Does preparation make for better recruiting?

Do you prepare for each day you work in recruiting? Do you script your phone calls to passive candidates? Do you prepare for each job order by researching the job market?

I have learned through experience and by reading many books on sales and recruiting that preparation is an enormous differentiators when it comes to recruiting and sales. Those that want to win the war on talent prepare for battle every day and adjust as necessary.

Preparing for your day. Before your day starts you should finish it on paper. Set goals to be completed for the day. Allow for fires that seem to start everyday in Human Resource management. Set aside some time each day to read and update your knowledge base. Make new connections as a part of your daily plan.

Scripting your calls provides a smooth and seamless message to your contacts. But practice makes perfect. If you don't rehearse your calls then you sound like you are reading from a prompter. Develop a script for voice mails too. Let each caller "hear" you smile whether it is a direct connection or a voicemail.

Every job order or requisition should start with a battle plan. First thing. Are you and the hiring manager/client on the same page? Are there any internal candidates they are thinking about? Second, you should consider your existing database of candidates. Unnecessary money is spent on advertising or search firms for candidates that could be easily minded out of your own ATS. If you don't have a good search tool, find one.

Build and maintain a candidate pipeline for all of your anticipated openings. Strong candidate pipelines communicate strong employment brands, long-term growth expectancies and potentially prevent salary wars with your competition.

Prepare for recruiting the way you would prepare for battle. Understand the market, know thine enemy, and develop relationships with your existing candidates. This will set your recruiting apart from any others and give you that competitive edge.

Does News Print Advertising Really Deliver

This week I was the presenter for one of my company's webinars called Active Sourcing.  During this webinar the audience and I discussed the different types of sourcing typically done noting the difference between active and passive sourcing.  Of course the number one passive sourcing strategy was advertising in newspapers.

When I look at today's job market I see the need for jobseekers to be as productive as possible.  So online job hunting makes sense, saves time, and saves gas.  Why would anyone want to pay for an ad in a newspaper?  At one time I worked as a recruiter for a large healthcare system.  When I joined this organization it was spending over $250,000 per year in paper advertising.  After three years I had reduced the advertising to less than $60k and even increased the amount of jobseekers applying.

How did I do this?  First I listened to what other people were doing.  Next, we purchased an ATS from a company called Jobscience.  We had to provide a lot of education to the hiring managers who felt recruitment wasn't doing their job if they didn't see the job in the newspaper.  If you are still using newsprint as a means for sourcing, take that money and invest in Google Ads or Job Boards.  You're just throwing away money if you continue.

I still need to talk about job postings.

I just can't say enough to you that recruit about job postings. Most of you format your job postings the same, job title, company description, position description and qualifications. So job seekers see a long list of jobs to choose from. Much like the way that you screen candidates by scanning headers on resumes, job seekers decide whether to check out your job posting based on what shows up in the company name, job title and location fields.

Think about it. Just because someone clicks on to review your posting does not guarantee they are going to read it all and apply. So start with something great sales gurus use; your best elevator pitch. Write several sentences to state what you do and why it matters, what the position entails and why it matters. Your job postings should never be generic. Your sole goal is to excite the job seeker enough to read on.

Job Postings: Recruits Love to Read them but We Hate to Write Them

I'm reading a good book called, "Recruit Or Die". Although the focus is on campus recruiting I find that much of the book is applicable to recruiting in general. This is the first of a two-part series on job postings. Today I want to take a brief look at the pitfalls of job postings and tomorrow I'll take a look at best practices.

According to the authors of "Recruit Or Die" there are five common advertising mistakes. Looking at the ads in the newspaper and internet we all could learn to manage our job postings more efficiently.

1. Wasting time and money on advertising that doesn't reach the target audience.
2. Leaving jobseekers confused about who you are and what you are hiring for.
3. Not targeting a specific group of people.
4. Not calling your jobseekers to action.
5. Not mentioning the good stuff.