and how companies can best manage them.

#4 – Emerging Media: The Best Opportunities You Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
Published August 31, 2011 by Andrew Streiter, VP of sales at CareerBuilder

As job seeker behavior changes, so too does your recruitment strategy. Learn how today’s recruitment experts use emerging media to find the best talent.

#5 – Recruiting for Tomorrow Today: 4 Key Reasons You Need a Talent Pipeline
Published March 17, 2011 by John Smith, SVP of sales at CareerBuilder

If you want to remain competitive in today’s market, you can no longer rely on “business as usual” when it comes to your recruitment efforts.

#6 –4 Things Great Companies Do To Develop Their Leaders
Published January 26, 2011 by Mary Lorenz, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

What turns ordinary employees into superior leaders? Learn the four essential characteristics the top 20 best companies for leadership share.

#7 – The Pros and Cons of Behavioral Interviewing
Published March 2, 2011 by Jennifer Way, guest contributor for The Hiring Site

Behavioral interviews are one of the biggest leaps forward in recruitment, but that doesn’t erase the responsibilities that come along with this type of interview.

#8 – How Can Job Seekers Get Résumés Out of Your Trash and Into Your Heart?
Published September 15, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

An overview of your most agonizing résumé errors here. After all, by letting job seekers know what you don’t want, you are also shedding light on what you do want.

#9 – A Recruitment Strategy Without Data Isn’t A Strategy At All
Published May 5, 2011 by Jason Lovelace, VP of sales at CareerBuilder

Gone are the days when employers could simply put an ad in the local paper in hopes people apply. Today recruitment requires strategy, the key to which is data.

#10 – Might As Well Face It, You’re Addicted To… Work?
Published January 4, 2011 by Amy Chulik, contributing editor for The Hiring Site

A new CareerBuilder study examines signs of work addiction and explores ways workers can find a happy medium between work and personal time as we dive into 2011.

So there you have it – 2011 in review. Looking forward, what would you like our writers to focus on for 2011?

“There’s a connection between culture and recruiting,” Mike Grennier, Senior Director of Corporate Recruiting for Walmart Stores, Inc., told an audience of hiring resources professionals at the annual  HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas last month.

Grennier was leading a session on virtual interviewing, a practice Walmart began just two years ago in hopes to create a more efficient recruiting process that benefits both company and candidate. They consider the effort a success: Not only has the practice enhanced Walmart’s ability to recruit more candidates across many geographic regions at a fraction of the normal spend, but it also helped them to create a better candidate experience and, in effect, strengthen their employment brand.

“Candidates love that we take the time to do this because it shows that we care about efficiency, and it saves them time,” Grennier says. Not only that, but the effort also makes Walmart stand out from its competitors. “It tells the world we’re being more green.”

Walmart employs two types of video interviewing, depending on the position:

One-way recorded interviews

These interviews act almost like a ‘video resume of sorts: Enlisting the help of an external company’s online interview platform, Walmart sends standardized questions to a group of candidates. The candidates then record their answers and send them back to the hiring managers, who then review and rate the videos based on pre-determined criteria. Walmart then brings in the best interviewees for in-person interviews.  Walmart uses this technique for event-based hiring, volume hiring, campus hiring, and situations involving similar resumes. That is, when they’re interviewing for positions – such as pharmacists – wherein many of the resumes are similar in layout and style; In these cases, video interviews enable them to see if they have a good ‘counterside’ manner, something that wouldn’t come across on a regular resume.

Live, two-way interviewing

When hiring for professional level positions, or doing executive, campus or global recruiting events, Walmart conducts live, two-way interviewing, with the help of another online interview platform service. First, Walmart sends branded webcams to prospective employees. After a tech check to make sure all the equipment is working, a live interview on video can commence. Again, the process enables Walmart to evaluate the candidates virtually bringing them in for in-person interviews. If you’re thinking that the process sounds similar to using Skype, that’s because it is; however,  Walmart finds the benefit to using a third-party company is the additional technical assistance the company receives.  It’s also easier for candidates, too. While many of them may have webcams, they do not necessarily know how to use them or they might be hesitant to download additional software to enable Skype or a similar program.

