After building Communities since 2001 for dozens of companies and helping 800 people find roles that they craved, there are quite a few lessons we’ve learned over the years...
Man, did we make mistakes and still do, but there is one takeaway we can share - there aren’t any Talent Community templates. After 10 years of experience building them, we still are confronted with unique challenges each time we partner with a company. That “partner” term is not one we use lightly, because it is essential for companies to embrace the concept to realize the amazing results a Talent Community can provide. The key is to work toward a goal of vastly improving a company’s employment system leading to great hiring decisions.
There are numerous myths that have cropped up about Talent Communities in the HR diaspora, and a few other so called “facts” that get bandied about, and I can dispel a few here…
1. People’s perceptions of the term “talent community” is really misplaced. There is no “cookie cutter” or neat trick that can be given to a company. Social recruiting has enabled us to make huge strides, but as an industry, we have no idea what we’re doing yet. Even after 10 years, we still approach each project as if it was our first…
2. Large communities are good for marketing - not so good for engaging talent. Yet millions have been spent on FaceBook Fan Pages and LinkedIn Groups with hopes of making huge numbers of hires. Companies have hired HR Community Managers to respond to the thousands of Likes and Followers – to what result? Sure, people are connecting for job openings on these Fan Pages and being hired – but they’re probably the same people that have already applied and are using the Social Networks to get noticed. I know of one 50,000 person company that is spending most of its time repairing the damage their Social Network groups have done and can’t wait to begin building smaller Talent Neighborhoods where they seek to attract a more targeted crowd.
3. The 10% of the workforce actively pursuing a new job are typically the ones who “join” Talent Communities. Most people view “careers” in a negative light. After 60 years of putting career consumers through the ringer to get an interview – we’ve conditioned most to view career activity like swallowing a dead fish whole. Only 5% of US workers do anything proactively to build their careers when they don‘t absolutely have to. We’ll only lure back the jilted 90% by making career activity the enriching, rewarding and exciting endeavor it should be. Without changing this marketplace perception, Community based talent will only offer the Active Job Seekers another path to take and will not engage the masses…
4. Talent Communities are certainly NOT new. What is NEW is how to make use of the Social Networking norms that FB, LI and TW have brought to our culture. There has never been a better time in history to build a Talent Community…but you have to take a new approach that won’t include resumes, job ads, screen outs – or anything to do with “recruiting” because the 90% will run for the hills…
So as you can see, there are more to communities than meets the eye and if you are thinking about building one, I would strongly urge you to seek out someone with experience before diving in. TC’s can definitely lead to the best hires in less time and at lower costs, and be the best thing you ever decided to do to improve your employment program – Good Luck!