For more effective passive candidate searching, throw away your cookie cutter!

Looking for an ironclad formula that will get passive candidates to listen intently when you call? Or one that will get them to call you back after they hear your voicemails? The reality is that while there are some pretty strong approaches that work for many passive candidates, there is no approach that works for all passive candidates.

As is the case with other areas of recruiting, successfully connecting with passive candidates happens more often when some basic marketing principles are applied. For example, marketing to a finance manager within the same industry is very different than marketing to a finance manager when you are asking them to consider a change in industries; such as switching from consumer products to manufacturing. And like good marketers, the most successful recruiters take a target marketing approach; one that recognizes the diversity of the candidates and does not try to please them all with the same marketing message.

Know what drives passive candidates
Too many recruiters seem to think, “That last guy I called just wasn’t the type of person that gets excited about better job opportunities. But this next person just might be one of those people who’ll be excited to hear about a good opportunity.” This is not the way recruiters should operate.

To successfully connect with passive candidates, you need to have a handle on their drivers — the motivations that get them to listen to what you have to say.

To be successful, you need to approach the market in a similar fashion to that of an expert in consumer marketing. Spending some time upfront to determine your marketing message by customer segment can significantly increase your response rates. The candidate pool can be broken into different segments based on geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioralistic characteristics.

Your marketing message can be tailored based on the different segments within the population. For example: if you are recruiting for a Re-engineering Consultant position with a manufacturing company, you might target candidates within the industry in like positions; these candidates may reside in the area or they may live on the opposite coast. Additionally, your candidate pool may include individuals from top or boutique consulting firms within the area or on the opposite coast. Given the candidate population, you may develop five or six slightly different messages; each one tailored to pique the interests of a specific candidate segment.

Do your homework
As a recruiter wanting to reel in candidates who aren’t even looking for opportunities, it’s vital to know what drives them before trying to reach out to them.

Spend some time upfront identifying your entire candidate population and then further defining the segments within that population. Recognize the diversity of the candidate pool and develop marketing approaches for each segment that will be sure to increase your response rates.

The most successful recruiters know what piques the interests of candidates from different industries and segments. Their secret is to throw away cookie-cutter approaches, and to find something — anything — about an open job that will connect with a candidate’s specific drivers.

Using Your Technology to get Optimized for Success

Technology is always evolving. You’ve probably been tempted to try to fix inefficiencies in your recruiting department by investing in the latest and greatest high-tech trend.

But are you sure your people are fully utilizing the technology already available to them? If they’re not getting the most out of their current applicant tracking system, an upgrade might not be the right solution. It would be far less expensive — and probably just as effective — to give them deeper training on the technology that’s right under their noses.

To determine if further training is needed, use the following checklist as a guide.

Candidate Communication:
Do your people use their technology to communicate with candidates? Sending and tracking messages is vital if your department will successfully determine which passive candidates are interested in what you’re offering.

Hiring Manager Communication:
Do your people use their technology to communicate with hiring managers? They should be making it easy for managers to quickly see what requisitions are still open and to express opinions about candidates.

Job Board Posting:
Do your people use their technology to automate the job board posting process? Most applicant tracking systems enable users to quickly enter their requisition information and simply choose the job boards to post it to.

Candidate Pre-Qualifying:
Do your people use their technology to choose the most qualified prospects without manually reviewing zillions of resumes? They should be able to do this quickly — before the best candidates get snagged by your competitors. Also: do they filter out less qualified candidates via screening questionnaires?

Prevention of Duplicate Candidates:
Do your people use their technology to prevent duplicate candidates? They should be able to configure the technology to prevent themselves and others from submitting candidates who are in the system already. They should also be able to prevent candidates from submitting applications for requisitions that they’re already associated with.

Candidate Alerts:
Do your people know how to configure their technology to get automatic notifications when top tier candidates apply for a job?

Candidate Scheduling:
Do your people use their technology to schedule interviews and track candidate availability?

Employment Law Monitoring:
Hiring and employment laws change very frequently. Do your people use technology to keep track of pertinent laws and regulations?

Offer Management:
Do your people use their technology to ensure job offers are carefully examined before being given to candidates? They should be able to let approvers quickly approve or revise the offers.

