5 Inspired Avenues for Sourcing Top Talent Start Finding Hidden Top Performers Today

Transcription

1 5 Inspired Avenues for Sourcing Top Talent Start Finding Hidden Top Performers Today Even with the plethora of candidates available as a result of today s high unemployment rate, sourcing the best candidate for any job can still be a difficult and time-consuming task. For those of us who wish to exceed the status quo and begin acquiring only top performers, there are other, less traveled avenues for sourcing that are well worth venturing into. By going beyond the basic, traditional methods of recruitment, we can more effectively fill vacancies with the right candidate and often times, with fewer hassles and less overall energy output. So let s start looking under some of the stones that have been left unturned and leveraging technology in our favor. Let s start staffing our organizations with candidates who don t just fit, but will actually excel. Continue reading to discover five places we can start looking to find top performers who would be otherwise hidden away. 1. Far Away From Generic Job Descriptions Contrary to the myth that generic job descriptions help filter candidates, they actually (a) act as a barrier to entry for top performers and (b) lead to hiring mistakes. If you re wondering whether or not your recent postings constitute generic listings, consider the following: Generic job descriptions usually include aspects of the position such as a minimum number of years of experience, a smattering of the most basic, menial tasks involved in the job, and are confined to dull or vague language. By going beyond the basic, traditional methods of recruitment, we can more effectively source the right candidate and often times, with less overall energy. If this sounds like something you ve recently tweeted, posted, or printed, you might want to reconsider. A top performer may not have all of the qualifications listed or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, they may have so many that they feel far too overqualified and consequently choose not to apply. Either way, your firm just missed out on a great catch. What s more, a generic description may actually turn the candidate off to the organization because it presents the employer in a lackluster or

2 unattractive light. Studies indicate that fewer and fewer candidates are motivated strictly by financial compensation which, in turn, means that an organizations employer brand, or their presence amongst the candidate pool, is critical. Young top performers, predominantly those arriving to the job market from Generation Y, are especially motivated by aspects of their job outside of compensation (e.g., workplace culture, positive work/life balance, ability to make a visible impact). Consequently, job postings must incorporate much more than just basic qualifications to compel candidates to apply. In essence, your job description should subtly say, Hey, everybody wants to work here. Just be sure that whatever appearance you intend to generate about your organization is actually true. If you tout aspects of employment that aren t completely founded, you re only going to further damage your recruiting efforts in the long run. 2. Beneath the Title of Reference Provider One of your greatest tools for locating top performers is to investigate your existing top performers references. After all, A-teamer s usually hang out together. Go back through your top performers reference lists and consider contacting them in regards to a vacancy. Similarly, as you engage in future reference checking conversations, be certain to ask reference providers if they know of other people who would be able to vouch for the candidate s skills and experience. Not only will this allow you to further validate candidate information, but it will also broaden your source pool for vacancies further down the road. If for every top candidate you gather five references, your sourcing database will grow exponentially in a relatively short amount of time. With ChequedReference TM, an automated reference checking solution, sourcing candidates from references is easier than ever before. Reference providers are already in your recruitment system and all of their personal information is completely searchable. What s more, ChequedReference TM integrates with LinkedIn, allowing you to connect with reference providers more easily through a social media channel. If for every top candidate you gather five references, your sourcing database will grow exponentially in a relatively short amount of time.

