Advertisement
Article main image
Jul 19, 2011

During last week’s episode of TLNT Radio, we talked about the new jobs numbers and some of the conflicting data behind that. We also spoke to author Dick Grote about managing performance, and ended the show with a discussion about HR technology consolidation with Ed Newman.

Today at 2 pm Eastern/11 am Pacific, we’ll be talking about the future of social recruiting from two CEO’s who hope to be on the forefront of it: Rick Marini of BranchOut and Dan Finnigan of Jobvite. We’ll also be discussing the trends of flexible jobs (and how much growth can really be seen) as well as other news of the last week.

You can listen to it live from the web or you can dial in to (818) 572-8036 to listen to the show or to ask a question. You can also follow the show hashtag on Twitter by searching for #TLNTradio. After the show airs, the archive will be available shortly after the end of the show.

Social recruiting by the numbers

For those on the forefront of recruiting, social recruiting is an established (but evolving technique). The real story though isn’t the newest social network or latest technique though, it’s the fact that most companies are actually using it now. 89% of them if you want to take this survey as fact:

A new Jobvite survey, titled Social Recruiting Survey 2011, found that 89 percent of the respondents to its poll (most of them not Jobvite customers) said they are either already using some form of social media in their recruiting or will in the next year. They are also having success; 64 percent said they’veactually hired people through a social network.

None of this is surprising to anyone who has followed the development of social media. From their roots as a teenage clubhouse, social media networks today have become so ubiquitous and so much a part of American life that half of all adults use at least one of the sites. The Pew Research Center says that last year, 48 percent of those over 35 are on a social network.

We’re looking forward to talking to the CEO of the sponsor of that survey (Jobvite’s Finnigan) about the results of this poll. We’ll also be chatting with BranchOut CEO Rick Marini about trends his company is seeing in social recruiting and what changes are already taking place in the recruiting profession to make it happen.

Workplace ultraflex

We’ll also be talking about workplace flexibility and the trend to make workplaces the ultimate bastion of workplace flexibility. And while I have called into question ROWE specifically, that doesn’t mean the idea of very flexible workplaces can’t work. As my colleague here at John Hollon wrote about the productivity of a flexible workplace:

That comment about employees slacking off if they work remotely bothered me, because my experience as a remote employee working in a company of remote employees here at ERE Media is that remote workers actually put in more time on the job rather than seeing it as an opportunity to goof off and take it easy.

Yes, I understand the worry about employees slacking off, but can’t they do that in a regular office environment just as easily? Jeez, Scott Adams has made a career out of showing how regularly (and easily) that happens in his Dilbert comic strip, and he’s spot on in that regard. If someone is going to fiddle around, they’ll do it anywhere, and it’s highly doubtful that your hard working employees will suddenly become less so if they are allowed to get into a ROWE-like work program.

If you have any comments about your experience in either rigid or flexible workplaces, we’d love to hear your take on the trend.

Miss our last episode?

You can catch it below or on the show website.

Listen to internet radio with TLNT on Blog Talk Radio