ERE Day two thoughts and conclusions

Hi all

Back on the ground in the UK, having finally caught up on things.

Have been busy blogging to all of the Dutch sites - as David pointed out in his blog, lots of local coverage and enthusiasm. Have heard many tales of vendors setting up appointments, of delegates meeting new and interesting colleagues. For my part, I am thrilled to have played a part in the event and that ERE has pulled together such an outstanding conference – it seemed almost unanimous with delegates that they are looking forward to next year (and although the straw poll was for Barcelona, I am leaning towards returning to Amsterdam)

Todd has done a good wrap up, as have some of the Dutch sites – so for my part just a few final random thoughts about Day Two.

Firstly, though, many of the reviewers missed out on covering the Electronic Arts presentation from Matthew Jefferey. I found it an outstanding way to finish Day One – high energy (which is needed when you follow Jason Goldberg) and terrific content. Matthew has been building out a business approach to recruitment, with CRM and sales tools to really get to grips with finding and staying in touch with highly skilled and hard to find candidates. Something to think about for sure.

Themes of Day Two
(again, the main session links are up on the ERE site)

1. Search – Rachel of Time Warner has built an in-house search capability that should be the envy of many search companies
2. Asia Pacific – an outstanding contribution from Kevin Wheeler
3. Pipelines & Sourcing Strategies – Stephen Carr of T-Mobile comparing US and UK/Europe methods of success and value of those methods
4. Building an infrastructure – Elizabeth shared her experiences and opened up with the her planned structures for assessing likely workforce needs and the implications for rolling out recruitment teams. We hope she comes back next year to tell us all how it has turned out
5. Performance Based Selection – Fiona and Shona delighted the audience with their Scottish Accent and tongue in cheek presentation style - including interviewing the entire audience!
6. Demographics in Europe (that was me subbing in for Gery Coemans)
7. We concluded with a great panel discussion around search, represented by John Kilvington, the use of dedicated executive job boards - Rosalyn of goldjobs.com, and the executive newsletter/community approach of The Ladders by Marc Cendella.

In closing, we asked the delegates for their Take Aways.

1. Communication and co-operation between Hiring community and lines of business was key for successful recruitment
2. Technology may be evolving, but it is still only a tool
3. Outside of the US, employee referral programmes are only in their infancy, while Alumni Hiring initiatives (boomerang hiring) are almost non-existent.
4. Focussing on skills/competencies requires dedication of HR and line alike
5. Getting hiring right moves the business forward, which enhances retention and future hiring.
6. Search is still needed, as are job boards, as part of an overall blended sourcing strategy
7. Print is not completely dead - it just looks like it

And, the potentially scary thought (thanks Kevin) – while many many companies look to Asia (which from European perspective includes India) to be the solution to future hiring initiatives, the cold reality is: Asia doesn’t need us!

Technorati Tags: Candidate attraction, e-recruitment, ERE