Today’s guest blogger is Laura Schmieder of Premier Placement Inc., specializing in manufacturing especially engineering, operations, supply chain, sales and marketing roles globally. She currently serves on the NPAworldwide board of directors.
Just last week, a recruiter friend of mine lamented about the connections list of a candidate she had just recruited…and “friended” on LinkedIn. She was amazed at how many other recruiters were on the list. Her comment was that candidates must get bombarded with email, InMails and phone calls. What can she do to differentiate herself?
In the last month I have been demo’ing new ATS and CRM companies – many talked about downloading huge numbers of profiles and resumes from job board sites, using AI to find “matches” and then sending targeted emails – without ever looking at the actual resume or profile. I get that there might be keyword matches, but if you don’t even look at the resume or your notes, how do you KNOW the candidate is a fit for your search? If a particular potential candidate gets impersonal email after email from you, will they bother to respond or will they consider it spam?
Yesterday I read an article which flat out questioned Does Social Media Work in Recruitment? The gist was that with the high volume of postings and tweets, a very small percentage actually get more than cursory attention. Is paying for clicks worth the cost if nothing is actually read or retained?
Then again, get any group of recruiters together and the subject turns to what can you do to get a potential candidate’s attention? Phone calls, voice mails, emails and texts go unanswered.
I don’t have all the answers…I listen to the experts and try to keep my LinkedIn and Facebook company pages, as well as my own profile and postings, updated and interesting. AND since it takes so much time, am finding outsourcing that activity appealing.
When candidates are ready to make a change, they will start looking for and at postings as well as responding to my inquiries. I may even get a phone call from someone who turned down previous opportunities. In the end, I still believe that it’s not about how many emails, tweets or texts I send, it’s how can I create a bond…and relationship…a true connection…a level of trust.
Well said!