Act While Other’s Wait – the Arbita Recruitment Genome Report

In May 2009, Arbita revealed the first survey results from the Recruitment Genome Report. The purpose of this multi-year research project is to define the most effective recruitment practices from among the thousands available.

Below are my thoughts about the results, but you can download the full 11-page report for yourself here: http://www.arbita.net/Offer/Recruitment-Genome-Report-Download.html

Why is this important to staffing leaders?

There are so many tools and services in our industry, each vying for your attention and promising to be the only solution you need.  However, many of them are mostly “bells and whistles”, providing little value to your organization’s employment brand or recruitment effectiveness. Don’t be alarmed – such is the case among vendors in every industry, not just in recruitment. Our industry has long needed a concerted, vendor neutral, consensus-based approach to answer the question of what works and what is just hype.

Our job as recruiters has always been incongruous. We must be masters of basic human psychology, well-versed in business rules and requirements, savvy in the use of tools and technology, and cognizant of the nuances of the industry and its unique business “ecosystem.” All the while, we receive little thanks from the customers we advocate, both our hiring managers with urgent job openings they have a hard time filling, and our candidates who depend on us to champion their cause and provide a good match. Both appreciate us only when we are most desperately needed, and otherwise tend to categorically dismiss us regardless of how often we prove our value.

It doesn’t help that the recruitment industry changes so dramatically from day to day. Modern recruiters must truly be project managers. No individual could learn how to handle the multitude of specialties found in all aspects of recruiting on their own in one lifetime. This is why the answer to “what works” must come from a community, not from one single person’s biased voice, no matter how experienced or seasoned a leader s/he may be.

This report is important to staffing leaders because:

• Our industry has long needed a concerted, vendor neutral, consensus-based approach to answer the question of what works and what is just hype. Through this report we intend to find some consensus around which technologies are appropriate based on real results, not just on speculation.
• The answer to “what works” in recruiting must come from a community not from one single person’s biased voice. New ideas are great. Innovation is necessary. But so is testing and validation, and not just in one environment. If a solution works only in specific, rare or controlled situations then it is not a best practice.
• Our service economy has given way to a knowledge economy. Knowledge comes from people and that makes recruiters critical to an organizations survival but the recruiting industry has not yet dealt with this shift. The recruiters role will become increasingly valuable as job seekers become more sophisticated at finding connections and networking for their next job.
• Most survey respondents believe Internet recruiting is so key it must be kept in-house but half felt team is inadequately trained. Just going out and buying any training is not the solution. First we need to better understand the gaps shared across many organizations, then we can devise the best ways to fill those gaps.
• Companies’ recruitment goals are not strategic when their staffing leaders highly value Internet recruiting, yet half feel sourcing skills are deficient and are not allowed to spend on developing recruiters’ skillset. It is not a leader’s job to know how best to do all the jobs but to make everyone’s job better.

The staffing leader’s world is extremely complex and not getting easier

Staffing leaders in both corporate and agency roles must contend with the latest and greatest employment branding challenges, online social and professional networks, job boards and resume databases, employment advertising destinations, recruiting exchanges, referral services, leads databases, resume capture and processing technologies, and communication platforms; not to mention contend with organizational requirements around Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) and possibly even Contact Relationship Management (CRM) Systems.

“Our service economy has given way to a knowledge economy. Our economic survival now depends on the exchange of knowledge, not the exchange of services. Knowledge comes from people, and people are at the heart of recruiting. Therefore, our jobs will be even more crucial to our organization’s growth and progress in the years ahead. However, the recruiting industry has not yet dealt with that shift.”

As a longitudinal study, Arbita’s report is not yet complete but the first stage revealed to me a few surprises and confirmed some suspicions. Perhaps the most salient confirmation is that the recruitment industry, by and large, has not yet realized that our service economy has given way to a knowledge economy. Our economic survival now depends on the exchange of knowledge, not the exchange of services. Knowledge comes from people, and people are at the heart of recruiting. Therefore, our jobs will be even more crucial to our organization’s growth and progress in the years ahead. However, the recruiting industry has not yet dealt with that shift.

Anything short of a synergistic recruiting strategy involving all these components remains tactical no matter how excellently executed:

