For Employers And Recruiters

If Your Online Job Ads Aren't Working As Well As You'd Like...

Are your online job postings attracting as many high-quality applicants as you'd like?

Do your online job postings provide salary information?

If the answer to both questions is "no," there's most definitely a connection. As an employer, I understand all the reasons why you don't list salary on your job postings. But the fact of the matter is, you're turning off a lot of job seekers by failing to include this information. Specifically, you're turning off the better job seekers, who won't bother to consider an opportunity unless they know the salary and it's acceptable.

Sourcing the best from the best

It is an honor yet again to share a guest posting, by way of the Great Blogswap, full of very useful recruiting information. This week, my guest is Jim Stroud, a great blogger and all around versatile thinker.

In support of the Blogswap sponsored by Job Syntax and Recruiting.com, here is a sourcing strategy I hope proves useful.

Sourcing the best from the best

How do you decide which companies to target in your recruitment initiatives? Sure major competitors come to mind immediately, but why stop there? Why not create your list based on the best companies operating in your field? (Especially those companies with award-winning products!) Do you know them all? Are you sure? You may want to do a search in MSN for top companies in your space using the following string: [ intitle:award.winning keyword ]

I tried this strategy on MSN to find leads for top companies operating in the electronics space. My search string looked like this:

[intitle:award.winning intitle:electronics ]

Here are a few examples of what I found:

LG Electronics Unveils Next Generation of Award-Winning TV ...

Wallingford Electronics is Austin's award-winning computer integrator ...

econoSTACK - an award winning project in power electronics

Philips Innovation Campus Delivers Award Winning Video and Audio ...

To switch things up a bit, let’s do a similar search on Yahoo with the following search string:

[ intitle:best.of  intitle:electronics ]

Here are a few examples of what I found:

Best of CES Awards - CES 2006 - Consumer Electronics Show Las Vegas - CNET.com

Best Of CES 2005 - Hot Products Shown At The 2005 Consumer Electronics Show - CES Photo Gallery Two

Cobra Electronics Wins Prestigious ICES Best of Innovations Award

Article | Arrow Electronics Named to Forbes ``Best of the Web B2B''

And (why not?) here is the same search (more or less) on Google with the following search string:

[ (intitle:award.winning | intitle:nominated.for ) consumer.electronics ]

Here are a few examples of what I found:

Cirrus Logic Powers SONICblue’s Award-Winning Rio Riot

Plantronics Showcases Award-Winning Headsets at Consumer ...

Sling Media :: Sling Media Develops PAL Version of Award-Winning ...

So, with a quick scan I have discerned that some of the top (award-winning) electronic companies are: SlingMedia, Plantronics, Cirrus Logic, Arrow Electronics, Cobra Electronics, LG Electronics and Philips. Not to mention those cited in some of the articles linked above. Hmmm… if these companies are winning awards, I might want to recruit some of their people.(Smile) Additional search terms you may want to consider are: “Best of,” “Top 100,” “Best Companies,” “Award Winning,” “Nominated For,” “Best of Breed” and “Fastest Growing.”

If you like this kind of thing, check out my Digability guides and add a few more strategies to your bag of tricks.

Happy Hunting!

Posted with pleasure by:

Jim Stroud
Recruiter-Sourcer-Blogger-Podcaster-Author-Cartoonist-Nice Guy

FAQS: All you wanted to know about my blog, but were afraid to ask
WEB: http://www.jimstroud.com

A Diverse Recruiting Arsenal

Employers will occasionally debate the relative merits of various forms of finding good employees -- the web, job fairs, third party recruiters, newspaper ads, employee referral programs, etc.

As the talent pool diminishes, even while the need for skilled workers increases, I don't think you can choose favorites. Effective recruiting requires a variety of channels.

Even just your online efforts should mix things up. Now that the web has become the cornerstone medium on which to post jobs, you can't afford to choose just a single employment Web site. If you really want to cover all the bases, start with the strongest local employment Web site you can find. (Start here.) For somewhat specialized positions, find the best "vertical" (industry-specific) employment site you can. If supply and demand require you to expand your search nationally, add one of the big national sites to your arsenal.