Getting Your Process Optimized for Success

My previous article focused on the importance of getting your people optimized for success. As is the case with any business, the quality of your people will be the biggest determiner of your department’s success or failure.

After you’ve examined the people side of your department, your process should be carefully considered.

For your recruiting department to be successful, your people need to consistently follow a well-planned process. And since time is always of the essence, they’ll need to move from step to step quickly, with set time limits in mind.

While recruiting processes vary in detail and complexity, make sure your department’s process contains at least these nine steps.

Step 1: Really knowing your requisitions

• Is it a standard part of your process to talk to your customers about the positions needing to be filled? It’s never enough to rely on the job description alone.
• Is it standard procedure to look for all the sales points and benefits that each job possesses? It’s vital to constantly dig deep and ask, “What could we say to a candidate that would make him or her choose
  this position over another one?”

Step 2: Advertising

• Does your recruiting department place high value on effective job ads with convincing messaging?
• Do you post job ads quickly? (Not much more than 24 hours after a requisition?)

Step 3: Sourcing

• Does your recruiting department search blogs and other online forums for qualified candidates?
• Are you skilled at finding passive candidates who are currently employed, but who would be open to new opportunities? Do you find candidates through professional networks?

Step 4: Resume examination

• Is it part of your process to see beyond a candidate’s clearly stated skills? Your people should also be looking for
  transferable skills and experience.
• Does your recruiting department go over resumes quickly after receiving them?

Step 5: Screening

• Does your process accurately match the candidate’s desires, needs and qualifications to your open positions?
• Do you single out the top-tier prospects and make them your department’s primary focus?

Step 6: Phone interviews

• Are in-depth phone interviews a standard part of your department’s process?
• If they are a part of your process, do your people sell the position and the company during the interview?
• Do they spend enough time conducting their interviews? Five or ten minutes per interview isn’t enough to determine whether or not the candidate may be an ideal fit.

Step 7: Onsite Interviews

• Is each person on the interview panel tasked with assessing specific skills of the candidate? Do you have a full assessment of the candidate’s ability once the interviews are complete? Make sure your onsite interviews are not repetitive and you maximize the time with the candidate; capturing all the information needed to make an informed decision.
• Do you conduct thorough interview debriefs timely once the onsite is complete? Are all the interviewers present at the debrief; providing their assessment and discussing areas of concern?

Step 8: Background checks and drug testing

• Does your recruiting department do thorough background checks? (Including criminal history checks, employment and education verification, credit reports and DMV reports?)
• Do you conduct thorough reference checks that include written reference reports?
  

Step 9: Onboarding

• Do you take the right steps to help the new employee integrate with the existing team? Are they given the tools they need to “hit the ground running”? This is a critical time for a new employee and taking the right steps helps to ensure a successful long-term employment relationship.

Getting Your People Optimized for Success

As with any other business, your people are the most important resource in your recruiting department. Your competitors can duplicate your processes and your technology. But they can’t duplicate the unique skills and experiences your people bring to your business.

Before you invest in an expensive technology upgrade, make sure your people are optimized for success! Here are five important questions you should be asking.

1. How skilled are your people at finding active candidates?

• Do they get the most out of the job boards? Are they up to speed about which job boards they should be using?
  
• Do they create great ads that get the attention of active candidates? Remember — their ads need to grab peoples’ attention quickly, so strong titles/headlines are essential. It’s also important for ads to explain what’s in it for the candidate rather than for the company.

2. How skilled are your people at finding passive candidates?

• Do they consistently find top candidates through referrals?
  
• Are they seeking out community gatherings and trade shows? How about local association meetings? These are often excellent sources of passive candidates.
  
• Just finding passive candidates is only half the battle. Are your people good at persuading most of their passive candidates to at least consider the job opportunity?
  
• Does their requisition knowledge go further than the job description? Your people need to really know their open requisitions before they look for candidates — especially passive candidates!

3. Are your people burning out?

• Are they energetic and constantly interacting with people? Or are they avoiding interaction by the over-use of technology?
  
• Are your people encouraged to take frequent breaks to recharge their minds? Are they reluctant to take a vacation for fear of neglecting their clients?

4. Are your people creating a clear recruiting brand image?

• Are they clearly communicating the benefits of working for the organization (that involve more than just money)? They should be able to positively present the company in the market place, and not just the specific job opportunities.
  
