Reporting from sunny San Diego and ERE Expo Spring 2009

Today kicked off Day 1 of the ERE Expo Spring taking place this year at the San Diego Convention Center. As with the most recent Fall Expo, sessions from this event are also being streamed live on the Web and viewable from ERE.net.

Search on the #ereexpo Twitter hash tag for the real time commentary to support the video feed.

The “Tweet of the evening” in my view goes to Jason Coresello reporting on the ERE Excellence Awards: RT @jcorsello Microsoft is this years slumdog #ereexpo

Nice.

I will be walking the floor on Tuesday, attending sessions, and hoping to grab a few news bites, some interviews, and some idea of how the Recruiting industry is holding up under the strain of this economic and employment downturn. Not to be totally glum though, as often the seeds of the next great wave of innovation and growth are sown in the midst of a down cycle economy. I’m looking for those next great companies too.

Scanning the online chatter, I notice many of the new generation of recruiting companies such as Jobvite, StandOut Jobs, Jobs2Web, BountyJobs, and GreenJobInterview.com being hailed as among the ones to watch.

As usual, many of these young companies come to the ERE Expo to gain exposure along with the industry standard bearers such as Monster and the new 800lb gorilla called LinkedIn.

In other news, HRmarketer is proud to be sponsoring Total Picture Radio with Peter Clayton and Peter’s reporting from the ERE Expo.

We’ve been long time fans of Peter’s work connecting career professionals with the many movers and shakers in the world of talent management.

Watch out for Peter’s interviews for ERE Spring 2009 in the coming days. It’s going to be good stuff!

Oh yeah, you can catch my updates at http://twitter.com/JonathanGoodman

The Lastest HR Market Share Podcast: Interview with Nick Fishman from employeescreenIQ

The latest HR Market Share podcast is ready for your listening pleasure below. Subscribe to the series in iTunes and look for regular posts to our blog and on the HRmarketer.com site. You can also subscribe to all our past interviews and episodes via Hipcast.

This is a new series we've launched covering what's hot in the HR space; recent mergers, acquisitions and earnings; recent HR supplier news; what's working in marketing and PR and what's not; interviews with HR suppliers and other marketing/PR/business thought leaders.

The latest episode includes marketplace news, what's new with HR products and services, and the podcast main feature is my interview Nick Fishman, Chief Marketing Officer, EVP.

According to recent research conducted by the Quality Service division of employeescreenIQ (www.employeescreen.com), an alarming 57 percent of requests for employment and education verifications were rejected when an electronically signed consent form was used.

I found this fascinating and had no idea it was this high. Listen to the podcast for more information.

If you'd like to be interviewed on our podcast about what's working in marketing and PR or anything about the HR marketplace, or if you have feedback and suggestions for the podcast, please email me at hrmarketshare(at)hrmarketer(dot)com or kgrossman(at)hrmarkter(dot)com.

Thank you and enjoy!

Interview with Nick Fishman, EVP & CMO of employeescreenIQ

• The coolest collection of HR-related news and content found online is in our HR Community (get a profile up if you're not already there)
• News for HR Newsletter
• More HR marketplace news here and here
• employeescreenIQ University

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Recruiting for a cause: gather the largest number of Afro wigs in one place at one time

I can’t even begin to put into words my empathy for recruiters in this current economy. So let me point out to those of you who don’t know me, I was in HR for over 20 years, working first as a recruiter in an agency. I then began to work directly as recruiter. Eventually, I moved into management, but retained a strong focus on recruitment. Suffice it to say – to you recruiters – I feel your pain.

I recently read Mike Astringer's blog post Can you protect your reputation as a Recruiter in a down economy? His experience points out the risks that recruiters face from disgruntled clients. And a disgruntled client could be anyone who didn’t get the job. Scary.

What can be done? Here in Santa Cruz, we have a local recruiter with an answer. Wear funny wigs, and break world records, all in the name of a good cause!

Santa Cruz looks to set record for Afro wigs

Here is our local recruiter, Virgil Robinson (note the big yellow afro wig in the picture) on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel).

Virgil Robinson heads an executive recruiting firm (the Kemit Group). His quirky idea: gather the largest number of Afro wigs in one place at one time. Or as he was quoted in the Sentinel article: "Our main goal is to encourage people to take bold action and try to do things that in the past they have been disinclined to do because of fear or doubt."

Robinson created the Possibility Advocate Society as a way to help his clients, (out-of-work Silicon Valley professionals) to maintain their optimism. Take a look at his social networking sight – possibilityadvocate.ning.com.

Talk about making lemonade – then passing it out to the thirsty masses! This event will also benefit some lucky (unlucky?) mortgage holder, behind in their mortgage payments.

You say you don’t like Afro wigs? In June 2009, he plans another world record attempt, “The largest Bikini & Speedo photo shoot”. That is a cause worth supporting!

But before they get there, check out how they broke the Afro wig record!

Post by Dawn Passaro

S2 – A Smarter and Safer Workplace

It’s a pretty amazing world out there – a world full of hope – and social networking and social media marketing has helped to make it so.

Let me explain. Recently I posted some personal blog posts about stopping domestic violence and Mark posted an HRmarketer blog post titled Johnson and Johnson: Employee Health Indicators that included a "sampling of the sustainability programs of Johnson & Johnson" and includes information on J&J's impact on the environment, employee safety (e.g., fleet car accidents) and employee health (percent who use tobacco).

Then just yesterday I received a tweet from @kwells2416 (Kim Wells, Executive Director of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence) who wrote:

J & J also asks employees about domestic violence as result of some work we are doing w/ them.

And then:

Go to http://www.caepv.org/action/S2.php and you can see the J & J presentation along w/ many others.

