Recruiting Resources

Call Three Times

by Veronica Blatt

MaureenToday’s guest blogger is Maureen Sharib, owner of phone sourcing company TechTrak, Inc. See the end of this post for more information about Maureen, including contact details.

A recent tweet at a spring sourcing conference bleated alarmingly during one of the earliest presentations; it just so happened to be during the phone sourcing presentation.

It sounded defensive:

“What professions are likely to pick up the phone versus respond to other ways?”

I looked at the tweeter’s profile and saw that she was tasked with sourcing and contacting developers. Read the rest of this entry »


How to Follow-Up from Conferences or Events

by Sarah Freiburger

10410359_10153198569106974_3499108434394499467_nWe all have that feeling after attending large conferences or networking events where our minds are completely fried. Knowing all the great ideas that were swirling around your head the past couple of days now have to be implemented can make you feel more overworked than you have energy for. However, the key to good follow-up after these events is immediate action. So go for a walk, get your favorite coffee drink in hand, and sit down and try some of these tips. Read the rest of this entry »


How to: Radically Improve Your Candidate Response Rates in 2 Easy Steps

by Veronica Blatt

Siofra-PhotoOur guest blogger today is Siofra Pratt with Social Talent, Europe’s leading provider of online and social media training specific to the recruitment and staffing industry. Social Talent will be part of our Global Conference, which is kicking off today.

At Social Talent, we’re big believers in learning from the successful practices of other industries, and applying them to our own in order to help improve our own. So when we first saw this research from Yesware, an email productivity service for salespeople, we got very excited! In fact, we thought that the findings of Yesware’s research into email open and reply rates were so significant that they could have quite important implications for the recruitment industry. Implications that could help YOU increase your candidate email response rates. (We’ve even decided to work the findings into our internet recruitment training program, the Black Belt in Internet Recruitment.)

“So what’s all the fuss about these findings?” I hear you cry? Well, drawing on data from over 500,000 (half a million!) sales emails sent by Yesware users in the first quarter of 2014, Yesware found that if an email is ever going to be opened by it’s intended recipient, 91% of the time it’s opened within 24 hours after it’s been sent. Furthermore, 90% of emails that received replies were also replied to within 24 hours after they were opened. That means that during that first day, over half of opened emails were replied to within 3 hours.

 email-life-span-1024x996Source: Yesware

BUT (and it’s a big ‘but’), after Day 1 (i.e. that first 24 hour period) has passed, the chances of your email being opened falls to just 1.7% on Day 2 and decreases thereafter. The same applies for email responses. If you haven’t received a response to your sent email after 24 hours the likelihood of it being replied to falls from whopping 90% to a very measly 3%.

But what does this prove? Well, it proves that the life span of an email is incredibly short and if you do not receive a reply to an email you’ve sent to a candidate within a 24 hour period you will, most likely, NOT receive a reply from that candidate.

So, what’s to be done about it? How can you improve your email open and response rates and ensure that your candidate emails have the best chance of being read and replied to? According to Yesware’s research, there are 2 ways:

  1. Follow-Up Emails
  2. Strategic Timing

1. Follow-Up Mails
If you haven’t received a response from a candidates within a day or two, email them again. Now we know what you’re thinking; “But, I don’t want to seem annoying or pushy” and yes we do understand that it isn’t easy to strike a balance between adding value and being annoying, but Yesware have run the numbers and discovered that if you didn’t receive a reply to your first email, you have a 21% chance of getting a reply to a second follow-up email. And if you still don’t receive a reply to your second email, there’s still a 25% chance that you will eventually hear back from the recipient.

graph2-1024x719 Source: Yesware

What this chart illustrates is that by continuing to send more emails, you create more opportunities for your recipient to reply. It is a study in scale. Greater volume of emails should correlate to greater total response, and the chart above shows this to be true.

No matter how great your email was, half of the emails you send WILL get blocked by spam filters. Do not let this put you off. Just because someone did not reply to you does not mean that they are not interested. Silence does not mean “no“. “No” means “no”, so chase up the replies until you get one. Remember, people are busy and they may just have forgotten about the email you sent them. They could have been in a meeting at the time it arrived or on the phone to their spouse. All you need to do is remind them that you reached out to them.

