How Big Social Data Will Transform Talent Acquisition

Futurecasting

How the rise of Big Social Data is set
to transform the business of recruiting.
Dave Mendoza
Global Talent Strategies & Innovation Consultant

April 2013

Talent with impact

Futurecasting 2

Contents
Foreword – Gerry Crispin 3

The future of candidate insight 4

Converging trends, emerging capabilities 5

Big Data’s impact on talent acquisition 6

The strengths and weaknesses of CRM today 8

Futurecasting – what might it look like in practice? 11

First things first: building a fit-for-purpose CRM 13

Toward Futurecasting at Informatica 14

Creating the Talent Knowledge Library 15

Drilling down at Informatica and democratizing talent acquisition 16

Big Social Data: the engine of Futurecasting methodology 17

Trust in Registry: the implications of Futurecasting for the 18
employer brand

Seven things organizations should do right now to implement 19
a Futurecasting methodology

About the author 21

References 22

Copyright©2013. Korn/Ferry International/Futurestep, Inc. All rights reserved. Talent with impact

Futurecasting 3

Forward by Gerry Crispin

There was a time, not so long ago, when Times have certainly changed. Today, there
recruiting was very much simpler. You had are multiple layers of technologies, tools,
an approved opening and you filled it. partners and services embedded in our
The technology tools at your disposal recruiting processes – many of them
included a phone, a rolodex, a notebook automated, operating in real time and,
and a paper spreadsheet. Every recruiting unfortunately, lacking any human oversight
office had a secretary to help arrange the to ensure they continue to work in alignment
interview schedule. And quality candidates with the businesses they serve.
were plentiful.
At the same time, the universe of potential
Sourcing meant calling people on that applicants is increasingly knowable. In fact,
rolodex, plus searching through other key billions of people are instantly identifiable
sources – the resumes of applicants who’d – globally – years in advance of the moment
previously made it to the finalist stage, we might need them. We may soon be able
your own private library of Who’s Who to access enough information to predict with
directories, as well as professional journals high confidence how successful they’d
whose authors could be targets. be in our workforce, without ever having
spoken to them. Some claim this is already
Getting the word out meant calling an
a possibility.
advertising agency before Thursday,
the deadline for most Sunday classified There are other factors at play. One of the
section ‘display’ ads. The biggest choke most important is the fact that the pool of
point was getting the envelopes opened candidates capable of driving business
and the resumes sorted by job. performance forward has diminished.
A recruiting ‘strategy’ meant knowing how In the US, for example, for every 100,000
long you would try to do all this on your students entering the 9th grade in 2013,
own before calling in the third-party cavalry. only 68,000 will graduate from high school in
Data conversations in those days were 2016. Only 40,000 of them will enter college
limited to selection and assessment that same year and in 2021 – five years
decisions. The rest was simple arithmetic later – fewer than 17,000 will graduate
related to scale, relevant costs and little else. with a college degree. 800 of these college
graduates will be engineers, but in that group
How many openings did we have?
only 125 will be mechanical engineers. 15 of
How many candidates? How many were
the mechanical engineers will be women and
qualified? How many hires were made
fewer than five of those women will remain
in how much time? Where did we spend
working in the profession by 2026.
money? What was the most efficient use
of our time in the assembly line, one-size- Even today, if you have an opening for
fits-all world we lived in? Cost per hire was a mechanical engineer with three to five
about the only thing possible to manipulate years of experience in high-speed packaging
– any other data collection would have design (and an SLA to ensure the slate is
simply taken up more time and money diverse), you know the competition is fierce
than could be justified. and getting more so. Someday soon your
company’s survival may very well depend
on being able to compete by a) getting to
know those five women even before they
have three to five years’ experience or
b) changing the conversion rates noted
above to produce more high school graduates,
college graduates and engineers.
So the future we are facing is very different to
the past I described earlier. While recruiting
as a profession is becoming ever-more complex
and sophisticated, there is growing intensity
of competition for quality candidates to
fill pivotal positions. The real challenge –
and indeed the real opportunity – is learning
how to unlock the huge potential of the
unprecedented levels of data we have access
to today. This whitepaper is a step in
that direction.


Futurecasting 4

The future of candidate insight

Today’s business world faces more data For instance, having longitudinal data
points than even before. But these have no (an “always-on dynamic record”) is now
value unless we can use them to make better possible thanks to these tools. In fact,
decisions. Just imagine if we could transform a large majority of people in the developed
all the cluttered, valueless data that exists world cannot escape their own longitudinal
and use it to make sourcing functions more data. After all, who among us has not left
effective, to dramatically improve workforce some digital record of our interests and
planning, and to increase the strategic value achievements on sites such as LinkedIn or
of competitive intelligence. That is what the Facebook? Recruiters are now theoretically
idea of Futurecasting, as a methodology, able not only to tap into these data streams,
offers organizations. but also to manipulate the data to meet
specific needs. It simply comes down
A number of recent trends have converged to process, albeit a process that needs to
to reveal Futurecasting as a high-potential tackle the complexities inherent in any
concept. On one hand, in an increasingly Big Data initiative.
knowledge-based economy, the globalization
of corporations yields an urgent need for
ever-better talent acquisition; CEOs leading
some of the world’s largest companies often
speak of this need. On the other hand,
powerful new tools are at our disposal –
most notably social media platforms,
integrated systems, and cloud storage
of information. These enhance our ability
to make use of ubiquitous Big Data.


