What is Your Talent Sourcing ROI?
Anything worth doing is worth measuring, and sourcing isn’t exempt from this.
If you want to know which method of sourcing has the highest ROI in terms of enabling a person to find more of the right people more quickly, then you’re in luck – because that’s what this post is about.
Human capital data comes in many forms – resumes, social network profiles, blogs, bios, press resleases, etc. – and I have found that a key and critical aspect of sources of human capital data that many people fail to formally recognize is the depth and completeness of the data that can yield information through review and analysis.
When it comes to leveraging information systems such as the Internet, applicant tracking systems, social networking sites, job board databases, etc. for sourcing and recruiting – the operative word is “information.”
Data is the lowest level of abstraction from which information can be derived. For data to become information, it must be interpreted and take on a meaning.
Generally, the quality and amount of information that can be gleaned from any particular source is directly linked and limited to the quality and amount of data present to be reviewed and analyzed. How useful is an information system supported by only a small amount of limited data?
In this post, I will:
- Review the major sources of human capital data
- Examine sourcing return on time invested
- Explore the potential candidate’s point of view
- Ask you to take a quick sourcing test
Ready?
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The Guide to Semantic Search for Sourcing and Recruiting
If you have nearly any tenure in HR, sourcing or recruiting, you’ve probably heard something about “semantic search” and perhaps you would like to learn more.
Well – you’ve found the right article.
As a follow-up to my recent Slideshare on AI sourcing and matching, I am going to provide an overview of semantic search, the claims that semantic search vendors often make, explain how semantic search applications actually work, and expose some practical limitations of semantic search recruiting solutions.
Additionally, I will classify the 5 basic levels of semantic search and give you examples of how you can conduct Level 3 Semantic Search (Grammatical/Natural) with Monster, Bing, and any search engine that allows for fixed or configurable proximity.
But first – let’s define “semantic search.”
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Talent Sourcing: Man vs. AI/Black Box Semantic Search
Back in March 2010, I had the distinct honor of delivering the keynote presentation at SourceCon on the topic of resume search and match solutions claiming to use artificial intelligence in comparison with people using their natural intelligence for talent discovery and identification.
Now that nearly 2 years has passed, and given that in that time I’ve had even more hands-on experience with a number of the top AI/semantic search applications available (I won’t be naming names, sorry), I decided it was time to revisit the topic which I am very passionate about.
If you’ve ever been curious about semantic search applications that “do the work for you” when it comes to finding potential candidates, you’re in the right place, because I’ve updated the slide deck and published it to Slideshare. Here’s what you’ll find in the 86 slide presentation:
- A deep dive into the deceptively simple challenge of sourcing talent via human capital data (resumes, social network profiles, etc.)
- How resume and LinkedIn profile sourcing and matching solutions claiming to use artificial intelligence, semantic search, and NLP actually work and achieve their claims
- The pros, cons, and limitations of automated/black box matching solutions
- An insightful (and funny!) video of Dr. Michio Kaku and his thoughts on the limitations of artificial intelligence
- Examples of what sourcers and recruiters can do that even the most advanced automated search and match algorithms can’t do
- The concept of Human Capital Data Information Retrieval and Analysis (HCDIR & A)
- Boolean and extended Boolean
- Semantic search
- Dynamic inference
- Dark Matter resumes and social network profiles
- What I believe to be the ideal resume search and matching solution
Looking Back, Forward, and For Your Input
As a reader of Boolean Black Belt, I’d looking for your feedback and input on a few things.
For example:
- What would you like to see me write more about?
- Would you like to write a post on Boolean Black Belt?
- What do you think of me changing my site to something other than “Boolean Black Belt?”
However, before I go any further down that rabbit hole, I’d like to thank you, give you some insight as to why I blog, and let you know about what you can expect from me in 2012.
First & Foremost – Thank You
As 2011 has come to an end, I find myself reflecting on the past as as well as looking forward to what 2012 will bring.
