2012

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees

Some advice from the respondents of the survey:

[SURVEY: EMPLOYERS SEEKING EMPLOYEES]

This study includes the results of a survey sent to 92 human resource professionals in the United States. The objective of the study was to understand the tendency and circumstance of employers actively seeking out employees, what web services they use, and the willingness to review other forms of media to compliment or replace the standard resume.

Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Overview

I designed a survey to get a better understanding about the tendency and circumstance of employers seeking employees by targeting them in web services a key ingredient for the effectiveness of a pull approach; where you pull a potential employer to your professional website. For a pilot study, I distributed the survey anonymously to 92 human resource professionals. This study is broken down into five sections: a short analysis on web services being used, whether hiring professionals actively search for candidates, the media respondents are willing to use in their evaluation, how a professional website can be used in the process, and how this is not only a white collar phenomenon. The answer to the question are employers seeking employees by targeting them in web services is sometimes and it is becoming more common, though the traditional methods of finding employment remain most important. The respondents are predominately using LinkedIn, MonsterJobs, Career Builder, and Google and 39.1% of them thought the effectiveness of these web services was only average. All of the respondents are willing to review various types of media while evaluating a potential candidate; the most commonly accepted media includes a professional website, video resume, portfolio, publications, and coursework. Most of the respondents, 77.2%, agreed that searching on a skill set is an effective way to find a candidate. One suggestion was to have more uniformity with the presentation of a skill set, so there is little variation with the same basic skill (i.e. website development and website design). From the open-ended responses, the general theme is searching on a skill set is the most effective starting point in finding candidates for employment. The traditional approach, finding and applying to job listings, ranked as the most important factor in getting employed. Social media engagement and professional networking was slightly higher than personal branding, of course there is some overlap between the two. Writing a blog was the lowest ranked factor; though, 12 of the respondents gave writing a blog a first or second ranking.

Here is some information about my sample.

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite

92 HR professionals, all in the United States 92.4% of the respondents are over 30 years old and the largest segment (41.9%) is between 45-60; the yardstick set by LinkedIn is 42 years old (the average age of a LinkedIn user). 58.1% of the respondents are women 79.6% have a college degree Over 20 different industries and services are represented

I would like to redistribute this same survey to a wider audience and a sample of HR professionals who have read this study (so they understand what we are trying to accomplish) and then apply the same analysis that will be done with this study. If you are an HR professional or a recruiter and you would like to participate, please send an email to info@theprofessionalwebsite.com, in the subject line put HR/recruiter survey and use the email you would like me to send the survey to; also, forward a link to this blog to colleagues you know who might be interested in taking the survey. Once I have a good number of participants, I will launch the study and you will receive a link to the survey. To get a margin error between +- 5% and +-10%, we will need at least 100 respondents (assuming a portion of the 500,000+ HR professionals in the US are involved in hiring).

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Web Services

Seventy-five percent of the respondents use one of the major online web services for employment placement whether they use it to seek out employees or post-employment listings or collect responses from listings. The big three web services are MonsterJobs (55.43% ), LinkedIn (53.26%), and Career Builder (53.26%); some of the other web services the respondents use include Google (23.91%), Yahoo (15.22%), WSJ (6.52%), Craigslist, Dice.com, local newspapers websites, government services, professional organizations websites, staffing agencies, Indeed.com, and Jobing.com - in parenthesis are the percentage of respondents who use the web service. The effectiveness of these web services in finding a targeted list of candidates is slightly better than average with a rating of 3.24 out of 5.00.

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Searching For Candidates
One of the objectives of the survey is to understand whether hiring professionals actively use web services to search for candidates, a requirement for an effective pull approach; where you pull a potential employer to your professional website. I think this tendency is becoming more common, especially with certain types of careers. And in open-ended responses, some respondents made it clear they do seek out candidates (see quotes below). However, applying to job listings through job boards, company websites, industry specific websites, and newspapers ranked by far the most important factor in finding employment according to the respondents. In addition, as I created the survey, I had an assumption that there was a significant increase in the pace of job placement (the time it takes to find and evaluate candidates, and make an offer) for two reasons: the availability of sophisticated web services employers can use to actively seek out candidates; and the necessity to hire quickly in our expanding service industry, especially in IT, business, and communications areas. I did not get as strong of a response as I expected. On a ranking scale 1 to 5 (5 being a major increase), the average ranking was 2.64 and the largest segment of respondents (38.5%) reported only somewhat and in open-ended responses expressed that an evaluation of soft-skills remains important. Here are some of the open-ended responses regarding searching for candidates:

