Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Lance Haun

Lance Haun is the Editor of SourceCon. After spending seven years in the recruiting and HR business, he moved over to ERE Media in 2010 where he started as Community Director for ERE and then as a contributing editor for HR publication TLNT. You can follow him on Twitter, check out his rarely updated blog or contact him directly at lance@ere.net.

Articles by Lance Haun

Technology

Five (Inexpensive Or Free) Cloud-Based Productivity Tools For Recruiters

by 6 days ago


Clouds

When I talk to people about what tools they use on a day-to-day basis, they usually default to the recruiting specific tools they use. They might be trying out something new or maybe they are frustrated with an ATS or search tool.

When I ask about what’s driving their backoffice or productivity, I often get blank stares. People might be living off of email, a calendar, a spreadsheet, or maybe nothing at all. And that might be fine if you’re never out of the office, don’t ever miss anything important or never have a computer issue.

For those of us who may have one or more of those issues, using an internet-based application might be the way to go. The key advantages being that your data is available, often on all of your devices (including mobile) and is backed up. So what should you be checking out? Here are five essential tools (plus some extras) to try out.

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Technology

TalentBin Pulls Together Talent Profiles To Make Sourcing A Snap

by 12 days ago


TalentBin logo

TalentBin officially launched from private beta to public this week. The service, which bills itself as a talent search engine, said it “just turned the entire professional web into the largest talent sourcing database known to mankind with its public launch.”

If you’ll excuse the bravado, what TalentBin is trying to do is actually quite impressive and has leaped forward since I saw the beginnings of its private beta at the HR Technology Conference last October.

What it is trying to do is fairly simple: create a searchable database that merges information about a person from all over the web into a single profile so that recruiters can get all of the information about them in one, digestible place.

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Industry News, Social Media

How Techies Use Social Media And How That Can Help You

by 3 weeks ago


social media illustration

There seems to be this overarching assumption that the way the general populace uses social media is the same way that technical talent will use social media. And while that might be true on a larger scale (for example, social networks as a whole are gaining more members and more professional members at the same time), is it really true on a more tactical and operational level?

The folks over at GlobalSpec put out a report recently on the “industrial use” of social networks. And while the report is geared more towards marketers and sales professionals, there’s much in the report for recruiters. First, let’s touch on LinkedIn. 

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Entrepreneurship, For Managers

Do You Really Want Entrepreneurial Employees?

by on May 12, 2011


ArmyOfEntrepreneurs-200x303

I’ll admit it: I’m biased.

You see, all of the entrepreneurs I grew up with were much better entrepreneurs than employees. My father is an entrepreneur and both of my grandfathers were entrepreneurs, too. I’ve also heard stories from their time working as an employee and not only were they not as productive as they could have been, they were less than happy being an employee. Being their own boss was a better fit for multiple reasons.

So when I was sent Army of Entrepreneurs by Jennifer Prosek, I was admittedly skeptical. In some ways, I still am but there seems to be a better argument out there for incorporating principles of entrepreneurship into a company. 

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Entrepreneurship

Working From Home: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

by on Apr. 14, 2011


simpsons-homer-working-from-home

Working from home is becoming more popular according to a report from Skype. And as Mashable mentions in their post about the report:

As someone who regularly works from home, I find this trend hardly surprising. But it’s not just bloggers, start-up types and technophiles who are making pajamas the new “business casual.” Even seasoned executive types (like my own father, for example) are logging in remotely these days.

The proliferation of online collaboration tools is one indicator that “WFH” (that’s short for “working from home,” my dad tells me) culture is blossoming. In fact, Skype and tools like it have pretty much made the necessity of a 9-to-5 physical presence behind a cubicle-bound desk obsolete.

Everyone knows that working from home can be great but there are also some pitfalls to consider as you make the transition from an office to a home office. 

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