If you do a good job in defining who you are looking to hire, there is a much greater chance for success. Now imagine doing this across all your positions. How do you do it? The key is using performance information to drive recruiting.

Kevin Wheeler drills down to the core of the performance + recruiting formula and summarizes the benefits in It's All About Performance: Defining and finding great people. Here are his steps to success:

• Identify and Measure.
• Develop Profiles.
• Find Them and Target Your Messages.
• Build a Database.
• Decide Whether to Recruit or Develop.

The power of the talent pipeline model is described in Unified Talent Management and the Holy Grail, and The Value of Unified Recruiting and Performance Management depicts the power of recruiting + performance management this way:

Business performance: it’s all about the people.

From the title, you may think this is a blog about blogs. The Wikipedia reference for self-referential says it occurs in literature when “an author refers to his work in the context of the work itself”. However, many blog authors reveal the quality of their professional work and discuss innovative ideas in the context of their corporate or personal blogs, much like authors of books or print articles.

The two-part article Using Writing and Speaking to Recruit Candidates says this about sourcing candidates using the written word:

“When you write an article, a blog, or a book, you attract people who like your message and appreciate your expertise.”

The Wall Street Journal published How Blogs Are Changing the Recruiting Landscape outlining the potential benefits of scouring professional blogs and recruiting passive candidates.

You can learn more about a person by experiencing their online professional identity than by Googling them or searching for their MySpace page. Plus making the recruiting contact is only a click away.

Blogger Seth Godin makes a similar point in his Why bother having a resume? post. He suggests that rather than use a resume, you could be recruited based on factors that include:

“…a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?”

Also take a look at his endorsement of a talent strategy in Marketing HR where he says:

“Great companies want and need talent, but they have to work for it.”

E-Verify is an Internet-based system operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA).Current and pending legislation is mandating employer use of the Department of Homeland Security E-Verify database. Tougher US I-9 employment verification laws using the E-Verify system are already on the books in some states.

There are many questions—and misconceptions—around I-9 and E-Verify, particularly how to comply with changing I-9 employment eligibility requirements.

Register to attend the What's New in Employment Eligibility Webcast on March 26 featuring Darlene Baker who is HireRight’s liaison with the US Department of Homeland Security and has worked on the I-9 E-Verify database since its inception.

Until last winter’s financial discontent, the US economy had been growing steadily since 2003. But the revaluation of subprime loans and record high energy prices threaten to slow growth and resurrect inflation, leading some economists to predict slow economic growth or a possible recession.

On the heels of the World Economic Forum in Davos, while they were pondering the global challenges of finding talent, business executives factored these economic forecasts into their plans. Although some may question making technology and process investments, they would be missing the point. Hiring continues even in rough economic times.

There are indications that gross job creation will continue to follow historical trends regardless of the economic season. Green collar jobs are poised for growth and IT jobs are still in high demand.

Talent management in a low growth economy offers new opportunities to deliver significant business performance benefits in the midst of financial constraints—especially internal mobility, performance management, and quality of hire. Citing historical data and demographic trends, a new Taleo Research paper dispels misconceptions that HR investments should be pared back when markets get frosty.

Talent Management in a Down Economy explores the relationship between talent management strategies, processes and practices, and the advantages that can be gained by organizations coping with an economic downturn. Learn why talent management is the key issue for businesses worldwide and remains a central strategy in any economic season.

The Gartner EXP Worldwide Survey provides CIO insights from more than 1,450 enterprises across dozens of countries and many industries. In addition to the theme of significant change, it also reveals some interesting thoughts on talent, employment brands, and technology. Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research for Gartner EXP, says:

"IT difference is the reason customers use when they choose a company's products and services."

Employment Brand. We believe that IT difference also carries over to a technically superior career site. We’ve found that candidate experience is a major factor in establishing a winning employment brand.

With only 27% percent of CIOs thinking that they have the right number of people to align with business needs, McDonald says:

"The skills of your people count. Two-thirds of IT organizations that do not meet business expectations claim that skills are at the core of their performance issue."

This finding is confirmed by the FPS Umbrella study called Recruitment and IT – Shaping the Future where CEOs worldwide are relating up to half their growth problems to the shortage in IT workers which is now the highest in a decade.

