Howard Anderson, founder of The Yankee Group, a cofounder of Battery Ventures, and a professor of business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a great article today on GigaOM about the merits of moving companies out of the Silicon Valley area.

When it comes to workforce planning, cost isn’t necessarily the only issue that comes in to play and Howard makes some great points about moving to Boston; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Austin; Research Triangle, N.C.; Minneapolis; Tallahassee; Toronto; and Basking Ridge, N.J or any number of other places.

You can read the article on GigaOm. There are five great reasons to move, to quote Mr. Anderson:

1. The weather sucks in some of these towns (not Tallahassee) so your people will actually work instead of bugging out at 5:15 to train for a marathon, triathlon or Ultimate Frisbee.

2. You can recruit better outside the fishbowl. Every technology company hits the wall — some multiple times. In the Valley your employees will bail at the first sign of trouble and jump to a better job in the next parking lot. That means you will have to spike salaries to rebuild your team. Other places in the world aren’t quite so spoiled - or they come to you already cynical and stay through the rough times.

3. You won’t get lost in the startup maze. In the Valley, every VC has a portfolio company in each flavor - their own LP’s can’t tell them apart.

4. In my experience, other startup communities aren’t as pre-occupied with the “exit” as Da Valley. SV VC’s have attention spans measured in picoseconds and will sell/merge your company at the first sign of trouble. I can say that in Boston, at least, we are used to gutting out long “winters.”

5. Academics make great board members. Each of these cities has a rich educational environment and are great places to recruit sartorial advisors. And unlike at Stanford, you wont have to give up 1 percent of your equity just to put the provost’s name on your board!

Mr. Anderson has a wealth of experience in this arena and brings up some valid points. When it comes to workforce planning and subsequent recruitment, loyalty, work ethic/habits, and accessibility all matter. Great article!

For startups, not all Ruby on Rails, Java, C#, Business Development gurus, and fundraisers are in the valley!

From a recent article at jobs.aol.com:

“Hiring managers often know whether they might hire someone soon after the opening handshake and small talk”, a new survey suggests. Executives polled said it takes them just 10 minutes to form an opinion of job seekers, despite meeting with staff-level applicants for 55 minutes and management-level candidates for 86 minutes, on average. Executives were asked, “How long does it typically take you to form either a positive or negative opinion of a job candidate during an initial interview?” The mean response was 10 minutes.”

This came from a survey published April 12, 2007 and was developed by Robert Half Finance & Accounting, the largest specialized financial recruitment service. It included responses from 150 senior executives with Fortune 1000 companies.”

I don’t think this will surprise anyone; in fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the mean response was 5, or 3, or 2 minutes. Our brains are simply wired to make snap decisions, then spend the bulk of our “decision time” reinforcing the conclusion our minds have already come to. Besides, social niceties dictate that any qualified candidate should receive about an hour of a manager’s time. However, what is surprising is that in our increasingly busy world corporations and executives continue to accept nearly an hour of dead time in each first interview.

We believe that video interviews offer the ideal answer. In about 10 minutes a hiring manager can understand a candidate’s personality and communication skills as the candidate answers questions that the hiring manager has selected. Then, the hiring manager only invests face-to-face time with the candidates who made a positive first impression. No more wasted interviews with the guy who only wants to regale you with war stories from his last job, or tell you how awful his old boss was, or negotiate vacation days in the first interview.

10 minutes. That’s all it takes.

It’s true, according to ere.net.

“According to a a new study, elements of employers’ Web sites, like design and content, are an influence on how prospective employees’ shape their job search intentions.

The study conducted by Caren B. Goldberg, management professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business and David G. Allen, a management professor at the University of Memphis, is titled “Black and White and Read All Over: Race Differences in Reactions to Recruitment Web Sites.”

“The findings indicate that employers can attract more diverse applicant pools by paying more attention to site design and content,” says Professor Goldberg.

The study asked job seekers’ to evaluate a selection of recruiters’ web sites. The researchers found that the more the students favored an employer’s Web site, the more they favored the employer itself, and the more motivated they were to pursue employment with that recruiter.

The job seekers evaluated four areas of the Web sites:
ease of use
usefulness
allowance for two-way communication
engagement

Of the Web site qualities, the opportunity for two-way interaction was more strongly related to African Americans’ attitudes toward employers and their intention to seek employment with those employers. Web site engagement and attitudes toward employers also had greater influence on African Americans’ intentions to pursue employment.

Organizational diversity statements published on the web sites had no influence on the study sample. However, when the sample results were analyzed according to race, African American job seekers evaluated Web sites with diversity statements as more engaging.

The study was published in the summer 2008 issue of the journal Human Resource Management.”