I was pleasantly floored. You can joke all you want about Twitter and social networking services, but folks are communicating and sharing valuable information to help better organizations and individuals alike.

Sadly the effects of domestic violence in the workplace seems to be spoken about even less frequently than when it occurs at home. According to the stats I found at CAEPV:

On September 25, 2007, CAEPV, Liz Claiborne and Safe Horizon released a groundbreaking survey on corporate executives and employee awareness of the impact of domestic violence in the workplace.

Surprisingly, the survey shows that a significant majority of corporate executives and their employees from the nation's largest companies recognize the harmful and extensive impact of domestic violence in the workplace, yet only 13% of corporate executives think their companies should address the problem.

The attitudes of executives differ dramatically from an overwhelming majority of employees (84%) who believe that corporations should be a part of the solution to addressing domestic violence.

Although nearly 2 in 3 corporate executives (63%) say that domestic violence is a major problem in our society and 55% cite its harmful impact on productivity in their companies, a majority of top executives have blinders on when it comes to seeing the reality of domestic violence victims working in their own companies.

(Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, September 2007)

Now imagine how the economic meltdown – losing jobs and homes – has excerbated partner violence. I found an article from AOL's BlackVoices titled Domestic Violence & Economic Abuse Increase as Economy Goes South that pulled some examples and stats together on this subject. Sadly the media isn't highlighting this enough either.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline conducted a survey from November 12 to December 31 last year, asking nearly 8,000 callers about the connection between financial issues and the level of violence in their household:

"54% answered yes to the question, 'Has there been a change in your household's financial situation in the last year?'; and 64% also answered the second question affirmatively, which was, 'Do you believe the abusive behavior has increased in the past year?'," reports the survey.

The Allstate Foundation Domestic Violence Program (which is affiliated with the CAEPV) says that economic abuse is a tactic used to control relationships and maintain power by preventing access to money and/or other financial resources. To combat economic abuse, the Allstate Foundation Domestic Violence Program has set up a website to provide resources, knowledge and skills to help victims.

Here are some economic abuse examples, via BlackVoices:

• Controlling victims' paychecks and bank accounts, and determining how they spend money, where they work and what property they buy;
• Using victims' credit cards without permission and destroying their credit rating;
• Putting all financial contracts (lease, credit cards, utilities, etc) in a victim's name and then failing to make payments, destroying the victim's credit rating;
• Forcing low-income victims or victims with disabilities to turn over government benefit payments;
• Undermining victim's opportunities to become economically independent by not allowing the to work, forcing them to work in family businesses for little or no pay, or calling and harassing them in the workplace to such an extent that they lose their jobs;
• Refusing to pay spousal or child support to a survivor who has left an abusive partner; and
• Forcing a victim to cash in, sell, or sign over any financial assets or inheritance (e.g., bonds, stocks or property).

The good news is there are organizations like CAEPV. Companies can and should provide partner violence programs for their employees. Download Six Steps for Creating a Successful Workplace Program today.

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Johnson and Johnson: Employee Health Indicators

Pssssst. Six percent of Johnson and Johnson employees have high blood pressure. And 4% use tobacco.

Sounds like a healthy group.

How do I know this?

While reading the annual report of Johnson and Johnson, one of the worlds most admired companies (#5), I came across a very interesting chart titled "Sustainability Measures" (see image in this post).

I've never seen anything like this before - in any company's annual report. The data is a "sampling of the sustainability programs of Johnson & Johnson" and includes information on J&J's impact on the environment, employee safety (e.g., fleet car accidents) and employee health (percent who use tobacco).

Very impressive for a couple of reasons. One, they actually collect this data which my guess is puts them in the top 1% of companies worldwide. Two, they share it with the public. Three, it's a fabulous corporate PR initiative as it shows the company cares about this sort of stuff and is doing something about it. And although difficult to measure I'm sure it plays into the J&J corporate brand - both with customers and potential employees (recruiting and retention).

Very cool. I'd love to know how J&J's human resource department was involved in this - my guess is very much.

Making the business case for the senior care space

Our new vertical, SeniorCareMarketer.com, made its trade show debut at this year's American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging 2009 Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV.

You can read Mark's posts about that event here and here. I'm going to briefly talk about the HR marketplace crossover I witnessed at the event.

First of all, the show was a great learning experience for our team (and we happily created quite a buzz about our marketing and PR services). While conference attendance is dramatically down this year in the HR marketplace and will probably get worse, attendance was actually above expectations at the Aging in America conference – almost 4,000 attendees and over 100 exhibitors. The ASA and NCOA did a fantastic job.

The exhibit hall floor included well known national healthcare, senior care and related businesses (AstraZeneca, Philips Lifeline, ADT, Home Instead, Visiting Angels, etc.); non profits, associations and government agencies (AARP, Alzheimer's Foundation, CDC, etc.); and start-ups and smaller less established businesses. Many of the exhibitors were local or regional businesses from around the country (as opposed to selling nationally or globally).

In our experience in the space so far, most senior care / caregiving companies are local. One reason is that hands-on caregiving businesses can be difficult and expensive to scale. Another reason is that many senior care businesses on the exhibit floor were inspired by the founder's personal experience with caregiving (e.g., ShirlyBOARD and then SeniorCareMarketer).

In a previous post titled Are You an HR Supplier Targeting the Senior Care Market? Check Out This New eBook, Mark mentioned a few HR suppliers who are also targeting the senior care space. Interestingly these examples and others were absent from the Aging event (most likely due to the heavy social worker mix in the crowd).

But what I did find were a handful of companies I hadn't heard of that are targeting (or wanting to target) the HR market as well as senior care – Coventry Health Care, HeartMath, LiveAnew and NASW Press.