Futurecasting 5

Converging trends, emerging capabilities

Futurecasting is a concept that’s built on a CRM I:
number of key trends and developments of Customer Relationship Management
recent years. Understanding Futurecasting’s As a way of gaining insight into customer
potential and application is impossible behaviors and buying patterns, sales and
without first understanding the trajectories marketing departments used CRM platforms
of each of these trends. first. Data generated could provide valuable
guidance on how ‘warm’ or ‘cold’ a sales lead
Big Data: a collection of data sets so
was. These platforms are now adapting to
large and complex that it becomes difficult
Big Data and Big Social Data, providing new
to process using hands-on database
opportunities for marketers and salespeople.
management tools. Unlocking Big Data can
bring huge benefits, as has been shown in
a number of other fields. Today, for instance, CRM II:
techniques to interpret Big Data help us to Candidate Relationship Management
spot business trends, measure the quality The first CRM tools used in recruitment were
of research and combat crime. simply repurposed Customer Relationship
Management platforms. But soon, Candidate
Social: for billions of people, the rise of Relationship Management systems were
social networking has transformed the way developed – not only capturing information,
they conduct their personal and professional but also enabling regular communication
lives. LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Viadeo, with the right individuals.
Xing and Twitter are among the best known
channels, but far from the only ones. And the Note: through the rest of this paper,
sector is moving at a phenomenal pace. Only the acronym of CRM refers, in most
10 years ago, Facebook was a site called instances, to CRM II.
Facemash with just 450 visitors.
Put Big Data and Social together, and you get… Advanced Programming Interface (API)
This is a tool which allows different digital
Big Social Data: every interaction with platforms to share dynamic data. For example,
social media creates data points and these, an API would be needed to extract information
over time, offer the potential to know from a site like Facebook and then feed it into
individuals and groups within society in other applications, such as a company’s
far greater detail than is currently possible. own database.
The marketing and research opportunities
of Big Social Data have only just begun Social network aggregation platforms
to be explored. But the impact on talent These enable users to share their activities
acquisition looks certain to be just as from destinations such as LinkedIn, Facebook,
dramatic as the impact on the wider world Twitter and other social platforms. Users can
of sales and marketing. also integrate their blog posts and comments
in the aggregation platform. Everything is
The following glossary of terms will help shown in real time to other members who
readers further understand the remaining subscribe to a particular community, which
contents of this whitepaper: eliminates the need to jump from one social
media network to another.

Futurecasting
A next-generation approach to Candidate
Relationship Management that harnesses
Big Social Data to create a level of insight
never before possible.


Futurecasting 6

Big Data’s impact on talent acquisition

For much of 2012 there was talk of just the effect could be overwhelming, after all.
what Big Data is, how it would affect talent Rarely, however, do companies refuse to
acquisition and talent management, and how tap into the deep well of candidate data
to work with the constant and much larger flow (or consumer data, for that matter).
of data that will soon have an impact on this The benefits of having all this candidate
industry. Big Data, according to most major data are abundantly clear, yet the data itself
analysts, may change everything about what has little value unless something can be
we do and why we do it. achieved with it. The question is whether
or not talent acquisition professionals can
Juxtapose these attempts to make sense of
glean insight from their data in a way that
Big Data with the actions of more and more
turns the recruiting function around for
companies, who today are looking to replace
their organizations.
legacy systems, often a first step in capturing
the insights of Big Data in their talent As things stand, most companies are only clear
acquisition processes. As Josh Bersin noted about how to accumulate data, not how to keep
in a recent report, every evolution leading to it, use it and interpret it. Despite increasing
this point started with reporting and a core functionality within CRM suites and plugins
understanding, then moved on to predictive within ATSs, the talent acquisition function
analysis. That’s how it happened in consumer still struggles to keep candidate data dynamic
marketing’s now prolific use of Big Data, and current in a constantly changing work-
and that is very likely how it will happen in HR. scape, even with the promise of social to do
just that. Talent acquisition has certainly
Simultaneously, the ongoing discussion
made recent strides in the reporting part of
about Candidate Relationship Management
the data equation, but there is not yet a real
and Applicant Tracking Systems began to
understanding of how to prepare for Big Data
merge with a concurrent conversation around
– particularly the protocols that should
social recruiting. And against this backdrop,
surround the accumulation of data and
many talent acquisition professionals have
the storage and use of data, as well as
questioned the value of adding extra social
the relational nature of social data and
data to the disorganized and often redundant
the interpretation and predictive analysis
data already in our cluttered databases;
of… you guessed it, data.


