The Week That Was: SAPPHIRE NOW Edition

RecruitingDaily was honored to partake in the most recent SAP Conference, Sapphire Now help on Orlando, FL this week. That being said, “The Week That Was” may look different than what you have seen in the past. Consider this the SAP Sapphire Now Edition.

Sapphire Now is a showcase of the latest and greatest technology and ideas SAP has to offer. Since there were over 20,000 people there, you may have been lucky enough to see it for yourself. If not, don’t worry. Here are the key takeaways recruiters should pay attention to. The themes heard throughout the conference were empathy and inclusion followed by the SAP technologies that can help us create a more empathetic technology landscape.

Along those lines, SAP’s “Business Without Bias” campaign restored my faith in humanity. SAP truly understands that diversity drives innovation. It was great to hear that they are implementing “anti-bias tools” to all of their products at no additional fee recognizing that this should be a key initiative to all of us.

https://youtu.be/wbDweun3C0E

“Empathy to Action Is a Race Without a Finish Line”

During his keynote to 30,000 live attendees at the company’s annual SAPPHIRE NOW event, SAP CEO Bill McDermott wasted no time checking off a list of impressive accomplishments — and just as quickly proved that his empathy to action mantra from a year ago was not an empty promise.

And with a visit from Michael Dell and news about SAP Leonardo, the company’s biggest bet since SAP HANA, McDermott made a very strong argument that even though SAP has been an IT innovator for over 40 years, the company is still hungry for more.

“We’ve been turning empathy into action at SAP,” said McDermott. “You wanted detailed, solution roadmaps; we gave them to you.”

SAP and Thrive Global to Improve Employee Well-Being Through Machine Learning and Analytics

A groundbreaking partnership between SAP and Thrive Global will enable SAP SuccessFactors customers to improve employee health and well-being and end the epidemic of workplace burnout, which affects an estimated 70 percent of employees.

According to Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global: “Many organizations are beginning to realize the healthier and happier we are as people, the more creative and productive we’ll be as employees. Through our partnership with SAP SuccessFactors, we’re excited to bring health and well-being to the forefront of corporate planning, placing employees and businesses in a position to thrive. Together we are igniting a new wave of management that recognizes the new scientific findings on the connection between well-being and productivity and empowers organizations to make profound changes that will have a real impact on healthcare costs, recruitment, retention, and performance.”

Learn more about SuccessFactors by clicking here.

SAP SuccessFactors President Mike Ettling: Machine Learning Is at the Heart of HR Transformation

Software intelligence is transforming HR processes. Let me give you two examples. The first is our business beyond bias initiative that’s fueled by machine learning to improve workforce diversity. We’re developing technology empowering people to create job descriptions that are gender-neutral to attract the best possible candidates, whether male or female. This drives a more balanced job applicant pool and employee population.

The second example is learning recommendations that cut through the noise to quickly surface content when employees are ready to learn, in their preferred format. People in the workplace demand the same technology conveniences they experience in their personal lives. These algorithms serve up the courses – internal and external – best-suited to someone’s development objectives. There are plenty of educational options, but too often people can’t find what’s most relevant to them. Machine learning recommends courses based on many variables, including the skills someone aims to build, and courses taken by others with similar career objectives. And, someone can consume this content wherever it might be, whether on a mobile device while they’re traveling, or online at their desktop. Click here to see the Mike Ettling interview replay.

Drive Competitive Advantage with External Workers and Service Provider

Redefine how work gets done by tapping into top talent outside of the traditional workforce. Hear real-life strategies from companies that are driving competitive advantage with their workforce by finding, engaging, and managing high-value external workers and service providers with SAP Fieldglass solutions.

This was a great conference and we can’t wait to see what they come up with for SAPPHIRENOW 2018!

What to Consider When Looking for Recruiting Software

Recruiting can be a precarious balancing act, and making sure you’re able to deftly juggle the dozens of different deliverables you’re on the hook for (without dropping the ball) is a challenge every talent pro knows only too well.

From the thousands of new resumes pouring in for review every day to the constant voice mails and frantic follow ups from candidates further along in process, from the disparate demands of desperate hiring managers to the myriad services and software vendors out there blowing up your phone and clogging your inbox, being a recruiting professional is anything but easy.

Getting ahead of the work – much less the competition – remains one of the most persistent and pervasive problems facing recruiting professionals today. And with the myriad advances in recruiting tools and HR technology, the proliferation of new platforms for attracting and engaging with candidates and the increasingly cutthroat competition for top talent, it’s clear that for recruiters, the balancing act isn’t getting any easier any time soon.

Of course, recruiters being forced to do too much with too little is a problem that’s as old as the profession itself. The good news, however, is that while advances like social or mobile can often add challenges and complexity to the talent acquisition process, choosing the right HR technology and talent tools can help make every recruiter’s life a little easier (not to mention more effective and more efficient, too).

While there are a ton of options out there, with more point solutions, SaaS startups and specialized systems proliferating every day, it’s important not to pay too much attention to what’s new or what’s next; always chasing the next big thing means you’ll always be behind.

Instead, the most important purchasing decision any employer can make isn’t the sexiest of solutions or the shiniest software on the market, but when it comes to recruiting success, nothing matters more than choosing the right system of record, for the record.

Which means that if you’re considering investing in recruiting software, a new applicant tracking system (ATS) should be at the top of every employer’s shopping list.

Here’s how to get with the system, and make sure you’re making the right ATS choice for hiring the talent you need to survive – and thrive – in the world of work today (and tomorrow, too):

Cloud in the Forecast.

Yeah, I know you’ve probably heard all about the cloud, but for some reason, many companies still rely primarily on clunky on premise solutions or outdated legacy systems for recruiting – that is, if they’re not still tracking everything on spreadsheets or paper applications, which is still business as usual for far too many businesses today.

“The Cloud” is more than just a buzzword – it’s a highly secure way to store data, doesn’t require any specific investment in infrastructure or additional hardware, and ensures recruiters reliable, around the clock access to all the information they need all the time, in real time, from any device anywhere in the world.

This consideration should be really obvious, but it’s really important, too. For reals.

Let’s Get Social.

I know, Captain Obvious, right? But you’d be amazed at just how few applicant tracking systems support social media – but ignoring social media is one opportunity cost no employer today can afford.

While the efficacy of social as a source of hire is decidedly mixed, increasingly, companies are turning to social media as an integral part of recruiting; one recent poll showed a whopping 92% of companies, in fact, currently use social media as part of their hiring process.

While the ways employers are leveraging social range from building employer brand to sourcing and engaging passive candidates, success at social recruiting starts with successfully integrating social media capabilities directly into your ATS and turning that system of record into a system of engagement, too.

So, what does “social media integration” look like, exactly? Well, think about how much time recruiters spend on the duplicative, repetitive work of posting job ads to various online job boards and career sites.

This is because their system isn’t integrated with these traditional recruitment marketing channels, which means having to manually enter different data and fill out different fields for each different destination. This is, of course, a huge waste of time and energy for recruiters.

With social media integration, a software system can post different job ads to different sites, from popular platforms like Twitter and Facebook to professional networks like LinkedIn, Glassdoor or Indeed.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, which is why not making sure your system has full social integration is just plain crazy.

Speed Kills.

With so many deadlines and deliverables constantly hanging over your head, recruiters have no time to waste when it comes to time to fill. A delay of even a single day could be the difference between an accepted offer and a failed search. When time is of the essence, speed matters. And if your ATS is slowing you down, then it’s probably costing you candidates, too.