Absent were recruitment services or talent management of any kind, again most likely due to the attendee mix. (Earlier in the week I had tweeted with someone about the growth of online senior job boards.) Interestingly, yesterday there was a separate workshop sponsored by the NCOA titled "Mature Workers – Key to a Competitive Workforce" with featured speaker Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor. (He has a blog. Check it out.)

I didn't get a chance to attend since I left the day before, but here were some of the key focal points:

• Recruiting and retaining a 50+ workforce: strategies and returns
  
• Leading the multi-generational workforce: bridging the gaps through effective workplace coaching and mentoring
  
• Building a health care workforce
  
• Making the business case for mature workers
  

Are you making the business case for the senior care space?

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Economic Uncertainty Having profound Impact on Workplace

I received a press release this morning from Harris Rothenberg International (HRI), a firm that "helps organizations around the world solve their most challenging and complex people issues". The press release announced they had just released a report that shows more than ever, people are relying on employer/employee-assistance programs (EAP) and work/life resources to help them address stresses brought on by the economy.

The free report, The Uncertainty and Change Report: Thriving in Our Challenging Times can be downloaded here.

When I went to their web site to download the report I noticed a wealth of great (and free) information on topics related to financial uncertainty - for employees and employers.

Some specific findings of the report:

• Calls to employer sponsored EAPs in the past year have increased in intensity and need. In particular calls relating to financial concerns increased over 13 percent.
• Calls for mortgage assistance, rent subsidies, child care/adult care subsidies, prescription assistance programs and others were up significantly.
• Statistics show that there have been increases in 401(k) hardship withdrawals.
• HRI's EAP counselors report that employees say they are working more and that people are more pessimistic and people who have lost their jobs or fear losing their jobs are calling for information about and referrals for career consulting, resume preparation, low-cost health insurance and other related needs.
• Companies are cutting expenses and want employees to copay for benefits like backup care, which have not historically required out-of-pocket payment from employees.
• Many companies have smaller staffs now and therefore need more productivity from their employees, but many employees are being less productive as they worry about the future

Edward Trieber, J.D., Ph.D., psychologist and managing director of HRI says this:

“Over the past year, we have seen alarming trends in calls for EAP and work/life services. People are using EAPs as a suicide hotline, and people are calling about substance abuse, indicating they self-medicate to deal with stress and anxiety. People have been asking for referrals to food pantries. Even callers looking for legal help stay on the phone for the emotional support now.”

Beatrice Harris, Ph.D., psychologist and managing director of HRI says this:

“The majority of EAP calls in the past year, while spanning a number of topics, end up touching on the financial in one way or another. If a call comes in about a relationship issue, chances are finances enter the conversation. When a caller talks about anxiety, he or she ultimately talks about job security issues or financial constraints as a contributing factor. Financial stress is the dominant subject for the EAP and work/life calls our counselors are receiving.”

Read the report for more interesting statistics and useful educational information relating to finances.

My point in this blog isn't to ruin your day with negative information. It's to highlight the tremendous importance of employee benefit programs like EAPs and work-life programs and how critical they can be in difficult times. Companies should not think of these programs as benefit expenses but as investments in their most valuable assets - people.

It's also to recognize HRI for sharing this information and effectively using it in their marketing.

In a blog post I wrote last year titled Don't Think Content Matters? One Example Why It Does. Even in this Economy. I provided a 15-step list of best-practices for how to use content in your marketing and PR campaigns to generate visibility, traffic, leads and SEO. I'll repost them here.

1. Writing a quality white paper on a very relevant topic that is on the minds of many HR decision makers.
2. Narrowing the topic of the white paper to a particular industry that they happen to focus on.
3. Focusing the white paper to a topic that has increased relevance to this industry.
4. Not making the white paper too promotional.
5. In the white paper (at the end) place information about your company and have your company name and URL as a footer on every page of the white paper. And do not make the white paper promotional.
6. Place the white paper on your website for free download. Link to it from the welcome page and other highly visible places (like a sidebar throughout the site).
7. Require the bare minimum of contact information such as Name, Company and email on your registration form.
8. On the Landing Page, place a summary of the white paper so search engine spiders/crawlers can find and index the page. Make sure the title and meta tags reflect your keywords.
9. Announce the white paper in at least two press releases. One press release (or pitch) - we call these "traditional" press releases - is sent to appropriate journalists and provides a summary of the white paper and wy it is newsworthy. If you want to share the white paper with the media do not attach it to your email but link to it - and do not require them to fill out any forms to download it. You will then want to send at least one search-optimized press release directly to the Internet with links to your landing page for download. This release provides a sneak preview and compelling facts/trends/statistics to entice people to download the white paper.
10. Place a copy of this press release on your own web site with links to your white paper landing page. If you have a newsletter, mention the white paper in the next issue. If you have a blog, blog about it.
11. Send the white paper to a few key bloggers in your industry. You should personalize these emails and make sure to explain to the blogger why you are sending the white paper to them and how it may be of interest to his/her readers. Again, do not attach it to your email but link to it - and do not require them to fill out any forms to download it.
12. Send a direct email to your house list announcing the availability of the white paper with a link to the landing page. I suggest you also rent a targeted opt-in list of HR decision makers (at least 5,000 - will cost you between $0.20 - $0.50 per email) and send the direct email to them as well. If you do not have a house list, rent a larger list of 10,000 or more.
13. Recycle and revise the white paper into a 800 -1,000 word byline article and submit/publish in an industry trade magazine that accepts byline articles. HRmarketer members can find out which trades accept byline articles by searching their Media Outlets database.
14. Consider also doing a webcast on the white paper topic. In fact, on your download page (see step 7) you can include a check box to register for the webcast that discusses the white paper content.
15. Reload and repeat the above steps each quarter

Oh, and don't forget to Twitter about it and mention it on your company's Facebook page (or Facebook Group you have set up).

