Eyes on the Prize. 5 Ways to Take the Sourcing Frontline in the War on Talent

Transcription

1 Eyes on the Prize 5 Ways to Take the Sourcing Frontline in the War on Talent

2 2 Executive summary/abstract Today s talent market is a new frontier. We ve moved beyond traditional sourcing techniques things like billboards and cold calls to address advances in technology, skills shortages, shifting global dynamics, and increased competition. And amidst all the change, one thing has become clear: Sourcing success demands adaptation and innovation. If you want to be the company with the most qualified talent, you can t wait for an open job requisition to go on the hunt. You must source in advance and start big. From social recruiting to communication campaigns to the application of real-time sourcing analytics, this ebook will walk you through five must-have strategies currently dictating the future of sourcing. If you re looking to take your organization to the frontlines of the competitive talent hunt, consider this book your weapons manual. Read and succeed.

3 3 Introduction Once upon a time, sourcing was a more traditional beast. If a company had open requisitions to fill, it would look for the right talent to fit those jobs often through more old-fashioned methods, such as cold calling, career fairs, billboards, and newspaper ads. And sourcing typically ceased at the point names and resumes were handed off to recruiters. Then the screening and hiring processes began. No open jobs? No need to source. Today, things are different. We are now in a global talent market, where candidates are no longer tethered by geography. We are networked socially through a variety of media platforms ones that people visit daily and are accustomed to using for both business and personal endeavors. We are facing a massive skills shortage in a number of critical industries, such as manufacturing and engineering, even as we see a hefty percentage of unemployed labor. In fact, companies are actively fighting for candidates with the right skills. And we move at the speed of light, it seems. Technology has shortened the cycle of nearly every business process, and companies that wait to move on a smart sourcing trend might pay a hefty cost. These factors have all influenced the world of sourcing, and several things have become clear: Companies need ready talent pipelines even when they are not looking to fill specific jobs. Companies can t afford to neglect networking opportunities presented by social media. Filling skills gaps means sourcing and nurturing all qualified candidates whether they re job-seeking or not. The right technology is imperative to making sourcing simple, manageable, and successful. If your organization is committed to improving its sourcing strategies, how do you shift focus to adapt to these changes and become a front-runner in the future? Let s look at five steps you can take right away.

4 4 NUMBER 1: Take advantage of social networking. This one probably seems like a no-brainer these days, but let s clarify some of the reasons you should place greater effort on your social sourcing strategy. Active job seekers are using social media more frequently. Active job seekers are out in full force on the Big Three social network platforms Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. In fact, according to the 2012 Social Job Seeker Survey, 52% of people actively looking for jobs are using Facebook to help find work. Similarly, 38% use LinkedIn to find work, and 34% use Twitter. All of these percentages are up substantially from This is not surprising, as more and more people are successfully finding employment through social media channels. In 2012, one in six people credited social media usage with their current job 1. Passive candidates use social media, too. Unlike job boards, which are largely targeted by people actively looking for work, social networks are also crawling with people who are not actively looking for jobs but who might consider the right opportunity. 2 In fact, 83% of fully-employed members on LinkedIn consider themselves passive when it comes to their jobhunting status. 3 Why should you seek out these folks? Because passive candidates are often employees with skills that are in high demand. 4 In other words, they don t need to be looking for work but that doesn t mean they don t have the skills and experience that are highly desirable to your organization. This is in stark contrast to what we are now seeing on job boards, according to industry expert Josh Bersin, where the landscape is changing dramatically and becoming crowded with applicants who do not meet basic job qualifications. 5

5 5 Social networks are familiar, intuitive, and mobile hangouts. People don t just turn to social networks for job information. They actually hang out and spend time on these platforms which is not something that can be said for job boards. Not surprisingly, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have become second nature to many people. We access these sites from wherever we are, on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Social sourcing taps into this ubiquity by engaging with people where they already are. If someone wants to express interest in your company or learn more about your corporate culture, for example, they don t have to navigate away to an external career site. Your reach becomes exponential. Isn t this the whole point of social networking? The connections are limitless. Not only can companies broadcast to an audience of billions, but they can also use social media to narrow-cast to specific segments of talent. In addition, social media is an ideal vehicle for employee referrals which significantly reduce the time and cost of hiring. Using social sourcing, employees can continually share your opportunities amongst their friends and improve your employment brand. Referrals also help you increase the odds of finding talent that s similar to your top-performing employees.

6 6 Tips Track your progress. Make sure you keep records on your communications and can easily see how successful your social sourcing efforts have been. Automate. Whenever possible, look for ways to automate your posts on social networks in order to ensure consistency and regularity. And do the same for your employees, so it s easier than ever for them to refer friends to your talent pool.

