You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.

-Oh, the Places You’ll Go! – Dr. Seuss

A friend of mine graduated from university last week – May 6, 2010 – and is quite worried about his next step in life. The day of graduation, the Dow dropped almost 1,000 points (a new record!) before recovering. To put it mildly, he’s worried. During this time of year when spring has come and gone and summer is on its way, our clients are finishing up their campus recruiting programs and new graduates are coming to the market trying to figure out just what is next for them. When I was in the same position, I had no idea what to do and instead started a business as a go-between until I “figured things out” (I guess I still am!).

What Do Graduates Want?
In my position I have the opportunity to talk with a lot of people who are finishing up college or university all over the world. In conversations, I like to try to figure out what is driving them, what they are looking for, They want the opportunity to grow and develop, the opportunity to experience new things and challenges, the opportunity to be part of something special and to learn. It’s not money or fame or so many other things you might expect. This is a unique generation coming into the workplace right now and they want to be engaged, excited, and passionate about what they are doing. New professionals want to be part of the team that has meaningful impact. As an employer, you have to ask yourself how do I convey this to candidates? Or perhaps more importantly, how do I not only determine whether the candidate is a “fit” for us but are we a fit for them? I submit HireVue can be tremendously helpful here and this is where I think our business gets really exciting. Many of our customers have told us our collaboration and workflow tools allow them to transcend the “video conference” transaction to build understanding and relationships with candidates in ways they never could before.

More Than Just Webcams
Our primary charter has been to serve the needs of corporate recruiters. However, during the past 12-18 months we’ve seen a really interesting phenomenon. Campus recruiters have caught wind of HireVue from their corporate associates and we are now being used on over a hundred campuses worldwide to augment or in some cases replace campus recruiting trips. While many started using HireVue initially as a cost saving measure, most come back and tell us “this is so much more than just webcams! We’re making smarter decisions now.” We’re thrilled to see this and plan to continue to innovate for the campus space. In fact, June 1-3 we’ll be presenting HireVue to campus recruiters in Orlando, Florida at NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers – so if you’re planning to be there, look us up at booth #721.

Put New Graduates’ Enthusiasm and Innovation to Work for You
I believe that a lot of innovation happens during the summer.  It’s when Ryan and I started HireVue and when I know a lot of passionate entrepreneurs decide “I’m going to do something for myself instead of working for the man.” All jokes aside, it usually means they can’t find a job that inspires them to jump in and they might as well give a startup a shot (it’s a well known fact that the most new companies are started during recessions). Aren’t these the kind of employers you want to hire? Wouldn’t you rather they innovate for you than on their own? New graduates like my friend can be amazing employees that will truly change the dynamics of an organization. It’s time to stop just filling positions with any comers, it’s time to fill your positions with passionate up-and-comers. So many new graduates wonder about all the places they’ll go – now’s your chance to inspire them, hire them, develop them and repeat.

Have a great start to summer.

Mark Newman
CEO, HireVue

By Mark Newman, HireVue Co-Founder and CEO

2009 was a year full of enormous positive changes here at HireVue with the addition of a new team, new platform, new investors and many new customers. 2010 seems primed for major changes not only at  HireVue but across the entire HR community.

A New Newsletter in 2010

I’m pleased to announce one of our first changes of 2010, THE VUE, a new monthly newsletter from HireVue. You can look to THE VUE each month for news, updates on changes happening at  HireVue and valuable information on video interviewing and recruiting in general. In every issue you’ll hear from me or one of the HireVue staff. We’ll make sure you know what’s going on at HireVue and perhaps share a thought or two related to current events. Sometimes we’ll focus on video interviewing and sometimes we won’t but I’ll make you this promise – whatever we have to say, it will always be relevant and may even be insightful and entertaining.

We’ve also asked a number of writers in the HR community to contribute one article each newsletter with helpful tips and best practices in all areas of HR, not just video interviewing. For example, in this month’s issue, NAS’ Caroline Slomski opens our eyes to the promise of mobile recruiting and gives some tips on what can be done to get on board.

For those of you still wondering how video interviewing fits into your talent acquisition strategy or for those of you who’ve implemented it but want to find other ways to use it, we’ll include a customer success story each month to help you see how others are using HireVue. Also, whenever possible we’ll include special content such as  white papers, webinar recordings, articles and other things you need to get and stay fully informed.