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Types Of Media

It is refreshing to see that human resource professionals are embracing technology and are willing to use various types of media while evaluating a candidate for employment; every respondent from the survey is willing to review other forms of media to compliment or replace the traditional resume and cover letter. Here are conclusions made from the survey results: Most respondents, 77.17%, are willing to review a professional website and in the early evaluation stages. This makes sense considering professional websites may eventually replace resumes as the standard platform for employment evaluations. A professional website has added functionality, richer content, and communication features built into it why it can be referred to as a multi-dimensional resume. Not surprising, many respondents, 43.48%, are willing to review a video resume during the initial screening stage. Video resumes enable professionals to bring ingenuity to the application process. Candidates must create a script, plan a setting, choreograph a story, and show some personality while creating a video. Many respondents, 35.87%, are willing to read a blog during the initial screening stage. This confirms the importance in demonstrating you have something to say, and business and communications professors are onto something when they tell their students to start writing a blog. Most respondents are willing to review a body of work (publications, coursework, publications) during the initial screening or mid-review stages. Potential employers like to see work samples to make their own validation of a candidates capabilities. Social media engagement is clearly something HR professionals are reviewing in an evaluation; there is strong possibility how you represent yourself in Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook might be reviewed in a professional context. By far, these various forms of media are evaluated in the early stage of an evaluation and less so when a final decision is being made. All of these forms of media can be presented on a professional website.

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite A Professional Website

It was fascinating making sense of the results from the survey because I was able to get valuable insights from human resource professionals who conduct employment evaluations; something I think can be improved upon with a professional website. I say this because of the following conclusions I was able to make based on the results of the survey. First, the respondents are using various web services (primarily MonsterJobs, CareerBuilder, and LinkedIn) when trying to find candidates, so it makes sense to link to your professional website in each of their profiles/resumes create an identity. Second, a resounding majority of the respondents are willing to review other media than a traditional resume and cover letter and a professional website allows for you share all of these types of media video resume, portfolio, publications, coursework files, and a blog. Third, a majority of the respondents (77.2%) agreed that a searching on a skill set is an effective way to find a candidate; the development of a skill set is one key component in the framework of a professional website. Fourth, the most important factor in getting employed is following the traditional method of finding and applying to job listings according to the survey results; the administrative interface of a professional website has many tools to support this method, including: creating PDF resumes and cover letters; managing contacts and applications; and delivering an application or sending an invitation to your website in an email. Finally, in open-ended responses, many of the respondents suggested having accurate and error-free content and to use industry specific keywords and skills in material presented to them; through GroupShare, a professional website has tools for peer-reviews and counseling to address these suggestions.

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Survey: Employers Seeking Employees Published 12/14/2012 by TheProfessionalWebsite Not A White Collar Phenomenon
Using web services to advance your career is not limited to white-collar or IT and business professionals. I sent the survey to HR professionals from 20 different industries/services and 30 US states and there is a clear majority of respondents using web services to find candidates (75%) and every respondent is willing to accept other types of media for employment evaluations (to compliment or replace a standard resume and cover letter). This tells me a few things. For many careers, it is necessary to get references to validate your experiences and skills what LinkedIn calls endorsements. To accomplish this validation, LinkedIn has built a sophisticated, networked interface where your connections can endorse you. However, I find a few difficulties with their approach: early career professionals simply do not have many connections and have not yet developed many skills; there becomes a popularity contest where the number not necessarily the quality of endorsements and connections defines you (why else are the number of connections so prominently placed); and the interface is so impersonal essentially anyone can endorse you and view your profile without consent. What am I driving at? You cannot fully rely on a single web service when you are seeking employment, and some web services will work better for you based on your career type and stage. According to the survey, HR professionals are primarily using LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and MonsterJobs to find candidates. As discussed above, LinkedIn works great for mid-career, higher-paid professionals (average age of a LinkedIn user is 42 and the average household income is over $88,000). MonsterJobs and CareerBuilder have a service with a more traditional resume approach and therefore might cater better for early career professionals and careers that require less professional networking. Echoing a suggestion in other blog entries, use your professional website as a landing page in each of these web services. Most HR professionals would agree that the best way to represent yourself while applying to a job or getting found by a potential employer is to provide as much content as you can. Take an inventory of what content you can create and relates to your profession and provide it on your professional website. This might seem difficult if you have little employment experience, but with some selfreflection you should consider the following (in parenthesis is the percentage of human resource personnel willing to review this type of media during an employment review): If you are a recent college graduate, share sample papers, presentations, and projects from your courses that are a strong representation of your capabilities (74%) Create a video resume (53%) Write a blog (44%)

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