xScion Solutions, LLC

With all of the technology and resources we have available to us, it would be easy to let the recruiting process lose its personal touch. Mass emails, automated voicemails, and sourcing online can all be perceived as impersonal if they’re not done the right way. However, with a little extra time and consideration, all of these aspects of recruiting can become thoughtful and personal. Something as little as answering the phone before it goes to voicemail could speak volumes to potential candidates. Responding to emails in a timely manner shows the candidate that what they have to say is important to you.

Kathy Hagens’ article on ERE.net provided a lot of insight on how important a personal touch can be throughout the recruiting process. In particular, she discusses the value of meeting someone face-to-face. A resume may not always accurately reflect a candidate’s true nature, and meeting with them face-to-face could show that they would in fact be a great asset. Hagens also makes a great point by saying that accountability comes with face-to-face encounters. We are much more likely to call someone back to follow-up if we’ve met with them in person. Putting a face to a name can make a huge difference.

Hagens leaves readers with an interesting question – Would a little bit more of a personal touch improve recruiting? I would say absolutely. Technology is continuing to evolve and it’s not going to stop anytime soon. It will only become easier to lose sight of the personal side of recruiting. So, take the extra time throughout your day to be a little more personal. It could make all the difference.

I was talking to my dad yesterday and naturally he asked about the earthquake, did I feel it? Was there any structural damage to buildings? Were there any injuries? Then he asked me a question with not such a concrete answer, how was the earthquake going to affect potential candidates’ perception of the DC metro area? Would it impose a stigma on the area and therefore make it more difficult to recruit people to come live and work? I hadn’t thought about this until he brought it up. He was implying that I may have to do some damage control on any of the candidates I was talking to shortly after the quake, assure them that this is not typical of the area.

In all honesty, I think in today’s job market one, fairly minor, earthquake is not going to deter people from relocating to the DC area for a new job. People are so excited of the prospect of a job opportunity; they will overlook this minor bump in the road.

A simple search on Google for “DC earthquake” and “effects on recruiting” confirmed my theory. No one has even proposed the idea that recruiting for jobs could be affected due to the recent earthquake. So have no fear DC area recruiters, the earthquake is not going to make the ever pleasant search of finding the perfect candidate any more challenging.

Last week I attended a five day webinar put on by Brown Bag Recruiter, hosted by Amitai Givertz. The main focus was on how to get the most out of your online searches using Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and similar websites. Givertz had many good tips that I thought I’d pass along.

He says there are six rules recruiters must remember when searching through the massive amounts of information on the Internet.
1. Stay singularly focused
2. Understand the game
3. Stay lean, mean, and undercover
4. Creating avoidance will kill you
5. Stop making friends
6. Don’t bite off more than you can chew

I think the common theme in these rules is searching and networking is about quality, not quantity. It doesn’t necessarily matter if you have 20 or 200 connections on LinkedIn, but rather how you use those connections.

He highlighted the value of using Boolean search strings in Google because Google turns up with millions of websites and to have to go through pages and pages of irrelevant material is time consuming. The basic Boolean operators are: AND, OR, NOT, (), and “ “. These operators are designed to expand or limit your results and create a more targeted search.

Aside from Boolean searching he also suggested using these commands and operators for searching within Google:
Insite:
Intitle:
Inurl:
Filetype:
Ext:

Happy searching!

Yesterday I had the privilege of tuning into a webinar hosted by JobFox, a career website that connects job seekers to potential employers mainly through social media websites. The webinar was called “The Art of Social Recruiting” – quite a broad topic, but it caught my interest to see how they were going to tackle a subject that could be discussed endlessly. The speaker on the webinar was Peter Weddle, an author and columnist for CNN.com and The Wall Street Journal. He is well-versed on the subject and has written many articles on recruiting and social media.

Weddle said the common fiber across generations of job seekers is that they are all “career activists” i.e. everyone wants to do something they enjoy where they feel they can grow and be appreciated. Once you have realized this about people you are ready to pick out the top-talent. To do this effectively he said, “Remember the Golden Rule of social recruiting: What you do to recruit the best talent, will also recruit mediocre talent, but the inverse is not true.”

Peter then broke social recruiting down into different types of relationships that the recruiter needs to form through social websites. There is the ‘Blink Relationship,’ the type that is formed quickly and the ‘Red Shirt Relationship,’ one that takes time to develop and then is maintained through sporadic communication. The common goal in these relationships is to build trust between the recruiter and the job seeker. Once the trust is built, the recruiter can begin to build their network and ask for referrals from the job seeker, thus creating a pipelined network from which to drawn upon when needed.

Each relationship had a ‘Golden Rule’ to abide by, following the theme of the ‘Golden Rule’ of social recruiting. The Golden Rule of the Blink Relationship: “Flattery first, facts second.” Because the relationship is being formed quickly and most likely with little introduction, the recruiter needs to flatter the job seeker so the job seeker is more enticed to connect with them. The Golden Rule for Red Shirt Relationships: “Career first, jobs second.” These job seekers want to know that they are going to be able to advance in their career and that this is not simply a job to make money, but that there will be opportunities for upward mobility.

To put his ideas into action, he says the most important thing is to assign someone in your organization who has the time to dedicate to forming and maintaining these relationships. The only way social recruiting will work is to nurse the relationships once they have been formed and keep up with connections.