The best way to ensure you’re not experiencing any system related delays is to make sure that any ATS you purchase is flexible and adaptable enough to work at the same speed you do; if possible, download a demo or take a test drive to make sure you’re not waiting forever for your hard-to-manage bloatware to boot up and that the software can keep pace with your hiring process and recruiting related needs.

Remember, slow and steady might win the race, but it loses the war for talent.

Configurability.

While there are a ton of ATS options out there, choosing the best solution doesn’t involve figuring out which choice has the most bells and whistles, but which ones have the features you need to be more effective and efficient at hiring.

If you’re not sure exactly what those features are at first, don’t worry – you’re not alone. It’s really hard to know precisely how a system can have the biggest immediate impact and recruiting ROI today, and almost impossible to predict which ones you’re going to need for hiring the top talent of tomorrow, too.

That’s why it’s imperative to choose the most flexible system possible; it should be obvious that the more configurable a recruiting solution is, the more you’ll be able to modify it as needed to meet your recruiting needs.

This goes way beyond simply being able to pick the color scheme on your computer screen, or having the ability to add a logo to the top of your job descriptions – true configurability means having a program which aligns with your existing processes and established procedures, while augmenting and enhancing capabilities like candidate search or customized reporting.

You shouldn’t have to change the way you recruit for any applicant tracking system; instead, the right ATS will have enough flexibility to work with what’s already working at your work – and making it work better.

Collaboration.

Recruiting is a team sport, and filling a req. generally involves input from multiple stakeholders and decision makers to finally arrive on a final candidate. Recruiting doesn’t sit in a silo, and neither should your recruiting software.

The right system will enable and enhance collaboration, providing tools such as ownership tracking (like marking who is “responsible” for a given candidate), personalized permissioning capabilities for data governance or end user access, and the ability to collect, collate and curate feedback on a candidate from multiple stakeholders and sources in a single, simple and searchable place.

Recruiting On The Go.

Most of us spend more time than we’d like to admit staring at our smartphones or other mobile devices, from personal stuff like playing games or texting friends to more professional uses like staying on top of industry news or catching up with email.

Beyond the obvious consumer applications of mobile devices, however, there are also a plethora of capabilities that having a mobile ATS can potentially unlock. Imagine being able to use your smart phone to submit candidates, review resumes, schedule interviews or post job descriptions. If you’re always recruiting, then you should always be able to have access to your recruiting system – no matter where in the world of work you happen to be working.

Better Living Through Automation.

There’s no kind of work worse than “busy work,” and if you’re a recruiter, that busywork probably involves all those highly manual time sucks that are boring, redundant, unrewarding and absolutely asinine. There’s only so many times you can cut and paste an outreach email…

The good news is, the best recruiting software allows you to automate the boring parts of your job like sending out targeted emails and follow ups, seamlessly coordinating prescreens or in person interviews or creating automated assessments for qualifying applicants, among a bunch of other lifesaving options.

Look, if you’re a recruiter, your time is limited, and you shouldn’t be spending it pushing paper, but closing candidates and building relationships, and high tech can never replace high touch. We’re all busy enough at work without “busywork.”

Get with the system and let your system handle it.

Customer Support.

Even the best designed products and most reliable software can sometimes lead to some sort of problem somewhere along the line; from implementation to configuration to operations, you’re likely going to have some sort of problem that’s going to require some sort of customer service or support.

Issues can range from problems like strange glitches in your custom coding to needing additional training or support on a certain feature you just can’t figure out how to use. Whenever these issues inevitably crop up, and whatever these issues may be, there’s no escaping the fact that you’re going to need some help with your software, sooner or later.

And when that moment comes, there’s nothing you’ll appreciate having more than the peace of mind that comes with having an ATS that comes with a customer support team that’s always there with the answers, information and insight you need, whenever you need it without charging a dime.

Because when it comes to recruiting ROI, that’s the bottom line.

RecruitingDaily would like to thank Exelare for sponsoring this post. You can follow Bryan on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.

SEO For Hustlers, eh hem Recruiters

I’m a Hustler Baby

It’s all about the Mckinley’s, (that’s the $500 bill), albeit discontinued in 1969 it’s still legal tender and worth 5 X that of your Benji. It’s old school yes, but legal and at the least pretty damn awesome to have one of those sitting in your pocket. It’s the Google of search, the Bing of photos and the cheese to a Philly Cheesesteak. Too much?

At heart, recruiters are hustlers. We are networking Gods with egos bigger than most peoples tax returns. We are a breed of old school with a new school flare that loves to hold a phone, push buttons and dial our way to profitability. In other words, sitting back with our feet up, waiting for leads to filter in through our amazing website isn’t much of an option. FOMAC sets in (Fear of missing a conversation), and for good reason, it’s our livelihood.

Passive Marketing Strategies Are Scary

Let us call it what it is. It’s scary to try new things. Failure is not for everyone. This isn’t a Gary Vaynerchuck or ET video where failure is the next success. I get it, failure breeds success but for the 98% of us that live the dream working for the corporate beast we don’t get the luxury to fail gloriously and call it a win.

Because FOMAC has ruled the world and everything in it (sing it), the skys the limit. You can push it in recruitment when it comes to implementing new strategies into your staffing business, large and small because, well, most organizations haven’t even begun the conversation.

The Process of Getting Traffic

SEO is not just 3 letters strung together to form a cool acronym. It has real value to your online footprint, to be honest, it’s what your missing to drive what can be an amazing amount targeted eyeballs to your content. SEO is not simple to master but if you can learn enough to be dangerous, as a recruiter, your pocketbook can recognize a significant bump over your earnings from last year.

There are thousands, literally, of ways that you can combine a number of efforts to increase your SEO value within your network of sites and there are many great articles available to that outline that process or contract types that you can bring into your organization. But for those that are resistant to considering the value and to those that say my audience is unique, here are a few key stats to consider.

Executive Search Firm: IT Sector

Suppose you are an executive search firm specializing in the IT sector. Popular belief is that most firms within this subset are nearly non-existent online. You, as well as I know that this is not the case. Most Grandparents, if not Great Grandparent are online at this point. But let’s not take innuendo as the new non-fake news.

Here are the 2 tools that we’ll look at:

Google Adwords
Keyword planner tool

We start our investigation by creating a Google AdWords account and loading the Keyword Planner tool (under the Tools menu option).

We enter “executive search IT” into the first section of the tool labeled “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category”. Google gives us a huge list of potential search terms we might want to target, some of which are relevant to our business.

After paring down the list, we end up with the following keywords:

executive IT recruiters
headhunter IT
headhunter IT management
recruitment IT
IT executive job search
IT executive jobs
IT executive recruiters
IT executive search
IT executive search firms
IT headhunters
IT job recruiters
IT management headhunters
IT management recruiters
IT management recruitment agencies
IT recruiting firms
IT recruitment
IT recruitment agencies
IT search firms

We take those terms and enter them into the second section of the Keyword Planner tool labeled “Get search volume using data and trends” and we immediately discover that there are around 15,750 searches per month for these keywords. That’s a pretty good volume for all of which we are not being found by people in our local area searching for content, service providers or jobs.

We also get a more granular look at which keywords provide the greatest opportunities so we know what to target.

4% Is Our Goal

And just like that, powered by the magic of blogging our content and SEO plan is fully baked and out of the SEO oven. Here are some great articles on how to do this in real time (it’s far from magic and close to hard)

Now that we’ve invested many hours in planning, content and execution we’ve made it to the front page of Google ranking on average in 6th position for most of the list above. According to Moz, when you rank in the sixth position for a Google search, you can expect to receive about 4% of the clicks for a given term.

