by Dave Clough
If someone is already passionate about your company, she could make a great hire! Create a page (or ask your web designer) for “Careers at [COMPANY]” so that all of the information is in one place. Make sure your company culture is clearly defined on this page. Good candidates will check out your website. Your “Careers” page, and reasons to work for your company should be easy to find for both candidates and search engines (see Google below).
Industry specific sites:
These tend to find the passive candidates – those that might peek at ads if convenient to see what is happening in the market. If you are looking for someone in the legal field, look to advertise in a legal publication (online and/or offline). The same is true of using trade journals for all licensed professional positions: Accountants, Doctors, Engineers, etc.
Indeed:
Some job listings on Indeed are free to post, but they have recently started charging more to post (usually between $5-10). It uses a pay-per-click method to “boost” your job for more visibility. Indeed is also an aggregator: it pulls jobs from hundreds of sites. One can manage candidates within Indeed, and can send rejection notices (or other notes) quickly and directly to candidates. Indeed is typically the most useful site that we use.
ZipRecruiter:
When you post a job on ZipRecruiter, that job posting is published to 100+ websites (according to their marketing). These include Glassdoor, Jobr, and College Recruiter. Candidates can apply quickly and easily – you can manage them in the ZipRecruiter database, and applications also are emailed directly to the account on file. The benefit of posting to websites such as ZipRecruiter is that you get more people seeing your listing for a flat fee. Their basic account once was $99/month for up to 3 job postings, but that cost has tripled at the time of this writing. Maybe it will be reduced if hiring slows.
Industry specific recruitment sites:
These will vary by industry – they usually will push to a number of other recruiting sites including Indeed. (Examples include: fitnessjobs.com, dice.com)
Craigslist:
Craigslist can be effective for the home services industries or part-time positions, but is not great for more corporate positions. The quality of candidates you receive will depend on the position posted. Since there are so many job-specific websites now, Craigslist isn’t used for hiring as much as it was in the past.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is an amazing networking tool, depending on your number of contacts. With a big enough list, chances are, at least one of your contacts knows someone (or will reach out to her network) who is in the field you need.
Have your employees create a post for the job opening on their personal profiles to boost visibility.
You should post a “company page” that shares more information about your business. For a fee, you can include a “Careers” tab on the company page to promote job openings. You can also actively recruit LinkedIn members if you have a Recruiter Lite account with job slots, or a premium recruiter account.
Google for Jobs:
HOLD EVERYTHING! Things just got interesting. Indeed is currently the best place to post a job, and it was one of the best places to look for a job. But in May of 2017, Google announced that its regular search engine will deliver job listings based the searcher’s criteria. It knows every website already, so it already has all of the job listings. This will likely have the biggest impact on Indeed and ZipRecruiter, the two biggest aggregators, which charge big money to promote job listings. Google will find the jobs where they are and send the job seeker to the site where it found the listing.
Google hasn’t proven yet that it will dominate, so keep Indeed in your plans for the near future. As an employer, it now makes sense to also focus on a quality posting on your own website. Then go to sites that support your industry. Job seekers who know your industry might go to them, and the rest may just use Google.
If you are planning to use any of these online tools, you may want to create an email alias that forwards to all parties involved, just to keep everything in one place (such as [email protected]). The email alias can also be forwarded to another email address if the recruiting person leaves the company, or the incoming email can go to 2 or more people.
Since hiring tools such as ZipRecruiter and Indeed have a built-in messaging system that hides your real email address, you can communicate via the tool instead of your email. You can also reject unqualified candidates easily through templates in these tools without disclosing any company email addresses.
Referrals:
Often one of the best ways to get good people that fit your company and culture is through referrals. I have found that once you tap into a new vein for good candidates, you want to keep mining that vein. Your best people already know other good people: ask your current employees if they know anyone who would be a good fit for an open position. You could get 50% or more of your best people through your employees’ referrals. Your most fruitful list will come from your top employees and new hires. They may know if the person is a fit before they ask.
Networking is also an effective strategy – have your hiring manager and supervisors reach out to their networks to ask if they know anyone who fits the ad (and link to ad). You’ve already created a great ad, so make sure it is used rather than having employees make up their own description of the job. Have your A-players post the ad on social media.
