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recruitDC 2019

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Thank you for celebrating 10 fabulous years with us! The slide decks are included via SlideShare below.

Don’t forget we are always looking for speakers and volunteers sign up here

We will start with the basics of sourcing and some tips for LinkedIn (Basic and Recruiter). We will then delve deeper into useful tools, tips, tricks, and techniques. We’ll also cover some ways to help you better navigate the DC landscape. Since the DC metro area is an eclectic mix of organizations and people unlike anywhere else in the country, we will discuss some sourcing tactics that are specific to the area. 

Who Should Attend: Sourcers, recruiters, and talent acquisition leaders who realize the importance of the interaction between techniques, technology and tools in their daily recruiting efforts. Anyone looking for ways to improve their sourcing methodologies and best practices should also consider attending.

A company is only as exceptional as the people in it, and to get exceptional people, a strong recruitment process is a must. Whether you’re building a recruitment process for the first time or want to optimize a current one, Brian Fink will provide guidelines and resources that will get put your process ahead of the pack. From understanding your needs to providing a positive candidate experience, we’ll create a comprehensive and actionable process that will nurture candidates and eliminate bottlenecks! At a glance we will focus on: 

  • Knowing your must-haves from your nice-to-haves 
  • Understanding what success will look like in the role 
  • Attracting active and passive talent 
  • Nurturing candidates until the timing is right

Job boards and resume databases have long been the primary methods of sourcing for Recruiters. While resume databases contain millions of “opt in” candidates, the open-web contains billions of profiles and web pages. This track will discuss alternative means of finding talent which leverage open-source methods and open web sourcing. We will discuss the use of automation tools and repurposed open-source solutions to create custom recruiting solutions to improve sourcing efficiency.

Like eating the proverbial elephant, successfully navigating the path to diversity requires a series of small  steps rather than a single leap. It is a journey that combines people, processes, and technology across a wide 
range of topics, each with its own challenges and rewards. 

During this session, we will explore the rich landscape of hiring and how to blaze a trail to an unbiased,  diverse program: from communication and candidate experience, to qualifications, candidate evaluations, 
assessments, and finally candidate selection. We will define goals, tactics and techniques, along with insights on how to effect change within your organizations.  Join us as we map a step-by-step path to a more diverse and inclusive hiring program.

Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by communities, both at work and at home. Studies show that in the office, maximizing your community members’ engagement leads to better retention and higher productivity. But how do you maximize that engagement? Take a journey with me as I dissect the elements of a strong community. I’ll start with my full circle career from Community Relations Intern with the Baltimore Orioles to Director of Talent and Community Engagement at a cutting edge software company. Next, we will look at building a community in your office, metrics and ROI around community engagement, and real-life examples of community building successes.

We’ll even identify your less active members and discuss approaches of how to engage them more- or even get value from them at their current status. We’ll also analyze the relationship between culture and community- how they are different and how they are dependant upon one another. Finally, I’ll provide suggestions on a handful of resources that can be helpful in your workplace community planning.

Do you like to go after a candidate as soon as you see their profile or do you like to know more about them, cultivate a relationship and then bring them to the table? After this session, attendees will walk away with: 

  • Tools to find and connect candidates- ATS, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. 
  • When it might be a good idea to get straight to the point and when you might want to wait (Layoffs, stock-market changes, IPOs etc) 
  • How do you choose the right strategy while working on active positions
  • Personal success stories covering each situation

Celebrating Our 10th Anniversary!

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Since 2009, recruitDC has been hosting annual conferences and networking events for regional recruiters.  In honor of that milestone, we have a new logo as well as a new website.  We hope that you will share information about our regional recruiting based organization with all levels of talent acquisition professionals in your organization.

We also invite you to help us celebrate by providing your favorite recruitDC moment, activity, and/or picture along with the hashtag #recruitDC10 via social media.  As an incentive, each unique entry shared will be entered into a contest — feel free to post multiple memories! One winner will be selected via random drawing among RecruitDC Spring 2019 attendees on May 23rd to receive an iPhone X.  Another winner will be selected from all who were unable to attend the March 23rd event to win free admission to all recruitDC events for 1 year. 