To subscribe to the newsletter, go to the HireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up in the right column.

Planning for Change

If you’re not following John Sumser’s series of articles on preparing for the future of recruiting on ERE.net, you should. In the second article of the series, he recalls that old Eisenhower quote attributed to him during his days as the Commanding General of European and African Allied forces where he was tasked with ending World War II. “The plan is nothing. The plan is everything.” As the quote implies, change is inevitable but that’s not why we plan. Planning simply helps us to survey the field and do our best to consider our options. It might even give us a pretty good map of the battlefield but as Eisenhower well knew, things can get disorienting in the heat of battle and relying on the map alone can get you killed.

The war for talent has been on hiatus but if the economy turns around any time soon it could heat up quick. According to the Washington Post, economists typically look to six elements of the economy when judging its health. When three of the six show significant improvements over a two to three month period, they say recovery is on the way. I took a look at the indicators they suggest and here’s what I found.

1. Jobless Claims - Jobless claims have dropped every week but 1 over the past 20 weeks, reducing weekly claims by nearly 100,000 over that same period. That’s 1 out of 6. (Source – U.S. Dept. of Labor)
2. Durable Goods – New orders for durable goods excluding transportation increased 0.9 percent last month. This is a good sign, but we need to see this positive trend over two or three months and this is the first increase since September. So the score’s still 1 out of 6. (Source – U.S. Dept of Commerce)
3. Existing Home Sales – After a rising surge from September through November, existing-home sales fell as expected in December after first-time buyers rushed to complete sales before the original November deadline for the tax credit. However, prices rose from December 2008 and annual sales improved in 2009. While it’s tough to know for sure if this trend’s for real due to the tax credits, this looks to be a good sign that investors and would-be homeowners are back in the market. I’ll buck my usually skeptical ways and give this a thumbs up – 2 out of 6. (Source National Association of Realtors)
4. Consumer Confidence – The Consumer Confidence Index has risen steadily since October 2009 (about 6%). Economists say that’s enough to expect things to continue trending upward so who am I not to agree. That makes it 3 out of 6. (Source – The Conference Board)
5. Retail Sales – retail sales have improved 1.8% over the past three months adjusted for Holiday sales. I think you get the idea – 4 out of 6. (Source – U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
6. Interest Rate Spread – The Wall Street Journal says that the difference between the yield on risk-free, three-month Treasury bills and the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a rate at which banks lend to each other is a pretty good indicator of economic health as long as the gap is 1/2 percentage point or less. As of today, it’s 2/10 of a percent. 5 out of 6. (Source Wall Street Journal)

Prepared for Change

From what I can tell, it’s time to start sharpening your swords, the battle looks to be back on! From NPR to your brother-in-law you’ll get no shortage of advice for how to prepare so I’ll make mine short and sweet. Of course it’s related to video interviewing. Don’t panic. “How is that video interviewing related?” You ask. One thing video interviewing does extremely well is support the demands of the current recruiting environment – the one built on the old economy, the one that has you doing more with less – while setting you up for the new paradigms of a recovering economy. So with HireVue you can sit tight and see which way the tide rolls because you’re prepared no matter what happens or how fast it unfolds. Below is a comparison I often share to explain how we do this.

Today: Bear Market

In a Bear Market, HireVue helps you:

• Do more with less since interviews can be conducted and reviewed anywhere, anytime.
• Live with reduced staff.
• Interview anyone even with travel restrictions.
• Improve the quality of your hires since you get a clearer view into your candidate pool.
• Manage high candidate volume.
• Give candidates an opportunity to interview without feeling like they’re jeopardizing their current job.
• Reduce the risk of a bad hire.
• Access passive talent and keep all talent invested in the process.
• Gain greater efficiency from a much simplified process.
• Learn more about the benefits of video job interviewing.

Tomorrow: Bull Market

In a Bull Market HireVue helps you:

• Be more efficient as you scale for growth.
• Push your brand message further.
• Manage high requisition volume.
• Make it easier on high value candidates to pay attention to you.
• Increase your speed-to-hire & improve your workflow.
• Give you a competitive advantage due to ease-of-use and “wow” factor.
• Help you access and find the best candidates in a highly competitive situation.