Referrals can include more than just candidates who are actively looking for a job. If you have something good to offer, those not looking for a job will listen to a trusted friend who talks about the job opening.
Perhaps you could put a referral bonus structure in place for added incentive to find good people. For example, if a referred candidate stays at the company longer than 6 months, the referrer will receive $500. If you are looking to build a long-term team, consider breaking a bigger bonus up into:
hire date
6 months
1 year
2 years
You can weight these any way to accomplish your needs, such as
10%
20%
30%
40%
With this structure, they get 60% in the first year, but the referred employee needs to last in order to get the final 40%.
Incentives don’t always work – it all depends on what motivates a certain employee and the company culture. If you need to hire many, consider a competition, create teams, and offer a reward for the top referrers.
PHB Tip: Ask new employees if they know other people at their former company who would be a perfect fit for your company. This is a perfect time to ask, while their contacts there are still current. I have successfully “tapped a vein” at one company that produced at least 5 great hires.
A word of caution: Companies may get irritated if your company keeps taking their employees. Remember that laws vary by state, and they can change at any time. I am not aware of any poaching laws, but you may be accused of tortious interference if your poaching tactics include using unproven allegations, ignoring non-compete agreements, or acting in an illegal manner. When sourcing more than a couple of employees or even one key employee from someone in your industry, do yourself a favor and be careful. It is best if you can show that the candidate contacted you first. Headhunters may be asked to shelter your company in these cases, but find someone who will do it for a lower fixed fee if possible, since all the hard work of finding the person is already done.
Outsourced recruiters (headhunters)
There are four acceptable reasons to use headhunters (any combination of these make hiring harder and are also acceptable):
You need the person immediately (zero schedule flexibility), your recruiting engine is not currently running, and you are OK with potentially sacrificing long-term retention.
You’re looking for a needle-in-the-haystack skill set – truly rare to find. You need all options open to you. (ex. MLB Golden-Glove Shortstop that hits >.300)
Unemployment (i.e.
available talent) is at historical lows and you can’t get the employees that you want. As a reference, the 50 year lowest unemployment rate in the US was 3.4%.
Hiring from a client/customer. The 3rd party relationship keeps the footsteps from coming directly from your company’s front door, enabling you to maintain a good relationship.
If you can’t do it all in house, get help with the time consuming tasks, such as crafting an effective job posting, sourcing passive candidates (if needed), culling resumes, and filtering candidates. A well written job ad will receive fewer applicants, but those who do apply will be more targeted, saving hours, if not days, of winnowing candidates.
Once a candidate comes in for an interview, the company needs to own the rest of the process and have the direct relationship. This reduces the amount of leverage for the candidate, allowing the company to steer to a favorable result.
As mentioned before, this is your last resort. Reasons to use a headhunter are:
money is no object – you want the best talent at all costs
you need a short term fix
plausible deniability of poaching
you are looking for a needle in a haystack
unemployment rate is at a historical low
they have a proven track record of sourcing fantastic passive talent
A few other thoughts on using outsourced recruiters:
They may have no recruit clauses for former clients. This can prevent them from reaching out with new opportunities.
If you call and ask, “Please send your best [example: Programmers],” these aren’t passive candidates.
Be very clear about what would happen if you are presented with a candidate who is already in your database. (i.e. do you pay them for that candidate?)
Again, I don’t think it is necessary for most businesses, but I’ve put it here for completeness.
Recruiting “Passive” Candidates
Passive candidates are prospective employees who are not actively looking for a new job.
The definition of "active" differs depending on who you ask. For instance, is someone actively looking if he uploads his resume on a recruiting site? Is he actively looking if he clicks on a job ad? If a friend posts an update on LinkedIn about a great company, will he look at the company? I would say these are all passive.
There are many who will always keep their eyes open for better opportunities, but they are not active. Many headhunters say that without using their services, you won’t find passive candidates, and that is why I disagree.
You can get these passive candidates without a headhunter. Headhunters can call people who don’t look at ads or posts, and who don’t upload resumes. They could be fantastic people who could be great for your company but just are not looking. I believe that there are many people who could be great for your company, and many of those will see your ad, posts, and referral notes.
