LEAN, Just-in-Time Recruiting!

What is your top ‘source of hire’?

90% of the recruiters we poll say Employee Referrals. Most studies suggest a well run employee referral program should generate 30-40% of your external hires.

Even if you pay employees for referrals (employee referral program), they typically net the highest quality employees for a very low cost. The percentage of referrals from your top employees also indicates employee satisfaction/loyalty (or lack there of).

One of the top three (Recruitment Metrics and ATS systems are the other two) most talked about subjects is recruiting the not-looking/listener candidate. And while most ‘Post-Internet Recruiters’ are searching for that Bright Shiny New Object to identify these elusive candidates, they would be better served asking Investigative Questions (IQ’s) of their top Center’s of Influence (COI’s), or…their Employees.

While ‘peeling back a URL and/or querying a new Boolean search string’ might be sexier, us ‘Pre-Internet Recruiters’ know the easiest, most cost effective and time efficient way to find not-looking/listeners is utilizing engaging, investigative questions with our employees.

Before you spend anymore time searching the Internet for candidates, promise me that you will do some “Old-School” social networking (aka – meet someone in person and/or pick up the phone and talk to someone live).

While there are many things to consider when crafting a good “message/value proposition” statement, one thing that can’t be overlooked is your delivery!

For you recruiters that have roots in sales, you might have been taught to have a mirror in front of you whenever you were making outbound calls for new customers. The intent of this tactic was to make sure that you were upbeat and smiling when you talked on the phone.

You might also have heard the cliché “50% of the sale is your enthusiasm for your product and/or service”.

Last week I was asked to “critique” a team of recruiters “attention grabbers/pitches”. They are in the midst of a huge hiring initiative and are directly sourcing candidates from the competition.

One of the recruiters emailed me Friday offering thanks for the constructive critique of her “Pitch”. She had already seen a difference in her response rate from prospective candidates.

Now I wish I could take credit for this increase in response rates (by helping her create a great message/pitch), honestly, I bet the biggest change she made was in her delivery. I could tell (by the tone of her email to me) that she was excited about the opportunity (and better message)! I am sure that came through when making calls!

Your message needs to be compelling and “attention grabbing”. But just as important is your positive, motivating, delivery of it!

As you recruit candidates this week (either via the phone or through email) don’t forget it.

PS – that mirror thing does work – try it!

Did anyone see Rob McIntosh’s article on ERE yesterday? I have to admit that I am getting sucked into these “Bright and Shiny Recruiter Objects” as well.

If you are like me, you are getting peppered with emails about new sourcing tools, recruiter blogs, cyber tools, etc. I am finding myself falling off my Perfect Day routine and getting sucked into “evaluating” what these things are. Of course, it is taking away from my productive, billable time.

I feel guilty if I am not trying to keep up with things “new in the industry” but . . . there has to be a limit to what is legit and how much time I can spend evaluating these things.

More importantly, I think it is taking the focus and attention away from learning and executing the fundamentals of recruiting.

I often have people ask – - what does Recruiter Academy 201 look like. My response – “Master 101 and you probably don’t need 201”.

I also believe many PIR’s (‘Post-Internet Recruiters) lack basic, fundamental recruiting skills that limit their overall productively. When they struggle, they look to find the “Silver Bullet” rather than work on their “technique”.

Maybe I am missing something? Maybe I am “old-school”. Or maybe Rob is spot on!

For me – - My goal moving forward (so I do keep informed about new “Bright and Shiny Recruiter Objects” but don’t get “sucked away from the fundamentals”):
- – Spend no more than ½ hour a day during the week during non-billable time (early morning, lunch, after 6). Schedule this time into my day.
- – Don’t open emails regarding these objects during billable time.
- – No less than 2 hours a week evaluating these tools. Keep track of this time on my Perfect Day.

Back to work….