Quite by accident, we discovered that if we forwarded the original unanswered email to the same person with additional text at the top such as “Hi Jane, in reference to my email below from last week, can you come back to me today to let me know if this would be of interest?”, most of the time we would receive a reply that suggested that the person either never received our first mail or received both the new mail and original mail at the same time, i.e. it had been caught in spam but the act of forwarding the original message with some new text bounced it out of the spam filter. The rest of the time, people either weren’t interested or they just forgot to reply. Either way, you likely spent a lot of time searching for this person, so rule them in or out before you re-start your search.

Worst case scenario, they say no, in which case you ask them if they would be able to refer you to anyone else who might be interested, and best case scenario, they say yes.

Bottom line: It pays to follow-up.

P.S. If you’re worried you’ll forget to follow-up along with everything else you’re trying to get done in the day, don’t be. Boomerang is an excellent application that prompts you to follow up with emails sent out if no response is received, or schedule your emails to send (using the “Send Later” function).

Boomerang-Screenshot-e1366027356716

And Boomerang can also alert you as to whether or not your email has been opened and read. It’s a super handy tool for recruiters that makes following up a far less admin-heavy task. Boomerang is available for free on Gmail and can be installed immediately here.

2. Strategic Timing
The next best way to give your email the greatest chance of being replied to is by sending it at a time when there is less competition. Yesware use the example of “Graveyard slot” infomercials to explain this logic and we enjoyed it so much we’re going to explain it the same way.

Basically, the same way people who like to stay up late are more likely to watch infomercials when there’s nothing else on TV at 3am, candidates will be more likely to notice, read and respond to your email when there is little else being emailed.

Companies with products like Snuggie and ProActiv have made a traditionally unattractive advertising slot into a very lucrative one as they are targeting a very captive audience. Clever recruiters who choose to send out emails to candidates at a time when no one else is sending emails, could see greater open and reply rates. Take a look at this chart illustrating the difference in open and reply rates for emails sent on weekdays versus those sent on the weekends:

weekendreplyrate-1024x504 Source: Yesware

Take note first of all, of the number of emails sent on weekends versus the number sent on weekdays. Over 520,000 less emails are sent on weekends then on weekdays, meaning emails sent on weekends are 11% more likely to be opened than those sent on weekdays and are almost 18% more likely to be responded to.

And the same line of thinking applies to emails sent over a 24 hour period:

timeofday-1-1024x802 Source: Yesware

Emails sent earlier in the morning and late at night had a far greater percentage chance of being opened by their intended recipients, simply because less emails are sent at those times. Emails sent between 6 and 7am and those sent around 8pm were the most effective at getting a response, with reply rates hovering around 45%.

Conclusion
Finding good candidates takes a lot of time. You know that! So when you’ve found a great candidate be sure to rule them in or out before you re-start your search. Remember:

  • Follow up, follow up, follow up! If you don’t receive a response from your candidate to your first email. Send another one. Send numerous emails if you have to. The more you send, the more opportunities  you give the recipient to reply. And if you think you won’t remember to follow up, download Boomerang and let it do the work for you.
  • Be strategic with the time and day you send your emails. Your candidate will be more likely to see your email when they are receiving less emails in general. Email open and reply rates tend to be at their highest on the weekends, when inbox competition is low and people are most responsive in the early morning or later in the evening, so experiment with sending emails between 6 and 7 AM, or around 8 PM.

Then get ready to watch your candidate response rates soar!

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It’s Time to Embrace Cloud Recruiting Software

by Veronica Blatt

cloud-computingToday’s guest post is from our newest Alliance Partner. JobAdder manages and organizes the recruitment process for anyone who hires people, offering simplicity, mobility and superior support. Learn more about JobAdder and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We’re excited they’ll be part of our upcoming Global Conference!

Is “top drawer-ing” of resumes, and working straight from your email inbox a way of life for your company? If so, it’s time to consider a cloud based software solution to help power your recruitment process.

Here are just a few reasons to be considering cloud based recruitment software:

Scale easier: Does your agency have growth plans? Cloud based software offers your company the ability to easily add users any time in a few simple clicks. There is no additional software to install and very little training required for new users.

Reduced IT costs: With cloud based software, recruitment related IT costs can be dramatically reduced. It is no longer necessary to have a network, servers, Exchange and expensive IT support contracts. You can also run your business on low spec PCs or Macs as the machine itself is doing so much less than it once might have. Many of our clients, for example, run their businesses with the lowest spec iMac on every desk and no networks, no servers and no desk phones.

Accessibility: Access your recruitment database anywhere, anytime on any device when you make the switch to a cloud based software. There really are no limitations to where you take your business. Flip open a laptop, tablet or mobile device and get recruiting.