To get you started, we wanted to feature an interview with a member of the community who has attended several of our networking and conference events including our very first one in 2009.  Matt Duren, a recruitDC board member, interviewed Prerna Chauhan, a regionally-based talent acquisition professional, who shares her thoughts about recruitDC, events and getting involved with the community. 

Matt: You’ve been to several recruitDC’s over the years, including the very first in 2009 – tell us why you decided to attend and what it was like back then?
Prerna: The first one was very different in that a strong sense of community didn’t exist back then as it does today. It was much smaller in scale and attendance. However, the purpose of building a community for all of us in the DMV area was clear from Day 1. I attended because I had always wanted to have a network of peers that I could leverage and share ideas and issues that were common and unique to the DMV area.  

Matt: You’ve been a regular attendee over the years, what keeps you coming back to our events?
Prerna: The growing network of professionals who are both eager to learn and to share their knowledge with those who are willing to ask for ideas, help and suggestions. Also, it’s an opportunity to really take a day to focus on self-growth and learning.

Matt: What’s the most significant impact recruitDC has had on your recruiting career? 
Prerna: The network I’ve created. Some of my best professional opportunities have come from word-of-mouth referrals from people I’ve had the fortune of getting to know over the years and because I’ve been able to demonstrate my knowledge and passion and share ideas as well as ask for help when needed and they’ve seen it first-hand. (Special shout out to Mike Bruni who always has my back!!)



Matt: Tell us your favorite/lasting memory from recruitDC?
Prerna: Meeting Steve Levy (Uncle Steve as I fondly call him). I was in a presentation and someone had mentioned sourcing on Twitter, I happened to mutter to myself, a presentation on how would have helped, I didn’t know it then but Steve was right behind me, he heard me, tapped me on my shoulder and asked for my email. Next thing I knew, 30 seconds later I had a presentation that Steve had put together on how to source on Twitter in my inbox. His attitude of willing to help, being available to answer questions has stayed with me and I try to pay that forward to everyone that I can possibly help. 

Matt:  Lastly, If someone is reading this interview and they have yet to decide if they should attend the 10th anniversary of recruitDC, what would you tell them?
Prerna: Just come, if you are willing to put yourself out there and talk to people you’ve never met without hesitation, I promise you won’t regret it. And more than likely, you’ll be back every year and will be happy to volunteer willingly because you’ll see how much you’ll get out of your attendance. If for nothing else, just come for yourself, even one conference will help you grow much more than you realize. DO IT FOR YOURSELF!

Successful Recruiting Strategies Include Sourcing

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Sourcing is one of the most critical aspects of any successful recruiting strategy.  A study done by Lever of over four million candidates found that sourcing is one of the most effective ways to hire. On average, one in every 72 sourced candidates is hired compared to one in every 152 applicants from well-written posts.  But sourcing can do more than find you candidates on LinkedIn or job boards.  Its primary job is to find the under-the-radar, high-quality candidates that no one else is reaching out to. I’m talking about that purple squirrel riding a unicorn kind of candidate that has the potential to be your next Superman or Wonder Woman.

Sourcing candidates can take 13 hours or more out of every recruiter’s week but there are so many tools and so much information out there that it can be intimidating to figure out the best tools/methods for you. That’s where RecruitDC’s Sourcing Innovation Lab comes in.

I’m going to show you some of the best tools and methods for sourcing along with some general tips that can help your overall process. We’ll touch on job posting, Boolean search strings, LinkedIn, Chrome extensions, and websites to find candidates along with their contact information.  My goal is for everyone in attendance to learn some new ways to find candidates.