The future of our space is exciting to think about. Not just the 5-year future but what will transpire in the next twelve months. I’m optimistic about it; even more so after looking under the hood a little at the economic trends, and though, as Eisenhower eluded to, nothing is certain. I think the change we’ll experience between now and this time next year will be positive. Still, you’ll have a lot to think about regardless so if we can help reduce the stress a little with HireVue we’d love to help.

I hope you found this article and, if you received it, the newsletter beneficial. Don’t forget to read Caroline’s article on mobile recruiting, I think you’ll find it incredibly helpful. I’d love to get your feedback on anything so don’t hesitate to drop me an e-mail at mnewman@hirevue.com, and if you’d like to sign up for our newsletter, go to our homepage and scroll down to see the newsletter sign up in the right column.

Sincerely,

Mark

This article also appeared in this month’s issue of THE VUE, HireVue’s monthly newsletter. To sign up, go to the HireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up on the right.

By Caroline Slomski, Guest Blogger from NAS Recruitment Communications

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. 2009 is officially over. But the last year has brought more than a change in government, home values, and 401(k) plans. Companies battened down the hatches to ride out the economic wave; and, yet, something else has been brewing: The way in which we consume information. We emerged from our safety shelters and entered a world that is more on-demand than ever before. Leading the revolution? The mobile web.

Last Wednesday, Steve Jobs stepped onto Apple’s stage once again to finally announce one of the most highly anticipated mobile devices of our lifetimes. The Apple iPad. The iPad and other similar new generation mobile devices on the way from Research in Motion (RIM), Nokia, Archos and Vliv may not yet be the perfect mobile devices for recruiting due to lack of support for most video file types and critical HR applications but the promise is real and it’s closer than you think. In fact, your candidates have already begun to arrive at the party and they expect you to be there to greet them even if it hasn’t completely started. There are a number of things you can do to ensure they don’t leave before things get really interesting.

First, let’s consider what we have to work with today. The mobile web is exceedingly more diverse an experience than the web interaction you get from your standard desktop or laptop computer because there are so many variables. The iPhone or Google’s Android phones give you a different mobile web experience than say RIM’s BlackBerry devices. A WAP-enabled Nokia phone, a different experience still. The mobile web introduces a completely new set of rules and challenges that the HR community must adopt.

Considering mobile adoption numbers, if you’re committed to delivering a best-in-class candidate experience and to truly engaging A-level talent, here are your steps for getting mobile-ready:

1. Build a mobile career website. Why? Because despite the fact that most phones are not going to support those beautiful flash pieces you spent months perfecting, the mobile web of today is about snackable content. Your mobile career site is the online equivalent to the 30-second elevator pitch. Deliver only the most essential information and don’t forget to consider your visitors’ needs.
2. Forget about “apply now” for the moment. Your online job application forms are not compatible with most of today’s web-enabled mobile phones. But you can’t afford to miss an opportunity to engage these visitors. Instead of driving them to your application, encourage them to complete a short form that includes their email address and area of interest. Add these names to your talent network and push out relevant career and company information.
3. Expand your communication channels. A mobile-ready site brings with it a whole slew of new communication venues to add to your sourcing strategy: 1) Mobile search marketing, expected to grow to a $2.9 billion business by 2013; 2) Mobile banners, which typically receive much higher click-through-rates than the traditional online banners; and 3) Text messaging, now more popular than calling.

The good news? Until the richer mobile experience promised by the next generation mobile devices, mobile websites work today, and, as compared to your traditional sites, they’re relatively inexpensive to build. If you have already built a strong career website, your transition into the mobile space should be pretty painless. The bad news? You can’t wait any longer to take action. Ask your agency or web analytics team to report on site traffic from mobile phones over the last 18-months. Now consider the growth that the mobile web is experiencing. Do you want your name equated with a poor user experience or as a “johnny-come-lately?” Can your hiring efforts afford to let A-level talent pass through your site without leaving behind their information?

Caroline Slomski is a Digital Marketing Strategist & Consultant for NAS Recruiting Communications focusing on employment branding, website design and online strategy. You can follow Caroline on Twitter @CarolineSlomski.

This article also appeared in this month’s issue of THE VUE, HireVue’s monthly newsletter. To sign up, go to the HireVue home page and scroll down to the newsletter sign up on the right.