7 7 NUMBER 2: Focus on acquiring skill sets. Ironically, despite millions of unemployed people in the world, most countries are also experiencing a huge skills shortage. That means there are plenty of warm bodies applying for specific jobs, but a pulse and an application does not equal a viable candidate. Many applicants don t meet the necessary skill requirements for the jobs they re trying to win. In a 2012 survey, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) found that many companies attributed their existing skills gap to a lack of alignment between what was available in the candidate pipeline and the skills needed to accommodate the company s changing goals and strategies. 6 A lot of organizations believe this is cause for companies to focus on developing key skills internally. This is a solid idea but it s not enough. Training and development aren t always feasible, and as a company s strategies and business models change, turnover is often likely. It makes sense, then, to also focus efforts on sourcing by critical skill sets not by current job openings so candidates with the right capabilities are always identified and ready to tap before you actually need them. Unfortunately, on average, only 7% of global companies dealing with skills shortages are currently trying to fill their talent pipelines through proactively sourcing skills. 7 And that can be costly. According to the ASTD survey, 77% of companies believe their skills gap is causing lower productivity, and 42% find their organizations are less efficient. 8 Forward-thinking companies should pinpoint which skill sets are vital to achieving and sustaining business results, and then concentrate sourcing efforts on ensuring those skills are on hand. This approach is more likely to give your organization a competitive edge, according to research from Qualigence, which states that a ready pool of qualified candidates can return huge dividends in the end, saving both time and money and eliminating hasty hiring mistakes. 9 But act fast. If you wait too long to start looking for the right skills, you could lose candidates to your competitors.

8 8 Tips Organize your prospects. Don t just collect skills you can t find at a later date. Be sure you manage your talent pool in a searchable database, not in a spreadsheet or on sticky notes. Understand your critical needs. Get input from company leadership on business strategies, important skills, and overall corporate objectives. The skill sets you target should align with desired business results.

9 9 NUMBER 3: Engage, engage, engage. You wouldn t reach out to customers and gain their interest, only to file them away and ignore them. So why do so many recruiting organizations do that with their talent communities? If you are going to the effort to source skills proactively and leverage the reach of social media, you also need to work on engaging and nurturing the prospects you capture. This is called Candidate Relationship Management (CRM), and according to one Aberdeen analyst it is most successful when organizations are able to treat candidates with the same attention they give customers. 10 Remember, your goal is to convert prospects to candidates when the time is right, and that requires communication that is: Targeted. Know who you re talking to, above all else. You cannot interest people you know nothing about. Come up with a communication plan, and understand which channels such as , web page, or social media align best with the message you re sending and the audience you are trying to reach. Bear in mind that you probably cannot engage active job seekers in the same way you need to engage passive candidates. Consistent. Be sure your plan incorporates a regular schedule for connecting with your talent pipeline in order to maintain interest, and follow up on any responses you may receive. Then stick to the schedule. Creative. If you re interested in a prospect, odds are other companies are as well. In order to remain competitive, be sure your communications are creative enough to be remembered. And keep that creativity coming. Relevant. Don t let a slew of unimportant messages kill prospect interest particularly when you re dealing with passive candidates who aren t even looking for jobs. Only communicate information that matters. For example, send segmented messages and posts that appeal directly to the prospect s career needs. 11 This is where sourcing truly becomes an art and a science. Be sure you are capable of developing informative communication campaigns that give prospects the specific details that interest them. Urgent. As soon as you hint to passive candidates that you re interested, you trigger a switch that gets them considering a possible career move. Now more than ever, you need to stand out and move swiftly. The clock might be ticking.

10 10 Tips Keep it simple. There s no need to create elaborate communication campaigns. You can be just as engaging in plain text as you can in HTML, as long as you have something meaningful to say. The important thing is to communicate clearly. Modify as needed. If you re not seeing favorable results from your communication campaigns, go back to the drawing board and try something new.

11 11 NUMBER 4: Have the right tools. While all of these strategies may be useful to your organization, they re relatively pointless if you don t have the right technology and tools available. Fortunately, now is a good time to be formulating a more competitive sourcing strategy, as a number of CRM options and innovative new features have recently appeared on the scene. Before you dive headlong into a CRM platform, however, think about how you will use it. Industry expert Kevin Wheeler emphasized the importance of this back in He wrote that the only goal of candidate relationship management is to develop a pre-screened pool of candidates for positions you have or might have in the future. If you can do this before you have a need, you will provide hiring managers better candidates faster. 12 In other words, if you re looking for return on investment through more effective and efficient hiring, you need a CRM system that s capable of helping you manage a lasting talent pool. That means seeking out technology that: Makes adding prospects easy, regardless of their sources. You certainly don t want to depend on manual data entry. Look for features like bulk resume import, integration with LinkedIn profiles, or ways to allow passive candidates to add themselves to your talent pool right from a web page, for example. Puts everything in one accessible place. Centralization has long been lacking in the sourcing arena. Too often, recruiters and HR professionals rely on haphazard spreadsheets or, in some cases, whatever they have stored in their brains. Bad ideas. You need a database that s an asset for the company, not a Rolodex that only benefits the sourcer. And don t make the mistake of thinking an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will handle everything. Amassing a talent pipeline in a CRM system is not the same as tracking candidates through the hiring process in your ATS. This is where you will store prospects and if you want to be able to find them when you need them, then you must capture everything all together, in a searchable, accessible location that remains with the company even if a sourcer or recruiter leaves.

