The Chad | Change The Online Recruiting Game

During last year’s ERE in San Diego I had an opportunity to meet many of the people face to face that I normally trade email, phone calls, friended on RecruitingBlogs or following on Twitter. During the onset of one conversation the following comment was made by a job board owner “DirectEmployers Association, a non-profit.. Now that’s a great angle?“, which left me quite perplexed.

So I naturally responded.. “Angle? What angle?” Which prompted a discussion about our mission and more questions about how DirectEmployers Association is disrupting vendor revenue streams as a non-profit. My answer was quite simple, our members want:

1) better return on investment,
2) increased labor market efficiencies, and
3) new, innovative products and services.

Working as a non-profit DirectEmployers Association can create technologies, programs, processes and partnerships that will achieve the above three points without the need to answer to investors, worry about stock prices and/or push for higher costs. DirectEmployers Association is guided by a board of directors and led by the executive committee and our Executive Director Bill Warren.

Furthermore, we’re in a position to demystify seemingly complex solutions like SEO, because we don’t have an interest in keeping SEO veiled in a cloak of secrets. Instead, we can build an automated solution implementing the technical best practices of SEO, integrate well-known, free, and industry standard analytics from Google, and provide opportunities to improve content best practices of SEO by partnering with agencies. Since we have removed the cost of the technology and data collection, the work-hours provided by the ad agency can be focused on optimization and education.

The DirectEmployers’ employer community only decides to deploy new solutions at no additional cost to our members if the market (our member community) dictates.

The moral of the story:
If your organization fails to provide cost cutting products and/or services, if it fails to provide heightened efficiencies or if your organization fails to provide continued innovation then the market will naturally produce a successor.

So let’s get past our “non-profit barriers“ and better understand the DirectEmployers Association for what it really is, because this type of employer led group is a necessity for the online recruiting industry.

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…