Using simple arithmetic and the numbers above if this holds true we are going to see some sick traffic from our efforts.

15,750 searches

We can expect 630 site visitors per month from Google traffic (SEO not paid)

If we can work at industry average on conversion we should see a .5% conversion rate on traffic to clients

This will equal 3 new monthly clients for a turn rate of about 36 new clients per year.

Nuff’ said.

Zack Gallinger is the founder of a recruitment website design and marketing company, Talent Hero Media, that focuses exclusively on the recruiting and staffing industry. The company helps recruiters find new clients and place more candidates by building world-class websites that are optimized for search.

Connect with Zack on Twitter.

Get Emails From LinkedIn Profiles, Websites and Businesses: Snov.io

Sourcing Gets Personal

We’ve all been there -sourcing for an amazing backend developer that can code circles around 19 year old Mark Zuckerberg while eating ranch Doritos in his dorm room. We all know how to find developers (it’s our job as sourcers, ya know). As sourcers we learn the ins and outs of what “works” and what might land us in the hot seat with candidates. So, you thought that Spiderman reference really struck a chord with your candidate. You saw the meme he posted on his Facebook page, decided to relate to him about said character, and failed miserably. Been there. Nothing like being told to, “F – off” because you were trying to be cool. #SpideyFAIL

The Tools of The Trade

Whether you’re using Hiretual (awesome), Prophet (amazing) or Lusha (swoon) you can spend hours, maybe DAYS trying to find the “best” contact information for your lead. I’d recommend trying the 3 I just mentioned – because, we use them – and they work. I digress. Back to the playa at hand.

Snov.io – I pronounce it Snow – V – O. (Sounds good, right?) Anyhow, I love what I am seeing here for a number of reasons.

3 things I like about Snov.io:

1. The tool allows me to find leads on LinkedIn or any website that I visit. I can find contact and profile information from the LinkedIn search interface or on individual profiles.

2. Need Boolean? Snov.io does this as well. It’s basic but basic is good. Snov.io will help to create a basic Boolean search for sites like Google, Github and LinkedIn.

3. The Chrome extension is pretty slick. Similar to Hiretual, Prophet, Lusha and the 23k others out there – Snov.io will allow you to identify contact information for your leads. I can’t say how great or where improvements need to be made (yet) but it’s another tool to keep handy.

How Does Snov.io Work: In Action

Install Snovio chrome extension.
> Create your account at snov.io
> Go to LinkedIn or use the source search tool at app.snov.io and start building your targeted email lists or searching for prospects.
> Export contacts to your mailing software or CRM.

About our Author:

Dean Da Costa is best known for his work in the highly specialized secured clearance and mobile arenas, where he has been a top performing recruiter and sourcer. Dean’s keen insight and creation of innovative tools and processes for enhancing and changing staffing has established Dean as one of the top authorities in sourcing and recruiting.

Connect with Dean at LinkedIn or follow @DeanDaCosta on Twitter.

Inbound Marketing, Email Marketing and Ditching Your Desktop

Due to technical difficulties our original recording is currently unavailable. Stay tuned for a new recording coming soon!

It’s official…

I’ve been cleared – possibly for the lack of better judgement – to moderate my very first RecruitingLive this Friday. There are many topics that can be covered but I’ve decided to fall back on my heart and talk recruitment, email marketing and ditching your desktop.

Most of the presentations I’ve shared over the last couple of years have been sourcing related; top Boolean searches, building sourcing solutions, applying tech and automation to your process, etc. But, Friday I’ll be talking about a topic that is core to my drive each and everyday here at RecruitingDaily, conversion.

I’ll make this short and to the point. Register by completing the form on this page and I’ll be sure we get you the details for the event. If you are investing 30 minutes into 1 learning session this week, this is the one.

Here is what we will discuss in real examples, with real doers (ie. no professors will be presenting)

Inbound Marketing:

We’ll define inbound for what it really is as we share real example of real implementations, results and failures

Email Marketing:

I’m not talking about your constant contact email push. If you are using or considering using email as a way to engage leads, this is the section you’ll want to break your pen out for.

Ditching the desktop:

It’s 2017, need I say more? We won’t bore you with mobile recruiting jargon – rather we’ll talk about building your recruiting process for 2022 stacking your experience mobile first using real case studies to increase your lead generation and of course conversion.

And If We Have Time – Top Searches, Sourcing and Q&A

Regardless of what we speak about or what topic I’m presenting on I can never seem to get away from talking shop that is Sourcing. I say “If we have time” but I’ll be super surprised if we don’t make the time. We’ll talk Boolean, search, lead generation and volume based vetting.

I’ll be speaking with Britt Ryan, Head of Talent at Entelo. Although this RecruitingLive is not sponsored by Entelo, Britt is one bad-ass recruiter and marketer. It was easy to ask her to join – because well, she has amazing views that we want the community to hear.

About the Presenters:

Head of Recruiting, Mom, Ironman Finisher, Mountain Biker, Trail Runner, Adventurer, Bad Ass Cookie Baker. Highly effective global manager, team leader, and mentor. Britt has a reputation for developing teams who implement creative strategies that support business objectives and attract/retain talent.

Ryan helps create the processes, ideas and innovation that drives RecruitingDaily. He’s our in-house expert for anything related to sourcing, tools or technology. A lead generation and brand buzz building machine, he has built superior funnel systems for some of the industries top HR Tech and Recruitment brands. He is a veteran to the online community and a partner here at RecruitingDailly.

5 Tips To Manage The Human Candidate Experience

Back To Basics

With all the technology available in talent acquisition these days, it’s easy to overlook the human element of recruiting processes. Sometimes we need to go back to basics. Because, taking a step back and recognizing that we’re not all bots and that maybe we should play nice should be super easy, right?

There’s something refreshing about reading stories of candidates who were blessed with a truly outstanding recruiting experience. In my organization, we utilize a fascinating approach to measuring our candidate engagement. It’s a little process called Net Promoter Score – you might have heard of it. While reading some of the comments from candidates that our organization surveyed – I came away realizing that what candidates value most is the human interaction. Candidates thrive on follow up and follow through; think “The Golden Rule”.

Run the Google search “Recruiters Are” – you’ll notice a trend (and it ain’t pretty). Recruiters find people jobs – they love us, right?

A Takeover?

Seems like we (and me) are suffering from perception shock. As recruiters we’ve left our fair share of people…miffed. Whether it’s #SPAM or #FIGHTSPAM we need to be more engaged. We need to focus on building and growing respect from not just our candidates but our clients as well. Recruiting is and always will be about the human element. (Sorry not sorry, bots!)

Imagine for a second that everything was automated. Imagine going to a movie theater and the only human interactions are between the patrons. We’re all aware of the increased role of AI. Evermore increasing the are personal fears of letting these changes take place. Robots in every area of the business – I never thought I would see the day. It’s shocking that the reality of The Jetsons with an actual Rosie isn’t far from our grasp. Maid-esque robots in every area of our lives isn’t impossible – and soon it’ll be a part of the norm.

Some say that the human part of recruiting is a “middle man” function. This function, like the dinosaurs, may soon be extinct. All the negative commentary about recruiters makes extinction seem inevitable – right?

Well, as far as anyone can tell, recruiters haven’t been wiped out by meteors just yet. Sure, there’s increasing options in new sourcing tools and AI options. What I see happening is akin to a load balancing outcome, where supply and demand factors will drive the need for a balance between humans and AI. The human element of recruiting is safe – for now.