War for Talent. The war for talent is clearly raging in IT; the solution: a unified approach to recruiting talent and reviewing performance.

The Gartner report also states that CIOs think Web 2.0 and social computing are on the rise. McDonald states:

"Every company is entering a world rich with information and personal expression. Web 2.0 and social computing provide tools to capture both and turn them into customer insight, engagement and retention."

Social Networking for Recruiting. We believe and Gartner agrees that organizations should allow and encourage social networking to boost referrals and recruiting. Substitute candidates for customers and you will see how this applies to HR.

With IT budgets expected to increase 3.3% in 2008, organizations look like they want to make the investment in making a difference. We think SaaS delivery of talent management should be at the top of the list. Read how Jim Holincheck of Gartner weighs in on how SaaS is a delivery model, not a market.

Your recruiting results are only as good as your sourcing strategies. Success in a highly competitive market means knowing the latest trends in hiring sources and using metrics to evaluate and maximize your sourcing investments.

The CareerXroads 7th Annual Source of Hire Study: What 2007 Results Mean For Your 2008 Plans provides this news on the latest trends:

• 30% of open positions were filled internally.
• 28% of all external hires were referrals.
• 25% of external hires were from job boards.
• <5% came from traditional print sources.

The ERE Media and Classified Intelligence report Recruitment Advertising: Moving in New Directions polled recruiters and lists employee referral programs, recruitment sites, and business and social networking sites as the most effective ways to find and hire employees.

And Sourcing Today's Candidate: What's Working to Attract Top Talent from Kennedy Information describes “where, when, and how should job search resources be used to most effectively deliver the best candidates”.

These findings point directly to action items you can implement to update and tune your sourcing strategy for success:

Internal Mobility. Make it easier for your employees to find new positions within your organization with workforce mobility.

Social Networking. Understand and use social networks for your organization as a component of a sourcing strategy.

Smart Sourcing. Candidate relationship management (CRM) and automated search and sourcing tools can extend your reach to find the people you want.

Career Site. Your career site is the destination where these candidates will interact with your employment brand. That’s where the process begins. Implement Web 2.0 features and functionality to gain competitive advantage.

Although research found that more than two-thirds of HR professionals said their organization did not allow access to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, social network usage is a reality – especially for the powerful combination of Social Networks and Talent Acquisition.

Facebook claims more than 67 million active users, and is the sixth-most trafficked site in the United States, according to comScore. LinkedIn’s online network has more than 19 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

Computerworld sponsored a shoot-out of sorts called Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is better for business? to see which social networking or social utility fit more easily into the workplace. The first three scenarios they tested focused on hiring:

1. Look for a job without your boss knowing
2. Find information about a job you're interviewing for
3. Find a contract worker for a three-month Web project

Recruiters are using a variety of social networks to connect with active and passive candidates. How do you make the automated connection? Integration with recruiting systems provides direct access to LinkedIn user profiles and personalized relationship information throughout its global network.

Smart sourcing techniques tap directly into this popular social utility with job postings on Facebook. Either way, you’ll gain access to a larger pool of talent including the Net Generation.

Retaining talent continues to be the number one challenge for hundreds of senior Human Resources (HR) managers according to the HR Challenges in 2008 survey by Taleo. Here is a summary of their ranked responses:

• Keeping it in the company – 30% cite “employee retention”.
• Recruiting the right staff – 23% say “hiring the best talent in the marketplace.”
• Attracting candidates – 11% mention “attracting candidates to the organisation.”
• Keeping it legal – 11% point to “complying with new legislation.”

The top challenges echo the recruit and retain mantra that reduces talent management to its simplest form. These two primary actions are no longer exclusive initiatives. The power of a single talent system of record that captures and reports recruiting and performance information cannot be overstated. In fact, it provides the solution to these top three HR process requirements:

• 44% need “a system to improve performance management, succession, and career planning in the organisation”.
• 21% want “an easy way to measure the effectiveness of HR processes like recruitment”.
• 15% seek “better visibility into employee’s skills.”

Converged processes combined with robust reporting holistically meet these HR needs. You can take advantage of a single platform for talent management and realize The Value of Unified Recruiting and Performance Management.