So get your tickets for RecruitDC’s Spring event on Thursday, May 23 2019 here and bring any sourcing questions you have. I’m looking forward to seeing you all there. J

Time Management in Talent Acquisition

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From the Roman poet Horace’s famous phrase, Carpe Diem, to the modern concepts of Work-Life balance time is our most precious resource. People have been looking for ways to better manage their time for as long as time has been measured. Despite the myriad of technological advances, the constant influx of information in our brave new digital world leaves us as pressed for time as ever. And as the lines between work and home have blurred, time stressors have become the most common and insidious of all job stress factors. In fact, significant correlation exists between time stress and job dissatisfaction, tension, perceived threat, and other factors. For Talent Acquisition professionals, with our need for rapid, consistent multi-channel communications, the problems are even worse.

So, what can we do about it?

If you were looking for a silver bullet, I’m sorry to disappoint you there isn’t one. Hiring Managers, Supervisors and Candidates are likely to demand more of your time than you have available to give. And your inbox is going to continue to fill up like a vampire at a blood bank. But that doesn’t mean that there is nothing you can do.  

You’ll have to begin with a little introspection. What’s really important to you? What are you prepared to sacrifice to get it? This will help you determine how you should be spending your time. Presumably, at least some portion of that will be allocated to work, either as a direct facilitator of joy, or a means to an end. Now look at your work and repeat the exercise. We often spend our time based on habit, or in avoidance of difficult or unpleasant tasks. If we don’t take the time to determine what really matters in our lives and our careers, any attempt to manage our time cannot be properly directed to the desired outcomes.

Once you have determined your priorities, you can begin to dig in to using your time effectively. Effective time management means being able to distinguish between what is important, and what is merely urgent. The US Forest Service created the Smokey Bear advertising campaign emphasizing the important issue of wildfire prevention, rather than simply allocating that funding to the urgent business of fighting fires. Next, consciously seek to apply your time and effort to important matters, not just urgent ones. Will revising your applicant flow in your ATS or responding to an email on a candidate’s status yield you greater long-term results? Effective time management means that you must know your desired outcomes and focus on achievement rather than methods. Best of all, effective time management, along with well thought out priorities empowers you to say “no” when others would place unnecessary demands on your time.

If you can manage your time effectively, you can begin to layer in efficiency. Efficient time management is more about eliminating inefficiency than anything else. For example, people tend to do things they like to do, before things they don’t like to do, even if accomplishing the unpleasant task first will make all subsequent tasks easier. Once you are managing time effectively, you can begin to optimize for efficiency.  

Join Me at RecruitDC to Learn about Community Management

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RecruitDC 2019 is right around the corner- have you bought your ticket yet?

 To quote Anne-Marie (which is really to say ‘To quote Nelly’,)

“If you want to go and take a ride with me…

studying the impacts of community

Hey, show me the productivity!”

 I may have paraphrased somewhere in there.  Don’t worry, I will not rap during my session (she repeats to herself over and over again in her head – You are welcome.)  What I will do is discuss the building blocks of community in the workplace. We’ll address the key elements that bring value to community building for your business (retention and productivity), how to strategize around community management initiatives at your company, identifying metrics to support community growth, and discuss external resources to get you started.  I’ll also run through community engagement opportunities that have been successful for me in the past and how to tailor opportunities to your communities.

 You’ve hired the top talent, but your job isn’t over.  Building a community and encouraging employee engagement is the responsibility of the entire community.  It doesn’t rest in the hands of HR or TA or Operations alone. By capitalizing on the relationships you’ve built through the recruiting process, you can build the foundation to a strong and lasting community.  

Join me on May 23rd at RecruitDC 2019 and find out more about Corralling Your Community.

Fall 2017 Speaker Preview: Celebrating Local Company Cultures

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By Lauryn Sargent

I’m really excited to speak at recruitDC on December 7th where I’ll talk about three different story-based recruitment marketing campaigns for Dell, Sodexo and CVS Health.

Over my thirteen years in the DC talent space, I’ve seen our local employers care more and more about giving positive work experiences to their team… and they have the proof (employee stories) to back it up. In this post I want to celebrate them! Here are two DC companies who use stories to showcase their unique culture.