5 Tips for Human Recruiters:

1. Be genuine and show your candidates the value of the role. There is no email-in-a-can that you can pop open and use to make yourself and the position sound interesting. Be yourself. Maybe, put yourself into the shoes of your candidate and think, “What would make ME want this job?” An automated email might not be your best bet for certain roles. Are your communication efforts in line with your hiring manager? Discuss what YOU can do to stand out so not only does your candidate know that you’re human, they know they want the job as well.

2. Embrace Diversity. Duh. One of the most effective recruiting methods today is getting in front of relevant talent pools. When organizations make a pro-active approach to increase representation from key groups while aligning that to qualifications – eliminating even unconscious bias – the very “human” act of closing a qualified top candidate takes on new meanings.

“People are fascinated by robots because they’re machines that can mimic life.”

-Colin Angle

3. People Are Not Widgets OR Parts – Treat Them With Respect: Some recruiters approach their staffing endeavor in an almost machine-like manner. This is unfortunate as some of the perception points listed per the Google search “Recruiters Are” could be overcome with a focused approach to reach out to different communities. Add value to your conversations. Listen to your candidates, empathize with their needs and allow them to make informed decisions. If you have passive candidates to consider try to remember birthdays, anniversary dates, etc. The more relationship building approaches you use, the more your personal (and your organization’s) brand will be realized and maintained.

4. Feedback is key. Editing resumes, providing interview feedback, communicating dress code details and more are ways to ensure the best candidate experience. So, unless you’re hiring psychics, your candidates might not be able to read your mind when it comes to the hiring process.

5. Use your company’s STARS. Nothing shows your human culture more than a genuine and heart-warming message from a Senior Executive. Find a representative to explain your company’s culture and driving accomplishments. Personifying a human approach that captures the strengths of your company’s accomplishments is key.

You can’t avoid the future.

Technology will continue to advance and we will continue to depend on it. Let the humanity of your organization push past the barriers of bots and AI. Through the leadership of your top “C” suite executives you can more easily represent your organization’s uniform message and strategy of hiring key talent. The mantra will then be your company finding new avenues to explore and new opportunities to strengthen your brand. With scores of Baby Boomers set to soon retire, the approach to attract and retain talent will change. When a pending labor shortage emerges hopefully your organization can stay “human” and still stand out in the market.

Mike Rasmussen, PHR, SHRM-CP is a Talent Acquisition Business Partner with ADP. He currently works out of his home office in Utah and is a full life cycle recruiter at ADP. Mike has a passion for Staffing/Recruiting and Sourcing and in his career has helped hire nearly 1000+ professionals in a wide variety of roles from Executive, Technical, Operations, etc. Today Mike supports Talent Acquisition efforts at ADP in several key Western States. A contributor to Recruiting Blogs, Mike has been writing regarding Talent Acquisition topics for nearly 8 years. Connect with Mike via Twitter @MikeRADP.

The Five: Reasons Your Candidates are Rejecting Your Offer

You work for a great company. The hiring manager is a great person and manages a great team. So why are candidates rejecting your offer? Trust me it is not them it is you. As a sourcer and recruiter, part of the job of finding candidates is seeking candidates that are going to stick. In this week’s “The Five,” we take a look as to why candidates are rejecting your offers and what you can do to prevent it from happening to you.

You Took Too Long to Make an Offer.

This is a killer. Have you heard the saying, “Time kills deals?” This is not just true of sales deals; it happens in recruiting too. As a guess, it would seem that everyday past the interview a candidate’s interest in the position you are offering falls 5%. This falls into the candidate experience category. If you make a candidate jump through hoops, count on them to just keep jumping until they find an employer with no hoops. To alleviate this, make sure to set the expectation from the beginning. Let them know when they can expect to hear back from you. Stay in conversation with them on a regular basis and take the time to measure their interest. IF it seems like interest is waning, tell the hiring manager as soon as possible, and start looking for another “perfect” candidate.

The Compensation is too Low.

Congratulations! You have found the perfect candidate, and they are interested. Of course, they want to know about the salary range. It is between $65K – $85K. The candidate says, “Great. Set up the interview.” Everything seems to be going well. Everyone one likes each other. It is a great skill and culture fit, and the hiring manager wants to move forward. When you call the candidate to make the offer at $65K, the candidate is insulted and rejects the offer. Why? Because although the range you gave was accurate, the hiring manager was really thinking $65K and the candidate heard $85K. To fix this, at the end of every conversation, (and I mean EVRY conversation) ask the candidate, “If you decide that this is a perfect job for you and the hiring manager offered you this job that starts at $65K, would you accept it?”

Maybe at the beginning of the interview process $65K seemed reasonable but after interviewing and finding out what the job entails, $65K seems out of the range. It happens, right? So as they interview they are thinking, I would take it at $75K, but there is no way I would do it for $65K. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, at the end of every conversation, (and I mean EVERY conversation) ask the candidate, “If you decide that this is a perfect job for you and the hiring manager offered you this job that starts at $65K, would you accept it?” Also, get the hiring manager to narrow the range. Even though they can pay up to $85K, are they really looking for candidates in the $70K – $75K range? Trust us; they know the answer to this question. Whatever the case, don’t be the last one to know. Ever.

They Received a Counter Offer.

It makes sense that if you are recruiting a top candidate that the company they currently work for does not want to lose them. I will go so far as to say that if a candidate doesn’t receive a counter offer, you should be concerned. To avoid this, you should learn what the candidate’s primary motivator to make the change is. If a candidate is money motivated, know that you will lose the candidate if they receive a counter offer. If you hire a money motivated candidate, start looking for their replacement because it also means that if they get a new opportunity to make even more money, they will leave your company behind.

Company Reputation.

Your candidate is going to be researching what people think about your company. Make sure that you are aware of your company’s reputation and address this in the beginning. If the company’s reputation online is wrong, make sure that you work on employer branding by getting testimonials from existing employees. Offer to let them talk to current employees that they will be working with. If your company sucks, let them know. All of these things are relative. One person’s shitty work experience is another person’s perfect job opportunity.

You Don’t Know Your Candidates Motivators.

While at a gigantic staffing firm, I had the reputation for never losing a candidate. That was because I never made an offer to a candidate who was going to reject the offer. For example, if a candidate hates their job because of their long commute and your position is the same length or longer, they are going to eventually realize this and reject your offer. If your candidate wants more work-life balance, and your company does not offer flexibility, the candidate is going to dismiss the offer. Remember, the perfect candidate is the one that not only has the skills necessary, they are also the one that loves what your company has to offer. Take the time to empathize with what your candidate and don’t try to fit square pegs into round holes.

The Week That Was 5.12.17: Talent Sonar, Gig Economy, Mya, True People Search,

Every Friday in case you missed it, “The Week That Was” is your recruiting rundown. All you need to know about anything that matters is new in recruiting. We go out to the interwebs and gather interesting and insightful recruiting news we will interest you. This week we can own the world in San Francisco, Talent Sonar is the new Unitive, the Gig Economy is real, your agency is not as good as you may think and Mya is getting paper.

Word of the Week:

Workacation – Taking a vacation in order to get work done in an atmosphere of undisturbed awesomeness.