• Solid team architecture. This could mean centralization, decentralization, or a hybrid of both. And it could include various definitions of roles, both internal (employees) and external (vendors/partners). But what it must include is strong definition. There’s very little in the form of a “standard” for recruitment positions. How can an organization decide if it needs a dedicated sourcer, community developer, or candidate developer if the definition of the primary role of recruiter varies so widely? Answering questions around what kinds of team structures really work will go a long way in making more efficient use of the technologies available.
• Direct sourcing ability. Every recruiting organization should be able to find leads for their hard-to-fill positions. Finding talent and making connections is a core value we offer. Survey respondents clearly agree this is an important skill. Not all positions are “critical hires” but when they are, we need to be able to fend for ourselves and not depend on someone else doing it for us. This doesn’t mean every recruiter must be a master researcher, it just means every recruiting team needs to have some ability to get out of a tight spot and find a handful of leads at critical times.
• Functioning analytics. We don’t know what we don’t know. 62% of staffing leaders feel they have the wrong metrics but 70% of them feel their marketing strategies are satisfactory. How could anything be proven satisfactory when it is not being adequately measured? Before we can begin to target social media sites, focus our search engine marketing, or more accurately distribute our job advertisements, we must have complete details on every click and forward. Anything else is just guesswork. The only way to do this is with a system capable of tracking every source without requiring us to manually create or police the source categories inside our applicant tracking software.
• Grassroots social media involvement. Only 15% of respondents source from blogs! Only half of respondents identify talent on social networks or use search engine queries to find prospects. Each of these mostly ignored sources is larger than any one database, why overlook them? Recruiters can and should engage their target audience in their native habitat and that includes blogs, micro-blogs, networking sites, and online communities.
• Search engine optimization. Only 25% of respondents have effective strategies for optimizing their organic presence in search engine query results. Fewer than 25% of respondents use search engine marketing to have a paid presence among search engine results. Search engines are the first place where many people go to ask questions. Why are only a quarter of us using them to reach our target audience?
• Career web sites that provide an engaging user experience and that have full integration into your HRIS. If you are engaging prospects online keep they are going to expect your organization to be web savvy. We already know that arcane and dehumanizing online applications don’t get us very far, but what we are learning is that our applicants are expecting convergence. Next generation career websites will allow applicants to use them how they want to use them, and connect with your on their terms. This may very well involve following your organization on Twitter or belonging to your company Facebook fan page, but the point here is that it is their choice, not yours. Instead of making them go where you want them to go, you now have to be where they already are.
• Sustainability through nurturing a center of excellence, and championing subject matter expertise. Lets face it, nobody knows everything. But by putting a few good minds together we can certainly keep up. Organizations need a place to house their collective experiences, and a champion or two charged with keeping alive the body of knowledge. Wisdom comes from putting this knowledge into practice, so if the knowledge resides outside your organization, or can easily walk out the door, what becomes then of your wisdom?

Decreased Spending on Recruiter Development

Social media is bringing forward unprecedented change in how people network online. Networking is a critical component of career progression, and modern means for networking are evolving so fast that without learning from others, a recruiter could waste invaluable time just keeping up with the changes.

Social media is also disseminating what were closely-guarded secrets in recruiting and sourcing practices, thus making information freely and openly available. Information, however, is not knowledge. In fact, I would argue that what is available is merely data, not even information. The key to translating all that data into information and eventually knowledge is to determine meaning. Knowledge is what happens when we use our experience, and experimentation, to interpret information and make decisions on how to proceed. Expert advice in matters such as Social Media, SEO/SEM and Sourcing Skill Development is critical for survival, lest your recruiters waste too much time sifting through data, experimenting with dead ends, and re-inventing the wheel.

“An overwhelming majority of staffing leadership respondents indicated decreased spending on the development of their recruiters’ skill set, on search marketing, and on developing a social media presence. This is disturbing to me because we are in the middle of a digital evolution.”

Accomplished vendors, consultants and educators don’t just make guesses or relate data they picked up empirically. Instead, they synthesize it, separate what works from what does not, and act as trusted advisors providing significant value through their experience encountering pitfalls as well as successes. Another reason I find this result disturbing is the fact that nearly all responding companies believe that use of the Internet is such a key recruitment strategy that they see the need to keep this skill set in-house, yet almost half of them felt their team is inadequately trained and are dissatisfied with their current sourcing capability.

Recruitment Goals Fail to be Strategic

This finding is already clear to me just in reviewing the survey results from questions around recruiter development. What it tells me is most staffing leaders responding to the survey highly value Internet recruiting, and half feel their sourcing skills are deficient yet they are being directed to spend the same or less on developing those skills among their recruiters. Clearly, this means recruitment goals are not being thought through at the strategic level.

It is a widely held belief that recruitment goals should be tied directly to strategic business objectives. Survey results find most respondents agree with that belief, and in addition 70% report being satisfied that their company’s recruitment marketing strategy is driving the achievement of overall recruitment goals. However, being strategic about recruitment is not just something we do in marketing. Marketing is a critical component but it is only one of several which need to be executed with synchronicity and efficiency in order to achieve greatness in attracting the right talent at the right time.

Other components include solid team architecture, the ability to directly source a percentage of critical talent that will not respond to marketing, functioning analytics that clearly demonstrate ROI permitting more efficient spend, grassroots social media involvement, search engine optimization, career web sites providing a good user experience that fully integrates with the ATS and HRIS, and sustainability through a center of excellence that champions internal subject matter expertise. Anything short of an integrated strategy involving all these components remains tactical, no matter how excellently it is executed.

I didn’t cover all the points in the survey. Other strategic components of a synergistic approach to staffing are detailed in the full report here:
http://www.arbita.net/Offer/Recruitment-Genome-Report-Download.html

I didn’t cover all the points in the survey. Other strategic components of a synergistic approach to staffing are detailed in the full report here:
http://www.arbita.net/Offer/Recruitment-Genome-Report-Download.html

AWOL Metrics

I was not surprised to find 38% of survey participants felt they have the right metrics to support their recruitment marketing decision, until I realized what that means in context with the previous finding. How could this exist while at the same time 70% of respondents are satisfied with their marketing strategy? To look at this another way, 62% of staffing leaders feel they have the wrong metrics, so how could 70% of them feel their marketing strategies are satisfactory? How could anything be proven satisfactory when it is not being adequately measured?