A single source of truth: Spreadsheets and Word docs are tedious and allow little visibility into the overall activity of your company. With a cloud based recruitment platform all activity, candidates, resumes, jobs, companies and contacts are in one central location, providing the whole business with a single source of up to date information.

Streamlined Process: One recruiter uses a spreadsheet, the other keeps multiple word documents saved locally to manage their job ads. With cloud recruitment, you can set up company wide email templates, job ad templates, reports — just about anything you want, to streamline recruitment processes for your entire company.

Increased Collaboration: Share candidates with your team, duplicate job ads, split fees — whatever you’d like. By using a recruitment software that’s cloud based, the options for collaboration are endless.

Stay up to date: So long licensing software! With cloud based software, you have peace of mind that your company is staying up to date with the latest trends in recruitment. New product releases simply appear one day when you log in. No more expensive, painful software upgrades — just happy Monday morning surprise when you log in to find new features to help you recruit better.

Has your company found a cloud based software solution? Comment below and tell us how a cloud based software solution has helped your company!

image courtesy of hywards / www.freedigitalphotos.net

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Why the Best Candidates May Not Be Applying to Your Positions

by Veronica Blatt

apply-now-buttonOur guest blogger is Judy Tilmont, owner of JST Search Group in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA) and a member of the NPAworldwide Board of Directors. JST Search Group places professionals in a wide range of manufacturing, engineering, operations, and finance roles.

Okay, so you’ve written the perfect job ad. You’ve paid to have it highlighted on page one of Indeed. You’ve brought it to the attention of everyone on LinkedIn with even one of your keywords in their profile, and you’ve tweeted out the link to everyone on Twitter. Your metrics show that people are visiting your website and reading your job post. Your position is with a great company in a favorable location. Why, oh why, aren’t candidates applying for this position?

Have you ever gone through your online application process? I was helping a very close friend negotiate the online job market this month. She found the perfect job and she believed herself to be a great fit for the position. The last line of the job posting was the killer for this applicant. “Please apply on our company website.” I told her, “It won’t be difficult. They just want some contact information, salary history and a copy of your resume.” Shows you what I know. The job portal at this company had 18 pages that required data to be entered. Not only did they want an MS Word copy of the resume attached, they wanted her resume recreated and educational history back to grade school. And the last page instructed her to write a cover letter including salary expectations.

The internet has made searching for a job a far easier exercise than it was even five years ago. It also has made the online application process a nightmare. If you are asking high-powered, in-demand candidates to apply on your site, have you checked lately to see if your portal is helping or hindering your efforts? Is the process so cumbersome that the best candidates are throwing their hands up in frustration at the time required or the duplication of information found on a well-formatted resume? It’s possible that in your effort to streamline your process, you are turning away the candidates that are most suited for your company.

I challenge all hiring authorities and third party recruiters to go through your portal. Pick a job and actually apply. Ask yourself the following questions as you go through the exercise:

  • Is this information necessary to pre-screen this candidate for this position? Is it necessary to decide that I am interested in talking to him or her?
  • Will this information be duplicated in a well-written resume?
  • Do I need this information if I am not going to hire this person?
  • And most importantly, does everything work?

If you are asking for more than you need to properly pre-screen candidates, you may want to rethink your online application process. Your process should be encouraging a large pool of candidates to actually apply to your postings, not just to read them.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / www.freedigitalphotos.net

7-trends


Maximize Your Split Placement Membership

by Sarah Freiburger

30390724.thbAs the Director of Membership for a split placement network, I am often surprised when months pass by from an inactive member, and then they state they are not getting a good return on investment. This recently caused me to think of our network as a gym, with the membership goals and results really lining up with the work that goes into either. Here are five ways to maximize any type of membership, whether it be a gym, professional association, or split placement network. Read the rest of this entry »


Four Things You Can’t Recover

by Veronica Blatt

Barb BrunoToday’s guest blogger is one of the featured speakers at our upcoming Global Conference. Barb Bruno, CPC, CTS is recognized as one of the top trainers in the staffing and recruiting profession worldwide. She is the owner of HR Search, Inc,  speaker, consultant, author and her mission is to help her clients become more successful. Her bi-weekly NO BS Newsletter is the most widely read newsletter in the staffing and recruiting profession. Her Top Producer Tutor training program has increased sales and profits for 100% of her clients. She has also created a Career Portal for job seekers which she has private labeled for over 500 firms, which allows staffing and recruiting firms to help 100% of the job seekers they attract. Barb  is known for her creative strategies, innovative ideas, high energy, sense of humor and passion for her profession. 