Tweet of the Week:

Just compared myself to cotton candy in a job interview in case you're wondering where my confidence level is today

— ~ ♥️ efficacious ♥️ ~ (@hergoodness) May 10, 2017

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The Software Formally Known as Unitive: Talent Sonar

From Founder and CEO, Laura Mather:
A few months ago, we acquired Talent Sonar and its machine learning technology for anonymized resume review. You know this feature well if you’ve used Unitive recently. As you know, our hiring software focuses on five hiring best practices. They are: prioritized job requirements, inclusive job descriptions, anonymized resume review, structured interviews, and data-driven hiring. These help you find the right fit for your company from a broader, more qualified talent pool. A few months ago, we acquired Talent Sonar and its machine learning technology to strengthen and improve our anonymized resume review.

Ultimately, we realized that Talent Sonar was a better description of the services we offer. It also signaled a key component of our new mission. We innovate and operationalize the best in new technological solutions to address today’s hiring challenges. Our name change is a re-commitment to investing in the power of technology to build exceptional teams.

Read their full transition story here.

Gig Economy: Yah or Nah?

‘Gig Economy‘ is a buzzword that just won’t die. But is it a real thing? This New Yorker article by Contributor Nathan Heller does a great job of describing what is up with the gig economy and what it means to Americans.

“The American workplace is both a seat of national identity and a site of chronic upheaval and shame. The industry that drove America’s rise in the nineteenth century was often inhumane. The twentieth-century corrective—a corporate workplace of rules, hierarchies, collective bargaining, triplicate forms—brought its own unfairnesses. Gigging reflects the endlessly personalizable values of our own era, but its social effects, untried by time, remain uncertain.”

Click here to read the article in its entirety. Let me warn you – it is a loooooooonnnnggggg one.

You’re a good recruitment agency. Right?

It took all but two replies to that statement to set people off on how much they dislike recruiters. “Recruiters are like used car salesman but for people,” said one contributor. We work with recruiters every day. We come from a recruiting background. We like recruiters. So you can imagine this was a bit startling.

We continued to read, however, and what followed were a lot of complaints about recruiting practices that we nor our clients would ever encourage or enact. But that doesn’t change perspective. Rather it is up to us to show people we are an ethical and good recruitment agency. Here are a few things we know you do, but we want to make sure you’re making your clients and candidates aware that you are a good recruitment agency. Read the complete RecruitingBlogs Article written by Adam Appleton by clicking here.

Mya is Getting Cabbage

Mya, AI Recruiting software that we first introduced to you in August of last year, just got $11.4 million. Emergence Capital was the lone investor in the round for this developer of a recruiter chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to automate outreach to job candidates.

“Our financing and new focus significantly increase our momentum and ideally position Mya Systems to grow and solidify our strong leadership position in the recruiting arena,” said Mya Systems CEO and Co-founder Eyal Grayevsky. “Our proprietary natural language technology is in production and scaling rapidly with our existing customers. We’re on pace to process 2M candidates by year end and the data from those conversations will help fuel Mya’s ability to learn and become a more effective recruiter.” Check out Mya by clicking here.

Where Dey At Doe?

Still trying to find info on candidates? Watch Dean Da Costa as he uses “True People Search.” Click here to try for yourself!

May the Source Be With You, Social Sourcing That Is

By Mike Wolford

We have all seen the numbers. Facebook has nearly two billion unique monthly visitors. There were over 200 billion tweets in 2016. Six-hundred million people use Instagram a monthly basis. Let us not forget Snap Chat, YouTube or Twitter. The sourcer in you can’t help but be entranced by such large databases full of people that you may not be able to find on LinkedIn, or CareerBuilder, or even with the most advanced Boolean search string on Google! So well intentioned we begin to explore the depths of the social media with the mindset that we are looking at an untapped resume database. The statistics from SourceCon’s 2016 state of sourcing survey are telling.

So about 50 percent of recruiters and sourcers are using Twitter and Facebook to recruit, but this begs the question, what type of results are they seeing from their efforts.

Over 80 percent of recruiters reported ZERO hires in the last 12 months from Facebook or Twitter, the giants of “Social Media Recruiting.” So why do we invest so much into a source that gives us nothing in return? Why do we read so many articles about social media recruiting, and why do we list that we use Facebook and Twitter to recruit on our own resumes? What is the problem, and where is the disconnect?

I don’t believe there is any one answer, but I will try to explain where I see people fall down in my role as a Sourcing Manager. The first reason is we don’t know how to search them properly. It is easy to understand why. Facebook and Twitter were co-opted by recruiters, but not specifically created for recruiters. Twitter does not organize profiles by job title. Many Twitter profiles have no career information at all. The same is true of Facebook.

I believe the first reason we fail on our searches on Twitter and Facebook is we think of them as just another candidate database. The problem is, they aren’t candidate databases, and few people include information about their professional life. So how can you find someone who doesn’t mention what they do?

But now let’s consider them individually. First Twitter, then Facebook. The first thing you need to learn if you intend to recruit using Twitter is to understand how to search Twitter. I won’t dive into it here, but I will refer you to a great article by Glen Cathey that explains how to search Twitter for active candidates.

Here is how I would approach hiring people using Twitter. First, it is my opinion that Twitter is much better suited for employer branding than it is recruiting. For example, An employer branding Twitter account is capable of continuity that a recruiter’s Twitter is simply not capable of. A company can deploy a long term strategy to use Twitter for employer branding, but for a recruiter, it is often the immediacy of the role that drives the activity. So consistency and content in the message are important to build and engage and audience to be truly effective. There is an old saying that applies here, “if you only have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” Now if you want to use Twitter as a source then there is something besides learning how to search it that you need to do.

That leads me to the second, and to me the most important, the reason you don’t have hires from Twitter. It is simple. You don’t participate in that community on a regular basis. Look at your Twitter. Do you have your picture, or is there an egg staring back at you? Does your profile contain any nonprofessional information about you? What about your tweets? Do you have 20 tweets in a row that are nothing more than links to job postings? Do you tweet about anything besides recruiting?

Would someone who didn’t know you be able to tell that your Twitter was run by something other than an automated job posting service?

Next how many followers do you have? Followers provide credibility when someone who doesn’t know you views your profile. If you want to build a following I suggest using Hootsuite. It can manage your Twitter for you, it can automate some of your tweets and keep you informed about topics that you find interesting. There is a free and paid version so it is sure to fit within any budget. Automating some of your tweets will help you be more constant and consistency is the way to build a following. If thousands of people are following you it lends you credibility. Also, is what you are tweeting impactful? To engage the candidate you should provide consent that speaks to the impact they can make, or how it can impact them. So, ask yourself an honest question. Would I respond to a tweet from my own profile? If the answer is no, then you know why you don’t succeed with Twitter. That doesn’t mean you can’t succeed, but it means that unless you change your ways, you will not be able to tap Twitter successfully as a source of candidates.

Now let us consider Facebook. Again, there is probably a skills gap here. So the first thing I recommend is using a tool designed to search Facebook. About a year ago one of our Hudson partners, Social Talent, launched a tool that will help you search Facebook, and the best part is its free! I’ve included the link here. This tool will help, but to me, the core issue isn’t the tool, it is the method.

Are you part of any groups on Facebook where the people you want to hire talk about their work? Do you share information or thoughts with that community that they might find useful, interesting or even funny?

Now I know that in the minds of many of you reading there is a line between your personal life and your professional one, and Facebook feels decidedly personal. When it comes time to connect and send a message over messenger, do you hesitate? If in your mind you believe by contacting someone on Facebook you are crossing that line, then maybe social recruiting isn’t for you. Truth be told this is the thing, “There is no spoon, Neo.” In other words, the line you imagine in your head isn’t a physical reality, what we do is a part of who we are. Twitter and Facebook exist on the internet and by very definition are public. The fact that Facebook and Twitter allow you to contact and try to connect with people you don’t know is, in fact, the reason they exist and succeed as social networks!