Futurecasting 7

The good news is that CRM suites are primed With today’s social records, the data is
to manage the onslaught of data and make there to keep track of the next job in the line.
sense of it – with enhancements and That kind of information, along with company-
modifications, of course. An effective CRM specific job titles, can assist workforce
can aggregate and sort through data to tell an planning in a big way. Big Data analyses
organization where its talent audience spends hold great potential to answer critical
time and in what ways – and not just the hires questions whose answers have practical
that lasted and became internal stars, but the applications for talent acquisition specialists:
ones who resigned after three months as well.
Done correctly, there is the potential for:
• What universities and trade schools
do competitors invest resources in?
• forecasting to become Futurecasting • What are the most common,
• reporting to become auto-analysis identifiable patterns that reflect
• useless information to become sources of hire among key competitors?
essential information • Who do they hire from, and are there
• time-consuming activity to become commonalities in job title descriptions?
efficient • What product verticals align most
• jumbled data to become decision- appropriately to corporate offerings,
supporting analysis and are the skillsets involved consistent?
• How do competitors establish quotas
to measure performance?
• What are key indicators of recognition
Consider the alternative. If a company’s talent
and awards among key business
management team isn’t keeping track of where
functions such as R&D and sales?
the organization’s employees and applicants
• What is the average length of time
come from, and if it isn’t keeping that record
identified to progress from a graduate
alive with information about how they fared,
intern to a software architect or
it’s doing the organization a disservice –and
management role?
at some point, catching up will become nearly
• How do all the above questions factor
impossible because the hurdles are too great
into internal organizational best
to surmount practically.
practices, and has the organization
created a platform as a depository to
archive these critical data inputs?
Is the ‘Talent Knowledge Library’
available at an enterprise level,
and is the data accessible in real-time?
• How do all the above compare to the
organization’s own, internal talent
acquisition functions in determining
source of hire, and how can that
knowledge translate into actionable
improvements in time-to-fill and
cost-per-hire?


Futurecasting 8

The strengths and weaknesses of CRM today

How people use CRM in their sourcing and
recruiting is a crucial part of the process. BIG DATA, BY DEFINITION
In fact, many of the potential cons can be
eliminated or exacerbated based on the way Big Data is a collection of data sets
a person interacts with the software itself. so large and complex that it becomes
difficult to process using on-hand
Big Data is often misunderstood, especially by database management tools. Big Data
those within talent acquisition. While gradually allows correlations to be found to make
influencing discussions within the talent all sorts of reliable, important, actionable
acquisition industry, the common agreement is judgments about different things.
that it will affect us, but many are not sure how. If Big Data can be used to do all that,
Used to wrangling large and unwieldy then workforce planning, recruiting
spreadsheets and juggling SQL databases and sourcing should be a cinch. In fact,
that would make other departments cringe, Big Data is already being touted as a real
talent acquisition professionals think they weapon in the war for talent, ostensibly
can handle Big Data when and as it comes. able to:
But there is a reason that there has been a
• identify business trends
massive uptick in calls for data scientists
• determine quality of research
and a spike in requisitions for psychologists
(or sourcing)
to interpret this data. With Big Data, the influx
• develop competitive intelligence
of data is fierce and only will become more so.
• discover or determine real-time
Organizations need – and many currently lack
career progression
– an adequately evolved system, comprising
• illuminate hiring trends
technology and human skillsets and processes,
• target geographic shifts of a
to make sense of all the data and develop
talent audience (local, regional,
wisdom from the interpretation of it.
national, global)

But the definition remains – and haunts us:

“a collection of data sets so large
and complex that it becomes
difficult to process using on-hand
database management tools.”