The reason is adequate recruitment marketing analytics are AWOL (absent without leave) for most staffing leaders. Even more disappointing is how few leaders expect to improve their metrics in the coming year. Why? Because however critical, measuring marketing strategy is both very challenging and time consuming without the right tools. One example of missing data is that more than half of the surveyed population utilizes direct marketing, yet that method is in no way reflected under their source of hire metrics. Also absent are detailed metrics around responses to search engine marketing campaigns, social networking activity or even results of organic search engine optimization. Via the survey we know smart companies are employing them, but when looking at their source of hire these methods are inadequately represented.

Blogs, SEO, SEM and Social Networks are Underutilized

Measurement is not the only gap, the other large gap is utilization. Only about 15% of respondents are utilizing blogs as a source of talent, yet blogs in all their shapes and sizes are among the largest sources of information online, larger than any one database. Only a quarter of the respondents have effective strategies for optimizing their organic presence in search engine query results, and fewer than that use search engine marketing to have a paid presence among those same results. Just shy of half the respondents have effective strategies to identify talent via social networks, and about the same percentage utilize search engines to identify online talent. It is clear to me that even if they get good at measuring from where their best hires come, employers have still a long way to go in tapping all the best sources of talent.

Job Boards Are Ineffectively Used

Traditional job boards are an area where I would have expected surveyed staffing leaders to have the most established, refined and perfected recruitment practices, yet I was stunned to find almost half were dissatisfied with their performance and less than 10% will spend more on job posting solutions this year. Is this because job boards are becoming less effective? No, it is because employers continue to approach job boards the same way they always have, while the Internet population has grown in both size and sophistication, and become more resourceful. People are seeking ways to connect, not just be “talked at” by an advertisement. Vertical search engines specializing in finding information in only one discipline, such as cooking recipes (allrecipes.com), movies (imdb.com) or jobs (simplyhired.com), are living proof that advertising works when it connects with the community by adding some value.

Employers shouldn’t be surprised when response to their job board activity drops because they publish flat, un-engaging, untargeted and unimaginative content, without regard to their readers’ interests. Improvements in those areas would increase results.

But job boards offer more than just advertising; they also have searchable databases full of interested job seeking prospects. It may seem a simple function of “enter keyword and find matching candidates” but that approach often misses talent hidden in plain sight. Though it ultimately means the same thing, employees often describe what they do using language different than what hiring managers use to describe their requirements. As a result resumes, blogs, social network profiles and other relevant content seldom contains the exact same language as in job descriptions, and good prospects go unnoticed.

Appropriate Technology

Through my tour of service in the Peace Corps, working in one of the most remote and inhospitable environments in the western hemisphere, the focus was always to utilize “appropriate technology.” This term refers to utilization of technology that leverages local resources and is mindful of the population’s cultural and social outlook. Rather than forcing the utilization of resource-draining technology just because it is available, staffing leaders would do well to learn from such a highly sustainable approach and utilize the simplest level of technology that effectively achieves their hiring goals.

Initial survey results clearly indicate that not every available solution is appropriate to every environment, and that inexpensive solutions are often ignored while costly ones are ineffectively utilized. Wisdom is in formulating an integrated strategy that maximizes resources you already have, and makes use of a mix of appropriate technology you haven’t yet considered. My recommendation to staffing leaders is that they reach out to trusted external advisors who have their best interest in mind, and not just listen to vendors hawking their product or service as “the only solution you need.” Now is the time to act, while others wait for things to get better, and when your dollars stretch much further than they do in the midst of hiring frenzies.

Are you curious about any of my conclusions? Would you like to challenge them or find different ones of your own? If so, you can get the full survey report here:

http://www.arbita.net/Offer/Recruitment-Genome-Report-Download.html

About Shally:

Shally Steckerl is a talent acquisition consultant, strategist, and speaker originally from Colombia, South America, now residing in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Steckerl is the Founder and Chief CyberSleuth of JobMachine, now Arbita ACES (aces.arbita.net), the premier provider of sourcing consulting services and workforce development. Early in his career Mr. Steckerl realized that as a contingency recruiter he could beat the competition by finding people who were not available in mainstream sources. Since then he has been instrumental in building numerous world class sourcing and research organizations.

Because of his passion for the Internet as a recruitment tool and his continually innovative methods, Mr. Steckerl has developed a reputation as one of the most respected authorities in passive candidate research and talent pipeline development worldwide. A pioneer in recruitment Internet research, accomplished author and celebrated speaker, he is a regular contributor to many industry publications. Mr. Steckerl is frequently requested to present at leading domestic and international recruiting conferences and conduct private workshops.

Mr. Steckerl now spends his time consulting with organization interested in building passive candidate pipeline generation and recruitment teams, and developing their advanced sourcing skills.

Please visit the Press & Publications Page for a complete listing of Mr. Steckerl’s speaking engagements and publications. You can reach Shally at [email protected], MSN IM at [email protected], through Text SMS or via skype:jobmachine

Creatively Weave Your Networking Web

The current job market has me as a corporate recruiter answering a ton of calls from outside recruiters wanting to help me fill my jobs.

Really? What jobs?

Grant it, I have continued to hire, but not nearly at the rate we had anticipated this year and yet I remain busy. And still the recruiters call asking to help me fill my administrative roles in which I have none. I mean I have absolutely NO ADMINISTRATIVE role in my organization. I work at a day trading / hedge fund firm.

