Listening To Your Recruiter

Would you walk into your doctor’s office to announce your diagnosis and dictate a prescription?  Not likely.  Even if you suspect what the problem is, you still want input from your physician.  What’s the latest treatment?  Are there alternatives?  Is there any new information that you should be made aware of?

Your recruiter can offer you the same kind of up-to-the-minute advice and direction… but only if you listen.

Recruiters have their pulse on the job market.  They know what the best candidates are looking for and how to find them.  They also know what’s happening within their client companies and can tell fairly quickly if a candidate is a good match.

The next time you speak with a recruiter, ask them some really pointed questions about the job market or employer expectations in their area of expertise .  You may be surprised at their level of knowledge — and it just may bring your relationship up to the next level.

How Can I Win In This Job?

If you’re hiring right now, applicants should be able to expect a clear and succinct answer to that question.

Many recruiting plans go off the rails late in the process when the hiring company suddenly realizes they haven’t invested sufficiently in front-end planning to ensure they’re looking for the right skills.

Try asking that question the next time you’re in a planning session.  “How will the successful candidate win in this job?”

Crystal clear position objectives are measurable.  They’re black and white.  Detailing them before you advertise will simplify the recruitment process, ease onboarding, and increase retention and morale.

It Isn’t Your Grandfather’s Workforce Anymore

Social media has thrown employers and workplaces into the limelight.  How?  Workers are using social networking to share their employment experiences.  Even people you interview and don’t hire are invited to rate your hiring process.  You can see this for yourself at GlassDoor.com.

Candidates have become savvy shoppers when it comes to choosing their next job.

Employers should regularly check out their employment brand by searching for comments about the company on Twitter, Glassdoor.com, Facebook.  Use Google or Bing to search for comments about your firm.  This will help you gauge the temperature of your employment brand.

The opportunity here is to form a community around your employment brand.  Invite comments and online discussions – and then use the conversations to build on your brand.  You need to showcase your work environment and the career opportunities you offer.  After all, it isn’t your grandfather’s workforce anymore.

Healthy Hiring: Using Reference Checks

Hiring great talent is hard work.  We spend time writing compelling ads, screening in the most qualified candidates, conducting multiple interviews…  It’s tempting to declare a finish to the recruitment process once the final candidate is selected.  But there remains one critical step:  reference checks.

Conducting thorough reference checks can help your organization in 3 areas.

1)  It shows existing staff that you take hiring seriously and you want to ensure new hires are placed in positions where they will be successful.

2)  The right questions will reveal information about your prospective employee that you could never have gleaned during the interviewing cycle.  Staying very open during the reference check call will either confirm your decision or will give you topics for further discussion with the candidate – or make you rethink your decision, possibly saving you from making a costly hiring mistake.

3)  Conducting thorough reference checks will help your firm develop relationships with other employers.  Business people can never have too many contacts — reference checks are an easy way to begin building a network.

Here is a great reference check question that a staffing industry professional shared with me recently:

“What can you tell me about “X” that would take me 6 months to learn?”

Could that question help you create a customized orientation and initial coaching program for your new recruits?

Feeling Like a Baby When It Comes to Online Recruitment?

The great thing about online recruitment is that it’s cost effective and increases your reach.  The bad thing about online recruitment is that it’s cost effective and increases your reach.  What?

It’s true.

Because it’s so inexpensive and far reaching, it’s easy to embark on a path that yields mountains of responses yet provides little in the way of high-quality hires.  The trick is to write an effective ad; one that generates interest and gets the right people to respond.

3 Steps to Writing an Effective Online Job Ad

1.  Grab attention with a snappy job title.

Most candidates will decide which job ads to read by first skimming a page full of job titles which may or may not include a dozen or so words from the ad itself.  You are literally competing for attention.  Choose your job title wisely.  It doesn’t matter that HR calls it Prepping Clerk III — you  need something catchy like Documentation Hero.

2. Make the job description all about the applicant.

Winning job ads can expect a full 9 seconds of attention from those who click through to the full text ad.  Guard your first 12 words jealously!  If you’re like most employers you will start out with a description of your company.  Yawn.  Make the job description all about the applicant.  If you must include a paragraph about your company, place it at the bottom.

3. Tell them what they need to know.

The geographic location of the job, mandatory requirements such as experience or education, and whether relocation costs or foreign sponsorship will be considered are important elements.  That last point may seem unimportant until you consider that your advertisement will be seen by folks around the globe.  Stating your ability to accommodate applicants from other areas will reduce the number of unusable applications and free your staff to focus on the right candidates.

If you’re still feeling a bit daunted by the whole online thing, you may want to invest in some training.  Here is one example of the hundreds of courses that are available.

With a little forethought, e-cruiting can form an effective foundation of your recruitment strategy and a become an ongoing source of talent.