How do you manage your social media presence? Do you? If you're here, reading this blog, the answer is probably yes, or at least, you are interested in managing your social media presence.
It's not as obvious a question as it seems, I think. Not everyone out there puts much thought into their online presence, though that is changing as there are more and more high profile stories about social media and the impact it has on our personal and professional lives. The impact of Facebook goes far beyond ensuring you stay updated on Aunt Marge's latest kitty pictures, adorable though Whiskers may be.
I think most of us by now have heard the online hype about employers asking for your facebook passwords, and I think this practice is not exactly widespread, despite all the attention it has received. Certainly here in Canada, I've never personally heard of anyone using this practice, and I would hope I don't- this is a terrible hiring practice. As an employer, it would be pretty difficult to defend against allegations of discrimination on the basis of legally protected grounds if it were shown that I had demanded someone's Facebook password and in doing so, found out about a pregnancy, say, or religious status, national origin, sexual orientation, etc. You get the idea. These things are iffy enough if you merely google a prospective candidate's name to see what comes up.
The social media minefield is an issue no matter what side of the employee/employer divide you happen to be on, and, to mix my metaphors, the waters are murky at best. As an employer, you need to be careful about what you look up when, and as an employee or a candidate, you need to watch what you put out there for the world to see, because even if it's not exactly a best practice to demand access to your Facebook or other social media accounts, that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't going to happen. So what do you do, especially when we're hearing more and more about how those individuals without facebook accounts aren't to be trusted? (See a recent forbes article here about this.) I don't know.
Personally, I keep my Facebook private. I am searchable, but only my name and picture, because my Facebook account is strictly for personal use. You can find me quite easily on LinkedIn and Twitter, because that's professional, and intended to be public. Even with Facebook, though, I do try to monitor what I post. I always keep in mind that this is the internet, and there is never a guarantee of anonymity, and you can never be sure that something you've written is really gone, even after you hit delete. It means I have no problem adding my boss on Facebook- but then, I don't really post much there anyway. That's the balance that I've found, and it seems to work for me. I've also heard of people with multiple Facebook accounts as well, and that seems to work for them. I don't think there's one right answer- just think about whatever you do.
What do you do?
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
The Biggest Thing You're Doing Wrong When You Hire... Yes, You.
Not you, personally of course. I have no idea what your hiring practices are like, and it's entirely possible that you have the best hiring practices out there and a wonderful track record with just the right level of retention. But if that's so, I do have to wonder a little bit what you're doing here reading this blog. Shouldn't you be writing your own blog or book, or just generally cashing in on your wonderful hiring secrets?
Or maybe some of the following situation sounds familiar.
You have an unexpected job opening, because someone gave notice, you had to let someone go, business grew more that expected, etc. You need to fill this position, preferably soon, and having the vacancy is causing you some stress. Maybe it's not the biggest issue on your plate at the moment, but it's a constant low level irritation, a reminder that certain things are not getting done and the workload is piling up. Maybe you don't have that unexpected job opening just yet, but you know you will soon, because someone is going on mat leave, or back to school, or something.
So, you start by digging out your job description. Maybe you have a job ad template that you already use, maybe you make one up, maybe you call HR or your recruitment firm. You get your ad out there. You post on working.com or monster.ca, or craisglist. You post on your organization's career page. Maybe, possibly, you post on LinkedIn or twitter. And the resumés start coming in, through your ATS or your email.
Suddenly, you have stacks of resumés to sort through. Some of them look pretty good, some of them are terrible, and some of them are in between. You sort your piles and start calling your potential candidates, and some of them don't want to travel so far, some of them want way more money than you can offer, and some of them don't call you back. Some of them come in for interviews and are awful, some of them don't show up. You're getting a headache now, everytime you think of your unfilled position, because all you really want is someone who can do the job. Sure, you'd love a superstar candidate, but at this point, you'd settle for competent if it meant you didn't have to deal with the interviews and the resumés and the whole bit.
Then you interview a candidate who seems decent. Reasonably qualified, personable, etc. You're so relieved, because this one could be the one. You just want to fill the role. And your candidate has several years of industry experience, knows the software you use, and is extroverted and personable. So you make your candidate an offer, and voila, you have yourself a new employee.