My day-to-day work now consists of working on what few job openings (shameless plug – a CFO role currently in which we aren’t paying fees, but I’d love to talk to possible candidates) I have and then giving my attention to more HR Generalist work. It’s not so bad, I’ve only been in my current role of Recruiting Specialist at Kershner Trading since December 2008 and for the last almost three years prior, I was the sole HR / Recruiter at another organization. Either work is fine. It’s work and I’m happy to have it.

But as I pondered about what to write for my post to this group I thought how can I really assist them? What can I tell them from my experiences that this group might not already know and then it hit me . . . I can career counsel this group just the same way I career counsel people every week.

At least two to three times a week I get an e-mail, a call, a note, a LinkedIn request or some form of communication from someone in my network either introducing someone else to me or asking to meet with me. Seem excessive for someone pushing HR paperwork? Perhaps.

But the secret to my silly popularity is that over the last 3 years I’ve been working my network. Not really intentionally mind you, but working it nonetheless.

Prior to my current company I worked for a marketing agency and my Chief Marketing Officer was a cutting edge early adopter who encouraged me to take crazy leaps with him.

For some of you just the term early adopter might be foreign, so I’ll be happy to give you my definition. An early adopter is someone who embraces technology or a new way of doing things far before others even know of its existence.

How long have you been on LinkedIn? Me? Since 2005.

How long have you been on Twitter? Me? Since fall of 2007.

Those are my two main networks of choice. And they work.

I’m not going to brag on the number of people I’m connected to or how many people think I’m cool enough that they follow me. That’s not the point. The point is that I’ve built these networks while no one was really paying attention.

As an HR Manager it really wasn’t my job to have the most followers on any network. My job was to get my job done. But you want to know what I did over morning coffees, lunches, and evening networking events? I mingled. I talked. I LISTENED.

I attended events in which I was the ONLY HR / recruiter type there. I fell in love with social media and attended their Social Media Club meetings once a month in the evenings and their Social Media Breakfasts in the morning before work. I worked the registration tables so I’d become familiar with the attendees and they’d become familiar with me. I’ve been to two South by Southwest Interactive festivals in Austin. Lucky for me it’s in my backyard, so heck I wouldn’t miss that!

I started blogging a couple of years ago. I would bounce over to Plurk when Twitter’s stability sucked. I Flickr. I Facebook. I’ve done my time in MySpace.

If you’re beginning to think I’m a social butterfly you wouldn’t be far from wrong. And you may be asking at this point what is the point?

The point is I wasn’t where other HR and recruiters hung out. I was alone with interesting and amazing people. I was learning about where they hung out, what they were interested in and what new technologies were on the horizon.

Where has this desert brought me? The question is actually WHO has this desert brought me?

It’s brought me an incredibly vast network that I can utilize. Not use. Utilize. There’s a difference. Webster defines use as the art or practice of employing something while utilize is defined as to make use of: turn to practical use or account.

Not only was I where potential future employees lurked, but I was an outsider genuinely interested in them and genuinely interested in the things that they found of interest. And I believe if you were to ask those people today about me they’d tell you that they have a certain level of respect for me because I wasn’t trying to use them, but instead I became their friend.

In fact, I’ve even been asked to speak at events where they want a different perspective on social media and I’m more than happy to oblige. Each of these events brings me more potential employees from either those people specifically or from people within their networks.

I’m still weaving my network web. I’m happy to meet with those out of work and give them pointers on how to get in front of my recruiter / HR counterparts. I’m happy to lend an ear and give advice on how they’ve chosen to pitch themselves to their potential hiring managers. I’m happy to share with them the new technologies I’ve learned and how they could use them in their job search.

So, let me encourage you to step outside of the recruiter / HR networks in which you’ve probably already established yourself. That’s great if you’re attending and finding value in the ERE network, staffing associations and SHRM. But if you limit yourself to talking amongst your peers you’ll find yourself hard pressed to talk to the people that matter – your future candidates and your future employees.

About Kim:

  Kim Hollenshead has held various roles within HR since 1997 beginning with that as a corporate recruiter in Austin, Texas. In order to expand her HR knowledge, Hollenshead sought positions that gave her perspectives from both corporate charged initiatives as well as staffing agencies. With the evolution of the internet, Hollenshead found herself mesmerized by online social networking and social media and became involved with these outlets in 2005. Today, Hollenshead marries her HR and online social persona by advocating the use of social networks. She envisions them as tools to help both employees and employers in ways that can either better employees’ skill sets or to create value by using online tools to make high impact business decisions. She serves as a Recruiting Specialist at Kershner Trading Group, a proprietary trading firm in Austin, Texas, created and runs www.helpiwaslaidoff.com, is the communication chair person for her home owners association and in her spare time enjoys gardening, cooking, papercrafting and making jewelry.

Guest post by Chris Hoyt (aka: RecruiterGuy)

I recently had the pleasure of sitting in on one of the Future of Talent sessions conducted by Susan Burns and Kevin Wheeler.  I was really impressed with the number of hot topics addressed that were related to recruiting and corporate change, and the conversations that were held as a result.  (I’d really recommend attending one of these events if you can.)

