The Changing Face of Recruiting

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Mike Sweeny Leave a comment

The race to find talent at companies is back in full swing after the economic slowdown. Companies are hiring again and candidates feel confident to look for new opportunities. However, recruiters are finding that the old methods of just posting positions on the Internet is not resulting in the quality of candidates that may have been produced in the past. This is because the most highly sought-after “passive candidates” do not have the time or the inclination to be trolling through job postings on the boards. Recruiters who solely rely on this method of recruiting (or still run newspaper ads) will never be able to attract the right quality and quantity of talent.

Companies that are on the leading edge of recruiting in today’s market rely of what is known in recruiting circles as “creative sourcing.” Creative sourcing is all about identifying who the top talent is and then approaching that talent either through a trusted source or simply a cold call. This form of sourcing has always been around but is more difficult and time consuming. However, creative sourcing generally yields the best quality candidates. Many recruiters fall into the trap of only using the Internet boards to find candidates because it is the easy way out.

Creative sourcing is aided in today’s recruiting world by networking sites like LinkedIn. While LinkedIn is not set up as a recruiting site, it permits a recruiter to connect with a potential candidate either directly because that candidate is part of the recruiter’s LinkedIn network or the recruiter can connect to the candidate through a trusted source in the recruiter’s networks.

Connecting to candidates through creative sourcing is the key to successful recruiting in today’s market. Companies that do not use creative sourcing as part of their overall recruiting strategy will most likely be disappointed with the results of their effort.

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Should I Customize My Resume for Each Job That I Apply To?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Mike Sweeny Leave a comment

Job applicants ask me this question very often.  My answer is always the same: YES!  Too many applicants are settling for the “one size fits all” resume and wonder why they are not being more successful in obtaining interviews.

 In this challenging market, job applicants need every advantage that they can come up with.  Hiring companies are generally holding to very rigid and narrow specs, and applicants need to be able to stand out from the many who are applying for the openings.

 Look carefully at each job specs before you apply and customize your resume to fit as closely as you can to the spec.  As long as you truly have the experience, making your resume read like the job spec is the best way to get noticed by that busy hiring manager.

 I am fairly confident that following this method will result is a higher percentage of positive responses from hiring companies.

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5 Tips on Recruiting Employees Directly from the Competition

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Mike Sweeny Leave a comment
  • Is It Worth It?

The company leadership needs to assess whether the benefits of recruiting from the competition is worth the potential downside.  For example, if recruiting a key sales person or key technologist/scientist from the competition would potentially be a huge windfall for your company, then it is worth the potential legal battle and higher level of compensation that would come with hiring this person.

  • Use an Third Party Executive Search firm

If your company wants to recruit candidates directly from your competition, it is best to use a third party executive search firm to accomplish the task.  There are several reasons for this, but the major reason is you don’t want your own employees calling directly into recruit from the competition because it may open up your company to legal action, retaliation, and potentially a bad reputation in the industry.  Third party executive search firms are very skilled at approaching the competition and will provide your company with that initial cover of confidentiality.

  • Be Careful What Information that Your Interviewers Share

If you plan to interview a candidate from one of your competitors, you will need to instruct your interviewers to be very careful what information that they reveal to the candidate.   It is not unusual for the competition to send someone in for an interview just to get some inside information.  If you plan to reveal sensitive company data to candidates, you should present them with a non-disclosure agreement and have them sign the document in the presence of a witness.

  • Carefully Review The Candidate’s Non-Compete Agreement

If you interview and intend to make an offer to someone from the competition, make sure to have your legal team carefully review the candidate’s non-compete agreement.  Some states are stricter than others in interpreting the non-competes and, depending how the agreement is worded, it may be very difficult to get around.  It is better to spend the legal dollars upfront for advice than to be hit with a costly lawsuit later.

  • Be Prepare to Compensate Stars from the Competition Well

If you have an opportunity to hire a real star from the competition, be prepared to pay royally for that person’s services.  You figure that his/her current company is paying them well that and will fight hard to retain the person.  While money will be a major motivating factor in moving to your company, a candidate will also be looking at the upside that your company offers in career development, market growth, and product/service capabilities.

