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5 Keys to Successful Active Candidate Recruitment
This document provides 5 tips for successful active candidate recruitment: 1) write a killer job description, 2) advertise openings everywhere, 3) create a world-class employment brand, 4) source candidates through multiple channels, and 5) be personable and communicate often with candidates. It discusses the importance of employer branding, using visuals, authenticity, and providing a good candidate experience through responsive communication.
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5 Keys to Successful Active Candidate Recruitment
- 1. 5 Keys toSuccessful Active Candidate Recruitment Join the conversation on Twitter: #BRwebinar
- 2. Presenters Jen Picard Marketing Director, Bright @JenAtBright http://www.linkedin.com/in/jenpicard Jason Webster Co-Founder, Ongig @WorldWideJWeb www.linkedin.com/in/jasonwebster99
- 3. Most Candidates areat Least Semi-Active 2012 Employed, but open Active Job Seekers Employed, not open 2011 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%
- 4.
- 5. Tip 1: Write aKiller Job Description
- 6. Reasons that Candidatesare Considering a New Job Salary Need a change Top reason Career/advancement active job seekers (42%) Change careers and/or professions Not confident in employers future 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
- 7. Authenticity Is ADifference-Maker
- 8. The Use OfVisuals Is On The Rise
- 9. Tip 2: Advertise YourOpening Everywhere
- 10. Casting Lines AllOver The Internet
- 11. Don’t Sleep OnThe Value Of SEO
- 12. Tip 3: Create aWorld-Class Employment Brand
- 13. Employer Brand isTop of Mind for Recruiting Professionals
- 14. Employer Brand isTop of Mind for Recruiting Professionals
- 15. The Role OfCandidates & Employees In Branding • The experience a candidate has determines your brand’s perception…for them, as well as their friends • The stories communicated by your employees are far more powerful than any “commercial” you create • Provide these two audiences with a venue to be in the conversation • Advanced concepts can include hashtag campaigns that allow people across the organization to share pictures and video • Listen and respond!
- 16.
- 17. Tip 4: Source Candidatesthrough Multiple Channels
- 18. All Roads ShouldLead Back To You
- 19. Engage Candidates OnYour Turf • Utilize multiple channels to drive candidates to your environment • Create content that is worth sharing • Think differently about how to advertise jobs (i.e. LinkedIn Ads, Google AdWords, Promoted Tweets) • You must have a great landing page and community management strategy to capitalize on a social advertising strategy • Capture interest from candidates that don’t see the right job for them right away (i.e. Talent Networks)
- 20.
- 21. Tip 5: Be Personableand Communicate Often
- 22. Candidate Experience Matters Had a worse opinion of the company after applying and receiving no response Were less likely to buy products froma company who didn't respond to job application Have experienced a recruiter who wan't enthusiastic about the company as an employer of choice Didn't believe the recruiter was knowledgeable Have a lower opinion of the employer after being contacted for an interview Didn't think the recruiter was professional 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
- 23. The Personality OfYour Team Can Be Persuasive
- 24. Don’t Do Social,Be Social! • Pick a set of social channels you can be sure to handle • Make sure you are listening to those channels, and can respond quickly • Create a “buzz team” to help with consistency, and authenticity in communication • A trail of breadcrumbs makes it easy for active candidates to find current, authentic content about your company as they search
- 25. Thank You! • Questions?Email jen@bright.com • Find us online: – LinkedIn – Twitter – Google Plus
- 26. Sign up foryour Free Trials Bright Recruiter: bright.com/register/employer Ongig: ongig.com/create-job
Editor's Notes
- #4 According to the Jobvite Job Seeker Survey, 75% of the American workforce is open to a new job opportunity. That number is comprised of 26% being active job seekers, and 48% being employed but open to a new opportunity. It should be noted, that this number is an increase over last year.
- #5 An estimated 23% of people fall into this category. With 155 million people in the US workforce, that’s about 36 million people. A Career X Roads survey found that 80% of hires actually come from this category. This is the group of people that will apply to your jobs if they feel that it would be a good fit. The most common way employers reach active job seekers is with a job posting, and the average response is around 200 applications. By optimizing your job postings with keywords and sharing them on social media, you make your jobs easier to find. But, a common complaint we hear from recruiters is the number of unqualified candidates they receive from job postings, which is perhaps why many have moved toward proactive candidate sourcing.Sourcing active candidates can be an alternative to job postings, or supplement that approach to bring you even more qualified candidates. Since active candidates are working on their personal brand and submitting their resume, they can be fairly easy to spot. You can search for them on social media, or through search engines. To make it even easier to find these candidates, Bright offers an automated sourcing solution which takes your job description and matches it with active candidates in our database. All of our candidates have actively searched for a job in the past 30 days, so they are more receptive to your message.Since 2/3 of active candidates are currently employed, it is important to make it easy to apply. While some argue that a tedious application process will weed out candidates, what they don’t realize is that it’s the best candidates they lose. Take yourself through the application process to make sure it’s quick and easy to apply. Also make sure you’re including information in your job postings, and other places online, about why your company is a great place to work. Encourage employed candidates to apply by offering flexible interviewing options, such as video interviews or off-hour interview times. And, although you may receive a high volume of applications from your job postings and through sourcing active candidates, make sure you have an effective follow up program in place.