Futurecasting 9

Database tools such as the beloved CRM Key variables are significant and worth
system are effective in fields identifying what addressing in the talent mapping process
exists, but fail miserably in reverse-engineering coinciding with key business intelligence
the process by incorporating fields that search being factored into a robust CRM:
for what does not exist within records.
For instance records that do not have:
• Top schools: are there specific
universities generating certain types
• mobile or work or home phone numbers of candidates?
• a social media specific URL (linkedinID, • Prior employers: are there
Linkedin Recruiter, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) attributable patterns of both immediate
• an attachment pdf or Word doc resume and former competitor companies
• an employer listing feeding your talent pipelines and hires?
• a job title • Post employers: which competitors,
• a city or state or country within an industry niche or skill set
• a linked job/pipeline ID category, do employees likely migrate
• notations to and why?
• a source ID • Online social real estate of a
competitor’s ecosystem: is it varied
and are there established best
practices inherently observable within
The limitations of today’s any given competitor’s online
out-of-the-box CRM presence (corporate blogs, online
Therein resides the inability to deal with the developer communities, careers page,
Big Data wave using existing, off-the-shelf LinkedIn corporate careers page,
CRM systems. If only fields that have text entry Facebook careers, career-oriented
are searchable, then that renders incomplete Twitter accounts, webinars/podcasts,
records unsearchable. For each of the lines newsletter email updates?)
listed above, data that is not there will limit the
searchable capability inherent within records.
And what about the revolution that is currently
underway within talent acquisition? As has While the list may seem long, consider this.
been noted for the last five years by social If 92% of companies are using social to recruit,
recruiting vendor Jobvite, more companies are many of them already have access to that
jumping onto the social recruiting bandwagon, information, and instead of being able to create
with as many as 92% of companies using a rich and dynamic database within their CRM
social recruiting as part of their talent (one that would be eminently searchable),
acquisition process. So how do CRMs in many cases, these companies are shoving
(both process and software) deal with this those URLs wherever they can find them,
advent? Not well – many company records in a neglected “notes” section or using “tags”
have lagged in the default inclusion of critical as a way to search for records. Often, this
competitive intelligence fields. Source of Hire, process results in duplicates, multiple
for example, is a category of form fields, spellings and acronyms and general search
not simply a single transaction as generally confusion; a muddying of the data waters.
considered. Again, this shows that in our most-used
systems (CRM is arguably second only to the
ATS in the talent acquisition function), talent
acquisition professionals have yet to adapt to
the influx of social data, much less prepare
for the Big Data that is coming.


Futurecasting 10

The mobile factor
Mobile is also a concern for many employers. During the turnover process, relationships
While social recruiting is de rigueur in North must be rebuilt from scratch and the facts
America, in Europe, the UK and APAC there relearned by the newest workers, which
is a bigger explosion in the area of mobile risks alienating candidates and prospects
recruiting. And global recruiting requires in multiple ways:
access to candidates’ data… which includes
mobile phone data. But again, the way we • Repeated and/or redundant
use CRM is not optimized for that. For any communications
global enterprise that has a centered sourcing • Additional contact requests for old
function, the ability to automatically generate information
a country code for SMS text messaging • Undermining the brand of the company
campaigns doesn’t currently exist. Therefore, with different or conflicting messaging
training for users must be mandatory so they
know the limitations of CRM when it comes
to mobile.

Limitations in the CRM are a long-term fix There is a high cost as well in obtaining
to be sure, but there are ways that recruiters, data that the organization may already have,
sourcers and administrators themselves can whether stored improperly or unsearchable.
edit the internal data. Two things make this When data is entered improperly or exists
more difficult to do, than to say. The first is, as duplicate data, it ultimately costs the
as discussed, the lack of “default” fields within organization. When the data changes outside
the system and second, the inability to mass the CRM, but not within it, the data stored
edit within a system. In simpler terms, until the there (your organization’s rightful intellectual
proper tools are built to handle the new data property) becomes irrelevant and the cost
being used as part of the talent acquisition obtaining it, wasted. For all of these reasons
process, we need to dramatically change and more, clean and dynamic data from all
the processes we use on a regular basis, sources should be the aim of every person
for everyone on the sourcing and recruiting on the talent acquisition team.
teams. This is called standardization
of process.

Before we move on, let’s talk a little bit about
why fresh, dynamic data is important, aside
from the obvious search benefits. To do so, we
need to look back at the original CRM systems,
as sales and marketing departments used
them. The key here is the “relationship” part.
In recruiting as in sales, we’re in a costly and
inefficient cycle; whenever there is turnover in
either contract or full-time recruiting, there is a
relearning of skills and processes. It is crucial
to recognize that at this point the data stays
the absolute same, but the ways the data was
inputted, sorted and used were as myriad as
the people within the company with access
to the data. The process was variable.


Futurecasting 11

Futurecasting – what might it look like in practice?

Building a CRM as a solution for talent The future is now: off-the-shelf
acquisition is about having access to key talent technologies can create a new
data that can transform the record into a profile paradigm today
that has an extended period of shelf life and The future will not be like this. Aided by
can be measured. Companies adept at data Futurecasting, the next generation of
mining will use a knowledge-discovery talent acquisition solutions will give social
framework to predict what’s next and increase aggregators center stage. Developers’ APIs
the viability of their competitive intelligence will make manual row-by-column edits a
and talent acquisition functions. Across the thing of the past and transform data into
enterprise, organizations that recognize and a dynamic, evolving stream of information
capitalize on the opportunity Futurecasting – always in real-time and providing the basis
offers experience several benefits: more upon which to make sensible, objective
detailed demographic models, product aligned decisions drawing on data immediately at
to new hires’ skillsets, shorter time-to-fill at the disposal of recruiters and sourcers.
a lower cost. The resulting, greater in-house
reliability of new hires to carry out the needs SaaS and mixed-and-matched
of the organization inevitably speeds the real-time data – making it possible
product development and sales cycles, Some readers might recognize that this is
which then enjoy greater profit margins. a description of the practical progression
of Software as a Service (SaaS) to achieve
The old ways its promise on behalf of talent acquisition.
Let’s look at the old way of doing things. Consensus is now building behind cloud-
This would get in the way of building an based, distributable platforms that are
agile CRM to get at and make sense of the accessible across multiple corporate functions,
real-time data that would enable organizations to meet the demands of a globally oriented
themselves to become equally agile in their talent acquisition organization. What is
acquisition of talent. Imagine, for instance, missing among today’s vendors’ offerings
a report consisting of over 250 companies to of SaaS platforms is the convergence of
demonstrate a client’s competitive landscape off-the-shelf technology to include an all
for talent. Ten different sources are reviewed to of the above capability within one platform.
calibrate for accuracy. All the aforementioned
is conducted manually in a spreadsheet. Emancipating data-sharing
Given factors of time, mergers and with open source
acquisitions, and the business cycle itself, In keeping with an open-source philosophy,
the business intelligence report becomes if the talent acquisition industry communicates
dated material upon submission. Access to a demand for all its vendors to establish
the document limits the ability to distribute relations to collaborate on the notion of
its data to provoke discussion and unearth data-as-a-service, the potential is limitless
best practices. Above all other considerations, where data warehousing across industries
the product is static. Any revisions to update develops proprietary relationships with social
critical information are based on initiative platforms. Automated convergence is the
and conducted manually, by hand. principle outcome of harvesting once disparate
and multiple developer APIs form a common
platform from which to exchange and
communicate information.