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How much personal information is too much for a professional social networking?

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Todd Leave a comment

Social media is becoming a vital form of connecting in personal and professional circles of our lives in recent years.  As the number of members to these social networking increases by each minute, It is almost inevitable not to be part of this new exciting trend.  

Professional social network websites such as LinkedIn offers its members the greatest gift of exposure to new connections and businesses at no cost.  It provides great opportunities to companies and professionals to market their services, increase awareness of their offering, and building professional relationships. 

The first place the colleague, acquaintances or prospective clients, will look for is your personal profile where they learn about your background, interest and professional expertise. 

Here comes the question that how much of personal information you are willing to share about yourself on professional networking websites.   

Some strongly believe that there should not be a cross passing between personal and professional social networking and in business context it simply not appropriate to divulge your personal daily life events with the world at large.  They further argue that keeping a positive professional online reputation on social media’s has a strong impact on the way you are being viewed in the social online medias by your prospective clients.

However, there are others who don’t mind to cross the line and share more about themselves on their professional social websites.  They also strongly believe that opening up parts of their personal life to their professional social networking circle will generate trust.  As prospective clients gain an insight to their personal life on daily basis, the relationship become stronger and the probability of making the sales will increase.  

Bottom line, the best practice is to use common sense and stay away from just sharing too much personal information that will effect negatively on your professional online reputation.

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What Is the Best Way to Use LinkedIn as a Recruiting Tool?

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Todd Leave a comment

First and for most, is to complete your profile so others can know you better. Your Summary should be well written since that is what people look at first.

 Following link is a good reading on how to optimize your profile:

http://mashable.com/2010/12/15/optimize-linkedin-profile 

Make sure to provide links back to your organization’s website for additional information and/or additional job opportunities that aren’t listed on the social networking sites. It’s important to integrate social networking efforts to the branding and recruitment efforts in which your organization is engaged.

Integrating the various recruitment strategies already in place with social networking provides companies with more value for all their recruitment efforts and strengthens their brand with job applicants, customers and other important stakeholders. Using the company logo, colors, a consistent message, and critical links to the organization’s website pages of interest to active and passive jobseekers ties the social networking efforts to the rest of the organization’s recruitment efforts.

Create a personalized email invitation to include reason you wish to connect. Make it easy for the person to remember you and accept your invitation. Email it to all the prospective candidates so that they can link to you, this way you will build your popularity with no cost simply because they link to you instead of you linking to them. 

Join relevant groups and get involved with people that you can connect with and get to know. Be sincere about helping and people will approach you! 

Building credibility through recommendations and a great summary. Use the Questions and Answers feature to quickly establish yourself as an expert in your field. 

If you are your own boss and have your own business, you will get the most benefit from LinkedIn if you treat it like a marketing channel but using the language of networking. Similar to website linking the more websites link to your website the better ranking your website will have. Therefore you can drive people closer to you by networking to develop valued relationships so you can leverage those marketing efforts to produce the best results.

Recruiting, Recruiting Articles

How to write better job description

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Todd Leave a comment

A well define job description can attract qualified candidates faster!

If you want to find candidates who can start work with no learning curve, fit into your organization, get the job done, and exceed your highest expectations, then don’t underestimate the importance of knowing how to write a job description.

It’s crucial that you make writing job descriptions part of your overall business planning effort. You can’t simply start thinking about job descriptions every time you have a specific search to conduct for a hiring requisition.

You need to embed preparation of job descriptions within your human resources department as a central and fundamental basis for running HR. Take the time to write job descriptions for every position in your organization, not just the ones you are currently hiring for.

The job description needs to communicate clearly and concisely what responsibilities and tasks the job entails and to indicate the key qualifications of the job – the basic requirements (specific credentials or skills) – and, if possible, the attributes that underlie superior performance.

Don’t rely solely on past job description’s history as you’re creating the new job description. Focus instead on what the job needs to be in light of the company’s current needs and long-term objectives.