Most importantly, I want to thank you and the other 112,320 people who stopped by my blog in 2011, who came from 175 countries and viewed over 300,000 pages.
I owe special thanks to all of you who have commented on my posts, shared them with others, and suggested my site to peers, managers, and team members.
If I’ve ever shown you something you didn’t already know, or made you think or reconsider what you do already know, I’ve accomplished one of my main goals in blogging, and it makes all of the hours of precious personal time I take on a weekly basis to publish my blog posts worthwhile.
Why Do I Blog Anyway?
This happens to be my 165th post since I started blogging back in October of 2008.
I write for many reasons, and monetizing isn’t one of them. I will never take a 2000 word post and split it into 4 500 word posts just to string my readers along.
I’d love to post content more frequently than once per week, but with a family and a full time job, blogging about recruiting, sourcing, and social media is essentially a weekend hobby.
A hobby is defined as “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.” I’m not so sure blogging relaxes me, but it certainly doesn’t feel like “work,” as time flies while I am writing and it is definitely intellectually cathartic.
If I could sum up what I am trying to accomplish by blogging, I would have to use something Erik Weihenmayer said during his LinkedIn Talent Connect 2010 keynote: I want to “contribute to something extraordinary.”
While it may sound corny or ridiculous to some, I am actually trying to try and change the world of recruiting one post at a time.
How?
- By freely sharing with everyone what is common knowledge to only a few and what many would charge a premium for.
- By challenging both status quo (“traditional” recruiting) and hype (bright shiny objects) when it comes to all things recruiting, from talent discovery through acquisition.
- By serving as a “curve hunter,” introducing new concepts and pushing innovation to the global sourcing and recruiting community.
I don’t write to make people agree with me – I just want people to think instead of clinging to what they already know and are comfortable with.
Because if you’re comfortable, you’re not growing.
What’s Coming From Boolean Black Belt in 2012
I had a pingback a while ago from a blogger who praised the content of one of my posts, but complained about the length.
I took it as passive constructive criticism, and I took a moment to think about my blogging style.
Most of of my posts are in the 1500 word range, and some go over 2000. In the blogging world, that’s on the long side. I know that many people want “fun-sized” content (500 words or less) that they can consume in 30 seconds or so. However, some concepts can’t adequately be explained in 500 words or less, nor would 500 words do some topics proper justice. And as I stated previously, I don’t write to string people along – I would rather publish a 2000 word post than split it into 4 500 word posts.
There’s nothing more annoying to me than clicking on a link from a tweet that praises an article, and once I get to the article, I find it to be a 300 word “fluff” post, totally devoid of substance. I personally don’t have a lot of time to read other blogs, so when I do, I want to sink my teeth into something substantial that I can learn something from – not some “quick hit” post that skims the surface of a topic to get a pageview.
When I am hungry for information and knowledge, I want a 7-course meal of thought – I’m not there for appetizers, and I’m never on an idea diet.
I know I may be in the minority on this issue, and I am 100% comfortable with that.
I don’t write to cater to the casual reader looking to skim over a topic or concept – if my long posts drive some people away, I actually think that’s a good thing. There are plenty of sourcing and recruiting blogs for readers to choose from. I write for people who are looking for 7-course meals of sourcing and recruiting substance.
Speaking of sourcing and recruiting substance, in 2012 I plan on going deeper into some topics that I am very interested in and passionate about, but haven’t written about as much as I would have liked in 2011. For example, semantic search, the critical importance of data and technology in support of talent identification and acquisition, and applying Lean as well as proven supply chain principles to talent acquisition
In 2012, I will also continue to update my free sourcing and recruiting resources page, and you can continue to rely on my average of 1 post per week, typically published on Monday morning, and 1000+ words per post.