Futurecasting 12

To illustrate, a next-generation SaaS– Why is all this important? Automation
based, open-source platform could easily and convergence of data offer the
be configured to key data outlets: following capabilities

• Dow Jones & NASDAQ: real-time market • accurately forecast which candidate
data triggering RSS feeds to alert will stay and for how long
competitors to likely layoffs • determine real-time career progression
• Hoovers: contact information, • create talent pipelines that assess
competitive reports, and the ability cultural fit long before the application
to develop targeted executive listings process
• LinkedIn: identifying competitors’ • nurture candidates and students
products and services to add relevance years before they apply
to search keywords, to the more critical • identify business market trends,
business intelligence aspects (where mergers and acquisitions and align
employees came from, as well as top product with them
skills and expertise by function) • bolster the candidate experience by
automating relationship-building
communications and establishing
alerts to ensure prospects are notified
The net result is compelling. Talent acquisition of developments regularly, in a timely
professionals will find themselves able to finely fashion
tune and refresh data to more efficiently target
candidates and build high-functioning talent
pipelines. In this scenario, the only limitation
is imagination, really. Above all the talent
acquisition industry should demand ease
of use, free from premium costs, in the ability
to customize data fields to configure key data.
Smart vendors will embrace these demands.
Their obligation is to offer their clientele in
HR and talent acquisition tools that are easily
configured and customized to specific needs;
these tools must be usable and searchable.
Talent leaders should feel free to suggest
any data categories that would enhance
a platform’s capabilities, because too often a
few simple tweaks are all that is necessary
to find the right talent.


Futurecasting 13

First things first: building a fit-for-purpose CRM

CRMs have a pivotal role in making Process issues are often caused by a lack of
Futurecasting a reality for organizations. training or a disorganized approach to using
Yet any CRM system is only as good as the the CRM. Best practice involves first setting
data it includes. The most common problems the protocols and then providing education
with the data are caused by human factors. to ensure everyone is following the correct
While these are certainly frustrating to process. An example of this is segmenting
encounter, they are usually the easiest to fix.lists when the profile is initially placed so
Human factors as defined here are usually that the system doesn’t become cluttered and
workflow-related, process-related or frustrating to navigate. Building an audience
administrative in nature. filter at the source is much simpler than trying
to segment later. A CRM implementation
must be operated from a talent perspective.
Workflow issues generally stem from a
It’s crucial to have criteria to determine
lack of specific plans for what each user of
whether a source of information is CRM-
the CRM creates, when they create it and how
eligible and aligned to a particular pipeline.
it gets stored in the system. Protocol issues
In any inventory system, you have to prioritize
can often be fixed by creating a standard
and establish the source channel to fully use
plan and procedure that each member of the
each source to its true potential. In the building
global talent acquisition team must follow.
of a CRM, to ensure a fail-safe process, you
For example, forward-thinking clients are
must cross-reference various data sources
proactively preparing for an API that makes
as inventories for reference. Then, to expand
it simple to integrate social data into their
the CRM’s capabilities and navigation,
CRM systems. Because those fields are already
you identify additional channels you wish
filled with data from Twitter, LinkedIn and
later to integrate.
Facebook, they can be hooked up when the
technology is available. This is a much better Administrative issues feed into both of
protocol than wasting hours going back these. When you lack a dedicated quality
through every record to find potential social assurance process or administrative function
data for that profile. (even on a consultative or contract basis),
you lose quality and freshness of data.
You should also establish a universal template
system as part of the administrative function;
this must be suitable across geographic
regions and business organizations. As well
as standardizing the nomenclature, this also
prescribes a minimum viable data format for
each record. Lack of customizable data fields
and, worse still, the existence of empty ones
– they all obstruct the capabilities of filters and
search results; they limit the modern CRM’s
potential to produce actionable information.
Common missing fields include those for
mobile phone numbers, social media-specific
URLs and job titles. Limiting the parameters
for how both to filter and segment data
inevitably leads to false exclusions or
inclusions in a CRM’s search results.