One of the items addressed and that I found the most interesting (and that is a cousin to an earlier article published here) was related to the level in which a company should be involved in, or permit employees to engage in, social networking – and the impact this could have on its talent pool.  The small team chosen to address this item had some interesting thoughts on what types of employees do and don’t use social tools like Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn.  And frankly, I was a bit surprised at a few that felt some types of jobs (by design, not permission) wouldn’t allow an employee to be “social.”

While the conversation was interesting – and the opinions varied – the group was almost unanimous on one aspect of the issue…  Companies can police or attempt to control the conversations taking place – but they’ll ultimately fail. And as a result, they’ll not only do a disservice to their own (employment) brand but they risk a message being crafted by their employees that is much less than favorable and that they can’t be taken seriously by participants when addressing.

This is of course more of the same basic verbiage that you’ll find at any social recruiting, new media, or marketing webinar or speaking sessions – it’s not rocket science.  The idea is that if the employees want to collaborate or network or even just complain… they will.  And they’ll do it from a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, internet cafe, etc.  It just doesn’t matter – the world is getting smaller as technology makes it easier for people to communicate and share.
(note: don’t forget that encouraged communication and involvement could just as easily foster positive messages and communication about an employer’s culture – the dialogue doesn’t have to be (and certainly isn’t always) negative!)

So when we throw in the idea of recruiting tomorrow’s workforce through social networks and the fun dialogue with naysayers that follows, I keep coming back to one thing – Evolution.  Don’t think its relative?  Think again.

We aren’t recruiting the same way we did 10 years ago.  Heck, we aren’t even recruiting the same way did last year.  And it’s not because we’ve stumbled on these “fun” new tools that no one ever thought of before…  It’s because smart recruiters change how they recruit – by engaging the talent in ways that are most comfortable for the candidate and by going TO the candidates – not posting and praying and waiting to be found.  Smart recruiters do this to survive.  They do it because they have to.

“Evolution is not a force but a process. Not a cause but a law.” – John Morley

Social Recruiting isn’t a fad. Mobile Recruiting isn’t a rumor.  We’re in the middle of a major “shift” when we talk about how people today – and the workforce of tomorrow – are communicating and engaging one another.  If a company wants to stay as competitive as possible they’ll realize that this change is really no more a phenomenon than the move from fax was to email.  It’s inevitable and it’s upon us.

So when we think about avoiding social networks for recruiting – or even locking our recruiters out of them at work – I almost laugh a bit.  With the growth of networks like LinkedIn (probably the easiest network to justify in a workplace) that are growing by an average of 500k members a week we’ve got to see that cutting these off from our talent hunters is like giving them a screwdriver to drive in a nail.  It might get done – but nowhere near as quickly or neatly (or without injury) as it could.

Quick concerns when the conversation turns to opening up the floodgates?

1. Where to start (what network?!)
2. How to prevent a Time Suck (recruiters “wasting” time!)
3. Measuring the Return (hires or applications?)
4. Maintenance (okay, what now?)

These are pretty common and core concerns for not only teams that are just getting started but companies that have been dabbling in social networks for talent for any amount of time.  None of them should be show-stoppers, however.  And if you’ve been doing this for a while then you know that none of them should be discounted – regardless of a company’s size.

I’ll be blowing out the bullets above in some upcoming articles but the message delivered here (and hopefully the conversation that follows) is that if companies want to remain competitive they’re going to have to shift that “police state” mentality or break through that barrier of fog or resistance related to social recruiting and networking.  Will Social Recruiting replace the job boards?  No – certainly not anytime soon and with the possibility of never.  But you will see social integrated more and more into the major boards and in both big and small ways on company recruiting sites through 2010.

Are you evolving?  Are you interested in talking about how recruiting is changing?  Comment on this post and/or text “RecruiterGuy” (no quotes) to 41411 on your mobile device and lets keep the conversation going.

Convinced that social networks are a waste of time and don’t yield results?  That’s cool, too.  Just fax me your… oh wait… I haven’t even seen a fax machine all year.

Never mind – just log off of the internet connection that you’re obviously borrowing from someone else and forget you ever read this.

About Chris Hoyt:

As a mobile marketing/recruiting evangelist and self proclaimed Social ‘X’ addict, Chris Hoyt has been pushing the boundaries of each aspect of full-cycle recruiting for over 14 years – most recently as the Associate Director of Talent Attraction at AT&T.

With a passion for breaking out of traditional recruitment practices and a background that includes training it’s no mystery that the combined teams of recruiters and sourcers working with Chris are constantly evolving and pushing the envelope of non-traditional talent attraction and recruitment.  Whether functioning as a coach, team lead, or individual contributor it’s his top notch results using ‘out of the box’ strategies that have established him as a recruiting expert amongst peers and clients alike.

In a time where the return on investment for social media struggles to be defined within the recruiting and staffing world, Chris moves forward in an effort to show impact, scope of reach and brand influence by engaging and tracking both the candidate’s involvement and experience.

Recently, I came across this sign posted in front of one our local churches

Google has a number of great solutions but indeed it cannot solve every search ….neither can any search engine, job posting site, mobile recruiting, phone sourcing, social media or any other new strategy or tool that comes out. I’m not saying they don’t solve many and I am sure someone will come out to debate me on the subject as there often are but really there is no one set way of doing things. Not every search is the same and most definitely neither are the recruiters who conduct the search or the candidates and employers we work with.