Visionist is a government contractor in Columbia, Maryland that’s unlike any other. When we interviewed their team, we were struck by how being on “the bench” between projects is actually an opportunity to stretch professionally. And one team member asked to continue the training he started in between projects:

“I was on the bench for about a month before going on program. In that month I was working on R&D projects at Visionist HQ and I really enjoyed it. I was learning every single day and it was amazing. Once I got on program I was working with entirely different technology. I wanted to stay sharp on what I was working on at Visionist HQ as well, so I asked the leadership if I could come back and they said, ‘Absolutely.’ I was really appreciative that I could learn two different things (simultaneously).”

Even though the employees we interviewed couldn’t talk specifics about what the team actually does every day, we were able to get a clear sense of culture because we heard so many stories about what the organization does for their employees. Three themes emerged based on the stories told from people in analyst to executive levels: a sense of purpose in the work they’re doing to defend our nation, a strong culture of innovation, and how they put employees first (even before clients). The first story in this video is a personal story from one of the founders about why Visionist:

Even though they are a small government contractor with a modest budget, Visionist bought targeted Facebook ads and each video was viewed over 5,000 times. Even better: candidates in and outside of the industry told the CEO they only applied because they were looking for a company with a strong culture and felt they found it after watching the videos. One candidate said they never even considered working in government consulting before learning about Visionist.

Frontpoint is a Virginia-based company dedicated to the safety and security of people and their homes.  

When we sat down with the Frontpoint team, one thing was very clear: values from Day 1 still show up in Year 10. One of Frontpoint’s core values is building trust. In this video, Aaron, one of the founders, tells the story of how he treated their very first customer:

Stories Inc has been lucky to not only work with, but learn from, DC-area companies like The Motley Fool, The Menkiti Group and Keller Williams Capital Properties, Visionist, Frontpoint, MBP and New Light Technologies… all companies who care immensely about building strong cultures and have the stories to back it up. And these are just the ones we’ve worked with — not representative of all the great DC area companies providing great growth experiences for their employees. Are you working somewhere you love? Leave your own story in the comments! And I hope to see you in December!

Lauryn Sargent is a cofounder at Stories Incorporated, a recruitment marketing content creation agency based on employee stories. Along with the Stories team, she has collaborated with some of the most people progressive companies in the world to develop powerful and authentic employer branding and recruitment marketing content. She has spoken at NACE, Social Recruiting Strategies, and Employer Branding Strategies conferences, instructing audiences on how to create story-based content to educate and engage potential candidates. 

Prior to starting Stories, she was a talent acquisition manager for a publicly traded company and recruited for Fortune 500 companies as well as growing entrepreneurial environments.

Session Preview – The Art of Seductive Sourcing

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By Kevin Crews

Searching for candidates on the Internet can be A) Very Rewarding, B) Very Time Consuming, C) Very Easy, D) Very Frustrating, or E) All of the above? The answer is: F) It depends. It depends on your knowledge, skills, and abilities on how and where you find the candidates. If you know the secrets, it can be a very rewarding and easy experience or at least, as “easy” as recruiting can get. Even if you do it right, it is still a difficult process that takes a concentrated effort from all parties involved. But, you often feel that it is “easier” because you have the knowledge that gives you the confidence that “this can be accomplished.”

If you look in “traditional” places on the Internet, you might receive “traditional” results. Looking exactly where your competition is looking, is most likely getting you the same results as always. The demand for superstar candidates is at an all-time high but the supply of top candidates is at an all-time low (due to the baby-boomers retiring and other economics). This results in the fact that it has never been more difficult to get the right people in the right jobs for the right price.

By using proven Internet sourcing strategies, recruiters often feel that they have conquered the web. Candidates are hidden in plain sight all over the Internet, but if you don’t know how and where to search for them, they remain well hidden in what most uneducated sourcers/recruiters feel is the deep dark unexplored world wide web.

