Last Known Issue 2011.2
I was almost certainly convinced that I would not have a chance to prepare this weeks snapshot for you - myself and the I Know IT team spent the weekend at our 2011 kick off which was full-on! I’ve posted some pics and our focus for the year ahead on to our blog here: http://bit.ly/ggLSro
The conference was focused on developing our A Players and as it turns out it reminded me that I’ve recently had 2 very good experiences which I believe marks a fundamental shift in our traditional thinking about recruitment and hiring people which I’d like to share with you this week:
LinkedIn worth a Re-look If you’ve had a play with LinkedIn sometime in the past you’d be forgiven if you weren’t overwhelmed with excitement at first glance. But recently there has been a change – for one thing, more people are using it – by their account, 85 million professionals are now using their service. Plus, they’ve added more flexibility such as being able to use an iPhone or Blackberry as well as linking to other social media platforms.
However, the big emerging benefit I’ve witnessed is the use of LinkedIn for hiring people. Many have likened LinkedIn to Facebook for professionals and I think this is a good analogy certainly from how it connects people together. But the far more clever thing about LinkedIn is that while it is great for connecting professionals to each other it’s also all about how they are profiling their members by asking questions such as where they work, what their role entails and where they’re living. So when I decided to advertise for our latest systems engineer role, I decided to skip the traditional mediums and take a punt on LinkedIn Jobs.
Within less than a business day after launching my ad I had received 10 high quality applications for the role, all of whom were locally based and met the description of what I was looking for.
Far from my personal experiences with other online sites such as Seek and MyCareer where I often find myself sorting through a number of unqualified applicants – LinkedIn uses the profile of their members to ensure they only advertise to those who match your desired description.
Fortunately, I was successful the first time around, but had I not been, they offer an uplift feature whereby you can be personally introduced by way of InMail directly to people you think might meet the description. Whilst it is an additional cost (less than <$200 from memory) it basically expands your network of potential recruits within seconds. Give it a shot.
Elance and Odesk If you’re a bit under-staffed but have lots to do you could consider outsourcing online using Elance or Odesk. Popularised in Tim Ferris’ book “The 4 Hour Work Week” (well worth a read by the way) Elance.com and Odesk.com offer employers and contractors the opportunity to work together online in an almost ebay-like bidding contest between people wanting to win your work often at ridiculous hourly rates like $4. With labour being significantly cheaper amongst emerging countries and students – some of whom are highly qualified but either can’t work full time because of studies or don’t have the opportunities to work in their desired field – you can potentially outsource tasks that otherwise might have cost you significantly in the past. Things like starting a blog, a facebook page, design work or even having a customer contract drawn up can all be listed online and bid for by those who think they’re qualified to do the job.
One company I’m familiar with had their entire online brand designed for $70 by a group of surfy designers who had relocated from the UK to Mexico to chill out, surf and take on contracts when they felt like it.
Whilst there are risks involved such as quality control, particularly when you may need to really over-communicate and potentially micro-manage what you need if you don’t find the right individual (a bit like hiring in the real world) - the cost savings represent a fundamental shift in how we look at our workforce in the future.
The contractor on Elance or Odesk needs to fill is required to fill out a timesheet and one cool feature I found on Odesk is if it is computer based work, they can record their work by way of screenshots and show you exactly how they’re spending their time.
If you haven’t already gathered from our past few articles, I’m beating the drum for our clients to be more competitive in 2011 through the use of IT - reducing costs by leveraging some of these online platforms could potentially free you and your organisation up for more important stuff like growing your sales and developing your offering. I’ll continue to do just that both in person and in future articles, and in the meantime If you need any advice on LinkedIn or want to talk more about Elance or Odesk just give me a holler..