Social Networking with HR Media and Analysts

Hey, all the kids are doing it – including HR media and analysts – and now we're tracking hundreds of them on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

This is a new social networking feature in our expanded media relations database and we're the first media relations database service to offer this timely information. (We started tracking HR and benefits bloggers in 2007, long before the HR business community really "got it".)

Traditionally phones, emails and city desks provided the only means to reach these folks with story ideas and offers of resources. Now anyone can potentially join a conversation with a writer, editor and analyst.

Keep in mind that if they don't know you from Adam, they're probably not going to be too excited to hear from you, and may not even respond or except your Friend request or LinkedIn request or follow you on Twitter. Remember the best practices of any kind of outreach:

• Get to know what the editor/analyst is covering – i.e., read their work and research.
  
• Comment on their work via email, their blogs, webcasts, etc.
• Suggest story ideas and/or introduce clients who may be a resource.
  
• Do not follow up incessantly with them; let the relationship bloom naturally and the fact that you have become a trusted source for them.
  
• If you're interested in analyst relations, schedule a free vendor briefing with them (most offer this).
  

Once our database is fully updated with this new contact info, you'll be able to directly reach a top journalist or analyst by clicking on that individual's LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter icon (see the picture example in the post). We'll track all this information for the thousands of media contacts it covers in the HR and broader business space.

That is pretty cool stuff, don't you think? Yes, we occasionally enjoy our own Kool Aid. Have some.

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Enough. Inspiring Great Leadership.

John C. Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Mutual Fund Group, is one of the most successful and respected business leader's and investor's of all time. Period. Mr. Bogle has a new book out that is a must-read during today's economic climate. The title of the book is Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life.

One chapter in the book titled Too Much Management, Not Enough Leadership has great relevance to readers of this blog. The focus of the chapter is how most businesses are overmanaged and underled, and the profound differences between leadership and management.

Mr. Bogle cites management guru Warren Bennis' key distinctions between management and leadership - some include:

- The manager administers, the leader innovates.
- The manager imitates, the leader originates.
- The manager relies on control, the leader inspires trust.
- The manager focuses on systems and structure, the leader focuses on people.
- The manager has a short term view, the leader has a long range perspective.
- The manager has their eye on the bottom line, the leader has his/her eye on the horizon.

Bogle mostly agrees with the distinction but believes the dichotomy is overdrawn (e.g., great leaders don't ignore the bottom line and great managers build trust).

Bogle then shares his ten rules for building a great organization - rules that apply to both managers and leaders. I wanted to share the rules with readers of this blog - they are right on the mark and particularly welcome given what's going on in business today. They include:

1. Make Caring the Soul of the Organization
2. Forget about Employees. Employees come to work at 9am, leave at 5pm, do what they are told, keep their mouth's shut and collect a paycheck. "Crew members' (as Vanguard refers to staff) are excited, motivated, committed, and caring people that work together on a worthwhile voyage.
3. Set High Standards and Values - and Stick to Them.
4. Talk the Talk - Repeat the Values Endlessly.
5. Walk the Walk - Actions speak Louder than Words.
6. Don't Over Manage. Bogle takes issue with the saying "if you can measure it manage it" calling it a hindrance in building great real-world organizations and saying "it is character, not numbers, that make the world go 'round".
   
7. Recognize Individual Achievement. Vanguard was one of the first companies to create a formal "employee" recognition program. The point wasn't to make a select few rich but to recognize achievement.
8. A Reminder - Loyalty is a Two Way Street. Says Bogle: "It is really incredible that it has taken most American companies so long to realize that it is simply not right to ask those who do the daily work to be loyal to the organization without making the same commitment, with the same fervor, that the corporation will be loyal to them in return.
9. Lead and Manage for the Long Term. Bogle says "Once you decide whether you expect to be in business for a short time or a long time, most of the right decisions are easy.
10. Press On, Regardless. Bogle illustrates this point by quoting Calvin Coolidge:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not;unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race."

As we witness the demise of so many organizations these days - small and large - consider this fact. Of the 2,000 companies that at one time or another made Fortune Magazine's annual 500 list since 1955, only 71 of the original list remain on the list today. Bogle cites economist Joseph Schumpeter who attributes this turnover to entrepreneurship, the "vital force that drives economic growth - the gale of creative destruction". However, my guess is that poor leadership is also a major factor.

Enough. Thanks Mr. Bogle.

The Latest HR Market Share Podcast

The second HR Market Share podcast is ready for your listening pleasure below. Subscribe to the series in iTunes and look for regular posts to our blog and on the HRmarketer.com site. You can also subscribe to all our past interviews and episodes via Hipcast.

This is a new series we've launched covering what's hot in the HR space; recent mergers, acquisitions and earnings; recent HR supplier news; what's working in marketing and PR and what's not; interviews with HR suppliers and other marketing/PR/business thought leaders.

The latest episode includes marketplace news, seemingly random marketing and PR, and heart of the podcast focuses on the hot social networking and social media marketing service Facebook (whose new look and feel and functionality rolled out last week).

A special thank you to Angel Rao-Brown of Effective Resources and Tiffany Appleby of HRchitect for their interviews!

I've listed below some of the resources and links I reference in the podcast. If you'd like to be interviewed on our podcast about what's working in marketing and PR or anything about the HR marketplace, or if you have feedback and suggestions for the podcast, please email me at hrmarketshare(at)hrmarketer(dot)com or kgrossman(at)hrmarkter(dot)com.

