itzbig is coming soon.

Our group has been involved in several high tech start-ups over the years, perfecting secret algorithms and supply chain applications, refining the latest web technology, exploring new user interfaces, and one of us has even written a book entitled Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Over the last several weeks we’ve been busy surveying hundreds of recruiters and working professionals. Listening to what causes them the most pain in the hiring process.

It’s an interesting subject and always a big one. Talent sourcing, hiring, transition, and work – all of it affects just about every one. Talent is a big deal.

So why this blog now when there are umpteen thousand talent oriented blogs – and some damn good ones – in the blogosphere already? (Regarding recruiting blogs, John Sumser says, “There’s already too much stuff.”

Well… after all that talking to people… and some experimentation… we have arrived at some conclusions. If we were to be politically correct, which we will not, we would say that online recruiting has just scratched the surface. The truth is it hasn’t even touched the surface.

One of the things we were curious about is how well job boards serve recruiters, job seekers, and quiet working professionals. When asked what they like the least about these online services, recruiters are overwhelmingly unhappy with both the quality of the candidates and the time it took to find the these candidates on the boards.

Interestingly, when we speak to candidates, they have similar complaints: They’re frustrated with the attractiveness of the jobs presented, the time it takes to participate with, and navigate the job boards, and the complete absence of any feedback throughout the process. According VoltInsider’s Dale Olson,

“The average Volt recruiter is expected to manage between 15-20 job openings at a time and it is easy to slip into the mindset of trying to “fill a hole” with a handful of candidates so that you can move on to the next task we (recruiters) fully understand that this is not how you establish lasting relationships with candidates, but it does get the job done, at least temporarily.”

Quality, Time and Feedback. These three topics keep coming up again and again.

So what can be done about this? We think we’re on to something. And itzbig.

A lot of what we’re working on came from listening to hiring authorities, recruiters and candidates.

The Quality or Talent quandary is a constant for recruiters: Just like in dating, all the best candidates seem to be taken. We call these folks quiet working professionals. Hank Stringer, CEO of QTalent Partners and founder of Hire.com, wrote about this on his blog,

“A quarter of the talent force or prospective candidates use job boards. Hmmm… Use boards and reach 25%… great, but what about the other 75% or the quiet source of talent?”

What we do know from our experiences, and have been confirming in our conversations, is that the old job boards don’t work and the current ‘new’ offerings leave a lot to be desired. We find very little cutting edge innovation that drives results. What we do find is most, old and new, are based on old advertising models, designed to continue to feed the media monsters. Most constituents, like job seekers and recruiters, are once again not the primary focus. Same old, same old.

Please don’t get too upset, we are merely passing on what we’ve been told by many.

Our findings to date exceedingly indicate that today’s “Advertising Boards” do not delivery quality, time savings, or feedback to anyone; job posters, job seekers, or the quiet working professional.

So what is itzbig? What’s new about all this?

It’s pretty simple really. We at itzbig don’t believe that taking the old newspaper classified model online represents value to anyone but the companies focused on “selling” advertising first, and then, as a side line, job postings and resume data. We intend to “Tear down the Wall” between recruiters and working professionals. (Check out our rousing call to action.)

We’re developing an online career network that will quickly and easily enable one-to-one personal connections between working professionals and jobs. We are putting the “personal” back into recruiting. There’s more info available on the official itzbig web site.

That’s why we need your help. We’ve got some real industry powerhouses behind us, but we’re too smart to think we can go it alone. We are asking you to ensure we get it right. We are forming Advisory Councils and are asking you to advise us throughout the process. Even pick a name for the company. There’s no cost and the impact on your valuable time will be minimal. Won’t you join us?

itzbig, itzYours and itzComing!

Click here (link to be added) if you’d like to join our Advisory Council and be a part of developing this new solution to the pains of the hiring process.

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