Futurecasting 14

Toward Futurecasting at Informatica

“Data is at the heart of so many conversations Through this implementation, Informatica
today, but it’s not the data: It’s the access to the was able not only to review source-of-talent
right data at the right time by the right person. channels within one platform, but also
It’s about being able to put your finger on a merge talent community members with
piece of data that helps make a business existing lead generation for a more complete
decision or to find that pink squirrel with profile record, and all in real-time. As a result,
purple polka dots in our world. The work Dave Informatica transcended out-of-the-box CRM
has done to embed the key nuggets of data to configure form fields and other CRM
into our CRM is the game changer for us. functionalities that enhanced the recruiter’s
Previously, we had no repository that would experience and capabilities. In the creation
allow for unstructured data to be housed and of this approach, the standard for passive
retrieved. With Dave’s practical approach to pipeline to yield data deliverables had to
data capture and retrieval, we now have a meet the following criteria:
central databank of very specific competitive
intelligence that has the ability to withstand 1) Data must be usable and searchable.
time with its social and mobile aspects built The data should be easy to filter by data
in for future proofing.” Brad Cook, Global Vice equal to, containing, or not equal to key
President Talent Acquisition – Informatica criteria, and custom fields specific to
social platform hyperlinks to accurately
identify missing data, as well as data
Futurecasting is not about where candidates
missing as a subcomponent.
(recruiters’ leads) are now; it concerns a
2) Extraction and leveraging of data must
system-wide, strategic effort to harvest and
be easy to ensure a tool that is at once
combine dynamic and static data regarding
powerful, intuitive and requires minimal
prospects, to enable a talent pool to be
training. The solution would be used by
searchable for years as it feeds off multiple
a diverse community of recruiters, only a
data points, ensuring its own relevance.
handful of whom had an appreciation of
Illustrating this is my work with Informatica,
data science.
drawing on the concept of passive pipelining –
3) Data must be capable of being migrated
which is to say, creating a pipeline that a talent
from multiple lead-generation channels –
acquisition team can source from, at any time,
spreadsheets, job boards, online resumes,
to identify source-of-hire information among
talent communities, social profiles, etc. –
immediate and prior employees.
in order to optimize removal of duplicates
and track metrics of source-of-hire more
Overview accurately and consistently.
Informatica reviewed its database and 4) Data must be categorized, tagged and
determined that Jobs2Web, the company’s mapped to talent for ease of segmentation.
SEO product, would benefit from the A successful configuration can allow for
dynamic environment of my CRM platform. segment creations in a matter of seconds,
The first step in data migration was a direct and these can be complex – such as the
import of the corporate talent organization’s ability to splice a talent pool by profiles
entire database originating from the talent with a LinkedIn URL.
community population. In addition, a live-feed
was created to integrate the flow of new talent
community registrants in real-time, within the
CRM platform.


Futurecasting 15

Creating the Talent Knowledge Library

The Talent Knowledge Library (TKL) is Via a TKL, the talent organization has a means
a simple proposition: providing a secure, to archive the successes of its best recruiters,
cloud-based depository for business at a tactical level, and the means to distribute
intelligence that is actionable for recruitment the learning as data that can be distributed
needs, where data is fed by various online throughout its global operations, to the benefit
APIs to ensure real-time relevance. A TKL is of critical hiring verticals. A TKL would record
accessible throughout the talent acquisition team member usage of all vendor-supplied
enterprise and standardized for prompt tools within one instance, creating real-time
plug-and-play in order to produce automated reports to gauge relevance and effectiveness as
search queries. In practice, this is a an investment within the hiring cycle. It would
functionality that makes Futurecasting allow for successful behaviors and methods
possible. Aligning social data and business to be tracked within a source-of-hire report,
intelligence provides greater context to how and provide the means to be reproduced for
competitors’ skills, job titles, and products each business organization’s hiring vertical.
compare to those of your own organization.
Migrating data from various databases within A TKL is an extension of the Futurecasting
one platform, strengthened by a multitude methodology: it fosters the use of several
of developer APIs: data points to help talent acquisition
professionals establish patterns and make
• documents an organizational processes objective decisions. Data becomes relevant
• creates a depository of data inputs for both immediate and long-term decision-
comprising the organization’s competitive making processes. The data a TKL utilizes
talent landscape, allowing for greater would have longevity beyond the combined
comparative analysis intellectual contributions of any one team
• identifies critical source-of-hire information member in one day, but for that day and
to benchmark patterns among prior all days thereafter. The TKL would create
employers of interviewees, offers made, a searchable and usable library of talent
and hires knowledge that is virtually immune
• develops nomenclature – be it key skillsets, to intellectual property loss, turnover
industry terms of art, or product relevance or transition slowdowns and process
breakdowns, all because the data lives
In today’s CRM, too often search strings in the cloud and is constantly current.
are accessed and utilized by precisely one Accessible to all in the talent acquisition
person, the sourcer. The sourcing strings organization, the TKL must be, by definition,
within current platforms are often unique both distributable and searchable by
to the user, which makes standard protocol standard keywords, job titles and more.
difficult to adopt. A TKL would dramatically A proper TKL would have a system that
enhance the ability to provide missing context. allows anyone to pull up folders of search
It would promote recruitment efficiency in strings based on common search terms.
distinguishing among applicants, and offer
effective standardization to sourcing teams
aspiring to develop more accurate leads –
with automated and standardized macros
of search string, plugged and played,
to be equivalent in accuracy to those created
by their most advanced researchers within
the organization.


