Recruiters continually navigate the debate between quality versus quantity of candidates. No recruiter wants to send unqualified or less-than-stellar candidates to an assignment. However, certain positions are considered high-frequency needs, have a greater turnover rate, are seasonal, or require mass hiring (e.g. call centers). In those instances, it makes sense to have a pool of qualified candidates available to fill positions rapidly.
Is it possible to maintain a pool of highly-qualified candidates?
The answer is a resounding…maybe. That’s because the answer centers on the answers to some other essential questions. First, who is your customer? It’s easier to maintain a pool of candidates if your customer is only filling five positions a year instead of five positions per week. Although, in today’s highly competitive market, it’s also harder to keep quality candidates in a pool because they can find other opportunities faster. The second essential question is, what is your market? Maintaining a pool of qualified software developers might be easier in larger cities than in rural communities. Regardless of how you answered those two essential questions, the bottom line is that you have to have a good 360 recruitment process in place just to attract and retain quality people. It should, at a minimum, include the following elements.
Accurate job descriptions – No matter what position needs to be filled, the first step in any effective recruiting strategy will be to create a job description that clearly outlines the purpose, primary tasks, key responsibilities, and required qualifications. Detailed job descriptions can help you eliminate unqualified candidates from the start and save you, your customer, and your candidate a lot of time.
Effective Employee Profiles – In addition to the tasks and responsibilities required of the job, it’s equally important to identify behavioral characteristics of those who succeed in the role. If twenty percent of your team are top producers, it’s worth uncovering what traits those individuals possess and narrowing your search to candidates with similar characteristics. These traits might not appear in the job description itself, but could be the basis for your pre-screening questions.
Advertise jobs in the right places – Once you identify the required hard- and soft skills for a successful candidate, it’s time to decide where to post your job. There are countless options available, but some are more successful than others.
Referrals are the most impactful candidate source around. Employees hired by referral are more likely to be regarded as quality employees and tend to stay on the job longer than those from other sources. Ensure your current employees are aware of opportunities—both present and future—and ask them to send referrals. Also, encourage your employees to the network through social media, professional organizations, and community associations. When your employees have a large network, you increase the number of potential referrals.
Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have made a huge impact on the recruiting process. However, your recruiting strategy can become bogged down by posting, reposting, updating and removing posts from multiple sites. It’s imperative to know which social media sites will target the candidates you’re seeking and the capabilities of each site.
Job boards have not lost their place in the recruiting industry. This year, Indeed topped the list as the top online recruiting source and CareerBuilder is still growing. Niche job boards are also a nice place to seek candidates for certain industries.
Trade and professional publications are still read by industry professionals. Unfortunately, it’s an often forgotten avenue for recruiting. Advertising jobs in these publications might be beneficial, especially if your ad is one of 20 instead of one of the thousands on social media or job boards.
Your company website should be a primary source for recruiting. Make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck out of your website by ensuring it’s branded; it expresses your values, mission, and vision statements; it’s mobile-optimized, and it calls job seekers to action. To attract candidates for high-frequency needs, maintain posts with generic position descriptions.
Pre-screen through phone or video – Once applicants begin to respond, use your employee profiles to develop pre-screening questions. Make use of the telephone or video interviews to pre-screen candidates before bringing them in for interviews.
Develop Relationships – Your most important task once you develop a candidate pool is to keep in touch. Make sure your candidates don’t think they’ve been forgotten. Send them frequent updates on company news. Ask them to subscribe to the company newsletter, blog, email. Offer valuable services, like coaching or training.
Measure Success –Track important sourcing and hiring data to determine areas of your recruiting strategy that could be strengthened. Here are some metrics that are important for recruiters.
Where did your successful candidates come from?
How long did it take to present a candidate to your customer after the job request came through?
How long did it take to make an offer?
What was the cost of the hire?
Overall, recruitment of good quality candidates are very possible, if you know HOW, WHEN and WHAT to do.
Is it possible to maintain a pool of highly-qualified candidates?
The answer is a resounding…maybe. That’s because the answer centers on the answers to some other essential questions. First, who is your customer? It’s easier to maintain a pool of candidates if your customer is only filling five positions a year instead of five positions per week. Although, in today’s highly competitive market, it’s also harder to keep quality candidates in a pool because they can find other opportunities faster. The second essential question is, what is your market? Maintaining a pool of qualified software developers might be easier in larger cities than in rural communities. Regardless of how you answered those two essential questions, the bottom line is that you have to have a good 360 recruitment process in place just to attract and retain quality people. It should, at a minimum, include the following elements.
Accurate job descriptions – No matter what position needs to be filled, the first step in any effective recruiting strategy will be to create a job description that clearly outlines the purpose, primary tasks, key responsibilities, and required qualifications. Detailed job descriptions can help you eliminate unqualified candidates from the start and save you, your customer, and your candidate a lot of time.
Effective Employee Profiles – In addition to the tasks and responsibilities required of the job, it’s equally important to identify behavioral characteristics of those who succeed in the role. If twenty percent of your team are top producers, it’s worth uncovering what traits those individuals possess and narrowing your search to candidates with similar characteristics. These traits might not appear in the job description itself, but could be the basis for your pre-screening questions.
Advertise jobs in the right places – Once you identify the required hard- and soft skills for a successful candidate, it’s time to decide where to post your job. There are countless options available, but some are more successful than others.
Referrals are the most impactful candidate source around. Employees hired by referral are more likely to be regarded as quality employees and tend to stay on the job longer than those from other sources. Ensure your current employees are aware of opportunities—both present and future—and ask them to send referrals. Also, encourage your employees to the network through social media, professional organizations, and community associations. When your employees have a large network, you increase the number of potential referrals.
Social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have made a huge impact on the recruiting process. However, your recruiting strategy can become bogged down by posting, reposting, updating and removing posts from multiple sites. It’s imperative to know which social media sites will target the candidates you’re seeking and the capabilities of each site.
Job boards have not lost their place in the recruiting industry. This year, Indeed topped the list as the top online recruiting source and CareerBuilder is still growing. Niche job boards are also a nice place to seek candidates for certain industries.
Trade and professional publications are still read by industry professionals. Unfortunately, it’s an often forgotten avenue for recruiting. Advertising jobs in these publications might be beneficial, especially if your ad is one of 20 instead of one of the thousands on social media or job boards.
Your company website should be a primary source for recruiting. Make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck out of your website by ensuring it’s branded; it expresses your values, mission, and vision statements; it’s mobile-optimized, and it calls job seekers to action. To attract candidates for high-frequency needs, maintain posts with generic position descriptions.
Pre-screen through phone or video – Once applicants begin to respond, use your employee profiles to develop pre-screening questions. Make use of the telephone or video interviews to pre-screen candidates before bringing them in for interviews.
Develop Relationships – Your most important task once you develop a candidate pool is to keep in touch. Make sure your candidates don’t think they’ve been forgotten. Send them frequent updates on company news. Ask them to subscribe to the company newsletter, blog, email. Offer valuable services, like coaching or training.
Measure Success –Track important sourcing and hiring data to determine areas of your recruiting strategy that could be strengthened. Here are some metrics that are important for recruiters.
Where did your successful candidates come from?
How long did it take to present a candidate to your customer after the job request came through?
How long did it take to make an offer?
What was the cost of the hire?
Overall, recruitment of good quality candidates are very possible, if you know HOW, WHEN and WHAT to do.
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