2013 HCI Global Talent Management Summit Part 6: Recruiting Revolution: Social Media Strategies and the Elusive Talent Pipeline

Human capital is the defining long-term asset to drive success in a competitive global economy.  How can the firm best align its strategic workforce plan with talent acquisition plans, and employee engagement?   How can firms take their talent sourcing from reactive to proactive, developing a sustainable talent pipeline for the future?  Nicole Guiet, Director of Talent Acquisition at CH2M HILL, debated these issues today at the 2013 HCI Global Talent Management Summit and discussed what her firm has been doing to address the global talent crisis and the role social media has played so far.

“In 2006 we did not have a talent acquisition organization,” asserted Guiet.   We launched our Talent Acquisition & Deployment Center in 2007 in North America, and we are now considered a top tier program; it took a lot of will and perseverance to get there.  As the focus shifted to from regional to global, Guiet stated CH2M HILL needed to find out how to eliminate the waste.  They were losing lots of leads during the hiring process and wanted to find a way to capture those candidates.  What they needed was a way to tie workforce planning to recruitment for the future of the business.

Guiet proclaimed, “Recruitment had always been a one way street, and we needed to create a dialogue and develop a two street.”   CH2M HILL wanted to create a community for candidates to communicate with the firm and with each other, so they formed a candidate development team, tasked with working on building sustainable relationships with candidates who have the critical skills the firm needs.

CH2M HILL created a social media team segmented into a governance team, social media managers, and social ambassadors.  Guiet explained that given the global necessities for talent, a social media team was a must have.  Social media is used in every single country in the world, and it is a phenomenon that knows no exceptions. 

While acknowledging the necessity of a strategic social media policy, Guiet reminded the attendees, “Our best kept secret is the telephone.  Our candidates want to talk to us, and they will always need a human touch.”

There are only a few sessions left to enjoy at the 2013 Global Talent Management Summit, and for members who were unable to attend in person, feel free to follow us on twitter (@Human_Capital) and watch for tweets with the hashtag #hcievents.