As the war for talent wages, it’s the little things that move battle lines. Specific web design elements - such as engagement - may appear frivolous, but it influences your employment brand in the mind of a candidate.

Congratulations to Jeremy Lappin at Bounty Jobs on raising $12m from Greylock! For those of you who don’t know, Greylock is a premier venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. Of all groups in the market, they are definitely top 5%.

From VentureBeat:

A site like BountyJobs is appealing because it can help big companies manage all of their different recruiters in one place, while also reducing some of the recruiting hassle for smaller start-ups, too. The company says it fills thousands of jobs annually, and that its revenue has been doubling for six consecutive quarters.

You can read the whole story on Venturebeat

Zappos gets lots of love. Their customer service is legendary, which is incredible given that they expect revenues to approach $1 billion in 2008. That’s a lot of feet to make happy.

As companies obsess about their culture, there is an inevitable ‘corporatization’ that takes place when it’s no longer possible to know every one of your coworkers. How has Zappos maintained a culture of customer service among all 1600 employees? The answer lies in “The Offer“:

“It’s a hard job, answering phones and talking to customers for hours at a time. So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period. After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” - Bill Taylor

Isn’t that incredible? It is worth a grand to Zappos to find out now, rather than later, if their new employees buy in to the culture or not. Think of the ROI on that investment - Zappos has defied the odds and built an invaluable brand by creating a culture of fanatical service, and ingrained that culture with tangible policies and practices. Hats off to them.

What’s scary is that this is your competition and mine. Doesn’t matter if you sell shoes or houses or laser beams. This is the bar we are all measured against.

(Reposted from my blog.)

Big news today in the HCM space. I saw this today on VentureBeat:

SilkRoad technology, a startup that delivers software-as-a-service to help companies manage their employees, has closed a $54 million road of equity capital. The funding is led by new investor Foundation Capital, with participation from existing backers Azure Capital Partners, SilkRoad Equity and several individual investors.

The Winston-Salem, NC-based startup has more than 700 customers for a suite of products that includes recruitment software OpenHire, employee performance management tool Wingspan and Eprise, which provides employee intranets and content management.

SilkRoad Equity - the venture fund of Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, the CEO of Silk Road also released a press release about Silk Road Technology’s $54 million round

Why is this big news? Well this affects video interview companies, talent management companies and the whole realm of service providers in the HCM space. SilkRoad Technologies although out there has never been held in the same regard as Taleo, Vurv (now owned by Taleo), Authoria, Kenexa and others. They are the dark horse in the race I suppose. With $54m in the bank, SilkRoad can do a lot of big things in the industry and go after any customer, partner or acquisition target they want to. Best of all, they can shake things up by giving the incumbents a real run for their money which many people say is sorely needed. More competition is a good thing in enterprise technology. More competition leads to innovation and helps fulfill the dreams of many analysts and investors in saying that HCM/ERP software is the fastest growing market in technology.

Congratulations to Flip and his team. We at HireVue are excited to hear more about what is coming from SilkRoad over the next 12-24 months.

Cheers

Mark Newman

In a recent press release, MRINetwork claims that video resumes are a long way from commonplace. True statement, though a lot of people are working to change that. However, Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork, goes on to make some very generalized statements backed up by extremely hazy math. (Possible future in politics?)

Jalbert cites a survey, conducted by MRINetwork, “of more than 500 potential candidates” which “reveal[s] that only 4 percent have used a video resume in a job search.” What is a “potential candidate?” An active job seeker? A passive candidate? Both? Taken literally, a potential candidate is anyone capable of work, including those who are currently working. If Jalbert’s numbers are to be trusted, and that 4 percent is projected onto the US population as a whole, you would conclude that millions of potential candidates have used video resumes.

However, Jalbert would tell you that you’re wrong. “Right now we estimate there are probably less than 200 of them posted on various sites,” he says. Huh? How can his numbers indicate millions of video resumes, yet his personal estimate is only 200? Methinks thou doth protest too much.

YouTube alone returns 24,200 results for video resume, not to mention the many other sites that are making significant strides in bringing video to the recruitment process. Does HireVue think video resumes are the future? No, we have very publicly made our bet on video interviews. However, we recognize that we are members of the broader video recruitment industry alongside many friends involved with video resume providers. While none of us would claim that video recruitment tools are commonplace, it’s simply incorrect to claim that there are only a few hundred examples of their use or that video couldn’t “be a substitute for a well structured face-to-face interview”. We are living proof of that.

About the author: Tahjia Chapman is a writer for CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

If you want the best students, you have to work with the best colleges. Brand management on college campuses is the life blood of many large organizations, but small businesses have to do the same. Your business can enjoy the benefits of making the connection with college campuses by offering internships and/or apprenticeships, creating student ambassador programs, and offer volunteer work. Remember to keep your business in front of the students if you want the best to apply for open positions.