Futurecasting 16

Drilling down at Informatica and Democratizing
Talent Acquisition

At Informatica, I established CRM template During the course of the implementation,
forms outlining competitor nomenclature; specifically in configuring customized fields
top producers awards and recognitions, natural to cleanly inputted data and emphasizing
language terminologies, alignment by product, social data as a module for each work record,
and pre-set sourcing strings. By developing we came to a critical realization: conventional,
a process that resulted in archiving the history traditional work contact information,
of Informatica’s talent organization’s previously the holy grail of a CRM record,
knowledge base, team members elevated is no longer a sufficient or viable option to
their understanding of nuances between terms. ensure “longitudinal history” for a candidate.
By inputting product relevance, matching Instead, by ensuring that each record has a
competitive titles, skill keywords and identified complete record of hyperlinked LinkedIn ID,
competitors, Informatica’s talent acquisition Twitter URL and other social links –
specialists increased the data relevance of all updated in near real-time – Informatica
search results to import into the CRM in the now creates dynamic profiles out of
first place. Exemplifying the by-product of a stagnant profiles to ensure that relevant,
TKL in practice, Informatica’s team addressed accurate contact data is available and record
natural language as an indicator of performance maintenance performed at each phase
and reviewed data patterns in both curricula of sourcing, through recruitment.
vitae and social profiles that would correctly
identify a talent prospect being recognized In other words, the CRM has a new lifespan
for one or more of the several awards and that underscores the concept of Futurecasting,
recognitions provided by their employers. an industry game-changer. Record maintenance,
For example: or data quality process, is one of the
most important parts of the Futurecasting
methodology. The maintenance of records,
(Competitor X OR Competitor XY)
alongside the customization of a CRM, is
Product + Performance Indicator +
the cornerstone of new projects I’m working
Skill/Expertise = Hire
on. Viable data with a dramatically extended
• “Over *% of quota in *” shelf life is no longer as easily susceptible
• “Achieved *% of FY* plan” to drastic market shifts and attrition that
• “*+ Quota” could negatively impact the searchability
• “of $.*.million” of passive candidates.
• (percent | %) exceed Quota FY
• “Achieved *% of Annual Quota”
• (“Top 10%” | “Top ten percent” |
“top 10 percent”)
• “year over year sales quota attainment”

By elevating their level of fluency in
terminologies relevant to targeted leads
among the competitor pool, Informatica’s
recruiters and sourcers were able to equip
themselves with a formula-driven aptitude
for more precise hires. The impact of this
was immediately seen in standard success
benchmarks within talent acquisition such
as time-to-fill and cost-per-hire, because
recruiting was just plain easier. By having
clear and standardized data fields, the new
approach made recruiters’ work quicker
and less prone to error.


Futurecasting 17

Big Social Data: the engine of Futurecasting methodology

Simply stated, Futurecasting is about
managing the life span of your talent • One lead and one record within
audience as a proactive pipeline tomorrow one place and linked to all pipeline
and thereafter. Building CRM as a solution and job ID reqs, resulting in massive
is about gaining access to key talent data cost savings by ending sourcing-
that transforms the record into a profile and related multi-billing for duplicate
ensures relevance over an extended period lead records.
of shelf life, something that can be measured. • All leads vetted already by the
In developing its methodology and full recruiters and sourcers who generated
lifecycle of implementation, one can clearly the data over several years – all
see that it provides incredible value. records merged and updated for
shelf-life extension through now-
Companies end up investing in data that perfunctory social media fields.
is strategic and durable. Corporate talent • Recruiters and sourcers can come
organizations prosper not simply by comparing and go, because of forever data.
the quantity of data records, but by nurturing This essentially secures the
data to become composite profiles and by intellectual property of the data
creating access to data across social platforms without the need to rely on individuals
through a detailed methodology, which and their consistency to track it.
underpins relevance. Today the technologies • Whenever feasible, automation as
for all of this are readily available, if not yet the common denominator.
fully converged, and companies who have Organizations can now see to it
access to their data and identify practices that candidates are re-engaged at
and learn from it are investing in their own appropriate time periods. RSS feeds
enduring intellectual property to hire the best now alert team members globally of
in a more proactive manner than ever deemed sudden market developments
possible. Big Social Data is the fuel. With it, adversely affecting key competitors.
a Futurecasting methodology has: Macro functionality standardizes
the expertise level of search strings
applied in identifying and creating
pipelines.