What I’d Like From You
As a reader of my blog, I’d like to hear from you. Specifically, I am looking to know:
- What would you like to see from me in 2012? Is there something you’d like to see me write more about? Please be as specific on content and topics as possible.
- Would you like to write a post on Boolean Black Belt? Although I’d never really thought about it before, I’d love to start having guest bloggers. If you have something helpful, insightful, though-provoking and interesting regarding recruiting, sourcing and/or social media that you’d like to share, posting it on Boolean Black Belt will get your content exposure to recruiting and sourcing practitioners and leaders all over the world. With nearly 4,000 subscribers and over 10,000 unique visitors per month from over 100 countries, I can and want to help you share your ideas with the global recruiting and sourcing community, including some of the best and brightest from the most well-respected companies and talent acquisition teams in the world.
- On a different note – what do you think about me changing the name of my site to something other than Boolean Black Belt? I write on so much more than Boolean search that I think “Boolean Black Belt” is too narrow and limited and doesn’t accurately reflect the totality of my content. I have some ideas in mind, but would honestly appreciate your input on my blog’s name and the idea of changing it to something else.
I’m looking forward to your input.
Once again, thank you very much for reading, sharing, and recommending my site and content, and you have my best wishes for a successful, fulfilling, and prosperous 2012.
Happy hunting!
Why So Many People Stink at Searching
The trouble with search today is that people put too much trust in search engines – online, resume, social, or otherwise.
I can certainly understand and appreciate why people and companies would want to try and create search engines and solutions that “do the work for you,” but unfortunately the “work” being referenced here is thinking.
I read an article by Clive Thompson in Wired magazine the other day titled, “Why Johnny Can’t Search,” and the author opens up with the common assumption that young people tend to be tech-savvy.
Interestingly, although Generation Z is also known as the “Internet Generation” and is comprised of “digital natives,” they apparently aren’t very good at online search.
The article cites a few studies, including one in which a group of college students were asked to use Google to look up the answers to a handful of questions. The researchers found that the students tended to rely on the top results.
Then the researchers changed the order of the results for some of the students in the experiment. More often than not, they still went with the (falsely) top-ranked pages.
The professor who ran the experiment concluded that “students aren’t assessing information sources on their own merit—they’re putting too much trust in the machine.”
I believe that the vast majority of people put too much trust in the machine – whether it be Google, LinkedIn, Monster, or their ATS.
Trusting top search results certainly isn’t limited to Gen Z – I believe it is a much more widespread issue, which is only exacerbated by “intelligent” search engines and applications using semantic search and NLP that lull searchers into the false sense of security that the search engine “knows” what they’re looking for.
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How to Find Bilingual Professionals via Boolean Search
Have you ever had to find bilingual candidates or search for people who speak a specific language?
If so, you’re in luck – this week’s post focuses on a few ways of how do just that.
If not, no worries – the thought processes and search strategies I use in this post are helpful no matter what it is you’re searching for, because searching is 95% critical thinking and 5% Boolean syntax.
Boolean Search for Explicit Bilinguals
As with all searches, you must first realize that not all people who can speak more than one language will actually make mention of that in their resume, their LinkedIn/Google+/Facebook/Twitter profile or updates, or anywhere else they may leave information about themselves online. I’ll show you at least 1 way of searching for people who are highly likely to be bilingual, but do not make any explicit mention of languages or polyglotism later.
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How to Convert Quotation Marks in Word for Boolean Searches
Have you ever used Microsoft Word to build and save Boolean search strings to be able to copy and paste entire searches into LinkedIn, Monster, Dice, or your ATS ?
I did for quite some time, until I ran into a problem.
Many years ago, I noticed that several sites, including Monster, Dice, and LinkedIn were not “obeying” my request for exact phrases in my searches.
If I searched for “project manager,” I would get results in which “project” and “manager” were highlighted as keyword hits even though they were mentioned separately and not together as a phrase.