12 12 Goes beyond basic social media integration. Anyone can post on Twitter. You want intuitive and innovative apps that help you capitalize on a social network s distinct benefits. For example, you could use an app that lets you turn your company Facebook page into a career site, to target passive candidates visiting your page. Or tools that let you automate social media broadcasts according to a custom schedule. Is built for engagement. An efficient and centralized CRM should also enable you to communicate with your prospects directly from the system, with tools that help you create campaigns across multiple channels, as well as analytics that track campaign success. Plays well with other technology. Just because you re looking to implement a CRM system doesn t mean you have to ditch your other recruiting applications. Look for a platform that is designed to integrate seamlessly with any major ATS, so you can directly turn prospect records into candidate records when it s time to start the hiring process. Tracks and reports everything. Yes, everything from sourcing origins, to engagement metrics, to candidate conversion. The more information you have, and the more ways you can customize reports, the better positioned you are to improve your sourcing success.

13 13 Tips Be thorough. There are plenty of products emerging in the CRM and sourcing space. Know which features best meet your business needs, and do your homework on which vendors fit the bill. Always ask to demo. You ll never know if technology is intuitively user-friendly unless you try it out firsthand.

14 14 NUMBER 5: Apply analytics. As you begin to change your sourcing mindset, you come to see where traditional approaches most fall short: They are based on the notion that, at some point, sourcing stops. We live in far too competitive a talent market today to let that notion stand. The future of sourcing lies in building and managing a lasting talent pool. That means you cannot let your pool grow stale or run dry. You must continually find ways to discover qualified talent, engage prospects, and turn possibilities into new hires. And you need to do these things in real time. You must stop guessing, and start making decisions based on current data. Succeeding in this quest for continuous improvement requires that you understand what s working, what is not working, and why. If you have a CRM platform that provides adequate real-time analytics, you can create detailed reports that outline your metrics clearly. Then it s up to you and your organization to determine how to apply what you ve learned. For example: If you discover that your latest campaign has a low open rate, you can immediately refocus engagement efforts on other channels, such as web pages or social networks. Alternatively, you can try rethinking your creative strategy. If you deploy a tool that enables you to capture passive candidates from a variety of web pages, and you notice one page is outperforming the other, you can lose the low-performing page and try a new site. Bottom line: You must apply real-time analytics in order to evolve and improve.

15 15 Conclusion Make no mistake: Change is underway in the world of sourcing. Companies are increasingly seeing the business impacts of both effective and ineffective sourcing strategies. 13 A 2012 report from the McKinsey Global Institute predicts a potential global shortage of 38 to 40 million high-skills workers in 2020 (13 percent of the demand for such workers) and 45 million middle-skills workers (15 percent of the demand). If you don t begin rethinking your approach to sourcing today, you could be one of the many organizations that will bear the brunt of a skills gap down the road. With the right focus on today s most compelling trends and innovative technology, you can start changing your sourcing destiny right away. Just keep your eyes on the prize: a long-term talent pool, and a highly qualified, high-performing workforce Social Job Seeker Survey, Jobvite Talent Shortage Survey, Manpower Group, p The McKinsey Global Institute June 2012 report, The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people.

16 16 About Jobvite Jobvite is the only recruiting platform that that delivers real-time recruiting intelligence with innovative technology for the evolving social web. Leading, fast-growing companies today use Jobvite s social recruiting, sourcing and talent acquisition solutions to target the right talent and build the best teams. Jobvite is a complete, modular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that can optimize the speed, cost-effectiveness and ease of recruiting for any company. To find out more, click on any of the links below to take a product tour. Jobvite Refer provides your employees with a fast and easy-to-use tool for sharing job openings within their social networks. Referral helps you reach more passive candidates, promote your company s employment brand, track your success, and spot your top referring employees all with an eye on cost-efficiency. Jobvite Engage is a centralized system that helps you search for, collect, and cultivate a lasting talent pool. Easily scour through social networks, résumé databases and the Internet to line up prospects with the skill sets your company needs even when they re not actively searching for a job. Jobvite Hire is a practical, intuitive web-based platform that helps you effectively manage every stage of hiring. It s the only social recruiting and applicant tracking solution that makes it easy for everyone to work together on hiring. With Jobvite Hire, you can improve the speed and quality of talent acquisition, create a great candidate experience, increase referral and social network hires all while using fewer resources. Ready to learn more? Request a free demo!