Tuesday, December 07, 2010

GeoTagging as an HR Tool?

The folks at Trendwatching.com, in their most recent newsletter, talked about the 11 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2011. One that caught my eye was the one called "Planned Spontaneity". The Trendwatchers said that "With lifestyles having become fragmented, with dense urban environments (URBANOMICS!) offering consumers any number of instantly available options, and with cell /smartphones having created a generation who have little experience of making (or sticking to) rigid plans, 2011 will see full-on PLANNED SPONTANEITY." They go on further to say "Expect to see consumers in 2011 rushing to sign up to services (the PLANNED part) that allow for endless and almost effortless MASS MINGLING with friends, family, colleagues or strangers-who-may-become-friends-or-dates (the SPONTANEITY part ;-).....For consumers, knowing where they are and what's / who's around them is the key to PLANNED SPONTANEITY."

Devices or applications on devices that allow for you to give your location, such as foursquare, will greatly enable the opportunity for planned spontaneity. This made me start thinking about this as an HR tool, specifically a recruiting tool.Will it be possible (or is it already) for someone to locate recruiters or for recruiters to locate candidates based upon their mobile device? Will it be possible to list a position and have it searched for by a mobile app? This will allow for planned spontaneity in recruitment. You will not have to be seeking out a candidate or a candidate will not have to be seeking out a recruiter, but, due to the app a connection will be able to occur. You planned for it, but not a particular time or place, but for the possibility that a connection might occur.

So does anyone know if such technology exists? Anyone know if any such liklihood is on the horizen? Would you use it if it were available? What if we carried our resumes on our mobile device and made it available in order to "shop ourselves"? Would you?

What other opportunities in HR do you see this kind of technology being good for? Employee tracking? You tell me.

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