And as for the results of these efforts, Grennier says the estimated the total savings from these virtual interviews will top $5 million by the end of fiscal year 2012. In addition to the significant cost savings, the practice has also helped lessen the company’s carbon footprint: Since Walmart began virtual interviewing, the company went from using up 623 kg of carbon dioxide to only 17 kg. (In layman’s terms, that’s like taking 315 cars off the road. Mother Earth would be proud, no?)

If others are wondering about the drawbacks to virtual interviewing, Walmart seems to have experienced very few. While Grennier asserts that there are costs up front, they end up being minimal compared to the money saved overall. And while the hassle of utilizing new technologies might scare some companies off, that’s where the third party technology companies come in to assist. Not to mention that these platforms are becoming ever more sophisticated, easier to use and more commonplace. “Before long, people are going to be able to do this on their iPhones,” Grennier says.

For Walmart at least, virtual interviewing isn’t even necessarily so much about being faster and more efficient as a company, so much as it is about the ability to offer candidates a better recruitment experience. “At some point, this will become less of a tech solution and more of a candidate experience solution.”

Get started

CareerBuilder offers an online video interviewing product that enables you to build a custom-branded application with your company logo and candidateswill  feel like they’re interviewing with you. You’ll no longer need to worry about coordinating schedules — both you and candidates have the freedom to use online video interviews on your own time.

Many companies are making great strides in social media recruiting. This is good – social media is an excellent place to find passive and active candidates, and connect with them on a more personal level.

In addition to talking on social media, are you listening? Listening is a key strategy for engaging with individuals on social media. In order to maximize the benefit, you should follow these steps to listen efficiently.

1. Comb through reviews on social media and job feedback sites.  In addition to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, sites like Jobitorial (formerly Jobvent) and Glassdoor can help you figure out if your employment branding strategies are working. Jobitorial and Glassdoor feature anonymous reviews of your company from employees and potential employees. Jobitorial offers employee perspectives, and Glassdoor gets further in-depth by including salary information, interview feedback and more. Both sites offer rankings one through five.
2. Look for negative and positive patterns. Do employees consistently feel that the benefits are great? Do they think the interview process was lengthy and cumbersome? Are the salaries fair? Track these patterns and make adjustments internally, if needed and feasible. To be even more strategic, check in on specific dates and update your spreadsheet or tracking document to see how things have changed.
3. Use the patterns to inform your employment branding strategy. Maybe job seekers are saying that your four-hour interview process is daunting. Can you change it? Experimenting with it might result in happier job seekers and a better employment brand overall.
4. Take stock of employee reviews and see what can be changed. Are employees from one location all complaining about a manager? Maybe you need to talk with the manager about his/her work style. Are all the employees incredibly happy with the office vacation policy? Maybe this is something that should be touted more to interviewees and potential employees! You can uncover benefits you didn’t even know you had, just by listening.
5. Look at consumer sites, too. If your company offers a consumer service or product, checking in with review sites like Yelp can help you see how your employees are faring. Traditionally, happy employees are happy to provide good customer service. Problems may indicate areas for improvement in your management or training styles.
6. Monitor other social media commentary to get the full picture. Sites like Socialmention and Klout can provide insight into what people are saying about you on social media as well as how you are performing. These insights can give you focus areas and direction for your social media strategy.

To get the most out of your social media endeavors, incorporate listening fully into your strategy! What are some of your favorite “listening” sites?

Not too terribly long ago, life was a lot harder. People spent hours growing, finding and hunting their food, only to spend equal amounts of time cooking and preserving it so they wouldn’t starve in the winter. But as technology progressed, it brought along a couple of the more noteworthy inventions in recent history: the refrigerator and the microwave. Now, with the pop of a box and the push of a button, people can eat food that is grown anywhere, anytime, whenever they want.

And even more recently, something else amazing happened. While it seemed that the possibilities were endless, people started to realize that they didn’t need to be. Instead of wanting processed foods that are grown, frozen, shipped and eaten out of season, our culture has taken a step back and has begun to embrace fresh, locally grown foods.

