Event: ERE Expo

When: March 31-April 2, 2008

Where: Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina

What: ERE Expo brings together recruiting and staffing experts to discuss issues in talent acquisition.

More information: www.ere.net/events

Pre-conference event—Monday, March 31

ERE kicked off the conference with its annual awards ceremony to honor excellence in recruiting. Monster sponsored the event, which was hosted by Neal Bruce, vice president of global innovation at the job board giant. Bruce gave shout-outs to several recruiting bigwigs in the audience—Mark Mehler of CareerXroads; Shally Steckerl, founder of JobMachine; and recruiting thought leader John Sullivan, who had just returned from celebrating his wedding anniversary in Paris.

The winners were:

• Best diversity program: Sodexho

• Best corporate Web site: KPMG

• Most innovative employee referral program: AmTrust Bank

• Most effective use of staffing metrics: Wipro Technologies

• Best employee retention program: AIMCO Properties

• Most strategic use of recruiting technology: TruGreen LandCare

• Best employer brand: Ernst & Young

• Best college recruiting: Ernst & Young

• Recruiting department of the year: Intuit

At the end of the evening, Monster CEO Sal Ianuzzi made it clear he was happy with how the event turned out. But when it came time to share details of what the future may hold for Monster, he was a bit less forthcoming. Asked by Workforce Management to comment on Monster’s strategy, he said he would leave that conversation for another day.
—Gina Ruiz


Day 1—Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Talking economy, hobbits and jobs of a lifetime: After a full day of pre-conference events and an awards ceremony, the conference officially opened with two speakers who didn’t specifically dive into recruiting or staffing but were nonetheless entertaining. Economist Gene Stanaland peppered his talk with jokes about the universities of Auburn and Alabama (one’s his alma mater, the other where he teaches) and how election-year politics influences the economy. And he had some positive news for recruiters: This is the mildest recession on record since World War II, and the economy should start to reverse its spiral by June. Thanks to the media, he says, the recession became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Casting director Miranda Rivers followed with anecdotes and clips from her work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Her task? Hire 5,000 people to play 20,000 roles. Most of the extras were locals in New Zealand, where the movies were filmed. Hobbits and elves were the hardest to cast, the Aussie native said. Hobbits had to have round faces and round eyes and elves had to be "about 21, thin and gorgeous." Sometimes they’d hire entire towns as extras. And there were times when there was a lack of men, which meant women would be used as villainous orcs. "It was hard to find men during lambing season."

Finally, John Leech, director of recruiting at FedEx, talked about careers at his company. The average worker has eight careers in a lifetime, and Leech asks, "Why not have them all at FedEx?" He concluded his talk by tearing off his suit to reveal his final career move: the shirt and shorts of a FedEx courier—in the Caribbean, no less.

Bright ideas: Among the first round of afternoon sessions was the startup forum, where four entrepreneurs pitched their startup companies, all with a job-search spin. It was the first time for the session and it was sparsely attended. But it promises to become a conference highlight. Charlie O’Donnell’s Path 101 and Clint Heiden’s VisualCV seemed to hold the most promise, but you never know whether you’re seeing the next Indeed.com or the next Google.

Talking shop: Get a room full of recruiters together, give them a couple topics and let them talk it out. The roundtable discussion was an early start on the evening networking party—heavy on the shop talk without the cocktails. From employee referrals to telecommuting to retention to onboarding, the freewheeling discussion was informal, lively and informative.

Alabama slammer: Among Gene Stanaland’s better wisecracks about the University of Alabama: They recently stopped serving ice water at Alabama; the guy with the recipe graduated.

Not just another job: Miranda Rivers on being a casting director: "You’ve got the best pickup line in the world. ‘Gosh, you’re gorgeous; want to be in the movies?’ "

Whose job is it anyway? During the roundtable, no one could quite decide who’s responsible for the employee’s onboarding once the hire is made. But it brought up the way Hewlett-Packard used to reach out to a new employee: with a come-to-the-house dinner. Said one person: "It’s old-fashioned, but it sure made the person feel like the company cared."
—Rick Bell

Day 2—Wednesday, April 2

Spoiled and with an overgrown sense of entitlement. That is how many recruiters describe Generation Y.

But Penelope Trunk—a Boston Globe columnist and expert on Gen Y—insists this is a mischaracterization. At its core, this generation is ultra-conservative and looking for security and guidance. During her presentation, she debunked some of the most frequent gripes recruiters have about Gen Y.

• They won’t do grunt work. Trunk concedes that getting Gen Yers to accept entry-level jobs is often a challenge, but it is not because they are spoiled. Menial tasks like making photocopies is frowned upon because they aren’t activities that will enrich them professionally. "You have to understand that these are very driven people who constantly want to be learning and growing." Trunk recommends a give-and-take approach. "Barter 17 days of grunt work in exchange for three hours of mentoring," she notes. "They’ll be more than happy to fetch your coffee."

• They don’t like corporate hierarchy. This is also true, but not because Gen Yers lack respect for authority. In fact, this generation is known for having strong bonds with parents and mentors. Their predilection for flat organizations stems from the way they were raised. "They grew up doing everything in teams," she says. "This is how they think and function." Trunk says it’s not necessarily a bad trait—Gen Yers are great team players and can get along with everyone from a senior executive to the secretary.

• They are starved for attention. Trunk admits that Gen Yers require a fair share of attention—not because they are needy, but because they are obsessed with knowing their strengths and weaknesses so they can do the best job possible. Companies should try to offer performance reviews and mentoring initiatives to this group of overachievers, Trunk says.

• They have no loyalty to a company. Gen Yers will frequently job-hop. Trunk says their loyalty lies with a project and they will do whatever it takes to make their work outstanding. "They have to excel at whatever they do because they need to show strong results to their next employer," she says. "You can’t switch from job to job if you suck." Trunk also says it’s possible for Gen Yers to develop loyalty to their managers because they place a high value on personal relationships. This will only happen if a manager is fair, transparent and friendly. "These are characteristics that managers should be striving for anyway," Trunk says. "If you are nice, they’ll have a tough time leaving you."
—Gina Ruiz