I recently attended the International Association of Employment Websites (IAEWS) Annual Congress in San Diego.  Yes – there is a professional association of all the job boards in the World….some 10,0000 of them.  And we meet 1-2x per year to discuss issues and opportunities facing our industry. 

At the conference there was a lot of buzz about Social Resumes.  So, what the heck is a social resume?  I asked the same question.  How is it different than a standard resume?  What makes it social?  Does this cross privacy lines? 

The answers I heard were…a resume that not only focuses on experience and education, but also on hobbies, philanthropic interests, blog posts, social interests/networks, etc.  Supposedly many more employers are adapting the whole work-live concept and want to know the social networks that their future employees run in.  I find this very interesting and will continue to blog on it as I discover more.  Reality is, employers are discovering a lot of this as they research candidates on Facebook.  A social resume will just expect the candidate to be more transparent.

How does the saying go -  “Someones loss is someones gain?”

The Clark County School District has been the beneficiary of the tumbling economy.  As school districts throughout the country downsize, laying off hundreds, CCSD is able to recruit the talent needed and look like a savior by offering over 400 teacher jobs in Las Vegas to those affected.

Most recently, a Dallas school district had to layoff 375 teachers due to the economic times.  Others have included school districts in Michigan and several on the East Coast.

Most successful businesses build relationships based around trust.  In the job-board world, there is an inherent trust between the employment website and the employer, as well as the employment website and the jobseeker.  

Violate that trust and problems arise.

Well, a locally operated job-board, lasvegasjobs.com, recently changed its’ policy on resume database access.  The resume database was once protected and private, a policy I helped establish for them back in the 1990s.  Today, the database is now For Sale to anyone willing to pay for it.  This recent policy change was made without permission of the jobseeker or the employer. 

As a matter of fact, lasvegasjobs.com still markets the resume posting process as being ‘confidential’ for the jobseeker.   I imagine new advertisers are being told about resume database access (as it is being sold) but I would bet that past advertisers were never notified. 

With lasvegasjobs’ new product of “resume database access,” candidate information will be sold to anyone willing to pay for it. This move is being made at a time where most leaders in the industry are eliminating resume databases all together. 

This decision is bad for both jobseekers and employers. 

• The jobseeker who submitted his/her resume in confidence (thinking that they were in control of their private information) will now be exposed to data thieves, ruthless third party recruiters and unsolicited spam caused by the unrestricted exposure. 
• The employers (especially past advertisers) will have all of their past job applicants accessible to anyone who buys access.

Let me share a real example:

St. Rose Dominican Hospitals and Nevada Cancer Institute were once advertisers on lasvegasjobs.com.  One of the features that was appealing to the two health care companies was the fact that no one could access the resume database.  This assured them that their great jobs,could attract great candidates - and their competitors would not have access to them by purchasing resume database access. 

It is common practice for a shrewd recruiter to only post a single job to gain access to the entire resume database.  Lasvegasjobs.com touts the ability to search by criteria.  That would include past employers.  So if a recruiter was looking for past registered nurses who had PICU experience at a particular hospital, they could easily search that criteria.  This would not be possible without access. 

In the marketing piece below, lasvegasjobs promotes the fact that they have 9,000 nurse resumes.  These, more than likely, are the applicants of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals and Nevada Cancer Institute .  These resumes would not have been uploaded to the website if these two great employers did not trust lasvegasjobs.com and their promise not to sell resume database access.  But, now that both are no longer advertisers, lasvegasjobs.com is selling all of their applicants information to anyone who wants to purchase access. 

Unethical?  I would say so.  Immoral?  Absolutely. 

(Click On Below Image to View Larger)

Another job board joined the “Socially Responsible Recruiting” ranks and have killed resume searches.

My friend Steven Rothberg, president of CollegeRecruiter.com, recently stopped allowing resume database access.  Great decision Steven!!  ERE even did a nice story on the decision.

Most know that Recruiting Nevada put a policy in place against resume search back in 1996 when the Internet was just getting started.  It was just a gut decision but, but one that I do not regret making now.  As publishers, we should not own the jobseeker’s information.  Media outlets should simply be an advertising tool to introduce jobseekers to employers.  And only if a jobseeker ‘opts in’ and expresses interest to an employer, should their information (or resume) be shared.   

As most of the gaming corporations up and down Las Vegas Boulevard continue to throw Pink Slip Parties, Steve Wynn made it very clear during a conference call to discuss the company’s earnings report that he will have nothing to do with it. 

Mr. Wynn’s stance was clear: Although profits have dropped 20 percent in the past few months, Wynn Resorts will not lower its staffing (service) levels, or interrupt his workforce. 