Thank you and enjoy!

• Join us in the Human Resource (HR) Vendor Group on Facebook
  
• Journalists are free to join us in the Human Resources Media Group
  
• For those of you selling in the senior care marketplace, join us in the Senior Care Marketing Group
  
• The coolest collection of HR-related news and content found online is in our HR Community (get a profile up if you're not already there)
  
• Facebook
  
• The Advance Guard's Facebook white paper About Face
  
• Facebook Pages Insider's Guide
  
• Why Facebook blog
  
• The help section on Facebook can answer many questions you may have and assist you in discovering opportunities you may not have been aware of.
  

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

We're Not a Bookstore. We're a Venue That Happens to Sell Books.

What business are you in?

Theodore Levitt, a renowned scholar and founder of modern marketing wrote a now classic article in 1960 called Marketing Myopia. In the article he argues that the railroads let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. Had the executives realized that they were in the transportation business, rather than the railroad business, they could have moved into trucking and air transport, rather than letting other companies dominate. By extension, many argue that if newspapers had understood they were in the information business, rather than the print business, they would have adapted more quickly and more successfully to the Net.

History is littered with failed businesses who never quite figured out what exactly it is they do.

As the founder of Fisher Vista, LLC, a company that operates in the human resource and health care industries, I can promise you this is the single toughest question I wrestle with year in and year out. It's particularly tough in technology because the answer can change on a dime.

So it was with interest I read about a local bookstore here in Capitola, CA that is struggling with the same question. The Capitola Book Cafe is losing business to Costco and online booksellers and the slow economy is making it worse.

This economic slowdown has been a cleansing of some sort whereby a lot of really badly run businesses (e.g., Circuit City) that should have disappeared long ago finally went bust. But as the economy worsens, very good businesses like the the Capitola Book Cafe - and some quality HR vendors - are in dire straits. This is forcing them to ask tough questions like "what business am I in?" And the smart ones are adapting.

Says the owner of the Capitola Bookstore:

"We've been morphing from a bookstore with a cafe into a venue that happens to sell books. It's all about trying to create that Solon feel, to become a place where people gather."

Some of the changes the bookstore made:

• To broaden its appeal and establish its community roots, they now welcome consignment items and artwork.
• Hosting community events
• Created a kids area and special section for local authors
• Stocking hard to find titles
• Instituted a "membership"program entitling members to free food, drinks, event tickets, shopping sprees, etc.
• Host author readings including nationally recognized names like Tom Brokaw and Khaled Hosseini.

Who knows if this will keep them in business but kudos for the creativity and initiative.

At our company, we've morphed from a web-based database of marketing and PR opportunities in 2001 to a SaaS / full service marketing firm with tools and services that help HR vendors achieve increased online visibility, web site traffic, sales leads and improved search engine rankings. But even with our full suite of services and stellar track record of growth and customer satisfaction, we still need to innovate to maintain relevancy - like our recently announced SEO Center. But I still struggle with that darn question!

What business are you in?

Wrestle with that one for awhile - or have a retreat dedicated to that single question. Your business - and customers - will thank you.

Conversation Starters: Facebook

Last summer I started a MySpace account and a Facebook account. My goal was to experiment with these social networking services to promote HRmarketer.com and my children's book.

Less than 15 minutes after I registered with MySpace I was contacted by an attractive young woman wanting to be my "friend". That pretty much answered the question about how viable MySpace was going to be for me.

After that experience I just let my Facebook account sit, incomplete, with no intention of ever using it.

My how things have changed. I can't stay away from my account today and everyday I'm connecting with friends, family and business contacts and evangelizing HRmarketer.com and SeniorCareMarketer.com and my personal interests as well.

Facebook has grown exponentially over the past 12 months, and while there is still debate over whether or not Zuckerberg and company can create a profitable long-term business model, HR suppliers can use Facebook to promote your organizations.

When you look at "the race to mass market chart" from the recent Fortune article, it's amazing how quickly Facebook (and social networking in general) has been embraced by the market. And the biggest growing demographic now is the 30-year-old+ group.

Here are the 10 things marketers and PR pros in the HR marketplace need to know about Facebook:

• It's quick and easy to sign up for an account at http://www.facebook.com/
  
• Unlike other social networking services, you can only set up one personal profile (the Facebook user agreement allows only one profile per person and they are not to be used for business entities). New enhancements coming to Facebook will allow you to keep separate groups of friends, family and business contacts.
  
• How much information about yourself you want to share in your profile is up to you (personal, business, photos, videos, etc.), but if you're going to use it for business networking, then at a minimum include that information.
  
• Use the Facebook Find Friends search tools to connect with folks. Or you can do Google searches for folks you want to connect with. Lots of us HR marketplace folk already there along with journalists and editors.
  
• Adjust your privacy settings to decide who sees what in your profile.
  
• Associate yourself with networks. Networks can include a school, work place, city or region.
  
• Create a Facebook Page for your company (like Effective Resources Inc. and Salary.com – if you've got one too up send me the link). Facebook Pages were introduced to allow businesses, products, celebrities and other entities to have a presence on Facebook and connect with consumers.
  
• Create a Facebook Group for your company (like our Human Resource Vendor Group – 122 members and growing – and our Human Resources Media Group). Facebook Groups are centered on a common interest that people share like a business, cause, hobby or activity. Examples include marketing and PR professionals, human resource vendors, recruiters and practitioners of social media to name just a few.
  