Consider this, you are a professional recruiter trying to find candidates on Facebook, but you refuse to message them on the platform. To quote Archer, “this is like O. Henry and Alanis Morissette had a baby and named it this exact situation.”

I believe the problem goes even deeper than just feeling like you are crossing a line. I think deep down you don’t totally believe in the good you could be doing. You aren’t confident enough in your message and the value you can offer someone in order to put your personal reputation on the line. If a credible person told you they would give a million dollars to you and another person under the condition that the second person is a complete stranger that you met on Facebook, I doubt you would see a line at all.

You aren’t confident enough in your message and the value you can offer someone in order to put your personal reputation on the line.

It is difficult to put your personal reputation on the line for something you do not totally believe in. So ask yourself, do you really believe in the value of the work you are doing? Or, maybe it is the value in the role you are recruiting for? It is my opinion that we get so caught up in the day-to-day operations of what we do that we forget about the value that we can bring into a total stranger’s life. They say opportunity only knocks once. When you contact someone with a potential job that could literally change the course of their career and by extension their life, in that instant your name becomes an opportunity. Is that something you believe? In numerous surveys between 80 to 90 percent of people said they would be open to hearing about a career opportunity that was relevant. There is a tremendous opportunity for those that understand the power of that statement.

Like any good recruiting article, I end with a Star Wars analogy. In the movie, The Empire Strikes Back, the hero, Jedi in training, Luke Skywalker has his x-wing space ship sink into the deep mud of a swampy lake. Instead of getting a crane, his instructor Yoda tells him to use the Force. (The mystical power that binds the universe together, according to the film)

Using the Force, Luke fails to lift his ship from the mud. Seeing that Luke feels the task is impossible, the Jedi Master Yoda creates a wonderful teaching moment. Demonstrating the power of the Force, Yoda lifts the space ship from the mud and puts it back onto solid ground.

Upon seeing Yoda use the power of the Force to lift a sunken ship into the air and place it again on solid ground, a bewildered Luke says, “I… I don’t believe it.” Luke did not know the power of the Force just like you do not know the power of being social. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms are not resume databases. If you are not being genuine, consistent and social while recruiting from social media, I will tell you the same thing that Yoda tells Luke:

Mike Wolford has over 10 years of recruiting experience in a staffing agency, contract and in-house corporate environments. He has worked with such companies as Allstate, Capital One, and National Public Radio. Mike also published a book titled “Becoming the Silver Bullet: Recruiting Strategies for connecting with Top Talent” and “How to Find and Land your Dream Job: Insider tips from a Recruiter.” He also founded Recruit Tampa, and currently serves as the Sourcing Manager at Hudson RPO. An active member of the Recruiting community, Mike has spoken publicly in an effort to help elevate the level of professional skill in the industry. Follow Mike on Twitter @Mike1178 or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Career Lessons from Entitled Millennial Snowflakes.

Millennials suffer a lot of criticism. By now, we’re all familiar with the stereotypes: they are lazy, they’re entitled, they constantly need to be told how special they are. We’ve heard them all too often over the past few years, and Generation Y has certainly had their fill when it comes to tired, negative generalizations.

Rather than regarding them all with derision, it is perhaps more prudent to really examine the qualities of an average millennial. Consider their outlook on life, their approach to career development, and question: what can we all learn from this generation? Perhaps we can take a step further to assess to whether ‘millennial’ is, in fact, a demographic, or whether it is simply a state of mind?

I have personally been hiring, onboarding and coaching millennials over the past few years and here are the valuable lessons I have learned from this young group of people.

Millennials prioritize development above immediate success

Contrary to popular opinion, millennials do not expect success to be handed to them on a silver platter. Nor do they want this. More than any other generation, development is something millennials not only value but actively seek in a career opportunity. They are constantly looking for skills and strengths they can improve upon.

According to a Gallup poll, 87% of millennials claim development is a crucial part of any job. Their desire for self-improvement doesn’t just end with marketable skills; they’re constantly looking for ways to improve their lives. This demonstrates a genuine thirst for knowledge that would serve us all well and make us more content, rounded employees, managers, and leaders.

Millennials are intrinsically motivated

Millennials don’t just work for a paycheck. They want to be part of a larger team. They sincerely want to work for companies that match with their personal set of values, and they want their contributions to mean something. In fact, according to a Deloitte study, millennials would be ready to leave a company if they were asked to do work that went against their personal ethics. This strong sense of morality and authenticity are things that create powerful, meaningful company cultures and ultimately spell business success.

Millennials know the value of authentic communication and feedback

Millennials largely grew up in an era of digital communication. It is their second nature. They’re accustomed to real-time communication and feedback. This has changed the way we work and has challenged some major HR processes we’ve used for decades. Millennials want a relationship with their manager, so more and more companies replace annual performance reviews with regular feedback sessions, which allows for more fluid conversation. It also facilitates the exchange of real-time feedback which, despite what you may have heard, millennials are eager to take on board. They are aware that they need constructive criticism in order to improve their existing skills and they regularly seek it out.

Millennials aren’t afraid to take a chance on a career transition

Millennials have a strong reputation for job hopping, but rather than looking on this unfavorably, we should respect their willingness to take calculated risks. Instead of simply remaining in a situation that isn’t right for them, or stagnating in a comfort zone that isn’t offering them any challenge, they embrace the power of career agility. They have the courage to explore the benefits that accompany career transitions. They are cognisant that careers are not necessarily linear paths anymore. Opportunities for improvement might come from an unexpected source or might require a slide down the corporate ladder. For millennials, this is completely acceptable as, in many cases, they don’t care about job titles. They want to develop experience, learn and grow along the way.

Millennials are accountable and positive

More than 77% of this generation believe they have firm control over their career steps. They’re independent and they have an enviable ability to see the silver lining around every cloud. They dream big and they chase their ambitions, determined to turn their dreams into reality. These are qualities that every single leader needs in spades.

In order to compete and succeed in this dynamic business environment, rather than echoing predictable jokes at the expense of millennials, we would be better served turning to them for serious development lessons. In so many ways, regardless of age, we could all exude the millennial spirit.

About the Author: Ida Banek is a senior HR leader with 20 years of experience in HR. Ida has strong expertise in strategic talent management, with a particular passion for developing young talent. Ida’s company, GRIT International, helps global companies and eager individuals take control of their own careers.

The Dark Side of Being a Leader: Accountability

I have a very specific memory from when I was in my final interviews at Grubhub, my last job before I went on to found WeFind.

The final interviewer asked me what I wanted out of the role, and as the eager candidate that I was, I gave a long-winded answer about how I desired more “responsibility.” The interviewer looked at me and said, “This is great, but with responsibility comes accountability.”

Everyone wants responsibility — to be in charge of a department, founder of a company — but fewer people want accountability. That’s because accountability means that when something goes wrong, it’s your name and reputation that are on the line.

Back at the time of the job interview when I heard that answer, I smiled and said, “Yes, of course, I can handle this.” But, I don’t think I really understood what I was saying yes to. In fact, I think it was impossible for me to understand because before then, I hadn’t really been in a high-pressure leadership situation.

It wasn’t until I was at Grubhub that I REALLY understood what accountability meant.

My first true experience at being accountable

As I think back, it was the end of my second year at Grubhub and I had just shifted from internal strategy to a role in product marketing. At that time there was no one else in Product Marketing. It was just me. I didn’t report to a manager, I reported directly to our Chief Marketing Officer.

