KCRecruiting

Looking For More Kansas City Recruiting? Check Out Ning

The Kansas ity Recruiting Community On Ning is up to almost 500 members, and it's turning into an interesting career coaching site for candidates.  I've spent a lot of time in KC, and the Midwest value of helping out your neighbor is pretty strong.

If you're a recruiter here, or if you want to take stock of a recruiter before you send in a resume, this is a good place to start.  Of course, if you want your own voice, starting a blog is still the best way, but if you're looking to network with other recruiters - head on over and start up a profile. 

Talent Acquisition: Dilbert Strip

I can only hope this doesn't go off the page.

talent acquisition. heh.

LinkedIn Recruiting Trailer

Curious about the LinkedIn Training? I've uploaded a trailer of some of the content. To register for the lunch on the 19th, head on over to the MAPSS KC website. This is a live training, but you'll also be taking back a training DVD to review at your own leisure.

Using LinkedIn As A Sourcing Tool from James Durbin on Vimeo.
The quality of the video is much better - this has been compressed for uploading to the web.

Live LinkedIn Training February 19th In Kansas City

I'll be in Kansas City (one of my favorite cities - they have the best house architecture in the Midwest) February 19th-21st, primarily to train the local NAPS Chapter on the use of LinkedIn for recruiting.  Lunch will be served, and in addition to the presentation, you'll be taking home a LinkedIn: Recruiting CompanionTraining DVD of the presentation, ensuring that the knowledge you hear is available for review.

The registration link is here for the event. Thursday the 19th, from 11:30-1:30, at the Hereford House in Leawood, Kansas.  This event is specifically intended for third party and independent recruiters.  For more information, be sure to check out the Kansas City MAPSS Site. You can also register by contacting Shelley Seibolt.

Call Shelley Seibolt 913.663.5627 or Email: shelley@staffingkc.com

I will be in town Friday as well - if you are a local firm looking for more information on using social media, whether in recruiting, sales, marketing, or public relations, schedule some time and let's sit down and talk.

Here's a sample presentation on the impact of Enterprise 2.0 on the Modern Corporation.

Impact of Social Media On the Modern Corporation

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: marketing interactive)

Search Engine Optimization For Recruiters

This training will focuses on the description and application of search engine optimization techniques for recruiters, including primers on what SEO means, how to write content, and how to rank highly in search engines for terms relating to your market niche.

Some facts to think about:
68% of offline purchases begin with online searches
Over 70% of recruiters admit to using a search engine to check a candidate’s background prior to an offer

What this means is that search engines are an important part of the way we conduct all business. We check out salespeople calling us by checking their name in a search engine. We research vendors, and yes, we check out recruiters before we agree to send them a resume.

Learn how to dominate your niche both locally and nationally, in this specialized training.

And if you’d like to see how it’s done – do a search for “jim durbin” recruiter. Last time I checked, I was 18 pages deep on Goole.

Purchase Search Engine Optimization for Recruiters at the Social Media Headhunter Cafe.

Should Human Resources Recruiters Blog?

YourHRGuys says yes, and tells us why. Reasons #1 and #2:

1. It has made me more thoughtful - Many people think blogging means you have to go out on a limb and say something sexy every post. My experience has been the complete opposite. People appreciate advice that is interesting, unique and thoughtful. Some people who give career advice seem almost glib at times and others give perpetually boring advice. If someone says you should wear a top hat to your next interview to stand out, that’s just entertaining but not useful. If someone says you should work on your handshake, that’s not entertaining but it is useful. I’ve tried to say things that are both entertaining and useful. So when you wear that top hat, make sure you give a really great handshake.

2. It allows me to learn - There are some really smart people in the blogosphere that I have been fortunate enough to interact with in-person or through telephone, e-mails and comments. This is why I couldn’t possibly do all of my 2009 predictions without including feedback from the great people online as well. Since I started getting involved with blogs (a lurker for four years and contributor for more than two and a half), I’ve learned about subjects I never would have even known about. It is truly amazing.

The key reason to blog is knowledge - both about your industry and about your business.  You'd be surprised how many people never take the time to look critically at the way they do business. In today's business climate, that's going to be a problem.