And then it all starts to go wrong. Your new employee seems to be really disorganized, stressed out, and alienates your customers and fellow employees. Chronic lateness becomes a problem, and performance is simply not up to par. Ultimately, you have to let your new hire go and start the process all over again.
Bad hires cost a lot. Think about all the time and money invested in trying to recruit somebody in the first place, the salary costs of paying someone who simply isn't up to par, performance-wise, the lost customers due to poor service, and now you're right back where you started, with another round of recruiting in front of you. But we tend to get so stressed out about having an opening and all of the stress surrouding recruitment that we jump on hiring a candidate who interviews well without maybe doing everything we could do in order to determine if our potential candidate is a good fit.
Hiring too quickly is the single biggest mistake you can make, and it is potentially a very expensive one, not to mention a waste of effort. Spending more time with a position unfilled, if it means you end up with a better candidate, is a better way to go. Don't rush to hire, don't take shortcuts from your usual, well-thought-out interview and selection process. Don't skip the reference check "just this once" and don't ever assume that hiring someone you have reservations about is better than leaving the role empty, because in a lot of cases, it simply isn't true. This holds true whether you're the hiring manager who has to oversee the vacant role or whether you're the recruiter trying to find good candidates. Don't hire quickly- hire well.
Of course, if you're losing your good candidates because they have other offers by the time you get around to making your own offer, well, you may have the opposite problem. But that's a post for another day.
Or maybe some of the following situation sounds familiar.
You have an unexpected job opening, because someone gave notice, you had to let someone go, business grew more that expected, etc. You need to fill this position, preferably soon, and having the vacancy is causing you some stress. Maybe it's not the biggest issue on your plate at the moment, but it's a constant low level irritation, a reminder that certain things are not getting done and the workload is piling up. Maybe you don't have that unexpected job opening just yet, but you know you will soon, because someone is going on mat leave, or back to school, or something.
So, you start by digging out your job description. Maybe you have a job ad template that you already use, maybe you make one up, maybe you call HR or your recruitment firm. You get your ad out there. You post on working.com or monster.ca, or craisglist. You post on your organization's career page. Maybe, possibly, you post on LinkedIn or twitter. And the resumés start coming in, through your ATS or your email.
Suddenly, you have stacks of resumés to sort through. Some of them look pretty good, some of them are terrible, and some of them are in between. You sort your piles and start calling your potential candidates, and some of them don't want to travel so far, some of them want way more money than you can offer, and some of them don't call you back. Some of them come in for interviews and are awful, some of them don't show up. You're getting a headache now, everytime you think of your unfilled position, because all you really want is someone who can do the job. Sure, you'd love a superstar candidate, but at this point, you'd settle for competent if it meant you didn't have to deal with the interviews and the resumés and the whole bit.
Then you interview a candidate who seems decent. Reasonably qualified, personable, etc. You're so relieved, because this one could be the one. You just want to fill the role. And your candidate has several years of industry experience, knows the software you use, and is extroverted and personable. So you make your candidate an offer, and voila, you have yourself a new employee.
And then it all starts to go wrong. Your new employee seems to be really disorganized, stressed out, and alienates your customers and fellow employees. Chronic lateness becomes a problem, and performance is simply not up to par. Ultimately, you have to let your new hire go and start the process all over again.
Bad hires cost a lot. Think about all the time and money invested in trying to recruit somebody in the first place, the salary costs of paying someone who simply isn't up to par, performance-wise, the lost customers due to poor service, and now you're right back where you started, with another round of recruiting in front of you. But we tend to get so stressed out about having an opening and all of the stress surrouding recruitment that we jump on hiring a candidate who interviews well without maybe doing everything we could do in order to determine if our potential candidate is a good fit.
Hiring too quickly is the single biggest mistake you can make, and it is potentially a very expensive one, not to mention a waste of effort. Spending more time with a position unfilled, if it means you end up with a better candidate, is a better way to go. Don't rush to hire, don't take shortcuts from your usual, well-thought-out interview and selection process. Don't skip the reference check "just this once" and don't ever assume that hiring someone you have reservations about is better than leaving the role empty, because in a lot of cases, it simply isn't true. This holds true whether you're the hiring manager who has to oversee the vacant role or whether you're the recruiter trying to find good candidates. Don't hire quickly- hire well.
Of course, if you're losing your good candidates because they have other offers by the time you get around to making your own offer, well, you may have the opposite problem. But that's a post for another day.
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