Recruitment Sourcing Magic: What’s in a Title?

When you are sourcing candidates, do you source by title, skills, or both? When recruiters tell me they search by titles only, they may be attempting to recruit the wrong candidates. Why? In the US we sometimes seem too concerned about titles and not enough about the work to be accomplished. Therefore, janitors become maintenance engineers. Then maintenance engineers in LEED Certified buildings become Directors of Green Facilities (I made that title up – I think!). Sales professionals become Business Developers, Account Representatives, Account Managers, etc. At Microsoft, recruiters become Staffing Consultants.

Recruitment Sourcing Magic: Proper Attitude

When I listen to recruiters discuss sourcing some have an amazing attitude. They are like Labrador Retrievers on the search – pant, pant, pant, There! Other recruiters act almost like sourcing is an imposition. They want to try to find the easiest way to “screen out” candidates.

Do You Confuse Sourcing with Recruiting?

“I recruit using Dice.” “I recruit using social media.” “I recruit using LinkedIn.” “What is the best job board to recruit sales (or IT or marketing or finance, etc.) candidates?” These are all questions I have seen repeatedly in recruitment Yahoo! Groups or in LinkedIn Groups.

It appears that many companies confuse sourcing with recruiting, possibly since many sourcing tools try to sell themselves as recruiting tools. While sourcing is certainly important, it is the third step in the recruitment sales process. All seasoned recruiters, corporate and third party, may leave the room…

Embrace Social Media Recruiting?

Some consultants would tell me, “It’s about time you jumped on the bandwagon!” Others would say, “That is so 30 seconds ago – now we are talking mobile recruiting!” Other consultants would say, “Certainly you have begun offering the new…!”

Post and Prey Recruitment

As I chat with companies regarding a potential recruitment contract, it has become apparent that many companies follow the same process as candidates. They post jobs on the Internet and pray they will receive the best replies from candidates. You see evidence of this on Yahoo Groups and occasionally in various LinkedIn groups when recruiters ask where they may post for different types of candidate.

Recruiting Out of State Talent Successfully

It is interesting to listen when companies complain they have difficulty attracting candidates from out of state. With a little research, a consultant may easily determine why they are experiencing those problems.

Relocation of candidates requires an understanding of psychology, an understanding that recruitment is a sales process, and a recruitment process that does not interfere with those understandings.

1960s Recruiting in 2011

Remember the 1960s? Well, there are two generations who don’t. If you were a candidate, there were three primary ways for you to find a job. If you were the personnel department, you ran a newspaper ad and waited for responses, looked at them, decided if they were a potential fit and either interviewed them or filed their resume in a file drawer.

What Makes Employees Happy?

Isn’t this the age old question? Ask 300 executives and human resource directors that question. You will receive 300 hundred responses.

If you read “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink, you will see that scientific research demonstrates that people typically fall into two groups – those intrinsically motivated and those extrinsically motivated.

The extrinsically motivated employees are motivated by conditions outside of them – money, benefits, working conditions, etc. According to Pink, they are transactional by nature – if you do this, then you will receive that.

The Offer Acceptance to Job Start Transition

Most recruiters, corporate and third party alike, have discovered that a candidate’s acceptance does not automatically translate to their start. Many events may occur to prevent the candidate’s transition to employee, particularly if they need to relocate. Therefore, it is important to stay in contact through the period between their acceptance and their start. It is also good for the hiring manager to communicate their excitement that the candidate is joining their team. Why?

Building an Effective Job Description

Hiring managers in many companies do not understand the value of an effective job description. One client said, “Just find me C++ programmers.” When I asked if he was mostly interested in application programmers or software engineers, he simply looked at me. If we found the right people, we would not waste his time reviewing resumes. After taking the time upfront, he was happy with our results.