The era of secretive hyper-competition for candidates is coming to an end.
“If you're still covering your recruiting answers and hoarding candidates, you are absolutely missing out,” Stacy Zapar, an 18-year recruiting veteran and founder of Tenfold, said during a recent Dice Webinar.
Pros like Zapar are powering a trend that replaces the so-called “war for talent” with more collaboration and sharing among recruiters and HR pros. The movement, often referred to as “crowdsourcing," relies heavily on social media and dramatically widens access to ideas and insights on how to improve efforts to find top talent.
“In the last nine months, I have never seen so many folks going out there, sharing, crowdsourcing and giving back to others,” Zapar said. “I’m seeing it all over the place. We’re all sharing what we know, asking questions and getting answers.”
Here are a few ideas for joining the crowd-sourcing world:
Join a Facebook Group
Just go to Facebook and search for "HR," "recruiting," or a similar phrase, and you’ll see a proliferation of communities. “Honestly, Facebook is absolutely now my go-to. It's where I go to network,” Zapar said. Here’s a list of six to get you started:
Follow Hashtags on Twitter
Twitter is a major player in the HR crowdsourcing movement. Start following a few of these today:
- #EBchat - Employer Brand Chat
- #DTHR - DriveThru HR
- #SHRM - Society of Human Resource Management
- #HRevolution - HRevolution event & community
- #TalentNet - TalentNet Interactive Event & Community
- #tchat - Talent Culture Chat
- #DiceInnovate - Dice
Web Sites, Podcasts, Blogs
HROS.co, a movement designed to encourage HR open source, offers a great lists of podcasts, websites and blogs dedicated to sharing ideas. Also, use the Dice Employer Resource Center for industry insights and more.
Check Out Case Studies
HROS.co also provides a growing list of case studies that include details on whatever went wrong with company outreach, so that others may avoid similar pitfalls.
Attend Conferences
Conferences are becoming more about sharing and helping each other and less about getting a pitch. Zapar suggests volunteering to speak on stage and share what you know.
Attend an “Unconference”
"Unconferences" are often just a group of peers sitting in a circle with very few rules, no pitches and no decks. They’re very low-key meetings of equals who discuss ideas and answer each other’s questions. #truMunity holds unconferences around the world.
Tap into Technology
Tools such as TalentSearch make social recruiting easier and can help you connect with millions of tech pros.
Zapar thinks the trend toward openness is unstoppable. “The days of hoarding and hiding and being cutthroat and that hard edge, those days are gone,” she said. “We’re now in the sharing economy. I encourage you to join these conversations. You will reap endless benefits from it.”