• Create and promote business events on Facebook (like the HR Technology Conference and Expo). This is an excellent way to reach out to HR folk, vendors, fans, friends and users on Facebook to let them know of interesting things coming up. Ideal events to promote on Facebook include trade show special events, webinars, lectures, product launches or any other gathering – both live and online – where people can gather, socialize or learn.
  
• And if you're interested, Facebook Ads allow businesses to advertise on a "pay-per-click" basis and target their ads in a variety of ways (similar to advertising on a search engine – iCIMS advertises this way for example). Additionally, Facebook ads can have personalized aspects included that incorporate your page fans and group members in them to lend a more personal touch to those that view them.
  

This is just the beginning and the social media marketing and PR power that Facebook will continue to yield is boundless. As I wrote in my Twitter post, we're working on a new eBook tentatively titled "Conversation Starters" that's all about social media marketing and social networking for the HR space, and Facebook will definitely be a part of that.

Our goal is to keep it simple, succinct and strategic for you all. There is already a butt-load (yes, I actually wrote butt-load yet again) of best practices information on the street about Facebook and other social media services, like latest one I found from The Advance Guard called About Face. There's also the Facebook Pages Insider's Guide and the Why Facebook blog.

There are a wealth of opportunities for marketing and PR on Facebook, and many applications to enhance ones' personal profile and business page – far too many to go into detail here. Spend some time searching for businesses similar to yours and visit their pages to see what kind of information, applications, events, etc. they include and how they seem to be utilized by fans. Browse through the applications on Facebook to see if any would be useful or beneficial to your fans. The help section on Facebook can answer many questions you may have and assist you in discovering opportunities you may not have been aware of.

But most importantly, be trustworthy and transparent in your networking, marketing and PR – be a part of the HR marketplace conversation.

Friend me and let's get to networking! (It doesn't matter that friend isn't a verb. It is in Facebook.)

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

The Wrong and the Right of Sales and Customer Service

The Wrong Way

A couple of weeks ago we had an analyst briefing with one of our clients and major analyst firm X (I'm not going to out them because they are a quality firm in the human capital space, although they need to improve their sales applicant screening). After the briefing, the analyst jumped off the line but the sales person stayed on to pitch us their services.

That was my first red flag because with the briefings we've done for clients to date, there usually isn't a salesperson on and they usually don't pitch until another call.

Not only were we pitched aggressively, the salesperson called my cell and work number a half dozen times into the evening to try to close a deal we weren't interested in from the get go (it was the end of the month). And there were multiple emails as well, even after I told the person we weren't interested.

They weren't even good deals either. In this economy with spending at anemic levels, you've got to wheel and deal and get creative.

Then just last week the salesperson called me and caught me live – and there was another analyst on the line I was being introduced to. I was bushwhacked! I told the salesperson I didn't appreciate it but was courteous to the analyst (who was someone we needed to add to our HRmarketer.com analyst database).

I did agree to talk with the salesperson a few days later, but when I was sidetracked by a client call (hug your customers – always the first priority). The analyst firm salesperson called our office and was extremely rude to one of our staff, saying there was a scheduled meeting and I had better not miss it.

That was B.S. and the end of any potential sales for that firm from me and my clients (at least until I cool off, which obviously I'm still doing).

The Right Way

I hate email these days. Every time I blink 500 of them download into my inbox and filter into other folders with the semblance of being organized.

And it's not. It's madness; I hear the voice of Dr. Hannibal Lector in every download notification – "Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?"

Someone emailed me (how ironic) information about an email organization software plug-in for Outlook called ClearContext. I've tried out different plug-ins before that either didn't work well or I never spent enough time trying to learn how to use them correctly, but I gave this one a try.

The next day someone on Twitter wrote "I hate my email" or something like that. I replied that I found ClearContext and that it was kinda working.

Five minutes later @ClearContext responded via Twitter saying "I hope we can turn that kinda working into working great for you!" I responded with some questions and a minute later the ClearContext contact sent me four links to tutorials that were helpful.

Of course some of them referred to functionality from the paid version of the software (I'm using the free version), but it was a great upsell opportunity as well and now I may just buy it at some point.

Because it does work and they get sales and customer service.

But I still hate email.

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Conversation Starters – The Inaugural HR Market Share Podcast

On the heels of Mark's Gevity/TriNet news post, the inaugural HR Market Share podcast is ready for your listening pleasure below. Look for the series subscription in iTunes soon and regular posts to our blog and on the HRmarketer.com site.

This is a new series we're going to launch (hosted by yours truly) covering what's hot in the HR space; recent mergers, acquisitions and earnings; recent HR supplier news; what's working in marketing and PR and what's not; interviews with HR suppliers and other marketing/PR/business thought leaders.

The pilot episode is jammed packed with marketplace updates and heart of the podcast focuses on the hot social media marketing activity of tweeting on Twitter. Yes, that wonderful pastime of sharing news nuggets and Tiny URL updates in 140 characters or less.

I've listed below some of the resources and links I reference in the podcast. If you'd like to be interviewed on our podcast about what's working in marketing and PR or anything about the HR marketplace, or if you have feedback and suggestions for the podcast, please email me at hrmarketshare(at)hrmarketer(dot)com or kgrossman(at)hrmarkter(dot)com.

Thank you and enjoy!

• Find the latest HR Software and Services announcements in our newsletter
  
• Join us in the Human Resource (HR) Vendor Group on Facebook
  
• The coolest collection of HR-related content found online is in our HR Community (get a profile up if you're not already there): http://www.hrmarketer.com/community/
  
• Twitter
  
• Seven rules for establishing a corporate presence on Twitter
  
• The 90-10 Rule for Successful Twitter Networking
  
• JobAngels.org
  
• A Directory of Book Trade People on Twitter
  
• MrTweet
  
• Media People Using Twitter
  
• I Tweet Myself (comedy relief)
  
• Twitter Frenzy on the Daily Show (comedy relief)
  

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

Gevity. Another Publicly Traded HR Vendor Going Private

This one is interesting.