- #7 Everyone is looking for something different, and it may not be what you think. So discuss some of the things that your company can offer a candidate – is your company a place where they will make an impact, have more challenging work, and/or where the culture fits their personality? Give them a taste of what you will offer to them. There is no right or wrong thing to say here, so long as you’re honest about what you offer, show that you’re competitive, and position yourself as an employer of choice. This is your chance to impress top job seekers and make them want to apply for your position.
- #8 Most job ads are driven by compliance and trackingMany job ads are written by people not even in the same departmentWe heard from hundreds of candidates. They want to know:who they’ll work with who they’ll work forand what the environment is like
- #12 As amazing as it may seem, the 3rd highest source of applications is Google. Candidates are researching your company, and typically land on: Glassdoor, Indeed, LinkedIn, and SimplyHired.Bring them directly to your environment instead by:Job titles are better off being something candidates would likely searchMake sure the URL’s of your job descriptions are Google-friendlyUse keywords frequently, but don’t be spammy about itUse rich content such as video and pictures for bonus points
- #14 Source: LinkedIn July 2012 survey of over 4,700 talent acquisition decision-makers across 15 countries
- #15 First off, focus on your employment brand, and allow it to run though everything you do. Your employment brand is what makes people want to work for your company, and what makes them want to stay. A little food for thought: 86% of employees are attracted to companies by development opportunities. Include things that make your company great to work for in your job postings that active candidates look at, and include them in your outreach when you’re proactively sourcing candidates. Make sure your employees believe in your employment brand, as they will share their experiences with friends and family members, and can make for a great employee referral program.84% of companies believe a clearly defined strategy is the key to achieving employer branding objectives, so make sure you put one together.An employer brand strategy may be best planned by starting with your current employees: What do they value about you most as an employer? While many may want work-life balance, others may prefer work-life integration. Making your current employees happy is instrumental for retaining them, living your employment brand, and getting referrals. Check Glassdoor and CareerBliss for reviews to make sure your employees like working for you. Make sure they’re rewarded/promoted/recognized. What do you do for retention, motivation, accountability, reward, recognition, flexibility in work-life balance, promotion and involvement? Are your employees bragging that your organization is a great place to work?Once you know what your current employees like and dislike about the company, and what kind of culture you feel you have, decide if you’re happy with where you stand. If you want top candidates, you may find you need to change a few things. Most companies will start with basic benefits like medical, dental and retirement savings, and adding new benefits as you can afford them. But others, especially in the tech space, are learning that they can be competitive without offering higher salaries, by adding additional benefits as they can afford them. Some no-cost options include flex schedules and dog friendly offices, and some other common benefits are catered lunches, tuition reimbursement, ample PTO, comfortable office spaces, gym memberships, etc. Not only are these are low cost options compared to turnover and hiring cost, but they can help you recruit top candidates. If you offer anything above and beyond your industry standard of compensation and benefits, make sure you mention it in your job postings to encourage those top candidates to apply.Once you have your employment brand defined, make sure you share it across all your online properties – your website, social channels, job postings, etc – so that you can reach both active and passive candidates. 75% of Americans would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed. So make sure your reputation isn’t keeping you from getting top talent.
- #23 Once you have candidates that have applied from both the active and passive talent pools, don’t lose those candidates and risk hurting your employment brand with a poor candidate experience. According to CAreerbuiders Applicant Experience study, 44% of candidates had a worse opinion of the company after applying and receiving no response and 32% were less likely to be a customer for the same reason. When a candidate applies for your company, they want to hear back. With the high volume of applications that come from job postings, it’s important to have the technology in place to respond to candidates, even if it’s in bulk. A passive candidate is going to expect a little more than this, because you have convinced them to look at your opportuntity, when they had no initial intention of looking elsewhere. They will want a little more handholding, and it’s important that your communications keep them in the loop about next steps. Your interview will also fall into the candidate experience. You want to make sure that you’re allowing employed candidates the ability to interview when it won’t jeopardize their current position. Try offering a video interview or phone screen for the initial conversation, and then offering a weeknight or weekend day per month to meet outside of regular business hours. I’d be you get more qualified candidates by opening up to people who are hard at work and can’t meet during business hours.