So why do I tell you this. When Ryan approached me about writing a blog post I tried to think about something I could write about that I am most passionate about in recruiting. What I am passionate about is not one particular part of the recruiting process but the search itself and the evolving ways of conducting a search.

Every day I get hit with emails and phone calls trying to get me to buy “the” product for recruiting today, switch over to “the best” applicant tracking system around, purchase postings on “the best” new or old job board out there, etc. I am sure many of you either are getting these solicitations or are in a sales role but who determines who or what is the best? There are arguments back and forth every day about why someone thinks their way is the best. If every one of these were actually the best and the only way to work then why aren’t we all doing the same thing? Wouldn’t we just get the same results?

Instead of exhausting yourself trying to do things the way someone else is telling you, work in a niche you really don’t like because it’s “the” hot industry today or emulate the search process of a self-proclaimed guru, explore a little and find what works for you. Most likely the answer will be you enjoy what you do, the searches will come easier and candidates and employers will notice how genuine you are about the process.

Here are a few thoughts that may lead you along your own path. 

Plan Each Search

Even if it takes 2 minutes and most of the process is repeated like checking your ATS first or reaching out to your network for referrals, try to make a plan for how you are going to conduct your search. Plan for change, it’s inevitable. Whether it’s the needs of the job or the availability of candidates, whatever it is we are dealing with people and life and people are not static. Even Google as an example – if you sat on Google with the same search string plugged in for a week most likely your results would change from beginning to end.  The more complicated the search, the longer the process the more that changes.

Time

Know how much time you have to devote to a search and what needs to be accomplished during any particular time period. Stick with what already works but if you have time explore something new. You cannot use every tool in every search but by taking a few minutes to plan your search especially if you have multiple searches running at once you will find time savers and wasters. As it happens often it will also keep any online recruiting time directed at searching not surfing.

Budget

Searches can involve paid or free tools, ad posting, research, whatever. Know what your budget is and what you feel comfortable using. Just because “everyone” is using a tool does not mean that you should blow your budget on something that might not work for you.

I wanted to purchase a piece of software once that I knew I would only use for a week or two at max. I called a sales rep explained the situation and they said no problem what you are looking for is really inexpensive, it’s only twenty nine ninety-nine. Luckily when they told me the amount that would be charged to my account it was phrased as two thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Their inexpensive was $2995.00, mine $29.95. Does it mean I wouldn’t spend $2995 on a tool if I felt it saved me more time and money than the cost, no but for that particular tool I was not willing to go above a couple hundred dollars. What’s fits into your budget?

Skill and Comfort Level

A tool or technique is only as good as the recruiter using it. Whether it’s technical or presentation skills are you really going to be comfortable with your skill level and knowledge to utilize a particular tool or technique?

Last year at SourceCon both Dave Copps and Michael Marlatt blew me away with some of the mobile recruiting technology they discussed. I’ve listened to follow up discussions by Michael and am an avid visitor to his site. Now do I still think mobile recruiting is going to soon be a part of our main stream recruiting culture and can be very useful? Yes. Do I have the budget to implement an SMS campaign and the skills to make it happen? You got it. Do feel comfortable enough with it to actually use it? Heck no!

There are a lot of discussions lately about whether Social Media is useful as a recruiting tool.  Those who have not at least experimented I think are missing out but if they have tried an avenue using Social Media and they just are not comfortable using it I completely understand. And those of you trying to cross them over, why would I debate a competitor to use something I have success with that they have no interest in using? I’d rather they don’t use it, more for me. Like SMS, there are things I know I have the skill, budget and knowledge to utilize but I just haven’t gotten comfortable with yet. You’ll find phrases or scripts people use when marketing candidates to new employers that may work perfectly for them but if you try to repeat them in it may not work for you.

Listen to what others might have to offer but find your own voice.

Prepare Your Environment for Your Work Style

This may seem a little geeky and will definitely give you insight into how organized I do things but every day I track things with lists and spread sheets. I think I’m probably one of the few women who gives her husband to-do lists on the weekend that come directly from a categorized spread sheet.  I keep track of things constantly to keep organized the ever evolving piles of information. Every day seems to be a new site, a new trick or technique, a question or a way to phrase something. I may not use them right away or have time to try each one out but I try to explore a little each week and see what new things I can incorporate into my arsenal.

When I worked in a bullpen office setting I was amazed to see how each cube was different yet the person with the quietest voice, sparsely decorated environment who came in an hour early every day was equally as successful as the loud boisterous one who was always late and whose cube you required only the sense of smell to locate. It didn’t matter the environment or the words they used when speaking with candidates and employers because they used what worked for them. My endless organizing would drive someone else batty but it works for me.  Some people strive for the paperless office. That’s a great accomplishment but if you find yourself happy and productive finding the best candidates to fill the jobs and it means you turn off your computer, use sharp #2 pencils with a polka dot notebook, go for it.

On the technical end, just like customizing your surroundings, maybe try configuring your computer browser to use the tools you most need as well. IGoogle is still a favorite of mine but there are endless to choose from Opera, Alefo, Netvibes, myYahoo, GoogleChrome, etc.

