My blog

Hi guys, welcome to 2012! Now back at the wheel I have a few observations about how candidate sourcing will be this year and a little more energy to express my thoughts.

I have heard it said that if 2011 was the year of social recruiting, then 2012 is the year of mobile recruiting. I do agree but to clarify - we will still be working in offices' recruiters! NOT at the beach contrary to what candidates may think! It would be great if there was a one-size-fits-all solution to our sourcing woes but good recruiting is still a mix of new and old technology, extrovert and introverted behaviour.  Candidates will be hanging out a little more in the online world and so it may be marginally easier to reach them or understand them, but essentially us resourcers are going to have to get quicker at how we approach these candidates online; and we will need to be more intelligent about it. 

Every recruitment firm has access to a LinkedIn account of sorts, as do corporate inhouse recruiters. LinkedIn is starting to feel like a bunfight - you know what I mean, approach a candidate just to find out they have been approached many many times and they are just about to sign their offer letter for a new role... 

It doesnt take much forethought, or even analytics to reach out and engage these passive candidates sitting there with all their employment history conveniently formatted into a CV style layout commonly accepted by managers everywhere as a great 'networking' tool.  (Seriously I would like see a statistic of how many people actually network on LinkedIn other than to find new jobs or further their job prospects through career recognition)

We know it.  They know it. They are there to be found!

So back to where to start sourcing for the best talent around? I think the key success factors are;

Do's

1. Use your area of interest, learn about it and contribute to specific communities - get this - without expecting anything back
2. Establish what online hangouts the candidates in your specialised area commonly use and join them.
3. Blog in your specialisation area (very few recruiters do this)
4. Have a message and stand for it(I only recruit for companies who care about ____?)
5. Fully invest in the sites and platforms you choose, invest in them everyday
6. Choose a site where you aim to only find candidates for pipeline roles NOT active roles.  This will push you to develop hot lists and farm passive talent pools so you will know long before other recruiters when these candidates are looking

Don'ts

1. Don't forget your brand and please don't ignore applicants to adverts
2. Don't rely on one site or a single medium to reach out to passive candidates
3. Don't do what everyone else is doing! Follow your own path
4. Don't think LinkedIn or Facebook are going anywhere.  They are still your best bets at finding candidates for active roles

This kind of sourcing and recruitment requires a long term outlook and high effort.  It pays off, not immediately in sales but it will in compliments.  You can develop yourself as a subject matter expert and build your profile in the industry.  Over time it will result in job satisfaction, commission satisfaction and your boss will love you.  Well, hopefully your boss will love you...

Blue skies!