Five Super Useful Free Online Resources for Recruiters and HR Professionals, Again
It’s not all adorable cupcakes and vintage clothes (though, watch where you step, because that stuff is everywhere on Pinterest): people in the HR and talent management worlds have recently realized the tremendous potential that specialized social networks like Pinterest have.
Depending on your industry, Pinterest can be a great way to connect with candidates. Elementary and secondary school teachers, for example, are really fond of sharing their creative classroom ideas via Pinterest boards.
But Pinterest isn’t only an underutilized way to source candidates — it’s also an underutilized information hub. For proof, check out The Strategic Recruiter’s account, which contains countless infographics, book recommendations, motivational quotes, and other recruiting-related resources. SmartRecruiters also maintain a solid Pinterest presence.
Plus, when you get tired of working, it’s pretty easy to find a cupcake recipe or two.
On the surface, SlideShare seems pretty boring: hooray, other people’s presentations! But, wait — there are loads of publicly available presentations, many of which come from authoritative sources. And SlideShare’s not some glorified PowerPoint: plenty of people upload full documents, like white papers and survey results.
You’ll also find presentations from big-name conferences, like the 2014 Smashing Conference in Oxford. Slides are arranged according to navigable channels, so you won’t end up buried in presentations about the really disappointing finale of How I Met Your Motherwhen all you really wanted was research on social media recruiting practices.
Chances are, you or someone you know is in crippling debt thanks to higher education. But what’s great about massive open online courses (MOOCs) is that they offer the experience of high-level courses without the terrifying price tag.
MOOCs are open to anyone, and they’re taken online, which makes them super accessible. They’re also, for the most part, absolutely free. You usually won’t receive credit for taking the courses, but who cares? School’s not about the grades — it’s about the knowledge.
You can take all sorts of business-related courses, and you can also dabble in less practical things — all without taking out student loans. Some people are even trying to earn MBAs entirely through MOOCs.
So if you’re looking to continue your education head to Coursera, edx, or Udacity for some excellent classes, backed by great schools, for very little money.
You may already be reading TalentCulture’s blog, but what you really need to do is check out and participate in their series of #TChats. A #TChat is a multi-part entity, so bear with me while I explain:
First, you have the #TChat Twitter, a sort of chat channel where talent professionals (and, because it’s the Internet, probably some impostors) gather 24/7 to discuss a variety of relevant subjects. Then, there’s #TChat Radio, a live, half-hour show in which TalentCulture’s co-founders interview industry experts. Finally, the #TChat conversations carry over to TalentCulture’s other social networks, like their Google+ and LinkedIn communities.
#TChats offer a unique opportunity for talent professionals of all levels and types to engage in massive conversations about pressing HR and recruiting issues. If you join in the fun, you’ll probably learn a thing or two.
5.Social Talent’s Weekly Webinars
Every Wednesday, the good people of Social Talent offer free, half-hour training webinars on the ins and outs of social recruiting. That may seem like a limited content area, but there’s actually a lot to talk about in the ever-growing world of social recruiting. At press time, the next few scheduled webinar topics are: “Sourcing in Asia,” “Social Job Search,” and “Sourcing Engineers.”
The only downside to these free webinars (and how ungrateful are we, dissing free stuff?) is that they are limited to 200 attendees. So, just make sure you snag your spot as soon as you can.
Keep Coming Back
So far, we’ve given you 10 really awesome free online resources, but there’s always more to find in the wilds of the Internet. Keep your eyes out for more roundups of free stuff — and be thankful we haven’t given you our own website as a cop-out.
But you already knew we were better than that.