How can you improve, if you don't know what you do right and wrong?  Blogging demands content, and the best content is looking at your situation and discussing what you do wrong, and how you plan to fix it.

Forget the rest.  Blog for yourself. It makes you a better employee, more aware of what's going around, and there's that personal branding boost you need for the future.  It looks like I'm coming to Kansas City in February. If you start your blog between now and then, I'll be happy to promote it. And if five people do it, I'll give each of you a shiny recruiter training CD on how to blog to hire candidates.

Social Media Headhunter Store

Remember that training I've been doing. Well, it's been converted to DVD form, with a series of live videos on using LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and blogs to recruit.  Five titles are available for sale and pre-sale, all ready this year, and 15 more titles are planned for 2009.

It's like nothing you've ever seen. If you're interested in being an affiliate or want to know more, contact me over at the SMHeadhunter site or through the email link.

Live LinkedIn Training For Kansas City

I've had some real success with live training courses for recruiters, so I'm working on bringing it to Kansas City.  My course, LinkedIn: Recruiting Companion was a success in St Louis, and I'm scheduled in December to head to Springfield. I'd ideally like to work with a local organization and set up a way to come in, do a training session, and leave behind our training DVD's for you to take back to the office.  If you're interested, drop me a line, and if you'd like to organize a training for January or February, please let me know.  This course works for third party firms, corporate recruiters, and sourcers.

Jim Durbin is a veteran recruiter specializing in Social Media.  He is an experienced expert in using social media to hire premier candidates. In this 90 minute presentation, Jim demonstrates a step by step walk-through of how to use LinkedIn to source, connect and hire candidates.  If you want to see how effective Jim is at social marketing and SEO, Google “Jim Durbin Recruiter”!

LinkedIn is increasingly becoming the social network of choice for businesses and passive job-hunters.  In an age where e-mail and voicemail can easily be avoided, LinkedIn represents a new and exciting channel that many candidates prefer to use as an initial contact with recruiters. 

The Social Media Headhunter Series is a DVD training regimen based on live walkthroughs of social media tools.  Training is broken into easily understood chapters. 

Video playback by chapter allows for quick review of key points, giving the recruiter access to the information they most need.

Chapters for LinkedIn: The World's Database include:

1) Introduction to LinkedIn
2) Sourcing For Candidates
3) Connecting With Prospects: Messages That Work
4) Checking References Inside LinkedIn
5) LinkedIn Tools and Packages
6) The Salesman's Guide To LinkedIn
7) Do's And Don’ts Review
8) LinkedIn Marketing

LinkedIn has the potential to be a game changer in the recruiting field.  While most recruiters have signed up for LinkedIn, very few are using the site to hire more people.  Learn from one of the few trainers that runs a desk every day. 

Preventing Counter Offers

Counter offers are career poison. As a recruiter it's paramount to know that. Even more important is how well potential hires know this. It's common for any good employee to get a counter offer when they leave their employer. No employer wants to lose a good resource or intellectual property and odds are they will offer a raise or promotion to prevent it. Odds are just as high that it won't fix the problem. Go ahead and google "Counter Offers". The articles are out there in spades, like this clip from TopCareers.

According to national surveys of employees that accept counter-offers, 50-80 percent voluntarily leave their employer within six months of accepting the counter-offer because of unkept promises. The majority of the balance of employees that accept counter-offers involuntarily leave their current employers within twelve months of accepting the counter-offer (terminated, fired, laid off, etc.).

Recruiters do themselves and their recruits a disservice if this isn't made very clear from the start. The worst thing in the world is to have a recruit accept a counter offer, then call back three months later to look again. Chances are they've burned a bridge and lost an opportunity.

Social Media Workshop For Recruiters

I'm hosting another webinar on the use of Web 2.0 Tools for recruiters.

These are the atypical uses of Web 2.0 softwares to find and connect with candidates and clients.  It's unlike anything you've seen or heard.  The goal is to give you something you can do in just 5 minutes a day to find more people.

Simple tools, big results.  From the Social Media Headhunter series.