• Are they monitoring their competitors’ employment ads? It’s important that your people create better images for their companies than their competitors do.

5. Are your people using performance profiles?

• Do they know the top performance objectives their open requisitions require? The most successful recruiters create lists of at least five or six things candidates must be able to do to be considered successful at the job.
  
• If your people are using performance profiles, do they list performance objectives that are specific and measurable?

Getting your recruiting department optimized for success

Q. What’s the secret of recruiting departments that continuously feed businesses a steady stream of top talent? The answer isn’t too difficult.

A. Successful recruiting departments optimize their three most important elements: their people, processes and technology.

When things don’t go well for recruiters, it’s the technology (or the lack of it) that often gets blamed. Technology is always evolving, and it’s tempting to try to fix problems and inefficiencies by investing in the latest high-tech “solution.”
But before you spend serious money on an upgrade, optimize first! Start by asking some very specific questions about your people, process and technology.


1. People

• Do your people have the skills needed to fill jobs on time, and with top notch people? If not, what’s missing? Do they have a hard time getting the most out of job boards? Are they having difficulty creating good ads that get candidates’ attention? A successful recruiting department identifies weak spots — and immediately strives to close all gaps.

• Does the team know their customer and have a strong understanding of the open requisitions? Or do they instead rely on a job description and look for candidates that seem to match it? If they aren’t getting in-depth clarification about all the details of the open position, they’re not digging deep enough.

• Are your people fully trained in all existing systems and processes? If not, make such training the top priority.

• Is there a clear recruiting brand image? Can the team clearly articulate why a top candidate should join your organization as opposed to your competition?


2. Process

• Do you have established processes? Are they measurable?

• Are your processes followed by everyone on your team? Remember, consistency is key!

• Do you measure the processes end-to-end, even with third parties and hiring managers?

• Have you identified and shored up gaps and lags in the process?

• Do they have an effective means to escalate when necessary?

• Do you know what the candidate market thinks of your process? Are there any small tweaks you could make to your process that would make candidates more receptive?


3. Technology

• Is your team fully utilizing the technology available to them? Before you invest in an upgrade, make sure the technology you have now is being used as much as it should be. Does your team know the most efficient way (all the short cuts) to use your current technology? Is further training needed?

• Is your technology fully integrated?

Leveraging Professional and Social Networks

My last post discussed developing and leveraging top talent databases. Today, we’re going to discuss how you can establish strong strategic relationships that grow with your company. In other words, we’re going to talk about networking.

Networking involves developing relationships beyond the initial purpose of contact so that both parties reap the benefits of working together. It is about building relationships that meet the short- and long term needs of both parties. And it’s about reaching out to individuals who would make perfect candidates as well as individuals who can reach out to potential candidates.

There are two types of online networks that make the job of an HR Manager easier: professional networking and social networking.

Professional Networking Professional networking is used to improve and grow one’s business circle. It’s about making communication between professionals easier. It’s about building referral bases and business contacts through the “friends” features. And it’s about sharing leads, sharing non-confidential company information, and helping each other grow within their current businesses.

Used correctly, professional networks can help HR managers find qualified top talent candidates. In fact, a post on your page letting others know you’re looking for a specific candidate could generate several hundred qualified leads. And sometimes, top candidates just fall into your lap via connections—even without your ever mentioning a need.

The top professional networks are: Ryze (http://www.ryze.com/), Tribe (http://tribe.net), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/),

Social Networking Social networking is used to build relationships with like-minded individuals. It’s about making meeting new people easier. It’s about being able to let one’s hair down.

Used correctly, social networks can help HR Managers weed out bad seeds and find candidates who more closely match the needs of their employers. In fact, locating a potential candidate on social networks can help HR managers get a better understanding of what the candidate may be like to work with on a regular basis—something that can’t be found on a resume or list of references.

The top social networks are: MySpace (http://myspace.com), FaceBook (http://facebook.com), YouTube (http://youtube.com), Orkut (http://orkut.com), and Friendster (http://friendster.com). And don’t forget alumni associations like Classmates (http://classmates.com).

In the end, professional and social networks allow HR Managers to find those needles in the haystack, obtain referrals they can trust and respect, and develop new contacts—contacts that lead to strong business relationships.

