Today brings news of the U.S. Army’s $38 million recruiting video games, a recruiting marketing video that is surprisingly fresh and entertaining and should be required watching for anyone considering an HR career as a recruiter, and a change at Vault.

America’s Army

When you’re recruiting for an organization where the expression “taking potshots” is no mere idiom, you have to be innovative in your approach, not to mention cutting edge to reach the 17-25 year olds who are your (pardon the expression) target.

No wonder, therefore, that the U.S. Army has been using video games as a recruiting tool for years.

Now comes a report from GameSpot, a site for news about the digital games industry, that puts the 10-year-cost cost of developing and managing the Army’s free PC games called America’s Army at $32.8 million. The original cost to develop the first version of the games was budgeted at $7 million.

An entirely new version — America’s Army 3 — was released in June, and almost immediately the Army cut ties with the game’s developer. GameSpot reported earlier the Army will take over future development and game management.That will be handled by an Army unit formed in 2005 specifically to oversee development of the game.

Head2Head

This Canadian RPO and headhunter has a new video out that will make no friends with newspapers or job boards. Who cares, though. It’s a lot of fun and, ironically perhaps, it may be the most honest career video ever made.

“Stop putting in print ads. Stop posting on job boards. You may as well set fire to your money,” says an aggressive, sharply dressed gent who at first look might be an arms dealer or a central casting FBI agent.

That’s the opening scene of “What Can 60 Hours Do For You?” For the next 4 1/2 minutes you’re treated to snapshots of a 60-hour recruiting marathon to fill a req for a client where “failure is not an option.”

The credits claim that Head2Head staff wrote and produced the video. The parts were also played by staff members who should all get Oscars for their acting. (Or was it acting?)

Take the 4 minutes and 53 seconds to watch and enjoy. And then you tell me if it doesn’t nail headhunting. Still want to be a recruiter?

Vault.com

Vault, the venerable career information site that was an early leader in providing job seekers help in researching a company and building a personal network, has been struggling this year.

Erik Sorenson called it “stiff headwinds” driven by the faltering U.S. economy. In a memo earlier this month to the remaining staff at Vault, he described 2009 as a “period of right-sizing the company.”

Sorenson, the former president of MSNBC who became CEO in 2007 when Vault was acquired by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, has now stepped aside. His replacement is Claude Sheer.

In looking toward 2010, Sorenson said in the memo, “We need to beef up our senior management and strengthen our strategic efforts by bringing on someone with different knowledge, skills, and interests whose experience and passion is in growth platforms, strategic partnerships, and Internet deal-making.”

The change was effective on Dec. 7th. Sorenson is now Vault chairman and a consultant.

I ran ads using CareerBuilder.com (June & July 2009) and LinkedIn (October 2009) to see which one produced the most resumes and the resumes with the closest match to the job requirements. The positions I posted on LinkedIn were for a production supervisor and a production control and planning supervisor for Amico’s Bourbonnais, Illinois, plant and a plant manager position in Lafayette, Louisiana. The positions posted on CareerBuilder were for an inside sales rep, sales estimator, and a purchasing manager for Amico’s Bourbonnais, Illinois, plant and for an outside sales rep for the Southeast.

I defined a qualified resume as an individual who met the education and experience requirements of the posting. If a candidate did not have the education or experience required, their resume was not considered qualified. An example might be a resume where the candidate did not have a degree or did not have the minimum experience required in the job posting. As for the cost, to run one ad on LinkedIn cost $195 and the cost of a CareerBuilder ad was $360. Both sites give volume discounts, but for purposes of analysis I used the cost to run just one ad on each site. After screening each resume I determined the number of resumes that were qualified and those that were not and calculated the cost per good resume.

The results of this study (see the table) showed that, on average, LinkedIn produced fewer resumes per posting — 39 versus about 45 — but produced a higher yield per posting of qualified candidates: 11 versus 3. The cost to obtain a qualified resume on LinkedIn was less than CareerBuilder; $18.33 per resume versus $175.50. This is what a recruiter is looking for: a higher yield of qualified candidates at a cheaper cost per posting.

These results were consistent with what I have seen over 20 years of recruiting. The big job boards produce a large number of resumes, but they are not necessarily qualified candidates. Nothing prevents a job seeker from sending you a resume once they get your e-mail address and know you are a recruiter. Depending on the job title and location, I have received well over 100 resumes in a few days for a single job posting.