Believe it or not, creating content on the web isn’t that much different. Providing a regular diet of fresh, organic content is the best way for you to stay engaged with your employees as well as active and passive job seekers, and grow your company’s social media presence. Because most interaction takes place on users’ News Feeds or timelines instead of a profile or page, posting new content is often the only way to stay connected with your online community on a regular basis. In fact, Facebook users are 40 to 150 times more likely to consume content via their News Feeds rather than visit actual pages. Fresh content also simply lets users know, “Hey – We’re here!” since a page with stale content or a stream of RSS-fed items doesn’t assure users that it’s a community where they’re likely to find new, useful information or have their questions answered.

Aside from keeping your company top of mind for job seekers, fresh content can truly differentiate one brand from another, separating you from your competition. Say, for instance, that you’re a relatively small lifestyle clothing company and you keep losing your target talent to your talent competitors – three more established clothing companies that also have a focus on lifestyle. When you obtain your target talent and hire them, 90 percent of individuals to remain loyal employees for at least five years. Meanwhile, your talent competitors experience consistently high turnovers every other month. Instead of simply bashing your competitors by announcing that they have much higher turnover rates or that their former employees are now a part of your team, take a different approach. Use social media to invite your current employees to share what they love most about working for your company. Interview individuals who have been with your team for years, highlighting their growth and career paths at the company. You could also take a flip cam to various retail locations to conduct store spotlight, featuring both employees and shoppers. It’s through these types of content and more that you can use social media to share your company story, allowing you to increase brand awareness, brand influence and your recruitment reach as well as build relationships with those in your community.

As a whole, to be successful in recruiting on social media, companies must produce engaging content that earns attention, creates trust, establishes credibility and authority, and, above all, converts fans/followers into people who take action. Sticking to the fresh food analogy, here are some ways to make the most of the content you’re producing.

Organic is *Usually* Better

Most people would agree that foods left to develop in their natural environments provide the most nutrients. The same is true of content. While third-party tools can be useful to cue up a large chunk of posts, studies show that using such devices can reduce engagement on Facebook by 88 percent. Facebook uses an algorithm called EdgeRank to determine what appears in any given person’s News Feed; it is based on overall interaction, the type of content, and when it is posted. The algorithm does not prioritize content posted through third-party APIs, thus lessening such posts’ exposure.

When creating content for Facebook, it’s important to keep two other nutritional strategies in mind as well: variety does a body good, and watch your portion size. Recent studies show that status-only updates receive 94 percent higher engagement. But that doesn’t mean it’s all you should post. After all, Facebook users have the option to personalize their News Feed settings, so using a variety of content – such as links, photos, and videos – can help ensure you’re reaching the largest possible audience. Similarly, don’t gorge yourself, and keep updates concise and to the point – posts with 88 characters or less receive 66 percent more engagement, according to Social Media Today.

It should be noted that other social networking sites, like Twitter, don’t rank posts the same way as Facebook. Therefore, using tools like HootSuite or TweetDeck will enable you to schedule posts at different times of the day without severely impacting engagement.

Consistency is Key

Not eating all day and then binging on two pieces of chocolate cake at night is a great way to whack your metabolism right off track. Meanwhile, a consistent diet with a normal calorie intake is key to staying healthy.

Instead of pouring a week’s worth of content onto your account at once, space out posts to maintain a consistent level of engagement. It’s recommended to post 0.5 times per day, meaning most accounts should post 3 to 4 times per week.­ In addition, post around noon local time, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays to get the highest levels of engagement.

Content has a shelf life

We’ve all been there. You’re starving, you go to the fridge, and all that’s there is an iffy box of week-old leftovers. In today’s world, as new numbers and studies are readily available online, stats have a short shelf life. While it’s tempting to schedule posts months in advance with a third-party API tool, content should be recent and relevant to current trends and events. Make sure out-of-date content is pushed out of sight on your social pages by updating them regularly.

It’s All About the Experience

One of my favorite nutrition books, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, argues that the experience of eating is equally as important as the food itself. Relaxing with a glass red wine and enjoying good company are ultimately better for your health than eating on the run or in your car. Social media should strive to create a similar experience and engage fans in two-way conversation – not just shove content down their throats. After all, 80 percent of active and passive job seekers say they will not follow a company on social media if posts are irrelevant, uninvited or solely self-serving.  Asking questions, listening to your fans, and answering their questions are some ways to create a strong community online.

