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.

Developing a strategy for employment branding

Employment branding isn't rocket science. It is using basic marketing principles to set the stage for jobseekers. Your employment brand is important to your success in recruiting. If you have a strong employment brand don't break it down by hiring jobseekers who do fit culturally. Here are four basic things to focus on when developing your employment branding.

1. Create an incredibly easy-to-remember and powerful story regarding your organization. It has to be unique and stand out. Remember that people are your best marketers and that they can spread your storey much faster than advertising ever could. Think about the power of social networks.
2. Actively engage and participate in every recruiting and job hunting discussion you can find. Start having conversations with your jobseekers and current employees. Offer seminars for jobseekers. Be active leaders in the community regarding your niche.
3. Set up a closed community of people who already love what you do and love your organization. Use them to collect information to maintain a good reputation in the employment community. This community should only be open to the employees in your organization. Poll them often to keep your employment brand relevant and pure.
4. Own your career website and make sure that you are providing not only information about your organization, but make it the place for anyone who is looking for information regarding your community. If you endorse community participation, put that information there. Help people get connected in your community.

There are millions of job postings on the web. What makes your career site and organization stand out from all of the clutter? Think about this and use the four steps to creating an employment brand that attracts the right kind of jobseekers.

What Are Recruiting Functins Not Doing

I was reading an article today on a need for a paradigm shift from a Sales role to more of a Marketing role. The idea promotes a turn from selling the organization to developing an employment brand based on employment satisfaction. APQC and Kennedy performed a survey asking the respondents if they every measured the satisfaction of the recruitment experience. Sixty-two percent said they did not.


The article also implied that recruiters are pressured into a sales role because of the desparate need for qualified resources. In addition, the sales roles focuses on the internal needs of the facility to fill a position and not necessarily the needs of the individuals. I'm not sure I completely agree wth this due to the nature of the competitive market. More often than not we accommodate as much of the jobseekers desires as we are able to afford (politically speaking).


I do see the advantages of employment branding. It is effective and sells the organization's goals, mission, beliefs, etc. Branding is not dating; it's commitment. I learned a lesson when I was recruiting in healthcare. If you sell a brand new facility, you'll receive candidates who want the newest and the best and will leave when someone else has built a new facility. If you sell comp and benefits they'll leave when someone pays more or offers better benefits. We tend to sell for the short term.

If you sell your employment brand then you will attract candidates who are looking for the same values, goals and business objectives. This could be more of a match made in heaven. If you are trying to recruit for the long-haul, employment branding may be your best bet.