However, there is a solution. How many of these phrases resonate with you? Social Media. Mobile Recruiting. Boolean. XRay. Image Searching. Video Searching. Blogging for Candidates. Twitter Lists. Search Is Back. Google Alerts. Wayback Machine. If those sound like your everyday sourcing strategies, then you have probably mastered the concept of looking for purple squirrels on the Internet, and your requisitions are getting filled faster than ever with high quality individuals. If those words are Greek to you from a sourcing/recruiting perspective, then help is on the way. Learning these techniques from the pros will put you in the driver’s seat, knowing that tomorrow’s recruiting challenges are achievable.

Cohesively connecting both social media and mobile technology is crucial to a company’s success in today’s competitive recruitment marketplace. Companies need to engage and attract candidates in order to stay ahead of the competition. From a candidate’s perspective, it’s an expectation to be able to communicate and interact with prospective employers via social and mobile platforms. By using all of these strategies, it will not allow you to recruit with your eyes closed, but instead, keep your eyes closed at night.

Don’t miss Kevin’s session on May 25th at recruitDC’s Spring 2017 conference!

Why recruitDC Matters To Me

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By Audra Knight

I was rather nervous the first time I attended recruitDC. Now, let me clear here – I knew I was going to learn a lot at RecruitDC in 2016, but what I didn’t expect was the friendships that would come out of attending the conference.

For me, it was great to catch up with some old friends like Katrina Collier, Jo Weech, Kerri Noone and some other great DC people who make our industry and community so special. As for new friends, I ended up at a meal with one of my favorite podcasters, the Mad Scientist of Online Recruiting Chris Russell. Not surprisingly, we’ve kept in touch and I have learned so much about HR Tech from him over the past year. It was also at this event that I first met Chris Kurtz, whom I now consider one of my best friends and someone I am so thankful to have in my life. Derek Zeller taught me that you should always celebrate who you are, and he continues to blow me away with his recruiting knowledge and writing skills, even from the other side of the country in Portland. As a side note, the most surprising aspect of any connection I made while I was there was the valuable parenting advice that I got from Lorne Epstein. I bet he doesn’t even remember but it has really helped me. Hat tip to you, Lorne. 

This year I’m returning to recruitDC, and by far, the learning is again a strong pull for me. The event covers everything from sourcing to closing the candidate, which we can always use a refresher on.

In my presentation, I will be sharing why and how personal branding will benefit everyone in recruitment. Candidates are researching us online just as we are researching them, and trust me, the cost of a bad online presence is high. Don’t believe me? Just check out the hashtag #RecruiterFail. I I most certainly appreciate that we are all super busy, so what you’ll see from me is a few easy tips and tricks to put in action in no time.

Beyond the learning, I am really looking forward to another chance to meet new people and make new recruiting friends. Here are my “pro tips” for networking at this event:

  • Arrive early and have breakfast with the other early risers like me.
  • Don’t work during the breaks. You might not get another chance to meet the great people around you.
  • At lunch, sit with people you don’t know. Confort Zones are to be avoided at conferences!
  • Meet all the sponsors. We wouldn’t have this great event without them and you just make have something in common.
  • Listen more than you talk – so important to relationship building at every stage.
  • Most important, stay for the networking party from 4:00 on as that’s where the real friendships happen.

See you next week!

RecruitDC 2016 – One old friend and one new friend

Welcome Back To recruitDC, Matt Charney!

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We’re excited to welcome Matt Charney back to recruitDC this May, and he has pulled together a great closing keynote, with some great information to share with attendees. Always one to look past what’s shiny on the surface, and well-known for calling things “as they are”, Matt will bring a fresh perspective to some important topics in the Talent Acquisition space. This presentation will take a look at some of the biggest trends and emerging technologies impacting recruiting and hiring today. It’s a must-attend whether you are running a desk, or managing a division of recruiters.

From NGOs to Fortune 500 companies to Mom and Pop shops, we will look across markets, industries and specialties to identify what talent leaders can do today to compete – and win – the top talent of tomorrow. Matt will discuss the real issues that really matter to real recruiters, and focus on identifying what’s really new and what’s really next. He’s going to encourage ditching the buzzwords and fluff for a data driven look into the changing world of work – and what that means for the work of HR and recruiting.