After a few months, there was a delay in a key feature that our marketing team wanted. For anyone in a tech organization, you know this is a common occurrence. Development is hard to estimate, things inevitably get delayed, and it was my job to manage stakeholders so there were no surprises when something that was supposed to happen didn’t happen.

Well, this time I messed up. I didn’t manage the communication channels very well, and as a result, I ended up in a meeting with my boss having to explain why this feature probably wasn’t going to be launched anytime soon. I won’t elaborate on the details, but it went something like this:

The meeting was so bad that I started hyperventilating in the room. I got to a point where I couldn’t even speak anymore, but luckily, the meeting was over video chat so I just decided to close the laptop and leave the discussion for another day.

It was embarrassing, but it taught me a really valuable lesson that I remember today here at WeFind.

You must embrace both sides of being a leader

There are two sides to being a leader:

Building something great; and,
Persevering when something goes wrong.

At GrubHub, you had to persevere when a feature was not being delivered on time. At WeFind, it’s when you have a bad investor meeting, or a feature breaks on the site the very moment we sent it out to a potential customer (yes, both have happened).

Sometimes, it’s impossible to prevent these things from happening. Yes, there are mistakes that you can minimize and learn from, but if you truly want to be great you need to know that bad things will always happen because you are constantly pushing the limits of what’s possible.

In today’s world, we glorify leaders who defy what’s possible, whether it is Steve Jobs at Apple or Elon Musk at SpaceX and Tesla. On the flip side, we roast leaders when they fail, such as Marissa Mayer at Yahoo. Leaders have to embrace both sides of their job and recognize that they will have to persevere through their failures in order to achieve something great.

Take Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, as an example. For those not deeply familiar with her, Marissa took over as CEO of Yahoo more than four years ago in an effort to turn around the famous brand that was losing the search wars against Google.

By most accounts, her stint at Yahoo has been a failure. She was not able to turn the growth of the brand around, and even though she was able to successfully sell the company to Verizon, Yahoo recently experienced a huge data breach that threatened the deal.

Building something great vs. being accountable

It’s easy to call Marissa Mayer a failed leader, but, imagine if she was successful. Imagine if Yahoo had accelerated growth under her leadership and was able to regain search market share against Google. If that had happened, she would have been touted as one of the greatest leaders of our generations for taking an iconic brand and bringing it back to its former glory.

Yes, the story went the other way, but the person is still the same.

Marissa Mayer experienced a number of failures during her time at Yahoo and had to deal with the accountability side of leadership probably more than she would have liked to. For Yahoo, it was simply too much for them to recover from. However, as you think about other leaders experiencing hardships today, whether it is Travis Kalanick at Uber or Jack Dorsey at Twitter, perhaps they CAN persevere and go on to build even stronger companies than what they led before.

As you think about yourself as a leader, about the leaders on your team, or about the leaders you are looking to hire, ask yourself: How much are you focused on the ability to build something great, and how much are you focused on the ability to be accountable? When things go wrong, who can manage the dark side of leadership? Who can truly persevere?

In other words, who will live to fight another day?

About the Author:

David Sokolow is the Founder and CEO of WeFind, a talent acquisition technology company based in Tel Aviv.

He helps companies get a competitive advantage in the quest for great talent by opening a new channel for them: their user base. He has nearly a decade of experience in talent, digital and business strategy.

For more information on WeFind or to get in touch with David, e-mail [email protected] or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Less Conversation, More Action: Today’s Recruitment Marketing

What do you use for Recruitment Marketing? Video! Podcasts! Just-in-time recruiting content! Candidate experience! Job descriptions written for people by people! Analytics! Big data! Remarketing campaigns! Alexa and Siri! Programmatic advertising!! Branded content!! Social advocacy!!! Google Freakin’ Glass!!!!!!!

Hyperventilating – good lord, I am hyperventilating.

At some point in the last three years, I have been told by various people that each one of these ideas or tactics was the most important and impactful thing one could apply to their recruiting processes. These were no raving loons. At least they were mentally competent, vaguely intelligent and were wearing decent shoes. However, each one of these had discovered the magic bullet.

Recruiting FOMO

Today, I spoke to someone who was interested in learning more about companies implementing artificial intelligence to make sourcing more efficient. This was a company who could not attribute candidate sources with any kind of accuracy and confidence, and yet they were trying to leapfrog to a great future sci-fi future.

Maybe, everyone is looking for the big sexy idea that makes headlines to suggest that they are at the forefront of recruiting, that they are the cool ones and the rest of us are chumps. However, the breathless pronouncements that this or that thing, idea or technology is the magic bullet is getting tiresome. Moreover, they set expectations that no one can actually meet.

My guess is that these people and companies are feeling like they are behind the curve, that the world is passing them by. The see the video for the flying lake car, the sheep gestated in a plastic bag (the video is… intense, so be forewarned), Mark Zuckerberg telling people they will be typing with their brain. Moreover, they look around them to technology that feels… what’s worse that outdated? Archaic? Antediluvian?

The Wonder Years

Yes, the future might be amazing, but it is not really here. As a matter of fact, it is not ever really here. It emerges slowly, nudging away the old at first at glacial speed until it seems everywhere. Remember email? It did not magically appear on our desks one day. For years most of us had better email and internet connections at home via phone modems and AOL than we had at work. Years. We saw the commercials and magazine articles about an amazing emailed-enabled future and looked down at having to move files between computers via floppy disks (the “sneaker-net” as we walked the file from one machine to another).

Consequently, the email did not change everything overnight. Once we got the darn thing installed, we were expected to check it once or twice a day. Then again at lunch. Fifteen years later, we read books telling us to manage our time by disabling our email notifications across a series of devices. It was a path to get from “cool future” to “huh, neat” to “oh god, more?”

The End of the World as We Know it.

This is how the future arrives, not packaged up in a bow, but in sad and weird fits and starts. The fact is, we could not have jumped from the beginning to the end if we wanted to. Which is what we want. We want to take the lessons of a Target or Amazon and apply them to our business, forgetting all the steps Target and Apple had to take to get here. Moreover, I guarantee, they complain as much as you do about their technology and process.

So what now?

Let’s stop pretending that our magic wand is back-ordered and get to doing smarter better work right now. To that end, here is a list of things you need to get good at now before you can play out your science fiction recruiting fantasies:

Email/InMail: No more form messages. Every message personalized (and by that I mean written for a person, not with the part that says Dear [name]) needs to be written for the person and request. The fact that spamming people is easy should indicate how useful it really is.
Content: Regardless of channel or form (go ahead, tell me that text is dead while you are reading this article. I dare you), they goal is not to flood the market with a message, but to have a message worth hearing. Don’t invest in Snapchat and 360 video until you know what story you are telling and why anyone would ever want to read it.
Mobile: Stop it. Everyone has a phone. Everyone lives on their phone. They look at it in the bathroom, while watching TV, and while waiting for some other thing to happen. We are a far more mobile world than not, so mobile can’t be an after-thought. It has to be the first thought. In many cases, it should be the only thought.

But Wait There’s More!

Application Process: Find someone amazing? Ask for their resume. Everything you need is there. Don’t demand they run through your application process because “that is policy.” You have what need to start the consideration and evaluation process, so treat them like a person, not some raw material to be processed by your ATS.
Job Titles: I have no idea what an SDE L2 is. However, you are trying to hire four of them. Best of luck.
Refusing to See: There are companies who make a lot of money telling you why people do not like working for you, what issues you have, and how things see from their perspective. If you refuse to look at that and take it seriously if you are not willing to make changes based on that feedback, do you think a chatbot is going to turn things around?