Over the past few months, casinos have been shedding employees almost at post 9-11 levels.  It is clear that the economic slowdown we are experiencing in the United States has hit an artery of the gaming industry.  But as I have written many times, this is just a speed-bump for Las Vegas.  Ones that we have felt before. 

Kudos to Steve Wynn for continued loyalty to his workforce.

Today, many job boards make more money from selling resume database access than they do fulfilling their primary business role ….posting jobs.   As much as resume database access may make sense in established markets, it does not make sense for Nevada. 

Why do I say this?  Nevada has been the fastest growing state for 20 years now. 

We do not have the established, skilled and deep talent pools of mature markets.  Therefore, we must recruit talent to our area, rather than recruit talent from our neighbors.  

If we recruit talent from our neighbors, they in turn, must react to fill their newly created vacancies.  They typically do so by recruiting talent from another neighbor, who in turn duplicates the same action (or reaction).  You see where this is going……..

Wages go up.  Sign-on bonuses become more prevalent.  Retention levels suffer.  And ultimately it hurts the entire industry and has a long term impact on the cost of labor. All along the way deteriorating the service we are delivering our customers.

And at the end of the day, the problem still exists.  There is still a shortage.  And employers are then paying higher wages while creating an even fiercer competitive landscape based on wages – not loyalty.

Access to local resume databases instigates this problem.  Why?  Because ABC company can go in and search for all resumes with DEF Company experience, just to offer them $.50 more per hour.  And then DEF does the same, and so forth. 

And how do those resumes get entered into the database to begin with?  From applicants responding to paid job postings from ABC and DEF Companies.  In essence, employers are paying to create the resume databases their neighbors are feeding from. 

We are less than two weeks away from the Las Vegas Recruiting Roadshow and the seats are filling up fast.  If you have not RSVP’d for this event, I would suggest doing so now to make sure you have a seat.  We have limited seating.  And the event is free to attend.  It is sure to sell out.

Here are the details again:

Wednesday, February 27, 2008
8:30 – 1:30 (Registration & Breakfast begin at 8:00)

Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa Casino
2300 Paseo Verde Parkway (map)

Register:      Online Registration

Agenda

Many times I get asked “why” we do what we do.  The simple answer is – passion.  We love being part of Nevada’s growth and adding to the economic diversification of Nevada by attracting the ‘right’ people to move here.  We feel that we have a talent to contribute, so we do.  We do so in many fashions from the services we provide our clients, to the volunteer work we do, to the in-kind donations we make.  We believe that the more you give – the more you receive.

We blog to educate.  We educate – because it is important to be informed and knowledgeable. 

We partner to collaborate.  We collaborate because many hands makes light lifting.  Again – in a high growth community such as Nevada, we need to help each other. 

We give.  We give to non-profits and charitable organizations because it is the right thing to do. 

And most important – we always do what is right.  That is part of our commitment to Nevada and Socially Responsible Recruiting. 

LAS VEGAS – It’s often taken for granted how it is that Nevada, the country’s fastest growing state, continues to attract skilled professionals needed to serve the community.

But it’s no accident. Rather, it’s thanks to the work and dedication of companies such as Las Vegas-based Recruiting Nevada – companies that have made it their mission to recruit to Nevada regardless of economic circumstances.

Recruiting Nevada has been diligently working on the frontline to strengthen Nevada’s economy through socially responsible recruiting since 1993. And leading the efforts is founder and president, Doug Geinzer.

Through Recruiting Nevada, which attracts jobseekers in career fields across the board to Nevada job postings on www.RecruitingNevada.com, Geinzer has been working to fill open Nevada jobs with quality professionals since the company’s inception. But although his mission to serve Nevada has been steadfast, his avenues of accomplishing this have seen much evolution.

“There’s a reason we’ve been able to survive and thrive for 15 years,” Geinzer said. “Other than our mission, ‘change’ has been our only constant. We’re not the same company we were five years ago, and we certainly aren’t the same company we began as. The only way to succeed is to respond to the market.”

And change, Recruiting Nevada has.

The company began as the publisher of Las Vegas’ first employment-specific newspaper, Las Vegas Employment News and has since done everything from publishing a Las Vegas Job Guide, a job/relocation package sold to college students looking to pursue a career in the hospitality industry; to hosting Las Vegas Career Fairs, an industry-specific career fair group that assisted in the development of thriving industries and assisted employers in finding qualified employee candidates; to publishing Diversity2000, the first diversity recruiting magazine distributed to every college campus across the country; to creating Diversified Recruitment Advertising, Southern Nevada’s only locally owned and operated, full-service advertising agency specializing in recruitment or help-wanted advertising of its time.