Here’s what you can expect to take away from Matt’s session:

  • How to follow the trail of venture capital and influx of cash to determine which startups are being built to last, which categories of technology and tools are the hottest segments of the talent business, and how recruiters can stay ahead by staying on top of the bigger business picture without a whole lot of work (or any special knowledge).

  • What the future of work looks like after on boarding, and how the blended workforce and gig economy models, coupled with a rise in knowledge work, globalization and remote workers, are already shaping the way companies hire, and what the upending of the traditional social contract means for traditional recruiting and Human Relations. 

  • How to build a business case for talent acquisition to get the resources required to recruit the talent you need, and how to work with internal stakeholders and employees to tie talent acquisition efforts directly to bottom line results. We’ll talk about how to make friends, influence hiring managers and finally make your people the greatest asset in the business – only with the P/L to prove it.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Still need tickets?

Buy them here before they sell out!

Thank You, recruitDC

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By Pete Radloff

I’ve been very lucky in my career. Luck played a part in how I even got into recruiting. It played a part in my having some of the best mentors and teachers that you could ask for over the course of a career. Because of my appreciation for all of this luck, I’ve always wanted to pay it forward, to use a phrase. Turns out, I wouldn’t have to wait long.

In 2010, I attended the first ever recruitDC, at Wooly Mammoth Theatre in D.C.. I lucky enough be asked to be on a panel about sourcing tools and techniques with some people that I greatly admired. And while I knew a good number of the attendees, I met so many people there, that it was hard to keep track of everyone. I would later find out through various conversations with people, some years later, that they had also been in attendance. It was a whirlwind event, but one that I took away a great deal from.

I walked out of the first recruitDC conference feeling as though I had just been handed the keys to the kingdom. I had innumerable new tricks to apply to my sourcing and recruiting, and new (to me) tools to test out. I was in a bit of recruiting-geek heaven, and to borrow a phrase from my friend Stacy, “I knew I had found my people”. I knew that for as long as there were more of these, I’d be one of the first to buy tickets. After all, as much as I wanted to attend national conferences, there was never a budget for that. And up until now, I hadn’t seen anything with that depth of content at an event at a local level. Hooked.

I was invited to join the Board of Directors for recruitDC in 2011. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to help shape and grow an organization I was very fond of. Heck, I’d get to work with Bob Corlett again. That in and of itself was enough to make me say yes. It turns out, that I got so much more out of it than I had ever expected. To be honest, I’ve been on the Board for longer than I’ve been at any job. and in that time, we’ve accomplished a lot.  

Fast forward to now, my last event as a Board member of recruitDC. I’m not one for sappy good-byes, but I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for the opportunity to have been on this great ride. I’m proud to call each of the board members – past, present & newly elected – a good friend. I’m emboldened by the mix of new and familiar faces at each and every conference. I’ve always believed that a connected community is a strong community, and the recruiting & sourcing community in DC is one of the strongest that I know of. 

May 25th is just around the corner. And, in a bittersweet way, I’m really looking forward to this event. The sessions are filled with great information and we’ve pulled together a strong mix of talent from the D.C. area and the country.

To those who haven’t yet come to recruitDC, or are on the fence:

Find a reason to come to the conference. It is worth the investment of time to grow and expand your network – just ask anyone who has come to a recruitDC event before. Don’t expect one day to solve all your recruiting & problems, but rather let it add to the body of knowledge that goes with you wherever you go. And no matter what happens professionally, your community is still there. And the reqs on your desk? They will still be there tomorrow too, but maybe you’ll have some better tools and tactics to fill them with. 

I hope to see you there on May 25th, and hope that your experience with recruitDC is as meaningful to you as it is to me.  And that is due to the community. 

So…thanks recruitDC. 

P.S.  – Click to buy tickets

 

 

 

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