You can complement these efforts by Web-based searches for candidates. Web-based networked like LinkedIn.com are great. Industry-specific online networks like ere.net (for recruiters and employers) can be useful. Creative techniques include searching the Web (and "blogosphere") for candidates with the right skills.

Meanwhile, complement these channels with non-internet based efforts. An employee referral program is a must. Job fairs and networking events where you can target the right type of candidates and meet them face to face are also invaluable.

Finally, the cutting edge of recruiting (especially as things get increasingly competitive) is employer branding. This blog will continue to expand on this important subject. Your employer brand can dramatically enhance your recruiting efforts. It can also undermine them. Here's one tip: work with employment Web sites that offer features that help with your employer branding, rather than just posting your jobs. (Again, start here for a network of sites that offers several powerful tools.)

Even if your recruiting efforts are going pretty well, don't wait for the "war for talent" to really get going. Establishing a diverse portfolio of recruiting channels will pay off in the years to come.

The Case Against Resume Databases

At the national network of employment Web sites I work for, one question we frequently get asked is how many candidates we have in our resume database.

I’m not a big believer in resume databases, as a recruiting tool or as a metric for evaluating the "caliber" of employment Web sites. Granted, I know recruiters who prefer "mining" (searching the web, resume databases, etc. for candidates) over the more traditional “bait fishing” method of posting a job and waiting for applications. But here’s few reasons I’ll stick with the worm and bobber:

1. Who posts their resume online? Almost without exception, unemployed job seekers. In many cases, there is a reason these job seekers are unemployed. And generally, by virtue of their unemployment, they aren’t keeping their skills up to date by using the job skills you are looking for. Finally, this group is usually anxiously working any number of different employment Web sites. So, the resume database you are searching is the same one every other employer is searching.
2.  If you are familiar with OFCCP (or worse yet, subject to it), you realize that the government is clamping down on laissez faire use of the internet to find candidates. Covered employers must save resume searches and possibly defend them later — why all the criteria are relevant (or at least have neutral impact on protected groups). The logistics alone — trying to save all the searches that everyone in your organization performs, knowing that you may be held accountable to defend them — has proven to be enough to scare some employers off resume database searches.
3. Exclusively mining resumes for hidden gems does absolutely nothing for your employer brand. In contrast, "Bait fishing" (utilizing job postings, company profile, etc.) can be a powerful channel for your employer branding.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t complement your use of employment web sites (job postings) with more aggressive techniques in which you search for top-notch talent. (This is strongly comparable to the field of marketing, which recognizes that combining "push" and "pull" media can create synergy.) Of all the ways you can add a "push" dimension to your recruiting, however, relying on resume databases should represent only a small portion of your time & energy.

Who Are You?

There are two basic questions a job seeker has when they check out your online job postings.

1. Who are you?
2. What jobs are you offering?

OK, I admit this is pretty obvious. So, try this... hop onto one of our employment Web sites, pretend you are a job seeker, and click around. Check out the various company profiles and the job postings. For what percentage do you feel like your two basic questions are answered, completely and compellingly?

Very few. Which, of course, creates a huge potential advantage for you, an employer interested in better recruiting! For now, let's skip the job postings and focus on company profiles.

If you analyze the company profiles you see online, you will quickly note that the majority are written for customers and prospects, not job seekers. The simple reason for this is that they took advantage of copy that was already written -- usually for the "About Us" section of their Web site.

That's not a huge problem (especially if its well written) but first impressions count. Your company profile is your big chance to make your proverbial "first impression." Another way of looking at this: it is your opportunity for your very best pickup line!

So, how should you answer the question "who are you" -- what is your company like? Here are a few specific suggestions about the best answer:

• What makes you special? Talking about how "our people are our most important asset" fails this test miserably.
• What would make the ideal employees want to work for you? (Hint: it's often about the challenge.)
• Tell stories. If you can encapsulate the answers to the two preceding questions in a simple story, you will have a great profile.