TriNet Group (an HR outsourcing firm) announced today that it will buy Gevity HR (a PEO). As part of the deal, Gevity also agreed to be taken private.

TriNet paid $98 million in cash or $4.00 per share for Gevity which was almost double Gevity's closing price of $2.03 on Wednesday - a 97 percent premium!

So naturally, Gevity's stock rose 90 percent today. Wow.

The deal was backed by TriNet's largest shareholder (and a shareholder of Gevity - surprise, surprise), General Atlantic Partners. Remember these guys? They've been a big early investor in HR companies since the early 1980s. Their most notorious (for the average non-insider shareholder) was Exult, one of the first HR BPOs that was essentially created by GA and offered to the public at $10 per share in 2002 and then sold to Hewitt in 2004 for about $6.30 per share. I don't believe Exult ever made a profit.

Gevity's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael J. Lavington, commented that "The Company's board of directors has concluded a lengthy evaluation of numerous strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value and has concluded that joining forces with TriNet is in the best interests of our shareholders."

Shareholders? Gevity went public in 1997 for $15.41 and traded for around $30 per share in early 2006 and closed yesterday at around $2. For many long term shareholders even a 97% rise in stock today means little.

Obviously General Atlantic and Trinet feel Gevity's securities have been undervalued by investors - by at lot! And only time will tell if this is the case. I hope they are right because that would mean lower unemployment and overall great things for the entire HR marketplace - down the road. In Gevity's last publicly available financials for the period ending Sep 2008 they reported a net loss of about $2 million on revenues of $125 million. Their annual revenue in 2007 was about $605 million so on the surface paying a multiple of about .17X revenue is a steal for Trinet and GA. And it won't take much in the form of a future IPO or sale to make this back in multiples.

But my hunch is, like so many of these high finance deals, there is no way this benefits anyone but the private equity folks and other insiders in the long term. Lets just hope it doesn't hurt the customers too much. I wish all parties success. And congratulations to anyone who bought Gevity in December of 2008.

Related posts:

IPOs in the HR Space: Should I Stay Private or Go Public?

Seniors Fuel Increase in Career-Site Visitors. The Bigger Picture.

A few days ago Marketing Charts posted an interesting article on how visitors to US career-development websites increased 20% year-over-year to 49.7 million in January 2009.

This was fueled by a surge in visitors ages 65+ who are apparently still in the job market, according to data from Nielsen Online. In fact, the number of unique visitors age 65 and older to career development websites grew 41% year-over-year, increasing from 2.5 million in January 2008 to 3.6 million in January 2009.

Chuck Schilling, research director with Nielsen Online had this to say about the data:

“While 65 used to be considered the age when most people retired, we are seeing a trend toward later retirement or partial retirement,” Schilling said. “Much of this desire to stay employed longer can probably be attributed to the fact that people are living longer and feel the need to keep generating income and sock away more retirement savings, especially in light of the current economic climate and its effect on people’s nest eggs.”

At Fisher Vista, LLC we operate what I initially believed to be two totally different businesses: (1) HRmarketer.com and (2) SeniorCareMarketer.com. Yet, as I speak with senior care and HR vendors I am realizing these two services are quite complementary. Who would have thunk?

And this is giving us a unique perspective on the aging population's impact on employers. In particular, how every company (yes, yours too) will have to:

(1) Rethink recruitment and retention, employee benefits design, and general staffing decisions to attract and retain an older workforce. This means everything from how you source candidates, their job descriptions, the benefits you offer them, their work schedules (e.g., job sharing), how to train, motivate and manage them, etc.

(2) Rethink how your products or services are relevant to an aging population. Whether you realize it or not, your target market is expanding to include "Boomers" and "Seniors" and smart companies are finding ways to either (a) tweak their existing offerings to have more relevance to this market and/or developing new product lines specifically designed for the aging population (e.g., Phillips Electronics Lifeline products and Jitterbug's easy to use senior cell phones).

While #1 (recruitment and retention) gets all the attention these days, #2 (product development/ marketing) is equally if not more important in the long term.

Our economy is going through unprecedented changes as are the demographics of the world - and every company must think about how they will maintain relevance in the next economy. To get you thinking, check out Ed Wallace's brilliant article When the Boomers Stop Buying.

I'm already seeing some senior care vendors enter the HR space by introducing their products/services to employers - usually as some form of employee benefit to help employees dealing with elder care issues. And more HR executives are noticing the impact elder care has on employees (think presenteeism) and beginning to do something about it.

But there are also opportunities for HR vendors (e.g., EAPs and work-life companies) to enter the B2C space or pursue other distribution channels for their services. Lot's of opportunities.

Which ones have relevance is yet to be seen but one thing I know for sure - the HR vendor landscape will look a lot different ten years from now.

The integrability of online marketing and PR

Came across a tweet this morning that led to an interesting and informative opinion post by Treb Ryan of OpSource titled Meet "Generation SaaS" (thank you @jasonaverbook). The post talks about the fact that the younger generations have grown up "wired" – i.e., grown up with the Internet and all the cool functionality it brings.

According to Ryan, "Users go online to manage their fantasy football teams, use Weight Watchers software, purchase music and so on – they expect a similar level of functionality from their enterprise SaaS apps, including the following":

• Multitenancy – Vendors must offer the ability to have all users work on a single version of an application. Users simply can't share data if there are different applications running – it makes a challenging situation much more challenging. It stuns me that many vendors are trying to offer SaaS apps without multitenancy.
  
