Do We Really Still Have to Go to Career Fairs? The PR is Great, but I Have as Much Hiring Success as at the LA County Fair!

Okay, so some of you are going to hate me for saying this, especially those who are focused on the diversity talent acquisition areas of your companies, but are career fairs just a big gab fest and a great excuse to go travel to cool cities (for the most part), get large bags full of free chotskies, and have drinks with all of your industry buddies??  Really now, how many of you have actually made significant hires at these yearly events?

Of course it's great for company public relations, and having a really cool booth next to all of the other Fortune 500 companies out there makes you feel like you're with a terrific organization.  Also, the time spent both in a working and non-working environment with those in the talent acquisition arena, is priceless when it comes to networking and relationship building (especially if you find yourself looking for new and exciting opportunities in the future!). 

This increased network of professionals could also greatly assist you in sharing of resumes and getting information about new advances in technology and social networking that can build your organization's talent acquisition strategy and take it to new heights.

However, the large costs and effort to attend these events in my opinion greatly outweigh any sort of benefits that may result.  In the future, I recommend we take a hard look at them and make sure that we are putting our dollars where they really count and strategically acquiring the qualified talent for our company needs.  Schoomzing only gets you so far!

Why the Recession Has Hit the Risk Business So Hard - Analytics and Compliance Searches Are a Pain in the Butt!



Wow, has it been a roller coaster 2 years in the talent acquisition business or what?!!  The recession really put an emphasis on control, compliance and risk mitigation, and has resulted in a dearth of qualified candidates whose focus is in anything related to data analytics.  More specifically, those requisitions that also require some type of statistical software (e.g., SAS, SPSS, mTAB, etc.) has especially led to an incredible increase in time to fill numbers for us.

And the fact that Toyota has already been known to be notoriously slow in its talent acquisition and interviewing processes, makes these searches that much more difficult to fill.  We have had Risk positions open for months on end, with the finish line nowhere in sight.  It has been frustrating at best if you could just imagine  You would think that with unemployment teetering on 10% across the country that we'd have our pick of the best in the litter....not the case for sure.

Time to open up that creative sourcing box and start thinking outside of it, and stop relying on the ever present headhunting firms (all of whom initially say "no problem, I can fill that right away just give me the job order").  We need to step up to the plate, show off our talents as the "ultimate people scouts" out there, and just say "what the f**k!"

Like Tom Cruise said in the film Risk-y Business: "what the f**k gives you freedom, freedom brings opportunity...opportunity, makes your future"

Until next time...