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Recruiting Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for finding qualified candidates online?
Please list, in detail, 3 tips that you would like to share with the Focus community on how to find qualified candidates online. High quality contributions will be included in an upcoming report on corporate recruiting best practices, and will receive significant promotion on the Focus network.
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7 Answers
There are tons of strategies for recruiting online, and the most important ones will get you into relationships with the passive workforce that recruiters most often seek.
Here are three tips we utilize:
1) Go where the people are: If you want to reap the benefits of attracting candidates from online sources one important thing that you need to do is get online. Create strong online profiles and/or directory listings that let candidates know what areas you specialize in and how they can get in touch with your firm.
If professionals see you as a part of "their environment" they will feel more comfortable contacting you as one of the insiders of their niche.
2) Contribute: Being a part of the online community is not enough. If you want to get great results you have to attract others to you, which is not an easy task since there is a lot of “noise” online. One top strategy is to contribute.
Try answering questions (like on FOCUS!), help others solve their problems, contribute valuable information, and even compliment others while in the group that share great information. Resist the temptation to “pitch” your services in a direct way via online communities, as no one likes a sales-pitch. Contributors are appreciated remembered and contacted at a much higher rate than those that join a group just to stalk.
3) Use the right technology, but know when to go offline: If the right candidate is not already in our back pocket (as search entrepreneurs we strive to know who they all are, what they excel at, and what they are looking for in their next career move), then we leverage our online search efforts via Broadlook Technologies. Their Internet research software suite targets the top talent we seek in real time. We spend much less time researching and more time getting to the professionals we want to talk with.
Online communities are a great place to impress a large number of people with your knowledge, but once you have connected via the group be sure to make contact with members of your online community on a one on one basis if you really want a relationship with them. Going offline also means picking up the phone - still the best was to develop a long lasting rapport with the top talent you seek!
1.) Be definitive in your job description. Especially if you use LinkedIn remember it is global. I see to many recruiters just have the header "I am hiring" qualified candidates do not bother with these as it is unprofessional.
2.) Use LinkedIn, and professional organizations to find candidates.
3.) Read beyond the buzzwords. qualified candidates are being overlooked for the lack of one buzzword. Companies are missing great opportunities by settling for second best.
Finding qualified candidates online can be highly effective when executed properly.
Here are my tips to sourcing the best talent online:
1. Know where to look.
To a recruiter, time is money and a strong recruiter knows what online sources to start with. For example, sales and IT talent tend to be highly-networked and will be easy to find on high-traffic networking sites. Joining specific talent groups on major networking sites such as LinkedIn has proven very useful to me as well. Also, I strongly believe recruiters should have two Facebook profiles, one for their personal friends and a professional Facebook profile for candidates to source out, post feedback, refer open positions and network with.
2. Source passive candidates online as creatively as possible
The best talent are always getting calls from recruitment firms or companies who "have a great opportunity" for them. You need to make yourself stand out and also create awareness online that you are the "go to" for finding the perfectly-matched position. Executing online talent campaigns through posting on a regular basis in peak recruitment times (ie: the New Year) will help build resumes from online sources. Network and follow candidates on LinkedIn that are up and comers, and always ask for referrals from more senior people you are connected to.
3. Get past the paper (but a great keyword search doesn't hurt)
There are so many excellent resume writing software programs, coaches, etc. that keyword-rich resumes are becoming the norm. Ensure that you are conducting the right keyword search online and start with a broad net, working your way inwards or refining later. Once you have a good pool of resumes, I like to scan all of them, trying to read beyond the keywords and looking and the company, tasks, and progression a candidate has. Past performance predicts future behaviours usually, so keep this in mind when sourcing, and ultimately screening candidates.
Angelee Marcantonio
Director of Client Services
Partner at EHRSearch
www.ehrsearch.com
Recruiting employees online is a whole different ballgame from traditional hiring methods. Some of the tactics remain the same but the audience is different (find the passive candidates. Connecting with the right candidate requires a strategic approach to online recruiting, since it can be difficult to choose the right plan for your company.
1. Do not waste time, efforts or money on networks/job boards/sites that do not match your target demographics. Looking for a senior candidate try Linkedin or the Ladders. Seeking lower level talent try Facebook or niche trade focused recruiting sites.
2. Target the niche focused job sites or the niche focused groups within Social Media sites. Seeking a Safety professional try a niche site such as EHSCareers or one of the many construction safety groups on Linkedin.
The real candidate gold hides inside the networks that target individuals with specific occupations and hobbies, as well as college/corporate alumni and military sites.
3. Move fast, use boolean searching techniques when possible, and start with Social Media if you have the prowess and the network built up. Linkedin is always the first site I reach out to for most of my passive candidate online searches. It costs little or nothing and the talent pool in most cases is far greater than that of the major job boards. I have hired 8 folks alone in the past year that I have found on Linkedin. I cannot make that claim in regard to the large job boards. be proactive and build your social media presence and watch the candidates come to you! be professional, polite yet AGGRESSIVE.
Social media is great as are niche sites but remember they are only apart of an overall effective online recruiting/sourcing plan.
Recruiters can also install the Facebook recruiting application 'Work for Us' on their company's fan page to find qualified candidates on Facebook.
The app is free and turns your Facebook Page into a powerful recruiting tool: you can post jobs to your Facebook Page, create customized ads for jobs through a proprietary statistical engine, and utilize advanced social features and Twitter integration to help jobs go viral. The app even imports and integrates seamlessly with career sites and ATS’s.
Here is the link: http://bit.ly/WorkforUs
1. Find your niche, site that is. You can identify online postings that generate more targeted candidates through professional organizations, career specific job boards and locations. These will be much more fruitful than the "big boards."
2. Make certain that your company web site presents the picture you want a candidate to see. When a good candidate applies they will look up the company and should be able to find it. Potential candidates should also be able to easily fiond careers or jobs, either openings or how to apply, from the homepage.
3. Make the web only part of your sourcing. Use it for networking just as you would an industry event.
http://www.allbusiness.com/labor-employment/resumes-curricula-vitae/14771596-...
I think the biggest plus points of being online- is the increased reach & 'dwindling' response time.
Technology helps us stay connected, and it is imperative that we upgrade our professional skills constantly.
I believe one is most effective when 'more qualified people' find you..rather than our finding them online :)!
I try and stick to the basics:
1. Be just as natural you are-as you wd do in the 'physical world' ie not just when you are not online! Be genuinely interested in making a difference to as many as we can.
2. Be accessible! Stay engaged in whichever community you are present. The more you give-the more you get!
3.Believe in the power of collaboration. For 'none of us' is as good as 'all of us' or even 'some of us'!
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