I recently had several discussions about key reasons that certain referral models fail to work. It isn’t very much about the actual system, but failure to educate the users of the system. When Monster.com took the online world by storm I was working on a government account that fought tooth and nail to hold onto recruiting standards from twenty years ago. The recruiting world in general had been stagnant so long that there were strongly entrenched believers in the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mind set.

The idealogy hasn’t changed. Rather than being focused on faxing resumes or getting them in the mail like five years ago, many recruiters are trying to figure out how to maximize the tools given to them online through the job boards. When they first came out, they worked wonderfully, then job and resume SPAM slowly but surely drowned out the effectiveness of the system and some sites compounded the problem by focusing on generating revenue through advertisement sales that were not strongly related to the recruitment process.

So here we are, we have a new form of mail (e-mail), a new form of classified (job boards), and a new way of filing resumes (our databases). The big problem however, is a human one.

We want human interaction.

Having spent the past year focusiong on blog technology and social networking online, my marketing skills and online design services quickly began seeing the effectiveness of human interaction in a recruitment world. In fact most of the strongest models of marketing (not just recruiting) are built on human interaction elements.

Word of mouth and recommendations from friends.

A trusting hand shake.

A pleasant voice on the phone.

A smile from the customer service representative.

Now that I’ve played with over a dozen online referral systems (some job related, some business related, and some sales related)…. the element isn’t the technology- it’s the people behind it.

A very large hinderance to the current referral systems out there is usage and acceptance. Overcoming the recruiter’s and applicant’s fear of technology and a new process is a huge undertaking. The government account I mentioned previously was scared to death of new processes. Most professionals in any industry are scared to leap from a sinking ship as it is the only ship they have every known.

One by one recruiters had to be “converted” and brought into the light. It took a combination of sales and marketing, personal commitment to associates taking a chance with a new system, and the ability to believe in what you were selling.

The funny part of this dilemna is that it’s a horrible circle caused by the very technology everyone loves online. The past ten years recruiters have been heavilly encourage to categorize, filter, sort, and control candidate pools by using various online tools. In a way, many of the recruiters and hiring managers who didn’t have a strong grasp of what was happening fell head over heels into the online swamp of resumes. They became disconnected from the very people they were trying to connect with.

Today the online world is shifting-

From mass comunication, reaching more people to personal communication, reaching people more

Recruiters are going through the whole curve again, but this time it’s back towards the direction some of them started from. I’m going to use my personal experience with some of the job referral systems and highlight some of the experience. It relates to the referral system from the candidate side, but has issue regarding how the systems are being used.

This specific issue happened five times through three different online job referral systems. I’ll leave out which ones were used as this appears to be an inherent problem across the board as far as I can tell.

I received a referral about a job-

1- that pertained to my skillset

2- that pertained to my career level

3- that met my salary level

4- was interesting enough to look into

5- came from a trusted associate or personal friend

In all but one of the seven cases I applied and heard nothing until I investigated further. In several instances the recruiter was buried under paperwork, they had not taken the time to examine the responses from the referral, or they were unreachable.

In those cases a perfectly good referral system gave a fair candidate to the recruiter yet due to the human element the process fell apart. In all cases damage to the social network was risked as my associate placed themselves on the line by offering to refer and/or recommend me to the job/company. The technical aspect of the system worked, but the usage of the system by the recruiter was not fully understood or they failed to commit themselves to the entire process.

When a personal referral is made- it is a “human to human” interaction, based on a human relation with the referral. One of the big drawbacks to the job boards is that it has shifted the tendancy of online recruiting to become a “human to database” interaction.

A successful and well trained recruiter will take a personal referral and intergrate any candidate into the recruiting strategy by either a) referring me to a recruiter within the company who could use my skills or b) by advising me what they are looking for and sourcing my own personal network or c) advising me that my skills do not fit the role and that I am not a fit for any foreseeable openings. As any professional recruiter knows, many good people know other good people. It is also a requirement of recruiting through referrals to interview candidates making sure they don’t fit your needs.

Recruiters using a referral based system should be aware that the system has more in common with the typical headhunter tactic where all candidates need a human element rather than being left in a database. Treating a referral system like a job board database results in social networks being used for negative outcomes and no professional I’m aware of likes to have a professional contact placed at risk over a referral that may or may not turn out.

On a similar note- I had some interest in some of the positions over at Microsoft and Heather Hamilton responded in person and did exactly what she said she would do to follow up. Within a week I had spoke to two different recruiters in the Microsoft group, one that had some potential and one that did not. In both cases however, I would feel good referring any of my friends to Heather’s group knowing they will be followed up with in a professional manner. Kudos to Heather and Microsoft for having a good recruiting team.

Well I’ve stepped up to the plate to develop www.SeattleMojo.com in conjunction with MetroMojo.com. They have great set of community sites that have developed over the past 18 months in the central region and this will be the first west coast city to launch.

Right now editorial content is low for SeattleMojo, but that will be corrected soon enough. There are some interesting options we’ll be implementing on this site, so it will be a proving ground for some of our revolutionary ideas regarding online community. Right now we have a feature set that is very similar to Myspace.com, but our model will be focused around the local community and have a real world aspect to it as well.

Well I’ve stepped up to the plate to develop www.SeattleMojo.com in conjunction with MetroMojo.com. They have great set of community sites that have developed over the past 18 months in the central region and this will be the first west coast city to launch.

Right now editorial content is low for SeattleMojo, but that will be corrected soon enough. There are some interesting options we’ll be implementing on this site, so it will be a proving ground for some of our revolutionary ideas regarding online community. Right now we have a feature set that is very similar to Myspace.com, but our model will be focused around the local community and have a real world aspect to it as well.

Where do we go from here?

I just read some updated information on Virtual Earth by Microsoft and had to sit down and think about how it could affect the way technology influences our lives. This particular technology personally interests me on a variety of aspects. Other sites such as Yahoo.maps and Google Maps have brought mapping services together- however Virtual Earth may be a step into the sci-fi realm as things begin to converge. As physical locations become searchable items online the way we interact with the world will become very different.

Some not too distant possibilities-

-Imagine walking downtown and the cookie based tracking system in your cell phone database realizes you haven’t visited a coffee shop for your morning coffee. As you walk by it reminds you by name and communicates with the coffee shop server. You click “yep, I need my morning coffee” and by the time you park your car and get to the counter the barista has your morning favorite ready to go and your account has already been charged.

-Imagine walking up to a street corner and realizing you have an hour to spend before a meeting and you simply query your PDA what local spots of interests fit your user profile. It could recommend a walk in the local park depending on the weather or visiting the local tavern for a special brew you love.

-Imagine being able to sit down at a scenic viewpoint and query your portable computer about “people who have visited here” and having the ability to browse through public profiles of people who may have similar interests.

-Walking into a popular technology store and having the store database let you know that they are looking to fill a job that matches the requirements you put in your online resume last week.

There are so many forms of data that could be combined with some basic variants of the technology we already have (cell phones, PDAs, Wifi Laptops, Bluetooth enabled cars) that we could quickly see a revolutionized way of communicating.

Virtual Earth vs. Google Earth – SearchEngineWatch.com