ERE Recruiter Meetup SF: Compliance & Social Recruiting

The first ERE Recruiter Meetup Everywhere was an amazing success! More than 1000 recruiters in a 100 cities got together to network and exchange ideas with others in their field.

In San Francisco, HR & Tech SF organized an evening of insightful dialogue with Ted Elliott, CEO of Jobscience.

HR & Tech SF strives to identify and discuss emerging trends, innovations and challenges at the intersection of human resources and technology. This time around, we turned our attention to the legal implications of using social networks in recruiting.

Before taking the helm at JobScience as a CRM pioneer, Ted Elliott served as an attorney.  Ted proved that inviting a lawyer to speak means you’ll need a really loud microphone to put an end to the Q&A!

We all love getting a lawyer’s opinion and Ted did not let us down. He laid out an understandable framework for avoiding jail time for misuse of social networks for recruiting.

In short, recruiters need to have a plan that takes into account how information can be used. Best to take on the burden of proof instead being the case that sets a new precedent!

The audience had their fair share of experiences and questions to further the discussion. Some suggested that the social network / recruiting dynamic is quite similar to the early days of sexual harassment law.  True, perhaps, but the web is its own beast and we’re sure to see unique challenges rise for recruiters.

How does your company verify the accuracy of information found on the web about a candidate?

Have you really read and understood the Terms of Services or End User License Agreements for the networks you rely on?

The way people are finding work and the way employers find talent is rapidly changing. While the legal environment for recruiting on the web may seem like the wild wild west, best practice and common sense should prevail. Check with your lawyer or contact social networks for clarification when questions arise. Have policies and enforce them internally to protect the organization.

The next ERE Recruiter Meetup Everywhere is on! Sign up for the SF meetup here.

Disclaimer: The information and opinions in this post are for informational purposes only. You should not act on anything explained in the post before seeking professional legal counsel. The authors simply wanted to tell you about the cool conversation that took place at the last HR & Tech SF event.

Meetup

July 19, 2010

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Meetup Recap: Outsourcing 2.0, Movie Directors and HR

Chances are, you’ve worked with with freelancers or maybe even done some freelancing yourself.  Welcome to the emerging trend of online outsourcing – what some are calling “outsourcing 2.0.”  And it’s not just writers and virtual assistants getting in on outsourcing 2.0; there’s demand for all industries, like IT, marketing, and creative.

On June 7, HR & Tech SF invited Elance, the world’s leading online marketplace, to shed some light on this new workforce in the cloud and what it means for recruiters and managers.

Ellen Page, VP of Marketing for Elance, explained the current situation in online outsourcing, highlighting the evolution from outsourcing 1.0 to 2.0. Whereas the original wave of outsourcing brought efficiency to large corporations, online outsourcing has changed how small businesses accomplish their objectives. Just to give an idea, most employers registered on Elance are companies with fewer than 500 people.

Entrepreneurs are also turning to the workforce in the cloud for flexible workers. These available resources allow young companies to hire based on actual need, paying for results and reducing costly overhead so that they can focus on growing their core business.

When asked if a company can be entirely virtual today, Ellen surprised us by saying yes.  Or at least to a great extent. With significantly lower operating costs, online outsourcing has lowered the cost of starting and managing a business.

It’s not all rosy, though.  This new workforce demands a new management style. The key to success in optimizing a cloud-based workforce is breaking down work into small projects and tasks that can easily be assigned to workers that might not have intimate knowledge of a company’s strategy.

Ellen sees the need for a new type of manager – one that acts more like a movie director, assembling the necessary elements to create a seamless whole.

IT, marketing, and creative may lead the way in adopting cloud-based tools, but they’re catching on in other industries as well.  As the new outsourcing takes hold, HR professionals will need to adapt and play a coordination role to cultivate trust, build relationships virtually and manage teams that may never actually sit down together in the same room.

What are your experiences working with virtual teams?  What makes it harder or easier than working with a tradition co-located team?  How will outsourcing affect your industry in the next few years?