• Integrate-ability - Multitenancy also enables vendors to integrate applications through standard Web interfaces. Users want to create SOAP, RISC and other interfaces to facilitate integrated programming. This integration capability also allows channel partners to better customize products for a user's particular needs.
  
• Independent Trial & Purchase - Users must be able to visit a vendor's site, download an application and install it without assistance from anyone at the vendor. The SaaS Generation wants to download, test and evaluate a proof-of-concept immediately.
  
• Online Sales & Marketing – The cost of sales is one of the biggest costs of any software business model. Generation SaaS doesn't appreciate salespeople or a drawn-out sales process. Online marketing focuses on attracting attention and qualifying prospects who have downloaded free trials – not massive campaigns to build reach.
  
• New Media - As recently as five years ago, we spent a good deal of time courting the print media. Today, we focus on 6 or 7 key bloggers in our space because we find most of our customers are getting their information from these outlets. As times change, it is important to stay in touch with the online communication options that matter most to Generation SaaS buyers and users.
  
• Online Meetings – Face-to-face interaction is still important to Generation SaaS workers. Our company still runs one major conference a year but holds the remainder of our user events online in the form of twice-monthly Webinars. Attendance at these events is increasing as users find it harder and more expensive to travel.
  

Although I'll have to place "Integrate-ability" in the jargon bucket, since "integrability" is the better world, this is a very important list for HR software suppliers large and small (and there are a lot more small to mid-market on-demand delivery players out there than you think there are).

And of course what really struck me were the "online sales & marketing" and "new media" bullets. I'm not so sure about free trials (they've been a mixed bag for us), but you could give out comp accounts to key influencers and let them chat it up. Start using social media marketing, content and networking to spread the word without force feeding prospects (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, search-optimized press releases, blogging, webcasts, podcasts, white papers, research reports and so many more). Let your prospects and customers do the talking, but make sure you participate in that conversation – good and bad.

Courting key bloggers and other social media influencers is critical today. To be found online you need to participate online more than any other traditional marketing/PR activity (return on cost alone should be reason enough). Our latest vendor HR marketing report validates that practice for the third year in a row.

We recommend that you follow the integrability of online marketing and PR:

• Get your house SEO (website) in order first (sadly so many HR suppliers don't).
  
• Develop and distribute your key messaging and regular best practices content via direct marketing email and search-optimized press releases.
  
• Blog, comment on related blogs, create webcasts and podcasts that are pertinent to your space, offer best practices content via RSS feeds to your prospects.
  
• Participate in social media marketing and social networking – be part of your conversation because you can't control it anymore.
  
• Be part of the HRmarketer Community (you knew that was coming).
  

As mentioned in the last post, Jonathan Goodman, HRmarketer's VP of Sales and Business Development recently stated:

"Companies large and small are reworking their marketing budgets with many shifting resources to SEO and online marketing over other traditional (and costly) marketing activities. My advice to HRmarketer members and clients is do not give up your online marketing and SEO efforts. You risk losing ground faster than ever as companies across the board invest more in this channel."

Amen, brother.

Post by Kevin Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn)

HRmarketer.com is Launching The SEO Center. Are Your Shoelaces Untied?

I've been working with our development team and in-house SEO experts to prepare for the launch of HRmarketer.com's new SEO Center. The new feature will be launched in April and is available at no cost to all HRmarketer.com members. Trust me - it's very cool. Benefits include:

• Track your average daily keyword rankings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN
• Get automated daily reports displayed on your HRmarketer Dashboard and/or via email.
• Monitor the impact of your SEO, web site's content changes and inbound links on search engine rankings.
• Compare your rankings to those of your competitor(s).
• Schedule one-to-one meetings with SEO experts to learn the ins and outs of SEO.

When the new feature launches, all HRmarketer.com members will find that by default they have five SEO reports already set-up based on the keyword phrases from their web site's META tags (users can then edit and create more reports).

So what's this about your shoelaces being untied?

The problem is that I am seeing too many companies with NO keyword descriptions in their Meta tags. So just for kicks I decided to randomly look at the web sites for about 40 national HR vendors.

What I found was shocking.

At least 50% of HR vendors either had:

• No Meta tags
• Outdated keywords
• Incorrectly formatted keywords
• The wrong keywords (the keyword "benefits" does you no good)

I know there is a LOT more to SEO than Meta tags but having no keyword meta tags is like not tying your shoes before running onto the field to play your favorite sport. And it's indicative of larger underlying problems. So sure enough, when I did further research into these companies with no Meta keywords, nearly all had one of the following problems:

• Flash or graphic entry pages with zero SEO
• Few if any keywords in the body copy of their web site
• Little if any "content" throughout the site
• Poor use or no use of search optimized press releases

The last two are typically a big indicator of low in-bound links which is a huge determinant of your site's search engine rankings.

Jonathan Goodman, HRmarketer's VP of Sales and Business Development recently explained to me:

"Companies large and small are reworking their marketing budgets with many shifting resources to SEO and online marketing over other traditional (and costly) marketing activities. My advice to HRmarketer members and clients is do not give up your online marketing and SEO efforts. You risk losing ground faster than ever as companies across the board invest more in this channel."

My hunch is most of the CEO's of these no meta tag companies are not aware of the problem. Nor are the VPs of marketing. If they were, they'd likely fix it. The likelihood is the web site was delegated to a designer or someone else who didn't know SEO from SOS.

This is why marketing must own the company's marketing web site, search optimize it, and leverage the company's ongoing marketing and PR activities to further improve the web site's rankings.

HRmarketer.com's SEO center could not have come at a better time for these companies.

The question is do they care if their shoelaces are untied?