Job Description should have the following sections:

  • The Opportunity – this section should include basic information about the position: job title, a short description of the job and its purpose, company name, geographic location, branch or department, supervisor’s job title, salary target, special benefits, special requirements such as drug testing or security clearance.
  • Required Skills – This is where you define the skills, abilities, and attributes that the candidate needs to have. You may want to create a matrix that includes the following information: the competency; the experience, education or certification that is required; finally, specify to whether the competency is a required or if it is preferred.

A well-written job description consists of more than a laundry list of the tasks and responsibilities that the job entails. It should reflect a sense of priorities. It needs to be written clearly in simple language, contain information but not opinions or judgments, and avoid using words with “company specific” meanings. A well-written comprehensive job description for a management position might typically be about one to three pages in length.

Credentials (such as degrees and licenses) are absolute necessities in some jobs. You want to make sure whatever credentials you request should have a direct bearing on the candidate’s ability to become a top performer.

A job description should define what the person will actually do. Define the job qualifications such as skills, attributes, or credentials a person needs to perform the job. Clarify the actual tasks and responsibilities within the job description before you start thinking about what special attributes will be needed by the person who will be fulfilling those responsibilities.

Recruiting

How Does a Company Attract Top Talent?

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Mike Sweeny 3 Comments

The key to success in attracting top talent is to make your company an employer of choice. A company must set itself up as a solid, well-organized enterprise and create compelling reasons for top-notch professionals to work there. Those reasons can include excellent compensation and benefits, advancement opportunities, regularly scheduled performance reviews, and other popular perks such as flextime.

Finding the top talent is often a difficult task. Most often, these individuals are not actively seeking new employment. That means companies have to dig deeper to find the top 5 percent. Direct hiring from primary competitors is a company’s best strategy. This involves sophisticated networking and sales ability.

One networking tactic is to determine which of your current employees have already come to you from key competitors. Ask them whom they would recommend hiring from those competitors. Even if a top candidate is ultimately not interested in your position, he or she may be able to refer someone else.

Typically, companies don’t part with top talent. This talent is often well compensated, which makes the stakes higher. In addition, a company will fight to keep them. Therefore, you must be able to offer something that their current employer doesn’t satisfy, such as a new technology or–best of all–a compelling company vision.

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Choosing the Proper Recruiting Model To Assist Your Company with Hiring

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Mike Sweeny Leave a comment

Choosing the proper recruiting model to work with your company is not an easy task.  Many companies feel that all recruiting models are the same; when in fact there are vast differences.  Let’s start with an explanation of the two most common recruiting models: 

Contingency Recruiting-this is the model that most companies know about and use.  Many companies feel that it is the only recruiting model available.  Contingency recruiters represent the candidate and will submit the same candidate to a number of companies in hopes of placing this candidate anywhere.  The contingency recruiter is paid his/her fee (generally 25% of the candidate’s annual base salary) ONLY if the candidate is placed at a particular company.  The downside to this recruiting model is that contingency recruiters are basically in a race to “flip” candidates over to as many companies as they can.  The recruiter’s interest lies with the candidate, and he/she does not have the company’s best interest in mind.  Many companies use multiple contingency recruiters at the same time which only serves to compound the problem. 

In my opinion, contingency recruiting has a very low level service level, and statistics have shown that candidate attrition rate is high because the contingency recruiter is only interested in the placement and not the best fit for the company. 

Retained Recruiting-the cost of using the retained recruiting model is the same as contingency recruiting (generally 25% of the candidate’s annual base salary), but, in my opinion, offers a much higher level of service and customer satisfaction.  In a retained recruiting model, the client company “engages” the services of the retained recruiting firm by paying an upfront retainer to the firm to begin the search (generally 1/3 of the total fee with the balance of the fee (2/3) due upon the placement of the candidate).  The retained recruiting firm will sit down with the company and do a through analysis of the position’s requirements and also understand your company’s culture.  By doing this, the retained recruiting firm can offer a much better level of service to both the candidates and client company.  This is because the recruiter is ONLY representing the company.  In most cases, a good retained recruiter will tell you NOT to hire a certain candidate because of a poor cultural fit with client.  I doubt very much if that ever happens with a contingency recruiting firm.  A good retained recruiting organization will serve you as a “recruiting partner” and not just as a vendor, looking out for your company’s best interests and also representing your company well in the recruiting marketplace (an important feature to have). 