Developing External Candidate Pools

Last time we discussed the importance of developing a talent pool. This week, we’re going to discuss developing external candidate pools—strong candidate networks that go beyond the recruiter in the office.

External candidate pools are used to attract both passive and active candidates and are designed to help HR managers stay one step ahead of the game—a step that allows them to always have a top talent candidate in mind.

Developing external candidate pools, however, is not something HR managers can build and forget about. External candidate pools must be built, cultivated, and maintained. When developing a game plan that utilizes external candidate pools, keep these ideas in mind:

Reach Candidates Where They Search

Major job boards (like Monster.com, Hotjobs.com, CareerBuilder.com, and industry or niche specific job boards) are often the first place semi-passive and active candidates go when searching for job leads so it’s important to incorporate job boards into your overall strategy for locating top talent candidates.

Active candidates are looking for change. They may want growth opportunities, more money, more incentives, better benefits, or more challenging careers. They want something different so they have no problem actively searching for top positions, posting resumes to job boards, or submitting resumes to qualified, potential employers.

Semi-passive candidates, however, aren’t necessarily looking for a new career, but are open to discussing the possibilities—especially if the right opportunity came along. They often avoid posting their resumes to job boards, but will submit their resumes to companies who’ve written compelling job descriptions that peak their interests.

Passive candidates will also visit the job boards from time-to-time. If they've had a bad day at the office and want to explore other possibilities or if they have been contacted about another opportunity and are considering responding - they will comparison shop. When they do it's good to have a very compelling well written job description that prompts them to find out more.

Active , semi-passive , and passive candidates all have the potential to fulfill the company’s needs. That’s why it’s vital to post job listings that generate buzz about the company by clearly reflecting the needs of the company and listing the incentives associated with the position. After all, job boards are only a good investment of your time and resources if you effectively target the right candidates.

Develop A Career Center For Your Company’s Website

Optimizing your company’s career center can not only weed out poor candidates, but can attract the right candidates. When optimizing your company’s career center the idea is to attract the right candidate right off the bat; therefore, your career center should include elements like:

a: Enticing, exciting, and invigorating job descriptions that are searchable by the search engines,
b: Non-monetary employee benefits—for top talent candidates, it isn’t just about the money, it’s about the benefits,
c: Employee testimonies—nothing tells a future candidate what it’s like to work for a company than the employees themselves,
d: Skills tests that challenge top talent candidates—let them know you are serious about hiring the best person for the job, and
e: State of the art welcome messages, complete with a video introduction from the president of the company, himself.

Come back in a few days and we’ll complete our discussion on developing external candidate pools by discussing how you can establish strong strategic relationships through leveraging.

Building Your Talent Pool

Hiring managers are constantly being pressured to hire “Top” talent—talent that puts candidates in the top ten percent of their career categories; talent that produces high results over ninety percent of the time; and talent that keeps the company performing at its best. But locating top talent isn’t easy.

First, there’s the shortage of top talent. The shortage of top talent is very real and doesn’t appear to be improving any time soon. Not only is the population growth in America slowing down, but baby boomers are reaching retirement age. And with retirement comes an increased fluctuation of job openings and an urgent need to fill those positions with comparable talent.

Second, top talent takes time to cultivate. One cannot simply enter a position within a company and instantly reach top talent status. One has to work his (or her) way up the corporate ladder—proving each step of the way that he (or she) has what it takes to help the company reach its maximum potential.

Third, top talent can be difficult to obtain. With the increased openings in the job market, top talent candidates have their pick of the crop. In other words, we’re facing a “candidate driven market” and it looks as though it will remain this way for quite some time. In fact, The Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/) believes there will be a huge shortage of workers in the United States over the next several years, forecasting “a shortage of 10,033,000 workers by the year 2010”!

But a shortage in workers isn’t the only thing that makes this a “candidate driven market”. As candidates search out the best career option, they’re also inundated with lavish proposals—proposals designed to reel them in and keep them at the company, indefinitely.

So where do HR managers find top talent? For starters, HR managers should develop a game plan that helps them find top talent both in the short term and the long term. And to do that, they need to be thinking, “external candidate pool” and “internal candidate pool”.

Join us next week as we take on the task of helping you understand how to develop an external candidate pool.