Four things you can’t recover:

  • The word; after it’s said.
  • The occasion; after it’s missed.
  • The time; after it’s gone.
  • The stone; after it’s thrown.

THE WORD; AFTER IT’S SAID
Most recruiters are great talkers and don’t focus enough on improving effective listening skills. Are you making WWD (What We Do) presentations, or do your conversations focus on what’s most important to the other person? People would rather talk about themselves than anything you’re trying to sell to them. It is difficult to realize that our candidates and clients don’t really care about our opinion. That is why it’s so important to always focus on the benefits your candidates and clients will enjoy as a result of having you represent them.

It’s especially important to be aware of what you say when problems occur. This is when you have to be at your best. It’s important to develop an “outside | in” attitude, always seeing your services through the eyes of your candidates and clients. When you develop this attitude you won’t have to recover your words!

THE OCCASION; AFTER IT’S MISSED
You have occasions every day to land your best client or attract additional top talent. Each day, you are capable of changing someone’s life for the better! If you don’t arrive at work each day with high expectations of yourself, opportunities will go to your co-workers or competitors.

Did you think of attending a conference but didn’t think you could afford to go? If that is the case, you are the exact person who should have attended.

Did you consider attending a networking event – but instead went home? You never know where you will meet the top talent you want to represent.

Life is too short to miss out on taking advantage of all opportunities and occasions that present themselves.

THE TIME; AFTER IT’S GONE
Focus on today and tomorrow. See the endless opportunities at your fingertips. If you want a record year this year, know your numbers and commit to hit the goals you set. If you have not attained your goals one month, the difference is adding to the next month.

You don’t want 2015 to be a “woulda, coulda and shoulda” year. Let’s make 2015 the year that you commit to the level of results you need each day, to consistently hit your production and income goals.

THE STONE; AFTER IT’S THROWN
We are all part of the amazing staffing and recruiting profession. It is important that you remain positive when discussing your competitors to candidates and clients.

If you have an opportunity to promote our profession by writing an article, speaking at an event or being interviewed about the benefits of utilizing a staffing or recruiting firm, accept the opportunity. We change people’s lives every day and it’s time this message gets out to clients and candidates.

Follow this advice and you won’t worry about what you can’t recover!

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Is Your Recruiting Website Up-to-Date?

by Veronica Blatt

DeathtoStock_Wired2Today’s guest blogger is Anne Downing with Demetrio & Associates, LLC located in greater Phoenix, Arizona. Demetrio & Associates is a boutique recruitment firm that has clients across the US as well as in international locations. The firm places candidates in sales & marketing, advertising, wireless and software positions. Anne is currently serving the NPAworldwide Board of Directors.

In today’s recruiting world it is important to have a great website. Your recruiting website is your brand! Your clients, potential clients and candidates all view your website. You need to make your website – your brand – stand out.

If any of the below describe your website, then NOW is the time to update your site:

  1. Your content is not up to date. If you have old content on your site it is a big turn off for viewers. They will most likely leave your site once they view outdated content!
  2. Your website is not mobile friendly. Your site MUST be optimized for mobile devices. Over 75% of job seekers use mobile devices to conduct their job search. If your site is not mobile-friendly, then you are missing out on some great candidates.
  3. Your site isn’t found on search engines. Potential clients have to be able to find your recruiting website on search engines. You never know who is looking to hire a new recruitment agency, and you don’t want to miss out on new business.
  4. Your site is unresponsive. You need to have either a specific mobile site or a responsively-designed site. This means your site is designed to provide an optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling – across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).
  5. Your site doesn’t allow visitors to ‘share’ content. Allowing visitors to share content will keep them on your site for a longer period of time. Including visual content in addition to text is much more appealing to the eye and will entice viewers to explore your site in detail.

If any of the above describes your site, I highly recommend updating your site NOW!  Don’t wait because every day you wait means you are missing out on potential business. Take the time to research the best options for your site and find a company that will build you the best site possible for your needs. Remember, potential clients and candidates are drawn to websites that are user-friendly, have great content and are mobile-optimized!

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5 Tips for Small Recruitment Firms to Remember

by Sarah Freiburger

competitive-advantage“You can always train on the technical side”, states Hilarie Geary of Executive Connections during an interview with Business Advice Centre regarding top recruitment tips for small businesses. Since the recession, many changes have occurred in the recruiting process, the top one being that strong candidates have become a commodity. As a small recruitment firm with limited resources, sourcing top talent can sometimes be difficult, but knowing the warning signs and following some of these tips can help step up your game as the economy begins to improve.

