Staffing Technology. For the People. By the People
Making technology work in the recruitment arena
Very often, folks are clueless when it comes to using technology. They often rely on those more gifted in the use of gizmos and gadgets to explain the ins and outs of the latest must-have tech tools. Unfortunately, this lack of understanding often leads to indecision or bad decisions when it comes to recruitment. We asked Kit Lamoureux, interactive marketing specialist and director of development, Marcom, to help us understand the best way to include and utilize technology in the recruitment arena.
We caught up with Kit in his home office in Ottawa, where he has been tooling with technology for the past two years.
Q. Technology is created by people, for people. But, it can be very non-user friendly. How do you knock down that barrier?
A. I think coming from a non-technology background (I was a marketing guy before I was a tech guy) and figuring most of this stuff out on my own helps me easily communicate it to users. Ultimately, all interactive media boils down to a user experience, and this is a concept everyone can understand. We interact with technology all the time and the experiences that engage us on many levels, without allowing the technology to overpower the message, are the best.
A common example of this concept is the telephone. We all use it every day, but we don't spend ANY time thinking about how the phone works (except when it's not working). This is an example of an elegant technology solution, which is what we strive to deliver to users when we build our products and pitch our ideas. I don't explain how we are going to integrate video and audio clip testimonials into the website from a database backend that is consistently updateable--I just talk about the user experience and how the fluidity of the experience will be. This, in the end, is all anyone cares about.
Q. Are the staffing folks lagging behind others in understanding user experience and utilizing technology?
A. In many ways, we were the first to accept and utilize Web technology. Before there was ge.com, the folks here at Hodes were instrumental in getting gecareers.com up and running. And, before the Monster roared, Hodes introduced the first job board, Career Mosaic, to the online world. Our creatives still churn out more interactive solutions for our HR customers than most consumer communications agencies do for their big-time ad spenders.
But, mainstream marketing, along with recruitment, has now embraced Web-based technology and other delivery platforms. One only has to look at the latest Nike ads and then check out their website. The integration of messaging throughout the entire campaign is evident and leveraged for maximum impact. Nike is using these technologies not only for information gathering and research, but also as a main communication vehicle for their message and their brand. In recruitment, the same process is being used to leverage the employer brand/reputation.
If we look at a timeline of multimedia development, from high impact acetates for overhead presentations and advanced PowerPoint presentations, to interactive media in the form of CD-ROMs and kiosk work, and the online revolution, you can see how it parallels the ability of all these vehicles to reach broader and broader audiences. This matches the speed at which they have been adopted by the industry. Right now, multimedia products are at a very mature level. You would be hard-pressed to find a corporation that hasn't used PowerPoint in some way. Many companies have created interactive sales tools on CD-ROM or in kiosks, and most, if not all, have websites.
In recruitment, enough people have access to the technology these products need (CD-ROM drives and Web browsers with Internet access) to make it a viable means for companies to reach as many people as possible with their message. I think the next 5 years will be an exciting time as the talent market really heats up and companies need to try harder to attract the best talent across a larger and more global landscape. It will take the use of technology to extend recruiters' reach and make their budgets more effective and stretch farther.
Q. So, you believe technology has a natural place in any (global or local) recruitment marketing strategy?
A. Before getting into technology, I actually got a Marketing degree and, for some reason, the definition of marketing always stuck in my head: A group of interrelated business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want-satisfying goods and services to present and potential customers.
A marketing strategy addresses all those 4 Ps (plan, price, promotion, place) and it isn't hard to see how technology is involved in all of them. As a planning tool, technology enables us to stimulate user demand and analyze where we should be spending our advertising dollars. We can conduct research and surveys through various media to give us data on such things as the perception of our ads and the best mix of media buying to get the impact we want. Advertising sits in the promotion point, and through the various vehicles mentioned earlier, we can promote more effectively by using a technology solution designed to reach our potential market. Technology is pervasive across marketing and it isn't going anywhere.
Q. It's already very much embedded into the recruiting process. Correct?
A. Yes. Automated recruiting processes have so many advantages from a cost-effective perspective that it's not hard to convince recruiters of the benefits of using a system like Hodes iQ, which automates and provides simple tools for managing the recruiting process for HR recruiters.
A tougher sell is items like a careers website that goes beyond a simple "these are our current openings" page. Interviews with employees show time and again that the biggest determinant of whether they want to work in a place isn't the benefits and compensation, it's the way they are treated as an employee, along with the culture and work environment. These things are difficult to portray in a brochure, but add employee testimonials, a day-in-the-life segment with video and audio, and perhaps a tour of the facility, and the work environment can be brought to life. A company's cost-per-hire might be significant, while the cost of doing a site of this type is negligible. The quality of candidates and the volume of solicited and unsolicited job applicants increases. This will bring that cost-per-hire down. I think when you speak in these terms, recruiters get the message.
Q. Based on your technology expertise, do you have any tips for recruiters?
A. My two most important ones are to ensure you develop career sections on your website that speak to who you're looking for and always consider the human factor when deciding on a technology solution. And, of course, you should always lead with a need, not a technology.
Read more about Kit's tech tips
Q. I can't help asking you this. What's your favorite new tech toy?
A. Definitely my new digital camera. I have been blessed with two beautiful children who love to ham it up for the camera. It's funny, I only started embracing taking pictures once the kids were born. Now I can't get enough. I also have a lot of photogenic friends and family, and I find myself taking a lot of landscape and animal shots--I pretty much love the lot. Photography is a great example of a friendly technology that has been with us for a long time. Its benefits are timeless--no matter how sophisticated the technology gets, the benefit will always be purely emotional. And those are the type of benefits that usually carry the most weight.
Q. What do you see for the future?
A. The future, and I am not the first person to say this, is integration. The seamless integration of Web-based services on a variety of platforms will just become more advanced as we move forward. The first attempts at as-you-need-it marketing have appeared already. You've probably already had little ads pop up on your screen depending on what you're searching for on Google or Yahoo. Consumer-centric marketing is being empowered by sophisticated technology, which is going to become more subtle and effective as we find out, as an industry, what consumers want and will tolerate. Real-time marketing will become a reality as consumers continue to have an almost inexhaustible appetite for new information.
It's an exciting time. Online experiences are becoming more immediate and engaging, and this trend will only continue. Companies will be able to create an unparalleled experience in which users can get a true sense of what working in a place would be like, without ever setting foot in the facility. Using database-driven backend systems to deliver specialized content in real time to potential candidates will help companies attract the best and get the fit they're looking for.
But, all of this must be wrapped up in a very user-friendly package for both the recruiters and their customers. The human element as it relates to technology is key to its success. And, development must be based on need, not on the desire to develop the coolest widget on the block. Technology by the people, for the people. That's how it works best.
Kit Lamoureux is currently director of development for Bernard Hodes Group's Marketing Communications group, headquartered in New York. He works remotely from Ottawa, Canada, where he joined the company after working for 8 years as an interactive media developer for a couple of local multimedia firms. He has created interactive media products for many large Canadian and U.S. firms, including Nortel, Scotiabank, JDS Uniphase and Eli Lilly. Before working in the interactive media industry, Kit used his marketing skills as a manager for Starbucks while studying new media development at the Vancouver Film School. He currently resides in Ottawa with his two kids and, in his free time, pursues his interests in sports, photography, technology and movies.
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