Enticed by HR and technology? Join HR & Tech SF Meetup group today and attend our next event on July 13, 2010.

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June 17, 2010

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Workforce in the cloud: Twilio Talks to Elance on June 7th

We are pleased to announce our second meetup with rock star guests:
Ellen Pack, Vice President of Marketing, Elance.
Danielle Morrill, Director of Marketing, Twilio.

Ellen and Danielle will talk about the emergence of cloud-based workforce, the human capital aspects of managing them and best practices of communicating and collaborating remotely. Both Twilio and Elance are at the forefront of enabling communication, collaboration and productivity through the use of cloud-based platforms.

You can register here http://workforceinthecloud.eventbrite.com/ . Space is limited.

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May 21, 2010

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HR & Tech SF Organizer Featured on Tech Crunch

DoYouBuzz, one of the organizers behind HR & Tech SF, was featured on TechCrunch this morning for their ambitious plan to put an end to word-processed resumes.

DoYouBuzz provides beautiful, search engine optimized resumes. Professionals use the service to create, broadcast, control and track their online presence.

With over 45,000 users in Europe, the DoYouBuzz resume combines highly structured data with an elegant, customizable interface that significantly increases a professional’s visibility and effectively promotes their professional offering.

“The vast majority of recruiters recognize that a positive online reputation can tip the balance in hiring decisions,” said Evy Wilkins, COO of DoYouBuzz Inc. “Recruiters are now going beyond fact checking online. They want to learn more about you and engage on the web before bringing you in for the interview.”

Read the Tech Crunch article by Roxanne Varza here.

To create a free online resume, visit www.doyoubuzz.com.

Next HR & Tech SF meetup: How Cloud Computing is Changing How We Work with Elance and Twilio. Join us for an engaging panel discussion on June 7th at pariSoma innovation loft. Sign up here. This event is free. Donations accepted at the door.

Partners, Press

May 20, 2010

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Upcoming Topics for Meetups: Share your opinion!

The next HR & Tech SF meetup is tentatively scheduled for Monday, June 7th at pariSoma.

Based on your suggestions at the last event and some brainstorming, we’ve put together a list of potential topics to be addressed through our group. Please take our survey and let us know which HR and technology related topics get you most excited:

Take the survey and share your opinion.

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May 4, 2010

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The Founding Meetup

Stemming from a hunch that the intersection of HR & Tech in San Francisco could benefit from a meeting, learning and networking space, pariSoma and DoYouBuzz co-organized the first HR and Tech SF meetup this week.

Human resources and technology are two very vibrant spaces with masses of innovative people pondering the future of work. Bring them together and you get enthusiasm, depth of expertise and excellent ideas (not to mention chefs and actresses)!

The first meetup featured two startups working in the recruitiment area, accompagined by an experienced recruiter in the technology industry. They presented their views on how HR is evolving, especially when it comes to recruiting. New tools, practices and strategies are emerging that help professionals and employers connect and break down traditional barriers to hiring. The inaugural topic sparked an engaged conversation among participants and confirmed the value added for a group that brings together technology and HR actors.

When the founding event wrapped up, HR & Tech SF has gone from a simple idea to a collaborative project. Guy Hirsch, Founder of Say Hired joined the organizing team.

e-Recruitment and Social Recruiting Panel: Evolutions and Solutions

Dana Oshiro, Moderator: Writer for ReadWriteWeb. She is a Canadian blogger, PR pro and start up strategist.

Jeff Berger, KodaUS: CEO of KodaUS. Koda US is connecting Gen-Yers to entry-level jobs and helping younger professionals w/out a network access opportunities on the Web.

Evy Wilkins, DoYouBuzz: COO of DoYouBuzz, Inc. DoYouBuzz is the next generation resume platform with a mission to put an end to Word-based resumes and move towards a universal resume standard.

Kat Steinmetz: As an experienced recruiter for creative and technology industries, Kat offers her perspective on the recruting and hiring process and best practices in web-based recruiting.

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May 4, 2010

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