  1. Sell and Showcase. In order to stand out from other recruiters you must present a stronger face on the market, putting yourself out on public domain. Invest time and resources in a strong campaign both on your site and on social media that will drive candidates to you, and also create a network for yourself that will cause people to respect your brand. Post in special interest groups on LinkedIn or Facebook, and share with local business organizations as well as professional bodies. Sell your flexibility as a small business to attract clients. Small recruitment firms are able to be lenient around working hours and locations, and provide both clients and candidates with personal attention that they could not receive from a larger agency.
  2. Hire for Behavior. By reference checking your candidates, you are not only able to verify where they have been or what they have accomplished, but what their behavior has been. Being able to find out how flexible they are and how they need to be managed can be the best knowledge for a candidate your client is going to have to transition. If they do not have the technical skills, those can always be learned, while behavior is impossible to train.
  3. Recruitment Plan. Always have an ongoing workforce plan, don’t panic recruit. You can do this by matching planned headcount to projected growth rates so you can drive your own business growth. Be analytical about which tools you have used and make sure you always have a way to track and measure what where you had success, so that you do not repeat failures.
  4. Analyze. Consider using additional tools such as psychometric and skills testing to offer more information regarding your candidates and strengthen your recruitment process. By analyzing each tool and campaign you are able to ditch those strategies that provide poor return on investment and therefore evolve your process to be as effective as possible.
  5. Make the Right Hire. By setting up processes such as a training guide that covers the new hire’s duties and expectations of them, you will establish a client respect leading to more business. If you are unsure of a candidate, perhaps a short term contract or a freelance arrangement would be a better fit for them.

Better Job Postings, Better Candidates

by Dave Nerz

help-wanted-newspaperI get to see lots of position openings and jobs because the members of our recruitment network post their jobs on our job board. It is a very unique job board because it is a contingent job board. It is free to post, and if you make a placement then you pay a small fee for the postings that delivered results for you. That is why we refer to it as a contingent job board.

Quantity over quality has never been a recipe for success. As it relates to job openings advertised on a job board or to a fellow recruiter in a recruitment network, or promoted on aggregator sites like Indeed, a quality description will deliver superior results. Here are a few tips to make your job/position openings better:

Detail something specific about the employer. Can you state why people what to work at this company? Do they have great leadership, market position, history of promotion from within, culture, compensation program, bonus program, growth potential or a dozen other things that candidates care about? Make it real. Tell me about a candidate that you placed there or something that you experienced. For example, “The last 3 candidates I placed there have all been promoted and absolutely will require dynamite to blast them out of this company. They are so happy to be here.”

Make the posting read less stiff and more naturally. We can all cut and paste from a job description. That is not a talent, that is lazy. I can tell you that it also helps to have someone else read and comment on your posting before you make it live. I had crafted one for an NPAworldwide employee about a year ago and had a member read and comment on it. Wow, am I glad I did. She made the company and the job sound interesting and dynamic…by the way, we are, but I was so fixated on ticking off the correct details that I missed making it fun and exciting. You have all seen the postings that once you read the first line you can almost predict the next 10 lines of content will be bland and boring. The content is important for delivering the job opening to the right candidates from their job board searches but there is no reason you cannot make it more exciting and interesting…perhaps even unique and different. Maybe offer some examples of what a successful hire would accomplish in their first year.

Do not forget the basics. Did you know that Monster has sample descriptions for lots of jobs? Here is the link:  http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/job-descriptions/sample-job-descriptions.aspx

Be honest. Don’t sell someone on something that is not real. If it is long hours and low pay, maybe it should say something like, “This is a job that will require long hours. The starting salary is low but the long-term potential is worth the investment. This is not a good job for a 9-to-5er or a clock watcher.” If the employer churns and burns through people, capture the position as a good introductory stop in a career focused on XYZ, a solid point of entry into the industry, or a great way to build a foundation of experience in the ABC industry. Don’t sell a career if that will never happen.

Be specific. “The best candidates will have excellent writing skills and a passion for writing. They are easily understood when they write and they enjoy creating lots of content. It should come easy for the right person. Much of the day will be creating messages for external audiences and it needs to be an existing talent not a skill under development. And if you do not enjoy writing, this job is not for you.”

Better job postings will attract more of the right candidates. Do a side-by-side trial someday if you are not convinced. I know that different postings will be attractive to different people.

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