Again, I believe a headhunter who actively calls into businesses is a last resort. If you are going to use one, it should be a fixed rate, exclusive, and you should be presented with a very limited number of candidates who match your needs and have a full write-up. Most times, a good ad in the right places will reach the people you need.
As US unemployment numbers dropped starting in 2015, more was written about passive candidates. Startups are developing software to help find passive candidates, alerting recruiters of changes to a candidate on their watch list. LinkedIn pushed their Recruiter’s premium membership to source candidates, which is a lot cheaper than paying commission to a recruiter. Google is quietly introducing a new tool called Google Hire to help employers find great candidates using their algorithm.
This is the intersection of new technology with a good economy. As much as we’d all like to see that last forever, that intersection doesn’t happen often. Since 1974, unemployment has only been under 5% three times: during the tech bubble in the late 1990s for a total of ~4 years, and during the housing bubble in the mid-2000s for ~3 years. We are currently experiencing the same, which also may indicate another unsustainable bubble.
Courtesy Macrotrends.net
PHB TIP: When the unemployment rate falls below 6%, look at the compensation and job satisfaction of your key employees. They have already or will likely get a call from a headhunter. Don’t give your key people a reason to return the call. It is much more cost effective to retain a good employee than to go find another and train to the same proficiency. Go to PerfectHireBlueprint.com/Resources for more.
Nurture your candidates
Great candidates aren’t always easy to find, so when you find one, you want to keep the communication lines open. Maybe now isn’t the best time for a job change for the candidate or a family situation arises that makes change difficult. Stay in touch and don’t give her a reason to drop out of the running. Keep your best candidates informed on your hiring progress.
Summary & Action Items
WHERE should you post your ad to find the perfect hire?
Company website
Industry specific site
Indeed
ZipRecruiter
Craigslist
LinkedIn
Google
Referrals
Only use a headhunter (outsourced recruiter) IF:
money is no object
a short term fix is more important than long-term retention
you are looking for a needle in a haystack
the unemployment rate is historically low
they have a track record of sourcing fantastic passive talent
Section 2: Screening
Chapter 8: Track and Qualify Applicants
Qualifying or filtering applicants effectively can save the hiring team a lot of time, and a good tracking system can aid in getting A-players. Let’s assume you are now receiving resumes from whichever sources you have chosen. If you are hiring in a high unemployment market and receive over 100 resumes, then you may disqualify resumes for reasons you would not if you received less than 30 resumes. I am not saying to lower your standards in a low unemployment market, but with fewer candidates who fit the profile, you’ll need to dig deeper.
Before you interview anyone in person, you should have the candidate fill out an application. Not only is it a good compliancy tool, but it is also a great filter. This will save you lots of time.
What should I look for in an application?
Any number of things can throw red flags on an application or resume.
Employment gaps (-)
Short history at many companies (-)
Upward trajectory (+)
Achievement pattern (+)
This job is a step up (+), step down (-) or a lateral move
Following directions: if the job posting specified “email [email protected] with your resume and cover letter” and you only received a resume through ZipRecruiter (not to the specified email address), you may have someone who has difficulty with details, and/or following directions (-)
The following you would typically find out from an application, but there is other very telling information that you should learn:
Don’t ask for just a salary – ask for starting and final salary (see Note 2 below)
Ask for the manager’s name (title can be helpful too)
Ask them to rank that manager
Ask them to guess what that manager would say about their performance
Ask the reason for leaving and who decided to terminate the relationship (employee, company or mutual)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Inform applicant that PRIOR to an offer, you may ask to arrange an interview with the supervisor. This should draw more truthful information into the application. It may also cause underperformers to drop out, since they know that their half-truths will be discovered.
Note 2: One state, Massachusetts, passed a law forbidding asking about past salary info in the Equal Pay Law that goes into effect in 2018. Other states may follow. The intent is to compensate women on par with men in similar positions.
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For an application template that uncovers these things, go to PerfectHireBlueprint.com/Resources.
Depending the website(s) you are using to source candidates, you can screen them directly in the website dashboard. Most hiring sites also send the account administrator an email for each new applicant. It is sometimes helpful to use an external tool to help filter candidates.