3 3. Behind a Bad Resume Let s begin by mentioning that resume scanning is perhaps one of the most subjective, least effective methods for effectively filtering candidates. More times than not, when a recruiter is sifting through a stack of resumes, they re being both inconsistent and biased. What s more, the process itself can easily be further skewed by the slightest distraction. It s not that it s any one recruiter s fault; it s just that we re all human. But the ineffectiveness of resume scanning itself is not the most pertinent reason that utilizing resumes as a predictive assessment is useless. More to the point, not everyone is a great writer, and even great writers may not produce the most effective resume for the individual recruiter s subjective filter. Unless the ability to compose a well-flowing article is a prerequisite for the given job vacancy, we need to be careful not to penalize those candidates who don t produce jawdropping resumes. While we can reasonably filter out those who offer work that is laden with grammatical errors or that clearly shows they are ill equipped with the necessary job skills, candidates whose resumes fall on the not so great to ok portion of the scale may very well be worth further investigation. Consider, instead, utilizing ChequedFit TM at the front of the hiring funnel. Not only is it more efficient than resume scanning, but it is far more predictive of candidate fit. Based on tailored benchmarks, the survey asks validated, job-relevant questions that determine whether or not the candidate possesses the necessary traits to excel. What s more, the instant results are extremely user-friendly for hiring managers and clearly indicate which candidate will be the best performer. Not everyone is a great writer, and even great writers may not produce the most effective resumes for the individual recruiter s subjective filter. 4. Amidst the Web of Social Media Social media is a fantastic tool that offers an abundance of opportunity from which we can source top performers. However, when engaging social media for recruiting purposes, hiring managers need to be patient. Before candidates will openly engage with us, we must first develop a reputable online presence that appropriately represents our employer brand. If done correctly, a cumulative effect of such efforts will

4 occur and, in time, candidates will be more organically driven to your social media presence. But remember: not all social media is created equal. According to a 2012 Bullhorn Reach study, LinkedIn drives more job views per job than Twitter and Facebook, sending 3 times the amount of views of Twitter and 6 times the amount of Facebook. However, the same study found that a Twitter follower is almost 3 times more likely to apply to a job posting than a LinkedIn connection and 8 times more likely to apply than a Facebook friend. So if resources are scant, be sure to strategically assess which channels you re using and why. 5. From Friends of Those You Already Know Instead of trying to find candidates that you initially know nothing about, start probing the people already around you for quality potentials. Consider asking about the friends of employees, customers, or vendors. In doing so, you re asking those who have an established relationship with you to help. Because they are vested in their relationship and are familiar with your organization, they are more likely to produce useful results. Consider this: If the owner of your favorite pub asked you if you knew of anyone who might be willing to work as a weekend bartender, you wouldn t simply pass on the name of some Joe Schmoe you know is looking for a job. You like the pub, you like the owner, and, consequently, you want their establishment to succeed. As a result, you ll more thoroughly consider your list of connections in order to produce quality results or none at all. A Twitter follower is almost 3 times more likely to apply to a job posting than a LinkedIn connection and 8 times more likely to apply than a Facebook friend. What s more, by leveraging your existing relationships, you are actually pushing the benefits of reference checking to the front of the process. You re starting with it! And given the incredible predictive nature of a quality reference check, doing so starts you off on the right foot. A New Way to Recruit If your old methods of recruiting are producing top performers that couldn t be outdone, then by all means, continue what you re doing. But if you re looking for a way to up the ante and begin sourcing a higher level of candidates, now is the time to start turning over some new

5 stones. Inventive job descriptions, alternative filtering methods, and new sources, including reference provider databases and social media, can all improve your visibility in the marketplace and get you closer to hiring the best candidate. With Chequed.com solutions, recruiters and hiring managers can more effectively seek out top talent in these hidden crevices, while also improving their ability to predict performance. Why waste time investigating applicants with a low job fit and there are certain to be a lot of them given the current expanse of the candidate pool when you could be focusing resources only on the most promising candidates? Leveraging new methods in new places may be the surest way to positively impact your hiring results. About Chequed.com References are a joke. Every company requests them, every candidate provides them, but no one checks them. Why? Because old-fashioned reference checks are phone-based, time-consuming and obsolete. Chequed.com makes reference checks relevant with an automated reference-checking solution built on assessment-based logic. As an add-on for an even greater level in hiring accuracy, Chequed.com delivers the same assessment-based screening logic in ChequedFit, a high-volume early stage pre-employment test to rapidly weed out low potential and identify high potential candidates. Chequed.com is headquartered in Saratoga Springs, NY with offices in San Diego and Boston. Further information can be found at or or ing info@chequed.com.