April 2010
Volume 11 Issue 4

Open sourcing
by Ted Konnerth

Open sourcing is the nouveau term du jour that implies the ability to freely and openly access data across multiple platforms. The funny thing about 'free' and 'open' is that it can lead to all kinds of reactions that may not be fully predictable. Let's talk about talent acquisition, since we know a lot about that here. In our nearly 11 years, we've conducted over 100,000 interviews, so we 'get' talent identification and qualification. But today, recruiting is facing yet another attempt at disintermediation due to the power of open sourcing techniques. We've been there, first the fax and then...

...it was job boards. Monster was going to eliminate active recruiting by simply connecting everyone who's interested in a new job with those who are hiring. Simple, straight-forward. After awhile though, the novelty wore off and reality sunk in that hiring job-seekers isn't quite the same as hiring the best talent. In short, finding the best that are 'doing' is different than finding the best that is looking. Job boards began to fall out of favor when it was widely reported that over 80% of all posted resumes have errors and that over 40% are fraudulent. Remember that Notre Dame of all places hired a football coach who lied about his degree. Candidly, lying about degrees is far more common than most would expect; which is why we verify every one; ever since we had an HR Director lie about his degree 9 years ago. Job boards have fallen off in importance as a source of employment. Still there, won't go away, but their utility has faded. 

Now it's social networking. Social networking is the province of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a variety of lesser known sites (Plaxo or Naymz for example). These sites all enable us to function as one community; a network. The participants post personal and/or professional information about themselves and then 'network' to garner the attention of future employers or future employees. These sites can lead to business opportunities or personal relationships. Great concept and far more sophisticated than job boards. Personally, if Monster resumes are 80% inaccurate, I'm pretty certain that LinkedIn 'career summaries' are just as prone to inaccuracies and fraudulent claims as well. LinkedIn is a great place for corporate recruiters to go, but we use LinkedIn as a starting point. Getting 'names' even with a career summary isn’t recruiting; it’s a better White Pages but it’s still just names. And then there’s the ugly side to 'open source': digital dirt and unethical support sites to help you get a job.

Digital dirt is rampant; it began in earnest when Facebook allowed anyone to follow them and allow comments, true or otherwise to be posted about them. Digital dirt won't go away, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, blogs or MySpace; it's here to stay. Companies are currently spending millions of dollars to monitor their web presence and clean up negative press and calumnies. But they also use that resource to carefully craft positive spin 'news' as well. Trust the web to provide accurate information? It's a jungle out there.

For years we dealt with Diploma Mills, sites where for anywhere from $25 to several thousand, you could buy a degree. That degree came with a great looking diploma and an official sounding university name. Some even sold degrees from top genuine universities (despite being fraudulent). And some sites would sell a full MD, law degree, PhD, MBA; anything you need, you can buy off the web. Why go through all of that hard work to actually have to learn how to be a surgeon, when you can simply buy the diploma?

And now, we have the next generation of service companies. We’ve identified several websites that will create a storied career for you. They'll create a virtual company, with its own website and phone numbers and senior executive contacts, where any thorough HR director or recruiter can call and ask about "Mike's" role and responsibilities and performance. And you will get a stellar reference directly from the imaginary President of that imaginary company.

Reference checking has become a true Achilles heal in talent qualification. References are the equivalent of calling a pure stranger with no knowledge of the real relationship, motivation or rationale for granting a reference. It's a libel and/or slander suit waiting to happen. There are several lawsuits wending their way through the courts that are directly tied to reference checks. These suits can be spurred by a candidate for not getting a job or by a hiring company trusting a reference and finding the person not capable of doing the job. In practice, we 'reference check' typically with people we already know, whom we trust. 
This industry has traditionally relied on trust as a big proponent of deciding who to do business with. But we're an industry that in a good year is close to $100B, and employs millions of people. Although we've interviewed 100,000+ people, we can’t know everyone and yet we’re far better connected than any person in the industry across the diversity of the companies and levels of authority we deal with.

In short, the industry is changing. New products, new channels, new thoughts. Not all of what's 'new' is necessarily better. Change is exciting, but only when viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.

We are the #1 recruiting firm in the electrical industry.  Isn't it about time you called to find out...

...Why us?

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