Comment by Susan Canarick on January 10, 2013 at 2:53pm

I'm ALL for keeping the "human" in Human Resources and wish that live time phone conversations were not so passe with HR folks.  You "hear" so much more when you have a phone conversation as opposed to emailing.  Come out come out wherever you are!!

Comment by Noel Cocca on January 10, 2013 at 3:06pm

So much call reluctance in recruiting currently.  

Comment by Lance Harvie on January 10, 2013 at 11:29pm

A golden rule to live by - thanks Bruce for sharing.

Comment by Jason Webster on January 11, 2013 at 10:52am

I smiled and dialed for years. There's no doubt that connecting with candidates over the phone is the next best thing to in-person. That said, I do not subscribe to the smile and dial method anymore. I've seen too many recruiters wasting time leaving messages that will never be returned. Here's 3 steps to spend more time in "conversation" with candidates:

1. Compose a message about the job you are working on, complete with pics or video if possible. Use an email campaign tool to personalize it, and send to your target list. This allows you to see who is opening it and clicking through to the job description. You're warming up the candidates in one swoop, and seeing who to call first.
2. Use the business day for "scheduled" calls/meetings with candidates as often as possible. They can anticipate the call/meeting and make sure they are in a good place to talk. Most of the candidates you are pursuing are working, and don't want to be cold-called at work.
3. Be willing to make your cold-calls before and after normal work hours. That is when you will actually get people on the phone. 

You can save time, and give the candidate a better experience employing these methods. Most candidates are skeptical of recruiters. Blindly smiling and dialing can add to the persona that candidates are just a number.

Comment by Lance Harvie on January 11, 2013 at 11:05am

Thanks Jason these are excellent tips for the digital age of recruiting. The only thing you have to watch out for is that if you send out too many of these types of job email campaigns they may  be considered as spam and their effectiveness may dwindle over time. Also you run the risk of your ip address being blacklisted by mailservers. 

Having said the method is sound.

Comment by Jason Webster on January 11, 2013 at 12:23pm

Totally agree Lance. I didn't expand much on what I meant by campaign. They should be timely, relevant, and transparent to as much extent as possible. The last thing you want to be is spammy. I've been testing them for about 18 months. Happy to share examples if anyone is interested.

Comment by Ron Gallagher on January 11, 2013 at 3:01pm

I normally call and if I have to leave a message, I also follow up with an email, just for their convenience and the chance to be able to reach them more quickly. Once the relationship is established I utilize both means of communication depending on what is more appropriate....

Comment by Lance Harvie on January 11, 2013 at 11:50pm

I like your style Jason I'd love to see your examples, I'm always interested in what works for others. 

Comment by Chuck Klein on January 12, 2013 at 2:05pm

I agree with Jason. 

Jason - I would also love to see what works for you and share ideas. 

 

Comment by Mat von Kroeker on January 12, 2013 at 2:52pm

I couldn't disagree more-- I'm a Senior IT Recruiter, and every hiring manager I've ever worked with preferred email correspondence--- as well as a fairly large percentage of the job candidates. Developers, Project Managers, Systems Architects, Network Engineers are very busy as you might guess-- they prefer 2 min browsing a detailed job description versus 10-20 min finding out the position doesn't pay enough/too far/not enough C++ experience at the end of the live conversation. Definitely an apples/oranges thing----

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