Futurecasting 18

Trust in Registry:
the implications of Futurecasting for the employer brand

Notably and naturally, Futurecasting By designing and sharing a disclosure with
has implications for the talent acquisition their targeted talent, organizations assure these
professional’s relationship with the targeted populations that they’re not building merely
talent. Organizations that establish a ‘Trust a database (a sterile, faceless “talent pool”),
in Registry’ help themselves in navigating but instead trust management relationships.
through the coming changes. These trust management relationships speed
communication and enable talent acquisition
organizations to track longitudinal data
A term coined by Gerry Crispin, author of this
successfully. At its core, this is a transformation
whitepaper’s foreword, a Trust in Registry
of dynamics surrounding the employer brand.
presents a mutual advantage for talent
acquisition specialists and candidates.
Candidates today are records, but with the
philosophy of Futurecasting and progression
of technology, records are becoming profiles:
the sum of many records, all consolidated.
We are moving to a stage when anyone active
in social networks will have what amounts
to a digital wallet comprising their social data
links, etc. Knowing that companies store this
data, candidates can gain access to it for ease
of mobility. As we approach ubiquity in the
availability of Big Social Data, a Trust in
Registry will equal the sum of social data
and the mutual trust in the transactions
between job seekers and career providers
or potential employers. Cloud-based, it will
be a service utility.


Futurecasting 19

Seven things organizations should do right now
to implement a Futurecasting methodology

Without a blueprint or initial guidance, 3) Add social data
the organization that would otherwise You might claim to be operating within
embark on a plan to implement Futurecasting social recruiting. But if you’re not already
– a methodology possible to employ right now incorporating social data into the tools you use,
– might give up altogether for want of simple you’re missing half the equation. While many
first steps. This whitepaper aims to help systems do not yet have clickable URL fields
such organizations jump-start the process. available by default (such as a link to someone’s
What follows, therefore, are seven steps LinkedIn profile), you can certainly set
that are recommended for any organization them up as customized portions of your
looking to take advantage of the candidate profiles.
Futurecasting methodology.
1) Map the organization’s process 4) Segment the organization’s data
Creating a fully functional CRM begins with Because it’s such an important part of CRM,
mapping out your talent acquisition process, segmenting audiences should be an ingrained
from first contact with a prospective candidate process for every sourcer and recruiter. A basic
to when they come aboard. If this is not user can easily create simple segmentation,
something that you’ve previously worked on and advanced users can build rules and filters
within your company, now is the time to make robust enough to allow the CRM to recognize
it a priority. How can you know what you need a Twitter URL vs. a LinkedIn URL, if these are
from your system if you haven’t identified it capable of being segmented. For instance, an
within your process? organization might want to, and would be able
to, split lists by those with Twitter URLs and
those with only LinkedIn URLs to then push
2) Standardize the organization’s protocol
these leads into groups or as followers to a
The very first step that any organization should
corporate career site or user name. Once the
undertake toward a realizing more efficient
data is segmented, an API facilitates the
CRM is to create a standard protocol. Initiate
uploading. Though not all CRMs currently
a stakeholder-driven effort to establish a
offer this feature as an off-the-shelf option,
workflow process that applies to the entire
it soon will be standard. So start proactively
CRM lifecycle, with each stakeholder’s role
adding URLs: when the CRM has that
clearly established and documented.
capability, the organization can be
For instance:
sourcing immediately.

• What default fields do you retain vs. 5) Reinforce competitive intelligence
which customized fields need to be as a workflow process
created to meet your organizational Adding an organization’s own job titles to
needs? search for people within the system doesn’t
• What determines a complete record always make sense. In fact, unless the
profile vs. a record that requires organization is one of the world’s largest
additional revision? companies or a governmental entity, it makes
• What is the data quality review process no sense at all. Ideally, most of the profiles in
by which incomplete records are the system are of passive candidates. Their job
reconciled? titles will likely look very different from those
• What is the standardized model for used within the company. So make sure to
geo-locational, industry-specific, build in titles for competitor organizations
or in-house organizational data? and create a more robust search string –
What is the standardized for example, “x” is far more useful than “y”
model for number-based entries such – to account for these discrepancies. In the
as postal codes and telephone numbers same vein, consider using notes and tags to
(no dashes or numbers only)? discover marks of distinction that competitors
• What is the agreed-upon terminology routinely give out (e.g. President’s Circle,
for a tagging system, list titles, and job Chairman’s Club, Catalyst Award).
ID vs. pipeline requisitions?


How Big Social Data Will Transform Talent Acquisition

How Big Social Data Will Transform Talent Acquisition

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