Due to the amount of compliance mis -or- disinformation in the market, mainly revolving around distribution methods for Federal Contractor Job Listings (FCJL), I wanted to share the following pamphlet dropping spin, which I copied straight from a vendor website. The names have been changed to protect the innocent, most of all the poor misguided souls who actually work for this company.

Enjoy the “Vendor spin” in red and my comments, bleeding with the usual sarcasm, in regular type..

Let’s start with the most ironic piece of this farce tale. “Compliance” is actually misspelled in the title. I could stop there… But you know I won’t.

VENDOR’S OFCCP Job Posting Complaince Solution
Clients who use Product A or Product B can access our existing network of State Workforce agencies. Our alliances with two key technology providers, Provider C and Provider D, will allow us to directly submit your jobs to 17 states. This is the optimal method of transmission.

Scattered delivery to 17 out of 50 states is NOT optimal for anyone who must meet FCJL compliance and what about federal contractors with mandated delivery to local veteran representatives? So really, this vendor’s use of the word “optimal“, has nothing to do with actual “compliance”, just mere product selling spin.

Additionally, we are adding direct support for posting jobs to additional states. We have also successfully developed a computer-driven process for automated posting of jobs on state sites that traditionally require human data entry. This process will allow us to provide technically superior support for a large portion of the remaining states.

Direct support = Manual entry? Computer driven process? Technically superior? Oh you mean standard feeds, WOW that’s amazing! OK.. well.. ummm… you caught me, nothing here is amazing at all, it’s merely self promoting sales drivel. Superiority will not reside on the technical end of distribution, rather the relationships and proper direct delivery to state and local workers, which this vendor does not believe is useful. (see next paragraph)

The competitive advantage of our solution is that your jobs will be entered directly into a state’s system, whereas other services may rely on a fax or email - both of which are time-consuming and expensive, and both of which leave your organization’s compliance completely in the hands of the workers at the state agencies.

Fax and email are both electronic, meaning cheap, these days fella. And the regulations are meant to facilitate distribution into the workers hands at the State and Local levels, which demonstrates once again this vendor’s inability to understand the actual purpose of Jobs for Veterans Act.

Our investigations have shown that there is a good chance that job postings submitted in this manner will not be retained or used after they are received. The key benefit to working through Vendor’s system is that jobs entered will be more likely to receive referrals from job counselors during the life of the opening, and your organization will be able to better prove compliance in the event of an audit.

This vendor’s “investigation” must not have gone further than plain old interpretation of the black and white. It’s kinda like reading a foreign language for the first time and translating many of the words incorrectly. Including the translation of their key benefit, which has nothing to do with actual compliance although, is very key for this vendor’s spin.

Federal contracting companies need to understand the FCJL regulations are put in place to provide job preference for Veterans (JVA) and proper, auditable, delivery to state and local systems will be facilitated through a myriad of feeds, formats, and technologies, not a magic wand.

Remember, the OFCCP has clearly stated, “A contractor remains responsible for ensuring that its job listings are received by the appropriate employment service delivery system, whether the contractor submits job listings directly to the appropriate employment service delivery system, or uses a third party to deliver the job listings on its behalf.”

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- Building a labor rocket ship
- America’s Job Bank: A Corporate Solution

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I enjoy what the staff over at Common Craft is doing to explain new technology in good ‘ole plain English. But this video, below, goes far beyond the call of duty to provide serious Halloween survival information EVERYONE needs to know!

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Sitting down in the bar, at the Planet Hollywood Resort, to enjoy a few drinks and conversation with our member companies and the topic of annoying vendors cropped up. This is not a new topic and will continue to reinvent itself as vendors, more importantly sales goals, come and go.

After 15 plus years in sales, and a few drinks, I imparted my vendor rules of play to everyone listening:

Advice to prospect companies…
When vendors call regarding “an opportunity to help with your hiring” or “a new avenue that will change your recruiting forever” (cue Celine Dion, Titanic soundtrack) don’t just blow them off. Genuinely provide them a time and date of which you will be available to listen to their short pitch/demo and digest their case studies and results driven data. If the date is 6 days, weeks, or months down the road, it’s better than a dial tone. You have provided a window and they should NOT connect with you until said date. Now here’s the catch, if you make a commitment (i.e. schedule an appointment) STICK TO IT or brace yourself for the barrage of incoming calls that will surely follow.

Advice to vendors…
Don’t call three to five times a day, like I know some of you are today, hoping your contact doesn’t have caller ID, because they do. If you are provided an opportunity be short, concise, and full of actual data, NOT fluff and anecdotal gibberish. Ask pertinent questions and be prepared with appropriate follow-up materials, references, research, etc. The prospect has provided you this opportunity, so use it wisely and DO NOT feature dump! **Caution**, if you go around you current contact it may backlash into no business and bad feelings toward your organization, which no one can afford. Do the right thing and be a professional.

Bottom line, if you have a valuable product/service and provide solid reasons for purchase, without annoying the prospect to death, you have a better chance than most. Remember prospects want and need a better, stronger, faster mousetrap. The key is not to become the pesky rodent yourself.

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Kudos goes out to the ERE staff on last week’s conference in Washington D.C. I was able to catch some great speakers, connect with friends, network, and have Jason Davis take all my chips again in a semi-friendly game of poker. (Proceeds to the ERE Foundation)

You know an event is big when Gerry Crispin chooses to bring his newest product out of R&D and unveil to the market at ERE.

The NEW Gerry Crispin Action Figure

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It’s been a little over a week since we wrapped up the 2007 DirectEmployers Annual Meeting and I wanted to say…

THANK YOU!

I personally appreciate all of the member, special guest, staff, and speaker support in making DirectEmployers’ 2007 Annual Meeting an outstanding success. This event produced the best member participation, since it’s inception in 2001, coupled by incredible statistics and real world case studies provided by our speakers.

What to look forward to next year?

DirectEmployers Annual Meeting ‘08 will provide more of the same… Innovation and hard work all wrapped in industry intelligence, statsitics, and your case studies!

Thanks to our speakers:

Angel Dominguez, Merck, & Doug Berg, Jobs2Web, who shared SEO and hiring case study information during their “Supercharge Your Career Site” presentation.

Doug Ries, Arbita, who shared proprietary information about the job board market during his “Gambling on Job Boards?” presentation.

Brian Jensen, McGraw-Hill, & Paul Forster, Indeed, who shared personal experiences and hiring information revolving around Job Search Engine marketing during their “Flexible Cost-Effective Recruitment Marketing” presentation.

Kurt Ronn, HR Works, who helped our members better understand the ever-changing compliance landscape during his “Aggressive Compliance, Be Proactive, Be Compliant” presentation.

Joel Cheesman, Cheezhead, shared his thoughts on the impact of blogging on your recruitment during his “It’s raining cats and blogs” presentation.

Carmen Carter, MultiCultural Women’s Council, who shared her views on how our members can create a more diverse working environment during her “Do-It-Yourself Diversity” presentation.

Shally Steckerl, JobMachine, shared his sourcing vision and advanced search techniques during his “Super Sourcing” Presentation.

and last but not least…..

Thanks to Alexis Herman who captivated the entire audience with her experiences and knowledge of the U.S. Talent Market. Her superb insight and vision were a lesson to everyone in the room.

This year will be hard to beat…

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