Offer Paid Internships and/or Apprenticeships

Are you a small business interested in recruiting talent on local campuses? Offer internships and/or apprenticeships for undergrads interested in your business. For more information on integrating an internship programs in small business, please read my previous article Three Steps for Small Businesses to Integrate Internships to Develop Candidates For Employment. You must remember that paid internships create a flow of qualified applicants suitable for your business. After you receive these applications, you can create a database of seniors for future references. Paid internships should have an objective to provide career-related experience to each participant.

Create Student Ambassador Programs

If you do not have a student ambassador program available, you are losing out on opportunities to screen upcoming talent. Your student ambassador campaign could act as a branding channel to inform undergraduates of career opportunities available with your company. Student ambassador responsibilities should include managing campus events and informing seniors of career opportunities. The student ambassador program could create a stream of leaders willing to take control of your marketing needs on campus. Focus on student leaders with perspective, loyalty and vision for future branding opportunities on their campus.

Offer Volunteer Work

Volunteerism is an important aspect of leadership and finding the best candidates with leadership skills is essential in your recruiting campaign. Your company’s involvement with college campuses reflects your interest in professional development of young adults. Although most students prefer paid internships, you can state the importance of performing volunteer work with your company. Recognize students who perform high quality work at college functions.

Integrating these programs will strengthen your company’s image in grads’ eyes. It also encourages them to seek more information from your organization during their job hunt. With this in mind, the relationship between colleges and small businesses can increase a recent grad’s chance of success. Employee-value based marketing enriches the opportunity for students to advance in small businesses.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Author: William Frierson is a CollegeRecruiter.com Staff Writer.

As an employer, have you ever thought about what it takes to motivate your employees? While money can encourage some workers such as recent college graduates looking for entry level jobs, it only serves as a retainer to other workers. Retainers are benefits used to find and keep the most skilled employees.

Here is a list of 10 Ways to Help You Motivate Your Workers:

1. Add some fun and variety to your employees’ normal routine.
2. Allow employees some input on how their work is done.
3. Encourage employees to take more responsibility and leadership roles in your company.
4. Promote social interaction and teamwork between employees.
5. Tolerate learning errors by avoiding harsh criticism.
6. Promote job ownership.
7. Develop goals and challenges for all employees.
8. Encourage your employees often.
9. Show appreciation for your employees’ performance.
10. Develop a measurement that shows a performance increase.

How can you achieve these true motivators? Here are suggestions for each one in their numerical order.

1. Have a “show and tell” day for employees like kids do at school.
2. Some workers may like to do one task at a time, while others prefer multi-tasking.
3. Find out your employees’ strengths and weaknesses through individual and team tasks; then delegate assignments.
4. Have a “meet and greet” day where workers in different areas of a company get together and do fun, work-related activities.
5. Offer ideas to enhance the work of employees; provide examples if necessary.
6. Allow employees to practice doing a certain task to become better at it.
7. Work with your employees by talking to them about objectives you both want to achieve.
8. Use verbal and/or written communication to instill confidence in your employees.
9. Do something thoughtful to show your employees how much they are appreciated; may be use a “prize box” or something similar to that with prizes.
10. Provide your employees with some type of progress report on how much work is getting done versus what needs to be done, and create a standard for their work to be measured by.

To employers, whether you are looking for recent college graduates searching for entry level jobs, or recent college graduates looking for internships, these are good motivation tips to help bring out the best in your workers.

Source: http://www.employer-employee.com/howtomot.htm

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

HireVue is excited to take part in the 2nd webinar of the Checkster Innovation Series. Click here to sign up. We’ll be discussing how innovations in video technology solve the most pressing challenges that recruiters and hiring managers face, such as:

• Competing in a global talent market
• Recruiting specialized talent
• Combating rising time-to-hire and cost-per-hire

More on the talent Checkster Management Webinar INNOVATION series:
Do you know how new technologies improve people selection?
Do you leverage the latest in talent assessment?
The Talent Management webinar INNOVATION series is aimed at presenting you with new tools and substantial innovation in the world of talent management. Geared toward HR professionals and anyone involved in talent management, these 45 minute sessions are free, and only a limited number of people can attend.
These 45 minute presentations are structured to give you the most value:

1. What old process do these innovations replace?
2. What is new or different?
3. What is the value?
4. What does it look like?
5. What does it take to use (price, implementation, changes)?

Remain on top of what is happening in the fast paced Talent Management industry in order not to become outdated. Sign up today for the Checkster Talent Management Webinar Innovation series.

DATE: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
TIME: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
LOCATION: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/274129872