At the end of the day, each community is different. Finding just the right recipe often takes trial and error, so don’t be afraid to experiment identify and your target talent and create content specifically for them. What types of engaging content have you used on your accounts lately?

Do you realize…

…one in two job seekers want to find and engage with companies in social?
…80 percent of companies use social media to recruit?
…12 percent of job searches are done via mobile devices?
…54 percent of job seekers are more likely to apply to your job at your company after they follow you on social media?

Yesterday, CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Branding, Jamie Womack, along with CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter discussed these very findings in the featured webcast, Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy. 

In addition to these findings, they also gave practical tips for employers on the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen employment branding and recruiting efforts, including…

…the latest tools, trends and techniques for attracting top talent
…what emerging media are and what they mean for your business
…how to integrate emerging media into your current recruitment strategy

Missed the webcast? Download it now at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial.

Keep the conversation going – use #CBGoSocial on Twitter…

During the webcast, participants were urged to join in the conversation by following and posting the hashtag #cbgosocial on Twitter! Visit Twitter and search #cbgosocial and put in your own two cents!

Related articles:

• Think Like a Marketer to Capture Top Talent
• Emerging Media: The Best Ideas You Aren’t Taking Advantage Of
• Why Video? 6 Benefits of Making Video Part of Your Recruitment Mix

Not only is video a dominant form of communication; it is proven to be influential, as well.  Consumers are not just viewing content, but absorbing it, and letting themselves be swayed by it. When it  comes to recruiting, potential and current employees are the customer, and the companies they choose to work for are the products they invest in.

With that in mind, employers need to consider the way users consume information as they evolve their recruiting strategies. Between employee testimonials, executive interviews, facility tours and special event footage, online recruitment videos help answer the following crucial questions job seekers have when deciding to apply for a position.

Why should you invest in using online video for recruitment? Consider the following benefits:

1. Increase your ROI: As technology gets more sophisticated, producing and housing online videos becomes increasingly cost-effective – even more so when you consider the high level of engagement and interest online videos generate over static text. You can also get a lot of mileage out of these videos by distributing them over multiple channels – and encouraging employees to share them with friends and over social media.
2. Stay competitive: As video increases its dominance as an online communication tool, recruiters who stick with text-based career sites and even text-oriented social networks will find themselves overshadowed by competitors who are using this medium to reach potential employees.
3. Widen your audience reach: As noted earlier, 178 million internet users watched online video for an average of 16.8 hours per viewer in June 20111.  Video’s popularity as a source for information is only growing, and it is reaching wider audiences on a broad scale, representing the opportunity for employers who use this medium to reach out to a larger, more diverse candidate base.
4. Strengthen your employment brand: No other medium so completely enables you to showcase your organization and truly make it stand out. Videos help you communicate your employment brand more clearly than any other medium, because potential recruits get to “see, feel, and hear” what it’s truly like to work at your organization from the employees and leaders themselves.
5. Get higher response rates: According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than postings without video. On average, CareerBuilder customers receive a 34 percent greater application rate when they add video to their job postings.
6. Eliminate irrelevant candidates: Videos allow outsiders to decide for themselves if they are a fit for your organization – by enabling them to “meet” your employees and executives, tour the facility and get a feel for what life is truly like at the organization. A good recruitment video covers the most crucial questions job seekers have about why they should apply for your organization. Once job seekers understand what it means to work and be successful at your company, those who do not possess the relevant skills or see themselves as a cultural fit will be dissuaded from applying. As a result, they’ll effectively weed themselves out (saving you the trouble of doing it later).

Already using video in your recruitment mix? What other benefits have you seen for your organization?

Job seeker behavior has changed remarkably in the past few years. So why hasn’t your recruitment strategy?

In this competitive market for talent, it is imperative that employers be at the forefront of what job seekers find accessible. With today’s emerging technologies job seekers have come to expect a more interactive experience when it comes their job search. In order to meet the needs and desires of top talent, employers have to meet them halfway.  The smartest employers are taking advantage of today’s emerging media to connect with job candidates where they work and play, and deliver a more interactive and engaging job seeker experience.