A leader in the industry since the beginning, Recruiting Nevada continues to reinvent itself. And along the way, the company has not only become a Las Vegas success story, but it has done so by helping others do the same.

Today the company publishes the state’s largest Nevada-specific employment Web site, RecruitingNevada.com, which, in April, was selected for inclusion in the prestigious “WEDDLE’s 2007-2008 Guide to Employment Sites on the Internet.” But although the company has found its home as an Internet-based business, it certainly hasn’t stopped changing.

In late 2006, Geinzer launched a Nevada-focused blog to serve as a “one-stop shop” resource for recruiters focusing on the Nevada marketplace and found almost immediate success. Monitoring more than 50 sources of information himself, Geinzer’s blog includes facts and insight in a variety of categories, including out-of-market recruiting, online recruiting and diversity; information on all upcoming job fairs, training seminars and upcoming awards; calendars; links to other blogs, and more.

Also in 2006, Recruiting Nevada launched and became a partner with the Home News Community Newspapers in hosting regular Opportunity Boulevard Career Fairs, which focus on attracting out-of-state jobseekers and older workers to Nevada jobs. Made up of several local businesses, including AARP-Las Vegas and Nevada Broadcasters Association, the group hosted five career fairs in 2007, which, combined, attracted more than 14,200 jobseekers – over 2,915 of which came to Nevada from out-of-state to attract professionals to Nevada jobs. The next Opportunity Boulevard Career Fair will take place Feb. 21.

Geinzer also serves as chairman of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce’s We Care Committee, which works to support teachers as well as their family members, as they move to Nevada through programs such as the Trailing Spouse program. The program was developed to work with Southern Nevada’s business leaders to help family members of much-needed teachers find employment. The Trailing Spouse program encourages employers to give special attention to resumés submitted by family members of new Clark County School District teachers relocating to Southern Nevada.

Recruiting Nevada not only developed the Trailing Spouse Program for the We Care program and the Clark County School District, but is now implementing this program with many of the area hospitals. The Trailing Spouse Program distributes family members’ resumés to hundreds of top employers in Southern Nevada, who also have access to a searchable database of those resumés.

Geinzer has also served as the chairperson of the recruitment task force of the Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition for the past four years.  This task force is composed of human resource directors and recruiters from all area hospitals and medical facilities.  The group travels outside of Nevada to markets such as California and Chicago to recruit nurses to relocate to Nevada.

In addition to the company’s strategic partnerships, Geinzer has also continued to improve the efficiency of the already-successful online job boards. After condensing the company’s 10 previously separate industry-specific employment Web sites into one, www.RecruitingNevada.com, Geinzer then honed the site to include a candidate matching feature, which allows Recruiting Nevada to deliver its clients candidates matched with the precision of a headhunter while maintaining the pricing of a “help wanted” ad.  

Most recently, Recruiting Nevada partnered with California-based Vcruit to offer video recruitment ads to help their client businesses further introduce their company and its culture to potential employees. Through Vcruit (vcruit.com), businesses can upload professional quality videos about their companies to enhance their profile. Video will also be incorporated into Recruiting Nevada’s new relocation page as well to provide jobseekers with information on the quality of life Nevada offers.

“We’re always looking for new ways to attract not just more, but the best, people to Nevada,” Geinzer said. “Our affiliation with Vcruit allows us to showcase the best of what Nevada has to offer to jobseekers – both at work and throughout the community.”

And a partnership with Internet-based Arbita – the world’s largest global multi-posting system for job boards as well as the largest online recruitment advertising agency – is also in the works. The partnership would allow Recruiting Nevada’s reach, and thus, the reach of its clients, to go global.

Through the partnership, Recruiting Nevada will act as the Nevada representative of Arbita’s services. Once a client purchases an ad through Recruiting Nevada, they can then select any additional job boards, such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com, they would like to advertise on – selecting by country, state, city or industry.

So what does 2008 hold for Geinzer and Recruiting Nevada? As of yet, only Geinzer knows. But something involving “change” might be a good guess.

Registration for the Recruiting Roadshow is now open.  Be sure to register now as this is sure to be a sold out show.  Admission is free. 

The goal of each individual Recruiting Roadshow is to cause members of the local recruiting world who may not have easy access to the industry’s network infrastructure to have access to each other.

In other words, the networking that happens at every Recruiting Roadshow is more important than any content that is distributed. We hold Recruiting Roadshows in order to make it possible for new recruiters to network with other new recruiters.

Learn more about the Recruiting Roadshow at www.RecruitingRoadshow.com.

See a list of past presenters and topics/tracks.

I hope to see everyone there.