Change Your Approach

When using search engines explore other options besides Google and Bing. Try posting the same search to various engines and watch the different results. Some of my favorites are Google, Exalead and Clusty but now we have search engines just for specific types of search like TwitterSearch, Bloglines, Icerocket, Everyzing, Whozat, Pipl, Wink, etc. If you are bored with the way you view results try SearchMe or Viewzi.  Or better yet create something that resembles your own search engine using RSS Feeds or Yahoo Pipes. The list goes on but the idea is to experiment.

Too often we fall into a routine of using the same terms to describe the same jobs and often get the same results. It’s always good to shoot first for the easy target but when that fails, find out what else a title or skill could be called. I like Broadlook’s Title Research tool and the dictionary or thesaurus. I also look at competitor’s ads online, note different wording on resumes I receive or use sites like Onetcenter.org and Wikipedia for detailed job descriptions.  Use your stand by descriptions but try incorporating some new ones and see what results you gain.

Only you know what motivates you’re the best. A manager can ring a bell, hold a contest, buy everyone pizza for lunch, etc but they are just grasping for ways to find something that is going to motivate you. If you get stuck in a rut try a different approach. Maybe work from a different desk, stand when you are on the phone instead of sitting, take on a new persona if you are phone sourcing (it will at least be fun for a phone call or two), blast some music for few minutes between calls or take a quick run around the block. Don’t wait for someone else to motivate you, find you own motivation.

Listen and Learn from your Candidates, Your Employers and Your Colleagues

Recently someone was on Twitter complaining that it was crazy to follow other recruiters online. To each their own, seriously, but I have gained so much knowledge by following other people in our industry its amazing. Sites like RecruitingBlogs.com and ERE.net have really opened a dialogue for people to share ideas. Twitter, Plurk, even the beloved Recruiting Animal Show are an expansion to continue the dialogues in real time. Industry experts who offer webinars and host sessions at events, bloggers who open themselves up for endless comments and coordinators of small one or two person events to coordinating large conferences are all people you can learn from. If everyone is following someone and you don’t know why that’s even more reason to reach out to them. Know who you are learning from. If you connect with someone online and find them interesting, reach out, pick up the phone and talk to them. Hold a discussion that entails more than 140 characters at a time.

People love to talk if someone seems genuinely interested. Take the time to ask the right questions and Candidates and Employers will give you the answers. How did the employer find the last person that started with them? What works what doesn’t? Where do they hang out online and in person, go there. You get the idea.

The essential thought I am trying to convey is to take what you know already works, listen and learn from others exploring new options but ultimately clear out the clutter and find new success however it works best for you.

About Shannon Myers:

Shannon Myers is the Managing Partner of Walton Search, recruitment and sourcing firm that  specializes in the Healthcare Industry. Prior to founding Walton Search in 2007 she began her career in a combination of photography and higher education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and working as both a photographer and in Student Affairs at fine arts colleges. She made the transition to recruiting in 2001 beginning as a sourcer quickly moving to full cycle recruiting in healthcare. Shannon is always exploring the newest sourcing methods and was a Grandmaster Sourcing Challenge winner for SourceCon2008. In addition to her recruiting effort at Walton Search Shannon also trains others on the use of Social Media and remains active within the arts community.

Social recruiting is not a golden ticket to more placements. But it will allow you to build a prospect and referral network like no other medium, and to brand yourself as a professional, knowledgeable, and trustworthy expert with whom those prospects want to do business. Sure, you can make placements by recruiting from social networks. But recruiters need to be a few things before they will be successful with social recruiting. First and foremost they need to be good recruiters.

Good recruiters are proactive in building their pipelines. They don’t jump straight into a new sourcing effort whenever they get a new job order. Rather they first check their current active candidates, check with other recruiters in their organization, ask for referrals from their network, and then start sourcing new candidates as a last resort.

Our time is our most valuable asset. A few minutes a day spent building your “social pipeline” is all it takes once you have the pieces in place. And ensuring that you are building the right network, one that is targeted to your specialty is essential to your success. Know your skill buckets and fill them daily with new prospects by adding them to your network.

Once you have added new prospects to your network, engage, engage, and engage some more. Offer tips, answer questions, reply to posts. Don’t just expect to post your job orders and have the leads come a runnin’. You have to actively participate a little each day to build trust and rapport. On LinkedIn and Facebook, participate in group discussions and Q & A. On Twitter you must listen, contribute, reply and retweet.

The phone is still your best tool as a recruiter. But candidate and client prospects are often more willing to schedule or take phone calls from a recruiter they have been actively networking with on social platforms. So plan to work your social pipeline for 15-30 minutes in the morning, at lunch, or in the evening. Anything more than that should be done during off hours.

If you plan ahead, you will always have good material to share with your network. With social recruiting, as with all recruiting activities, you should plan for tomorrow before you leave today. Focus on the activities that will get you closer to your goals. Build your LinkedIn group and update it at least once a week. Work your Twitter network 1-3 times each day. Update your Facebook community weekly. Many of these tasks can be automated.

The keys to success are already in your tool belt. Your recruiting skills are the same in any medium. Your primary goal each day should be to work on the job that is closest to the money, the one with the greatest likelihood of getting an interview. Your second goal should be proactive recruiting. Keep building that pipeline for future success. Don’t look at social recruiting as primarily a sourcing effort. Look at it as a method of paying your future self by assisting and conversing with those in your growing network now.