Two forms of emerging media employers need to take advantage of right now are mobile and online video technology. Not only are mobile and video technologies surprisingly easy to implement into your overall recruitment efforts, but they are a must for any employer who hopes to remain competitive in the new recruitment landscape.

Mobile: The New Desktop
According to the latest findings from Pew Research Center, 83 percent of Americans currently own cell phones, nearly half of whom (44 percent) use their mobile devices to get access to the internet. This finding highlights the opportunity mobile devices offer employers to reach job seekers anywhere, at any time. The opportunities to use mobile technology for recruiting are vast, ranging from mobile-friendly websites that enable easy job searches on the go; to quick response (QR) codes that point smartphone users to job listings; to text alerts informing candidates about recruiting events and opportunities.

Regardless of size or industry, every company needs to take advantage of mobile recruiting opportunities. Increasingly, job seekers are using their mobile devices to receive job alerts, search jobs and research companies. It won’t be long until this behavior is commonplace, and those companies that do not embrace this technology are losing out on candidates every day.

Video: An Underutilized Advantage
For all of its power to influence and engage people, video is one of the most underutilized recruiting tools out there today. One thing CareerBuilder has seen consistently throughout our 15 years of research on job seekers is their desire to work for companies that care about their employees, work for the greater good and are at the forefront of innovation. Video enables companies to get this message across better than any other medium, because it enables candidates to really see and hear what the true employee experience is like. The evidence supports this finding, too: According to CareerBuilder internal data, job postings with video icons are viewed 12 percent more than postings without video. On average, CareerBuilder customers receive a 34 percent greater application rate when they add video to their job postings. At the same time, only 10 percent of job postings include video, underscoring a major opportunity for employers to take advantage of this technology and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Dispelling the Myths of Emerging Media
Change can be intimidating, but companies that fail to embrace these emerging media are only cheating themselves out of the opportunity to reach the growing number of qualified candidates who utilize this technology for their job searches. If what’s holding you back is the fear that implementing these technologies is too expensive or simply more trouble than they’re worth, consider the following popular misconceptions about emerging media.

Myth 1: It’s expensive. It’s surprisingly inexpensive to send text messages, create QR codes or create a mobile-friendly career site. Likewise, video is also inexpensive to produce, and it can be as easy as creating a video yourself and posting it (for free) on YouTube. It may not be the most polished video, but it’s a way to start the process and see how much feedback it generates.  From there, you might decide to invest in a more streamlined production process to get an even better return. Implementing mobile and video recruiting efforts can be an investment, but when you look at the return, cost should be an afterthought.

Myth 2: It’s too complicated. Mobile technology can feel like somewhat of a black hole for employers; however, integration with mobile devices is surprisingly simple, and the time it takes to build a mobile website is minimal. The same can be said for video. As mentioned above, uploading video onto any online platform – from a video-sharing site like YouTube to the company career site – is increasingly easy.  When in doubt, consult a third party expert to help you navigate these technologies for the best possible ROI. You won’t regret it.

Myth 3: It’s a trend. If there’s one thing to take away from this article, it is that emerging media, such as mobile technologies, social networking and video, is not going away. Consider the following statistics:

• In 2010 alone, the worldwide mobile phone market grew by 18.5 percent.
• More than 5 billion text messages were sent on a daily basis in the U.S. in 2010
• In the last quarter of 2010, smartphone sales surpassed that of PCs, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).
• During the course of 2010 CareerBuilder saw over 400 percent growth in job searches on our mobile career site, and the number of job seekers storing resumes on their phones using CB’s iPhone App increased by over 350 percent.
• Web pages with video are 53 times more likely than pages with just text to show up on the first page of Google results
• Internet video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015.

These are just a few of the findings that underscore both the reach and power of emerging media, as well as the need for employers to adapt their recruiting efforts to keep up with mobile usage trends. As these technologies become the norm for candidates as they search for jobs and research companies, employers need to adjust their recruiting efforts accordingly to remain competitive. In other words, you might not be taking advantage of emerging media, but your competitors are. Don’t get left behind.

