Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

Last month, both ERE and SHRM had an interesting new exhibitor: Google. I caught up with Google rep Jason Katcher for the 411:

1. Google attended their first recruiting conferences last month. Explain the decision to attend / exhibit?

Over the last 9 months, myself and my team have been working very diligently to inform the employment community about how Google can be leveraged for recruitment advertising purposes. With most of 2006 being about education and seeing lots of interest among recruiters, employers and advertising agencies, we felt it would be a good idea to have a physical presence in 2007 at a large industry event to generate more awareness among our offerings and services.

2. What were the most popular questions or comments made by HR professionals at your booth? Did any surprise you?

People are always curious about Google and this was no different. Most questions revolved around how Google could help HR professionals and recruiters navigate our vast offerings when it comes to hiring and sourcing. When people think about Google, they don’t immediately make the connection between AdWords, Google and the job hunt, yet both the active and passive audiences use Google on a daily basis as part of their everyday life.

When your company is voted the No. 1 place to work and the No. 1 place MBAs would like to work, you get lots of questions around what its like internally at Google. In addition, our presence at the ERE event in San Diego a few weeks back was primarily from a staffing perspective and initially I think that threw people, as our agenda was different for this event. Although, I suspect most people came to the booth just for the yo-yos.

3. What products and services were you primarily pushing? You had a representative from your radio division, for example. I assume that maybe surprised some attendees.

Our mission at the SHRM event was not to push or promote any specific product. As this was our first attendance at a recruiter focused gathering, our goal was to simply create some brand awareness in the space and answer any questions people may have had around the capabilities of Google. Having my colleague Kristin Johanson there with me was to handle any specific questions around our recent deal in the radio space with Clear Channel. The impact that deal will have on organizations looking to promote local/national events via that platform, such as open houses, career fairs, or opening of new locations/facilities that need new staff is huge.

As our platform continues to scale with the addition of traditional media offerings in print with publishers like Gannett, Washington Post, NY Times, Boston Globe and Chicago Tribune; television with our recent Echostar agreement; terrestrial radio with Google Audio; Google Base; and our online branding initiatives for that “passive audience” via YouTube and Site-Targeting, it is important to keep the public aware of how we can help bring efficiencies to their current recruitment marketing objectives. The complimentary nature of online and offline advertising is something recruiters should continue to examine.

4. What were you takeaways on the industry and Google’s place in it?

I am extremely excited about the prospects Google has within the recruitment advertising space. This is a highly untapped market for both parties. Traditional ad agencies have continued to embrace and support this cause in helping to bring new technologies to the world of recruitment advertising and that is something their clients and other companies should be very excited about. When you start to see innovative marketing techniques like the Disney Dream Job incorporating YouTube and TMP’s Second Life job fairs, you begin to sense a sea change occurring in the industry that really hasn’t happened since the emergence of the job boards back in the mid to late 90’s. As the adoption of new media continues to increase things should continue to get more efficient in the marketplace for both job seekers and corporations alike. It is a challenging process from both ends of the spectrum, one which Google would like to help simplify as we’ve done in so many other industries.

5. Was it worth it and can we expect to see you at future conferences?

Overall, the results were well worth the experience, and how can you not have a good time in New Orleans. The SHRM folks were great to work with and we look forward to building a partnership with them as we have with so many organizations around the globe. Once measurability, accountability and transparency are implemented and scaled in the world of employment marketing, I feel that will be the beginning of really helping to connect corporations and qualified candidates in a more seamless way.

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