The Future is not Magic

Recruitment Marketing Consequently, the future is coming (as it always is), but it is not a panacea. It is not magic. You need to focus on what’s right in front go you. Get good at the basics before you expect to fly new prospects in on jetpacks. For every crazy dunk, LeBron James practices a hundred simple layups. The fact is, he has to nail down the basics before he can think about the amazing stuff.

In conclusion, focus on the hard work, the million little steps every candidate makes through the process. That is what really differentiates a company from its competition. Cool ideas make headlines, but well-considered and properly-executed recruiting gets the hire.

About our Author:

James Ellis currently runs The Talent Cast podcast (found on iTunes, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts) where he can be found doing deep dives all all things employer brand and recruitment marketing.. Previously, James has spent the last three years helping companies get serious about the recruiting content and inbound recruiting strategies. James currently lives in Chicago, where he hosts the Talent Cast podcast, and spends his time partnering with Fortune 1000 clients to develop recruitment marketing, digital and content strategies to find and attract the best talent.

The Five: Tips for Working with Hiring Managers

A few weeks ago I was listening to a recruiting webinar, and the speaker said the funniest thing. Verbatim: “when I finally had enough experience to push back on hiring managers…” When you finally had enough experience to push back?? Enough experience? You’re in recruiting. We are partners with our hiring managers. We have a seat at the table.

Put down the pitchforks- it’s a vast generalization and personally my thoughts on where we need to get to if you’re not already feeling like you are a partner. Otherwise, you’ll get nowhere because they won’t believe in your work, maybe more on that later. To make a long story short, I think it is our job to push back on hiring managers, appropriately, of course.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about how difficult it was for me to get into the recruiting industry. Maybe I’ll write another article about how difficult it was for me to get into corporate recruiting because I didn’t have “experience working with hiring managers.” OK. … I took the feedback from the 20+ interviews like a grain of salt and now, it’s “one of my strengths.”

But doesn’t it all just come down to communication? If you think about it, communication is the root of most problems. When you figure out how to communicate and truly have that seat at the table with your hiring managers your job will be much easier. I decided to make a short list of 5 ways to work with hiring managers because the managers probably have just as little time to work with you as you do to read this article.

1. Know That The Strategy (Intake) Meetings is Your First Step, Not Your Last.

Ask questions about why there is a new position open. Figure out the “why” behind the bullet points on the job description. If you’re familiar with the labor market data in the first meeting, share those sentiments. IE: demographics, unemployment rate, cost of living, etc. Don’t claim to be an expert if you’re not sure. If you’re hiring for a new role, take the information and come back to the next meeting with the relevant data about the marketplace.

2. Let Them Write the Job Description

By them directly dictating what they are putting out publically on your company’s career page, they’ll have a vested interest to make sure they aren’t just throwing words on a page. It will also get them to think very clearly about what they are looking for in their next hire.

3. Take a Seat at the Table

In some companies, recruiters don’t sit with their client groups. If that’s the case, sit with the team and observe how they work, what their day to day is, and how the team communicates with each other. It’ll help you answer the appropriate questions from candidates without having to bug your hiring manager too much for more details.

4. Do Live Searches in Strategy Meetings

Show your hiring manager how you work. I know we’re called sourcers because we create magic, but let’s be real – most people have no clue how we find people. Show them how you would perform a search, like how to write boolean strings. I’d say do this in the 2nd strategy meeting after you’ve done your research on how the market is. Especially when you feel like your hiring manager is a little confused as to what they need from their next hire.

5. Bring Data To Every Meeting

First, figure out what data the hiring manager needs to know. Talent Mapping? Current Pipeline? Labor Market Trends? Now you’ve shown how you work; it’s time to bring the specific numbers each time. It’s also why I said don’t bring data to the first conversation. You need to know what you’re looking for before pushing numbers towards your HM. Some examples of data I bring is: how many candidates in the pipeline, how many people in interviews, or time to hire if we hired this role previously.

Overall, recruiters should be empowered to push back on their hiring managers appropriately. By following the above tips, you’ll find that you can develop the relationship better and showcase your worth as a partner. When it’s time to push back, you’ve shown that your words are backed up with your research and data.

Happy Hiring!

About the Author:

Allison Mackay is currently responsible for Infrastructure Data Center Recruiting at Facebook. Her current team manages hiring for the Facebook team responsible for design center site selection strategy, infrastructure design and creation, the operation of data centers, servers, and network hardware, and managing Facebook’s standards compliance and sustainability programs across Facebook’s data center sites.

Alison began her career in retail management, where she was first introduced to retail campus recruiting. After realizing her heart belonged to talent acquisition, she began her career in recruiting, starting off at two separate boutique agencies focused exclusively on technical recruiting before moving to her current in-house role at Facebook.

A graduate of San Jose State University, Alison is also the co-founder of the Silicon Valley Recruiters Association.

Follow Alison on Twitter at @am_recruiter_sv or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Recruitment Marketing Report Card: Fortune 500

Join us for this amazing expert panel as we discuss Recruitment Marketing Report Card featuring 5 amazing leaders at the worlds largest companies.

To gain a competitive advantage in today’s candidate-led job market, leading companies are investing in a cutting-edge recruiting strategy: Recruitment Marketing. In a new research report, SmashFly Technologies found that 34% of the Fortune 500 are using Recruitment Marketing practices and technology to attract and hire top talent ahead of their competition to ensure business growth.

The second annual SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Report Card analyzes the career websites, social channels, lead generation and talent nurture efforts of the 2016 Fortune 500 to understand their adoption of Recruitment Marketing practices and technology. Recruitment Marketing leverages the latest digital marketing tactics such as search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, social media and mobile friendly web experiences to find, attract, engage and nurture candidates to become new hires. Technology such as a Recruitment Marketing Platform enables talent acquisition teams to automate, manage and measure the success of all recruiting tactics, strategies and programs from one centralized system.

What strategies make the grade when it comes to recruitment marketing? Learn what worked, what didn’t and the lessons everyone should know about in this live Q&A with senior recruiting leaders executing best in class recruitment marketing programs today.

Beyond The Heap – Finding the Treasure in Technical Recruiting

Constant growth in IT hiring presents many challenges to employers. The most sought after IT pros pick and choose between multiple offers. Hiring managers expect recruiters to shortlist prospective hires with qualifications exactly matching job requirements. It can get messy.

Have you ever lost something expensive in the…trash? You had that diamond ring in your hands and it just slipped right out of your fingers – much like a great candidate slipping away because the hiring technology you were using was not a great match for you, as the recruiter. How can you match an ideal candidate to a position if the tech you’re using doesn’t match…you?

As the hiring manager’s technical talent advisor, you also need to be certain that the individuals being considered for the position have the necessary technical experience and skills. So – where do you start? Without an extensive technical background (or a crystal ball), your best tool for a successful recruiting cycle starts with a purposeful intake.

You may have recently seen our webinar with Tim Sackett about how to streamline your IT hiring efforts with a perfect technical interview process. We had such a great turnout that we decided to keep the party going with another celeb in the world of recruiting – Steve Levy.

Thanks to our pals at eTeki, Steve will be joining us on May 30th to give us insight into how the intake should go for technical positions, , as well as some of his personal insights into all things happening in recruiting today.

You’ll learn:

How to separate recruiting trash from treasure
How to decide the best IT hiring techniques for you
How to match your hiring tech with your hiring techNIQUE

You don’t want to miss this.

See you there!