Andrew Streiter is an Area Vice President at CareerBuilder, LLC, where he is responsible for developing human capital strategies for organizations ranging from Fortune 1,000 companies to mid-sized businesses throughout the US.

Exclusive webcast: Join CareerBuilder Area Vice President Andrew Streiter and Jamie Womack, CareerBuilder’s VP of Corporate Marketing, on Tuesday, September 27 for Going Social: How to Leverage Social Media In Your Recruitment Strategy, wherein they discuss the best ways to leverage emerging media to strengthen your employment brand and find the best talent for your organization. Learn more or register at www.careerbuilder.com/GoingSocial

Beep. Beep. Beep. Your alarm goes off at 7 a.m., and your personal bot removes you from your bed, super scrubs your skin, slips on your socks (no need for shoes), flosses your teeth, makes your synthetic protein shake, puts you in your moving recliner, and programs your entire life.  Well . . . at least in the world of the creative geniuses at Pixar who created Wall-e. While we may not quite be there, yet, we are definitely heading to a technology-enabled mobile world where desktop computers, TV remotes, GPS devices, cell phones, e-readers, credit cards, portable gaming systems, and who knows what else will be on our e-device.

Indeed, mobile is taking off. Today, there are 91.4 million mobile internet users in the United States and this will jump to 132.5 million—a whopping 41.5 percent of the U.S. population—by 2015, according to eMarketer.  And of those folks who are already connected via a Smartphone, they are ϋber-connected, with 89 percent using their device throughout the day according to The Mobile Movement study by Microsoft.

 So what are all these Smartphone users doing online? When they connect, 77 percent are using a search engine and 65 percent are social networking. Tablet users do even more. According to Nielsen’s Q1 2011 Mobile Connected Device Report, 77 percent of tablet users now use the device for tasks for which they formally used their laptop or desktop computers. And it’s no surprise why. People are using these mobile devices because they help us with our daily lives. For example, you can now watch a TV show while talking to your spouse and ordering dinner. Still think we aren’t going mobile before 2020? Think again.

Our connected world is forcing companies to go where the people are and speak to them in short, yet engaging snippets of content in the form of video, tweets, text messages, games, status updates, and oh so much more. However, even though human resources departments are optimistic about social media and mobile, they are late adopters of technology, social media, and mobile computing. According to Econsultancy’s “Social Media and Online PR Report 2010,” 74 percent of companies have no integration with social media within their human resource departments and only a measly 2 percent are well integrated. And since mobile technologies normally require information technology support that social media does not, I expect human resources to be a laggard in the mobile movement, as well.

Even so, this lack of technology isn’t stopping talent from researching employers, connecting with brands, and searching for jobs. In fact, CareerBuilder has seen more than a 270 percent increase in page views on its mobile website, Android app, and iPhone app from March 2010 to March 2011.

Plus, there are a handful of techno-savvy human resources departments leading the pack for the mobile recruitment revolution. Here is a smidgen with mobile apps to get you thinking. (And if you know of others, please post them with their links.)

• PepsiCo Possibilities: mobile recruitment application for Android, iPhone, and iPad
• AT&T Jobs: mobile job search app for the iPhone
• Hyatt Careers: Android app for searching and sharing jobs
• CTCA Jobs: The Cancer Treatment Centers of America® Android app for searching and applying to jobs

And if you don’t want to create an app, don’t.  Just optimize your current web site so it is mobile friendly. Does that mean you just put the same content up there to fit the screen? No. Make it as simple as possible for people to take action – yes, that does mean you shouldn’t make them scroll (at least on the home page). Give them exactly what they need so they can read it and take action. Here are some of the companies that already embraced the mobile job seeker:

• Sodexo
• MTV Networks Careers
• Fidelity Careers
• Six Flags Career Portal
• Careers @ McDonald’s

Recruiting is marketing, and human resources needs to partner with marketing and technology, and get on board with the new communications revolution – short and sweet, where talent wants it, how talent wants it, and when talent wants it. To truly find the best people, human resources is going to have to hunt down the right candidates and capture them with content. Be the mobile bot that feeds them what they need and entices them to join your team – and start today.