Statistics have also shown that candidates placed via a retained recruiting model have a much higher retention rate versus the contingency model.  In addition, the satisfaction level with both the candidates and the client company are higher in a retained model than with a contingency model. 

If the retained recruiting model is appealing, interview several firms to learn more about their capabilities and experiences.  Since it will serve you best to have one retained recruiting firm to be your “recruiting partner”, it is important for you to make sure that there is chemistry with that firm.  Remember, this firm will be an extension of your company and will be representing you in the recruiting marketplace. 

Partnering with the proper retained recruiting firm will not only lower your overall recruiting costs but will also result in a much higher quality of candidate with an overall better retention rate.

Recruiting Articles

Recruiting Trend for 2011

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Todd 2 Comments

Is the economy recovering from the depth of the recession? What are the recruiting trends for 2011?

The economy will begin slowly to emerge in 2011 and some employers are becoming excited about possible job openings! Early findings suggest that opportunities will emerge but employers are hesitant to crank-up hiring. Be prepared for more uncertainty – seniors need to be ready for a sudden possible shift and internships are becoming high stake events! The college segment of the market is poised to rebound this year. While overall hiring across all degrees is expected to increase, hiring at the Bachelor’s level is expected to increase. Led by upturns in hiring in manufacturing, professional and scientific services, the federal government, and large commercial banks, the Bachelor’s market will enjoy its first expansion in two years. With this good news comes a word of caution. This step is the first out of a deep hole; yet, many organizations are still not in a position to contribute positively to hiring. 

The recruiting Trends for 2011:

  • Social Media – LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have grown and many candidates using them on daily bases, the Twitter has grown form 300,00 users to well over one billion users, recruiters will use social medias more aggressively in 2011 to find passive candidates.

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  • Job Boards - Although not as popular as once they used to be but still fairly common to find active candidates.  Job boards won’t disappear and die any time soon but the time large companies posting hundreds of job postings on a single job board under an unlimited package are nearly gone. Most Companies are now splitting their job board dollars between niche sites, social media sites and everyone uses LinkedIn for certain category levels.  LinkedIn is currently second-to-none, in my opinion.  Job Boards with strong reputations such as Monster and CareerBuilder and Nice Job boards with collaboration with aggregators will continue to succeed.  Those boards that are now incorporating more recruiter-like services like personalized short-listing, reference checking, and job post writing will succeed even better

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  • Mobile Recruiting – Mobile Recruiting will be used more in 2011.  Candidates will respond to the latest positions being texted to them via their Smartphone as soon as they become available.  Companies with openings, or job boards, or Facebook Fan Pages will have the ability to simultaneously upload through an application (app or ATS system) to their users Smartphone as soon as a new job posting appears anywhere. Preliminary screening questions to be answering by a mobile phone.  Every online presence your company has for the purpose of recruiting must be configured in such a way that it can be read easily on a mobile device.  Mobile Phone and the development of new applications for recruiting will only increase in 2011. 

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  • Virtual Job fairs – Imagine for a second being able to recruit job seekers all over the country in just one day, but without ever having to leave your office. What would this mean to your bottom line? Virtual career fairs provide an opportunity for employers and job seekers to meet and interact as if face to face, but from the comfort and convenience of their home or office. Career fairs for the most part are simply resume exchange opportunities, and if this is the case, this can be accomplished virtually.
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Please Join our New Blog

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Michael 2 Comments

Please Join our New Blog.

This new multi-user blog is where Recruiters, Human Resources personal and Executives, Staffing Company owners and hiring managers can gather to find out what’s going on in the recruiting community. This is the spot to come for conversation about the art of recruiting.

If you’ve seen something so compelling you have just have to find someone to share it with, join our blog and let us know. Discuss the most recent trends in the recruiting industry or comment on existing posted articles. If it’s about the recruiting, this is the place to come.

We hope this site becomes the one spot that recruiting community can rely on to get the word out and to start the conversation. If you’d like to become a regular contributor to the blog, we can set you up. Otherwise, feel free to comment on any of the postings you see here.

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