One day I contacted Dice to ask what was going on with my inability to retrieve exact phrases using quotation marks and the support rep asked me what I was using to build my search strings. I told her I was using Microsoft Word to build and save my strings and that I would copy and paste them into Dice, to which she responded with, “There’s your problem.”
She summarily explained to me that Dice doesn’t recognize Microsoft Word’s default quotation mark format (aka “smart quotes”). Turns out that Monster, LinkedIn, and many others don’t recognize “smart quotes” for exact phrase searching either.
Here’s an example of Word’s “smart quotes:”
She then suggested that I either enter my queries directly into Dice or use Notepad to build and save my Boolean searches because they produce “straight quotes.”
Well, I didn’t want to build my searches in Dice’s search field because I could not see my entire search string as I was building it.
This is an issue with just about any job board resume database, ATS, Internet search engine, and social network – the search fields are all ridiculously short (e.g., LinkedIn’s is 37 characters).
Oh, and if you need evidence that LinkedIn does not actually recognize Word’s smart quotes for exact phrase searching, try this search on LinkedIn:
After my call with the Dice support rep, I started using Notepad to build and save my searches so I could simply copy and paste them directly into any job board resume database, Internet search engine, social network, and my ATS and they would recognize and obey the quotation marks as a request for an exact phrase.
However, it turns out there is a way to force Microsoft Word to not use “smart quotes” and instead use “straight quotes” – which most sites, social networks, databases, and search engines will obey as a request for an exact phrase.
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Bing’s Semantic Search, Phonetics and Undocumented Operator
I was recently performing some searches on Bing and came across something curious that I had never noticed before.
I’m not exactly sure if what I found is new or simply something I’ve overlooked in the past. I updated Twitter with “Did you know that Bing supports the + query modifier?” on November 10th, wondering if it was something that other people knew about.
I only received a few responses, including a couple from noted sourcing luminaries, and the consensus was that I didn’t find anything because it wasn’t documented anywhere and they could not get it to work.
However, the +/Plus sign does in fact work when searching Bing – just not like it used to in Google.
It’s always a little exciting to think you are one of the first people to stumble across something most people don’t know about, although I won’t get my hopes up that I’m the only person outside of some folks at Microsoft who’s ever figured out that Bing supports the +/Plus sign in searches.
This discovery also led me to proof of Bing leveraging semantic and phonetic search.
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Boolean Search Strings, Referrals and Source of Hire
I read an article on ERE about the other day titled “Love Writing Boolean Instead of Recruiting? Then Don’t Read This Post.”
While I happen to be pretty good at and thoroughly enjoy writing Boolean queries for talent mining, I actually love the entire recruiting life cycle. Sourcing is a means to an end, not a means in and of itself for me. Even so – with such a provocative post title (nice work John!), I had to read the article.
The article is a pretty strong pitch for Scavado, which “does the search work for you, saving hours of time otherwise spent developing Boolean search strings and applying them manually to each site searched.”
Things really got interesting when I got down to the comments on the article, as I stumbled into an interesting exchange between Amybeth Hale and Keith Halperin which covered direct sourcing, referral recruiting, and outsourcing sourcing at $6.25/hour.
Read on to learn my thoughts on all of the above.
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LinkedIn’s Talent Connect, Talent Pipeline, and Certification
Talent Connect 2011 in Las Vegas was just as good as, if not better than, Talent Connect 2010 in San Francisco.
Nearly 2,000 people showed up, which is around 3 times as many attendees as last year’s conference, and they represented over 700 companies from 17 countries.
One thing’s for sure – LinkedIn knows how to put on a conference. The Talent Connect events have been the most well coordinated, polished and produced conferences I have ever attended.
I won’t bore you with all of the details – but I will highlight LinkedIn’s new Talent Pipeline offering, Web 3.0 (the shift from social to data), touch upon how to automatically build Boolean search strings (yes, that came up at the conference), and inform you about LinkedIn’s Recruiter Expert certification.
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