Here is an example of a Google query you can use to x-ray LinkedIn for targeted Twitter users: site:www.linkedin.com j2ee “project manager” dallas (twitter | tweet) (inurl:pub | inurl:in) -intitle:directory

For additional search options check this tutorial by the Boolean Black Belt, Glen Cathey. For more tips on targeting your Twitter audience see my blog post, “Who should I Follow on Twitter”.

I will be discussing the use of social media for recruiter branding this Thursday afternoon, July 16th, at the The Texas Recruiters Association workshop/seminar – “The future of recruiting after the recession”.  Register & Secure your seat at: http://texasrecruiters.eventbrite.com .

About Craig Fisher:

Craig Fisher is a founding partner of A-List solutions, and an 18 year sales veteran who has been an innovator in the Recruiting Industry since 1995. He has been a top performer and sales leader in start-ups as well as large, high growth companies. Craig specializes in Information Technology Staffing, and Executive Search services.

Craig writes about Social Networking and Branding strategies for careers and employment at his blog, www.fishdogs.com. He is a regular contributor to technology and career forums, and has authored articles that have been published internationally and featured in HR publications, industry newsletters, and career web sites.

In addition to recruiting, Craig trains staffing firms, client companies, and professional organizations on Social Media Branding and Twitter effectiveness.  In April of 2009, Craig co-founded #TalentNet, the wildly popular monthly Twitter forum for the recruiting community.

Work hard on honing your soft skills!

As an outsourced recruiter, my main responsibility is to find qualified candidates – plain and simple. While Social Media Optimization is something that I am passionate [ahem, obsessed] about, I need to always stay focused on filling my reqs first, and proposing New Media solutions second.

While a lot of this might sound familiar to most of you, there are plenty of talent acquisition specialists that are overlooking the obvious and it is affecting their time-to-fill metrics and retention ratings. Since there is a new Twitter app or blog article highlighting a new technique coming out every day, let’s spend sometime to go over the basics of any successful recruiting campaign. New recruiters, listen up, this one’s for you!

1. If you have a large, untapped pipeline – why add to it?

This will sound familiar to you if you’ve ever been to Glen Cathey’s blog (booleanblackbelt.com – if you haven’t I suggest you do so immediately). It is a concept that I completely agree with. The key here is to identify the talent that is already in your ATS (or other candidate tracking software). It is not efficient to add to your pipeline if you don’t really need to. Start with Boolean search strings – they always bring me better results than the built in search engine, so they should be second nature to you. Also, don’t just look in the reqs that you are working on for that day – find older reqs that required similar skill sets. While some candidates apply to every req that posts on Monster, others might submit an application and move on. In other cases, candidates might apply to a job they “want” but aren’t ready for yet; reach out to them and point them to a position that is right up their alley. There are more job seekers than there are open jobs, and it is our job to find them and guide them in the right direction – and if you do, I can guarantee you will get major props when they interview with the VP of HR. Which brings me to my next point…

2. Make sure you are value-oriented.

Look for ways you can make an impact in addition to filling your reqs with top-caliber candidates. As a recruiter, you are on the front lines and should be aware of hiring trends. Also, if you’ve been doing this for a while, chances are you know exactly what candidates are looking for because you’ve had conversations with thousands of them. In my experience, I have dealt with many hiring managers who may have had unrealistic expectations of an ideal candidate (they want you to “chase the purple squirrel”, so-to-speak). It would be nice to get a tenured sales professional into an entry level sales role, but that is unrealistic. By building relationships with your hiring managers, you can offer insight into what could be a great hiring decision. Also, make sure you prep your candidates if they are granted an interview – they are representing your recruiting ability! Later on in the consideration process, make sure you work with the hiring manager and HR to ensure that an offer is sent out promptly (ever worked with a manager that wanted a month to think about it). By bringing in the best quality talent to your company, you will be recognized as an asset.

3.  Always be aware of new tools and tricks of the trade.

Web 2.0 is a term that is tossed around frequently and rightfully so. Advances in interactive web content have changed the way that we communicate and these changes are directly affecting the way that companies position themselves online and attract new talent. Companies both large and small now have employee-managed blogs, Twitter profiles, YouTube accounts, and even live chats set up. These advances are both mutually beneficial for potential candidates as well as recruiters and hiring managers. Chances are if you are reading this, you already knew all that! My point? Be aware of these progressive new techniques and implement them if appropriate. If you are not finding the people you need, you should look at your existing methods and refine them before adding something new. However, if you are 100% certain that you have exhausted your search, definitely switch it up! Einstein said that insanity is, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” While what you’re doing might not be insane, you get the idea.

As I was writing this, I read an awesome quote (which I obviously retweeted) from @zappos: The best businesses are those that have figured out how to combine profits, passion, and purpose.

Combine your passion and purpose for recruiting into a strategy that leads to a profitable hiring solution for your client or employer.

Cheers.

About Adam Fields:

Adam Fields is a RPO Consultant for Seven Step Recruiting in Boston, MA. He specializes in delivering high-volume recruiting solutions and is an advocate for customer-service oriented delivery. Adam is a young-gun within the recruiting community with only 2 years under his belt, but is rapidly developing a myriad of soft and technical skills. Adam’s passions are snowboarding, Subaru rally cars, and Twitter!

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