HRM Today » William Uranga

A walk on the creative side

William Uranga — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:07:46 +0000

In following up to an earlier post, I’m delighted to report that we’ve hired a Creative Director. This is a first hire of its kind for us here at TiVo. With 72% of our employee population identified with some aspect of development or IT in our organization, we could use some more representation on the [...]
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Social media policy

William Uranga — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:43:58 +0000

A lot of companies are wrestling with social media’s role in their company. Like anything, there are a lot of voices being expressed about social media:

It’s a waste of time. No one has time to for it.
It’s a freedom of personal expression. Insofar as it doesn’t compromise work performance, no one should care.
Smartly participate in [...]
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Being humane, being human

William Uranga — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:10:01 +0000

Remember to thank people when they apply. Not just confirming that their resume was received (”receipt”), not just that you want to speak with them (invitation, scheduling note) – but when you’re declining them even if you never have met or spoken to them live before. They could be, or should be, your company’s customer or share [...]
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An alternative to workforce planning

William Uranga — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:56:43 +0000

None of the organizations I’ve worked for have embraced workforce planning. Typically recruiting runs off a line in the budget dedicated to the headcount plan (a top-down approach). This is reactive. This isn’t to say the organizations I’ve worked for didn’t plan, but there were too many variables and interdependencies to make workforce planning a [...]
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Upcoming events

William Uranga — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:55:09 +0000

Here is a quick list of recruiting-related events that I’m involved with and/or attending here in the Bay Area:

April 24th – Future of Talent Event @ Cisco. I’ll be leading one of several roundtable discussions and can get you in (by invitation): http://futureoftalent.org/Learning-EVents.html
May 7th – HR Symposium @ TechMart in Santa Clara. Great panel of [...]
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Surprise: What Facebook got right

William Uranga — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:54:41 +0000

A Facebook video about, well Facebook, has been making the rounds recently. There is the consistent “blue” and white of the brand throughout and plenty of presence of “Facebook” or the “F” icon to boot. However the images, color and the name isn’t what makes it viral (I define “viral” as something remarkable that people [...]
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Bay Area events

William Uranga — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:50:56 +0000

Here is a quick list of recruiting-related events that I’m involved and/or attending:

April 24th – Future of Talent Event @ Cisco: http://futureoftalent.org/Learning-EVents.html
May 7th – HR Symposium @ TechMart in Santa Clara: http://hrsymposium.org/
May 21st - Project HIRED Recognition Breakfast in Campbell, CA: http://projecthired.org/breakfast.html
June 15th – Social Recruiting Summit @ Google: http://socialrecruitingsummit.com/

If you’re going, please let me know (or say “hi”), it’d [...]
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Yes, but its my ugly baby…

William Uranga — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:15:58 +0000

I’ve started doing of reworking the blog with HTML learning-as-I-go. This clearly reinforces that I shouldn’t quit my day job. It’s perfectionism-meets-student. Comedy or horror are the two possible by products. Comments and suggestions (here or on Twitter) are welcomed. Of course if you’re an “expert” at this, or WordPress a deal could be worked [...]
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Like, Dislike and The Hype

William Uranga — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:59:29 +0000

It can be amusing or dismaying the amount of heat and energy that the topic of recruiting tools generates. I’ve laughed at some of the silliness and have certainly contributed to a good portion myself. Rather than get lost in the partiuclar brands, anecdotal stories or vendor statistics, wouldn’t it be helpful talk about the [...]
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Embrace, Don’t Erase Your Brand

William Uranga — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:01:55 +0000

Quick, what is your company brand? No, not your product line up or elevator pitch or slogan. I don’t care for Princeton’s definition of brand, so let me wander into marketing traffic for a moment and suggest a working definition: Raising of customer expectations of what they will experience with your brand or service. For TiVo it’s: [...]
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Talking About Our Education

William Uranga — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:06:12 +0000

One of my standard interview questions is “How do you stay current in your profession?” The response is usually includes a mixture of the following: magazines, newspapers, books, associations and conferences. That is a “good” answer, but it is falling short more and more.
Why? There continues to be an explosion of new content and sources of content. [...]
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Typecast The Candidates You Seek

William Uranga — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:58:41 +0000

Recently, we launched a search for a Creative Director. For those who recruit in the creative or advertising agency world, this would seem easy as pie. For me, this was a first, an adventure. Fortunately, I’ve been building my social network and for this search, Twitter came through. My first move was to contact David [...]
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Talent Acquisition Ecosystem

William Uranga — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 05:42:21 +0000

Visuals helps keep things simple. This one has helped me better articulate my view of recruiting and better describe the course I teach.
You might have better artistic talents than I or not, but take a shot at describing how you see recruiting or an aspect of it. If you have one, let me know [...]
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You Are Correct, Sir. (8 things about me)

William Uranga — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:11:04 +0000

Admittedly, I’m a pretty private person. So being “tagged” by several colleagues has this ISTJer finally giving in. Certainly not a tell-all, but maybe you’ll learn a few things that make tick:

Humor: I thrive on dry humor and puns. Steven Wright and Demetri Martin are my idols. Read my Twitter profile as a mini-ode and follow [...]
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“Free” May Not Be Worth It

William Uranga — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:24:41 +0000

The Silicon Valley Insider recently talked about social media beginning to cost some coinage. No, this isn’t a hysterical headline about free Internet being dealt a fatal blow. Rather, this is the natural evolution in the marketplace. Venture capitalists expect a return on their money and they’d rather have the start ups show it soon [...]
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Are You A Top Chef Recruiter?

William Uranga — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:22:12 +0000

Is your organization tightening its belt? Are you and your fellow recruiters being asked to do more with less?
The food industry, from fine dining to drive-thrus are doing the same. They, in fact, may not have as many options to reduce expenses as you do. The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune have had recent articles about their [...]
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Being Value-added, Not The Middleman

William Uranga — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:53:02 +0000

Even in tough economic times, experimentation of new ideas and relationships continue. In recruiting, we need to regularly ask ourselves: Am I adding value? Now may be too late immediate impact, but the question should be regularly asked and answered with positive affirmation. Otherwise, we should be surprised to read about being bypassed as seen [...]
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How May I Annoy You?

William Uranga — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:33:54 +0000

This is a question that I should ask more often. It lies somewhere between being intimidating and blowhardville. One day I’m asked for an opinion or help, then later I think that this is how the world should run and you should know it too. The latter doesn’t attract clients, candidates or partners.
I painfully [...]
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Taking Our Own Medicine

William Uranga — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:15:37 +0000

If we’re not recruiting or being a career guidance counselor as recruiters, then we’re probably looking for next gig. The latter reminders us to heed our own job searching advice. A recent article by the One-Minute Career Coach entitled Smart Moves For A Dirty Job Market in Money magazine (August 2008), keeps things simple. I’ve added [...]
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When Its The Economy, its the Community

William Uranga — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:51:01 +0000

This is a departure from my usual format. Why? I think the times call for it.
There has been a lot of news about the economy. We can be outraged by leadership (or lack there of) in D.C. or in the private market, but when financial news affects people you and I know, well, then its [...]
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